Section II Reading Comprehension

　　Part A

　　Directions:

　　Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1 (40 points)

　　TEXT 1

　　How should one read a book? In the first place, I want to emphasize the question mark at the end of my beginning sentence. Even if I could answer the question for myself, the answer would apply only to me and not to you. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusion. If this is agreed between us, then I feel at liberty to put forward a few ideas and suggestions because you will not allow them to restrict that independence which is the most important quality that a reader can possess. After all, what laws can be laid down about books? The battle of Waterloo was certainly fought on a certain day; but is Hamlet a better play than Lear? Nobody can say. Each must decide that question of himself. To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions—there we have none.

　　But to enjoy freedom, if this old statement is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not waste our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, spraying water around half the house in order to water a single rose-bush; we must train them, exactly and powerfully, here on the very spot. This, it may be, is one of the first difficulties that faces us in a library. What is “the very spot”? There may well seem to be nothing but a conglomeration and huddle of confusion. Poems and novels, histories and memoirs, dictionaries and blue-books; books written in all languages by men and women of all tempers, races, and ages jostle each other on the shelf. And outside the donkey brays, the women gossip at the pump, the colts gallop across the fields. Where are we to begin? How are we to bring order into this multitudinous chaos and so get the deepest and widest pleasure from what we read?

　　21. Which of the following is true about the question raised at the beginning of the passage?

　　[A] The author does have a universally correct answer to the question.

　　[B] The author implies that she is not interested in the question.

　　[C] The author thinks there may be different answers to the question.

　　[D] The author wonders if there is any point in asking the question.

　　22. A good reader should, according to the author, be able to

　　[A] maintain his own viewpoints concerning reading.

　　[B] take advice from everybody instead of any one person.

　　[C] share his experiences in reading with others.

　　[D] take the suggestions other people give him.

　　23. In comparing Hamlet with Lear, the author means that

　　[A] Hamlet is better than Lear.

　　[B] Hamlet is no any better than Lear.

　　[C] Both plays are good works.

　　[D] There is no way to tell which is better.

　　24. To the author, the advice in reading given by authorities is

　　[A] the most important for readers.

　　[B] unlikely to be helpful to readers.

　　[C] our guidance in choosing what to read.

　　[D] only useful in the libraries.

　　25. What is “one of the first difficulties that faces us in a library?” (Paragraph 2)

　　[A] We may become too excited to be quiet in the library.

　　[B] We do not make best use of the library books.

　　[C] We may get totally lost as to what to choose to read.

　　[D] We cannot concentrate on our reading in the library.

　　TEXT 2

　　Human migration: the term is vague. What people usually think of is the permanent movement of people from one home to another. More broadly, though, migration means all the ways—from the seasonal drift of agricultural workers within a country to the relocation of refugees from one country to another.

　　Migration is big, dangerous, compelling. It is 60 million Europeans leaving home from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Migration is the dynamic undertow of population change: everyone’s solution, everyone’s conflict. As the century turns, migration, with its inevitable economic and political turmoil, has been called “one of the greatest challenges of the coming century.”

　　To demographer Kingsley Davis, two things made migration happen. First, human beings, with their tools and language, could adapt to different conditions without having to wait for evolution to make them suitable for a new niche. Second, as populations grew, cultures began to differ, and inequalities developed between groups. The first factor gave us the keys to the door of any room on the planet; the other gave us reasons to use them.

　　Over the centuries, as agriculture spread across the planet, people moved toward places where metal was found and worked and to centres of commerce that then became cities. Those places were, in turn, invaded and overrun by people later generations called barbarians.

　　In between these storm surges were steadier but similarly profound tides in which people moved out to colonize or were captured and brought in as slaves. For a while the population of Athens, that city of legendary enlightenment was as much as 35 percent slaves.

　　“What strikes me is how important migration is as a cause and effect in the great world events.” Mark Miller, co-author of The Age of Migration and a professor of political science at the University of Delaware, told me recently.

　　It is difficult to think of any great events that did not involve migration. Religions spawned pilgrims or settlers; wars drove refugees before them and made new land available for the conquerors; political upheavals displaced thousands or millions; economic innovations drew workers and entrepreneurs like magnets; environmental disasters like famine or disease pushed their bedraggled survivors anywhere they could replant hope.

　　“It’s part of our nature, this movement,” Miller said, “It’s just a fact of the human condition.”

　　26. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT according to the first three passage

　　[A] Migration exerts a great impact on population change.

　　[B] Migration contributes to Mankind’s progress.

　　[C] Migration brings about desirable and undesirable effects.

