“Lemons” in Used Car Market

    Suppose that you, a college student of somewhat limited means, are in the market for a used pickup¹ truck. The following ad in a local used car publication catches your eye.

 

1993 Ford² Ranger³, bilk, 4WD,a/c,

AM/FM/cass., showroom condition.

Call 555-1234 after 5 p.m.

    This is exactly the kind of vehicle you want, so you call to inquire about the price. The price you are quoted over the phone2 is $2,000 lower than the Price for this model with this equipment listed in a used car guidebook. Instead of being ecstatic, however, you are suspicious.

    For many products, when you must pay less than the going rate, you believe you are getting a great deal. This is not necessarily the case for used cars or other durable⁴ goods (washing machines and television sets, for example) because with expensive products—or, what is essentially⁵ the same thing, products with high replacement⁶ costs—you must be particularly careful about getting a “lemon,” or a product of substandard quality.

    In addition to asking the price, the age of a car —or any other consumer durable—is a factor when you are trying to determine whether a seller is attempting to unload a lemon. While people hold off until they have put many thousands of a car that is “too new” as you would a car that is “too good” a deal. In fact, you are probably willing to pay a high for a high quality used car. While this price would certainly be acceptable to the seller, the competitive market might not facilitate such trades.

1. The beginning of this passage assumes that college students.

A) are very clever but not very rich.

B) are very capable but not very diligent⁷.

C) have limited material resources.

D) are not rich.

2. The passage indicates that, sometimes when you find a product of an unexpectedly low price,

A) you are very happy.

B) you are rather suspicious.

C) you are filled with happiness as well as surprise.

D) you feel uneasy.

3. “Lemon” in this passage refers to

A)a kind of fruit.

B)a kind of new car.

C)a kind of expensive and high-quality car.

D)a product of inferior quality.

4. If you want to know if the seller is trying to unload a lemon, you

A) take the age of the car into consideration.

B) take the price of the lemon into consideration.

C)consider how many miles the car has run.

D) consider both the price as well as the age of the car.

5. It can be concluded from the passage that in the used car market,

A) used cars are generally cheap.

B) used cars are actually expensive.

C) used cars are actually brand new.

D) car buyers are willing to pay a high price for a used car.

Passage 2

 

Electronic Mail

    During the past few years, scientist the world over have suddenly found themselves productively engaged in task they once spent their lives avoiding -- writing, any kind of writing but particularly letter writing. Encouraged by electronic mail's surprisingly high speed, convenience and economy, people who never before touched the stuff are regularly, skillfully, even cheerfully tapping out a great deal of correspondence.

    Electronic networks, woven into the fabric⁸ of scientific communication these days, are the route to colleagues in distant counties, shared data, bulletin boards and electronic journals. Anyone with a personal computer, a modem⁹ and the software to link computers over telephone lines can sign on. An estimated five million scientists have done so with more joining every day, most of them communicating through a bundle of interconnected domestic and foreign routes known collectively as the internet, or net.

    E-mail is staring to edge out the fax, the telephone, overnight mail, and of course, land mail. It shrinks time and distance between scientific collaborators, in part because it is conveniently asynchronous (writers can type while their colleagues across time zones sleep; their message will be waiting). If it is not yet speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication.

    Jeremy Bernstei, the physicist¹⁰ and science writer, once called E-mail the physicist's umbilical cord. Lately other people, too, have been discovering its connective virtues¹¹. Physicists¹² are using it; college students are using it, everybody is using it, and as a sign that it has come of age, the New Yorker has accelerates its liberating¹³ presence with a cartoon -- an appreciative¹⁴ dog seated at a keyboard, saying happily, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

1. The reasons given below about the popularity of E-mail can be found in the passage Except

A. direct and reliable

B. time-saving in delivery

C. money-saving

D. available at any time

2. How is the Internet or net explained in the passage?

A. Electronic routes used to read home and international journals.

B. Electronic routes used to fax or correspond overnight.

C. Electronic routes waiting for correspondence while one is sleeping.

D. Electronic routes connected among millions of users, home and abroad.

3. What does the sentence "If it is not speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication" most probably mean?

