The essential feature that differentiates imperfectly competitive firms from perfectly competitive firms is that an imperfectly competitive firm:

The essential weakness of the old and traditional education was not just that it emphasized the necessity for provision of definite subject-matter and activities. These things are necessities for anything that can rightly be called education. The weakness and evil was that the imagination of educators did not go beyond provision of a fixed and rigid environment of subject-matter, one drawn moreover from sources altogether too remote from the experiences of the pupil. What is needed in the new education is more attention, not less, to subject-matter and to progress in technique. But when I say more I do not mean more in quantity of the same old kind. I mean an imaginative vision which sees that no prescribed and ready-made scheme can possibly determine the exact subject-matter that will best promote the educative growth of every individual young person; that even new individual sets a new problem: that he calls for at least a somewhat different emphasis in subject-matter presented. There is nothing more blindly stupid than the convention which supposes that the matter actually contained in textbooks of arithmetic, history, geography, etc. is just what will further the educational development of all children.

But withdrawal from the hard and fast and narrow contents of the old curriculum is only the negative side of the matter. If we do not go far in the positive direction of providing a body of subject-matter much richer more varied and flexible, and also in truth more definite, judged in terms of the experience of those being educated, than traditional education supplied, we shall tend to leave an educational vacuum in which anything may happen. Complete isolation is impossible in nature. The young live in some environment whether we intend it or not, and this environment is constantly interacting with what children and youth bring to it, and the result is the shaping of their interests, minds and character—either educatively or mis-educatively. If the professed educator gives up his responsibility for judging and selecting the kind of environment that his best understanding leads him to think will be contributive to growth, then the young are left at the mercy of all the unorganized and casual forces of the modern social environment that inevitably play upon them as long a they live. In the educative environment the knowledge, judgment and experience of the teacher is a greater, not a smaller factor, than it is in the traditional school. The difference is that the teacher operates not as a judge set on high and marked by arbitrary authority but as a friendly co-partner and guide in a common enterprise.

1、In the author 's view, the basic fault of old education consists in _____

A. the inadequate supply of specific subjects and programs

B. the poor imaginative capacities of educators

C. providing inflexible educational conditions

D making pupils read textbooks with outdated content

2、The author agitates reforms in the _______

A. old subject-matter to follow technological advances

B. stale teaching materials and teaching methods

C. prescribed textbooks and unchanging systems

D general consent about multipurpose textbooks

3、It seems that new educationalists favor_________

A. teaching pupils according to each one’s talent

B. introducing the latest information to the youth

C. rendering instruction close to pupils' experiences

D supplementing all textbooks with fresh materials

4、There will be the risk of forming an educational blank if___________

A. the rigid school curricula are thoroughly transformed

B. the negative effect of old education is only partly recognized

C. the traditional subject-matter totally substitutes for new one

D. the replacement of unvarying courses with flexible ones fails

5、Pupils may be well guarded against ill social influences as long as__________

A. educators discard their liability for the being-educated

B. teachers have sound judgment to make the right choice

C. instructors help establish conditions favorable to pupils' growth

D. schoolmasters function as equal co-operators in a joint business

So far as I know, Miss Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the essential difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave. A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the necessity of earning a living and supporting his family.

The antithesis to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care less whether we play it or not.

Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk, a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.

The best title for the passage could be ______.

A．Work, Labor and Play

B．Ways Leading to Happiness

C．The Most Desirable Job in the World

D．The Necessity of Leisure

So far as I know, Miss Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the essential difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave. A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the necessity of earning a living and supporting his family.

The antithesis to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care less whether we play it or not.

Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener: or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer, which a means can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.

What percentage of the population in a modem technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers? At a guess I would say sixteen percent, and I do not think that figure is likely to get bigger in the future.

Technology and the division of labor have done two things: by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours. It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Indeed, the problem of dealing with boredom may be even more difficult for such a future mass society than it was for aristocracies. The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc. The masses are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as possible. Again, the masses cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to hunt. For other aristocratic amusements like gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too, easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drag-taking, and senseless acts of violence. Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression in mental work is aptly expressed by the phrase" getting one's teeth into a problem".

A man is happy when______.

A．he has to do what he does not enjoy doing

B．what he enjoys doing is ignored by society

C．he is compelled to take a job by the necessity of earning a living

D．he feels free and important

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that______.

A．the essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism were defined by Franklin Roosevelt

B．mutual understanding is one of the most far-reaching elements in North America

C．few Americans may be aware of others"point of view

D．America"s friendship with Canada and Mexico risks going sour

A、government antitrust laws regulate competition

B、producers sell nearly identical products.

C、firms minimize total costs.

D、firms have price setting power.

The essential distinction between a truthful person and a liar lies in the fact that ______.

A．the former feels uneasy about the untruths he happens to tell

B．the latter takes great care to hinder his untruths from being exposed

C．the former is willing to confess his untruthfulness when he tells a lie

D．the latter is only amazed if his untruths are disclosed

"The essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism", remarked Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, "must be the same as those which constitute a good neighbour, namely mutual understanding and... a sympathetic appreciation of the other's point of view." That is advice which the United States would do well to heed in its relations with its immediate neighbours, Canada and Mexico. Most Americans may not be aware of it, but frustrations and resentments are building just across their borders to both south and north.

Of course, neighbourly ties in North America are closer than in Roosevelt's day. Under the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade among the three countries has more than doubled since 1994 and cross-border investment climbed even faster. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the United States moved quickly to sign "smart border" agreements with both Canada and Mexico, to try to ensure that the demands of security did not interrupt trade. By the standards of much of the 20th century, political ties between the United States and Mexico are warm.

Yet go to either border and you wouldn't know all this. Fed up with the flow of illegal migrants from the south, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico this month declared a state of emergency. Violence between drug gangs recently led the United States temporarily to close its consulate in Nuevo Laredo, the busiest border-crossing point. The American ambassador bluntly criticises Mexico for its failure to prevent drug-related violence along the border. That has prompted retaliatory verbal blasts from Mexican officials.

Canada's mood is not much more cordial. Since September 11th, Canadians and Americans alike have become less keen on popping over what they liked to call "the world's longest undefended border" for shopping or recreation. Canadians increasingly disagree with Americans over matters as varied as the Iraq war and gay marriage. They are disillusioned with NAFTA, claiming it has failed to prevent the United States from unlawfully punishing their exports of, for example, lumber.

So what? Friction is in the nature of international relations, and the problems on the northern border are different from those in the south. Yet there is a common denominator. Americans tend to see security, migration, drugs, even trade, as domestic political issues. But so they are for Canada and Mexico too. Like it or not, Americans rely on their neighbours for prosperity, energy and help with security. It behooves all three countries to show some "sympathetic understanding".

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ______.

A．the essential qualities of a true Pan Americanism were defined by Franklin Roosevelt

B．mutual understanding is one of the most far-reaching elements in North America

C．Few Americans may be aware of others' point of view

D．America's friendship with Canada and Mexico risks going sour