《英语阅读（ 4 ）》平时作业（二）
班级： ___________ 学号： ____________ 姓名： ___________ 分数： ___________
Part I: Read passage 1 and complete items 1~10 as required. (20%)
Passage 1
An Alternative to the “War” on Crime
The District of Columbia chief of police Isaac Fulwood saw around him a growing culture of youth violence, and he feared that additional thousands of lives would be shattered and wasted. After all his experience, Fulwood has come to believe that the way to curb crime is to try and prevent it from happening, not respond to it after it happens.
The most powerful law enforcement officer in the nation's capital traded in his badge for what he believes will be a more effective anti-crime tool. Explaining that he wants to prevent crime rather than merely respond to it, and emphasizing the importance of creating “better opportunities for our children,” Fulwood became director of the District's nascent youth anti-crime programs.
The time has come, Fulwood says, for politicians and society alike to trade easy responses for real solution. If we really want to fight crime we need to get angry enough and compassionate enough and smart enough to address the causes of violent crime: poverty, guns, and “a value system that is totally out of kilter.”
While many argue that today's youngsters who kill, rob and rape should be treated as adult criminals, Fulwood contends that it doesn't do anything for youth in the long run.
Fulwood and others like James Fyfe, professor of criminal justice and senior research fellow at Temple University, Philadelphia, claim that juvenile crime needs to be redefined. Both Fulwood and Fyfe contend that crime is an innercity problem. Fulwood maintains “It's a problem of poverty; the problem of kids being born to young, single, uneducated parents; kids growing up without beliefs, with no values for life.”
For politicians and comfortable citizens who feel what happens in the impoverished inner cities doesn't involve them, Fulwood has a message: “You can't run far enough, because it will get you, too. It might get you as an actual victim of crime, or scare you into moving or buying a gun or investing in expensive alarm systems. Or the increased costs of law enforcement and prisons could threaten to bankrupt your local government.”
Conservatives are fond of saying that liberal solutions to crime have failed in the past. But now we've had 12 years of aggressive conservative anti-crime policies, and the situation is no better, in fact it's deteriorated, says Fulwood. “From fiscal years 1981 to 1992, the Justice Department's budget increased more than 345 percent, while the Federal bureau of Prisons' budget was bolstered 470 percent. Since 1989 the Justice Department had hired more than 800 additional FBI agents, 700 drug enforcement agents, and 1,200 federal prosecutors. Since 1988, federal prison capacity has increase 62 percent and is “on its way to a 228 percent increase,” noted Attorney General William Barr proudly in a 1992 memo to George Bush.
Yet according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the national rate for violent crime reached an all-time high in 19912, an increase of 24 percent since 1987. For the second year in a row the United States also set a new murder record with an estimated 24,020 violent deaths. Homicide was the nation's 10 th leading cause of death, according to Surgeon General Antonia Navello.
For juveniles the violent crime rate is even worse. Gun murders among black males 15 to 19 years old increased 71 percent from 1987 to 1989, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and since 1965 the arrest rate for juveniles charged with violent crimes has more than tripled.
Due largely to the “war on drugs,” the number of inmates in the nation's prisons and jails increased 143 percent from 1980 to 1991, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The country spends some $24 billion a year to operate its prisons and jails. And with most prisons severely overcrowded, $10 billion in new prison construction is on the drawing boards.
This “short-sighted policy of incarceration… and tough law enforcement against street (drug) addicts… makes the world safe for politicians, but it doesn't address the problems of community violence, “says Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in San Francisco. “The current strategy is like trying to deal with AIDS by building more hospices,” says Fyfe.
Krisberg and others expect violent crime to increase over the next several years because of current “voodoo criminology” policies; a large population of children entering the crime-prone teen years; a generation of teenagers raised in poverty; a dramatic increase in domestic violence; and the increasing availability of highcaliber guns.
Guns are the biggest culprits, Fulwood and others say. In the District of Columbia, guns are so much a part of street culture that T-shirts featuring handguns, some complete with real or designer bullet holes, became the fashion rage among junior high and high school students last fall.