A. The quick speed of correspondence may have ill-effects on discoveries

B. Although it does not speed up correspondence, it helps make discoveries.

C. It quickens mutual¹⁵ communication even if it does not accelerate discoveries.

D. It shrinks time for communication and accelerates discoveries.

4. What does the sentence "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." Imply in the last paragraph?

A. Even dogs are interested in the computer.

B. E-mail has become very popular.

C. Dogs are liberated¹⁶ from their usual duties.

D. E-mail deprives dogs of their owners' love

5. What will happen to fax, land mail, overnight mail, etc. according to the writer?

A. Their functions cannot be replaced by E-mail.

B. They will co-exist with E-mail for a long time.

C. Less and less people will use them.

D. They will play a supplementary¹⁷ function to E-mail.

Passage 3

 

Stress Level Tied to Education Level

    People with less education suffer fewer stressful days, according to a report in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior．

    However, the study also found that when 1ess-educated people did suffer stress it was more severe and had a larger impact on their health．

    From this researchers have concluded that the day-to-day factors that cause stress are not random¹⁸．Where you are in society determines the kinds of problems that you have each day, and how well you will cope with them．

    The research team interviewed a national sample of 1．03 1 adults daily for eight days about their stress level and health．People without a high school diploma reported stress on 30 percent of the study days，people with a high school degree reported stress 38 percent of the time，and people with college degrees reported stress 44 percent of the time．

    "Less advantaged people are less healthy on a daily basis and are more likely to have downward turns in their health。”lead researcher Dr．Joseph Grzywacz，of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a prepared statement．“The downward turns in health were connected with daily stressors．and the effect of daily stressors on their health is much more devastating¹⁹ for the less advantaged．”

    Grzywacz suggested follow-up research to determine why less-educated people report fewer days of stress when it is known their stress is more acute and chronic²⁰．

    “If something happens every day, maybe it’snot seen as a stressor”Grzywacz says．“Maybe it is just 1ife．”

词汇：

stressor n．紧张刺激物

devastating adj．毁灭性的

follow-up n．(对病人的)随访

1． Stress level is closely related to

A)family size．

B)social status．

C)body weight．

D)work experience．

2．The 1．03 1 adults were interviewed

A)on adaily basis for 8days．

B)during one of eight days．

C)all by Grzywacz．

D)in groups．

3． Which group reported the biggest number of stressful days?

A)People without any education．

B)People without high school degrees．

C)People with high school degrees．

D)People with college degrees．

4．The less advantaged people are，the greater

A)the impact of stress on their health is．

B)the effect of education on their health is

C)the level of their education is．

D)the degree of their health concern is．

5．Less—educated people report fewer days of stress possibly because

A)they don’t want to tell the truth．

B)they don’t want to face the truth．

C)stress is too common a factor in their life．

D） their stress is more acute

参考答案：

 

Passage 1

“Lemons” in Used Car Market

1. D。该题问“文章的开始部分认为大学生怎样？”。文章第一段的第一句说“假设你是一个大学生，经济上并不富有”，所以答案是D（不富有）。注意：A说“很聪明，但不太富有”不正确，因为原文中并没提到“聪明”。

2. B。该题问“文章表示，当你找到了一件价格出奇的底的商品时，你会怎样？”。原文说“instead of being ecstatic, however, you are suspicious…”，即“你会怀疑”，所以答案是B。

3. D。该题问“这篇文章中的‘柠檬’指什么？”。‘柠檬’在文章中是加了引号的，所以不是水果。原文说“You must be particularly careful about getting a "lemon" or a product of substandard quality.”，所以‘柠檬’在文章中指“低质量的产品”。

