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TEXT E
Pardon me: how are your manners?
The decline of civility and good manners may be worrying people more than crime, according to Gentility Recalled, edited by Digby Anderson, which laments the breakdown of traditional codes that once regulated social conduct. It criticizes the fact that "manners" are scorned as repressive and outdated.
The result, according to Mr. Anderson — director of the Social Affairs Unit, an independent think-tank — is a society characterized by rudeness: loutish behavior on the streets, jostling in crowds, impolite shop assistants and bad-tempered drivers.
Mr. Anderson says the cumulative effect of these — apparently trivial, but often offensive — is to make everyday life uneasy, unpredictable and unpleasant. As they are encountered far more often than crime, they can cause more anxiety than crime.
When people lament the disintegration of law and order, he argues, what they generally means is order, as manifested by courteous forms of social contact. Meanwhile, attempts to reestablish restraint and self-control through "politically correct" rules are artificial.
The book has contributions from 12 academics in disciplines ranging from medicine to sociology and charts what it calls the "coarsening" of Britain. Old-fashioned terms such as "gentleman" and "lady" have-lost all meaningful resonance and need to be re-evaluated, it says, Rachel Trickett, honorary fellow and former principal of St Hugh's College. Oxford, says that the notion of a "lady" protects women rather than demeaning them.
Feminism and demands for equality have blurred the distinctions between the sexes, creating situations where men are able to dominate women because of their more aggressive and forceful natures, she says: "Women, without some code of deference or respect, become increasingly victims. "
Caroline Moore, the first woman fellow of Peterhouse. Cambridge, points out that "gentleman" is now used only with irony or derision.
"The popular view of a gentleman is poised somewhere between the imbecile parasite and the villainous one: between Woosteresque chinless wonders, and those heartless capitalist toffs who are... the stock-in-trade of television. "
She argues that the concept is neither class-bound nor rigid; conventions of gentlemanly behavior enable a man to act naturally as an individual within shared assumptions while taking his place in society.
"Politeness is no constraint, precisely because the manners... are no 'code' but a language, rich flexible, restrained and infinitely subtle. "
For Anthony O'Hear. professor of philosophy at the University of Bradford, manners are closely associated with the different forms of behavior appropriate to age and status. They curb both the impetuosity of the youth and the bitterness of old age. Egalitarianism, he says, has led to people failing to act their age. "We have vice-chancellors with earrings, aristocrats as hippies. . . , the trendy vicar on his motorbike." Dr Athena Leoussi, sociology lecturer at Reading University, bemoans the deliberate neglect by people of their sartorial appearance.
Dress, she says, is the outward expression of attitudes and aspirations. The ubiquitousness of jeans "displays a utilitarian attitude" that has "'led to the cultural impoverishment of everyday life. "
Dr Leoussi says that while clothes used to be seen as a means of concealing taboo forces of sexuality and violence, certain fashions -*- such as leather jackets have the opposite effect.
Dr Bruce Charlton, a lecturer in public health medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne, takes issue with the excessive informality of relations between professionals such as doctors and bank managers, and their clients. He says this has eroded the distance and respect necessary in such relationships. For Tristam Engelhardt, professor of medicine in Houston. Texas, says manners are bound to morals.
"Manners express a particular set of values." he says. "Good manners interpret and transform social reality. They provide social orientation. "
26. According to the passage, the decline of good manners is more worrying because ____ .
A. it leads to more crime in society
B. people view manners as old-fashioned
C. rudeness on the street cannot be stemmed out
D. it can seriously affect our daily life
27. Rachel Trickett seems to indicate the term "lady" .
A. has acquired a different meaning
B. is too old-fashioned to use
C. is preferred by feminists
D. victimizes women in society
28. According to Caroline Moore, the media has projected a image of the gentleman.
A. humorous B. favorable C. negative D. traditional
29. In Anthony O'Hear's view, a well mannered person .
A. acts rashly when he is young
B. tends to be bad-tempered in old age
C. behaves with a sense of appropriacy
D. attaches importance to his status
30. Dr Bruce Charlton would probably prefer to see a more formal relationship ____ .
A. among doctors
B. among managers
C. between doctors and managers
D. between doctors and patients
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Colored Answer Sheet.
TEXT F
First read the following question.
