Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
What is science fiction? To begin with, the following definition should be helpful: science fiction is a literary sub-class which requires a change (for human beings) from conditions as we know them and follow the implications of these changes to a conclusion. Although this definition will necessarily be modified, and expanded, and probably changed, in the course of this exploration, it conveys much of the basic groundwork and provides a point of departure.
The first point—that science fiction is a literary sub-class—is a very important one, but one which is often overlooked or ignored in most discussions of science fiction. Specially, science fiction is a sub-class of prose fiction, for nearly every piece of science fiction is either a short story or a novel. There are only a few dramas which could be called science fiction, with Karel Capek’s RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots) being the only one that is well known; the body of poetry that might be labeled science fiction is only slightly larger. To say that science fiction is a sub-class of prose fiction is to say that it has all the basic characteristics and serves the same basic function in much the same way as prose fiction in general—that is, it shares a great deal with all other novels and short stories.
Everything that can be said about prose fiction, in general, applies to science fiction. Every piece of science fiction, whether short or novel, must have a narrator, a story, a plot, a setting, characters, language, and theme. And like any prose, the themes of science fiction are concerned with interpreting man’s nature and experience in relation to the world around him. Themes in science fiction are constructed and presented in exactly the same ways that themes are dealt with in any other kind of fiction. They are the result of a particular combination of narrator, story, plot, character, setting, and language. In short, the reasons for reading and enjoying science fiction, and the ways of studying and analyzing it are basically the same they would be for any other story or novel.
57. Science fiction is called a literary sub-class because it .
A) has limits of its own
B) cannot be made into a dramatic presentation
C) is not important enough to be a literary form
D) shares characteristics with other types of prose fiction
58. Which of the following does NOT usually contribute to the theme in a piece of science fiction?
A) Narrator. B) Setting. C) Rhyme. D) Plot.
59. An appropriate title for the passage would be .
A) On the Dramatic Features of Science Fiction
B) Toward a Definition of Science Fiction
C) Science Fiction vs Prose Fiction
D) The Themes of Prose Fiction
60. The author’s definition suggests that all science fiction deals with .
A) the unfamiliar or unusual conditions
B) the same topics addressed by novels and short stories
C) Karel Cape’s well-known hypothesis
D) the conflict between science and fiction
61. According to the passage, which of the following conclusions is true?
A) Science fiction attracts us in much the same way a story or novel does.
B) It is not possible to define science fiction in a clear way.
C) Many people tried in vain to explain what science fiction is.
D) Very often science fiction appears in such literary forms as drama and poetry.
Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
The American economic system is organized around a basically private enterprise, market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen; and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system, it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
An important factor of a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system.
The important factor in a private enterprise economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.
62. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A) Americans are never satisfied with their incomes.
B) Americans tend to overstate their incomes.
C) Americans want to have their incomes increased.
D) Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes.
63. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?
A) Mechanized production can satisfy the consumers.
B) Consumers can express their demands through producers.
C) Producers decide the prices of products.
D) Supply and demand regulate prices.
64. According to the passage, a private enterprise economy is characterized by .
A) private property and rights concerned C)ownership of productive resources
B) manpower and natural resources control D)free contracts and prices
65. The passage is mainly about .
A) how American goods are produced B)how American consumers buy their goods
C) how American economic system works D)how American businessmen make their profits
66. The word “embraces” (Line 4, Para.3) may convey the meaning of .
A) hugs B) includes C) excludes D) demands |
