27 Companies under financial pressure will find it hard to resist disposing of workers in countries with high wages in order to hire replacements in faraway lands with low ones.
(A) Companies under financial pressure will have a hard time figuring out how to replace workers with high wages with those with low ones.
(B) Companies under financial pressure will want to lay off workers in countries with high wages and hire workers in faraway countries with low ones.
(C) Companies under financial pressure have to find a better way to hire workers with low wages to replace those with high ones.
(D) Companies under financial pressure will try hard not to lay off workers in countries with high wages and replace them with those with low ones.

23 Reading tabloids seems to be an escape to distract readers from fundamental issues like persistent political, economic, and social problems. (A) Some readers seem to choose to read tabloids so that they can get a break from all sorts of serious fundamental issues. (B) When people are getting sick and tired of all sorts of serious fundamental issues, they turn to reading tabloids for pleasure. (C) Reading tabloids is not just about celebrity obsession; it is a symbolic protest against all sorts of unpleasant fundamental issues. (D) Tabloid readers seem to be able to channel their anger about all sorts of unpleasant fundamental issues through reading tabloids.

24 Firing someone is not an end but only a beginning since every job dismissal has an audience: those who remain, and talk. (A) Firing someone at work leads the remaining staff to talk about the next job application. (B) When we fire someone at work, we have to be careful since the remaining staff might ask to remain. (C) Firing someone at work had better be done in the absence of the remaining staff so that no one knows how we fire the person. (D) After we fire someone at work, it is not over yet since the remaining staff will start commenting on the way we fire the person.

25 Designers and engineers who rely on computers to do much of their work are rebelling against their disconnection from the physical world. (A) Many designers and engineers are trying some other ways to do their work instead of relying so much on computers. (B) Designers and engineers who rely so much on computers at work will soon be able to reconnect their lives with the real world. (C) Using computers at work, designers and engineers are not happy about their living in a virtual world. (D) Designers and engineers who do much of their work with computers are getting used to their rebellious life in the real world.

26 In the developed world, no trend in the nutrition revolution has been more marked than the equalization of diet between regions and classes. (A) In the developed world, the nutrition revolution aims to find out the ways people of different regions and classes eat. (B) In the developed world, the nutrition revolution aims to overcome the difficulty in sharing the same kinds of food. (C) In the developed world, the most distinctive feature in the nutrition revolution is the same diet shared by people of different regions and classes. (D) In the developed world, the most distinctive change in the wake of the nutrition revolution is people’s awareness of simple diet.

28 If I am caught slacking off, I will be fired for sure. (A) I will lose my job if I am caught being unproductive. (B) I will be scolded if I am not working hard. (C) I will lose my job if I am not dressed up. (D) I have to pay attention and work hard, or I will get demoted.

29 For China’s emerging middle class, opportunities have multiplied, but each one brings pressure to take part and every acquisition seems to come ready-wrapped in disappointment. (A) With increasing opportunities, the rising middle class Chinese feel anxious to get involved but are inevitably disappointed. (B) With opportunities increasing, the new middle class Chinese always feel pressured and disappointed in getting involved in any new experience. (C) Every new opportunity brings anxiety to the promising Chinese middle class, and the disappointment is even more unbearable. (D) Since the rising middle class Chinese have few opportunities, their anxiety and subsequent disappointment are inevitable. 代號：50140 60140-60340 60740-60940 頁次：4－4

30 Jennifer is computer-literate, which will give her an edge. (A) Jennifer is skilled in computer and this will make her very nervous. (B) Jennifer is good at computer, and this gains her an advantage. (C) Jennifer is well versed in computer, but she keeps it as a secret. (D) Jennifer is neither a computer expert, nor does she like it at all.

31 The boundaries between the sane and the mentally ill have become the battleline that divides two opposing schools of thought. (A) The limitations of healthy and mentally ill people result in two types of thoughts. (B) The outlines of sane and insane people resemble those of the two schools of thoughts. (C) The definition of the sane in contrast to mentally ill people has become the center of debate between two schools of thought. (D) The boundaries between sane and mentally ill people have become the main topic to which the two schools of thought are opposed.

32 Communication refers to language in use, as a process which is socially situated. (A) Communication happens when we use language to talk to people around us. (B) Communication is possible only among people living in the same society. (C) Communication is the process by which we produce appropriate language. (D) Communication is controlled by people who have higher social status.

33 According to the passage, why do birds frequently fly for a long distance? (A) They like to fly. (B) They are migrating. (C) They are looking for food. (D) They are looking for companions.