Passage1
English has become the world’s number one language in the 20th century.In every country where is not the native language, especially in the ThirdWorld, people must strive to learn it to the best of their abilities, if theywant to participate fully in the development of their countries.41)__________.
42) __________.Nonetheless, a world full of different language willdisappear if the present trend in many countries to use English to replace thenational or official languages in education, trade and even politicscontinues.43) __________ .
The Third World countries that are now using English as a medium ofinstruction are depriving 75 per cent of their future leaders of a propereducation. According to many studies, only around 20 to 25 per cent of studentsin these countries can manage to learn the language of instruction as well asbasic subjects at the same time. Many leaders of these Third World countriesare obsessed with English and for them English is everything. They seem tobelieve that if the students speak English, they are already knowledgeable.44)__________ .
All the greatest countries of the world are great because theyconstantly use their own languages in all national development activities,including education. From a psychological point of view, those who are taughtin their own language from the start will develop better self-confidence andself-reliance. From a linguistic point of view, the best brains can only beproduced if students are educated in their own language from the start.45)__________.
There is nothing wrong, however, in learning a foreign language atadvanced levels of education. But the best thing to do is to have a goodeducation in one’s native language first, then go abroad to have a universityin a foreign language.
A) If this situation continues, the native or official languages ofthese countries will certainly die within two or three generations. Thisphenomenon has been called linguistic genocide. A language dies if it is notfully used in most activities, particularly as a medium of instruction inschools.
B) Those who are taught in a foreign language form the start will tendto be imitators and lack self-confidence. They will tend to rely on foreignconsultants.
C) Suppose you work in a big firm and find and find English veryimportant for your job because you often deal with foreign businessmen. Now youare looking a place where you can improve your English, especially your spokenEnglish.
D) But many people are concerned that English’s dominance will destroynative languages.
E) These leaders speak and write English much better than theirnational languages. If these leaders deliver speeches anywhere in the worldthey use English and they feel more at home with it and proud of their abilityas well. The citizens of their countries do not understand their leader’sspeeches because they are made in a foreign language.
F) Here are some advertisements about English language training fromnewspapers. You may find the information you need.
G) A close examination reveals a great number of languages have fallencasualty to English. For example, it has wiped out Hawaiian, Welsh, ScotchGaelic, Irish, native American languages, and many others. Luckily, some ofthese languages are now being revived, such as Hawaiian and Welsh, and theselanguages will live again, hopefully, if dedicated people continue their workof reviving them.
Passage 2
In 1959 the average American family paid $ 989 for a year’s supply offood. In 1972 the family paid $1,311. That was a price increase of nearly one–third. Every family has had this sort of experience. Everyone agrees that thecost of feeding a family has risen sharply. But there is less agreement whenreasons for the rise are being discussed. Who is really responsible?
Many blame the farmers who produce the vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs,and cheese that stores offer for sale. According to the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, the farmer’s share of the $1,311 spent by the family in 1972 was$521. This was 31 percent more than the farmer had received in 1959.
But farmers claim that this increase was very small compared to theincrease in their cost of living. Farmers tend to blame others for the sharp risein food prices. They particularly blame those who process the farm productsafter the products leave the farm. These include truck drivers, meat packers,manufacturers of packages and other food containers, and the owners of storeswhere food is sold. 41) __________.
Of the $1,311 family food bill in 1972, middlement received $ 790,which was 33 percent more than they had received in 1959. It appears that themiddlemen’s profit has increased more than farmer’s. But some economists claimthat the middleman’s actual profit was very law. According to economists at theFirst National City Bank, the profit for meat packers and food stores amountedto less than one per cent. During the same period all other manufacturers weremaking a profit of more than 5 per cent.42) __________ .
43) __________ .
Vegetables and chicken cost more when they have been cut into pieces bysomeone other than the one who buys it. A family should expect to pay more whenseveral “TV dinners” are taken home from the store. These are fully cookedmeals, consisting of meat, vegetables, and sometimes desert, all arranged on ametal dish. The dish is put into the over and heated while the housewife isdoing something else. Such a convenience costs money. 44) __________.
Economists remind us many modern housewives have jobs outside the home.They earn money that helps to pay the family food bills. The housewifenaturally has less time and energy for cooking after a day’s work. She wants tobuy many kinds of food that can be put on her family’s table easily andquickly. 45) __________ .
It appears that the answer to the question for rising prices is not asimple one. Producers, consumers, and middlemen all share the responsibilityfor the sharp rise in food costs.
