PART IV    READING COMPREHENSION [30 MIN.]

SECTION A    READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN.]

In this section there are five passages followed by fifteen questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answer marked A, B, C and D.    Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.

TEXT A

To get a chocolate out of a box demands a considerable amount of unpacking: the box has to be taken out of its paper bag; the plastic wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the packing paper inside removed; the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper.    Similarly a pot of face cream comes surrounded by layers of paper, wedged inside a cardboard box, and the whole thing wrapped tightly in plastic.

It is not only luxuries which are wrapped in this way.    With so many goods now produced centrally and sold in supermarkets it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything from nails to potatoes that is not already done up in plastic or paper.

The wrapper itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately.    Useless wrapping accounts for much of the 31 pounds in weight of rubbish put out by the average London household each week.    So why is it done?    Some of it, like the wrapping on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling.    This is stupid.    Packaging is using up scarce energy and raw materials and ruining all the time.    One big firm reports that its glass, cans and paper have all gone up by 30 percent in the last couple of months, whi9le plastic has increased by 50 percent and all these prices are still rising.    This seems as yet to have had surprisingly little effect on the packaging practice of manufacturers.

Little research is being carried out on the costs in energy and materials of other possible types of packaging.    Just how practical is it, for instance, for local authorities to save waste paper and re-manufacture it as egg-boxes?    Would it be cheaper to plant another forest to produce new paper?

One reason for the unorganized behavior of everyone concerned is probably the varied nature of the packaging industry.    So many people, with so many different interests of their own, are affected that it is extremely hard to reach any agreement on what should be done.    Also, packagers say that preserving forests and preventing waste is not their concern.

66. The shopper gets rid of the wrapper immediately because _____.
A. he is careless
B. it adds to the weight
C. it is difficult for him to handle
D. it has no importance for him
正确答案是

67. From the passage, we can deduce that the main purpose of most wrapping is to _____.
A. help sell the product
B. save the shoppers' time
C. save the shopkeepers' time
D. help people carry their goods
正确答案是

68. According to the author, the packaging industry is _____.
A. full of capable people
B. rather disorganized
C. very worried about waste
D. full of people with different opinions
正确答案是

TEXT B

Whatever may be said against mass circulation magazines and newspapers, it can hardly be argued that they are out of touch with their readers' daydreams, and therefore the inducements they hold out to them must be a near accurate reflection of their unfulfilled wants and aspirations.    Study these and you will assuredly understand a good ideal of what it is that makes society tick.

Looking back, for example, to the twenties and thirties, we can see that circulation managers unerringly diagnosed the twin obsessions which dominated that era of mass unemployment -- economic insecurity and a passionate concern for the next generation.    Thus it was that readers were recruited with offers of free insurance policies for the one, and free instant education for the other.    The family whose breadwinner lost an eye in a double railway derailment, or an arm in a flood, could confidently expect to collect several hundred pounds from the Daily This or the Evening That.    The family who could not afford to send their son to grammar school could find consolation in equipping him with the complete works of Shakespeare in one magnificent, easy to read volume.

After the war the need to fall into step with the new consumer society was soon realized.    If you were flanked by neighbors who, unlike you, could afford a holiday abroad, then winning an easy competition could set you up with a fortnight in an exotic sunspot.    Dishwashers, washing machines, slow-cookers and deep-fat-friers were and are available by the same means.

69. The writer finds the study of gifts and prizes interesting because it _____.
A. reveals social trends
B. exposes journalistic dishonesty
C. confirms his view of human nature
D. shows the power of the popular press
正确答案是

70. From the passage, we are told that newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s offered their readers gifts in order to _____.
A. spread popular education
B. increase their circulation
C. improve social conditions
D. increase their readers' ambitions
正确答案是

71. What does the choice of gifts tell us about the circulation managers?
A. They despised their readers.
B. They understood their readers
C. They enjoyed being powerful.
D. They were out of touch.
正确答案是

72. Why did holidays abroad become a common prize after the war?
A. Group travel became easier.
B. Everyone wanted the opportunity to travel.
C. People became more interested in material possessions.
D. People wanted to get away from familiar surroundings.
正确答案是