王迈迈英语

TEXT 4
During the 17 years of Sri Lanka's civil war, ceasefires have been arranged from time to time in the hope that permanent peace would follow. The difference about the present one, called by the separatist Tamil Tigers in December and due to end on January 24th, is that it has not been matched by the government. It believes that the Tigers sought only a breathing-space. As in the past, after recovering they would resume their attacks with renewed ferocity. The government forces have continued to kill Tigers with abandon, and held their fire only on Christmas day.
    While the government can claim some consistency for its policy of all-out war on the Tigers, formally adopted six months ago, its rejection of the Tigers' offer has upset the Norwegians, who for 18 months have been trying to find a way to end the conflict. The Norwegians are among the most peaceable people on earth these days, whatever they may have got up to during Viking times. They find it difficult to understand why the president of this little island, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, cannot settle their differences.     

Britain, the United States and India, the regional superpower, share the Norwegians' disappointment. A meeting in Paris in December of Sri Lanka's aid donors ended, unusually, without any pledges being made for the next financial year.
     Sensing Sri Lanka's growing isolation, Mrs. Kumaratunga broadcast on January 8th specifically to the people of the north-east, where most Tamils live, and which has been the main cockpit of the war. She said there was no point in having a ceasefire unless the Tigers were prepared to negotiate. Once they agreed to negotiations, the government would be ready for a ceasefire.
     In this poker game it is difficult to see which side has the better hand. The Tigers' publicity machine, centered in London, has drawn international attention to the government's hard line position. Militarily the government seems to have done well during the lull, regaining control of an important road linking two large towns, Jaffna and Chavakachcheri. But its generals must be nervous that the Tigers will eventually renew their attacks in the Jaffna peninsula, which they came close to capturing in May last year.
    If Norway does get the two sides together, what will they talk about? The Norwegians would like the Tigers to stop attacking southern areas of the island, dominated by the Sinhalese majority; in return, they want the government to lift its restrictions on supplies of food and medicine to rebel-controlled towns. Beyond that, the Norwegians appear vague. Raymond Johansen, Norway's deputy foreign minister, said last week that "Tamil aspirations must be met in a substantial manner." But he ruled out a separate state for the Tamils, which the Tigers have demanded.
Erik Solheim, who handles most of the Norwegian negotiations, has mentioned Switzerland as a model federation.

36. The author calls this ceasefire a different one because       .
A Sri Lanka’s civil war is different from the other country.
B the government will never adhere to its precious

C Tamil Tigers appealed while the government is suspicious its motivation.?
D the government completely agrees with the ceasefire.

37. The word “consistency” means       .
A continuous action          B appreciation
C rejection                 D indifference

38. According to the text, Sri Lanka’s isolation is partly because       .
A its leader broadcasts to the people of the Tamils.
B the Tiger gave an active gesture but not the government
C the Tiger’s machine exaggerated the government.
D. some western countries approved of its refusal.

39.  Some government generals are nervous when they have done well in military action just because       .
A they continued to kill too much Tiger’s with abandon.
B Tamil aspirations wouldn’t be met in a practical form.
C they are unsure about its future.
D they are afraid of the Tiger’s continuous attack for grabbing the towns

40.  The author quoted the Raymand Johonson’s words in order to imply
A he wanted the Tamil to have a separate state.
B he just did an authority talk.
C the peace process still has a long way to go.
D he was dissatisfied with the current government.

Part B
Directions: In the following text, some sentences have removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into of the numbered blank there are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
    FOR months now, ministers have been blaming Britain's archaic and expensive planning laws for many of the country's ills, from high house prices to poor productivity. Lord Falconer, a close ally of the Prime Minister, describes the planning system as "a quagmire". It is certainly a lawyer's paradise. The national planning guidance alone runs to 800 pages.
  (41)  .The green paper, a consultative document, hardly lives up to the hype. But it does contain a number of sensible proposals for reforming a system which deals with 150,000 business and 300,000 domestic planning applications each year.
     (42)   . The government also wants developers to be able to build more easily in designated business zones. The process for planning appeals is to be speeded up. All these measures should make the system work a little faster.
     The case for change is hard to deny. The chancellor, Gordon Brown, is convinced that Britain's poor productivity performance is in part due to its restrictive planning system. That was the thesis of a hefty report published by McKinsey's consultants three years ago which argued that every British household could be 2,500 pounds a year better off if Britain was able to match American levels of productivity.  (43)    .
   (44)   . Even much smaller projects are subject to lengthy delay. Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, complained to a Confederation of British Industry conference recently, "I know Rome wasn't built in a day, but why does it take four years to get a positive decision on one moderately-sized inner city store?"
     A project to build a new freight railway, financed solely by private investment, from Liverpool via Manchester, Sheffield and London to the Channel Tunnel has been mired in planning problems for more than a decade. Andrew Gritten, chairman of Central Railway, says this scheme would take 3m lorry journeys a year off the roads. But without the government's backing, it has little chance of getting through Parliament, let alone surviving a public inquiry.
   (45)  . Ministers believe that delays could be cut if the government were to set out its views in advance of a public inquiry. These would then be subject to parliamentary debate and approval. The planning system could thus deal with local issues rather than issues of principle.
     Environmental and other lobby groups say they will resist such a change, which they see as short-circuiting democratic accountability. Certainly, the faster things happen, the worse it will be for them. It took more than a quarter of a century and three public inquiries before the bulldozers could start ploughing through beautiful Twyford Down to build a bitterly-fought extension to the M3 motorway near Winchester. In future, Swampy and his friends will have a much harder task opposing big new developments.
[A] For large projects, planning sometimes borders on the absurd. The inquiry into Heathrow's Terminal Five inquiry spent two days discussing whether some fish displaced by the proposed terminal would or would not be able to swim up a culvert. No wonder the inquiry occupied 33 barristers, cost pounds 100m and took four years to complete.                           

[B]The Government's Planning Green Paper, Planning: delivering a fundamental change, was published on 12 December 2001. Related 'daughter documents' - on major infrastructure projects, planning obligations, the Use Classes Order and compulsory purchase powers - were published soon afterwards.                                                                   

[C]The Green Paper seeks a planning system which addresses economic, social, cultural and environmental objectives, in which people have confidence and which is efficient.                                            

[D] The government is to publish a document next week advocating new parliamentary procedures for major projects.                                                                               [E] A report which recently emerged from the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions estimated that the cost of planning delays to business was at least pounds 600m a year. Currently more than half of all commercial planning applications take longer than two months to be decided.                                                                                   [F] This week the government unveiled its proposals for reform claiming that they represented the biggest shake-up in the planning system for half a century.

[G] A report which recently emerged from the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions estimated that the cost of planning delays to business was at least pounds 600m a year. Currently more than half of all commercial planning applications take longer than two months to be decided.