SECTION 2: LISTENING TEST (30 minutes)

Directions:  In this section you will read several passage. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer,(A),(B),(C) or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Question 1～5
      The day automakers put earth at the top of their agenda will go down in history. Reading this book, one gets the sense that day is coming. Big automakers still no paragons of environmentalism have gotten the message that replacing the dirty internal-combustion engine is an urgent priority. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, Americans produce 14 percent of all global warming carbon dioxide gas. And car tailpipes pump out more than 30 percent of US air pollution. In his new book, “Forward Drive: The Race to Build ‘Clean’ Cars for the Future,”environmentalist Jim Motavalli concludes that capitalist competition is taking over from government mandates to clean up that exhaust. Motavalli chronicles the movement for cleaner cars: the few visionaries and zealots building and driving home built battery-powered cars; the divided giant automakers working tirelessly to develop clean cars while fighting regulatory efforts to require them; university researchers conducting studies; and the regulators trying to speed their adoption.

       “Forward Drive”covers the technological advances of the hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles poised to take over from the internal-combustion engine. In some ways, Motavalli is an unlikely narrator. A self-vowed car nut who stumbled into a job editing E, the Environmental Magazine, he seems biased on both sides of the issue. But ultimately, that's what makes him best suited to tell this story.

      Motavalli's concern for the environment is sincere, and his knowledge of cars is refreshingly accurate. The most interesting passages follow his transformation from
internal-combustion devotee to environmental autocynic and battery-car zealot to hopeful future-car realist. “It was disconcerting, to say the least, to learn that my hobby of collecting classic cars and my growing concern for the environment didn't necessarily mesh, ”Motavalli writes. “The car has certainly been good to me, but I'm becoming disenchanted.”

      In the preface, he notes that he set out to write a book critical of the auto industy for teaming up with Big Oil to block development of clean cars. But when he dug in to do more research, he found a different story. Namely that automakers in Detroit, Japan, and Europe are in a heated race to start selling cars that are more environmentally correct.

      Unfortunately, Motavalli glosses over issues of consumer demand. He never mention ns that today's electric cars and gasoline-electric hybrids cost far more than internal combustion cars of equal or greater capability. He spends a whole chapter interviewing early adopters of electric cars in California. He notes their utter dedication to their electric cars and implies that the rest of the buying public should simply be as enthusiastic, without addressing issues of price or the various ways families use their cars.

      He strongly favors California's mandate that 10 percent of all vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission-vehicles—battery or fuel-cell electrics, not hybrids—even though he writes, “Ultimately, vehicles halfheartedly designed to meet a mandate would fail in the marketplace.” And he gives short shrift to the point that clean cars do nothing to ease congestion and sprawl.

      In a telephone interview, Motavalli concedes that technology is progressing faster than book deadlines allowed him to keep up with. If anything, automakers are working harder to develop hybrid-electrics. And mass-market hybrid-drive systems will likely first show up in the big sport utility vehicles that Motavalli rails against.

      Nevertheless, he now believes that the automakers with the deepest pockets have best chance of building better cars for tomorrow. “The new, clean cars will emerge not from a tinkerer's garage, but from the well-funded research labs of the same big auto companies that initially fought their introduction,”he says.

1. The expression “put the earth at the top of their agenda”in the beginning sentence of the passage can best be paraphrased as_______.
   (A) discuss the issue of global warming with top government leaders
   (B) lay stress on the research of the climate of the earth
   (C) treat the protection of the earth s environment as of paramount importance
   (D) consider seriously the relation between automaking and environment pollution
2. In his new book “Forward Drive”, Motavalli concludes that _______.
   (A) capitalist competition leads to pollution
   (B) automakers are working hard to develop cleaner cars
   (C) the movement for cleaner cars develops slowly
   (D) the auto industry always blocks the development of clean cars
3. It can be concluded from the passage that Motavalli _______.
   (A) is not a proper figure to write about clean cars
   (B) treats automaking and environment with biased views
   (C) takes consumer demand into serious consideration
   (D) shows his change of attitude towards automobiles
4. The expression “he gives short shrift to the point”(Para. 7) can be replaced by _______.
   (A) he gives detailed illustration of the point
   (B) he pays little attention to the point
   (C) he writes a short paragraph about the point
   (D) he ends with a brief but warm discussion about the point
5. Which of the following can serve as the best title of the passage?
   (A) Big automakers: pioneers of environmentalism
   (B) Consumer demand and development of green cars
   (C) Green cars and environmental protection
   (D) Transformation from car devotee to environmentalist

Questions 6～10
      Hundreds of thousands of American mothers descended on Washington and about 60 other US cities yesterday to voice their support for stricter gun laws, making one of the country's biggest demonstrations for many years.         

