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TEXT B
Oscar Wilde said that work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do. If so, Americans are now among the world's saddest refugees. Factory workers in the United States are working longer hours than at any time in the past half-century. America once led the rich world in cutting the average working week-from 70 hours in 1850 to less than 40 hours by the 1950s. It seemed natural that as people grew richer they would trade extra earnings for more leisure. Since the 1970s, however, the hours clocked up by American workers have risen, to an average of 42 this year in manufacturing.
Several studies suggest that something similar is happening outside manufacturing: Americans are spending more time at work than they did 20 years ago. Executives and lawyers boast of 80?hour weeks. On holiday, they seek out fax machines and phones as eagerly as Germans bag the best sun-loungers. Yet working time in Europe and Japan continues to fall. In Germany's engineering industry the working week is to be trimmed from 36 to 35 hours next year. Most Germans get six weeks' paid annual holiday; even the Japanese now take three weeks. Americans still make do with just two.
Germany responds to this contrast with its usual concern about whether people's aversion to work is damaging its competitiveness. Yet German workers, like the Japanese, seem to be acting sensibly: as their incomes rise, they can achieve a better standard of living with fewer hours of work. The puzzle is why America, the world's richest country, sees things differently. It is a puzzle with sinister social implications. Parents spend less time with their children, who may be left alone at home for longer. Is it just a coincidence that juvenile crime is on the rise
Some explanations for America's time at work fail to stand up to scrutiny. One blames weak trade unions that leave workers open to exploitation. Are workers being forced by cost?cutting firms to toil harder just to keep their jobs? A recent study by two American economists, Richard Freeman and Linda Bell, suggests not: when asked, Americans actually want to work longer hours. Most German workers, in contrast, would rather work less.
Then, why do Americans want to work harder? One reason may be that the real earnings of many Americans have been stagnant or falling during the past two decades. People work longer merely to maintain their living standards. Yet many higher skilled workers, who have enjoyed big increases in their real pay, have been working harder too. Also, one reason for the slow growth of wages has been the rapid growth in employment-which is more or less where the argument began.
Taxes may have something to do with it. People who work an extra hour in America are allowed to keep more of their money than those who do the same in Germany. Falls in marginal tax rates in America since the 1970s have made it all the more profitable to work longer.None of these answers really explains why the century?long decline in working hours has gone into reverse in America but not elsewhere (though Britain shows signs of following America's lead). Perhaps cultural differences-the last refuge of the defeated economist-are at play. Economists used to believe that once workers earned enough to provide for their basic needs and allow for a few luxuries, their incentive to work would be eroded, like lions relaxing after a kill. But humans are more susceptible to advertising than lions. Perhaps clever marketing has ensured that "basic needs"-for a shower with built?in TV, for a rocket?propelled car-expand continuously. Shopping is already one of America's most popular pastimes. But it requires money-hence more work and less leisure.?Or try this: the television is not very good, and baseball and hockey keep being wiped out by strikes. Perhaps Wilde was right. Maybe Americans have nothing better to do.
20. In the United States, working longer hours is ____.
A. confined to the manufacturing industry
B. a traditional practice in some sectors
C. prevalent in all sectors of society
D. favoured by the economists
21. According to the third paragraph, which might be one of the consequences of working longer hours?
A. Rise in employees' working efficiency.
B. Rise in the number of young offenders.
C. Rise in people's living standards.
D. Rise in competitiveness.
22. Which of the following is the cause of working longer hours stated by the writer?
A. Expansion of basic needs.
B. Cultural differences.
C. Increase in real earnings.
D. Advertising.
TEXT C
The fox really exasperated them both. As soon as they had let the fowls out, in the early summer mornings, they had to take their guns and keep guard; and then again as soon as evening began to mellow, they must go once more. And he was so sly. He slid along in the deep grass; he was difficult as a serpent to see. And he seemed to circumvent the girls deliberately. Once or twice March had caught sight of the white tip of his brush, or the ruddy shadow of him in the deep grass, and she had let fire at him. But he made no account of this. The trees on the wood edge were a darkish, brownish green in the full light-for it was the end of August. Beyond, the naked, copper like shafts and limbs of the pine trees shone in the air. Nearer the rough grass, with its long, brownish stalks all agleam, was full of light. The fowls were round about-the ducks were still swimming on the pond under the pine trees. March looked at it all, saw it all, and did not see it. She heard Banford speaking to the fowls in the distance-and she did not hear. What was she thinking about? Heaven knows. Her consciousness was, as it were, held back.
