Part II Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Just five one-hundredths of an inch thick, light golden in color and with a perfect “saddle curl,” the Lay’s potato chip seems an unlikely weapon for global domination. But its maker. Frito-Lay. Thinks otherwise. “Potato chips are a snack food for the world,” said Salman Amin, the company’s head of global marketing. Amin believes there is no corner of the world that can resist the charms of a Frito-Lay potato chip.
Frito-Lay is the biggest snack maker in America, owned by PepsiCo. And accounts for over half of the parent company’s $3 billion annual profits. But the U.S. snack food market is largely saturated, and to grow, the company has to look overseas.
Its strategy rests on two beliefs: first a global product offers economies of scale with which local brands cannot compete. And second, consumers in the 21st century are drawn to “global” as a concept. “Global” does not mean products that are consciously identified as American, but ones than consumes-especially young people-see as part of a modem, innovative (創(chuàng)新的) world in which people are linked across cultures by shared beliefs and tastes. Potato chips are an American invention, but most Chinese, for instance, do not know than Frito-Lay is an American company. Instead, Riskey, the company’s research and development head, would hope they associate the brand with the new world of global communications and business.
With brand perception a crucial factor, Riskey ordered a redesign of the Frito-Lay logo (標(biāo)識(shí)). The logo, along with the company’s long-held marketing image of the “irresistibility” of its chips, would help facilitate the company’s global expansion.
The executives acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rater, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world. “We’re making products in those countries, we’re adapting them to the tastes of those countries, building businesses and employing people and changing lives,” said Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo’s chief executive.
21. It is the belief of Frito-Lay’s head of global marking that ________.
A) potato chips can hardly be used as a weapon to dominate the world market
B) their company must find new ways to promote domestic sales
C) the light golden color enhances the charm of their company’s potato chips
D) people the world over enjoy eating their company’s potato chips
22. What do we learn about Frito-Lay from Paragraph 2?
A) Its products use to be popular among overseas consumers.
B) Its expansion has caused fierce competition in the snack marker.
C) It gives half of its annual profits to its parent company.
D) It needs to turn to the word market for development.
23. One of the assumptions on which Frito-Lay bases its development strategy is that ________.
A) consumers worldwide today are attracted by global brands
B) local brands cannot compete successfully with American brands
C) products suiting Chinese consumers’ needs bring more profits
D) products identified as American will have promising market value
24. Why did Riskey have the Frito-Lay logo redesigned?
A) To suit changing tastes of young consumers.
B) To promote the company’s strategy of globalization.
C) To change the company’s long-held marketing image.
D) To compete with other American chip producers.
25. Frito-Lay’s executives claim that the promoting of American food in the international market ________.
A) won’t affect the eating habits of the local people
B) will lead to economic imperialism
C) will be in the interest of the local people
D) won’t spoil the taste of their chips
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
In communities north of Denver, residents are pitching in to help teachers and administrators as the Vrain school District tries to solve a $13.8 million budget shortage blamed on mismanagement. “We’re worried about our teachers and principals, and we really don’t want to lose them because of this,” one parent sail. “If we can help ease their financial burden, we will. “
Teachers are grateful, but know it may be years before the district is solvent (有綜合能力的). They feel really good about the parent support, but they realize it’s impossible for then to solve this problem.
The 22,000-student district discovered the shortage last month. “It’s extraordinary.
Nobody would have imagined something happening like this at this level,” said State Treasurer Mike Coffman.
Coffman and district officials last week agreed on a state emergency plan freeing yp a $9.8 million loan that enabled the payroll (工資單) to be met for 2,700 teachers and staff in time for the holidays.
District officials also took $1.7 million from student-activity accounts its 38 schools.
At Coffman’s request, the District Attorney has begun investigating the district’s finances. Coffman says he wants to know whether district officials hid the budget shortage until after the November election, when voters approved a $212 million bond issue for schools.
In Frederick, students’ parents are buying classroom supplies and offering to pay for groceries and utilities to keep first-year teachers and principals in their jobs.
Some $36,000 has been raised in donations from Safeway. A Chevrolet dealership donated $10,000 and forgave the district’s $10,750 bill for renting the driver educating cars. IBM contributed 4,500 packs of paper.
“We employ thousands of people in this community,” said Mitch Carson, a hospital chief executive, who helped raise funds. “We have children in the school, and we see how they could be affected.”
At Creek High School, three students started a website that displays newspaper articles, district information and an email forum (論壇)。 “Rumors about what’s happening to the district are moving at lighting speed,” said a student. “We wanted to know the truth, and spread that around instead.”
