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Section B
Passage One
Every person uses its own special words to describe things and express ideas. Some of these expressions are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is "Where’s the beef?"【26】It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be. In the early 1980s, "Where’s the beef?" was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone was using it all the time.
Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and probably no food is more popular in America than the hamburger made from beef. 【27】In the 1960s a businessman named Ray Kroc began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Kroc called his restaurant "McDonald’s". 【27】Kroc cooked hamburgers quickly so people in a hurry could buy and eat them without waiting. By the end of the 1960s the McDonald’s Company was selling hamburgers in hundreds of restaurants from California to Maine. 【28】Not surprisingly, Ray Kroc became one of the richest businessmen in America.
【28】Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburger restaurants. One company, called "Wendy’s", began to compete with McDonald’s. Wendy’s said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald’s or anyone else. The Wendy’s Company created the expression "Where’s the beef?" to make people believe that Wendy’s hamburgers were the biggest. It produced a television advertisement to sell this idea. The Wendy’s television advertisement showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a tiny bit of meat. "Where’s the beef?" She shouted in a funny voice. These advertisements for Wendy’s hamburger restaurants were a success from the first day they appeared on television. As we said, it seemed everyone began using the expression "Where’s the beef?"
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. What does the expression "Where’s the beef?" mean?
27. Why are hamburgers so popular in America?
28. Why did other people want to open hamburger restaurant?
26. 答案B
解析：選項是解釋說明。聽力一開始講到流行語，并且舉了“Where is the beef” 為例，接下來解釋了這個短語的意思，“某物并沒有描述的那么好”。選項C是個干擾項，這個短語流行開來，beef并不特指牛肉這一種東西，而是代指任何東西。
27. 答案C
解析：考生可推斷選項A、B、C中的they指代選項D中的hamburgers。聽力中討論了McDonald’s的出現和流行，其中提及漢堡的價格比較低，很快就能做好，忙碌的人們不用等就能買到。
28. 答案D
解析：選項也是說明原因。聽力中提到，Ray Kroc在全國好多地方都開店賣漢堡，成為美國富豪之一。其他生意人看到了他的成功，也相繼開了漢堡店。聯系前后文，其他人開漢堡店的原因是，也想成功和賺錢。
Passage Two
Strikes are very common in Britain. They are extremely harmful to its industries. In fact, there are other countries in Western Europe that lose more working days through strikes every year than Britain. 【29】The trouble with the strikes in Britain is that they occur in essential industries. There are over 495 unions in Britain. Some unions are very small. Over 20 have more than 100,000 members. Unions do not exist only to demand higher wages. They also educate their members. They provide benefits for the sick and try to improve working conditions. Trade unionists say that we must thank the unions for the great improvement in working conditions in the last hundred years. It is now against the law for union members to go on strike without the support of their union. This kind of strike is called unofficial strike and was common until recently. 【30】Employers feel that unofficial strikes were most harmful because they would not be predicted. However, these unofficial strikes still occur from time to time and some unions have also refused to cooperate with the law. 【31】As a result, the general picture of the relations between workers and employers in Britain has gone from bad to worse.
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
29. In what way. are strikes in Britain different from those in other European countries?
30. Why are British employers so afraid of unofficial strikes?
31. What conclusion can be drawn from this passage?
29. 答案A
解析：聽力篇章一開始講到罷工在英國很常見，歐洲其他國家也有很多罷工，損失的工作日要比英國的多。但英國的問題在于，最重要的行業中有罷工。由此判斷，A為正確選項。
30. 答案B
解析：選項是對某一類罷工的描述。聽力最后講，雇主認為非正式的罷工危害最大，因為它們不可預測。由此判斷B為正確答案。
31. 答案D
解析：選項是總結性語言。考生可注意聽力篇章的最后部分。聽力最后講，員工和雇主之間的關系是越來越壞。選項D中的tense意為“緊張的”，和聽力原文中的go from bad to worse同義。