A) Thus, as economists point out:” Some of the basic reasons forwidening food price spreads are easily traceable to the increasing use ofconvenience foods, which transfer much of the time and work of meal preparationfrom the kitchen to the food processor’s plant.”
B) They are among the “middlemen” who stand between the farmer and thepeople who buy and eat the food. Are middlemen the ones to blame for risingfood prices?
C) “If the housewife wants all of these.” The economists say, “that isher privilege, but she must be prepared to pay for the services of the thosewho make her work easier.”
D) Who then is actually responsible for the size of the bill ahousewife must pay before she carries the food home from the store? Theeconomists at First National City Bank have an answer to give housewives, butmany people will not like it. These economists blame the housewife herself forthe jump in food prices. They say that food costs more now because women don’twant to spend much time in the kitchen. Women prefer to buy food which has alreadybeen prepared before it reaches the market.
E) However, some economists believe that controls can have negativeeffects over a long period of time. In cities with rent control, the citygovernment sets the maximum rent that a landlord can charge for an apartment.
F) Economists do not agree on some of the predictions. They also do notagree on the value of different decisions. Some economists support a particulardecision while others criticize it.
G) By comparison with other members of the economic system both farmersand middlemen have profited surprisingly little from the rise in food prices.
Passage3
Growing cooperation among branches of tourism has proved valuable toall concerned. Government bureaus, trade and travel association carriers andproperties are all working together to bring about optimum conditions fortravelers.
41) __________.They distribute materials to agencies, such as journals,brochures and advertising projects.42) __________ .
Tourist counselors give valuable seminars to acquaint agents with newprograms and techniques in selling. 43) __________ .
Properties and agencies work closely together to make the most suitablecontracts, considering both the comfort of the clients and their own profitablefinancial arrangement. 44) __________ .
45) __________.Carriers are dependent upon agencies to supplypassengers, and agencies are dependent upon carriers to present them withmarketable tours. All services must work together for greater efficiency, fairpricing and contented customers.
A) The same confidence exists between agencies and carriers includingcar-rental and sight-seeing services.
B) They offer familiarization and workshop tours so that in a shorttime agents can obtain first-hand knowledge of the tours.
C) Travel operators, specialists in the field of planning, sponsorextensive research programs. They have knowledge of all areas and all carrierservices, and they are experts in organizing different types of tours and inpreparing effective advertising campaigns.
D) As a result of teamwork, tourism is flouring in all countries.
E) Agencies rely upon the good services of hotels, and , conversely,hotels rely upon
agencies, to fulfill their contracts and to send them clients.
F) In this way agents learn to explain destinations and to suggestdifferent modes and combinations of travel- Planes, ships, trains,motorcoaches, car-rentals, and even car purchases.
G) Consequently, the agencies started to pay more attention to thecomfort of travel.
Passage 4
Fields across Europe are contaminated with dangerous levels of theantibiotics given to farm animals. The drugs, which are in manure sprayed ontofields as fertilizers, could be getting into our food and water, helping tocreate a new generation of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs “ .
The warning comes from a researcher in Switzerland who looked at levelsof the drugs in farm slurry.41) __________ .
Some 20,000 tons antibiotics are used in the European Union and the USeach year. More than half are given to farm-animals to prevent disease andpromote growth. 42) __________.
Most researchers assumed that humans become infected with the resistantstrains by eating contaminated meat. But far more of the drugs end up in manurethan in meat products, says Stephen Mueller of the Swiss Federal Institute forEnvironmental Science and Technology in Dubendorf. 43) __________ .
With millions of tons animals manure spread onto fields of cops such aswheat and barley each year, this pathway seems an equally likely route forspreading resistance, he said. The drugs contaminate the crops, which are theneaten. 44) __________ .
Mueller is particularly concerned about a group of antibiotics calledsulphonamides. 45) __________ .This concentration is high enough to trigger thedevelopment of resistance among bacteria. But vets are not treating the issueseriously.
There is growing concern at the extent to which drugs, includingantibiotics, are polluting the environment. Many drugs given to humans are alsoexcreted unchanged and broken down by conventional treatment.
A) They don’t easily degrade or dissolve in water. His analysis foundthat Swiss farm manure contains a high percentage of sulphonamides; eachhectare of field could be contaminated with up to 1 kilogram of the drugs.
B) And manure contains especially high levels of bugs that areresistant to antibiotics, he says.
C) Animal antibiotics is still an area to which insufficient attentionhas been paid.
D) But recent research has found a direct link between the increaseduse of these farmyard drugs and the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bugsthat infect people.
