C. criminals use the same passage to smuggle drugs and small arms D. where there are drugs, there are small arms 40. The best title for this passage is ______.
A. Small arms Talks, Not Nuclear Arms Talks B. Neglect of Small Arms Control C. Global Traffic in Small Arms D. Small Arms, Big Problems
Passage Two
At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they’re bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants’ impact on the economy and the reality?
There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants pace on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation’s fears and insecurities. There’s some truth to all these explanations, but they aren’t quite sufficient.
To get a better understanding of what’s going on, consider the way immigration’s impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants’ low-cost labor are businesses and employers --- meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers’ savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between 1980-2000.
Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the fiscal burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to
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soften when that fiscal burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants’ access to certain benefits.
The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affected---say, low-skilled workers, or California residents---the impact isn’t all that dramatic. “The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions,” says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. “But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one.” Too bad most people don’t realize it.
41. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. Whether immigrants are good or bad for the economy has been puzzling economists.
B. The American economy used to thrive on immigration but now it’s a different story.
C. The consensus among economists is that immigration should not be encouraged. D. The general public thinks differently from most economists on the impact of immigration.
42. In what way does the author think ordinary Americans benefit from immigration? A. They can access all kinds of public services. B. They can get consumer goods at lower prices. C. They can mix with people of different cultures. D. They can avoid doing much of the manual labor.
43. Why do native low-skilled workers suffer most from illegal immigration? A. They have greater difficulty getting welfare support. B. They are more likely to encounter interracial conflicts. C. They have a harder time getting a job with decent pay. D. They are no match for illegal immigrants in labor skills.
44. What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the inflow of immigrants?
A. It may change the existing social structure. B. It may pose a threat to their economic status. C. It may lead to social instability in the country. D. It may place a great strain on the state budget. 45. What is the irony about the debate over immigration?
A. even economists can’t reach a consensus about its impact. B. Those who are opposed to it turnout to benefit most from it.
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C. People are making too big a fuss about something of small impact. D. There is no essential difference between seemingly opposite opinions.
Passage Three
What’s hot for 2007 among the very rich? A $7.3 million diamond ring. A trip to Tanzania to hunt wild animals. Oh, and income inequality.
Sure, some leftish billionaires like George Soros have been railing against income inequality for years. But increasingly, centrist and right-wing billionaires are starting to worry about income inequality and the fate f the middle class.
In December, Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a column in US News & World Report, which he owns. “Our nation’s core bargain with the middle class is disintegrating,” lamented（哀叹）the 117th richest man in America. “Most of our economic gains have gone to people at the very top of the income ladder. Average income for a household of people of working age, by contrast, has fallen five years in a row.” He noted that “Tens of millions of Americans live in fear that a major health problem can reduce them to bankruptcy.”
Wilbur Ross Jr. has echoed Zuckerman’s anger over the bitter struggles faced by middle-class Americans. “It’s an outrage that any American’s life expectancy should be shortened simply because the company they worked for went bankrupt and ended health-care coverage,” said the former chairman of the International Steel Group.
What’s happening? The very rich are just as trendy as you and I, and can be so when it comes to politics and policy. Given the recent change of control in congress, popularity of measures like increasing the minimum wage, and efforts by California’ governor to offer universal health care, these guys don’t need their own personal weathermen to know which way the wind blows.
It’s possible that plutocrats（有钱有势的人）are expressing solidarity with the struggling middle class as part of an effort to insulate themselves from confiscatory（没收性的）tax policies. But the prospect that income inequality will lead to higher taxes on the wealthy doesn’t keep plutocrats up at night. They can live with that.
No, what they fear was that political challenges of sustaining support for global economic integration will be more difficult in the United States because of what has happened to the distribution of income and economic insecurity.
In other words, if middle-class Americans continue to struggle financially as the ultra-wealthy grow ever wealthier, it will be increasingly difficult to maintain political support for the free flow of goods, services, and capital across borders. And when the United States places obstacles in the way of foreign investors and foreign goods, it’s
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likely to encourage reciprocal action abroad. For people who buy and sell companies, or who allocate capital to markets all around the world, that’s the real nightmare.
46. What is the current topic of common interest among the very rich in America? A. The fate of the ultrawealthy people. B. The disintegration of the middle class.
C. The inequality in the distribution of wealth. D. The conflict between the left and the right wing.
47. What do we learn from Mortimer Zuckerman’s lamentation?
A. Many middle-income families have failed to make a bargain for better welfare. B. The American economic system has caused many companies to go bankrupt. C. The American nation is becoming more and more divided despite its wealth. D. The majority of Americans benefit little from the nation’s growing wealth. 48. From the fifth paragraph we can learn that ______. A. the very rich are fashion-conscious B. the very rich are politically sensitive
C. universal health care is to be implemented throughout America D. Congress has gained popularity by increasing the minimum wage
49. What is the real reason for plutocrats to express solidarity with the middle class? A. They want to protect themselves from confiscatory taxation. B. They know that the middle class contributes most to society. C. They want to gain support for global economic integration. D. They feel increasingly threatened by economic insecurity.
50. What may happen if the United States places obstacles in the way of foreign investors and foreign goods?
A. The prices of imported goods will inevitably soar beyond control. B. The investors will have to make great efforts to re-allocate capital. C. The wealthy will attempt to buy foreign companies across borders. D. foreign countries will place the same economic barriers in return.
Passage Four
The use of deferential（敬重的）language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy; she “treads softly（谨言慎行）in the world,” elevating feminine beauty and
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grace to an art form.
Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the feminine linguistic (语言的) ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential “women’s” forms, and even using the few strong forms that are known as “men’s.” this, of course, attracts considerable attention and has led to an outcry in the Japanese media against the defeminization of women’s language. Indeed, we didn’t hear about “men’s language” until people began to respond to girls’ appropriation of forms normally reserved for boys and men. There is considerable sentiment about the “corruption” of women’s language---which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and morality---and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are regularly carried out by the media.
Yoshiko Matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of the highly deferential forms as older women. This highly polite style is no doubt something that young women have been expected to “grow into”---after all, it is a sign not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to indicate a change in the nature of one’s social relations as well. One might well imagine little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older women---in a fashion analogous to little girls’ use of a high-pitched voice to do “teacher talk” or “mother talk” in role play.
The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change---of social change and of linguistic change. But it is most certainly not a sign of the “masculization” of girls. In some instances, it may be a sign that girls are making the same claim to authority as boys and men, but that is very different from saying that they are trying to be “masculine.” Katsue Reynolds has argued that girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out. Social change also brings not simply different positions for women and girls, but different relations to life stages, and adolescent girls are participating in new sub-cultural forms. Thus what may, to an older speaker, seem like “masculine” speech may seem to an adolescent like “liberated” or “hip” speech.
51. The first paragraph describes in detail ______.
A. the standards set for contemporary Japanese women B. the Confucian influence on gender norms in Japan C. the stereotyped role of women in Japanese families D. the norms for traditional Japanese women to follow
52. What change has been observed in today’s young Japanese women? A. They pay less attention to their linguistic behavior.
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