SECTION 2: READING TEST (30 minutes)

Directions: In this section you will read severalpassages. Each one isf ollowed 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 imp lied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the correspond ing space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Questions 1-5 //tr.hjenglish.com/
      Audiences from minority ethnic groups complained about tokenism, negative stereotyping and simplistic portrayal of their communities on television in a report published yesterday. But programmes such as the comedy shows Goodness Gracious Me and Ali G and the long-running soap Coronation Street were praised as being steps in the right direction.

      The report, Multicultural Broadcasting: Concept and Reality, was released by the BBC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority. It explores attitudes towards multicultural broadcasting from the perspective of the audience and from within the television, radio and advertising industries. All those questioned from minority ethnic groups said their country of origin was not represented at all or was negatively portrayed on television. There was also a sense of insufficient coverage of events concerning their countries of origin.

      The perspectives of ethnic and racial minorities were not featured sufficiently on terrestrial television, according to 69% of those working in television. Of the radio sample, 45% agreed. There was concern about stereotypical portrayal of certain issues. Groups from the Asian subcontinent spoke of the way in which arranged marriages were presented on television. They felt treatment of the issue was neither accurate nor reflective of the way in which the system had changed.

      The issue of tokenism was also significant — some people felt characters from minority ethnic groups were included in programmes because it was expected they should be, resulting in characters who were ill-drawn and unimportant. Audiences felt broadcasters had a social duty to include authentic and fair representations of minorities as it would foster understanding of different cultures and allow children to see themselves represented positively. It was seen as important that minority groups should be included in soap operas or game shows, as they have high viewing figures. They should also be more represented as presenters in news and documentary programming.

      Audiences from the subcontinent said they did not want to be labelled Asian and called for their distinctive cultural identities to be acknowledged. Similarly, those within mixed-race black groups said their issues were rarely represented. //tr.hjenglish.com/

      Throughout the audience research was an underlying feeling that as all people paid a licence fee for the BBC, it had a greater obligation to cater to minority tastes. Younger white participants tended to find it divisive to have programmes aimed at particular groups, and thought it better to concentrate on achieving fairer representation in the mainstream.

      Both audience and industry groups agreed that although progress had been made in the past five years, there still needed to be better representation of minorities on screen and behind the scenes.

      It is apparent in the report that ethnic minority groups are still under-represented in employment. Only 32% of people in radio and 22% of those in TV agreed that numbers of people from minorities in decision-making roles had increased in the last five years. But the overwhelming feeling among those working in the advertising industry was that commercial objectives should take priority. Paul Bolt, director of the BSC, said: "The report shows where can be done in developing future policies."

Weakness in numbers //tr.hjenglish.com/

· The number of people from minority ethnic groups on air has increased

· Only 32% of the TV industry sample thought there had been a growth in programming relevant to the groups. In radio the figure was 63%

· Only 32% of those working in radio and 22% in television agreed the number of ethnic minority staff in decision-making roles had increased in the last five years

· The perspective of ethnic and racial minorities were not featured sufficiently on terrestrial TV, according to 69% of those in television. Of the radio sample, 45% agreed this was true

1.   The programmes of Goodness Gracious Me, Ali G, and Coronation Street cited in the passage ______.
     (A) are the best examples of negative stereotypes
     (B) serve as the evidence to support the conclusion of the report
     (C) show the significance of token ism in mass media
     (D) display the positive attitude towards multicultural issues
2.   According to the passage, the portrayal of Asians' arranged marriages on television ______.
     (A) does not reflect changed marriage system
     (B) accurately describes the change of marriage system
     (C) does not show the romantic side of such marriage system
     (D) criticizes strongly the tradition of the Asian community
3.   The word "tokenism" used in the passage can best be paraphrased as ______.
     (A) utter distortion
     (B) fanciful portrayal //tr.hjenglish.com/
     (C) accurate characterization
     (D) superficial representation
4.   Which of the following CANNOT be true according to the passage?
     (A) The issue of tokenism on television implies the prejudice against ethnic minorities.
     (B) The report is based only on the investigation of the audience from minority groups.
     (C) People working in television, radio and advertising industries are all investigated.
     (D) People working in the advertising industry are more concerned with commercial targets.
5.   It can be concluded from the passage that ______.
     (A) the report on multicultural broadcasting is made and released by BBC
     (B) fair representation of minorities should be based on understanding of different cultures
     (C) the situation of tokenism in television, radio and advertising industries varies greatly from one another
     (D) employment of ethnic minorities is well represented on terrestrial television

