TEXT G First read the question. 53. In the passage the authors attitude towards the subject under discussion is ____. A. factual. B. critical. C. favorable. D. ambiguous. Read the text quickly and then answer the question. With increasing prosperity, Western European youth is having a fling that is creating distinctive consumer and cultural patterns. The result has been the increasing emergence in Europe of that phenomenon well known in America as the "youth market." This is a market in which enterprising businesses cater to the demands of teenagers and older youths in all their rock mania and pop-art forms. In Western Europe, the youth market may appropriately be said to be in its infancy. In some countries such as Britain, West Germany and France, it is more advanced than in others. Some manifestations of the market, chiefly sociological, have been recorded, but it is only just beginning to be the subject of organized consumer research and promotion. Characteristics of the evolving European youth market indicate dissimilarities as well as similarities to the American youth market. The similarities: The markets basis is essentially the same —— more spending power and freedom to use it in the hands of teenagers and older youth. Young consumers also make up an increasingly high proportion of the population. As in the United States, youthful tastes in Europe extend over a similar range of products —— records and record players, transistor radios, leather jackets and "wayout," extravagantly styled clothing, cosmetics and soft drinks. Generally it now is difficult to tell in which direction trans-Atlantic teenage influences are flowing. Also, a pattern of conformity dominates European youth as in this country, though in Britain the object is to wear clothes that "make the wearer stand out," but also make him "in," such as tight trousers and precisely tailored jackets. Worship and emulation of "idols" in the entertainment field, especially the "pop" singers and other performers is pervasive. There is also the same exuberance and unpredictability in sudden fad switches. In Paris, buyers of stores catering to the youth market carefully watch what dress is being worn by a popular television teenage singer to be ready for a sudden demand for copies. In Stockholm other followers of teenage fads call the youth market "attractive but irrational." The most obvious differences between the youth market in Europe and that in the United States is in size. In terms of volume and variety of sales, the market in Europe is only a shadow of its American counterpart, but it is a growing shadow. But there are also these important dissimilarities generally with the American youth market: In the European youth market, unlike that of the United States, it is the working youth who provides the bulk of purchasing power. On the average, the school-finishing age still tends to be 14 years. This is the maximum age to which compulsory education extends, and with Europes industrial manpower shortage, thousands of teenage youths may soon attain incomes equal in many cases to that of their fathers. Although, because of general prosperity, European youths are beginning to continue school studies beyond the compulsory maximum age, they do not receive anything like the pocket money or "allowances" of American teenagers. The European average is about 5 to 10 a month. Working youth, consequently, are the big spenders in the European youth market, but they also have less leisure than those staying on at school, who in turn have less buying power.
53. In the passage the author's attitude towards the subject under discussion is ____.
A) factual.
B) critical.
C) favorable.
D) ambiguous.
TEXT H First read the question. 54. The passage mainly ____. A. discusses patterns in company car use. B. advertises famous British company cars. C. recommends inexpensive company cars. D. introduces different models of cars. Read the text quickly and then answer the question. Motorists would rather pay more tax than lose the place in the corporate pecking order conferred on them by their company cars. And it is the company car —— which accounts for half of all new motor sales each year —— which continues to be the key method of measuring your progress up the greasy pole. Although a Roll-Royce or Bentley is the ultimate success symbol, a Jaguar is still desired by most top directors, according to the survey by top peoples pay and perks experts at the Monks Partnership. About 40 per cent of company cars are perks rather than necessities for the job, even though the average company car driver with a 1500cc engine is paying more than three times as much in tax compared to a decade ago. Average cash allowances for a company car rise from ￡1,500 for those whose job requires them to have four wheels, to ￡4,000 for chief executives. For company chairmen, the BMW 7 series and Jaguars Daimler Double Six top the list of favored cars, with upper range Mercedes-Benz models close behind. The chief executives tastes follow a similar pattern with Jaguars Sovereign 4.0 litre and XJ6 3.2, Mercedes-Benzs 320/300 and the BMX 7-series proving most popular. Or other directors, the BMX 5 series is tops, followed by the Mercedes-Benz 200 series, Jaguars XJ6 3.2 and the Rover 800 series. Senior managers favor the BMX 3 and 5 series, depending on their rank and company size. Sales representatives drive the 1.8 and 1.6 liter Ford Mondeos, Rover 200 and 400 series and Peugeots 405. Top of the prohibited list are sports cars and convertibles. But British policies are being relaxed, with 64 per cent of companies offering Japanese cars. The practice of employees trading up by making cash contribution to the value of the car they want is becoming more common, with some firms reporting take-up rates in excess of 70 per cent.
