There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system, the administered system, and the traditional system.
In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market, transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.
An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agency over all transactions. This agency will issue edicts or commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced, exchanged, and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan, drawn up by the government, shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated to different households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production, consumption, and exchange for the whole economy.
In a traditional society, production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition; every person’s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage, religion, and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition, too. People belonging to a certain group or caste may have an obligation to care for other persons, provide them with food and shelter, care for their health, and provide for their education. Clearly, in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone, progress may be difficult to achieve. A stagnant society may result. 1. What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To outline contrasting types of economic systems. B. To explain the science of economics.
C. To argue for the superiority of one economic system. D. To compare barter and money-exchange markets. 2. In the second paragraph, the word “real” in “real goods” could best be replaced by ___, A. high quality B. concrete C. utter
D. authentic.
3. According to the passage, a barter economy can generate ___. A. rapid speed of transactions. B. misunderstandings. C. inflation
D. difficulties for the traders.
4. According to the passage, who has the greatest degree of control in the administered system?
A. Individual households B. Small businesses.
C. Major corporations.
D. The government.
5. Which of the following is not mentioned by the author as a criterion for determining a person’s position in a traditional society? A. Family background B. Age
C. Religious beliefs. D. Custom
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月2日) (Unit 3 Passage 3)
Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time; if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the languages he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people. In the same way, when children learn to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught-to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle-compare those performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his own mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end this nonsense of grades, exams, marks, Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems sensible to them. With our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential they will need to get in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.
1. What does the author think is the best way for children to learn things? A. by copying what other people do.
B. by making mistakes and having them corrected. C. by listening to explanations from skilled people. D. by asking a great many questions.
2. What does the author think teachers do which they should not do? A. They give children correct answers.
B. They point out children’s mistakes to them. C. They allow children to mark their own work.
D. They encourage children to mark to copy from one another.
3. The passage suggests that learning to speak and learning to ride a bicycle are___.
A. not really important skills.
B. more important than other skills.
C. basically different from learning adult skills. D. basically the same as learning other skills.
4. Exams, grades, and marks should be abolished because children’s progress should only be estimated by___. A. educated persons.
B. the children themselves. C. teachers. D. parents.
5. The author fears that children will grow up into adults while being___. A. too independent of others. B. too critical of themselves.
C. incapable to think for themselves. D. incapable to use basic skills.
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月1日) (Unit 3 passage2)
Chinese Americans today have higher incomes than Americans in general and higher occupational status. The Chinese have risen to this position despite some of the harshest discrimination and violence faced by any immigrants to the United States in the history of this country. Long confined to a narrow range of occupations they succeeded in those occupations and then spread out into other areas in later years, when opportunities finally opened up for them. Today much of the Chinese prosperity is due to the simple fact that they work more and have more (usually better) education than others. Almost one out of five Chinese families has three or more income earners compared to one out of thirteen for Puerto Ricans, one out of ten among American Indians, and one out of eight among Whites. When the Chinese advantages in working and educational are held constant, they have no advantage over other Americans. That is in a Chinese Family with a given number of people working and with a given amount of education by the head of the family, the income is not only about average for such families, and offer a little less than average.
While Chinese Americans as a group are prosperous and well-educated Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, and illiteracy is much higher among the Chinese than among Americans in general. Those paradoxes are due to sharp internal differences. Descendants of the Chinese Americans who emigrated long ago from Toishan Province have maintained Chinese values and have added acculturation to American society with remarkable success. More recent Hong Kong Chinese are from more diverse cultural origins, and acquired western values and styles in Hong Kong, without having acquired the skills to proper and support those aspirations in the American economy. Foreign-born Chinese men in the United States are one-fourth lower incomes than native-born Chinese even though the foreign-born have been in the United States an average of seventeen years. While the older Hong Kong Chinese work tenaciously to sustain and advance themselves, the Hong Kong Chinese youths often react with resentment and antisocial behavior, including terrorism and murder. The need to maintain tourism in Chinatown causes the Chinese leaders to mute or downplay these problems as much as possible.
