The Same Story, Different Reports

Belton and Canfield are two seashore towns, not far apart. Both towns have many hotels, and in summer the hotels are full of holiday- makers and other tourists(观光者).

Last August there was a fire at the Sea breeze Hotel in Belton. The next day, this news appeared on page two of the town’s newspaper, The Belton Post:

FIRE AT SEABREEZE

Late last night firemen hurried to the Sea breeze Hotel and quickly put out a small fire in a bedroom. The hotel manager said that a cigarette started the fire. We say again to all our visitors: “Please don’t smoke cigarettes in bed.” This was Belton’s first hotel fire for five years.

The Canfield Times gave the news in these words on page one.

ANOTHER BELDON HOTEL CATCHES FIRE

Last night Belton firemen arrived just too late to save clothing, bedclothes and some furniture at the Sea breeze Hotel. An angry holiday-maker said, “An electric lamp probably started the fire. The bedroom lamps are very old at some of these hotels. When I put my bedside light on, I heard a funny noise from the lamp.” We are glad to tell our readers that this sort of adventure does not happen in Canfield.

What are the facts, then? It is never easy to find out the exact truth about an accident. There was a fire at the Sea breeze Hotel last August: that is one fact. Do we know anything else? Yes—we know that firemen went to the hotel.

Now what do you think of the rest of the “news”?

Which of the following best gives the main idea of this text?

A. Belton and Canfield are both good places for tourists in summer.

B. A fire broke out one night in Sea breeze Hotel last summer.

C. It was not easy to find out exact truth from newspapers.

D. Two newspapers gave reports on the same matter.

Which of the following are probably facts?

a. The fire broke out in a bedroom at the hotel.

b. A cigarette started the fire.

c. An old lamp started the fire.

d. The fire broke out at night.

e. There has never been a fire in Canfield.

A. b and c      B. a and d

C. c and e       D. a and c

The Canfield Times used the headline (标题) like this in order to make its readers think _______.

A. hotels in Belton often catch fire

B. hotels in Belton don’t often catch fire

C. this was the second fire at the Sea breeze Hotel

D. Belton was a good place except that hotels there are not quite safe

The Canfield newspaper gave a report just the opposite to the Belton Post by saying that _______.

A. the bedroom lamps were very old at the Sea breeze Hotel

B. the bedroom lights made funny noise when the fire took place

C. the firemen failed to save clothing, bedclothes and other things

D. such accidents never happened in Canfield for the past 5 years

B

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wage. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig(钻油机) in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and teacher have is many years of training in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse, and that research chemist earns more than the school teacher.

Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic(精神的) wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony(单调) of his work. It is significant that that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as “vocations” --- nursing, teaching and the Church, for example --- continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

Although the amount of money that people earn is in reality largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point for such an investigation would be to try to decide the ratio which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicate by two factors: firstly by the “social wage”, i.e, the welfare benefits which every citizen receives; and secondly, by the taxation system, which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Allowing for these two things, most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities become disillusioned, and might even end up by emigration(移民) (the so-called “brain-drain” is an evidence that this can happen). If it is more, the gap between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead social tensions and ultimately to violence.

74. The professional man, such as the doctor, should be well paid because ______.

A. he has spent several years learning how to do his job

B. his work involves much great intelligence than, say, a bus conductor’s

C. he has to work much harder than most other people

D. he knows more than other people about his subject

75. The “brain-drain” is an evidence that ______.

A. well-educated people are prepared to emigrate whenever they can get a better paid job

B. people with jobs or responsibility expect to be highly paid

C. high taxation is a useful and effective instrument of social justice

D. the poor are generally more patriotic(爱国的) than the rich

76. As far as rewarding people for their work is concerned, the writer, believes that ______.

A. we should pay for socially-useful work, regardless of the person’s talent

B. we should pay people according to their talents

C. market forces will determine how much a person is paid

D. qualified people should be the highest paid

77. The argument of the “psychic wage” is used to explain why ______.

A. people who do socially important work are not always well paid

B. people who do monotonous jobs are highly paid

C. you should not try to compare the pay of different professions

D. some professional people are paid more than others

Shopping for clothes is not the same experience for a man as it is for a woman. A man goes shopping because he needs something. He knows what he wants, and his purpose is to find it and buy it; the price is a less important consideration. All men simply walk into a shop and ask the assistant for what they want. If the shop has it, the salesman immediately produces it, and the business of trying it is done at once. All being well, the bargain can be and often is completed in less than five minutes, with hardly any chat and to everyone's satisfaction.

