________.
A. poor countries should be given equal opportunities in trade
B. \ developed country\
C. poor countries should remove their suspicions about trade liberalization
D. farmers in poor countries should also receive the benefit of subsidies
19. The writer's attitude towards new farm subsidies in the U.S. is ________.
A. favourable
B. ambiguous C. critical
D. reserved
TEXT B
Oscar Wilde said that work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do. If so, Americans are now among the world's saddest refugees. Factory workers in the United States are working longer hours than at any time in the past half century. America once led the rich world in cutting the average working week – from 70 hours in 1850 to less than 40 hours by the 1950s. It seemed natural that as people grew richer they would trade extra earnings for more leisure. Since the 1970s, however, the hours clocked up by American workers have risen, to an average of 42 this year in manufacturing.
Several studies suggest that something similar is happening outside manufacturing: Americans are spending more time at work than they did 20 years ago. Executives and lawyers boast of 80 hour weeks. On holiday, they seek out fax machines and phones as eagerly as Germans bag the best sun loungers. Yet working
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time in Europe and Japan continues to fall. In Germany's engineering industry the working week is to be trimmed from 36 to 35 hours next year. Most Germans get six weeks' paid annual holiday; even the Japanese now take three weeks. Americans still make do with just two.
Germany responds to this contrast with its usual concern about whether people's aversion to work is damaging its competitiveness. Yet German workers, like the Japanese, seem to be acting sensibly: as their incomes rise, they can achieve a better standard of living with fewer hours of work. The puzzle is why America, the world's richest country, sees things differently. It is a puzzle with sinister social implications. Parents spend less time with their children, who may be left alone at home for longer. Is it just a coincidence that juvenile crime is on the rise? Some explanations for America's time at work fail to stand up to scrutiny. One blames weak trade unions that leave workers open to exploitation. Are workers being forced by cost cutting firms to toil harder just to keep their jobs? A recent study by two American economists, Richard Freeman and Linda Bell, suggests not: when asked, Americans actually want to work longer hours. Most German workers, in contrast, would rather work less.
Then, why do Americans want to work harder? One reason may be that the real earnings of many Americans have been stagnant or falling during the past two decades. People work longer merely to maintain their living standards. Yet many higher-skilled workers, who have enjoyed big increases in their real pay, have been working harder too. Also, one reason for the slow growth of wages has been the rapid growth in employment – which is more or less where the argument began.
Taxes may have something to do with it. People who work an extra hour in America are allowed to keep more of their money than those who do the same in Germany. Falls in marginal tax rates in America since the 1970s have made it all the more profitable to work longer.
None of these answers really explains why the century long decline in working hours has gone into reverse in America but not elsewhere (though Britain shows signs of following America's lead). Perhaps cultural differences – the last refuge of the defeated economist – are at play. Economists used to believe that once workers earned enough to provide for their basic needs and allow for a few luxuries, their incentive to work would be eroded, like lions relaxing after a kill. But humans are more susceptible to advertising than lions. Perhaps clever marketing has ensured that \– for a shower with built in TV, for a rocket propelled car – expand continuously. Shopping is already one of America's most popular pastimes. But it requires money – hence more work and less leisure.
Or try this: the television is not very good, and baseball and hockey keep being
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wiped out by strikes. Perhaps Wilde was right. Maybe Americans have nothing better to do.
20. In the United States, working longer hours is ________.
A. confined to the manufacturing industry
B. a traditional practice in some sectors
C. prevalent in all sectors of society
D. favoured by the economists
21. According to the third paragraph, which might be one of the consequences of
working longer hours?
A. Rise in employees' working efficiency.
B. Rise in the number of young offenders.
C. Rise in people's living standards.
D. Rise in competitiveness.
22. Which of the following is the cause of working longer hours stated by the writer?
A. Expansion of basic needs.
B. Cultural differences.
C. Increase in real earnings.
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D. Advertising.
TEXT C
The fox really exasperated them both. As soon as they had let the fowls out, in the early summer mornings, they had to take their guns and keep guard; and then again as soon as evening began to mellow, they must go once more. And he was so sly. He slid along in the deep grass; he was difficult as a serpent to see. And he seemed to circumvent the girls deliberately. Once or twice March had caught sight of the white tip of his brush, or the ruddy shadow of him in the deep grass, and she had let fire at him. But he made no account of this.
The trees on the wood edge were a darkish, brownish green in the full light – for it was the end of August. Beyond, the naked, copper like shafts and limbs of the pine trees shone in the air. Nearer the rough grass, with its long, brownish stalks all agleam, was full of light. The fowls were round about – the ducks were still swimming on the pond under the pine trees. March looked at it all, saw it all, and did not see it. She heard Banford speaking to the fowls in the distance – and she did not hear. What was she thinking about? Heaven knows. Her consciousness was, as it were, held back.
She lowered her eyes, and suddenly saw the fox. He was looking up at her. His chin was pressed down, and his eyes were looking up. They met her eyes. And he knew her. She was spellbound – she knew he knew her. So he looked into her eyes, and her soul failed her. He knew her, he has not daunted.
She struggled, confusedly she came to herself, and saw him making off, with slow leaps over some fallen boughs, slow, impudent jumps. Then he glanced over his shoulder, and ran smoothly away. She saw his brush held smooth like a feather; she saw his white buttocks twinkle. And he was gone, softly, soft as the wind.
She put her gun to her shoulder, but even then pursed her mouth, knowing it was nonsense to pretend to fire. So she began to walk slowly after him, in the direction he had gone, slowly, pertinaciously. She expected to find him. In her heart she was determined to find him. What she would do when she saw him again she did not consider. But she was determined to find him. So she walked abstractedly about on the edge of the wood, with wide, vivid dark eyes, and a faint flush in her cheeks. She did not think. In strange mindlessness she walked hither and thither...
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As soon as supper was over, she rose again to go out, without saying why.
She took her gun again and went to look for the fox. For he had lifted his eyes upon her, and his knowing look seemed to have entered her brain. She did not so much think of him: she was possessed by him. She saw his dark, shrewd, unabashed eye looking into her, knowing her. She felt him invisibly master her spirit. She knew the way he lowered his chin as he looked up, she knew his muzzle, the golden brown, and the greyish white. And again she saw him glance over his shoulder at her, half inviting, half contemptuous and cunning. So she went, with her great startled eyes glowing, her gun under her arm, along the wood edge. Meanwhile the night fell, and a great moon rose above the pine trees.
23. At the beginning of the story, the fox seems to the all EXCEPT ________.
A. cunning B. fierce C. defiant
D. annoying
24. As the story proceeds, March begins to feel under the spell of ________.
A. the light
B. the trees
C. the night
D. the fox
25. Gradually March seems to be in a state of ________.
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