      The Million Mom March was focused on the capital, where a huge crowd of women, along with large numbers of men and children, gathered to mark Mothers' Day on the Mall, the green strip which leads to the Capitol building housing Congress. At the other end, below the Washington Monument, about 2,000 people calling themselves the Armed Informed mothers staged a counter-protest against gun control.

     President Clinton threw his weight behind the Million Mom March, holding a morning reception on the lawn of the White house for the rally's leaders and the mothers of children killed by guns. “One of the things your mother teaches you when you grow up is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,”he told the crowd. But he pointed out that a string of gun-control measures had been stalled in congress for more than a year by the opposition of the gun lobby.

     Violent crime has been falling in the US for eight years, but the impact of firearms remains far high than in other modern industrialized countries. Every year 32,000 Americans—including 12 children and teenagers each day—die from gunfire through murders, accidents and suicides. Among the speakers at the gun-control rally in Washington were three women whose daughters died in the Dunblane massacre. Those murders triggered the Snowdrop Campaign, which eventually led to a ban on handguns in Britain.

     Before the rally one of the Dunblane mothers, Allison Crozier, said she believed that the Million Mom campaign campaign could ultimately outweigh the entrenched power of the gun lobby. “There are more mums who want something done. We did it in Scotland, they can do it here if they just stand up and do something about it, ”she told the BBC.

      The counter-rally may have been tiny by comparison, but the progun demonstrat ors represent a powerful constituency. According to a survey published yesterday, 45% of us households own a gun, and one in four Americans has been threatened with a gun. The gun-control lobbyists want child-proof trigger locks to be made compulsory, and a 72 hour “cooling off periods”for would be buyers at weekend gun shows. Their opponents say those restrictions are only the first step to wards a total ban.

      One of the Armed Informed Mothers coordinators, Debra Collins, said her life was saved 16 years ago when she used a gun to defend herself against her violent ex-husband. “Thank God, my firearm was unencumbered by a trigger lock,”she said. Organisers of the Million Mom March hoped that the turnout nationally would top a million. The final figure was unclear yesterday afternoon, but May Leigh Bleak, one of the movement s founders, said enough people had shown up to put gun control on the legislative agenda in congress. She said: “I hope when legislators see so many mothers, it will give them the courage to do the right thing. ”

6. In the sentence “President Clinton threw his weight behind the Million Mom March”(Para.3), the expression “threw his weight behind...”can be replaced by ________.
   (A) paid attention to                 (B) took part in
   (C) laid emphasis on                  (D) gave support to
7. It can be learned from the passage that the Armed Informed Mothers ________.
   (A) are part of the Million Mom March
   (B) are demonstrating against gun control
   (C) are another great national movement
   (D) are supported by women soldiers
8. According to the passage, the Million Mom March _______.
   (A) was a nationwide demonstration held in many cities in America
   (B) was held only in the capital Washington
   (C) was only joined by young and middle-aged mothers
   (D) was first started in Britain and spread to America
9. The argument over child proof trigger locks introduced in the passage ________.
   (A) is overlooked by the Armed Informed Mothers
   (B) becomes the focus of the Million Mom March
   (C) shows the major concern of gun-control supporters
   (D) serves as the first step towards a total ban
10.According to the passage, all of the following are true EXCEPT that _____.
   (A) the Million Mom March is one of the few biggest demonstrations over the past        decades
   (B) the opposition of the gun lobby is quite strong in the congress
   (C) the pro-gun demonstration represents a large proportion of the American population
   (D) the increase of violent crime in the US is related to firearms

