directions：
read the following text. choose the best word （s） for each numbered blank and mark a, b, c or d on answer sheet 1. （10 points）
many professions are associated with a particular stereotype. the 1 image of a writer, for instance, is 2 a slightly easy-looking person, locked in an attic, writing 3 furiously for days 4 . naturally, he has his favorite pen and note-paper, or a beat-up typewriter, 5 which he could not produce a readable word.
nowadays, we know that such images 6 little resemblance to reality. but are they 7 false？ in the case of at least one writer, it would seem not dame muriel spark, who 8 80 in february, in many ways resembles this stereotypical sitter. she is certainly not crazy, and she doesn't work in an attic. but she is rather 9 about the tools of her 10.
she 11 writing with a certain type of pen in a certain type of notebook, which she buys from a certain 12 in edinburgh called james thin. in fact, so 13 is she that, if someone uses one of her pens 14 , she immediately throws it away. and she claims she would have enormous difficulty writing in any notebook 15 those sold by james thin. this could soon be a problem, as the shop no longer 16 them, and dame muriel 's 17 of 72-page spiral bound is nearly finished.
as well as her18about writing materials, muriel spark 19 one other characteristic with the stereotypical writer ： her work is the most important thing in her life. it has stopped her from marrying； 20_ her old friends and made her new ones, and driven her from london to new york to rome. today she lives in the italian province of tuscany with a friend.
1. [a] historic [b] antique [c]senior [d]classic
2. [a] in [b]of [c]with [d]for
3. [a]away [b]off [c]on [d]down
4. [a] on finish [b]on final [c] on end [d] on stop
5. [a] except [b]without [c]beyond [d] on
6. [a] bear [b]stand [c]hold [d] keep
7. [a] extremely [b] thoroughly [c]likely [d] com??pletely
8. [a]observed [b] entered [c] saw [d] turned
9. [a] particular [b] specific [c] peculiar [d] special
10. [a]business [b]trade [c]vocation [d] career
11. [a]persists in [b] insists on [c] keeps on [d] indulges in
12. [a]grocer [b]chemist [c] stationer [d] baker
13. [a]mysterious [b] conventional [c]superstitious [d] traditional
14. [a] by fortune [b] by accident [c] on purpose [d] by coincidence
15. [a]much as [b] rather than [c] such as [d] other than
16. [a] piles [b] stores [c] stocks [d] conceals
17. [a] supply [b] provision [c] supplement [d] addition
18. [a]devotion [b] preoccupation [c] worship [d] obsession
19. [a] shares [b] agrees [c] sides [d] possesses
20. [a]spent [b] cost [c] exhausted [d] tired
section ii reading comprehension
part a directions： read the following four texts. answer the questions below each text by choosing a, b, c or d. mark your answers on answer sheet 1. （40 points）
text 1for thousands of canadians,bad service is neither make-believe nor amusing. it is an aggra??vatingand worsening real-life phenomenon that encompasses behavior rangingfrom indifference and rudeness to naked hostility and even physicalviolence. across the country, better business bureaus report alengthening litany, of complaints about contractors, car dealers, andrepair shops, moving companies, airlines and department stores. thereis almost an adversarial feeling between businesses and consumers.
experts say there are several explanations for ill feeling in themarketplace. one is that cus??tomer service was an early and inevitablecasualty when retailers responded to brutal competition by replacingemployees with technology such as 1 ~ 800 numbers and voice mail.another factor is that business generally has begun placing moreemphasis on getting customers than on keeping them. still another isthat strident, frustrated and impatient shoppers vex shop owners andmake them even less hospitable—especially a busier times of the yearlike christmas. on both sides, simple courtesy has gone by the board.and for a multitude of consumers, service went with it.
