There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system, the administered system, and the traditional system.
In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market, transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.
An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agency over all transactions. This agency will issue commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced, exchanged, and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan, drawn up by the government, shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated to different households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production, consumption, and exchange for the whole economy.
In a traditional society, production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition; every person’s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage, religion, and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition, too. People belonging to a certain group or caste（阶级） may have an obligation to care for other persons, provide them with food and shelter, care for their health, and provide for their education. Clearly, in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone, progress may be difficult to achieve. An inactive society may result.
1.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To outline contrasting types of economic systems.
B. To explain the science of economics.
C. To argue for the superiority of one economic system.
D. To compare barter and money-exchange markets.
2. In the second paragraph, the underlined word “real” could best be replaced by _______.
A. valuable B. concrete C. absolute D. reliable
3.According to the passage, a barter economy can generate ______.
A. rapid speed of transactions B. misunderstandings
C. inflation D. difficulties for the traders
4. According to the passage, who has the greatest degree of control in the administered system?
A. Individual households. B. Small businesses.
C. Major corporations. D. The government.
5.Which of the following is not mentioned by the author as a criterion（标准）for determining a person’s position in a traditional society?
A. Family background B. Age
C. Religious beliefs. D. Custom
The government-run command post in Tunis is staffed around the clock by military personnel, meteorologists and civilians. On the wall are maps, crisscrossed with brightly colors arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path of the enemy.
What kind of invader gives rise to such high-level monitoring? Not man, not beast, but the lowly desert locust(蝗虫). In recent months, billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors have descended on Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, blackening the sky and eating up crops and vegetation. The insect invasion, the worst in 30 years, is already creating great destruction in the Middle East and is now treating southern Europe. The current crisis began in late 1985 near the Red Sea. Unusually rainy weather moistened the sands of the Sudan, making them ideal seedbed for the locust, which lays its eggs in the earth. The insect onslaught threatens to create yet another African famine. Each locust can eat its weight (not quite a tenth of an ounce) in vegetation every 24 hours. A good-size swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100,000 tons of grass, trees and crops in a single night.
All ﹩150 million may be needed this year. The U.S. has provided two spraying planes and about 50,000 gal. of pesticide. The European Community has donated ﹩3.8 million in aid and the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan and China have provided chemical-spraying aircraft to help wipe out the pests. But relief efforts are hampered by the relative mildness of approved pesticides, which quickly lose their deadly punch and require frequent replications. The most effective locust killer dieldrin has been linked to cancer and is banned by many Western countries and some of the affected African nations. More than 5 million acres have been dusted with locust-killing chemicals; another 5 million will be treated by the end of June.
On May 30, representatives of Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania will meet in Algiers to discuss tactics to wipe out the ravenous swarms. The move is an important step, but whatever plan is devised, the locust plague promised to get worse before the insects can be brought under control.
1.The main idea of the first sentence in the passage is that ______.
A. the command post is stationed with people all the time.
B. the command post is crowded with people all the time.
C. there are clocks around the command post.
D. the clock in the command post is taken care of by the staff.
2. The favorable breeding ground for the locust is ______.
A. rich soil. B. wet land
C. paces covered crops and vegetation D. the Red Sea
3. People are alert at the threat of the locust because ______.
A. the insects are likely to create another African famine.
B. the insects may blacken the sky.
C. the number of the insects increases drastically.
D. the insects are gathering and moving in great speed.
4.Which of the following is true?
A. Once the pesticides are used, locust will die immediately.
B. Relief efforts are proved most fruitful due to the effectiveness of certain pesticides.
C. Dieldrin, the most effective locust killer, has been widely accepted in many countries.
D. Over 10 million acres of affected area will have been treated with locust-killing chemicals by the end of June.
5. The purpose for affected nations to meet in Algiers on May 30 is ______.
A. to devise anti-locust plans.
B. to wipe out the swarms in two years.
C. to call out for additional financial aid from other nations.
D. to bring the insects under control before the plague gets worse.
It is pretty much a one-way street. While it may be common for university researchers to try their luck in the commercial world, there is very little traffic in the opposite direction. Pay has always been the biggest deterrent, as people with families often feel they cannot afford the drop in salary when moving to a university job. For some industrial scientists, however, the attractions of academia (学术界) outweigh any financial considerations.
