Part II Reading Comprehension (30%)
　　Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
　　Passage I
　　Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passages:
　　For an increasing number of students at American universities, Old is suddenly in. The reason is obvious: the graying of America means jobs. Coupled with the aging of the baby-boom (生育高峰) generation, a longer life span means that the nation’s elderly population is bound to expand significantly over the next 50 years. By 2050, 25 percent of all Americans will be older than 65, up from 14 percent in 1995. The change poses profound questions for government and society, of course. But it also creates career opportunities in medicine and health professions, and in law and business as well. “In addition to the doctors, we’re going to need more sociologists, biologists, urban planners and specialized lawyers,” says Professor Edward Schneider of the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Gerontology (老年学).
　　Lawyers can specialize in “elder law,” which covers everything from trusts and estates to nursing-home abuse and age discrimination (歧视). Businessmen see huge opportunities in the elder market because the baby boomers, 74 million strong, are likely to be the wealthiest group of retirees in human history. “Any student who combines an expert knowledge in gerontology with, say, an MBA or law degree will have a license to print money,” one professor says.
　　Margarite Santos is a 21-year-old senior at USC. She began college as a biology major but found she was “really bored with bacteria.” So she took a class in gerontology and discovered that she liked it. She says, “I did volunteer work in retirement homes and it was very satisfying.”
　　1. “… Old is suddenly in” (Line 1, Para. 1) most probably means”______”.
　　A) America has suddenly become a nation of old people
　　B) gerontology has suddenly become popular
　　C) more elderly professors are found on American campuses
　　D) American colleges have realized the need of enrolling older students
　　2. With the aging of America, lawyers can benefit ______.
　　A) from the adoption of the “elder law”
　　B) from rendering special services to the elderly
　　C) by enriching their professional knowledge
　　D) by winning the trust of the elderly to promote their own interests
　　3. Why can businessmen make money in the emerging elder market?
　　A) Retirees are more generous in spending money.
　　B) They can employ more gerontologists.
　　C) The elderly possess an enormous purchasing power.
　　D) There are more elderly people working than before.
　　4. Who can make big money in the new century according to the passage?
　　A) Retirees who are business-minded.
　　B) The volunteer workers in retirement homes.
　　C) College graduates with an MBA or law degree.
　　D) Professionals with a good knowledge of gerontology.
　　5. It can be seen from the passage that the expansion of America’s elderly population ________.
　　A) will provide good job opportunities in many areas
　　B) will impose an unbearable burden on society
　　C) may lead to nursing home abuse and age discrimination
　　D) will create new fields of study in universities
　　Passage II
　　Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage:
　　Favors: Westerners are told that “Always repay a favor” is a common saying among Asians. A favor or debt should never be forgotten. If a Western businessman gets a favor from an Asian, he should expect to repay this favor, no matter how much time passes. Asians are thus serious about the saying, “If you’ll scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” In other words, Asian societies are reciprocal societies.
　　Friends: If Westerners have no relatives in Asia, they are told that the next best thing to have when doing business in Asia is to have gone to school with someone from there. Asians want to deal with people that they know well, or with people to whom they have been introduced by people they know well. One successful American business executive working in Asia tells people that he spent most of his time developing and maintaining GUANXI, which he explains as a Chinese word meaning ties, relationships, or connections. The Japanese equivalent is KONE. How can Western businessmen make the right connections in Asian countries? Hiring a consultant is one way, but the best way is to make friendships and to keep them. How can a Westerner do this? The answer for those people working in Korea, Thailand and Japan is “golf”. Successful businessmen agree that it’s the best way to get to know important people in society, the way to meet royalty, top government officials, and corporate chiefs. A lifetime golf membership in Tokyo can cost an incredible one million dollars, but some Western businessmen or their corporations have been willing to pay this because of the connections it will bring.
　　6. By “favors”, the author means that ___________________.
　　A) Asians value mutuality in their relationships
　　B) Asians like to ask for favors from others
　　C) Asians expect favors to be returned
　　D) Asians like to do favors to others
　　7. The word “reciprocal” in line 5 means _______________.
　　A) mutual B) repayable C) recirculating D) conservative
　　8. What is the tone of the passage?
　　A) Humorous. B) Persuasive. C) Convincing. D) Sarcastic.
