The cartoon is jokingly updating Shylock, a leading figure from William Shakespeare’s classic play The Merchant of Venice, to fit into the new age of the Internet. In the play, the Christian merchant Antonio has borrowed money from Shylock ,who is Jewish. Because of their religion Jews like Shylock have been regarded as low and worthless and badly mistreated by the noble-styled gentleman Antonio and his friends, who at that time contained the very Christian society of Venice and indeed all Europe .On account of the conflict between members of the two religions, despite their being willing to enter into business deals, there is little love or friendship between the two.

Shylock agrees to lend Antonio the money but as part of the written agreement he insist that should Antonio fail to repay him on time he must cut a pound of his own flesh from his body and present it to Shylock. This of course would kill him but nonetheless Antonio agrees. In the end, Antonio’s business fails as the ships carrying his goods sink （Antonio is truly a gentlemen but not much of a businessman）,and Antonio has to be forced to threateningly face Shylock and his demands.

In the cartoon, Shylock is a merchant who operates, as many businessmen do today, on the Internet. His website, www.poundoffflesh, com. is probably where Antonio would log on to get terms of his loan. The humor lies in the contrast between the very modern business technology and the very old-fashioned costume Shylock is wearing.

1.We may learn from the text that the writer of the article is for the purpose of ____.

A. grandly advertising the new cartoon to the audience

B. warning us not to borrow money from the merchants like Shylock

C. simply introducing a new cartoon on the net to the public

D. telling readers to be sincere and honest when you deal with your friends

2.The underlined word “contain” probably means ____.

A. control　 B. cover　　　　　　 C .include　　　　　 D. create

3.You will find it very funny when you see the cartoon that ____.

A. large amounts of money go into Shylock’s cashbox

B. Antonio doesn’t suffer from his flesh being cut off his body

C. many famous actors and actress are invited to perform the updated classic play

D. all the characters in the cartoon are not in today’s clothes though they do nowaday business

4.What would be the best title for the text?

A. The E-merchant of Venice

B. Business between Shylock and Antonio

C. Never Borrow Money from Shylock

D. Sow the Wind and Reap（gain） the Whirlwind

III 阅读（共两节，满分40分）
第一节 阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Advertising in America offers some great advantages to consumers. For example, in order to keep prices low through mass production, companies must have a mass market for their products. Mass advertising creates mass markets. Producers cannot afford to develop new products, put them on the market and wait for customers to discover them. This would take too long. Demand for some products must be created. This is done through advertising.
　　But advertising sometimes makes it difficult for consumers to make wise decisions. The fact is that when people are constantly flooded with messages through the mass media persuading them to buy particular products, many respond by buying them.
　　Advertising is designed to influence an individual to buy a product. Sellers often study human behavior to discover what will convince consumers to buy a certain item. This reason for buying is called a buying motive.
　　Buying motives are usually broken down into two categories: rational and emotional. Rational buying motives include the desire to save money, the desire for comfort, or the desire for good workmanship. Emotional buying motives include buying out of fear, wanting to be liked, and wanting to have something better than your friends have.
　　Emotional appeals are found in most consumer advertising today. Certain cars promise to make the driver feel "younger" and " freer". Shoes promise to make the buyer's whole life "springier". Life insurance policies promise to take the "care out of living".
　　Most consumers believe that they are not easily influenced by emotional appeals. However, corporations that sell consumer products obviously think differently. They spend many millions of dollars every day on radio, television, newspaper and magazine ads that use these appeals.　　
1. It can be inferred from the passage that one of the advantages of advertising for consumers is that ________.
A. it can create a big demand for consumer goods
B. the mass market created by it leads to low prices
　C. producers can introduce new products to consumers
　D. it helps consumers discover new products
2. Consumers sometimes find it difficult to make a sensible decision when buying a particular product     because __________ .
　A. many advertisements are too difficult for them to understand
　B. they are afraid to be taken in by dishonest advertisements
　C. mass advertising offers them a range of good and cheap products
　D. they are confused by the quantity of advertisements promoting it
3. According to the passage, a toothpaste ad promising that people who use the product will make a lot of friends is an example of an ad that appeals to __________ .
　A. rational buying motives                              B. the consumer's commonsense
　C. emotional buying motives                         　D. the desire for a good product
4. The reason why companies spend enormous amounts of money on advertising is that ________ .
　A. they believe people can be influenced to buy a certain produce
B. it takes a lot of advertising to convince people to buy a certain product
　C. most consumers are not easily influenced by emotional appeals
　D. advertising based on emotional appeals are very effective
5. The best title for this passage would be ________ .
　A. Advertising can create demand                  　B. The advantages of advertising
　C. What effective advertising can do              　D. The role of advertising in selling products