1. According to the passage, today, Chinese Americans owe their prosperity to___.
A. their diligence and better education than others. B. their support of American government. C. their fight against discriminations. D. advantages in working only.
2. The passage is mainly concerned with___. A. chinese Americans today.
B. social status of Chinese Americans today.
C. incomes and occupational status of Chinese Americans today. D. problems of Chinese Americans today.
3. Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, as is probably associated with___.
A. most descendants of Chinese Americans are rebelling. B. most descendants of Chinese Americans are illiterate.
C. sharp internal difference between Chinese coming from different cultural backgrounds. D. only a few Chinese Americans are rich.
4. Which of the following statements is not true according to this article?
A. As part of the minority, Chinese Americans are still experiencing discrimination in American today.
B. Nowadays, Chinese Americans are working in wider fields.
C. Foreign-born Chinese earn lower income than native-born Chinese Americans with the similar advantages in the U. S.
D. None of the above.
5. According to the author, which of the following can best describe the older Hong Kong Chinese and the younger?
A. Tenacious; rebellion.
B. Conservative; open-minded. C. Out-of-date; fashionable. D. Obedient; disobedient.
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(6月29日) (Unit 3 passage1)
Computers monitor everything in Singapore from soil composition to location of manholes. At the airport, it took just 15 seconds for the computerized immigration system to scan and approve my passport. It takes only one minute to be checked into a public hospital.
By 1998, almost every household will be wired for interactive cable TV and the Internet, the global computer network. Shoppers will be able to view and pay for products electronically. A 24-hour community telecomputing network will allow users to communicate with elected representatives and retrieve information about government services. It is all part of the government’s plan to transform the nation into what it calls the “Intelligent Island”.
In so many ways, Singapore has elevated the concept of efficiency to a kind of national ideology. For the past ten years, Singapore’s work force was rated the best in the world-ahead of Japan and the U. S.-in terms of productivity, skill and attitude by the Business Environment Risk Intelligence service.
Behind the “Singapore miracle” is a man Richard Nixon described as one of “the ablest leaders I have met,” one who, “in other times and other places, might have attained the world stature of a Churchill.” Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore’s struggle for independence in the 1950s,
serving as Prime Minister from 1959 until 1990. Today (1995), at 71, he has nominally retired to the office of Senior Minister, where he continues to influence his country’s future. Lee offered companies tax breaks, political stability, cheap labor and strike-free environment.
Nearly 90 percent of Singaporean adults now own their own homes and thanks to strict adherence to the principle of merit, personal opportunities abound. “If you’ve got talent and work hard, you can be anything here,” says a Malaysian-born woman who holds a high-level civil-service position.
Lee likes to boast that Singapore has avoided the “moral breakdown” of Western countries. He attributes his nation’s success to strong family ties, a reliance on education as the engine of advancement and social philosophy that he claims is superior to America’s.
In an interview with Reader’s Digest, he said that the United States has “lost its bearings” by emphasizing individual rights at the expense of society. “An ethical society,” he said, “is one which matches human rights with responsibilities.”
1. What characterizes Singapore’s advancement is its___. A. computer monitoring. B. work efficiency. C. high productivity. D. value on ethics.
2. From Nixon’s perspective, Lee is___. A. almost as great as Churchill. B. not as great as Churchill.
C. only second to Churchill in being a leader. D. just as great as Churchill.
3. In the last paragraph, “lost its bearings” may mean___. A. become impatient.
B. failed to find the right position. C. lost its foundation. D. grown band-mannered.
4.“You can be anything here”(Paragraph 5) may be paraphrased as___. A. You can hope for a very bright prospect. B. You may be able to do anything needed. C. You can choose any job as you like. D. You will become an outstanding worker. 5. In Singapore, the concept of efficiency___.
A. has been emphasized throughout the country.
B. has become an essential quality for citizens to aim at.
C. is brought forward by the government in order to compete with America. D. is known as the basis for building the “Intelligent Island.” 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月3日) (Unit 3 Passage 4)
We can begin our discussion of “population as global issue” with what most persons mean when they discuss “the population problem”: too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in the number added each year. The facts are not in dispute, It was quite right to employ the analogy that likened demographic growth to “a long, thin powder fuse that burns steadily and
haltingly until it finally reaches the charge and explodes.”
