The opposition Broad Front and the trade unions are resisting. They have gathered enough signatures to demand a "public consultation" next month on a new law to allow private operators in the ports and railways-a referendum on whether to hold a referendum on the issue. Alberto Bension, the finance minister, admits the vote will be a crucial indicator of how far the government can push. But he notes that, since 1992, attempts to overturn laws by calling referendums have flopped.
The liberalization of telecoms has already begun. Bell South, an American firm, is the first private cell-phone operator. There are plans to license others, and talk of allowing competition for fixed-line telephones. A new law allows private companies to import gas from Argentina to generate electricity in competition with the state utility. Another plan would strip Ancap, the state oil firm, of its monopoly of imports. It has already been allowed to seek a private partner to modernize its refinery.
Harder tasks lie ahead. The state-owned banks are saddled with problem loans to farmers and home owners. And Mr. Batlle shows no appetite for cutting the bloated bureaucracy.
After a year in office, the president is popular. He has created a cross-party commission to investigate "disappearances" during Uruguay\'s military dictatorship of 1976-85. The unions are weakened by unemployment. At CERES, Ernesto Talvi argues that Mr Batlle should note his own strength, and push ahead more boldly. But that is not the Uruguayan way.
26. Uruguay in the 1990s
Amoved in the privatizing wave.
Badopted the same measure as that of Argentina.
Csticked to its old economic mode.
Ddeveloped very slowly.
27.What can we infer from the first four paragraphs?
A. Uruguay has been always trying to join in the privatizing wave
B. Economists argue that privatization is the only way to boost Uruguay’s GDP
C. Mr Battle plans to privatize the country’s economy completely
D. The opposition Broad Front is in favor of privatization
28. The 5th para suggests that
A. Bell South is built up in 1982
B. There has been no law to regulate the electricity
C. Ancap may modernize its refinery with the help of a private partner
D. Liberalization makes the economy slack
29. What does the author mean by “flopped”(last line, para 4)?
A. succeeded
B. failed
C. followed
D. provoked
28.Which one is true according to the passage?
A.Privatization is thriving in Uruguay
B.Now, referenda have less strength to change some laws
C.Uruguayan people are satisfied with the government’s actions with regard to the economy
D.The President is managing to keep the state companies efficient
TEXT 3
IN HIS 21 years as president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos has never taken kindly to criticism. Most Angolan politicians have learned from bitter experience not to cross him. But recently a tiny political party, PADPA, took the president on, and - to general astonishment - won.
PADPA decided to speak up over a political scandal in France in which an array of well-connected Frenchmen, including Jean Christophe Mitterrand, the eldest son of France\'s former president, Francois Mitterrand, are under investigation on suspicion of profiting from the illegal sale of arms worth $633m to the Angolan government. As the case has proceeded, Mr. dos Santos\'s name has cropped up repeatedly. Prosecutors have alleged that he approved the deal, granted Angolan diplomatic passports to the two principal arms dealers (one now in a French prison, the other on the run from an Interpol arrest warrant) and received some extravagant presents from the weapons men in return.
Last week PADPA sent a letter to the president, demanding that he should give a public explanation of his role in this and other corruption scandals. If none were forthcoming within 72 hours, PADPA promised it would "call on the people to protest publicly and call for your resignation, for dishonoring the office which you occupy".
The president\'s response was a deafening silence. So three days later 25 members of PADPA began a hunger strike in front of the recently and lavishly redecorated presidential palace. They distributed a pamphlet that repeated the charge, widely believed by Angolans, that the government is deliberately prolonging the country\'s devastating civil war in order to pillage its rich natural resources. "Thousands of Angolans are dying of hunger because the country is mismanaged," declared the pamphlet, "and the holders of power have turned into a band of thugs who pretend to be managing a bank. Our bank. Our petrol. Our diamonds. Our riches. But, above all, our children, parents, brothers and cousins, whom they use as fodder for their diabolical cannons."
Angola\'s cowed people rarely voice such strong sentiments. This time riot police used the cover of darkness to break up the protest beating the protesters. Six of them, including PADPA\'S president, were arrested. But astonishingly, given the lack of independence enjoyed by Angola\'s judiciary, the court that tried them found them not guilty on January 30th. In a hitherto unthinkable step, PADPA is now considering bringing a case against the police for violating its right to demonstrate and for illegal imprisonment.
