Modern economics ________ the country‘s agricultural policies.A. undergoesB. understan

阅读理解：阅读下面的短文，根据文章内容和所给信息将短文补充完整

A THANK-YOU LETTER

Dear Professor Smith,

Many thanks for your _____(友好和热情)during _____ (我方代表团) recent visit to your university.

It was nice of you to introduce us to some famous professors and celebrated scholars at your university. We had a safe and sound trip home.

Now we _____ (重返工作岗位) our work.

Again, _____ (代表) the group, I would like to _____(对你和你的团队表示感谢). Meanwhile, I hope you will someday pay a visit to our university and give us more talks on “Modern Western Economics”.

Sincerely yours,

Tony Wang

ld. In the United States, where sociologists have studied the effects, some interesting observations have been made.

Television, although not essential, has become an important part of most people’s lives. It alters people's ways of seeing the world; in many ways, it supports and sustains (维持) modern life. Television has become a baby-sitter, an introducer of conversations, the major transmitter of culture, a keeper of tradition. Yet when what can be seen on TV in one day is critically analyzed, it becomes evident that television is not a teacher but a sustainer; the poor quality of programming does not elevate (提高)people into greater understanding, but rather maintains and encourages the life as it exists.

The primary reason for the lack of quality in American television is related to both the history of TV programming development and the economics of TV. Television in America began with the radio. Radio companies and their sponsors first experimented with television. Therefore, the close relationship which the advertisers had with radio programs became the system for American TV. Sponsors not only paid money for time within programs, but many actually produced the programs. Thus, in American society, television is primarily concerned with reflecting and attracting society rather than experimenting with new ideas. Advertisers want to attract the largest viewing audience possible. To do so requires that the programs be entertaining rather than educational, attractive rather than challenging.

Television in America today remains, to a large extent, with the same organization and standards as it had thirty years ago. The hope for further development and true achievement toward improving society will require a change in the entire system.

According to the author American television is poor in quality because ______.

A．advertisers are interested in experimenting with new ideas

B．it is still at an early stage of development, compared with the radio

C．the programs have to be developed in the interests of the sponsors for economic reasons

D．it is controlled by radio companies

Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping－where you hand over notes and count out change in return—　now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters，like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. 　　And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don’t go and stand at any kind of cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa.

Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. But earning money isn’t quick or easy for most of us. Isn’t it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink (眨眼) of an eye？ Doesn’t a wallet—that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something that matters？

But I’ll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed cinema tickets—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smartphone of an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.

56. What is happening to the wallet？

A) It is disappearing. C) it is becoming costly.

B) It is being fattened. D) It is changing in style.

57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores？

A) Individually. C) In the abstract.

B) Electronically. D) Via a cash register.

58. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays？

A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.

B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading.

C) Earning money is getting more difficult.

D) Spending money is so fast and easy.

59. Why does the author choose to write about what’s happening to the wallet？

A) It represents a change in the modern world.

B) It has something to do with everybody’s life.

C) It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition.

D) It is the concern of contemporary economists.

60.What can we infer from the passage about the author？

A)He is resistant to social changes.

B)He is against technological progress.

C)He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.

D)He fells insecure in the ever-changing modern world.

ing poverty in recent decades. The research suggests that the pace of economic progress has been rapid and continued for decades, built on the foundations of relative political stability, rising trade, and economic liberalization (自由化) after two world wars. One new study, published recently by the Institute for International Economics in Washington, find that the proportion of the 6.1 billion people in the world who live on $1 a day or less shrank from 63 percent in 1950 to 35 percent in 1980 and 12 percent in 1999. by some other measures, the progress has been more modest. Still, economists agree that poverty has plunged in key nations such as India and especially China, thanks to slowing population growth as well as economic freedom. "This is a huge success for the world as a whole," says Harvard University economist Richard Cooper. "We are doing something right. "

The news comes as the World Bank is about to open its annual meeting in Washington—an event that has been troubled in recent years by protests that the Bank and its sister Institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF 国际货币组织), have done too little for the world's poor. (80) The new economic research will not put an end to that dispute. Vast populations remain poor, and many still question the wisdom of World Bank policies. Nonetheless, the research findings are helpful to understand what policies should be followed by those institutions and hundreds of other development groups working very hard to hasten the pace of world economic progress. If dramatic gains are under way, the present policies—calling for open markets, free business activities, and tight monetary control—are working and correct.

But critics of IMF and World Bank policies maintain that such economic success stories as Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore are rooted in more than just "free" markets. These nations have managed to grow rapidly, and thereby reduce poverty, by limiting imports when their domestic industries were young, pushing exports to rich nations, and putting controls on purely international financial flows. They have been open to foreignowned factories but have often insisted that those investors share the knowledge and skill on modern technologies.

The word "plunged" in the first paragraph means ______.

A．decreased

B．climbed

C．increased

D．dropped into water

阅读材料，回答题。

Extensive new studies suggest that the world has made extraordinary progress in reducing poverty in recent decades. The research suggests that the pace of economic progress has been rapid and continued for decades, built on the foundations of relative political stability, rising trade, and economic liberalization (自由化) after two world wars. One new study, published recently by the Institute for International Economics in Washington, find that the proportion of the 6.1 billion people in the world who live on $1 a day or less shrank from 63 percent in 1950 to 35 percent in 1955and 12 percent in 1999. By some other measures, the progress has been more modest. Still, economists agree that poverty has plunged in key nations such as India and especially China, thanks to slowing population growth as well as economic freedom. "This is a huge success for the world as a whole," says Harvard University economist Richard Cooper. "We are doing something right. "

The news comes as the World Bank is about to open its annual meeting in Washington an event that has been troubled in recent years by protests that the Bank and its sister Institution, the International Monetary Fund(IMF 国际货币组织） have done too little for the world’s poor. The new economic research will not put an end to that dispute. Vast populations remain poor, and many still question the wisdom of World Bank policies. Nonetheless, the research findings are helpful to understand what policies should be followed by those institutions and hundreds of other development groups working very hard to hasten the pace of world economic progress. If dramatic gains are under way, the present policies calling for open tharkets, free business activities, and tight monetary control are working and correct.

But critics of IMF and World Bank policies maintain that such economic success stories as Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore are rooted in more than just "free" markets. These nation shave managed to grow rapidly, and thereby reduce poverty, by limiting imports when their domestic industries were young, pushing exports to rich nations, and putting controls on purely international financial flows. The have been open to foreign owned factories but have often insisted that those investors share the knowledge and skill on modern technologies.

The word "plunged" in the first paragraph means__________. 查看材料

A.decreased

B.climbed

C.increased

D.dropped into water

规模经济(economics of scale)