Scientists searching for metals with sepcial power

A new method of searching for minerals---using trees and plants

Question: Which is the best title ?


Question: Which of the following is not mentioned as part of a tree that can help find minerals?

Flying over a desert area in an airplane, two scientists looked down with trained eyes at trees and bushes. After an hour's flight one of the scientists wrote in his book, 'Look here for probable metal' Scientists in another airplane, flying over a mountain region,sent a message to other scientists on the ground,'Gold possible.' Walking across hilly ground, four scientists reported,'This ground should be searched for metals.' From an airplane over a hilly wasteland a scientist sent back by radio one word,'Uranium'.
None of the scientists had X-ray eyes: they had no magic powers for looking down below the earth's surface. They were merely putting to use one of the newest methods of location minerals in the ground---using trees and plants as signs that certain minerals may lie beneath the ground on which the trees and plants are growing.
This newest method of searching for minerals is based on the fact that minerals deep in the earth may affect the kind of bushes and trees that grow on the surface.
At Watson Bar Creek, a brook six thousand feet high in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada,a mineral search group gathered bags of tree seeds. Boxed were filled with small banches from te trees. Roots were dug and put into boxes. Each bag and box was carefully marked. In a scientific laboratory the parts of the forest trees were burned to ashes and tested .Each small part was examined to learn whether there were minerals in it.
Study of the roots , branches,and seeds showed no silver. But there were small amounts of gold in the roots and a little less gold in the branches and seeds. The seeds growing nearest to the tree trunk had more gold than those growing on the ends of the branches.
If the trees had not indicated that there was gold in the ground, the scientists would not have spent money to pay for digging into the deeper. They did dig and found more fold below. They dug deeper. They found large quantities of gold.


X-ray
magic power
a special instrument
trained eyes

Question: The scientists were searching for minerals by using _ .


To get their share of clean air.
To pursue a comfortable life.
To gain a higher social status.
To seek economic benefits.

Question: What does the author assume might be the primary reason that people would struggle with each other

Air pollution is deteriorating in many places around the world. The fact that public parks in cities become crowded as soon as the sun shines proves that people long to breathe in green, open spaces. They do not all know what they are seeking but they flock there, nevertheless. And, in these surroundings, they are generally both peaceful and peaceable. It is rare to see people fighting in a garden. Perhaps struggle unfolds first, not at an economic or social level, but over the appropriation of air, essential to life itself.
If human beings can breathe and share air, they don't need to struggle with one another.
Unfortunately, in our western tradition, neither materialist nor idealist theoreticians give enough consideration to this basic condition for life. As for politicians, despite proposing curbs on environmental pollution, they have not yet called for it to be made a crime. Wealthy countries are even allowed to pollute if they pay for it.
But is our life worth anything other than money? The plant world shows us in silence what faithfulness to life consists of. It also helps us to a new beginning, urging us to care for our breath, not only at a vital but also at a spiritual level. The interdependence to which we must pay the closest attention is that whicl exists between ourselves and the plant world. Often described as "the lungs of the planet", the woods tha cover the earth offer us the gift of breathable air by releasing oxygen. But their capacity to renew the ai polluted by industry has long reached its limit. If we lack the air necessary for a healthy life, it is because we have filled it with chemicals and undercut the ability of plants to regenerate it. As we know, rapi deforestation combined with the massive burning of fossil fuels is an explosive recipe for an irreversibl disaster.
The fight over the appropriation of resources will lead the entire planet to hell unless humans learn t share life, both with each other and with plants. This task is simultaneously ethical and political because can be discharged only when each takes it upon herself or himself and only when it is accomplishe together with others. The lesson taught by plants is that sharing life expands and enhances the sphere c the living, while dividing life into so-called natural or human resources diminishes it. We must come t view the air, the plants and ourselves as the contributors to the preservation of life and growth, rathe than a web of quantifiable objects or productive potentialities at our disposal. Perhaps then we woulfinally begin to live, rather than being concerned with bare survival.


Depriving common people of the right to clean air.

Giving priority to theory rather than practical action.

Offering preferential treatment to wealthy countries.

Failing to pass laws to curb environmental pollution.

Question: What does the author accuse western politicians of?


The capacity of plants to renew polluted air.

Large-scale deforestation across the world.

Question: What does the author try to draw our closest attention to?


By showing respect for plants.
By preserving all forms of life.
By tapping all natural resources.
By pooling their efforts together.

Question: How can human beings accomplish the goal of protecting the planet according to the author?


Expand the sphere of living.
Develop nature's potentials.
Share life with nature.
Allocate the resources.

Question: What does the author suggest we do in order not just to survive?


A French television company.
The Paris Metro.
The City Government of Paris.
Professor Wilson.

Question: Who did the experiment?

In 1985 a French television company sent its reporters to the Paris Metro. They took cameras to see what passengers would do if they saw someone attached on the platform or in the trains. They acted out incidents. The incidents looked real but they were all done with the help of actors. However, very few people tried to help, and most passengers pretended not to notice. in one incident, a foreigner was attacked by three men. The attack was on a train which was quite full, and although one man tried to get the passengers to help, they all refused. It seems that such behaviour is not unusual, but the question is why? Is it a problem of big cities, or would the same thing happen anywhere? To discuss these questions, we have in the studio Professor Wilson, who is an expert on the subject…


How a foreigner was attacked on the train.

How passengers helped each other on the platform.

Passengers' reactions towards incidents.

Question: What did the experiment try to find out?


Passengers helped a lot during incidents.

Very few passengers tried to help during incidents.

Some people were good at acting on the train.

Question: What was the finding of the experiment?


keep a record of the steps of the wearer

enable children to resist the temptation of TV

prevent children from being tricked by TV programs

Question: According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to _ .

Sports shoes that work out whether their owner has done enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes - named Square Eyes - contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day's efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. "We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out," she says. "And I wanted to tackle that with my design."
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more
steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. "It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort," she says. "That was one of my main design considerations."


They regulate a child's evening TV viewing time.

They determine a child's daily pocket money.

They have raised the hot issue of overweight.

They contain information of the receiver.

Question: Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?


The precise number of hours spent on TV.

The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time.

The way of changing steps into TV watching time.

Question: What is stressed by health experts in their suggestion?


makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat

counts the wearer's steps through shaking

records the sudden movement of the wearer

sends teenagers' health data to the receiver

Question: Compared with other similar products, the new design _ .


Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time
Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise
Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise
Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight

Question: Which of the following would be the best title for the text?


Isaac's father
a winning horse
a slave taking care of horses
the first racing horse in Kentucky

Question: We know from the text that Buchanan is.

May: Happenings form the Past
May 5, 1884
Isaac Murphy, son of a slave and perhaps the greatest horse rider in American history, rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby. He becomes the first rider ever to win the race three times.
May 9, 1754
Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette produces perhaps the first American political cartoon(），showing a snake cut in pieces with the words "John or Die " printed under the picture.
May 11, 1934
The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl, the result of years of drought(），blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington,
D.C.
May 19, 1994
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former first lady and one of the most famous people of the 1960s, died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64.
May 24,1844
Samuel F.B. Morse taps out the first message, "What hath God wrought," over the experimental long-distance telegraph line which runs from Washington,D.C., to Baltimore, Md.


Join or Die
Pennsylvania Gazette
What Hath God Wrought
Kentucky Derby

Question: What is the title of the first American political cartoon?


Question: In which year did the former first lady Jacqueline die?


Washington,D.C.
New York City.
Kentucky.
Pennsylvania.

Question: Which of the following places has to do with the first telegram in history?


It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane.

The idea for its design comes from a comic book.

Its ability to ward off disasters is incredible.

It is an indispensable device on an airplane.

Question: What does the author say about the black box?

You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going,how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine  detected the device's homing signal five day; later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early model,, often failed to withstand crashes,however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane - the area least subject to impact - from its original position in the landing wells . The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modem airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations,and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noies and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated ( ) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000~F. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft.
Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crasned near Brazil on June l, 2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-seacrashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.


Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.

The total number of passengers on board.

The scene of the crash and extent of the damage.

Homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash.

Question: What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?


New materials became available by that time.

Too much space was needed for its installation.

The early models often got damaged in the crash.

The early models didn't provide the needed data.

Question: Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?


To distinguish them from the colour of the plane.

To caution people to handle them with care.

