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have hurt many businesses, especially the airline industry and financial markets. Many companies have been forced to dismiss thousands of workers. Many individual states are concerned about their economic future.

Monday was the first day of trading on the American stock market since the attacks September Eleventh. The stock market suffered major losses. The Dow Jones industrial average lost seven percent of its value. The other major measures of the value of American stocks fell to their lowest levels in three years.

Some economic experts say the drop in the value of stocks could directly affect long-term spending. They say it may cause people to lose trust in the economy and spend less money. Businesses across the country already have reported decreases in sales. Experts note that the American economy was close to a recession even before the attacks.

The airline industry was probably hardest hit by the attacks. The nation’s skies were temporarily closed to all air travel. High fuel and labor costs are making the situation worse. The airlines are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each day.

Major airlines in the United States have announced plans to dismiss almost eighty-thousand workers. A major builder of airplanes, Boeing, says it will dismiss as many as thirty-thousand workers. Airlines in many other countries are cutting flights and jobs. Many other businesses dependent on the airline industry also have been harmed.

正确答案： businesses

正确答案： individual

正确答案： trading

正确答案： average

正确答案： measures

正确答案： decreases

正确答案： recession

正确答案： were temporarily closed

正确答案： plans to dismiss

正确答案： have been harmed

Part II Reading Comprehension ( 25 minutes )

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with several blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

A) penalty B) miracles C) statistically D) sapped E) newsstands F) camouflage G) wreckage H) dawned on I) resembled J) solidarity K) normally L) aftermath M) disrupted N) nerve center O) margin

21. ______________________

正确答案： L

22. ______________________

正确答案： G

23. ______________________

正确答案： B

24. ______________________

正确答案： D

25. ______________________

正确答案： I

26. ______________________

正确答案： F

27. ______________________

正确答案： K

28. ______________________

正确答案： E

29. ______________________

正确答案： N

30. ______________________

正确答案： J

Section B

Directions: There are several passages in this section. 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.

Passage One

Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are trying hard to solve a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable: Can building be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists?

Ten days after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero(被毁现场) as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. “Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage,” said M. Bruneau, Ph. D. “Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks,” he added.

Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate in startling detail the monumental damage inflicted on the World Trade Center towers and buildings in the vicinity. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. “This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column there that used to be part of that building,” explained A. Whittaker, Ph. D. “The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor.”

The visit to the area also revealed some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing system in one of the adjacent buildings was quite rugged, allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris to remain intact. “Highly redundant ductile

framing systems may provide a simple, but robust strategy for blast resistance,” he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails.

A. Reinhorn, Ph. D. noted that “Earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of many buildings in the past. It induces dynamic response and extremely high stresses and deformations in structural components. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may be directly applicable to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now at UB is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present.”

31.

The question raised in the first paragraph is one _________________. A) that was asked by structural engineers a month ago

B) that is too difficult for structural engineers to answer even now C) that was never thought of before the terrorist attack D) that terrorists are eager to find a solution to

正确答案： C 32.

The project funded by the National Science Foundation________________. A) was first proposed by some engineers at UB B) took about two days to complete

C) was to investigate the damage caused by the terrorist attack D) was to find out why some buildings could survive the blasts

正确答案： D 33.

The column mentioned by Dr. Whittaker____________________. A) was part of the building close to the World Trade Center B) was part of the World Trade Center

C) was shot through the window and the floor of the World Trade Center D) damaged many buildings in the vicinity of the World Trade Center

正确答案： A 34.

A surprising discovery made by the investigators during their visit to ground zero is that ________.

A) floors in the adjacent building remain undamaged

B) some floor framing systems demonstrate resistance to explosion

C) simple floor framing systems are more blast resistant

D) floors in one of the adjacent buildings were pierced by tons of debris

正确答案： B 35.

What Dr. Reinhorn said in the last paragraph may imply all the following EXCEPT that ________.

A) blast engineers should develop new solutions for terror-resistant design

B) blast engineering can borrow technologies developed for terror-resistant design

C) solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to terrorist-resistant design

D) blast engineering emerges as a new branch of science

正确答案： D

Passage Two

Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.

Islamic terrorism may be a distant threat for Shearer Lumber Products, a timber company based in Idaho. But eco-terrorism is a very real one. In November, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an underground organization, gave warning that it had “spiked” trees in the Nez Perce national forest to protest against logging. Spiking involves hiding metal bars in tree trunks, thereby potentially crippling chain saws and hurting people. More such attacks are expected. The nation’s forests have seen a sharp increase in violent incidents — equipment vandalized, people intimidated — over the past ten years. Shearer now carefully inspects every tree before cutting and has been using metal detectors to check every trunk being processed. Yet Ihor Mereszczak, of the Nez Perce Forest Service, says it has been hard to get the FBI’s attention, and investigations have got nowhere.

The ELF is only one thread in a web of underground radical environmentalists. Its aim is to inflict as much financial pain as possible on organizations or people who, by its lights, are exploiting the environment. The ELF, though made up of anonymous cells, nonetheless operates a website offering tips on how to cause fires with electric timers. Until recently, it also had a public spokesman.

Together with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which operates along the same lines, the ELF is estimated to be responsible for over $45m-worth of damage in North America over the past few years. In 1998, it caused fires that did $12m-worth of damage in Vail, Colorado, to make the point that the ski resort’s expansion was threatening places where lynxes live. Since September 11th, the ALF and ELF have claimed responsibility for starting a fire at a primate research center in New Mexico, releasing mink from an Iowa fur farm, and firebombing a federal corral for wild horses in California.

Are they terrorists? The two groups reject the label, claiming to take all precautions against harming “animals, whether humans or not”. But earlier this year Louis Freeh, the FBI’s boss, listed both organizations among the most active domestic terrorist groups. The