D .works of art in general had gone out of fashion so they were not worth buying

　　23.Which of the following statements is NOT ture?

　　A .Sales of contemporary art fell dramatically from 2007to 2008.

　　B.The art market surpassed many other industries in momentum。

　　C.The market generally went downward in various ways。

　　D.Some art dealers were awaiting better chances to come。

　　24.The three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are ____

　　A.auction houses ' favorites

　　B.contemporary trends

　　C.factors promoting artwork circulation

　　D.styles representing impressionists

　　25.The most appropriate title for this text could be ___

　　A.Fluctuation of Art Prices

　　B.Up-to-date Art Auctions

　　C.Art Market in Decline

　　D.Shifted Interest in Arts

　　Text2

　　I was addressing a small gathering in a suburban Virginia living room -- a women's group that had invited men to join them. Throughout the evening one man had been particularly talkative frequently offering ideas and anecdotes while his wife sat silently beside him on the couch. Toward the end of the evening I commented that women frequently complain that their husbands don't talk to them. This man quickly concurred. He gestured toward his wife and said "She's the talker in our family." The room burst into laughter; the man looked puzzled and hurt. "It's true" he explained. "When I come home from work I have nothing to say. If she didn't keep the conversation going we'd spend the whole evening in silence."

　　This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations they often talk less at home. And this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage。

　　The pattern was observed by political scientist Andrew Hacker in the late '70s. Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports in her new book "Divorce Talk" that most of the women she interviewed -- but only a few of the men -- gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces. Given the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent that amounts to millions of cases in the United States every year -- a virtual epidemic of failed conversation。

　　In my own research complaints from women about their husbands most often focused not on tangible inequities such as having given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his or doing far more than their share of daily life-support work like cleaning cooking social arrangements and errands. Instead they focused on communication: "He doesn't listen to me" "He doesn't talk to me." I found as Hacker observed years before that most wives want their husbands to be first and foremost conversational partners but few husbands share this expectation of their wives。

　　In short the image that best represents the current crisis is the stereotypical cartoon scene of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a newspaper held up in front of his face while a woman glares at the back of it wanting to talk。

　　26.What is most wives' main expectation of their husbands?

　　A.Talking to them。

　　B.Trusting them。

　　C.Supporting their careers。

　　D. Shsring housework。

　　27.Judging from the context ,the phrase “wreaking havoc”(Line 3,Para.2)most probably means ___ 。

　　A generating motivation。

　　B.exerting influence

　　C.causing damage

　　Dcreating pressure

　　28.All of the following are true EXCEPT_______

　　A.men tend to talk more in public tan women

　　B.nearly 50percent of recent divorces are caused by failed conversation

　　C.women attach much importance to communication between couples

　　Da female tends to be more talkative at home than her spouse

　　29.Which of the following can best summarize the mian idea of this text ?

　　A.The moral decaying deserves more research by sociologists 。

　　B.Marriage break_up stems from sex inequalities。

　　C.Husband and wofe have different expectations from their marriage。

　　D.Conversational patterns between man and wife are different。

　　30.In the following part immediately after this text,the author will most probably focus

　　on ______

　　A.a vivid account of the new book Divorce Talk

　　B.a detailed description of the stereotypical cartoon

　　C.other possible reasons for a high divorce rate in the U.S。

　　D a brief introduction to the political scientist Andrew Hacker

　　Txet3

　　over the past decade, many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors — habits — among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues。

　　“There are fundamental public health problems, like hand washing with soap, that remain killers only because we can’t figure out how to change people’s habits,” Dr. Curtis said. “We wanted to learn from private industry how to create new behaviors that happen automatically。”

　　The companies that Dr. Curtis turned to — Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever — had invested hundreds of millions of dollars finding the subtle cues in consumers’ lives that corporations could use to introduce new routines。