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新东方在线考研英语强化班阅读理解电子版教材
第一课时
概述
考研英语阅读：
1. 重要性
2. 阅读思路的转变
3. 考研文章的体裁和来源
4. 考研阅读大纲要求
第二课时
Unit 7－Passage 1
A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world's best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith. (Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea's LG Electronics in July.) Foreign made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America's machine-tool industry was on theropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self doubt has yielded to blind pride. "American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick witted," according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity," says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as "a golden age of business management in the United States."
1. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because ________.
[A] it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal
[B] its domestic market was eight times larger than before
[C] the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors
[D] the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy
2. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American ________.
[A] TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market
[B] semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises
[C] machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions
[D] auto industry had lost part of its domestic market
3. What can be inferred from the passage?
[A] It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pride.
[B] Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.
[C] The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.
[D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.
4. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to
the ________.
[A] turning of the business cycle
[B] restructuring of industry
[C] improved business management
[D] success in education
答案：C、 D 、B 、A
考研英语阅读解题思路：时间安排 1 : 1，解题步骤四步走
If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on.. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes tothe head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. "Who is that?" the new arrival asked St. Peter. "Oh, that's God." came the reply, "but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor."
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it'll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn't attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it's the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote "If at first you don't succeed, give up" or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.
41. To make your humor work, you should
[A] take advantage of different kinds of audience.
[B] make fun of the disorganized people.
[C] address different problems to different people.
[D] show sympathy for your listeners.
42. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are
[A] impolite to new arrivals.
[B] very conscious of their godlike role.
[C] entitled to some privileges.
[D] very busy even during lunch hours.
43. It can be inferred from the text that public services
[A] have benefited many people.
[B] are thefocus of public attention.
[C] are an inappropriate subject for humor.
[D] have often been the laughing stock.
44. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered
[A] in well-worded language.
[B] as awkwardly as possible.
[C] in exaggerated statement.
[D] as casually as possible.
45. The best title for the text may be
[A] Use Humor Effectively.
[B] Various Kinds of Humor.
[C] Add Humor to Speech.
[D] Different Humor Strategies.
The Supreme Court's decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.
Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effect," a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects - a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen - is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients' pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient mediation to control their pain if that might hasten death."
George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. "It's like surgery," he says, "We don't call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn't intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you're a physician, you can risk your patient's suicide as long as you don't intend
their suicide."
On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modem medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.
Just three weeks before the Court's ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment of pain and the aggressive use of "ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying" as the twin problems of end-of-life care.
The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospitals, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life.
Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. "Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering," to the extent that it constitutes "systematic patient abuse." He says medical licensing boards "must make it clear ... that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension."
56. From the first three paragraphs, we learn that
[A] doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients' pain.
[B] it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives.
[C] the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide.
[D] patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide.
57. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
[A] Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients' death.
[B] Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.
[C] The Court ruled that high-dosage pain-relieving medication can be prescribed.
[D] A doctor's medication is no longer justified by his intentions.
58. According to the NAS's report, one of the problems in end-of-life care is
[A] prolonged medical procedures.
[B] inadequate treatment of pain.
[C] systematic drug abuse.
[D] insufficient hospital care.
59. Which of the following best defines the word "aggressive" (line 4, paragraph 7)?
[A] Bold. [B] Harmful. [C] Careless. [D] Desperate.
60. George Annas would probably agree that doctors should be punished if they
[A] manage their patients incompetently.
[B] give patients more medicine than needed.
[C] reduce drug dosages for their patients.
[D] prolong the needless suffering of the patients.
第三课时
Passage 2
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.
There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today - everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring - means that natural selection has lost 81% of its power in uper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.
For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 year - even the past 100 years - our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they "look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension." No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.
5. What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?
[A] A lack of mates.
[B] A fierce competition.
[C] A lower survival rate.
[D] A defective gene.
6. What does the example of India illustrate?
[A] Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.
[B] Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.
[C] The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.
[D] India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.
7. The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because ________.
[A] life has been improved by technological advance
[B] the number of female babies has been declining
[C] our species has reached the highest stage of evolution
[D] the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing
8. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
[A] Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution
[B] Ways of Continuing Man's Evolution
[C] the Evolutionary Future of Nature
[D] Human Evolution Going Nowhere
考研文章的难点
1. 单词量不大，但是句型结构复杂
2. 作者的态度导出具有隐蔽性
第四课时
3. 选项的设计具有迷惑性
微观阅读技巧之一：标点的运用
Unit 1
Passage 1
The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen. striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers. which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
51. In Line 7, Para. 1, "the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes" means ________.
[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes
[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes
[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased
[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes
52. The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ________.
[A] producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production
[B] consumers can express their demands through producers
[C] producers decide the prices of products
[D] supply and demand regulate prices
53. According tothe passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ________.
[A] private property and rights concerned
[B] manpower and natural resources control
[C] ownership of productive resources
[D] free contracts and prices
54. The passageis mainly about ________.
[A] how American goods are produced
[B] how American consumers buy their goods
[C] how American economic system works
[D] how American businessmen make their profits
Passage 5
Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher's pipelines. A few have already appeared. The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology, geology, and biology have provided a consistent, unified, and constantly improving account of what happened. "Scientific" creationism, which is being pushed by some for "equal time" in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are given, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of nonfunda mentalist religious leaders have come to regard "scientific" creationism as bad science and bad religion.
The first four chapters of Kitcher's book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior.
Kitcher is a philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of his arguments. The nonspecialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory. The final chapter on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: "This book stands for reason itself." And so it does - and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.
17. "Creationism" in the passage refers to ________.
(A) evolution in its true sense as to the origin of the universe
(B) a notion of the creation of religion
(C) the scientific explanation of the earth formation
(D) the deceptive theory about the origin of the universe
18. Kitcher's book is intended to ________.
(A) recommend the views of the evolutionists
(B) expose the true features of creationists
(C) curse bitterly at his opponents
(D) launcha surprise attack on creationists
19. From the passage we can infer that ________.
(A) reasoning has played a decisive role in the debate
(B) creationists do not base their argument on reasoning
(C) evolutionary theory is too difficult for non-specialists
(D) creationism is supported by scientific findings
20. This passage appears to be a digest of ________.
(A) a book review (B) a scientific paper
(C) a magazine feature (D) a newspaper editorial
Passage 3
Technically, any substance other than food that alters our bodily or mental functioning is a drug. Many people mistakenly believe the term drug refers only to some sort of medicine or an illegal chemical taken by drug addicts. They don't realize that familiar substances such as alcohol and tobacco are also drugs. This is why the more neutral term substance is now used by many physicians and psychologists. The phrase "substance abuse" is often used instead of "drug abuse" to make clear that substances such as alcohol and tobacco can be just as harmfully misused as heroin and cocaine.
We live in a society in which the medicinal and social use of substances (drugs) is pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves. When do these socially acceptable and apparently constructive uses of a substance become misuses? First of all, most substances taken in excess will produce negative effects such as poisoning or intense perceptual distortions. Repeated use of a substance can also lead to physical addiction or substance dependence. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued.