This is the second time that PADPA activists have dared challenge the Angolan regime. Last year they tried to hold a public hunger strike in protest at the government\'s decision to raise the price of petrol overnight by 1,600%. On that occasion police beatings turned the hunger strikers into popular heroes. The authorities, realizing their mistake, issued a public apology. But the incident gave Angola\'s other, more reticent, opposition groups the courage to organize the first and only real anti-government march in the country\'s 25 years of independence. Perhaps the latest court ruling, which for the first time has set the people\'s rights above those of the president, will open the floodgates of protest at last.
31. By “and-to general astonishment-won”(last line,para 1),the author means
A It defeated the other parties.
B It produced astonishment.
C It opposed the president for scandal trade.
D The president kept silence about PADPA’S criticisms for the first time.
32. How does PADPA feel about the political scandal?
A. indignant
B. indifferent
C. optimistic
D. pessimistic
33. In this passage, the word “fodder” is the same with
A bullets
B victims
C intruders
D evils
34. PADPA gathered some members in order to
A reveal the president’s scandal.
B grab the governing rights.
C ask for more rights for people.
D begin a hunger strike.
35. With which of the following is the author likely to agree?
A PADPA’s protest is rather meaningless and in vain.
B Angola’s judiciary didn’t support PADPA’s action.
C PADPA has turned over a new leaf in Angola’s history.
D the policemen will open the floodgates.
TEXT 4 Why such an old article?
WITH three months to go before its general election, Italy is turning into Saddam Hussein\'s Iraq. Not in terms of freedom or variety, just visually. For Italian cities these days are peppered with enormous posters of the rival leaders, Silvio Berlusconi (for the right) and Francesco Rutelli (for the left). All each one shows is the great man\'s benevolent face, plus a short slogan. In Bologna\'s Viale Togliatti, you can count six Berlusconis and three Rutellis.
Prehistoric, as poster politics goes? Mussolinian, say oldies who recall the slogans spread hugely over walls and roofs in Duce\'s days. Whatever it is, Italians are enjoying it. The campaign promises to be both boring (Mr. Berlusconi is way ahead) and bitter (the left hates losing). So have a bit of fun: rewrite the posters on the Internet, and spread the result around.
Mr. Berlusconi began plastering Italy with his face months ago. Benign and with hair added, he now beams across squares and bridges, along roads and railway lines. The slogans are basic: Meno tasse per tutti (Lower taxes for everybody), or Citta piu sicu,re (Safer cities). Not so the costs: one poster in prime positions across Italy\'s main cities costs a billion lire ($480,000). Mr. Berlusconi can afford it. According to Mr. Rutelli, the right plans to spend 200 billion lire (30 billion is its own figure) in the campaign; the left, he moans, cannot raise even 20 billion.
The liberalization of telecoms has already begun. Bell South, an American firm, is the first private cell-phone operator. There are plans to license others, and talk of allowing competition for fixed-line telephones. A new law allows private companies to import gas from Argentina to generate electricity in competition with the state utility. Another plan would strip Ancap, the state oil firm, of its monopoly of imports. It has already been allowed to seek a private partner to modernize its refinery.
Harder tasks lie ahead. The state-owned banks are saddled with problem loans to farmers and home owners. And Mr. Batlle shows no appetite for cutting the bloated bureaucracy.
After a year in office, the president is popular. He has created a cross-party commission to investigate "disappearances" during Uruguay\'s military dictatorship of 1976-85. The unions are weakened by unemployment. At CERES, Ernesto Talvi argues that Mr Batlle should note his own strength, and push ahead more boldly. But that is not the Uruguayan way.
26. Uruguay in the 1990s
Amoved in the privatizing wave.
Badopted the same measure as that of Argentina.
Csticked to its old economic mode.
Ddeveloped very slowly.
27.What can we infer from the first four paragraphs?
A. Uruguay has been always trying to join in the privatizing wave
B. Economists argue that privatization is the only way to boost Uruguay’s GDP
C. Mr Battle plans to privatize the country’s economy completely
D. The opposition Broad Front is in favor of privatization
28. The 5th para suggests that
A. Bell South is built up in 1982
B. There has been no law to regulate the electricity
C. Ancap may modernize its refinery with the help of a private partner
D. Liberalization makes the economy slack
29. What does the author mean by “flopped”(last line, para 4)?
A. succeeded
B. failed
C. followed
D. provoked
28.Which one is true according to the passage?
A.Privatization is thriving in Uruguay
B.Now, referenda have less strength to change some laws
C.Uruguayan people are satisfied with the government’s actions with regard to the economy
D.The President is managing to keep the state companies efficient
TEXT 3
IN HIS 21 years as president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos has never taken kindly to criticism. Most Angolan politicians have learned from bitter experience not to cross him. But recently a tiny political party, PADPA, took the president on, and - to general astonishment - won.