E) His findings are particularly shocking because Switzerland is one ofthe few countries to have banned antibiotics as growth promoters in animalfeed.
F) They could also be leaching into tap water pumped from rocks beneathfertilized fields.
G) There is no doubt that the food and drink is always important to thehealth.
Passage 5
The main problem in discussingAmerican popular culture is also one of its main characteristics: it won’t stayAmerican. No matter what it is, whether it is films, food and fashion, music,casual sports or slang, it’s soon at home elsewhere in the world. There areseveral theories why American popular culture has had this appeal.
One theory is that is hasbeen “advertised” and marketed through American films, popular music, and morerecently, television. 41) __________ .They are, after all, in competition withthose produced by other countries.
Another theory, probably amore common one, is that American popular culture is internationally associatedwith something called “ the spirit of America .” 42)_________ .
The final theory is lesscomplex: American popular culture is popular because a lot of people in theworld like it.
Regardless of why its spreads,American popular culture is usually quite rapidly adopted and then adapted inmany other countries. 43)__________ . Black leather jackets worn by many heroesin American movies could be found, a generation later, on all those young menwho wanted to make this manly-look their own.
Two areas where this continuingprocess is most clearly seen are clothing and music. Some people can stillremember a time. When T-shirts, jogging clothes, tennis shoes, denim jackets,and blue jeans were not common daily wear everywhere .Only twenty years ago, itwas possible to spot an American in Paris by his or her clothes. No longer so:those bright colors, checkered jackets and trousers, hats and socks which wereonce made fun in cartoons are back again in Paris as the latest fashion. 44)__________ .
The situation with Americanpopular music is more complex because in the beginning, when it was stillclearly American, it was often strongly resisted. Jazz was once thought to be agreat danger to youth and their morals, and was actually outlawed in severalcountries. Today, while still showing its rather American roots, it has becomeso well established. Rock “n” roll and all its variations, country &western music, all have more or less similar histories. They were first resisted,often on America as well, as being “low-class,” and then as “a danger to ournation’s youth.” 45)__________ . And then the music became accepted and wasextended and was extended and developed, and exported back to the U.S.
A) As a result, its American origins and roots are often quicklyforgotten. “happy birthday to you,” for instance, is such an everyday song thatits source, its American copyright, so to speak, is not remembered.
B) But this theory fails to explain why American films, music, and television,programs are so popular in themselves.
C) American in origin, informal clothing has become the world’s firsttruly universal style.
D) The BBC, for example, banned rock and roll until 1962.
E) American food has become popular around the world too.
F) This spirit is variously described as being young and free,optimistic and confident, informal and disrespectful.
G) It is hardly surprising that the public concern contributes a lot tothe spread of their culture.
Passage 6
Albert Einstein, whose theories on space time and matter helped unravel the secrets of the atom and of the universe, was chosen as “Person of the Century by Time magazine on Sunday.
A man whose very name is synonymous with scientific genius, Einstein has come to represent more than any other person the flowering of 20th century scientific thought that set the stage for the age of technology.
“The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic, but technological-technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science,” wrote theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in a time essay explaining Einstein’s significance. 41) __________ .
Time chose as runner-up President Franklin Roosevelt to represent the triumph of freedom and democracy over fascism, and Mahatma Gandhi as an icon for a century when civil and human rights became crucial factors in global politics.
“What we saw was Franklin Roosevelt embodying the great theme of freedom’s fight against totalitarianism , Gandhi personifying the great theme of individual struggling for their rights, and Einstein being both a great genius and a great symbol of a scientific revolution that brought with it amazing technological advances that helped expand the growth of freedom,” said Time Magazine Editor Walter Isaacson.
Einstein was born in Ulm , Germany in 1879. 42) __________ .He could not stomach organized learning and loathed taking exams.
In 1905, however, he was to publish a theory which stands as one of the most intricate examples of human imagination in history. 43) __________ . Everything else----mass, weight, space, even time itself ----is a variable. And he offered the world his now –famous equation: energy equals mass times the speed of light squared ---E=mc2
44) __________ .
45) __________ . Einstein did not work on the project. Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1955.
A) “Indirectly, relativity paved the way for a new relativism in morality, art and politics,” Isaacson wrote in an essay explaining Time’s choices.” There was less faith in absolutes, not of time and space but also of truth and morality.” Einstein’s famous equation was also the seed that led to the development of atomic energy and weapons. In 1939, six years after he fled European fascism and settled at Princeton University, Einstein, an avowed pacifist, signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the United States to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany did.