Drugs (substances) that affect the central nervous system and alter perception, mood, and behavior are known as psychoactive substances. Psychoactive substances are commonly grouped according to whether they are stimulants, depressants, or hallucinogens. Stimulants initially speed up or activate the central nervous system, whereas depressants slow it down. Hallucinogens have their primary effect on perception, distorting and altering it in a variety of ways including producing, hallucinations. These are the substances often called psychedelic (from the Greek word meaning "mind-manifesting") because they seemed to radically alter one's state of consciousness.
9. "Substances abuse" (Line 4, Paragraph 1) is preferable to "drug abuse" in that ________.
[A] substances can alter our bodily or mental functioning if illegally used
[B] "drug abuse" is only related to a limited number of drug takers
[C] alcohol andtobacco are as fatal as heroin and cocaine
[D] many substances other than heroin or cocaine can also be poisonous
10. The word "pervasive" (Line 1, Paragraph 2) might mean ________.
[A] widespread [B] overwhelming [C] piercing [D] fashionable
11. Physical dependence on certain substances results from ________.
[A] uncontrolled consumption of them over long periods of time.
[B] exclusive use of them for social purposes
[C] quantitative application of them to the treatment of diseases
[D] careless employment of them for unpleasant symptoms
12. From the last paragraph we can infer that ________.
[A] stimulants function positively on the mind
[B] hallucinogens are in themselves harmful to health
[C] depressants are the worst type of psychoactive substances
[D] the three types of psychoactive substances are commonly used in groups
Text 4
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30minuts surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great healthcare system can cure death-and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians-frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient-too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age - say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way", so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have, As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people's lives.
56. What is implied in the first sentence?
[A] Americans are better prepared for death than other people.
[B] Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.
[C] Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.
[D] Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.
57. The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that
[A] medical resources are often wasted.
[B] doctors are helpless against fatal diseases.
[C] some treatments are too aggressive.
[D] medical costs are becoming unaffordable.
58. The author's attitude toward Richard Lamm's remark is one of
[A] strong disapproval.
[B] reserved consent.
[C] slight contempt.
[D] enthusiastic support.
59. In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care
[A] more flexibly.
[B] more extravagantly.
[C] more cautiously.
[D] more reasonably.
60. The text intends to express the idea that
[A] medicine will further prolong people's lives.
[B] life beyond a certain limit is not worth living.
[C] death should be accepted as a fact of life.
[D] excessive demands increase the cost of health care.
Passage 5
Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" or "a touch on the brakes", makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of monetary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rearview mirror and a faulty steering wheel.
Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about of late. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3% last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to 2.5% this July. This is a long way below the double-digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s.
It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America's inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan; over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistantly lower than expected in Britain and America. Economists have been particularly surprised by favourable inflation figures in Britain and the United State, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America's, have little productive slack. America's capacity utilisation, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate (5.6% in August) has fallen below most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment - the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past.
Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective, Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have upended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.
17. From the passage we learn that ________.
[A] there is a definite relationship between inflation and interest rates
[B] economy will always follow certain models
[C] the economic situation is better than expected
[D] economists had foreseen the present economic situation
18. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
[A] Making monetary policies is comparable to driving a car.
[B] An extremely low jobless rate will lead to inflation.
[C] A high unemployment rate will result from inflation.
[D] Interest rates have an immediate effect on the economy.
19. The sentence "This is no flash in the pan" (Line 5, Paragraph 3) means that ________.
[A] the lowinflation rate will last for some time
[B] the inflation rate will soon rise
[C] the inflation will disappear quickly
D] there is no inflation at present
20. The passage shows that the author is the present situation.
[A] critical of [B] puzzled by [C] disappointed at [D] amazed at
Passage 1
Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labour, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television licence would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent more.
And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value.
Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of.
There is one more point I feel I ought to touch on. Recently I heard a wellknown television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.
If its message were confined merely to information-and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive-advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants.
51. By the first sentence of the passage the author means that ________.
[A] he is fairly familiar with the cost of advertising
[B] everybody knows well that advertising is money consuming
[C] advertising costs money like everything else
[D] it is worthwhile to spend money on advertising
52. In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of advertising?
[A] Securing greater fame.
[B] Providing more jobs.
[C] Enhancing living standards.
[D] Reducing newspaper cost.
53. The author deems that the well-known TV personality is ________.
[A] very precise in passing his judgement on advertising
[B] interested in nothing but the buyers' attention
[C] correct in telling the difference between persuasion and information
[D] obviously partial in his views on advertising
54. In the author's opinion, ________.
[A] advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing information
[B] advertising informs people of new ideas rather than wins them over
[C] there is nothing wrong with advertising in persuading the buyer
[D] the buyer is not interested in getting information from an advertisement
第五课时
九大题型之二：例证题
错误的复习方式：
正确的复习方式：
第六课时
Passage 3
When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal. With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for whatever futurist poetry may be - even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right - it can hardly be classed as Literature.
This, in brief, is what the Futurist says: for a century, past conditions of life have been conditionally speeding up, till now we live in a world of noise and violence and speed. Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions have undergone a corresponding change. This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of expression. We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modern stress. We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs. Instead of describing sounds we must make up words that imitate them; we must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the same page, and shorten or lengthen words at will.
Certainly their descriptions of battles are confused. But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory notes that a certain line describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge off which they both fall into the river - and then to find that the line consists of the noise of their falling and the weights of the officers: 'Pluff! Pluff! A hundred and eighty-five kilograms.'
This, though it fulfills the laws and requirements of Futurist poetry, can hardly be classed as Literature. All the same, no thinking man can refuse to accept their first proposition: that a great change in our emotional life calls for a change of expression. The whole question is really this: have we essentially changed?
9. This passage is mainly _________.
[A] a survey of new approaches to art
[B] a review of Futurist poetry
[C] about merits of the Futurist movement
[D] about laws and requirements of literature
10. When a novel literary idea appears, people should try to ________.
[A] determine its purposes
[B] ignore its flaws
[C] follow the new fashions
[D] accept the principles
11. Futurists claim that we must ________.
[A] increase the production of literature
[B] use poetryto relieve modern stress
[C] develop new modes of expression
[D] avoid using adjectives and verbs
12. The author believes that Futurist poetry is ________.
[A] based on reasonable principles
[B] new and acceptable to ordinary people
[C] indicative of a basic change in human nature
[D] more of a transient phenomenon than literature
微观阅读之二：如何解析长难句
第七课时
Passage 5
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition - wealth, distinction, control over one's destiny - must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition's behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. Inan odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition - if not always their own then that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped - with the educated themselves riding on them.
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs - the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, "Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious."
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angels; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
17. It is generally believed that ambition may be well regarded if ________.
[A] its returns well compensate for the sacrifices
[B] it is rewarded with money, fame and power
[C] its goals are spiritual rather than material
[D] it is shared by the rich and the famous
18. The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is ________.
[A] customary of the educated to discard ambition in words
[B] too late to check ambition once it has been let out
[C] dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal
[D] impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition
19. Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because ________.