thebetter business bureau at vancouver gets 250 complaints a week, twiceas many as five years ago. the bureau then had one complaints counselorand now has four. people complain about being insulted, having theirintelligence and integrity questioned, and being threatened. one willhear about people being hauled almost bodily out the door by somebodysaying things like i don't have to serve you！ or this is privateproperty, get out and don't come back！what can customers do？ if thebureau's arbitration process fails to settle a dispute, a customer’sonly re??course is to sue in call claims court. but because of thecosts and time it takes, relatively few ever do.
there is a lotof support for the notion that service has, in part, fallen victim togenerational change. many young people regard retailing as just abead-end job that you're just going to do temporarily on your way to areal job. young clerks often lack both knowledge and civility.employers have to train young people in simple manners because that isnot being done at home. salespeople today, especially the younger ones,have grown up in a television-computer society where they’ve interactedlargely with machines. one of the biggest complaints from businessesabout graduates is the lack of inter-personal skills.
whatcustomers really want is access. they want to get through when theycall, they don't want busy signals, they don't want interactive systemstelling them to posh one for this and two for that—they don't wantvoice mail. and if customers do not get what they want, they defect.some people go back to local small businesses： the asian greengrocer, agreek baker and a greek fishmonger. they don't wear nametags, but onegets to know them, all by name.
21. at a business place of bad service, the worst one can get is__________
[a] indifference and rudeness
[b] naked hostility and physical violence
[c] having intelligence and integrity questioned
[d] being insulted and threatened
22. one of the reasons for such ill feeling in the marketplace is that
[a] shoppers are usually strident, frustrated and impatient
[b] shoppers often take businesses to court to settle them
[c] businesses use new technology instead of employees
[d] businesses are keen on keeping customers, not getting them
23. what has changed at vancouver better service bureau in the past five years？
[a] more effective.
[b] less bureaucracy.
[c]more business.
[d] better staff.
24. young clerks often lack interpersonal skills chiefly because they_______________ .
[a] are skilled in dealing with machines not people
[b] are not trained in simple manners at home
[c] fall victims to generational change
[d] take retailing to be a temporary job
25. the author's attitude towards businesses and bad service is_______________ them.
[a] attacking [b] understanding
[c] regretting [d]warning
text 2the united states is the united nations' biggest deadbeat.conservatives in congress, led by senator jessie helms, stoppedwashington from paying its dues until the un reduced its as??sessmentand made other changes. now, thanks to the hard work richard holbrook,america’s un representative, and for peacekeeping. mr. helms, who haspraised the deal, should release the dues he has been holding hostage—$582 million of the $1.3 billion the un says it is owed.
the newformula would reduce the us contribution to the general un budget to 22percent from the current level of 25 percent—a symbolic difference ofonly $ 34 million a year. washing??ton, which has been paying just over30 percent of the peacekeeping budget, would now pay 27 percent—adifference of $ 80 million to $ 120 million a year—and that percentagewill drop fur??ther. while poor countries would not pay more, the duesof other wealthy nations would rise un??der the new system.
theagreement would probably not have been reached without the interventionof the media magnate ted turner, who is already contributing $ 1billion to un programs over 10 years. mr. turner gave $ 34 million tocover the one-year gap during which other nations prepare to raisetheir contributions. his offer should embarrass congress, which forceddiplomats to waste their influence at the un in months of negotiationsto save a sum that is modest by federal budget stan??dards.
usdebts reduced the un's ability to reimburse nations that contributedpeacekeepers to un missions worldwide. pakistan, bangladesh, jordan andother poor countries essentially made up for the absence of usfinancial support. since washington benefits from peacekeepers, whichdamp down conflicts without us troops, it should not be discouragingnations from sending them.
washington's natural allies at theun were concerned that the us wanted influence without meeting itstreaty obligations. some of them withheld support for us proposals. mr.helms should also end his hold on an additional $244 million in backdues, whose release he has conditioned on a reduction in us dues forspecialized un agencies such as unicef and the un refugee organization.these agencies need full support. switch by mr. helms would help thein??coming bush administration, which would reap the benefits of therestoration of america’s full in??fluence at the united nations.
