A. slowly B. rapidly C. normally D. loudly

of the labor force, the increase in output per man-hour, and the growth of total demand for goods and services. Changes in the average hours of work enter in exactly parallel fashion but have been quantitatively less significant. As productivity rises, less labor is required per dollar of national product, or more goods and services can be produced with the same number of goods. If output does not grow, employment will certainly fall; if production increases more rapidly than productivity (less any decline in average hours worked)employment must rise. But the labor force grows, too. Unless gross national product(total final expenditure for goods and services corrected for price changes) rises more rapidly than the sum of productivity increase and labor force growth (again modified for any change in hours of work), the increase in employment will be inadequate to absorb the growth in the labor force. Inevitably the unemployment rate will increase. Only when total production expands faster than the rate of labor force growth plus the rate of productivity increase and minus the rate at which average annual hours fall does the unemployment rate fall. Increases in productivity were more important than growth of the labor force as sources of the wide gains in output experienced in the period from the end of the war to the mid-sixties. These increases in potential production simply were not matched by increases in demand adequate to maintain steady full employment.

Except for the recession years of 1949, 1954, and 1958, the rate of economic growth exceeded the rate of productivity increase. However, in the late 1950s productivity and labor force were increasing more rapidly than usual, while the growth of output was slower than usual. This accounted for the change in employment rates.

But if part of the national purpose is to reduce and contain unemployment, arithmetic is not enough. We must know which of the basic factors we can control and which we wish to control. Unemployment would have risen more slowly or fallen more rapidly if productivity had in creased more slowly, or the labor force had increased more slowly, or the hours of work had fallen more steeply, or total output had grown more rapidly. These are not independent factors, however, and a change in any of them might have caused change in the other.

A society can choose to reduce the growth of productivity, and it can probably find ways to frustrate its own creativity. However, while a reduction in the growth of productivity at the expense of potential output might result in higher employment in the short run, the long-run effect on the national interest would be disastrous.

We must also give consideration to the fact that hidden beneath national averages is continuous movement into, out of, between, and within labor markets. For example, 15 years ago, the average number of persons in the labor force was 74 million, with about 70 million employed and 3.9 million unemployed. Yet 14 million experienced some term or unemployment in that year. Some were new entrants to the labor fore; others were laid off temporarily, the remainder were those who were permanently or indefinitely severed from their jobs. Thus, the average number unemployed during a year understates the actual volume of involunatary displacement that occurs.

High unemployment is not an inevitable result of the pace of technological change but the consequence of passive public policy. We can anticipate a moderate increase in the labor force accompained by a slow and irregular decline in hours or work. It follows that the output of the economy--and the aggregate demand to buy it--must grow by more than 4 percent a year just to prevent the unemployment rate from rising, and by even more if the unemployment rate is to fall further. Yet our

A．productivity rises at the same rate as growth of the labor force

B．productivity and labor force increase at a greater rate than output

C．output exceeds productivity

D．rate of economic growth is less than the number of man-hours required

_the direction.

A. close, lost

B. close, losing

C. next, losing

D. closely, lost

Parents and children often disagree about what is important or right because ______.

A. they have different styles of life

B. they hate each other

C. parents think that their children are troublemakers

D. they are in a society of rapidly changing social and moral values

It can be inferred from the conversation that

A. the two speakers are the student and the professor.

B. the development of large cities in the developing countries is not balanced.

C. the large cities in the developing countries grew as rapidly as those in the developed countries.

D. it's easy to solve the problems of the large cities.

Text 3

Under certain circumstances, the human body must cope with gases at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. For example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a dive made with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers to stay underwater longer and dive deeper.

The pressure exerted on the human body increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters of depth in seawater, so that at 30 meters in seawater a diver is exposed to a pressure of about 4 atmospheres. The pressure of the gases being breathed must equal the external pressure applied to the body, otherwise breathing is very difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a scuba diver at 40 meters are present at five times their usual pressure. Nitrogen, which composes 80 per cent of the air we breathe, usually causes a balmy feeling of well-being at this pressure. At a depth of 5 atmospheres, nitrogen causes symptoms resembling alcohol intoxication, known as nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis apparently results from a direct effect on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen cause under these pressurized helium does not exert a similar narcotic effect.

