In order to arrive at a more accurate picture of economic progress, some have proposed that GDP be replaced by a new measurement called the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). GPI is influenced positively by household and volunteer work, and negatively by factors such as pollution, crime, illness and family breakdown. GDP not only ignores the costs of such detriments, it ultimately represents them as gains in the form of money spent on measures to combat them. Taking such variables into account, it is not surprising that GPI often tells a different story than does GDP. For example, in cases where GDP numbers have suggested a robust and growing economy, GPI figures from the same periods have often indicated dramatic decreases in social and environmental capital.

　　26. The text commences with the claim that GDP is

　　［A］ the upgraded variety of GNP.

　　［B］ the direct descendant of GNP.

　　［C］ the true indicator of economic growth.

　　［D］ the sound judgment of national economy.

　　27. According to the critics, GDP

　　［A］ presents false prosperity.［B］ consists of unreal statistics.

　　［C］ comprises fabricated information.［D］ fails to describe economic reality.

　　28. The phrase “takes its toll on” (at the end of Par. 2) probably means

　　［A］ makes vehicles overfilled on.［B］ meets payment for the use of.

　　［C］ generates greater revenue for.［D］ results in a lot of damage.

　　29. The text is written primarily to

　　［A］ profile a group critical of an economic statistic.

　　［B］ analyze statistics to decide the economic health.

　　［C］ describe an alternative to an economic indicator.

　　［D］ present and evaluate economic trends since 1945.

　　30. The author mentions GDP and GPI figures in support of the claim that

　　［A］ GPI is influenced positively by volunteer work.

　　［B］ GDP comprises a general record of money spent.

　　［C］ GPI is the most reasonable modification of GDP.

　　［D］ GDP is inferior to GPI in depicting economic reality.

　　Text3

　　We sometimes hear that essays are an old-fashioned form ,that so-and-o is the“last essayist”, but the facts of the marketplace argue quite otherwise. Essays of nearly any kind are so much easier than short stories for a writer to sell, so many more see print, it’s strange that though two fine anthologies(collections)remain that publish the year’s best stories, no comparable collection exists for essays. Such changes in the reading public’s taste aren’t always to the good, needless to say. The art of telling stories predated even cave painting, surely; and if we ever find ourselves living in caves again, it(with painting and drumming)will be the only art left, after movies, novels, photography, essays, biography, and all the rest have gone down the drain—the art to build from.

　　Essays, however, hang somewhere on a line between two sturdy poles: this is what I think, and this is what I am .Autobiographies which aren’t novels are generally extended essays, indeed. A personal essay is like the human voice talking, its order being the mind’s natural flow, instead of a systematized outline of ideas. Though more changeable or informal than an article or treatise, somewhere it contains a point which is its real center, even if the point couldn’t be uttered in fewer words than the essayist has used. Essays don’t usually boil down to a summary, as articles do, and the style of the writer has a “nap” to it, a combination of personality and originality and energetic loose ends that stand up like the nap(绒毛)on a piece of wool and can’t be brushed flat. Essays belong to the animal kingdom, with a surface that generates sparks, like a coat of fur, compared with the flat, conventional cotton of the magazine article writer, who works in the vegetable kingdom, I nstead. But, essays, on the other hand, may have fewer “levels” than fiction, because we are not supposed to argue much about their meaning. In the old distinction between teaching and storytelling, the essayist, however cleverly he tries to conceal his intentions, is a bit of a teacher or reformer, and an essay is intended to convey the same point to each of us.

　　An essayist doesn’t have to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth; he can shape or shave his memories, as long as the purpose is served of explaining a truthful point. A personal essay frequently is not autobiographical at all, but what it does keep in common with autobiography is that, through its tone and tumbling progression, it conveys the quality of the author’s mind. Nothing gets in the way. Because essays are directly concerned with the mind and the mind’s peculiarity, the very freedom the mind possesses is conferred on this branch of literature that does honor to it, and the fascination of the mind is the fascination of the essay.