Question

   The farm economy of the United States has changed a lot in the last seventy years. In the nineteen thirties,twentyfive percent of the nation's population lived on farms. Today less than one percent of Americans do.

  Farm incomes have changed over the years too. For example,in nineteen thirtythree,people living and working on farms had much less money to spend than other Americans. At that time,farm families had about onethird the income of nonfarmers after all necessary expenses had been paid. By the late nineteen seventies,however,that difference had almost disappeared.

  In two thousand four,farmers had their best year ever. The United States Department of Agriculture says the average farm family earned about eightyone thousand dollars. That is more than the average American family,which earned about sixty thousand dollars.

  Yet these numbers do not completely explain the situation for all farmers. Those who have small farms often take other jobs to earn extra income. And farm earnings for large farms grew faster than for small ones.

  The Department of Labor measures the pay of industrial workers differently. It measures the average hourly and weekly pay for industrial workers. This is because factory workers are generally paid by the hour unlike farmers who earn income from their farm businesses.

  The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average hourly pay for all private industrial workers is about sixteen dollars. The   B. L. S. says average weekly pay for all industrial workers is about five hundred fifty dollars. But that is an average. Workers can earn as much as twice the average or as little as half of it depending on the industry in which they work.

  Industrial workers are about twentythree percent of the labor force. But that number has been decreasing. Most Americans have jobs that provide services. Professional,technical and other services employ about seventysix percent of the labor force.

(   ) 1. What is the topic discussed in the passage?

    A. Agriculture developments in America.

   B. Pay for farmers compared with that of industrial workers.

   C. The living conditions for farmers and workers in America.

   D. How to measure the income of the American farmers.

(   ) 2. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

   A. There is no difference between farmers' pay and that of workers.

   B. Farmers used to have less incomes than workers.

   C. Farmers' incomes have changed a lot.

   D. Farmers and workers are equal in society.

(   ) 3. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

   A. Farmers in America can live better than the workers in cities.

   B. The farmers are less in America because they can earn more outside.

   C. Farmers sometimes can earn more than the average income in US.

   D. It is hard to know the incomes of the farmers.

(   ) 4. We can infer from the passage that         .

   A. farmers' incomes will increase a lot

   B. it is hard to compare farm pay with industrial pay

   C. the number of industrial workers is decreasing

   D. every worker in America can earn about 550 dollars a week

Answer 1

1. B本文讨论了美国农民的收人和工人的收人问题,并且尽可能地作了比较。

2. C第2段的key sentence是第1句Farm incomes have changed over the years too.

3. C从文中的第3段可知。

A、B项未涉及，D 项中农民的收人人们都知道，只是通常计算的是平均数，所以是错的。

4. B文章提到工人收人的计算方法和农民的不一样，所以，很难具体比较。

C项文章直接提到。