Question

HOST;

Tonight is New Year's Eve. Many people will attend New Year's parties where they will drink alcohol. A listener in Vietnam wrote to ask why a person in the United States must be at least twentyone years old to do this legally. Nguyen Hoang Phong noted that eighteen years is the legal age for drinking alcohol in most countries. Here is Faith Lapidus with our answer. ANNCR:

Discussing the drinking age in the United States can lead to an argument. I will try to explain both sides of this issue. In nineteen-eighty-four,Congress passed a measure called the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. President Ronald Reagan signed the measure into law.

It bans people in the United States from drinking alcohol unless they are twentyone years of age or older. States must obey the law or risk losing federal money for building roads and road repairs. The measure was the result of work by several lawmakers and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Last July,that group and members of Congress celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the law. They praised the measure as one of the most effective antidrunk driving laws ever passed. They said that twentythousand lives have been saved since its passage.

However,some opponents of the measure say it did not save anyone. They say young people who want to drink will find a way to get alcohol. They also reject the number of young people reportedly saved by the law. They say fewer young people are drinking now than twenty years ago.

Other people say the National Minimum Drinking Age Act is not fair. They say a young person can join the military and fight in a war at age eighteen. However,they are still not permitted to drink alcohol until they are twentyone.

Many Americans would like to change the law to make eighteen the age when a person can drink alcohol. But just as many want to keep the drinking age at twentyone.

The question of a legal drinking age involves ideas of freedom,responsibility,religion,politics and the rights of parents. It is a question that will be argued in the United States for many years to come.

(   ) 5. The writer's purpose in writing the text is         .

   A. to discuss the drinking age in America

    B. to answer a question concerning drinking age

   C. to show us the argument in America

   D. to call up people's memory

(   ) 6. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?

   A. All the Americans think that the law is effective.

   B. It was President Ronald Reagan that made the law come into effect.

   C. It is believed that twentythousand lives have been saved since the law signed.

   D. Only those who are over twenty years old in the US can drink alcohol legally.

(   ) 7. From this passage we can safely draw a conclusion that "Mothers Against Drunk Driving" is         .

   A. a department of the government .

   B. a scientific research institute

   C. an association of lawmakers

   D. a kind of social organization

(   ) 8. What can we infer from the passage?

   A. Any state in the US has no right to change the law of the federal government.

   B. If a man was not at least twentyone years old,he wouldn't get any alcohol in the US.

   C. The young people in the USA become mature later than those of the other countries.

   D. It will be not easy to change the law of the drinking age in a short time.

Answer 1

5. B本篇是回答听众关于美国的合法饮酒年龄是21岁，而大多数的国家是18岁的这个问题。

6. B从文章的President Ronald Reagan signed the measure into law可知。此问题有两种态度，所以A项不正确。反对派们认为此数据不确切，所以C项不正确。到达21岁或超过即可饮酒，所以D项不正确。

7. D 从文中groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving可知是一个社会团体。

8.D末段清楚表明，修改此法律不容易。