Question: Why did the Federal Aviation Authority require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow?


There is still a good chance of their being recovered.

There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.

They have stopped sending homing signals.

They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.

Question: What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Fligh 447?


should not be the sole representation of girlhood

should not be associated with girls' innocence

cannot explain girls' lack of imagination

cannot influence girls' lives and interests

Question: By saying "it is ... The rainbow"(line 3, Para 1), the author means pink  _ .

Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls' lives. It is not that pink intrinsically bad, but it is a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fused girls' identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls' lives and interests.
Girls' attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it's not. Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What's more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid-1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children's marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem innately attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years.
I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children's behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing gimmick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.
Trade publications counseled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a "third stepping stone" between infant wear and older kids' clothes. It was only after "toddler" became common shoppers' term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences - or invent them where they did not previously exist.


Blue used to be regarded as the color for girls

Pink used to be a neutral color in symbolizing genders

Question: According to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours?


the marketing of products for children
the observation of children's nature
researches into children's behavior
studies of childhood consumption

Question: The author suggests that our perception of children's psychological devotement was much influenced by  _ .


focuses on infant wear and older kids' clothes

attach equal importance to different genders

Question: We may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised  _ .


clearly explained by their inborn tendency

fully understood by clothing manufacturers

mainly imposed by profit-driven businessmen

well interpreted by psychological experts

Question: It can be concluded that girl's attraction to pink seems to be  _ .


Bright colors.
Circular patterns.
Stripes and angles.
Various shapes.

Question: What does a newborn baby like to see most'?

The newborn can see the difference between various shapes and patterns from birth. He prefers patterns to dull or bright solid colors and looks longer at stripes and angles than at circular patterns. Within three weeks, however, his preference shifts dramatically to the human face.
Why should a baby with so little visual experience attend more to a human face than to any other kind of pattern'? Some scientists think this preference represents a built in advantage for the human species. The object of prime importance to the physically helpless infant is a human being. Babies seem to have a natural tendency to the human face as potentially rewarding. Researchers also point out that the newborn wisely relies more on pattern than on outline, size, or color. Pattern remains stable, while outline changes with point of view; size, with distance from an object; and brightness and color, with lighting.
Mothers have always claimed that they could see their newborns looking at them as they held them, despite what they have been told. The experts who thought that perception  had to await physical development and the consequence of action were wrong for several reasons. Earlier research techniques were less sophisticated than they are today. Physical skills were once used to indicate perception of objects-skills like visual tracking and reaching for an object, both of which the newborn does poorly. Then, too, assumptions that the newborn's eye and brain were too immature for anything as sophisticated as pattern recognition caused opposing data to be thrown away. Since perception of form was widely believed to follow perception of more "basic" qualities such as color and brightness, the possibility of its presence from birth was rejected.


he sees a human face more often than any other kind of pattern

he has an inherent ability to regard a human being as helpful

a human face is the most complex pattern he can see

a human face is often accompanied by a pleasant voice

Question: The newborn pays more attention to a human face than any other kind of objects because ________.


care little about a human face
can't track their movements
can't see their faces
can easily perceive brightness

Question: Contrary to what they believe, mothers have been told that newborns ________.


ignored evidence contrary to their assumptions

believed that perception of form comes before perception of color and brightness

proved that physical skills come after visual perception

Question: In earlier researches on the newborn's perception, scientists ________.


research techniques are of vital importance scientific investigation

the findings of earlier scientific researchers often prove wrong

more often than not the claims of mothers are reliable

Question: The main idea of the passage is that ________.


quite satisfied with her life
a poor Jewish girl
born in a middle class family
a resident in a rich area in New York

Question: In the passage, we can find the author was _ .

When I was growing up, the whole world was Jewish. The heroes were Jewish and the villains were Jewish. The landlord, the doctor, the grocer, your best friend, the village idiot, and the neighborhood bully: all Jewish. We were working class and immigrants as well, but that just came with territory. Essentially we were Jews on the streets of New York. We learned to be kind, cruel, smart and feeling in a mixture of language and gesture that was part street slang, part grade school English, part kitchen Yiddish.
One Sunday evening when I was eight years old my parents and I were riding in the back seat of my rich uncle's car. We had been out for a ride and now we were back in the Bronx, headed for home. Suddenly, another car sideswiped us. My mother and aunt shrieked. My uncle swore softly. My father, in whose lap I was sitting, said out the window at the speeding car, "That's all right. Nothing but a few Jews in here." In an instant I knew everything. I knew there was a world beyond our streets, and in that world my father was humiliated man, without power or standing.
When I was sixteen,a girl in the next building had her nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away
a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote "Arnold Brown" instead of "Arnold Braunowiitz". The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A nose job? A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn't standstill. Things felt lively and active. Selfconfidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That's what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there.
But who exactly do I mean when I say we? I mean Arnie, not Selma. I mean my brother, not me. I mean the boys, not the girls. My mother stood behind me, pushing me forward. "The girl goes to college, too," she said. And I did. But my going to college would not mean the same thing as my mother's going to college, and we all knew it. For my brother, college meant going from the Bronx to Manhattan. But for me? From the time I was fourteen I yearned to get out of the Bronx, but get out into what? I did not actually imagine myself a working person alone in Manhattan and nobody else did either. What I did imagine was that I would marry, and that the man I married would get me downtown. He would brave the perils of class and race, and somehow I'd be there alongside him.


to look her best
to find a new job in the neighborhood
to live a new life in other places
to marry very soon

Question: Selma Shapiro had her nose straightened because she wanted _ .


there was racial discrimination in employment

Question: Arnold Brown changed his name because _ .


the Jews were satisfied with their life in the Bronx

the young Jews didn't accept the stern reality

Question: From the passage we can infer that _ .


digital products
user information
physical assets
quality service

Question: According to Paragraph 1, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its _______.

The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing-Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn't have any physical product at all. What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users' friendships and social lives.
Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through. Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be. What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May's enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops it owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.
Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power. But it is clumsy. For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy. By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power. But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too. Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don't pay for them. The users of their services are not their customers. That would be the people who buy advertising from them-and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.
The product they're selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants. Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew that produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield. Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes. It doesn't feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit.


worsen political disputes
mess up customer records
pose a risk to Facebook users
mislead the European commission

Question: Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may _______.


violated the Constitution
undermined the states' interests
supported the federal statute
stood in favor of the states

Question: According to the author, competition law _______.


the services are paid for by advertisers

Question: The White House claims that its power of enforcement ________.


a win-win business model between digital giants

a typical competition pattern among digital giants

the benefits provided for digital giants' customers

the relationship between digital giants and their users

Question: The ants analogy is used to illustrate _______.


you must be a medical student, or a medical worker

you are haunted by a possibly inexistent disease

you always tell funny stories at dinner parties

Question: According to the passage, if you suffer from hypochondria, _ .

It happens to every medical student sooner or later. You get a cough that persists for a while. Ordinarily,you would just ignore it--but now, armed with your rapidly growing medical knowledge, you can't help worrying. The cough could mean just a cold, but it could also be a sign of lung cancer.
For doctors in training, nurses and medical journalists, hypochondria is an occupational danger. The feeling usually passes after a while, leaving only a funny story to tell at a dinner party. But for the tens ofthousands who suffer from true hypochondria they live in constant terror that they are dying of some awfuldisease, or even several awful diseases at once. Doctors can assure them that there's nothing wrong, but since the cough is real, the assurances fall on deaf ears. And because no physician or test can offer a 100% guarantee that one doesn't have cancer, a hypochondriac always has fuel to feed Iris .or her worst fears.
Hypochondriacs don't harm just themselves; they block the whole healthcare system. Although they account for only about 6% of the patients who visit doctors every year, they tend to burden their physicians with frequent visits that take up excessive amounts of time. And the problem may be worse, thanks to the popularity of medical information on the Internet. They go on the Web and learn about new diseases and new presentations of old diseases that they never even knew about before. Doctors have taken to calling this phenomenon cyberchondria .


Hypochondria happens to everybody sooner or later.

We needn't worry about hypochondria since it is not dangerous at all.

Hypochondria originates from too much knowledge of medicine.

Not only individuals but also the healthcare system might be disturbed by unnecessary terrors.

Question: Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?


