?Passage Four

Where do you go when you want to know the latest business news, follow commodity prices, keep up with political gossip, find out what others think of a new book, or stay abreast of the latest scientific and technological developments? Today, the answer is obvious: you log on to the Internet. Three centuries ago, the answer was just as easy: you went to a coffee-house. There, for the price of a cup of coffee, you could read the latest pamphlets, catch up on news and gossip, attend scientific lectures, strike business deals, or chat with like-minded people about literature or politics. 

The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting around 1650, functioned as information exchanges for writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. Like today's websites, weblogs and discussion boards, coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of information that typically specialized in a particular topic or political viewpoint. They were outlets for a stream of newsletters, pamphlets, and advertising free-sheets. Depending on the interests of their customers, some coffee-houses displayed commodity prices, share prices and shipping lists, whereas others provided foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip from abroad.

Rumors, news and gossip were also carried between coffee-houses by their patrons, and sometimes runners would fit from one coffee-house to another within a particular city to report major events such as the outbreak of a war or the death of a head of state. Coffee-houses were centers of scientific education, literary and philosophical speculation, commercial innovation and, sometimes, political fermentation. Collectively, Europe's interconnected web of coffee-houses formed the internet of the Enlightenment era.

The contrast between coffee and alcoholic drinks was reflected in the decor of the coffee-houses that began to appear in European cities, London in particular. They were adorned with bookshelves, mirrors, git-framed pictures and good furniture, in contrast to the noisiness, gloom and squalor of taverns. According to custom, social differences were left at the coffee-house door, and anyone who started a quarrel! had to atone for it by buying an order of coffee for all present. In short, coffee-houses were calm, sober and well-ordered establishments that promoted polite conversation and discussion. 

With a new rationalism abroad in the spheres of both philosophy and commerce, coffee was the ideal drink. Its popularity owed much to the growing middle class of information workers—clerks, merchants and businessmen—who did mental work in offices rather than performing physical labor in the open,and found that coffee sharpened their mental faculties.Such men were not rich enough to entertain lavishly at home,but could afford to spend a few pence a day on coffee. Coffee-houses provided a forum for education, debate and self-improvement. They were nicknamed "penny universities" in a contemporary English verse which observed: "So great a Universitie, I think there ne'er was any; In which you may a Scholar be,for spending of a Penny." 

Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.

Today,if you want to get the latest business news and keep up with political gossip, you _____.

Paragraph Ten

Lack of interest can also lead to absent mindedness. A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago may not remember to drop a litter in the mailbox. Women are slightly better than men in this respect, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment.

The influence of interest on m_____.

It's early August and the countryside appears peaceful. Planting has long been finished and the fields are alive with strong, healthy crops. Soybeans and wheat are flourishing under the hot summer sun, and the com is now well over six feet tall. (46. Herds of dairy and beef cattle are grazing peacefully in rolling pastures which surround big. red barns and neat. white farmhouses. Everything as far as the eye can see radiates a sense of prosperity.)

The tranquility of the above scene is misleading. Farmers in the Midwest put in some of the longest workdays of any profession in the United States. In addition to caring for their crops and livestock, they have to keep up with new farming techniques, such as those for combining soil erosion and increasing livestock production.It is essential that farmers adopt these advances in technology if they want to continue to meet the growing demands of a hungry world.

(47.Agriculture is the number one industry in the United States and agricultural products are the country's leading export.Com and soybean exports alone account for approximately 75 percent of the amount sold in world markets.)

This productivity,however,has its price.Intensive cultivation exposes the earth to the damaging forces of nature.Every year wind and water remove tons of rich soil from the nation's croplands,with the result that soil erosion has become a national problem concerning everyone from the farmer to the consumer.

Each field is covered by a limited amount of topsoil,the upper layer of earth which is richest in the nutrient and minerals necessary for growing crops.In the 1830s,nearly two feet of rich,black top soil covered the Midwest.Today the average depth is only eight inches,and every decade another inch is blown or washed away. (48.A United States Agricultural Department survey states that if erosion continues at its present rate,corn and soybean yields in the Midwest may drop as much as 30 percent over the next 50 years.)

So far, farmers have been able to compensate for the loss of fertile topsoil by applying more chemical fertilizers to their fields;however,while this practice has increased crop yields, it has been devastating for ecology. (49.Agriculture has become one of the biggest polluters of the nation's precious water supply. River, lakes,and underground reserves of water are being filled in and poisoned by soil and chemicals carried by drainage from eroding fields. )Furthermore, fertilizers only replenish the soil; they do not prevent its loss.

Clearly something else has to be done in order to avoid an eventual ecological disaster.Conservationists insist that the solution to the problem lies in new and better farming techniques. (50.Concerned farmers are building terraces on hilly fields,rotating their crops,and using new plowing methods to cut soil losses significantly.Substantial progress has been made.but soil erosion is far from being under control.)

The problems and innovations of the agricultural industry in the Midwest are not restricted to growing crops.Livestock raising,which is a big business in the central region of the United States, is also undergoing many changes.

Paragraph Eight

A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro-processor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control center to block the vehicle's engine management system and prevent the engine from being restarted.

A t___ device to protect the car.

Paragraph Seven

Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses. Any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown.

The process of doing scientific r___.

Paragraph Nine

Parents in low. income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school.

Girls are n____ in poor countries.

Paragraph Six

A report concluded that normal children aged between 9 and 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 60 years ago. The report cited two main reasons: increasing physical isolation brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community—and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.

The c____ of a higher level of anxiety today.

Paragraph Five

As we go about our everyday lives, we mentally attempt to place people in terms of their status. For example, we must judge whether the person in the library is a reader or a librarian, whether the telephone caller is a friend or a salesman, whether the unfamiliar person on our property is a thief or a meter reader, and so on.

A tendency to i____ a person.

Paragraph Four

Exercise's supporting role in weight reduction is vital. A study at the Boston University Medical Center of overweight police officers and other public employees confirmed that those who dieted without exercise regained almost all their old weight, while those who worked exercise into their daily routine. maintained their new weight.

Exercise to k____ fit

Paragraph Two

Inside your nose, there are hundreds of tiny hairs. These hairs filter the air you breathe. Sometimes dust and pollen find their way through these hairs and bother your nasal passages. The nerves in the lining of your nose tell your brain that something is invading your body. At this moment you usually sneeze.

An automatic r____ of our body.

Paragraph Three

The meanings of time differ in different parts of the world. Thus,misunderstandings arise between people from cultures that treat time differently. Time is valued highly in American life. If people do not show up on time when they have an appointment, they may be regarded as impolite or not responsible.

Being p_____, a virtue in American culture.