Passage 1When your parents advise you to "get an
education" in order to raise your income,they tell you only half the truth.What they
really mean is to get just enough education to provide manpower for your society,but not
so much that you prove an embarrassment to your society.
Get a high school diploma,at least.Without that,you will be
occupationally dead unless your name happens to be George Bernard Shaw or Thomas Alva
Edison,and you can successfully dropout in grade school.
Get a college degree,if possible.With a B.A.,you are on the
launching pad.But now you have to start to put on the brakes.If you go for a master's
degree,make sure it is an M.B.A.,and is famous law of diminishing returns begins to take
effect.
Do you know,for instance,that long-haul truck drivers earn more
per year than full professors?Yes,the average 1977 salary for those truckers was $24000.
While the full professors managed to earn just $23030.
A Ph.D. is the highest degree you can get.Except for a few
specialized fields such as physics or chemistry where the degree can quickly be turned to
industrial or commercial purposes,if you pursue such a degree in any other field,you will
face a dim future. there are more Ph.D.s unemloyed or underemployed in this country than
any other part of the world.
If you become a doctor of philosophy in English or history or
anthropology or political science or languages or-worst of all-in philosophy,you run the
risk of becoming overeducated for our national demands.Not for our needs,mind you,but for
our demands.
Thousands of Ph.D.s are selling shoes,driving cars,waiting on
table,and endlessly filling out applications month after month.They may also take a job in
some high school or backwater college that pays much less than the janitor earns.
You can equate the level of income with the level of education
only so far.Far enough,that is,to make you useful to the gross national product,but not so
far that nobody can turn much of a profit on you.
- According to the writer,what the society expects of education is to turn out people who
_____.[ANSWER]
A)will not be a disgrace to society
B)will become loyal citizens
C)can take care of themselves
D)can meet the nation's demands as a source of manpower
- Many Ph.D.s are out of job because _____.[ANSWER]
A)they are improperly educated
B)they are of little commercial value to their society
C)there are fewer jobs in high schools
D)they prefer easier jobs that make more money
- The nation is only interested in people _____.[ANSWER]
A)with diplomas
B)who specialize in physics and chemistry
C)who are valuable to the gross national product
D)both A and C
- Which of the following is not true?[ANSWER]
A)Bernard Shaw didn't finish high schools,nor did Edison.
B)One must think carefully before pursuing a master degree.
C)The higher your education level,the more money you will earn.
D)If you are too well-educated,you'll be overeducated for society's demands.
- The writer sees education as _____.[ANSWER]
A)a means of providing job security and financial security and a means of meeting a
country's demands for technical workers
B)a way to broaden one's horizons
C)more important than finding a job
D)an opportunity that everyone should have
Passage 2The food we eat seems to have profound effects on our
health. Although science has made enormous steps inmaking food more fit to eat,it has,at
the same time,made many foods unfit to eat.Some research has shown that perhaps eighty
percent of all human illnesses are related to diet and forty percent of cancer is related
to the diet as well,especially cancer of the colon.Difficult cultures are some prone to
contract certain illnesses because of the food that is characteristic in these
cultures.That food is related to illness is not a new discovery.In 1945,government
researchers realized that nitrates and nitrites,commonly used to preserve color in
meats,and other food additives,caused cancer.Yet,these carcinogenic additives remain in
our food,and it becomes more difficult all the time to know which things on the packaging
labels of processed food are helpful or harmful.The additives which we eat are not all so
direct.Farmers often give penicillin to beef and poultry and because of this,penicillin
has been found in the milk of treated cows.Sometimes similar drugs are administered(given)
to animals not for medicinal purposes, but for financial reasons.The farmers are simply
trying to fatten the animals in order to obtain a higher price on the market.Although the
Food and Drug Administration has tried repeatedly to control these procedures,the
practices continue.
