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Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:

It is a favorable thing to look back at some of the reforms which have long been an accepted part of our life, and to examine the opposition, usually bitter and very strange, sometimes dishonest but all too often honest, which had to be countered by the restless advocates of ¡°grandmotherly" legislation. The reforms treated in this book are not the well-known measures¡ªlike the abolishment of slavery, the reform of Parliament, the vote of women¡ªwhich are recorded in the standard history books. Here are some of the less familiar struggles which, with one or two exceptions, social historians have tended to dismiss briefly. Yet these old controversies give no less revealing an insight into the minds of our grandfathers than do the major issues of the last century. The pulse of a generation can be taken just as effectively by considering its attitudes to the marrying of deceased wives' sisters, to the fetching of father's beer or even to the sweeping of chimneys. What some of the reforms dealt with were carried out within living memory; none is older than the nineteenth century. They have been selected for the variety of their background and for the fertility (state of being fertile) and stimulus of the opposition leveled against them.

Misguided and complete unreasonable though some of this opposition now appears, it is doubtful whether it will seem any more peculiar, one hundred years hence, than some of the reasons we produce today for continual hardship and injustice. Our ancestors thought it absurd that wives should wish to keep their own earnings; our descendants may be astonished at our system which forces a man to maintain a woman, sometimes for life, after a hopeless marriage has been disrupted. It is likely that our descendants will derive as much heartless fun from consideration of our divorce laws, and the reasons we use to defend them, as from the arguments we put forward to excuse the disfigurement of the countryside. They may also think that the indifference of the nineteenth century to death and suffering in the mills was fully matched by that of the twentieth century to death and suffering on the highways.

31. What is the main idea of the passage?

A. We can benefit from a careful reflection on the past reform which have become a natural component of our life.

B. Some of the opposition to reforms in the past has been very unreasonable.

C. Social historians tend to dismiss reforms o a small scale as insignificant.

D. Some of the social reforms in the past did not survive the living memory because of their insignificance.

32. If this passage is taken from the foreword to a book, which of the following will most probably be discussed extensively in the book?

A. The abolishment of slavery in the United States in the 19th century

B. The reform of Parliament in Britain in the 17th century

C. The first national constitution against polygamy (Ò»·ò¶àÆÞÖÆ)

D. The approval of marriage between a woman and her deceased husband's brother

33. What does the author say about opposition to reforms in the past?

A. It was mostly well-intentioned and meant for the public good.

B. It was mostly dishonest and aimed only at personal gains.

C. It was mostly accepted by the authorities.

D. It was mostly unreasonable and misguided.

34. How does the author suggest that our descendants will probably treat our current legal system and social customs?

A. They will carry on with our current legal system and social customs with due respect.

B. They may consider them unreasonable in most of the cases and discard them totally.

C. They may wonder at some of the rules that we take for granted today.

D. They may thing our current legal system and social customs are better than those in the 19th century.

35. What does the word ¡°absurd" in the fourth line of the last paragraph mean?

A. intolerable B. ridiculous C. unbelievable D. unreasonable

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:

Public general hospital originated in the almshouse (¾È¼ÃÔº) infirmaries established as early as colonial times by local governments to care for the poor. Later, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the infirmary separated from the almshouse and became an independent institution supported by local tax money. At the same time, private charity hospitals began to develop. Both private and public hospitals provided mainly food and shelter for the impoverished sick, since there was little that medicine could actually do to cure illness, and the middle class was treated at home by private physicians.

Late in the nineteenth century, the private charity hospital began trying to attract middle-class patients. Although the depression of 1890 stimulated the growth of charitable institutions and an expanding urban population became dependent on assistance, there was a decline in private contributions to these organizations, which forced them to look to local government for financial support. Since private institutions had also lost benefactors, they began to charge patients. In order to attract middle-class patients, private institutions provided services and amenities that distinguished between paying and non-paying patients and made the hospital a desirable place for private physicians to treat their own patients. As paying patients became more necessary to the survival of the private hospital, the public hospitals slowly became the only place for the poor to get treatment. By the end of the nineteenth century, cities were reimbursing private hospitals for their care of indigent patients and the public hospitals remained dependent on the tax dollars.

The advent of private hospital health insurance, which provided middle-class patients with the purchasing power to pay for private hospital services, guaranteed the private hospital a regular source of income. Private hospitals restricted themselves to revenue-generating patients, leaving the public hospitals to care for the poor. Although public hospitals continued to provide services for patients with communicable (´«È¾ÐÔµÄ) diseases and outpatients (ÃÅÕﲡÈË) and emergency services, the Blue Cross plans developed around the needs of the private hospitals and the inpatients (סԺ²¡ÈË) they served. Thus, reimbursement for ambulatory(Á÷¶¯µÄ¡¢·Ç¹Ì¶¨µÄ) care has been minimal under most Blue Cross plans, and provision of outpatient care has not been a major function of the private hospital, in part because private patients can afford to pay for the services of private physicians. Additionally, since World War II, there has been a tremendous influx of federal money into private medical schools and the hospitals associated with them. Further, large private medical centers with expensive research equipment and programs have attracted the best administrators, physicians, and researchers. As a result of the greater resources available to the private medical centers, public hospitals have increasing problems attracting highly qualified research and medical personnel. With the mainstream of health care firmly established in the private medical sector, the public hospital has become a dumping ground.

36. What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. How did the public general hospitals originate?

B. Why private hospitals are more attractive to middleª²class patients?

C. The difference between private and public hospitals.

D. The development of private hospitals.

37. According to the passage, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hospitals provided mainly food and shelter because _____.

A. the middle-class was treated at home by private physicians

B. all patients were poor

C. hospitals had little effective medicine to care for the sick

D. there was no medicine in both private and public hospitals

38. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. The depression of the mid-eighteenth century stimulated the growth of charitable institutions.

B. The public hospitals began to charge patients because they lost benefactors.

C. The appearance of health insurance gave the private hospital a steady financial source.

D. Both private and public hospitals depended on the tax dollars during the colonial times.

39. According to the passage, the private hospitals have all of the following advantages EXCEPT _____.

A. highly qualified research staff

B. more patients

C. expensive equipment

D. highly qualified medical personnel

40. Why the public hospital has become a dumping ground?

A. It is because private hospitals have become predominantly the leading force in the medical profession.

B. It is because the Government has concentrated its resources on the funding of private hospitals.

C. It is because the public hospitals don't provide medical insurance to patients.

D. It is because public hospitals only provide services for patients with communicable diseases and outpatients and emergency services.