Question

The later part of the 20th century saw its share of strange financial bubbles (泡沫).There was the real-estate bubble,the stock market bubble, and the .com bubble,just to name a few. In each instance people paid huge amounts for things that shouldn, t have been worth anything like the going price. And each time people stood around afterwards and said "What were we thinking?"

Actually the same thought occurred to the Dutch in the 17th century. As much as the tulip(郁金香)is associated with Holland,it is not native there. Actually it was introduced in 1593 by a botanist named Carolus Clusius,who brought it from Turkey. He planted a small garden,intending to research the plant for medicinal purposes. Had Clusius' s neighbors been morally upright,the tulip might still be a rare foreign plant in the gardening world. Instead they broke into his garden and stole some of his tulips in order to make some quick money，and in the process started the Dutch tulip trade.

Over the next several decades tulips became a craze among the rich of Holland,and prices began to rise. Soon even ordinary bulbs were selling for extraordinary prices, and the actually rare bulbs were extremely large. Here is an example of how many useful items it cost to buy one single tulip bulb: four tons of wheat, eight tons of rye, one bed, four oxen, eight pigs, twelve sheep, one suit of clothes, two casks of wine,four tons of beer,two tons of butter, 1 ，000 pounds of cheese and one silver drinking cup.

The height of the bubble was reached in the winter of 1636―1637. Tulip traders were making fortunes regularly. A good trader could earn up to 60 ，000 florins in a month ―approximately $61 ，710 in current U.S. dollars. With profits like those to be had，nothing local governments could do stopped the passion of trading. Then one day in Haarlem a buyer failed to show up and pay for his bulb purchase. The coming panic spread across Holland,and within days tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their former prices. The tulip bubble had burst.

Looking back through time it's easy to laugh at the foolish Dutch, paying such prices for simple tulip bulbs, but an economic bubble was nothing new even then. We're still doing the same sorts of things today.

(   ) 4. The author wrote the passage        .

A.  to share the information about tulips

B.  to analyze the cause of the tulip bubble

C.  to warn us to reflect on economic bubbles

D.  to present his study of the 17th-century Holland

(   ) 5. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that        .

A.   Carolus Clusius planted tulips for medical purposes

B.   Clusius's neighbors were morally not honest

C.   the tulip is much associated with Holland

D.   the tulip is a common flower in the garden

(   ) 6. In which of the following period did tulip traders find it easiest to make money?

A. From Nov. 12 to Nov. 25. B. From Nov. 25 to Dec. 1.

C. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 12. D. From Dec. 12 to Feb. 3.
(   ) 7. The writer listed all the items for which a tulip bulb was exchanged        .

A. to attract the readers    B. to arouse the readers' curiosity

C. to show its huge potential    D. to show people' s craze of trading

Answer 1

4. C邏輯推理題..作者一開始講了 20世紀的金融泡沫，然后又列舉了 17世紀發生在荷蘭的郁金香經濟泡沫」最后一段作者認為人們一邊嘲笑當時的荷蘭人愚蠢，一邊在做著同當時的荷蘭人一樣的事情」很顯然，作者是在警告人們反思今天的經濟泡沫.，

5. B邏輯推理題、，見第二段的第五句和第六句表述。A項和C項的表述在文中可以直接找到，不屬于推理得出的結論；D項表述與原文無關。

6. D細節理解題。見圖示。

7. D邏輯推理題，第三段段首作者給出了論點，即郁金香在隨后的幾十年中成了富人瘋狂搶購的東西，隨后便進行了舉例。因此，作者列出所有可以用一棵郁金香換購的物品就是為了證明人們交易的瘋狂性。