Questions 6-10
      Martin Mills, 25, keeps a low profile in order to stay safe in his tough neighborhood. He cleans hotels for $250 a week and then goes straight home to a three-bedroom house in a predominantly African-American area on the north side of Wilmington, Del. He lives with five of his six children and his girlfriend. His younger brother was robbed at gunpoint and shot in the head a few years ago. "I don't bother anybody," he says. "I try to do fight, keep a cool head." He needed one on Sept. 3, when seven or eight cops descended on him as he was leaving the comer deli. They jumped out of an unmarked van and, according to Mills, knocked over his 1-year-old son in their haste to collar Mills. They frisked him, then shoved a camera in his face. He says he heard an officer say, "We are taking your picture now for anything you might do in the future." They then let him go without charging him with any crime. //tr.hjenglish.com/

      Wilmington police say they have "no record" of Mills' case. But their chief, Michael Szczerba, makes no apologies for his department's latest effort to crack down on drugs. This summer units of as many as 18 agents, known to locals as "jump-out squads," began stopping individuals, usually African Americans like Mills, at drug-infested street comers in search of guns, crack and heroin. The police would then take a digital photo, even with no evidence of malfeasance, to file in a database that Szczerba says can be accessed "if we see a subsequent violation." The department plans to continue indefinitely what it calls Operation Bold Eagle.

      The notion of collecting mug shots of potential criminals has sparked comparisons to the futuristic thriller Minority Repo rt, in which a fictional high-tech police unit identifies criminals before they commit crimes, an analogy that Szczerba says is laughable. He adds that it is "highly improbable" that innocent people were caught up in the sweeps. But police statistics show that nearly 20% of the more than 600 people detained thus far were not charged with any offense. According to the 1968 Supreme Court decision Terry v. Ohio, police can conduct "stop-and-frisks" if they have a reasonable, particularized suspicion that criminal activity is afoot and a suspect is dangerous. But they cannot use these stops to go fishing for criminals in high-crime areas. Cops often fudge that distinction. "Police stop generally young males in high-drug-traffic areas based on very little suspicion all the time," says Bill Stuntz, a Harvard Law School professor. "The reality on the streets is some distance from what the law says." In Wilmington, the police insist that they abide by the law by engaging in surveillance before they send out the jump-out squads. But what especially bothers the Wilmington operation's critics, who range from civil libertarians to local politicians, is the pictures taken by the police. The A.C.L.U. is considering suing the police department if it continues the candid shots. Says one of the group's directors, Barry Steinhardt: "The premise of the Fourth Amendment is that you don't question people, detain them —— and you certainly don't take photos and enter them into a database — unless you have reasonable cause." //tr.hjenglish.com/

      Most experts believe that as long as the initial stop is legal, the police can take what-even photos they want. The Supreme Court has held that people can have no expectation of privacy when they are in public. That's why the government was able to scan the faces of fans at last year's Super Bowl and why it can videotape drivers to make sure they don't run a red light. "Police can take photos of people in public places," says Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg. "It can be ugly, immoral, authoritarian, but it's not unconstitutional."

      Many Wilmington residents appreciate the efforts of their police. Ann McGrellis, 33, a sales assistant in downtown Wilmington, says, "The bottom line is, if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have to worry about the jump-out squads." Mills, who believes he was targeted because of his race and address, might beg to disagree.

6. According to the passage, Minority Repo rt ______.
     (A) is written by Wilmington police about its action plan
     (B) tells the use of high-tech in detecting criminals in story form
     (C) is mainly about the 1968 case Terry v. Ohio
     (D) illustrates the targets and processes of the Operation Bold Eagle
7. The police statistics that "nearly 20% of the more than 600 people detained thus far were not charged with any offense" (para. 3) shows that ______.
     (A) few innocent people were caught in the "sweeps" operation
     (B) police chief Szczerba is correct in his analysis of their action
     (C) 20% of the people detained were waiting for their sentence
     (D) the police action to crack down crimes cannot be fully justified
8. In the sentence "Cops often fudge that distinction."(para.4), the word "fudge" can best be paraphrased as ______.
     (A) take no notice of
     (B) give free interpretation of
     (C) do not understand
     (D) feel puzzled about
9. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?
     (A) Professor Bill Stuntz and Professor Robert Weisberg differ in their views.
     (B) Wilmington police is not apologizing for taking pictures of innocent people.
     (C) The author reaches his own conclusion over the issue.
     (D) The Supreme Court has expressed its support to Wilmington police.
10. Which of the following expresses the main idea of the passage?
     (A) The case of Martin Mills is an exception in Wilmington police action.
     (B) Most Wilmington residents welcome the recent police action.
     (C) Taking pictures of innocent people on the street is a controversial issue.
     (D) Taking photos of people in public by police is legal and constitutional.

Questions 11-15
      Ever since its discovery, Pluto has never really fitted in. After the pale and glowing giant Neptune, it is little more than a cosmic dust mite, swept through the farthest reaches of the solar system on a plane wildly tilted relative to the rest of the planets. It is smaller than Neptune's largest moon, and the are of its orbit is so oval that it occasionally crosses its massive blue neighbor's path.

