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English Test 61

Directions for Questions from 1 to 5:

The passage given below is followed by a question. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

When I was little, children were bought two kinds of ice cream, sold from those white wagons with canopies made of silvery metal: either the two-
cent cone or the four-cent ice-cream pie. The two-cent cone was very small, in fact it could fit comfortably into a child's hand, and it was made by
taking the ice cream from its container with a special scoop and piling it on the cone. Granny always suggested I eat only a part of the cone, then
throw away the pointed end, because it had been touched by the vendor's hand (though that was the best part, nice and crunchy, and it was
regularly eaten in secret, after a pretence of discarding it).

The four-cent pie was made by a special little machine, also silvery, which pressed two disks of sweet biscuit against a cylindrical section of ice
cream. First you had to thrust your tongue into the gap between the biscuits until it touched the central nucleus of ice cream; then, gradually, you
ate the whole thing, the biscuit surfaces softening as they became soaked in creamy nectar. Granny had no advice to give here: in theory the pies
had been touched only by the machine; in practice, the vendor had held them in his hand while giving them to us, but it was impossible to isolate
the contaminated area.

I was fascinated, however, by some of my peers, whose parents bought them not a four-cent pie but two two-cent cones. These privileged children
advanced proudly with one cone in their right hand and one in their left; and expertly moving their head from side to side, they licked first one, then
the other. This liturgy seemed to me so sumptuously enviable, that many times I asked to be allowed to celebrate it. In vain. My elders were
inflexible: a four-cent ice, yes; but two two-cent ones, absolutely no.

As anyone can see, neither mathematics nor economy nor dietetics justified this refusal. Nor did hygiene, assuming that in due course the tips of
both cones were discarded. The pathetic, and obviously mendacious, justification was that a boy concerned with turning his eyes from one cone to
the other was more inclined to stumble over stones, steps, or cracks in the pavement. I dimly sensed that there was another secret justification,
cruelly pedagogical, but I was unable to grasp it.

Today, citizen and victim of a consumer society, a civilization of excess and waste (which the society of the thirties was not), I realize that those
dear and now departed elders were right. Two two-cent cones instead of one at four cents did not signify squandering, economically speaking, but
symbolically they surely did. It was for this precise reason, that I yearned for them: because two ice creams suggested excess. And this was
precisely why they were denied me: because they looked indecent, an insult to poverty, a display of fictitious privilege, a boast of wealth. Only
spoiled children ate two cones at once, those children who in fairy tales were rightly punished, as Pinocchio was when he rejected the skin and the
stalk. And parents who encouraged this weakness, appropriate to little parvenus, were bringing up their children in the foolish theatre of “I'd like to
but I can't.” They were preparing them to turn up at tourist-class check-in with a fake Gucci bag bought from a street peddler on the beach at
Rimini.

Nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality, in a world where the consumer civilization now wants even adults to be spoiled, and
promises them always something more, from the wristwatch in the box of detergent to the bonus bangle sheathed, with the magazine it
accompanies, in a plastic envelope. Like the parents of those ambidextrous gluttons I so envied, the consumer civilization pretends to give more,
but actually gives, for four cents, what is worth four cents. You will throw away the old transistor radio to purchase the new one, that boasts an
alarm clock as well, but some inexplicable defect in the mechanism will guarantee that the radio lasts only a year. The new cheap car will have
leather seats, double side mirrors adjustable from inside, and a panelled dashboard, but it will not last nearly so long as the glorious old Fiat 500,
which, even when it broke down, could be started again with a kick.

The morality of the old days made Spartans of us all, while today's morality wants all of us to be Sybarites.

1. According to the author, the justification for refusal to let him eat two cones was plausibly

j didactic
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j dietetic
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j dialectic
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j diatonic
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j diastolic
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2. What does the author mean by “nowadays the moralist risks seeming at odds with morality”?

j The moralists of yesterday have become immoral today.

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j The concept of morality has changed over the years.
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j Consumerism is amoral.
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j The risks associated with immorality have gone up.
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j The purist‟ s view of morality is fast becoming popular.
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3. The author pined for two two-cent cones instead of one four-cent pie because
 j it made dietetic sense.
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j it suggested intemperance.
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j it was more fun.
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j it had a visual appeal.
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j he was a glutton.
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4. In the passage, the phrase “little parvenus” refers to

j naughty midgets.
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j old hags.
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j arrogant people.
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j young upstarts.
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j foolish kids.
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5. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?

j Today‟ s society is more extravagant than the society of the 1930s.

