1、GMAT（ VERBAL）阅读模拟试卷 17及答案与解析 0 Seeking a competitive advantage, some professional service firms(for example, firms providing advertising, accounting, or health care services)have considered offering unconditional guarantees of satisfaction. Such guarantees specify what clients can expect and what th
2、e firm will do if it fails to fulfill these expectations. Particularly with first- time clients, an unconditional guarantee can be an effective marketing tool if the client is very cautious, the firms fees are high, the negative consequences of bad service are grave, or business is dif- ficult to ob
3、tain through referrals and word-of-mouth. However, an unconditional guarantee can sometimes hinder marketing efforts. With its implication that failure is possible, the guarantee may, paradoxically, cause clients to doubt the service firm s ability to deliver the promised level of service. It may co
4、nflict with a firms desire to appear sophisticated, or may even suggest that a firm is begging for business. In legal and health care services, it may mislead clients by suggesting that law suits or medical procedures will have guaranteed outcomes. Indeed, professional service firms with outstanding
5、 reputations and performance to match have little to gain from offering unconditional guarantees. And any firm that implements an unconditional guarantee without undertaking a commensurate commitment to quality of service is merely employing a potentially costly marketing gimmick. 1 The primary func
6、tion of the passage as a whole is to （ A） account for the popularity of a practice. （ B） evaluate the utility of a practice. （ C） demonstrate how to institute a practice. （ D） weigh the ethics of using a strategy. （ E） explain the reasons for pursuing a strategy. 2 All of the following are mentioned
7、 in the passage as circumstances in which professional service firms can benefit from offering an unconditional guarantee EXCEPT: （ A） The firm is having difficulty retaining its clients of long standing. （ B） The firm is having difficulty getting business through client recommendations. （ C） The fi
8、rm charges substantial fees for its services. （ D） The adverse effects of poor performance by the firm are significant for the client. （ E） The client is reluctant to incur risk. 3 Which of the following is cited in the passage as a goal of some professional service firms in offering unconditional g
9、uarantees of satisfaction? （ A） A limit on the firms liability. （ B） Successful competition against other firms. （ C） Ability to justify fee increases. （ D） Attainment of an outstanding reputation in a field. （ E） Improvement in the quality of the firms service. 4 The passages description of the iss
10、ue raised by unconditional guarantees for health care or legal services most clearly implies that which of the following is true? （ A） The legal and medical professions have standards of practice that would be violated by attempts to fulfill such unconditional guarantees. （ B） The result of a lawsui
11、t of medical procedure cannot necessarily be determined in advance by the professionals handling a clients case. （ C） The dignity of the legal and medical professions is undermined by any attempts at marketing of professional services, including unconditional guarantees. （ D） Clients whose lawsuits
12、or medical procedures have unsatisfactory outcomes cannot be adequately compensated by financial settlements alone. （ E） Predicting the monetary cost of legal or health care services is more difficult than predicting the monetary cost of other types of professional services. 5 Which of the following
13、 hypothetical situations best exemplifies the potential problem noted in the second sentence of the second paragraph(lines 19 23)? （ A） A physicians unconditional guarantee of satisfaction encourages patients to sue for malpractice if they are unhappy with the treatment they receive. （ B） A lawyers
14、unconditional guarantee of satisfaction makes clients suspect that the lawyer needs to find new clients quickly to increase the firms income. （ C） A business consultants unconditional guarantee of satisfaction is undermined when the consultant fails to provide all of the services that are promised.
