Writing Based on Reading and ListeningDirections: For this task, you will first have five minutes to read a passage about an academic topic. You may take notes on the passage if you wish. The passage will then be removed and you will listen to a lecture about the same topic. While you listen, you may also take notes.Then you will have 20 minutes to write a response to a question that asks you about the relationship between the lecture you heard and the reading passage. Try to answer the question as completely as possible using information from the reading passage and the lecture. The question does not ask you to express your personal opinion. You will be able to see the reading passage again when it is time for you to write. You may use your notes to help you answer the question.Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words long. Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on the completeness and accuracy of the content. If you finish your response before time is up, you may click on Next to go on to the second writing task.Now you will see the reading passage for five minutes. Remember it will be available to you again when you write immediately after the reading time ends. The lecture will begin, so keep your headset on until the lecture is over.NarratorNow listen to a part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.Writing Based on Knowledge and ExperienceDirections: For this task, you will write an essay in response to a question that asks you to state, explain, and support your opinion on an issue.Typically, an effective essay will contain a minimum of 300 words. Your essay will be judged on the quality of your writing. This includes the development of your ideas, the organization of your essay, and the quality and accuracy of the language you use to express your ideas.You have 30 minutes to plan and complete your essay.
案例分析题Set 5President Hoover’s Politics During the Great DepressionAt first everything seemed fine and dandy. America was enjoying one of the biggest economic surges in the nation’s history. However, even though America benefited from the economic boom of the so called "Roaring Twenties", the imbalance between the rich and the poor combined with the production of more and more goods and rising personal debt caused one of the biggest recessions in history. On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression, which was the worst economic collapse in the history of the modem, industrial world. It spread from the United States and rippled out to the rest of the world, with banks failing and businesses going bust for over a span of a decade, leaving more than a quarter of the working force in America without jobs.President Herbert Hoover, underestimating the seriousness of the crisis, called it "a passing incident in our national lives," and assured Americans that it would be over within two months. Hoover did not think that the federal government should offer relief to the poverty-stricken population because he firmly believed in individualism. Focusing on economic programs to help finance businesses and banks, Hoover met with resistance from business executives who preferred to lay off workers. Blamed by many for the Great Depression, Hoover was widely ridiculed.Hoover’s economy was put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. It was his vocal stance on non-intervention that led to Democratic criticism that Hoover was a "sitting duck" president; on the other hand, his more pro-free market opponents also denied he was a laissez-faire president and condemned him for being an interventionist. Hoover tried to restore confidence with a series of speeches but his weak speaking style hampered these efforts. The biggest problem was that his predictions of an upturn just around the comer never materialized. His promises were not delivered and he lost a lot of the public’s confidence.Together, the government and businesses actually spent more in the first half of 1930 than the previous year; yet frightened consumers cut back their expenditures by ten percent. A severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland beginning in the summer of 1930, while foreign banks declared bankruptcy, draining U.S. wealth and destroying world trade. The combination of these factors caused a downward spiral: as earning fell, domestic banks collapsed, and mortgages were called in. Hoover’s hold-the- line policy in wages lasted little more than a year. Unemployment soared from five million in 1930 to over eleven million in 1931, causing this sharp recession to become the Great Depression.In 1930, Hoover reluctantly signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items. The Tariff, combined with the 1932 Revenue Act, which hiked taxes and fees across the board, is often blamed for deepening the economic depression, and is considered by some to be Hoover’s biggest political mistakes. Moreover, the Federal Reserve System’s tightening of the money supply is also regarded by most modem economists as a mistaken tactic, under the circumstances.In order to cover the expenses of these government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American history.The Revenue Act of 1932 raised taxes on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%, while the estate tax was doubled, and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15%.Also, a "check tax" was included that placed a 2-cent tax on all bank checks. During the 1932 elections, Hoover’s opponents blasted the Republican incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt, raising tariffs, and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the dole of the government.Roosevelt attacked Hoover for "reckless and extravagant" spending, and of leading "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history."Unemployment rose to 24.9% by the end of Hoover’s presidency in 1933, a year that is considered to be the depth of the Great Depression. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage. In order to cover the expenses of these government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American History. Where would the sentence best fit().
A. Square A.
B. Square B.
C. Square C.
D. Square D.