PART III READING COMPREHENSIONS
　　In this section there are four reading passages followed by fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
　　TEXT A There are known to be at least a thousand completely different languages in Africa. There are 200 in Nigeria alone. English has remained the official language in most countries which were once British colonies, because except for Swahili, spoken in East Africa, most African languages are local, or tribal, if they wish to do business in Lagos or any of the other big cities, they have to speak English —— except in the north, where nearly everybody speaks Hausa. In fact, in business and politics and universities, English is the official language. Africans in ex-British colonies who go to live in the growing cities must learn English if they want to get on, and more and more country people are moving to the cities to find work. College students listen to lectures delivered in English by African as well as British lectures, and in the city bookshops there is a wide variety of books and journals published in English as well as in Swahili and Hausa. Africans, particularly in Nigeria, are producing excellent writers, whose books —— written in English —— are read throughout the English-speaking wor4ld. The following are all known internationally: Chinua Achube, novelist, and Wole Soyinka, poet and dramatist, both of Nigeria; James Ngugi, Kenyan novelist; Amos Tutuola, a great Nigerian storyteller and very readable. Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. The people of Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast and other ex-French colonies still speak French. Ever since the 18th century, when French was the lingua franca of Europe, the French have been jealous of the competition of English, which is the language of the commonwealth. At Commonwealth meetings, English is the only common language. English is valuable, too, at Pan-African meetings. In East Africa a completely different, non-European language has been the lingua franca of Africans for many centuries. This is Swahili, which is a mixture of Arabic and African languages. The word "Swahili" comes from the Arabic word "sawahili", meaning "of the coast". Swahili is used as the lingua franca of Kenya and Tanzania. The Portuguese traded on the East African coast for 200 years, but added no Portuguese words to Swahili. During the great colonial drive of the late 19th century, each European power introduced its own language as the official language of its new colonies. But even where English is not the official language, it has remained an important link between people who speak different languages. The leaders and most members of the governments speak it fluently. Swahili, which all British officials in East Africa had to learn, has some strange grammatical rules. For example, "mtu"="person", but in the plural this becomes "wa-tu"="people". All of the other words then begin with "W-/wa-". "Swahili has borrowed a number of words from English. For example, "a traffic island" has become "kiplefiti" (from "keep left"), but the plural, "traffic islands", obeys Swahili grammar. Singular words which begin with "ki" begin in the plural with "vi", so "viplefiti" is the plural of "keplefiti". English and African are the official language of South Africa. South African English has a slight African accent, but is otherwise like standard English. A few African words have found a place in the Oxford English Dictionary. "Trek" is used throughout the English-speaking world. Most of the Cape coloreds (people who are not whites or Africans) speak English. The Africans, who are known as the "Bantu" by South Africans, speak Zulu, Xhosa or one or more other African languages as well as English and/or Africans. African languages have given very few words to European languages. On the other hand, since many Africans now live in closer contact with the European style of life, they have had to find words for common objects and common verbs. For example in the Kxoe language of South West Africa, they call a watch "anmmuxo" which translated means "sun-see-on-thing", and "kuru" is used for "drive" (a car), which translated means to "press the bellows". In Kxoe there are words for one, two, three, but after that they have to use images. For example, "four" is "the finger with one licks out the pot"
　　36. From the passage we learn that Swahili is ____.
　　A) a language in East Africa
　　B) a local language in Africa
　　C) a tribal language in Africa
　　D) a language in North Africa
　　37. According to the passage, lingua franca means ____.
　　A) French language
　　B) English language
　　C) native language
　　D) common language
　　38. Which of the following is NOT correct?
　　A) English is the popular language in the African cities.
　　B) English is the common language in the African Colleges.
　　C) English is commonly used by African writers.
　　D) English is widely used in the countryside.
　　39. In Swahili, "keplefiti" means "a traffic island" while "viplefiti" means ____.
　　A) "keep fit"
　　B) "traffic island"
　　C) "Swahili grammar"
　　D) "singular words"
　　40. Which of the following is Not correct?
　　A) African is an official language in South Africa.
　　B) African is one of the two official language in South Africa.
　　C) African is not he same as English.
　　D) African is accepted as standard English in the Oxford English Dictionary.
