1 . There are 195 countries in the world today but almost none of them have purple on their national flags. So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.

The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye (染料) used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail (海螺) that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio wouldn’t allow his wife to buy scarves made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn’t spend that much having purple on their flags.

In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented (获得专利) the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore, everybody could afford it.

Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.

1. Why was the color purple expensive in the past?

A．Because only royal families were allowed to wear purple.

B．Because it took a long time to get purple dye from snails.

C．Because purple dye was worth as much as gold.

D．Because purple dye used to be uncommon and hard to produce.

2. How is Paragraph 2 mainly developed?

A．By giving numbers.	B．By analyzing the effect.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By listing examples.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold.

B．Royal families stopped using purple due to its high price.

C．William Henry Perkin contributes to the popularity of purple.

D．A few new national flags have chosen to use purple.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．No Purple Flags?	B．Purple vs. Gold
C．How to Produce Purple Dye?	D．The Birth of the Color Purple

2 . Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

The trend, then, was toward the “penny paper”—a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy) to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer’s office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny—usually two or three cents was charged—and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase “penny paper” caught the public’s fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

This new trend of newspapers for “the man on the street” did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业) were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.

1. Which of the following best describes newspapers in America before the 1830s?

A．Academic.

B．Unattractive.

C．Inexpensive.

D．Confidential.

2. What did street sales mean to newspapers?

A．They would be priced higher.	B．They would disappear from cities.
C．They could have more readers.	D．They could regain public trust.

3. Who were the newspapers of the new trend targeted at?

A．Local politicians.	B．Common people.
C．Young publishers.	D．Rich businessmen.

4. What can we say about the birth of the penny paper?

A．It was a difficult process.	B．It was a temporary success.
C．It was a robbery of the poor.	D．It was a disaster for printers.