[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷417及答案与解析.doc

1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 417 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso,

2、Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years dwelling abroad. Now a pair of psychologists has proved that there is indeed a link.As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, William Maddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam

3、 Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity. Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the cand

4、le to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit.(The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.)They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42%

5、 of those who had not lived abroad did so.A follow-up study with 72 Americans and 36 foreigners explored their creative negotiating skills. Pairs of students were asked to play the role of a seller of a petrol station who then needed to get a job and a buyer who would need to hire staff to run the b

6、usiness. The two were likely to reach a deadlock because the buyer had been told he could not afford what the seller was told was his minimum price. Nevertheless, where both negotiators had lived abroad 70% struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petrol station in retur

7、n for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was able to reach a deal.To check that they had not merely discovered that creative people are more likely to choose to live abroad, Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky identified and measured personality traits, such as openne

8、ss to new experiences, that are known to predict creativity. They then used statistical controls to filter out such factors. Even after that had been done, the statistical relationship between living abroad and creativity remained, indicating that it is something from the experience of living in for

9、eign parts that helps foster creativity.Merely travelling abroad, however, was not enough. You do have to live there. Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself, make you Hemingway.1 In the opening paragraph, famous names are cited to show the relationship between（A）psychology an

10、d art（B） artistic creation and life experience.（C） creativity and living abroad.（D）writing and painting.2 It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that（A）William Maddux and Adam Galinsky have carefully designed the test.（B） the experience of living abroad can give people a creative edge.（C） American busi

11、ness students are less creative than those oversea students.（D）ones creativity is associated with the length one has spent abroad. 3 The word “deadlock“(Line 4, Paragraph 3)most probably means（A）a failure to reach agreement.（B） an intractable dilemma.（C） an unacceptable offer.（D）a bitter quarrel.4 D

12、r Maddux and Dr Galinsky adopted statistical controls to（A）filter out the interference factors such as personality traits.（B） identify the statistical relationship between personality and creativity.（C） analyze the interaction between personality and creativity.（D）measure the influence of openness t

13、o new experiences on creativity. 5 In the last sentence of Paragraph 5, the author means that（A）there exist sharp differences between traveling and living abroad.（B） merely traveling abroad lends no help in cultivating ones creativity.（C） only real experience of living abroad can help foster creativ

14、ity.（D）the travelling part of living abroad avails to nothing about ones creativity.5 Give the Senate some credit: in shaping the current immigration-reform bill, it has come up with one idea that almost everybody hates. Thats the plan to create a new class of “guest workers“immigrants who would be

15、allowed to work in the U.S. for three two-year stretches, at most, provided that they return home for a year after each visit. Conservatives dislike the plan because they believe that the guest workers wont return home after their visas expire. Liberals dislike it because they believe the program wi

16、ll depress American wages and trap guest workers in a state of serfdom. The only vocal supporters of the provision are businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor, and theyre presumably just looking out for themselves.With the broader concerns about the effects of illegal immigration, the hostil

17、ity to the new plan is understandable. Its also misguided. However imperfect, the guest-worker program is better than any politically viable alternative. Opponents of immigration sometimes imply that adding workers to a workforce automatically brings wages down. But immigrants tend to work in differ

18、ent industries than native workers, and have different skills, and so they often end up complementing native workers, rather than competing with them. That can make native workers more productive and therefore better off.According to a recent study by the economists Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni

19、Peri, between 1990 and 2004 immigration actually boosted the wages of most American workers; its only negative effect was a small one, on the wages of workers without a high-school diploma. And if by increasing the number of legal guest workers we reduced the number of undocumented workers, the econ

20、omy would benefit even more.Guest workers are also, paradoxically, less likely than illegal immigrants to become permanent residents. The U.S. already has a number of smallerand less well-designedtemporary-worker programs, and theres no evidence that workers in those plans routinely overstay their v

21、isas. One remarkable study found that after border enforcement was stepped up in 1993 the chances of an illegal immigrant returning to his homeland to stay fell by a third.In fact, whatever benefits the guest-worker program brought to the U.S. economy or to particular businesses, the biggest winners

22、 would be the workers themselves. Congress, of course, is under no obligation to care about foreign workers. But the programs costs to American workers are negligible, the gains for the guest workers are enormous, and the U.S. economy will benefit. This is that rare option which is both sensible and

23、 politically possible.6 In Paragraph 2, the author holds that the guest-worker program will（A）arouse great concerns about illegal immigration.（B） be a sensible way to solve the immigration problems.（C） be hazardous to the improvement of working structure.（D）bring fierce competitions to local laborer

24、s.7 Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri point out that immigration（A）is immune from negative effects.（B） has lead to economic prosperity and social stability.（C） has enhanced wages of most American workers.（D）will root out illegal documentation of workers.8 Which of the following is true according