This plague of guns and violence is not unique to the District. The Los Angeles Times called 1991 “the year of the gun” in Southern California, and one out of four US high school students carried a gun to class at least once during a recent month, according to the centers for Disease Control. The Journal of the American Medical Association declared gun violence a public health emergency. They conclude that guns are the biggest reason for violent crime in society.
The medical profession, criminologists, educators, community activists, and members of every major law enforcement organization have sounded the alarm: The violence will continue unchecked until the nation does something to control guns.
To break the cycle of violence and crime, experts in the field argue, we must—through our families, churches, and community organizations, as well as local, state and federal governments—move to protect children from the ravages of innercity life. It is those children who are hit hardest by increasing rates of poverty, domestic abuse, urban decay, and job loss and a popular culture that continues to glorify and glamorize violence.
Opponents of Fulwood's program argue that crime prevention, youth education, and training programs cost too much money. While roughly $1.5 billion a year would put more police officers on the streets and expand drug treatment in prisons, a comprehensive effort to educate and train innercity children would cost $10 billion a year. Fulwood argues that the money will be spent one way or another; It can be invested in programs that will enrich society and keep youth out of crime, or governments will be forced to spend even more—about $24 billion in 1992—to keep criminals off the streets. Fulwood sees no other alternatives.
“If we took half the money it costs ti incarcerate people,” Fulwood says, “and committed it to quality education and health care and decent housing for people, the benefit would be enormous, we'd turn the economy over five times in every neighborhood.” Ellen O'Connor, D.C.'s chief financial officer, notes that the District's $40 million budget for youth initiatives is virtually the same amount it spends on juvenile detention services. “We're spending $39 million on only 1,800 kids (in detention facilities),” she says, and for $40 million they could reach most of the District's young children.
As director of the District's new Youth Initiative Program, Fulwood will over-see programs that target children at younger aged than ever before, programs that also reach out to families and single mothers and offer more health care services to the poor. Drug treatment and job-training programs will be expanded and targeted at younger residents, and a whole array of self-esteem, pregnancy prevention, conflict mediation, and job-training programs designed for high-risk children aged 10 to 15.
Fulwood and others foresee several years of increasing violence on the nation's streets. And just like ordinary citizens, they are fed up with the current approach—of waging “war” on crime. “I believe,” says Fulwood, “by taking a kinder, more compassionate approach to curbing juvenile crime we can energize people to believe in themselves and in that way give them hope for their future.”
Decide whether the following statements are T (true) of F (false).
• Issac Fulwood is a police officer.
• Fulwood thinks the best way to stop crime is to respond to it after it happens.
• According to Fulwood, main causes of violent crime are poverty, guns, drugs and a value system that can't work properly at all.
• Fulwood argues that today's youngsters who kill, rob and rape should be treated as adult criminals.
• James Fyfe is a professor at Temple University.
• Both Fulwood and Fyfe argue that crime is a rural problem.
• Fulwood thinks what happens in the impoverished inner cities won't have any effect on politicians' life.
• According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by 1991, the national rate for violent crime had increased 24 percent since 1987.
• 1991 is called “the year of the gun” in Southern California by Los Angeles Times.
• Fulwood thinks that violent will decrease in the next few years.
Part II: Read passage 2 and then choose one word/phrase from those given after the passage to complete the summary according to your understanding of the passage. Note that each word/phrase can be only used once. (20%)
Passage 2
Wynton Marsalis, Music Man With a Mission
Through his music, words and deeds, Wynton Marsalis has made it his mission to inspire young people to make a success of their lives — wherever their interests lie. Over the past 16 years, despite a schedule so crowded he's never taken a vacation, Marsalis has visited hundreds of schools, performing and giving motivational talks on music, the arts and life. “There is freedom in discipline,” he tells the kids. “It gets you to wherever you want to be.” Most kids take heed, for Marsalis's own accomplishments are proof of his message.
He has won eight Grammy awards for his albums — both classical and jazz — and he's composed epic pieces for ballet and modern dance. He's co-written and hosted a prize-winning educational series on jazz for public radio. His three-hour oratorio, Blood on the Fields, won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for music. And with Marsalis as artistic director, jazz has become a permanent fixture at New York's Lincoln Center.