As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen in the lungs increases. Nitrogen then diffuses from the lungs to the blood, and from the blood to body tissues. The reverse occurs when the diver surfaces; the nitrogen pressure in the lungs falls and the nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood, and from the blood into the lungs. If the return to the surface is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse out rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed. They can cause severe pains, particularly around the joints.

Another complication may result if the breath is held during ascent. During ascent from a depth of 10 meters, the volume of air in the lungs will double because the air pressure at the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This change in volume may cause the lungs to distend and even rupture. This condition is called air embolism. To avoid this event, a diver must ascend slowly, never at a rate exceeding the rise of the exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during as- cent.

31. What does the passage mainly discuss？

A) The equipment divers use.

B) The effects of pressure on gases in the human body.

C) How to prepare for a deep dive.

D) The symptoms of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream.

Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed

Improvement of Reading Rate

It is safe to say that almost anyone can double his or her speed of reading while maintaining equal or even better comprehension. In other words, you can improve the speed with which you get what you want from your reading.

The average college student reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A "good" reading speed is around 500 to 700 words per minute, but some people can read 1000 words per minute or more on these materials.

What makes the difference？ There are three main factors involved in improving reading speed: (1) the desire to improve, (2) the willingness to try new techniques and (3) the motivation to practice.

Learning to read rapidly and well presupposes that you have the necessary vocabulary and comprehension skills. When you have advanced on the reading comprehension materials to a level at which you can understand college-level materials, you will be ready to practice speed reading in earnest.

The Role of Speed in the Reading Process

Understanding the role of speed in the reading process is essential. Research shows a close relation between speed and understanding -- although it is the opposite of what you might expect! Among thousands of individuals taking reading training, in most cases an increase in rate was accompanied by an increase in comprehension, and a decrease in rate brought decreased comprehension with it. It appears that plodding (单调乏味的), word-by-word analysis inhibits rather than increases understanding.

Most adults are able to increase their reading rate considerably and rather quickly without lowering their comprehension. These same individuals usually show a decrease in comprehension when they reduce their rate. Such results, of course, are heavily dependent upon the method used to gain the increased rate. Simply reading more rapidly without actual improvement in basic reading habits usually results in lowered comprehension.

Factors that Reduce Reading Rate

The factors which reduce reading rate are:

？Limited perceptual span (word-by-word reading)

？Slow perceptual reaction time (slow recognition and response to the material)

？Vocalization (reading aloud)

？Faulty eye movements (including inaccuracy in placement of the page, in return sweep, in rhythm and regularity of movement, etc.)

？Regression (needless or unconscious rereading)

？Faulty habits of attention and concentration (including simple inattention during the reading act and faulty processes of retention)

？Lack of practice in reading-- use it or lose it!

？Fear of losing comprehension, causing the person to deliberately read more slowly

？Habitual slow reading, in which the person cannot read faster because he or she has always read slowly

？Poor evaluation of which aspects are important and which are unimportant

？The effort to remember everything rather than to remember selectively

Since these conditions also tend to reduce comprehension, increasing the reading rate by eliminating them is likely to produce increased comprehension, too. This is entirely different from simply speeding up the rate of reading-- which may actually make the real reading problem more severe. In addition, forced acceleration may destroy confidence in one's ability to read. The obvious solution, then, is to increase rate as a part of a total improvement of the whole reading process, as special training programs in reading do.

Basic Conditions for Increased Reading Rate

A well-planned program prepares for maximum increase in rate by establishing the necessary conditions. Three basic conditions include:

？Eliminate the habit of pronouncing w

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

Running slowly for (some) three miles every day (is proved) a good (form) of (exercise).

A．some

B．proves

C．form

D．exercise

Passage Four

After a busy day of work and play, the body needs to rest. Sleep is necessary for good health. During this time, the body recovers from the activities of the previous day. The rest that you get while sleeping enables your body to prepare itself for the next day.

