上海市高级口译第一阶段笔试分类模拟高级阅读(七)及答案解析.doc

1、上海市高级口译第一阶段笔试分类模拟高级阅读(七)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、SECTION 1 READING TE(总题数：4，分数：50.00)It is the latest innovation from Silicon Valley: the employee perk is moving from the office to the home. Facebook gives new parents $4,000 in spending money. Stanford School of Medicine is piloting a project to

2、 provide doctors with housecleaning and in-home dinner delivery. Genentech offers take-home dinners and helps employees find last-minute baby sitters when a child is too sick to go to school. These kinds of benefits are a departure from the upscale cafeteria meals, massages and other services intend

3、ed to keep employees happy and productive while at work. And the goal is not just to reduce stress for employees, but for their families, too. If the companies succeed, they will minimize distractions and sources of tension that can inhibit focus and creativity. Now that technology has allowed work

4、to bleed into home life, it seems that companies are trying to address the impact of home life on work. There is, of course, the possibility that relieving people of chores at home will simply free them up to work more. But David Lewin, a compensation expert and management professor at the Universit

5、y of California, Los Angeles, said he viewed the perks as part of a growing effort by American business to reward people with time and peace of mind instead of more traditional financial tools, like stock options and bonuses. “They“re trying to get at people“s larger lives and sanity,“ Mr. Lewin sai

6、d. “You might call it the bang for the nonbuck.“ At Deloitte, the consulting firm, employees can get a backup care worker if an aging parent or grandparent needs help. The company subsidizes personal trainers and nutritionists, and offers round-the-clock counseling service for help with issues like

7、marital strife and infertility. Deloitte executives, and other experts, said they believe that such benefits were likely to spread. “The workplace was built on the assumption that there was somebody at home dealing with the home front,“ said Anne Weisberg, a longtime human resources executive who he

8、lped write a book about new kinds of workplace policies. Not only is that no longer the case, she said, but the work-life pressures seem to be building. “There“s a greater awareness that we“re pushing things to the limit and something“s got to give,“ she said. Some compensation experts argue these t

9、ypes of perks ultimately do little to attract employees and might obscure more fundamental problems at companies that have trouble retaining talent. That is a challenge Stanford owns up to, given the brain drain suffered by academic hospitals, where relentless demands include treating patients, writ

10、ing grants, doing research and traveling to conferences. So 18 months ago, Stanford hired a consulting firm called Jump Associates to better understand why so many academic doctors feel burned out. The company videotaped them from the time they woke up, through the workday and until they and their f

11、amilies went to sleep. In one video, a kidney specialist told a story that shocked the researchers: while she was on maternity leave, she bought a minivan to ferry the children of friends and neighbors to school and sports practices. That way, the doctor explained, she would be able to ask for favor

12、s when she returned to workand that, in theory, would enable her to juggle the dual demands of work and family. Dr. Valantine, a cardiologist, professor and associate dean at the Stanford School of Medicine, said the findings had led her to scrap the idea that people should strive for “work-life bal

13、ance“ and instead think in terms of “work-life integration“. That shifting mind-setthe idea that life and work must be blended rather than separatedis increasingly common, according to other doctors, scholars who study work habits and the generally well-compensated workers of Silicon Valley like And

14、rew Sinkov, 31, whose employer is paying to clean his apartment. The value of the perk is greater than the money saved, he said. His boss, Mr. Libin, also gives employees $1,000 to spend on vacation, but it has to be “a real vacation“. Mr. Libin added that he did not see these perks just as ways to

15、keep his work forceand their familiesengaged. He said he also tended to be frugal as a chief executive, preferring these types of peace-of-mind benefits to, say, business-class travel, which the company does not pay for. “Happy workers make better products,“ he said. “The output we care about has ev

16、erything to do with your state of mind.“ At Google, the company has expanded its benefits beyond free meals, dry cleaning and other services on campus to offering $500 to new parents. The company has also arranged for fresh fish to be delivered to the office for employees to take home. “What you“ve

17、seen is benefits moving away from free food into thinking more holistically about individuals and their health,“ said Jordan Newman, a Google spokesman. “And a lot of that happens outside of the office.“（分数：12.50）(1).According to the passage, which of the following is NOT the traditional benefit use