[A] they think of it as immoral
[B] their pursuits are not fame or wealth
[C] ambition is not closely related to material benefits
[D] they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
20. From the last paragraph the conclusion can be drawn that ambition should be maintained ________.
[A] secretly and vigorously
[B] openly and enthusiastically
[C] easily and momentarily
[D] verbally and spiritually
Passage 1
The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen. striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by sellerproducers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers. which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
51. In Line 7, Para. 1, "the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes" means ________.
[A] Americans are never satisfied with their incomes
[B] Americans tend to overstate their incomes
[C] Americans want to have their incomes increased
[D] Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes
52. The first two sentences in the second paragraph tell us that ________.
[A] producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production
[B] consumers can express their demands through producers
[C] producers decide the prices of products
[D] supply and demand regulate prices
53. According to the passage, a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ________.
[A] private property and rights concerned
[B] manpower and natural resources control
[C] ownership of productive resources
[D] free contracts and prices
54. The passage is mainly about ________.
[A] how American goods are produced
[B] how American consumers buy their goods
[C] how American economic system works
[D] how American businessmen make their profits
Passage 4
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America - breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country's excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal, "spatial" thinking about things technological.
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, "With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman."
A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.
In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.
Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, "A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process. The designer and the inventor … are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist."
This nonverbal "spatial" thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea."
When all these shaping forces - schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking - interacted with one another on the rich U.S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic, emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.
13. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large
part due to ________.
(A) elementary schools (B) enthusiastic workers
(C) the attractive premium system (D) a special way of thinking
14. It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics ________.
(A) benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge
(B) shed light on disciplined school management
(C) was brought about by privileged home training
(D) owed a lot to the technological development
15. A technologist can be compared to an artist because ________.
(A) they are both winners of awards
(B) they are both experts in spatial thinking
(C) they both abandon verbal description
(D) they both use various instruments
16. The best title for this passage might be ________.
(A) Inventive Mind (B) Effective Schooling
(C) Ways of Thinking (D) Outpouring of Inventions
Passage 1
It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia's Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group's on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: "We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn't just something that happened in Australia. It's world history."
The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia - where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part - other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law, and adult patient can request death - probably by a deadly injection or pill - to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. "I'm not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks," he says.
1. From the second paragraph we learn that ________.
[A] the objection to euthanasia is slow to come in other countries
[B] physicians and citizens share the same view on euthanasia
[C] changing technology is chiefly responsible for the hasty passage of the law
[D] it takes time to realize the significance of the law's passage
2. When the author says that observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling, he means
________.
[A] observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of euthanasia
[B] similar bills are likely to be passed in the US, Canada andother countries
[C] observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes
[D] the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop
3. When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will ________.
[A] face his death with calm characteristic of euthanasia
[B] experience the suffering of a lung cancer patient
[C] have an intense fear of terrible suffering
[D] undergo a cooling off period of seven days
4. The author's attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of ________.
[A] opposition [B] suspicion [C] approval [D] indifference
第八课时
Passage 5
Discoveries in science and technology are thought by "untaught minds" to come in blinding flasher or as the result of dramatic accidents. Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery. Inventions and innovations almost always come out of laborious trial and error. Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.
They point is that the players who score most are the ones who take the most shots at the goal-and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity. The prime difference between innovators and others is one of approach. Everybody gets ideas, but innovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise. What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities.
"Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done," wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority. This accounts for our reaction so seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: "How come nobody thought of that before?"
The creative approach begins with the proposition that nothing is as it appears. Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything. Faced with getting from A to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route. The innovator will search for alternate courses, which may prove easier in the long run and are bound to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends.
Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer.
67.What does the author probably mean by "untaught mind" in the first paragraph?
[A] A person ignorant of the hard work involved in experimentation.
[B] A citizen of a society that restricts personal creativity.
[C] A person who has had no education.
[D] An individual who often comes up with new ideas by accident.
68. According to the author, what distinguishes innovators from non-innovators?
[A] The variety of ideas they have.
[B] The intelligence they possess.
[C] The way they deal with problems.
[D] The way they present their findings.
69. The author quotes Rudolph Flesch in Paragraph 3 because ________.
[A] Rudolph Flesch is the best-known expert in the study of human creativity
[B] the quotation strengthens the assertion that creative individuals look for new ways of doing things
[C] the reader is familiar with Rudolph Flesch's point of view
[D] the quotation adds a new idea to the information previously presented
70. The phrase " march to a different drummer" (the last line of the passage) suggests that highly creative individuals are ________.
[A] diligent in pursuing their goals
[B] reluctant to follow common ways of doing things
[C] devoted to the progress of science
[D] concerned about theadvance of society
Unit 3 - Passage 5
Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher's pipelines. A few have already appeared. The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology, geology, and biology have provided a consistent, unified, and constantly improving account of what happened. "Scientific" creationism, which is being pushed by some for "equal time" in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are given, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of nonfunda mentalist religious leaders have come to regard "scientific" creationism as bad science and bad religion.
The first four chapters of Kitcher's book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior.
Kitcher is a philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of his arguments. The nonspecialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory. The final chapter on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: "This book stands for reason itself." And so it does - and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.
17. "Creationism" in the passage refers to ________.
(A) evolution in its true sense as to the origin of the universe
(B) a notion of the creation of religion
(C) the scientific explanation of the earth formation
(D) the deceptive theory about the origin of the universe
18. Kitcher's book is intended to ________.
(A) recommend the views of the evolutionists
(B) expose the true features of creationists
(C) curse bitterly at his opponents
(D) launch a surprise attack on creationists
19. From the passage we can infer that ________.
(A) reasoning has played a decisive role in the debate
(B) creationists do not base their argument on reasoning
(C) evolutionary theory is too difficult for non-specialists
(D) creationism is supported by scientific findings
20. This passage appears to be a digest of ________.
(A) a book review (B) a scientific paper
(C) a magazine feature (D) a newspaper editorial
Unit 4 - Passage 1
It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia's Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group's on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: "We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn't just something that happened in Australia. It's world history."
The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia - where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part - other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law, and adult patient can request death - probably by a deadly injection or pill - to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. "I'm not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks," he says.
1. From the second paragraph we learn that ________.
[A] the objection to euthanasia is slow to come in other countries
[B] physicians and citizens share the same view on euthanasia
[C] changingtechnology is chiefly responsible for the hasty passage of the law
[D] it takes time to realize the significance of the law's passage
2. When the author says that observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling, he means________.
[A] observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of euthanasia
[B] similar bills are likely to be passed in the US, Canada and other countries
[C] observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes
[D] the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop
3. When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will ________.
[A] face his death with calm characteristic of euthanasia
[B] experience the suffering of a lung cancer patient
[C] have an intense fear of terrible suffering
[D] undergo a cooling off period of seven days
4. The author's attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of ________.
[A] opposition [B] suspicion [C] approval [D] indifference
第九课时
九大题型之七：作者态度题（六点注意）
Unit 4 - Passage 5
Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" or "a touch on the brakes", makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of monetary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rearview mirror and a faulty steering wheel.
Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about of late. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3% last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to 2.5% this July. This is a long way below the double-digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s.
It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America's inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan; over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistantly lower than expected in Britain and America.
Economists have been particularly surprised by favourable inflation figures in Britain and the United State, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America's, have little productive slack. America's capacity utilisation, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate (5.6% in August) has fallen below most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment - the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past.
Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective, Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have upended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.
17. From the passage we learn that ________.
[A] there is a definite relationship between inflation and interest rates
[B] economy will always follow certain models
[C] the economic situation is better than expected
[D] economists had foreseen the present economic situation
18. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
[A] Making monetary policies is comparable to driving a car.
[B] An extremely low jobless rate will lead to inflation.
[C] A high unemployment rate will result from inflation.
[D] Interest rates have an immediate effect on the economy.
19. The sentence "This is no flash in the pan" (Line 5, Paragraph 3) means that ________.
[A] the low inflation rate will last for some time
[B] the inflation rate will soon rise
[C] the inflation will disappear quickly
[D] there is no inflation at present
20. The passage shows that the author is the present situation.
[A] critical of [B] puzzled by [C] disappointed at [D] amazed at
Unit 5 - Passage 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo's 17th-century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake's harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics - but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked "antiscience" in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as "The Flight from Science and Reason," held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of (Mis) information," which assembled last June near Buffalo.
Antiscience clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science's objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay inUS News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the antiscience epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. "The term 'antiscience' can lump together too many, quite different things," notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science, "They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened."
9. The word "schism" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) in the context probably means ________.
[A] confrontation [B] dissatisfaction
[C] separation [D] contempt
10. Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to ________.
[A] discuss the cause of the decline of science's power
[B] show the author's symphathy with scientists
[C] explain the way in which science develops
[D] exemplify the division of science and the humanities
11. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[A] Environmentalists were blamed for antiscience in an essay.
[B] Politicians are not subject to the labeling of antiscience.
[C] The "more enlightened" tend to tag others as antiscience.
[D] Tagging environmentalists as "antiscience" is justifiable
12. The author' attitude toward the issue of "science vs. antiscience" is ________.
[A] impartial [B] subjective [C] biased [D] puzzling
Unit 6 - Passage 1
It's a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers' misfortunes.
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might - surprise! - fall off. The label on a child's Batman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable user to fly."
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary - the dangers of drug interactions, for example - and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. "We're really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren't designed to prevent those kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete's injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute - a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight - issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. "Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities," says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
1. What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?
[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.
[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.
[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.
[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.
2. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to ________.
[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products
[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products
[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability
[D] feel obliged to view customers' safety as their first concern
3. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that ________.
[A] some injury claims were no longer supported by law
[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries
[C] product labels would eventually be discarded
[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes
4. The author's attitude towards the issue seems to be
[A] biased [B] indifferent
[C] puzzling [D] objective
Unit 8 - Passage 4
The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: "Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anticompetitive force?"
There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has cre-ated serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.
I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing - witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan - but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U.S. vs. Microsoft case?
63. What is the typical trend of businesses today?
[A] to take in more foreign funds
[B] to invest more abroad
[C] to combine and become bigger
[D] to trade with more countries
64. According to the author, one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is ________.
[A] the greater customer demands
[B] a surplus supply for the market
[C] a growing productivity
[D] the increase of the world's wealth
65. From paragraph 4 we can infer that ________.
[A] the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers
[B] WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs
[C] The costs of the globalization process are enormous
[D] The Standard Oil trust might have threatened competition
66. Toward the new business wave, the writer's attitude can be said to be ________.
[A] optimistic [B] objective [C] pessimistic [D] biased
Unit 4 - Passage 2
A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US is how friendly, courteous, and helpful most Americans were to them. To be fair, this observation is also frequently made of Canada and Canadians, and should best be considered North American. There are, of course,exceptions. Small-minded officials, rude waiters, and ill-mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.
For a long period of time and in many parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break in an otherwise dull existence. Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the families who generally lived distant from one another. Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion, and brought news of the outside world.
The harsh realities of the frontier also shaped this tradition of hospitality. Someone traveling alone, if hungry, injured, or ill, often had nowhere to turn except to the nearest cabin or settlement. It was not a matter of choice for the traveler or merely a charitable impulse on the part of the settlers. It reflected the harshness of daily life: if you didn't take in the stranger and take care of him, there was no one else who would. And someday, remember, you might be in the same situation.
Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in helping the weary traveler. Yet, the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is still very strong in the US, especially in the smaller cities and towns away from the busy tourist trails. "I was just traveling through, got talking with this American, and pretty soon he invited me home for dinner - amazing." Such observations reported by visitors to the US are not uncommon, but are not always understood properly. The casual friendliness of many Americans should be interpreted neither as superficial nor as artificial, but as the result of a historically developed cultural tradition.
As is true of any developed society, in America a complex set of cultural signals, assumptions, and conventions underlies all social interrelationships. And, of course, speaking a language does not necessarily mean that someone understands social and cultural patterns. Visitors who fail to "translate" cultural meanings properly often draw wrong conclusions. For example, when an American uses the word "friend", the cultural implications of the word may be quite different from those it has in the visitor's language and culture. It takes more than a brief encounter on a bus to distinguish between courteous convention and individual interest. Yet, being friendly is a virtue that many Americans value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.
5. In the eyes of visitors from the outside world ________.
[A] rude taxi drivers are rarely seen in the US
[B] small-minded officials deserve a serious comment
[C] Canadians are not sofriendly as their neighbors
[D] most Americans are ready to offer help
6. It could be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.
[A] culture exercises an influence over social interrelationship
[B] courteous convention and individual interest are interrelated
[C] various virtues manifest themselves exclusively among friends
[D] social interrelationships equal the complex set of cultural conventions
7. Families in frontier settlements used to entertain strangers ________.
[A] toimprove their hard life
[B] in view of their long-distance travel
[C] to add some flavor to their own daily life
[D] out of a charitable impulse
8. The tradition of hospitality to strangers ________.
[A] tends to be superficial and artificial
[B] is generally well kept up in the United States
[C] is always understood properly
[D] has something to do with the busy tourist trails
第十课时
Unit 4 - Passage 4
No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul-searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It's a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.
At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company's mountainous debt, which will increase to $17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently.
The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice-T's violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats."
Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard-line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society's ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.
The 15-member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate
strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us
have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally
unlimited," says Luce. "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the
company have only recently come to realize this."
13. Senator Robert Dole criticized Time Warner for ________.
[A] its rising of the corporate stock price
[B] its self-examination of soul
[C] its neglect of social responsibility
[D] its emphasis on creative freedom
14. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
[A] Luce is a spokesman of Time Warner.
[B] Gerald Levin is liable to compromise.
[C] Time Warner is united as one in the face of the debate.
[D] Steve Ross is no longer alive.
