Passage Four：Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.In what now seems like the prehistoric times of computer history, the earth’s postwar era, there was quite a wide-spread concern that computers would take over the world from man one day. Already today, less than forty years later, as computers are relieving us of more and more of the routine tasks in business and in our personal lives, we are faced with a less dramatic but also less foreseen problem. People tend to be over-trusting of computers and are reluctant to challenge their authority. Indeed, they behave as if they were hardly aware that wrong buttons may be pushed, or that a computer may simply malfunction (失誤).

Obviously, there would be no point in investing in a computer if you had to check all its answers, but people should also rely on their own internal computers and check the machine when they have the feeling that something has gone wrong.

Questioning and routine double-checks must continue to be as much a part of good business as they were in pre-computer days. Maybe each computer should come with the warning: for all the help this computer may provide, it should not be seen as a substitute for fundamental thinking and reasoning skills.

第36題：What is the main purpose of this passage?

A) To look back to the early days of computers.

B) To explain what technical problems may occur with computers.

C) To discourage unnecessary investment in computers.

D) To warn against a mentally lazy attitude towards computers

Passage Four:Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.Reebok executives do not like to hear their stylish athletic shoes called “footwear for yuppies (雅皮士,少壯高薪職業(yè)人士)”. They contend that Reebok shoes appeal to diverse market segments, especially now that the company offers basketball and children’s shoes for the under-18 set and walking shoes for older customers not interested in aerobics (健身操) or running. The executives also point out that through recent acquisitions they have added hiking boots, dress and casual shoes, and high-performance athletic footwear to their product lines, all of which should attract new and varied groups of customers.

Still, despite its emphasis on new markets, Reebok plans few changes in the upmarket (高檔消費(fèi)人群的) retailing network that helped push sales to $1 billion annually, ahead of all other sports shoe marketers. Reebok shoes, which are priced from $27 to $85, will continue to be sold only in better specialty, sporting goods, and department stores, in accordance with the company’s view that consumers judge the quality of the brand by the quality of its distribution.

In the past few years, the Massachusetts-based company has imposed limits on the number of its distributors (and the number of shoes supplied to stores), partly out of necessity. At times the unexpected demand for Reebok’s exceeded supply, and the company could barely keep up with orders from the dealers it already had. These fulfillment problems seem to be under control now, but the company is still selective about its distributors. At present, Reebok shoes are available in about five thousand retail stores in the United States.

Reebok has already anticipated that walking shoes will be the next fitness-related craze, replacing aerobics shoes the same way its brightly colored, soft leather exercise footwear replaced conventional running shoes. Through product diversification and careful market research, Reebok hopes to avoid the distribution problems Nike came across several years ago, when Nike misjudged the strength of the aerobics shoe craze and was forced to unload huge inventories of running shoes through discount stores.

第36題：One reason why Reebok’s managerial personnel don’t like their shoes to be called “footwear for yuppies” is that ________.

A) they believe that their shoes are popular with people of different age groups

B) new production lines have been added to produce inexpensive shoes

C) “yuppies” usually evokes a negative image

D) the term makes people think of prohibitive prices

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage. Greenspace facilities are contributing to an important extent to the quality of the urban environment. Fortunately it is no longer necessary that every lecture or every book about this subject has to start with the proof of this idea. At present, it is generally accepted, although more as a self-evident statement than on the base of a closely-reasoned scientific proof. The recognition of the importance of greenspaces in the urban environment is a first step on the right way, this does not mean, however, that sufficient details are known about the functions of greenspace in towns and about the way in which the inhabitants are using these spaces. As to this rather complex subject I shall, within the scope of this lecture, enter into one aspect only, namely the recreative function of greenspace facilities.

The theoretical separation of living, working, traffic and recreation which for many years has been used in town-and-country planning, has in my opinion resulted in disproportionate attention for forms of recreation far from home, whereas there was relatively little attention for improvement of recreative possibilities in the direct neighbourhood of the home. We have come to the conclusion that this is not right, because an important part of the time which we do not pass in sleeping or working, is used for activities at and around home. So it is obvious that recreation in the open air has to begin at the street-door of the house. The urban environment has to offer as many recreation activities as possible, and the design of these has to be such that more obligatory activities can also have a recreative aspect.

The very best standard of living is nothing if it is not possible to take a pleasant walk in the district, if the children cannot be allowed to play in the streets, because the risks of traffic are too great, if during shopping you can nowhere find a spot for enjoying for a moment the nice weather, in short, if you only feel yourself at home after the street-door of your house is closed after you.

第16題：According to the author, the importance of greenspaces in the urban environment ________.

A) is still unknown

B) is usually neglected

C) is being closely studied

D) has been fully recognized

Passage Four:Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.Editor:

While a new school term is about to begin, perhaps we should reconsider the matter of examinations. In July, two writers (Letters to the Editor) praised the cancellation of exams because they believe “tests don’t tell the whole story.”

As a teacher who has worked in four countries, I have had the experience that a student who earns good marks is generally a good student, and that a student’s final mark in a subject is usually a grade average of the year’s work. Of course there are exceptions, but they do not have the frequency that would give an unfair picture of a student’s ability.

