Nicole owns a small pottery factory. She can make 1,000 pieces of pottery per year and sel

听力原文： Hundreds of violins are made every day. However, the finest were handcrafted by an Italian violin maker over two hundred and fifty years ago. The craftsman's name was Antonius Stradivarius. Any one of his violins is worth more than $100,000 today.

His instruments could reproduce tones as rich as those produced by the human voice. During his career he made over eleven hundred violins by hand. Those still in existence have become treasured possessions.

Unfortunately, the secret of the Stradivarius violin died with its maker. During his lifetime Stradivarius kept his notes safely hidden. Even his two sons, who helped him in his workshop, did not know all the steps involved in each violin's construction.

Through the years, many experts have offered possible explanations for the unique tone of a "Strad". Some say it is the instrument's shape and the harmony of its parts. Others suggest that the secret lies in the special properties of the wood that no longer exist. The most widely accepted supposition is the paint that the old master used to coat his instruments. Still, no violin maker has been able to fully reproduce the tone of Stradivarius's violins.

(33)

A．How to Make Violins.

B．Stradivarius's Secret.

C．Expensive Violins.

D．Italian Violin Makers.

Mario DeLiberty had been living a small businessman's dream. Twenty-one years ago he opened up the Westgate Pub in Havertown, Pennsylvania, after buying a seedy (破烂的) bar — "a real trash can, everything covered in grease and nicotine," he says —and turning it into a spiffy (整洁的) family restaurant. But one day last year DeLiberty opened his mail and learned he was being sued. A group called the American Disability Institute said DeLiberty's pub failed to comply with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that businesses be accessible to the handicapped.

Some of the alleged violations at the Westgate Pub were laughable: a toilet that was supposed to hang 18 inches from a wall was only 17 inches away, for instance. Others were off the mark. The suit complained that Westgate's parking lot had no handicapped space —but DeLiberty says the lot is run by the local township. Meanwhile, be had served handicapped patrons for years, letting one customer regularly bring in his Seeing Eye dog, and never heard a complaint. Moreover, DeLibarty would have been willing to make any necessary changes if given the chance. He wasn't. The message of the letter, he says, was clear: "We will close you down."

There was one possible way out, though. DeLiberty could settle the case for ＄2,100. Worried about an expensive legal battle, he bargained down to ＄1,600 and paid up. And that was it. "I never heard from them again," he says.

Before long, DeLiberty learned he was one of dozens of local businesses targeted this way. The founder of the American Disability Institute, who is a retired dentist, told the local newspaper that he planned to file more than 5,000 similar suits, potentially reaping millions of dollars in settlements.

"They throw fear into you," DeLiberty says. "The fear that all the blood, sweat and tears you've put into your business is going to go down the drain."

Welcome to one of the seediest (肮脏的) legal ruses (花招) going. In recent years, a number of profiteers have used the ADA to blindside (攻其无防备之处) thousands of small businesses nationwide. They demand four-or five-figure settlements over problems that may cost a few hundred dollars to fix. The targeted busi- nesses often receive no warning, and once the lawyers have been paid, they can disappear as fast as they came. Some say that it's little more than a slick protection racket (非法勾当).

The scheme works because business owners are scared of litigation (诉讼). It takes deep pockets to fight back, as actor Clint Eastwood discovered when he faced an ADA suit against his inn in Carmel, California. In the end, a jury decided he didn't owe the complainant a cent, yet Eastwood's costly defense took close to four years.

The shameful thing is that money-hungry attorneys are corrupting a law meant to help the most vulnerable among us. The ADA was enacted in 1990 to protect America's 50 million disabled people from job discrimination and to require efforts to make public places accessible to them. But the access part of the law is extremely complicated many would say over the top —detailing everything from countertop heights to mirror placement. Bathrooms alone may have to meet dozens of specifications. Even the most diligent person can fail to follow every role, thereby inviting shakedown (勒索) artists to ply their trade.

Just last year, the Pennsylvania law firm of Brodsky & Smith filed more than 100 ADA suits there and in New Jersey. In Florida, the Miami firm Fuller, Mallah &Associates racked up more than 700 lawsuits from 1998 to 2001. Another Florida lawyer, Robert Bogdan, helped start an outfit called Citizens Concerned About Disability Access before unleashing his own slew (许多) of lawsuits.

No business, from a mom-and-pop store to a big chain, is safe. One suit in Lake Worth, Florida, named a wheelchair store whose owners are

A．DeLiberty ran a restaurant successfully but was being threatened by his competitors.

B．DeLiberty was being sued for denying the handicapped their access to his business.