15. In face of the recent attacks on the company, the chairman ________.
[A] stuck to a strong stand to defend freedom of expression
[B] softened his tone and adopted some new policy
[C] changed his attitude and yielded to objection
[D] received more support from the 15-member board
16. The best title for this passage could be ________.
[A] A Company under Fire
[B] A Debate on Moral Decline
[C] A Lawful Outlet of Street Culture
[D] A Form of Creative Freedom
九大题型之八：主旨题（五点）
九大题型之九：判断正误题（三点）
Unit 5 - Passage 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo's 17th-century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake's harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics - but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked "antiscience" in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as "The Flight from Science and Reason," held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of (Mis) information," which assembled last June near Buffalo.
Antiscience clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science's objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay inUS News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the antiscience epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. "The term 'antiscience' can lump together too many, quite different things," notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science, "They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened."
9. The word "schism" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) in the context probably means ________.
[A] confrontation [B] dissatisfaction
[C] separation [D] contempt
10. Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to ________.
[A] discuss the cause of the decline of science's power
[B] show the author's symphathy with scientists
[C] explain the way in which science develops
[D] exemplify the division of science and the humanities
11. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[A] Environmentalists were blamed for antiscience in an essay.
[B] Politicians are not subject to the labeling of antiscience.
[C] The "more enlightened" tend to tag others as antiscience.
[D] Tagging environmentalists as "antiscience" is justifiable
12. The author' attitude toward the issue of "science vs. antiscience" is ________.
[A] impartial [B] subjective [C] biased [D] puzzling
Unit5 - Passage 5
Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as hot spots. Unlike most of the world's volcanoes, they are not always found at the boundaries of the great drifting plates that make up the earth's surface; on the contrary, many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate. Most of the hot spots move only slowly, and in some cases the movement of the plates past them has left trails of dead volcanoes. The hot spots and their trails are milestones that mark the passage of the plates.
That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute. Africa and South America, for example, are moving away from each other as new material is injected into the sea floor between them. The complementary coastlines and certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined. The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of one plate with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth's interior. It is not possible to determine whether both continents are moving in opposite directions or whether one continent isstationary and the other is drifting away from it. Hot spots, anchored in the deeper layers of the earth, provide the measuring instruments needed to resolve the question. From an analysis of the hot-spot population it appears that the African plate is stationary and that it has not moved during the past 30 million years.
The significance of hot spots is not confined to their role as a frame of reference. It now appears that they also have an important influence on the geophysical processes that propel the plates across the globe. When a continental plate come to rest over a hot spot, the material rising from deeper layer creates a broad dome. As the dome grows, it develops seed fissures (cracks); in at least a few cases the continent may break entirely along some of these fissures, so that the hot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus just as earlier theories have explained the mobility of the continents, so hot spots may explain their mutability (inconstancy).
17. The author believes that ________.
[A] the motion of the plates corresponds to that of the earth's interior
[B] the geological theory about drifting pates has been proved to be true
[C] the hot spots and the plates move slowly in opposite directions
[D] the movement of hot spots proves the continents are moving apart
18. That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that ________.
[A] the two continents are still moving in opposite directions
[B] they have been found to share certain geological features
[C] the African plates has been stable for 30 million years
[D] over 100 hot spots are scattered all around the globe
19. The hot-spot theory may prove useful in explaining ________.
[A] the structure of the African plates
[B] the revival of dead volcanoes
[C] the mobility of the continents
[D] the formation of new oceans
20. The passage is mainly about ________.
[A] the features of volcanic activities
[B] the importance of the theory about drifting plates
[C] the significance of hot spots in geophysical studies
[D] the process of the formation of volcanoes
Unit 6 - Passage 1
It's a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers' misfortunes.
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might - surprise! - fall off. The label on a child's Batman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable user to fly."
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary - the dangers of drug interactions, for example - and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. "We're really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren't designed to prevent those kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete's injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute - a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight - issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. "Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities," says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
1. What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?
[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.
[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.
[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.
[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.
2. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to ________.
[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products
[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products
[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability
[D] feel obliged to view customers' safety as their first concern
3. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that ________.
[A] some injury claims were nolonger supported by law
[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries
[C] product labels would eventually be discarded
[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes
4. The author's attitude towards the issue seems to be
[A] biased [B] indifferent [C] puzzling [D] objective
Unit 6 - Passage 2
In the first year or so of Wed business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Wed proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its
reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon. com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop is silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
5. We learn from the beginning of the passage that Wed business ________.
[A] has been striving to expand its market
[B] intended to follow a fanciful fashion
[C] tried but in vain to control the market
[D] has been booming for one year or so
6. Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that ________.
[A] the technology is popular with many Web users
[B] businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions
[C] there is a radical change in strategy
[D] it is accessible limitedly to established partners
7. In the view of Net purists, ________.
[A] there should be no marketing messages in online culture
[B] money making should be given priority to on the Web
[C] the Web should be able to function as the television set
[D] there should be no online commercial information without requests
8. We learn from the last paragraph that ________.
[A] pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce
[B] interactivity, hospitality and security are important to online customers
[C] leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago
[D] setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power
Unit 6 - Passage 5
Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn't they fall out of the sky? The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets.
How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredicability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don't have unpredictable things, you don't have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it.
In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I've attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said "the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What doyou think we might expect?" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate.
What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who "work well with the team."
17. The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that ________.
[A] inquiring minds are more important than scientific experiments
[B] science advances when fruitful researches are conducted
[C] scientists seldom forget the essential nature of research
[D] unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research
18. The author asserts that scientists ________.
[A] shouldn't replace "scientific method" with imaginative thought
[B] shouldn't neglect to speculate on unpredictable things
[C] should write more concise reports for technical journals
[D] should be confident about their research findings
19. It seems that some young scientists ________.
[A] have a keen interest in prediction
[B] often speculate on the future
[C] think highly of creative thinking
[D] stick to "scientific method"
20. The author implies that the results of scientific research ________.
[A] may not be as profitable as they are expected
[B] can be measured in dollars and cents
[C] rely on conformity to a standard pattern
[D] are mostly underestimated by management
第十一课时
九大题型之九：判断正误题（三点）
Unit 4 - Passage 4
No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul-searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It's a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.
At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company's mountainous debt, which will increase to $17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently.
The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice-T's violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats."
Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard-line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society's ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate withstudents. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.
The 15-member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited," says Luce. "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this."
13. Senator Robert Dole criticized TimeWarner for ________.
[A] its rising of the corporate stock price
[B] its self-examination of soul
[C] its neglect of social responsibility
[D] its emphasis on creative freedom
14. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
[A] Luce is a spokesman of Time Warner.
[B] Gerald Levin is liable to compromise.
[C] Time Warner is united as one in the face of the debate.
[D] Steve Ross is no longer alive.
