大学法语专业，学了四年，专四专八过了。可是，二...

During the first half of the seventeenth century, when the nations of Europe were quarreling over who owned the New World, the Dutch and the Swedes founded competing villages ten miles apart on the Delaware River. Not long afterward, the English took over both places and gave them new names, New Castle and Wilmington.

For a century and a half the two villages grew rapidly, but gradually Wilmington gained all the advantages. It was a little closer to Philadelphia, so when new textile mills opened, they opened in Wilmington, not in New Castle. There was plenty of water power from rivers and creeks at Wilmington, so when young Irenee DuPont chose a place for his gunpowder mill, it was Wilmington he chose, not New Castle. Wilmington became a town and then a city —a rather important city, much the largest in Delaware. And New Castle, bypassed by the highways and waterways that made Wilmington prosperous, slept ten miles south on the Delaware River. No two villages with such similar pasts could have gone such separate ways. Today no two pieces could be more different.

Wilmington, with its expressways and parking lots and all its other concrete ribbons and badges, is a tired old veteran of the industrial wars and wears a vacant stare. Block after city block where people used to live and shop is broken and empty.

New Castle never had to make way for progress and therefore never had any reason to tear down its seventeenth-and eighteenth-century houses. So they are still here, standing in tasteful rows under ancient elms around the original town green. New Castle is still an agreeable place to live. The pretty buildings of its quiet past make a serene setting for the lives of 4,800 people. New Castle may be America's loveliest town, but it is not an important town at all. Progress passed it by.

Poor New Castle.

Lucky Wilmington.

Which is the major factor that made the difference between Wilmington and New Castle?

A．Convenience for traffic.

B．The Delaware River.

C．The investment of Irenee DuPont.

D．The textiles mills.

【6】

SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

Directions: In this section you sill hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.

听力原文： Good morning, everyone. First about your second assignment. I'd like to remind you that your second assignment should be in by next Fri day. You can either put it in my pigeon hole, or leave it with the Department's secretary. Now, let's get down to the lecture.

Today, the lecture is on credit, er, or to be more specific, on credit cards. I'm sure you must have heard of some credit cards, like the VI SA card, which is an internationally used card, or the Great Wall card issued by the Bank of China, In order to give a better understanding, we'll discuss it in some detail.

Many businesses, such as department stores, restaurants, hotels and airline companies, use a credit system for selling their products and services. In a credit system, the seller agrees to sell something to the buyer without immediately receiving cash. He receives the goods or ser vices immediately and promises to pay for them later. This buy-now-pay later credit system is quite old.

There are two types of credit cards. One type is issued directly by a store to a customer. Many large department stores issue credit cards to their customers. The store credit card can be used to make purchases only at a particular store. For example, if you have a credit card from Store A, then you can only buy things in that store. Other stores would not accept it. The other kind of credit card is issued by a credit company. Credit cards from credit companies can be used to buy things almost anywhere. If you have a major credit card, you can buy airplane tickets, stay at hotels and eat at restaurant with it. Most large credit companies are connected to large banks. So if you want a credit card from a credit company, you generally have to make an application at a bank. After an applicant receives a credit card, he or she can make purchases using the

card.

The credit company sends the customer a statement of purchases at the end of each month. Generally the customer has to pay 25--50% of their credit hill every month. The customer pays directly to the credit company and the credit company pays to the store or hotel or restaurant.

There are some advantages and some disadvantages to using credit cards. The biggest advantage for the consumer is expressed by the phrase "buy now, pay later". This means that the consumer can purchase what he wants when he wants it. There is no need to save up money in advance. Another advantage of having a credit card is that it protects the owner, ff a credit card is lost or stolen, the owner only has to call the credit company and the credit company will stop the credit card number. No one else can use it. So the owner doesn't have to worry about losing the card. Another advantage of the credit card system is that the consumer receives a record of his or her purchases. Every month the credit customer receives a bill. The bill has a list of all purchases from that month. This makes it easier to remember when and where purchases are made. And another advantage is that credit cards can be used when something unexpected happens. Many kinds of professional people—plumbers, taxidrivers, doctors and dentists—will accept credit cards in an emergency. This is very important if you don't have any cash with you.

However, having said all that, using credit cards has one major disadvantage. That is, consumers tend to overspend their money. They spend more than they make. If a consumer buys a lot of th