The English word "veto" means "I will not permit". It is a way for one member of a group or government to (61) action by other members.
For example, the United Nations Security Council (62) five permanent members, the United States, China, Britain, France and Russia. (63) can use the veto to block action by the whole group. Britain and France did this in 1956. They vetoed a resolution (64) Israel to withdraw its forces from Egyptian territory.
The most (65) use of the veto is by an executive over the legislative in a government with a president. The United States Constitution (66) such a veto. The (67) also says a president’s veto can be changed by a second vote of Congress. This is called overriding the president’s veto. For a bill to become law, (68) of the members of both houses of Congress (69) vote to override the president’s veto. Throughout American history, presidents (70) more than 2 500 congressional bills. Congress has been able to override the president’s veto (71) 104 times. Presidents in the late 1800s and early 1700s did not use the veto frequently.
In the 1940s,President Franklin Roosevelt vetoed more than 600 bills. But he was president for 12 years, much longer than anyone else. More recently, President Ronald Reagan vetoed (72) in his eight years in office. And George Bush vetoed 44 bills in four years.
Today, Congress is approving bills designed to (73) the size and cost of the federal government. President Clinton does not (74) all the congressional plans. He has different ideas about (75) parts of government should be cut and by how much. He already vetoed at least one of these bills.
Part Ⅳ Cloze
Directions: In this part, there is a passage with 15 blanks. For each blank there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer for each blank and mark the corresponding letter with a single bar across the square brackets on your machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.