Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

　　Directions:There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A,B,C and D, you should choose the One best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a pencil.

　　Passage 1

　　Legal and accounting firms throughout Australia could streamline their advice to clients seeking a divorce with a new expert program that “thinks" like Family Court judges.

　　The software package, appropriately called “Split UP" was developed by Dr. John Zeleznikow and a team of researchers in La Trobe University's Department of Computer Science.

　　It is the first in the world designed to weigh up court judgments in previous cases to predict the way property would be divided for a particular divorce if proceeded to court.

　　While anyone can get a divorce, the rules on the division of property are up to the judge. Deciding who gets what is a complex procedure based on future needs and past contributions.

　　Split up, which can be installed on any PC, asks a sequence of relevant questions about the health, work history, children, property and future needs of the partners in a divorce. It then decides what percentage allocation to each partner would be in court and provides a series of arguments in favour of the decision.

　　Its major advantage, says Dr. Zeleznikow, is that people are less likely to litigate once they know the likely court outcome. “Let's say the program predicts that each partner will get $250 000 from a property settlement. If they go to court the cost to each could be $ 50 000 to litigate. This is a powerful incentive to negotiate instead."

　　The La Trobe research team has attracted international attention for its devleopment of systems which can reason with both statutes (rules) and precedents (cases). The systems are being used in fields which include legal aid and credit law.

　　1. in the passage means “previous cases”.

　　A. Statutes

　　B. Precedents

　　C. Clients

　　D. Incentives

　　2. What is not taken into consideration during a divorce case?

　　A. The family house.

　　B. The bank deposit.

　　C. The time duration of the marriage.

　　D. Children's education.

　　3. Split Up can do all but .

　　A. to persuade the judge that its decision is the right one

　　B. to recall past divorce cases when necessary

　　C. to seek and then process the information it need

　　D. to do complex calculation and reasoning

　　4. The second “it" in ParA. 3 refers to .

　　A. the software

　　B. a previous case

　　C. the way the property would be divided

　　D. a particular divorce

　　5. What is NOT implied in the passage?

　　A. Family Law Court judges judge according to both rules and precedents.

　　B. If the parties in a divorce know they will not profit from a lawsuit, they would settle outside the court.

　　C. There is clear-cut law on how to divide property between parties in a divorce.

　　D. Split Up will help reduce the number of divorce cases presented in court.

　　Passage 2

　　The producers of instant coffee found their product strongly resisted in the market places despite their product's obvious advantages. Furthermore, the advertising expenditure for instant coffee was far greater than that for regular coffee. Efforts were made to find the cause of the consumers seemingly unreasonable resistance to the product. The reason given by most people was dislike for the taste. The producer suspected that there might be deeper reasons, however. This was confirmed by one of motivation research's classic studies, one often cited in the trade.

　　Mason Haire, of the University of California, constructed two shopping lists that were identical except for one item. There were six items common to both lists: hamburger, carrots, bread, baking powder, canned peaches, and potatoes, with the brands or amounts specifie D. The seventh item, in fifth place on both lists, read “one pound Maxwell House coffee" on the list and “Nescafe instant coffee" on the other. One list was given to each one in a group of fifty women, and the other list to those in the other group of the same size. The women were asked to study their list and then to describe, as far as they could, the kind of woman (“personality and character")who would draw up that shopping list. Nearly half of those who had received the list including instant coffee described a housewife who was lazy and a poor planner. On the other hand, only one woman in the other group described the housewife, who had included regular coffee on her list, as lazy; only six of that group suggested that she was probably not a good wife. No one in the other group drew such a conclusion about the housewife who intended to buy regular coffee.

　　6. In the opinion of instant coffee producers.

　　A. people should buy regular coffee

　　B. regular coffee is superior to instant coffee

　　C. instant coffee should have a good market because of its obvious advantages

　　D. the advertising expenditure for regular coffee is very great

　　7. In this instance, the purpose of motivation study was to discover .

　　A. why there were deeper reasons

　　B. why instant coffee did not taste good

　　C. why regular coffee was successful

　　D. the reason why people resisted instant coffee

　　8. The list on which “Nescafe instant coffee" was written as an item was given to a group consisting of .

　　A. 7 people

　　B. 7 women

　　C. 14 people

　　D. 50 women

　　9. On the result of this test, the producers of instant coffee probably would advertise on TV to show a .

　　A. lazy wife drinking instant coffee

　　B. stupid wife using instant coffee

　　C. hard-working woman drinking instant coffee

　　D. good wife using regular coffee

　　10. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

　　A. It is reasonable for people to resist instant coffee.

　　B. Advertising does not always assure favorable sales results.

　　C. People pay little attention to advertising.

　　D. Regular coffee has better taste than instant coffee.

　　Passage 3

　　It is a curious fact that as we leave the most impoverished peoples of the world, where the human being with his too few calories of energy scratches out for himself a bare subsistence, we find the economic insecurity of the individual many times multiplieD. The solitary Eskimo, Bushman, Indonesian, Nigerian, left to his own devices, will survive a considerable time. Living close to the soil or to their animal prey, the peoples with the lowest standard of living in the world can sustain their own lives, at least for a while, almost single-handeD. With a community numbering only a few hundred, they can live indefinitely. Indeed, a very large percentage of the human race today lives in precisely such fashion - in small, virtually self-contained peasant communities which provide for their own survival with a minimum of contact with the outside worlD. This large majority of mankind suffers great poverty, but it also knows a certain economic independence.

　　When we turn to the New Yorker or the Chicagoan, on the other hand, we are struck by exactly the opposite condition, by a prevailing ease of material life, coupled at the same time by an extreme dependence of the individual in his search for the means of existence. In the great metropolitan areas where most Americans live, we can no longer imagine the solitary individual or the small community surviving, short of robbing for food and necessities. The majority of Americans have never grown food, caught game, raised meat, ground grain into flour. Faced with the challenge of clothing themselves or building their own homes, they would be hopelessly untrained and unprepareD. Even to make minor repairs in the machines which surround them, they must call on other members of the community whose business it is to fix cars, or to repair plumbing, or whatever. Perhaps, the richer the nation, the more apparent is this inability of its average inhabitant to survive unaided and alone.

　　11. Which is the best title for this passage?

　　A. The Poor and the Rich.

　　B. The Individual and the Society.

　　C. The Division of Labor.

　　D. The Making of a Society.

　　12. “Left to his own devices" in Line 4, ParA. 1 most probably means .

　　A. to be left alone

　　B. to be left to make plans

　　C. to be left to invent new devices

　　D. to be left to devil

　　13. It is most likely to find people like Robinson Crusoe

　　A. in great metropolitan area

　　B. in a large community

　　C. in modern America

　　D. near the North Pole

　　14. Which of the following is indicated in the passage?

　　A. Modern American society is a self-contained society.

　　B. Division of labor improves efficiency.

　　C. The survival ability of a man is decided by the degree of his dependence on others.

　　D. A man living alone will survive longer than a man living in a small community.

　　15. One can NOT make a living in modern America by .

　　A. buying things one need from stores

　　B. hiring the services of others

　　C. robbing others of food and necessities

　　D. learning to do things all by oneself

　　Passage 4

　　If women are mercilessly exploited year after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.

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