Section 2: Reading Comprehension (30 points)

In this section you will find after each of the passage a number of questions or unfinished statements about the passage, each with 4 (A, B, C and D) choices to answer the question or complete the statement. You must choose the one which you think fits best. Blacken the corresponding letter as required on your Machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.

Question 61-70 are based on the following passage.

Next door to a lunch counter advertising a grilled cheese special is a gallery where Van Gogh’s “Irises” shares the walls with Monet landscapes and works from the Italian Renaissance.

They are all fakes. They are all for sale. “A forger? Yes. We’re expert forgers you could say. But we make no attempt to deceive. We don’t pretend to sell original works. We have all the thrill of being a forger, but no risk.”

With prices for original art rising into the tens of millions, some art lovers are turning to high-quality copies done by expert artists. In addition, some museums confronting skyrocketing insurance premiums are considering stashing the authentic pieces and displaying a reproduction.

No major U.S. art museum is known to be displaying reproductions in place of originals. Such a practice would raise questions about why people visit museums in the first place. But museum security has become a growing concern.

Bids for paintings have climbed at auction houses. But prices for fakes run only from about $1,000 to $10,000 for paintings, depending on the size and complexity of the original.

In Europe where copying masterpieces is centuries-old craft, painters often use pigments and brushes typical of the period of the original. The painting is placed in a frame closely resembling its era. Sometimes the gallery purchases 17th century furniture to use the wood for frames. The final step is the antiquing process using chemicals and heat and humidity. “We can make special types of cracks from little spider-web types to long splits.”

61. This passage is most probably taken out of a/an _____.

A. court confession by a person suspected of making fakes

B. commercial advertisement for a new profession in arts

C. feature story in a newspaper, magazine, or a web page

D. industrial profile for a museum promoting a new show

62. The word “Monet” underlined in Paragraph 1 refers to a _____.

A. master artist B. master forger

C. famous dealer D. rich collector

63. Both quotes in the passage are probably from a person who is a/an _____.

A. master artist B. art piece forger

C. museum director D. artworks thief

64. The third sentence in the last paragraph implies that the gallery _____.

A. carries 17th-century furniture as sideline exhibits

B. is part of the process in making fake paintings

C. provides the space only for forgers to produce fakes

D. manufactures wooden frames for paintings as a sideline

65. Obviously, the phrase “expert artists” underlined in Paragraph 3 refers to people who are _____.

A. experts in evaluating art works

B. painters decorating the museums

C. makers of faked famous paintings

D. experts who can identify forgeries

66. “Such a practice” underlined in Paragraph 4 refers to the display of _____.

A. forged works in place of genuine artwork

B. original productions in place of their copies

C. both fake productions and original paintings

D. real reproductions and original masterpieces

67. According to the passage, the word “stashing” underlined in Paragraph 3 is synonymous with _____.

A. slashing B. smashing

C. stacking D. storing

68. As repeatedly stated in the passage _____ was certainly the major reason why forgeries are sold.

A. insurance B. security

C. quality D. price

69. The word “copies” underlined in Paragraph 3 does NOT refer to _____.

A. fakes B. forges

C. reproductions D. non-authentic works

70. According to this passage, which of the following statements is true?

A. The works on display are meant to sell as originals.

B. The works meant to sell as originals are on display.

C. Here you may purchase a masterpiece for $1,000.

D. Here one may buy fast food any time and eat it here.

Questions 71-80 are based on the following passage.

No revolutions in technology have as visibly marked the human condition as those in transport. Moving goods and people, they have opened continents, transformed living standards, spread diseases, fashions and folk around the world. Yet technologies to transport ideas and information across long distances have arguably achieved even more: they have spread knowledge, the basis of economic growth.

The most basic of all these, the written word, was already ancient by 1000. By then China had, in basic form, the printing press, using carved woodblocks. But the key to its future, movable metal type, was four centuries away. The Chinese were hampered by their thousands of ideograms. Even so, they quite soon invented the primitive movable type, made of clay, and by the 13th century they had the movable wooden type. But the real secret was the use of an easily cast metal.

