Section IUse of English
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Weak dollar or no, $46,000 — the price for a single year of undergraduate instruction amid the red brick of Harvard Yard — is 1. But nowadays cost is 2 barrier to entry at many of America's best universities. Formidable financial-assistance policies have 3 fees or slashed them deeply for needy students. And last month Harvard announced a new plan designed to 4 the sticker-shock for undergraduates from middle and even upper-income families too。
Since then, other rich American universities have unveiled 5 initiatives. Yale, Harvard's bitterest 6, revealed its plans on January 14th. Students whose families make 7 than $60,000 a year will pay nothing at all. Families earning up to $200,000 a year will have to pay an average of 10% of their incomes. The university will 8 its financial-assistance budget by 43%， to over $80m。
Harvard will have a similar arrangement for families making up to $180,000. That makes the price of going to Harvard or Yale 9 to attending a state-run university for middle-and upper-income students. The universities will also not require any student to take out 10 to pay for their 11, a policy introduced by Princeton in 2001 and by the University of Pennsylvania just after Harvard's 12. No applicant who gains admission, officials say, should feel 13 to go elsewhere because he or she can't afford the fees。
None of that is quite as altruistic as it sounds. Harvard and Yale are, after all, now likely to lure more students away from previously 14 options, particularly state-run universities, 15 their already impressive admissions figures and reputations。
The schemes also provide a 16 for structuring university fees in which high prices for rich students help offset modest prices for poorer ones and families are less 17 on federal grants and government-backed loans。
Less wealthy private colleges whose fees are high will not be able to 18 Harvard or Yale easily. But America's state-run universities, which have traditionally kept their fees low and stable, might well try a differentiated 19 scheme as they raise cash to compete academically with their private 20. Indeed, the University of California system has already started to implement a sliding-fee scale。
1. [A] cheap[B] reasonable[C] high[D] expensive
2. [A] still[B] no[C] becoming[D] certain
3. [A] eliminated[B] increased[C] doubled[D] decreased
4. [A] relieve[B] suspend[C] enhance[D] diminish
5. [A] different[B] same[C] similar[D] encouraging
6. [A] counterpart[B] coordinator[C] rival[D] cooperator
7. [A] less[B] more[C] richer[D] poorer
8. [A] enhance[B] expand[C] increase[D] elevate
9. [A] incomparable[B] comparable[C] distinguishable[D] identical
10. [A] part-time job[B] work[C] loans[D] savings
11. [A] charge[B] fare[C] payment[D] tuition
12. [A] policy[B] implementation[C] adjustment[D] announcement
13. [A] pressured[B] ashamed[C] insecure[D] unhappy
14. [A] cheaper[B] more reasonable[C] public[D] better
15. [A] expanding[B] shrinking[C] enhancing[D] diminishing
16. [A] chance[B] model[C] disposition[D] location
17. [A] independent[B] thankful[C] detached[D] reliant
18. [A] beat[B] win[C] copy[D] follow
19. [A] pricing[B] tuition[C] scholarship[D] financial aiding
20. [A] rivals[B] counterparts[C] coordinators[D] cooperators
Section IIReading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
It is the world's fourth-most-important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice. It provides more calories, more quickly, using less land and in a wider range of climates than any other plant. It is, of course, the potato。
The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato. It hopes that greater awareness of the merits of potatoes will contribute to the achievement of its Millennium Development Goals, by helping to alleviate poverty, improve food security and promote economic development. It is always the international year of this or month of that. But the potato's unusual history means it is well worth celebrating by readers of The Economist because the potato is intertwined with economic development, trade liberalisation and globalisation。
Unlikely though it seems, the potato promoted economic development by underpinning the industrial revolution in England in the 19th century. It provided a cheap source of calories and was easy to cultivate, so it liberated workers from the land. Potatoes became popular in the north of England, as people there specialised in livestock farming and domestic industry, while farmers in the south (where the soil was more suitable) concentrated on wheat production. By a happy accident, this concentrated industrial activity in the regions where coal was readily available, and a potato-driven population boom provided ample workers for the new factories. Friedrich Engels even declared that the potato was the equal of iron for its “historically revolutionary role”。
The potato promoted free trade by contributing to the abolition of Britain's Corn Laws — the cause which prompted the founding of The Economist in 1843. The Corn Laws restricted imports of grain into the United Kingdom in order to protect domestic wheat producers. Landowners supported the laws, since cheap imported grain would reduce their income, but industrialists opposed them because imports would drive down the cost of food, allowing people to spend more on manufactured goods. Ultimately it was not the eloquence of the arguments against the Corn Laws that led to their abolition — and more's the pity. It was the tragedy of the Irish potato famine of 1845, in which 1million Irish perished when the potato crop on which they subsisted succumbed to blight. The need to import grain to relieve the situation in Ireland forced the government, which was dominated by landowners who backed the Corn Laws, to reverse its position。
This paved the way for liberalisation in other areas, and free trade became British policy. As the Duke of Wellington complained at the time, “rotten potatoes have done it all。”
In the form of French fries, served alongside burgers and Coca-Cola, potatoes are now an icon of globalisation. This is quite a turnaround given the scepticism which first greeted them on their arrival in the Old World in the 16th century. Spuds were variously thought to cause leprosy, to be fit only for animals, to be associated with the devil or to be poisonous. They took hold in 18th century Europe only when war and famine meant there was nothing else to eat; people then realised just how versatile and reliable they were. As Adam Smith, one of the potato's many admirers, observed at the time, “The very general use which is made of potatoes in these kingdoms as food for man is a convincing proof that the prejudices of a nation, with regard to diet, however deeply rooted, are by no means unconquerable。” Mashed, fried, boiled and roast, a humble tuber changed the world, and free-trading globalisers everywhere should celebrate it。