1、公共英语五级-48 及答案解析(总分：90.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Use of Eng(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Recent surveys show that Japanese youth have become a “Me Generation“ that rejects traditional values. “Around 1980 many Japanese, 1 young people abandoned the values of economic success and began 2 for new sets of values to 3 t
2、hem happiness,“ writes sociologist Yasuhiro in Comparative Civilizations Review. Japanese youth are placing more importance on the individual“s pursuit of 4 and less on the values of work, family, and society. Japanese students seem to be losing patience with work, 5 their counterparts in the United
3、 States and Korea. In a 1993 6 of college students in the three countries, only 10% of the Japanese regarded 7 as a primary value compared with 47% of Korean students and 27% of American students. A greater 8 of Japanese aged 18-24 also preferred easy jobs 9 heavy responsibility. The younger Japanes
4、e are showing less concern for family values as they pursue an inner world of private satisfaction. Data collected 10 the Japanese government in 1993 shows that only 23% of Japanese youth are thinking about supporting their aged parents, in contrast 11 63% of young Americans. It appears that many yo
5、unger-generation Japanese are 12 both respect for their parents 13 a sense of responsibility to the family. Author Yoshizaki attributes the change 14 Japanese parents“ over-indulgence of their children, material affluence, and growing 15 for private matters. The shift 16 individualism among Japanese
6、 is most pronounced among 17 very young. According to 1991 data 18 the Bunka Center of Japan, 50% of Japanese youth aged 16-19 can be labeled “self-centered“ compared with 33% among 19 aged 25-29. To earn the self-centered label, the young people responded positively to 20 ideas as “I would like to
7、make decisions without considering traditional values“ and “I don“t want to do anything I can“t enjoy doing.“（分数：20.00）二、Section Reading Co(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Part A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The simple act of surrendering a telephone number to a store clerk may not seem harmfulso much so th
8、at many consumers do it with no questions asked. Yet that one action can set in motion a cascade of silent events, as that data point is acquired, analyzed, categorized, stored and sold over and over again. Future attacks on your privacy may come from anywhere, from anyone with money to purchase tha
9、t phone number you surrendered. If you doubt the multiplier effect, consider your e-mail inbox. If it“s loaded with spam, it“s undoubtedly because at some point you unknowingly surrendered your e-mail to the wrong website. Do you think your telephone number or address is handled differently? A cotta
10、ge industry of small companies with names you“ve probably never heard oflike Acxiom or Merlinbuy and sell your personal information the way other commodities like corn or cattle futures are bartered. You may think your ceil phone is unlisted, but if you“ve ever ordered a pizza, it might not be. Merl
11、in is one of many commercial data brokers that advertises sale of unlisted phone numbers compiled from various sourcesincluding pizza delivery companies. These unintended, unpredictable consequences that flow from simple actions make privacy issues difficult to grasp, and grapple with. In a larger s
12、ense, privacy also is often cast as a tale of “Big Brother“ the government is watching you or an big corporation is watching you. But privacy issues don“t necessarily involve large faceless institutions A spouse takes a casual glance at her husband“s Blackberry, a co-worker looks at e-mail over your
13、 shoulder or a friend glances at a cell phone text message from the next seat on the bus. While very little of this is new to anyonepeople are now well aware there are video cameras and Internet cookies everywhere there is abundant evidence that people live their lives ignorant of the monitoring, as
14、suming a mythical level of privacy. People write e-mails and type instant messages they never expect anyone to see. Just ask Mark Foley or even Bill Gates, whose e-mails were a cornerstone of the Justice Department“s antitrust case against Microsoft. And polls and studies have repeatedly shown that
15、Americans are indifferent to privacy concerns. The general defense for such indifference is summed up as a single phrase. “I have nothing to hide. “ If you have nothing to hide, why shouldn“t the government be able to peek at your phone records, your wife see your e-mail or a company send you junk m
16、ail? It“s a powerful argument, one that privacy advocates spend considerable time discussing and strategizing over. It is hard to deny, however, that people behave different when they“re being watched. And it is also impossible to deny that Americans are now being watched more than at any time in hi
17、story.（分数：5.00）(1).In the first paragraph, the telephone number is cited to show _.（分数：1.00）A.many customers didn“t keep their privacy confidentialB.it is harmful to give a store clerk a telephone numberC.careless disposal of personal information can be harmfulD.customers should inquire its use when
