Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line thought the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you’re not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already-expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $8.
The once all-powerful dollar isn’t doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar.
The weak dollar is a source of humiliation, for a nation’s self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It’s also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy-from giant companies like Coca-Cola to mom-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami-for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.
Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak? Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico-as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can’t afford to join the merrymaking.
The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006.
If you own shares in large American corporations, you’re a winner in the weak-dollar gamble. Last week Coca-Cola’s stick bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke’s beverage business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald’s and IBM.
American tourists, however, shouldn’t expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up- slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don’t turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England. There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
52. Why do Americans feel humiliated?
A) Their economy is plunging B) They can’t afford trips to Europe
C) Their currency has slumped D) They have lost half of their assets.
53.How does the current dollar affect the life of ordinary Americans?
A)They have to cancel their vacations in New England.
B)They find it unaffordable to dine in mom-and-pop restaurants.
C)They have to spend more money when buying imported goods.
D)They might lose their jobs due to potential economic problems.
54 How do many Europeans feel about the U.S with the devalued dollar?
A)They feel contemptuous of it
B)They are sympathetic with it.
C)They regard it as a superpower on the decline.
D)They think of it as a good tourist destination.
55 what is the author’s advice to Americans?
A.They treat the dollar with a little respect
B.They try to win in the weak-dollar gamble
C.They vacation at home rather than abroad
D.They treasure their marriages all the more.
56 What does the author imply by saying “currencies don’t turn on a dime” (Line 2,Para 7)?
A.The dollar’s value will not increase in the short term.
B.The value of a dollar will not be reduced to a dime
C.The dollar’s value will drop, but within a small margin.
D.Few Americans will change dollars into other currencies.
Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fights. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as e prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible——and mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures——professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams——selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-poinnt increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges.Getting into yale may signify intellgence,talent and
Ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and,paradoxically,its significance is declining.The reason:so many similar people go elsewhere.Getting into college is not life only competiton.Old-boy networks are breaking down.princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D.program.High scores on the GRE helpd explain who got in;degrees of prestigious universities didn’t.
So,parents,lighten up.the stakes have been vastly exaggerated.up to a point,we can rationalize our pushiness.America is a competitive society;our kids need to adjust to that.but too much pushiness can be destructive.the very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment.one study found that,other things being equal,graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction.They may have been so conditioned to deing on top that anything less disappoints.
注意 此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
57.Why dose the author say that parengs are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A.They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B.They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C.they have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D.they care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
58.Why do parents urge their children to apply to more school than ever?
A.they want to increase their children chances of entering a prestigious college.
B.they hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C.Their children eill have have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D.Elite universities now enroll fewer syudent than they used to.
59.What does the author mean by kids count more than their college(Line1,para.4?
A.Continuing education is more important to a person success.
B.A person happiness should be valued more than their education.
C.Kids actual abilities are more importang than their college background.
D.What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
60.What does Krueger study tell us?
A.GETting into Ph.d.programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B.Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C.Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D.Connections built in prestigious universities may be sustained long after graduation.
61.One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A.they earb less than their peers from other institutions
B.they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C.they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D.they overemphasize their qualifications in job application