Because the doctors can't cure the minor diseases

Because the doctors don't assure them of that

Because the sufferers are deaf and cannot hear what the doctors say

Because lack of absolute guarantee makes the patients doubtful

Question: Why can't doctors convince the suffers that there is nothing wrong?


the widespread medical knowledge on the Internet

the patients,regular visits to doctors that occupy too much time

new diseases and symptoms emerge constantly

Question: The problem becomes worse due to _


The author considers that hypochondria is an incurable disease

The author thinks that the consequences of hypochondria might be disastrous

The author suggests that the patients who have hypochondria should set their hearts at rest

The author sympathizes with the patients who suffer from hypochondria

Question: What does the author most probably think about hypochondria?


protect undocumented immigrants from deportation

offer young immigrants free education and job training

undergo broad immigration reform across the states

make progress toward fair immigration enforcement

Question: According to the passage, the Obama administration will

The most promising effort in years to restore fairness and hope tb the immigration system begins Wednesday, when the Obama administration will start accepting applications from yoking, undocumented immigrants who want to be shielded from deportation so they can be free to work and go to school.
The program to halt deportations is limited, hedged by detailed rules and not to be confused with broad immigration reform, which is out of reach at a time when resentment against the undocumented runs high in Washington and in the states.
But any progress away from indiscriminate immigration enforcement, and toward opening pathways to a fuller involvement in society, is worth noting and celebrating.
Under the program, applicants must have been brought to the United States before turning 16, be under 31, have clean records and have lived here for at least the last five years. Those who are accepted will not be legalized, even if they are given permission to work. They will instead be granted two-year deferrals of deportation, which are renewable.
By one estimate, 1.7 million of the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants may qualify.
Announced by President Obama in June, the program is not the legalization or path to citizenship that millions are longing for and deserve. It's simply a decision by the Department of Homeland Security, at President Obama's instruction, to get its enforcement priorities right focusing on removing criminals and others who threaten community safety, not the law-abiding, hard-working young people who pose no threat and cannot be blamed for their unauthorized status.
There are two major worries as the program unfolds. One is whether Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that will run the program, can handle the administrative load. Alejandro Mayorkas, the director, says his agency is investing in staffing and training, helped along by the $ 465 fee charged to each applicant. The agency depends entirely on fees.
The other fear is that applicants will fall prey to fraud. Immigration law is extremely complicated, which dishonest consultants, known as "notarios", take full advantage of. Applicants who are rejected have no right to appeal and will still risk deportation, especially those whose paperwork was falsified. The citizenship agency needs to do all it can to educate applicants and prevent frauds.
Then there will be the attacks from those who cannot stomach anything less than the ejection of every last immigrant who lacks legal status. This harshness is exemplified by Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who denounced the program on Wednesday.
"I cannot overstate the tragedy of this," he said, doing just that. His inability to distinguish "criminal aliens" from the young strivers the United States needs is the reason the country has been forced into administrative half-measures, rather than real legislative reform.


can be brought to the United States before 16

can live in the United States for five years

will be allowed to seek jobs in the U. S.

will be entitled to U.S. citizenship in two years

Question: Under the new immigration program, applicants that are accepted


It opens up a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

It grants authorized status to the hard-working young immigrants.

It endows President Obama with the enforcement priorities right.

It focuses on driving out the immigrants with criminal records.

Question: What does the author say about the new immigration program?


Citizenship and Immigration Services has no enough funds to run the program.

Citizenship and Immigration Services will charge the applicants arbitrarily.

Immigration law can be too complicated to be explained to the applicants.

The applicants can easily fall into the trap of dishonest consultants.

Question: What is one major concern with the launch of the new immigration program?


The immigration agency cannot handle the administrative load.

The United States regards all the immigrants criminal aliens.

Senator Jeff Sessions highlights the losses illegal immigrants may incur.

Jeff Sessions bears resentment against all the undocumented immigrants.

Question: Why doesn't the United States take the real legislative imnu'gration reform?


A virtually stable or slightly decreasing period and then a sudden explosion of population.

A slow growth for a long time and then a period of rapid, dramatic increase.

Too many people on earth and a few rapid increase in the number added each year.

A long period when death rates exceeds birthrates and then a short period with higher fertility and lower mortality.

Question: Which of the following demographic growth pattern is most suitable for the long thin powder fuse analogy?

We can begin our discussion of "population as global issue" with what most persons mean when they discuss "the population problem": too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in the number added each year. The facts are not in dispute, It was quite right to employ the analogy that likened demographic growth to "a long, thin powder fuse that burns steadily and haltingly until it finally reaches the charge and explodes."
To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it is necessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Looking back at the 8,000 years of demographic history, we find that populations have been virtually stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, life was hard, often nasty, and very short. There was high fertility in most places, but this was usually balanced by high mortality. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one in ten persons would live past forty, while infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often, societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could exceed their birthrates. Thus, the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.
This pattern is important to notice. Not only does it put the current problems of demographic growth into a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recent years is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions that traditionally have caused high mortality.
Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth which extended from about 8,000 BC.till approximately AD. 1650. In the first period of some 9600 years, the population increased from some 8 million to 500 million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million to more than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be 6.2 billion people throughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is to reduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000BC and 1650, an average of only 50,000 persons was being added annually to the world's population each year. At present, this number is added every six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.


only one in ten persons could live past 40.

there was higher mortality than fertility in most places.

it was too dangerous to have babies due to the poor conditions.

our ancestors had little enthusiasm for more children.

Question: During the first period of demographic history, societies were often in danger of extinction because _ .


There might be an increase of 2.2 billion persons from now to the year 2000.

About 50,000 babies are born every six hours at present.

Between 8000 BC and the present, the population increase is about 80,000,000 persons each year.

The population increased faster between 8000BC and 1650 than between 1650 and the present.

Question: Which statement is true about population increase?


warn people against the population explosion in the near future.

compare the demographic growth pattern in the past with that after 1650.

find out the cause for rapid increase in population in recent years.

present us a clear and complete picture of the demographic growth.

Question: The author of the passage intends to _ .


statistics of human.
surroundings study.
accumulation of human.
development of human.

Question: The word "demographic" in the first paragraph means _ .


Shops try all kinds of means to please customers.

Shops，large or small，are offering big discounts.

Women tend to have their hair cut less frequently.

Customers refrain from buying things impulsively.

Question: According to the passage，what does"the first clue" suggest?

The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail-polish change while I waited for my hair to dry. Maybe she hoped this little amenity would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months while nursing our hair back to whatever natural colour we long ago forgot.
Then there was the appliance salesman who offered to carry my bags as we toured the microwave aisle. When I called my husband to ask him to check some specs online，the salesman offered a pre-emptive discount，lest the surfing turn up the same model cheaper in another store. That night，for the first time，I saw the Hyundai ad promising shoppers that if they buy a car and then lose their job in the next year，they can return it.
Suddenly everything's on sale. The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives retailers to treat you like a queen for a day. During the flush times, salespeople were surly, waiters snobby. But now the customer rules，just for showing up. There's more room to stretch out on the flight，even in a coach. The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness, with scarcely a shopper in sight. Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff. Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward. When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $2,000，it's time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause. You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off.
Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street: Trinity Place offers $3 drinks at happy hour any day the market goes down, with the slogan "Market tanked? Get tanked!"--which ensures a lively crowd for the closing bell. The "21" Club has decided that men no longer need to wear ties，so long as they bring their wallets. Food itself is friendlier：you notice more comfort food，a truce between chef and patron that is easier to enjoy now that you can get a table practically anywhere. New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as "extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation. ""You need to hug the customer,"one owner told him.
There's a chance that eventually we'll return all this kindness with the extravagant spending that was once decried but now everyone is hoping will restart the economy. But human nature is funny that way. In dangerous times，we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss，suspecting that it must be too good to be true. Is the store with the super cheap flat screens going to go bust and thus not be there to honor the "free" extended warranty? Is there something wrong with that free cheese? Store owners will tell you horror stories about shoppers with attitude，who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every turn. These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming：Will people expect discounts forever? Will their hard-won brand luster be forever cheapened, especially for items whose allure depends on their being ridiculously priced?
There will surely come a day when things go back to"normal"；retail sales even inched up in January after sinking for the previous six months. But I wonder what it will take for US to see those $545 Sigerson Morrison studded toe-ring sandals as reasonable? Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of the markets，and haggling is a low-risk，high-value contact sport. Trauma digs deep into habit，like my 85-year-old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet "the bomb shelter." The children of the First Depression were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared. They came to be called the "greatest generation." As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources，who knows what might come of it? We have lived in an age of wanton waste，and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line.


