Over 60 million persons in the United States own a...

Over 60 million persons in the United States own a credit card. For these millions of Americans a credit card is "coined freedom". It has had effect of increasing consumption possibilities for households by allowing them to purchase thousands of dollars of merchandise. ranging from autos. clothing, to electrical appliances. The widespread use of creditcard nowadays staggers the imagination to the point where one wonders whether the total amount of consumption spending each year would be the same if this "plastic money" were not around, Credit cards have also been of significant importance to the national economy.Businessmen have been encournged to expand plant and equipment and hire additionat personnel to meet the heavy demand for their products, The tendency of employment and income would rise significantly. Unfortunately the ease with which buyers can increase their purchase with credit cards have caused them to overlook the additional costs.Purchase on credit cards are postponed payments. Buy-now pay later encourages buyers to use credit cards ,extencively.Since the buyer is in effect borrowing money for a special purposer he must expect to pay an interest charge. Interest is the price of using money over a long period of time. A close analysis of the use for credit cards for heavy purchases will show that the buyer has added to the cost of making these purchases. It must also be kept in mind that unpaid monthly balances means added interest charges. Furthermore. the use of credit cards will add to the most purpose of the product since the shopkeeper does not receive the money at the time of the purchase, Shopkeepers might add on the cost of handing credit cards to the bill. One of the arguments against the use of credit cards has been that those who do pay cash at the time if purchase finance the use of a credit card by another person.This is so, the argument runs, because the price of a product will include the cost of another persons use of a credit card.

Which of the following is NOT true about credit cards?

A.It can encourage great sums of consumption

B.Shopkeepers, among others object to the use of credis cards because they add on the cost of the merchandise

C.Credit card holders actually pay for their shopping goods afer the purchase has been completed

D.The national economy enjoys extensive growth because of the use of credit cards

What is the main topic of the passage?A.Advantages and disadvantages of credit cards

B.Economic growth hacked up by the use of credit cards

C.Arguments against the use of ecredit cards

D.Credit cards make life easier

What are the arguments against the use of credit cards?A.It may lead to the overgrowth of the national economy.

B.The delay in the payment of shopping goods may bring damage to shopkeeprers’profits.

C.Some people may intentionally purchase goods that they cannot possbly aford

D.Those who pay by cash at the purehase will have to pay for the cost added to the product as the interest charge of credit cards

The writers purpose in this passage is to____.A.argue against credit card

B.deseribe a phenomenon

C.introduce us the disadvantage and advantage of credit card

D.propose an original viewpoint

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！

Historians may well look back on the 1980s in the United States as a time of rising affluence side by side with rising poverty. The growth in affluence is attributable to an increase in professional and technical jobs, along with more two career couples whose combined incomes provide a "comfortable living". Yet simultaneously, the nation's poverty rate rose between 1973 and 1983 from 11.1 percent of the population to 15.2, or by well over a third. Although the poverty rate declined somewhat after 1983, it was still held at 13.5 percent in 1987, comprising a population of 32.5 million Americans.

The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, a group of English magistrates decided that a minimum in-come should be "the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent". Today the Census Bureau defines the threshold of poverty in the United States as the minimum amount of money that families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one third of their income for food. Using this definition, roughly half the American population was poor in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1950, the proportion of the poor had fallen to 30 percent and by 1964, to 20 percent. With the adoption of the Johnson administration's antipoverty pro-grams, the poverty rate dropped to 12 percent in 1969. But since then, it has stopped falling. Liberals contend that the poverty line is too low because it fails to take into account changes in the standard of living. Conservatives say that it is too high because the poor receive other forms of public assistance, including food stamps, public housing subsidies, and health care.

In which of the following years did the poor people constitute the largest proportion of the American population?

A．1973.

B．1987.

C．1969.

D．1983.

Before the mid-1860’s, the impact of the railroads in the United States was limited, in the sense that the tracks ended at this Missouri River, approximately the center of the country. At the point the trains turned their freight, mail, and passengers over to steamboats, wagons, and stagecoaches. This meant that wagon freighting, stagecoaching, and steamboating did not come to an end when the first train appeared; rather they became supplements or feeders. Each new "end-of-track" became a center for animal-drawn or waterborne transportation. The major effect of the railroad was }o shorten the distance that had to be covered by the older, slower, and more costly means. Wagon freighters continued operating throughout the 1870’s and 1880’s and into the 1890’s. Although over constantly shrinking routes, and coaches and wagons continued to crisscross the West wherever the rails had not yet been laid. The beginning of a major change was foreshadowed in the later 1860’s, when the Union Pacific Railroad at last began to build westward from the Centre Plains city of Omaha to meet the Central Pacific Railroad advancing eastward from California through the formidable barrier of the Sierra Nevada. Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the original Pacific Railroad bill in 1862 and a revised, financially much more generous version in 1864, little construction was completed until 1865 on the Central Pacific and 1866 on the Union Pacific. The primary reason was skepticism that a Railroad built through so challenging and thinly settled a stretch of desert, mountain, and semiarid plain could pay a profit. In the words of an economist, this was a case of "premature enterprise", where not only the cost of construction but also the very high risk deterred private investment. In discussing the Pacific Railroad bill, the chair of the congressional committee bluntly stated that without government subsidy no one would undertake so unpromising a venture; yet it was a national necessity to link East and West together.

The author refers to the impact of railroads before the late 1860’s as "limited" because ______.

