[A] decline [B] cut [C] shrink [D] save

此处正确答案是 [A]decline[B]cut[C]shrink[D]save

ed interest rate on savings bonds．ABS's Micheal Lee reports that the 2/3 point decline to 6%came as no surprise to investors．The Section said it is lowering the rate on savings bonds to bring it in 1ine with other market interest rates which have been falling all year．For instance，money market mutual funds are now yielding just over 5%；five-year treasury notes are trading at about 6.5%．

So the government has been paying a premium to people buying savings bonds，and it's turned out to be an expensive way to finance the public debt．

The relatively generous 7.5%rate on the bonds has made them very popular in the past few months．Since the beginning of August．sales have been about double the usual pace。And this week，the rush to buy savings bonds intensified because of reports that the Section was going to cut the rate any day，and people wanted to lock in the old rate．Savings bonds bought before tomorrow，the day the cut goes into effect，will still yield 7.5%．I'm MicheaI Lee in Washington，D．C．

？You will hear a report in brief about the lowering of the interest rates．

？As you listen，for questions 1-12，complete the notes，using up to three words or a number．

？After you have listened once，replay the recording．

The National Finance Section announced today that it is lowering the______ on savings bonds．

2．The______ point decline to 6％ came as no surprise to investors．

3．The Section said it is lowering the rate on savings bonds to bring it ______ other market interest rates．

4．Money ______ are now yielding iust over 5％．

5．Five-year treasury notes are trading at about ______．

6．The government has been ______ to people buying savings bonds．

7．It's turned out to be an expensive way to finance ______．

8．The relatively generous ______ rate on the bonds has made them very popular in the past fen months．

9．Since the beginning of August，sales have ______ the usual pace．

10．This week，______ buy savings bonds intensified．

11．It is reported that the Section was going to ______ any day．

12．Savings bonds bought before tomorrow will still yield ______.

been declining for years due to advance in technology and changes inthe global economy. The following is a list of careers that are disappearing.

Stage Performers

The five-year decline for this career was a surprising 61%. Stage performanceshave fallen out of fashion and have been almost entirely replaced with moviesand home entertainment technologies.

、Postal service mail sorters

After losing almost 57,000 jobs between 2004 and 2009, a further 30% decline inthis occupation can be seen by 2018.With more automatic processes for mailsorting and increasing correspondence via e-mail and fax, this job is quicklybecoming unnecessary.

Office support workers

About 300,000 office support jobs disappeared between 2004 and 2009.Secretaries and file clerks are no longer in demand as companies cut costs.Moreover, technologies like voicemail and easy-to-use word processors haveenabled professionals to do their own office work.

Photo processors

With the rise of digital photography and automatic printing, positions formanual photo printers are rapidly disappearing. The occupation has beensteadily losing jobs in the last five years and there might be a 24% decline by2018.

Radio operators

As technology advances, the needfor workers to monitor communications via radio telephone equipment isdisappearing. This already small field saw a five-year decline of 43%.

1.According to the first paragraph, because of theadvances in technology and global economic changes, _________.

选项格式：A.Part-time jobs have become more popular

B.Many new occupations are emerging

C.Many jobs are disappearing sharply

D.People are attracted to higher-paying jobs

2.One reason why the career of stage performers is declining so fast is that __________.

A.There isless investment in in stage performances

B.Stage performances have become less popular

C.Fewer people arequalified as stage performers

D.Stage performers can no longer earn big money

3.The benefit of using new technologies in the officeis that ______________.

A.Office workers can work on a flexible work system

B.Profession alsare able to do their own office work

C.Secretaries and file clerks are badly in need

D.Employees can enjoy better social welfare

4.The author expects that by 2018 the occupation ofphoto processors might decline by ______.

A.24%

B.30%

C.43%

D.61%

5.Which of the following might be best title of thepassage？

A.Global Economy

B.Advanced Technologies

C.Rising Unemployment

D.Disappearing Careers

theory being that the area became hotter and drier and the people were forced to abandon a thriving civilization. However, some geologists, after carefully weighing the evidence, have challenged the conclusion that the climate has changed in any important way since Roman times. Although climatological factors may also have contributed, it was man who destroyed the balance of nature responsible for maintaining soil fertility and moisture.

Why is it that under certain circumstances, the plant cover is unable to regenerate itself, thus setting the stage for serious erosion (腐蚀)？ To answer this question, let us take an extreme example, the destruction of tropical rain forests. In general, the equatorial (赤道附近的) soil is poor: forests can exist in these regions only because they are part of a balanced cycle. All that the forest produces is returned to the forest. The organic matter that falls from the trees constitutes the humus (腐殖土) that the forest requires. When people cut down all the trees to make room for crops, the soil is laid bare and, deprived of shade, heats up. An increase in soil temperature increases the rate of decomposition (分解) of organic matter. Organic nitrogen (氮) is converted into soluble ammonia (氨) and nitrates (硝酸盐), which the rains quickly leach (沥滤，溶滤)away. It has been calculated that a rise in temperature from 77 to 78.8 may increase the loss of nitrogen by fifteen to twenty pounds per acre per year. With the fertility of soil destroyed, an irreversible change from forest to desert can be initiated.

