新東方：大學英語四級考試閱讀講義(八)

　　第二部分 閱讀理解模擬練習

　　Unit 1

　　(35 minutes)

　　Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.�� ��

　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage: ��

　　The banking revolution in America is as much about attitudes and assumptions as about size and structure. For centuries, Americans have distrusted banks. In the 1830s, Andrew Jackson denounced and destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, which existed “to make the rich richer” at the expense of “farmers, mechanics and laborers.” In the 1930s, banks were blamed for helping cause the Depression. The wonder, then, is that the latest wave of bank mergers — the largest ever — has inspired little more than a bewildered and, perhaps, irritated shrug from the public.��

　　As banks grow bigger, they seem less fearsome. Why? The answer is that banks have shrunk in power even as they have expanded in size. Traditionally, banking has been a simple business. Deposits come through one door, loans go out through an other. Profits derive from the “�玸pread��” between interest rates on deposits and loans. If savers and borrowers cannot go elsewhere, banks are powerful. And if there are other choices, banks are less powerful. And so it is.��We inhabit an age of superabundant credit and its purveyors. A century ago, matters were different. Small depositors could choose from only one or several local banks; getting a loan meant winning the good graces of the neighborhood banker. Even big corporations depended on a few big banks or investment houses.��

　　John Reed or Hugh McColl — the heads of Citicorp and Nations Bank — are not household names. In 1900 J. P. Morgan was. As head of J. P. Morgan & Co., he controlled—through stock and positions on corporate boards — a third of U.S. railroads and 70 percent of the steel industry. A railroad executive once cheerfully confessed his dependence on Morgan's capital:“If Mr. Morgan were to order me tomorrow to China or Siberia ...I would go.”��

　　No bankers today inspires such awe or fear. Time, technology and government restrictions weakened bank power. In the 1920s, auto companies popularized car loans. National credit cards originated in 1950 with the Dinners Club card. In 1933, the Glass-Steagal Act required banks and their investment houses to split. After World War Ⅱ, pensions and the stock market competed for consumer savings. As aresult, banks command a shrinking share of the nation's wealth: 20 percent of assets of financial institutions in 1997, down from 50 percent in 1950.��

　　21. Traditionally, Americans' attitude towards banks is one of .��

　　A) suspicion B) trust C) dependence D) admiration

　　22. Why are John Reed and Hugh McColl not as well-known as J.P. Morgan?��

　　A) John Reed and Hugh McColl are not as rich as J.P. Morgan was.��

　　B) Banks are no longer as powerful as they were in J.P. Morgan's time.��

　　C) John Reed and Hugh McColl are not as capable as J.P. Morgan was.��

　　D) The banks John Reed and Hugh McColl head are smaller than Morgan's.

　　23. The word “spread” in Paragraph 2 most probably means .��

　　A) cover B) extent C) difference D) degree

　　24. Which of the following statements is true?��

　　A) The recent bank mergers have given much shock to the nation.��

　　B) People no longer distrust banks.��

　　C) No bank today can compare with J.P. Morgan's in size.��

　　D) It is easier to borrow money today than it was in the past.

　　25. What does the author chiefly talk about in the passage?��

　　A) Banking and investment. C) The evolution of the banks.��

　　B) The credit market. D) The shrinking power of the banks.��

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage: ��

　　Let us ask what were the preparation and training Abraham Lincoln had for oratory, whether political or forensic.��

　　Born in rude and abject poverty, he never had any education, except what he gave himself, till he was approaching manhood. Not even books wherewith to inform and train his mind were within his reach. No school, no university, no legal faculty had any part in training his powers. When he became a lawyer and a politician, the years most favorable to continuous study had already passed, and the opportunities he found for reading were very scanty. He knew but few authors in general literature, though he knew those few thoroughly. He taught himself a little mathematics, but he could read no language save his own, and can have had only the faintest acquaintance with European history or with any branch of philosophy. The want of regular education was not made up for by the persons among whom his lot was cast. Till he was a grown man, he never moved in any society from which he could learn those things with which the mind of an orator to be stored. Even after he had gained some legal practice, there was for many years no one for him to mix with except the petty practitioners of a petty town, men nearly all of whom knew little more than he did himself.