When the US Conference of Mayors wanted an advocate of the arts to address its Washington, D.C. meeting in January 1996, it chose Wynton Marsalis. “We are in the business of public service, and we can't lose sight of that,” he told the mayor. “We must keep the human touch and bring as much soul as we have to the execution of our job … no mater how callous the job makes us, because there are many people out there with optimism, belief and faith.”
Wynton Marsalis is the second of six sons of Ellis and Dolores Marsalis. Three of those siblings—Branford, Delfeayo and Jason—would also go on to professional music careers, making the Marsalises one of America's most musically talented families. By the sons' account, their parents held them all to the same tough standard of excellence. In the 1960s the civil rights struggle was splintering racial barriers when Wynton and his brother Branford, who is 14 months older, went to Catholic elementary schools, first in a black section of New Orleans, then in a nearby suburb. “Opportunities are opening up,” Dolores would tell her sons. “You must prepare yourselves.”
In her eyes, education and a sense of ethics were springboards to the future. The Marsalis boys answered to their mother for any mediocre grades and never missed church on Sunday. Dolores read to them at night and took them to galleries and concerts. She signed them up for art classes and they joined the Boy Scouts. Hanging out on the streets was strictly forbidden.
Ellis, a jazz pianist, made sure the boys had their own instruments by age six — Branford a clarinet, Wynton a trumpet. Back then, however, Wynton put more effort into his Little League pitching. One day in the summer of 1974, 12-year-old Wynton was sorting through his father's jazz albums when he came across one called Giant Steps. The tunes were composed and played by the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane. Listening to the bittersweet melody “Cousin Mary”, Wynton felt a warmth spread through his whole body, Wow , he thought, I'd like to make people feel like that.
The nest summer, in 1975, Wynton spent six weeks learning from masters of the classics at the annual Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C. Dean of students Joe Thayer was Impressed with Wynton's musicianship — and also his emerging gift as a leader. A young black violinist from a poor neighborhood in Cleveland had come to the camp with a hostile attitude. The youth was belligerent toward the white musicians and stirred up trouble. When the youngster ignored Dean Thayer's pleas to behave, Wynton volunteered to talk to him. “Hey, man, we're here to deal with music, not race,” Wynton told the violinist. “If somebody can show you how to play, you don't care what color they are.” Quietly something clicked for the youth. From that moment onward he changed his ways, focusing strictly on learning the violin.
Although he loved playing the classics, Wynton's first desire was to be a jazz musician. The day after his high-school graduation in 1979, armed with scholarships, he headed north — first to the Berkshire Music center at Tanglewood, in Lenox, Mass, and then to New York City's elite Juilliard School of Music. In New York, Marsalis studied the classics by day and roved the town by night, sitting in with jazz bands.
The youthful musician with the big Afro and little round glasses won high acclaim for his technical virtuosity, making his trumpet growl, stream, laugh and whistle. But Marsalis also wanted to show the way of excellence to as many young people as he could. “Do you especially want to reach black kids?” an interviewer asked him. “I especially want to reach all kids,” answered Marsalis.
Playing a club in St. Louis one night, Marsalis was approached by the director of the Lincoln High School jazz band in run-down East St. Louis. Would Marsalis consider giving his kids a lesson? Next morning Marsalis tutored the band for an hour.
Marsalis formed his own quintet in the fall of 1981. Bookings were hard to find at first, but that changed when Marsalis cut a jazz album — his first — that sold 100,000 copies. In 1983 he released jazz and classical albums. Both won Grammys, an unprecedented feat. Still, Marsalis continued stopping at local schools, where he showed a knack for reading students' personalities. In Los Angeles, a 16-year-old pianist named Eric Reed played “Blue Moon” for him. Marsalis could tell the boy had enormous talent. But he also was cocky, and that would hinder his development. “You sound good, but you play too fast,” Marsalis said, deliberately taking then student down a per. “I do not play too fast!” the student snapped.