There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system, the administered system, and the traditional system.
　　In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market, transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.
　　An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agency over all transactions. This agency will issue commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced, exchanged, and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan, drawn up by the government, shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated to different households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production, consumption, and exchange for the whole economy.
　　In a traditional society, production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition; every person’s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage, religion, and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition, too. People belonging to a certain group or caste（阶级） may have an obligation to care for other persons, provide them with food and shelter, care for their health, and provide for their education. Clearly, in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone, progress may be difficult to achieve. An inactive society may result.
【小题1】What is the main purpose of the passage?

Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decissions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world, in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertisers hoping to sell their products.

　The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people's life. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an ubsuitable item that it is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals,lifestyle instructors,or advisors.

　　It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing: no choice, no anxiety.

60. What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?

A. The exercise of rights is a luxury　

B. The practice of choice is difficult

C. The right of choice is given but at a price　

D. Choice and right exist at the same time

61. Why do more choices of goods give rise to anxiety?

A. Professionals find it hard to decide on s suitable product

B. People are likely to find themselves overcome by business persusion.

C. Shoppers may find themselves lost in the broad range of items.

D. Companies and advertisers are often misleading about the range of choice.

62. By using computers as an example, the author wants to prove 　　.

A. advanced products meet the needs of people.

B. products of the latest design flood the market

C. competitions are fierce in high-tech industry

D. everyday goods needs to be replaced often

63. What is the passage mainly about?

A. The variety of choices in modern society　　　　　

B. The opinions on people's right in different countries

C. The problem about the availability of everyday goods

D. The helplessness in purching decisions

For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choices. There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from fraud will be harder. Many governments therefore want to extend high street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.

　　Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs, or their rights to refund when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence in their country is on the screen. Other countries have regulators, but the rules of consumer protection differ, as does enforcement. Even where a clear right to compensation exists, the online catalogue customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a dud purchase.

　　One answer is for governments to cooperate more: to recognize each other’s rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, an alternative. Let the electronic businesses do the “regulation” themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.

　　In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines online may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA’s rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.

Consumers will need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort---and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain noisily when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.

According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce?

       A．Self – regulation by the business.   B．Strict consumer protection laws.

       C．Close international cooperation.     D．Government protection.

In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do?

       A．Refuse to pay for the purchase.      B．Go to the seller and ask for a refund.

       C．Appeal to consumer protection law.       D．Complain about it on the Internet.

In the author’s view, businesses would place a high emphasis on honest dealing because in the electronic world         .

       A．international cooperation would be much more frequent

       B．consumers could easily seek government protection

       C．a good reputation is a great advantage in competition

       D．it would be easy for consumers to complain

We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is    .

       A．very quick       B．very cautious    C．very slow  D．rather careless

If a customer buys something that does not meet his expectation, what is the advantage of dealing through electronic commerce over the present normal one?

       A．It will be easier for him to return the goods he is not satisfied with.

       B．It will be easier for him to attain the refund from the seller.

C．It will be easier for him to get his complaints heard by other consumers.

D．It will be easier for him to complain about this to the government.