Recently, a professor of philosophy in the United States has written a book called Money and the Meaning of Life. He has discovered that how we deal with money in our day-to-day life has more meaning than we usually think. One of the exercises he asked his students to do is to keep a record of every penny they spend for a week. From the way they spend their money, they often see what they really value in life.

He says our relation with others often becomes clearly defined when money enters the picture. You might have wonderful friendship with somebody and you think that you are very good friends. But you will know him only when you ask him to lend you some money. If he does, it brings something to the relationship that seems stronger than ever before. Or it can suddenly weaken the relationship if he doesn’t. This person may say that he has a certain feeling, but if it is not carried out in the money world, there is something less real about it.

Since money is so important to us, we consider those who possess a lot of it to be very important. The author interviewed some millionaires in researching his book.

Question: What is the most surprising thing you have discovered about being rich, because you are a self-made man?

Answer: The most surprising thing is how people give me so much respect. I am nothing. I don‘t Know much. All I am is rich.

People just have an idea of making more and more money, but what is it for? How much do I need for any given purposes in my life? In his book, the professor uncovered an important need in modern society: to bring back the idea that money is an instrument rather than the end. Money plays an important role in the material world, but expecting money to give happiness may be missing the meaning of life.

60. According to the first paragraph, people have not realized ________.

A. how important money is in their day-to-day life

B. how one spends money shows what is important to him

C. that money is more important than their philosophy of life

D. that their understanding of life is more important than money

61. The author seems to believe that asking your friend to lend you some money ________.

A. is a good way to test your friendship

B. will do harm to your friendship

C. will strengthen your friendship

D. is a good way to break off your friendship

62. What can we learn about the millionaire from his answer in the interview?

A. He does not feel that he is well educated.

B. He does not think that he is a very important person.

C. He does not think that being rich deserves so much attention.

D. He does not consider himself to be very successful.

63. What does the American professor of philosophy want to explain in his book?

A. Money is an end. B. Money is a means.

C. Money is everything. D. Money is unimportant.

D

The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the time of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman‘s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement(退休) at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.

This important change in women’s life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women‘s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left schools at the first chance, and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry younger, more married women stay at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with the both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.

64. According to the passage, around the year 1900 most women married ________.

A. at about twenty-five B. in their early fifties

C as soon as possible after they were fifteen

D. at any age from fifteen to forty-five

65. We are told that in a common family about 1900 _________.

A. many children died before they were five

B. seven or eight children lived to be more than five

C. the youngest child would be fifteen

D. four or five children died when they were five

66. When she was over fifty, the late nineteenth-century mother _________.

A. would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs

B. was usually expected to die fairly soon

C. would expect to work until she died

D. was unlikely to find a job even if she wanted one

67. According to the passage, the women of today usually _________.

A. marry instead of getting paid work B. marry before they are twenty-five

C. have more children under fifteen D. have too few children

E

It’s interesting that the arrival of snow has effect on people in different countries. For some countries it is an important happening to celebrate each year, while for others a catastrophe(灾害) or even a wonder.

But there are countries between these two kinds that normally expect sno