18、 giving telephone numbers to others(2).What do companies like Acxiom and Merlin do?（分数：1.00）A.Compile telephone directories for businessmen.B.Collect and sell personal information to make a profit.C.Trade commodities like corn on the market.D.Crack down crimes like stealing private information.(3).F
19、rom Paragraph 3, we learn that _.（分数：1.00）A.cases of privacy intrusion happen only in large institutionsB.people are quite aware of how their privacy is intrudedC.it is not privacy intrusion when a wife glances at her husband“s cell phoneD.Bill Gates“ email messages were cited as evidence against Mi
20、crosoft(4).It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that the author thinks _.（分数：1.00）A.Americans are actually concerned about privacy issuesB.Americans are indifferent to privacy concernsC.Americans are very frank about privacy concernsD.Americans are puzzled about privacy concerns(5).Which of
21、the following is the author“s viewpoint?（分数：1.00）A.Never give your private information to anyone.B.People should pay more attention to their privacy issues.C.Do not surrender your email to any website.D.It does no good saying “I have nothing to hide“.五、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The issue of online privac
22、y in the Internet age found new urgency following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, sparking debate over striking the correct balance between protecting civil liberties and attempting to prevent another tragic terrorist act. While preventing terrorism certainly is of paramount importance, privacy righ
23、ts should not be deemed irrelevant. In response to the attacks, Congress quickly passed legislation that included provisions expanding rights of investigators to intercept wire, oral and electronic communications of alleged hackers and terrorists. Civil liberties groups expressed concerns over the p
24、rovisions and urged caution in ensuring that efforts to protect our nation do not result in broad government authority to erode privacy rights of U. S. citizens. Nevertheless, causing further concern to civil liberties groups, the Department of Justice proposed exceptions to the attorney-client priv
25、ilege. On Oct. 30, Attorney General John Ashcroft approved an interim agency rule that would permit federal prison authorities to monitor wire and electronic communications between lawyers and their clients in federal custody, including those who have been detained but not charged with any crime, wh
26、enever surveillance is deemed necessary to prevent violence or terrorism. In light of this broadening effort to reach into communications that were previously believed to be “off-limits“, the issue of online privacy is now an even more pressing concern. Congress has taken some legislative steps towa
27、rd ensuring online privacy, including the Children“s Online Privacy Protection Act, and provided privacy protections for certain sectors through legislation such as the Financial Services Modernization Act. The legislation passed to date does not, however, provide a statutory scheme for protecting g
28、eneral online consumer privacy. Lacking definitive federal law, some states passed their own measures. But much of this legislation is incomplete or not enforced. Moreover, it becomes unworkable when states create different privacy standards; the Internet does not know geographic boundaries, and com
29、panies and individuals cannot be expected to comply with differing, and at times conflicting, privacy rules. An analysis earlier this year of 751 U. S. and international Web sites conducted by Consumers International found that most sites collect personal information but fail to tell consumers how t
30、hat data will be used, how security is maintained and what rights consumers have over their own information. At a minimum, Congress should pass legislation requiring Web sites to display privacy policies prominently, inform consumers of the methods employed to collect client data, allow customers to
31、 opt out of such data collection, and provide customer access to their own data that has already been collected. Although various Internet privacy bills were introduced in the 107th Congress, the focus shifted to expanding government surveillance in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Plainly, govern
32、ment efforts to prevent terrorism are appropriate. Exactly how these exigent circumstances change the nature of the online privacy debate is still to be seen.（分数：5.00）(1).Concerning the protection of privacy and increased surveillance of communication, the author seems to insist on _.（分数：1.00）A.the
33、priority of the former actionB.the execution of the latter at the expense of the formerC.tightening both policies at the same timeD.a balance between the two actions(2).The author implies in the second paragraph that _.（分数：1.00）A.the proposal of the Department of Justice is unjustifiedB.surveillance
34、 of any suspect communication is necessaryC.civil liberties groups should not have shown such great concernD.exceptions should be made in intercepting communications(3).In the eyes of the author, the Financial Service Modernization Act _.（分数：1.00）A.serves no more than as a new patch on an old robeB.
