四六级

　　Faced with rapid change and the fear anduncertainty1 that go with it, individuals as well asnations sometimes seek to return to the ways of thepast as a solution. in the early 1980s the idea ofreturning to the ways of the past had a strongappeal 2 to many americans who increasingly viewedtheir past as being better than their future. Twofamous experts have observed that until the 1970 s americans generally believed that thepresent was a better time for their country than the past and that the future would be betterthan the present; by 1978, however, public opinion polls3 showed that many americans hadcome to believe that just the opposite 4 was true: the past had been better for the countrythan the present, and the present was better than the future would be.

　　The popular appeal of returning to the ways of the past as a solution to the problems of the1980s was demonstrated when ronald reagan5 was elected president of the united states in1980 . time magazine chose president reagan as its "man of the year" and said of him, "intellectually, emotionally, reagan lives in the past."

　　One of president reagan’s basic beliefs is that the united states should return as much aspossible to its pre-19307 ways. in those times business institutions were strong andgovernment institutions were weak. reagan believes that the american values of individualfreedom and competition are strengthened by business and weakened by government. therefore, his programs as president have been designed to greatly strengthen business andreduce the size and power of the national government. by moving in this way toward thepractices of the past, president reagan believed that the standard of living of americans wouldbegin to improve once more in the 1980s as it had done throughout most of the nation’shistory.

　　阅读自测：

　　Ⅰ. add the correct prefix to the following words:

　　plan

　　bearable

　　expected

　　pay

　　certain

　　war

　　known

　　common

　　decided

　　Ⅱ. fill in the blanks with the words or phrases in the passage:

　　1. happiness doesn't necessarily ________( 伴随) money.

　　2. traveling has a strong ________ ( 吸引力) to many young people nowadays.

　　3. bill clinton has ever been chosen as ________ ( 年度风云人物) in the 1990s.

　　4. we all want to learn ________ ( 尽可能) to get a better future. 5. we are confident that the________ ( 生活水平) of china has been greatly improved since the open-up.

　　参考答案：

　　Ⅰ. preplan / unbearable / unexpected prepay / uncertain / prewar unknown / uncommon / undecided

　　Ⅱ. 1. go with 2 . appeal 3 . man of the year 4. as much as possible 5. standard of living