B) How he thought of the relativity theory influenced the general public’s view about Albert Einstein.
C) “Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein.”
D) Roosevelt heeded the advice and formed the “Manhattan Project” that secretly developed the first atomic weapon.
E) In his early years, Einstein did not show the promise of what he was to become. He was slow to learn to learn to speak and did not do well in elementary school.
F) In his “Special Theory of Relativity,” Einstein described how the only constant in the universe is the speed of light..
G) It is said that Einstein’s success lies in the fact that few people can understand his theories.
Passage 7
Twenty years ago a debate erupted about whether there were specific “Asian values”. Most attention focused on dubious claims by autocrats that democracy was not among them. But a more intriguing, if less noticed, argument was that traditional family values were stronger in Asia than in America and Europe, and that this partly accounted for Asia’s economic success. (1)_________
On the face of it his claim appears persuasive still. In most of Asia, marriage is widespread and illegitimacy almost unknown. In contrast, half of marriages in some Western countries end in divorce, and half of all children are born outside wedlock. The recent riots across Britain, whose origins many believe lie in an absence of either parental guidance or filial respect, seem to underline a profound difference between East and West.
Yet marriage is changing fast in East, South-East and South Asia, even though each region has different traditions. The changes are different from those that took place in the West in the second half of the 20th century. Divorce, though rising in some countries, remains comparatively rare. What’s happening in Asia is a flight from marriage.
Marriage rates are falling partly because people are postponing getting hitched. Marriage ages have risen all over the world, but the increase is particularly marked in Asia.(2)_________
A lot of Asians are not marrying later. They are not marrying at all. Almost a third of Japanese women in their early 30s are unmarried; probably half of those will always be. (3) ____________So far, the trend has not affected Asia’s two giants, China and India.
Women are retreating from marriage as they go into the workplace. That’s partly because, for a woman, being both employed and married is tough in Asia. Women there are the primary caregivers for husbands, children and, often, for ageing parents; and even when in full-time employment, they are expected to continue to play this role. This is true elsewhere in the world, but the burden that Asian women carry is particularly heavy. (4)_______________ Not surprisingly, Asian women have an unusually pessimistic view of marriage. According to a survey carried out this year, many fewer Japanese women felt positive about their marriage than did Japanese men, or American women or men.
At the same time as employment makes marriage tougher for women, it offers them an alternative. More women are financially independent, so more of them can pursue a single life that may appeal more than the drudgery of a traditional marriage. More education has also contributed to the decline of marriage, because Asian women with the most education have always been the most reluctant to wed—and there are now many more highly educated women.
The flight from marriage in Asia is thus the result of the greater freedom that women enjoy these days, which is to be celebrated. But it is also creating social problems. Compared with the West, Asian countries have invested less in pensions and other forms of social protection, on the assumption that the family will look after ageing or ill relatives. That can no longer be taken for granted. The decline of marriage is also contributing to the collapse in the birth rate. (5)________________And there are other, less obvious issues. Marriage socialises men: it is associated with lower levels of testosterone and less criminal behaviour. Less marriage might mean more crime.
Can marriage be revived in Asia? Maybe, if expectations of those roles of both sexes change; but shifting traditional attitudes is hard. Governments cannot legislate away popular prejudices. They can, though, encourage change. Relaxing divorce laws might, paradoxically, boost marriage. Women who now steer clear of wedlock might be more willing to tie the knot if they know it can be untied—not just because they can get out of the marriage if it doesn’t work, but also because their freedom to leave might keep their husbands on their toes. Family law should give divorced women a more generous share of the couple’s assets.
[A] Fertility in East Asia has fallen from 5.3 children per woman in the late 1960s to 1.6 now. In countries with the lowest marriage rates, the fertility rate is nearer 1.0. That is beginning to cause huge demographic problems, as populations age with startling speed.
[B]Asian governments have long taken the view that the superiority of their family life was one of their big advantages over the West. That confidence is no longer warranted. They need to wake up to the huge social changes happening in their countries and think about how to cope with the consequences.
[C]People there now marry even later than they do in the West. The mean age of marriage in the richest places—Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong—has risen sharply in the past few decades, to reach 29-30 for women and 31-33 for men.
[D]Family law should give divorced women a more generous share of the couple’s assets. Governments should also legislate to get employers to offer both maternal and paternal leave, and provide or subsidise child care. If taking on such expenses helped promote family life, it might reduce the burden on the state of looking after the old.
