Economists often disagree on ____________ （美国经济是否复苏).

t Egyptians esteemed gold, which had religious significance to them, and King Tutankharnun was buried in a solid-gold coffin 3,300 years ago. The wandering Israelites worshiped a golden calf, and the legendary King Midas asked that everything he touched be turned into gold. Excerpt 2 Most economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the metal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isnt any more. Modern money takes the form. of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity. Excerpt 3 People have always longed to possess gold. Unfortunately, this longing has also brought out the worst in the human character. The Spanish conquistadors robbed palaces, temples, and graves, and killed thousands of Indians in their ruthless search for gold. Often the only rule in young California during the days of the gold rush was exercised by the mob with a rope. Even today, the economic running of South Africas gold mines depends largely on the employment of black laborers who are paid about 40 pounds a month, plus room and board, and who must work in conditions that can only be described as cruel. About 400 miners are killed in mine accidents in South Africa each year, or one for every two tons of gold produced. Excerpt 4 Much of golds value lies in its scarcity. Only about 80,000 tons have been mined in the history of the world. All of it could be stored in a vault 60 feet square, or a supertanker. Excerpt 5 So why is its price soaring？ Over the past week, this has topped $ 450 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollars fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its Unit of account. Excerpt 6 This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars—indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low—a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the worlds reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worthless.

The main idea of Excerpt 1 is that______.

A．human beings began to love gold with the emergence of civilization

B．the ancient Egyptians valued gold for its religious importance

C．king Midas was a person who could turn everything into gold

D．king Tutankharnun buried a solid-gold coffin 33 centuries ago

听力原文： Many families in the United States have a larger income than ever before, but people are finding it difficult to make ends meet anyway. Almost everyone is wondering, "What happens to all my money？ I never seem to have anything left to put away."

Why isn't a dollar worth as much as it used to be？ One dollar is always worth the same amount, that is, 100 cents. But the value of a dollar is how much it can buy. The value of money depends on the cost of living. Economists say that the cost of living is the money that a family must pay for the necessities of life such as food, housing or rent, clothes, and medical expenses. For many years now, the cost of living has increased greatly, so the value of the dollar has decreased. When a dollar has a low value, you can't buy as many things with it.

No one fully understands why the cost of living keeps increasing, but economists believe that workers and producers can make the prices go up. As workers earn more money, they have more money to spend, so they demand more goods. If there is a great demand for certain goods, the prices of these goods go up. At the same time, if there's shortage of goods, the prices also go up. For example, if everyone wants to buy more and more gas, the price of gas goes up. When companies withhold gas from buyers, they can also make the price of gas go up.

Families need to know what happens to their money. They need to make their income meet the cost of living. So many people plan a family budget. A budget is a list of monthly expenses. If your expenses add up to more than your income, you must find ways to save money. Maybe you're spending too much on entertainment. Or if you're spending too much on clothes, you may want to sew your own clothes. Budgeting helps you spend your money wisely as the cost of living increases.

(33)

A．A larger income often results in a lower living standard.

B．No more money is left over in spite of a larger income.

C．To put away some money has become a necessity.

D．They don't know where their money has gone.

Doctor Ben Carson grew up in a poor single parent household in Detroit. His mother, who had only a third-grade education, worked two jobs cleaning bathrooms. To his classmates and even to his teachers, he was thought of as the dumbest kid in the class, according to his own not so fond memories. He had a terrible temper, and once threatened to kill another child. Doctor Carson was headed down a path of self-destruction until a critical moment in his youth. His mother, convinced that she had to do something dramatic to prevent him from leading a life of failure, laid down some rules. He could not watch television except for two programs a week, could not play with his friends after school until he finished his homework, and had to read two books a week and write book reports about them. His mother’s strategy worked. “Of course, I didn’t know she couldn’t read, so there I was submitting these reports.” He said. “She would put check marks on them like she had been reading them. As I began to read about scientists, economists and philosophers, I started imaging myself in their shoes. As he got in the habit of hard work, his grades began to soar. Ultimately, he received a scholarship to attend Yale University. And later, he was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical School. He is now a leading surgeon at John’s Hopkins Medical School, and he’s also the author of three books.

Q: What do we learn about Ben Carson？

A.He had only a third-grade education.

B.He once threatened to kill his teacher.

C.He grew up in a poor single-parent household.

D.He often helped his.

A.dis cu

B.dis system

C.show system

D.dis version

of computers television and telephones will change our lives for ever. Yet for all the talk of a forthcoming technological utopia little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor. As with all new high technology, while the West concerns itself with the "how", the question of "for whom" is put aside once again.

Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communications revolution has affected the world economy. Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries, and transnational corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade, exchange and interest rates and money movements are more important that the production of goods. The electronic economy made possible by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets—with destructive impact on the have-nots.

For them the result is instability. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine. As "futures" are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.

So what are the options for regaining control？ One alternative is for developing countries to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications themselves—so-called "development communications" modernization. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries' economies.

Communications technology is generally exported from the U. S., Europe or Japan; the patents, skills and ability to manufacture remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries. It is also expensive, and imported products and services must therefore be bought on credit—credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.

Furthermore, when new technology is introduced there is often too low a level of expertise to exploit it for native development. This means that while local elites, foreign communities and subsidiaries of transnational corporations may benefit, those whose lives depend on access to the information are denied it.

From the passage we know that the development of high technology is in the interests of ______.

A．the world economy

B．the rich countries

C．scientific development

D．the elite

A.CD

B.DIS

C.FDIS

D.IS