As a guide, Marsalis told Reed he'd send him some albums by the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk. Sure enough, ten albums arrived for the boy a week later. After that, Marsalis frequently telephoned Reed to make sure he was listening to Monk. He also sent the youth plane tickets to catch his band's gigs. “He never gives up on me,” Reed told a friend. Under Marsalis's influence, Reed went on to become a renowned jazz pianist. It didn't surprise Marsalis. “You put love on a kid,” he says “and he'll listen.”
Millions who had never seen or heard Wynton Marsalis were introduced to him in October 1995 through his four-part PBS-TV series, “Marsalis on Music”. Taped before an audience of kids at Tanglewood, the series had segments devoted to rhythm, musical form, the jazz band and practice. In the practice session Marsalis moved deftly from music to broader values. “Be optimistic, “he told his kids. “No one likes to be around a complainer. How you feel about living in the world is who you are.” And, he added, “Invest yourself in everything you do. There's fun in being serious.”
New York Times music critic Alex Ross praised the series not only for its educational benefits but also for its underlying philosophy. “His message is that music requires discipline, hard work, a sound grasp of technique and structure,” Ross wrote. “This is a strong lesson in a slovenly age.”
As a 12-year-old, Wynton Marsalis dreamed about making people feel good about themselves. And now he's doing that — as a musician and as a teacher. Perhaps a boyhood friend put it best: “Wynton reminds us of what we should all be about.”
Questions 11—20 are based on passage 2.
accomplishments ballet America's jazz five
classics Grammy broader values teacher educational
Wynton Marsalis, as a musician and (11)_______________, has always been trying to inspire young people to make a success of their lives. He also sets a very good model for the young people through his own (12) _______________: he has won eight (13) _______________ awards for his albums; he's composed epic pieces for (14) _______________ and modern dance. He's co-written and hosted a prize-winning (15) _______________ series on jazz for public radio and so on.
Born to one of (16) _______________ most musically talented families, Wynton, together with his (17) _______________ brothers were greatly influenced by their parents. His wish to bring people warm feeling actually originated from his listening to “Cousin Mary” from one of the (18) _______________ albums kept by his father. Wynton then devoted many of his later years to studying music both (19) _______________ and jazz. As a result, he became a virtuous musician. He is also considered to be an excellent teacher for he always incorporated
(20) _______________ into his music series.
Part III: Read passage 3 and decide what each of the words underlined in following sentences refers to. (20%)
Passage 3
Realities of the Homeless
In the 1960s and 1970s, homelessness was virtually unknown in most of North America and Europe; the term was not even heard in public discourse. In 1964, Columbia University researchers scoured four Manhattan parks to count those sleeping there: They found one man. Likewise, in Chicago, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Moscow and Rome, homelessness was the exception and not the rule. In the 1960s, big city newspapers rarely ran stories on the homeless, unlike the last decade when they averaged one homeless story every two days. Until the 1980s, the homeless were not part of a widespread phenomenon; they were exceptional hard-luck cases.
But over the course of the next 20 years, these exceptions became more like the rule. By the early 1980s, cities all over the world reported a growing number of street people—people, who for one reason or another fell through the cracks of society and became down and out, wandering the streets with no place to go. And as the number of homeless has risen, and become more prevalent, especially in the urban centers, the dominant perception of the homeless has evolved from one that portrayed them as public nuisance whose routines interfered with those of other citizens, to one that framed them as dangerous criminals who threatened the lives and property of others, but what do we really know about this social phenomenon that has evolved for one reason or another? It is interesting to examine just how our perceptions of the homeless differ from the reality.
First, those that we call homeless are not a homogeneous lot as we often want to believe or are told. Through observation in many large cities today, we come to the conclusion that the majority of homeless are disgruntled, lazy vagrants, subsisting on welfare handouts and whatever they can beg or steal. Contrary to that belief, a 1992 study at Columbia University found that only 20 percent were on the streets to beg and take handouts. And most homeless do not want to make a career of it; they find themselves on the street following some unmanageable stress—the death or illness of a loved one, the breakup of a relationship, debt, the legal problems top the lists—and then they pull out of it. Yet most remain deeply disturbed. According to a recent sturdy of Toronto's homeless by the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, two-thirds have a lifetime diagnosis of mental illness, and two-thirds suffer from alcohol and substance abuse. Only one homeless person in seven in this highly vulnerable population suffers from neither.
