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Section B
Passage One
Every person uses its own special words to describe things and express ideas. Some of these expressions are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is "Where’s the beef?"【26】It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be. In the early 1980s, "Where’s the beef?" was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone was using it all the time.
Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and probably no food is more popular in America than the hamburger made from beef. 【27】In the 1960s a businessman named Ray Kroc began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Kroc called his restaurant "McDonald’s". 【27】Kroc cooked hamburgers quickly so people in a hurry could buy and eat them without waiting. By the end of the 1960s the McDonald’s Company was selling hamburgers in hundreds of restaurants from California to Maine. 【28】Not surprisingly, Ray Kroc became one of the richest businessmen in America.
【28】Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburger restaurants. One company, called "Wendy’s", began to compete with McDonald’s. Wendy’s said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald’s or anyone else. The Wendy’s Company created the expression "Where’s the beef?" to make people believe that Wendy’s hamburgers were the biggest. It produced a television advertisement to sell this idea. The Wendy’s television advertisement showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a tiny bit of meat. "Where’s the beef?" She shouted in a funny voice. These advertisements for Wendy’s hamburger restaurants were a success from the first day they appeared on television. As we said, it seemed everyone began using the expression "Where’s the beef?"
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. What does the expression "Where’s the beef?" mean?
27. Why are hamburgers so popular in America?
28. Why did other people want to open hamburger restaurant?
26. 答案B
解析：选项是解释说明。听力一开始讲到流行语，并且举了“Where is the beef” 为例，接下来解释了这个短语的意思，“某物并没有描述的那么好”。选项C是个干扰项，这个短语流行开来，beef并不特指牛肉这一种东西，而是代指任何东西。
27. 答案C
解析：考生可推断选项A、B、C中的they指代选项D中的hamburgers。听力中讨论了McDonald’s的出现和流行，其中提及汉堡的价格比较低，很快就能做好，忙碌的人们不用等就能买到。
28. 答案D
解析：选项也是说明原因。听力中提到，Ray Kroc在全国好多地方都开店卖汉堡，成为美国富豪之一。其他生意人看到了他的成功，也相继开了汉堡店。联系前后文，其他人开汉堡店的原因是，也想成功和赚钱。
Passage Two
Strikes are very common in Britain. They are extremely harmful to its industries. In fact, there are other countries in Western Europe that lose more working days through strikes every year than Britain. 【29】The trouble with the strikes in Britain is that they occur in essential industries. There are over 495 unions in Britain. Some unions are very small. Over 20 have more than 100,000 members. Unions do not exist only to demand higher wages. They also educate their members. They provide benefits for the sick and try to improve working conditions. Trade unionists say that we must thank the unions for the great improvement in working conditions in the last hundred years. It is now against the law for union members to go on strike without the support of their union. This kind of strike is called unofficial strike and was common until recently. 【30】Employers feel that unofficial strikes were most harmful because they would not be predicted. However, these unofficial strikes still occur from time to time and some unions have also refused to cooperate with the law. 【31】As a result, the general picture of the relations between workers and employers in Britain has gone from bad to worse.
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
29. In what way. are strikes in Britain different from those in other European countries?
30. Why are British employers so afraid of unofficial strikes?
31. What conclusion can be drawn from this passage?
29. 答案A
解析：听力篇章一开始讲到罢工在英国很常见，欧洲其他国家也有很多罢工，损失的工作日要比英国的多。但英国的问题在于，最重要的行业中有罢工。由此判断，A为正确选项。
30. 答案B
解析：选项是对某一类罢工的描述。听力最后讲，雇主认为非正式的罢工危害最大，因为它们不可预测。由此判断B为正确答案。
31. 答案D
解析：选项是总结性语言。考生可注意听力篇章的最后部分。听力最后讲，员工和雇主之间的关系是越来越坏。选项D中的tense意为“紧张的”，和听力原文中的go from bad to worse同义。
