Passage Five

　　Questions 21-25 are based on the following passage.

　　You’re busy filling out the application form for a position you really need. Let’s assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn’t it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University? More and more people are turning to utter deception like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university.

　　Registrars at most well-known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week. Personnel officers do check upon degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them “impostors (骗子)”; another refers to them as “special cases”. One well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by “no such people”. To avoid outright lies, some job-seekers claim that they “attended” or “were associated with” a college or university, After carefully checking, a personnel officer may discover that “attending” means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that “being associated with” a college means that the job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century——that’s when they began keeping records, anyhow. If you don’t want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony diploma.

　　One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from “Smoot State University”. The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the “University of Purdue”. As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.

　　21. The main idea of this passage is that ______.

　　A. employers are checking more closely on applicants now

　　B. lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem

　　C. college degrees can now be purchased easily

　　D. employers are no longer interested in college degrees

　　22. According to the passage, “special cases” refer to cases that ______.

　　A. students attended a school only part-time

　　B. students never attended a school they listed on their application forms

　　C. students purchased false degrees from commercial firms

　　D. students attended a famous school

　　23. From the sentence “job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend” (Para.2), we can infer that _____.

　　A. the job-seeker is a student in that college

　　B. the job-seeker’s brother is a student in that college

　　C. neither the two are students in that college

　　D. the job-seeker lives in that college

　　24. We can infer from the passage that ______.

　　A. performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree

　　B. experience is the best teacher

　　C. past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do

　　D. a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition

　　25. The underlined word “phony” (Para.2) means ______.

　　A. thorough

　　B. false

　　C. ultimate

　　D. decisive

　　Passage Six

　　Questions 26-30 are based on the following passage

　　Are you happy? Do you remember a time when you were happy? Are you seeking happiness today?

　　Many have sought a variety of sources for their feelings of happiness. Some put their hearts and efforts into their work. Too many turn to drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile, untold numbers look for it in the possession of expensive cars, exotic vacation homes and other popular “toys”. Most of their efforts have a root in common: people are looking for a lasting source of happiness.

　　Unfortunately, I believe that happiness escapes from many people because they misunderstand the journey of finding it. I have learned many people say that, “I’ll be happy when I get my new promotion,” or “I’ll be happy when I get that extra 20 pounds.” It is dangerous because it accepts that happiness is a “response” to having, being or doing something.

　　In life, we all experience stimulus and response. Today, some people think that an expensive car is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. A great paying job is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. This belief leaves us thinking and feeling: “I’ll be happy when ...”

　　It has been my finding that actually the opposite is true. I believe that happiness is a stimulus and response is what life brings to those who are truly happy. When we are happy, we tend to have more success in our work. When we are happy, we more naturally take better care of our bodies and enjoy good health. Happiness is not a response but a stimulus.

　　Happiness is a conscious choice we make in daily life. For unknown reasons to me, many choose to be upset and angry most of the time. Happiness is not something that happens to us after we get something we want. On the contrary, we usually get things we want after we choose to be happy.

　　26. According to the second paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?

　　A. Some people are happy when they work hard.

　　B. Some people are happy when they drink or take drugs.

　　C. Some people are happy when they get well-paid jobs.

　　D. Some people are happy when they possess their own expensive cars.

　　27. Generally speaking, most people feel happy because ______.

　　A. they think happiness is rooted in their deep hearts

　　B. they get what they want to have

　　C. they get a long vacation

　　D. they get a great paying job

　　28. In the author’s opinion, which of the following.is the most important if you want to be happy?

　　A. Losing weight

　　B. An expensive car

　　C. Success in work

　　D. Feeling happy

　　29. Which of the following is right according to the author?

　　A. Most people today are happy.

　　B. Most people choose to be unhappy most of the time.

　　C. Work is a necessary part in our daily life.

　　D. We try to get more and then we’ll be happy.

　　30. From the viewpoint of the author, happiness is ______.

　　A. limited

　　B. out of reach

　　C. unconditional

　　D. based on our needs