Questions 11～15
     When the folks at the Mars Society asked Jammed Cameron to speak at their annual convention this year, they probably expected him to be polite. Instead, the “Titanic”director stood before them and asked, “Why the hell do you whacks want to go to Mars?” He wasjust kidding: in truth, Cameron is as evangelical as any one about Mars, and he figures politicians won't lead the call for funding. “We don't have the same conditions as when John Kennedy declared a race to the moon, ”he told NEWSWEEK. “Then we were racing the Soviet Union. Today, it's going to have to come from grass roots——from the public clamoring to get it done.” Cameron has vowed to stir up “Mars fever. ”

     It seems the wackos at the Mars Society have found some powerful allies: the wackos in Hollywood. So many projects are in the works that soon we ll all have either Mars fever or Mars flu. The studios are clearly responding to the public's fascination with 1997's Sojourner mission——and the success of movies like “Apollo 13”and “Armageddon. ”So Brian De Palma's  “Mission to Mars,”with Gary Sinise, will land in theaters in March, and an other would be blockbuster, “Red, planet,”starring Val Kilmer, is set for summer 2 000. As for Cameron, he ll produce two missions in 2001, one a TV miniseries, the other a short 3-DIMAX movie, which he'll direct. Most filmmakers insist their movies will be realistic. Cameron believes that extravaganzas like “Star Wars ”and “Star Trek”have actually hurt NASA's real-life adventures. “Hollywood has done a disservice to the true adventure of space travel by making it look too easy, ”he says.

     Both of Cameron's projects are set in 2016, and center on the first manned mission to Mars and a subsequent rescue mission. NASA has helped the director draw up rigorously realistic vehicles. “What we want to show, ”says Cameron, “is something that is plausible and defendable.”

      De Palma's movie amps up the drama slightly. The year is 2020. A mysterious explosion kills three American astronauts living on the Red Planet, and NASA launches a rescue mission to pick up a batty survivor. The spacecraft and the spacesuits will look like pure NASA. And the scenery, shot in Vancouver, will look surprisingly Martian. Art director Ed Verreaux spent hours staring at the Sojourner pictures, and crews shot red concrete out of fire hoses, covering 2 million square feet.

      Of all the Mars movies, “Red Planet”will likely be the most fanciful. Producer mark Canton pitches it as “‘Into Thin Air’on Mars.”It s 2050, or there bouts, and greenhouse gases are choking Earth. But on the first manned mission to Mars the lander crash-lands on the planet. Soon, the astronauts are fighting each other——and killer space worms.

      “We are breaking some of the rules,”Canton says of “Red planet s”realism, “but it doesn't mean we are not going to get closer to the truth. ”Whatever it takes to capture the public imagination, and get astronauts——not just actors——closer to Mars.

11. The passage is mainly about ________.
   (A) the annual convention of the Mars Society
   (B) the introduction of space travel films
   (C) the evolution of the Red Planet
   (D) the production of the Mars movies
12. According to Cameron, films like “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” ______.
   (A) are the best of the Mars movies
   (B) the introduction of space travel films
   (C) the evolution of the Red Planet
   (D) the production of the mars movies
13. According to the passage, “Red Planet”will be the most fanciful of the Mars movies because _________.
   (A) it will be produced in 2050
   (B) it is based on 1997's Sojourner mission
   (C) it describes the first manned mission to Mars
   (D) it will get astronauts and audience closer to Mars
14. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
   (A) “Mission to Mars” and “Red Planet”are directed by De Palma.
   (B) Cameron's two films will be produced in 2001.
   (C) The Mars Society is a club of film directors.
   (D) NASA helps in the production of some mars movies.
15. In the sentence “De Palma's movie amps up the drama slightly. ”(Para. 4), the phrase “amps up”can be replaced by which of the following?
   (A) exaggerates                                    
   (B) displays              
   (C) changes                                        
   (D) reduces

Questions 16～20
      James Bradley's skills as a pots and pans salesman did him no good when it came to hawking his book idea around publishing houses. Flags of Our Fathers, a new volume about Iwo Jima, the battle fought by the US against Japan 55 years ago for a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific, was just what the world did not need. One of the 27 rejection slips went as far as to say: “No one wants to read a book about old men weeping into the telephone.”