35、indicates the Congress“s admirable move to protect privacyC.invades online consumer privacy rather than protect itD.is deficient in that it leaves many sectors unshielded(4).Privacy standards made by individual states are ineffective because _.（分数：1.00）A.the standards of different states contradict
36、each otherB.online communication is not restricted to any stateC.these standards ignore the federal law on the matterD.these standards are only applicable to regional Web sites(5).The expression “opt out of such data collection“ (in the last paragraph) probably means _.（分数：1.00）A.pick out from such
37、data the information one needsB.shift through such data to collect one“s own informationC.evaluate the purpose for such data collectionD.choose not to be involved in such data collection六、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：5.00)One of the most alarming things about the crisis in the global financial system is that the
38、 warning signs have been out there for some time, yet no one heeded them. Exactly 10 years ago, a hedge fund called Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) failed to convince investors that it could repay its debts, thereby bringing the world to the brink of a similar “liquidity crisis“ to the one we no
39、w see. Disaster was averted then only because regulators managed to put together a multi-billion-dollar bailout package. LTCM“s collapse was particularly notable because its founders had set great store by their use of statistical models designed to keep tabs on the risks inherent in their investmen
40、ts. Its fall should have been a wake-up call to banks and their regulatory supervisors that the models were not working as well as hopedin particular that they were ignoring the risks of extreme events and the connections that send such events reverberating around the financial system. Instead, they
41、 carried on using them. Now that disaster has struck again, some financial risk modelersthe “quants“ who have wielded so much influence over modern bankingare saying they know where the gaps in their knowledge are and are promising to fill them. Should we trust them? Their track record does not insp
42、ire confidence. Statistical models have proved almost useless at predicting the killer risks for individual banks, and worse than useless when it comes to risks to the financial system as a whole. The models encouraged bankers to think they were playing a high-stakes card game, when what they were a
43、ctually doing was more akin to lining up a row of dominoes. How could so many smart people have gotten it so wrong? One reason is that theft faith in their model“s predictive power led them to ignore what was happening in the real world. Finance offers enormous scope for dissembling: almost any fail
44、ure can be explained away by a judicious choice of language and data. When investors do not behave like the self-interested homo economics that economists suppose them to be, they are described as being “irrationally exuberant“ or blinded by panic. An alternative viewthat investors are reacting logi
45、cally in the face of uncertaintyis rarely considered. Similarly, extreme events are described as happening only “once in a century“even though there is insufficient data on which to base such an assessment. The quants“ models might successfully predict the movement of markets most of the time, but t
46、he bankers who rely on them have failed to realize that the occasions on which the markets deviate from normality are much more important than those when they comply. The events of the past year have driven this home in a spectacular fashion: by some estimates, the banking industry has lost more mon
47、ey in the current crisis than it has made in its entire history.（分数：5.00）(1).What happened a decade ago in the financial world（分数：1.00）A.was a predictor of today“s situation.B.has, as a matter of fact, repeated itself.C.resulted from investors“ ignorance of potential dangers.D.showed the necessity o
48、f government intervention.(2).The statistical models used by LTCM（分数：1.00）A.had an influence on the entire financial sector.B.only dealt with risks within the scope of the fund.C.were applied to different financial operations.D.had inherent flaws known to their users.(3).What does the author think i
49、s the major cause of the current financial crisis?（分数：1.00）A.The decision-makers were not aware of the risk of extreme events.B.Designers of the mechanisms to prevent financial disasters were self-absorbed.C.Relying on the statistical models, bankers were bold in their business operations.D.Risk managers failed to see the weaknesses in the system in time.(4).What does the word “dissembling“ (para. 5, line 3) mean according to the context?（分数：1.00）A.Covering up the truth.B.Falling apart quickly.C.Generating new ideas.D.Predicting inaccura