C．DeLiberty offered poor services to his handicapped customers.

D．There were some quality problems for the facilities in DeLiberty's pub.

听力原文： Hundreds of violins are made every day. However, the finest were handcrafted by an Italian violin maker over two hundred and fifty years ago. The craftsman's name was Antonius Stradivarius. Any one of his violins is worth more than ＄100,000 today.

His instruments could reproduce tones as rich as those produced by the human voice. During his career he made over eleven hundred violins by hand, Those still in existence have become treasured possessions.

Unfortunately, the secret of the Stradivarius violin died with its maker. During his lifetime Stradivarius kept his notes safely hidden. Even his two sons, who helped him in his workshop, did not know all the steps involved in each violin's construction.

Through the years, many experts have offered possible explanations for the unique tone of a "Strad". Some say it is the instrument's shape and the harmony of its parts. Others suggest that the secret lies in the special properties of the wood that no longer exist. The most widely accepted supposition is the paint that the old master used to coat his instruments. Still, no violin maker has been able to fully reproduce the tone of Stradivarius's violins.

(37)

A．How to Make Violins.

B．Expensive Violins.

C．Stradivarius's Secret.

D．Italian Violin Makers.

听力原文： Hundreds of violins are made every day. However, the finest were handcrafted by an Italian violin maker over two hundred and fifty years ago. The craftsman's name was Antonius Stradivarius. Any one of his violins is worth more than $100,000 today.

His instruments could reproduce tones as rich as those produced by the human voice. During his career he made over eleven hundred violins by hand. Those still in existence have become treasured possessions.

Unfortunately, the secret of the Stradivarius violin died with its maker. During his lifetime Stradivarius kept his notes safely hidden. Even his two sons, who helped him in his workshop, did not know all the steps involved in each violin's construction.

Through the years, many experts have offered possible explanations for the unique tone of a "Strad". Some say it is the instrument's shape and the harmony of its parts.' Others suggest that the secret lies in the special properties of the wood that no longer exist. The most widely accepted supposition is the paint that the old master used to coat his instruments. Still, no violin maker has been able to fully reproduce the tone of Stradivarius's violins.

(33)

A．How to Make Violins.

B．Expensive Violins.

C．Stradivarius's Secret.

D．Italian Violin Makers.

1 Every year thousands of people are arrested and taken to court for shop-lifting.In Britain alone, about HK ＄ 3,000,000's worth of goods are stolen from shops every week. This amounts to something like HK ＄150 million a year, and represents about 4 per cent of the shops' total stock. As a result of this "shrinkage" as the shops call it, the honest public has to pay higher prices.

2 Shop-lifters can be divided into three main categories: the professionals, the deliberate amateurs, and the people who just can't help themselves. The professionals do not pose much of a problem for the store detectives, who, assisted by closed circuit television, two way mirrors and various other technological devices, can usually cope with them. The professionals tend to go for high value goods in parts of the shops where security measures are tightest. And, in any case, they account for only a small percentage of the total losses due to shop-lifting.

3 The same applies to the deliberate amateur who is, so to speak, a professional in training. Most of them get caught sooner or later, and they are dealt with severely by the courts.

4 The real problem is the person who gives way to a sudden temptation and is in all other respects an honest and law-abiding citizen. Contrary to what one would expect, this kind of

shop-lifter is rarely poor. He does not steal because he needs the goods and cannot afford to pay for them. He steals because he simply cannot stop himself. And there are countless others who, because of age, sickness or plain absent-mindedness, simply forget to pay for what they take from the shops. When caught, all are liable to prosecution, and the decision whether to send for the police or not is in the hands of the store manager.

5 In order to prevent the quite incredible growth in shop-lifting offences, some stores, in fact, are doing their best to separate the thieves from the confused by prohibiting customers from taking bags into the store. However, what is most worrying about the whole problem is, perhaps, that it is yet another instance of the innocent majority being penalized and inconvenienced because of the actions of a small minority. It is the aircraft hijack situation in another form. Because of the possibility of one passenger in a million boarding an aircraft with a weapon, the other 999,999 passengers must subject themselves to searches and delays. Unless the situation in the shops improves, in ten years' time we may all have to subject ourselves to a body-search every time we go into a store to buy a tin of beans!

Why does the honest public have to pay higher prices when they go to the shops?

A．There is a "shrinkage" in market values.

B．Many goods are not available.

C．Goods in many shops lack variety.

D．There are many cases of shop-lifting.

