专四专八考试

【单选题】Commercialbanksmakemostoftheirincomefrom‘interestonloansandinvestmentinstocksandbonds.（）
A.earn
B.earned
C.toearn
D.earning

【单选题】This, at least, conservatives and liberals seem to agree on:American culture is in a perilous state.Assaulted by rap music and heavy metal, made soft-headed by the novels of Robert James Waller andDanielle Steele, stimulated by violent films, narcotized by mindless TV programs and obsessed with O.J. Simpson, we slide ever closer to a cultural abyss filled with trash and nothing but trash. Long before O.J. Simpson, however,Americans craved trash. The scandalous penny press, which sprang into existence in the 1830s as a vehicle for the working class, subsisted on juicy tales of criminal conduct.
Many conservatives concluded that democracy itself was a fault. Give people what they want, and you will get trash.As a remedy, these cultural custodians promoted genteel literature—stories of domesticity or aristocracy or chaste romance illustrating good and decent values. They felt the masses would learn from these as we are supposed to learn from WilliamBennett’s "Book of Virtues". We uplift ourselves.
To read trash, to flaunt trash, to prefer cash to "better literature" was a not-so-subtle way of asserting one’s independence against one’s social superiors. It was a way of saying that we are masters of our own culture. It was a way of saying that we areAmericans.
It still is. From crime pamphlets to dime novels to the "yellow press" to the movies to the tabloids to the trash of today, one theme keeps emerging. In a word culturally divided between the genteel and everything else,Americans opt for trash over art that is supposed to be good for them as much because they resent being told what they should like ~s because they like trash. Seen this way, trash is not an escape from life, as some would have it; it is an escape from seriousness, which is no doubt why trash in the form of our movies, TV shows, music and popular literature has become one of our chief exports. You don’t have to beAmerican to want to play hooky from high culture, thoughAmericans may be prouder of it than anyone else.
To its defenders, trash has the virtue of honesty—of not purporting to be anything other than what it is, which is, well, trash.
Today’sAmerican culture, from exploitalk programs to tabloid TV to Howard Stern, is perceived as more honest and democratic than the turgid, domesticated arts and amusements that cultural conservatives believe we should like—and would like—if we weren’t being shovel-fed trash.
Trash is subversive that way. It exists to taunt.
No doubt that is why cultural conservatives hate it so. It is not because they want to save us from perdition that they rail against junk. I suspect it is because they want to reassert their dominance over a culture that long ago slipped out of their control even as conservatives have come to dominate politics.
Damming trash and pretending that it is being foisted upon us by media conspirators is a clever technique—and a very old one. MostAmericans, however, know better. Trash is how we distinguish ourselves from all the things others want us to be. Trash may not be good for us, but this we know: It is ours.
According to the author,Americans ______ by choosing trash.
A、want to prove they are special
B．intend to escape realities
C．show their uniqueness in taste
D．show their right of freedom and independence