　　[D] Migration may not be accompanied by human conflicts.

　　27. According to Kingsley Davis, migration occurs as a result of the following reasons EXCEPT .

　　[A] human adaptability

　　[B] human evolution

　　[C] cultural differences

　　[D] inter-group inequalities

　　28. Which of the following groups is NOT mentioned as migrants in the passage?

　　[A] Farmers.　　[B] Workers.　　[C] Settlers.　　[D] Colonizers.

　　29. There seems to be a(n) relationship between great events and migration.

　　[A] loose　　[B] indefinite　　[C] causal　　　[D] remote

　　30. The author uses the example of Athens to show that .

　　[A] Athens was built mainly by slaves

　　[B] Athens enlightenment has nothing to do with slaves

　　[C] Slaves are too many at that time

　　[D] Migration never stopped even between big human conflicts

　　TEXT 3

　　Economies can get truly richer only through increased productivity growth, either from technological advances or from more efficient production thanks to international trade. Thus china’s integration into the world economy genuinely creates wealth. The same cannot be said of all the “wealth” produced by stock market or housing bubbles.

　　In recent years, many people around the world have found it easier to make money from rising asset prices than from working. Roger Bootle, the managing director of Capital Economics, a London consultancy, calls this “money for nothing.” The surge in share prices in the late 1900s boosted the shareholdings of American households by $7 trillion over four years, equivalent to almost two years’ income from employment—without requiring any effort. The value of those shares has since fallen, but the drop has been more than offset by soaring house prices. Over the past four years the value of homes in America has increased by more than $5 trillion, making many Americans feel richer and less inclined to save. But much of this new wealth is an illusion.

　　The first mistake, at the end of the 1990s, was to believe that shares were actually worth their quoted price. The second mistake, today, is to view higher house prices as increased wealth. A rise in share prices can, in theory, reflect expected future gains in profits. The stock market boom did reflect some genuine wealth creation in the shape of productivity gains, however exaggerated they may have been. But rising house prices do not represent an increase in wealth for a country as a whole. They merely redistribute wealth to home-owners from non-home-owners who may hope to buy in the future. Nevertheless the illusion of new-found wealth has caused households as a whole to save less and spend and borrow more.

　　Historically low interest rates have fuelled housing bubbles in America and many other countries around the globe. At some stage prices will fall, obliging consumers to save much more and spend less. The unwinding of America’s vast economic imbalances could depress growth there for many years, whereas China’s slowdown looks likely to be fairly brief.

　　Oddly enough, China may be partly to blame for this wealth illusion in rich economies, because central bankers have been slow to grasp the consequences of China’s rapid integration into the world economy. By producing goods more cheaply and so helping to hold down inflation and interest rates in rich economies, China may have indirectly encouraged excessive credit creation and asset-price bubbles there. Inflation has remained low, but excess liquidity now flows into the prices of houses and shares rather than the prices of goods and services. And to keep its exchange rate pegged to the dollar, China has been buying vast amounts of American Treasury bonds, which has helped to depress bond yields and mortgage rates, fuelling America’s property boom.

　　31. The best title of this passage may be

　　[A] New methods of Wealth production

　　[B] China is to blame for economic bubbles

　　[C] Western economies are not as rich as they seem to be

　　[D] Different economic growth roads

　　32. In the author’s mind, Roger Bootle’s point of view might be

　　[A] Strongly misleading　　[B] A bit too sarcastic　　[C] Totally unacceptable　　[D] Nothing but truth

　　33. According to the author, the major difference between share price rising and house price rising is

　　[A] stock markets can witness some real wealth accumulation while house-price-rising cannot.

　　[B] stock markets have more bubbles.

　　[C] house-price-rising causes families to save less and to spend more.

　　[D] stock prices may go down but house prices seldom .

　　34. The word “brief” in the last line of the fourth paragraph may probably mean

　　[A] not important　　[B] short in time 　　[C] significant　　[D] unnecessary

　　35. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true

　　[A] Western central bankers are not well prepared for Chinese integration into the world economy.

　　[B] China has been buying large amount of real estates so that American property price booms.

　　[C] Since China exports products more cheaply, it will be a major factor to counteract inflation.

　　[D] There are also house-price bubbles in China.

　　TEXT 4

　　As humankind moves into the third millennium, it can rightfully claim to have broken new ground in its age-old quest to master the environment. The fantastic achievements of modern technology and the speed at which scientific discoveries are translated into technological applications attest to the triumph of human endeavour.

