Question

The later part of the 20th century saw its share of strange financial bubbles (泡沫).There was the real-estate bubble,the stock market bubble, and the .com bubble,just to name a few. In each instance people paid huge amounts for things that shouldn, t have been worth anything like the going price. And each time people stood around afterwards and said "What were we thinking?"

Actually the same thought occurred to the Dutch in the 17th century. As much as the tulip(郁金香)is associated with Holland,it is not native there. Actually it was introduced in 1593 by a botanist named Carolus Clusius,who brought it from Turkey. He planted a small garden,intending to research the plant for medicinal purposes. Had Clusius' s neighbors been morally upright,the tulip might still be a rare foreign plant in the gardening world. Instead they broke into his garden and stole some of his tulips in order to make some quick money，and in the process started the Dutch tulip trade.

Over the next several decades tulips became a craze among the rich of Holland,and prices began to rise. Soon even ordinary bulbs were selling for extraordinary prices, and the actually rare bulbs were extremely large. Here is an example of how many useful items it cost to buy one single tulip bulb: four tons of wheat, eight tons of rye, one bed, four oxen, eight pigs, twelve sheep, one suit of clothes, two casks of wine,four tons of beer,two tons of butter, 1 ，000 pounds of cheese and one silver drinking cup.

The height of the bubble was reached in the winter of 1636―1637. Tulip traders were making fortunes regularly. A good trader could earn up to 60 ，000 florins in a month ―approximately $61 ，710 in current U.S. dollars. With profits like those to be had，nothing local governments could do stopped the passion of trading. Then one day in Haarlem a buyer failed to show up and pay for his bulb purchase. The coming panic spread across Holland,and within days tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their former prices. The tulip bubble had burst.

Looking back through time it's easy to laugh at the foolish Dutch, paying such prices for simple tulip bulbs, but an economic bubble was nothing new even then. We're still doing the same sorts of things today.

(   ) 4. The author wrote the passage        .

A.  to share the information about tulips

B.  to analyze the cause of the tulip bubble

C.  to warn us to reflect on economic bubbles

D.  to present his study of the 17th-century Holland

(   ) 5. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that        .

A.   Carolus Clusius planted tulips for medical purposes

B.   Clusius's neighbors were morally not honest

C.   the tulip is much associated with Holland

D.   the tulip is a common flower in the garden

(   ) 6. In which of the following period did tulip traders find it easiest to make money?

A. From Nov. 12 to Nov. 25. B. From Nov. 25 to Dec. 1.

C. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 12. D. From Dec. 12 to Feb. 3.
(   ) 7. The writer listed all the items for which a tulip bulb was exchanged        .

A. to attract the readers    B. to arouse the readers' curiosity

C. to show its huge potential    D. to show people' s craze of trading

Answer 1

4. C逻辑推理题..作者一开始讲了 20世纪的金融泡沫，然后又列举了 17世纪发生在荷兰的郁金香经济泡沫」最后一段作者认为人们一边嘲笑当时的荷兰人愚蠢，一边在做着同当时的荷兰人一样的事情」很显然，作者是在警告人们反思今天的经济泡沫.，

5. B逻辑推理题、，见第二段的第五句和第六句表述。A项和C项的表述在文中可以直接找到，不属于推理得出的结论；D项表述与原文无关。

6. D细节理解题。见图示。

7. D逻辑推理题，第三段段首作者给出了论点，即郁金香在随后的几十年中成了富人疯狂抢购的东西，随后便进行了举例。因此，作者列出所有可以用一棵郁金香换购的物品就是为了证明人们交易的疯狂性。