31. The President of Association of American Railroads wrote the letter to ____ .
A. complain about public ignorance of its efforts to improve the service
B. criticize US News for not reporting its efforts to improve the safety record
C. inform the public of what it has achieved over the past decade
D. thank US News for informing the public of its efforts to reduce accident
Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer question 31.
December 20th 199
Dear Editor.
The American railroad industry's commitment to safety is demonstrated by a steadily declining accident rate over the past decade. The accident rate per million train miles has been reduced by 55 percent since 1981 and 21 percent since 1990. In 11 of the past 16 years, the rail passenger fatality rate was lower than or the same as the airline rate. In addition, rail employees had half the number of lost workday injuries per 100 full-time employees as did airline workers.
Nowhere does US News mention that America's railroads have spent more than US $90 billion just since 1990 to maintain and improve tracks and equipment. Nowhere do you mention that railroads — on their own initiative and at their own expense developed and installed a new type of wheel that is much less likely to fracture and cause accidents. Nowhere do you mention how railroads are now testing a new type of electronically assisted brake that can reduce stopping distance by 40 percent. Nowhere do you explain that more than 90 percent of rail-related fatalities involve highway-rail grade crossing accidents or trespassers — accidents over which railroads have almost no control. "Facts are stubborn things", wrote John Adams more than 200 years ago. Stubborn, that is, unless you choose to ignore them. That is what US News has chosen to do.
Edwin L. Harper
President and Chief Executive Officer Association of American Railroads
TEXTG
First read the following question.
32. The author of the passage is Johannesburg.
A. concerned about B. critical of
C. nostalgic about D. hopeful about
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 32.
For a city purported to be dying. Johannesburg looks pretty lively on a Saturday morning. Fleets of minivans deliver black shoppers from Sweto to the teeming sidewalks downtown, where Zairian hawkers peddle everything from kiwis to toaster-ovens. Mozambican barbers shear locks under colored plastic tents. The Carlton Center mall buzzes with chatter in English, French. Zulu and Tswana. At the fast-food Africa Hut, weary shoppers fortify themselves with oxtail stew and pap. a maize-based starch. There are few white faces. But the Africans are too busy making and spending money to fret about white flight. "I'm targeting African customers more than whites." says Jabi. who recently opened a jeweler's. "Look around, they're everywhere."
White South Africans used to boast that Johannesburg was Continental in flavor, It still is, only now the continent is Africa. With apartheid ended and laws forbidding black Africans to live in town repeated. "Joburg" has become blacker, poorer and more dangerous. It is also more vibrant than ever. "The city is not declining, it's changing." says Lindsay Bruner, a white member of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council. "There are real problems, but perception is our biggest. "
Plenty of Africans - white and black - are willing to invest in the new Johannesburg. Large retailers like Woolworth's are pumping millions of brands into new flagship stores. Black and Asian shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers have moved in to replace the whites who have left. City planners hope this blend of wealth and Africanization will make Johannesburg the continent's economic and cultural capital.
TEXT H
First read the following question.
33. The primary purpose of the article is to ____.
A. introduce Domingo to opera people
B. show Domingo's concern for opera goers
C. comment on Domingo's versatility
D. advertise a new model of Rolex watch
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 33.
Every half century or so. a leader emerges in his field of such substance and force that he stands out head and shoulder above the rest and the best.
Even to people who have never graced the great houses of the world, the name and the voice of Placido Domingo are justifiably hailed. But for those who will queue all night to share the sheer color of this man's singing, he is a legend.
A legend which can be heard from Hamburg to Paris, from Milan to New
York.
But Placido is not simply the world's greatest tenor; rather a complete musician who also possesses a marvelous voice.
At rehearsals, his mastery of the piano enables him to sit and play through the score: thinking of the emotions that words and music are attempting to communicate.
His experience as a conductor gives him objectivity, not only about his own interpretation of the part, but also on the total performance.
"To understand the part," he says, "one must first musically and dramatically understand the whole. I was lucky to have been given the talents to do this. "
Placido Domingo also has an extremely good understanding of the watch he chooses to wear.
A Rolex Oyster GMT-Master in 18ct. gold.
"This watch is perfect for me," he says, "because it simultaneously tells me the time in two different countries which is extremely useful considering the amount of traveling I have to do. And opera people all over the world are pleased too, because now I don't get them out of bed when I ring them. And, unlike me. this watch never needs a rest. You could say it's my favorite instrument. "
For the complete musician. The complete watch. Buy Rolex of Geneva.