There are four levels of sleep, each being a little deeper than the one before. As you sleep, your muscles relax little by little. Your heart beats more slowly, and your brain slows down. After you reach the fourth level, your body shifts back and forth from one level of sleep to the other.

Although your mind slows down, from time to time you will dream. Scientists who study sleep state that when dreaming occurs, your eyeballs begin to move more quickly (although your eyelids are closed). This stage of sleep is called REM, which stands for rapid eye movement.

If you have trouble falling asleep, some people recommend breathing very slowly and very deeply. Other people believe that drinking warm milk will help make you drowsy. There is also an old suggestion that counting sheep will put you to sleep!

46. A good title for this passage is ______.

A. Sleep

B. Good Health

C. Dreams

D. Work and Rest

Tim Berners-Lee is the man who wrote the software(软件)programme that led to the foundation of the World Wide Web. Britain played an important part in developing the first generation of computers. The parents of Tim Berners-Lee both worked on one of the earliest commercial(商业的)computers and talked about their work at home. As a child he would build models of computers from packaging material. After graduating from Oxford University he went on to the real thing. In the 1980s scientists were already communicating using a primitive version(原始版本)of e-mail. While working at a laboratory in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a programme, which let him store these messages. This gave him another idea: write a programme that will let academics(学术界人士)from across the world share information on a single place. In 1990 he wrote the HTTP(服务程序所用的协议)and HTML(超文本链接标示语言)programmes which form. the basis of the World Wide Web.

The next year his programmes were placed on to the Internet. Everyone was welcome to use them and improve them if they could. Programmers used his codes(编码)to work with different operating systems. New things like web browsers(浏览器)and search engines were developed. Between 1991 and 1994 the number of web pages rose from 10 to 100,000.

In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee formed the newly formed World Wide Web Consortium(协会)，or W3C. More than 200 leading companies and laboratories are represented(代表)by W3C. Together they make sure that everyone can share equally on the web. "The Web can help people understand the way that others live and love and are human. It helps us understand the humanity of people, "he says.

1. From the lines we can infer that Tim Berners-Lee is _____.

A. British

B. American

C. Swiss

D. French

2. The main idea of this passage is _____.

A. when the Internet came into being

B. how Tim Berners-Lee formed W3C

C. why computers develop so rapidly

D. how the World Wide Web started

3. Scientists began to communicate using e-mail _____.

A. in 1980

B. after the 1980s

C. before 1990

D. in the 1960s

4. He made up his mind to write a programme that would let people from across the world share information on a single place when _____.

A. he was a child

B. he studied in Oxford University

C. he formed W3C

D. he worked at a lab in Switzerland

5. Which of the following is NOT true？ _____

A. The number of web pages rose very rapidly in the 1990s.

B. Tim's programmes were placed on to the Internet in 1990.

C. The World Wide Web will have an effect on the social development.

D. Tim Berners-Lee made a great contribution to the computer science.

ns 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 1

Questions I to 5 are based on the following passage:

After a busy day of work and play, the body needs to rest. Sleep is necessary for good health. During this time, the body recovers from the activities of the previous day. (76) The rest that you get while sleeping enables your body to prepare itself for the next day.

There are four levels of sleep, each being a little deeper than the one before. As you sleep, your muscles relax little by little. Your heart beats more slowly, and your brain slows down. After you reach the fourth level, your body shifts back and forth from one level of sleep to the other.

Although your mind slows down, from time to time you will dream. Scientists who study sleep state that when dreaming occurs, your eyeballs begin to move more quickly (although your eyelids are closed). This stage of sleep is called REM, which stands for rapid eye movement.

(77) If you have trouble falling asleep, some people recommend breathing very slowly and very deeply. Other people believe that drinking warm milk will help make you drowsy. There is also an old suggestion that counting sheep will put you to sleep!

1. A good title for this passage is .

A. Sleep

B. Good

C. Dreams

D. Work and Rest