Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
    When school officials in Kalkaska,Michigan,closed classes last week,the media flocked to the story,portraying the town's 2,305 students as victims of stingy (吝啬的) taxpayers.There is some truth to that;the property-tax rate here is one-third lower than the state average.But shutting their schools also sallowed Kalkaska's educators and the state's largest teachers'union,the Michigan Education Association,to make a politcal point.Their aim was to spur passage of legislation Michigan lawmakers are debating to increase the state's share of school funding.
    It was no coincidence that Kalkaska shut its schools two weeks after residicted a 28 percent property-tax increase.The school board argued that without the increase it lacked the $ 1.5 million needed to keep schools open.
    But the school system had not done all it could to keep the schools open.Officials declined to borrow against next year's state aid,they refused to trim extracurricular activities and they did not consider seeking a smaller-perhaps more acceptable-tax increase.In fact,closing early is costing Kalkaska a significant amount,including 4600,000 in unemployment payments to teachers and staff and $250,000 in lost state sid.In February,the school system promised teachers and staff two months of retirement payments in case schools closed early,a deal that will cost the district $ 275,000 more.
    Other signs suggest school authorities were at least as eager to make a political statement as to keep schools open.The Michigan Education Association hired a public relations firm to stage a rally marking the school closings,which attracted 14 local and national television stations and networks.The president of the National Education Association,the MEA's parent organization,flew from Washington,D.C.,for the event.And to union tutored school officials in the art of television interviews.School supervisor Doyle Disbrow acknowledges the district could have kept schools open by cutting programs but denies the moves were politically motivated.
    Michigan lawmakers have reacted angrily to the closings.The state Senate has already voted to put the system into receivership (破产管理) and reopen schools immediately;the Michigan House Plans to considr the bill this week.

31.We learn from the passage that schools in Kalkaska,Michigan,are funded______ .
A)mainly by the state government
B)exclusively by the local government
C)by the National Education Association
D)by both the local and state governments

32.One of the purposes for which school officials closed classes was ______.
A)to draw the attention of local taxpayers to political issues
B)to avoid paying retirement benefits to teachers and staff
C)to pressure Michigan lawmakers into increastng state funds for local schools
D)to make the financial difficulties of their teachers and staff known to the public

33.The author seems to disapprove of________ .
A)the shutting of schools in Kalkaska
B)the involvement of the mass media
C)the Michigan lawmakers'endless debating
D)delaying the passage of the school funding legislation

34.We learn from the passage that school authorities in Kalkaska are more concerned about_______ .
A)making a political issue of the closing of the schools
B)the attitude of the MEA's parent organization
C)a raise in the property-tax rate in Michigan
D)reopening the shools there immediately

35.According to the passage,the closing of the schools developed into a crisis because of _______.
A)the strong protest on the part of the students'parents
B)the political motives on the part of the educators
C)the weak response of the state officials
D)the complexity of the problem

Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
    Early in the age of affluence (富裕) that followed World Wer Ⅱ，an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed,"Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life,that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals,that we seek our spiritual satisfaction,our ego satisfaction,is consumption. ... We need things consumed,burned up,worn out,replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.”
    Americans have responded to Lebow's call,and much of the world has followed.Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values.Opinion surveys in the world's two largest economics—Japan and the United States—show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent.
    Overconsumption by the world's fortunate is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth.Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests,soils,water,air and climate.
    Ironically,high consumption may be a mixed blessing in human terms,too.The time-honored values of integrity of character,good work,friendship,family and community have often been sacrificed in the rush to riches.Thus many in the industrial lands have a sense that their world of plenty is somehow hollow—that,misled by a consumerist culture,they have been fruitlessly attempting to satisfy what are essentially social,psychological and spiritual needs with material things.
    Of course,the opposite of overconsumption—poverty—is no solution to either environmental or human problems.It is infinitely worse for people and bad for thenatural world too.Dispos sessed (被剥夺得一无所有的) peasants slash-and burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America,and hungry nomads (游牧民族) turn their herds out onto fragile African grassland,reducing it to desert.
    If environmental destruction results when people have either too little or too much,we are left to wonder how much is enough.What level of consumption can the earth support?When dose having more cease to add noticeably to human satisfaction?

36.The emergence of the affluent society after World War II _______.
A)led to the reform of the retailing system
B)resulted in the worship of consumerism
C)gave rise to the dominance of the new egoism
D)gave birth to a new generation of upper class consumers

37.Apart from enormous productivity,another important impetus to high consumption is _______.
A)the people's desire for a rise in their living standards
B)the concept that one's success is measured by how much they consume
C)the imbalance that has existed between production and consumption
D)the conversion of the sale of goods into rituals

38. Why does the author say high consumption is a mixed blessing?
A)Because poverty still exists in an affluent society.
B)Because overconsumption won't last long due to unrestricted population growth.
C)Because traditional rituals are often neglected in the process of modernization.
D)Because moral values are sacrificed in pursuit of material satisfaction.

39.According to the passage,consumerist culture_______ .
A)will not alleviate poverty in wealthy countries
B)will not aggravate nevironmental problems
C)cannot thrive on a fragile economy
D)cannot satisfy human spiritual needs

40.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A)human spiritual needs should match material affluence
B)whether high consumption should be encouraged is still an issue
C)how to keep consumption at a reasonable level remains a problem
D)there is never an end to satisfying people's material needs