Although most might be diagnosed as mentally ill, few are seriously so. Only about 10 percent of the homeless population have suffered from severe mental illness.
The more important characteristics of the homeless—whether or not they're mentally ill—are that they have fewer work skills, fewer social skills, and less resourcefulness than the housed population. They have difficulty maintaining relationships with friends and family. Almost half reported that they could rely on “no one” in their lives. Only 4 percent were married or in common-law relationships. All this speaks to their lack of community and numbing sense of isolation—conditions that, above all, explain much of the social pathology that is homelessness. Being society's least valued members, they are the first to be fired, the last to be hired, ,those most shunned in civil society – modern lepers.
Second, is the illusion many of us have about why the street people cannot find a place to live, and their general attitude towards living conditions. Many have the idea that the street population chooses to live in squalid conditions. The vast majority of the middle and upper class populations believe the homeless are unfit to receive subsidized housing. Despite these perceived notions, research reports otherwise. In a 1989 study of Chicago's homeless, interviewers found most to be “neat and clean.” More than 75 percent disapproved of their current living arrangements—sleeping outside in the rough or in dilapidated warehouses or hotel rooms, but few had alternatives at that time but to try and make the best of their situation.
But what has caused this plight of homelessness? One factor, and one factor alone, accounts for the rise in homelessness in many urban centers today, say welfare worker. That factor is urban renewal. Governments, faced with the reality of decaying inner cities, came up with the idea of tearing down parts of the inner city, and replacing them with trendy shops and restaurants, glitzy high-rises, and parks as a way to revitalize the downtown area. Governments outlawed much of what was the bottom end of the housing market—the derelict apartment buildings, seedy hotel, and rooming houses—while legalizing vagrancy. New York City lost almost half its low-rent housing between 1970 and 1990, Chicago lost 20 percent of its 500 flophouse beds, and by the early 1980s, Toronto lost virtually all of its 500 flophouse beds. Between the mid-1970s and the late 1980s, the number of unsubsidized low-cost units fell 54 percent in the typical large US metropolitan area. With perhaps the best of intentions, governments replaced a cast supply of substandard, but low-cost, housing with a much vaster, much more substandard and much lower-cost of housing in the form of our street, alleys, and parks.
In many cities, the majority of street people that one comes across actually maintain some type of living quarters. Many of these men and women are the ones that show up in the soup kitchens. Most of them have just enough money to pay for single occupancy hotel rooms or rooming houses. The number one reason cited is “no cooking facilities”, which is very sad when you realize that the landlords take rent from those subsisting on what little they can earn and put next to nothing back into their decaying buildings. As welfare rates increase, the rents rise to match the increase, but when welfare payments drop, the rents stay put. And you don't get much for the price. Fat, cigarette buttcolored cockroaches scurry over every surface of every building. The light bulbs in most of the stairwells are burnt out or missing; the toilets in the communal bathrooms on each floor are usually plugged; the shower stalls, black with mildew, have no privacy curtains; and all the rooms are about the same size as a prison cell.
A sizable number of street people live as “squatters”. Squatting means breaking open a door or smashing a window and moving into some vacant building for a few days. Most experienced squatters start by constructing barricades of heavy junk—car doors, bed springs, bicycle frames—making their newfound space difficult to get into, and easy to get out of. The more junk they pile up, the less easily they can be evicted. If it is a “good” equate, they can stay a week or more, until the law enforcement agencies either arrest them or kick them out onto the streets. In the end, squatting stands for nothing, except a temporary roof over one's head. For most people, being a squatter isn't something they chose.
Many others live in vans ans cars that barely run. They are forever limping from parking spot to parking spot, as the police harass them and move them along. And then there are the couch surfers who are perpetually staying with friends and relatives, “just for a couple of days,” or until “welfare Wednesday.” The majority of the truly homeless escape our view. Contrary to what many believe, only a small portion of the homeless shuffle around pushing shopping carts stuffed with all their possessions. Some do live under loading dock ramps, or in cardboard boxes in train stations, but not by choice.
