mechanical2019大学英语四级考试阅读讲义(五十)

2021年1月21日发(作者：aeroflot)
2019
大学英语四级考试阅读讲义
(
五十
)


第二部分

阅读理解模拟练习



Unit 1



(35 minutes)



Directions
：
There are 4 reading passages in this part.
Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished
statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A),
B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark
the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single
line through the centre.



Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage
：



The banking revolution in America is as much about
attitudes and assumptions as about size and structure. For
centuries, Americans have distrusted banks. In the 1830s,
Andrew Jackson denounced and destroyed the Second Bank of the
United States, which existed “to make the rich richer” at
the expense of “farmers, mechanics and laborers.” In the
1930s, banks were blamed for helping cause the Depression.
The wonder, then, is that the latest wave of bank mergers
—

the largest ever
—
has inspired little more than a
bewildered and, perhaps, irritated shrug from the public.



As banks grow bigger, they seem less fearsome. Why? The
answer is that banks have shrunk in power even as they have
expanded in size. Traditionally, banking has been a simple
business. Deposits come through one door, loans go out
through an other. Profits derive from the “玸
pread” between
interest rates on deposits and loans. If savers and borrowers
cannot go elsewhere, banks are powerful. And if there are
other choices, banks are less powerful. And so it
inhabit an age of superabundant credit and its purveyors. A
century ago, matters were different. Small depositors could
choose from only one or several local banks; getting a loan
meant winning the good graces of the neighborhood banker.
Even big corporations depended on a few big banks or
investment houses.
考试大



John Reed or Hugh McColl
—
the heads of Citicorp and
Nations Bank
—
are not household names. In 1900 J. P. Morgan
was. As head of J. P. Morgan & Co., he controlled
—
through
stock and positions on corporate boards
—
a third of U.S.
railroads and 70 percent of the steel industry. A railroad
executive once cheerfully confessed his dependence on
Morgan's capital
：“If Mr. Morgan were to order me tomorrow
to China or Siberia ...I would go.”



No bankers today inspires such awe or fear. Time,
technology and government restrictions weakened bank power.
In the 1920s, auto companies popularized car loans. National
credit cards originated in 1950 with the Dinners Club card.
In 1933, the Glass-Steagal Act required banks and their
investment houses to split. After World War Ⅱ, pensions and
the stock market competed for consumer savings. As aresult,
banks command a shrinking share of the nation's wealth
：
20
percent of assets of financial institutions in 1997, down
from 50 percent in 1950.



21. Traditionally, Americans' attitude towards banks is
one of .



A) suspicion