[E]Over one-fifth of Taiwanese women in their late 30s are single; most will never marry. In some places, rates of non-marriage are especially striking: in Bangkok, 20% of 40-44-year old women are not married; in Tokyo, 21%; among university graduates of that age in Singapore, 27%.
[F]In the words of Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore and a keen advocate of Asian values, the Chinese family encouraged “scholarship and hard work and thrift and deferment of present enjoyment for future gain”.
[G]Japanese women, who typically work 40 hours a week in the office, then do, on average, another 30 hours of housework. Their husbands, on average, do three hours. And Asian women who give up work to look after children find it hard to return when the offspring are grown.
Passage 8
In the English-speaking world, people escape from frying pans into fires. In Thailand, the proverb is couched differently: people are said to escape from tigers only to be eaten by crocodiles. (1)_______________With that in mind, the Bank of Thailand raised interest rates on August 24th for the ninth time since mid-2010. But it was a split decision. The economic woes of America and Europe have darkened Asia’s mood. Some can again hear the tiger’s growl.
After last year’s swift recovery from recession, policymakers in developing Asian countries congratulated themselves on the resilience of their economies. (2)_______________In April 2009 the Thai central bank cut rates to 1.25%—lower than in most Asian economies—alongside a fiscal push worth 3% of GDP. Emerging economies were hit harder than optimists expected, but responded better than pessimists feared.
That resilience may be tested again sooner than anyone would have liked. In announcing its latest rate decision, the Bank of Thailand noted the dangers posed to the economy by a slowdown in America and Europe. (3)____________________But the bank found consolation in Thailand’s growing sales to its neighbours and to “new” markets farther afield. Last year China overtook America to become the country’s leading customer.
That trend is not unique to Thailand. Most of its neighbours now sell a smaller share of their exports to America and Europe than they did before the crisis (see chart). The precise percentages may be misleading. These exports include parts and components that may end up in the West, after first being assembled into final products in another country. But there is no denying the trend.
The region’s economies are not, then, as vulnerable to the tiger’s claws as they were in 2008. The crocodile, on the other hand, is uncomfortably close. Thailand’s headline consumer-price inflation (4.1% in the year to July) was too high for the central bank’s comfort, but lower than in many of its neighbours, such as China (6.5%), India, where wholesale prices rose by 9.2%, or Vietnam, where consumer prices rose by an alarming 23% in the year to August.
Asia’s campaign against inflation has dragged on longer than its central bankers hoped. Higher food and commodity prices were expected to drop out of the inflation figures eventually, but instead seem to have leached into other consumer prices. (4)________________The big exceptions are Taiwan, where the discount rate is less than 1.9%, and Singapore, which carries out monetary policy by setting a path for the exchange rate, not the interest rate. With rates in America at rock bottom, and the Singapore dollar set to strengthen against its American counterpart, interest rates in Singapore are extraordinarily low.
Reducing rates would help Asia’s economies withstand a modest slowdown in the West. Goldman Sachs, for example, has cut its 2011 rate forecast for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan, but has barely trimmed its growth forecasts for these countries.(5)___________
A fiscal response would do more to buoy demand in the rest of the world, as it did from 2007 to 2009, when budget balances deteriorated markedly throughout the region.
With luck, another stimulus package will not be necessary. A modest slowdown in the West might even take the pressure off prices in Asia, without doing undue harm to the region’s growth—a case perhaps of the tiger eating the crocodile.
[A]Thailand remains highly exposed to global trade: exports, including air conditioners, video cameras and fridges, as well as tourism, accounted for over 70% of its GDP in 2010.
[B] But rate cuts would also weaken the region’s exchange rates, sharpening their competitiveness and doing little to help economies outside Asia.
[C]Their docile banking systems, high saving rates and hoards of foreign exchange shielded them from the worst of the financial chaos. Their efforts to tighten fiscal and monetary policy before the crisis struck gave them room to loosen up in response, as exports collapsed and confidence evaporated.
[D]The Thai economy, like many in Asia, sprang free from the great recession surprisingly quickly. This year the bigger threat has been the widening jaws of inflation.
[E]America will overcome its current economic woes and Europe will muddle through.
[F]One consequence of this prolonged fight is that nominal interest rates have been raised off the floor. Indonesia’s policy rate is now 6.75%; India’s is 8%. That gives central bankers some room to cut if the world economy sags.
[G]Thailand’s new prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is contemplating another budgetary splurge. But policymakers elsewhere will be reluctant to spill the red ink again.
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