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Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
When Carly Fiorina became Hewlett-Packard's first female chief executive officer, the existence of her househusband, Frank Fiorina, who had retired early from AT&T to support her career, was a mini-sensation（小轟動）; now this arrangement isn't -- 47 -- at all. Seven of the 18 women who are -- 48 -- CEOs of Fortune 500 companies-including Xerox's Ursula Burns and PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi-have, or at some point have had, a stay-at-home husband. So do scores of -- 49 -- CEOs of smaller companies and women in other senior executive jobs.
This role change is -- 50 -- more and more as women edge past men at work. Women now -- 51 -- a majority of jobs in the US, including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional -- 52 -- , according to US Census Bureau data. Some 23 percent of wives now earn more than their husbands. And this earnings trend is more dramatic among younger people. Women 30 and under make more money, on -- 53 -- , than their male counterparts（年齡相當的人）in many large cities in the US.
During the recent -- 54 -- , three men lost their jobs for every woman. Many unemployed fathers have ended up caring for their children full-time while their wives are the- -- 55 -- wage earners. The number of men in the US who -- 56 -- care for children under age five increased to 32 percent in 2010 from 19 percent in 1988, according to Census figures.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
A) appealing B) average C) conflict D) currently
E) elementary F) ensure G) female H) fill
I) occupations J) occurring K) positions L) primary
M) recession N) regularly O) unusual
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
I've worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school. but making the transition（轉變）between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I'm so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.
There're few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine 1 ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward .
The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing（裁員）and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.
After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become only too clear. When I'm back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale now ring true.
These lessons I'm learning, however valuable, are always tinged（帶有）with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. "This job pays well, but it's hell on the body," said one co-worker. "Study hard and keep reading," she added.
My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答
57. How did the author look back on his summer days while at college?
A) They brought him nothing but torture.
B) They were no holiday for him at all.
C) They were a relief from his hard work at school.
D) They offered him a chance to know more people.
58. What does the author say about college students?
A) They expect too much from the real world.
B) They have little interest in blue-collar life.
C) They think too highly of themselves.
D) They are confident of their future.
59. What, according to the author, is most frustrating for blue-collar workers?
A) They do not get decent pay.
B) They do not have job security.
C) They have to work 12-hour shifts.
D) They have to move from place to place.
60. In what important way has the author's work experience changed him?
A) He learned to be more practical.
B) He acquired a sense of urgency.
C) He came to respect blue-collar workers.
D) He came to appreciate his college education
61. Why does the author feel somewhat guilty?
A) He realizes there is a great divide between his life and that of blue-collar workers.
B) He looks down upon the mechanical work at the assembly line.
C) He has not done much to help his co-workers at the factory.
D) He has stayed at school just for the purpose of escaping from the real world.
Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
Are people suffering from gadget（小器具）overload? Are they exhausted by the consumer equivalent of the brain fatigue-information overload that is caused by constant updates of devices and online media?
Underwriters Laboratories issued a report last week that found 48% of consumers "feel high-tech manufacturers bring new products to market faster than people need them."
There are two possible explanations. The first, obvious one is that the pace of innovation（創新）is too fast for consumers. The second less obvious one is that, in fact, innovation is too slow. That is, the new offerings companies are pushing out the door every six months or so are me-too products or ones with just a couple of new features. Marketing schedules, not product innovation, are driving the corporate（公司的）train. Manufacturers in America valued "speed to market" more than in other countries, the report found.
Sara Greenstein, Underwriters Laboratories' chief strategy officer, offered her interpretation of the survey results. "Innovation is too fast only if corners are cut."
For the high-tech sector, there are a few other interesting findings. Consumers are less concerned about safety in high-tech products than categories like fresh and processed food. But their top safety concerns are emissions and wireless radio waves. Many people, it seems, are uneasy living in a thickening cloud of radio waves from mobile phone towers and the gadgets they communicate with.
A finding that was a hit surprising is that to consumers, the inner parts of high-tech devices do apparently matter. Some 55% of consumers, according to the report, said they are "more concerned about where high-tech components come from than where the product was assembled."
The report doesn't really say how that information would affect consumer buying decisions. It could be complicated. Manufacturing companies on average rely on more than 35 contract suppliers around the world to create a single product. That number would be higher for a laptop.
But maybe some sort of supply-chain labeling showing where parts come from in a product? "We're working on it," Ms. Greenstein said.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
62. What is the finding in Underwriters Laboratories' report about many consumers?
A) They are exhausted by the information overload.
B) They are tired of the constant updating of devices.
C) They feel products are updated faster than needed.
D) They have difficulty following high-tech innovations.
63. What does the author mean by "me-too products"?
A) Products with no substantial difference.
B) Products tailored to individual users.
C) Products everyone is eager to possess.
D) Products companies compete to make.
64. What do American businesses give priority to when marketing their products?
A) The constant updating of their technology.
B) The speed of putting them on the market.
C) The quality of their new products.
D) The pace of product innovation.
65. What is the consumers' chief concern about high-tech products?
A) User-friendliness. B) Product quality.
C) Place of assembly. D) Radio emissions.
66. Why does the author suggest supply-chain labeling?
A) It guarantees the safe shipping of products.
B) It promotes the competitiveness of the supplier.
C) Consumers care about where components are made.
D) Consumers tend to buy products they are .
