【正文】 o change his job? A. To get promoted in the future. B. To have a better salary. C. To enrich his working experience. 15. What does the woman think of the new job? A. Challenging. B. Rewarding. C. Inspiring. 16. What is the disadvantage of the new job? A. Working in the evening. B. Too demanding. C. A little boredom and lower pay. 聽第 10 段材料，回答第 18 至 20 題。 A Mike and I were excited about shopping for our first home, but our money was limited. One agent(代理人 ) remended a house. Although her description sounded wonderful, the price was beyond our range, so we refused. But she kept persuading us to have a look at least. We finally did and it was love at first sight. It was Our Home, attractive, overlooking a quiet lake. Walking through the rooms and talking with the owners, a nice old couple, we felt the warmth and happiness of the marriage within that home. As perfect as it was, the price remained too high for us. But every day, we would sit by the lake, looking at the house and dreaming of what it would be like to live there. Days later, we made an offer — far below the asking price. Surprisingly, they didn’t laugh at us. They renewed their offer instead. It was also much more than we could afford, but far less than the former asking price. The next day, we got a disappointing message that another buyer had offered a much higher price. Even so, we decided to talk with the owners directly. We made our final offer, which still was thousands of dollars less than the other buyer’s bid. We knew it, but we had to try. “Sold!” said the owner. Then he explained: He’d seen us sitting by the lake all those times。 he realized he would take a loss by selling it to us, but it was worthwhile。 yet coral reefs, an equally vital resource, suffer similar damage. Some causes are natural, but human action is the main threat to coral reefs, which leads to many serious problems for life on earth. The most important danger of development is eutrophication(富營養(yǎng)化 ): the buildup of nutrients in the water. The nutrients— such as chemicals found in polluted water, fertilizer, and pesticides— cause the abnormal growth of algae (藻類 ) that covers and chokes the corals. As a result of huge population growth of algae, nearly 90 percent of the coral reefs in South Florida are dead or dying. Experts also consider that 70 percent of all coral will be dead by the year 2050 if present trends continue. While eutrophcation is the main human danger to coral reefs, tourism and fishing contributes, too. Tourists not only require more land development, but also coral reefs as souvenirs. Careless scuba divers and snorkelers cause big damage to reef, so do fishers who ignored marine ecology. In some parts of the world, people fish by pouring poison onto reefs. The poison only makes large fish unconscious but kills corals. Even if poison is not used, the disappearance of large fish endangers reef because the fish can eat algae and help keep them under control. Ironically, curses always e home to roost. When fish die out from the destroyed reefs, it will also result in the loss of fishing jobs for human as there are no fish to catch any more. The coastal settlements will be hurt as well because of the dead coral. With all that the world stands to lose if coral reefs disappear, the most important effect may be the loss of medicinal benefits. If the situation continue going worse, some future medical discoveries will be impossible. 24. What is the passage mainly about? A. The rich resources coral reefs contain. B. The cause and effect of the loss of coral reefs. C. How to avoid damaging coral reefs. D. The importance of protecting coral reefs. 25. According to the passage, which of the following contributes most to the damage to coral reefs? A. Thoughtless scuba divers and snorkelers. B. The disappearance of large fish. C. Great demand of land development. D. The increase of nutrients in the water. 26. What is the writer’s attitude towards the current situation of coral reefs? A. Shocked. B. Delighted. C. Concerned. D. Pessimistic. C I used to work with a young doctor who was impressive not only for his clinical skills but also for his devotion to patients. One afternoon I was surprised to see him at a nursing station, plaining to a nurse about one patient’s family. The patient was dying, and the young doctor had anized a meeting with the family to talk about withdrawing lifesupport machines and medications and starting forting measures. The family had spent the entire meeting asking questions but then refused to make any decisions or withdraw any treatments. “I spent all this time telling them we could continue to inflict (給予 ) pain on their loved one or we could make him fortable,” he said, “I told them suffering or fortit was their decision. But in the end, they made no decision and just walked right out of the room!” The way doctors and patients approach medical decisions has changed sharply over the last 50 years. For generations, these decisions were the exclusive purview（獨(dú)有權(quán)限） of doctors, and patients often had little say in the final choice. But that decisionmaking process began to change in the late 1960s, as movements calling for patient empowerment grew. For the next 40 years, young doctors, myself included, would be trained to restrain（抑制）ourselves from making anything