For the truly down and out, there are emergency shelters such as the Salvation Army and other Christian-related facilities in many downtown areas of large cities, but they never have enough beds to go around. It's not unusual to hear that at least 20 or more people are turned away each night during the coldest months in cities with temperatures that drop below freezing. And even if one is lucky enough to get a bed, after waiting for most of the day out in the cold for the shelter to open, they very seldom get much of a rest.
Finally people questions why this group of individuals gravitates to the urban centers, and why they are not more resourceful in finding both work and accommodation. The dominant perception is that they come to the city to push drugs, rob banks, or destroy personal property. Police records in the majority of cities, however, report different findings. Among the homeless who had been arrested, only 5 percent were reported felons, while around 62 percent were arrested for public intoxication, and the remaining 33 percent were arrested for misdemeanors.
Contrary to what mainstream society believe, it's plain loneliness that explains why many homeless and very poor people are attracted to cold, urban centers. When you're lonely and broke, the bright lights and noisy excitement of a big city give your misery company; say many of the street people. Random acts of violence on skid row sidewalks become welcome distractions—live theatre and spectator sports. The sounds and smells of the city brings comfort to the down and out, and at least give them a better chance to gather some change and swap stories on the street corner.
21. In the 1960s, big city newspapers rarely ran stories on the homeless, unlike the last decade when they averaged one homeless story every two days. (para. 1)
22. Until the 1980s, the homeless were not part of a widespread phenomenon; they were exceptional hard-luck cases. (para. 1)
23. …the dominant perception of the homeless has evolved from one that portrayed them as public nuisances whose routines interfered with those of other citizens… (para. 2)
24. And most homeless do not want to make a career of it : They find themselves on the street following some unmanageable stress… (para. 3)
25. … and then they pull out of it. (para. 3)
26. Almost half reported that they could rely on “no one” in their lives. (para. 5)
27. More than 75 percent disapproved of their current living arrangements… (para. 6)
28. New York City lost almost half its low-rent housing between 1970 and 1990… (para. 7)
29. Most experienced squatters start by constructing barricades of heavy junk—car doors, bed springs, bicycle frames—making their newfound space difficult to get into, and easy to get out of. (para. 9)
30. The sounds and smells of the city bring comfort to the down and out, and at least give them a better chance to gather some change and swap stories on the street corner. (para. 13)
Part IV: Read the passage below and decide whether each of the following statements is True (T) or False (F). (20%)
Passage 4
Bargain Fashion
Scavenging for hand-me-downs is a way of life for those who have few resources and need to put clothes on their backs. For others on the high consumer end, even though they have more income, it's become a pastime. It's fun, it's challenging and the clothes, they believe, make a fashion statement. Rummaging through thrift shops, combing weekend flea markets and yard sales, visiting vintage fashion stores, and even surfing the Internet has become a passion for people seeking out fashion treasures on the cheap.
Some like to think of itr as frugal living—a careful or thrifty way to live, a way to protect both their pocketbook and the environment. With the growing concern for waste, some people feels this is one way they can do their part by recycling and reusing. In San Francisco, California, there are 1500 recycle shops, selling everything from used refrigerators to designer evening gowns. San Diego, California, boasts more than 1,000 secondhand shops along with a quarterly newspaper called “Second Hand News” with a readership of thousands of people. This 56-page publication contains information on store listings, shop ratings, coming events, and news of trends in recycling. People from all sectors of society read “Second Hand News” to learn about what's happening in the secondhand scene. The interest in growing in the use of these shops—some drop off their goods that they no longer want or need, some come to browse and see what it's all about, others come to search for that piece of clothing that will make them stand out in a crowd.
Recycle centers and shops originated through community service organizations such as the YMCA, Salvation Army, Good Will and church groups. One such organization, the St. Vincent de Paul in San Diego, got its start in 1948 and is still doing a booming business today. Organizations such as these offer a wide range of goods and products from used household items to baby clothes. In many urban centers these types of shops cater to the needier segment of the population.