      But finally Bradley did find a taker and now the book is number three on the New York Times non fiction list, with 270,000 copies in print. his story of the six young Americans who raised the flag during the 36-day second world war battle in which 22,000 Japanese and 7,000 from the US died has struck something in the public that the publishers did not see.

      Working with the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ron Powers, Bradley tells the tale of the six flag-raisers, one of whom was his father, John. Stephen Ambrose, a military historian, says the writers have come up with “the best battle book I have ever read.”The New York Times said it was “one of the most instructive and moving books on war and its aftermath that we are likely to see.”

      The photograph of the flag being raised became a symbol for the triumph of the righteous 6,000 miles from the US, a classic moment of grace and danger. Joe Rosenthal's picture pressed all the patriotic buttons but in fact the Associated Press photographer almost failed to press the shutter on his camera because he was talking to a colleague at the time, and did not know what he had on film until later.

      It was reported that the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi under gunfire. This was untrue. Moreover, Rosenthal's picture shows a replacement flag going up: the original was removed because an officer wanted it kept as a souvenir. And the image of triumph wrought from endurance was taken on the fifth day, not at the end, of the 36-day battle.

      But the main purpose of the book is to humanise the six, whose names are long forgotten, although the three survivors were, the 46-year-old Bradley says, treated like the Beatles when they came home. The three who didn t make it were Mike Strank, 25, who was probably killed by friendly fire; Harlon Block, 20, a star high school footballer; and Franklin Sousley, 19. The others were marked by what Bradley calls The Photograph and the myths of its making for the rest of their lives. In common with many veterans,john Bradley never talked about Iwo Jima and it was not until his death in 1994 that his family even knew he had won the Navy Cross for bravery. It was in one of three boxes he left behind and the contents of these and interviews with survivors helped Bradley piece together the men's stories and to reveal the nature of his father's courage. “My breast didn't swell with pride because I understand they were all doing things like that,”said the author. “No one would have cooperated with me if I was out to show these guys were unusual heroes.”

    “What they represent is the best of America, but they were boys of common virtue. My dad just did what he was trained to do but, under fire, when it's observed, it's called heroism.” Another of the three, Rene Gagnon, died of a heart attack at 54, frustrated that his faded celebrity translated ultimately into no more than work as a janitor.

     Bradley believes that the final flag-raiser, Ira Hayes, who lived on an Indian reservation in Arizona, never received the help he needed for post traumatic stress syndrome. he died, 10 years after one of the most famous photographs of the century was taken, from alcohol poisoning.

16. James Bradley's book flags of Our Fathers is mainly about _______.
   (A) Iwo Jima, a Pacific island in World War
   (B) the 36-day battle between Japanese and the US armies
   (C) the six young American flag-raisers at Iwo Jima
   (D) the three survivors of the six flag raisers
17. Which of the following is true about the photograph of the flag being raised by the six American soldiers?
   (A) The picture was most casually taken by the photographer.
   (B) The picture was taken at the end of the 36-day battle.
   (C) The flag was raised on Mount Suribachi under gunfire.
   (D) The original flag was shown going up.
18.  According to the passage, James Bradley's book was written ______.
   (A) on the basis of his father s reminiscence
   (B) with the help of a few journalists and military historians
   (C) on the basis of the accounts of the three survivors
   (D) with the help of the materials his father left behind and his interviews with survivors
19.  Which of the following is implied, but not directly stated, in the passage?
   (A) Some survivors of the war did not receive the treatment they deserve.
   (B) Flags of Our Fathers has become a best seller immediately after its publication.
   (C) The author did not regard the flag-raisers as unusual war heroes.
   (D) The photograph is one of the best-known pictures of World War.
20.  the three survivors of the six flag raisers were ________.
   (A) Mike Strank, Rene Gagnon and Franklin Sousley
   (B) Ira Hayes,john Bradley and Rene Gagnon
   (C) James Bradley, Stephen Ambrose and Harlon Block
   (D) Ira Hayes, Joe Rosenthal and John Bradley