      For years, it has been seen as our solar system's oddest planet. Yesterday, however, scientists released perhaps the most convincing evidence yet that Pluto, in fact, is not a planet at all. For the first time, astronomers have peered into a belt of rocks beyond Pluto unknown until 10 years ago-and found a world that rivals Pluto in size. The scientists posit that larger rocks must be out there, perhaps even larger than Pluto, meaning Pluto is more likely the king of this distant realm of space detritus than the tiniest of the nine planets.

      When discovered in 1930, "Pluto at that point was the only thing [that far] out there, so there was nothing else to call it but a planet," says Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Now it just doesn't fit." In one sense, the question of Pluto's planetary status is arcane, the province of pocket-protected scientists and sun-deprived pen pushers determined to decide some official designation for a ball of dust and ice 3 billion miles away.

      Yet it is also unquestionably something more. From science fair dioramas to government funding, planets hold a special place in the public imagination, and how Pluto is eventually seen - by kids and Congress alike - could shape what future generations learn about this mysterious outpost on the edge of the solar system. The debate has split the astronomical community for decades. Even before the distant band of rocks known as the Kuiper Belt was found, Pluto's unusual behavior made it suspicious.

      Elsewhere, the solar system fit into near families: the rocky inner planets, the asteroid belt, the huge and gaseous outer planets. Pluto, though, was peculiar. With the discovery of the Kuiper Belt - countless bits of rock and ice left unused when the wheel of the solar system first formed - Pluto suddenly seemed to have cousins. Yet until yesterday, it held to its planetary distinction because it was far larger than anything located there.

      The rub now is Quaoar (pronounced KWAH-oar), 1 billion miles beyond Pluto and roughly half as large. Named after the creation force of the tribe that originally inhabited the Los Angeles basin, Quaoar forecasts problems for the erstwhile ninth planet, says discoverer Dr. Brown: "The case is going to get a lot harder to defend the day somebody finds something larger than Pluto,"

      To some, the problem is not with Pluto, but the definition of "planet." In short, there is none. To the Greeks, who coined the term, it meant "wanderer," describing the way that the planets moved across the night sky differently from the stars behind them. Today, with our more nuanced understanding of the universe, the word no longer has much scientific meaning.

      New York's Hayden Planetarium caused a commotion two years ago by supposedly "demoting Pluto, lumping it with the Kuiper Belt objects in its huge mobile of the solar system. In reality, however, the planetarium was making a much broader statement, says Nell Degrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist there. The textbooks of the future should focus more on families of like objects than "planets." The discovery of Quaoar strengthens this idea: "Everyone needs to rethink the structure of our solar system," he says. "We'vejust stopped counting planets."

      Still, many are loath to part with the planet Pluto. They note that Pluto, in fact, is distinct from many Kuiper Belt objects. It has a thin atmosphere, for one. It reflects a great deal of light, while most Kuiper Belt objects are very dark. And unlike all but a handful of known Kuiper Belt objects, it has a moon. "Maybe Pluto, then, should be representative of a new class of planets," says Mark Sykes, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "It's the first example, and we arejust beginning to find this category."

11.  Which of the following is true according to the passage?
     (A) Rocks larger than Pluto have been found in the Kuiper Belt.
     (B) The Kuiper Belt did not exist when Pluto was first discovered.
     (C) The astronomers are divided with regard to the status of Pluto.
     (D) There is almost no difference between Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects.
12. From when was Pluto seriously questioned about its planetary status?
     (A) As early as 1930.
     (B) More than a decade ago.
     (C) When the Kuiper Belt was discovered.
     (D) When Quaoar was discovered.
13. The sentence "In short, there is none." (para. 7) can be paraphrased as which of the following?
     (A) There is no problem with Pluto's planetary status.
     (B) There is not much difference between Pluto and other planets.
     (C) There is yet no scientific definition of the term "planet."
     (D) There is no clear distinction between planets and stars.
14. Which of the following does not support the statement that Pluto is our "solar system's oddest planet"?
     (A) It is farthest from the sun.
     (B) It is unusually small.
     (C) Its orbit is too oval.
     (D) It mainly consists of dust and ice.
15. The word "commotion" in the expression  "New York's Hayden Planetarium caused a commotion two years ago" (para. 8) can be replaced by______________
     (A) exchange of opinions
     (B) thorough investigation
     (C) wild imagination
     (D) agitated confusion

Questions 16-20
      The 100 Aker Wood may look like a dark, forbidding place these days for Michael D. Eisner. That's where Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore live, and the cartoon characters — which represent at least $1 billion a year in revenues for Eisner's Walt Disney Co. —— are in full revolt. A 12-years-old lawsuit, sealed in a Los Angeles court until January, has come to light, and a series of court rulings threaten the media giant with hundreds of millions in overdue license payments and possibly the loss of one of its most lucrative properties.

