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　　We’re moving into another era, as the toxic effects of the bubble and its grave consequences spread through the financial system.Just a couple of years ago investors dreamed of 20 percent returns forever.Now surveys show that they’re down to a “realistic”8 percent to 10 percent range.

　　But what if the next few years turn out to be below normal expectations? Martin Barners of the Bank Credit Analyst in Montreal expects future stock returns to average just 4 percent to 6 percent.Sound impossible? After a much smaller bubble that burst in the mid��1960s Standard & Poor’s 5000 stock average returned 6.9 percent a year (with dividends reinvested) for the following 17 years.Few investors are prepared for that.

　　Right now denial seems to be the attitude of choice.That’s typical, says Lori Lucas of Hewitt, the consulting firm.You hate to look at your investments when they’re going down.Hewitt tracks 500,000 401 (k) accounts every day, and finds that savers are keeping their contributions up.But they’re much less inclined to switch their money around.“It’s the slot�瞞achine effect,” Lucas says.“People get more interested in playing when they think they’ve got a hot machine”�瞐nd nothing’s hot today.The average investor feels overwhelmed.

　　Against all common sense, many savers still shut their eyes to the dangers of owning too much company stock.In big companies last year, a surprising 29 percent of employees held at least three quarters of their 402 (k) in their own stock.

　　Younger employees may have no choice.You often have to wait until you’re 50 or 55 before you can sell any company stock you get as a matching contribution.

　　But instead of getting out when they can, old participants have been holding, too.One third of the people 60 and up chose company stock for three quarters of their plan, Hewitt reports.Are they inattentive? Loyal to a fault? Sick? It’s as if Lucent, Enron and Xerox never happened.No investor should give his or her total trust to any particular company’s stock.And while you’re at it, think how you’d be if future stock returns�瞐veraging good years and bad�瞐re as poor as Barnes predicts.

　　If you ask me, diversified stocks remain good for the long run, with a backup in bonds.But I, too, am figuring on reduced returns.What a shame.Dear bubble, I’ll never forget.It’s the end of a grand affair.

　　31.The investors’ judgment of the present stock returns seems to be.

　　[A] fanciful[B] pessimistic[C] groundless[D] realistic

　　32.In face of the current stock market, most stock�瞙olders.

　　[A] stop injecting more money into the stock market

　　[B] react angrily to the devaluing stock

　　[C] switch their money around in the market

　　[D] turn a deaf ear to the warning

　　33.In the author’s opinion, employees should.

　　[A] invest in company stock to show loyalty to their employer

　　[B] get out of their own company’s stock

　　[C] wait for some time before disposing of their stock

　　[D] give trust to a particular company’s stock

　　34.It can be inferred from the text that Lucent, Enron and Xerox are names of.

　　[A] successful businesses

　　[B] bankrupted companies

　　[C] stocks

　　[D] huge corporations

　　35.The author’s attitude towards the long�瞭erm investors’ decision is.

　　[A] positive[B] suspicious[C] negative[D] ambiguous

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　　The real heroine of the novel stands at one remove to the narrative.On the face of it, readers are more likely to empathize with, and be curious about, the mysterious and resourceful slave, Sarah, who forms one point of an emotional triangle.Sarah is the property of Manon, and came with her to a failing Louisiana sugar plantation on her marriage to the good�瞗or�瞡othing, bullying owner.But Manon’s husband is soon struck by Sarah, and the proof lies in their idiot small son, Walter.

　　However, the reader is forced to see things through Manon’s eyes, not Sarah’s, and her consciousness is not a comfortable place to be.Never a please or a thank you passes her lips when talking to slaves, though manners is the order of the day in white society.Manon is enormously attracted by inter�瞨acial marriage (for the place and time—the early 19th century—such a concern would not be unusual, but in her case it seems pathological).Walter, with “his father’s curly red hair and green eyes, his mother’s golden skin, her full, pushing�瞗orward lips”, is the object of her especial hatred, but she chatters on about all the “dreadful mixed�瞓looded”, the objectionable “yellow” people.

　　Beyond Manon’s polarized vision, we glimpse “free negros” and the emerging black middle�瞔lass.To Manon’s disgust, such people actually have self�瞨espect.In New Orleans buying shoes, Manon is taken aback by the shopkeeper’s lack of desired respect.Mixed race prostitutes acquired the affections of male planters by giving them something mysterious their wives cannot often What that might be, and why wives can’t offer it too, are questions Manon can’t even ask, let alone answer.

　　The first third of the book explores the uneasy and unsustainable peace between Manon, Sarah and the man always called just “my husband” or “he”.Against the background of violent slave revolts and equally savage revenges, it’s clear the peace cannot last.It’s part of the subtlety of this book that as the story develops and the inevitable explosion occurs, our view of all the characters swiftly changes.Sarah turns out to deserve all the suspicion Manon directs at her; at the point of death Manon’s husband displays an admirable toughness and courage; and Manon herself wins the reader’s reluctant admiration for her bravery, her endurance, and her total lack of self�瞤ity.

　　Perhaps the cruelest aspect of this society is the way it breaks down and distorts family affections.A slave’s baby is usually sold soon after birth; Sarah’s would�瞓e husband, if he wants her, must buy her; and Manon herself, after all, is only the property of her husband.

　　36.Which of the following reflects Manon’s attitude towards colored people?

　　[A] Sympathetic.[B] Suspicious.[C] Concerned.[D] Disgusted.

　　37.It can be inferred from the text that the novel is written.

　　[A] with a mobile point of view[B] with a limited third person singular

　　[C] from Manon’s perspective[D] from Sarah’s eye as a slave

　　38.According to Manon, black people should.

　　[A] emerge as free middle class citizens

　　[B] behave submissively towards the whites

　　[C] have self�瞨espect in the mixed race marriage

　　[D] learn to offer more affection to their wives

　　39.We learn that as the story develops.

　　[A] readers will think differently of all the characters

　　[B] Manon’s husband will win back her admiration

　　[C] the emotional crisis will be swiftly resolved

　　[D] all the suspicion will be proved against Sarah

　　40.From the text we learn that.

　　[A] Manon’s husband is a nameless but bullying person

　　[B] Manon is the real heroine who deserves readers’ sympathy

　　[C] Sarah is in fact smarter than her master Manon

　　[D] Walter is a proof of the mixed race prostitution