15. In face of the recent attacks on the company, the chairman ________.
[A] stuck to a strong stand to defend freedom of expression
[B] softened his tone and adopted some new policy
[C] changed his attitude and yielded to objection
[D] received more support from the 15-member board
16. The best title for this passage could be ________.
[A] A Company under Fire
[B] A Debate on Moral Decline
[C] A Lawful Outlet of Street Culture
[D] A Form of Creative Freedom
Unit 5 - Passage 1
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn't help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt's leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey's bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left - all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civillized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don't need a dam to be saved.
1. The third sentence of paragraph 1 implies that ________.
[A] people would be happy if they shut their eyes to reality
[B] the blind could be happier than the sighted
[C] over-excited people tend to neglect vital things
[D] fascination makes people lose their eyesight
2. In paragraph 5, "the powerless" probably refers to ________.
[A] areas short of electricity
[B] dams without power stations
[C] poor countries around India
[D] common people in the Narmada Dam area
3. What is the myth concerning giant dams?
[A] They bring in more fertile soil.
[B] They help defend the country.
[C] They strengthen international ties.
[D] They have universal control of the waters.
4. What the author tries to suggest may best be interpreted as ________.
[A] "It's no use crying over spilt milk"
[B] "More haste, less speed"
[C] "Look before you leap"
[D] "He who laughs last laughs best"
Unit 5 - Passage 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo's 17th-century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake's harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics - but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked "antiscience" in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as "The Flight from Science and Reason," held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of (Mis) information," which assembled last June near Buffalo.
Antiscience clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science's objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay inUS News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the antiscience epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. "The term 'antiscience' can lump together too many, quite different things," notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science, "They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened."
9. The word "schism" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) in the context probably means ________.
[A] confrontation [B] dissatisfaction
[C] separation [D] contempt
10. Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to ________.
[A] discuss the cause of the decline of science's power
[B] show the author's symphathy with scientists
[C] explain the way in which science develops
[D] exemplify the division of science and the humanities
11. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[A] Environmentalists were blamed for antiscience in an essay.
[B] Politicians are not subject to the labeling of antiscience.
[C] The "more enlightened" tend to tag others as antiscience.
[D] Tagging environmentalists as "antiscience" is justifiable
12. The author' attitude toward the issue of "science vs. antiscience" is ________.
[A] impartial [B] subjective [C] biased [D] puzzling
Unit5 - Passage 5
Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as hot spots. Unlike most of the world's volcanoes, they are not always found at the boundaries of the great drifting plates that make up the earth's surface; on the contrary, many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate. Most of the hot spots move only slowly, and in some cases the movement of the plates past them has left trails of dead volcanoes. The hot spots and their trails are milestones that mark the passage of the plates.
That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute. Africa and South America, for example, are moving away from each other as new material is injected into the sea floor between them. The complementary coastlines and certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined. The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of one plate with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth's interior. It is not possible to determine whether both continents are moving in opposite directions or whether one continent is stationary and the other is drifting away from it. Hot spots, anchored in the deeper layers of the earth, provide the measuring instruments needed to resolve the question. From an analysis of the hot-spot population it appears that the African plate is stationary and that it has not moved during the past 30 million years.
The significance of hot spots is not confined to their role as a frame of reference. It now appears that they also have an important influence on the geophysical processes that propel the plates across the globe. When a continental plate come to rest over a hot spot, the material rising from deeper layer creates a broad dome. As the dome grows, it develops seed fissures (cracks); in at least a few cases the continent may break entirely along some of these fissures, so that the hot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus just as earlier theories have explained the mobility of the continents, so hot spots may explain their mutability (inconstancy).
17. The author believes that ________.
[A] the motion of the plates corresponds to that of the earth's interior
[B] thegeological theory about drifting pates has been proved to be true
[C] the hot spots and the plates move slowly in opposite directions
[D] the movement of hot spots proves the continents are moving apart
18. That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that ________.
[A] the two continents are still moving in opposite directions
[B] they have been found to share certain geological features
[C] the African plates has been stable for 30 million years
[D] over 100 hot spots are scattered all around the globe
19. The hot-spot theory may prove useful in explaining ________.
[A] the structure of the African plates
[B] the revival of dead volcanoes
[C] the mobility of the continents
[D] the formation of new oceans
20. The passage is mainly about ________.
[A] the features of volcanic activities
[B] the importance of the theory about drifting plates
[C] the significance of hot spots in geophysical studies
[D] the process of the formation of volcanoes
第十二课时
Unit5 - Passage 5
Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as hot spots. Unlike most of the world's volcanoes, they are not always found at the boundaries of the great drifting plates that make up the earth's surface; on the contrary, many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate. Most of the hot spots move only slowly, and in some cases the movement of the plates past them has left trails of dead volcanoes. The hot spots and their trails are milestones that mark the passage of the plates.
That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute. Africa and South America, for example, are moving away from each other as new material is injected into the sea floor between them. The complementary coastlines and certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined. The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of one plate with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth's interior. It is not possible to determine whether both continents are moving in opposite directions or whether one continent is stationary and the other is drifting away from it. Hot spots, anchored in the deeper layers of the earth, provide the measuring instruments needed to resolve the question. From an analysis of the hot-spot population it appears that the African plate is stationary and that it has not moved during the past 30 million years.
The significance of hot spots is not confined to their role as a frame of reference. It now appears that they also have an important influence on the geophysical processes that propel the plates across the globe. When a continental plate come to rest over a hot spot, the material rising from deeper layer creates a broad dome. As the dome grows, it develops seed fissures (cracks); in at least a few cases the continent may break entirely along some of these fissures, so that the hot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus just as earlier theories have explained the mobility of the continents, so hot spots may explain their mutability (inconstancy).
17. The author believes that ________.
[A] the motion of the plates corresponds to that of the earth's interior
[B] the geological theory about drifting pates has been proved to be true
[C] the hot spots and the plates move slowly in opposite directions
[D] the movement of hot spots proves the continents are moving apart
18. That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that ________.
[A] the two continents are still moving in opposite directions
[B] they have been found to share certain geological features
[C] the African plates has been stable for 30 million years
[D] over 100 hot spots are scattered all around the globe
19. The hot-spot theory may prove useful in explaining ________.
[A] the structure of the African plates
[B] the revival of dead volcanoes
[C] the mobility of the continents
[D] the formation of new oceans
20. The passage is mainly about ________.
[A] the features of volcanic activities
[B] the importance of the theory about drifting plates
[C] the significance of hot spots in geophysical studies
[D] the process of the formation of volcanoes
Unit 6 - Passage 1
It's a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers' misfortunes.
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might - surprise! - fall off. The label on a child's Batman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable user to fly."
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary - the dangers of drug interactions, for example - and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. "We're really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren't designed to prevent those kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete's injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute - a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight - issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. "Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities," says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
1. What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?
[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.
[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.
[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.
[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.
2. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to ________.
[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products
[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products
[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability
[D] feel obliged to view customers' safety as their first concern
3. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that ________.
[A] some injury claims were no longer supported by law
[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries
[C] product labels would eventually be discarded
[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes
4. The author's attitude towards the issue seems to be
[A] biased [B] indifferent
[C] puzzling [D] objective
Unit 6 - Passage 2
In the first year or so of Wed business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Wed proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon. com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop is silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
5. Welearn from the beginning of the passage that Wed business ________.
[A] has been striving to expand its market
[B] intended to follow a fanciful fashion
[C] tried but in vain to control the market
[D] has been booming for one year or so
6. Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that ________.
