Passage One

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

The old fashioned general store is fast disappearing. This is, perhaps, a pity, because shopping today seems to lack that personal element which existed when the shopkeeper knew all his regular customers personally. He could, for instance, remember which brand of tea Mrs. Smith usually bought or what sort of washing powder Mrs. Jones preferred. Not only was the shop a center of buying and selling, but a social meeting place.

A prosperous general store might have employed four or five assistants, and so there were very few problems in management as far as the staff was concerned. But now that the supermarket has replaced the general store, the job of the manager has changed completely. The moderm supermarket manager has to cope with a staff of as many as a hundred, apart from all the other everyday problems of running a large business.

Every morning the manager must, like the commander of an army division, carry out an inspection of his store to make sure that everything is ready for the business of the day  He must see that everything is running smoothly. He will have to give advice and make decisions as problems arise; and he must know how to get his huge staff to work efficiently with their respective responsibilities. No matter what he has to do throughout the day, however, the supermarket manager must be ready for any emergency that may arise. They say in the trade that you are not really an experienced supermarket manager until you have dealt with a flood, a fire, a birth and a death in your store. 

The main purpose of the passage is to show ______.

A. how the supermarket replaces the old general store,

B. how the old fashioned general store is fast disappearing,

C. how supermarket managers deal with problems every morning,

D. how the role of the shop manager undergoes an overall change

It is a pity that there are fewer old general stores now because _______.

A. there is less trading business,

B. there used to be more social activities in the old days,

C. supermarket managers have more problems,

D. there is less personal contact between manager and customer

Who are Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones mentioned in the first paragraph?

A. People representing any of the regular customers of the old general store.,

B. Shop assistants.,

C. Friends of the shop manager’s.,

D. Two regular customers of the store.

How has the job of the store manager changed?

A. He doesn’t sell tea or washing powder any more.,

B. He has a much larger staff to take care of, to say nothing of all the other daily problems of running the store.,

C. He must try hard to remember the names of the regular customers.,

D. He has to give advice and make decisions every day.

The author compared the supermarket manager to ______.

A. a military leader,

B. a school inspector,

C. a traffic supervisor,

D. an orchestra conductor

Passage Two

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

By the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ended the war with the French and the Indians, England gained possession of Canada and all the territory east of the Mississippi River. French influence on this continent thus came to an end; England now controlled most of North America. But the war had been long and expensive. England had many debts. George III, king of England, after consulting with his advisers, decided that the American colonists should help pay some of the expenses of this war. A standing English army of 10,000 men had been left in the colonies for protection against the Indians. The English government also felt that the colonists should share in the expenses of maintaining this army. The result was a Series of measures, the Grenville Program, passed by Parliament and designed to raise money in the colonies. Some of these measures were accepted by the colonists, but one in particular, the Stamp Act, was met with great protest. The Stamp Act required that stamps, ranging in price from a few cents to almost a dollar, be placed on all newspapers, advertisements, bills of sale, wills, legal papers, etc. The Stamp Act was one of the causes of the American Revolution. It affected everyone, rich and poor alike. Some businessmen felt that the act would surely ruin their businesses.

Of all the voices raised in protest to the Stamp Act, none had greater effect than that of a young lawyer from Virginia-Patrick Henry. Henry had only recently been elected to the Virginia Assembly. Yet when the Stamp Act came up for discussion, he opposed it almost single-handedly. He also expressed, for the first time, certain ideas that were held by many Americans of the time but that never before had been stated so openly. “Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be bought at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

From the passage we learn that ______.

A. Britain took over Canada from the Indians in 1 763,

B. there had been a war between the French and the Indians which ended in 1763,

C. France used to have control of Canada and some areas east of the Mississippi River,

D. the French still kept some influence in North America through the Treaty of Paris

The Grenville Program refers to ______.

A. King George III’s plan to gather money in North America,

B. the British government’s desire to raise money in North America,

C. a plan to share the expenses of maintaining an army in the American colonies,

D. a decision of the British Parliament to collect money in the American colonies

The Stamp Act ______.

A. was an act about selling stamps at prices from a few cents to almost a dollar,

B. was one of the causes of the American Revolution,

C. required that all commercial and legal documents in America have stamps on them,

D. chiefly affected business people who felt it would ruin their businesses

From the passage we learn that Patrick Henry ______.

A. had been a member of the Virginia Assembly for a long time,

B. didn’t know what courses to take to complete his studies as a lawyer,

C. was almost the only one who openly protested against the Stamp Act,

D. didn’t value life or peace as much as other people did

This passage is mainly about ______.

A.  one of the events leading to the American Revolution,

B. the Treaty of Paris between Britain and France,

C. the Grenville Program to raise money in the American colonies,

D. Patrick Henry, a hero who opposed the Stamp Act

Passage Three

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.

In the past, American families tended to be quite large. Parents raising five or more children were common.  Over the years, the size of the family has decreased. One reason for this is an increase in the cost of living.  On the average, children attend schools for more years than they used to, making them financially dependent on their families. Moreover, children nowadays are better dressed and have more money to spend on entertainment. The parents usually take the responsibility for all the expenses. Meanwhile, families are less close than they used to be. More and more American mothers work away from home.

