The economy of the United States after 1952 was the economy of a well-fed, almost fully employed people. Despite occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. An economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950’s, may be typical as illustrating the rapid economic growth of the decade.The national output was value at 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The production of manufacturers was about 40 percent more than it had averaged in the years immediately following World War II. The country’s business spent about 30 billion dollars for new factories and machinery. National income available for spending was almost a third greater than it had been in 1950. Consumers spent about 256 billion dollars; that is about 700 million dollars a day. or about twenty-five million dollars every hour, all round the clock. Sixty-five million people held jobs and only a little more than two million wanted jobs but could not find them.Only agriculture complained that it was not sharing in the room. To some observers this was an ominous echo of the mid-1920’s. As farmer’s sharing of their products declined, marketing costs rose. But there were, among the observers of the national economy, a few who were not as confident as the majority . Those few seemed to fear that the boom could not last and would eventually lead to the opposite-depression.It can be inferred the national from the passage that most people in the United States in 1955 viewed the national economy with an air of _________.

Life on the FarmLife on the farm is always changing. New technologies and a rising interest in healthier and organic eating have a huge impact on how farms do business. At the same time, a growing population has put more demands on farmers. They need to find ways to increase their production levels. The small family farms that used to produce most of the products have been largely replaced by factory farms. Small family farms that are still operating are struggling to keep up.Technology has made most aspects of farm life easier than it has ever been before. Bigger and more efficient equipment makes work such as plowing up fields and sowing the seeds easier. Such tasks used to take two or three times as long. These advances have allowed farmers to work faster and more efficiently than ever before.In addition to newer technology, factory farms produce more products for less money than traditional farming would require,Modern farm life, despite the introduction of new technologies, has not changed much from what it has always been. Farmers still wake up early, and spend their days doing hard work. There are still animals to feed, cows to milked, and fields to be plowed. Farm life still requires a lot of work and sacrifice.The main change in modern farm is in the way farmers are run. It is common for even small farmers to have several hired workers and even an animal manager. Family-run farms are becoming rarer. Factory farms, with other larger farm corporations, are becoming the norm. Although there are still many traditional family farms, they are quickly dying as modern practices change farm life forever.Farmers prefer to grow healthy and organic food.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第4题】LEDs used in traffic lights are developed by Holonyak's students.

Why we need vacationsThere’s more to a vacation than can be described in travel books. We certainly need breaks from work. But there is even more to be said for a get-away break, leaving all daily work behind and living a different life for a short time.The benefits of taking a vacation start long before the suitcases are packed. A vacation is something to look forward to. It gives us the sense that whatever is happening at the moment will end soon.Companies sometimes use away-breaks to restore(恢复)motivation and team relationships. If you’re able to switch off and leave your daily work behind, when you come back, you often view old situations with fresh eyes and see them in a new way.People don’t disappear while on vacation. We’re still thinking and feeling the whole time we’re away. What really makes the difference is not simply getting away from the daily work; it’s being able to do something else instead. We might speak to people we wouldn’t normally meet, try sports we’d not do otherwise, and discover interests we never knew we had.Vacations also allow us to focus on the present in a way that’s hard to do at home. When you’re in a new environment for a short time, your attention tends to be on what’s happening right now and in the next few days. Being “in the moment” is in itself one of the keys to getting relaxed, and this happens more naturally on vacation.Every vacation is an adventure full of potential discoveries. Perhaps more than anything else, vacations enable us to raise our eyes from familiar paths so that we can look around and see that there’s a world out there.People on vacation often buy gifts for each other.

【阅读选择】For any given task in Britain there are more men than are needed. Strong unions keep them there. In Fleet Street, home of some of London's biggest dailies, it is understood that when two unions quarrel over three jobs the argument is settled by giving each union two. That means 33 per cent over manning, 33 per cent less productivity than could be obtained.What happens when disputes over job opportunities arise among British unions?

