Abby Subark is a mother of two from Boston. “For my kids, I’m nervous. I don’t know if they’ll be able to achieve their American dream.” She may be right. More than hard work or education, the best way to get rich in America is to be born rich.
It is the case that somebody who is in the upper third of income, poor scores, in the bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college and finish college than a poor kid with the top scores. That’s what the working persons’ children are up against.
The Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9 or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That’s about 200 years. The hallmark (特征) of American opportunity has always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for so-called intergenerational mobility (变动).
If you look at the mechanisms (机制) for upward mobility that were so readily available 50 years ago, they are becoming out of reach, like plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health care.
White families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people in America today, where you end up depends on where you start.
If you started in the middle-income class, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle-income class. The rest is up to you.
But for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line and the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class. The main idea of the passage is _______.
| A．How the middle class comes about in the U.S. |
| B．It’s hard to realize the American dream for the poor. |
| C．Wealth and social status depend on family background. |
| D．Upward mobility in America is never easy. |
Which of the statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．People used to have job opportunities and welfare for upward mobility. |
| B．A great many poor people can hardly realize their American dream. |
| C．You can make all your dreams come true in America if born rich. |
| D．Rich kids are more likely to go to college than poor kids. |
The underlined sentence “where you end up depends on where you start” most probably means _______.
| A．Your starting point cannot determine your destination. |
| B．Only a high goal can ensure success. |
| C．One’s birth has nothing to do with his fate. |
| D．One’s family lays solid foundation for his future achievements. |
Why is Abby Subark nervous?
| A．Her kids don’t want to compare with other rich kids in achievements. |
| B．Her kids don’t want to achieve success at all. |
| C．Her kids can achieve success through hard work and education. |
| D．Her kids can’t reach their goal without a rich family. |
What can we infer after reading the passage?
| A．Poverty causes people much pain. |
| B．People below the poverty line can never be in the middle class. |
| C．Lower starting point makes it hard for people to realize their dream. |
| D．Poor people’s starting point is too low. |
LONDON（Reuters）-Organic fruit, delivered right to the doorstep. That is what Gabriel Gold prefers, and he is willing to pay for it. If this is not possible, the 26-year-old computer technician will spend the extra money at the supermarket to buy organic food.
"Organic produce is always better," Gold said. "The food is free of pesticides（农药）, and you are generally supporting family farms instead of large farms. And more often than not it is locally（本地）grown and seasonal, so it is more tasty. "Gold is one of a growing number of shoppers buying into the organic trend, and supermarkets across Britain are counting on more like him as they grow their organic food business. But how many shoppers really know what they are getting, and why are they willing to pay a higher price for organic produce? Market research shows that Gold and others who buy organic food can generally give clear reasons for their preferences-but their knowledge of organic food is far from complete. For example,small amounts of pesticides can be used on organic products. And about three quarters of organic food in Britain is not local but imported（进口）to meet growing demand. "The demand for organic food is increasing by about one third every year, so it is a very fast-growing market," said Sue Flock, a specialist in this line of business.
60. More and more people in Britain are buying organic food because ____.
A. they are getting richer
B. they can get the food anywhere
C. they consider the food free of pollution
D. they like home-grown fruit
61.Which of the following statements is true to the facts about most organic produce sold in Britain？
A. It grows indoors all year round.
B. It is produced outside Britain.
C. It is grown on family farms.
D. It is produced on large farms.
62.What is the meaning of "the organic trend" as the words are used in the text？
A. growing interest in organic food
B. better quality of organic food
C. rising market for organic food
D. higher prices of organic food
63.What is the best title for this news story？
A. Organic food-healthy, or just for the wealthy？
B. The making of organic food in Britain
C. Organic food-to import or not？
D. Good qualities of organic food
Compassion is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into actions. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are out main customers, and it’s not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register（收款机）with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash (现金), had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable. “Change it to me,” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.