　　At the same time, however, some of these applications threaten to unleash forces over which we have no control. In other words, the new technology Man now believes allows him to dominate this wider cosmos could well be a Frankenstein monster waiting to turn on its master.

　　This is an entirely news situation that promises to change many of the perceptions governing life on the planet. The most acute challenges facing the future are likely to be not only those pitting man against his fellow man, but those involving humankind’s struggle to preserve the environment and ensure the sustainability of life on earth.

　　A conflict waged to ensure the survival of the human species is bound to bring humans closer together. Technological progress has thus proved to be a double-edged sword, giving rise to a new form of conflict: a clash between Man and Nature.

　　The new conflict is more dangerous than the traditional one between man and his fellow man, where the protagonists at least shared a common language. But when it comes to the reactions of the ecosystems to the onslaught of modern technology, there is no common language.

　　Nature reacts with weather disturbances, with storms and earthquakes, with storms and earthquakes, with mutant viruses and bacteria—that is, with phenomena having no apparent cause and effect relationship with the modern technology that supposedly triggers them.

　　As technology becomes ever more potent and Nature reacts ever more violently, there is an urgent need to rethink how best to deal with the growing contradictions between Man and Nature.

　　For a start, the planet, and hence all its inhabitants, must be perceived as an integral whole, not as a mass divided geographically into the rich and developed and the poor and underdeveloped.

　　Today, globalization encompasses the whole world and deals with it as an integral unit. It is no longer possible to say that conflict has shifted from its traditional east-west axis to a north-south axis. The real divide today is between summit and base, between state and civil society.

　　The mesh structure is particularly obvious on the Internet. While it is true that to date the Internet seems to be favouring the most developed sectors of the international community over the less developed, this need not always be the case. Indeed, it could eventually overcome the disparities between the privileged and the underdeveloped.

　　On the other hand, the macro-word in which we live is exposed to distortions because of the unpredictable side-effects of a micro-world we do not and cannot totally control.

　　This raises the need for a global system of checks and balances, for mandatory rules and constraints in our dealings with Nature, in short, for a news type of veto designed to manage what is increasingly becoming a main contradiction of our time: the one between technology and ecology.

　　A new type of international machinery must be set in place to cope with the new challenges. We need a new look at the harnessing of scientific discoveries, to maximize their positive effects for the promotion of humanity as a whole and to minimize their negative effects. We need an authority with veto powers to forbid practices conducive to decreasing the ozone hole, the propagation of AIDS, global warming, desertification—an authority that will tackle such global problems.

　　There should be no discontinuity in the global machinery responsible for world order. The UN in its present form may fall far short of what is required of it, and it may be undemocratic and detrimental to most citizens in the world, but its absence would be worse. And so we have to hold on to the international organization even as we push forward for its complete restructuring.

　　Our best hope would be that the functions of the present United Nations are gradually taken over by the new machinery of veto power representing genuine democratic globalization.

　　36. The mention of Man’s victory over Nature at the beginning of the passage is to highlight .

　　[A] a new creative powers　　[B] Man’s creative powers

　　[C] The role of modern technology　　　[D] Man’s ground-breaking work

　　37. According to the author, the current conflict is more dangerous as

　　[A] nature will punish human beings more severely.

　　[B] man and nature cannot share the same communicative channel.

　　[C] technological advances are to be a double-edged sword.

　　[D] Human beings cannot unite together.

　　38. According to the passage, which is NOT a responsibility of the proposed new international authority?

　　[A] Monitoring effects of scientific discoveries.

　　[B] Dealing with worldwide environmental issues.

　　[C] Vetoing human attempts to conquer Nature.

　　[D] Authorizing efforts to improve human health.

　　39. When commenting on the present role of the UN, the author expresses his .

　　[A] dissatisfaction　　[B] disillusionment　　[C] objection　　[D] doubt

　　40. The best title of this text may probably be

　　[A] Man and Nature: The Everlasting Conflict

　　[B] Mankind in the New Millennium

　　[C] UN Must Be Reformed

　　[D] New Approaches on Man-Nature Conflict: a More Powerful Global Organization

　　Part B

　　Directions:

　　In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable paragraph from the list A-F to fit into each of the numbered blank. There is one extra choice that does not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

　　It's 10 p.m. You may not know where your child is, but the chip does. (41)____________________ Once paramedics arrive, the chip will also be able to tell the rescue workers which drugs little Johnny or Janie is allergic to. At the hospital, the chip will tell doctors his or her complete medical history.

　　And of course, when you arrive to pick up your child, settling the hospital bill with your health insurance policy will be a simple matter of waving your own chip - the one embedded in your hand.

