In cities with rent control, the city government sets the maximum rent that a landlord (房东) can charge for an apartment. Supporters of rent control argue that it protects people who are living in apartment. Their rent cannot increase; therefore, they are not in danger of losing their homes. However, the critics say that after a long time, rent control may have negative effects. Landlords know that they cannot increase their profits. Therefore, they invest in other businesses where they can increase their profits. They do not invest in new buildings which would also be rent-controlled. As a result, new apartments are not built. Many people who need apartments cannot find any. According to the critics, the end result of rent control is a shortage of apartments in the city.
Some experts argue that the minimum wage law can cause problems in the same way. The federal government sets the minimum that an employer must pay workers. The minimum helps people who generally look for unskilled, low-paying jobs. However, if the minimum is high, employers may hire fewer workers. They will replace workers with machinery. Therefore, other things being equal, the number of workers that employers want decreases. Thus, critics hold the opinion that an increase in the minimum wage may cause unemployment. Some poor people may find themselves without jobs instead of with jobs at the minimum wage.
Supporters of the minimum wage say that it helps people keep their dignity. Because of the law, workers cannot sell their services for less than the minimum. Furthermore, employers cannot force workers to accept jobs at unfair wages.
Economic theory predicts the results of economic decision, such as decisions about farm production, rent control, and the minimum wage. The predictions may be corrected only if “other things are equal”. Economists do not agree on some of the predictions. They also do not agree on the value of different decisions. Some economists support a particular decision while others criticize it. Economists do agree, however, that there are no simple answers to economic questions.There is the possibility that setting maximum rent may________.
| A．cause a shortage of apartments |
| B．worry those who rent apartments as homes. |
| C．increase the profits of landlords. |
| D．encourage landlords to invest in building apartments. |
We can safely say that rent control_________.
| A．will always benefit those who rent apartments. |
| B．is unnecessary. |
| C．will probably bring inactive effects in the long run. |
| D．is necessary under all conditions |
There will be the problem of unemployment if ________________.
| A．the minimum wage is set too high.. |
| B．the minimum wage is set too early. |
| C．the workers are unskilled. |
| D．the maximum wage is set for poor workers. |
The passage tells us about _______________.
| A．the relationship between supply and demand. |
| B．the possible results of government controls. |
| C．the necessity of government control. |
| D．the urgency of getting rid of government control. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．The results of economic decisions cannot always be predicted. |
| B．Minimum wage cannot always protect employees. |
| C．Economic theory can help predict the results of economic decision if other factors are not changing. |
| D．Economists usually have the same prediction about an economic decision. |
Celebrity (名人) has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture. Fans used to be crazy about a specific film, but now the public tends to base its consumption (消费) on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product. Besides, fashion magazines have almost abandoned (given up) the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces. As a result, celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful market potential, moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own.
Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon, but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers, and limited to a few TV actresses. Today they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands. The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style. As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market, they expand their production scale rapidly, covering almost all the products of daily life.
However, for every success story, there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal. No matter how famous the product’s origin is, if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble an exercise in self-promotional marketing. And once the initial (最初的) attention dies down, consumer interest might fade, loyalty returning to tried-and-true labels.
Today, celebrities face even more severe embarrassment. The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever, but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well. Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life, and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears. Still, the ego’s（自我的）potential for expansion is limitless. Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition, many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered. As the saying goes, success and failure always go hand in hand. Their success as designers might last only a short time, but fashion—like celebrity—has always been temporary. Fashion magazines today .
| A．seldom put models on the cover |
| B．no longer put models on the cover |
| C．need not worry about celebrities’ market potential |
| D．judge the market potential of every celebrity correctly |
A change in the consumer market can be found today that .
| A．price rather than brand name is more concerned |
| B．producers prefer models to celebrities for advertisements |
| C．producers prefer TV actresses to film stars for advertisements |
| D．quality rather than the outside of products is more concerned |
The underlined sentence in paragraph 4 indicates that any wrong step will possibly .
| A．decrease the popularity of a celebrity and the sales of his products |
| B．damage the image of a celebrity in the eyes of the general public |
| C．cut short the artistic career of a celebrity in show business |
| D．influence the price of a celebrity’s products |
The passage is mainly about .
| A．celebrity and personal style | B．celebrity and markets potential |
| C．celebrity and fashion design | D．celebrity and clothing industry |
The huge Florida wetland known as the Everglades is a slow-moving river 80 kilometres wide but only a few centimeters deep. People call the Everglades a “river of grass” because sawgrass covers most of it. Sawgrass is not really grass. It is a plant that has leaves edged with tiny sharp teeth that can easily cut through clothes—and skin!
