第九篇(Unit 3 passage1)
Computers monitor everything in Singapore from soil composition to location of manholes. At the airport, it took just 15 seconds for the computerized immigration system to scan and approve my passport. It takes only one minute to be checked into a public hospital.
By 1998, almost every household will be wired for interactive cable TV and the Internet, the global computer network. Shoppers will be able to view and pay for products electronically. A 24-hour community telecomputing network will allow users to communicate with elected representatives and retrieve information about government services. It is all part of the government’s plan to transform the nation into what it calls the “Intelligent Island”.
In so many ways, Singapore has elevated the concept of efficiency to a kind of national ideology. For the past ten years, Singapore’s work force was rated the best in the world-ahead of Japan and the U.S.-in terms of productivity, skill and attitude by the Business Environment Risk Intelligence service.
Behind the “Singapore miracle” is a man Richard Nixon described as one of “the ablest leaders I have met,” one who, “in other times and other places, might have attained the world stature of a Churchill.” Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore’s struggle for independence in the 1950s, serving as Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990. Today (1995), at 71, he has nominally retired to the office of Senior Minister, where he continues to influence his country’s future. Lee offered companies tax breaks, political stability, cheap labor and strike-free environment.
Nearly 90 percent of Singaporean adults now own their own homes and thanks to strict adherence to the principle of merit, personal opportunities abound. “If you’ve got talent and work hard, you can be anything here,” says a Malaysian-born woman who holds a high-level civil-service position.
Lee likes to boast that Singapore has avoided the “moral breakdown” of Western countries. He attributes his nation’s success to strong family ties, a reliance on education as the engine of advancement and social philosophy that he claims is superior to America’s.
In an interview with Reader’s Digest, he said that the United States has “lost its bearings” by emphasizing individual rights at the expense of society. “An ethical society,” he said, “is one which matches human rights with responsibilities.”
1.What characterizes Singapore’s advancement is its___.
A.computer monitoring.
B.work efficiency.
C.high productivity.
D.value on ethics.
2.From Nixon’s perspective, Lee is___.
A.almost as great as Churchill.
B.not as great as Churchill.
C.only second to Churchill in being a leader.
D.just as great as Churchill.
3.In the last paragraph, “lost its bearings” may mean___.
A.become impatient.
B.failed to find the right position.
C.lost its foundation.
D.grown band-mannered.
4.“You can be anything here”(Paragraph 5) may be paraphrased as___.
A.You can hope for a very bright prospect.
B.You may be able to do anything needed.
C.You can choose any job as you like.
D.You will become an outstanding worker.
5.In Singapore, the concept of efficiency___.
A.has been emphasized throughout the country.
B.has become an essential quality for citizens to aim at.
C.is brought forward by the government in order to compete with America.
D.is known as the basis for building the “Intelligent Island.”
第九篇答案：DDBAB
第十篇(Unit 3 passage2)
Chinese Americans today have higher incomes than Americans in general and higher occupational status. The Chinese have risen to this position despite some of the harshest discrimination and violence faced by any immigrants to the United States in the history of this country. Long confined to a narrow range of occupations they succeeded in those occupations and then spread out into other areas in later years, when opportunities finally opened up for them. Today much of the Chinese prosperity is due to the simple fact that they work more and have more (usually better) education than others. Almost one out of five Chinese families has three or more income earners compared to one out of thirteen for Puerto Ricans, one out of ten among American Indians, and one out of eight among Whites. When the Chinese advantages in working and educational are held constant, they have no advantage over other Americans. That is in a Chinese Family with a given number of people working and with a given amount of education by the head of the family, the income is not only about average for such families, and offer a little less than average.
While Chinese Americans as a group are prosperous and well-educated Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, and illiteracy is much higher among the Chinese than among Americans in general. Those paradoxes are due to sharp internal differences. Descendants of the Chinese Americans who emigrated long ago from Toishan Province have maintained Chinese values and have added acculturation to American society with remarkable success. More recent Hong Kong Chinese are from more diverse cultural origins, and acquired western values and styles in Hong Kong, without having acquired the skills to proper and support those aspirations in the American economy. Foreign-born Chinese men in the United States are one-fourth lower incomes than native-born Chinese even though the foreign-born have been in the United States an average of seventeen years. While the older Hong Kong Chinese work tenaciously to sustain and advance themselves, the Hong Kong Chinese youths often react with resentment and antisocial behavior, including terrorism and murder. The need to maintain tourism in Chinatown causes the Chinese leaders to mute or downplay these problems as much as possible.
1.According to the passage, today, Chinese Americans owe their prosperity to___.
A.their diligence and better education than others.
B.their support of American government.
C.their fight against discriminations.
D.advantages in working only.
2.The passage is mainly concerned with___.
A.chinese Americans today.
B.social status of Chinese Americans today.
C.incomes and occupational status of Chinese Americans today.
D.problems of Chinese Americans today.
3.Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, as is probably associated with___.
A.most descendants of Chinese Americans are rebelling.
B.most descendants of Chinese Americans are illiterate.
C.sharp internal difference between Chinese coming from different cultural backgrounds.
D.only a few Chinese Americans are rich.
4.Which of the following statements is not true according to this article?
A.As part of the minority, Chinese Americans are still experiencing discrimination in American today.
B.Nowadays, Chinese Americans are working in wider fields.
C.Foreign-born Chinese earn lower income than native-born Chinese Americans with the similar advantages in the U.S.
D.None of the above.
5.According to the author, which of the following can best describe the older Hong Kong Chinese and the younger?
A.Tenacious; rebellion.
B.Conservative; open-minded.
C.Out-of-date; fashionable.
D.Obedient; disobedient.
第10篇答案：ACCCA
