Section III Reading Comprehension

　　Directions:

　　Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question four answers are given. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Put your choice in the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

　　Text 1

　　The entrepreneur, according to French economist J.B. Say, “is a person who shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and yield.” But Say’s definition does not tell us who this entrepreneur is. Some define the entrepreneur simply as one who starts his or her own new and small business. For our purposes, we will define the entrepreneur as a person who takes the necessary risks to organize and manage a business and receives the financial profits and nonmonetary rewards.

　　The man who opens a small pizza restaurant is in business, but is he an entrepreneur? He took a risk and did something, but did he shift resources or start the business? If the answer is yes, then he is considered an entrepreneur. Ray Kroc is an example of an entrepreneur because he founded and established McDonald’s. His hamburgers were not a new idea, but he applied new techniques, resource allocations, and organizational methods in his venture. Ray Kroc upgraded the productivity and yield from the resources applied to create his fast-food chain. This is what entrepreneurs do; this is what entrepreneurship means.

　　Many of the sharp, black-and-white contrasts between the entrepreneur and the professional have faded to gray color. Formerly, professionals such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, and accountants were not supposed to be entrepreneurial, aggressive, or market oriented. They were “above” the market-driven world. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, were the mavericks of society. They were risk-takers who aggressively sought to make something happen. Long hours were about all the two worlds had in common. However, increased competition, saturated markets, and a more price-conscious public have changed the world of the professionals. Today they need to market their skills, talents, and competencies. Lawyers advertise their services. Doctors specialize in one form of surgery. Accounting firms join with other businesses (e.g., consulting and law) to serve clients.

　　Entrepreneurs exhibit many different behaviors; searching for a specific personality pattern is very difficult. Some entrepreneurs are quiet, introverted, and analytical. On the other hand, some are brash, extroverted, and very emotional. Many of them share some qualities. Viewing change as the norm, entrepreneurs usually search for it, respond to it, and treat it as an opportunity. An entrepreneur such as Ray Kroc of McDonald’s is able to take resources and shift them to meet a need. Making the decision to shift resources works better if a person is creative, experienced, and confident.

　　41. According to the first paragraph, who can be regarded as an entrepreneur?

　　[A] The CEO of a big company. [B] The owner of a profitable restaurant.

　　[C] A man who started a new kind of business. [D] A successful salesman.

　　42. According to the text, the professionals .

　　[A] are quite different from entrepreneurs even now

　　[B] were considered to be enterprising and market-centered

　　[C] were price-conscious

　　[D] have to advertise themselves in nowadays

　　43. From the text, we learn that .

　　[A] an entrepreneur should be very extroverted

　　[B] an entrepreneur should be quick to seize opportunities

　　[C] change is not norm in an entrepreneur’s eyes

　　[D] the French economist J.B. Say is the first person who gave the definition of “entrepreneur”

　　44. The purpose of the author in writing the passage is to .

　　[A] complete the definition of entrepreneur

　　[B] tell the readers what is entrepreneur and the main characteristics of entrepreneurs

　　[C] show what kind of people can become entrepreneurs

　　[D] illustrate why Ray Kroc can become an entrepreneur

　　45. What will most possibly follow the text?

　　[A] An example of how an entrepreneur operates. [B] Another theory about entrepreneurship.

　　[C] The bad effects of entrepreneurs. [D] The good effects of entrepreneurs.

　　Text 2

　　St. Paul didn’t like it. Moses warned his people against it. Hesiod declared it “mischievious” and “hard to get rid of it,” but Oscar Wilder said, “Gossip is charming.”

　　“History is merely gossip,” he wrote in one of his famous plays. “But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”

　　In times past, under Jewish law, gossipmongers might be fined or flogged. The Puritans put them in stocks or ducking stools, but no punishment seemed to have the desired effect of preventing gossip, which has continued uninterrupted across the back fences of the centuries.

　　Today, however, the much-maligned human foible is being looked at in a different light. Psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, even evolutionary biologists are concluding that gossip may not be so bad after all.

　　Gossip is “an intrinsically valuable activity,” philosophy professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev states in a book he has edited, entitled Good Gossip. For one thing, gossip helps us acquire information that we need to know that doesn’t come through ordinary channels, such as: “What was the real reason so-and-so was fired from the office?” Gossip also is a form of social bonding, Dr. Ben-Ze’ev says. It is “a kind of sharing” that also “satisfies the tribal need—namely, the need to belong to and be accepted by a unique group.” What’s more, the professor notes, “Gossip is enjoyable.”

　　Another gossip groupie, Dr. Ronald De Sousa, a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, describes gossip basically as a form of indiscretion and a “saintly virtue”, by which he means that the knowledge spread by gossip will usually end up being slightly beneficial. “It seems likely that a world in which all information were universally available would be preferable to a world where immense power resides in the control of secrets,” he writes.

　　Still, everybody knows that gossip can have its ill effects, especially on the poor wretch being gossiped about. And people should refrain from certain kinds of gossip that might be harmful, even though the ducking stool is long out of fashion.

　　By the way, there is also an interesting strain of gossip called medical gossip, which in its best form, according to researchers Jerry M. Suls and Franklin Goodkin, can motivate people with symptoms of serious illness, but who are unaware of it, to seek medical help.

　　So go ahead and gossip. But remember, if (as often is the case among gossipers) you should suddenly become one of the gossipees instead, it is best to employ the foolproof defense recommended by Plato, who may have learned the lesson from Socrates, who as you know was the victim of gossip spread that he was corrupting the youth of Athens: When men speak ill of thee, so live that nobody will believe them. Or, as Will Rogers said, “Live so that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.”

　　46. Persons’ remarks are mentioned at the beginning of the text to ____.

　　[A] show the general disapproval of gossip

　　[B] introduce the topic of gossip

　　[C] examine gossip from a historical perspective

　　[D] prove the real value of gossip

　　47. By “Gossip also is a form of social bonding” (Para. 5), Professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev means gossip ____.

　　[A] is a valuable source of social information

　　[B] produces a joy that most people in society need

　　[C] brings people the feel of being part of a group

　　[D] satisfies people’s need of being unusual

　　48. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?

　　[A] everyone involved will not benefit from gossip.

　　[B] philosophers may hold different attitudes toward gossip.

　　[C] Dr. Ronald De Sousa regards gossips as perfectly advantageous.

　　[D] people are generally not conscious of the value of medical gossip.

　　49. We learn from the last paragraph that ____.

　　[A] gossipers will surely become gossipees someday

　　[B] Socrates was a typical example of a gossiper becoming a gossipee

　　[C] Plato escaped being a victim of gossip by no gossiping

　　[D] an easy way to confront gossip when subjected to it is to live as usual

　　50. The author’s attitude toward “gossip” can be best described as ____.

　　[A] neutral [B] positive

　　[C] negative [D] indifferent

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