Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem.
As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today's relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they 'could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.
For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age.
Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation. They have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job.
Other poor people look for a job but cannot find one. Many poor adults never go to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.
At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways.
First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer be below the poverty line.
Second, if society invests in the poor, the poor will become more productive. If the government spends money on social programs, education, and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer, then it is more likely that they can find jobs.
Finally, if the government distributes society's income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare.
Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.
The author's main purpose to write this article is ______.
A. to define what the poverty line is
B. to explain why some people live below the poverty line
C. to find solutions to the problem of poverty
D. to show sympathy for those poor people
听力原文:W: Did you hear the weather forecast?
M: Yes, they said it would be slightly above freezing tomorrow.
Q: What kind of weather are they having?
(16)
A. Cold.
B. Warm.
C. Hot.
D. Mild.
听力原文: A British study of how diet affects the health of new mothers and their babies produced the surprise finding that vegetarian women are more likely to have girls, one of the report's authors said yesterday.
In what is thought to be the first study of its kind, researchers at Nottingham University in central England found significant differences in the sex of babies born to vegetarian and meat and fish-eating women. They were examining the health conditions in vegetarian and non-vegetarian mothers, looking at things like hemoglobin levels, which show how much iron the mother has in her blood, and birth weights.
Altogether 5,942 pregnant women were involved in the study when they were booked in Nottingham's City Hospital during 2001. According to the researchers, vegetarian mothers were defined as pregnant women who avoided meat and fish. Nearly five percent were vegetarian among them, a total of more than 250 women.
The birth ratio in Britain is that for every 106 boys born there are 100 girls, that's pretty constant. In their sample group of vegetarians there were 81.5 boys born for every 100 girls.
To further test their surprise findings, they increased the sample number to what scientists called a "statistically significant" level. The study was extended for a further six months so that the sex of more babies could be looked at. The results, covering around 150 more vegetarian women, were" just about exactly the same".
The study also found that vegetarian mothers were less likely to smoke during pregnancy -- 10 percent did so, compared with 20 percent of meat-eaters.
(36)
A. Vegetarian women are more likely to have girls.
B. Non-vegetarian women are more likely to have girls.
C. Vegetarian women are more likely to have boys.
D. Vegetarian women are more likely to smoke during pregnancy.
听力原文:W: How is George doing at the moment?
M: He's doing fine. He planned to change his job for a while but finally decided to keep the present one.
Q: What can we learn about George in this conversation?
(18)
A. He is going to change his job.
B. He isn't doing well with his work.
C. He is doing pretty well now.
D. He doesn't like his work.