大学英语六级分类模拟题315及答案解析.doc

1、大学英语六级分类模拟题 315 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)What if Middle-Class Jobs Disappear?A. The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, two years after the off

2、icial end of the recession, few Americans would say that economic troubles are behind us. The unemployment rate, in particular, remains above 9%. Some labor market indicators, such as the pro-portion of long-term unemployed, are worse now than for any postwar recession. B. There are two widely circu

3、lated narratives to explain what“s going on. The Keynesian narrative is that there has been a major drop in aggregate demand. According to this narrative, the slump can be largely cured by using monetary and fiscal(财政的)stimulus. The main anti-Keynesian narrative is that businesses are suffering from

4、 uncertainty and over-regulation. According to this narrative, the slump can be cured by having the government commit to and follow a more hands-off approach. C. I want to suggest a third interpretation. Without ruling out a role for aggregate demand or for the regulatory environment, I wish to sugg

5、est that structural change is an important factor in the cur-rent rate of high unemployment. The economy is in a state of transition, in which the middle-class jobs that emerged after World War II have begun to decline. As Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee put it in a recent e-book Race Against th

6、e Machine: “The root of our problems is not that we“re in a great recession, or a great stagnation(停滞), but rather that we are in the early throes (阵痛) of a great restructuring. D. In fact, I believe that the Great Depression of the 1930s can also be interpreted in part as an economic transition. Th

7、e impact of the internal combustion engine (内燃机) and the small electric motor on farming and manufacturing reduced the value of uneducated laborers. Instead, by the 1950s, a middle class of largely clerical(从事文秘工作的) workers was the most significant part of the labor force. Between 1930 and 1950, the

8、 United States economy underwent a great transition. Demand fell for human effort such as lifting, squeezing, and hammering. Demand increased for workers who could read and follow directions. The evolutionary process eventually changed us from a nation of laborers to a nation of clerks. E. The propo

9、rtion of employment classified as “clerical workers“ grew from 5.2% in 1910 to a peak of 19.3% in 1980. (However, by 2000 this proportion had edged down to 17.4%.) Overall, workers classified as clerical workers, technical workers, managers and officials exceeded 50% of the labor force by 2000. Corr

10、esponding declines took place in the manual occupations. Workers classified as laborers, other than farm hands or miners, peaked at 11.4% of the labor force in 1920 but were barely 6% by 1950 and less than 4% by 2000. Farmers and farm laborers fell from 33% of the labor force in 1910 to less than 15

11、 by 1950 and only 1.2% in 2000. F. The introduction of the tractor and improvements in the factory rapidly reduced the demand for uneducated workers. By the 1930s, a marginal farm hand could not produce enough to justify his employment. Sharecropping, never much better than a subsistence occupation

12、 was no longer viable(可行的). Meanwhile, machines were replacing manufacturing occupations like cigar rolling and glass blowing for light bulbs. G. The structural-transition interpretation of the unemployment problem of the 1930s would be that the demand for uneducated workers in the United States ha

13、d fallen, but the supply remained high. The high school graduation rate was only 8.8%in 1912 and still just 29%in 1931. By 1950, it had reached 59%. With a new generation of workers who had completed high school, the mismatch between skills and jobs had been greatly reduced. H. What took place after

14、 World War was not the revival of a 1920s economy, with its small fanning units, urban manufacturing, and plurality of laborers. Instead, the 1950s saw the creation of a new suburban economy, with a plurality of white-collar workers. With an expanded transportation and communications infrastructure(

15、基础设施), businesses needed telephone operators, ship-ping clerks and similar occupations. If you could read, follow simple instructions, and settle into a routine, you could find a job in the post-war economy. I. The trend away from manual labor has continued. Even within the manufacturing sector, the

16、 share of production and non-supervisory workers in manufacturing employment went from over 85% just after World War to less than 70% in more recent years. To put this another way, the proportion of white-collar work in manufacturing has doubled over the past 50 years. On the factory floor it-serf,

17、work has become less physically demanding. Instead, it requires more cognitive skills and the ability to understand and carry out well-defined procedures. J. As noted earlier, the proportion of clerical workers in the economy peaked in 1980. By that date, computers and advanced communications equipm

