A _____ lifestyle is one that is going nowhere fast: no new employment, no new love interest, no volunteer work, and no new life-changing commitments.
Most economists in the United States seem captivated by the spell of the free market. Consequently, nothing seems good or normal that does not accord with the requirements of the free market. A price that is determined by the seller or, for that matter, established by anyone other than the aggregate of consumers seems pernicious. Accordingly, it requires a major act of will to think of price-fixing (the determination of prices by the seller) as both “normal” and having a valuable economic function. In fact, price-fixing is normal in all industrialized societies because the industrial system itself provides, as an effortless consequence of its own development, the price-fixing that it requires. Modern industrial planning requires and rewards great size. Hence, a comparatively small number of large firms will be competing for the same group of consumers. That each large firm will act with consideration of its own needs and thus avoid selling its products for more than its competitors charge is commonly recognized by advocates of free-- market economic theories. But each large firm will also act with full consideration of the needs that it has in common with the other large firms competing for the same customers. Each large firm will thus avoid significant price cutting, because price cutting would be prejudicial to common interest in a stable demand for products. Most economists do not see price-fixing when it occurs because they expect it to be brought about by a number of explicit agreements among large firms; it is not.Moreover those economists who argue that allowing the free market to operate without interference is the most efficient method of establishing prices have not considered the economies of non-socialist-countries other than the United States. These economies employ intentional price fixing, usually in an overt fashion. Formal price-fixing by cartel and informal price-fixing by agreements covering the members of an industry are commonplace. Were there something peculiarly efficient about the free market and inefficient about price-fixing, the countries that have avoided the first and used the second would have suffered drastically in their economic development. There is no indication that they have.Socialist industry also works within a framework of controlled prices. In the early 1970’s the Soviet Union began to give firms and industries some of the flexibility in adjusting prices that a more informal evolution has accorded the capitalist system. Economists in the United States have hailed the change as a return to the free market. But Soviet firms are no more subject to prices established by a free market over which they exercise little influence than are capitalist firms; rather, Soviet firms have been given the power to fix prices.50. The author’s attitude toward “Most economists” in the United States (para 1) can best be described as ____.51. It can be inferred from the author’s argument that a price fixed by the seller “seems pernicious” (para 1) because ____.52. The suggestion in the text that price fixing in industrialized societies is normal arises from the author’s statement that price-fixing is ____.53. According to the author, price fixing in non-socialist countries is often ____.
We rarely perceive more than a minute ______ of the sights and sounds that fall upon our sense organs; the great majority pass us by.
This week we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, one of Britain’s most extraordinary scientists. His theory of evolution, one of the greatest discoveries of all time, gives us a way of understanding the connectedness of all life and the uniqueness of human life within it. Together with other branches of scientific exploration, evolution begins to unfold and illuminate the interplay of forces that make our universe such an extraordinary dynamic reality. In this sense, science is itself a journey of learning and exploration. This I find exciting and humbling.Towards the end of his life Darwin wrote: “It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist and an evolutionist.” The science opens me not only to puzzles and to questions about the world I live in; it leads me to marvel at its complexity. Here, I find science is a good friend to my faith. It also calls me to a journey of learning and understanding. One of the things that mars our culture is the fracture between faith and science. It impoverishes our inquiry into the realities that make up our life and world. This is a false opposition.If we see the two as fundamentally opposed—science endangering and undermining faith, or faith obstructing knowledge—then distortions are produced on both sides. For example, some Christians argue for “Young Earth Creationism” or Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolutionary theory. Creationism is the belief that the biblical stories of Creation as described in the Book of Genesis are literally true.Is genuine Christianity obliged to adopt any of these positions? No, it is not. Belief in creation is not equivalent to any one of them. It is a mistake to treat the theology of creation in the Book of Genesis as a scientific textbook. It does unfold a profound and valid truth about the world in which we live, its order and purpose. The Book of Genesis speaks about the relationship between God and creation and especially about the place of humanity in that relationship. That wonderful narrative of creation offers us a first vision of an “ecology of holiness” in which every material and living thing has a place and its creativity is consecrated in goodness by God. The account of creation in Genesis is pointing us beyond the question “how?” to the question “why?” Ultimately, science as well as faith must come to that most fundamental of all questions: the question of meaning and purpose.31. According to the author, Darwin’s theory of evolution shows that ______.32. Which of the following would Darwin most probably agree to?33. The author finds science “humbling” because it ______.34. The author believes that The Book of Genesis is true in that it ______.35. In the author’s opinion, the relationship between science and faith is ______.
Horse-drawn coaches were neither a competitive nor a comfortable alternative given the deplorable state of the nation’s highways and though bicycles were popular in both town and country, they, too, were hampered by poor road surfaces.
Apart from the Moon and occasional comets and asteroids, Venus is often our nearest neighbor. Its orbit brings it closer to Earth than any other planet—only 26 million miles away at certain times. Despite that proximity, for a long time it was generally termed “the planet of mystery.” This is because the atmosphere of Venus is so dense and so cloud-laded that its surface is permanently hidden from sight.The first attempt to learn more about Venus was to analyze its upper atmosphere using spectroscopic methods. In size and mass, Venus is almost the equal of Earth, and its gravitational field is only slightly weaker than ours, so that logically it might be expected to have the same kind of atmosphere—but this is emphatically not so. Scientists found that the main constituent of its atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Since this is a heavy gas that would be expected to sink, it was reasonable to assume that carbon dioxide made up most of the atmosphere down to ground level. Carbon dioxide acts in the manner of a greenhouse, trapping the Sun’s heat, so it followed that Venus was likely to be a very torrid sort of world.Yet opinions differed. According to one theory, the clouds contained a great deal of water. It was even claimed that the surface might be largely ocean covered, in which case: the atmosphere carbon dioxide would have fouled the water and produced seas of soda water. Another intriguing theory made Venus very similar to the Earth of over 200 million years ago. There would be marshes, luxuriant vegetation of the fern and horsetail variety, and primitive life-forms such as giant dragonflies. If so, then Venus might presumably evolve the same way Earth has done.In 1962 the American probe Mariner 2 bypassed Venus at less than 22,000 miles and gave us our first reliable information. The surface proved to be very hot indeed; we now know that the maximum temperature is almost 500°C. The atmosphere really is almost pure carbon dioxide, and those shining clouds are rich in sulfuric acid. All ideas of a pleasant, oceanic Venus had to be abandoned. In 1975 Venera 9, a Russian automatic lander, visited Venus and sent back pictures directly from the surface. The scene—a rocky, scorched landscape—could hardly be more hostile. Subsequent probes have confirmed this impression.Why is Venus so unlike Earth? The answer can only lie in its lesser distance from the Sun. It seems that in the early days of the solar system the Sun was less luminous than it is now, in which case Venus and Earth may have started to evolve along the same lines, but when the Sun became more powerful the whole situation changed. Earth, at 93 million miles, was just out of harm’s way, but Venus, at 67 million, was not. The water in oceans vaporized, the carbonates were driven out of the rocks, and in a relatively short time or the cosmic scale, Venus was transformed from a potentially life-bearing world into the inferno of today.25. The primary purpose of this passage is to ______.26. The statement “In size ... so” (bold in Paragraph 2) functions primarily to ______.27. The primary purpose of the third paragraph is to ______.28. In order for the hypothesis in “There would ... dragonflies” (bold in Paragraph 3) to be correct, which statement could NOT be true of conditions on Venus?29. The statement in “In 1962 … information” (bold in Paragraph 4) suggests that the ______.30. The tone of the statement in “The answer ... Sun” (bold in Paragraph 5) is best described as ______.