To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it is necessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Looking back at the 8,000 years of demographic history, we find that populations have been virtually stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, life was hard, often nasty, and very short. There was high fertility in most places, but this was usually balanced by high mortality. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one in ten persons would live past forty, while infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often, societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could exceed their birthrates. Thus, the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.
This pattern is important to notice. Not only does it put the current problems of demographic growth into a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recent years is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions that traditionally have caused high mortality.
Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth which extended from about 8,000 BC. till approximately AD. 1650. In the first period of some 9600 years, the population increased from some 8 million to 500 million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million to more than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be 6.2 billion people throughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is to reduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000BC and 1650, an average of only 50,000 persons was being added annually to the world’s population each year. At present, this number is added every six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.
1. Which of the following demographic growth pattern is most suitable for the long thin powder fuse analogy?
A. A virtually stable or slightly decreasing period and then a sudden explosion of population. B. A slow growth for a long time and then a period of rapid, dramatic increase.
C. Too many people on earth and a few rapid increase in the number added each year.
D. A long period when death rates exceeds birthrates and then a short period with higher fertility and lower mortality.
2. During the first period of demographic history, societies were often in danger of extinction because___.
A. only one in ten persons could live past 40.
B. there was higher mortality than fertility in most places.
C. it was too dangerous to have babies due to the poor conditions. D. our ancestors had little enthusiasm for more children. 3. Which statement is true about population increase?
A. There might be an increase of 2.2 billion persons from now to the year 2000. B. About 50,000 babies are born every six hours at present.
C. Between 8000 BC and the present, the population increase is about 80,000,000 persons each year.
D. The population increased faster between 8000BC and 1650 than between 1650 and the present.
4. The author of the passage intends to___.
A. warn people against the population explosion in the near future.
B. compare the demographic growth pattern in the past with that after 1650. C. find out the cause for rapid increase in population in recent years. D. present us a clear and complete picture of the demographic growth. 5. The word “demographic” in the first paragraph means___. A. statistics of human. B. surroundings study. C. accumulation of human. D. development of human.
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月4日) (Unit4 Passage1)
Most of us are taught to pay attention to what is said—the words. Words do provide us with some information, but meanings are derived from so many othersources that it would hinder our effectiveness as a partner to a relationship to re ly too heavily on words alone. Words are used to describe only a small part of the many ideas we associate with any given message. Sometimes we can gain insight into some of those associations if we listen for more than words. We don’t always say what we mean or mean what we say. Sometimes our words don’t mean anything except “ I’m letting off some steam. I don’t really want you to pay close attention to what I’m saying. Just pay attention to what I’m feeling.” Mostly we mean several things at once. A person wanting to purchase a house says to the current owner, “This step has to be fixed before I’ll buy.” The owner says, “ It’s been like that for years.” Actually, the step hasn’t been like that for years, but the unspoken message is: “ I don’t want to fix it. We put up with it. Why can’t you?” The search for a more expansive view of meaning can be developed of examining a message in terms of who said it, when it occurred, the related conditions or situation, and how it was said.
When a message occurs can also reveal associated meaning. Let us assume two couples do exactly the same amount of kissing and arguing. But one couple always kisses after an argument and the other couple always argues after a kiss. The ordering of the behaviors may mean a great deal more than the frequency of the behavior. A friend’s unusually docile behavior may only be understood by noting that it was preceded by situations that required an abnormal amount of assertiveness. Some responses may be directly linked to a developing pattern of responses and defy logic. For example, a person who says “No!” to a serials of charges like “You’re dumb,” “You’re lazy,” and “You’re dishonest,” may also say “No!” and try to justify his or her response if the next statement is “And you’re good looking.”
We would do well to listen for how messages are presented. The words, “If sure has been nice to have you over,” can be said with emphasis and excitement or ritualistically. The phrase can be said once or repeated several times. And the meanings we associate with the phrase will change accordingly. Sometimes if we say something infrequently it assumes more importance; sometimes the more we say something the less importance it assumes.
