</p> Passage One3 z _, {' \5 E5 e% M% E* |
Most people know at least some of the old ways of predicting weather. Most of these older ways depended on careful observation of the behavior of animals and insects and of the appearance of clouds, the sun, the moon and growing plants. But we are mostly city living people and have forgotten the origin of many of these ways of foretelling weather. We should not laugh at these examples of weather wisdom, however. Since they are based on what people have seen year after year they are often quite accurate.
- Y* j1 Z2 l* }, J( _ b" F: l. q! { Animals are commonly thought to be more sensitive to changes in the weather than we human beings. Our sense have become dull: we are not so close to nature and our lives do not depend so much on warnings given by the senses as animals do.
; p) x* g' y- j Every country has its own particular weather wisdom connected with animals. In northern countries, where winters are hard, the behavior of animals which hibernate or migrate is taken to indicate what sort of winter is coming. The squirrels may be seen gathering their food supply of nuts earlier than usual; the dormouse may dig more deeply than usual, the migrating birds may gather for their flight south earlier than usual. All these signs would be seen by the countryman as predictions of an especially severe winter to come. According to so many examples we could see animals are so sensitive, and their senses are more accurate than our human beings. If we'll find the extraordinary of their behaviors, so pay attention to it.
3 H A6 ^+ W& X& w 26. Why are the old ways of predicting weather still important today ?
n3 y' D. H! ~/ p 27. Why are human beings not as sensitive to the changes of weather as animals ?7 Z3 g) a) h3 k% L5 e
28. What is the passage mainly discussing ? {, |, w8 G ^+ T" i- X
Passage Two
, y4 J$ K ~, G- b% c To get a driver’s license in the U.S., all states require that you be above a certain age, that you know how to drive, and that you know about traffic laws and safety rules. Y! A' h. i0 @$ i- |& W# O
In most states, you have to be at least sixteen years old to start learning to drive. Anyone younger than that who sites behind the wheel of a moving car is violating the law, even if he or she is closely supervised. Age sixteen is also the minimum age in most states for taking driver’s education courses in schools..
$ X) ~/ j E+ }, EDriver’s education courses begin with classroom instruction on the rules of the road and traffic laws. You learn, for example, how fast it is safe to go in certain areas, what to do if a fire engine is near, and what the different road signs mean. When you finish the classroom course, you can apply for a Learner’s Permit. In some states you have to take a test before you receive the permit.
7 h9 u$ J/ B" `+ w When you have your Learner’s Permit, you are allowed to drive a car under supervision. This means that you can drive only when you are accompanied by a licensed driver. It is during this period that you actually learn to drive. You learn to steer the car, to start it, to pass other cars, to park and all the other practical things you will need to know.2 M6 u* }1 q) L% _* ^
Your Learner’s Permit is good for only a limited amount of time, since it is expected that you will be ready to take the test for your licence after a relatively short period of instruction., R6 y* V, U+ I5 O$ g' S
29. What is the passage mainly talking about ?
5 l& [5 s' ~# I# D5 H! z5 j, U# r 30. What condition does the license require ?
; C# X! r( R8 I. i" t, h } 31. What can we infer from the passage ?
1 p! W. k) W; F/ A' Y Passage Three) F) H* L: u3 V- C
The African ancestors of today’s black Americans were brought to the U.S. as slaves in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. They worked on farms, especially the large farms in the southern states. Slowly they became a necessary part of the economic system of the South.# Z8 j1 C5 R6 T0 _8 P; `2 s
Slaves did not have the rights of people, according to the law, they were “things” which belonged to the person who bought them .They had to obey the orders of their owners without question. They were not allowed to learn to read, because their owners feared that educated slaves would begin to think about the injustice of the system and would learn to struggle for their freedom.Slaves had to work long hours in extremely unheathly conditions. Their owners had complete power over them. They could be bought and sold like animals. At the slave markets, black children separated from their parents and never saw them again. Slave oweners had the right to punish severely any slave who broke rules or protested against the system . Slaves were often beated brutally by their owners or killed. After the Civil War, one free slave reported that his owners killed an older slave who was teaching him to read. There was a law against brutality to slaves, so in theory an owner who treated a slave badly could be punished. In practice, however, the law meant nothing. Another law said that slaves could not give evidence against white people, so very few owners were ever punished for their brutality.
1 P# D# O; E5 S0 Q7 M 32. Why couldn’t slaves learn to read ?
5 t( P# D0 e& L- k! Y! {5 [0 m ~ 33. What happened to slaves who broke the rules of the system ?: G8 H4 y' {, v& P: I9 X" {
34. How was the condition of the slaves after the Civil War ?
5 Y1 r! a8 g0 \& ^3 c% R 35. What can we infer from the passage ?5 ^. |/ d* F) j: ~2 b. u7 b
Section C
! M0 i: L$ e: Z+ H8 } Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times, when the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea .When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information .For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
/ g q& g8 m6 A) d The American economic system is organized around a basically private enterprise. It’s (36) market-oriented ecomomy in which consumers determine what shall be producted by spending their money for those goods and services. Private businessmen, (37) striving to make their profits, produce these goods and services in (38) competition with other businessmen, and the profit (39) motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely (40) determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, (41) coupled with desire of businessmen to gain more profits and the desire of individuals to (42) maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how (43) resources are used to produce it.
$ l* q+ X8 h! I" }4 b (44) 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. If the product is in short reply relative to the demand, the price will be a bit up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, (45) more supply of products 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.
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The important factor in a private-oriented economy is that individuals are permitted to hire labor, gain comtrol over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, (46) the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including determining the price or making a free contract |