Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Age has its privileges in America, and one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent（有支付能力的）. Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous（同义的）. Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Buoyed（支持）by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
31. We learn from the first paragraph that _______.
A ) offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice
B ) senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a decent life
C ) giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly
D ) senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount
32. What assumption lies behind the practice of senior citizen discounts?
A ) Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return.
B ) Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society.
C ) The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society.
D ) Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system.
33. According to some politicians and scholars, senior citizen discounts will _______.
A ) make old people even more dependent on society
B ) intensify conflicts between the young and the old
C ) have adverse financial impact on business companies
D ) bring a marked increase in the companies’ revenues
34. How does the author view the Social Security system?
A ) It encourages elderly people to retire in time.
B ) It opens up broad career prospects for young people.
C ) It benefits the old at the expense of the young.
D ) It should be reinforced by laws and court decisions.
35. Which of the following best summarizes the author’s main argument?
A ) Senior citizens should fight hard against age discrimination.
B ) The elderly are selfish and taking senior discounts for granted.
C ) Priority should be given to the economic needs of senior citizens.
D ) Senior citizen discounts may well be a type of age discrimination.
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
In 1854 my great-grandfather, Morris Marable, was sold on an auction block in Georgia for $ 500. for his white slave master, the sale was just “business as usual.” But to Morris Marable and his heirs, slavery was a crime against our humanity. This pattern of human rights violations against enslaved African-Americans continued under racial segregation for nearly another century.
The fundamental problem of American democracy in the 21st century is the problem of “structural racism” : the deep patterns of socio-economic inequality and accumulated disadvantage that are coded by race, and constantly justified in public speeches by both racist stereotypes and white indifference. Do Americans have the capacity and vision to remove these structural barriers that deny democratic rights and opportunities to millions of their fellow citizens?
This country has previously witnessed two great struggles to achieve a truly multicultural democracy.
The First Reconstruction（1954-1877）ended slavery and briefly gave black men voting rights, but gave no meaningful compensation for two centuries of unpaid labor. The promise of “40 acres and a mule（骡子）” was for most blacks a dream deferred（尚未实现的）.
The Second Reconstruction（1954-1968）, or the modern civil rights movement, ended legal segregation in public accommodations and gave blacks voting rights. But these successes paradoxically obscure the tremendous human costs of historically accumulated disadvantage that remain central to black Americans’ lives.
The disproportionate wealth that most whites enjoy today was first constructed from centuries of unpaid black labor. Many white institutions, including some leading universities, insurance companies and banks, profited from slavery. This pattern of white privilege and black inequality continues today.
Demanding reparations（赔偿）is no just about compensation for slavery and segregation. It is, more important, an educational campaign to highlight the contemporary reality of “racial deficits” of all kinds, the unequal conditions that impact blacks regardless of class. Structural racism’s barriers include “equity inequity,” the absence of black capital formation that is a direct consequence of America’s history. One third of all black households actually have negative net wealth. In 1998 the typical black family’s net wealth was $ 16,400 , less than one fifth that of white families. Black families are denied home loans at twice the rate of whites.
Blacks remain the last hired and first fired during recessions. During the 1990-91 recession, African-Americans suffered disproportionately. At Coca-Cola, 42 percent of employees who lost their jobs were blacks. At Sears, 54 percent were black. Black have significantly shorter life spans, in part due to racism in the health establishment. Black are statistically less likely than whites to be referred for kidney transplants or early-stage cancer surgery.
36. To the author, the auction of his great-grandfather is a typical example of _______.
A ) crime against humanity          B ) unfair business transaction
C ) racial conflicts in Georgia        D ) racial segregation in America
37. The barrier to democracy in 21st century America is ______.
A ) widespread use of racist stereotypes
B ) prejudice against minority groups
C ) deep-rooted socio-economic inequality
D ) denial of legal rights to ordinary blacks.
38. What problem remains unsolved in the two Reconstructions?
A ) Differences between races are deliberately obscured.
B ) The blacks are not compensated for their unpaid labor.
C ) There is no guarantee for blacks to exercise their rights.
D ) The interests of blacks are not protected by law.
39. It is clear that the wealth enjoyed by most whites ________.
A ) has resulted from business successes over the years
B ) has been accompanied by black capital formation
C ) has derived from sizable investments in education
D ) has been accumulated from generations of slavery
40. What does the author think of the current situation regarding racial discrimination?
A ) Racism is not a major obstacle to blacks’ employment.
B ) Inequality of many kinds remains virtually untouched.
C ) A major step has been taken towards reparations.
D ) Little has been done to ensure blacks’ civil rights.