1、优质PETS4真题Section III Reading Comprehension (60 minutes) 阅读理解A21、根据以下内容,回答21-40题。 Text 1Inflation has just exploded. The real problem is that we have an underlyingrate of inflation-an impetus of wages chasing prices-of maybe 9percent that is heading towards 10 percent. There also have been tremendous
2、 shocks inenergy, food and housing prices, making it worse.By the end of the year, we will be in asituation where year in, year out, we can look forward to at least 10 percent inflation. And the question will be: How much worse willoil, food and housing prices make that?The situation has degenerated
3、 to the pointthat the only way to turn it around is to think of some very extreme changes in policy. A policy of gradualism, where youre talkingabout a mild recession and another 1 to 2 million people unemployed, wont makemuch difference. Postponing action justmeans that inflation presses further an
4、d is even more difficult to deal with.You have to start with revenue and monetaryrestraint. All the burden now is onmonetary policy. We should shift to a much more restrictiverevenue policy and an easier monetary policy. To be significant ,the 1981 budget should becut by at least 20 billion dollars
5、from 616 billion President Carter proposed. Thats a major cut in government programs-andvery hard to do. Its impossible if yousave defense and all the programs indexed for changes in the cost of living.So it means cuts across the board in everyarea-including the indexed programs, such as Social Secu
6、rity and food stamps. State and local-government revenue-sharingprograms are another major candidate. Youve also got to reopen the 1980 budget andcut that. Then I would favor wage and price controlsto break the impetus of the wage-price interaction.In order to get quick results, Id set thestandard a
7、round 5 or 6 percent for both wages and prices.Basically , youre aiming to cut the rateof inflation in half the first year. There would be no exceptions , but you wouldfocus on large corporations and major labor settlements.For thespecial sectorswhere thebig shocks have occurred, controls wont work.
8、 Instead, you need additional policies in each one ofthose areas.There are no cheap or easy solutions to theinflation problem. My answer is to takeall the things that everybody wants to do, and instead of choosing among them,do all of them. Weve got to think interms of a comprehensive program.In the
9、 authors opinion, the high inflationrate in the U. S. was accompanied byAenergy crises.Bmounting wages.Chousing shortage.Dshrinking market.22、The only way to reverse the worseningsituation seems to beAa policy of gradualism.Bsacrifice of public interests.Cradical changes of policy.Dpostponing of dra
10、stic actions.23、We can learn from the fourth paragraph thatAasubstantial cut in annual revenue is called for.Bdefense and social welfare programs shouldundergo cuts.Cwe should leave intact programs for betteringpeoples living.Dwe should exercise less control over monetarypolicy.24、The phrase special
11、 sectors (Line 1,Paragraph 7)most probably refers toAenergy, food and housing.Bindexed programs.Csocial security and food stamps.Dlarge corporations and labor settlements.25、What is the text mainly about?AThe defect of U. S. monetary system.BThe causes of ever-worsening inflation in theU. S.CProspec
12、ts for the U. S. economic situation.DA comprehensive settlement of inflation in theU. S.26、Text 2根据内容,回答26-45问题。For centuries the most valuable of Africanresources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports, withoutany need for going deep inland. Slaveryhad been an e
13、stablished institution in Africa. Prisoners of war had been enslaved, as werealso debtors and individuals guilty of serious crimes. But these slaves usually were treated as partof the family. They had clearly definedrights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited. Therefore it is common
14、ly argued that Africastraditional slavery was mild compared to the Vans-Atlantic slave tradeorganized by the Europeans.Thisargument, however, can be carried too far.In the most re-cent study of this subject,some scholars warned against the illusion that cruel and dehumanizing enslavementwas a monopo
15、ly of the West. Slavery inits extreme forms, including the taking of life, was common to both Africa andthe West. The fact that African slaveryhad different origins and consequences should not lead us to deny what it wastheexploitation and control of human beings. Neither can it be denied that thewh
16、olesale shipment of Africans to the slave plantations of the Americas wasmade possible by the participation of African chiefs who rounded up theirfellow Africans and sold them as a handsome profit to European ship captainswaiting along the coasts.Granting all this, the fact remains that thetrans-Atl
