Passage One

      Society was fascinated by science and things scientific in the nineteenth century． Great breakthroughs in engineering，the use of steam power，and electricity were there for all to see，enjoy，and suffer．Science was fashionable and it is not SUrprising that． during this great period of industrial development，scientific methods should be applied to the activities of man，particularly to those involved in the processes of production． Towards the end of the nineteenth century international competition began to make itself felt．The three industrial giants of the day，Germany，America，and Great Britain， began to find that there was a limit to the purchasing power of the previously apparently inexhaustible markets．Science and competition therefore provided the means and the need to improve industrial efficiency．

      Frederick Winslow Taylor is generally acknowledged as being the father of the scientific management approach，as a result of the publication of his book，The Principles of Scientific Management，published in 1911．However，numerous other academics and practitioners had been actively applying such approaches since the beginning of the century．Charles Babbage，an English academic，well—known for his invention of the mechanical computer(with the aid of a movement as long as 1820)applied himself to the costing of processes，using scientific methods，and indeed might well be recognized as one of the fathers of cost accounting．

      Taylor was of well—to—do background and received an excellent education but， partly owing to troubles with his eyesight，decided to become an engineering apprentice．He spent some twenty—five years in the tough，sometimes brutal， environment of the U．S．steel industry and carefully studied methods of work when he eventually attained supervisory status. He made various significant innovations in the area of steel processing, but his claim to fame is through his application of methods of science to methods of work, and his personal efforts that proved they could succeed in a hostile environment.

      In 1901, Taylor left the steel industry and spent the rest of his life trying to promote the principles of managing scientifically and emphasizing the human aspects of the method, over the slave driving methods common in his day. He died in 1915, leaving a huge school of followers to promote his approach worldwide. 

1.  According to the passage, what was badly needed to improve industrial efficiency?

      A:  Positive breakthroughs.

      B:  Unlimited purchasing power.

      C:  Science and competition.

      D:  International competition.

  

2.  Charles Babbage, an English academic,______

      A:  tried to use computers in production processes

      B:  first used computers in the area of cost accounting

      C:  was the father of modem computers

      D:  tried a scientific management approach

   

3.  Taylor is most famous for______

      A:  his application of scientific methods to work

      B:  his book The Principles of Scientific Management

      C:  his various innovations in steel processing

      D:  the spreading of his scientific management method

4.  Taylor’s scientific management method was described as ______

      A:  scientific and human

      B:  efficient but slave driving

      C:  academic but practicable

      D:  brutal but highly successful

      

5.  When he died in 1915, Taylor______

      A:  purchased a steel mill

      B:  sold a steel mill

      C:  started to protect environment

      D:  left a huge school of followers

  

 

Passage Two

      It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia’s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word, flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s online service, Death NET. Says Hofsess:    “We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”

      The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally III Law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia-where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part-other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia(安乐死). In the U.S. and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes(多米诺骨牌) to start falling.

        Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death probably by a deadly injection or pill-to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as Terminally Ⅲ by two doctors. After a “cooling off” period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally III Law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. “I’m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I’d go, because I’ve watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks,” he says. 

6.  Which of the following has the similar meaning to the sentence “But the tide is unlikely to turn back”(Line 5, Para. 2)?

      A:  U.S. and some other countries are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.

      B:  It is impossible to pass the bill.

      C:  Doctors are allowed by law to take the lives of the ill patients.

      D:  The fact that the NT Rights of the Terminally Ⅲ Law has been passed probably can’t be change

   

7.  From the second paragraph we learn that______

      A:  the objection to euthanasia is slow to come in other countries

      B:  physicians and citizens share the same view on euthanasia

      C:  changing technology is chiefly responsible for the hasty passage of the law

      D:  it takes time to realize the significance of the law’s passage

     

8.  When the author says that observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling, he means______

      A:  observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of euthanasia

      B:  similar bills are likely to be passed in the U.S., Canada and other countries

      C:  observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes

      D:  the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop

          

9.  When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will______

      A:  face his death with calm characteristic of euthanasia

      B:  experience the suffering of a lung cancer patient

      C:  have an intense fear of terrible suffering

      D:  undergo a cooling offperiod of seven days

        

10.  The author’s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of______

      A:  opposition

      B:  suspicion

      C:  approval

      D:  doubt

       

 

 

Passage Three

      Publicity offers several benefits. There are not costs for message time or space. An ad in prime-time television may cost $250,000 to $5,000,000 or more per minute, whereas a five-minute report on a network newscast would not cost anything. However, there are costs for news releases, a publicity department, and other items. As with advertising, publicity reaches a mass audience. Within a short time, new products or company policies are widely known.

      Credibility about messages is high, because they are reported in independent media. A newspaper review of a movie has more believability than an ad in the same paper, because the reader associates independence with objectivity. Similarly, people are more likely to pay attention to news reports than to ads. For example, Women’s Wear Daily has both fashion reports and advertisements. Readers spend time reading the stories, but they flip through the ads. Furthermore, there may be 10 commercials during a half-hour television program or hundreds of ads in a magazine. Feature stories are much fewer in number and stand out clearly.

      Publicity also has some significant limitations. A finn has little control over messages, their timing, their placement, or their coverage by a given medium. It may issue detailed news releases and find only portions cited by the media, and media have the ability to be much more critical than a company would like.

