Credit money, as commodity money, has calue in itself.（）

Excerpt 1 Mankinds fascination with gold is as old as civilization itself. The ancient Egyptians esteemed gold, which had religious significance to them, and King Tutankharnun was buried in a solid-gold coffin 3,300 years ago. The wandering Israelites worshiped a golden calf, and the legendary King Midas asked that everything he touched be turned into gold. Excerpt 2 Most economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the metal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isnt any more. Modern money takes the form. of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity. Excerpt 3 People have always longed to possess gold. Unfortunately, this longing has also brought out the worst in the human character. The Spanish conquistadors robbed palaces, temples, and graves, and killed thousands of Indians in their ruthless search for gold. Often the only rule in young California during the days of the gold rush was exercised by the mob with a rope. Even today, the economic running of South Africas gold mines depends largely on the employment of black laborers who are paid about 40 pounds a month, plus room and board, and who must work in conditions that can only be described as cruel. About 400 miners are killed in mine accidents in South Africa each year, or one for every two tons of gold produced. Excerpt 4 Much of golds value lies in its scarcity. Only about 80,000 tons have been mined in the history of the world. All of it could be stored in a vault 60 feet square, or a supertanker. Excerpt 5 So why is its price soaring? Over the past week, this has topped $ 450 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollars fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its Unit of account. Excerpt 6 This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars—indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low—a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the worlds reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worthless.

The main idea of Excerpt 1 is that______.

A．human beings began to love gold with the emergence of civilization

B．the ancient Egyptians valued gold for its religious importance

C．king Midas was a person who could turn everything into gold

D．king Tutankharnun buried a solid-gold coffin 33 centuries ago

If open-source software is supposed to be free, how does anyone selling it make any money? It's not that different from how other software companies make money.

You'd think that a software company would make most of its money from, well, selling software. But you'd be wrong. For one thing, companies don't sell software, strictly speaking; they license it. The profit margin on a software license is nearly 100 percent, which is why Microsoft gushes billions of dollars every quarter.

But what's the value of a license to a customer? A license doesn't deliver the code, provide the utilities to get a piece of software running, or answer the phone when something inevitably goes wrong. The value of software, in short, doesn't lie in the software alone. The value is in making sure the soft ware does its job. Just as a traveler should look at the overall price of a vacation package instead of obsessing over the price of the plane ticket or hotel room, a smart tech buyer won't focus on how much the license costs and ignore the support contract or the maintenance agreement.

Open-source is not that different. If you want the software to work, you have to pay to ensure it will work. The open-source companies have refined the software model by selling subscriptions. They roll together support and maintenance and charge an annual fee, which is a healthy model, though not quite as wonderful as Microsoft's money-raking one. Tellingly, even Microsoft is casting an envious eye at aspects of the open-source business model. The company has been taking halting steps toward a similar subscription scheme for its software sales. Microsoft's subscription program, known as Soft ware Assurance, provides maintenance and support together with a software license. It lets you up grade to Microsoft's next version of the software for a predictable sum. But it also contains an implicit threat: If you don't switch to Software Assurance now, who knows how much Microsoft will charge you when you decide to upgrade?

Chief information officers hate this kind of "assurance", since they're often perfectly happy running older versions of software that are proven and stable. Microsoft, on the other hand, rakes in the software-licensing fees only when customers upgrade. Software Assurance is Microsoft's attempt to get those same licensing fees but wrap them together with the service and support needed to keep systems running. That's why Microsoft finds the open-source model so threatening: open-source companies have no vested interest in getting more licensing fees and don't have to pad their service contracts with that extra cost. In the end, the main difference between open-source and proprietary software companies may be the size of the check you have to write.

The author used the example of a traveler(Para. 3) to show that

A．the value of software should be considered as a whole.

B．tech buyers should care little about license.

C．a license doesn't comprise support and maintenance.

D．customers have to pay a lot to get a license.

Woman: What can I do for you? Man: I would like to get my money work for me. Woman: There are two kinds. One is relatively safe but offers a low return on your money, the other promises high profits but that involves considerable speculation. Which one do you prefer? Question: What is the probable relationship between the two speakers?

A．An investment consultant and her client.

B．A bank teller and her customer.

C．An insurance agent and her client.

D．A stock-holder and his trustee.

Urban life has always involved a balancing of opportunities and rewards against dangers and stress; its motivating force is, in the broadest sense, money. Opportunities to make money mean competition and competition is stressful; it is often most intense in the largest cities, where opportunities are greatest. The presence of huge numbers of people inevitably involves more conflict, more traveling, the overloading of public services and exposure to those deviants and criminals who are drawn to the rich pickings of great cities. Crime has always flourished in the relative anonymity of urban life, but today's ease of movement makes its control more difficult than ever; there is much evidence that its extent has a direct relationship to the size of communities. City dwellers may become trapped in their homes by the fear of crime around them.

As a defence against these developments, city dwellers tend to use various strategies to try and reduce the pressures upon themselves; contacts with other people are generally made brief and impersonal; doors are kept locked; telephone numbers may be ex-directory; journeys outside the home are usually hurried, rather than a source of pleasure. There are other strategies, too, which are positively harmful to the individuals, for example, reducing awareness through drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, all these defensive forms of behavior. are harmful to society in general; they cause widespread loneliness and destroy the community's concern for its members. Lack of informal social contact and indifference to the misfortunes of others, if they are not person- ally known to oneself, are amongst the major causes of urban crime.