17、antic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different inquantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed withinAfrica. From the beginning the Europeanvariety was primarily an economic institution rather than social, as it hadbeen in Africa. Western slave trade
18、rsand slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations, and werequite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do sothan to treat them more mercifully. Thisinhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in theAfrican slave trade on a large
19、scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization theygradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior, and therefore destinedto serve their white masters. Rationalizationalso may have been involved in the Europeans use of religion to justify thetraffic in human beings. It was argued,for
20、 instance, that enslavement assured the conversion of the Africanevil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.In the first paragraph, the author argues thatAthe Europeans were innocent in the trade ofAfrican slaves.Bslavery in Africa and in the West was the samein nature.Cth
21、e view in the most recent studies ofenslavement is baseless.Dslaves had been treated even more cruelly inthe African tradition.27、Which of the following was true of the localAfrican slavery?ASlaves might have their own families.BThe son of a slave might not be a slave.CSlavery was confined to the co
22、astal regions.DThere was no killing in African slavery.28、The sentence This argument. can becarried too far implies thatAAfricans traditional slavery was inhumane.Bthe slavery in Africa was confined to someregions.Csupporters of this argument knew little ofAfrica.Dslave shipment was not so serious a
23、s wasimagined.29、Supporters of the rationalization of slaverybelieve that the tradeAwas out of good intents from the beginning.Bhelped the development of local religion.Cwas a help for civilizing the Africans.Ddrove the evils out of the African religions.30、The relation between the two paragraphs is
24、that in the 2nd paragraph the authorAchallenges the viewpoint in the 1st paragraph.Bmodifies his view expressed in the 1stparagraph.Cprovides the reason for the argument in the1st paragraph.Dfurther analyzes the issue discussed in the 1st paragraph.Text 3根据内容,回答31-50问题。As West Nile virus creeps towa
25、rdCalifornia, an unlikely warrior could provide the first line of defense: the chicken. The familiar fowl make irresistible targetsfor mosquitoes. Unlike crows, chickens dont get sick from West Nile. But they do produce telltale antibodies to thevirus. So in test coops scattered acrossthe state, mor
26、e than 2000 sentinel chickens submit to frequentblood tests. When antibodies do turn up, California health officials will knowthat the inevitable has occurred: the West Nile epidemic will have swept thecountry.Lastweek alone, more than 100 new human cases of West Nile were reported. The virus was de
27、tected as far west as Colorado andWyoming, infecting 371 and killing 16 people in 20 states plus the District of Columbia.This year West Nile appeared earlier in the mosquito seasonmid-Juneinstead of August-and claimed younger victims; the average age dropped from 65to 54. Federal health officials a
28、restill trying to figure out why, but say they may be finding more West Nileprecisely because theyre on the lookout for it. As Dr. Julie Gerberding, the new director of theCenters for Disease Control ( CDC), recently told reporters , Were notin crisis mode. WhenWest Nile hit New York City in 1999,th
29、e CDC realized it was a victim of its ownsuccess. Because health officials hadconquered most mosquito-borne diseases decades ago, many statesabolished their mosquito-control programs. The Feds rushed in with funds-some $ 50million since 1999, plus $31 million more this year alone-to train insectrese
30、archers, set up state testing labs and kill off the annoying insects. The CDC established a new computer monitoringsystem and held strategy sessions with state officials.Someepidemiologists question the focus-and the millions-lavished on a virusthats killed fewer than 20. Theres an epidemic in gun v
31、iolencethats taking more lives than West Nile virus, says Dr. William Steinmann, director of the TulaneCenter for Clinical Effectiveness and Prevention. But the Feds say theirefforts have kept West Nile from doing far more damage. Were basically building theinfrastructure to deal with this over the next 50 years, says Dr. Lyle Peterson, a CDC epidemiologist. This is here to stay. Sofar, there are no remedies for West Nile. Officials eventually expect the virus tosettle into a qu
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