摘要： According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE? A. The recession is destroying all Americans’ health and their incomes. B. The recession has negative effects on Americans without healthy eating habits. C. The health of the average American has been greatly affected by the recession. D. The recession does make old Americans become fatter and fatter. PART FOUR WRITING SECTION A Directions: Read the following passage. Complete the diagram by using the information for the passage. Write NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS for each answer Life policies differ from other forms of insurance in several ways. They are not contracts of indemnity , so there is theoretically no limit to the amount of insurance, or the number of policies, that may be taken out on a particular life. There are some forms of life policy. An endowment policy is a useful way of saving. It is property that may be used as security against a loan, and after a few years it acquires a surrender value: in other words you can cancel the policy and get back a large amount of money you have paid. Participating, or with-profits endowment policies are even more attractive, since the sum assured is increased every year by a bonus based on the profits made by the company. The bonus can be paid as a lump sum (i.e. an amount of money that is paid at a time and not on separate occasions) at the end of the insurance, or used to reduce the annual premium. It can even be fixed sum which is agreed ahead of time, without regard to actual profits. Another special type of life policy, often taken out by people who have no dependants, is the annuity. In the simplest form you pay a lump sum to the insurance company, and then receive a fixed annual payment until your death. Clearly this is something of a risk, but the risky element may be removed if the company offers to pay a fixed sum either to you or your heirs for a fixed number of years. Other forms are the deferred annuity, when payment does not start until so many years after the premium is paid, and the reversionary annuity, which is payable on the death of a third party. All annuities, however, must be considered somewhat risky and decreasing money values. Title: 71 72 73 An endowment policy It is useful way of saving. l It can be used as 74 against a loan. l It acquires a surrender value after a few years. Participating/With-profit endowment policies The sum assured is increased by a bonus which 75 the profits made by the company. l It can be paid as a lump sum 76 of the insurance. l It can be used to reduce the annual premium. l It can be fixed sum 77 78 The simple annuity The reversionary annuity The deferred annuity l They are taken out by people 79. l They must be considered somewhat risky. l Money values may decrease 80 the annuity. SECTION B Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage and the required words limit. Write your answers on your answer sheet. Facts are sometimes more unusual than fiction. The following case makes Agatha Christie’s plot look like children’s literature. The medical inspection of Ronald Opus’s body showed that he died from a shot gun wound of the head. He had jumped from the top of a ten-storey building intending to commit suicide. As he fell past the ninth floor, a shotgun blast through a window killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor Opus knew that a safety net had been put up at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this. The room on the ninth floor where the shotgun blast went through was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking the falling Opus. The old man said it was his long-term habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks before the fatal incident. It turned out that the old lady had cut off his son’s financial support and the son, knowing the habit of his father to use the shotgun threateningly against his mother, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly depressed over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the ten-storey building, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth floor window. The case was closed as a suicide.
Is the recession(经济衰退)destroying Americans'health in addition to their incomes?
“Yes, for some”, says a recent study led by health economists at Yale University, which found that job losses can make the fat fatter and the drinkers drunkards．
The study focused on workers above 50, who have been figuring prominently among the laid-off in recent decades and make up an older group for whom heavy eating and drinking is more likely to have serious health consequences．
For this group, results showed the body mass of the average laid-off food-lover increasing by the equivalent of more than seven pounds for a 5-foot, 10-inch man weighing 180 pounds during unemployment．Similarly, frequent drinkers on average doubled their daily alcohol intake after losing their jobs and before finding another one．
Lay-offs don't necessarily send people reaching for the beer bottle or digging into the potato-chip bag, explain the authors．In some cases, they make people healthier by reducing the income they would otherwise spend on alcohol and junk food or allowing more time for physical exercise and outdoor activities．
In fact, research focusing on the impact of layoffs and recessions on health has provided no evidence that the health of the average American declines as a result of acquiring unhealthy, stress-induced habits．
“While there is evidence from animal, preclinical and clinical studies that stress leads to overeating and excessive drinking, economic research on stress suggests substantial heterogeneity(极大的差异性)．”write the authors．In other words, losing one's job can be more or less stressful for different people and different bodies cope differently with stress-induced behavior．
But Yale's William T．Gallo, Padmaja Ayyagari, Jason M．Fletcher and Jody L．Sindelar, and Partha Deb, from the City University of New York, found that layoffs among older workers tend to harm the health of those with a pre-existing unhealthy fondness for food and drink．
Across all age groups, widespread loss of employer-provided health coverage is another way in which this recession is destroying the health of laid-off Americans, as many decide to “go without treatment or tests,” the Journal reports．
(1)
We learn from Paragraph 3 that the research focused on ________．
[ ]
A．
all Americans
B．
workers aged 50
C．
workers who are more than 50
D．
all age groups
(2)
After losing their jobs, ________．
[ ]
A．
Americans weight increased by seven pounds．
B．
frequent drinkers on average doubled their daily alcohol intake
C．
the health of average American declines
D．
Americans decided to go with treatment or tests
(3)
From Paragraph 5, we can infer that ________．
[ ]
A．
lay-offs lead to Americans overeating and excessive drinking
B．
lay-offs make people dig into the potato-chip bag
C．
lay-offs sometimes have positive effect on people's health
D．
lay-offs make people prefer the beer bottle
(4)
During the recession in the USA, ________．
[ ]
A．
health coverage given by employers has been cancelled widely
B．
old Americans do physical exercise and outdoor activities
C．
Americans develop an unhealthy, stress-induced habit
D．
a study led by a group of health economists will be conducted．
(5)
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
[ ]
A．
The recession is destroying all Americans' health and their incomes．
B．
The recession has negative effects on Americans without healthy eating habits．
C．
The health of the average American has been greatly affected by the recession．
D．
The recession does make old Americans become fatter and fatter．