- How has science done a disservice to manmind?_____.[ANSWER]
A)Because of science,disease caused by contaminated food has been virtually done away with
B)It has caused a lack of information,concerning the value of food
C)As a result of scientific intervention,some potentially harmful substances have been
added to our food
D)The scientists have preserved the color of meats,but not of vegetables
- What are nitrates used for?_____.[ANSWER]
A)They preserve flavor in packaged foods
B)They preserve the color of meats
C)They are the objects of research
D)They cause the animals to become fatter
- What does FDA mean as an organization?_____.[ANSWER]
A)Food Direct Additives
B)Final Difficult Analysis
C)Food and Drug Administration
D)Federal Dairy Additives
- The word carcinogenic means most nearly the same as _____.[ANSWER]
A)trouble-making
B)color-retaining
C)money-making
D)cancer-causing
- Which of the following statements is not true?_____.[ANSWER]
A)Drugs are always given to animals for medical reasons
B)Some of the additives in our food are added to the food itself and some are given to the
living animals
C)Researchers have known about the potential hazards of food additives for over
thirty-five years
D)Food may cause forty percent of cancer in the world
Passage 3There are various way in which individual economic
units can interact with one another.Three basic ways may be described as the market
system,the administered system,and the traditional system.
In a market system individual economic units are free to interact
each other the the marketplace.It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units
or sell commodities to them.In a market,transcations may take place via barter or money
exchange. In a barter economy,real goods such as automobiles,shoes,and pizzas are traded
against each other.Obviously,finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange
for a sailboat may not always be an easy task.Hence,the introduction of money as a medium
of exchange eases transactions considerably.In the modern market economy,goods and
services are bought or sold for money.
An alternative to the market system is administrative control by
some agency over all transactions.This agency will issue edicts or commands as to how much
of each kind of goods and services should be produced,exchanged,and consumed by each
economic unit.Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy.The central
plan.drawn up by government,shows amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms
and allocated to different households for consumption.This is an example or complete
planning of production,consumption,and exchange for the whole economy.
In a traditional society,production and consumption patterns are
governed by tradition:every person's place with--in the economic system is fixed by
parentage,religion,and custom.Transactions take place on the basis of tradition,too.People
belonging to a certain group of caste may have an obligation to care for other
persons,provide them with food and shelter,care for their health,and provide for their
education.Clearly,in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition
alone,progress mey be difficult to achieve,a stagnant society may result.
- What is the main purpose of the passage?[ANSWER]
A)To outline constrasting types of economic system
B)To explain the science of economics
C)To argue for the superiority of one economic system
D)To compare barter and money--exchange markets
- In the second paragraph,the word "real" in "real goods" could best
be replaced by which of the following?[ANSWER]
A)high quality
B)concrete
C)utter
D)authentic
- According to the passage,a barter economy can lead to _____.[ANSWER]
A)rapid speed of transactions
B)misunderstandings
C)inflation
D)difficultied for the traders
- According to the passage,who has the greatest degree of control in an administered
system?[ANSWER]
A)Individual households
B)Small businesses
C)Major corporations
D)The government
- Which of the following is not mentioned by the author as a criterion for determining a
person's place in a traditional society?[ANSWER]
A)Family background
B)Age
C)Religious belief
D)Custom
Passage 4In science the meaning of the word "explain"
suffers with civilization's every step in search of reality.Science can not really explain
electricity,magnetism,and gravition;their effects can be measured and predicted,but of
their nature no more is known to the modern scientist than to Thales who first looked into
the nature of the electrification of physicists reject the notion that man can ever
discover what these mysterious forces "really" are. Electricity, Bertrand
Russell says,is not a thing,like St.Paul's Cathedral;it is a way in which things
behave.When we have told how things behave when thry are electrified,and under what
circumstances they are electrified,we have told all there is to tell.Until recently
scientists would have disapproved of such an idea.Aristotle,for example,whose natural
science dominated Western thought for two thousand years,believed that man could arrive at
an understanding of reality by reasoning from self-evident principle.He felt,for
example,that it is a self-evident principle that everything in the universe has its proper
place,hence one can deduce that objects fall to the groud because that's where they
belong,and smoke goes up because that's where it belongs.The goal of Aristotelian science
was to explain why things happen.Modern science was born when Galileo began trying to
explain how things happen and thus originated the method of controlled experiment which
now forms the basis of scientific investigation.
