试卷详情
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英语-阅读理解(八)
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[单项选择]
In the 1920s, demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War Ⅰ and instituted austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1930s.
In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers.
President Hoover’s successor attached even more importanc
A. The impact of the Great Depression
B. The shrinking of overseas markets
C. The destruction caused by the First World War
D. The increased exports of European countries -
[单项选择]
Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers. The price system of the United States is a very complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public utility services. The interrelationships of all these prices make up the "system" of prices. The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else.
If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define "price", many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller for a product or service or, in other words, that price is the money value of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This defini
A. The Inherent Weaknesses of the Price System
B. The Complexities of the Price System
C. Credit Terms in Transactions
D. Resource Allocation and the Public Sector -
[单项选择]
Unlike their American or European counterparts, car salesmen in Japan work hard to get a buyer. Instead of wandering around showrooms waiting for customers to drop by, many Japanese car salesmen still go out to get them. They walk on the streets selling cars door-to-door. New customers are hunted with a vengeance and existing ones entertained with fruit and cakes on their birthdays. But life is getting tough—and not just because new-car sales are falling.
With more Japanese women (who often control the household budget) going out to work, the salesmen increasingly find nobody at home when they call. That means another visit in the evening or at the weekend. Then they face an extra problem: more people, especially the young, prefer to choose a new car from a showroom where they can compare different models.
Even as late as the mid-1980s some 90% of new cars were sold door-to-door. In some rural areas most new cars are still sold this way. But in the big citie
A. new car sales are falling
B. Japan is in recession
C. car prices are increasing fast
D. high inflation has dented the customers’ purchasing power -
[单项选择]
"There is a senseless notion that children grow up and leave home when they’re 18, and the truth is far from that," says sociologist Larry Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin. Today, unexpected numbers of young adults are living with their parents. "There is a major shift in the middle class," declares sociologist Allen Schnaiberg of Northwestern University, whose son, 19, moved back in after an absence of eight months.
Analysts cite a variety of reasons for this return to the nest. The marriage age is rising, a condition that makes home and its pleasantness particularly attractive to young people. A high divorce rate and a declining remarriage rate are sending economically pressed and emotionally hurt survivors back to parental shelters. For some, the expense of an away-from-home college education has become so excessively great that many students now attend local schools. Even after graduation, young people find their wings clipped by skyroc
A. for young adults to leave their parents and live independently
B. for middle class young adults to stay with their parents
C. for married young adults to move back home after a lengthy absence
D. for young adults to get jobs nearby in order to live with their parents -
[单项选择]
Imagine eating everything delicious you want—with none of the fat. That would be great, wouldn’t it
New "fake fat" products appeared on store shelves in the United States recently, but not everyone is happy about it. Makers of the products, which contain a compound called olestra, say food manufacturers can now eliminate fat from certain foods. Critics, however, say the new compound can rob the body of essential vitamins and nutrients (营养物) and can also cause unpleasant side effects in some people. So it’s up to consumers to decide whether the new fat-free products taste good enough to keep eating.
Chemists discovered olestra in the late 1960s, when they were searching for a fat that could be digested by infants more easily. Instead of finding the desired fat, the researchers created a fat that can’t be digested at all.
Normally, special chemicals in the intestines (肠) "grab" molecules of regular fat and break th
A. contains plenty of nutrients
B. makes foods fat-free while keeping them delicious
C. renders foods calorie-free while retaining their vitamins
D. makes foods easily digestible