      For example, in 1982, Procter & Gamble faced a substantial publicity problem over the meaning of its 123-year-old company logo. A few ministers and other private citizens believed resulted in the firm receiving 15,000 phone calls about the rumor in June alone. To combat this negative publicity, the firm issued news releases featuring prominent clergy that refuted the rumors, threatened to sue those people spreading the stories, and had a spokesperson appear on Good Morning America. The media cooperated with the company and the false rumors were temporarily put to rest. However, in 1985, negative publicity became so disruptive that Procter & Gamble decided to remove the logo from its products.

      A firm may want publicity during certain periods, such as when a new product is introduced or new store opened, but the media may not cover the introduction or opening until after the time it would aid the firm. Similarly, media determine the placement of a story; it may follow a report on crime or sports. Finally, the media ascertain whether to cover a story at all and the amount of coverage to be devoted to it. A company-sponsored fobs program might go unreported or receive three-sentence coverage in a local newspaper. 

11.  The author mentions all of the following advantages of publicity EXCEPT______

      A:  having no time costs

      B:  having attentiveness

      C:  having high credibility

      D:  having high profitability

         

12.  The second paragraph indicates that people are more likely to believe stories______

      A:  in a newspaper than in a women’s daily

      B:  in a newspaper than in a magazine

      C:  in an independent newspaper than in a dependent newspaper

      D:  in a magazine than in a local newspaper

          

13.  According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

      A:  A firm can control and time publicity accurately.

      B:  A firm can neither control nor time publicity accurately.

      C:  A firm can either control or time publicity accurately.

      D:  In most cases a firm can control and time publicity accurately.

      

14.  The example in Paragraph 4 is intended to demonstrate______

      A:  the power of publicity

      B:  the victim of publicity

      C:  the terrible effect of rumors

      D:  the vulnerability of people to publicity

     

15.  The passage implies that______

      A:  the placement of a story is not quite important

      B:  the report of a crime may not be true

      C:  local newspapers are not interested in company-sponsored programs

      D:  publicity is not always necessary

    

 

 

Passage Four

      European governments are slamming the last door still open for so-called economic migrants from poor countries. Throughout the late 1980s more and more would-be migrants used this loophole. In 1992, 13 European countries were handling close to 700,000 requests for immigration a year. By June this year applications have dropped to almost a third of that rate. The largest falls are in Germany, which had Europe’s most open immigration policy, and in Sweden. In Germany almost all asylum-seekers and immigrants were let in and looked after at public expense until tribunals(法院) judged (and usually rejected) claims of persecution in their own countries. When Germany tightened the roles in July 1993, it was host to over 500,000 asylum-seekers. Even countries like Britain and France, which had stricter ways of separating political from economic migrants to begin with, have made it less attractive to seek asylum(避难), as new figures from the Inter-governmental Consultations on Asylum Refugees and Migration Matters.

      In Geneva suggest, Britain’s Home Office is speeding ways to detect fraudulent applications and has increased fines on ships and airlines that carry illegal immigrants. A common policy on asylum and immigration is an avowed(公开宣布的) goal of the European Union. Germany, which sees itself beset by would-be immigrants crossing neighboring lands, is especially keen. It wants other Europeans to consider the system Germany now uses of rejecting out of hand applications for political asylum from countries deemed “safe”, beginning with all of Germany’s immediate neighbors.

      Other European governments, notably France’s, believe that it may be a mistake to single out a handful of countries as free from persecution. Does this not imply the French would say that asylum-seekers from countries off the list are at risk (and so deserve protection). The French government would like to be able to decide for itself. If the fall in asylum applications is a guide, Europe has a common policy: keep the poor foreigners out. But it is not clear that a fortress-Europe policy by itself can work for long, now that the Cold War is gone. As Jonas Widgren, who monitors European migration in Vienna, points out, unless Western Europe works more closely on migration with Eastern Europe and Russia, it is simply storing up troubles. 

16.  The author of this essay suggests that ______

      A:  political asylum is often used as a way to escape control

      B:  until 1992 Germany only left open its door for asylum-seekers

      C:  France and the UK are both ideal choices for immigration-seekers

      D:  Europe tries covertly to work out a common immigration policy

     

17.  Germany now has a system of______

      A:  rejecting asylum applications from economically safe countries

      B:  judging in court immigration-seekers’ reasons for application

      C:  imposing heavy fines on economic migrants from poor countries

      D:  cooperating with its neighbors in choosing politically safe nations

      

18.  Which of the following is the meaning of “fraudulent”(Line 1, Para. 2)?

      A:  Authentic.

      B:  Frustrating.

      C:  Deceitful.

      D:  Smuggle 

19.  Which of the following is implied in the passage?

      A:  Europe as a whole turns its back on poor immigrants.

      B:  European countries have a standard for political safety.

      C:  Germany only handles applications of persecuted migrants.

      D:  Other European Governments will follow Germany’s suit.

        

20.  How could the migration problem be solved as suggested by the author?

      A:  The European Union has to maintain a common policy on immigration.

      B:  Asylum-seekers have to offer sufficient evidence of being persecuted.

      C:  Rich countries should welcome both economic and political immigrants.

      D:  Western Europe should cooperate closely with refugee-producing lands.