1@Part Ⅳ Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
Directions:In this section,there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on Answer Sheet 2.
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.
For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the high street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choice. There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from fraud will be harder. Many governments therefore want to extend highstreet regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.
Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs, or their rights to refund(退款) when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence in their country is on the screen. Other countries have regulators, but the rules of consumer protection differ, as does enforcement. Even where a clear right to compensation exists, the online catalogue customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a dud purchase.
One answer is for governments to cooperate more: to recognize each other's rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, an alternative. Let the electronic businesses do the "regulation" themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.
In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines online may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA's rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.
Consumers will need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort---and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain noisily when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
47. What can people benefit from the fast-growing development of electronic commerce?
48. When goods are faulty, consumers in rich countries tend to think that it is ______________ who takes responsibility for everything.
49. In the author's view, why do businesses place a high premium on honest dealing in the electronic world?
50. We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is _______________.
51. We can learn from the passage that _____________are probably more cautious than consumers of the normal sort when buying things.
Section A47. More choice (With more choice)
48. the government
49. A good reputation is a good advantage in competion
50. very cautious
51. Electronic shoppers
2@?
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 and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
Passage One
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Opinion poll surveys show that the public see scientists in a rather unflattering light.
Commonly, the scientist is also seen as being male. It is true that most scientists are male, but the picture of science as a male activity may be a major reason why fewer girls than boys opt for science, except when it comes to biology, which is seen as "female."
The image most people have of science and scientists comes from their own experience of school science, and from the mass media. Science teachers themselves see it as a problem that so many school pupils find school science an unsatisfying experience, though over the last few years more and more pupils, including girls, have opted for science subjects.
In spite of excellent documentaries, and some good popular science magazines, scientific stories in the media still usually alternate between miracle and scientific threat. The popular stereotype of science is like the magic of fairy tales: it has potential for enormous good or awful harm. Popular fiction is full of "good" scientists saving the world, and "mad" scientists trying to destroy it.
From all the many scientific stories which might be given media treatment, those which are chosen are usually those which can be framed in terms of the usual news angles: novelty, threat, conflict or the bizarre. The routine and often tedious work of the scientist slips from view, to be replaced with a picture of scientists forever offending public moral sensibilities (as in embryo research), threatening public health (as in weapons research), or fighting it out with each other (in giving evidence at public enquiries such as those held on the issues connected with nuclear power).
The mass media also tends to over-personalize scientific work, depicting it as the product of individual genius, while neglecting the social organization which makes scientific work possible. A further effect of this is that science comes to be seen as a thing in itself: a kind of unpredictable force; a tide of scientific progress.
It is no such thing, of course