Section B

　　Passage One

　　One of the most popular myths about the United States in the 19th century was that the free and simple life of the farmer. It was said that the farmers worked hard on their own land to produce whatever their families needed. They might sometimes trade with their neighbors, but in general they could get along well by relying on themselves, (26) not on commercial ties with others. This is how Thomas Jefferson idealized the farmer. At the beginning of the 19th century, sweeping changes in agriculture were well under way as farmers began to specialize in the raising of crops such as cotton or wheat.

　　By late in the century revolutionary advances in farm machinery had vastly increased production of specialized crops and expensive network of railroads had linked farmers throughout the country to markets in the east and even overseas. By raising and selling specialized crops, farmers could afford more and finer goods and achieved a much higher standard of living but at a low price. Now farmers are no longer dependent just on the weather and their own efforts. (27)Their lives are increasingly controlled by banks, which have power to grant or deny loans for new machinery, (27)and by the railroads which set the rates for shipping their crops to markets. As businessmen, (28) farmers now have to worry about the national economic depressions and the influence of the 19th century. The era of Jefferson's independent farmer had come to a close.

　　預覽三道題的選項可以推測，短文內容可能是關于一類人的生活狀態。

　　26. Which of the following is Thomas Jefferson's ideal of farmers?

　　D)。 [聽前猜測] 四個選項都是以They開頭，由此可以猜測，本題考查內容可能是關于某一類人的描述有關的。

　　[精解] 文中提出大多數農民，跟其他人并沒有商業聯系(not on commercial ties with others)，可知，Thomas Jefferson把農民形象理想化了(idealized)。故正確答案為D)。

　　27. Which of the following is increasingly controlling the farmers' lives?

　　A)。 [聽前猜測] 四個選項都是描述事物，且差異較大，由此推斷，本題考查的內容可能是某件事情的原因或者影響。

　　[精解] 文中提出了農民的生活越來越受到銀行(banks)和鐵路(railroads)的影響和控制。故正確答案為A)。

　　28. What can we learn about today's farmers according to the passage?

　　B)。 [聽前猜測] 從選項中的in the 19th century，in the past可以推斷，本題考查的內容側重于今昔對比。

　　[精解] 文章結尾處提到了農民現在不得不擔心國家經濟衰退(the national economic depressions)等問題，由此可推斷與過去相比，他們現在需要擔心更多的問題。故正確答案為B)。

　　Passage Two

　　(29) Of all the folk artists in the United States, the most well-known of the 20th century is certainly Grandma Moses-Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961). She was also the most successful within her lifetime and her work was reproduced on greeting cards and calendars and in prints. Like many folk artists, (30) her career as a painter started late in life, at the age of 67, but she continued painting until her death at the age of 101, so her active painting life still spanned over 34 years.

　　Her painting was preceded by the production of landscapes in needlework. From these early sources she began to compose original paintings such as "Housick Falls", "New York in Winter"(1944) that replied on her surroundings and her memories of country life and activities; these paintings display an increasing technical ability. Her subjects are based on the New England countryside and evoke a strong mood of nostalgia. By 1940s her work had become a marketable commodity and collectors created a demand for her paintings.

　　Like many painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, (31) Grandma Moses made use of photographs for information, for figures, for fragments of landscape, and for buildings, but her work, especially that of her later years, was not a mindless copying of these but compositions using them as source material. Her output was remarkable, and consequently her work is varying quality. Although much of her public appeal is based on the touchy image of the "Grandma" figure producing naive pictures of country life, her paintings place her among the top folk painters of the 19th and 20th centuries.

　　預覽三道題的選項，從第29 題每個選項中出現的Grandma Moses，art和painting等詞可以推測，短文內容可能是關于一位叫作Grandma Moses的藝術家。

　　29. What is the main topic of the passage?

　　C)。 [聽前猜測] 根據四個選項可以推測本題考查的內容必然和Grandma Moses有關。

　　[精解] 通篇講的都是Grandma Moses的民間藝術，她作品的材料，她的影響和她的生活只是其中的一部分。故正確答案為C)。

　　30. How did Grandma Moses start her painting career?

　　B)。 [聽前猜測] 四個選項都以She started it 開頭，可以推測本題考查的內容跟人物開始從事某項活動的情況有關。

　　[精解] 主人公在67歲的高齡時，繪畫生涯才開始(her career as a painter started)。故正確答案為B)。