新東方：2008年12月英語六級考試模擬沖刺試卷

　　52. What is the main idea of this selection?

　　A.Hairstyles and dress codes identify political beliefs in diverse societies.

　　B.The Rastafarian movement symbolized a religious and political commitment.

　　C.Symbols provide meaning and a satisfaction of biological needs in society.

　　D.Hairstyles and dress codes can be important symbols of cultural diversity in different societies.

　　53. The author uses the examples of the Scottish tartan, the motorcycle jacket, and the Islamic veil to show .

　　A.the political power of dress codes in different societies

　　B.the diversity of clothing styles throughout the world

　　C.dress codes that symbolize different ethnic and religious groups

　　D.the resistance to change of culturally different groups

　　54.The author suggests that the young people wearing jeans in the 1960s wore “power suits” in the 1980s because .

　　A.styles changed B.the American government changed

　　C.their attitudes and goals changed D.both outfits symbolized rebellion

　　55.All of the following are true of the Rastafarians EXCEPT .

　　A.they believe that Emperor Haile Selassie was the black Messiah

　　B.they are the original natives of Jamaica

　　C.they are a religious group with political commitments

　　D.they formed as a result of harsh living conditions in Jamaica

　　55.The Rastafarian movement began .

　　A.at the beginning of the nineteenth century

　　B.around the middle of the twentieth century

　　C.before European slave traders arrived

　　D.in the early eighteenth century

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　Age has its privileges in America, and one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.

　　People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent(有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous(同義的). Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.

　　It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.

　　Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Buoyed(受到支持的)by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.

　　Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.

　　It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.