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(每题3分，共45分) 1、 第一篇 Most-Favored-Nation Treatment
A tax placed on products because they go from one nation to another is called a tariff. Import duties are the most significant, most common, and most controversial of tariffs. They are used to raise money for a government, to protect domestic manufactures and agriculture, or to achieve a combination of both. The list of country’s import duties is called a tariff schedule. A single tariff schedule applies to all goods, no matter what their country of origin. A double or multicolumned(多列的)schedule provides for differing rates depending on the country of origin. Most modern trade agreements are made on the basis of what is called most-favored-nation treatment.
A most-favored-nation treatment guarantees that any rights or concessions in trade made by either of the contracting nations to a third nation are also granted to the other party to the treaty. The clause is also a guarantee against discriminatory(歧视性的)trade practices. Because these clauses are included in international trade treaties, they have become a principle of international law as well as instruments of economic policy.
The primary application of most-favored-nation status has always concerned the duties charged on imports. If, for example, Canada and Japan deal with each other on most-favored-nation terms, Canada could not place higher duties on Japanese television sets than it does on those imported from Korea. And, of course, any benefit granted to Korean imports would be given to Japan as well.
There have traditionally been two forms of most-favored-nation treatment, conditional and unconditional. Under the conditional form, the contracting parties do not grant all the concessions made to a third country, only those concessions specifically bargained for. In the unconditional form, any tariff concession granted to a third party is also granted to the other party to the treaty.

参考答案： D    

答案解析： D

1What are the chief purposes of charging duties on imports?

A.To put taxes on any products that to in and out of a country

B.To guarantee the greatest part of income for a government

C.To stop foreign goods from entering one’s country

D.To support domestic production and increase a country’s income

参考答案： A    

答案解析： A

2The phrase “no matter what their country of origin” in the first paragraph means

A.no matter what countries the goods are from

B.no matter how highly developed the export countries are

C.no matter how highly developed the import countries are

D.no matter where the country is located

参考答案： B    

答案解析： B

3The example in the third paragraph concerning Canada and Janpan best illustrates the statement that

A.a most-favored-nation clause is included in every international trade treaty

B.contracting nations give to each other the same rights or concessions as to a third party

C.the most-favored-nation status is just applicable to import duties

D.Canada must treat Japan fairly by granting it the same benefits as to Korea

参考答案： C    

答案解析： C

4Concerning the two forms of most-favored-nation treatment, we can see that

A.the unconditional form of most-favored-nation treatment grants any rights and concessions to another party that demands them

B.the conditional form of most-favored-nation treatment is not in any sense desirable in international trade

C.The two forms of most-favored-nation treatment exist side by side in international trade practices

D.the author is obviously in favor of the unconditional form of most-favored-nation treatment

参考答案： D    

答案解析： D

5Which of the following titles can best replace the original one?

A.Decisive and Controversial Tariffs

B.Import Duties:the Most Important Source of National Income

C.Protection of Domestic Manufactures

D.Mutual Benefit in International Trade Treaties

2、 第二篇 Putting Plants to Work
Using the power of the sun is nothing new. People have had solar-powered calculators and buildings with solar panels for decades. But plants are the real experts: They''ve been using sunlight as an energy source for billions of years.
Cells in the green leaves of plants work like tiny factories to convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into sugars and starches, stored energy that the plants can use. This conversion process is called photosynthesis. Unfortunately, unless you''re a plant, it''s difficult and expensive to convert sunlight into storable energy. That''s why scientists are taking a closer look at exactly how plants do it.
Some scientists are trying to get plants, or biological cells that act like plants, to work as miniature photosynthetic power stations. For example, Maria Ghirardi of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. , is working with green algae. She''s trying to trick them into producing hydrogen instead of sugars when they perform photosynthesis. Once the researchers can get the algae working efficiently, the hydrogen that they produce could be used to power fuel cells in cars or to generate electricity.
The algae are grown in narrow-necked glass bottles to produce hydrogen in the lab. During photosynthesis, plants normally make sugars or starches. "But under certain conditions, a lot of algae are able to use the sunlight energy not to store starch, but to make hydrogen." Ghirardi says. For example, algae will produce hydrogen in an airfree environment. It''s the oxygen in the air that prevents algae from making hydrogen most of the time.
Working in an airfree environment, however, is difficult. It''s not a practical way to produce cheap energy. But Ghirardi and her colleagues have discovered that by removing a chemical called sulfate from the environment that the algae grow in, they will make hydrogen instead of sugars, even when air is present.
Unfortunately, removing the sulfate also makes the algae''s cells work very slowly, and not much hydrogen is produced. Still, the researchers see this as a first step in their goal to produce hydrogen efficiently from algae. With more work, they may be able to speed the cells'' activity and produce larger quantities of hydrogen.
The researchers hope that algae will one day be an easy-to-use fuel source. The organisms are cheap to get and to feed, Ghirardi says, and they can grow almost anywhere: "You can grow them in a reactor, in a pond. You can grow them in the ocean. There''s a lot of flexibility in how you can use these organisms."

参考答案： C    

答案解析： C

1What does the writer say about plants concerning solar energy?