Helen Lee took a 70% cut in salary when she moved from a senior post in Abbott Laboratories to a medical department at the University of Cambridge. Her main reason for returning to academia mid-career was to take advantage of the greater freedom to choose research questions. Some areas of inquiry have few prospects of a commercial return, and Lee’s is one of them.
The impact of a salary cut is probably less severe for a scientist in the early stages of a career. Guy Grant, now a research associate at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge, spent two years working for a pharmaceutical (制药的) company before returning to university as a post-doctoral researcher. He took a 30% salary cut but felt it worthwhile for the greater intellectual opportunities.
Higher up the ladder, where a pay cut is usually more significant, the demand for scientists with a wealth of experience in industry is forcing universities to make the transition (转换) to academia more attractive, according to Lee. Industrial scientists tend to receive training that academics do not, such as how to build a multidisciplinary team, manage budgets and negotiate contracts. They are also well placed to bring something extra to the teaching side of an academic role that will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in manufacturing practice or product development. “Only a small number of undergraduates will continue in an academic career. So someone leaving university who already has the skills needed to work in an industrial lab has far more potential in the job market than someone who has spent all their time on a narrow research project.”
1.By “a one-way street” in Paragraph One, the author means ________.
A. university researchers know little about the commercial world
B. there is little exchange between industry and academia
C. few industrial scientists would quit to work in a university
D. few university professors are willing to do industrial research
2.The underlined word “deterrent” most probably refers to something that ________.
A. keeps someone from taking action B. helps to move the traffic
C. attracts people’s attention D. brings someone a financial burden
3.What was Helen Lee’s major consideration when she changed her job in the middle of her career?
A. Flexible work hours.
B. Her research interests.
C. Her preference for the lifestyle on campus.
D. Prospects of academic accomplishments.
4. Guy Grant chose to work as a researcher at Cambridge in order to ________.
A. do financially more rewarding work
B. raise his status in the academic world
C. enrich his experience in medical research
D. exploit better intellectual opportunities
5.What contribution can industrial scientists make when they come to teach in a university?
A. Increase its graduates’ competitiveness in the job market.
B. Develop its students’ potential in research.
C. Help it to obtain financial support from industry.
D. Gear its research towards practical applications.
It is obvious that doctors recognize obesity as a health problem. So why is it so hard for them to talk to their patients about it?
The results of two surveys, one of primary care physicians and the other of patients, found that while most doctors want to help patients lose weight and think it is their responsibility to do so, they often don’t know what to say.
“So while doctors may tell patients they are overweight, the conversation often ends there,” said Christine C. Ferguson, director of the Stop Obesity Alliance. “Patients are not told about the possibility of diabetes (糖尿病),” she said. “And doctors don’t feel they have good information to give. They felt that they didn’t have adequate tools to address this problem.
The lack of dialogue hurts patients, too. The patient survey, of over 1,000 adults, found that most overweight patients don’t even know that they’re too heavy. Only 39 percent of overweight people surveyed had ever been told by a health care provider that they were overweight.
Of those who were told they were obese, 90 percent were also told by their doctors to lose weight, the survey found. In fact most have tried to lose weight and may have been successful in the past—and many are still trying, the survey found. And many understand that losing even a small amount of weight can have a positive impact on their health and reduce their risk of obesityrelated diseases like hypertension and diabetes.
Dr. William Bestermann Jr., medical director of Holston Medical Group, in Kingsport, Tenn. , which ranks the 10th in obesity among metropolitan areas in the United States, said the dialogue had to be an ongoing one and could not be dropped after just one mention of the problem. “If you’re to be successful with helping your patients lose weight, you have to talk to them at actually every visit about their progress, and find something to encourage them and coach them,” he said.
He acknowledged that many doctors tend to be not optimistic.
“Part of this is that there's this common belief, and doctors are burdened by it, too, that overweight people are weak-willed and just don’t have any willpower and are selfindulgent and all that business,” he said. “If you think that way, you’re not going to spend time having a productive conversation.”