The breakup of the family occurs when the parents divorce. A lot of children in the U.S. live part of their young lives with only one parent. Broken families usually result in problems for children and parents alike. Children blame themselves when their parents separate. They grow up feeling unsettled as they are moved back and forth between parents. Usually one parent is responsible for raising the children. These single parents must care for the children’s emotional and psychological needs while also supporting them financially. This is very demanding and leaves very little time for the parent’s own personal interests. Single parents often marry other single parents. In this type of family, unrelated children are forced to develop brother or sister relationship.

The situations of many American families today are not good. However, recent signs indicate that things are getting better. The divorce rate is declining. The rate of childbirth is rising. Perhaps Americans have learned how important families are.

In the past, American families tended to be ______.

A. quite small,

B. medium-sized,

C. quite large,

D. small

To parents who take the responsibility for children’s expenses, the cost of living increases because ______.

A. children attend school for less years,

B. children are worse dressed,

C. children have more interests nowadays,

D. children spend more money on entertainment

What problems would broken families bring to children and parents respectively?

A. Children grow up feeling unsettled and parents didn’t pay much attention to children.,

B. Children grow up feeling free and one parent is responsible for raising the children.,

C. Children are moved back and forth between parents and the single parent is busy working to make money to support himself or herself.,

D. Children grow up feeling unsettled, and the parents have little time for his or her own interests because one parent is too busy taking care of children.

According to the author, the situations of American families in the future may ______.

A. become worse,

B. remain the same,

C. get better,

D. keep unchanged

The title of the article might be ______.

A. American Children,

B. American Families,

C. American Mother,

D. American Parents

Passage Four

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

In a family where the roles of men and women are not sharply separated and where many household tasks are shared to a greater or lesser extent, notions of male superiority are hard to maintain. The pattern of sharing in tasks and in decisions makes for equality and this in turn leads to further sharing. In such a home, the growing boy and girl learn to accept equality more easily than did their parents and to prepare more fully for participation in a world characterized by cooperation rather than by the “battle of the sexes”.

If the process goes too far and man’s role is regarded as less important—and that has happened in some cases—we are as badly off as before, only in reverse.

It is time to reassess the role of the man in the American family. We are getting a little tired of “Momism” — but we don’t want to exchange it for a “neo-Popism”. What we need, rather, is the recognition that bringing up children involves a partnership of equals. There are signs that psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and specialists on the family are becoming more aware of the part men play and that they have decided that women should not receive all the credit

nor the blame. We have almost given up saying that a woman’s place is in the home. We are beginning, however, to analyze man’s place in the home and to insist that he does have a place in it. Nor is that place irrelevant to the healthy development of the child.

The family is a co-operative enterprise for which it is difficult to lay down rules, because each family needs to work out its own ways for solving its own problems.

Excessive authoritarianism（命令主义) has unhappy consequences, whether it wears skirts or trousers, and the ideal of equal rights and equal responsibilities is pertinent (相关的，中肯的) not only to healthy democracy, but also to a healthy family. 

The danger in the sharing of household tasks between the mother and the father is that ______.

A. the role of the father may become an inferior one,

B. the role of the mother may become an inferior one,

C. the children believe that life is a battle of sexes,

D. sharing leads to constant arguing

The author states that bringing up children ______.

A. is mainly the mother’s job,

B. belongs to the duties of the father,

C. is the job of schools and churches,

D. involves a partnership of equals

The ideal of equal rights and equal responsibilities is ______.

A. fundamental to a sound democracy,

B. not pertinent to a healthy family,

C. responsible for Momism,

D. what we have almost given up

According to the author, the father’s role in the home is ______.

A. minor because he is an ineffectual parent,

B. irrelevant to the healthy development of the child,

C. pertinent to the healthy development of the child,

D. identical to the role of the child’s mother

Which of the following statements would the author be most likely to agree with?

A. A healthy, co-operative family is a basic ingredient of a healthy society.,

B. Men are basically opposed to sharing household chores.,

C. Division of household responsibilities is workable only in theory.,

D. A woman’s place in the home now is the same as that in the past.

Passage Five

Questions 21-25 are based on the following passage.

You’re busy filling out the application form for a position you really need. Let’s assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn’t it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University? More and more people are turning to utter deception like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university.

Registrars at most well-known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week. Personnel officers do check upon degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them “impostors (骗子)”; another refers to them as “special cases”. One well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by “no such people”. To avoid outright lies, some job-seekers claim that they “attended” or “were associated with” a college or university, After carefully checking, a personnel officer may discover that “attending” means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that “being associated with” a college means that the job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century——that’s when they began keeping records, anyhow. If you don’t want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony diploma.

One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from “Smoot State University”. The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the “University of Purdue”. As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.

The main idea of this passage is that ______.

A. employers are checking more closely on applicants now,

B. lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem,

C. college degrees can now be purchased easily,

D. employers are no longer interested in college degrees

According to the passage, “special cases” refer to cases that ______.

A. students attended a school only part-time,

B. students never attended a school they listed on their application forms,

C. students purchased false degrees from commercial firms,

D. students attended a famous school

From the sentence “job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend” (Para.2), we can infer that _____.

A. the job-seeker is a student in that college,

B. the job-seeker’s brother is a student in that college,

C. neither the two are students in that college,

D. the job-seeker lives in that college

We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree,

B. experience is the best teacher,

C. past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do,

D. a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition

The underlined word “phony” (Para.2) means ______.

A. thorough,

B. false,

C. ultimate,

D. decisive