18、ent had already begun to affect telephone operations and banking. The rise of the personal computer and the Internet has widened the impact of these technologies to include nearly every business and industry. K. The economy today differs from that of a generation ago. Mortgage and consumer loan unde

19、rwriters(风险评估人)have been replaced by credit scoring. Record stores have been replaced by music downloads. Book stores are closing, while sales of books on electronic readers have in-creased. Data entry has been moved off shore. Routine customer support also has been outsourced(外包) overseas. L. These

20、 trends serve to limit the availability of well-defined jobs. If a job can be characterized by a precise set of instructions, then that job is a candidate to be automated or outsourced to modestly educated workers in developing countries. The result is what David Autor calls the polarization of the

21、American job market. M. Using the latest Census Bureau data, Matthew Slaughter found that from 2000 to 2010 the real earnings of college graduates (with no advanced degree) fell by more in percentage terms than the earnings of high school graduates. In fact, over this period the only education categ

22、ory to show an increase in earnings was those with advanced degrees. N. The outlook for mid-skill jobs would not appear to be bright. Communications technology and computer intelligence continue to improve, putting more occupations at risk. For example, many people earn a living as drivers, includin

23、g trucks and taxicabs. However, the age of driverless vehicles appears to be moving closer. Another example is in the field of education. In the fall of 2011, an experiment with an online course in artificial intelligence conducted by two Stanford professors drew tens of thousands of registrants (报名

24、者). This increases the student-teacher ratio by a factor of close to a thousand. Imagine the number of teaching jobs that might be eliminated if this could be done for math, economics, chemistry, and so on. O. It“s important to bear in mind that when we offer a structural interpretation of unemploym

25、ent, a “loss of jobs“ means an increase in productivity. Traditionally, economists have argued that productivity increases are a good thing, even though they may cause unemployment for some workers in the short run. In the long run, the economy does not run out of jobs. Rather, new jobs emerge as ol

26、d jobs disappear. The story we tell is that average well-being rises, and the more people are able to adapt, the more widespread the improvement becomes.（分数：25.00）(1).Even factory floor work today has become intellectually challenging rather than physically demanding.（分数：2.50）(2).Increases in produc

27、tivity prove beneficial though some people may lose their jobs temporarily.（分数：2.50）(3).The unemployment rate remained high even two years after the government declared the re-cent recession was over.（分数：2.50）(4).The author suggests that the recent high unemployment rate is mainly caused by a decrea

28、se of middle-class jobs.（分数：2.50）(5).The creation of a suburban economy in the 1950s created lots of office jobs.（分数：2.50）(6).In the first decade of the 21st century, only people with postgraduate degrees experienced an increase in earnings.（分数：2.50）(7).One economics theory suggests using monetary a

29、nd fiscal stimulus to cope with an economic recession.（分数：2.50）(8).The popularity of online courses may eliminate many teaching jobs.（分数：2.50）(9).Computer technology has brought about revolutionary changes in the record and book business.（分数：2.50）(10).White-collar workers accounted for more than hal

30、f of the labor force by the end of the 20th century.（分数：2.50）The Street-Level SolutionA. When I was growing up, one of my father“s favorite sayings (borrowed from the humorist Will Rogers)was: “It isn“t what we don“t know that causes the trouble; it“s what we think we know that just ain“t so.“ One o

31、f the main insights to be taken from the 100,000 Homes Campaign and its strategy to end chronic homelessness is that, until recently, our society thought it understood the nature of homelessness, but it didn“t. B. That led to a series of mistaken assumptions about why people become homeless and what

32、 they need. Many of the errors in our homelessness policies have stemmed from the conception that the homeless are a homogeneous group. It“s only in the past 15 years that organizations like Common Ground, and others, have taken a street-level view of the problemdistinguishing the “episodically home

33、less“ from the “chronically homeless“ in order to understand their needs at an individual level. This is why we can now envisage a different approachand get better results. C. Most readers expressed support for the effort, although a number were skeptical, and a few utterly dismissive about the chan