The simple fact is that proper class work, diligent exam studies and good marks are almost certain indicators of a student’s future performance. The opposite, almost certainly, incompetence.

There is no acceptable substitute for competition and examination of quality. How can teachers and future officials determine what a student has learned and remembered? Should we simply take the student word for it? Any institution that “l(fā)iberates” students from fair and formal exams is misguided, if not ignorant. And surely the “graduates” of such institutions will lack trustworthiness, not to mention being rejected by foreign universities for graduate or other studies.

When all is said and done, I sense that a fear of failure and a fear of unpleasant comparison with others is at the bottom of most ban-exams (廢除考試) talk. Excellence and quality fear nothing. On the contrary, they seek competition and desire the satisfaction of being the best.

第36題：Which of the following will the author of this passage probably agree with?

A) Tests are not effective in measuring the students’ abilities.

B) Tests are an effective measure of the students’ abilities.

C) Tests can only measure some of the students’ abilities.

D) Tests may not be useful for measuring students’ abilities.

Questions 36～40 are based on the following passage. When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service （IRS）, that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms.

Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.

As an example of what’s going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.

With these customer lists in hand, Member Works started dialing for dollars-selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a “free trial offer” had 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues.

Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They, didn’t know that the bank was giving account numbers to MemberWorks. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no.

The state sued MemberWorks separately for deceptive selling. The company denies that it did anything wrong. For its part, U.S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with MemberWorks and similar firms.

And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans.

You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields “transaction and experience” information-mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They’ve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn’t work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it?

Take U.S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that “all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential.” Then it sold your data to MemberWorks. The bank even claims that it doesn’t “sell” your data at all. It merely “shares” it and reaps a profit. Now you know.

第36題：Contrary to popular belief, the author finds that spying on people’s privacy ________.

A．is practiced exclusively by the FBI

B．is more prevalent in business circles

C．has been intensified with the help of the IRS

D．is mainly carried out by means of secret taping

Passage Four:Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.Where do pesticides (殺蟲劑) fit into the picture of environmental disease? We have seen that they now pollute soil, water and food, that they have the power to make our streams fishless and our gardens and woodlands silent and birdless. Man, however much he may like to pretend the contrary, is part of nature. Can he escape a pollution that is now so thoroughly distributed throughout our world:

We know that even single exposures to these chemicals, if the amount is large enough, can cause extremely severe poisoning. But this is not the major problem. The sudden illness or death of farmers, farm workers, and others exposed to sufficient quantities of pesticides is very sad and should not occur. For the population as a whole, we must be more concerned with the delayed effects of absorbing small amounts of the pesticides that invisibly pollute our world.

Responsible public health officials have pointed out that the biological effects of chemicals are cumulative (累積) over long periods of time, and that the danger to individual may depend on the sum of the exposures received throughout his lifetime. For these very reasons the danger is easily ignored. It is human nature to shake off what may seem to us a threat of future disaster. “Men are naturally most impressed by diseases which have obvious signs,” says a wise physician, Dr. Rene Dubos, “yet some of their worst enemies slowly approach them unnoticed.”

第36題：Which of the following is closest in meaning to the sentence “Man... is part of nature” (Para. 1, Lines 3-4)?

A) Man appears indifferent to what happens in nature.

B) Man acts as if he does not belong to nature.

C) Man can avoid the effects of environmental pollution.

D) Man can escape his responsibilities for environmental effects of pesticides?

Passage Four:Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.It’s very interesting to note where the debate about diversity (多樣化) is taking place. It is taking place primarily in political circles. Here at the College Fund, we have a lot of contact with top corporate (公司的) leaders; none of them is talking about getting rid of those instruments that produce diversity. In fact, they say that if their companies are to compete in the global village and in the global market place, diversity is an imperative. They also say that the need for talented, skilled Americans means we have to expand the pool means promoting policies that help provide skills to more minorities, more women and more immigrants. Corporate leaders know that if that doesn’t occur in our society, they will not have the engineers, the scientist, the lawyers, or the business managers they will need.

Likewise, I don’t hear people in the academy saying. “Let’s go backward. Let’s go back to the good old days, when we had a meritocracy (不拘一格選人才) “ (which was never true-we never had a meritocracy, although we’ve come close to it in the last 30 years). I recently visited a great little college in New York where the campus had doubled its minority population in the last six years. I talked with an African American who has been a professor there for a long time, and she remembers that when she first joined the community, there were fewer than a handful of minorities on campus. Now, all of us feel the university is better because of the diversity. So where we hear this debate is primarily in political circles and in the media-not in corporate board rooms or on college campuses.

第36題：The word “imperative” (Line 5, Para. 1) most probably refers to something ________.

A) superficial

B) remarkable

C) debatable

D) essential

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage. “Welcome to the U.S.A.! Major Credit cards accepted!”

By the millions they are coming no longer the tired, the poor, the wretched mass longing for a better living. These are the wealthy. “We don’t have a budget,” says a biologist from Brazil, as she walks with two companions through New York City’s South Street. “We just use our credit cards.”

