What money can do, however, is not the same as what money is. Lets return for a moment to the theory: people value money because they value one another. In other words, the usefulness of money is dire
What money can do, however, is not the same as what money is. Let's return for a moment to the theory: people value money because they value one another. In other words, the usefulness of money is directly related to and established by continuous mutual need. People work for money to buy things that other people make or do, things that they cannot or will not make or do for themselves but that they deem necessary for some definition of self-improvement.
Abstractly, money is one of the ways, indeed a universally accepted way, by which we make connections. Cash is cold. So the connections may feel cold, but real blood flows through them. These connections constitute one of the central means by which societies cohere; by which they sustain and characterize themselves.
When the coin begins to wobble, as it has in the past weeks, a fear seizes the mind that is disorienting. The fear is not merely that of the loss of possessions but of self-possession, which in some sense is bought and sold from person to person in infinite daily bargains. To lose money is frightening. To lose touch with others is more frightening still. Losing touch may cause the panic of the times.
11.
This passage mainly discusses _______.
(A) the functions of money
(B) the stock-market plunge
(C) a new theory of investment
(D) a cold characteristic of cash
12.
According to the author, what can be a regular source of money provided for us?
(A) Possessions.
(B) Bargains.
(C) Stocks.
(D) Employers.
13.
According to the passage, money can do all the following EXCEPT _______.
(A) build cities and cure diseases
(B) enhance relationships among people
(C) create a sense of powerlessness
(D) prove the morality of people
14.
Under what circumstances are connections related to cash said to be cold in the passage?
(A) When they are not established for societies to cohere.
(B) When they are not compared to "real blood".
(C) When their functions are snatched from people's life.
(D) When their worth is hard to determine and not valued.
15.
It can be learned from the passage that ______.
(A) people worry about the dollars they have more than the sense of community
(B) money can lubricate the social machine but it cannot prove the value of people
(C) in daily transactions one's self-possession is gained or lost
(D) losing money is more frightening than losing touch with others
Questions 16-20
At first glance, why anyone would want to save California condors is not entirely clear. Unlike the closely related Andean condors with their white neck fluff or king vultures with their brilliant black-and-white colour, California condors are not much to see. Their dull black colour-even when contrasted with white underwings-featherless head and neck, oversized feet and blunt talons are hardly signs of beauty or strength. Their appeal begins to become evident when they take flights. California condors can soar almost effortlessly for hours, often covering hundreds of miles a day-far more than other creatures of the air. Only occasionally do they need to flap their wings-to take off, change direction or find a band of warm air known as thermal to carry them higher.
When it was discovered that the condor population was becoming dangerously small, scientists and zookeepers sought to increase condor numbers quickly to preserve as much of the species' genetic diversity as possible. From studying wild condors, they already knew that if a pair lost an egg, the birds would often produce another. So the first and sometimes second eggs laid by each female in captivity were removed, artificially incubated, and the chicks raised using hand-held puppets made to look like adult condors. Such techniques quickly proved effective.
Despite these successes, the effort to save California condors continues to have problems, evoke criticisms and generate controversy. Captive-hatched condors released to the wild have died at what to some people are alarmingly high rates. Others have had to be recaptured after they acted foolishly or became ill. As a result, the scientists, zookeepers and conservationists who are concerned about condors have bickered among themselves over the best ways to rear and release the birds.
Some of the odd behavior on the part of these re-released birds is hard to explain. At times they landed on people's houses and garages, walked across roads and airport runways, sauntered into park visitor centers and fast food restaurants, and took food offered by picnickers and fishermen. None are known to have died by doing so, though. Most recently, some of the first chicks hatched in the wild died after their parents fed them bottle caps, glass shards, pieces of plastic and other man-made objects that fatally perforated or blocked their intestines. These deaths may be due to the chicks' parents mistaking man-made objects for bone chips eaten for their calcium content.
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