It’s a brand new world --- a world built around brands. Hard-charging, noise-making, culture-shaping brands are everywhere. They’re on supermarket shelves, of course, but also in business plans for .com startups and in the names of sports complexes. Brands are infiltrating (渗透)people’s everyday lives --- by sticking their logoes (商标) on clothes, in concert programs, on subway –station walls, even in elementary school classrooms .
We live in an age in which CBS newscasters wear Nike jackets on the air, in which Burger King and McDonald’s open kiosks(小亭) in elementary school lunchrooms, in which schools like Stanford University are endowed with a Yahoo! Founders Chair. But as brands reach (and then overreach) into every aspects of our lives, the companies behind them invite more questions, deeper scrutiny—and an inevitable backlash(强烈反应) by consumers.
“Our intellectual lives and our public spaces are being taken over by marketing ---and that has real implications for citizenship,” says author and activists Naomi Klien. “It’s important for any healthy culture to have public space--- a place where people are treated as citizens instead of as consumers. We’ve completely lost that space.
Since the mid-1980s ,as more and more companies have shifted from being about products to being about ideas – Starbucks isn’t selling coffee; It’s selling community!----those companies have poured more and more resources into marketing campaigns.
To pay for those campaigns, those same companies figured out ways to cut costs elsewhere, for example, by using contract labor at home and low-wage labor in developing countries. Contract laborers are hired on a temporary, per-assignment basis, and employers have no obligation to provide any benefits (such as health insurance) or long-term job security. This saves companies money but obviously puts workers in vulnerable situations. In the United States, contract labor has given rise to so-called McJobs, which employers and workers alike pretend are temporary----even though these jobs are usually held by adults who are trying to support families.
The massive expansion of marketing campaigns in the 1980s coincided with the reduction of government spending for schools and for museums. This made those institutions much too willing, even eager, to partner with private companies. But companies took advantage of the needs of those institutions, reaching too far, and overwhelming the civic space with their marketing agendas.
21. Which of the following does the author state as a factor in the increasing presence of brands in people’s lives?
A the aggressive nature of corporate marketing
B the lack of government funding for schools and museums
C the lack of government regulations of marketing methods
D the corporate funding of public spaces
22. Naomi Klein’s attitude towards the infiltration of brands into spaces is one of .
A concern B ambivalence (矛盾心理) C outrage D acceptance
23. The passage suggests that most contract laborers in the U.S. .
A pretend to be temporary workers
B may have trouble supporting their families financially
C have work conditions comparable to those of low-wage workers overseas .
D are likely to receive health benefits from their employers
24. This passage is mainly about .
A the problems with current corporate practices
B the nature of current marketing campaigns and strategies
C the importance of brands in American culture
D the excessive presence of brand and marketing in people’s lives.
25. The last paragraph tells us that .
A inadequate federal funding facilitated the privatization of schools and museums
B public institutions were too quick to accept corporate marketing as a source of funding
C companies manipulated schools through sophisticated ad campaigns
D by the 1980s ,very few public institutions were not funding by corporations
Passage two
In April 1845, when John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln at Fort’s Theatre, the curtain finally fell on a play that had began almost as soon as the Americans colonies gained their independence from England. In 1776, American’s Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal”; 44 years later we were wrestling with a question: how can a nation founded on the idea of individual freedom reconcile with the existence of human slavery?
In 1819, 22 states were in the Union, 11 Free and 11 Slave. The South’s economy was based on the growing of cotton, and cotton was profitable on the backs of slaves. As new states were admitted to the Union, the South wanted as many as possible to be slave states, not only to support their economy, but to prevent the North from obtaining a majority in Congress and quite possibly changing the Constitution to outlaw slavery completely. This issue came to a head when Missouri applied to be admitted as a slave state. Thomas Jefferson called the debate that began with Missouri “like a fireball in the night”, which awakened me and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell （丧钟）of the nation.”
War was avoided the time as compromise was reached and Missouri would be admitted as a slave state. Maine, the next state admitted to the Union, would be admitted as free, thereby preserving the balance of power in the Congress.
By 1860, when the new Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, compromise would no longer work. Lincoln wanted to contain the spread of slavery. With Lincoln’s election in November that year, the South felt that it was only a matter of time before the Southern States lost their slim Democratic Party majority to those who wished to abolish slavery. It was in this same year that John Wilkes Booth said that “So deep is my hatred for such men that I wish I had them in my grasp and I the power to crash.”
Equally passionate, Lincoln held that America was the “Last Best Hope on Earth” for freedom. The United States was unique in the family of nations. Of all the nations in the world, only America was governed by her people. Kings, Queens, Princes or Emperors ruled all the old world, where rights were held by the government and given to the people. In America, right were held by the people and given to the government. The iron was that the Old World had done away with slavery decades before, yet the United States, beacon（灯塔）of freedom---had human bondage（奴役）. Lincoln said it himself,” the nation cannot exist half-slave and half-free, it must be all of one thing or all of the other.”
26. We learn from the first paragraph that .
A the seed of the American Civil War were sown when the nation was founded
B John Wilkes Booth had plotted to kill Lincoln from the moment America gain its independence.
C all men in America obtained equal rights with the Declaration of Independence
D John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at the end of a performance in Ford’s Theatre.
