大学英语四级考试阅读讲义(五十)

第二部分 阅读理解模拟练习
　　Unit 1
　　(35 minutes)
　　Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.?
　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
　　The banking revolution in America is as much about attitudes and assumptions as about size and structure. For centuries, Americans have distrusted banks. In the 1830s, Andrew Jackson denounced and destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, which existed “to make the rich richer” at the expense of “farmers, mechanics and laborers.” In the 1930s, banks were blamed for helping cause the Depression. The wonder, then, is that the latest wave of bank mergers — the largest ever — has inspired little more than a bewildered and, perhaps, irritated shrug from the public.
　　As banks grow bigger, they seem less fearsome. Why? The answer is that banks have shrunk in power even as they have expanded in size. Traditionally, banking has been a simple business. Deposits come through one door, loans go out through an other. Profits derive from the “?spread?” between interest rates on deposits and loans. If savers and borrowers cannot go elsewhere, banks are powerful. And if there are other choices, banks are less powerful. And so it is.?We inhabit an age of superabundant credit and its purveyors. A century ago, matters were different. Small depositors could choose from only one or several local banks; getting a loan meant winning the good graces of the neighborhood banker. Even big corporations depended on a few big banks or investment houses.
　　John Reed or Hugh McColl — the heads of Citicorp and Nations Bank — are not household names. In 1900 J. P. Morgan was. As head of J. P. Morgan & Co., he controlled—through stock and positions on corporate boards — a third of U.S. railroads and 70 percent of the steel industry. A railroad executive once cheerfully confessed his dependence on Morgan's capital:“If Mr. Morgan were to order me tomorrow to China or Siberia ...I would go.”
　　No bankers today inspires such awe or fear. Time, technology and government restrictions weakened bank power. In the 1920s, auto companies popularized car loans. National credit cards originated in 1950 with the Dinners Club card. In 1933, the Glass-Steagal Act required banks and their investment houses to split. After World War Ⅱ, pensions and the stock market competed for consumer savings. As aresult, banks command a shrinking share of the nation's wealth: 20 percent of assets of financial institutions in 1997, down from 50 percent in 1950.
　　21. Traditionally, Americans' attitude towards banks is one of .
　　A) suspicion
　　B) trust
　　C) dependence
　　D) admiration
　　22. Why are John Reed and Hugh McColl not as well-known as J.P. Morgan?
　　A) John Reed and Hugh McColl are not as rich as J.P. Morgan was.
　　B) Banks are no longer as powerful as they were in J.P. Morgan's time.
　　C) John Reed and Hugh McColl are not as capable as J.P. Morgan was.
　　D) The banks John Reed and Hugh McColl head are smaller than Morgan's.
　　23. The word “spread” in Paragraph 2 most probably means .
　　A) cover
　　B) extent
　　C) difference
　　D) degree
　　24. Which of the following statements is true?
　　A) The recent bank mergers have given much shock to the nation.
　　B) People no longer distrust banks.
　　C) No bank today can compare with J.P. Morgan's in size.
　　D) It is easier to borrow money today than it was in the past.
　　25. What does the author chiefly talk about in the passage?
　　A) Banking and investment.
　　B) The credit market.
　　C) The evolution of the banks. 
　　D) The shrinking power of the banks.