1、考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 104 及答案解析(总分：34.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：4，分数：34.00)When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to aba
2、ndon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family“. Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term “downshifting“ has turned
3、 my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all“, preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything. I have discovered, as perhap
4、s Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life“ ,and making the alternative move into “downshifting“ brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing co
5、uld persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12 hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time“. In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic
6、 lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting also known in America as “voluntary simplicity“ has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anticonsumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are n
7、ewsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-90s equivalent of dropping out. While in America the trend star
8、ted as a reaction to the economic decline after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late 80sand is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class down-shifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives. For the
9、women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the 80s, downshifting in the mid-90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into oneas a personal recognition of your limitations.（分数：8.00）(1).Which of the following is
10、 true according to Paragraph 1?（分数：2.00）A.Full-time employment is a new international trend.B.The writer was compelled by circumstances to leave her job.C.A lateral move means stepping out of full-time employment.D.The writer was only too eager to spend more time with her family.(2).The writers expe
11、riment shows that downshifting_.（分数：2.00）A.enables her to realize her dreamB.helps her mold a new philosophy of lifeC.prompts her to abandon her high social statusD.leads her to accept the doctrine or She magazine(3).“Juggling ones life“ probably means living a life characterized by_.（分数：2.00）A.non-
12、materialistic lifestyleB.a bit of everythingC.extreme stressD.anti-consumerism(4).According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of_.（分数：2.00）A.the quick pace of modern lifeB.mans adventurous spiritC.mans search for mythical experiencesD.the economic situationA history of lon
13、g and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled ec
14、onomies of scale. Its scientists were the worlds best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed. It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Jus
15、t as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there
16、 was only one American television maker left, Zenith.(Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Koreas LG Electronics in July.)Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. Americas machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of sem
17、iconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty. All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that thei
18、r incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of Americas industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas. How things have changed! In 1995 the Un
19、ited States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. “American industry has changed its structure, has gone
20、 on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted,“ according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvards Kennedy School of Management, “It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,“ says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Wa
21、shington. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as “ a golden age of business management in the United States“.（分数：8.00）(1).The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because_.（分数：2.00）A.it had made painstaking efforts toward
22、s this goalB.its domestic market was eight times larger than beforeC.the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitorsD.the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy(2).The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the f
23、act that the American_.（分数：2.00）A.TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic marketB.semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprisesC.machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actionsD.auto industry had lost part of its domestic market(3).What can be inferred from the passa
24、ge?（分数：2.00）A.It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried.B.Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.C.The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.D.A long history of success may pave the way for further development.(4).The author seems to believ
25、e the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the_.（分数：2.00）A.turning of the business cycleB.restructuring of industryC.improved business managementD.success in educationBeing a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio
26、drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed now, by babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those cruci
27、al years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby)surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no d
28、ifference. Since much of the variation is due to genes one more agent of evolution has gone. There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women has 15 children. Nowad
29、ays, the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for
30、 a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes. For us, this means that evolut
31、ion is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the pass 100,000 years even the pass 100 year our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and so
32、ciety did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they “look at an organic being as average looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.“ No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amaze
33、d our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.（分数：8.00）(1).What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?（分数：2.00）A.A lack of mates.B.A fierce competition.C.A lower survival rate.D.A defective gene.(2).What does the example of India
34、 illustrate?（分数：2.00）A.Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.B.Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.C.The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.D.India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.(3).The author argues that
35、our bodies have stopped evolving because_.（分数：2.00）A.life has been improved by technological advanceB.the number of female babies has been decliningC.our species has reached the highest stage of evolutionD.the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing(4).Which of the following would be t
36、he best title for the passage?（分数：2.00）A.Sex Ration Changes in Human EvolutionB.Ways of Continuing Mans EvolutionC.The Evolutionary Future of NatureD.Human Evolution Going NowhereElectronic mail has been in widespread use for more than a decade, simplifying the flow of ideas, connecting people from
37、distant offices and eliminating the need for meetings, but E-mail should be carefully managed to avoid unclear and inappropriate communication. As time goes on, and more people surf the Net, the amount of unsolicited e-mail grows. Some folks reasonably assume that cyberspace mirrors many aspects of
38、other forms of communications. It would seem that since telemarketing and direct mail are successfully used as marketing techniques for many businesses, it should follow that direct e-mail, or unsolicited e-mail, should also work. This topic is hotly debated between experienced Internet users and ne
39、wcomers. Unlike receiving promotional materials through the mail or over the phone, e-mail does carry a cost to the recipient. “Bandwidth“ is used every time an e-mail message is sent and places a load on existing resources. The process of sending unsolicited e-mail to large, untargeted lists, or th
40、rough mailing list discussion groups or Usenet newsgroups, is known as “spamming“. Spamming wastes bandwidth. Imagine if it became common practice for businesses to market this way. Not only would it be annoying for many, the load on the system would translate to higher access fees. Unlike regular m
41、ail where the sender pays the cost of delivering the mail, e-mail is cheap to send, and in some cases, expensive to receive. Many businesses responsibly market by e-mail, for example, by inviting existing customers or website visitors to receive future e-mail announcements. Some of the free e-mail s
42、ervices are advertiser supported and hence using e-mail marketing in an up front acceptable manner. Hopefully, this will be the norm, rendering the inconvenience of spam a thing of the past.（分数：10.00）(1).Though e-mail marketing will inevitably get more sophisticated, the author believes_.（分数：2.00）A.
43、the trend will not continue for much longerB.it is time to put a stop to itC.it will get worseD.it is time for senders to be more responsible with it(2).The general use of the term “spare“ in this text refers to_.（分数：2.00）A.any unwanted e-mailB.any untargeted e-mailC.any unsolicited e-mailD.any targ
44、eted e-mail(3).The difference between regular mail and e-mail in terms of costs is_.（分数：2.00）A.e-mail is many times more expensiveB.e-mail costs the receiverC.e-mail costs nothing to sendD.e-mail saves the cost of paper(4).In order to market responsibly, the author suggests that businesses_.（分数：2.00
45、）A.obtain permission firstB.cut down on the number of e-mailsC.only send e-mail to existing customersD.do not use advertisements through e-mail(5).Which of the following can best sum up the text?（分数：2.00）A.The trend towards e-mail marketing must be stopped.B.E-mail marketing has changed a lot since
46、it first began a decade ago.C.E-mail marketing is unproductive when used incorrectly.D.E-mail marketing messages must be managed wisely.考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 104 答案解析(总分：34.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：4，分数：34.00)When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I migh
47、t become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my
48、 family“. Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term “downshifting“ has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all“, preached by Linda Kelsey for the
49、past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything. I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life“ ,and making the alternative move into “downshifting“ brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enj