15、（ D） An architects unconditional guarantee of satisfaction makes clients wonder how often the architect s buildings fail to please clients. （ E） An accountants unconditional guarantee of satisfaction leads clients to believe that tax returns prepared by the accountant are certain to be accurate. 6 T
16、he passage most clearly implies which of the following about the professional service firms mentioned in line 30? （ A） They are unlikely to have offered unconditional guarantees of satisfaction in the past. （ B） They are usually profitable enough to be able to compensate clients according to the ter
17、ms of an unconditional guarantee. （ C） They usually practice in fields in which the outcomes are predictable. （ D） Their fees are usually more affordable than those charged by other professional service firms. （ E） Their clients are usually already satisfied with the quality of service that is deliv
18、ered. 6 Although genetic mutations in bacteria and viruses can lead to epidemics, some epidemics are caused by bacteria and viruses that have undergone no sig- nificant genetic change. In analyzing the latter, scientists have discovered the importance of social and ecological factors to epidemics. P
19、oliomyelitis, for example, emerged as an epidemic in the United States in the twentieth century; by then, modern sanitation was able to delay exposure to polio until adolescence or adulthood, at which time polio infection produced paralysis. Previously, in- fection had occurred during infancy, when
20、it typically provided lifelong immunity without paralysis. Thus, the hygiene that helped prevent typhoid epidemics indirectly fostered a paralytic po- lio epidemic. Another example is Lyme disease, which is caused by bacteria that are transmitted by deer ticks. It occurred only sporadically during t
21、he late nineteenth century but has recently be- come prevalent in parts of the United States, largely due to an increase in the deer population that occurred simultaneously with the growth of the suburbs and increased outdoor recreational activ- ities in the deers habitat. Similarly, an outbreak of
22、dengue hemorrhagic fever became an epidemic in Asia in the 1950s because of ecological changes that caused Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits the dengue virus, to proliferate. The stage is now set in the United States for a dengue epidemic because of the inadvertent introduction and wide dis
23、semination of another mosquito, Aedes albopictus. 7 The passage suggests that a lack of modern sanitation would make which of the following most likely to occur? （ A） An outbreak of Lyme disease. （ B） An outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever. （ C） An epidemic of typhoid. （ D） An epidemic of paralytic
24、 polio among infants. （ E） An epidemic of paralytic polio among adolescents and adults. 8 According to the passage, the outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the 1950 s occurred for which of the following reasons? （ A） The mosquito Aedes aegypti was newly introduced into Asia. （ B） The mosquito Ae
25、des aegypti became more numerous. （ C） The mosquito Aedes albopictus became infected with the dengue virus. （ D） Individuals who would normally acquire immunity to the dengue virus as infants were not infected until later in life. （ E） More people began to visit and inhabit areas in which mosquitos
26、live and breed. 9 It can be inferred from the passage that Lyme disease has become prevalent in parts of the United States because of which of the following? （ A） The inadvertent introduction of Lyme disease bacteria to the United States. （ B） The inability of modern sanitation methods to eradicate
27、Lyme disease bacteria. （ C） A genetic mutation in Lyme disease bacteria that makes them more virulent. （ D） The spread of Lyme disease bacteria from infected humans to noninfected humans. （ E） An increase in the number of humans who encounter deer ticks. 10 Which of the following can most reasonably
28、 be concluded about the mosquito Aedes albopictus on the basis of information given in the passage? （ A） It is native to the United States. （ B） It can proliferate only in Asia. （ C） It transmits the dengue virus. （ D） It caused an epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the 1950s. （ E） It replaced
29、Aedes aegypti in Asia when ecological changes altered Aedes aegyptis habitat. 11 Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage? （ A） A paradox is stated, discussed and left unresolved. （ B） Two opposing explanations are presented, argued, and reconciled. （ C） A theory is prop
30、osed and is then followed by descriptions of three experiments that support the theory. （ D） A generalization is stated and is then followed by three instances that support the generalization. （ E） An argument is described and is then followed by three counterexamples that refute the argument. 12 Wh
31、ich of the following, if true, would most strengthen the authors assertion about the cause of the Lyme disease outbreak in the United States? （ A） The deer population was smaller in the late nineteenth century than in the mid-twentieth century. （ B） Interest in outdoor recreation began to grow in th
32、e late nineteenth century. （ C） In recent years the suburbs have stopped growing. （ D） Outdoor recreation enthusiasts routinely take measures to protect themselves against Lyme disease. （ E） Scientists have not yet developed a vaccine that can prevent Lyme disease. 12 Two modes of argumentation have
