07年6月英语六级考试模拟试卷(八)

Part II Reading comprehension (35 minutes)
　　Passage One
　　It’s a brand new world --- a world built around brands. Hard-charging, noise-making, culture-shaping brands are everywhere. They’re on supermarket shelves, of course, but also in business plans for .com startups and in the names of sports complexes. Brands are infiltrating (渗透)people’s everyday lives --- by sticking their logoes (商标) on clothes, in concert programs, on subway –station walls, even in elementary school classrooms .

　　We live in an age in which CBS newscasters wear Nike jackets on the air, in which Burger King and McDonald’s open kiosks(小亭) in elementary school lunchrooms, in which schools like Stanford University are endowed with a Yahoo! Founders Chair. But as brands reach (and then overreach) into every aspects of our lives, the companies behind them invite more questions, deeper scrutiny—and an inevitable backlash(强烈反应) by consumers.
　　“Our intellectual lives and our public spaces are being taken over by marketing ---and that has real implications for citizenship,” says author and activists Naomi Klien. “It’s important for any healthy culture to have public space--- a place where people are treated as citizens instead of as consumers. We’ve completely lost that space.
　　Since the mid-1980s ,as more and more companies have shifted from being about products to being about ideas – Starbucks isn’t selling coffee; It’s selling community!----those companies have poured more and more resources into marketing campaigns.
　　To pay for those campaigns, those same companies figured out ways to cut costs elsewhere, for example, by using contract labor at home and low-wage labor in developing countries. Contract laborers are hired on a temporary, per-assignment basis, and employers have no obligation to provide any benefits (such as health insurance) or long-term job security. This saves companies money but obviously puts workers in vulnerable situations. In the United States, contract labor has given rise to so-called McJobs, which employers and workers alike pretend are temporary----even though these jobs are usually held by adults who are trying to support families.
　　The massive expansion of marketing campaigns in the 1980s coincided with the reduction of government spending for schools and for museums. This made those institutions much too willing, even eager, to partner with private companies. But companies took advantage of the needs of those institutions, reaching too far, and overwhelming the civic space with their marketing agendas.
　　21. Which of the following does the author state as a factor in the increasing presence of brands in people’s lives?
　　A the aggressive nature of corporate marketing
　　B the lack of government funding for schools and museums
　　C the lack of government regulations of marketing methods
　　D the corporate funding of public spaces
　　22. Naomi Klein’s attitude towards the infiltration of brands into spaces is one of .
　　A concern B ambivalence (矛盾心理) C outrage D acceptance
　　23. The passage suggests that most contract laborers in the U.S. .
　　A pretend to be temporary workers
　　B may have trouble supporting their families financially
　　C have work conditions comparable to those of low-wage workers overseas .
　　D are likely to receive health benefits from their employers
　　24. This passage is mainly about .
　　A the problems with current corporate practices
　　B the nature of current marketing campaigns and strategies
　　C the importance of brands in American culture
　　D the excessive presence of brand and marketing in people’s lives.
　　25. The last paragraph tells us that .
　　A inadequate federal funding facilitated the privatization of schools and museums
　　B public institutions were too quick to accept corporate marketing as a source of funding
　　C companies manipulated schools through sophisticated ad campaigns
　　D by the 1980s ,very few public institutions were not funding by corporations
　Passage two
　　In April 1845, when John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln at Fort’s Theatre, the curtain finally fell on a play that had began almost as soon as the Americans colonies gained their independence from England. In 1776, American’s Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal”; 44 years later we were wrestling with a question: how can a nation founded on the idea of individual freedom reconcile with the existence of human slavery?

　　In 1819, 22 states were in the Union, 11 Free and 11 Slave. The South’s economy was based on the growing of cotton, and cotton was profitable on the backs of slaves. As new states were admitted to the Union, the South wanted as many as possible to be slave states, not only to support their economy, but to prevent the North from obtaining a majority in Congress and quite possibly changing the Constitution to outlaw slavery completely. This issue came to a head when Missouri applied to be admitted as a slave state. Thomas Jefferson called the debate that began with Missouri “like a fireball in the night”, which awakened me and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell （丧钟）of the nation.”
　　War was avoided the time as compromise was reached and Missouri would be admitted as a slave state. Maine, the next state admitted to the Union, would be admitted as free, thereby preserving the balance of power in the Congress.
　　By 1860, when the new Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, compromise would no longer work. Lincoln wanted to contain the spread of slavery. With Lincoln’s election in November that year, the South felt that it was only a matter of time before the Southern States lost their slim Democratic Party majority to those who wished to abolish slavery. It was in this same year that John Wilkes Booth said that “So deep is my hatred for such men that I wish I had them in my grasp and I the power to crash.”
　　Equally passionate, Lincoln held that America was the “Last Best Hope on Earth” for freedom. The United States was unique in the family of nations. Of all the nations in the world, only America was governed by her people. Kings, Queens, Princes or Emperors ruled all the old world, where rights were held by the government and given to the people. In America, right were held by the people and given to the government. The iron was that the Old World had done away with slavery decades before, yet the United States, beacon（灯塔）of freedom---had human bondage（奴役）. Lincoln said it himself,” the nation cannot exist half-slave and half-free, it must be all of one thing or all of the other.”
　　26. We learn from the first paragraph that .
　　A the seed of the American Civil War were sown when the nation was founded
　　B John Wilkes Booth had plotted to kill Lincoln from the moment America gain its independence.
　　C all men in America obtained equal rights with the Declaration of Independence
　　D John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at the end of a performance in Ford’s Theatre.
　　27. The fundamental conflict between the Union and the South lies in .
　　A religious faiths
　　B political beliefs
　　C economic interests
　　D geographic differences
　　28. It can be inferred from the context of Para. 4 .
　　A John Wilkes Booth was one of the fireballs of the South
　　B the Democratic Party was strongly opposed to slavery
　　C with the election of Lincoln the South lost its majority in Congress
　　D the Civil War could have been avoided if Lincoln had not won the election
　　29. What did Lincoln wish to do when he became President of the United States?
　　A Make compromises
　　B Prevent the spread of slavery
　　C Strike a balance
　　D Get prepared for war
　　30. In what way was America unique in the family of nations .
　　A It was the only nation that allowed the existence of slavery
　　B It was the only nation that existed half-slave and half-free
　　C It was the only nation whose government gave rights to the people
　　D It was the only nation whose power of government was given by people