26. senator jessie helms stopped the us government from paying its dues to the un because he wants .
[a] other countries to pay as much as the us
[b] washington to make assessments and changes
[c] the un's general budget to be trimmed ,
[d] the us to share a smaller part of the burden
27. the new formula has adjusted the assessment and will save the us government at least a year.
[a] $114 million [b] $ 154 million
[c] $ 200 million [d] $ 234 million
28. after the budget reassessment, the gap left by the us will be covered by______________ .
[a] ted turner [b] peacekeeping countries
[c] all member nations [d] other wealthy nations
29. the author believes that richard holbrook's negotiations at the un were______________ .
[a]a money-saving success
[b] an eye-catching embarrassment
[c] a waste of us influence
[d] a defense of us interest
30. from the passage, we can infer that_____________ .
[a] the us contribution to the un has become a huge burden to washington
[b] the new formula has not solved all problems concerning the us dues
[c] the dispute over the us dues has been deliberately made political
[d] ted turner's intervention saved the us a diplomatic disaster
text 3with its cluster of high-rises known as the frankfurter manhattan, itsbig banks and its bustling airport, this is a town with pretensions.petra roth, the mayor, sees it as a global city providing hub functionsfor the continent,a place that should be as cosmopolitan as new york.
frankfurt is not just the city of foreign companies, but it is alsohome to 8000 muslims, most of them turks of modest means. foreigners,including a large contingent from the former yugoslavia, make up 30percent of the population； one of the highest ratios for any city ineurope troubled by immigration. but there is no blood on the streets.quietly flows the main river be??neath that mock-new world skyline.
as germany goes these days, so goes europe. and if frankfurt, theheadquarters for europe's new central bank and so the capital ofeurope's nascent shared currency, the euro, is comfortable being apart-muslim city with 27 mosques, perhaps the so-called new europe ofone money and blurred borders can be a more tolerant place.
xenophobia is very unusual in frankfurt,said francesco renaldo, anitalian banker. perhaps it's the 300 foreign banks, or the vastairport, or the long american presence. not until 1994 did 30 000american troops pack up and go home—the cold war ended and, so peoplehere say, the city shaped in the soldiers’ open, can-do spirit.
but even here, at the heart of american-influenced europe, far from thestrained psyche of a former east german city like esau, where rightiststhis year killed an african immigrant, the ghost of xenophobia is notentirely absent. for frankfurt—like germany, like europe—isstrug??gling to define a shifting identity.
as the departed ussoldiers suggest, this city is no longer part of a cold war countryliving what safer seneca, a german intellectual of turkish descent, hascalled a quasi a-national exis??tence under the umbrella of the west.far from it, this is now the financial center of a strong germanyseeking to define and express a new national pride.
butfrankfurt is also the capital of a unique experiment in abolishing thenation-state through the voluntary abandonment of sovereignty involvedin giving up national control of monetary poli??cy and adopting acommon currency.
so the continent's largest state, on rebornonly in 1990, yet also one that is being abolished, veers, this way andthat in its mood, one minute nostalgic for a proud fatherland, the nextin the vanguard of what foreign minister joshua fischer, himself achild of frankfurt, calls a post-national era.
31. frankfurt is referred to as aglobal citylike new york because of______________
[a] the foreign banks and businesses
[b] the number of foreigners in the city
[c] the 80,000 muslims and mosques
[d] the refugees from former yugoslavia
32. quietly flows the main river beneath that mock-new world skyline probably means that .
[a] the new central bank had a large inflow of funds
[b] the city life goes on quietly without racial conflicts
[c] the population moves quietly in the street of the city
[d] the foreigners come to the city like a flow of river
33. the word xenophobia probably means ____________ .
[a] fear of war [b] psychological nervousness
[c] hatred of foreigners [d] open, can-do spirit