1、2010年 9月上海市高级口译第一阶段笔试真题试卷及答案与解析 Part A Spot Dictation Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear a passage and read the same passage with blanks in it. Fill in each of the blanks with the word or words you have heard on the tape. Write your answer in the corresponding space in your ANSWER B
2、OOKLET. Remember you will hear the passage ONLY ONCE. 0 We already live in an ever-communicated world that will only become mere so in the next tech era. Weve (1) that gets us so much information. Weve got every second (2) , weve get computers and laptops, weve get personal organizers and were just
3、being (3) and every advance in technology seems to create more and more communications at us. We are sort of (4) . Research suggests that all the multi-tasking may actually make our brains (5) , producing a world-wide increase in IQ (6) and mere in recent decades. Is there any real benefit in (7) we
4、 new have to go through? Were net becoming a race of (8) , but many de think certain skills are enhanced and certain are net. You knew the ability to (9) , to answer a dozen e- mails in five minutes, or to fill out (10) . Thats enhanced. But when someone is out there with his kids (11) or something
5、like that, hes got his cell phone in his pocket. Hes always wondering, “Gee, did I get a voicemail?“ This might have negative effects (12) . Creativity is something that happens slowly. It happens when your brain is just (13) , just playing, when it (14) which you hadnt thought of, or maybe you have
6、 time to read a book. You are a businessperson but you have time to (15) ,or about a philosopher and something that happened long age or something or some idea (16) . Actually, it might occur to you that you (17) in that way, and so its this mixture of unrelated ideas that feeds your productivity, (
7、18) . And if your mind is disciplined to answer every e-mail, then you dont have time for that playful noodling. You dont have time for (19) . So I think maybe were getting smarter in .some senses, but ever-communication is (20) and to our reflection. Part B Listening Comprehension Directions: In th
8、is part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken ONLY ONCE. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer
9、 you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. （ A） The designing of a new town. （ B） The most livable small town in America （ C） The financing of a housing project. （ D） The updating of old building codes. （ A） Houses with front porches. （ B） Houses that are very close together
10、. （ C） Quarter-of-an-acre or half-an-acre private yard space. （ D） Easy access to the town center and to the vital institutions. （ A） It has nothing to do with a sense of nostalgia for the past. （ B） It has failed in the new town mentioned in the conversation. （ C） People prefer to stay in an air-co
11、nditioned front porch. （ D） People spend very much time on front porches in hot climates. （ A） You are not allowed to use red curtains facing the street. （ B） You couldnt attach a satellite dish to your house. （ C） You should remove plastic products from front porches. （ D） You mustnt park your car
12、in front of your house for long. （ A） Some of these rules seem to go a little too far. （ B） Some of these rules are contradictory. （ C） These rules are all dictated by the local laws. （ D） These rules have not been approved by the developer. （ A） Lending less money to small businesses. （ B） Keeping
13、tabs on financial market stability. （ C） Improving credit access for all companies. （ D） Spotlighting the role big banks could play in the recession. （ A） To give warnings about a possible failure in global trade talks. （ B） To take measures to allay fears of unfair competition. （ C） To bring marath
14、on talks in the Doha Round to a close. （ D） To increase trade with Latin America. （ A） Sixty-one. （ B） One hundred and three. （ C） One hundred and thirty. （ D） Two hundred and thirty. （ A） 522 million. （ B） 671 million. （ C） As much profit as one year earlier. （ D） 2.8 percent more profit than a yea
15、r earlier. （ A） Dispelling fears about the debt crisis. （ B） Banning naked short selling of shares. （ C） Limiting speculation. （ D） Smacking of desperation. （ A） A prenuptial agreement. （ B） The expenses required by a wedding. （ C） How to make both ends meet in married life. （ D） Where to seek advic
16、e if the couple have problems after getting married. （ A） The man has been married twice before. （ B） The woman has remained single until now. （ C） Both people are remarried this time. （ D） Both people are first married this time. （ A） One or both sides have no experience about what goes wrong in a
17、marriage. （ B） Both man and wife want to talk about everything openly and honestly. （ C） Either the man or his wife thinks their marriage is not very romantic. （ D） A person has different expectations from his or her spouse. （ A） The contract might bother some people. （ B） The contract is very usefu