　　TEXT B For one brief moment in April, Larry Ellison came within a few dollars of being the richest man in the world. The computer tycoon was holding a global conference call on a Wednesday morning, when the value of his company surged.　 It was the moment he almost overtook Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, as the wealthiest on the planet. For a few seconds, as share of traders marked Microsoft down and Oracle up, Ellison came within US 200,000 of Gates. The self-proclaimed "bad boy" of Silicon Valley found himself worth more than US 52 billion, up from a mere US 10 billion this time last year. Then Microsofts share price, which had plunged in recent weeks, recovered and the moment passed. Once, Ellison, founder of the software company Oracle, would have danced around his desk cursing like a pirate at failing to bring down Gates, a rival he had constantly made fun of in public. But Silicon Valley insiders said he remained calm, and muttered: "One day, one day very, very soon." He knew his moment was close. Unlike Gates, he is not big on charity, preferring to spend his money his way. He has his own private air force, a military-style crew based at San Jose airport near Redwood City, to help him fly his Gulfstream V jet (with two marbled bathrooms), a Marchetti fighter plane imported from Italy, and a handful of other aircraft, including a trainer for his son. He also plans to import a Russian Mig-29 fighter (capable of 1,500 mph). Why does he want one? So that, he joked, he can blast Gates home near Seattle. Cars are cheap and cheerful by comparison. He has a relatively-modest Porsche Boxster, two specially altered Mercedes and a US 900,000 silver McLaren. In San Francisco he owns a magnificent house in Pacific Heights, one of Western Americas most expensive stretches of real estate. The house is a technical marvel: When he inserts his key, the opaque glass door turns transparent, revealing a Japanese garden in the middle of the house. For reasons he knows best, Ellison is obsessed with Japanese culture. Though he says he once briefly dated the actress Sharon Stone, Ellison is better known for the number than the fame of his wives. It is said he introduced himself with: "Can I buy you a car?" In one year he gave at least four US 50,000 cars to young ladies. While Gates comes from a strong family, Ellison still does not know who his father was. He was born to an unmarried mother and adopted by his Russian uncle and aunt. A brilliant but unpredictable self-promoter, he dropped out of college, drove to California in a battered Thunderbird car and ended up working with computer technicians at a bank. "He always had a champagne lifestyle on beer money," his first wife said. He set up Oracle in 1977 as a super-salesman with 3 programmers, creating software for businesses. It almost collapsed when it promised more than it could deliver, but since then its fortunes have soared. Now it employs 43,000 people and has designed data-processing systems used by Britains M15 spy service as well as big western companies. Oracles software is more Internet-friendly than Gates Windows, one factor behind the companys recent share price rise. Since his company got big, Ellison has promised shareholders that he will spend more time in the office. But can he escape being the thrill-seeker he is at heart? As summer approaches, he may find it hard to resist the lure of his yachts, Sakura, one of the longest in the world, and Sayonara (Japanese for "see you later"), which he races furiously. It is dangerous sport, even for guests. Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch once nearly lost a finger when he grabbed a rope during a race onboard the Sayonara. Ellison joked at least he could "still wrote checks". Regardless of distractions, Ellison will not give up in his battle against Gates. He hates to lose. Ellison declares that any such dominance by one man, like Microsoft in computer industry, in unhealthy. He has obviously forgotten his own plan for a global empire, which he wanted to call the Universal Titanic Octopus Corporation.
　　41. In the stock market, _______.
　　A) Ellison is as rich as Bill Gates
　　B) Ellison has US ' 200,000 less than Bill Gates
　　C) Ellison is richer than Bill Gates
　　D) Oracle has more money than Microsoft
　　42. Which of the following is not correct?
　　A) Ellison has had many wives.
　　B) Ellison's wives are famous.
　　C) Ellison is more famous for many wives than for money.
　　D) Ellison is more famous for many wives than for their popularity.
　　43. Which of the following is true?
　　A) Ellison doesn't like one-man dominance in computer industry.
　　B) Ellison doesn't like one-man dominance by Bill Gates, but really like one-man dominance by himself.
　　C) Ellison wants to be as famous as Bill Gates.
　　D) Ellison often forgets his plan.