Direction: In this part, there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.
Passage 1
We live in southern California growing grapes, a first generation of vintners, and our home adjacent to the vineyards and the winery. And in order to earn the money to realize our dream of making wine, we worked for many years in a business that demanded several household moves, an incredible amount of risktaking. When it was time, we traded in our old life, cinched up our belts and began the creation of the winery.
We make small amounts of premium wine, and our lives are dictated by the rhythm of nature and the demands of the loving vines. The vines start sprouting tiny green tendrils in March and April, and the baby grapes begin to form in miniature, so perfect that they can be dipped in gold to form jewelry. The grapes swell and ripen in early fall, and when their sugar content is at the right level, they are harvested carefully by hand and crushed in small lots. The wine is fermented and tended until it is ready to be bottled. The vineyards shed their leaves; the vines are pruned and made ready for the doorman months and the next vintage.
It sounds nice, doesnt it? But from the start we knew there was a price for the privilege of becoming a winemaking family, connected to the land and the caprices of nature.
We work hard at something we love; we are slow to panic over the daily emergencies. Some hazards to completing a successful vintage are expected to happen: rain just before harvesting can cause mold; electricity unexpectedly interrupted during the cold fermentation of white wine can damage it; a delayed payment from a major client when the money is needed.
There are outside influences that take patience, and great perseverance. The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulates every facet of the wine business. A winerys records are audited as often as two or three times a year and every label must be approved.
But the greatest threat to the winery came out of a lawyers imagination. Our little winery was served notice that we were named in a lawsuit accusing us of endangering the public health by using lead foils on our bottles (it was the only material used until recently)“without warning consumers of a possible risk. ” There it was, our winerys name listed with the industrys giants.
I must have asked a hundred times:“who gets the money if the lawsuit is successful?” the answer was, and I never was able to assimilate it, the plaintiffs and their lawyers who filed the suit! Since the lawsuit was brought in behalf of consumers, it seemed to me that consumers must get something if it was proved that a lead foil was dangerous to them. We were told one of the consumer claimants was an employee of the firm filing the suit!
There are attorneys who focus their careers on lawsuits like this. It is an immense danger to the small businessman. Cash reserves can be used up in the blink of an eye when in the company of lawyers. As long as its possible for anyone to sue anybody for anything, we are all in danger. As long as the legal profession allows members to practice law dishonorably and lawyers are congratulated for winning big money in this way, well all be plagued with a corruptible justice system.
1. The grapes are harvested on a date that
A. may vary.
B. is traditionally set.
C. depends on the approval of the regulatory bureau.
D. is determined by availability of pickers.
2. According to the author, the life of vintners is most controlled by
A. the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
B. unexpected changes in temperature.
C. the sugar content of the grapes.
D. the tempo of the seasons.
3. The writer complains that when she questioned the lawyers she
A. never got an answer.B. never got a simple answer.
C. could make no sense of the answer she got.D. could not understand the answer she got.
4. Which of the following sentences is right?
A. The author descended from a small winemaking family.
B. The grapes are carefully harvested and crushed in small lots by hand.
C. They always deal with problems sternly.
D. They should have used another kind of bottle, but they didnt.
5. The writer thinks that the legal profession
A. strives to protect consumers.
B. includes rapacious attorneys.
C. unfortunately does a poor job of policing its members.