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j The act of eating two ice cream cones is akin to a ceremonial process.
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j Elders rightly suggested that a boy turning eyes from one cone to the other was more likely to fall.
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j Despite seeming to promise more, the consumer civilization gives away exactly what the thing is worth.
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j The consumer civilization attempts to spoil children and adults alike.
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Directions for Questions from 6 to 10:

The following question has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the
paragraph in the most appropriate way.

6. We can usefully think of theoretical models as maps, which help us navigate unfamiliar territory. The most accurate map that it is possible to
construct would be of no practical use whatsoever, for it would be an exact replica, on exactly the same scale, of the place where we were. Good
maps pull out the most important features and throw away a huge amount of much less valuable information. Of course, maps can be bad as well
as good - witness the attempts by medieval Europe to produce a map of the world. In the same way, a bad theory, no matter how impressive it
may seem in principle, does little or nothing to help us understand a problem.

j But good theories, just like good maps, are invaluable, even if they are simplified.
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j But good theories, just like good maps, will never represent unfamiliar concepts in detail.
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j But good theories, just like good maps, need to balance detail and feasibility of representation.
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j But good theories, just like good maps, are accurate only at a certain level of abstraction.
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j ut good theories, just like good maps, are useful in the hands of a user who knows their limitations.
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7. Age has a curvilinear relationship with the exploitation of opportunity. Initially, age will increase the likelihood that a person will exploit an
entrepreneurial opportunity because people gather much of the knowledge necessary to exploit opportunities over the course of heir lives, and
because age provides credibility in transmitting that information to others. However, as people become older, their willingness to bear risks
declines, their opportunity costs rise, and they become less receptive to new information.

j As a result, people transmit more information rather than experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.
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j As a result, people are reluctant to experiment with new ideas as they reach an advanced age.
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j As a result, only people with lower opportunity costs exploit opportunity when they reach an advanced age.
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j As a result, people become reluctant to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities when they reach an advanced age.
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j As a result, people depend on credibility rather than on novelty as they reach an advanced age.
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8. In the evolving world order, the comparative advantage of the United States lies in its military force. Diplomacy and international law have always
been regarded as annoying encumbrances, unless they can be used to advantage against an enemy. Every active player in world affairs professes
to seek only peace and to prefer negotiation to violence and coercion
 j However, diplomacy has often been used as a mask by nations which intended to use force.
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j However, when the veil is lifted, we commonly see that diplomacy is understood as a disguise for the rule of force.
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j However, history has shown that many of these nations do not practice what they profess.
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j However, history tells us that peace is professed by those who intend to use violence.
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j However, when unmasked, such nations reveal a penchant for the use of force.
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9. Relations between the factory and the dealer are distant and usually strained as the factory tries to force cars on the dealers to smooth out
production. Relations between the dealer and the customer are equally strained because dealers continuously adjust prices - make deals - to
adjust demand with supply while maximizing profits. This becomes a system marked by a lack of long-term commitment on either side, which
maximize feelings of mistrust. In order to maximize their bargaining positions, everyone holds back information - the dealer about the product and
the consumer about his true desires.

j As a result, ‘deal making’ becomes rampant, without concern for customer satisfaction.
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j As a result, inefficiencies creep into the supply chain.
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j As a result, everyone treats the other as an adversary, rather than as an ally.
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j As a result, fundamental innovations are becoming scarce in the automobile industry.
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j As a result, everyone loses in the long run.
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10. I am sometimes attacked for imposing 'rules‘. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hate rules. All I do is report on how consumer react to
different stimuli. I may say to a copywriter, Research shows that commercials with celebrities are below average in persuading people to buy
products. Are you sure you want to use a celebrity? “Call that a rule? Or I may say to an art director, Research suggests that if you set the copy in
black type on a white background, more people will read it than if you set it in white type on a black background.”

j Guidance based on applied research can hardly qualify as ‘rules’.

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j Thus, all my so called ‘rules’ are rooted in applied research.
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j A suggestion perhaps, but scarcely a rule.
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j Such principles are unavoidable if one wants to be systematic about consumer behaviour.
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j Fundamentally it is about consumer behaviour oe not about celebrities or type settings.
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