Section III Cloze (5 points)
Directions: For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET 1.
The China boom is by now a well-documented phenomenon. Who hasn“t 41 the Middle Kingdom“s astounding economic growth (8 percent annually), its tremendous consumer market (1.2 billion people), the investment enthusiasm of foreign suitors ($40 billion in foreign direct investment last year 42 )? China is an economic wonder. 43 Nicholas Lardy of the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, “No country 44 its foreign trade as fast as China over the last 20 years. Japan doubled its foreign trade over 45 period; China“s foreign trade was quintupled (使成五倍). They“ve become the pre-eminent producer of labor-intensive manufacturing goods in the world.\"
But there“s been 46 from the dazzling China growth story---namely, the Chinese multinational. No major Chinese companies have yet established themselves, or their brands, 47 the global stage. But things are now starting to change. 48 100 years of poverty and chaos, of being overshadowed by foreign countries and multinationals, Chinese industrial companies are starting to make a mark on the world.
A new generation of large and credible firms 49 in China in the electronics, appliance and even high-tech sectors. Some have 50 critical mass on the mainland and are now seeking new outlets for their production -- through exports and by building Chinese factories abroad, chiefly in Southeast Asia.
41. A. listened B. listened to C. heard D. heard of
42. A. alone B. aside C. along D. lonely
43. A. As for B. As to C. Judging by D. According to
44. A. has expanded B. did expand C. does expand D. expands
45. A. 20-year B. a 20-year C. 20-years D. a 20 years
46.A. something lost B. lost something C. something missing D. something missed
47. A. at B. in C. over D. on
48. A. Before B. After C. Since D. Behind
49. A. emerge B. have emerged C. has emerged D. is emerged
50. A. reached B. reached over C. reached out D. reached down
Section IV Reading Comprehension (40 points )
Part A
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. You should decide on the best choice and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET 1 with a pencil.
Questions 51 to 54 are based on the following passage:
Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollar“s worth of silver. That is because the coins were actually made of silver. But those days are gone. There is no silver in today“s coins. When the price of the precious metal rises above its face value as money, the metal will become more valuable in other uses. Silver coins are no longer in circulation because the silver in coins is worth much more than their face value. A silver firm could find that it is cheaper to obtain silver by melting down coins than by buying it on the commodity markets. Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals.
Gresham“s Law, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, argues that \"good money\" is driven out of circulation by \"bad money\". Good money differs from bad money because it has higher commodity value.
Gresham lived in the 16th century in England where it was common for gold and silver coins to be debased. Governments did this by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver. The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less precious metal than the face value indicated. Because different mixings of coins had different amounts of gold and silver, even though they bore the same face value, some coins were worth more than others as commodities. People who dealt with gold and silver could easily see the difference between the \"good\" and the \"bad\" money. Gresham observed that coins with a higher content of gold and silver were kept rather than being used in exchange, or were melted down for their precious metal. In the mid-1960s when the U.S. issued new coins to replace silver coins, Gresham“s law went right in action.
51. Why was it possible for Americans to use a one-dollar bill for a dollar“s worth of silver?
A. Because there was a lot of silver in the United States.
B. Because money was the medium of payment.
C. Because coins were made of silver.
D. Because silver was considered worthless.
52. Today“s coins in the United States are made of ______.
A. some precious metals
B. silver and some precious metals
C. various expensive metals
D. some inexpensive metals
53. What is the difference between \"good money\" and \"bad money\"?
A. They are circulated in different markets.
B. They are issued in different face values.
C. They are made of different amounts of gold and silver.
D. They have different uses.
54. What was the purpose of the governments issuing new coins by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver in the 16 th century?
A. They wanted to reserve some gold and silver for themselves.
B. There was neither enough gold nor enough silver.
C. New coins were easier to be made.
D. They could make money.
Questions 55 to 58 are based on the following passage:
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term \"ice-box\" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States: The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modem refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks.
One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.