41. The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits_________.
A．promised to obey the store rules
B．forgot to take any money with him
C．hoped to have the food first and pay later
D．could not afford anything more expensive
42. Which of the following best describes the old gentleman?
A．kind and lucky B．poor and lonely
C．friendly and helpful D．hurt and disappointed
43. The writer acted upon the store rules because_________.
A．he wanted to keep his present job
B．he felt no pity for the old gentleman
C．he considered the old man dishonest
D．he expected someone else to pay for the old man
44. What does the writer learn from his experience?
A．Wealth is more important than anything else
B．Helping others is easier said than done
C．Experience is better gained through practice
D．Obeying the rules means more than compassion.
More American people take their troubles with them on holiday, according to a new survey. Although 40 percent said that the main reason for going away is to escape pressure (压力) from work, almost all said they worry more than they do at home. Only four in every 100 said that they are happy and free of care.
The most common worry is burglary ( 入室盗窃), with four out of 10 worrying about their homes being broken into while they’re abroad. More than a quarter fear they will feel crazy with some other noisy and rough holiday-makers and 22 percent worry they may be attacked or their possessions will be missing. One in five think the car may break down; and the same number worry about the chances of bad weather.
The survey also showed that the stay-at-home Americans are no more. Three out of every five want to have a holiday abroad, a great increase from the figures only three years ago. The hotel holiday is still a winner, with about one third of all Americana preferring to go on a self-catering ( 自助 ) holiday.
56. The underlined word “survey” in the first paragraph most probably means ______.
A. research B. review C. exhibition D. examination
57. According to the text, about ______ of people worry more on holiday than when they are at home.
A. 25% B. 40% C. 80% D. 95%
58. The third most common worry of American holiday-makers is that they may ______.
A. be attacked or lose their possessions B. have problems with their cars on the road
C. have bad weather on holiday D. get mixed with some rough fellow holiday-makers
59. Where do American holiday-makers like to stay most?
A. At a hotel. B. In a quiet place.
C. At a friend's house. D. Where they can cook for themselves.
Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand （品牌） of product on the shelf.
Colouring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell. Health foods are packaged （包装）in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colours. Ice cream packets are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver.
When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colours turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package—blue because we think of it as safe, and white as calm.
The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to.
It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 per cent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!
The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote （推销） their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius （天才） to sell it.”
64. Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text?
A. The cost of its package. B. The price of the product.
C. The colour of its package. D. The brand name of the product.
65. The underlined part “the colours turned the customers off”（in Para. 3 ） means that the colours _____.
A. attracted the customers strongly B. had weak effects on the customers
C. tricked the customers into shopping D. caused the customers to lose interest
66. Which of the following is the key to the success in product sales?
A. The way to promote goods. B. The discovery of a genius.
C. The team to produce a good product. D. The brand name used by successful producers.
67. Which of the following would be the best title for this text?
A. Choice of Good Products B. Disadvantages of Products
C. Effect of Packaging on Shopping D. Brand Names and Shopping Tricks
Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what you usually do in a typical week, how you can get along with your fellow students, and so on. These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.
First, let’s talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. No matter what your major may be, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because some courses such as introduction to sociology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it’s very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn’t enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have a couple of hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting usually with fewer than thirty students where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants, usually direct discussion sections.
If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you’ll also have to spend several hours a week in the lab, or laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or history usually have to read and write more than science majors do.
59. The main purpose of this text is .
A. to help the students to learn about university life
B. to persuade the students to attend lectures
C. to encourage the students to take part in discussions
D. to advise the students to choose proper majors
60. We can learn from the passage that university professors .
A. spend about 5 hours on lectures each week
B. must join the students in the discussion sections
C. prefer to use textbooks in their lectures
D. require the students to read beyond the textbooks
61. A discussion section does NOT include .
A. working under the guidance of university professors
B. talking over what the students have read about the courses
C. discussing the problems related to the students’ homework
D. raising questions about what a professor has said in a lecture
62. According to the author, science majors .
A. have to work harder than non science majors
B. spend less time on their studies than non science majors
C. consider experiments more important than discussions
D. read and write less than non science majors