A less visible but equally significant trend affected pensions. To make costs easier to control, companies moved away from defined benefit pension plans, which obligate them to pay out specified amounts years in the future, to defined contribution plans, which specify only how much goes into the play today. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is the 401(k). the significance of the 401(k) is that it puts most of the responsibility for a person’s economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how much goes into the plan each year and how it gets invested—the two factors that will determine how much it’s worth when the employee retires.
Which brings us back to Enron? Those billions of dollars in vaporized retirement savings went in employees’ 401(k) accounts. That is, the employees chose how much money to put into those accounts and then chose how to invest it. Enron matched a certain proportion of each employee’s 401(k) contribution with company stock, so everyone was going to end up with some Enron in his or her portfolio; but that could be regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally covering up the company’s problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enron’s 401(k) accounts were locked while the company changed plan administrators in October, when the stock was falling, so employees could not have closed their accounts if they wanted to.
But by far the largest cause of this human tragedy is that thousands of employees were heavily overweighed in Enron stock. Many had placed 100% of their 401(k) assets in the stock rather than in the 18 other investment options they were offered. Of course that wasn’t prudent, but it’s what some of them did.
The Enron employees’ retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic security. That’s why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal shift to I’ll-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It won’t be complete until a new generation of employees see assured economic comfort as a 20th-century quirk, and understand not just intellectually but in their bones that, like most people in most times and places, they’re on their own.
6.    Why does the author say at the beginning “The miserable fate of Enron’s employees will be a landmark in business history…”?
A.    Because the company has gone bankrupt.
B.    Because such events would never happen again.
C.    Because many Enron workers lost their retirement savings.
D.    Because it signifies a turning point in economic security.
7.    According to the passage, the combined efforts by governments, layout unions and big corporations to guarantee economic comfort have led to a significant change in
A.    people’s outlook on life.    B. people’s life styles.
C. people’s living standard.    D. people’s social values.
8.    Changes in pension schemes were also part of
A.    the corporate lay-offs.
B.    the government cuts in welfare spending.
C.    the economic restructuring.
D.    the warning power of labors unions.
9.    Thousands of employees chose Enron as their sole investment option mainly because
A.    the 401(k) made them responsible for their own future.
B.    Enron offered to add company stock to their investment.
 
C.    their employers intended to cut back on pension spending.
D.    Enron’s offer was similar to a defined-benefit plan.
10.    Which is NOT seen as a lesson drawn from the Enron disaster?
A.    The 401(k) assets should be placed in more than one investment option.
B.    Employees have to take up responsibilities for themselves.
C.    Such events could happen again as it is not easy to change people’s mind.
D.    Economic security won’t be taken for granted by future young workers.

Section 2 Answering questions (20’)
Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space in your answer sheet.
Questions 1～3
For 40 years the sight of thousands of youngsters striding across the open moorland has been as much an annual fixture as spring itself. But the 2,400 school pupils who join the grueling Dartmoor Ten Tors Challenge next Saturday may be among the last to take part in the May tradition. The trek faces growing criticism from environmentalists who fear that the presence of so many walkers on one weekend threatens the survival of some of Dartmoor’s internationally rare bird species.
The Ten Tors Challenge takes place in the middle of the breeding season, when the slightest disturbance can jeopardize birds’ chances of reproducing successfully. Experts at the RSPB and the Dartmoor National Park Authority fear that the walkers could frighten birds and even crush eggs. They are now calling for the event to be moved to the autumn, when the breeding season is over and chicks should be well established. Organisers of the event, which is led by about 400 Territorial Army volunteers, say moving it would be impractical for several reasons and would mean pupils could not train properly for the 55-mile trek. Dartmoor is home to 10 rare species of ground-nesting birds, including golden plovers, dunlins and lapwings. In some cases, species are either down to their last two pairs on the moor or are facing a nationwide decline.
Emma Parkin, South-west spokeswoman for the PASPB, took part in the challenge as a schoolgirl. She said the society had no objections to the event itself but simply wanted it moved to another time of year. “It is a wonderful activity for the children who take part but, having thousands of people walking past in one weekend when birds are breeding is hardly ideal,” she said. “We would prefer it to take place after the breeding and nesting season is over. There is a risk of destruction and disturbance. If the walkers put a foot in the wrong place they can crush the eggs and if there is sufficient disturbance the birds might abandon the nest.” Helen Booker, an RSPB upland conservation officer, said there was no research into the scale of the damage but there was little doubt the walk was detrimental. “If people are tramping past continually it can harm the chances of successful  nesting. There is also the fear of direct trampling of eggs.” A spokesman for the Dartmoor National Park Authority said the breeding season on the moor lasted from early March to mid-July, and the Ten Tors Challenge  created the potential for disturbance for March, when participants start training.
To move the event to the autumn was difficult because children would be on holiday during the training period. There was a possibility that some schools in the Southwest move to a four-term year in 2004, “but until then any change was unlikely. The authority last surveyed bird life on Dartmoor two year ago and if the next survey showed any further decline, it would increase pressure to move the Challenge,” he said.
Major Mike Pether, secretary of the army committee that organises the Challenge, said the event could be moved if there was the popular will. “The Ten Tors has been running for 42 years and it has always been at this time of the year. It is almost in tablets of stone but that’s not to say we won’t consider moving if there is a consensus in favour. However, although the RSPB would like it moved, 75 per cent of the people who take part want it to stay as it is,” he said. Major Pether said the trek could not be moved to earlier in the year because it
 
would conflict with the lambing season, most of the children were on holiday in the summer, and the winter weather was too harsh.
Datmoor National Park occupies some 54 sq km of hills topped by granite outcrops known as “Tors” with the highest Tor-capped hill reaching 621m. The valleys and dips between the hills are often sites of bogs to snare the unwary hiker. The moor has long been used by the British Army as a training and firing range. The origin of the event stretches back to 1959 when three Army officers exercising on the moor thought it  would  provide a challenge for civilians as well as soldiers. In the first year 203 youngsters took up the challenges. Since then teams, depending on age and ability, face hikes of 35, 45 or 55 miles between 10 nominated Tors over two days. They are expected to carry everything they need to survive.
1.    What is the Ten Tors Challenge? Give a brief introduction of its location and history.
2.    Why is it suggested that the event be moved to the autumn or other seasons?
3.    What are the difficulties if the event is moved to the autumn or other seasons? Questions 4～5
Mike and Adam Hurewitz grew up together on Long Island, in the suburbs of New York City. They were very close, even for brothers. So when Adam’s liver started failing, Mike offered to give him half of his. The operation saved Adam’s life. But Mike, who went into the hospital in seemingly excellent health, developed a complication—perhaps a blood colt—and died last week. He was 57. Mike Hurewitz’s death has prompted a lot of soul searching in the transplant community. Was it a tragic fluke or a sign that transplant surgery has reached some kind of ethical limit? The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the New York City hospital where the complex double operation was performed, has put on hold its adult living donor liver transplant program, pending a review of Hurewitz’s death. Mount Sinai has performed about 100 such operations in the past three years.