READING PASSAGE 2You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27, which are based on

READING PASSAGE 2

You should about 20 minutes on Questions 14-17 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Wheel of Fortune

Emma Duncan discusses the potentiaI effects on the entertainment industry of the digital revolution

A

Since moving pictures were invented a century ago，a new way of distributing entertainment to consumers has emerged about once every generation．Each such innovation has changed the industry irreversibly；each has been accompanied by a period of fear mixed with exhilaration．The arrival of digital technology, which translates music．pictures and text into the zeros and ones of computer language，marks one of those periods．

B

This may sound familiar, because the digital revolution，and the explosion of choice that would go with it, has been heralded for some time．In 1992，John Malone，chief executive of TCI，an American cable giant．welcomed the '500-channel universe'．Digital television was about to deliver everything except pizzas to people's living rooms．When the entertainment companies tried out the technology, it worked fine-but not at a price that people were prepared to pay．

C

Those 500 channels eventually arrived but via the Internet and the PC rather than through television．The digital revolution was startinq to affect the entertainment business in unexpected ways．Eventually it will chanqe every aspect of it，from the way cartoons are made to the way films are screened to the way people buy music．That much is clear．What nobody is sure of is how it will affect the economics of the business．

D

New technologies always contain within them both threats and opportunities．They have the potential both to make the companies in the business a great deal richer, and to sweep them away．Old companies always fear new technology．Hollywood was hostile to television，television terrified by the VCR．Go back far enough，points out Hal Varian．an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, and you find publishers complaining that' circulating libraries' would cannibalise their sales．Yet whenever a new technology has come in，it has made more money for existing entertainment companies. The proliferation of the means of distribution results，gratifyingly, in the proliferation of dollars，pounds， pesetas and the rest to pay for it.

E

All the same，there is something in the old companies' fears．New technologies may not threaten their lives．but they usually change their role．Once television became widespread，film and radio stopped being the staple form. of entertainment．Cable television has undermined the power of the broadcasters．And as power has shifted the movie studios，the radio companies and the television broadcasters have been swallowed up．These days，the grand old names of entertainment have more resonance than power．Paramount is part of Viacom，a cable company; Universal，part of Seagram, a drinks-and-entertainment company; MGM，once the roarinq lion of Hollywood，has been reduced to a whisper because it is not Dart of one of the giants．And RCA，once the most important broadcasting company in the world，is now a recording label belonging to Bertelsmann，a large German entertainment company．

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READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading P assage 2 below.

READING THE SCREEN

Are the electronic media exacerbating illiteracy and making our children stupid？ On the contrary, says Colin McCabe, they have the potential to make us truly literate

The debate surrounding literacy is one of the most charged in education. On the onehand there is an army of people convinced that traditional skills of reading and writing are declining. On the other, a host of progressives protest that literacy is much more complicated than a simple technical mastery of reading and writing. This second position is supported by most of the relevant academic work over the past 20 years. These studies argue that literacy can only be understood in its social and technical context. In Renaissance England, for example, many more people could read than could write, and within reading there was a distinction between those who could read print and those who could manage the more difficult task of reading manuscript. An understanding of these earlier periods helps us understand today's 'crisis in literacy' debate.

There does seem to be evidence that there has been an overall decline in some aspects of reading and writing - you only need to compare the tabloid newspapers of today with those of 50 years ago to see a clear decrease in vocabulary and simplification of syntax. But the picture is not uniform. and doesn't readily demonstrate the simple distinction between literate and illiterate which had been considered adequate since the middle of the 19th century.

While reading a certain amount of writing is as crucial as it has ever been in industrial societies, it is doubtful whether a fully extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was 30 or 40 years ago. While print retains much of its authority as a source of topical formation, television has increasingly usurped this role. The ability to write fluent letters has been undermined by the telephone and research suggests that for many people the only use for writing, outside formal education, is the compilation of shopping lists.

The decision of some car manufacturers to issue their instructions to mechanics as a video pack rather than as a handbook might be taken to spell the end of any automatic link between industrialisation and literacy. On the other hand, it is also the case that ever-increasing numbers of people make their living out of writing, which is better rewarded than ever before. Schools are generally seen as institutions where the book rules - film, television and recorded sound have almost no place; but it is not clear that this opposition is appropriate. While you may not need to read and write to watch television, you certainly need to be able to read and write in order to make programmes.

Those who work in the new media are anything but illiterate. The traditional oppositions between old and new media are inadequate for understanding the world which a young child now encounters. The computer has re-established a central place for the written word on the screen, which used to be entirely devoted to the image. There is even anecdotal evidence that children are mastering reading and writing in order to get on to the Internet. There is no reason why the new and old media cannot be integrated in schools to provide the skills to become economically productive and politically enfranchised. Nevertheless, there is a crisis in literacy and it would be foolish to ignore it. To understand that literacy may be declining because it is less central to some aspects of everyday life is not the same as acquiescing in this state of affairs. The production of school work with the new technologies could be a significant stimulus to literacy. How should these new technologi

A．children cannot read and write as well as they used to

B．academic work has improved over the last 20 years.