4. D。该题问“如果你想知道是否卖方正试图倾销‘柠檬’，则你该怎样做？”。文章最后一段表明，汽车买主通常考虑两个因数：价格和使用时间的长短。

5. A。该题问“从该短文可得出：在旧车市场中，旧车怎样？”，这道题可依据常理进行判断：A说“旧车通常很便宜”，Ｂ说“旧车通常很贵”，Ｃ说“旧车实际上是崭新的”，Ｄ说“汽车购买者愿意付高价买旧车”，可见Ａ合理。

Passage 2

Electronic Mails

1． A。该题问及电子邮件受欢迎的原因。该题可借助常识并用排除法确认答案。而第一段中的最后一句是答案相关句。

2．D．该题问有关因特网的定义。该题可借助背景知识判断，也可利用“因特网”作为答案线索词在第2段最后一句中找到答案。

3．C．问题中所引用的句子的句意是“如果电子邮件没有加速发现新事物，但它肯定在加速通信”。

4．B．问题中所引用的句子的句意是“在因特网上没有人知道你是条狗。”，利用该句周围的句子的句意判断（前句说每个人都在使用电子邮件），该引文是暗示电子邮件很受欢迎。（注意：在文章中应该是中心语义承接。）

5．C．利用“传真”，“平邮”，“快邮”作为答案相关句在第3段段首句中发现答案相关句，该句说电子邮件正开始取代“传真”，“平邮”，“快邮”。可见C的说法与该句的说法一致。

Passage 3

Stress Level Tied to Education Level

1. B。分析: 问题句说“压力程度与...紧密相关”. 社会地位与教育程度紧密相关的结合， 而文章主题说“紧张程度与教育程度相关”，因此推测“社会地位”最可能与“紧张程度”发生关系， 因此推测B很可能是答案。还可以在文章中进行进一步的确认：

（第3段） From this, researchers have concluded that the day-to-day factors that cause stress are not random．Where you are in society determines the kinds of problems that you have each day, and how well you will cope with them．划线句说“你在社会中的地位决定了你每天遇到什么样的问题，决定了你会怎样解决这些问题。”结合前句内容可知： 划线句中提到的“问题”都是造成“造成压力的因素”， 因此判断压力程度和社会地位相关， 因此B是答案。

2． A。 分析： 问题句说“有1，031位成年人。。接受了采访”， 借助问题句中的特征词1．03 1 adults作为答案线索， 这样找到答案相关句： The research team interviewed a national sample of 1．03 1 adults daily for eight days about their stress level and health．该句说“研究小组采访了从全国抽样而产生的1，031名成年人， 对这些人连续采访了8天，内容问及他们遭受到的压力的程度和他们的健康状况。 ”因此判断A（每天进行， 连续进行了8天）是答案。

3．D． 分析： 问题问“哪个小组报告承受压力的天数最多？”，结合文章主题： 压力程度与教育程度相关， 结合文章开头所陈述的权威性的观点： People with less education suffer fewer stressful days（接受的教育越少， 感受到压力的时间越短）, according to a report in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior．因此判断D（有大学学历的人）承受压力的天数最多。

4．A． 分析：问题句说“人们的优势越小，。。越大？”利用问题句中的修饰结构less advantaged作为答案线索, 这样找到答案相关句:

(第5段)“Less advantaged people are less healthy on a daily basis and are more likely to have downward turns in their health, ” lead researcher Dr．Joseph Grzywacz，of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a prepared statement． “The downward turns in health were connected with daily stressors．and the effect of daily stressors on their health is much more devastating for the less advantaged．”该段提到“健康的滑坡与每天的紧张刺激物有关系，而这些刺激物对他们健康的影响更加具有破坏性”，也就是说“压力对他们的健康具有更大的影响” ，因此判断A（压力对其健康造成的影响（更大））是答案。

5． C。 问题句说“受教育程度较低的人他们报告的承受压力的天数更少，这可能是因为。。。”， 借助常识和对文章主题内容的理解： 压力与受教育程度相关， 判断C和D可能是答案（A和B离文章主题内容太远），利用问题句中的修饰词Less—educated作为答案线索， 这样找到答案相关句：

Grzywacz suggested follow-up research to determine why less-educated people report fewer days of stress when it is known their stress is more acute and chronic．这句话说“要进行后续的研究以确定为什么受教育程度较低的报告的承受压力的天数更少， ”， 而接下来的句子说： “If something happens every day, maybe it’s not seen as a stressor”Grzywacz says．“Maybe it is just 1ife．”该划线句说“如果某种事情每天动发生， 也许它就不会被看成是压力刺激物了。”结合上一句的内容来看，这句话应该是在分析原因， 因此判断C（压力是他们生活中一个很平常的因素）是答案

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