      How large a hit Disney will take is still in dispute. Disney is appealing two rulings, including one alleging that company executives knowingly destroyed important papers related to its licensing deals. The Pooh affair may seem minor at a time when Eisner is under attack for Disney's chronically weak stock price and ABC's anemic ratings, but the Disney chairman hardly needs more jostling from a Silly Old Bear. What's more, the impact could be significant. After acknowledging to the Securities & Exchange Commission on Aug. 9 that "damages could total as much as several hundred million dollars" or the loss of the licensing agreement, Disney was hit with new shareholder lawsuits.

      Disney wants to keep its grip on that bear and his honey jar. Pooh is Disney's single largest property, says Martin Brockstein executive editor of The Licensing Letter. That adds up to about $100 million in operating earnings bom royalties on Pooh T-shirts, backpacks, and other merchandise, figures Gerard Klauer Matheson & Co. analyst Jeffrey Logsdon. Last year, Disney paid $352 million to one pair of heirs of Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne. But the family of Stephen A. Slesinger, a New York literary agent who bought the U. S. rights in 1930, says Disney owes them $200 million on licenses for T-shirts and other merchandise and has cut them entirely out of the lucrative videocassette and DVD arena. Headed by Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, an 80-year-old widow who travels with a Winnie-the-Pooh bear everywhere, the family contends it is owed close to $1 billion, say its lawyers. Disney, which says it pays the Slesingers $12 million a year, insists the $1 billion figure is a publicity stunt. "The 1930 contract says they get royalties on merchandise alone, not all exploitation," says Disney attorney Daniel J. Petrocelli.

     The Slesingers also charge that Disney lost documents related to merchandise sales and destroyed others that extended the accord to DVDs and videotapes. On June 18, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige rejected the audit by a forensic accountant he thought unduly favored Disney and found that Disney "misused the discovery process" by hiding the fact that it destroyed documents that might have expanded the licensing agreement to tapes and DVDs.

     Absent those documents — which include the papers of the late Disney Consumer Products chief Vincent Jefferds — the case may hinge on the "mommy memo." That memo, written in 1983 by Slesinger daughter Patricia to her mother, Shirley, describes a meeting with Jefferds at the Beverly Hills Hotel at which Jefferds allegedly told Patricia "that videos and all these new things were covered and to shut up about it," according to court documents. Because Disney destroyed Jefferds' letters, Judge Hiroshige ruled that Disney is barred from "introducing evidence disputing" the family's contention that they were entitled to royalties on videocassettes. Disney is appealing the ruling. //tr.hjenglish.com/

      Settlement seems unlikely among the parties. One obstacle: the still-simmering animosity toward Slesinger lawyer Bertram Fields, who won a $250 million settlement for former Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg in a hyper-charged 1999 case. This time, the character may be soft and fuzzy, but the payout could be bigger. For Eisner, Pooh is becoming one Very Big Bother.

16. The expression "in full revolt" in the sentence "That's where Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore live, and the cartoon characters ... are in full revolt." (para. 1) implies that ______.
     (A) the cartoon characters are no longer popular
     (B) Disney is seriously involved in lawsuits
     (C) they show the sign of deefeat of Disney in lawsuits
     (D) the cartoon characters no longer play positive roles
17. The word  "anemic" in the expression  "Eisner  is under  attack  for...ABC's anemic ratings" (para. 2)  can be paraphrased as ______.
     (A) flexible                                    (B) changing
     (C) steady                                      (D) declining
18. The sentence "Disney wants to keep its grip on that bear and his honey jar."(para.3) can best be explained as which of the following?
     (A) Disney wants to take back the bear so as to make more honey.
     (B) Disney wants to take control of its cartoon characters.
     (C) Disney wants to keep the most profitable property Winnie the Pooh.
     (D) Disney wants to win the 12-year-old lawsuit.
19. Why does the author say that Disney's case may "hinge on the 'mommy memo'"?
     (A) Because Disney has been barred from introducing further evidence.
     (B) Because the documents related to Disney's merchandise sales cannot be found.
     (C) Because this might be the only documentrevealing Disney's original attitude.
     (D) Because Slesinger daughter faithfully recorded Jefferds' words.
20.  Which of the following CANNOT be concluded from the passage?
     (A) Disney has introduced convincing evidence to defend itself.
     (B) Disney has destroyed some important papers on purpose.
     (C) Disney has lost in the 1999 case with Jeffrey Katzenberg.
     (D) The stock price of Disney has been going down for a period of time.//tr.hjenglish.com/