2001年1月英语四级真题听力原文(2)

a certain area if this man promised to pay the ruler a certain amount of money. Of course the tax collector managed to collect more money than he paid to the ruler. The difference between the sum of money he collected and the sum of money he gave to the ruler was his profit.

Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.
11. What do we know about the speaker's friend?
12. What was the real purpose of the ruler's invitation?
13. What does the passage say about the tax collectors?

Passage two
Around the year 1000A.D., some people from Northwest India began to travel westwards. Nobody knows why. After leaving their homes, they did not settle down again but spent their lives moving from one place to another. Their later generations are called the Romany people or Gypsies. There are Gypsies all over the world. And many of them are still traveling with no fixed homes. There are about 8 million of them, including 3 million in Eastern Europe.
Gypsies sometimes have a hard time in the countries where they travel, because they are different. People may be afraid of them, look down on them or think that they are criminals. The Nazis treated the Gypsies cruelly, like the Jews. And nobody knows how many of them died in Hitler's death camps.
Gypsies have their own language, Romany. They like music and dancing, and they often work in fairs and traveling shows.
Travelling is very important to them and many Gypsies are unhappy if they have to stay in one place. Because of this, it is difficult for Gypsies children to go to school. And Gypsies are often unable to read and write. In some places, the education authorities try to arrange special travelling schools for Gypsy children so that they can get the same education as other children.

Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
14. Why did the ancestors of Gypsies leave their home?
15. What is the attitude of some people towards Gypsies?
16. What measure has been taken to help Gypsy children?

Passage three
As the car industry develops, traffic accidents have become as familiar as the common cold. Yet their cause and control remain a serious problem that is difficult to solve.
Experts have long recognized that this discouraging problem has multiple causes. At the very least it is a problem that involves three factors: the driver, the vehicle and the roadway. If all drivers exercised good judgement at all times, there would be few accidents. But this is rather like saying that if all people were honest, there would be no crime. Improved design has helped to make highways much safer. But the title of accidents continues to rise because of human failure and an enormous increase in the number of automobiles on the road. Attention is now turning increasingly to the third factor of the accident are the car itself.
Since people assume that the accidents are bound to occur, they want to know how cars can be built better to protect the drivers.

Questions

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