Passage Three
[32]In the past industries had more freedom than they have now, and they did not need to be as careful as they must today. They did not need to worry a lot about the safety of the new products that they developed. They did not have to pay much attention to the health and safety of the people who worked for them. Often new products were dangerous for the people who used them; often conditions in the work place had very bad effects on the health of the workers.
Of course sometimes there were real disasters which attracted the attention of government and which showed need for changes. Also scientists who were doing research into the health of the workers sometimes produced information which governments could not ignore. At such times, there were inquiries into the causes of the disaster or the problems. New safety rules were often introduced as a result of these inquiries; [33]however, the new rules came too late to protect the people who had died or become seriously ill.
Today many governments have special departments which protect customers and workers. In the U.S., for example, there is a department which tests new airplanes and gives warnings about possible problems. It also makes the rules that aircraft producers must follow. Another department controls the foods and drugs that companies sell. [34]A third department looks at the places where people work, and then reports any companies that are breaking laws which protect the health and safety of workers.

Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
32.Compared with today's industries, what were the industries in the past like?
正確答案：A
解析：細節題。短文首句就提到，在過去，工業生產的自由度比現在大，不必像現在這樣小心行事，A為正確答案。A只是對原文換了一種說法而已，符合“同義替換”的解題原則。本題反映了比較級常為考點這個命題規律。B、C與原文相悖。
33. What did the government do years ago?
正確答案：B
解析：推斷題。短文提到，然而這些新的制度來得太遲了，無法保護那些已經死亡或病重的人了。由此可推斷，rules多在事發后才出臺，故B正確。
34. What does the passage say about industries in the U.S. today?
正確答案：B
解析：推斷題。短文末尾提到，另一個部門著眼于人們工作的地方，并會將那些違反工人健康安全法規的公司上報。由此可推斷，B為正確答案。文章結尾處往往是考點所在。文中舉了3個例子，但這并不表明只有3個部門保護消費者及勞動者，故A錯誤；C與原文不符；D與原文相悖。
35. What is the speaker mainly talking about?
正確答案：C
解析：主旨題。短文通過對工業生產的過去和現狀的比較，著重論述了關于保護消費者和工人的不同狀況：過去很糟糕，現在改善了很多，故C正確。解答主旨題要從宏觀角度去理解，抓住主題句和文章脈絡。通過文中反復出現的safety, health, rules, work place, protect, customers, workers等關鍵詞，不難推斷出C正確。A、B、D在文中都有提及，但它們只是文章里的某些細節而已，并不是本文的主要話題。