Passage 2 It was not much fun to travel on one of the old sailing ships. Life was hard for both passengers and crew. (78)17th century sailing ships were small and rolled heavily in rough seas, so most of the passengers were seasick. There were no toilets, and the spaces below deck where passengers had to stay during gales were often not more than 5 foot high. Water was scarce and the little water they got was brown and smelt terrible. Food was a problem, too--there was only salted meat, ship’ s biscuits and cheese, but the cheese was so hard that sailors often made buttons out of it for their jackets and trousers. There were no vegetables or fruit, so the people on board often fell ill. The sailors, however, were a bit better off than the passengers. They each had a bottle of beer a day, and they needed. The work they had to do was hard and dangerous. (79) Courage was needed, for the heavy sails had to be set and taken down in all kinds of weather, and quite often sailors were swept overboard in a gale. Almost the worst thing about the voyages was the time they took up to 70 days for the journey across the Atlantic. Not surprisingly, everybody was overjoyed when they at last approached land and stepped ashore. But some ships never arrived. The working condition of the sailors was very hard. ()
A. They often had to set the sails in bad weather.
B. So they had less courage.
C. They were happy to be swept overboard in a strong wind.
D. A 70-day-jouruey across the Atlantic was their happiest thing.
Passage 3 No country in the world has more daily newspapers than the USA. There are almost 2,000 of them, as compared with 180 in Japan, 164 in Argentina and 111 in Britain. The quality of some American papers is extremely high and their views are quoted all over the world. Distinguished dailies like the Washington Post or the New York Times have a powerful influence all over the country. However, the Post and the Times are net national newspapers in the sense that The Times is in Britain or LeMonde is in France, since each American city has its own daily newspaper. The best of these present detailed accounts of national and international news, but many tend to limit themselves to state or cite news. Like the press .in most other countries, American newspapers range from the "sensational", which feature crime, sex and rumor, to the serious, which focus on factual news and the analysis of world events. But with few exceptions American newspapers try to entertain as well as give information, for they have to compete with television. Just as American newspapers give way to all tastes, so do they also try and apply to readers for all political persuasions. (80)A few newspapers support extremist groups on the far right and on the far left, but most daily newspapers attempt to attract middle-of-the-road Americans who are essentially moderate. Many of these papers print columns by well-known journalists of different political and social views, in order to present a balanced picture. As in other democratic countries American newspapers can be either responsible or irresponsible, but it is generally accepted that the American press serves its country well and that it has more than once bravely uncovered political scandals (丑闻) or crimes, for instance, the Watergate Affair. The newspapers drew the attention of the public to the fears of the Vietnam War. In this passage, the word "press" (Para. 2) means ()
A. a machine for printing
B. the business of printing
C. great force
D. newspapers