Bad-tempered.
Highly motivated.
Over-friendly.
Deeply frustrated.

Question: Which of the following best depicts the retailers now?


Customers now rush to buy things on sale.

Customers have got a sense of superiority.

Customers have higher demands for service.

Question: What does the author mean by"the newly perfected art of the considered pause"?


keep asking for more discounts.
like to show that they are powerful.
like to show off their wealth.
have more doubts or suspicion.

Question: According to the passage，"shoppers... flaunt their new power at every turn" means that shoppers would


Extravagant spending would boost economic growth.

One's life experience would turn into lifelong habits.

Customers should expect discounts for luxury goods.

The practice of frugality is of great importance.

Question: What is the author's main message in the last two paragraphs?


energy security is closely related to geopolitics

energy security depends heavily on geology

most countries in eastern Europe are allies

Question: The author tells us that_

The unhappy history of Ukraine, Russia and gas is the story of energy security in miniature. When it comes to hydrocarbons, geopolitics and geology are inextricable. That is a problem for most countries in eastern Europe, which would love to get their energy from allies, and feel understandably twitehy about having their former master as a big supplier.
Russia sees it differently. It wants to use its energy riches to the maximum effect in the world market. It sees former communist satellite countries as nuisances, which scrounge subsidised gas, pay late if at all, and jeopardise sales to western Europe by brinkmanship about transit fees.
It is easy to understand why Ukraine and other Russian neighbours are exasperating Gazprom, Russia's huge gas monopoly. Its gas has long been siphoned off in vast quantities and Ukraine, like Georgia, has a dreadful record of falling behind with its payments. The main power station that supplies Moldova doesn't pay its bills at all. In 2005 Ukraine paid only $ 50 per 1,000 cubic metres of Russian gas, compared with the $ 240 paid by the EU. Now Gazprom says it wants to sell to these countries on a purely commercial basis.
That seems fair enough, but there is another dimension. Formally, at least, the $ 50 price is part ofa framework that is supposed to last until 2009. Moreover, Gazprom is not asking for the same increase from each of Russia' s neighbours. The independent Baltic states have two years to adjust. Georgia, which like Ukraine has an independent streak, faces a doubling of prices. Belarus, still friendly and dependable, is keeping its price and giving away part of the control of the pipeline to Russia instead. Gazprom and its chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, who moonlights as the head of Vladimir Putin' s presidential administration, decided which deal is presented to which country. And Russia's way of pressing its case was an example of energy politics of the most brutal sort.
On January 1st, when Russia kept gas out of the Brotherhood pipeline crossing Ukraine, it also stopped gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, big suppliers to the country, from flowing through its pipes. Although enough was left for the rest of Europe, Ukraine simply tapped off some gas for itself as usual. Theft, Gazprom called it; though the Ukrainians asserted they were taking only the Turkmen and Kazakh gas that was due to them. For European consumers, the argument was academic. All that mattered was their shortages of gas. Italy experienced a fall of one-quarter; France, one-third; it was worse in countries such as Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, which get more of their supplies from Russia. [440 words]


manages to make the best use of its energy riches

holds its former satellite countries in high esteem

feels somewhat twitchy about being a big gas supplier

jeopardises its sales to countries in eastern Europe

Question: According to the text, Russia_


gas is sold on a purely commercial basis

subsidized gas is sold to some former allies

gas has to be sold at an unreasonably low price

the price paid by EU is much higher than by Ukraine

Question: That _ is enraging Gazprom.


Gazprom requires the same increase from each of its consumers.

The chairman of Gazprom is highly regarded by Vladimir Putin.

The extreme unfairness in the way Russia uses to make a deal.

Question: Which of the following can account for Russia's brutal energy politics?


many countries depend on Russia for their energy supply

Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine, thus causing a turmoil

Gazprom decides which deal is presented to which country

some countries unexpectedly steal gas from Russias pipelines

Question: According to the author, what matters most is that _


would like very much to buy
badly wanted
was glad to have bought
would rather not buy

Question: In fact the husband  _  the cupboard.

We spent a day in the country, picking wild flowers. With the car full of flowers we were going home. On our way back my wife noticed a cupboard outside a furniture shop. It was tall and narrow. "Buy it, " my wife said at once. "We'll carry it home on the roof rack. I've always wanted one like that."
What could I do? Ten minutes later I was ￡20 poorer; and the cupboard was tied on the roof rack. It was six feet long and eighteen inches square, quite heavy too.
In the gathering darkness I drove slowly. Other drivers seemed unusually polite that evening. The police even stopped traffic to let us through. Carrying furniture was a good idea.
After a time my wife said, "There's a long line of cars behind. Why don't they overtake, I wonder?" In fact a police car did overtake. The two officers inside looked at us seriously as they passed. But then, with great kindness, they led us through the rush-hour traffic. The police car stopped at our village church. One of the officers came to me.
"Right, sir, " he said. "Do you need any more help?"
I was a bit puzzled. "Thanks, officer, " I said. "You have been very kind. I live just on the road."
He was staring at our car, first at the flowers, then at the cupboard. "Well, well, " he said, laughing. "It's a cupboard you've got there! We thought it was something else."
My wife began to laugh. The truth hit me like a stone between the eyes. I smiled at the officer. "Yes, it's a cupboard, but thanks again." I drove home as fast as I could.


carrying nothing but a piece of furniture

Question: Other drivers thought they were  _ .


driving in gathering darkness
in great sorrow
driving with wild glowers in the car
carrying furniture

Question: The police will be more polite to those who are  _ .


It was very strange.
He felt ashamed of it.
He took great pride in it.
He was puzzled at it.

Question: What did the husband think of this matter?


is handed down from generation to generation

Question: The origin of language _.

How men first learned to invent words is unknown; in other words, the origin of language is a mystery. All we really know is that men, unlike animals, somehow invented certain sounds to express thoughts and feelings, actions and things, so that they could communicate with each other; and that later they agreed upon certain signs, called letters, which could be combined to represent those sounds, and which could be written down. Those sounds, whether spoken, or written in letters we call words.
The power of words, then, lies in their combinations -the things they bring up before our minds. Words become filled with meaning for us by experience; and the longer we live, the more certain words recall to us the glad and sad events of our past; and the more we read and learn, the more the number of words that mean something to us increases.
Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express these thoughts in words which appeal powerfully to our minds and feelings. This charming and telling use of words is what we call literary  style. Above all, the real poet is a master of words. He can convey his meaning in words which sing like music, and which by their position and association can move men to tears. We should therefore learn to choose our words carefully and use them accurately, or they will make our speech silly and rude.


visual letters
represented by sounds
represented either by sounds or letters
signs called letters

Question: According to the passage, words are _.


Question: The power of words lies in their _.


recall to us the glad and sad events of our past

Question: The secret of a writer‘s success is the use of words that _.


to use words carefully and accurately
not to use silly and rude words
to become a slave of words
to use emotional words

Question: The author of the passage advises us _.


a politico-military survery of the Napoleonic wars.

an account of the Napoleonic wars in extrodinary scope and detail.

a historical chronicle of the Napoleonic wars with comparisons of the past and the present.

an exploration of the deep-rooted reason that led to the long war.