54. The passage mainly ____.
A) discusses patterns in company car use.
B) advertises famous British company cars.
C) recommends inexpensive company cars.
D) introduces different models of cars.
TEXT I First read the questions. 55. ____ deals with Marxs intellectual impact. A. Chapter I B. Chapter II C. Chapter III D. Chapter IV 56. The chapter that discusses an important source of learning in high-technology industries is ____. A. Chapter III. B. Chapter IV. C. Chapter V. D. Chapter VI. 57. The role of market forces in innovative activities is addressed in ____. A. Part I. B. Part II. C. Part III. D. Part IV. Read the text quickly and then answer the questions. The book opens with a broad survey, in part I, of the historical literature on technical change. It attempts to provide a guide to a wide range of writings that illuminate technological change as a historical phenomenon. The first chapter discusses aspects of the conceptualization of technological change and then goes on to consider what the literature has had to say on (1) the rate of technological change, (2) the forces influencing its direction, (3) the speed with which new technologies have diffused, and (4) the impact of technological change on the growth in productivity. A separate chapter is devoted to Marx. Marxs intellectual impact has been so pervasive as to rank him as a major social force in history as well as an armchair interpreter of history. Part II is, in important respects, the core of the book. Each of its chapters advances an argument about some significant characteristics of industrial technologies. Chapter 3 explores a variety of less visible forms in which technological improvements enter the economy. Chapter 4 explicitly considers some significant characteristics of different energy forms. It examines some of the complexities of the long-term interactions between technological change and energy resources. Chapter 5, "On Technological Expectations," addresses an issue that is simultaneously relevant to a wide range of industries —— indeed, to all industries that are experiencing, or are expected to experience, substantial rates of technical improvement. The last two chapters of Part II are primarily concerned with issues of greatest relevance to high-technology industries. Chapter 6, "Learning by Using," identifies an important source of learning that grows out of actual experience in using products characterized by a high degree of system complexity. In contrast to learning by doing, which deals with skill improvements that grow out of the productive process, learning by using involves an experience that begins where learning by doing ends. The final chapter in Part II, "How Exogenous Is Science?" looks explicitly at the nature of science technology interactions in high-technology industries. It examines some of the specific ways in which these industries have been drawing upon the expanding pool of scientific knowledge and techniques. The three chapters constituting Part III share a common concern with the role of market forces in shaping both the rate and the direction of innovative activities. They attempt to look into the composition of forces constituting the demand and the supply for new products and processes, especially in high-technology industries. Chapter 8 examines the history of technical change in the commercial aircraft industry over a fifty-year period 1925-75. Finally, the two chapters of Part IV place the discussion of technological change in an international context, with the first chapter oriented toward its long history and second toward the present and the future. Chapter 11 pays primary attention to the transfer of industrial technology from Britain to the world-wide industrialization, because nineteenth-century industrialization was, in considerable measure, the story of the overseas transfer of the technologies already developed by the first industrial society. The last chapter speculates about the prospects for the future from an American perspective, a perspective that is often dominated by apprehension over the loss of American technological leadership, especially in high-technology industries. By drawing upon some of the distinctive characteristics of high-technology industries, an attempt is made to identify possible elements of a future scenario.
55. ____ deals with Marx's intellectual impact.
A) Chapter I
B) Chapter II
C) Chapter III
D) Chapter IV
56. The chapter that discusses an important source of learning in high-technology industries is ____.
A) Chapter III.
B) Chapter IV.
C) Chapter V.
D) Chapter VI.
57. The role of market forces in innovative activities is addressed in ____.
A) Part I.
B) Part II.
C) Part III.
D) Part IV.
53. In the passage the author's attitude towards the subject under discussion is ____.
A) factual.
B) critical.
C) favorable.
D) ambiguous.
