2. 考研
  3. Excerpt 1 Mankind’s fascination with gold is as old as civilization itself. The ancient Egyptians esteemed gold, which had r

Excerpt 1 Mankind’s fascination with gold is as old as civilization itself. The ancient Egyptians esteemed gold, which had r

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问题     Excerpt 1
    Mankind’s fascination with gold is as old as civilization itself. The ancient Egyptians esteemed gold, which had religious significance to them, and King Tutankharnun was buried in a solid-gold coffin 3,300 years ago. The wandering Israelites worshiped a golden calf, and the legendary King Midas asked that everything he touched be turned into gold.
    Excerpt 2
    Most economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the metal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isn’t any more. Modern money takes the form of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity.
    Excerpt 3
    People have always longed to possess gold. Unfortunately, this longing has also brought out the worst in the human character. The Spanish conquistadors robbed palaces, temples, and graves, and killed thousands of Indians in their ruthless search for gold. Often the only rule in young California during the days of the gold rush was exercised by the mob with a rope. Even today, the economic running of South Africa’s gold mines depends largely on the employment of black laborers who are paid about 40 pounds a month, plus room and board, and who must work in conditions that can only be described as cruel. About 400 miners are killed in mine accidents in South Africa each year, or one for every two tons of gold produced.
    Excerpt 4
    Much of gold’s value lies in its scarcity. Only about 80,000 tons have been mined in the history of the world. All of it could be stored in a vault 60 feet square, or a supertanker.
    Excerpt 5
    So why is its price soaring? Over the past week, this has topped $ 450 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollar’s fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its Unit of account.
    Excerpt 6
    This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars—indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low—a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world’s reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worthless.
Even at present, in South Africa______.
选项 A、the black laborers are killed for mining gold
B、the black laborers have got rid of the control of white rulers
C、the black laborers who mine gold are still exploited cruelly
D、the life of the black laborers is highly improved
答案C
解析 根据Excerpt 3中的“Even today，the economic running of South Africa’s gold mines depends largely on the employment of black laborers who are paid about 40 pounds a month，plus room and board，and who must work in conditions that can only bedescribed as cruel．”可知，即使今天，南非金矿的经营主要也是靠雇用黑人劳工，包食宿，每月付大约40英镑，工人必须工作在只能用悲惨来形容的环境中。C项与题干所问的当前南非的情况相符。
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