Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Directions: This part is to test your reading ability. There are 5 tasks for you to fulfill. You should read the reading materials carefully and do the tasks as you are instructed.
Task 1
Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 to 40. For each question or statement there are 4 choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should make the correct choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Google, the Internet search-engine(收索引擎的) company, has announced it will give more than twenty-five million dollars in money and investments to help the poor. The company says the effort involves using the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives.
Aleem Walji works for Google.org -- the part of the company that gives money to good causes. He said the company’s first project will help identify where
infectious (传染性的) diseases are developing. In Southeast Asia and Africa, for example, Google.org will work with partners to strengthen early-warning systems and take action against growing health threats.
Google.org’s second project will invest in ways to help small and medium-sized businesses grow. Walji says microfinance (小额信贷) is generally small, short-term loans that create few jobs. Instead, he says Google.org wants to develop ways to bring investors and business owners together to create jobs and improve economic growth.
Google.org will also give money to help two climate-change programs announced earlier this year. One of these programs studies ways to make renewable (再生的) energy less costly than coal-based energy. The other is examining the efforts being made to increase the use of electric cars.
The creators of Google have promised to give Google.org about one percent of company profits and one percent of its total stock value every year. Aleem Walji says this amount may increase in the future.
36. The purpose of Google’s investments is to ________.
A) help poor people
B) develop new technology
C) expand its own business
D) increase the power of information
37. According to Aleem Walji, the company’s first project is to ________.
A) set up a new system to warn people of infectious diseases
B) find out where infectious diseases develop
C) identify the causes of infectious diseases
D) cure patients of infectious diseases
38. What kind of businesses will benefit from Google.org’s second project?
A) large enterprises
B) cross-national companies
C) foreign-funded corporations
D) small and medium-sized businesses
39. From the fourth paragraph, we learn that Google’s money is also invested to help ________.
A) start more research programs
B) make more advanced electric cars
C) develop renewable and coal-based energy
D) conduct studies related to climate changes
40. From the last paragraph we learn that the investments by Google.org come from ________.
A) Google’s profits and stock value
B) some international IT companies
C) the company’s own interests
D) local commercial banks
