Passage 2
More attention was paid to the quality of production in France at
the time of Renc Coty. Charles Deschancl was then the financial minister. He
stressed that workmanship (工作质量) and quality were more important than
quantity for industrial production. It would be necessary to produce quality
goods for international market to compete with those produced in other
countries. The French economy needed a larger share of the international market
to balance its import and export trade. French industrial and agricultural
production was still not enough to meet the immediate needs of the people, let
alone long-ranged developments. Essential imports had extended the national
credit (信用) to the breaking point. Rents were tightly controlled, but the
extreme inflation (通货膨胀) affected general population most severely through
the cost of food. Food costs took as much as 80 per cent of the workers’
income. Wages, it is true, had risen, extensive family allowances (补贴) and
benefits were paid by the state, and there was full-time and overtime
employment. Taken together, these factors enabled the working class to exist
but allowed them no sense of safety. In this precarious (不安定) and
discouraging situation, workmen were willing to work overseas for higher wages.
The government was not willing to let workers leave the country. It
was feared this migration of workers would deplete (使空虚) the labor force.
The lack of qualified workers might stop the improvement in the quality of
industrial products produced. Qualified workers employed abroad would only
increase the quantity of quality produced in foreign countries. Also the
quantity of quality goods produced in France would not be able to increase as
part of its qualified labor force moved to other countries.
6. According to the passage, the French workers were _____________.
○A. better paid than the workers in any other European country
○B. able to save more money with the increase in his wages
○C. anxious to work abroad
○D. often unable to find work in
7. Which was not true in French?
○A. Food costs were low.
○B. Wages had increased.
○C. The state paid family allowances.
○D. There was overtime employment.
8. According to the passage, French production ___________.
○A. was inadequate to meet the needs of the French people
○B. was flooding the international market with inferior
○C. emphasized industrial production at the expense of agricultural production
○D. was enough for the local market
9. According to the passage, the French government _____________.
○A. prohibited French to work abroad
○B. reduced taxed to fight inflation
○C. paid family allowances and benefits
○D. prohibited the French workers to join labor unions
10. Which of the following is not true?
○A. Migration of workers would deplete the labor force.
○B. The lack of qualified workers might stop the improvement in the quality of
products.
○C. Qualified workers work abroad would increase the quality of products in
foreign countries.
○D. Qualified workers work abroad was good for France. Passage 3
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, summed up the four chief qualities
of money some 2,000 years ago. It must be lasting and easy to recognize, to
divide, and to carry about.
When we think of money today, we picture it ……as round, flat
pieces of metal which we call coins, or as printed paper notes. But there are
still parts of the world today where coins and notes are of no use. They will
buy nothing, and a traveler might starve if he had none of the particular
local "money" to …… Among remote people, who are not often reached by
traders from outside, commerce usually means barter (物物交换). There is a
direct exchange of goods. Perhaps it is fish for vegetables, meat for grain, or
various kinds of food in exchange for pots, baskets, or other manufactured
goods. For this kind of simple trading, money is not needed, but there is often
something that everyone wants and everybody can use, such as salt to flavor
(给……调味) food, shells for ornaments(装饰), or iron and copper to make into
tools and pots. These things-salt, shells or metals-are till used as money in
out-of-the way parts of the world today.
Salt may rather a strange substance to use as money, but in
countries where the food of the people is mainly vegetable, it is often an
absolute necessity. Cakes of salt, stamped to show their value, were used as
money in Tibet until recent times, and cakes of salt will still buy goods in
Berneo and parts of Africa.
Cowrie sea shells have been used as money at some time or another
over the greater part of the Old World. These were collected mainly from the
beaches of the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, and were traded to India
and China. In Africa, cowries were traded right across the continent from East
to West. Four or five thousand went for one Maria Theresa dollar, an Austrian
silver coin which was once accepted as money in many parts of Africa.
Metal, valued by weight, early coins in many parts of the world.
Iron, in lumps, bars or rings is still used in many countries instead of money.
It can either be exchanged for goods, or made into tools, weapons or
ornaments. The early money of China, apart from shells, was of bronze (青铜),
ten in flat, round pieces with a hole in the middle, called "cash". The
earliest of these are between three thousand and four thousand years old-older
than the earliest coins of the eastern Mediterranean.
Nowadays, coins and notes have taken place of nearly all the more
interesting forms of money, and although in one or two of the more remote countries people still hold it for future use on ceremonial (仪式的) occasions
such as weddings and funerals (葬礼), examples of early money will soon be
found only in museums.
11. In some parts of the world a traveler might starve __________.
○A. even if his money was of the local kind
○B. even if the had no coins or notes
○C. if the did not know the local rate of exchange
○D. even if he had plenty of coins and notes
12. Barter usually takes the place of money transaction where __________.
○A. there is only salt
○B. the people’s trading needs are fairly simple
○C. metal tools are used
○D. only for ceremonial purposes
13. Salt is still used as money __________.
○A. in
○B. in the
○C. in several countries
○D. only for ceremonial purposes
14. Four or five thousand cowrie shells used to be __________.
○A. as valuable as a Maria Theresa dollar
○B. valued because they were easy to carry
○C. useful currency in south America
○D. useful currency in south America
15. The earliest known coins from the eastern Mediterranean _________.
○A. are as old as the earliest known Chinese coins
○B. are old than the earliest known Chinese coins
○C. are not as old as the earliest known Chinese coins
○D. were much larger than their Chinese equivalents