- The aim of controlled scientific experiments is _____.[ANSWER]
A)to explain why things happen
B)to expalin how things happen
C)to describe self-evident principles
D)to support Aristelian science
- What principles most influenced scientific thought for two thoudsand years?[ANSWER]
A)The speculations of Thales.
B)The forces of electricity,magnetism and gravity.
C)Aristotle's natural science.
D)Galileo's discoveries.
- Bertrand Russell's notion about electricity is _____.[ANSWER]
A)disapproved of by most modern scientists
B)in agreement with Aristotle's theory of self-evident principle
C)in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward "how" things happen
D)in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward "why" things happen
- The passage says that until recently scientific [ANSWER]
A)that there are mysterious forces in the universe
B)that man cannot discover what forces "really" are
C)that there are self-evident principle
D)that we can discover why things behave as they do
- Modern science came into being _____.[ANSWER]
A)when the method of controlled experiment was first introduced
B)when Galileo succeeded in explaining how things happen
C)when Aristelian scientists tried to explain why things happen
D)when scientists were able to acquire an understanding of reality by reasoning
Passage 5In 1944 a 22-year-old Army medic(卫生兵) was
answering a battle-field cry for help when fragments of an exploding German shell tore
into him."Gee doc,I feel like both my arms were blown off,"George Lott told his
battalion's surgeon as he staffered into a first-aid station (急救站) near the front in
northeastern France.It was the beginning of a painful 5000 mile journey through three
hospitals as doctor tried to save the medic's life.
After five operations and two and a half years in Army hospitals,
Lott,a righty,regained use of his left arm,but his right was painfully paralyzed."I
begged the doctors to cut off my arm,"he recalls.They did.
An orphan since he was two,with a third grade education,Lott has
lived on his pension and Social Security(社会保险金) for the past 40 years.In 1962 he
bought a house in Albany,N.Y.,not far from the Adirondack Mountains where he hunts and
fished.He still has the Purple Heart awarded him after he was wounded,although he has had
a difficult time keeping it.His girlfriends,explains the bachelor,have wanted to wear it.
"Sometimes I still dream about the guys I held in my arms
that were dying,"says Lott,"I'm proud that I fought for my country,but I'm still
here,drinking beer.The guys who didn't come back are the real heroes."
- George Lott got wounded when he was[ANSWER]
A)fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers of his battalion.
B)fighting with French soldiers.
C)in a battlefield crying for help.
D)running toward a wounded soldier who was crying for help.
- The word "righty" in the second paragraph most probably means[ANSWER]
A)a person who has always been correct in conduct.
B)a person who has done the right thing.
C)a person who uses his right hand more readily than his left hand.
D)a person who has courage.
- From the passage we can infer that[ANSWER]
A)Lott's recovery was long and painful.
B)he lost both his arms.
C)he never got a job after he was wounded.
D)both a and c.
- Which of the following is true?[ANSWER]
A)Lott didn't think much of his wartime service.
B)Lott and his girlfriend are proud that he fought for his country.
C)Lott feels ashamed that he is still drinking beer.
D)Lott lost his Purple Heart.
- Lott thinks that real heroes are[ANSWER]
A)those dying people whom he held in his arms.
B)those who died for their country.
C)those who chose not to come back to their country.
D)those who fought for their country.
Passage 6The advantages and disadvantages of a large population
have long been a subject of discussion among economists.It has been argued that the supply
of good land is limited.To feed a large population,inferior land must be cultivated and
the good land worked intensively.Thus,each person produces less and this means a lower
average income than could be obtained with a smaller population.Other economists have
argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of
facilities such as ports,roads and railways,which are not likely to be built unless there
is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a world-wide birth control
program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to
country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and
raw materials.In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing
hard upon the limits of food,space and natural resources,it will be the first concern of
government to place a limit on the birthrate,whatever the consequences may be.In the
highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex.A decreasing birthrate may
lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured good.When
the pressure of population on housing declines,prices also decline and the building
industry is weakened.Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a
developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population,rather than one
which is stable or in decline.