1. Effective communication is rendered possible between two conversing partners, if ___. A. they use proper words to carry their ideas. B. they both speak truly of their own feelings.
C. they try to understand each other’s ideas beyond words. D. they are capable of associating meaning with their words.
2.“I’m letting off some steam” in paragraph 1 means___. A. I’m just calling your attention. B. I’m just kidding.
C. I’m just saying the opposite. D. I’m just giving off some sound.
3. The house-owner’s example shows that he actually means___. A. the step has been like that for years.
B. he doesn’t think it necessary to fix the step. C. the condition of the step is only a minor fault. D. the cost involved in the fixing should be shared.
4. Some responses and behaviors may appear very illogical, but are justifiable if___. A. linked to an abnormal amount of assertiveness. B. seen as one’s habitual pattern of behavior. C. taken as part of an ordering sequence. D. expressed to a series of charges.
5. The word “ritualistically” in the last paragraph equals something done___. A. without true intention. B. light-heartedly.
C. in a way of ceremony. D. with less emphasis.
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月5日)
Which is safer-staying at home, traveling to work on public transport, or working in the office? Surprisingly, each of these carries the same risk, which is very low. However, what about flying compared to working in the chemical industry? Unfortunately, the former is 65 times riskier than the latter! In fact, the accident rate of workers in the chemical industry is less than that of almost any of human activity, and almost as safe as staying at home.
The trouble with the chemical industry is that when things go wrong they often cause death to those living nearby. It is this which makes chemical accidents so newsworthy. Fortunately, they are extremely rare. The most famous ones happened at Texas City (1947),Flixborough (1974), Seveso (1976), Pemex (1984) and Bhopal (1984).
Some of these are always in the minds of the people even though the loss of life was small. No one died at Seveso, and only 28 workers at Flixborough. The worst accident of all was Bhopal, where up to 3,000 were killed. The Texas City explosion of fertilizer killed 552. The Pemex fire at a storage plant for natural gas in the suburbs of Mexico City took 542 lives, just a month before the unfortunate event at Bhopal.
Some experts have discussed these accidents and used each accident to illustrate a particular danger. Thus the Texas City explosion was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate（硝酸铵）, which is safe unless stored in great quantity. The Flixborough fireball was the fault of management, which took risks to keep production going during essential repairs. The Seveso accident shows what happens if the local authorities lack knowledge of the danger on their doorstep. When the poisonous gas drifted over the town, local leaders were incapable of taking effective action. The Pemex fire was made worse by an overloaded site in an overcrowded suburb. The fire set off a chain reaction os exploding storage tanks. Yet, by a miracle, the two largest tanks did not explode. Had these caught fire, then 3,000 strong rescue team and fire fighters would all have died.
1. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Working at the office is safer than staying at home.
B. Traverlling to work on public transport is safer than working at the office. C. Staying at home is safer than working in the chemical industry. D. Working in the chemical industry is safer than traveling by air.
2. Chemical accidents are usually important enough to be reported as news because ____. A. they are very rare
B. they often cause loss of life C. they always occur in big cities
D. they arouse the interest of all the readers
3. According to passage, the chemical accident that caused by the fault of management happened at ____.
A. Texas city B. Flixborough C. Seveso D. Mexico City
4. From the passage we know that ammonium nitrate is a kind of ____. A. natural gas, which can easily catch fire
B. fertilizer, which can’t be stored in a great quantity
C. poisonous substance, which can’t be used in overcrowded areas D. fuel, which is stored in large tanks
5. From the discussion among some experts we may coclude that ____.
A. to avoid any accidents we should not repair the facilities in chemical industry
B. the local authorities should not be concerned with the production of the chemical industry
C. all these accidents could have been avoided or controlled if effective measure had been taken
D. natural gas stored in very large tanks is always safe
2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月19日) 答案：ABDDB 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月 2日) 答案：ABDBC 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月1日) 答案：ACCCA 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(6月29日) 答案：DDBAB 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月3日) 答案：ABADA 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月4日) 答案：DBABC 2012年12月英语六级阅读每日一练(7月5日) 答案：DBABC
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