Income
Income may be national income and personalincome. Whereas national income is defined as the total earned income of all thefactors of productionnamely, profits, interest, rent, wages, and othercompensation for labor, personal income may be defined as total money incomereceived by individuals before personal taxes are paid. National income does notequal GNPbecause the factors of production do notreceive payment for either capital consumption allowances or indirect businesstaxes, both of which are included in GNP. The money put aside for capitalconsumption is for replacement and thus is not counted as income. Indirect taxesinclude sales taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes that are paid bybusinesses directly to the government and so reduce the income left to pay forthe factors of production. Three-fourths of national income goes for wages,salaries, and other forms of compensation to employees.
Whereasnational income shows the income that the factors of production earn, personalincome measures the income that individuals or households receive. Corporationprofits are included in national income because they are earned. Out of theseprofits, however, corporation profit taxes must be paid to government, and somemoney must be put into the business for expansion. Only that part of profitsdistributed as dividends goes to the individual; therefore, out of corporationprofits only dividends count as personal income. The factors of production earnmoney for social security and unemployment insurance contributions, but thismoney goes to government, not toindividuals. It is therefore part of national income but not part of personalincome.
On the other hand, money received by individuals when they collectsocial security or unemployment compensation is not money earned but moneyreceived. Interest received on government bonds is also in this category,because much of the money received from the sale of bonds went to pay for warproduction and that production no longer furnishes a service to theeconomy.
The money people receive as personal income may be eitherspent or saved. However, not all spending is completely voluntary. A significantportion of our income goes to pay personal taxes. Most workers never receive themoney they pay in personal taxes, because it is withheld from their paychecks.The money that individuals are left with after they have met their taxobligations is disposable personal income. Disposable income can be dividedbetween personal consumption expenditures and personal savings. It is importantto remember that personal saving is what is left after spending.
1. Thispassage is mainly about
A. the classification of income.
B. thedifference between national income and personal income.
C. the concept ofincome.
D. the difference between disposable income and non-disposableincome.
2. Which of the following statements is true according to thefirst paragraph?
A. GNP equals national income plus indirect businesstaxes.
B. GNP excludes both capital consumption allowances and indirectbusiness taxes.
C. Personal income is regarded as the total money incomereceived by an individual after his or her taxes are paid.
D. The moneythat goes for capital consumption is not regarded as income.
3. It canbe known from this passage that the government levy tax on
A. corporationprofits.
B. every individual even though his income is very low.
C.those who work in joint ventures.
D. those who work in governmentdepartments.
4. According to this passage, the money you get as interestfrom government bonds is
A. money earned.
B. not money earned butmoney received.
C. money received because you have contributed to theeconomy.
D. money earned because you have furnished a service to theeconomy.
5. The passage implies that
A. people willingly pay taxesbecause they want to do something useful to the country.
B. peoplewillingly pay taxes because they do not want to be looked down upon by others.
C. people pay taxes unwillingly because they feel they will be arrested ifthey do not.
D. people pay taxes somewhat unwillingly.
The Gene Industry
Major companies are already inpursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placingenzymes in the automobile to monitor exhaust and send data on pollution to amicroprocessor that will then adjust the engine. They speak of what the New YorkTimes calls metal-hungry microbes that might be used to mine valuable tracemetals from ocean water. They have already demanded and won the right to patentnew life forms.
Nervous critics, including many scientists, worry that thereis corporate, national, international, and inter-scientific rivalry in theentire biotechnological field. They create images not of oil spills, but ofmicrobe spills that could spread disease and destroy entire populations. Thecreation and accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes, however, isonly one cause for alarm. Completely rational and respectable scientists aretalking about possibilities that stagger the imagination.
Should webreed people with cow-like stomachs so they can digest grass and hay, therebyrelieving the food problem by modifying us to eat lower down on the food chain?Should we biologically alter workers to fit the job requirement, for example,creating pilots with faster reaction times or assembly-line workers designed todo our monotonous work for us? Should we attempt to eliminate inferior peopleand breed a super-race ? Should we produce soldiers to do ourfighting? Should we use genetic forecasting to pre-eliminate unfit babies?Should we grow reserve organs for ourselves, each of us having, as it were, asavings bank full of spare kidney, livers, or hands?
Wild as thesenotions may sound, every one has its advocates in the scientificcommunity as well as its striking commercial application. As two critics ofgenetic engineering, Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard, state in their book WhoShould Play God? Broad scale genetic engineering will probably be introduced toAmerica much the same way as assembly lines, automobiles, vaccines, computersand all the other technologies. As each new genetic advance becomes commerciallypractical, a new consumer need will be exploited and a market for the newtechnology will be created.
1. According to the passage, the exhaustfrom a car engine could probably be checked by
A. using metal-hungrymicrobes.
B. making use of enzymes.
C. adjusting the engine.
D. patenting new life forms.
2. According to the passage, which of thefollowing would worry the critics the most?
A. The unanticipated explosionof population.
B. The creation of biological solar cells.
C. Theaccidental spill of oil.
D. The unexpected release of destructivemicrobes.
3. Which of the following notions is NOT mentioned?
A.Developing a savings bank of ones organs.
B. Breeding soldiers for awar.
C. Producing people with cow-like stomachs.
D. Using geneticforecasting to cure diseases.
4. According to the passage, Hitlerattempted to
A. change the pilots biologically to win the war.
B.develop genetic farming for food supply.
C. kill the people he thought ofas inferior.
D. encourage the development of genetic weapons for the war.
5. What does Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howards statement imply?
A.The commercial applications of genetic engineering are inevitable.
B.America will depend on other countries for biological progress.
C. Americaare proud of their computers, automobiles and genetic technologies.
D. Thepotential application of each new genetic advance should be controlled.
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