1.What is the Stop Obesity Alliance most probably in Paragraph 3?
A. An organization of doctors suffering from obesity.
B. An organization of patients suffering from obesity.
C. A research group that conducts special surveys about overweight people.
D. A research group dealing with doctor-patient relationship.
2.How many of the patients surveyed have been advised by their doctors to lose weight?
A. About 350. B. About 390.
C. About 900. D. About 1,000.
3.What can be inferred about obesity patients in Paragraph 5?
A. They are not as hopeless as doctors think they are.
B. Most of them have tried hard to lose weight, but in vain.
C. Without their doctors’ constant coaching, there is little chance of their succeeding in losing weight.
D. Most of them have just given up their hope of becoming less heavy.
4. According to the passage, which factor contributes to the lack of dialogue between doctors and patients?
A. Most doctors never think of warning their patients about their weight problem.
B. Many doctors find it difficult to persuade overweight people to lose weight.
C. Most patients are too weak-willed to do anything about their weight.
D. Many patients tend not to trust their doctors about their weight problem.
5.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. Obesity in the U. S.
B. Trouble of overweight Americans.
C. Talk more, help better.
D. Doctors or patients---who to bear more blame?[
阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。
BEIJING---World-renowned Oxford and Cambridge have come to China 1. (attract) top-rank postgraduate students in cooperation with the China Scholarship Council.
Oxford made its first 2. (appear) at the China Scholarship Council's annual International Graduate Scholarship Fair, 3. opened on Saturday in Beijing. The school wants to encourage excellent Chinese students to consider 4. Oxford can offer for 5. academic and professional careers.
"The students came well-prepared with specific questions and were serious about the chance," said Sherwood, director of graduate admissions and funding at Oxford, who will make 6. two stops for the fair in Wuhan and Shanghai.
The University of Cambridge 7. (attend) the fair since its first session in 2009, and stresses that it would continue to invest to train students to be problem-solvers.
8. Cambridge and Oxford present at the fair in competition for 9. best and brightest, Osterfield and Sherwood agree that the two universities usually have more interest in cooperation 10. competition, except in their traditional annual boat race.
One cold night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco．There I was walking home around one o’clock in the morning after a 1 practice at the theatre. With the opening night only a week away, I was still learning my lines by heart. I was having 2 handling my part-time job at the bank in the daytime and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about 3 both acting and San Francisco. I had 4 too much of city life.
As I walked down the 5 streets under the tall buildings, I felt very small and cold, so I began 6 both to keep warm and to keep away from any possible robbers. Very few people were still out except a few homeless people under blankets.
About a block from my 7 , I heard a sound behind me. I 8 quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me 9 ，so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I 10 what the noise had been. It had been my wallet 11 to the sidewalk.
Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to where I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk 12 for 15 minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to quit the 13 , I heard the garbage truck stop to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice came from the inside, “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? The door opened and out jumped a small blonde man with an 14 look in his eyes. “Is this what you’re looking for?” He asked, holding up a wallet.
It was already 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I couldn’t get much sleep, but I had got my wallet back. I also had got back some 15 of city life. I realized the city couldn’t be a bad place as long as people were willing to help each other.
1．A．comfortable B．serious C．tiresome D．fortunate
2．A．comfort B．desire C．pain D．trouble
3．A．setting up B．giving up C．holding up D．picking up
4．A．expected B．changed C．controlled D．possessed
5．A．deserted B．crowded C．busy D．wild
6．A．running B．jumping C．moving D．marching
7．A．bank B．theatre C．apartment D．office
8．A．stood B．walked C．turned D．left
9．A．satisfied B．confused C．frightened D．annoyed
10. A．turn out B．figure out C．give out D．pull out
11. A．belonging B．adding C．sticking D．falling
12. A．aimlessly B．anxiously C．skillfully D．delightedly
13. A．discovery B．research C．hunt D．finding
14. A．amused B．unpleasant C．uneasy D．embarrassed
15. A．production B．judgment C．friendship D．appreciation
