题目内容
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)
Directions: In this part you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions, on, Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D ). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
The East India Company
The concept of corporations was first established under ancient Roman law. But it wasn't until England emerged from the Middle Ages that it created what we recognize as the modern corporate structure. It all began on Dec. 31,1600, when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the British East India Corporation, naming the corporation" The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the East Indies". The corporation conducted business in the East Indies (land that we now consider India and the Middle East) at the order of the queen.
The East India Company established a few major precedents for modern corporations. But it also shaped the world in countless other ways. With both the financial and military support of the Crown, the EIC served as an instrument of imperialism (帝国主义) for England. The company had its own private army and raised soldiers in the areas it conquered. Its expansionism spurred several wars that produced at least two sovereign nations. Among its many claims to fame (and notoriety), the EIC indirectly built Yale University, helped create two nations and was the world's 1o~rgest drug-dealing operation in the 18th century.
The company was ruthless (无情的)in its quest for profits. Parliament even called the EIC tyrannical(残暴的). However, without the EIC, England may have never developed into the nation it is today.
The Creation of the East India Company
When the British East India Company (EIC) was formed in 1600, there were already other East India Companies operating on behalf of France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Thanks to the naval route that explorer Vasco da Gama discovered, riches from the Orient were pouring into Europe. With other nations importing fortunes in goods and plunder, Queen Elizabeth decided England should get some, too. So she granted the charter for the East India Company.
The charter she issued created the first official joint-stock corporation. A joint-stock corporation is composed of investors who are granted shares in a company. In return for their initial Investments, shareholders are given dividends, or percentages, of the company's profits based on the number of shares the investor holds.
Shares and dividends were not new Concepts in. England. Twenty years prior to the EIC' s charter, Queen Elizabeth was already a major stakeholder In Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hind. Although it's not certain how much she made from Drake's voyages to the New World, the captain himself made a 5 000 percent return on his initial investment.
So a joint-stock corporation like the one Queen Elizabeth formed in the East India Company wasn't much of a financial leap. But it was the first of its kind, and following the establishment of the EIC,its Dutch, French and other competitors followed suit. But granting charter to the EIC wasn't the only part of the prototype for modern corporations that Queen Elizabeth devised.
Under the support of her royal authority, Elizabeth also limited the liability of the EIC' s investors-including hers. This made the company the world's first limited liability corporation (abbreviated as LLC in the United States and Ltd. in the United Kingdom). Under an LLC, the investors in a corporation are granted protection from losing any more money than their initial investments in the venture. If the company goes under, the investors only lose the amo
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Groundbreaking research by two French geophysicists promises to shed some light on the mystery. Using 80 meters of deep sea sediment core, they have obtained measurements of magnetic-field intensity that span 11 polarity reversals and four million years. The analysis reveals that intensity appears to fluctuate with a clear, well-defined rhythm. Although the strength of the magnetic field varies irregularly during the shout term, there seems to be an inevitable long term decline preceding each polarity reversal. When the poles flip-a process that takes several hundred thousand years--the magnetic field rapidly regains its strength and the cycle is repeated.
The results have caused a stir among geophysicists. The magnetic field is thought to originate from molten iron in the outer core, 3,000 kilometers beneath the earth's surface. By studying mineral grains found in material ranging from rocks to clay articles, previous researchers have already been able to identify reversals dating back 170 million years, including the most recent switch 730, 000 years age. How and why they occur, however, has been widely debated. Several theories link polarity flips to external disasters such as meteor impacts. But Peter Olson, a geophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, says this is unlikely if the French researchers are right. In fact, Olson says intensity that predictably declines from one reversal to the next contradicts 90 percent of the models currently under study. If the results prove to be valid, geophysicists will have a new theory to guide them in their quest to understand the earth's inner physics. It certainly points the direction for future research.
Which of the following titles in most appropriate to the passage？
Fear is often a useful emotion. When you become frightened, many physical changes occur within your body. Your heartbeat and responses quicken, your pupils expand to admit more light, large quantities of energy producing adrenaline(肾上腺素)are poured into your bloodstream. Confronted with a fli'e or accident, fear can fuel life-saving flight(逃离). Similarly, when a danger is psychological rather than physical, fear can force you to take self-protective measures. It is only when fear is disproportional to the danger at hand that is becomes a problem.
Some people are simply more vulnerable to fear than others. A visit to the newborn nursery of any large hospital will demonstrate that, from the moment of their births, a few fortunate infants respond calmly to sudden fear-producing situations such as a loudly slammed door. Yet a neighbor in the next bed may cry out with profound fright From birth, he or she is more prone to learn fearful responses because he or she has inherited a tendency to be more sensitive.
Further, psychologists know that our early experiences and relationships strongly shape and determine our later fears. A young man named Bill, for example, grew up with a father who regarded each adversity as a temporary obstacle to be overcome with imagination and courage. Using his father as a model, Bill came to welcome adventure and to trust his own ability to solve problems.
Phil's dad, however, spent most of his time trying to protect himself and his family. Afraid to risk the insecurity of a job change, he remained unhappy in one position. He avoided long vacations because "the car might break down." Growing up in such a home, Phil naturally learned to become fearful and tense.
In the last sentence of Paragraph 1, "our particular creature" refers to ______ .
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