The U.S. has long been one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, but this year has been exceptional. First there was the World Cup, which drew thousands from every corner of the globe; then came the weakening of the U.S. dollar against major currencies. Now the U.S., still the world’s superpower, can also claim to be the world’s bargain basement (廉價(jià)商品部). Nobody undersells America these days on just about everything, from consumer electronics to fashion clothes to tennis rackets. Bottom retail prices-anywhere from 30% to 70% lower than those in Europe and Asia-have attracted some 47 million visitors, who are expected to leave behind $79 billion in 1994. That’s up from $74 billion the year before.

True, not everyone comes just for brains. There remains an undeniable fascination in the rest of the world with all things American, nourished by Hollywood films and U.S. television series. But shopping the U.S.A. is proving irresistible. Every week thousands arrive with empty suitcases ready to be filled; some even rent an additional hotel room to hold their purchases. The buying binge (無(wú)節(jié)制) has become as important as watching Old Faithful Fountains erupt in Yellowstone Park or sunbathing on a beach in Florida.

The U.S. has come at last to appreciate what other countries learned long ago: the pouring in of foreign tourists may not always be convenient, but is does put money in the bank. And with a trade deficit at about $130 billion and growing for the past 12 months, the U.S. needs all the deposits it can get. Compared with American tourists abroad, visitors to the U.S. stay longer and spend more money at each stop; an average of 12.2 night and $1624 a traveller versus the American s’ four nights and $298.

第36題：From what the Brazilian biologist says, we know that tourists like her ________.

A) are reluctant to carry cash with them

B) simply don’t care how much they spend

C) are not good at planning their expenditure

D) often spend more money than they can afford

passage four：questions 36～40 are based on the following passage. It’s no secret that many children would be healthier and happier with adoptive parents than with the parents that nature dealt them. That’s especially true of children who remain in abusive homes because the law blindly favors biological parents. It’s also true of children who suffer for years in foster homes （收養(yǎng)孩子的家庭） because of parents who can’t or won’t care for them but refuse to give up custody （監(jiān)護(hù)） rights.

Fourteen-year-old Kimberly Mays fits neither description, but her recent court victory could eventually help children who do. Kimberly has been the object of an angry custody baffle between the man who raised her and her biological parents, with whom she has never lived. A Florida judge ruled that the teenager can remain with the only father she’s ever known and that her biological parents have “no legal claim” on her.

The ruling, though it may yet be reversed, sets aside the principle that biology is the primary determinant of parentage. That’s an important development, one that’s long overdue.

Shortly after birth in December 1978, Kimberly Mays and another infant were mistakenly switched and sent home with the wrong parents. Kimberly’s biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, received a child who died of a heart disease in 1988. Medical tests showed that the child wasn’t the Twiggs’ own daughter, but Kimt only was, thus sparking a custody battle with Robert Mays. In 1989, the two families agreed that Mr. Mays would maintain custody with the Twiggs getting visiting fights. Those rights were ended when Mr. Mays decided that Kimberly was being harmed.

The decision to leave Kimberly with Mr. Mays rendered her suit debated. But the judge made clear that Kimberly did have standing to sue （起訴） on her own behalf. Thus he made clear that she was more than just property to be handled as adults saw fit.

Certainly, the biological link between parent and child is fundamental. But biological parents aren’t always preferable to adoptive ones, and biological parentage does not convey an absolute ownership that cancels all the rights of children.

第36題：What was the primary consideration in the Florida judge’s ruling?

A．The biological link.

B．The child’s benefits.

C．The traditional practice.

D．The parents’ feelings.

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.The concept of personal choice in relation to health behaviors is an important one. An estimated 90 percent of all illness may be preventable if individuals would make sound personal health choices based upon current medical knowledge. We all enjoy our freedom of choice and do not like to see it restricted when it is within the legal and moral boundaries of society. The structure of American society allows us to make almost all our own personal decisions that may concern our health. If we so desire, we can smoke, drink excessively, refuse to wear seat belts, eat whatever food we want, and live a completely sedentary life-style. without any exercise. The freedom to make such personal decisions is a fundamental aspect of our society, although the wisdom of these decisions can be questioned. Personal choices relative to health often cause a difficulty. As one example, a teenager may know the facts relative to smoking cigarettes and health but may be pressured by friends into believing it is the socially accepted thing to do.

A multitude of factors, both inherited and environmental, influence the development of health-related behaviors, and it is beyond the scope of this text to discuss all these factors as they may affect any given individual. However, the decision to adopt a particular health-related behavior. is usually one of personal choice. There are healthy choices and there are unhealthy choices. In discussing the morals of personal choice, Fries and Crapo drew a comparison. They suggest that to knowingly give oneself over to a behavior. that has a statistical probability of shortening life is similar to attempting suicide. Thus, for those individuals who are interested in preserving both the quality and quantity of life, personal health choices should reflect those behaviors that are associated with a statistical probability of increased vitality and longevity.

第36題：The concept of personal choice concerning health is important because ________.

A) personal health choices help cure most illness

B) it helps raise the level of our medical knowledge

C) it is essential to personal freedom in American society

D) wrong decisions could lead to poor health