Mental activities help save memory. Doing mental activities is helpful. Reading books and writing at any age may save memory, a new ____1__ finds.The study was conducted by some American neurologists（神经病学家）.It __2___294 people. They were given ___3___ on memory and thinking. They had the tests once a year for six years. They were also asked to talk about their mental activities during childhood, in their youth, during middle age and at their ___4___ age.Some of those people did mental activities both ___5___ and late in life. They had a slower ___6___ of decline in memory than the others. The others ___7___ did such activities. Their rate of decline in memory was 48%____8__. “Mental activities like reading and writing are great. They ___9___ bring benefits. We shouldn’t ___10____ their effects on our children, ourselves and our parents, ” said Robert Wilson, lead author of the study.A.earlyB.testsC.seldomD.taughtE.fasterF.produceG.studyH.currentI.involvedJ.neglectK.rateL.really

Labor Market DeclineThe decline of the labor market is easy to misinterpret (interpret). There are many reasons for that. During the 1970s, large numbers of women and young adults __1___ (bear) during the baby boom entered into the work force. That ___2___ (result) in too many workers for the jobs available and depressed wages. The decline also has something to do with the explosive ___3___ (grow) in world trade since 1960. As ___4__ （manufacture) technologies have become more mobile, production jobs have __5___ (move) from the U.S. to countries where wages are low. In ___6___ (add), technology itself has helped to cause the shifts in the job market. For example, ___7____ (few) American workers are needed to make steel today than in the past, because new ____8___(machine) have made many of their tasks ___9___ (necessary). Finally, the high rate of ____10____ (employment) caused by these factors has tended to drive wages down further.1___.

Labor Market DeclineThe decline of the labor market is easy to misinterpret (interpret). There are many reasons for that. During the 1970s, large numbers of women and young adults __1___ (bear) during the baby boom entered into the work force. That ___2___ (result） in too many workers for the jobs available and depressed wages. The decline also has something to do with the explosive ___3___ （grow) in world trade since 1960. As ___4__ (manufacture） technologies have become more mobile, production jobs have __5___ (move) from the U.S. to countries where wages are low. In ___6___ (add), technology itself has helped to cause the shifts in the job market. For example, ___7____ (few) American workers are needed to make steel today than in the past, because new ____8___(machine) have made many of their tasks ___9___ (necessary). Finally, the high rate of ____10____ (employment)caused by these factors has tended to drive wages down further.2___.

Labor Market DeclineThe decline of the labor market is easy to misinterpret （interpret）. There are many reasons for that. During the 1970s, large numbers of women and young adults __1___ （bear） during the baby boom entered into the work force. That ___2___ （result） in too many workers for the jobs available and depressed wages. The decline also has something to do with the explosive ___3___ （grow） in world trade since 1960. As ___4__ （manufacture） technologies have become more mobile, production jobs have __5___ （move） from the U.S. to countries where wages are low. In ___6___ （add）, technology itself has helped to cause the shifts in the job market. For example, ___7____ （few） American workers are needed to make steel today than in the past, because new ____8___（machine） have made many of their tasks ___9___ （necessary）. Finally, the high rate of ____10____ （employment） caused by these factors has tended to drive wages down further.3___.

Labor Market DeclineThe decline of the labor market is easy to misinterpret （interpret）. There are many reasons for that. During the 1970s, large numbers of women and young adults __1___ （bear） during the baby boom entered into the work force. That ___2___ （result） in too many workers for the jobs available and depressed wages. The decline also has something to do with the explosive ___3___ （grow） in world trade since 1960. As ___4__ （manufacture） technologies have become more mobile, production jobs have __5___ （move） from the U.S. to countries where wages are low. In ___6___ （add）, technology itself has helped to cause the shifts in the job market. For example, ___7____ （few） American workers are needed to make steel today than in the past, because new ____8___（machine） have made many of their tasks ___9___ （necessary）. Finally, the high rate of ____10____ （employment） caused by these factors has tended to drive wages down further.4___.