Passage Two Don’t call him just a college professor. Internet entrepreneur, TV personality, adviser to presidents, and friend to the rich and powerful would be more accurate. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. is better known for his activities outside the academy. This week he sold Africana. com, a website he created with a fellow Harvard University professor, to Time Warner. Terms of the deal weren’t revealed, though the Wall Street Journal pegged the price at more than $10 million, with Gates reaping up to $ I million. Time Warner will incorporate the site, a portal with news and information about people of African descent, into America Online when the two merge as expected. The sense is that Gates got a very good deal. The site is a rich source of scholarship but hardly a rich source of revenue. As recently as the late 1980s Gates, who turns 50 this week, was an obscure professor penning books on literary theory only a graduate student could love. Now he can’t be avoided, He hosted a series about Africa on public television, writes occasional articles for the New Yorker, and even advises the Gore presidential campaign. He counts director Steven Spielberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and President Clinton as friends. "They’re not intimate friends," he insists. Indeed, Gates has evolved into a kind of expert on everything African-American. "He remains the go-to person on the state of African-American affairs," said Perry Steinberg, head of American Program Bureau, a lecture agency. The 30 or so speeches Gates delivers each year are another source of income for the professor. With fame comes controversy. Several other black intellectuals have taken him to task for not being confrontational enough. Gates has heard it before. "Me Critics Oh, what a shock!" But he considers himself more a descendent of historian and educator W. E. B. Du Bois than of Malcolm X. His ultimate goal is to build the field of Afro-American studies. "Fifty years from now I want there to be at least 10 great centers of Afro-American studies," he says. If working as a consultant on Spielberg’s historical film Amistad or giving A1 Gore advice helps, so be it. In Paragraph 5, the phrase "have taken him to task for..." most probably means
A. "have blamed him for a certain fault"
B. "have made him pay for his mistake"
C. "have had him do an assignment"
D. "have trusted him with a certain job"
Passage Four Within hours of appearing on television to announce the end of conscription, President Jacques Chirac moved quickly to prevent any dissent from within the military establishment. Addressing more than 500 military staff officers at the military academy in Paris yesterday, Mr Chirac said clearly that he "expected" their loyalty in the work of rebuilding France’s national defense. He understood their "legitimate concerns, questions and emotions" at the reforms, but added: "You must understand that there is not and never has been any rigid model for French defense. Military service has been compulsory for less than a century. Realism required that our armed forces should now be professional." The President’s decision to abolish conscription over a period of six years removes a rite of passage for young Frenchmen that has existed since the Revolution, even though obligatory national service only became law in 1905. As recently as 1993, an opinion poll showed that more than 60% of French people said they feared the abolition of conscription could endanger national security. A poll conducted this month, however, showed that 70% of those asked favored ending of practice, and on the streets and in offices yesterday, the response to Mr. Chirac’s announcement was generally positive. Among people who completed their 10-month period of national service in the last few years or were contemplating the prospect, there was almost universal approval, tempered by a sense that something hard to define—mixing with people from other backgrounds, a formative experience, a process that encouraged national or social cohesion—might be lost. Patrick, who spent his year in the French city of Valance assigning and collecting uniforms, and is now a computer manager, said he was in tears for his first week, and hated most of his time. He thought it was "useless" as a form of military training— "I only fired a rifle twice" —but, in retrospect, useful for learning how to get on with people and instilling patriotism. As many as 25% of those liable for military service in France somehow avoid it—the percentage is probably much greater in the more educated and higher social classes. According to Geoffroy, a 26-year-old reporter, who spent his time in the navy with the information office in central Paris, the injustice is a good reason for abolishing it. People with money or connections, he said, can get well-paid assignments abroad. "It’s not fair: some do it, some don’t." Several expressed support for the idea of a new socially-oriented voluntary service that would be open to both men and women. But the idea seemed less popular among women. At present, women have the option of voluntary military service and a small number choose to take it. In place of military service, President Chirac proposed the establishment of ______.
A. a new military academy
B. a rite of passage for young Frenchmen
C. conscription over a period of six years
D. professional armed forces
Directions: There are 15 questions in this part of the test. Read the passage through. Then, go back and choose one suitable word or phrase marked A, B, C or D for each blank in the passage. Mark the corresponding letter of the word or phrase you have chosen with a single bar across the square brackets on your Machine-scoring Answer Sheet. Assuming that a constant travel-time budget, geographic constraints and short-term infrastructure constraints persist as fundamental features of global mobility, what long-term results can one expect In high-income regions, (21) North America, our picture suggests that the share of traffic (22) supplied by buses and automobiles will decline as high-speed transport rises sharply. In developing countries, we (23) the strongest increase to be in the shares first for buses and later for automobiles. Globally, these (24) in bus and automobile transport are partially offsetting. In all regions, the share of low-speed rail transport will probably continue its strongly (25) decline. We expect that throughout the period 1990~2050, the (26) North American will continue to devote most of his or her 1.1-hour travel-time (27) to automobile travel. The very large demand (28) air travel (or high-speed rail travel) that will be manifest in 2050 (29) to only 12 minutes per person a day; a little time goes a long way in the air. In several developing regions, most travel (30) in 2050 will still be devoted to nonmotorized modes. Buses will persist (31) the primary form of motorized transportation in developing countries for decades. (32) important air travel becomes, buses, automobiles and (33) low-speed trains will surely go on serving vital functions. (34) of the super-rich already commute and shop in aircraft, but average people will continue to spend most of their travel time on the (35) .
A. works out
B. leaves out
C. runs out
D. puts out
Passage Four Within hours of appearing on television to announce the end of conscription, President Jacques Chirac moved quickly to prevent any dissent from within the military establishment. Addressing more than 500 military staff officers at the military academy in Paris yesterday, Mr Chirac said clearly that he "expected" their loyalty in the work of rebuilding France’s national defense. He understood their "legitimate concerns, questions and emotions" at the reforms, but added: "You must understand that there is not and never has been any rigid model for French defense. Military service has been compulsory for less than a century. Realism required that our armed forces should now be professional." The President’s decision to abolish conscription over a period of six years removes a rite of passage for young Frenchmen that has existed since the Revolution, even though obligatory national service only became law in 1905. As recently as 1993, an opinion poll showed that more than 60% of French people said they feared the abolition of conscription could endanger national security. A poll conducted this month, however, showed that 70% of those asked favored ending of practice, and on the streets and in offices yesterday, the response to Mr. Chirac’s announcement was generally positive. Among people who completed their 10-month period of national service in the last few years or were contemplating the prospect, there was almost universal approval, tempered by a sense that something hard to define—mixing with people from other backgrounds, a formative experience, a process that encouraged national or social cohesion—might be lost. Patrick, who spent his year in the French city of Valance assigning and collecting uniforms, and is now a computer manager, said he was in tears for his first week, and hated most of his time. He thought it was "useless" as a form of military training— "I only fired a rifle twice" —but, in retrospect, useful for learning how to get on with people and instilling patriotism. As many as 25% of those liable for military service in France somehow avoid it—the percentage is probably much greater in the more educated and higher social classes. According to Geoffroy, a 26-year-old reporter, who spent his time in the navy with the information office in central Paris, the injustice is a good reason for abolishing it. People with money or connections, he said, can get well-paid assignments abroad. "It’s not fair: some do it, some don’t." Several expressed support for the idea of a new socially-oriented voluntary service that would be open to both men and women. But the idea seemed less popular among women. At present, women have the option of voluntary military service and a small number choose to take it. Conscription in France has existed ______.
A. since 1993
B. since the French Revolution
C. nearly fifty years
D. almost a century