For a man, slight problems may begin when the shop does not have what he wants. Then the salesman tries to sell the customer something else—he offers the nearest he can to the thing required. He usually says, "I know this jacket is not the style you want, sir, but would you like to try it on for size? It happens to be the color you want." Few men have patience with this treatment, and the usual reply is: "This is the right color and may be the right size, but I should be wasting my time and yours by trying it on."

Now how does a woman go about buying clothes? She does so in the opposite. She has never fully made up her mind what she wants, and she is only "having a look round." She is always open to persuasion; indeed she considers of great importance what the saleswoman tells her, even what her friends tell her. She will try on any number of things. Highest in her mind is the thought of finding something that everyone thinks suits her. Most women have an excellent sense of value when they buy clothes. They are always trying to find an unexpected bargain. Faced with a roomful of dresses, a woman may easily spend an hour going from one counter to another before selecting the dresses she wants to try on. It takes a great deal of time but gives great joy. Most dress shops supply chairs for the waiting husbands.

53. When a man is buying clothes, he ___________.

A. puts price before quality　　B. chooses things that others think suitable for him

C. does not mind much the price he has to pay for the right things

D. buys good quality things, so long as they do not cost too much

54. When a man cannot get what he wants, he ________.

A. buys something of the same color in a slight different style

B. usually does not buy anything

C. will try on some other clothes of the same style

D. wastes no time in buying something else

55. What does the passage tell us about women shoppers for clothes ?

A. They welcome suggestions from anyone

B. Women seldom consider buying cheap clothes

C. Women often buy things without thinking　　D. They listen to advice but never take it

56. The most obvious difference between men and women shoppers is ________.

A. that men do not try clothes on in a shop while women do

B. that women bargain for their clothes and men don't

C. that women do their shopping standing up but men do theirs sitting down

D. the time they take over buying clothes

A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology.

In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors or of people very different from our own can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martins depicted these Mexican artists’ deep anger and sadness about social problems.

In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls.

By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that status are unholy.

    University researchers tested the effects of different colored walls on two groups of visitors. For the first group, the room was painted white; for the second, dark brown. The movement of each group was followed by an electric system hidden under the carpet. The experiment showed that those who entered the dark brown room walked more quickly, covered more area, and spent less time in the room than the people in the white environment. Dark brown stimulated（刺激）more activity, but the activity ended sooner.

　　Not only the choice of colors but also the appearance of a room has effect on those inside it. In a second experiment, the researchers prepared subjects with photos of faces. Three groups of subjects were used; each was shown the same photos, but each group was in a different kind of room. One group was in a storeroom. Another group was in a common room—an office. The third group was in a tasteful living room.

　　Results showed that the subjects in the beautiful room appeared to give higher ratings（评价）to the faces than those in the ugly room did.

　　Other studies suggest that students do better at tests taken in comfortable rooms than in ordinary or untidy rooms.

1．An electric system under the carpet was used to discover ________.

       A．what the visitors wanted to do

　　B．the activity of different groups of visitors

　　C．how the visitors entered the different rooms

　　D．whether the visitors walked quickly or not

2．According to the passage, the people who entered the white room walked more ________ than those who were in the dark brown one.

       A．quickly          B．carefully             C．comfortably      D．slowly

3．In the sentence “... but also the appearance of a room has an effect on those inside it,” “those” refers to ________.

　　A．subjects         B．researchers     C．photos             D．different colors

4．The passage gives us ________ facts different rooms give people different effects.

   A．one             B．two              C．three           D．four