C．there is evidence that literacy is related to external factors.

D．there are opposing arguments that are equally convincing.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

IT'S ECO-LOGICAL

Planning an eco-friendly holiday can be a minefield for the well-meaning traveller, says Steve Watkins. But help is now at hand

If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then 'ecotourism' would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag a holiday could carry.

These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure is likely to be included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in an ecotourism jungle.

It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Add to this an annual growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials of an operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an operator's claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours.

However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a company's commitment to minimise its impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism area's local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally harvested materials to build its tourist properties？ Do they pay fair wages to all employees？ Do they offer training to employees？ It is common for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to guide your custom to worthy operators but you will often find that the experience they offer is far more rewarding.

The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardized approach. There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to educate travellers and operators about the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable development. Helping to create inherent economic value in wilderness environments and threatened cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movement's most notable achievements. TES organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is launching 'Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference', an educational campaign aimed at helping consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also

A．YES

B．NO

C．NOT GIVEN

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-25 which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Section A

The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often however, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the exploitation and consumption of natural resources A whole range of policies, from farm- price support to protection for coal-mining do, environmental damage and (often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold bonus: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested interest that subsidies create.

Section B

No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the plant's land area, not counting Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 percent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases increases in yields from land already in cultivation, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased Irrigation , better crop breeding, and a doubling in the use of pesticides and chemical fertillsers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Section C

All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts, For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertillsers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of mono- culture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have provided, some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The countrys subsequently embarked upon a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America

Section D

Government policies have frequently compounded the environmental damage that farming can cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for growing crops and price supports for farm output drive up the price of land. The annual value of these subsidies is immense; about ＄250 billion, or more than all World Bank lending in the 1980s. To increase the output of crops per acre, a farmer's easiest option is to use more of the most readily available Inputs: fertilisers and pesticides. Fertiliser use doubled in Denmark in the period 1960-1985 and increased in The Netherlands by 150 per cent. The quantity, of pesticides applied. has risen too: by 69 per centin 1975-1984 in Denmark, for example, with a rise of 115 per cent in the frequency of application in the three years from 1981.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s some efforts were made to reduce farm subsidies The most dramatic example was that of New Zealand, which scrapped most farm support in 1984 A study of the environmental effects, conducted in 1993, found that the end of fertiliser subsidies had been followed by a fall in fertiliser use (a fall compounded by the decline in world commodity prices, which cut farm incomes), The removal of subsidies also stopped land-clearing and over-stocking, which in the past had been the principal causes of erosion, Farms began to diversify, The one kind of subsidy whose removal appeared to have been bad for the environment was the subsidy to manage soil

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-28 which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Section A

The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often however, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the exploitation and consumption of natural resources A whole range of policies, from farm- price support to protection for coal-mining do, environmental damage and (often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold bonus: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested interest that subsidies create.

Section B

No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the plant's land area, not counting Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 percent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases increases in yields from land already in cultivation, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased Irrigation , better crop breeding, and a doubling in the use of pesticides and chemical fertillsers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Section C

All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts, For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertillsers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of mono- culture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have provided, some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The countrys subsequently embarked upon a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America

Section D

Government policies have frequently compounded the environmental damage that farming can cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for growing crops and price supports for farm output drive up the price of land. The annual value of these subsidies is immense; about ＄250 billion, or more than all World Bank lending in the 1980s. To increase the output of crops per acre, a farmer's easiest option is to use more of the most readily available Inputs: fertilisers and pesticides. Fertiliser use doubled in Denmark in the period 1960-1985 and increased in The Netherlands by 150 per cent. The quantity, of pesticides applied. has risen too: by 69 per centin 1975-1984 in Denmark, for example, with a rise of 115 per cent in the frequency of application in the three years from 1981.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s some efforts were made to reduce farm subsidies The most dramatic example was that of New Zealand, which scrapped most farm support in 1984 A study of the environmental effects, conducted in 1993, found that the end of fertiliser subsidies had been followed by a fall in fertiliser use (a fall compounded by the decline in world commodity prices, which cut farm incomes), The removal of subsidies also stopped land-clearing and over-stocking, which in the past had been the principal causes of erosion, Farms began to diversify, The one kind of subsidy whose removal appeared to have been bad for the environment was the subsidy

The passage is mainly about ______.

A．the importance of reading

B．the effective ways of reading

C．the difficulties in reading

D．the incorrect habits of reading

A．prove to readers the importance of higher education

B．tell a story in honor of her mother

C．give a detailed description of different reading skills

D．prove the importance of fast reading