34、ces of long-term homeless people adapting well to housing. This is to be expected; it“s hard to imagine what we haven“t yet seen. As Niccol Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, one of the major obstacles in any effort to advance systemic change is the “incredulity of men,“ which is to say that people “d

35、o not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.“ Most of us have witnessed homeless people on the streets for decades: few have seen formerly homeless people after they have been housed successfully. We don“t have reference points for that story. So we generalize f

36、rom what we knowor think we know. D. But that can be misleading, even to experts. When I asked Rosanne Haggerty, founder of Common Ground, which currently operates 2,310 units of supportive housing(with 552 more under construction), what had been her biggest surprise in this work, she replied: “Fift

37、een years ago, I would not have believed that people who had been so broken and stuck in homelessness could thrive to the degree that they do in our buildings.“ And Becky Kanis, the campaign“s director, commented: “There is this sense in our minds that someone who“s on the streets is almost in their

38、 DNA different from someone who has a house. The campaign is creating a first-hand experience for many people that that is really not the case.“ E. One of the startling realizations that I had while researching this column is that anybody could become like a homeless personall it takes is a traumati

39、c (创伤的)brain injury. A bicycle fall, a car accident, a slip on the ice, or if you“re a soldier, a head woundand your life could become unrecognizable. James O“Connell, a doctor who has been treating the most vulnerable homeless people on the streets of Boston for 25 years, estimates that 40 percent

40、of the long-term homeless people he“s met had such a brain injury. “For many it was a head injury prior to the time they became homeless,“ he said. “They became unpredictable. They“d have mood swings, fits of explosive behavior. They couldn“t hold onto their jobs. Drinking made them feel better. The

41、y“d end up on the streets.“ F. Once homeless people return to housing, they“re in a much better position to rebuild their lives. But it“s important to note that housing alone is not enough. As with many complex social problems, when you get through the initial crisis, you have another problem to sol

42、ve which is no less challenging. But it is a better problem. G. Over the past decade, O“Connell has seen this happen. “I spend half my time on the streets or in the hospital and the other half making house calls to people who lived for years on the streets, “he said. “So from a doctor“s point of vie

43、w it“s a delightful switch, but it“s not as if putting someone in housing is the answer to addressing all of their problems. It“s the first step.“ H. Once in housing, formerly homeless people can become isolated and lonely. If they“ve lived on the streets for years, they may have acquired a certain

44、standing as well as a sense of pride in their survival skills. Now indoors, those aspects of their identity may be stripped away. Many also experience a profound disorientation at the outset. “If you“re homeless for more than six months, you kind of lose your bearings,“ says Haggerty. “Existence bec

45、omes not about overcoming homelessness but about finding food, begging, looking for a job to survive another day. The whole process of how you define stability gets reordered.“ I. Many need regular, if not continuous, support with mental health problems, addictions and illnessesand, equally importan

46、t, assistance in the day-to-day challenges of life, reacquainting with family, building relationships with neighbors, finding enjoyable activities or work, managing finances, and learning how to eat healthy food. J. For some people, the best solution is to live in a communal(集体)residence, with speci

47、al services. This isn“t available everywhere, however. In Boston, for example, homeless people tend to be scattered in apartments throughout the city. K. Common Ground“s large residences in New York offer insight into the possibilities for change when homeless people have a rich array of supports. I

48、n addition to more traditional social services, residents also make use of communal gardens, classes in things like cooking, yoga, theatre and photography, and job placement. Last year, 188 formerly homeless tenants in four of Common Ground“s residences, found jobs. L. Because the properties have ma

49、ny services and are well-managed, Haggerty has found post-housing problems to be surprisingly rare. In the past 10 years, there have been only a handful of incidents of quarrels between tenants. There is very little graffiti(涂鸦)or vandalism(破坏). And the turnover is almost negligible. In the Prince George Hotel in New York, which is home to 208 formerly homeless people and 208 low-income tenants, the average length of tenancy is close to seven years. (An residents pay 30 percent of their income for rent; for the formerly homeless, this comes out of their government benefits.)When peo