27. The fundamental conflict between the Union and the South lies in .
A religious faiths
B political beliefs
C economic interests
D geographic differences
28. It can be inferred from the context of Para. 4 .
A John Wilkes Booth was one of the fireballs of the South
B the Democratic Party was strongly opposed to slavery
C with the election of Lincoln the South lost its majority in Congress
D the Civil War could have been avoided if Lincoln had not won the election
29. What did Lincoln wish to do when he became President of the United States?
A Make compromises
B Prevent the spread of slavery
C Strike a balance
D Get prepared for war
30. In what way was America unique in the family of nations .
A It was the only nation that allowed the existence of slavery
B It was the only nation that existed half-slave and half-free
C It was the only nation whose government gave rights to the people
D It was the only nation whose power of government was given by people
Passage three
The Internet, E-commerce and globalization are making a new economic era possible. By the middle of the 21st century, capitalist markets will largely be replaced by a new kind of economic system based on networked relationships, contractual arrangements and access rights.
Has the quality of our lives at work, at home and in our communities increased in direct proportion to all the new Internet and business-to-business Internet services being introduced into our lives? I have asked this question of hundreds of CEOS and corporate executives in Europe and the United States. Surprisingly, virtually everyone has said, “ No ,quite contrary.” The very people responsible for ushering（展示）in what some have called a “technological renaissance” say they are working longer hours, feel more stressed, are more impatient, and are even less civil in their dealings with colleagues and friends---not to mention strangers. And what’s more revealing, they place much of the blame on the very same technologies they are so aggressively championing.
The techno gurus(领袖) promised us that access would make life more convenient and give us more time. Instead, the very technological wonders that were supposed to liberate us have begun to enslave us in a web of connections from which there seems to be no easy escape.
If an earlier generation was preoccupied with the quest to enclose a vast geographic frontier, the .com generation, it seems, is more caught up in the colonization of time. Every spare moment of our time is being filled with some form of commercial connection, making time itself the most scarce of all resources. Our e-mail, voice mail and cell phones, our 24-hour Internet news and entertainment all holler(唤起) for our attention
And while we have created every kind of labor-and time-saving device to service our needs, we are beginning to feel like we have less time available to us than any other humans in history. That is because the great proliferation of labor-and-time-saving services only increases the diversity, pace and flow of commodified (商业化的) activity around us. For example, e-mail is a great convenience. However, we now find ourselves spending much of our day frantically responding to each other’s electronic messages. The cell phone is a great time-saver. Except now we are always potentially in reach of someone else who wants our attention.
Social conservatives talk about the decline in civility and blame it on the loss of a moral compass and religious values .Has anyone bothered to ask whether the hyperspeed culture is making all of us less patient and less willing to listen and defer, consider and reflect?
Maybe we need to ask what kinds of connections really count and what types of access really matter in the e-economy era. If this new technology revolution is only about hyperefficiency, then we risk losing something even precious than time -----our sense of what it means to be a caring human being.
31. The author suggests that the most resource in today’s society is .
A technology B economic assets C access to information D time
32.We learn from this passage that many executives feel that
A technological advances are essential to today’s economic system
B technology has actually led to decline in their quality of life
C longer hours are making their workers more impatient and uncivil
D technology can be blamed for many of today’s social problems
33.The phrase “the colonization of time” (line 2,para.4) refers to .
A the filling of every moment of time with commercial transactions
B the quest for efficiency in the workplace
C the growing use of electronic mail and other time-saving services
D the impact of technology on our sense of time
34. In the fifth paragraph the author suggests that .
A new technologies may make people more impatient
B social conservatives do not understand the importance of technology
C the speed of modern culture may impact our moral and religious values.
D people in the technology sector are less civil than those in other fields
35. The best title for the passage could be .
A The future of the technological Renaissance
B Even Corporate Executives Get the Blues
C The New Internet Economy
D The Disadvantages of Too much Access
Passage four
According to sociologists, there are several different ways in which a person may become recognized as the leader of a social group. In the family, traditional cultural patterns confer leadership on one or both of the parents. In other cases, such as friendship groups, one or more persons may gradually emerge as leaders, although there is no formal process of selection. In larger groups, leaders are usually chosen formally through election or recruitment.
Although leaders are often thought to be people with unusual personal ability, decades of research have failed to produce consistent evidence that there is any category of “natural leaders”. It seems that there is no set of personal qualities that all leaders have in common; rather, virtually any person may be recognized as a leader if the person has qualities that meet the needs of that particular group.
Research suggests that there are typically two different leadership roles that are held by different individuals. Instrumental leadership is leadership that emphasizes the completion of tasks by a social group. Group members look to instrumental leaders to “get things done.” Expressive leadership, on the other hand, is leadership that emphasizes the collective well-beings of a social group’s members. Expressive leaders are less concerned with the overall goals of the group than with providing emotional support to group members and attempting to minimize tension and conflict among them.
Instrumental leaders are likely to have a rather secondary relationship to other group members. They give others and may discipline group members who inhibit the attainment of the group’s goals. Expressive leaders cultivate a more personal or primary relationship to others in the group. They offer sympathy when someone experiences difficulties and try to resolve issues that threaten to divide the group. As the difference in these two roles suggest, expressive leaders generally receive more personal affection from group members; instrumental leaders, if they are successful in promoting group goals, may enjoy a more distant respect.
36. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A The problems faced by leaders.
B How leadership differs in small and large groups.
C How social groups determine who will lead them.
D The role of leaders in social groups.
37. The passage mentions all of the following ways by which people can become leaders EXCEPT
精彩生活 