A.Plants are the real experts in producing solar energy

B.Plants have been used to produce solar energy

C.Plants have been using solar energy for billions of years

D.Plants have been a source of solar energy

参考答案： B    

答案解析： B

2Why do some scientists study how plants convert sunlight carbon dioxide, and water into sugars and starches?

A.Because they want algae to produce sugars and starches

B.Because they want green plants to become a new source of energy

C.Because they want to turn plant sugars to a new form of energy

D.Because they want to make photosynthesis more efficient

参考答案： B    

答案解析： B

3According to the fifth paragraph, under what conditions are algae able to use solar energy to make hydrogen?

A.When there is a lot of oxygen in the air

B.When there is no oxygen in the air

C.When photosynthesis is taking place

D.When enough starch is stored

参考答案： D    

答案解析： D

4Researchers have met with difficulties when trying to make algae produce hydrogen efficiently. Which one of the following is one such difficulty？

A.It is not possible to remove sulfate from the environment

B.It is not possible to work in an airfree environment to produce hydrogen

C.It is not easy to make sugars instead of hydrogen

D.It is too slow for algae to produce hydrogen when the sulfate is removed

参考答案： C    

答案解析： C

5What is NOT true of algae?

A.They are easy to grow

B.They can be a very good fuel source

C.They are cheap to eat

D.They can be used in many ways

3、 第三篇? Clone Farm
Factory farming could soon enter a new era of mass production. Companies in the US are developing the technology needed to “clone” chickens on a massive scale. Once a chicken with desirable traits has been bred or genetically engineered, tens of thousands of eggs, which will hatch into identical copies, could roll off the production lines every hour. Billions of clones could be produced each year to supply chicken farms with birds that all grow at the same rate, have the same amount of meat and taste the same.
This, at least, is the vision of the US’s National Institute of Science and Technology, which has given Origen Therapeutics of Burlingame, California, and Embrex of North Carolina $4.7 million to help fund research. The prospect has alarmed animal welfare groups, who fear it could increase the suffering of farm birds.
That’s unlikely to put off the poultry industry, however, which wants disease resistant birds that grow faster on less food. “Producers would like the same meat quantity but to use reduced DIVs to get there,” says Mike Fitzgerald of Origen. To meet this demand, Origen aims to “create an animal that is effectively a clone”, he says. Normal cloning doesn’t work in birds because eggs can’t be removed and implanted, Instead, the company is trying to bulk-grow embryonic stem cells taken from fertilized eggs as soon as they’re laid. “The trick is to culture the cells without them starting to distinguish, so they remain pluripotent,” says Fitzgerald.
Using a long-established technique, these donor cells will then be injected into the embryo of a freshly laid, fertilized recipient egg, forming a chick that is a “chimera”. Strictly speaking a chimera isn’t a clone, because it contains cells from both donor and recipient. But Fitzgerald says it will be enough if, say, 95 percent of a chicken’s body develops from donor cells. “In the poultry world, it doesn’t matter if it’s not 100 percent,” he says.
Another challenge for Origen is to scale up production. To do this, it has teamed up with Embrex, which produces machines that can inject vaccines into up to 50,000 eggs an hour. Embrex is now trying to modify the machines to locate the embryo and inject the cells into precisely the right spot without killing it.
In future, Origen imagines freezing stem cells from different strains of chicken. If orders come in for a particular strain, millions of eggs could be produced in months or even weeks. At present, maintaining all the varieties the market might call for is too expensive for breeders, and it takes years to bread enough chickens to produce the billions of eggs that farmers need.

参考答案： C    

答案解析： C

1Which statement is the best description of the new era of factory farming according to the first paragraph?

A.Eggs are all genetically engineered

B.Thousands of eggs are produced every hour

C.Cloned chickens are bulk-produced with the same growth rate, weight and taste.

D.Identical eggs can be hatched on the production lines

参考答案： A    

答案解析： A

2Which institution has offered $4.7 million to fund the research?

A.The US’s National Institute of Science and Technology

B.Origen therapeutics of Burlingame, California

C.Embrex of North Carolina

D.Animal welfare groups

参考答案： D    

答案解析： D

3In the third paragraph, by saying “Producers would like the same meat quantity but to use reduced DIVs to get there.” Mike Fitzgerald means that he wishes

A.chickens’ quality could be maintained but with less investment

B.chickens’ taste could be improved but at less costs

C.chickens’ growth rate could be quickened but with less DIVs

D.chickens could grow to the same weight but with less feed

参考答案： C    

答案解析： C

4Which of the following statements about Origen and Embrex is correct according to the fifth paragraph?

A.Origen and Embrex will jointly invent machines to increase production

B.Origen wants to purchase an efficient donor cells injecting machine

C.Origen has joined hands with Embrex in producing cell-injecting machines

D.Origen is the leading company in producing embryo-locating machines

参考答案： A    

答案解析： A

5The technology of freezing stem cells from different strains of chicken can do all the following EXCEPT that

A.farmers can order certain strains of chicken only

B.Origen can supply all the strains of chicken the market might need

C.chicken farmers order certain strains of chicken for economic reasons

D.chicken farmers can be supplied with whatever strain they need

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