PADPA decided to speak up over a political scandal in France in which an array of well-connected Frenchmen, including Jean Christophe Mitterrand, the eldest son of France\'s former president, Francois Mitterrand, are under investigation on suspicion of profiting from the illegal sale of arms worth $633m to the Angolan government. As the case has proceeded, Mr. dos Santos\'s name has cropped up repeatedly. Prosecutors have alleged that he approved the deal, granted Angolan diplomatic passports to the two principal arms dealers (one now in a French prison, the other on the run from an Interpol arrest warrant) and received some extravagant presents from the weapons men in return.
Last week PADPA sent a letter to the president, demanding that he should give a public explanation of his role in this and other corruption scandals. If none were forthcoming within 72 hours, PADPA promised it would "call on the people to protest publicly and call for your resignation, for dishonoring the office which you occupy".
The president\'s response was a deafening silence. So three days later 25 members of PADPA began a hunger strike in front of the recently and lavishly redecorated presidential palace. They distributed a pamphlet that repeated the charge, widely believed by Angolans, that the government is deliberately prolonging the country\'s devastating civil war in order to pillage its rich natural resources. "Thousands of Angolans are dying of hunger because the country is mismanaged," declared the pamphlet, "and the holders of power have turned into a band of thugs who pretend to be managing a bank. Our bank. Our petrol. Our diamonds. Our riches. But, above all, our children, parents, brothers and cousins, whom they use as fodder for their diabolical cannons."
Angola\'s cowed people rarely voice such strong sentiments. This time riot police used the cover of darkness to break up the protest beating the protesters. Six of them, including PADPA\'S president, were arrested. But astonishingly, given the lack of independence enjoyed by Angola\'s judiciary, the court that tried them found them not guilty on January 30th. In a hitherto unthinkable step, PADPA is now considering bringing a case against the police for violating its right to demonstrate and for illegal imprisonment.
This is the second time that PADPA activists have dared challenge the Angolan regime. Last year they tried to hold a public hunger strike in protest at the government\'s decision to raise the price of petrol overnight by 1,600%. On that occasion police beatings turned the hunger strikers into popular heroes. The authorities, realizing their mistake, issued a public apology. But the incident gave Angola\'s other, more reticent, opposition groups the courage to organize the first and only real anti-government march in the country\'s 25 years of independence. Perhaps the latest court ruling, which for the first time has set the people\'s rights above those of the president, will open the floodgates of protest at last.
31. By “and-to general astonishment-won”(last line,para 1),the author means
A It defeated the other parties.
B It produced astonishment.
C It opposed the president for scandal trade.
D The president kept silence about PADPA’S criticisms for the first time.
32. How does PADPA feel about the political scandal?
A. indignant
B. indifferent
C. optimistic
D. pessimistic
33. In this passage, the word “fodder” is the same with
A bullets
B victims
C intruders
D evils
34. PADPA gathered some members in order to
A reveal the president’s scandal.
B grab the governing rights.
C ask for more rights for people.
D begin a hunger strike.
35. With which of the following is the author likely to agree?
A PADPA’s protest is rather meaningless and in vain.
B Angola’s judiciary didn’t support PADPA’s action.
C PADPA has turned over a new leaf in Angola’s history.
D the policemen will open the floodgates.
TEXT 4 Why such an old article?
WITH three months to go before its general election, Italy is turning into Saddam Hussein\'s Iraq. Not in terms of freedom or variety, just visually. For Italian cities these days are peppered with enormous posters of the rival leaders, Silvio Berlusconi (for the right) and Francesco Rutelli (for the left). All each one shows is the great man\'s benevolent face, plus a short slogan. In Bologna\'s Viale Togliatti, you can count six Berlusconis and three Rutellis.
Prehistoric, as poster politics goes? Mussolinian, say oldies who recall the slogans spread hugely over walls and roofs in Duce\'s days. Whatever it is, Italians are enjoying it. The campaign promises to be both boring (Mr. Berlusconi is way ahead) and bitter (the left hates losing). So have a bit of fun: rewrite the posters on the Internet, and spread the result around.
Mr. Berlusconi began plastering Italy with his face months ago. Benign and with hair added, he now beams across squares and bridges, along roads and railway lines. The slogans are basic: Meno tasse per tutti (Lower taxes for everybody), or Citta piu sicu,re (Safer cities). Not so the costs: one poster in prime positions across Italy\'s main cities costs a billion lire ($480,000). Mr. Berlusconi can afford it. According to Mr. Rutelli, the right plans to spend 200 billion lire (30 billion is its own figure) in the campaign; the left, he moans, cannot raise even 20 billion.