In cities with rent control, the city government sets the maximum rent that a landlord can charge for an apartment. Supporters of rent control argue that it protects people who are living in apartments. Their rent cannot increase; therefore, they are not in danger of losing their homes. However, the critics say that after a long time, rent control may have negative effects. Landlords know that they cannot increase their profits. Therefore, they invest in other businesses where they can increase their profits. They do not invest in new buildings which would also be rent-controlled. As a result, new apartments are not built. Many people who need apartments cannot find any. According to the critics, the end result of rent control is a shortage of apartments in the city.Some theorists argue that the minimum wage law can cause problems in the same way. The federal government sets the minimum that an employer must pay workers. The minimum helps people who generally look for unskilled, low-paying jobs. However, if the minimum is high, employers may hire fewer workers. They will replace workers with machinery. The price, which is the wage that employers must pay, increases. Therefore, other things being equal, the number of workers that employers want decreases. Thus, critics claim, an increase in the minimum wage may cause unemployment. Some poor people may find themselves without jobs instead of with jobs at the minimum wage.Supporters of the minimum wage say that it helps people keep their dignity. Because of the law, workers cannot sell their services for less than the minimum. Furthermore, employers cannot force workers to accept jobs at unfair wages.Economic theory predicts the results of economic decisions such as decisions about farm production, rent control, and the minimum wage. The predictions may be correct only if “other things are equal”.Economists do not agree on some of the predictions. They also do not agree on the value of different decisions. Some economists support a particular decision while others criticize it. Economists do agree, however, that there are no simple answers to economic questions.1. There is the possibility that setting maximum rent may ______.

2. According to the critics, rent control ______.

3. The problem of unemployment will arise, ______.

4. The passage tells us ______.

5. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A.cause a shortage of apartments B.worry those who rent apartments as homes C.increase the profits of landlords D.encourage landlords to invest in building apartment问题2： A.will always benefit those who rent apartments B.is unnecessary C.will bring negative effects in the long run D.is necessary under all circumstances问题3： A.if the minimum wage is set too high B.if the minimum wage is set too low C.if the workers are unskilled D.if the maximum wage is set问题4： A.the relationship between supply and demand B.the possible results of government controls C.the necessity of government control D.the urgency of getting rid of government controls问题5： A.The results of economic decisions cannot always be predicted. B.Minimum wage cannot always protect employees. C.Economic theory can predict the results of economic decisions if other factors are not changing. D.Economic decisions should not be based on economic theory.

While fashion is thought of usually in relation to clothing, it is important to realize that it covers a much wider domain. It is to be found in manners, the arts, literature, and philosophy, and may even reach into certain areas of science. In fact, it may operate in any field of group life, apart from the technological and utilitarian area and the area of the sacred. Its operation requires a class society, for in its essential character it does not occur either in a homogeneous society like a primitive group, or in a caste (社会等级) society.Fashion behaves as a movement, and on this basis it is different from custom which, by comparison, is static. This is due to the fact that fashion is based fundamentally on differentiation and emulation. In a class society, the upper classes or so-called social elite are not able to differentiate themselves by fixed symbols or badges. Hence the more external features of their life and behavior are likely to be imitated by classes immediately below them, who, in turn, are imitated by groups immediately below them in the social structure. This process gives to fashion a vertical descent. However, the elite class finds that it is no longer distinguishable, by reason of the imitation made by others, and hence is led to adopt new differentiating criteria, only to displace these as they in turn are imitated. It is primarily this feature that makes fashion into a movement and which has led one writer to remark that a fashion, once launched, moves to its doom.As a movement, fashion show little resemblance to any of the other movements which we have considered. While it occurs spontaneously and moves along in a characteristic cycle, it involves little in the way of crowd behavior and it is not dependent upon the discussion process and the resulting public opinion. It does not depend upon the mechanisms of which we have spoken. The participants are not recruited through agitation. No morale is built up among them. Nor does the fashion movement have, or required, an ideology. Further, since it does not have a leadership imparting conscious direction to the movement, it does not build up a set of tactics. People take part in the fashion movement voluntarily and in response to the interesting and powerful kind of control which fashion imposes on them.1. It is known from the first paragraph that ________.2. According to the author, which of the following people usually lead a new fashion?3. Which of the following statement is true?4. According to the author, a fashion movement ________.5. It can be inferred from the passage that a fashion movement ________.

The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defense of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed indifferent ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.47. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with ______.48. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in paragraph 2?49. Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?50. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

Opponents of affirmative action say the battle over the use of race in college admissions is hardly over, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday upholding the goal of a diverse student body. Higher education leaders overwhelmingly hailed the decision, saying it reaffirmed policies used by must selective colleges and universities. But some critics raised the possibility of more lawsuits, and promised to continue pressuring the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate questionable policies. “We’re talking about admissions programs, scholarships, any program...only for minorities or in which the standards used to judge admissions are substantially different.” says Linda Chavez, founder and president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative non-profit group.Others say they’ll take their case to voters. “We have to seriously contest all this at the ballot box.” says University of California regent Ward Connerly, who helped win voter approval of California’s Proposition 209, which prohibits considering race or gender in public education, hiring and contracting. Because of that law, Monday’s ruling had no practical impact in the state. “It may be time for us to...let the (Michigan) voters decide if they want to use race as a factor in admissions.” Connerly said.Meanwhile, U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, consistent with President Bush’s stance opposing affirmative action, said the Department of Education will “continue examining and highlighting effective race-neutral approaches to ensure broad access to and diversity within our public institutions”. Even Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in one of the opinions, recommended that states look for lessons in race-neutral programs being tried in California and elsewhere. While the ruling said admissions officials may consider race in the selection process, colleges and universities are not obligated to do so. “Ultimately in the debate, diversity is a choice, not a legal mandate.” says Arthur Coleman, a former Department of Education official who now helps colleges and universities ensure constitutional policies.The public, too, remains conflicted, largely along racial lines. According to a January poll by the nonprofit research organization Public Agenda, 79% of Americans said it is important for colleges to have a racially diverse student body, while just 54% said affirmative action programs should continue. In a Gallup poll conducted days before the ruling, 49% of adults said they favor affirmative action and 43% did not, with blacks and Hispanics far more likely to favor the practice than whites. And some educators doubt that with Monday’s ruling, those opposing affirmative action will change their minds.For now, admissions officials and university lawyers are poring over the ruling to determine how or whether to adjust policies. While most tend to be closed-mouthed about admissions policies, many say they don’t expect significant changes.1. What the critics said in the first paragraph amounts to the idea that ________.

Early men were also greatly interested in the stars they saw twinkling in the sky at night. What they did not realize was that the stars were also present during the daytime, but their light was not visible because of the brilliance of the sun. How did they discover this?There is one event which does enable us to see the stars in the daytime. It is the total eclipse of the sun(日全食),when the moon passes in front of the sun and hides it from view. When this happens, the sky becomes dark enough for the stars to be seen. Total eclipses of this kind do not occur very often and are not likely to be seen from the same area more than once every fifty-four years. One can imagine what an awe-inspiring sight it must have been for an early man, who would remember the event for the rest of his life.So man watched the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars and wondered about them. It was practicing the oldest branch of science—astronomy.

Just as there are occupations that require college or even higher degrees, ______ occupations for which technical training is necessary.