Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.

Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
For years, doctors advised their patients that the only thing taking multivitamins does is give them expensive urine (尿). After all, true vitamin deficiencies are practically unheard of in industrialized countries. Now it seems those doctors may have been wrong. The results of a growing number of studies suggest that even a modest vitamin shortfall can be harmful to your health. Although proof of the benefits of multivitamins is still far from certain, the few dollars you spend on them is probably a good investment.
Or at least that's the argument put forward in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ideally, say Dr. Walter Willett and Dr. Meir Stampfer of Harvard, all vitamin supplements would be evaluated in scientifically rigorous clinical trials. But those studies can take a long time and often raise more questions than they answer. At some point, while researchers work on figuring out where the truth lies, it just makes sense to say the potential benefit outweighs the cost.
The best evidence to date concerns folate, one of the B vitamins. It's been proved to limit the number of defects in embryos ( 胚胎 ), and a recent trial found that folate in combination with vitamin B 12 and a form of B6 also decreases the re-blockage of arteries after surgical repair.
The news on vitamin E has been more mixed. Healthy folks who take 400 international units daily for at least two years appear somewhat less likely to develop heart disease. But when doctors give vitamin E to patients who already have heart disease, the vitamin doesn't seem to help. It may turn out that vitamin E plays a role in prevention but cannot undo serious damage.
Despite vitamin C's great popularity, consuming large amounts of it still has not been positively linked to any great benefit. The body quickly becomes saturated with C and simply excretes ( 排泄 ) any excess.
The multivitamins question boils down to this: Do you need to wait until all the evidence is in before you take them, or are you willing to accept that there's enough evidence that they don't hurt and could help?
If the latter, there's no need to go to extremes and buy the biggest 'horse pills or the most expensive bottles. Large doses can cause trouble, including excessive bleeding and nervous system problems.
Multivitamins are no substitute for exercise and a balanced diet, of course. As long as you understand that any potential benefit is modest and subject to further refinement, taking a daily multivitamin makes a lot of sense.

21. At one time doctors discouraged taking multivitamins because they believed that multivitamins____.
A) could not easily be absorbed by the human body
B) were potentially harmful to people's health
C) were too expensive for daily consumption
D) could not provide any cure for vitamin deficiencies

22. According to the author, clinical trials of vitamin supplements____.
A) often result in misleading conclusions
B) take time and will not produce conclusive results
C) should be conducted by scientists on a larger scale
D) appear to be a sheer waste of time and resources

23. It has been found that vitamin E_____.
A) should be taken by patients regularly and persistently
B) can effectively reduce the recurrence of heart disease
C) has a preventive but not curative effect on heart disease
D) should be given to patients with heart disease as early as possible

24. It can be seen that large doses of multivitamins_____.
A) may bring about serious side effects
B) may help prevent excessive bleeding
C) are likely to induce the blockage of arteries
D) are advisable for those with vitamin deficiencies

25. The author concludes the passage with the advice that_____.
A) the benefit of daily multivitamin intake outweighs that of exercise and a balanced diet
B) it's risky to take multivitamins without knowing their specific function
C) the potential benefit of multivitamins can never be overestimated
D) it's reasonable to take a rational dose of multivitamins daily

Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge ( 剧增 ) of women in the workforce may portend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would rather work than marry. The converse ( 反面 ) of this concern is that the prospects of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriages. In the past, only the earnings and financial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show that economic downturns tend to postpone marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy rebounds, the number of marriages also rises.
Coincident with the increase in women working outside the home is the increase in divorce rates. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact of a wife's work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible. Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. Given high unemployment, inflationary problems, and slow growth in real earnings, a working wife can increase household income and relieve some of these pressing financial burdens. By raising a family's standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family's financial and emotional stability.
Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.
Also, a major part of women's inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in most cases, men have remained the main breadwinners. With higher earning capacity and status occupations outside of the home comes the capacity to exercise power within file family. A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.

26. The word "portend" (Line 2, Para. 1) is closest in meaning to “ _____” .
A) defy
B) signal
C) suffer from
D) result from

27. It is said in the passage that when the economy slides,_____.
A) men would choose working women as their marriage partners
B) more women would get married to seek financial security
C) even working women would worry about their marriages
D) more people would prefer to remain single for the time being

28. If women find fulfillment through work outside the home,_____.
A) they are more likely to dominate their marriage partners
B) their husbands are expected to do more housework
C) their marriage ties can be strengthened
D)they tend to put their career before marriage

29. One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____.
A) they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom
B) they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands
C) they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations
D) they tend to suspect their husbands' loyalty to their marriage

30. Which of the following statements can best summarize the author's view in the passage?
A) The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of the country.
B) Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage.
C) In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain independent
D) The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.

Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage,
For most thinkers since the Greek philosophers, it was self-evident that there is something called human nature, something that constitutes the essence of man. There were various views about what constitutes it, but there was agreement that such an essence exists -- that is to say, that there is something by virtue of which man is man. Thus man was defined as a rational being, as a social animal, an animal that can make tools, or a symbol-making animal.
More recently, this traditional view has begun to be questioned. One reason for this change was the increasing emphasis given to the historical approach to man. An examination of the history of humanity suggested that man in our epoch is so different from man in previous times that it seemed unrealistic to assume that men in every age have had in common something that can be called "human nature." The historical approach was reinforced, particularly in the United States, by studies in the field of cultural anthropology ( 人类学 ). The study of primitive peoples has discovered such a diversity of customs, values, feelings, and thoughts that many anthropologists arrived at the concept that man is born as a blank sheet of paper on which each culture writes its text. Another factor contributing to the tendency to deny the assumption of a fixed human nature was that the concept has so often been abused as a shield behind which the most inhuman acts are committed. In the name of human nature, for example, Aristotle and most thinkers up to the eighteenth century defended slavery. Or in order to prove the rationality and necessity of the capitalist form of society, scholars have tried to make a case for acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and selfishness as innate ( 天生的 ) human traits. Popularly, one refers cynically to "human nature" in accepting the inevitability of such undesirable human behavior as greed, murder, cheating and lying.
Another reason for skepticism about the concept of human nature probably lies in the influence of evolutionary thinking. Once man came to be seen as developing in the process of evolution, the idea of a substance which is contained in his essence seemed untenable. Yet I believe it is precisely from an evolutionary standpoint that we can expect new insight into the problem of the nature of man.

31. The traditional view of "human nature" was strongly challenged by_____.
A) the emergence of the evolutionary theory
B) the historical approach to man
C) new insight into human behavior
D) the philosophical analysis of slavery

32. According to the passage, anthropologists believe that human beings_____
A) have some traits in common
B) are born with diverse cultures
C) are born without a fixed nature
D) change their characters as they grow up

33. The author mentioned Aristotle, a great ancient thinker, in order to_____
A) emphasize that he contributed a lot to defining the concept of "human nature"
B) show that the concept of "human nature" was used to justify social evils
C) prove that he had a profound influence on the concept of "human nature"
D) support the idea that some human traits are acquired

34. The word "untenable" (Line 3) in the last paragraph of the passage most probably means_____
A) invaluable
B) imaginable
C) changeable
D) indefensible

35. Most philosophers believed that human nature_____
A) is the quality distinguishing man from other animals
B) consists of competitiveness and selfishness
C) is something partly innate and partly acquired
D) consists of rationality and undesirable behavior