[A] the technology is popular with many Web users
[B] businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions
[C] there is a radical change in strategy
[D] it is accessible limitedly to established partners
7. In the view of Net purists, ________.
[A] there should be no marketing messages in online culture
[B] money making should be given priority to on the Web
[C] the Web should be able to function as the television set
[D] there should be no online commercial information without requests
8. We learn from the last paragraph that ________.
[A] pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce
[B] interactivity, hospitality and security are important to online customers
[C] leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago
[D] setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power
Unit 6 - Passage 5
Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn't they fall out of the sky? The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets.
How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree?
Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredicability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don't have unpredictable things, you don't have research. Scientists tendto forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it.
In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I've attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said "the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What doyou think we might expect?" The scientist has been shocked at
having even been asked to speculate.
What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who "work well with the team."
17. The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that ________.
[A] inquiring minds are more important than scientific experiments
[B] science advances when fruitful researches are conducted
[C] scientists seldom forget the essential nature of research
[D] unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research
18. The author asserts that scientists ________.
[A] shouldn't replace "scientific method" with imaginative thought
[B] shouldn't neglect to speculate on unpredictable things
[C] should write more concise reports for technical journals
[D] should be confident about their research findings
19. It seems that some young scientists ________.
[A] have a keen interest in prediction
[B] often speculate on the future
[C] think highly of creative thinking
[D] stick to "scientific method"
20. The author implies that the results of scientific research ________.
[A] may not be as profitable as they are expected
[B] can be measured in dollars and cents
[C] rely on conformity to a standard pattern
[D] are mostly underestimated by management
Unit8 - Passage 3
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns) into which they plug each day's events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and
asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
59. What is the passage mainly about?
[A] needs of the readers all over the world
[B] causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
[C] origins of the declining newspaper industry
[D] aims of a journalism credibility project
60. The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be ________.
[A] quite trustworthy [B] somewhat contradictory
[C] very illuminating [D] rather superficial
61. The basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies in their
[A] working attitude [B] conventional lifestyle
[C] world outlook [D] educational background
62. Despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its
________.
[A] failure to realize its real problem
[B] tendency to hire annoying reporters
[C] likeliness to do inaccurate reporting
[D] prejudice in matters of race and gender
Unit8 - Passage 4
The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries withunsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: "Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anticompetitive force?"
There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has cre-ated serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.
I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing - witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan - but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U.S. vs. Microsoft case?
63. What is the typical trend of businesses today?
[A] to take in more foreign funds
[B] to invest more abroad
[C] to combine and become bigger
[D] to trade with more countries
64. According to the author, one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is ________.
[A] the greater customer demands
[B] a surplus supply for the market
[C] a growing productivity
[D] the increase of the world's wealth
65. From paragraph 4 we can infer that ________.
[A] the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers
[B] WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs
[C] The costs of the globalization process are enormous
[D] The Standard Oil trust might have threatened competition
66. Toward the new business wave, the writer's attitude can be said to be ________.
[A] optimistic [B] objective [C] pessimistic [D] biased
Unit8 - Passage 5
When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming "I wanted to spend more time with my family".
Curiously, some tow-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of "having it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the pages of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit ofeverything.
I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on "quality time".
In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting - also known in America as "voluntary simplicity" - has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of bestselling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-'90s equivalent of dropping out.
While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline - after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late '80s - and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.
For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the '80s, downshifting in the mid-'90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life - growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one - as a personal recognition of your limitations.
67. Which of the following is true according to paragraph 1?
[A] Full-time employment is a new international trend.
[B] The writer was compelled by circumstances to leave her job.
[C] "A lateral move" means stepping out of full-time employment.
[D] The writer was only too eager to spend more time with her family.
68. The writer's experiment shows that downshifting ________.
[A] enables her to realize her dream
[B] helps her mold a new philosophy of life
[C] prompts her to abandon her high social status
[D] leads her to accept the doctrine of She magazine
69. "Juggling one's life" probably means living a life characterized by ________.
[A] non-materialistic lifestyle [B] a bit of everything
[C] extreme stress [D] anti-consumerism
70. According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of ________.
[A] the quick pace of modern life
[B] man's adventurous spirit
[C] man's search for mythical experiences
[D] the economic situation
Unit 9 -Text 1
If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on.. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting ina line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. "Who is that?" the new arrival asked St. Peter. "Oh, that's God." came the reply, "but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor."
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it'll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn't attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it's the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote "If at first you don't succeed, give up" or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.
41. To make your humor work, you should
[A] take advantage of different kinds of audience.
[B] make fun of the disorganized people.
[C] address different problems to different people.
[D] show sympathy for your listeners.
42. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are
[A] impolite to new arrivals.
[B] very conscious of their godlike role.
[C] entitled to some privileges.
[D] very busy even during lunch hours.
43. It canbe inferred from the text that public services
[A] have benefited many people.
[B] are the focus of public attention.
[C] are an inappropriate subject for humor.
[D] have often been the laughing stock.
44. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered
[A] in well-worded language.
[B] as awkwardly as possible.
[C] in exaggerated statement.
[D] as casually as possible.
45. The best title for the text may be
[A] Use Humor Effectively.
[B] Various Kinds of Humor.
[C] Add Humor to Speech.
[D] Different Humor Strategies.
Unit 9 -Text 3
Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock ,when prices quadrupled, and 1979-1980, when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy,energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25%-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies - to which heavy industry has shifted - have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed.
One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist's commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 byalmost 30%.
51. The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is
[A] global inflation.
[B] reduction in supply.
[C] fast growth in economy.
[D] Iraq's suspension of exports.
52. It can be inferred from the text that the retail price of petrol will go up dramatically if
[A] price of crude rises.
[B] commodity prices rise.
[C] consumption rises.
[D] oil taxes rise.
53. The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries
[A] heavy industry becomes more energy-intensive.
[B] income loss mainly results from fluctuating crude oil prices.
[C] manufacturing industry has been seriously squeezed.
[D] oil price changes have no significant impact on GDP.
54. We can draw a conclusion from the text that
[A] oil-price shocks are less shocking now.
[B] inflation seems irrelevant to oil-price shocks.
[C] energy conservation can keep down the oil prices.
[D] the price rise of crude leads to the shrinking of heavy industry.
55. From the text we can see that the writer seems
[A] optimistic.
[B] sensitive.
[C] gloomy
[D] scared.
Unit 10 -Text 2
To paraphrase 18th-century statesman Edmund Burke, "all that is needed for the triumph of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing." One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animals have rights ruling out their use in research. Scientistsneed to respond forcefully to animal rights advocates, whose arguments are confusing the public and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of the animal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on public funding, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, many are perplexed that anyone would deliberately harm an animal.