　　To some, this may sound far-fetched. But the technology for such chips is no longer the stuff of science fiction. And it may soon offer many other benefits besides locating lost children or elderly Alzheimer patients.

　　"Down the line, it could be used as credit cards and such," says Chris Hables Gray, a professor of cultural studies of science and technology at the University of Great Falls in Montana. "A lot of people won't have to carry wallets anymore," he says. "What the implications are [for this technology], in the long run, is profound."

　　(42)__________________________

　　"Any technology of this kind is easily abusive of personal privacy," says Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If a kid is trackable, do you want other people to be able to track your kid? It's a double-edged sword."

　　The research of embedding microchips isn't entirely new. (43)________________

　　But Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. in Palm Beach, Fla., is one of the latest to try and push the experiments beyond the realm of academic research and into the hands - and bodies - of ordinary humans.

　　(44)_______________________When scanned by a nearby reader, the embedded chip yields the data - say an ID number that links to a computer database file containing more detailed information.

　　Most embedded chip designs are so-called passive chips which yield information only when scanned by a nearby reader. But active chips - such as the proposed Digital Angel of the future - will need to beam out information all the time. (45)___________________

　　Another additional hurdle, developing tiny GPS receiver chips that could be embedded yet still be sensitive enough to receive signals from thousands of miles out in space.

　　In addition to technical hurdles, many suspect that all sorts of legal and privacy issues would have to be cleared as well.

　　[A] Back in 1998, Brian Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at Reading University in London, implanted a chip into his arm as an experiment to see if Warwick's computer could wirelessly track his whereabouts with the university's building.

　　[B] The company says it has recently applied to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to begin testing its VeriChip device in humans. About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip can be encoded with bits of information and implanted in humans under a layer of skin.

　　[C] Indeed, some are already wondering what this sort of technology may do to the sense of personal privacy and liberty.

　　[D] And that means designers will have to develop some sort of power source that can provide a continuous source of energy, yet be small enough to be embedded with the chips.

　　[E] Tiny chips know your name easily.

　　[F] Every woman dreams of receiving a huge, sparkling and priceless diamond that be controlled by tiny chips . Now scientists have developed the most useful diamond .

　　[G] The chip will also know if your child has fallen and needs immediate help.

　　Part C

　　Directions:

　　Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2 (10 points)

　　46) A hundred years ago, when sport was confined largely to games played in the backyard or on the farm, one could hardly have imagined the attention that it has come to receive in the twentieth century. Today, the importance of sport in society is clearly demonstrated by the fact that even the CBS evening news can be preempted for the final of a tennis match. A survey conducted in the late 1980s revealed that fully 81 percent of all adults follow some organized sport, mostly on television. And the phenomenon of weekend “sports widows”—women abandoned by their husbands for weekend sports on television—is entering its third generation.

　　Sport is defined sociologically as competitive physical activity that is performed under established rules. Like all social institutions, sport serves numerous functions. First, it provides society with a vast array of leisure-time activities for all segments of the population.47) Although it is an overstatement to say that modern society is a leisure society, there has been a significant increase in the amount of non-work time that most people have available. Furthermore, recreational activity has become increasingly necessary in a society in which the vast majority of jobs provide little or no physical activity. Second, sport provides an outlet for energies that, if not diverted, could cause serious strain on the social order.48) For both fan and participant, sport permits the expression of emotions (such as anger and frustration) in ways that are acceptable to, even encouraged by, society. Finally, sport provides society with role models. Athletes at all levels, but especially famous athletes, provide examples of conduct and employment of skills that others can emulate.

　　Although sports promote many positive aspects of a society, conflict theorists are quick to point out that they also reflect society’s inequalities. Like most other social institutions, sports are characterized by inequalities of class, race and gender. For example, certain sports—such as polo, tennis, and skiing—have traditionally appealed to the wealthy. Other sports—such as boxing, which is often associated with urban poverty—are distinctly lower class in origin and participation. 49) In general, members of the lower and working classes have tended to participate in sports like baseball and basketball: games that require little more than a field, a ball, and some players.

　　Although sport is sometimes considered exempt from racial inequality, sociological evidence has shown this not to be the case.50) Although it is true that nonwhites in American society have enjoyed greater opportunities for high incomes in professional sports than in other occupations, it is also true that virtually all managers and owners of sports team are white. There are few nonwhite sportscasters, administrators, umpires, or referees. Furthermore, nonwhites are all but absent (even as players) from all professional sports except baseball, basketball, boxing, and football.