When it came, Europe – aided by simple Western alphabets – leapt forward with it. One reason why Asia’s civilizations, in 1000 far ahead of Europe’s, then fell behind was that they lacked the technology to reproduce and diffuse ideas. On Johannes Gutenberg’s invention in the 1440s were built not just the Reformation and the Enlightenment, but Europe’s agricultural and industrial revolutions too.

Yet information technology on its own would not have got far. Literally: better transport technology too was needed. That was not lacking, but there the big change came much later: it was railways and steamships that first allowed the speedy, widespread dissemination of news and ideas over long distances. And both technologies in turn required people and organizations to develop their use. They got them: for individual communication. The postal service: for wider publics, the publishing industry.

Throughout the 19th century, the postal service formed the bedrock of national and international communications. Crucial to its growth had been the introduction of the stamp, combined with a low price, and payment by the sender. Britain put all three of these ideas into effect in 1840.

By then, the world’s mail was taking off. It changed the world. Merchants in America’s eastern cities used it to gather information, enraging far-off cotton growers and farmers, who found that the New Yorkers knew more about crop prices than they did. In the American debate about slavery, it offered abolitionists a low-cost way to spread their views, just as later technologies have cut the cost and widened the scope of political lobbying. The post helped too to integrate the American nation, tying new newly opened west to the settled east.

Everywhere, its development drove and was driven by those of transport. In Britain, travelers rode by mail coach to posting inns. In America, the post subsidized road-building. Indeed, argues Dan Schiller, a professor of communications at the University of California, it was the connection between the post, transport and national integration that ensured that the mail remained a public enterprise even in the United States, its first and only government-run communications medium, and until at least the 1870s, the biggest organization in the land.

The change has not only been one of speed and distance, though, but of audience. About 200 years ago, a man’s words could reach no further than his voice, not just in range but in whom they reached. But, for some purposes, efficient communication is mass communication, regular, cheap, quick and reliable. When it became possible, it transformed the world.

71. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A. Transporting goods and people is the most important technology in the history of mankind.

B. Technology in transporting goods and people has changed human conditions more than anything else.

C. Technology in spreading information has changed human conditions more than transportation technology.

D. Technology in spreading information can’t change the economic development of society.

72. According to the passage, Asian civilizations, which were ahead of Europe’s, fell behind because _____.

A. Asian languages were more difficult to learn.

B. European languages had simple alphabets

C. they didn’t have the technology to spread ideas

D. people’s communication skills were not good enough

73. Johannes Gutenberg’s invention probably refers to _____.

A. printing technology

B. transportation technology

C. the Reformation and the Enlightenment

D. industrial revolution

74. The word “dissemination” underlined in Paragraph 4 means _____.

A. plantation B. distribution

C. reception D. Direction

75. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the postal service ?

A. American abortionists were not happy about it.

B. The stamp was invented in Britain.

C. It helped the independence of America.

D. In the 1840s it was the major means of national communications in Britain.

76. What can the postal service do?

A. Collecting market prices of goods. B. Spreading ideas at a low cost.

C. Promoting political lobbying. D. All of the above.

77. In the United States, the postal service belongs to _____.

A. a private company B. the government

C. road-building enterprises D. national integration

78. The word “its development” underlined in Paragraph 7 refers to the development of _____.

A. the American nation B. the mail coach

C. road building D. the postal service

79. The words “the change” underlined in Paragraph 8 refer to _____.

A. time change B. technology change

C. change in spreading ideas D. change of human abilities

80. Which of the following statements is NOT true about mass communication?

A. It can reach no further than human voice.

B. It can reach a large audience.

C. It is rapid and efficient.

D. It can be trusted.

KEYS：

SECTION 2

61. C 62. A 63. B 64. B 65. C

66. A 67. D 68. D 69. B 70. C

71. C 72. C 73. A 74. B 75. A

76. D 77. B 78. D 79. C 80. A

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