For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was distributing a brochure that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animals-no meat, no fur, no medicines. Asked if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccines come from animal research. When assured that they do, she replied, 'Then I would have to say yes." Asked what will happen when epidemics return, she said, "Don't worry, scientists will find some way of using computers," Such well-meaning people just don't understand.
Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate, understandable way-in human terms, not in the language of molecular biology. We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a grandmother's hip replacement, a father's bypass operation a baby's vaccinations, and even a pet's shots. To those who are unaware that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and vaccines, animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst.
Much can be done. Scientists could "adopt" middle school classes and present their own research. They should be quick to respond to letters to letters to the editor, lest animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane care. Finally, because the ultimate stakeholders are patients, the health research community should actively recruit to its cause not only well-known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the value of animal research, but all who receive medical treatment. If good people do nothing there is a real possibility that an uninformed citizenry will extinguish the precious embers of medical progress.
46. The author begins his article with Edmund Burke's words to
[A] call on scientists to take some actions.
[B] criticize the misguided cause of animal rights.
[C] warn of the doom of biomedical research.
[D] show the triumph of the animal rights movement.
47. Misled people tend to think that using an animal inresearch is
[A] cruel but natural.
[B] inhuman and unacceptable
[C] inevitable but vicious.
[D] pointless and wasteful.
48. The example of the grandmotherly woman is used to show the public's
[A] discontent with animal research.
[B] ignorance about medical science.
[C] indifference to epidemics.
[D] anxiety about animal rights.
49. The author believes that, in face of the challenge from animal rights advocates, scientists should
[A] communicate more with the public.
[B] employ hi-tech means in research.
[C] feel no shame for their cause.
[D] strive to develop new cures.
50. From the text we learn that Stephen Cooper is
[A] a well-known humanist.
[B] a medical practitioner.
[C] an enthusiast in animal rights.
[D] a supporter of animal research.
Unit 10 -Text 4
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30minuts surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable whenI entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great healthcare system can cure death-and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians-frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient-too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age - say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way", so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have, As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people's lives.
56. What is implied in the first sentence?
[A] Americans are better prepared for death than other people.
[B] Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.
[C] Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.
[D] Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.
57. The author uses the example of cancer patients to show that
[A] medical resources are often wasted.
[B] doctors are helpless against fatal diseases.
[C] some treatments are too aggressive.
[D] medical costs are becoming unaffordable.
58. The author's attitude toward RichardLamm's remark is one of
[A] strong disapproval.
[B] reserved consent.
[C] slight contempt.
[D] enthusiastic support.
59. In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care
[A] more flexibly.
[B] more extravagantly.
[C] more cautiously.
[D] more reasonably.
60. The text intends to express the idea that
[A] medicine will further prolong people's lives.
[B] life beyond a certain limit is not worth living.
[C] death should be accepted as a fact of life.
[D] excessive demands increase the cost of health care.
Unit 11 -Text 1
Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site's personal search agent. It's an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. "I struck gold," says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.
With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: "Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility." says one expert.
For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept - what you think you want to do - then broaden it. "None of these programs do that," says another expert. "There's no career counseling implicit in all of this." Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database; when you get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again. "I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me," says the author of a job-searching guide.
Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSite's agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs - those it considers the best matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them - and they do. "On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic," says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.
Even those who aren't hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. "You always keep your eyes open," he says, Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.
41. How did Redmon find his job?
[A] By searching openings in a job database.
[B] By posting a matching position in a database.
[C] By using a special service of a database.
[D] By E-mailing his resume to a database.
42. Which of the following can be a disadvantage of search agents?
[A] Lack of counseling.
[B] Limited number of visits.
[C] Lower efficiency.
[D] Fewer successful matches.
43. The expression "tip service" (Line 4, Paragraph 3) most probably means
[A] advisory.
[B] compensation.
[C] interaction.
[D] reminder.
44. Why does CareerSite's agent offer each job hunter only three job options?
[A] To focus on better job matches.
[B] To attract more returning visits.
[C] To reserve space for more messages.
[D] To increase the rate of success.
45. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] Personal search agents are indispensable to job-hunters.
[B] Some sites keep E-mailing job seekers to trace their demands.
[C] Personal search agents are also helpful to those already employed.
[D] Some agents stop sending information to people once they are employed.
Unit 11 -Text 2
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoeuml; Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush's predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chretien and Koizumi). The world's three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world's five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen Ellison and Albrecht).
Can this merely be coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school, teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough through them.
46. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAA A cars and Zodiac cars?
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality.
[B] A type of conspicuous bias.
[C] A type of personal prejudice.
[D] A kind of brand discrimination.
47. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoeuml; Zysman.
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies' names.
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.
48. The 4th paragraph suggests that
[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students.
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class.
[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students.
[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight.
49. What does the author mean by "most people are literally having a ZZZ" (Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)?
[A] They are getting impatient.
[B] They are noisily dozing off.
[C] They are feeling humiliated.
[D] They are busy with word puzzles.
50. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.
[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.
[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.
Unit 11 -Text 3
When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filling or polishing as many nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator," she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middlebrow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too" she says.
Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belttightening.
Consumers say they're not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there's a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses," says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says john Deadly, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.
Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn't mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan's hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant need to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.
51. By "Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet" (Line 1, Paragraph 1), the author means
[A] Spero can hardly maintain her business.
[B] Spero is too much engaged in her work.
[C] Spero has grown out of her bad habit.
[D] Spero is not in a desperate situation.
52. How do the public feel about the current economic situation?
[A] Optimistic.
[B] Confused.
[C] Carefree.
[D] Panicked.
53. When mentioning "the $4 million to $10 million range" (Lines 3-4, Paragraph 3) the author is
talking about.
[A] gold market.
[B] real estate.
[C] stock exchange.
[D] venture investment.
54. Why can many people see "silver linings" to the economic showdown?
[A] They would benefit in certain ways.
[B] The stock market shows signs of recovery.
[C] Such a slowdown usually precedes a boom.
[D] The purchasing power would be enhanced.
55. To which of the following is the author likely to agree?
[A] A now boom, on the horizon.
[B] Tighten the belt, the single remedy.
[C] Caution all right, panic not.
[D] The more ventures, the more chances.
Unit 11 -Text 4
Americans today don't place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education - not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren't difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance." Razitch's latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society."
"Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "we are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized - going to school and learning to read - so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."
56. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
[A] The habit of thinking independently.
[B] Profound knowledge of the world.
[C] Practical abilities for future career.
[D] The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
57. We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of
[A] undervaluing intellect.
[B] favoring intellectualism.
[C] supporting school reform.
[D] suppressing native intelligence.
58. The views of Ravish and Emerson on schooling are
[A] identical.
[B] similar.
[C] complementary.
[D] opposite.
59. Emerson, according to the text, is probably
[A] a pioneer of education reform.
[B] an opponent of intellectualism.
[C] a scholar in favor of intellect.
[D] an advocate of regular schooling.
60. What does the author think of intellect?
[A] It is second to intelligence.
[B] It evolves from common sense.
[C] It is to be pursued.
[D] It underlies power. |
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