Question: Mr. Esdaile's book can be best described as _

Publishers cannot have enough of books from serious historians about the "whys" of war. Why do they start? Why do they last? What makes a peace fragile? The past is one place to look for answers. Charles Esdaile, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool, is too good a scholar to make easy comparisons between then and now. But the "whys" of war run through his masterly account of the Napoleonic wars, a 12-year conflict between France and Europe's other powers that killed almost 2m soldiers. Mr Esdaile, in a politico-military survey of extraordinary scope and detail, tells us what he believes caused the conflict, what it was about and why it lasted so long despite, as it seemed, frequent chances for peace. Neither battlefield chronicle nor biography in disguise, "Napoleon's Wars" is explanatory history of high order.
Historians date the Napoleonic wars from 1803, when Britain declared war on France after the brief Peace of Amiens. Mr Esdaile recounts how Napoleon came to power in 1799, mastering France and then Europe. Britain commanded the seas after Trafalgar in 1805. But France held the continent thanks to victories on land against the Austrians, Prussians and Russians. Setbacks in Spain, which Napoleon's troops entered in 1807, and disaster in Russia in 1812, led to eventual defeat at Waterloo.
Mr Esdaile makes that familiar story fresh in three connected ways. He shows how marginal-looking conflicts-for example over the Romanian lands, Sweden, Portugal, Canada-ignited larger ones or divided potential allies. He reminds us that defeating Napoleon was never sure. Europe's armies had first to learn from their own failures and their rulers had to make common cause. Both things happened, but late in the day. Above all, he stresses that the conflict was not ideological but geopolitical. It was about the balance of power, disturbed for a century by Ottoman decline, Russian and Prussian growth and Franco-British rivalries.
Few if any of France's foes were fighting for regime change in Paris. At many times they would have settled with Napoleon-had he settled with them. But they could never trust him to settle, and the wars went on. His two strongest opponents, Britain and Russia, resisted him, in Mr Esdaile's view, not because he was a revolutionary, a republican or the head of an upstart dynasty. They fought him because as long as he controlled France, there was no telling where France would stop.
At this point Napoleon's character enters Mr Esdaile's intricate geopolitical equations. Without accepting a great-man theory of history, he thinks the Napoleonic wars deserve their name. Europe's powers would have fought over their differences without Napoleon. But the scale and ferocity of conflict was due in large part to the emperor's "aggression, egomania and lust for power".
Mr Esdaile's book reflects a vast and varied range of recent scholarship. But he never leaves his geopolitical story for long. War started, he believes, because Europe was not in balance. It dragged on because Napoleon could not be trusted. Peace came-and lasted until later generations forgot the horror of the alternative.


marginal conflicts.
imbalance of power in Europe.
Napoleon's aggressive ambition.
Franco-British rivalries.

Question: Mr Esdaile holds the view that the Napoleonic wars are originated by  _


that he dates from 1799 when Napoleon came to power in France.

that he explains Napoleon's character and history in detailed and vivid account.

that he reminds us the importance of some marginal-looking conflicts.

that he thinks the war was indeed started due to geopolitical factors.

Question: Mr. Esdaile's novelty in recounting the conflict in  _


the political imbalance of Europe stimulated inevitable hatred and conflict between the countries and Napoleon.

they were alert to the possible aggression by Napoleon.

they attempted to settle with Napoleon but in vain.

Napoleon was too ambitious to be trusted by them.

Question: France's rivals fought against Napoleon despite chances for peace because _


The wars would not have been fought without Napoleon.

The wars were due to the emperor's aggression, egomania and lust for power.

The wars lasted for so long time because France's rivals could not trust Napoleon.

The wars were fought over the difference of the Europe's powers.

Question: According to the passage, which one of the following statements is NOT true of the Napoleonic wars?


Question: How much debt will Erin Wheeler be probably in when she graduate?

When she graduates from Columbia University next year with a master's degree in Public health, Eric Wheeler is hoping to get a job in international reproductive health. The 26-year-old post-graduate has always wanted to work in public service. But public service doesn't pay much, and her two-year program at Columbia costs about $50,000 a year with living expenses. She has a scholarship from Columbia that covers just $4,000 a year and has taken out loans to pay for the rest. She worries that she will spend years paying back her student loans and not have money left over to put away in an IRA. Wheeler is wondering what she can do to ease the pain of being in debt. Is there anything she can do to handle the debt?
The good news is that in 2007, Congress recognized that there were so many students in
Wheeler's position that it passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. There were two programs established by this act that Wheeler should look into.
The first is the income-based repayment plan, which allows lower-income graduates with a lot of debt to reduce their monthly payments. Depending on a graduate's income and level of debt, the program, which goes into effect July 1, could limit his or her annual educational loan debt repayment to 15 percent of discretionary income,said Peter Mazareas, vice charman of the College Saving Foundation.
The second is the public service loan forgiveness plan, in which the federal government will forgive the remaining debt of borrowers who make 10-year loan payment while working full time in public-service jobs. But the graduate must have a certain loan which is listed in the plan.
Depending on the level of debt Wheeler ends up with and how much she repays over 10 years,
Mazareas said she could end up with about $75,000 of her debt forgiven. " Tipically, it is projected that a borrower who performs public service under this program will repay only about one-fourth to one-half as much money as a borrower who does not", he said. He also pointed out that public service is broadly defined and includes any government and nonprofit organization job.


The programs in the act take effect in 2008.

The act aims to help college students who are in debt.

There are two helpful programs in the act.

The graduates who work in public service benefit the most.

Question: Which of the following is true about the College Reduction and Access Act?


The interest of the debt will be lowered.

The total amount of debt could be reduced.

People will have more time to pay back the debt.

Question: How can people benefit from the first plan mentioned in the passage?


Because she will be heavily in debt upon graduation.

Because she plans to work in public service.

Because she has borrowed money from the federal government.

Question: Why does the author say Erin wheeler should look into the second plan in the act?


The total expense in American universities is too high.

There are a lot of different programs to help students pay their tution.

The US government encourages students to choose public service jobs.

The federal government is trying to relieve graduates from heavy debt.

Question: What's the main idea of the passage?


the use of iron kettles in a typical kitchen

the types of wood used in preparing meals

Question: Which of the following aspects of domestic life in colonial North America does the passage mainly discuss?

In seventeenth-century colonial North America, all day-to-day cooking was done in the fireplace. Generally large, fireplaces were planned for cooking as well as for warmth. Those in the Northeast were usually four or five feet high, and in the South, they were often high enough for a person to walk into. A heavy timber called the mantel tree was used as a lintel to support the stonework above the fireplace opening. This timber might be scorched occasionally, but it was far enough in front of the rising column of heat to be safe from catching fire.
Two ledges were built across from each other on the inside of the chimney. On these rested the ends of a "lug pole" from which pots were suspended when cooking. Wood from a freshly cut tree was used for the lug pole, so it would resist heat, but it had to be replaced frequently because it dried out and charred, and was thus weakened. Sometimes the pole broke and the dinner fell into the fire. When iron became easier to obtain, it was used instead of wood for lug poles, and later fireplaces had pivoting metal rods to hang pots from.
Beside the fireplace and built as part of it was the oven. It was made like a small, secondary fireplace with a flue leading into the main chimney to draw out smoke. Sometimes the door of the oven faced the room, but most ovens were built with the opening facing into the fireplace. On baking days (usually once or twice a week) a roaring fire of "oven wood," consisting of brown maple sticks, was maintained in the oven until its walls were extremely hot. The embers were later removed, bread dough was put into the oven, and the oven was sealed shut until the bread was fully baked.
Not all baking was done in a big oven, however. Also used was an iron "bake kettle," which looked like a stewpot on legs and which had an iron lid. This is said to have worked well when it was placed in the fireplace, surrounded by glowing wood embers, with more embers piled on its lid.


how the materials used were similar to the materials used in northeastern fireplaces

that they were usually larger than northeastern fireplaces

how they were safer than northeastern fireplaces

Question: The author mentions the fireplaces built in the South to illustrate


Question: The word "scorched" in line 6 is closest in meaning to


the stonework
the fireplace opening
the mantel tree
the rising column of heat

Question: The word "it" in line 6 refers to


By placing the pot directly into the fire

By hanging the pot on a pole over the fire

Question: According to the passage,how was food usually cooked in a pot in the seventeenth century?


Question: The word "obtain" in line 12 is closest in meaning to


It was made of wood not readily available.

Question: Which of the following is mentioned in paragraph 2 as a disadvantage of using a wooden lug pole?


less smoke
more heat
fewer embers
lower flames

Question: It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that, compared to other firewood, "oven wood" produced


It was used to heat the kitchen every day.

It was built as part of the main fireplace.

The smoke it generated went out through the main chimney.

Question: According to paragraph 3, all of the following were true of a colonial oven EXCEPT:


It did not take up a lot of space in the fireplace.

It could be used in addition to or instead of the oven.

It could be used to cook several foods at one time.

Question: According to the passage,which of the following was an advantage of a "bake kettle"?


a specialist in teenager studies
a headmaster of a middle school
a parent with teenage children
a doctor for mental health problems

Question: This text is most probably written by _ .