Travel in the Everglades is difficult. You cannot walk through shallow water because the sawgrass will cut you. The water is too shallow for regular boats. So, we use an airboat. An airboat is a flat, open boat. Like an airplane, it has a big propeller to move it. The propeller is fixed on the rear of the boat. It makes a tremendous noise, but it does the job. The boat skims along the water’s surface. Although we can still get lost in an airboat, at least we are above the alligators(短吻鳄).
While hundreds of different kinds of animals live in the Everglades, the most famous is surely the alligator. Once endangered, alligators are now protected within Everglades National Park. Visitors are likely to see them both on land and in water.
For a long time, dangers have threatened the Everglades. Around 1900, some people felt this precious wetland should be drained (排干). They said it was just a big swamp and not good for anything. In the 1920s, there was a land boom in Florida. People wanted to build homes everywhere, including in the Everglades. They built canals, levees (防洪堤) , and other water systems that stopped the rivers flowing into the Everglades. Factories were built near rivers that flowed into the wetland. These factories dumped poisonous waste that damaged the Everglades ecosystem.
People are now working to preserve the Everglades National Park for the future. Right now, one big problem is the paperbark tree. This tree is an invader from Australia.
Paperbark trees soak up a lot of water. In the early 1900s, people brought them to Florida because they thought they would help drain the Everglades. However, the invaders adapted too well. Paperbark trees have taken over hundreds of thousands of acres of the Everglades and killed other trees. Scientists are cutting down these invaders or spraying them with herbicides (除草剂) to kill them. Which helps to explain why it is difficult to travel in Everglades?
| A．Airboats may make a very big noise. |
| B．You may get lost when passing through. |
| C．Paperbark trees soak up too much water there. |
| D．Many different kinds of animals are to be protected. |
Why do people use airboats instead of normal boats?
| A．They have big propellers to move them faster than alligators. |
| B．The propeller makes loud noise so as to scare alligators. |
| C．Their flat bottom can skim along the water surface. |
| D．They can watch alligators without hurting them. |
The following measures were taken to drain the Everglades except that people______.
| A．built canals and levees to stop the rivers flowing into Everglades |
| B．built factories near rivers that flowed into the wetland |
| C．brought Paperbark to soak up water in Everglades |
| D．are cutting down these Paperbark trees |
The underlined word "invader" probably means something______.
| A．that moves in from another place | B．that enters and takes control |
| C．that has been brought in | D．that is in danger |
That “Monday morning feeling” could be a crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath. Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common on Monday mornings and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the weekend break.
The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2,600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 per cent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.
Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 per cent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.
A study of 11,000 Italians proved 8 am on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewer heart attacks in both countries.
The findings could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University. “We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol（胆固醇）but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear advice on how to prevent them,” he said.
Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.
“When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal（内分泌）changes in their bodies,” Willich explained. “All these things can have an unfavourable effect in the blood system and increase the risk of a clot（血凝块）in the arteries（动脉）which will cause a heart attack.”
“When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activity,” said Willich.Monday morning feeling, as this passage shows, .
| A．is not so serious as people thought |
| B．is harmful to working people in developed countries. |
| C．is the first killer in Germany and Italy. |
| D．is created by researchers in Germany and Italy |
To protect people from suffering from heart attack, doctors have paid much attention to .
| A．people’s working time | B．people’s living place |
| C．people’s diet and lifestyle | D．people’s nationalities |
It can be learned from this passage that heart attack has nothing to do with .
| A．blood pressure | B．heart rate | C．hormonal changes | D．blood group |
If the researchers give us some advice to avoid Monday morning feeling, what might it be?
| A．Stop working on Monday | B．Create a pleasant working environment |
| C．Get up late on Monday morning | D．Go to work with a doctor |
When I was growing up in America, I was ashamed of my mother’s Chinese English. Because of her English, she was often treated unfairly. People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously , did not give her good service , pretended not to understand her , or even acted as if they did not hear her .