What do people usually think contributed to the decline of North Africa？

A．Human factors.

B．Economic factors.

C．Climatic factors.

D．Population factors.

？Read the extract below about advertising.

？For each question 31-40, write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.

Is More Advertising Needed

The effectiveness of advertising is a hugely controversial area. Conventional wisdom in the industry is that sales may well increase for a Certain period even after the advertising of a product ends. But (31) comes a point when sales start to decline and it then becomes extremely expensive to rebuild the brand. This supports the idea of continuous advertising. But some people in the industry believe the conventional wisdom is (32) longer true. When America's big TV networks reached prime-time audiences of 90% of households, they were a powerful way to build a brand. (33) that those audiences might be as low as one-third of households, other ways of promoting a brand have (34) more competitive. Moreover, many clients never really embraced continuous advertising: when times get tough, just as they (35) after 2000, one of the first things many companies cut is their ad budget.

Robert Shaw, a visiting professor at the Cranfield School of Management in Britain, runs a forum in (36) a number of big companies try to monitor the "marketing payback" from advertising. The return from traditional media was, he says, "never terribly good". Generally nearly half of ads provide a return (37) their investment. And there can be various reasons why ads influence sales, other (38) their direct effect on consumers. (39) instance, if a producer announces a multi-million dollar ad-campaign, then retailers are often persuaded to increase, deliveries. This can result (40) a "distribution effect" that leads to additional sales.

(31)

overloaded, causing a growing number of customers to complain about calls that are inaudible or are cut off or are never connected in some places.

And things could get worse before they get better, industry experts say, because even as cell phone companies are rolling out fancy features like digital photography and Internet-based games, they are not capable of spending the money needed to improve basic service.

"This is a situation in which the wireless industry is a victim of its own success," said James D. Schlichtinga deputy chief at the Federal Communications Commission.

Many of the industry's service problems are a result of a huge growth of new customers. The surge in users in overwhelming the capacity to handle calls on wireless systems whether be- cause local transmitters are too few or too small, or because the local airwaves have become too crowded and carriers are unable to obtain larger radio frequencies.

The problems are compounded by basic economics. Customers have been attracted by tile plunge in prices for wireless service. The average per-minute cost has dropped to 11 cents this year from 56 cents in 1995. For the phone companies that has meant a decline in average revenue per customer to ＄61 a month, from ＄ 74 in 1995. And so, just when the wireless companies need to invest more money to accommodate all those new users, the companies are under increased financial strain. As a result, the complaints are piling up.

The percentage of all wireless subscribers who have called customer-service centers at least once in the last year to complain about service or because they had other problems has climbed to 61 per cent, from 53 per cent in 2000, according to J. D. Power & Associates, a company that measures customer satisfaction in many industries and sells it to the companies. being scrutinized. Another industry problem is the sheer technical complexity of sending and receiving wireless calls. Unlike conventional telephone systems, in which every customer is hardwired to the network, wireless systems rely on a delicate mesh of thousands of antenna towers, which often face resistance from local governments and cellular stations.

According to the passage, the complaints of American customers about the cell phone are showed in the following statements EXCEPT ______.

A．they can not listen to the voice clearly

B．the phone is cut off while they are communicating

C．the prices for wireless service are high

D．the cell phone is never connected in some places

with a smaller group of friends who are close to them." This finding appears in a report released last week, which is a part of the product of a 1-year social research program. More than 1,000 persons are interviewed about their attitude and feeling for their friends. And those interviewed are diversified, from the perspective of gender, age, and occupation as well as marital statues.

"Of course, we can not imagine a life without any friend", said Jeff, one of the researchers from the research program, "but when it comes to friends, it is definitely not a matter of the more, the better". He also pointed out that with our growing up, the life situation in front of us will become complicated, and some of the friends, especially those we made while doing business, will turn out to be more like a burden than a support, which may sound surprising to those who haven't put too much thought into this issue.

If you are really busy, and some friendships seem to have nothing to offer you at the moment, maybe you can consider cooling the relationship for a while. When these friends invite you to a social gathering and you do not have the time to do so, decline such invitations politely. When they call you for a casual chat, and you are really having your hands full at that particular time, try to control that call to a time period acceptable for you.

We use the term "to cool some friendship", because we are by no means indicating a utilitarianism attitude towards friendship--an attitude that the value of a friend would be determined by whether or not he/she is useful for us. We agree with the general belief that friendship should be kept as something pure and lasting. What we are suggesting here is how to find a balance between the quality and quantity of friends.

So, for those friendships we cooled off for a while, if you don't want to cut them off completely, you can organize some gatherings with a few such friends on a quarterly or even yearly basis. By doing so, you can keep several friendships going on at once.

Which of the following factor is NOT mentioned when discussing the persons interviewed in the research？

A．What kind of job they are doing.

B．How old they are.

C．How much money they earn per year.

D．Whether they are married or not.

A.decline

B.refuse

C.两个没有区别

[A] resist

[B] decline

[C] flee

[D] prevent

The economy continued to exhibit signs of decline in September．

A play

B send

C show

D tell