But as recycling became fashionable during the 1980s, individuals opened secondhand shops geared to the middle and even upper classes of society. Shops like “Michael's” in downtown in San Diego. Auntie Helen's in New York, and Brother Bennie's in Los Angeles specialized in vintage clothing and accessories for both men and women. They claim to stock secondhand goods of the “finest quality” at low prices. “Choosing an evening gown at Michael's is almost like shopping at Harrods in London or Barney's in New York, except it's a lot more exciting.” Says Gennie, a fashion model based in San Diego. “You can choose from clothes that lots of famous people owned, and there's a seamstress right there to make adjustments. You even get the option of a full refund up to 1—1/2 hours after a purchase if you get it home and decide it's really not for you,” she explains.
The recycle craze is not just all happening in the United States; it seems to have taken much of the whole world by storm. Some people in Tokyo, Japan make their living by what they call “thrifting”: Designers hire them to shop for treasures, which then from the basis of their next fashion collection. James Ashton says he's become a professional scout. “I go to clubs to see what the kids are wearing, then hunt down old fabric, a belt buckle or a cool sweater pattern at a flea market,” he explains. The designer then invents a new look using the goods the scout has gathered.” Some are fashion wizards, others become famous just by copying thrift items,” says Ashton.
In London, England, hunting for vintage clothing and jewelry has become the in thing to do. Helen, of Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing, has a huge collection of garments from 1850 through the 1970s, some of which are for sale, others she rents out for use in feature films. “A number of the costumes for Out of Africa , which set off a Safari fad, came from my collection,” she exclaims. As your eye passes over the goods in her shop you can guess that a vintage shoe collector would be delighted to see her shoe collection. On the rack are a pair of 1970s Charles Jourdan platform shoes with carved wooden chunky heels and braided, yellow patent leather straps. That same chunky look was revived in 1997, a hot item in fashion circles then. Now she says, “This pair is just waiting for the right foot.”
The idea is to take fragments of the past to create an image for yourself. The look may or may not be selling in the designer boutique down the street, but you can still be satisfied knowing you've done your personal look by yourself—and on the cheap to boot.
31. Only the needier shop for secondhand items.
32. People who care about the environment shop at recycle stores.
33. The Salvation Army is an individual owned specialty shop.
34. Some fashion designers use recycled items to invent their own designs.
35. People like the idea of developing their own personal look from recycled items.
Part V: Read the passage below and then give a short answer to each of the questions 36—40. (20%)
Passage 5
Crocodiles only live where it was hot. They are found in India, America, Africa and America. Crocodile is an egg-producing animal. They spend most of their time lying around in the mud or the rivers. The female crocodiles bury their eggs under the mud. The crocodile's long powerful tail is used when the animal is swimming. It is also an excellent weapon, because it can be swung with great speed and force. One blow will knock down a man or even a big animal at once. The crocodile is very well protected against its enemies by the hard bony plate which cover most of its body, but because of the way its neck is formed, it cannot turn its head from side to side and so it can only see in front of itself. The crocodile has its teeth cleaned by the crocodile bird. For its food this bird takes the bits left in the crocodile's mouth. This helps the crocodile, which cannot clean its own teeth for it cannot move its tongue up and down. With its rows of terrible pointed teeth it seizes its food, which may be a fish, an animal or even a careless man, and then holds it below the water until it drowns.
The long-nosed crocodile is shy and timid and because of this, the people of the West Africa, where it lives, sometimes catch it for food. Many, many centuries ago there were crocodiles in England. We know this because we have found their bones buried far down in the earth on which London is built. But the Britain of today is too cold for them to live in. this is a good thing for English people for crocodiles may grow to over thirty feet in length. When they lie floating in the water, they look like floating tree-trunk and it is often impossible to tell that they are there.
36. In which country can crocodiles be found? (Give at least two countries.)
37. Where do the female crocodiles bury their eggs?
38. What's the use of the crocodiles' tail?
39. Why can't a crocodile clean its teeth itself?
40. Why can't crocodiles be found in Britain today?