33、 been used on behalf of womens emancipation in Western societies. Arguments in what could be called the “relational“ feminist tradition maintain the doctrine of “equality in difference,“ or equity as distinct for equality. They posit that biological distinctions between the sexes result in a necessa
34、ry sexual division of labor in the family and throughout society and that women s procreative labor is currently undervalued by society, to the disadvantage of women. By contrast, the individualist feminist tradi- tion emphasizes individual human rights and celebrates women s quest for personal auto
35、nomy, while downplaying the importance of gender roles and minimizing discussion of childbearing and its at- tendant responsibilities. Before the late nineteenth century, these views coexisted within the feminist movement, often within the writings of the same individual. Between 1890 and 1920, howe
36、ver, relational feminism, which had been the dominant strain in feminist thought, and which still pre-dominates among European and non-Western feminists, lost ground in England and the United States. Because the concept of individual rights was already well established in the Anglo-Saxon legal and p
37、olitical tradition, individualist feminism came to predominate in English-speaking countries. At the same time, the goals of the two approaches began to seem increasingly irreconcilable. Individualist feminists began to advocate a totally gender-blind system with equal rights for all. Relational fem
38、inists, while agreeing that equal educational and economic opportunities outside the home should be available for all women, continued to em- phasize womens special contributions to society as homemakers and mothers; they demanded special treatment including protective legislation for women workers,
39、 state-sponsored maternity benefits, and paid compensation for housework. Relational arguments have a major pitfall : because they underline women s physiological and psychological distinc- tiveness, they are often appropriated by political adversaries and used to endorse male privilege. But the ind
40、ividualist approach, by attacking gender roles, denying the significance of physiological difference, and condemning existing familial institutions as hopelessly patriarchal, has often simply treated as irrelevant the family roles important to many women. If the individualist framework, with its cla
41、im for womens autonomy, could be harmonized with the family-oriented concerns of relational feminists, a more fruitful model for contemporary feminist politics could emerge. 13 The author of the passage alludes to the well-established nature of the concept of individual rights in the Anglo-Saxon leg
42、al and political tradition in order to （ A） illustrate the influence of individualist feminist thought on more general intellectual trends in English history. （ B） argue that feminism was already a part of the larger Anglo-Saxon intellectual tradition, even though this has often gone unnoticed by cr
43、itics of womens emancipation. （ C） explain the decline in individualist thinking among feminists in non-English-speaking countries. （ D） help account for an increasing shift toward individualist feminism among feminists in English-speaking countries. （ E） account for the philosophical differences be
44、tween individualist and relational feminists in English-speaking countries. 14 The passage suggests that the author of the passage believes which of the following? （ A） The predominance of individualist feminism in English-speaking countries is a historical phenomenon, the causes of which have not y
45、et been investigated. （ B） The individualist and relational feminist views are irreconcilable, given their theoretical differences concerning the foundations of society. （ C） A consensus concerning the direction of future feminist politics will probably soon emerge, given the awareness among feminis
46、ts of the need for cooperation among women. （ D） Political adversaries of feminism often misuse arguments predicated on differences between the sexes to argue that the existing social system should be maintained. （ E） Relational feminism provides the best theoretical framework for contemporary femin
47、ist politics, but individualist feminism could contribute much toward refining and strengthening modern feminist thought. 15 It can be inferred from the passage that the individualist feminist tradition denies the validity of which of the following causal statements? （ A） A division of labor in a so
48、cial group can result in increased efficiency with regard to the performance of group tasks. （ B） A division of labor in a social group causes inequities in the distribution of opportunities and benefits among group members. （ C） A division of labor on the basis of gender in a social group is necess
49、itated by the existence of sex-linked biological differences between male and female members of the group. （ D） Culturally determined distinctions based on gender in a social group foster the existence of differing attitudes and opinions among group members. （ E） Educational programs aimed at reducing inequalities based on gender among members of a social group can result in a sense of greater well-being for all members of the group. 16 According to the passage, relational feminists and individualist feminists agree that （ A） individual human rights take pre
