Passage Three
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’s our banks not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms.
Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.
As an example of what’s going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit’card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.
With these customer lists in hand, Member Works started dialing for dollars-selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a “free trial offer” had 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues.
Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no.
The state sued Member Works separately for deceptive selling. The company denies that it did anything wrong. For its part, U.S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member Works and similar firms.
And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans.
You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields “transaction and experience” information—mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it?
Take U.S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that “all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential.” Then it sold your data to Member Works. The bank even claims that it doesn’t “sell” your data at all. It merely “shares” it and reaps a profit. Now you know.
21. Contrary to popular belief, the author finds that spying on people’s privacy .
A) is mainly carried out by means of secret taping
B) has been intensified with the help of the IRS
C) is practiced exclusively by the FBI
D) is more prevalent in business circles
22. We know from the passage that .
A) legislators are acting to pass a law to provide better privacy protection
B) most states are turning a blind eye to the deceptive practices of private businesses
C) the state of Minnesota is considering drawing up laws to protect private information
D) law makers are inclined to give a free hand to businesses to inquire into customers’ buying habits
23. When the “free trial” deadline is over, you’ll be charged without notice for a product or service if .
A) you fail to cancel it within the specified period
B) you happen to reveal your credit card number
C) you find the product or service unsatisfactory
D) you fail to apply for extension of the deadline
24. Businesses do not regard information concerning personal bank accounts as private because .
A) its revelation will do no harm to consumers under the current protection policy
B) it is considered “transaction and experience” information unprotected by law
C) it has always been considered an open secret by the general public
D) its sale can be brought under control through self-regulation
25. We can infer from the passage that .
A) banks will have to change their ways of doing business
B) privacy protection laws soon be enforced
C) consumers’ privacy will continue to be invaded
D) “free trial” practice will eventually be banned
Passage Four
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Opinion polls (民意测验) are now beginning to show an unwilling general agreement that, whoever is to blame and whatever happens from now on, high unemployment is probably here to stay. This means we shall have to find ways of sharing the available employment more widely.
But we need to go further. We must ask some fundamental questions about the future of work. Should we continue to treat employment as the norm（标准，准则）? Should we not rather encourage many other ways for self-respecting people to work? Should we not create conditions in which many of us can work for ourselves, rather than for an employer? Should we not aim to revive the household and the neighborhood, as well as the factory and the office, as centers of production and work?
The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people’s work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a discouraging thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom.
Employment became widespread when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people’s homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people traveled longer distances to their places of employment until, eventually, many people’s work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.
Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. It became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife.
All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the impractical goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.
26. What idea did the author derive from the recent opinion polls?
A) Available employment should be restricted to a small percentage of the pollution.
B) New jobs must be created in order to rectify high unemployment figures.
C) Jobs available must be distributed among more people.
D) The present high unemployment figures are a fact of life.
27. The passage suggests that we should now re-examine our thinking about work and .
A) be prepared to admit that being employed is not the only kind of work
B) create more factories in order to increase our productivity
C) set up smaller private enterprises so that we in turn can employ others
D) be prepared to fill in time by taking up housework
28. The passage tells us that the arrival of the industrial age means that .
A) universal employment guaranteed prosperity
B) economic freedom came within everyone’s reach
C) patterns of work were fundamentally changed
D) to survive, everyone had to find a job
29. As a result of the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries .
A) people were no longer legally entitled to own land
B) people were forced to look elsewhere for means of supporting themselves
C) people were not adequately compensated for the loss of their land
D) people were badly paid for the work they managed to find
30. It can be inferred from the passage that .
A) the creation of jobs for all is an impossibility
B) we must make every effort to solve the problem of unemployment
C) people should start to support themselves by learning a practical skill
D) we should help people to get full-time jobs
Part III Vocabulary (20 minutes)
Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Choose the ONE answer that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
31. Some countries impose heavy on those who avoid taxes.
A) options B) duties C) obligations D) penalties
32. To be a champion, skill and a good health are not enough—you have to have the right .
A) integrity B) compactness C) robustness D) temperament
33. The police couldn’t control the demonstrations, so troops hurried to give them a hand.
A) vicious B) impatient C) equivalent D) turbulent
34. The light is too dim（昏暗）for me to her.
A) identify B) notify C) convey D) guarantee
35. Creative observation of our surroundings in us a sense of the wonder in life.
A) revives B) recovers C) resides D) reminds
36. Our bonus payments for improved productivity provide an to work harder.
A) imagination B) intuition C) incentive D) indication
37. He has given an into British literature.
A) insight B) revelation C) presentation D) specification
38. Only nativeborn citizens are for the U.S. Presidency.
A) negligible B) eligible C) delegated D) quantitative
39. Many teenagers are surprisingly about current politics.
A) naïve B) illiterate C) ignorant D) unaware
40. The Graduate Student Association is governed by an committee that include officers and representatives from each graduate programmed.
A) execute B) executive C) editorial D) exempt
41. The recession reduced the government’s tax greatly.
A) privilege B) validity C) revenues D) efficiency
42. The professor had to explain the profound theory in a language because of the audience's poor knowledge in this field.
A) patriotic B) luminous C) tentative D) reciprocal
43. We don't care whose nephew he is; hiring decision must be based on merit, not .
A) inspiration B) sentiment C) hypothesis D) sympathy
44. A child is not a computer; a third-grader's abilities are highly dependent on his or her upbringing and happiness.
A) cognitive B) imperative C) indicative D) prospective
45. An error in a financial record can be by replacing an incorrect number with a correct one.
A) testified B) verified C) certified D) rectified
46. His father is a famous designer and he will help you a lot with the decoration of your new house.
A)interior B) external C) internal D) exterior
47. Placing high in imported goods is a frequently employed method of protecting domestic industries.
A) tariffs B) expenses C) expenditure D) interests
48. Generally speaking, small children are more than adults.
A) imaginary B) imaginative C) imaginable D) imagining
49. For a long time in the past, this animal was believed to on birds and mice.
A) catch B) capture C) prey D) pray
50. All students in this university are requested to with the regulation.
A) submit B) consent C) yield D) comply
51. People in the United States in the nineteenth century were by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s economy would bring social chaos.
A) hunted B) haunted C) tracked D) notified
52. He is highly excited, therefore heart attacks.
A) subject to B) similar to C) contrary to D) adjacent to
53. As the chart shows that excessive of sugar can contribute to blood sugar imbalances, tooth decay and weight gain.
A) diet B) application C) consumption D) flavor
54. Scientists are trying to develop computers that will the human thought process.
A) simulate B) substitute C) project D) review
55. It is a a(n) that the French eat so much rich food and yet have a relatively low rate of heart disease.
A) analogy B) paradox C) correlation D) illusion
56. He has his manners and tastes and made himself a real gentleman.
A) renewed B) reinforced C) relieved D) refined
57. The officer inspected our passports and travel papers and us because our vacation certificates were missing.
A) detained B) retained C) refrained D) contained
58. The medicine cured the woman of her cough which she had suffered 20 years.
A) temporary B) permanent C) chronic D) acute
59. Last summer my parents and I to Qingdao on vacation.
A) cruised B) piloted C) patrolled D) glided
60. The National Academic Committee was in conferring her an honorable degree.
A) united B) unanimous C) universal D) ultimate
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