听力原文： As you probably know, log structures are gaining popularity. They are no longer just the simple country homes that we think of as the traditional log cabin. Some upscale homes now incorporate natural round logs in sealing beams and walls. People seem to think that the rounded logs give their homes a cozy warm atmosphere. And even people who want to build a traditional log cabin on their own can buy a kit with precut logs that fit together like pieces of lig-saw puzzle. Before showing you some slides of modem log houses, I'd like to give you a little historical background on the subject.

Log cabins were first built in the late 1600s along the Delaware river valley. The European immigrants who settled there brought centuries' old traditions of working with logs. And in this heavily wooded area logs were the material in hand. Log cabins were the most popular in the early 1800s with the settlers who were moving west. They provided the answer to the pioneer's need for a sale and sliding boards for windows. But the log buildings that have probably had most influence on modern architects are those of the mountain retreats of wealthy New Yorkers. These country houses which were popular in the early 1900s typify what's known as the Adoroundyx style. Now let's look at those slides.

What is the speaker mainly discussing?

A．Traditional European architecture.

B．Techniques for building log cabins.

C．The history of log structures.

D．How to build a home by yourself.

Even in fresh water sharks hunt and kill. The Thresher shark, capable of lifting a small boat out of the water, has been sighted a mile inland on the Fowey River in Corn-wall. Killer sharks swim rivers to reach Lake Nicaragua in Central America; they average one human victim each year.

Sewage and garbage attract sharks inland. When floods carry garbage to the rivers they provide a rich diet which sometimes stimulates an epidemic of shark attacks. Warm water generally provides shark food, and a rich diet inflames the shark's aggression.

In British waters sharks usually swim peacefully between ten and twenty miles off- shore where warm water currents fatten mackerel and pilchards for their food. But the shark is terrifyingly unpredictable. One seaman was severely mauled as far north as Wick in Scotland. Small boats have been attacked in the English Channel, Irish Sea and North Sea.

Most of the legends about sharks are founded in ugly fact. Even a relatively small shark--a 200 lb. Zambezi--can sever a man's leg with one bite, Sharks have up to seven rows of teeth and as one front tooth is damaged or lost another moves forward to take its place. The shark never sleeps. Unlike most fish, it has no air bladder, and it must move constantly to avoid sinking. It is a primitive creature, unchanged for sixty million years of evolution. Its skin is without the specialized scales of a fish. Fully grown, it still has five pairs of separate gills like a three-week human embryo.

But it is a brilliantly efficient machine. Its skin carries nerve endings which can detect vibrations from fish moving several miles away. Its sense of smell, the function of most of its brain, can detect one p. art in 600,000 of tuna fish juice in water, or the blood of a fish or animal from a quarter of a mile away. It is colour blind, and sees best in deep water, but it can distinguish shapes and patterns of light and shade easily. Once vibrations and smell have placed its prey the shark sees well enough to home in by vision for the last fifty feet. The shark eats almost anything. It will gobble old tin cans and broken bottles as well as fish, animals and humans. Beer bottles, shoes, wrist watches, car number plates, overcoats and other sharks have been found in dead sharks. Medieval records tell of entire human corpses still encased in armour.

The United States military advice on repelling sharks is to stay clothed--sharks go for exposed flesh, especially the feet. Smooth swimming at the surface is essential. Frantic splashing will simply attract sharks, and dropping below the surface makes the swimmer an easy target.

If the shark gets close, then is the time to kick, thrash and hit out. A direct hit on the snout, gills, or eyes will drive away most sharks. The exception is the Great White shark. It simply kills you.

It is less common to find sharks in ______.

A．salt water

B．fresh water

C．warm water

D．deep water

•Read the article below about managing a small business.

•For each question 13-18, mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet, for the answer you choose.

The Difficulties Of Managing A Small Business

Ronald Meets asks who chief executives of entrepreneurial or small businesses can turn to for advice.

The organisational weaknesses that entrepreneurs have to deal with every day would cause 'the managers of a mature company to panic, ' Andrew Bidden wrote recently in Boston Business Review. This seems to suggest that the leaders of entrepreneurial or small businesses must be unlike other managers, or the problems faced by such leaders must be the subject of a specialised body of wisdom, or possibly both. Unfortunately, neither is true. Not much worth reading about managing the entrepreneurial or small business has been written, and the leaders of such businesses are made of flesh and blood, like the rest of us.

Furthermore, little has been done to address the aspects of entrepreneurial or small businesses that are so difficult to deal with and so different from the challenges faced by management in big business. In part this is because those involved in gathering expertise about business and in selling advice to businesses have historically been more interested in the needs of big business. In part, in the UK at least, it is also because small businesses have always preferred to adapt to changing circumstances.