Parents should stop blaming themselves because there's not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager  problem. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.
I've seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I called round. Sprawling himself  on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. "I don't know what to do with him these days," she said. "He's forgotten all the manners we taught him."
He hasn't forgotten them. He' s just decided that he' s not going to use them. She confessed  that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.
Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say, "I don't like your dress; it's ugly." One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.
"Where did we go wrong?" her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least, no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.


Question: The boy on the sofa would most probably be described as _ .


pay no attention to them
are too busy to look after them
have come to hate them
feel helpless to do much about them

Question: From the second example we can infer that the parents of the two daughters _ .


Parents have no choice but to try to accept it.

Parents should pay still sore attention to the change.

Parents should work more closely with school teachers.

Parents are at fault for the change in their children.

Question: What is the author' a opinion about the sudden change in teenage children?


incurred criticism
raised suspicion
faced risks
aroused curiosity

Question: We can learn from Para. 1 that entering the American cellphone market, Softbank has  _ .

SoftBank of Japan is making its biggest gamble yet: entering the American cellphone market. SoftBank's complex $20.1 billion deal to buy majority control of Sprint Nextel will unite Japan's fastest-growing cellphone service provider with one of the United States' most troubled. The idea is to provide Sprint with a stronger, deeper-pocketed partner that can help finance its network overhaul and, eventually, pursue additional mergers. But SoftBank, an Internet and communications company, is making a risky wager that it can break the dominance of Verizon and AT&T in the United States the way it did a similar duopoly that long reigned over the Japanese market.
" SoftBank brings so much more to Sprint than money,"  Daniel R. Hesse, Sprint's chief executive, said on an analyst call. " This investment provides the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of a leader in mobile Internet technology with a proven track record of challenging larger incumbent carriers."  Together, the two companies would have $80 billion in revenue and $18 billion in earnings before interest and taxes. And they would nearly double Sprint's customer base to 96 million, giving the company greater purchasing power. SoftBank's founder and chief executive, Masayoshi Son, was blunt in his goal: creating the biggest and fastest wireless network in the United States. It is the strategy his own company is pursuing in Japan, aimed at drawing in users of the latest smartphones. Sprint is only beginning to roll out its next-generation Long Term Evolution network, trailing Verizon Wireless and AT&T. " U.S. citizens don't have this experience of high speed,"  Mr. Son said on the analyst call. " We're going to bring that to the States."
Shareholders in Sprint and SoftBank appeared less pleased by the transaction. Sprint's shares closed down slightly on Monday, at $5.69, while SoftBank's stock tumbled 5.3 percent, to 2,268 yen（$28.92）. While infusing Sprint with cash, the deal would slow SoftBank's efforts to repay its own hefty debt load, which stood at nearly $13 billion as of June 30. Mr. Son has said that he has already repaid much of the debt his company took on when it bought Vodafone's Japan arm in 2006 and has done it well ahead of schedule.
The deal on Monday was a welcome development for the financial advisers involved in a year starved for deal activity. If completed, Monday's transaction would be the biggest deal by a Japanese company in the United States in more than three decades, according to data from Thomson Reuters. It would also be the biggest deal so far this year involving a foreign investment in an American company.


Biggest and fastest wireless network in the United States.

Question: What can't Sprint benefit from Softbanks?


Question: The word" tumble" （Line 2, Paragraph 3）most probably means  _ .


the transaction was the biggest deal in more than three decades

the transaction features in historic significance

Question: It can be inferred from the last paragraph that  _ .


Question: From the text we can see that the writer seems  _ .


Americans are trained to live in large rooms at birth.

Economic situation decides one's amount of space needs.

People in various countries demand different psychological space.

Knowing your psychological space needs is important, as it affects your future.

Question: Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space. The amount of space a person needs around him is a cultural difference,not an economic one. Knowing your own psychological  space needs is important because they strongly affect your choices,including,for example,the number of bedrooms in the home. If you were brought up in a two-child family and both you and your sister or brother had your own bedrooms,the chances are,if you have two children or more,that you also will offer separate bedrooms for them. In America,for example,they train people to want to have their own rooms by giving them their own rooms when they are babies. This is very rare in the world. In many other countries,the baby sleeps in the same bed with his parents or in bed near them.
The space in the home also shows a lot about psychological space needs. Some families gather closer to each other and the size of their house has nothing to do with it. Others have separate little corners where family members go to bed alone.
Although it is true that psychological space needs are not decided by economic reasons,they sometimes have to be changed a little because of economic pressures. It is almost impossible,however,to completely change your psychological space needs.


Question: The word "accumulate" in the passage(paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to

Petroleum, consisting of crude oil and natural gas, seems to originate from organic matter in marine sediment. Microscopic organisms settle to the seafloor and accumulate in marine mud. The organic matter may partially decompose, using up the dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as the oxygen is gone, decay stops and the remaining organic matter is preserved.
Continued sedimentation-the process of deposits' settling on the sea bottom-buries the organic matter and subjects it to higher temperatures and pressures, which convert the organic matter to oil and gas. As muddy sediments are pressed together, the gas and small droplets of oil may be squeezed out of the mud and may move into sandy layers nearby. Over long periods of time (millions of years), accumulations of gas and oil can collect in the sandy layers. Both oil and gas are less dense than water, so they generally tend to rise upward through water-saturated rock and sediment.
Oil pools are valuable underground accumulations of oil, and oil fields are regions underlain by one or more oil pools. When an oil pool or field has been discovered, wells are drilled into the ground. Permanent towers, called derricks, used to be built to handle the long sections of drilling pipe. Now portable drilling machines are set up and are then dismantled and removed. When the well reaches a pool, oil usually rises up the well because of its density difference with water beneath it or because of the pressure of expanding gas trapped above it. Although this rise of oil is almost always carefully controlled today, spouts of oil, or gushers, were common in the past. Gas pressure gradually dies out, and oil is pumped from the well. Water or steam may be pumped down adjacent wells to help push the oil out. At a refinery, the crude oil from underground is separated into natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, and various oils. Petrochemicals such as dyes, fertilizer, and plastic are also manufactured from the petroleum.
As oil becomes increasingly difficult to find, the search for it is extended into more-hostile environments. The development of the oil field on the North Slope of Alaska and the construction of the Alaska pipeline are examples of the great expense and difficulty involved in new oil discoveries. Offshore drilling platforms extend the search for oil to the ocean's continental shelves-those gently sloping submarine regions at the edges of the continents. More than one-quarter of the world's oil and almost one-fifth of the world's natural gas come from offshore, even though offshore drilling is six to seven times more expensive than drilling on land. A significant part of this oil and gas comes from under the North Sea between Great Britain and Norway.
Of course, there is far more oil underground than can be recovered. It may be in a pool too small or too far from a potential market to justify the expense of drilling. Some oil lies under regions where drilling is forbidden, such as national parks or other public lands. Even given the best extraction techniques, only about 30 to 40 percent of the oil in a given pool can be brought to the surface. The rest is far too difficult to extract and has to remain underground.
Moreover, getting petroleum out of the ground and from under the sea and to the consumer can create environmental problems anywhere along the line. Pipelines carrying oil can be broken by faults or landslides, causing serious oil spills. Spillage from huge oil-carrying cargo ships, called tankers, involved in collisions or accidental groundings (such as the one off Alaska in 1989) can create oil slicks at sea. Offshore platforms may also lose oil, creating oil slicks that drift ashore and foul the beaches, harming the environment. Sometimes, the ground at an oil field may subside as oil is removed. The Wilmington field near Long Beach, California, has subsided nine meters in 50 years; protective barriers have had to be built to prevent seawater from flooding the area. Finally, the refining and burning of petroleum and its products can cause air pollution. Advancing technology and strict laws, however, are helping control some of these adverse environmental effects.


Microscopic organisms that live in mudproduce crude oil and natural gas.

Large amounts of oxygen are needed forpetroleum formation to begin.

Petroleum is produced when organicmaterial in sediments combines with decaying marine organisms.

Petroleum formation appears to begin inmarine sediments where organic matter is present.

Question: According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true about petroleum formation?


explain why petroleum formation is a slowprocess

provide evidence that a marineenvironment is necessary for petroleum formation

show that oil commonly occurs inassociation with gas

Question: In paragraphs 1 and 2, the author'sprimary purpose is to


Question: The word "adjacent" in the passage(paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to


They make bringing the oil to the surfaceeasier.