A．the track did not take the direct route from one city to the next

B．passengers and freight had to transfer to other modes of transportation to reach western destinations

C．passengers preferred stagecoaches

D．railroad travel was quite expensive

Before the mid 1860's, the impact of the railroads in the United States was limited, in the sense that the tracks ended at this Missouri River, approximately the center of the country. At the point the trains turned their freight, mail, and passengers over to steamboats, wagons, and stagecoaches. This meant that wagon freighting, Stage coaching, and steam boating did not come to an end when the first train appeared; rather they became supplements or feeders. Each new "end of track" became a center for animal drawn or waterborne transportation. The major effect of the railroad was to shorten the distance that had to be covered by the older, slower, and more costly means. Wagon freighters continued operating throughout the 1870's and 1880's and into the 1890's. Although over constantly shrinking routes, coaches and wagons continued to crisscross the West wherever the rails had not yet been laid. The beginning of a major change was foreshadowed in the later 1860's, when the Union Pacific Railroad at last began to build westward from the Central Plains city of Omaha to meet the Central Pacific Railroad advancing eastward from California through the formidable barrier of the Sierra Nevada. Although President Abraham' Lincoln signed the original Pacific Railroad bill in 1862 and a revised, financially much more generous version in 1864, little construction was completed until 1865 on the Central Pacific and 1866 on the Union Pacific. The primary reason was skepticism that a railroad built through so challenging and thinly settled a stretch of desert, mountain, and semiarid plain could pay a profit. In the words of an economist, this was a case of "premature enterprise", where not only the cost of construction but also the very high risk deterred private investment. In discussing the Pacific Railroad bili, the chair of the congressional committee bluntly stated that without government subsidy no one would undertake so unpromising a venture; yet it was a national necessity to link East and West together.

The author refers to the impact of railroads before the late 1860's as "limited" because ______.

A．the track did not take the direct route from one city to the next

B．passengers and freight had to transfer to other means of transportation to reach western destinations

C．passengers preferred stagecoaches

D．railroad travel was quite expensive

Before the mid-1860's, the impact of the railroads in the United States was limited, in the sense that the tracks ended at the Missouri River, approximately the center of the country. At the point the trains turned their freight, mail, and passengers over to steamboats, wagons, and stage coaches. This meant that wagon freighting, stage-coaching, and steam boating did not come to an end when the first train appeared; rather they became supple ments or feeders. Each new "end-of-track" became a center for animal drawn or waterborne transportation. The major effect of the railroad was to shorten the distance that had to be covered by the older, slower, and more costly means. Wagon freighters continued operating throughout the 1870's and 1880's and into the 1890's. Although over constantly shrinking routes, coaches and wagons continued to crisscross the West wherever the rails had not yet been laid. The beginning of a major change was foreshadowed in the later 1860's, when the Union Pacific Railroad at last began to build westward from the Central Plains city of Omaha to meet the Central Pacific Railroad advancing eastward from California through the formidable barrier of the Sierra Nevada. Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the original Pacific Railroad bill in 1862 and a revised, financially much more generous version in 1864, little construction was completed until 1865 on the Central Pacific and 1866 on the Union Pacific. The primary reason was skepticism that a railroad built through so challenging and thinly settled a stretch of desert, mountain, and semiarid plain could pay a profit. In the words of an economist, this was a case of "premature enterprise", where not only the cost of construction but also the very high risk deterred private investment. In discussing the Pacific Railroad bill, the chair of the congressional committee bluntly stated that without govern ment subsidy no one would undertake so unpromising a venture; yet it was a national necessity to link the East and the West together.

Which of the following is NOT true about the American transportation in the 1860's?

A．The impact of railroads was still limited.

B．Passengers and freight had to transfer from railroads to other modes of transportation to reach western destinations.

C．Wagon freighters continued operating.

D．Railroad travel was quite expensive.

The United States of America consists of 50 states and a federal government.()

"How was your weekend?"

This question comes up at workplaces all over the United States every Monday morning as people greet each other. It is another way of saying, "How did you spend your leisure time?"

In the Unites States the way people spend their leisure time is an important part of their identity. Perhaps everybody does nearly the same thing all day in the office or the factory, but leisure time is what makes people distinct and reveals who they are.

For many people, leisure time means going somewhere -- to a museum, a concert, a restaurant, or a baseball game. Or it means doing something such as playing volleyball, backpacking, swimming, singing in a chorus (合唱), or playing in a park with their children. For other people, free time means staying home with wonderful sources of entertainment, such as VCR, stereo or cable TV with dozens of channels. Others pursue creative activities such as cooking, gardening, and home improvement. The latest stay-at, home activity is "surfing (冲浪) the net" -- that is, looking for information and entertainment on the Internet.

In the United States, leisure time is big business. Enormous amounts of money are spent by competing enterprises that make and sell the goods and services that people use in their free time. In fact, shopping itself is an important leisure time activity. Spending a day at a giant mall has become, for some people, as interesting as spending the day at museum or amusement park.

People in the United States are ultimately not much different from others in what they do in their leisure time. The real difference may lie in the energy, time, money, and sheer enthusiasm that they devote to it.

Why do Americans often greet each other by asking "How did you spend your leisure time?"

A．Because they are interested in the different pastime activities.

B．Because leisure time is what makes people different from each other.

C．Because they are bored with the job they have done for the whole week.

D．Because everybody does the same thing all day long.

听力原文： Vietnam's prime minister has announced his plans to visit the United States next month. He'll be the first Vietnamese leader to travel to the US since the end of the Vietnam War.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai made the announcement while on an official trip to Australia. The prime minister told reporters he's planning to visit the United States in June, so the two countries could improve their relationship. He indicated issues relating to China, Vietnam's northern neighbor wouldn't be raised during the trip. He also indicated the US visit didn't signal a change in Vietnam's relationship with China. Last month marked 30 years since the fall of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, and the end of the Vietnam War. Over 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War or remain missing, presumed dead. Over one million Vietnamese soldiers died and many more civilians.

When did Vietnam's prime minister announce his plan?

A．In June.

B．Last month.

C．Next month.

D．On his official trip to Australia.