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1、TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1993)-GRADE EIGHT-TEXT AA scientist who does research in economic psychology and who wants to predict the way in which consumers will spend their money must study consumer behaviour. He must obtain data both on the resources of consumers and on the motives that tend to encou
2、rage or discourage money spending.If an economist were asked which of three groups borrow most 梡eople with rising incomes, stable incomes, or declining incomes 梙e would probably answer: those with declining incomes. Actually, in the years 1947-1950, the answer was: people with rising incomes. People
3、 with declining incomes were next and people with stable incomes borrowed the least. This shows us that traditional assumptions about earning and spending are not always reliable. Mother traditional assumption is that if people who have money expect prices to go up, they will hasten to buy. If they
4、expect prices to go down, they will postpone buying. But research surveys have shown that this is not always true. The expectations of price increases may not stimulate buying. One typical attitude was expressed by the wife of a mechanic in an interview at a time of rising prices. In a few months, s
5、he said, well have to pay more for meat and milk; well have less to spend on other things. Her family had been planning to buy a new car but they postponed this purchase. Furthermore, the rise in prices that has already taken place may be resented add buyer s resistance may be evoked. This is shown
6、by the following typical comment: I just don t pay these prices; they are too high. Traditional assumptions should be investigated carefully, and factors of time and place should be considered. The investigations mentioned above were carried out in America. Investigations conducted at the same time
7、in Great Britain, however, yielded results that were more in agreement with traditional assumptions about saving and spending patterns. The condition most conductive to spending appears to be price stability. If prices have been stable and people have become accustomed to consider them right and exp
8、ect them to remain stable, they are likely to buy. Thus, it appears that the common business policy of maintaining stable prices with occasional sales or discounts is based on a correct understanding of consumer psychology.21. The best title of the passage isA. Consumer s Purchasing PowerB. Relation
9、ship between Income and Purchasing PowerC. Traditional AssumptionsD. Studies in Consumer Behaviour22. The example of the mechanic s wife is intended to show that in times of rising pricesA. people with declining income tend to buy lessB. people with stable income tend to borrow lessC. people with in
10、creasing income tend to buy moreD. people with money also tend to buy less23. Findings in investigations in Britain are mentioned to showA. factors of time and place should be taken into considerationB. people in Britain behave in the same way as those in AmericaC. maintaining stable prices is based
11、 on a correct understanding of consumer psychologyD. occasional discounts and sales are necessary24. According to the passage people tend to buy more whenA. prices are expected to go upB. prices are expected to go downC. prices don t fluctuateD. the business policy remains unchangedRead TEXT B, an e
12、xtract from a popular science book, and answer questions 25 to 28.TEXT BWeed CommunitiesIn an intact plant community, undisturbed by human intervention, the composition of a community is mainly a function of the climate and the type of soil. Today , such original communities are very rare 梩hey are p
13、ractically limited to national parks and reservations.Civilization has progressively transformed the conditions determining the composition of plant communities. For several thousand years vast areas of arable land have been hoed, ploughed, harrowed and grassland has been cut or grazed. During the l
14、ast decades the use of chemical substances, such as fertilizers and most recently of weed killers (herbicides) has greatly influenced the composition of weed communities in farm land.All selective herbicides have specific ranges of activity. They control the most important weeds but not all the plan
15、ts of a community. The latter profit fronithe new free space and from the fertilizer as much as the crop does; hence they often spread rapidly and become problem weeds unless another herbicide for their eradication is found.The soil contains enormous quantities of seeds of numerous species 梪p to hal
16、f a million per m according to scientific literature 梩hat retain their ability to germinate for decades. Thus it may occur that weeds that were hardly noticed before emerge in masses after the elimination of their competitors. Hence, the knowledge of the composition of weed communities before selective weed killers are applied is not only of scientific interest since the plant species present in the soil in the form of
