Part III Reading Comprehension 35% ( 40 minutes )

　　Directions: This part is to test your reading ability. There are 5 tasks for you to fulfill. You should read the reading materials carefully and do the tasks as you are instructed.

　　Task 1

　　Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 through 40. For each question or statement there are 4 choice marked A), B), C) and D). You should make the correct choice and mark the corresponding letter in the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

　　Where you keep your saving is important both to you and to our economic system. Saving kept in a jar at home or in a safe-deposit box is idle. They are not circulating and doing the work that money is supposed to do. If all savings were just stored away, production should slow down. There would be fewer jobs and less income. Saving deposited in a bank, however, are put to work by the bank, they are loaned to people who use them to buy cares, refrigerators, stores, machines, office equipment, and other capital goods. Someone else spend the money you don’t spend. The wheels of our economic system keep turning.

　　Putting savings to work is called investing. Savings can be invested in several ways. Depositing them in a bank is only one way. Savings also can be used to buy bonds or life insurance. They can be invested in a business of your own or used to buy shares of a stock in a corporation. They can be used to buy land, a home to live in, or property to rent to others. Each of these different ways of putting money to work is an investment.

　　36. If lots of people kept savings at home, .

　　A) production would speed up

　　B) more jobs would be provided

　　C) money would do the work it was supposed to do

　　none of the above is true

　　37. Saving deposited in a bank are .

　　A) lent to people an business firms who are in need of them in the form of loans

　　B) circulating

　　C) bringing profits to both you and the bank

　　D) all of the above

　　38. “The wheels of our economic system keeps turning” means .

　　A) the economic system is out of order

　　B) the economic system works properly

　　C) the economic system is out of control

　　D) the economic system advances rapidly

　　39. “Investing” means .

　　A) depositing money in banks

　　B) drawing money form banks

　　C) making use of money saved in order to profit

　　buying goods and services

　　40. Which of the following is not an investment?

　　A) Depositing money in a bank

　　B) Buying shares of stock in a corporation

　　C) Buying bonds or life insurance

　　D) Keeping money in a safe-deposit box

　　Task 2

　　Directions: this task is the same as Task 1. the 5 questions or unfinished statements are numbered 41 through 45.

　　There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先) it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?

　　If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

　　I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: “ this work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible (难以辨认) .” It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expression of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation to seek improvement.

　　41. Teachers differ in their opinion about .

　　A) the difficulties in teaching spelling

　　B) the role of spelling in general language development

　　C) the complexities of the basis writing skills

　　D) the necessity of teaching spelling

　　42. The expression of “play safe” probably means .

　　A) to write carefully

　　B) to do as teachers say

　　C) to use dictionaries frequently

　　D) to avoid using words one is not sure of

　　43. Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries so that .

　　A) students will be able to express their ideas more freely

　　B) teachers will have less trouble in correcting mistakes

　　C) students will have more confidence in writing

　　D) students will learn to be independent of teachers

　　44. The writer seems to think that the teacher’s judgment on that sensitive piece of writing is .

　　A) reasonable

　　B) unfair

　　C) foolish

　　D) careless

　　45. The major point discussed in the passage is .

　　A) the importance of developing writing skill

　　B) the complexities of spelling

　　C) the correct way of making compositions

　　D) the relationship between spelling and the content of a composition