18、d to reward employees?（分数：2.50）A.Upscale cafeteria meals and afternoon teas.B.Housecleaning and take-home dinners.C.Stock options and bonuses.D.Dry cleaning and massages.(2).The function of the last sentence of paragraph 2 is _.（分数：2.50）A.to state the thesis of the passageB.to serve as a summary of

19、the passageC.to lead to a counter-argument in the following paragraphsD.to play the role of transition(3).Which of the following best explains the expression “the bang for the nonbuck“ (para. 3)?（分数：2.50）A.The conflict between a company“s profits and their employees“ welfare.B.The undesirable result

20、 of neglecting employees“ bonuses.C.Employees“ positive state of mind brought by non-money perks.D.Employees“ peace of mind generated by original financial tools.(4).From the story of the kidney specialist, we can know that she did so because _.（分数：2.50）A.she wanted to be on good terms with her frie

21、nds and neighborsB.this made her feel comfortable to ask for help from her neighbors and friends when she returned to workC.her friends and neighbors wouldn“t help her for free when she returned to workD.she wanted to adjust herself to the dual demands of work and family as soon as possible(5).It ca

22、n be inferred from the passage that by providing employees with peace-of-mind perks, companies are _.（分数：2.50）A.likely to gain more since that helps free their employees up to work moreB.sure to save more money because they don“t need to offer benefits like upscale cafeteria meals and dry cleaningC.

23、addressing the problem of brain drain effectivelyD.trying to raise their employees“ awareness that life and work must be separatedFamily doctors routinely prescribe antidepressants to patients who may not need them, according to an exclusive survey for The Times. GPs are ignoring official guidelines

24、 by hastily prescribing pills rather than waiting to see if symptoms improve, the survey suggests. It also provides evidence that it is GPs and psychiatrists who are likely to propose medication as a treatment, rather than patients demanding pills to make them feel better. In addition, the findings

25、raise questions about the efficacy of reviews of medication, required to make sure that patients are still receiving appropriate treatment. Some who took part in the survey claimed that their medication had not been reviewed for years. And there is evidence that GPs are reluctant to discuss options

26、for ending medication, fuelling concerns that too many patients are condemned to take antidepressants for the rest of their lives regardless of improvements. The survey, which was carried out by the mental health charity Mind, does contain positive news, however, with 84 percent of patients saying t

27、hat their antidepressants were effective. Access to talking therapies appeared to be improving, and most patients said that they were able to taper off their medication without suffering harsh side-effects. Last week The Times revealed that more than one million men and women are addicted to benzodi

28、azepine tranquillisers, drugs that include Valium and which should be prescribed for no more than four weeks for a severely restricted number of conditions. The online survey proved to be one of the most popular ever held by Mind, attracting almost 1,500 responses from people who are on antidepressa

29、nts or who have stopped taking them within the past two years. Paul Farmer, the charity“s chief executive, said: “Many people are being prescribed antidepressants too quickly and taking antidepressants for longer and longer periods without review. We must not demonise drugs and put people off taking

30、 something that might help them. But we need also to remember that antidepressants are powerful drugs and as such should be prescribed with caution.“ More than 46 million prescriptions for antidepressants such as Seroxat and citalopram were written last year, a rise of 9 percent over the previous 12

31、 months. Experts have expressed concern that doctors are prescribing drugs too casually, while GPs claim that patients expect to be given pills to help them through even relatively minor upsets. The Royal College of Psychiatry estimates that between 50 percent and 65 percent of people treated with a

32、n antidepressant for depression will benefit. Clare Gerada, a GP and president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “I prescribe antidepressants because they work.“ The length of time people take antidepressants is a key issue. Of those who took part in our survey 37 percent had been

33、 on medication for more than five years and 20 percent for more than ten years. Two thirds said that their GP or psychiatrist had prescribed antidepressants straight away rather than waiting to see if the symptoms improved as recommended in guidelines set by the National Institute for Health and Cli

