Passage Five
Jim was intelligent, but he hated hard work. He said, "You work hard, and make a lot of money, and then the government takes most of it. I want easy work that gives me lots of money and that the government doesn't know about".
So he became a thief--but he did not do the stealing himself. He got others to do it. They were much less intelligent than he was, so he arranged everything and told them what to do.
One day they were looking for rich families to rob, and Jim sent one of them to a large beautiful house just outside the town.
It was evening, and when the man looked through one of the windows, he saw a young man and a girl playing on a piano.
When he went back to Jim, he said, "That family can't have much money. Two people were playing on the same piano there."
52. What Jim said can be said to be______.
A. an excuse
B. a lie
C. a joke
D. a truth
Passage One
It was a very happy family. They were fairly well-off. The father, Leopold, was a master of music in Austria. His mother was warm-hearted. There were two children, Marianne, a schoolgirl, and little Wolfgang, a child not quite four years old. Marianne was learning to play the piano, and day after day Leopold stood behind her as she practiced. How patient their father was, and how cleverly he showed Marianne how to play some particularly difficult pieces! She was making progress, very good progress, and that was excellent. And there, almost lost in the big chair, sat Wolfgang, who never had to be told to keep quiet when looking over Marianne's shoulder. At that moment Wolfgang climbed on his father's knees and begged to be allowed to play the pretty piece Marianne had now mastered. What a joke that was! Picking up his baby son, Leopold laughed and said, "Look at your hands. You must wait, little man!"
There was no end to the fun during tea, and Marianne had to tell her mother about Wolfgang wanting to play a difficult piece. When the meal was finished, Marianne helped to clear away the dishes. Suddenly Leopold got up. "Listen!" said he in a surprised voice. "Listen! Marianne is playing the piece better than ever!"
But Marianne was washing dishes in the kitchen.
His wife following, Leopold walked quietly upstairs, the lamp in one hand, his music book in the other. He pushed open the door, and there was little Wolfgang playing in the darkness. "I love it" whispered the child.
It was the beginning of Mozart's life of music.
36. Wolfgang was quiet when his sister practiced the piano because______.
A. he loved music
B. he liked his sister
C. he didn't want to make a noise
D. he didn't feel well
Passage Four
Equal pay for equal work is a phrase used by the American women who feel that they are looked down upon by the society. They say it is not right for women to be paid less than men for the same work.
People who hold the opposite opinion(mainly men)have an answer to this. They say that men have more responsibility than women; a married man is expected to earn money to support his family and to make important decisions, and therefore it is right for men to be paid more. There are some people who hold even stronger opinion than this and are against married women working at all. When wives go out to work, they say, the home and children are given no attention to. If women are encouraged by equal pay to take full-time job, they will be unable to do the things they are supposed to. Women are best at making a comfortable home and bringing up children. They will have to give up their present position in society.
"This is exactly what they want to give up, "the women who disagree say. "They want to escape from the limited place which society expects them to fill, and to have freedom to choose between a job and home life, or a mixture of the two. Women have the right of equal pay and equal opportunities."
These women have expressed their opinions forcefully by using the famous saying, "All men are created equal." They point out that the meaning of this sentence is "all human beings are created equal."
48. The women use the phrase "equal pay for equal work" to demand that______.
A. women's work shouldn't be harder than men's
B. men should be paid less than women
C. people doing harder work should earn more
D. men and women should be paid the same amount of money for the same work