They signal the presence of huge oilreserves.

Question: Which of the following can be inferredfrom paragraph 3 about gushers?


Limiting drilling to accessible locations

Using highly sophisticated drillingequipment

Constructing technologically advanceddrilling platforms

Question: Which of the following strategies foroil exploration is described in paragraph 4?


More oil is extracted from the sea thanfrom land.

Drilling for oil requires major financialinvestments.

The global demand for oil has increasedover the years.

The North Slope of Alaska has substantialamounts of oil.

Question: What does the development of the Alaskanoil field mentioned in paragraph 4 demonstrate?


Question: The word "sloping" in the passage(paragraph 4) is closest in meaning to


permission to access the area where oilhas been found

the availability of sufficient quantitiesof oil in a pool

the location of the market in relation tothe drilling site

the political situation in the regionwhere drilling would occur

Question: According to paragraph 5, the decisionto drill for oil depends on all of the following factors EXCEPT


Question: The word "foul" in the passage(paragraph 6) is closest in meaning to


provide examples of how oil explorationcan endanger the environment

describe accidents that have occurredwhen oil activities were in progress

give an analysis of the effects of oilspills on the environment

explain how technology and legislation helpreduce oil spills

Question: In paragraph 6, the author's primarypurpose is to


It benefits the great majority of the general population.

It prepares students to meet the future needs of society.

It encourages students to learn throughout their lives.

It ensures that students' expectations are successfully fulfilled.

Question: What kind of education does the author think is ideal?

As a society we might want to rethink the time and money spent on education, so that these resources can benefit a greater percentage of the population. Ideally, both high schools and colleges can prepare individuals for the ever-changing roles that are likely to be expected of them.
High school degrees offer far less in the way of preparation for work than they might, or than many other nations currently offer, creating a growing skills gap in our economy. We encourage students to go on to college whether they are prepared or not, or have a clear sense of purpose or interest, and now have the highest college dropout rate in the world.
We might look to other countries for models of how high schools can offer better training, as well as the development of a work ethic (）and the intellectual skills needed for continued learning and development. I recommend Harvard's 2011 "Pathways to Prosperity" report for more attention to the "forgotten half" (those who do not go on to college) and ideas about how to address this issue.
Simultaneously, the liberal arts become more important than ever. In a knowledge economy where professional roles change rapidly and many college students are preparing for positions that may not even exist yet, the skill set needed is one that prepares them for change and continued learning.
Learning to express ideas well in both writing and speech, knowing how to find information, and knowing how to do research are all-solid background skills for a wide variety of roles, and such training is more important than any particular major in a liberal arts college. We need to continue to value broad preparation in thinking skills ihat will serve for a lifetime.
Students also need to learn to work independently and to make responsible decisions. The lengthening path to adulthood appears exacerbated (）by parental involvement in the college years. Given the rising investment in college education, parental concern is not surprising, but learning where and when to intervene (）will help students take more ownership of the outcomes of these increasingly costly educations.


Ignoring the needs of those who don't go to college.

Teaching skills to be used right after graduation only.

Giving little attention to those having difficulty learning.

Creating the highest dropout rate in the developed world.

Question: What does the author say is the problem with present high school education?


People have to receive higher education to qualify for a professional position.

Students majoring in liberal arts usually have difficulty securing a job.

New positions are constantly created that require people to keep learning.

Colleges find it hard to teach students how to cope with the changing economy.

Question: What characterizes a knowledge economy according to the passage?


Solid background knowledge in a particular field.

Practical skills urgently needed in current society.

Basic skills needed for change and lifelong learning.

Useful thinking skills for advanced academic research.

Question: What does the author think a liberal arts college should focus on?


Rethinking the value of higher education.

Investing wisely in their children's education.

Helping their children lo bring their talent into full play.

Avoiding too much intervention in their children's education.

Question: What suggestion docs the author offer to parents?


is not likely to appear in the fossil record

is not heavy enough to sink below the surface

Question: According to the passage , an organism without hard body parts

Generally, in order to be preserved in the fossil record, organisms must possess hard body parts such as shells or bones. Soft, fleshy structures are quickly destroyed by predators or decayed by bacteria. Even hard parts left on the surface for a certain length of time will be destroyed. Therefore, organisms must be buried rapidly to escape destruction by the elements and to be protected against agents of weathering and erosion. Marine organisms thus are better candidates for fossilization than those living on the land because the ocean is typically the site of sedimentation, whereas the land is largely the site of erosion.
The beds of ancient lakes were also excellent sites for rapid burial of skeletal remains of freshwater organisms and skeletons of other animals, including those of early humans. Ancient swamps were particularly plentiful with prolific growths of vegetation, which fossilized in abundance. Many animals became trapped in bogs overgrown by vegetation. The environment of the swamps kept bacterial decay to a minimum, which greatly aided in the preservation of plants and animals. The rapidly accumulating sediments in flood plains, deltas, and stream channels buried freshwater organisms, along with other plants and animals that happened to fall into the water.
Only a small fraction of all the organisms that have ever lived are preserved as fossils. Normally, the remains of a plant or animal are completely destroyed through predation and decay. Although it seems that fossilization is common for some organisms, for others it is almost impossible. For the most part, the remains of organisms are recycled in the earth, which is fortunate because otherwise soil and water would soon become depleted of essential nutrients. Also, most of the fossils exposed on Earth's surface are destroyed by weathering processes. This makes for an incomplete fossil record with poor or no representation of certain species.
The best fossils are those composed of unaltered remains. Generally, it is the inorganic hard parts, composed mostly of calcium carbonate, that form the vast majority of unaltered fossils. Calcite and aragonite also contributed to a substantial number of fossils of certain organisms.


Question: The word "agents" in line 5 is closest in meaning to


They have more fleshy structures than land organisms.

It is likely that they will be buried rapidly.

The water environment speeds the decay caused by bacteria.

It takes longer for them to be preserved.

Question: Why are marine organisms good candidates for fossilization?


erosion is less destructive than sedimentation.

fossils are most common in areas subject to erosion.

erosion contributes to the destruction of skeletal remains.

few organisms live in areas that experience extensive erosion.

Question: The fact that the "land is largely the site of erosion" (line 7 - 8) is significant because


The swamp environment reduced the amount of bacterial decay.

Swamp waters contained higher amounts of materials such as calcium carbonate.

There were fewer sediments in swamps than in other bodies of water.

Swamp vegetation accelerated the decomposition of organisms.

Question: According to the passage , why were the remains of organisms trapped in swamps better preserved for the fossil record than those that were not?


Question: The word "aided" in line 13 is closest in meaning to


Animals rather than plants have been preserved at such locations.

Such locations are likely to be rich sources of fossils.

Fossilized human remains are only rarely found in such locations.

Rapid sedimentation in such locations makes it difficult to locate fossils.

Question: It can be inferred that flood plains, deltas, and stream channels (lines 14 - 15) are similar in which of the following ways?


Weathering makes it impossible to identify many fossils.

Many fossils have been buried forever under the soil.

Fossils provide a limited sample of ancient organisms.

It is easier to find the remains of plants than animals.

Question: What is the author's main point in paragraph 3?


