This curious hybrid（混合物） certainly has its strengths. Americans have more choice than anybody else, and their health-care system is much more innovative. Europeans’ bills could be much higher if American medicine were not doing much of their Research and Development（R&D）for them. But there are also huge weaknesses. The one most often cited—especially by foreigners—is the army of uninsured. Some 46 million Americans do not have cover. In many cases that is out of choice and ,if they fall seriously ill, hospitals have to treat them. But it is still deeply unequal. And there are also shocking inefficiencies: by some measures,30% of American health spending is wasted.
Then there is the question of state support. Many Americans disapprove of the “socialized medicine” of Canada and Europe. In fact, even if much of the administration is done privately, around 60% of America’s heath-care bill ends up being met by the government. Proportionately, the American state already spends as much on health as the OECD（Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development）average, and that share is set to grow as the baby-boomers run up their Medicare bills and ever more employers avoid providing health-care coverage. America is , in effect, heading towards a version of socialized medicine by default.
46.Health problems mentioned in the passage include all the following EXCEPT_________.
A. poor hospital conditions in U.K.
B. Angela Merkel under attack
C. health financing in Germany
D. long waiting lines in Canada
47.Ford’s announcement of cutting up to 30,000 jobs by 2012 indicates that Ford_________.
A. has the biggest health problem of the car industry
B. has made profits from its health-care legacy
C. has accumulated too heavy a health-care burden
D. owes a great deal of debt to its employees
48.In the author’s opinion, America’s health system is _________.
A. inefficient B. feasible
C. unpopular D. successful
49.It is implied in the passage that_________.
A. America’s health system has its strengths and weaknesses
B. the US government pays medical bills for the poor and the elderly
C. some 46 million Americans do not have medical insurance
D. Europeans benefit a lot from America’s medical research
50.from the last paragraph we may learn that the “socialized medicine” is____________.
A. a practice of Canada and Europe
B. a policy adopted by the US government
C. intended for the retiring baby-boomers
D. administered by private enterprises
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage:
When Thomas Keller, one of America’s foremost chefs, announced that on Sept. I he would abolish the practice of tipping at Per Se. his luxury restaurant in New York City, and replace it with European-style service charge, I knew three groups would be opposed: customers, servers and restaurant owners. These three groups are all committed to tipping——as they quickly made clear on Web sites. To oppose tipping , it seems, is to be anticapitalist , and maybe even a little French..
But Mr. Keller is right to move away from tipping—and it’s worth exploring why just about everyone else in the restaurant world is wrong to stick with the practice.
Customers believe in tipping because they think it makes economic sense.“Waiters know that they won’t get paid if they don’t do a good job”is how most advocates of the system would put it. To be sure, this is a tempting, apparently rational statement about economic theory, but it appears to have little applicability to the real world of restaurants.
Michael Lynn, an associate professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, has conducted dozens of students of tipping and has concluded that consumers assessments of the quality of service correlate weakly to the amount they tip.
Rather, customers are likely to tip more in response to servers touching them lightly and leaning forward next to the table to make conversation than to how often their water glass is refilled——in other words, customers tip more when they like the server, not when the service is good. Mr. Lynn’s studies also indicate that male customers increase their tips for female servers while female customers increase their tips for male servers,.
What’s more,. consumers seem to forget that the tip increases as the bill increases. Thus, the tipping system is an open invitation to what restaurant professionals call “upwelling”: every bottle of imported water, every espresso and every cocktail is extra money in the server’s pocket. Aggressive upwelling for tips is often rewarded while low-key, quality service often goes unrecognized.
In addition , the practice of tip pooling , which is the norm in fine-dining restaurants and is becoming more in every kind of restaurant above the level of a greasy spoon , has ruined whatever effect voting with your tip might have had on an individual waiter . In an unreasonable outcome , you are punishing the good waiters in the restaurant by not tipping the bad one . Indeed , there appear to be little connection between tipping and good service .
51.It may be inferred that a European-style service______.
A . is tipping-free B .charges little tip
C .is the author’s initiative D .is offered at Per-se
52.Which of the following is NOT true according to the author .
A .Tipping is a common practice in the restaurant world.
B .Waiters don’t care about tipping
C .Customers generally believe in tipping.
D .Tipping has little connection with the quality of service.
53.According to Michael Lynn’s studies, waiters will likely get more tips if they______
A. have performed good service
B. frequently refill customers’ water glass
C. win customers’ favor
D. serve customers of the same sex
54.We may infer from the context that “upwelling”(Line 2, Para 6) probably means ________
A. selling something up
B. selling something fancy
C. selling something unnecessary
D. selling something more expensive
55.This passage is mainly about __________
A. reasons to abolish the practice of tipping
B. economic sense of tipping
C. consumers’ attitudes towards tipping
D. tipping for good service
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage:
“I promise.” “ I swear to you it’ll never happen again.” “I give you my word.” “Honestly. Believe me.” Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity. I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism（剽窃）appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student’s work with his or her name even if it’s missing from the upper left-hand corner.
Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average（GPA）? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. “If you let me pass math I will ….” “Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll….” Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché（陈词滥调）to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not ?
责任编辑：小草