　　Passage III
　　Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage:
　　For years it has been possible to set up cameras to take pictures of cars as they speed along highways, jump lights or drive too fast down the street.
　　However even if the pictures are taken automatically, someone still has to do all the paperwork of issuing fines. But now a British company called EEV has come up with a computerized video system that can do it all automatically.
　　They suggest that all number plates have a bar code as well as the usual number. The bar codes are just strips of lines like those you see on food packets but bigger. EEV’s high speed video camera system can read a bar coded number plate even if the car is doing over 100 miles per hour. The computer controlling the system could then use the information from the bar code to find out the name and address of the driver (from vehicle records), print out the fine and send it off automatically. The inventors also suggest that the system could watch traffic to help catch stolen cars.
　　The new electronic system could be watching everyone that passes the cameras! Many people find the idea that “big brother is watching you” is more of a worry than a few motorists getting away with driving too fast. Moreover, some people will be very unhappy to realize that with new system the police could find out where a particular car has been.
　　9. The best title for the article could be ______.
　　A) People Who Drive Too Fast
　　B) Stop People from Driving Too Fast
　　C) EEV and the Police System
　　D) Implications of Computerized Systems for Motoring Offense
　　10. A traditional function of the camera as used by the traffic police system is to ______.
　　A) take snapshots of cars on highways
　　B) catch cars violating traffic rules
　　C) send fines to fast motorists
　　D) make the traffic system fully automatic
　　11. The newly-invented system functions more efficiently with the aid of __________.
　　A) car number plates
　　B) vehicle speeding records
　　C) bar coded numbers on number plates
　　D) print-out fines
　　12. All of the following can be used to describe EEV’s device except _______.
　　A) a computerized video system B) “Big Brother”
　　C) an automatic fine printer D) an electronic system
　　Passage IV
　　Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:
　　Population tends to grow at an exponential rate. This means that they progressively double. As an example of this type of growth rate, take one penny and double it every day for one month. After the first week, you would have only 64 cents, but after the fourth week you would have over a million dollars.
　　This helps explain why the population has come on “all of a sudden”. It took form the beginning of human life to the year 1830 for the population of the earth to reach one billion. That represents a time span of at least two million years. Then it took from 1830 to 1930 for world population to reach 2 billion. The next billion was added by 1960, only thirty years, and in 1975 world population reached 4 billion, which is another billion people in only fifteen years.
　　World population is increasing at a rate of 9,000 per hour, 220,000 per day, 80 million per year. This is not only due to higher birth rates, but to lower death rates as well. The number of births has not declined at the same rate as the number of deaths.
　　Some countries, such as Columbia, Thailand, Morocco, Costa Rica, and the Philippines, are doubling their populations about every twenty-one years, with a growth rate of 3.3 percent a year or more. The United States is doubling its population about every eighty-seven years, with a rate of 0.8 percent per year. Every time a population double, the country involved needs twice as much of everything, including hospitals, schools, resources, food and medicines to care for its people. It is easy to see that this is very difficult to achieve for the more rapidly growing countries.
　　13. This passage chiefly discussed_____.
　　A) the growth of world population
　　B) one type of the exponential rate
　　C) the population problem of more rapidly growing countries
　　D) the possible ways of dealing with the rapid population growth
　　14. According to the passage, what helps to explain why the population problem has come on “all of a sudden”?
　　A) The penny which doubles itself every day for one month.
　　B) The time span of at least two million years in human history.
　　C) An illustration of the exponential growth rate given by the author.
　　D) The large amount of money you would luckily make after the fourth week.
　　15. It took _______ for the world to increase its population form 1 billion to 4 billion.
　　A) 100 years B) 145 years C) 1975 years D) over two million years
　　16. Which of the following statements is NOT true? (C)
　　A) World population is increasing at a rate of 150 per minutes.
　　B) Lower death rate also contributes to world population growth.
　　C) The population of Columbia has been doubling every year for 21 years.
　　D) The United States is usuall6y doubling its population about every 87 years.
　　17. When a population doubles, the country involved needs twice as much of everything, including ______. (A)
　　A) hospitals and medicines B) schools and students
　　C) food and manpower resources D) all of the above