My mother has realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on phone to pretend I was she . I was forced to ask for information or even to yell at people who had been rude to her. One time I had to call her stockbroker (股票经纪人).I said in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan..”
And my mother was standing beside me, whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me cheek already two week lone.”
And then, in perfect English I said : “I’m getting rather concerned .You agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she talked more loudly. “What he want? I come to New York tell him front of his boss.” And so I turned to the stockbroker again, “I can’t tolerate any more excuse. If I don’t receive the check immediately , I am going to have to speak to your manager when I am in New York next week.”
The next week we ended up in New York. While I was sitting there red-faced, my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting to his boss in her broken English.
When I was a teenager, my mother’s broken English embarrassed me. But now, I see it differently. To me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It is my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, and full of observation and wisdom. It was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed ideas, and made sense of the world.From Paragorph 2, we know that the author was .
| A．good at pretending | B．rude to the stockbroker |
| C．unwilling to phone for her mother | D．ready to help her mother |
After the author made the phone call, .
| A．they forgave the stockbroker | B．they went to New York immediately |
| C．they failed to get the check | D．they spoke to their boss at once |
What does the author think of her mother’s English now?
| A．It confuses her. | B．It embarrasses her. |
| C．It helps her tolerate rude people. | D．It helps her understand the world. |
We can inter from the passage that Chinese English .
| A．is clear and natural to non-native speakers |
| B．is vivid and direct to non-native speakers |
| C．may bring inconvenience in America |
| D．has a very bad reputation in America |
Charles Blackman: Alice in Wonderland
An Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria （NGV）, Australia
10 June—12 August 2009
Venue（地点） The Ian Potter Centre
Admission Free entry
Charles Blackman is famous for his beautiful painting of dreams. In 1956, he heard for the first time Lewis Carroll’s extraordinary tale of Alice in Wonderland — the story of a Victorian girl who falls down a rabbit hole, meets a lot of funny characters and experience all kinds of things .At that time, Blackman’s wife was suffering form progressive blindness. The story of Alice moving through the strange situations, often disheartened by various events, was similar to his wife’s experiences. It also reflected so much of his own life. All this contributed to the completion of the Alice in Wonderland paintings.
Illustrator Workshop
Go straight to the experts for an introductory course in book illustration. The course includes an introduction to the process of illustration and its techniques, workshop exercise and group projects.
Dates Sunday 17 June &Sunday 5Aug.10am—1pm
Venue Gas Works Arts Park
Wonderful World
Celebrate the exhibition and Children’s Book Week with special activities just for the day, including a special visit from Alice and the White Rabbit.
Date Sunday 24 June, 11am—4pm
Venue Exhibition Space, Level 3
Topsy- Turvy
Visit the exhibition or discover wonderful curiosities in artworks in the NGV Collection and make a magic world in a box. Alice and the White Rabbit will be with you. Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland will be screened.
Dates Sunday 8,15,22,29 July ,and Tuesday 24—Friday 27 July ,12noon—3pm
Venue Theatre, NGV Australia
Drawing Workshop
Distortions of scale (比例失真) can make artworks strange but interesting.Find out how Charles Blackman distorted scale in his paintings to create a curious world, then experiment with scale in your own drawings. More information upon booking.
Date Friday 27 July, 10:30am—3pm
Venue Foyer, Level 3Charles Blackman’s paintings come from _______.
| A．his admiration for Lewis Carroll | B．his dream of becoming a famous artist |
| C．his wish to express his own feelings | D．his eagerness to cure his wife’s illness |
Which two activities can you participate in on the same day?
| A．Illustrator Workshop and Wonderful World |
| B．Illustrator Workshop and Drawing Workshop. |
| C．Wonderful World and Topsy –Turvy. |
| D．Topsy-Turvy and Drawing Workshop. |
To understand the Alice in Wonderland paintings, you should go to _______.
| A．Exhibition Space. Level 3 | B．Gas Works Arts Park |
| C．Theatre, NGV Australia | D．Foyer, Level 3 |
Activities concerning children’s books are to be held _______.
| A．on June 24, 2009 | B．on July15, 2009 |
| C．on July 27, 2009 | D．on August 5, 2009 |
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