25、 to Paragraph 4?（A）Illegal immigrants have more chances to stay permanently in the U.S. than guest workers.（B） With stepped-up border control, illegal immigrants are more likely to stay in their homeland.（C） Workers in temporary-worker programs usually pay no attention to their visa duration.（D）Gues

26、t workers will not stay too long because of the enhanced border enforcement.9 The plan of creating a new class of “guest workers“（A）has aroused criticism from conservatives, liberals and the business world.（B） has allowed immigrants to work in the U.S. for six consecutive years.（C） will benefit both

27、 businesses and immigrant labor employers.（D）will give people a good reason to threat such workers as slaves.10 What is the authors attitude towards guest workers plan?（A）Negligible.（B） Obscure.（C） Indifferent.（D）Favorable.10 Dont talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developm

28、ents in “spy phone“ software, a do-it-yourself spook can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing the download, but it t

29、akes just a few minutesabout the time needed to download a ringtone.This new generation of user-friendly ipyphone software has become widely available in the last year and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowi

30、ng a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser: neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software online, at prices as low as $50. Vendors are loath to release sales figures. Bu

31、t some experts claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisors dishonest dealings and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christi

32、e Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts

33、, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United St

34、ates, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and automatically install itself in the victims phone when the message is opened, a

35、ccording to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.The current embarrassment is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion(producer of the BlackBerry)to open their phones to outsi

36、de application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users havent given the threat much thought If

37、 the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.11 The cell phone may be eavesdropping in that（A）the software industry has created a do-it-yourself program.（B） the spy phone software requires no special skills or knowledge.（C） a recent software can transfer a wiretapping program to other phones.（D

38、）to download the spy phone software is as easy as pressing keys.12 Which of the following is true of the “spy phone“?（A）Its a complicated and inexpensive wireless transfer software.（B） It can be downloaded to the phone for free.（C） The download takes less than the time of downloading a ringtone.（D）I

39、ts targets are totally unaware that they are spied.13 In pointing out figures related to compromised mobiles, the author suggests that（A）an unexpected number of people are being eavesdropped.（B） many employees hope to discover the boss dishonest secrets.（C） the popularity of spy-phone software resul

40、ts from low prices.（D）law-abiding people become the victims of spy phone.14 According to Paragraph 4, Spyware（A）increases the processing power of iPhones.（B） enlarges the pool of potential victims.（C） is developed by law-enforcement agencies.（D）might serve the devil.15 Which of the following is the

41、best title for this text?（A）How to Deal with Phone Spies?（B） Spyware is Here and There（C） Is Your Cell Phone Spying on You?（D）Security Programs for Phones15 For a quarter of a century, surveys of reading habits by the National for the Arts(NEA), a federally-funded body, have been favorite material f

42、or anyone who thinks America is dumbing down. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, for example, cites the 2007 NEA report that “the proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing(unless required to do so for school)more than doubled between 1984 and 2004.“So it is a surprise that this

43、trend seems to have taken a turn for the better. This week the NEA reported that, for the first time since 1982 when its survey began, the number of adults who said they had read a novel, short story, poem or play in the past 12 months had gone up, rising from 47% of the population in 2002 to over 5

44、0% in 2008.The increase, modest as it is, has thrown educationalists into excitement. “Its just a blip,“ one professor told The New York Times. It is certainly a snapshot. But it is not statistically insignificant. As the NEAs research director, Sunil Iyengar, points out, almost every demographic an

45、d ethnic group seems to be reading more. The increase has been most marked in groups whose reading had declined most in the past 25 years, African-Americans and Hispanics(up by 15% and 20% respectively since 2002). It has also been larger among people at lower levels of education: reading among coll

46、ege graduates was flat, but among those who dropped out of high school it rose from under a quarter to over a third.Most remarkable of all has been the rebound among young men. The numbers of men aged 18-24 who say they are reading books(not just online)rose 24% in 2002-08. Teachers sometimes despai

47、r of young men, whose educational performance has lagged behind that of young women almost across the board. But the reading gap at least may be narrowing. Dana Gioia, the NEAs outgoing chairman, thinks the reason for the turnaround is the public reaction to earlier reports which had sounded the ala

48、rm. “There has been a measurable change in societys commitment to literacy,“ he says. “Reading has become a higher priority.“It may also be benefiting from the growing popularity of serious-minded leisure pursuits of many kinds. Museums, literary festivals and live opera transmissions into cinemas a

49、re all reporting larger audiences. Mr. Iyengar thinks the division between those who read a lot and those who dont is eroding. What has not changed, though, is Americas “functional illiteracy“ rate. Fully 21% of adult Americans did not read a book last year because they couldnt, one of the worst rates in the rich world.16 What does the author mean by “dumbing down“(Line 3, Paragraph 1)?（A）Becoming illiterate.（B） Becoming noiseless.（C） Getting clumsy.（D）Getting inflexible.17 According to Paragraph 2, the trend seems to have taken a turn for the better in that