26. What has happened to the Vrain School District?
A) A huge financial problem has arisen.
B) Many schools there are mismanaged.
C) Lots of teachers in the district are planning to quit.
D) Many administrative personnel have been laid off.
27. How did the residents in the Vrain School District respond to the budget shortage?
A) They felt somewhat helpless about it.
B) They accused those responsible for it.
C) They pooled their efforts to help solve it.
D) They demanded a through investigation.
28. In the view of State Treasurer Mike Coffman, the educational budget shortage is ________.
A) unavoidable
B) unthinkable
C) insolvable
D) irreversible
29. Why did Coffman request an investigation?
A) To see if there was a deliberate cover-up of the problem.
B) To find out the extent of the consequences of the case.
C) To make sure that the school principals were innocent.
D) To stop the voters approving the $212 million bong issue.
30. Three high school students started a website in order to ________.
A) attract greater public attention to their needs
B) appeal to the public for contributions and donations
C) expose officials who neglected their duties
D) keep people properly informed of the crisis
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
“Humans should not try to avoid stress any more than they would shun food, love or exercise.” Said Dr. Hans Selye, the first physician to document the effects of stress on the body. While here’s on question that continuous stress is harmful, several studies suggest that challenging situations in which you’re able to rise to the occasion can be good for you.
In a 2001 study of 158 hospital nurses, those who faced considerable work demands but coped with the challenge were more likely to say they were in good health than those who felt they stress that you can manage also boost immune (免疫的) function. In a study at the Academic Center for Dentistry in Amsterdam, researchers put volunteers through two stressful experiences. In the first, a timed task that required memorizing a list followed by a short test, subjects through a gory (血淋淋的) video on surgical procedures. Those who did well on the memory test had an increase in levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that’s the body’s first line of defense against germs. The video-watchers experienced a downturn in the antibody.
Stress prompts the body to produce certain stress hormones. In short bursts these hormones have a positive effect, including improved memory function. “They can help nerve cells handle information and put it into storage,” says Dr. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York. But in the long run these hormones can have a harmful effect on the body and brain.
“Sustained stress is not good for you,” says Richard Morimoto, a researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois studying the effects of stress on longevity, “It’s the occasional burst of stress or brief exposure to stress that could be protective.”
31. The passage is mainly about ________.
A) the benefits of manageable stress
B) how to cope with stress effectively
C) how to avoid stressful
D) the effect of stress harmonies on memory
32. The word “shun” (Line 1, Para. 1) most probably means ________.
A) cut down on
B) stay away from
C) run out of
D) put up with
33. We can conclude from the study of the 158 nurses in 2001 that ________.
A) people under stress tend to have a poor memory
B) people who can’t get their job done experience more stress
C) doing challenging work may be good for one’s health
D) stress will weaken the body’s defense against germs
34. In the experiment described in Paragraph 3, the video-watchers experienced a downturn in the antibody because ________.
A) the video was not enjoyable at all
B) the outcome was beyond their control
C) they knew little about surgical procedures
D) they felt no pressure while watching the video
35. Dr. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University believes that ________.
A) a person’s memory is determined by the level of hormones in his body
B) stress hormones have lasting positive effects on the brain
C) short bursts of stress hormones enhance memory function
D) a person’s memory improves with continued experience of stress
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky.
If you say to your children “I’m sorry I got angry with you, but ...” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology.
Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I’m sorry you’re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done.
Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I’m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement.
These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies.
But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children’s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent’s clothes without permission is not.
36. If a mother adds “but” to an apology, ________.
A) she doesn’t feel that she should have apologized
B) she does not realize that the child has been hurt
C) the child may find the apology easier to accept
D) the child may feel that he owes her an apology
37. According to the author, saying “I’m sorry you’re upset” most probably means “________”.
A) You have good reason to get upset
B) I’m aware you’re upset, but I’m not to blame
C) I apologize for hurting your feelings
D) I’m at fault for making you upset
38. It is not advisable to use the general, all-covering apology because ________.
A) it gets one into the habit of making empty promises
B) it may make the other person feel guilty
C) it is vague and ineffective
D) it is hurtful and insulting
39. We learn from the last paragraph that in teaching children to say sorry ________.
A) the complexities involved should be ignored
B) their ages should be taken into account
C) parents need to set them a good example
D) parents should be patient and tolerant
40. It can be inferred from the passage that apologizing properly is ________.
A) a social issue calling for immediate attention
B) not necessary among family members
C) a sign of social progress
D) not as simple as it seems
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