Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosingA, B , C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
Text 1
In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1939s.
In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers. President Hoover' s successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use.A deliberate scarcity of farm, products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people.However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation' s soil was in the national interest and Was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (杂交)grain, and fertilizers.
41. What brought about the decline in the demand for American farm products?
A．The impact of the Great Depression.
B．The shrinking of overseas markets.
C．The destruction caused by WWI.
D．The increased exports of European countries.
42. The chief concern of the American government in the area of agriculture in the 1920s was
A．to increase farm production.
B．to establish agricultural laws,
C to prevent farmers from going bankrupt.
D to promote the mechanization of agriculture.
43. The Agricultural Adjustment Act encouraged American farmers to
A．reduce their scale of production.
B．make full use of their land.
C．adjust the prices of their farm products.
D．be self-sufficient in agricultural production.
44. The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act
A．might cause greater scarcity of farm products.
B．didn' t give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power.
C．would benefit neither the government nor the farmers.
D．benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others.
45. It was claimed that the new laws passed during the Roosevelt Administration were aimed at
A．reducing the cost of farming.
B．conserving soil in the long-term interest of the nation.
C．lowering the burden of farmers.
D．helping farmers without shifting the burden onto other taxpayers.
阅读赏析
本文叙述了20世纪20年代美国大萧条时期农业的情况及政府的对策。文章从美国农产品由于欧洲国家进口需求减少而销量锐减写起，描述农民生活遇到很大困难。l929年到l939年l0年的大萧条加剧了这一情况。1929年，胡佛政府做出了稳定农民生活水平的第一次努力。他的继任者罗斯福向国会建议农业调整法案，促进农业减产，以求得农产品价格上扬。尽管最高法院宣布这项法令不合法。可国会很快就通过了新的法令。政府认为重建耕地是符合国家利益的，而不仅仅是牺牲其他公民利益来保护农民利益。后来，政府向农民提供贷款让他们购买农业生产需求品
责任编辑：sealion1986
