Part ADirections: Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by cho

Part A

Directions: Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

The free enterprise has produced a technology capable of providing the American consumer with the largest and most varied marketplace in the world. Technological advances, however, have come hand-in-hand with impersonal mass marketing of goods and services. Along with progress, too, have come some instances of manipulative advertising practices and a great increase in products whose reliability, safety and quality are difficult to evaluate.

Today's consumers buy, enjoy, use and discard more types of goods than could possibly have been imagined even a few years ago. Yet too often consumers have no idea of the materials that have gone into the manufacturer's finished product or their own motivation in selecting one product over another.

Easy credit and forceful techniques of modern marketing persuade many consumers to buy what they cannot afford. The consequent overburdening of family budgets is a problem for consumers at all economic levels. It is not unusual for families to allocate 20 percent or more of their income to debt repayments without understanding the effect this allocation has upon other choices. Some families have such tight budgets that an illness, a period of unemployment, or some other crisis finds them without adequate reserves.

In addition to the growing complexity of the market, consumers arc sometimes faced with unfair and deceptive practices. Although there are laws designed to protect the consumers, there is not a sufficient number a law enforcers to cover all the abuses of the marketplace.

An adult in today's society should be knowledgeable in the use of credit. He should understand what is involved in purchasing a house, and the many pitfalls to be avoided when entering into financial agreements. He should know enough about advertising and selling techniques to enable him to discern the honest from the deceptive. He should be knowledgeable about consumer protection laws so that he can demand his rights. When he needs help, he should know the private and public sources to which he can turn for assistance.

This passage is concerned mostly with ______.

A．the free enterprise system in America

B．the difficulty of living on a fixed income

C．innovative techniques in food processing

D．the advances of advertising techniques