To compare aragonite fossils and calcite fossils

To argue that certain fossils are more informative than others

To illustrate the kinds of inorganic hard parts that can form fossils

Question: Why does the author mention "aragonite" in line 27


disproving the view that herbivores are less intelligent than carnivores

describing a relationship between animals' intelligence and their ecological roles

establishing a direct link between early large mammals and their modern counterparts

analyzing the ecological basis for the dominance of some carnivores over other carnivores

Question: The author is primarily concerned with

The evolution of intelligence among early large mammals of the grasslands was due in great measure to the interaction between two ecologically synchronized groups of these animals,the hunting carnivores and the herbivores that they hunted. The interaction resulting from the differences between predator and prey led to a general improvement in brain functions; however, certain components of intelligence were improved far more than others.
The kind of intelligence favored by the interplay of increasingly smarter catchers and increasingly keener escapers is defined by attention-that aspect of mind carrying consciousness forward from one moment to the next. It ranges from a passive, free-floating awareness to a highly focused, active fixation. The range through these states is mediated by the arousal system, a network of tracts converging from sensory systems to integrating centers in the brain stem. From the more relaxed to the more vigorous levels, sensitivity to novelty is increased. The organism is more awake, more vigilant; this increased vigilance results in the apprehension of ever more subtle signals as the organism becomes more sensitive to its surroundings. The processes of arousal and concentration give attention its direction. Arousal is at first general, with a flooding of impulses in the brain stem; then gradually the activation is channeled. Thus begins concentration, the holding of consistent images. One meaning of intelligence is the way in which these images and other alertly searched information are used in the context of previous experience. Consciousness links past attention to the present and permits the integration of details with perceived ends and purposes.
The elements of intelligence and con-sciousness come together marvelously to produce different styles in predator and prey. Herbivores and carnivores develop different kinds of attention related to escaping or chasing. Although in both kinds of animal, arousal stimulates the production of adrenaline and norepinephrine by the adrenal glands, the effect in herbivores is primarily fear, whereas in carnivores the effect is primarily aggression. For both, arousal attunes the animal to what is ahead. Perhaps it does not experience forethought as we know it,but the animal does experience something like it. The predator is searchingly aggressive, innerdirected, tuned by the nervous system and the adrenal hormones, but aware in a sense closer to human consciousness than, say, a hungry lizard's instinctive snap at a passing beetle. Using past events as a framework, the large mammal predator is working out a relationship between movement and food, sensitive to possibilities in cold trails and distant sounds-and yesterday's unforgotten lessons. The herbivore prey is of a different mind. Its mood of wariness rather than searching and its attitude of general expectancy instead of anticipating are silk-thin veils of tranquility over an explosive endocrine system.


demonstrate the similarity between the hunting methods of mammals and those of nonmammals

broaden the application of his argument by including an insectivore as an example

make a distinction between higher and lower levels of consciousness

provide an additional illustration of the brutality characteristic of predators

Question: The author refers to a hungry lizard (lines 68-69) primarily in order to


past experience is less helpful in ensuring survival

muscular coordination is less highly developed

there is less need for competition among species

Question: It can be inferred from the passage that in animals less intelligent than the mammals discussed in the passage


flooding of impulses in the brain stem (lines 36-37)

the holding of consistent images (lines 39-40)

integration of details with perceived ends and purposes (lines 45-47)

Question: The sensitivity described in lines 70-76 is most clearly an example of


superior and condescending
lighthearted and jocular
apologetic and conciliatory
respectful and admiring

Question: The author's attitude toward the mammals discussed in the passage is best described as


Persistence of free-floating awareness in animals of the grasslands

Gradual dominance of warm-blooded mammals over cold-blooded reptiles

Interaction of early large mammals with less intelligent species

Question: According to the passage, improvement in brain function among early large mammals resulted primarily from which of the following?


an expansion of the range of states mediated by the brain stem

Question: According to the passage, as the process of arousal in an organism continues, all of the following may occur EXCEPT


deprives many people of job opportunities

prevents many people from changing careers

should not stop people from looking for a job

does not mean the U.S. economy is worsening

Question: The author tends to believe that high unemployment rate      .

As you are probably aware, the latest job markets news isn't good: Unemployment is still more than 9 percent, and new job growth has fallen close to zero. That's bad for the economy, of course. And it may be especially discouraging if you happen to be looking for a job or hoping to change careers right now. But it actually shouldn't matter to you nearly as much as you think.
That's because job growth numbers don't matter to job hunters as much as job turnover   data. After all, existing jobs open up every day due to promotions, resignations, terminations , and retirements. (Yes, people are retiring even in this economy.) In both good times and bad, turnover creates more openings than economic growth does. Even in June of 2007, when the economy was still moving ahead, job growth was only 132,000, while turnover was 4.7 million!
And as it turns out, even today - with job growth near zero - over 4 million job hunters are being hired every month.
I don't mean to imply that overall job growth doesn't have an impact on one's ability to land a job. It's true that if total employment were higher, it would mean more jobs for all of us to choose from (and compete for). And it's true that there are currently more people applying for each available job opening, regardless of whether it's a new one or not.
But what often distinguishes those who land jobs from those who don't is their ability to stay motivated. They're willing to do the hard work of identifying their valuable skills; be creative about where and how to look; learn how to present themselves to potential employers; and keep going, even after repeated rejections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 2.7 million people who wanted and were available for work hadn't looked within the last four weeks and were no longer even classified as unemployed.
So don't let the headlines fool you into giving up. Four million people get hired every month in the U.S. You can be one of them.


Job growth.
Job turnover.
Improved economy.
Business expansion.

Question: Where do most job openings come from?


It doesn't have much effect on individual job seekers.

It increases people's confidence in the economy.

It gives a ray of hope to the unemployed.

It doesn't mean greater job security for the employed.

Question: What does the author say about overall job growth?


Education. Intelligence. Persistence. Experience.

Question: What is the key to landing a job according to the author?


They clearly indicate how healthy the economy is.

They provide the public with the latest information.

They warn of the structural problems in the economy.

They exclude those who have stopped looking for a job.

Question: What do we learn from the passage about the unemployment figures in the U.S.


a side effect
a favorable aspect
a decorative line
a comforting prospect

Question: The expression ¡°silver lining¡± (Line 2, Paragraph 1) most probably means_ .

A strong rupee is giving policymakers a new sort of headache
THE Indian finance ministry's mid-year review, released this week, sees the external sector as a silver lining around the country's huge fiscal deficit. "
Buoyant" and "encouraging" are the words used to describe three consecutive quarters of current-account surplus--the first in a quarter-century. Add to that swelling foreign-exchange reserves and a stronger rupee, and some are arguing that it is time for drastic liberalisation of India's foreign-exchange regime. They could be disappointed.
For most of the past decade, the nominal value of the rupee has been allowed to decline gently against the dollar, by about 5% a year, thus staying fairly steady in real terms. This year, however, it has been appreciating in real terms (and, since June, nominally as well). It would have done so more sharply had the central bank not been buying dollars with gusto. Exporters of manufactured goods, obsessed with price competition from China, are aghast at the rise--and at the prospect held out by some forecasters that a sustained boom in India's IT exports means it will continue.
The rupee's recent strength is only partly related to India's prowess in software and the mushrooming of "business-process outsourcing" in such projects as call-centres. The chunky surplus on invisibles owes more to remittances: non-resident Indians, attracted by the stability of the rupee and its higher interest rates, have been moving their offshore deposits back home. Similarly, Indian companies are borrowing more in dollars without selling rupees forward to hedge repayments. The trade deficit, meanwhile, has been shrinking, as imports grow slowly.
The inflows have boosted foreign-exchange reserves by some $20 billion this year, to $66 billion, or 12 months'-worth of imports. The size of this cushion has triggered some calls for further liberalisation of the labyrinthine foreign-exchange controls that India still maintains, despite the move in 1993 towards rupee convertibility for trade purposes. In recent months, some controls have duly been eased. It is now simpler, for example, for individuals to open foreign-currency bank accounts, and for travellers to get hold of foreign exchange. And non-resident Indians have been allowed to take out money acquired through inheritance, or from rents and dividends.
Some commentators have taken all this as a harbinger of full capital-account convertibility. That is not on the cards. The experience of 1991, when India ran out of money, has left the central bank prone to caution--an approach it felt was vindicated by the East Asian crisis of 1997-98. With war in Iraq looming and a turbulent oil market, some risk aversion is understandable. India's fiscal deficit--some 10% of GDP and widening--is another reason for moving slowly. Just as one rating agency, Moody's, is considering upgrading India's external debt, another, Fitch, has warned that its local-currency rating is under threat. Nor is it certain that opening the capital account would mean a weaker rupee. It might even attract more capital inflows. As India's exporters are learning, convertibility is a two-way street.


is bad news to exporters of manufactured goods

means a sharper decline of its nominal value against the dollar

will give impetus to the development of India's IT industry

Question: According to the text, the appreciation of the rupee in real terms_ .


the hedging activity of Indian companies

Question: The current account surplus owes to the following EXCEPT_ .


India's foreign exchange reserves increased more than three times this year.

Individuals are now allowed to trade foreign currency freely.

India now can tackle adverse events in the foreign exchange market better

India's foreign exchange controls are seen as a hamper to its economic development.

Question: Which of the following is true according to the text?


Its increasing foreign reserve.
Its past experience.
Uncertainty of the oil market.
Its growing fiscal deficit.

Question: Which of the follow is NOT a reason for India's slow response to calls for liberalization of its foreign exchange?