TEXT H First read the question. 54. The passage mainly ____. A. discusses patterns in company car use. B. advertises famous British company cars. C. recommends inexpensive company cars. D. introduces different models of cars. Read the text quickly and then answer the question. Motorists would rather pay more tax than lose the place in the corporate pecking order conferred on them by their company cars. And it is the company car —— which accounts for half of all new motor sales each year —— which continues to be the key method of measuring your progress up the greasy pole. Although a Roll-Royce or Bentley is the ultimate success symbol, a Jaguar is still desired by most top directors, according to the survey by top peoples pay and perks experts at the Monks Partnership. About 40 per cent of company cars are perks rather than necessities for the job, even though the average company car driver with a 1500cc engine is paying more than three times as much in tax compared to a decade ago. Average cash allowances for a company car rise from ￡1,500 for those whose job requires them to have four wheels, to ￡4,000 for chief executives. For company chairmen, the BMW 7 series and Jaguars Daimler Double Six top the list of favored cars, with upper range Mercedes-Benz models close behind. The chief executives tastes follow a similar pattern with Jaguars Sovereign 4.0 litre and XJ6 3.2, Mercedes-Benzs 320/300 and the BMX 7-series proving most popular. Or other directors, the BMX 5 series is tops, followed by the Mercedes-Benz 200 series, Jaguars XJ6 3.2 and the Rover 800 series. Senior managers favor the BMX 3 and 5 series, depending on their rank and company size. Sales representatives drive the 1.8 and 1.6 liter Ford Mondeos, Rover 200 and 400 series and Peugeots 405. Top of the prohibited list are sports cars and convertibles. But British policies are being relaxed, with 64 per cent of companies offering Japanese cars. The practice of employees trading up by making cash contribution to the value of the car they want is becoming more common, with some firms reporting take-up rates in excess of 70 per cent.
54. The passage mainly ____.
A) discusses patterns in company car use.
B) advertises famous British company cars.
C) recommends inexpensive company cars.
D) introduces different models of cars.
TEXT I First read the questions. 55. ____ deals with Marxs intellectual impact. A. Chapter I B. Chapter II C. Chapter III D. Chapter IV 56. The chapter that discusses an important source of learning in high-technology industries is ____. A. Chapter III. B. Chapter IV. C. Chapter V. D. Chapter VI. 57. The role of market forces in innovative activities is addressed in ____. A. Part I. B. Part II. C. Part III. D. Part IV. Read the text quickly and then answer the questions. The book opens with a broad survey, in part I, of the historical literature on technical change. It attempts to provide a guide to a wide range of writings that illuminate technological change as a historical phenomenon. The first chapter discusses aspects of the conceptualization of technological change and then goes on to consider what the literature has had to say on (1) the rate of technological change, (2) the forces influencing its direction, (3) the speed with which new technologies have diffused, and (4) the impact of technological change on the growth in productivity. A separate chapter is devoted to Marx. Marxs intellectual impact has been so pervasive as to rank him as a major social force in history as well as an armchair interpreter of history. Part II is, in important respects, the core of the book. Each of its chapters advances an argument about some significant characteristics of industrial technologies. Chapter 3 explores a variety of less visible forms in which technological improvements enter the economy. Chapter 4 explicitly considers some significant characteristics of different energy forms. It examines some of the complexities of the long-term interactions between technological change and energy resources. Chapter 5, "On Technological Expectations," addresses an issue that is simultaneously relevant to a wide range of industries —— indeed, to all industries that are experiencing, or are expected to experience, substantial rates of technical improvement. The last two chapters of Part II are primarily concerned with issues of greatest relevance to high-technology industries. Chapter 6, "Learning by Using," identifies an important source of learning that grows out of actual experience in using products characterized by a high degree of system complexity. In contrast to learning by doing, which deals with skill improvements that grow out of the productive process, learning by using involves an experience that begins where learning by doing ends. The final chapter in Part II, "How Exogenous Is Science?" looks explicitly at the nature of science technology interactions in high-technology industries. It examines some of the specific ways in which these industries have been drawing upon the expanding pool of scientific knowledge and techniques. The three chapters constituting Part III share a common concern with the role of market forces in shaping both the rate and the direction of innovative activities. They attempt to look into the composition of forces constituting the demand and the supply for new products and processes, especially in high-technology industries. Chapter 8 examines the history of technical change in the commercial aircraft industry over a fifty-year period 1925-75. Finally, the two chapters of Part IV place the discussion of technological change in an international context, with the first chapter oriented toward its long history and second toward the present and the future. Chapter 11 pays primary attention to the transfer of industrial technology from Britain to the world-wide industrialization, because nineteenth-century industrialization was, in considerable measure, the story of the overseas transfer of the technologies already developed by the first industrial society. The last chapter speculates about the prospects for the future from an American perspective, a perspective that is often dominated by apprehension over the loss of American technological leadership, especially in high-technology industries. By drawing upon some of the distinctive characteristics of high-technology industries, an attempt is made to identify possible elements of a future scenario.
55. ____ deals with Marx's intellectual impact.
A) Chapter I
B) Chapter II
C) Chapter III
D) Chapter IV
56. The chapter that discusses an important source of learning in high-technology industries is ____.
A) Chapter III.
B) Chapter IV.
C) Chapter V.
D) Chapter VI.
57. The role of market forces in innovative activities is addressed in ____.
A) Part I.
B) Part II.
C) Part III.
D) Part IV.