1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 42 及答案解析(总分：50.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：5，分数：50.00)1.Section II Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_2.Part B（分数：10.00）_Canada“s premiers(the leaders of provincial governments), if they have any breath left after complaining about Ottawa at their late July annual meeting, migh
2、t spare a moment to do something, together, to reduce health-care costs. They“re all groaning about soaring health budgets, the fastest-growing component of which are pharmaceutical costs. 1. What to do? Both the Romanow commission and the Kirby committee on health careto say nothing of reports from
3、 other expertsrecommended the creation of a national drug agency. Instead of each province having its own list of approved drugs, bureaucracy, procedures and limited bargaining power, all would pool resources, work with Ottawa, and create a national institution. 2. But “national“ doesn“t have to mea
4、n that “National“ could mean interprovincialprovinces combining efforts to create one body. Either way, one benefit of a “national“ organization would be to negotiate better prices, if possible, with drug manufacturers. Instead of having one provinceor a series of hospitals within a province negotia
5、te a price for a given drug on the provincial list, the national agency would negotiate on behalf of all provinces. Rather than, say, Quebec, negotiating on behalf of seven million people, the national agency would negotiate on behalf of 31 million people. Basic economics suggests the greater the po
6、tential consumers, the higher the likelihood of a better price. 3. A small step has been taken in the direction of a national agency with the creation of the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment, funded by Ottawa and the provinces. Under it, a Common Drug Review recommends t
7、o provincial lists which new drugs should be included. Predictably, and regrettably, Quebec refused to join. A few premiers are suspicious of any federal-provincial deal-making. They(particularly Quebec and Alberta)just want Ottawa to fork over additional billions with few, if any, strings attached.
8、 That“s one reason why the idea of a national list hasn“t gone anywhere, while drug costs keep rising fast. 4. Premiers love to quote Mr. Romanow“s report selectively, especially the parts about more federal money. Perhaps they should read what he had to say about drugs: “A national drug agency woul
9、d provide governments more influence on pharmaceutical companies in order to try to constrain the ever-increasing cost of drugs.“ 5. So when the premiers gather in Niagara Falls to assemble their usual complaint list, they should also get cracking about something in their jurisdiction that would hel
10、p their budgets and patients. AQuebec“s resistance to a national agency is provincialist ideology. One of the first advocates for a national list was a researcher at Laval University. Quebec“ s Drug Insurance Fund has seen its costs skyrocket with annual increases from 14.3 percent to 26.8 percent!
11、BOr they could read Mr. Kirby“s report: “the substantial buying power of such an agency would strengthen the public prescription-drug insurance plans to negotiate the lowest possible purchase prices from drug companies.“ CWhat does “national“ mean? Roy Romanow and Senator Michael Kirby recommended a
12、 federal-provincial body much like the recently created National Health Council. DThe problem is simple and stark: health-care costs have been, are, and will continue to increase faster than government revenues. EAccording to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, prescription drug costs hav
13、e risen since 1997 at twice the rate of overall health-care spending. Part of the increase comes from drugs being used to replace other kinds of treatments. Part of it arises from new drugs costing more than older kinds. Part of it is higher prices. FSo, if the provinces want to run the health-care
14、show, they should prove they can run it, starting with an interprovincial health list that would end duplication, save administrative costs, prevent one province from being played off against another, and bargain for better drug prices. GOf course, the pharmaceutical companies will scream. They like
15、 divided buyers; they can lobby better that way. They can use the threat of removing jobs from one province to another. They can hope that, if one province includes a drug on its list, the pressure will cause others to include it on theirs. They wouldn“t like a national agency, but self-interest wou
16、ld lead them to deal with it.（分数：10.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_On the north bank of the Ohio river sits Evansville, Ind., home of David Williams, 52, and of a riverboat casino(a place where gambling games are played). During several years of gambling in that casino, Williams, a state audi
17、tor earning $35, 000 a year, lost approximately $175, 000. He had never gambled before the casino sent him a coupon for $20 worth of gambling. He visited the casino, lost the $20 and left. On his second visit he lost $800. The casino issued to him, as a good customer, a “Fun Card“, which when used i
18、n the casino earns points for meals and drinks, and enables the casino to track the user“s gambling activities. For Williams, those activities become what he calls “electronic heroin“. 1. In 1997 he lost $21, 000 to one slot machine in two days. In March 1997 he lost $72, 186. He sometimes played tw
19、o slot machines at a time, all night, until the boat docked at 5 a.m., then went back aboard when the casino opened at 9 a.m Now he is suing the casino, charging that it should have refused his patronage because it knew he was addicted. It did know he had a problem. In March 1998 a friend of William
20、s“s got him involuntarily confined to a treatment center for addictions, and wrote to inform the casino of Williams“ s gambling problem. The casino included a photo of Williams among those of banned gamblers, and wrote to him a “cease admissions“ letter. Noting the “medical / psychological“ nature o
21、f problem gambling behavior, the letter said that before being readmitted to the casino he would have to present medical / psychological information demonstrating that patronizing the casino would pose no threat to his safety or well-being. 2. The Wall Street Journal reports that the casino has 24 s
22、igns warning: “Enjoy the fun . and always bet with your head, not over it.“ Every entrance ticket lists a toll-free number for counseling from the Indiana Department of Mental Health. Nevertheless, Williams“ s suit charges that the casino, knowing he was “helplessly addicted to gambling,“ intentiona
23、lly worked to “lure“ him to “engage in conduct against his will.“ Well. 3. The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says “pathological gambling“ involves persistent, recurring and uncontrollable pursuit less of money than of the thrill of taking risks in quest
24、of a windfall. 4. Pushed by science, or what claims to be science, society is reclassifying what once were considered character flaws or moral failings as personality disorders akin to physical disabilities. 5. Forty-four states have lotteries, 29 have casinos, and most of these states are to varyin
