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Part II Reading Comprehension
Directions: There tire 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You shouM decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the,Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
It was the worst tragedy in maritime history, six times more deadly than the Titanic.
When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Russian submarine in the final winter of World War II, more than 10,000 people - mostly women, children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germany - were packed aboard. An ice storm had turned the decks into frozen sheets that sent hundreds of families sliding into the sea as the ship tilted andbegan to go down. Others desperately tried to put lifeboats down. Some who succeeded fought offthose in the water who had the strength to try to claw their way aboard. Most people froze immediately. Tll never forget the screams, says Christa Ntitzmann, 87, one of the 1,200 survivors. She recalls watching the ship, brightly lit, slipping into its dark grave - and into seeming nothingness, rarely mentioned for more than half a century.
Now Germanys Nobel Prize-winning author Gtinter Grass has revived the memory of the 9,000 dead, including more than 4,000 children - with his latest novel Crab Walk, published last month. The book, which will be out in English next year, doesnt dwell on the sinking; its heroine is a pregnant young woman who survives the catastrophe only to say later: Nobody wanted to hear about it, not here in the West and not at all in the East. The reason was obvious. As Grass put it in a recent interview with the weekly Die Woche: Because the crimes we Germans are responsible for were and are so dominant, we didnt have the energy left to tell of our own sufferings.
The long silence about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was probably unavoidable - and necessary. By unreservedly owning up to their countrys monstrous crimes in the Second World War, Germans have managed to win acceptance abroad, marginalize the neo- Nazis at home and make peace with their neighbors. Todays unified Germany is more prosperous and stable than at any time in its long, troubled history. For that, a half century of willful forgetting about painful memories like the German Titanic was perhaps a reasonable price to pay. But even the most politically correct Germans believe that they ye now earned the right to discuss the full historical record. Not to equate German suffering with that of its victims, but simply to acknowledge a terrible tragedy.
21. Why does the author say the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was the worst tragedy in maritime history?
A) It was attacked by Russian torpedoes.
B) Most of its passengers were frozen to death.
C) Its victims were mostly women and children.
D) It caused the largest number of casualties.
22. Hundreds of families dropped into the sea when
A) a strong ice storm tilted the ship
B) the cruise ship sank all of a sudden
C) the badly damaged ship leaned toward one side
D) the frightened passengers fought desperately for lifeboats
23. The Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy was little talked about for more than half a century because Germans
A) were eager,to win international acceptance
B) felt guilty for their crimes in World War II
C)~ad been pressured to keep silent about it
D) were afraid of offending their neighbors
24. How does Gunter Grass revive the memory of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy?
A) By presenting the horrible scene of the torpedo attack.
B) By describing the ships sinking in great detail.
C) By giving an interview to the weekly Die Woche.
D) By depicting the survival of a young pregnant woman.
25. It can be learned from the passage that Germans no longer think that
A) they will be misunderstood if they talk about the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy
B) the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy is a reasonable price to pay for the nations past misdeeds
C) Germany is responsible for the horrible crimes it committed in World War II
D) it-is wrong to equate their sufferings with those of other countries
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say about their school experience. In one study of 400 adul who had achieved distinction in all areas of life, researchers found that three-fifths of these individuals either did badly in school or were unhappy in school. Few MacArthur Prize fellows, winners of the MacArthur Award for creative accomplishment, had good things to say about their precollegiate schooling if they had not been placed in advanced programs. Anecdotal reports support this. Pablo Picasso, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Butler Yeats all disliked school. So did Winston Churchill, who almost failed out of Harrow, an elite British school. About Oliver Goldsmith, one of his teachers remarked, Never was so dull a boy. Often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers often feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.
Some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their, gifts were not scholastic. Maybe we can account for Picasso in this way. But most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchallenging and consequently lost interest. Yeats described the lack of fit between his mind and school: Because I had found it difficult to attend to anything less interesting than my own thoughts, I was difficult to teach. As noted earlier, gifted children of all kinds tend to be strong-willed nonconformists. Nonconformity
and stubbornness are likely to lead to Conflicts with teachers.
When highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers. A writing prodigy studied by David Feldman and Lynn Goldsmith was taught far more about writing by his journalist father than his English teacher. High-IQ children, in Australia studied by Miraca Gross had much more positive feelings about their families than their schools. About half of the mathematicians studied by Benjamin Bloom had little good to say about school. They all did well in school and took honors classes when available, and some skipped grades.
26. The main point the author is making about schools is that
A) they should satisfy the needs of students from different family backgrounds
B) they are often incapable of catering to the needs of talented students
C) they should organize their classes according to the students ability
D) they should enroll as many gifted students as possible
27. The author quotes the remarks of one of Oliver Goldsmiths teachers
A) to provide support for his argument
B) to illustrate the strong will of some gifted children
C) to explain how dull students can also be successful
D) to show how poor Olivers performance was at school
28. Pablo Picasso is listed among the many gifted children who
A) paid no attention to their teachers in class
B) contradicted their teachers much too often
C) could not cope with their studies at school successfully
D) behaved arrogantly and stubbornly in the presence of their teachers
29. Many gifted people attributed their success.
A) mainly to parental help and their education at home
B) both to school instruction and to their parents coaching
C) more to their parents encouragement than to school training
D) less to their systematic education than to their talent
30. The root cause of many gifted students having bad memories of their school years is that
A) their nonconformity brought them a lot of trouble
B) they were seldom praised by their teachers
C) school courses failed to inspire or motivate them
D) teachers were usually far stricter than their parents
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. Its Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Marylands laws against secret telephone taping. Its our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service , that pass our private financial data to telemarketing finms.
Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.
As an example of whats going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called MemberWorks with sensitive customer data such as names,, phone numbers, bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.
With these customer lists in hand, MemberWorks started dialing for dollars - selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a free trial offer had, 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenu--es_ ....
Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They. didnt know that the bank was giving account numbers to MemberWorks. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no.
The state sued MemberWorks separately for deceptive selling. Thecompany dehies that it did anything wrong. For its part, U.S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to nonfinancial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with MemberWorks and similar firms.
And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans.
You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields transaction and experience information - mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private fams. Theyve generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Selfregulation doesnt work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it?
Take U.S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential. Then it sold your data to MemberWorks. The bank even claims that it doesnt sell your data at all. It merely shares it and reaps a profit. Now you know.
31. Contrary to popular belief, the author finds that spying on peoples privacy
A) is mainly carried out by means of secret taping
B) has been intensified with the help of the IRS
C) is practiced exclusively by the FBI
D) is more prevalent in business circles
32. We know from the passage that
A) legislators are acting to pass a law to provide better privacy protection
B) most states are turning a blind eye to the deceptive practices of private businesses
C) the state of Minnesota is considering drawing up laws to protect private information
D) lawmakers are inclined tO give a free hand to businesses to inquire into customers buying habits
33. When the free trial deadline is over, youll be charged without notice for a product or service if
A) you fail to cancel it within the specified period
B) you happen to reveal your credit card number
C) you find the product or service unsatisfactory
D) you fail to apply for extension of the deadline
34. Businesses do not regard information concerning personal bank accounts as private because
A) its revelation will do no harm to consumers under the current protection policy
B) it is considered transaction and experience information unprotected by law
C) it has always been considered an open secret by the general public
D) its sale can be brought under control through self-regulation
35. We can infer from the passage that
A) banks will have to change their ways of doing business
B) privacy protection laws will soon be enforced
C) consumers privacy will continue to be invaded
D) free trial practice will eventually be banned
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
Its hardly news that the immigration system is a mess. Foreign nationals have long been slipping across the border with fake papers, and visitors who arrive in the U.S. legitimately often overstay their legal welcome without being punished. But since Sept. 11, its become clear that terrorists have been shrewdly factoring the weaknesses of our system into their plans. In addition to their mastery of forging passports, at least three of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were here on expired visas. Thats been a safe bet until now. The Immigration and Naturalization Service lacks the resources, and apparently the inclination, to keep track of the estimated 2 million foreigners who have intentionally overstayed their welcome.
But this laxness toward immigration fraud may be about to change. Congress has already taken some modest steps. The U.S.A. Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy, requires the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department and the INS to share more data, which will make it easier to stop watch-listed terrorists at the border.
But whats really needed, critics say, is even tougher laws and more resources aimed at tightening up border security. Reformers are calling for a rollback of rules that hinder law enforcement.They also want the INS to hire hundreds more border patrol agents and investigators to keep illegal immigrants out and to track them down once theyre here. Reformers also want to see the INS set up a database to monitor whether visa holders actually leave the country when they are required to.
All these proposed changes were part of a new border-security bill that passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate last week. Before Sept. 11, legislation of this kind had been blocked by two powerful lobbies: universities, which rely on tuition from foreign students who could be kept out by the new law, and business, which relies on foreigners for cheap labor. Since the attacks, theyve backed off. The bill would have passed this time but for congressional maneuverings and is expected to be reintroduced and to pass next year.
Also on the agenda for next year: a proposal, backed by some influential law-makers, to split the INS into two agencies - a good cop that would tend to service functions like processing citizenship papers and a bad cop that would concentrate on border inspections, deportation and other functions. One reason for the division, supporters say, is that the INS has in recent years become too focused on serving tourists and immigrants. After the Sept. l 1 tragedy, the INS should pay more attention to serving the millions of ordinary Americans who rely on the nations border security to protect them from terrorist attacks.
36. Terrorists have obviously taken advantage of
A) the legal privileges granted to foreigners
B) the excessive hospitality of the American people
C) the irresponsibility of the officials at border checkpoints
D) the low efficiency of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
37. We learn from the passage that coordinated efforts will be made by various U.S. government agencies to
A) refuse the renewing of expired visas
B) ward off terrorist suspects at the border
C) prevent the forgery of immigration papers
D). limit the number Of immigrants to the U.S.
38. It can be inferred from the passage that before Sept. 11, aliens with expired visas
A) might have them extended without trouble
B) would be closely watched by FBI agents
C) might stay on for as long as [hey wished
D) would live in constant fear of deportation
39. It is believed by many that all these years the INS
A) has been serving two contradictory functions
B) has been too liberal in granting visas to tourists and immigrants indiscriminately
C) has over-emphasized its service functions at the expense of the nations security