Inner areas of cities tend to be abandoned by the more successful and left to those who have done badly in the competitive struggle or who belong to minority groups; these people are then geographically trapped be cause so much economic activity has migrated to the suburbs and beyond.

Present day architecture and planning have enormously worsened the human problems of urban life. Old established neighborhoods have been ruthlessly swept away, by both public and private organizations, usually to be replaced by huge, ugly, impersonal structures. People have been forced to leave their familiar homes, usually to be rehoused in tower blocks which are drab, inconvenient, and fail to provide any setting for human interaction or support. This destruction of established social structures is the worst possible approach to the difficulties of living in a town or city. Instead, every effort should be made to conserve the human scale of the enviroment, and to retain familiar landmarks.

According to the author, living in a city causes stress because there are so many people who are ______.

A．in need of help

B．naturally aggressive

C．likely to commit crime

D．anxious to succeed

15th April, 199___

Sir,

I fully understand the opposition expressed by my colleagues to the reduction in the university budget. Nevertheless one is forced to recognize that in times of financial difficulty the university has a duty to decide where money can be saved. I believe, however, that it would be wrong for the university to make the same cuts in all departments without considering national priorities. May I suggest that there are some departments which must continue to be financed at existing levels if these are to produce the fully trained professionals which the country needs. Surely it is a national priority to train competent teachers, scientists, engineers and doctors. If there have to be cuts this year the relevant departments should not face the same reduction as other departments in the university.

Yours sincerely,

Harry Young

Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering

The author's general attitude towards the reduction in the university budget is______.

A．highly critical.

B．fully supportive.

C．somewhat appreciative.

D．not clear.

15th April, 199___

Sir,

I fully understand the opposition expressed by my colleagues to the reduction in the university budget. Nevertheless one is forced to recognize that in times of financial difficulty the university has a duty to decide where money can be saved. I believe, however, that it would be wrong for the university to make the same cuts in all departments without considering national priorities. May I suggest that there are some departments which must continue to be financed at existing levels if these are to produce the fully trained professionals which the country needs. Surely it is a national priority to train competent teachers, scientists, engineers and doctors. If there have to be cuts this year the relevant departments should not face the same reduction as other departments in the university.

Yours sincerely,

Harry Young

Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering

The author's general attitude towards the reduction in the university budget is______.

A．highly critical.

B．fully supportive.

C．somewhat appreciative.

D．not clear.

Money is a key element in economic and business activities and has been the theme of many witty remarks. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "Money makes money, and the money 【C1】______ makes, makes more money."

To most of us, money is 【C2】______ but the currency of a country. But to some people, money is either the best friend or the worst demon. To 【C3】______ ,however, money is a subject for study and for something to be money, it must at 【C4】______ have the following characteristics: portability, divisibility, stability, durability and acceptability.

【C5】______ , nowadays, money has got a lot of 【C6】______ : credit cards, debit cards, access cards, IC cards, etc, but they are usually 【C7】______ plastic money or electronic money, because they are used like money. 【C8】______ a credit card, for example, you can buy books and ties, pay your restaurant bills and taxi fares. You can 【C9】______ make a small overdraft if you cannot make your 【C10】______ meet this month. "Don't 【C11】______ home without it," American Express, one of the leading credit card issuers once 【C12】______ us. For many, 【C13】______ a reminder is no 【C14】______ necessary, because the plastic money is so safe and so convenient that many people 【C15】______ leave home without cash but never without a credit card.

【C1】______

A．that

B．which

C．it

D．what

When you have a bank account, you ______.

A．must always be in credit

B．can't draw any money if you're overdrawn

C．can draw money without notice

D．can't pay money to anyone else

Money—what a fascinating subject! There is money in the physical sense; coins, paper money, cheques and plastic credit cards. Then theres the whole interesting history of the monetary system. If youre something of a philosopher, however, you may be more interested in peoples attitude to money. Consider the difference between those who always manage to live within their income , and those who—no matter how much they earn—always need to spend more. The philosophies people have about money are reflected in the way they spend it. Two families earning the same salary may use their money in different ways. One familys consumer goods may be anothers ticket to a foreign country. In the radio series The Cost of Living, English people are heard discussing many different aspects of money. The programmers make me think of a particular Englishman—one who is not featured in the series. Francis Bacon was born in 1560, a few years before Shakespeare, and died in 1626. As a boy he displayed a remarkable intelligence, and by the age of thirteen was a student at Cambridge University. He studied law, then had a highly successful career. By 1617 he was Prime Minister of England. He had also published some important philosophical and literary works which are still read today. Why should a series of programmes about money make me think of Lord Bacon? Briefly, because it was his attitude to money which controlled, and ultimately ruined, his life. He was a man who spent much more than he could earn. To support his luxurious life-style. he borrowed money from anyone who was foolish enough to lend it to him, then carefully avoided his creditors. Far worse, he abused his position of authority, accepting bribes in return for favors. For that he was eventually sent to prison. He spent the last years of his life in disgrace.

This selection is probably taken from______.

A．a newspaper editorial

B．a history textbook

C．an essay on money

D．a personal record