34、nical Excellence (NICE). Four out of five said that it was their GP or psychiatrist who suggested medication in the first place. Of those, 51 percent said that they agreed that it was the right course of action but 42 percent were not in agreement. Forty-five percent of respondents felt that they we

35、re not given enough information about the medication they were prescribed, although this fell to 39 percent among those who were prescribed antidepressants more recently. More than half said that they experienced ongoing side-effects. 27 percent said that antidepressants affected their ability to wo

36、rk or study; 24 percent their social lives; 21 percent their relationships with family, friends or partners; and 44 percent their sex lives. Only half of respondents have their drugs monitored every three months, and 72 percent at least every six months. Alarmingly, 6 percent never have their drugs

37、monitored. A total of 25 people who took part in the survey had been taking drugs for more than five years without being monitored, and ten people for more than ten years. GPs and psychiatrists appear reluctant to discuss coming off drugs with their patients: 71 percent said that they had not talked

38、 about discontinuing medication. Even those who had been on antidepressants for a significant amount of time had not had a discussion about coming off. More than a quarter said that they expected to be on antidepressants for life. Only 7 percent of respondents who had come off medication within the

39、past two years said this had been at the suggestion of their GP or psychiatrist. Since stopping medication 17 percent believed that they have recovered from their mental health problems, and 44 percent said that they could manage their mental health without drugs.（分数：12.50）(1).Of all the findings re

40、vealed by the exclusive survey for The Times, which one is NOT true?（分数：2.50）A.GPs usually prescribe antidepressants to patients hastily.B.More than half of the patients surveyed believed that their antidepressants were effective.C.80% of the respondents said it was their GP or psychiatrist who sugg

41、ested medication in the first place.D.Only 7% of the respondents had ended meditation following their doctor“s advice within the last two years.(2).The word “condemned“ in the sentence “. too many patients are condemned to take antidepressants for the rest of their lives “ (para. 1) can be paraphras

42、ed as _.（分数：2.50）A.forcedB.criticizedC.diagnosedD.advised(3).What did Paul Farmer mean by saying “We must not demonise drugs and put people off taking something that might help them“ (para. 3)?（分数：2.50）A.The effects of drugs are undeniable and we shouldn“t arouse patients“ concern over the use of dr

43、ugs that might be helpful.B.We shouldn“t exaggerate the downside of drugs and deter patients from taking antidepressants that might be effective.C.The practice of prescribing antidepressants is acceptable and the use of drugs shouldn“t be postponed.D.We shouldn“t doubt the safety of drugs and advise

44、 patients not to take powerful antidepressants that may better relieve their symptoms.(4).More than half of the respondents of this online survey reported that they experienced ongoing side-effects, which affected all of the following aspects EXCEPT _.（分数：2.50）A.their ability to work or studyB.their

45、 social lives and sex livesC.their relationships with family members or friendsD.their sleep quality(5).What is the main idea of the passage?（分数：2.50）A.Official guidelines on treatment should be followed and antidepressants should be prescribed with caution.B.The exclusive survey carried out by Mind

46、 was the most successful one ever held online because a large number of responses were elicited.C.Antidepressants are powerful drugs and GPs and psychiatrists should let their patients decide whether to use them or not.D.Medication reviews must be done regularly to make sure that patients are receiv

47、ing effective treatment.Every so often we read of a star trader who lost so much money that he gave back all the profits he made over several years and shook his bank to its foundations. How does this happen? Were the bank“s risk managers mistaken about this trader“s skill? Maybe. But recent researc

48、h suggests an alternative explanationthat the winning streak changed the trader. Human biology can help explain what drives traders to acts of folly. When we take on risk, including financial risk, we don“t just think about it; we also prepare for it physically. Body and brain fuse as a single funct

49、ioning unit. Consider what happens on the trading floor when news flashes across the wire. Traders“ senses are placed on high alert. Breathing accelerates; a thumping heart gears up for action. Muscles tense, stomachs knot, and sweating begins, a sign of anticipatory cooling. We do not regard information as computers do, dispassionately. We register it physically. My colleagues at the University of Cambridge and I have conducted a series of experiments on London trading floors and found that during a winning streak, our biology can overreact and our risk taking c