She lowered her eyes, and suddenly saw the fox. He was looking up at her. His chin was pressed down, and his eyes were looking up. They met her eyes. And he knew her. She was spellbound-she knew he knew her. So he looked into her eyes, and her soul failed her. He knew her, he has not daunted. She struggled, confusedly she came to herself, and saw him making off, with slow leaps over some fallen boughs, slow, impudent jumps. Then he glanced over his shoulder, and ran smoothly away. She saw his brush held smooth like a feather, she saw his white buttocks twinkle. And he was gone, softly, soft as the wind.
She put her gun to her shoulder, but even then pursed her mouth, knowing it was nonsense to pretend to fire. So she began to walk slowly after him, in the direction he had gone, slowly, pertinaciously. She expected to find him. In her heart she was determined to find him. What she would do when she saw him again she did not consider. But she was determined to find him. So she walked abstractedly about on the edge of the wood, with wide, vivid dark eyes, and a faint flush in her cheeks. She did not think. In strange mindlessness she walked hither and thither...
As soon as supper was over, she rose again to go out, without saying why. She took her gun again and went to look for the fox. For he had lifted his eyes upon her, and his knowing look seemed to have entered her brain. She did not so much think of him: she was possessed by him. She saw his dark, shrewd, unabashed eye looking into her, knowing her. She felt him invisibly master her spirit. She knew the way he lowered his chin as he looked up, she knew his muzzle, the golden brown, and the greyish white. And again she saw him glance over his shoulder at her, half inviting, half contemptuous and cunning. So she went, with her great startled eyes glowing, her gun under her arm, along the wood edge. Meanwhile the night fell, and a great moon rose above the pine trees.
23. At the beginning of the story, the fox seems to the all EXCEPT ____.
A. cunning
B. fierce
C. defiant
D. annoying
24. As the story proceeds, March begins to feel under the spell of ____.
A. the light
B. the trees
C. the night
D. the fox
25. Gradually March seems to be in a state of ____.
A. blankness
B. imagination
C. sadness
D. excitement
26. At the end of the story, there seems to be a sense of ____ between March and the fox.
A. detachment
B. anger
C. intimacy
D. conflict
27. The passage creates an overall impression of ____.
A. mystery
B. horror
C. liveliness
D. contempt
TEXT D
The banners are packed, the tickets booked. The glitter and white overalls have been bought, the gas masks just fit and the mobile phones are ready. All that remains is to get to the parties.
This week will see a feast of pan?European protests. It started on Bastille Day last Saturday, with the French unions and immigrants on the streets and the first demonstrations in Britain and Germany about climate change. It will continue tomorrow and Thursday with environmental and peace rallies against President Bush. But the big one is in Genoa, on Friday and Saturday, where the G8 leaders will meet behind the lines of 18,000 heavily armed police.
Unlike Prague, Gothenburg, Cologne or Nice, Genoa is expected to be Europe's Seattle, the coming together of the disparate strands of resistance to corporate globalisation.?Neither the protesters nor the authorities know what will happen, but some things are predictable. Yes, there will be violence and yes, the mass media will focus on it. What should seriously concern the G8 is not so much the violence, the numbers in the streets or even that they themselves look like idiots hiding behind the barricades, but that the deep roots of a genuine new version of internationalism are growing.
For the first time in a generation, the international political and economic condition is in the dock. Moreover, the protesters are unlikely to go away, their confidence is growing rather than waning, their agendas are merging, the protests are spreading and drawing in all ages and concerns.
No single analysis has drawn all the strands of the debate together. In the mean time, the global protest "movement" is developing its own language, texts, agendas, myths, heroes and villains. Just as the G8 leaders, world bodies and businesses talk increasingly from the same script, so the protesters' once disparate political and social analyses are converging. The long-term project of governments and world bodies to globalise capital and development is being mirrored by the globalisation of protest.
But what happens next? Governments and world bodies are unsure which way to turn. However well they are policed, major protests reinforce the impression of indifferent elites, repression of debate, overreaction to dissent, injustice and unaccountable power.
Their options-apart from actually embracing the broad agenda being put to them-are to retreat behind even higher barricades, repress dissent further, abandon global meetings altogether or, more likely, meet only in places able to physically resist the masses.
Brussels is considering building a super fortress for international meetings. Genoa may be the last of the European super protests.