18、l and romantic. （ C） The contract doesnt take much work to write. （ D） The contract has to be certified by a lawyer. （ A） They think it is a serious breach of the contract. （ B） They find a good reason to rewrite the rule. （ C） They talk about it and reach a compromise. （ D） They have to ask. Is thi
19、s marriage really working? （ A） Different perceptions of time across cultures. （ B） Cross-cultural miscommunications. （ C） The idea of the past, present and future time. （ D） A fundamental basis for business conversations. （ A） Mono-chronic time is characterized by many things happening simultaneous
20、ly. （ B） Mono-chronic cultures value interpersonal relationships highly. （ C） Mono-chronic cultures emphasize schedules, punctuality, and preciseness. （ D） Mono-chronic time is found primarily in Latin American and African cultures. （ A） Poly-chronic time is found primarily in North America and Nort
21、hern Europe. （ B） Poly-chronism views time as flexible, so preciseness is not that important. （ C） Poly-chronic cultures emphasize schedules and punctuality. （ D） Poly-chronic cultures value productivity and getting things done “on time“. （ A） Those raised in the mono-chronic culture. （ B） People wh
22、o are guilty of ethnocentrism. （ C） An American businessperson. （ D） A Brazilian businessman. （ A） It over-emphasizes individual differences. （ B） It fails to make his own values central. （ C） It is ethnocentric. （ D） It is overly general. 一、 SECTION 2 READING TEST Directions: In this section you wi
23、ll read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, A, B, C or D, to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write tile letter of the answer you have chos
24、en in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. 40 Congress began 2010 with a bad case of legislative deja vu. Last year, it approved a $ 787 billion stimulus package meant to “create or save“ millions of jobs. President Obama says the stimulus has saved or created as many as 2 million jobs so
25、 far. But even if that highly optimistic figure is true, in the real world, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus was signed into law-a dismal feat all financed with enormous debt. Now Congress is working on another stimulus package, but theyre calling it a jobs bill. In December, th
26、e House passed a $174 billion “Jobs for Main Street Bill“ that would use federal dollars to fund job-creating infrastructure projects, while extending unemployment benefits. Sound familiar? Unemployment remains at about 10% and state unemployment insurance funds are running out of money. While the O
27、bama administration works to artificially inflate the number of jobs, the unemployed face diminished opportunities and income security. By 2012, 40 state unemployment trust funds are projected to be empty, requiring $ 90 billion in federal loans to continue operating Normally, state unemployment ben
28、efits pay jobless workers between 50 and 70% of their salaries for up to 26 weeks. But during this recession, what would be wrong with that? Everything. The state-federal unemployment insurance program (UI) is an economic drag on businesses and states. And its a poor safety net for the unemployed. U
29、I, a relic of the Depression, fails workers when they need it most. UI trust funds depend on a state- levied payroll tax on employers. During boom years, these funds are generally flush. But during recessions, they can get depleted quickly. The bind is that to replenish their UI fund, states have to
30、 raise payroll taxes. That hurts the bottom line for most businesses. Passed on to workers as a lower salary, high payroll taxes discourage businesses from hiring. During steep recessions, states face a fiscal Catch- 22: Reduce benefits or raise taxes. To date, 27 states have depleted their UI funds
31、 and are using $ 29 billion in federal loans theyll have to start repaying in 2011. Other states are slashing benefits. While federal guidelines recommend that states keep one years worth of unemployment reserves, many states entered the recession already insolvent. When federal loans are exhausted,
32、 the only option left is higher payroll taxes-a move sure to discourage hiring and depress salaries. The increasingly small and uncertain payouts of UI are the opposite of income security. The effect of UIs eight-decade experiment has been to condition workers to save less for a “rainy day“ and inst
33、ead rely on a system that provides no guarantee. UI limits personal responsibility to save; gradually, individuals find themselves in financial peril. Real reform requires putting employees in charge with individual private accounts and getting the government out of the business of creating illusion
34、ary safety nets. Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts (UISAs), by contrast, give workers control of their own income, eliminating the negative effects of the UI program on businesses and budgets. Adopted by Chile in 2003, UISAs are also financed via a payroll tax on individual workers and employe
