Suppose that we lined up our roughly 14 million United States businesses in order of size, starting with the smallest, along an imaginary road from San Francisco to New York. There will be 4,500 businesses to the mile, or a little less than one per foot. Suppose further that we planted a flag each business. The height of the flag pole represents the yearly volume of sales (销量) , each $ 10, 000 in sales in shown by one foot of pole.

The line of flagpoles is a very interesting sight. From San Francisco to about Reno, it is almost unnoticeable, a row of poles about a foot high. From Reno eastward the poles increase in height until, near Columbus, Ohio - about four - fifths of the way across the nation - flags fly about 10 feet in the air.

But as we approach the eastern terminus (终点) , the poles suddenly begin to mount (升高) . There are about 300, 000 firms in the country with sales over $ 500, 000. These firms take up the last 75 miles of the 3,000 - mile road. There are 200, 000 firms with sales over $ 1 million. They take up the last 50 miles. Then there are 1, 000 firms with sales of $ 50, 000, 000 or more. They take up the last quarter of a mile before the city limits, flags flying at cloud height, 5 , 000 feet up .

At the very gate of New York, on the last 100 feet of the last mile , we find the 100 largest industrial firms . They have sales of at least $ 1.5 billion, so that their flags are already miles high. Along the last 10 feet of road , there are 10 largest companies . Their sales are roughly $ 10 billion and up : their flags fly 190 miles in the air , almost in the stratosphere (平流层) .

1.What is the author’s main purpose in this passage?

A.To tell the reason why the largest firms are in New York.

B.To show the geographical distribution (分布) of the United States businesses.

C.To provide a general idea of the size of businesses in the United States.

D.To tell us how the United States businesses are arranged.

2.What’s the correct order of the following places from east to west?

A.San Francisco, Reno, New York, Columbus.

B.San Francisco, Reno, Columbus, New York.

C.New York, Columbus, Reno, San Francisco

D.New York, Reno, Columbus, San Francisco

3.Among the four parts of the imaginary road , which part , considering all the firms in it , has the largest total volume of sales ?

A.The last 75 miles.                        B.The last 50 miles.

C.The last 100 feet of the last mile.            D.The last quarter of a mile

4.Which of the following diagrams (图表) shows the right order of size of the US businesses , according to the text ?

S =" San" Francisco  R =" Reno"  C =" Columbus"  N =" New" York  H =" height"  F = feet

 

五、对话填空 (10分)

阅读下面对话,掌握其大意,并根据所给字母的提示,在标有题号的右边横线上写出一个英语单词的完整、正确形式,使对话通顺。

J =" John      " R = Robert

J:  I hear that an important meeting is to be ( 76 ) h       in our    76.          

city. What’s it about?

R:  It’s said that its (77) g       is to make clean drinking         77.        

water available to all.

J:   Who do you know will (78) t        part in the meeting?      78.        

R:   Representatives from more than 80 countries, as is

(79) r       on TV.                                     79.      

J:   Could you tell me (80) m       ?                        80.       

R:   Sure! Three things will be (81) d        at the meeting       81.       

—ways of making good use of water, (82) r       water      82.        

pollution and saving water.

J:   That’s good news for people in this area. As you may know,

there are too (83) m       factories around here, which let     83.       

out plenty of poisonous gas and polluted water. So we eagerly

hope that strong (84) m        will be taken to stop the       84.       

water pollution.

R:   I quite agree with you. Let’s hope for the day to come as

soon as (85) p        .                                 85.        

 

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