It can be inferred that the author most probably knows of the<br/>condition he describes from ______. A: his studies as a sociologist B: novels with a working-class setting C: the work of social historians D: his own experience

According to the Marxist sociologist's thesis, hostility against the Chinese in California______. A: is caused by class struggle B: results from racial prejudice C: has nothing to do with racism D: is unique in its own way

Directions: There are two passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. Passage 1 The Chinese capital has overtaken the Big Apple as home to the most billionaires — 100 to 95 — according to Hurun, a Shanghai firm that publishes a monthly magazine and releases yearly rankings and research about the world's richest people and their spending habits. The study, which comes months after reports suggested China now has more billionaires than the United States, highlights how China's elite are continuing to accrue (累积) vast wealth despite a wobbling stock market and cooling economy. Different tabulations of wealth, such as the Hurun Report and the Forbes, have historically produced somewhat different results depending on their methodology. Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of Hurun, attributed China's explosive wealth creation to Chinese market regulators allowing a flood of new initial public offerings (IPOs, 新股首发) after holding back new IPOs for several years. Hoogewerf said his wealth calculations were made using stock prices as of 15 January, which means they took into account the Chinese market's 40% tumble over the past half year. Had the calculations been made at the market's peak last summer, the number of Chinese billionaires would have been nearly 150, Hoogewerf said. Beijing took the title from New York after minting 32 new billionaires last year, while New York gained four. Moscow came in third place, with 66 billionaires, while Hong Kong and Shanghai came in fourth and fifth with 64 and 50, respectively, Hurun said. China's richest man, real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin, came in 21st place globally behind Wal-Mart scions, the Swedish family that owns IKEA and Brazilian investor Jorge Paulo Lemann. Other Chinese billionaires in the global top 100 included Alibaba, founder Jack Ma, beverage magnate Zong Qinghou, and the tech bosses at phone maker Xiaomi, social media firm Tencent and Baidu, the search engine. Hoogewerf said China had a particularly high proportion of self-made billionaires compared to the United States. "What we showed today is that at the super-wealth creation level, the Chinese are now leading," Hoogewerf said. "People will look at China the same way that people looked at Stanford or Silicon Valley in the 1990s." 1) What does the passage say about Hurun? A. The Hurun Report is quite similar to the Forbes. B. The founder of Hurun is a billionaire. C. Hurun researches the spending habits of the world's billionaires. D. Hurun releases billionaire rankings month by month. 2) What can we learn from the study? A. China now is richer than the United States. B. The United States now does not have as many billionaires as China. C. A stable stock market helps China's elite make more money. D. A cooling economy has a strong influence on American billionaires. 3) What does the word "tumble" (Para. 2) possibly mean? A. Stock prices. B. A sudden fall. C. Investments. D. Retail sales. 4) Which of the following statements is true about the world's billionaires? A. Wang Jianlin is a successful investor. B. Wal-Mart scions came in 21st place globally. C. Wang Jianlin is richer than Jorge Paulo Lemann. D. Some Chinese billionaires came in the global top 100. 5) What is the best title for this passage? A. Hurun and the Hurun Report. B. Beijing: Billionaire Capital of the World. C. China's Explosive Wealth Creation. D. New Chinese Billionaires. Passage 2 New research recently revealed that men still don't do anywhere near their share of the cleaning. Childcare and cooking are much more equal these days, but women are still far more likely to get landed with vacuuming crisps off the carpet. This led columnist Jon Chait to make a provocative suggestion: What if it is because men just have lower standards of cleanliness? Sure enough, one study found that single men, with no one else to do the cleaning, still do half as much as single women. This doesn't prove sexism's not involved — perhaps it is social pressure that causes women to care more about cleanliness — but it does imply that people are differently bothered by hygiene (卫生). To feel motivated to clean something, you've first got to notice and care — that it's dirty. In the book Hidden in Plain Sight: The Social Structure of Irrelevance, sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel points out everything we do depends, first, on what we define as worth noticing: You can't care about mess, or anything else, if you don't "see" it as an important part of reality to start with. The famous "invisible gorilla (大猩猩)" effect demonstrates this in visual perception: People asked to count passes between basketball players on video fail to notice a person in a gorilla suit walk across the screen. But Zerubavel argues this applies not just to vision, but to the whole way we approach the world, dividing it into "foreground" stuff that matters and "background" that doesn't. Relevance isn't objective. Hence the Soviet joke about the worker who every day pushes a wheelbarrow (独轮手推车) of rubbish through the factory gates, frustrating the guard, who's sure he must be smuggling something out. Years later, after they have retired, the guard asks what he stole. "Wheelbarrows," the worker replies. Nor is this mere abstract philosophizing. You can change the world by shifting what's foregrounded: One reason so many celebrated buildings are nightmarish to live or work in is "architectural blindness": Architects, research has shown, are more prone than others to seeing buildings as discrete objects, neglecting how they integrate with their surroundings. Hence the common advice for boosting creativity: Defamiliarize yourself with the world. "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle," wrote George Orwell. Be warned, though: Get too good at this, and you could find yourself doing a lot more cleaning. 6) According to the passage, why do men do less cleaning? A. Because they have no interest in cleanliness. B. Because they think it is women's duty. C. Because they have done other chores such as childcare. D. Because they have lower awareness of cleanliness. 7) What may be the possible reason that causes women to care more about cleanliness? A. Social position. B. Social pressure. C. Education condition. D. Gender difference. 8) What does the Soviet joke in the second paragraph indicate? A. Background stuff doesn't matter. B. Only foreground stuff matters. C. Foreground stuff is more important. D. Background stuff is always neglected. 9) According to the passage, how to enhance one's creativity? A. By paying less attention to the world around you. B. By withdrawing from society and living in solitude. C. By seeing and noticing the things you are very familiar with. D. By getting good at neglecting the things you are familiar with. 10) According to the passage, what may make men do more cleaning? A. Being good at cleaning. B. Noticing the dirtiness in the room. C. Spending more time on cleaning. D. Understanding the importance of cleanliness.