35、rs. The difference is the money is directly deposited into the individual workers account. Basically a form of forced savings, UISAs allow individuals to draw on their own accounts during periods of unemployment and roll unused funds into their savings upon retirement. With the burden reduced on emp
36、loyers, wages rise, leading to greater contributions to the individuals fund. The federal government is removed from the picture. And all workers are guaranteed a savings account upon retirement. UISAs liberate workers from uncertainty and improve incentives. When unemployed workers must rely on the
37、ir own funds rather than the common fiscal pool, they find jobs faster. Congresss repeated extensions of the current UI program may be well intended, but they may also be counterproductive. Like any deadline extension, additional jobless benefits diminish the job seekers urgency, all at taxpayers ex
38、pense. Today, expanded UI benefits mean higher state payroI1 taxes, which make it harder for employers to expand hiring or raise wages. UISAs, on the other hand, make the payroll tax on business part of the employers investment in an individual worker, rather than a penalty for doing business. In 20
39、10, its time to say goodbye e to the problems created by broken policies. Congress should start this decade with a promise for true economic freedom: Let businesses create jobs and let workers keep what theyve earned. 41 According to the author, Congresses multi-billion stimulus package or jobs bill
40、_. （ A） would not give much help to job-creating infrastructure projects （ B） might only temporarily reduce the rate of unemployment （ C） would be used to fund the state-federal unemployment insurance program （ D） would only drain the UI funds without much help to the unemployed 42 By saying “states
41、 face a fiscal Catch-22“(para. 8), the author means _. （ A） states could do both of reducing benefits and raising taxes （ B） states can increase up to 22% of payroll taxes （ C） neither reducing benefits nor raising taxes would be effective （ D） state UI funds could easily be empty with more job loss
42、es 43 According to the passage, UI _. （ A） was established in the most recent economic crisis （ B） has been mainly funded by payroll tax on employees （ C） would not be exhausted even during steep recessions （ D） would not motivate the unemployed to seek jobs urgently 44 Which of the following is NOT
43、 true about Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts? （ A） Both individual workers and employers contribute to UISAs via payroll tax. （ B） UISAs give workers much certainty and improve incentives. （ C） In practicing UISAs, the federal government shoulders a heavier responsibility. （ D） UISAs greatly
44、reduce the negative effects of UI on employers and businesses. 45 Which of the following can serve as a topic for the passage? （ A） State unemployment benefits help workers overcome difficulties. （ B） US workers need a better safety net for layoffs. （ C） Employers contribution would only have negati
45、ve effects. （ D） Unemployment benefits should be carried on both federal and state level. 45 Not so long ago I found myself in characteristically pugnacious discussion with a senior human rights figure. The issue was privacy. Her view was that there was an innate and largely unchanging human need fo
46、r privacy. My view was that privacy was a culturally determined concept. Think of those open multiseated Roman latrines in Pompeii, and imagine having one installed at work. The specific point was whether there was a generational difference in attitudes towards privacy, partly as a consequence of in
47、teract social networking. I thought that there was. As a teenager I told my parents absolutely nothing and the world little more. Some girls of that era might be photographed bare-breasted at a rock festival, but, on the whole, once we left through the front door, we disappeared from sight. My child
48、ren-Generation Y, rather than the Generation X-ers who make most of the current fuss about privacy-seem unworried by their mothers capacity to track them and their social lives through Facebook. In fact, they seem unworried by anybodys capacity to see what theyre up to-until, of course, it goes wron
49、g. They seem to want to be in sight, and much effort goes into creating the public identity that they want others to see. Facebook now acts as a vast market place for ideas, preferences, suggestions and actings-out, extending far beyond the capacity of conventional institutions to influence. And the privacy issues it raises have little to do with the conventional obsessions such as CCTV or government data-mining. At a conference at the weekend I heard that some US colleges have taken to looking at the Facebook sites of appli
