Text 3

　　Transporting large containers is not as glamorous as making films, but shipping is doing more than Hollywood to boost southern California's economy these days. The nearby ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, already the two biggest in the country, are growing quickly thanks to trade with China. They are a giant job-creating engine, stimulating industrial and warehouse employment on a scale not seen in the region since the rise of the aerospace industry after the Second World War. Sadly, like most engines, they are filthy.

　　The ports themselves reckon they are responsible for about 12% of all the diesel particle emissions and 45% of the sulphur oxides (硫的 氧化物) in southern California. Carried east by prevailing winds, such pollutants help to create some of America's worst air more than 50 miles inland. Those who live close to the freeways leading out of the ports suffer the most. Researchers have found that children living within a few hundred meters of such roads are not only more likely to suffer from asthma, a disease of the breathing system and characterized by sudden recurring attacks of labored breathing, and coughing. They actually have smaller lungs.

　　The most ambitious effort to control pollution, and the one that may affect the local economy most drastically, involves truckers. Some 16,000 lorries currently haul containers between ships and warehouses, most of whom are owned by Hispanic immigrants. The drivers put in long hours: 13 a day is not unusual, according to a survey. They earn, on average, just under $35,000 a year. Such jobs, like many connected to the port, are an important stepping-stone on the path to the middle class.

　　The ports want to remove the oldest trucks and gradually upgrade the others so that, within five years, the fleet emits four-fifths less pollution than at present. To help pay for this, they intend to levy (征收-) a fee of $34 to $54 on every “dirty” vehicle entering the port. Most important, they want to turn a large, unwieldy network of independent contractors into a more orderly group of companies, as happens in an airport. “We need to have more control,” explains Geraldine Knatz, the head of Los Angeles' port.

　　The reforms do nonetheless pose a threat to the ports' competitiveness. At present, the truckers who work at the docks are price-takers, not price-setters. Because they are self-employed, they are almost impossible to unionize, and consequently have little bargaining power. All that could quite easily change if they were to become the employees of a few large firms. Indeed, the most enthusiastic welcome for the ports' plans has come not from environmental groups but from the Teamsters' union.

　　31.What is the passage mainly about?

　　[A]The consequences of shipping industry in southern California.

　　[B]The causes of pollution along the coast of southern California.

　　[C]The pollution problem of the shipping industry in southern California.

　　[D]The role of shipping industry in southern California's economy.

　　32.The author mentions the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to ______.

　　[A]prove they are the largest ports in the United States

　　[B]demonstrate they create many new job opportunities

　　[C]highlight that shipping is less glamorous than making movies

　　[D]emphasize the role of shipping in southern California's economy

　　33.We can infer from the passage that ______.

　　[A]Hollywood hardly improves southern California's economy

　　[B]the shipping industry there is as dirty as other industries

　　[C]people living near these ports suffer the most

　　[D]the polluted air may cause both asthma and smaller lungs

　　34.According to the passage, the most ambitious effort to control pollution ______.

　　[A]could help improve the local economy

　　[B]will be financially supported by the truckers

　　[C]may depend on independent contractors

　　[D]will upgrade all the trucks to reduce pollution

　　35.The reforms threaten the port's competitiveness in that ______.

　　[A]the truckers' unionization would raise the cost of the ports

　　[B]truckers working at the docks are price-takers

　　[C]the Teamsters' union would have little bargaining power

　　[D]environmental groups are not enthusiastic about the plans

　　Text 4

　　Humor, which ought to give rise to only the most light-hearted and gay feelings, can often stir up vehemence and animosity. Evidently it is dearer to us than we realize. Men will take almost any kind of criticism except the observation that they have no sense of humour. A man will admit to being a coward or a liar or a thief or a poor mechanic or a bad swimmer, but tell him he as a dreadful sense of humour and you might as well have slandered his mother. Even if he is civilized enough to pretend to make light of your statement, he will still secretly believe that he has not only a good sense of humour but are superior to most. He has, in other words, a completely blind spot on the subject. This is all the more surprising when you consider that not one man in ten million can give you any kind of intelligent answer as to what humour is or why he laughs.

　　One day when I was about twelve years old, it occurred to me to wonder about the phenomenon of laughter. At first I thought it is easy enough to see what I laugh at and why I am amused, but why at such times do I open my mouth and exhale in jerking gasps and wrinkle up my eyes and throw back my head and halloo like an animal? Why do I not instead rap four times on the top of my head or whistle or whirl about?

　　That was over twenty years ago and I am still wondering, except that I now no longer even take my first assumption for granted, I no longer clearly understand why I laugh at what amuses me nor why things are amusing. I have illustrious company in my confusion, of course, Many of the great minds of history have brought their power of concentration to bear on the mystery of humour, and, to date, their conclusions are so contradictory and ephemeral that they cannot possibly be classified as scientific.

　　Many definitions of the comic are incomplete and many are simply rewording of things we already know. Aristotle, for example, defined the ridiculous as that which is incongruous but represents neither danger nor pain. But that seems to me to be a most inadequate sort of observation, for of at this minute I insert here the word rutabagas, I have introduced something in congruous, something not funny. Of course, it must be admitted that Aristotle did not claim that every painless in congruity is ridiculous but as soon as we have gone as far as this admission, we begin to see that we have come to grips with a ghost when we think have it pinned, it suddenly appears behind us, mocking us.

　　An all-embracing definition of humour has been attempted by many philosophers, but no definition, no formula had ever been devised that is entirely satisfactory. Aristotle's definition has come to be known loosely as the "disappointment" theory, or the "frustrated expectation", but he also, discussed another theory borrowed in part from Plato which states that the pleasure we derive in laughing is an enjoyment of the misfortune of others, due to a momentary feeling of superiority or gratified vanity in appreciation of the fact that we ourselves are not in the observed predicament.

　　36. Which of the following can be inferred from the first paragraph?

　　[A] People don't like to be considered as one with no sense of humour.

　　[B] People will give you a satisfactory answer to what humour is.

　　[C] People would like to be a liar or a coward.

　　[D] People can make light of other's comment on their sense of humour.

　　37. The purpose of two questions in the second paragraph is to ________.

　　[A] demonstrate why people are amused

　　[B] display what people laugh at

　　[C] bring to light the phenomenon of laughter

　　[D] accent what a phenomenon laughter really is

　　38. The writer feels that the answer to the mystery of humour given by the great minds of history is ________.

　　[A] dispassionate

　　[B] unsatisfactory

　　[C] satisfactory

　　[D] intelligent

　　39. The word "rutabagas" is inserted in Para. 4 to ________.

　　[A] support the writer's opinion on Aristotle's explanation of humour

　　[B] show his agreement with Aristotle's definition

　　[C] explain Aristotle's definition of the ridiculous

　　[D] prove that the ridiculous is that which is incongruous but represents neither danger nor pain

　　40. The paragraph following will most likely discuss ________.

　　[A] the writer's intelligent definition of humour

　　[B] more theories about the mystery of laughter

　　[C] why there is humour

　　[D] the mystery of humour