28. According to the context, the word "parties" at the end of the first paragraph refers to ____.
A. the meeting of the G8 leaders
B. the protests on Bastille Day
C. the coming pan?European protests
D. the big protest to be held in Genoa
29. According to the passage, economic globalisation is paralleled by ____.
A. the emerging differences in the global protest movement
B. the disappearing differences in the global protest movement
C. the growing European concern about globalisation
D. the increase in the number of protesters
30. According to the last paragraph, what is Brussels considering doing?
A. Meeting in places difficult to reach.
B. Further repressing dissent.
C. Accepting the protesters' agenda.
D. Abandoning global meetings.
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)
In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your colored answer sheet.
First read the question.
31. The main purpose of the passage is to ____.
A. demonstrate how to prevent crime
B. show the seriousness of crime?
C. look into the causes of crime
D. call for more government efforts
Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.?
For three weeks, every night at 11 p.m., correspondents, officers and judges from justice courts, police departments and prisons, psychiatrists, criminologists, victims and even criminals in prisons made their appearance on TV to debate on a topic "Crime in the United States".
Indeed, crime has been disturbing the American people and has become a serious social problem just next to the unemployment problem. Some figures are terrifying: 1 of 4 Americans has been a victim of some kind of crimes; nearly 22 million crimecases occurred last year throughout the country. A simple arithmetic calculation indicates that on average, a crime is being committed in every 2 seconds. Now the Americans are living in a horrible environment. Their safety and property are threatened by various crimes: robbery, theft, rape, kidnapping, murder, arson, vandalism and violence.
The most worrisome problem comes from the fact that about one?third of crime cases were committed by the juvenile and 53% of criminals in jails are youngsters below 25. A poll indicates that about 73% of citizens said they avoided teenagers in streets, especially at night.
To protect themselves from crime, according to a released figure, 52% of Americans keep guns at home. But some gun owners turn out to be potential criminals. Some people demand that strict law for gun control be enforced; but others oppose the ban of gun. No decision is in sight.
Some experts said poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination are the cause of crime. They cited figures to show that 47% of crime cases were committed by the black, though they account for only about 12% of the population of the nation
Others argued that about 54% of convicted criminals came from families associated with these evils.The American state government and federal government spend billions of dollars each year in maintaining the police departments and jails. But police authorities complain that they have not sufficient well-trained hands and advanced equipment to detect and stop crimes. Several cases of criminal insurgence were reported as a result of resentment at overcrowded prisons. Taxpayers complain that they pay more and more tax but receive less and less protection from crime for their lives and property.
Though the host of the live TV programme made great efforts to search for a solution, so far no participant could put forward a measure that was approved by most of the attendants.
TEXT F
First read the question.
32. What is the main topic of the following passage?
A. Differences between modes of learning.
B. Deficiencies of formal learning.
C. Advantages of informal learning.
D. Social context and learning systems.
Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 32.
The term "formal learning" is used in this paper to refer to all learning that takes place in the classroom, irrespective of whether such learning is informed by conservative or progressive ideologies. "Informal learning", on the other hand, is used to refer to learning which takes place outside the classroom.
These definitions provide the essential, though by no means sole, difference between formal and informal learning. Formal learning is decontextualised from daily life and, indeed, as Scribner and Cole (1973:553) have observed, may actually "promote ways of learning and thinking which often run counter to those nurtured in practical daily life". A characteristic feature of formal learning is the centrality of activities that are not closely paralleled by activities outside the classroom. The classroom can prepare for, draw on, and imitate the challenges of adult life outside the classroom, but it cannot, by its nature, consist of these challenges.
In doing this, language plays a critical role as the major channel for information exchange. "Success" in the classroom requires a student to master this abstract code. As Bernstein (1969:152) noted, the language of the classroom is more similar to the language used by middle class families than that used by workin--class families. Middle-class children thus find it easier to acquire the language of the classroom than their working-class peers
Informal learning, in contrast, occurs in the setting to which it relates, making learning immediately relevant. In this context, language does not occupy such an important role: the child's experience of learning is more holistic, involving sight, touch, taste, and smell-senses that are under utilised in the classroom. While formal learning is transmitted by teachers selected to perform this role, informal learning is acquired as a natural part of a child's development. Adults or older children who are proficient in the skill or activity provide sometimes unintentionally target models of behaviour in the course of everyday activity. Informal learning, therefore, can take place at any time and is not subject to the limitations imposed by institutional timetabling.
The motivation of the learner provides another critical difference between the two modes of learning. The formal learner is generally motivated by some kind of external goal such as parental approval, social status, and potential financial reward. The informal learner, however, tends to be motivated by successful completion of the task itself and the partial acquisition of adult status.
TEXT G
First read the question.
33. The three approaches mentioned in the passage aim at ____.
A. restructuring economy
B. improving the tax system
C. improving the living conditions
D. reducing poverty