The organisational problems of entrepreneurial or small businesses are thus forced upon the individuals who lead them. Even more so than for bigger businesses, the old saying is true--that people, particularly those who make the important decisions, are business' most important asset. The research that does exist shows that neither money nor the ability to access more of it is the major factor determining growth. The main reason an entrepreneurial business stops growing is the lack of management and leadership resource available to the business when it matters. Give an entrepreneur an experienced, skilled team and he or she will find the funds every time. Getting tile team, though, is the difficult bit. Part of the problem for entrepreneurs is the speed of change that affects their businesses. They have to cope with continuous change yet have always been suspicious about the latest 'management solution'. They regard the many offerings from business schools as out of date even before they leave the planning board and have little faith in the recommendations of consultants when they arrive in the hands of young, inexperienced graduates. But such impatience with 'management solutions' does not mean that problems can be left to solve themselves. However, the leaders of growing businesses are still left with the problem of who to turn to for advice.

The answer is horribly simple: leaders of small businesses can ask each other. The collective knowledge of a group of leaders can prove enormously helpful in solving the specific problems of individuals. One leader's problems have certainly been solved already by someone else. There is an organisation called KITE which enables those responsible for small businesses to meet. Its members, all of whom are chief executives, go through a demanding selection process, and then join a small group of other chief executives. They come from a range of business sectors and each offers a different corporate history. Each group is led by a 'moderator', an independently selected businessman or woman who has been specially tranined to head the group. Each member takes it in turn to host a meeting at his or her business premises and most important of all, group discussions are kept strictly confidential. This encourages a free sharing of problems and increases the possibility of

A．It is wrong to assume that they are different from other managers.

B．The problems they have to cope with are specific to small businesses.

C．They find it difficult to attract staff with sufficient expertise.

D．They could learn from the organisational skills of managers in large companies.

A．She is poor in English.

B．She can't speak English.

C．She has the ability to act in a play.

D．She doesn't like to speak English in a play.

The economy is improving for the super rich. After two years of declines, the total net worth of America's richest people rose 10 percent to $ 955 billion this year from 2002, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's 400 wealthiest individuals.

Forbes said the surge in collective net worth was largely due to gains in Internet stocks and tech fortunes. For example, Amazon Com’s Jeff Bezos saw his fortune expand by more than $ 3 billion to $ 5.1 billion as the stock of the online retailer skyrocketed. Bezos was the top gainer on the list, and holds spot 32.

David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!, saw his net worth nearly triple to $ 1.6 billion, tying him with 13 others for the 126th spot. Yahoo! 's other co-founder, Jerry Yang, also nearly tripled his fortune, but he shared the 162nd spot on the list with 16 others with a $1.4 billion fortune.

The gains are part of a continuing shift in wealth from the East to the tech-centric West. When the list was first published in 1982, there were 81 members from New York and 56 from California. Today, California boasts 95 Forbes 400 members, while New York has 47.

"There's been this enormous shift in the geographic distribution of wealth," Forbes senior editor Peter Newcomb said.

The Walton family was again prominent on the List. Five members of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's family tied for the fourth spot, each with a net worth of $ 20.5 billion.

Rounding out the top 10 were Oracle Corp. chairman Larry Ellison with an $18 billion fortune and Dell Inc. chief executive Michael Dell with a net worth of $13 billion.

Dell replaced Microsoft executive Steven Ballmer in 10th place. Ballmer is now No. 11 with a nest egg of $12.2 billion.

Notable drop-offs from the list include Global Crossing Ltd. founder Gary Winnick, whose company is in bankruptcy, and Motorola Corp. CEO Robert Galvin, whose company is suffering from the malaise afflicting the wireless and chip-making industry.

Daniel Ziff, 31, is the youngest person on the list. He inherited his $1.2 billion fortune. His father William Ziff Jr., built and sold a publishing empire.

The oldest person on the list is 95-year-old Max Fisher, who made his $ 680 million fortune through investments.

Newcomb said Forbes compiled its list by estimating the value of stock and other assets held by the wealthiest Americans. Forbes used the stock prices of publicly held companies as of the end of August; for privately held companies, the magazine estimated a fair market value based on the stocks of their publicly traded peers. Real estate and other assets also were included.

Where exact prices were not known, "we try to determine what a prudent shopper would pay for something," Newcomb said. "We try to be conservative with the estimates. "

According to Forbes, whose assets have been rising most swiftly?

A．Individuals that are CEOs in various companies.

B．Individuals that are founders of a corporation.

C．The rich whose business has something to do with the web.

D．The rich whose business has something to do with investments.