25、g degrees dependent onyou might say addicted torevenues from wagering. And since the first Internet gambling site was created in 1995, competition for gamblers“ dollars has become intense. The Oct. 28 issue of Newsweek reported that 2 million gamblers patronize 1, 800 virtual casinos every week. Wit
26、h $3.5 billion being lost on Internet wagers this year, gambling has passed pornography as the Web“ s most profitable business. AAlthough no such evidence was presented, the casino“ s marketing department continued to pepper him with mailings. And he entered the casino and used his Fun Card without
27、being detected. BIt is unclear what luring was required, given his compulsive behavior. And in what sense was his will operative? CBy the time he had lost $5, 000 he said to himself that if he could get back to even, he would quit. One night he won $5, 500, but he did not quit. DGambling has been a
28、common feature of American life forever, but for a long time it was broadly considered a sin, or a social disease. Now it is a social policy: the most important and aggressive promoter of gambling in America is the government. EDavid Williams“ s suit should trouble this gambling nation. But don“t be
29、t on it. FIt is worrisome that society is medicalizing more and more behavioral problems, often defining as addictions what earlier, sterner generations explained as weakness of will. GThe anonymous, lonely, undistracted nature of online gambling is especially conducive to compulsive behavior. But e
30、ven if the government knew how to move against Internet gambling, what would be its grounds for doing so?（分数：10.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_How does your reading proceed? Clearly, you try to comprehend, in the sense of identifying meanings for individual words and working out relationships
31、 between them, drawing on your implicit knowledge of English grammar. 1You begin to infer a context for the text, for instance, by making decisions about what kind of speech event is involved. Who is making the utterance, to whom, when and where. The ways of reading indicated here are without doubt
32、kinds of comprehension. But they show comprehension to consist not just of passive assimilation but of active engagement in inference and problem-solving. You infer information you feel the writer has invited you to grasp by presenting you with specific evidence and clues. 2 Conceived in this way, c
33、omprehension will not follow exactly the same track for each reader. What is in question is not the retrieval of an absolute, fixed or “true“ meaning that can be read off and checked for accuracy, or some timeless relationship of the text to the world. 3 Such background material inevitably reflects
34、who we are. 4 This does not, however, make interpretation merely relative or even pointless. Precisely because readers from different historical periods, places and social experiences produce different but overlapping readings of the same words on the pageincluding for texts that engage with fundame
35、ntal human concernsdebates about texts can play an important role in social discussion of beliefs and values. How we read a given text also depends to some extent on our particular interest in reading it. 5Such dimensions of reading suggestas others introduced later in the book will also dothat we b
36、ring an implicit(often unacknowledged)agenda to any act of reading. It does not then necessarily follow that one kind of reading is fuller, more advanced or more worthwhile than another. Ideally, different kinds of reading inform each other, and act as useful reference points for and counterbalances
37、 to one another. Together, they make up the reading component of your overall literacy, or relationship to your surrounding textual environment. AAre we studying that text and trying to respond in a way that fulfills the requirement of a given course? Reading it simply for pleasure? Skimming it for
38、information? Ways of reading on a train or in bed are likely to differ considerably from reading in a seminar room. BFactors such as the place and period in which we are reading, our gender ethnicity, age and social class will encourage us towards certain interpretations but at the same time obscure
39、 or even close off others. CIf you are unfamiliar with words or idioms, you guess at their meaning, using clues presented in the context. On the assumption that they will become relevant later, you make a mental note of discourse entities as well as possible links between them. DIn effect, you try t
40、o reconstruct the likely meanings or effects that any given sentence, image or reference might have had: These might be the ones the author intended. EYou make further inferences, for instance, about how the text may be significant to you, or about its validityinferences that form the basis of a per
41、sonal response for which the author will inevitably be far less responsible. FIn plays, novels and narrative poems, characters speak as constructs created by the author, not necessarily as mouthpieces for the author“s own thoughts. GRather, we ascribe meanings to texts on the basis of interaction be
42、tween what we might call textual and contextual material: between kinds of organizations or patterning we perceive in a text“s formal structures(so especially its language structures)and various kinds of background, social knowledge, belief and attitude that we bring to the text.（分数：10.00）填空项 1:_填空项
43、 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_考研英语（阅读）-试卷 42 答案解析(总分：50.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：5，分数：50.00)1.Section II Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_解析：2.Part B（分数：10.00）_解析：Canada“s premiers(the leaders of provincial governments), if they have any breath left after complaining about Ottawa at their
44、late July annual meeting, might spare a moment to do something, together, to reduce health-care costs. They“re all groaning about soaring health budgets, the fastest-growing component of which are pharmaceutical costs. 1. What to do? Both the Romanow commission and the Kirby committee on health care
45、to say nothing of reports from other expertsrecommended the creation of a national drug agency. Instead of each province having its own list of approved drugs, bureaucracy, procedures and limited bargaining power, all would pool resources, work with Ottawa, and create a national institution. 2. But
46、“national“ doesn“t have to mean that “National“ could mean interprovincialprovinces combining efforts to create one body. Either way, one benefit of a “national“ organization would be to negotiate better prices, if possible, with drug manufacturers. Instead of having one provinceor a series of hospi
47、tals within a province negotiate a price for a given drug on the provincial list, the national agency would negotiate on behalf of all provinces. Rather than, say, Quebec, negotiating on behalf of seven million people, the national agency would negotiate on behalf of 31 million people. Basic economics suggests the greater the potential consumers, the higher the likelihood of a better price. 3. A small step has been taken in the direction of a national agency with the creation of the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Te
