1、专业英语八级（社会类阅读理解）模拟试卷 1及答案与解析 0 Mary Rich worked for a hospital in northern New Jersey for 25 years, first as a registered nurse and later as an executive. One of the jobs benefits was a traditional pension that she expected to receive at retirement. Now that benefit seems unlikely to be around by the
2、 time she retires. Richs financially troubled former employer, the Hospital Center at Orange (HCO), shut down in 2004. The pension plan currently has $5.25 million in assets, which are being distributed at the rate of $2.7 million per year. By the time Rich reaches retirement 12 years from now, the
3、money will be gone. Under normal conditions, a pension plan such as HCOs would have been back-stopped by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, the federally sponsored agency that insures most private sector pension plans. When plans go belly up, PBGC takes them over and continues to make paymen
4、ts; most participants receive 100 percent of promised benefits. But HCOs case wasnt typical. A year before it closed, HCO had declared itself to be a “church plan“ meaning that it was claiming an exemption to federal pension law and PBGC coverage. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, known a
5、s ERISA, regulates most private-sector pensions. But it has always exempted plans operated directly by churches for their clergy and employees to make it easier for the churches to operate their plans. A 1980 amendment to ERISA clarified that the exemption also applied to church pension boards, whic
6、h administer group pension plans for church employees. But since then, a growing number of plan sponsors with less-direct ties to religious organizations have been declaring themselves church plans and asking the Internal Revenue Service to issue private-letter rulings confirming the exemptions, whi
7、ch free the plans from federal funding requirements. They can stop paying PBGC insurance premiums and can even receive a refund of up to six years of insurance premiums probably a total of about $200,000 in HCOs case. From 1997 to 2007, 85 pension plans received refunds from PBGC as a result of chur
8、ch plan rulings affecting thousands of workers, according to the Pension Rights Center, a non-profit advocacy group, which received the data from PBGC via a Freedom of Information Act request. The PRC says most of the employers were hospitals, but exemptions were also granted to universities, health
9、 clinics and Catholic and Jewish charities. The HCO church plan claim was based on its 1998 affiliation with Cathedral Healthcare System, a Catholic hospital system controlled by the Archdiocese of Newark. But HCO had been a freestanding non-profit hospital from its founding in 1873 up until the aff
10、iliation. “The key problem is that the IRS is using a standard that allows these affiliate organizations to become church plans when there is no economic substance to their relationship with churches,“ said James Keightley, a partner at the law firm Keightley & Ashner LLP and a former PBGC general c
11、ounsel. In 2004, HCO plan participants sued the hospital, the Archdiocese, the PBGC and the IRS. The lawsuit was dismissed the following year and a settlement was reached because no pension recipients had yet been harmed, and because the IRS stated that it would reconsider the matter. But the IRS di
12、dnt take action until last fall, when it made a tacit admission that it was wrong in the HCO case. In the future, the IRS said, church status would be granted only to pension plans that were first established as church plans and maintained as such continuously. This week, the comment period will clo
13、se on another closely watched church plan situation in New Jersey, St. Peters Healthcare System, a New Brunswick, New Jersey, hospital that is part of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. St. Peters applied to the IRS for a church-plan ruling in 2006. Its plan covers over 3,000 current and retired w
14、orkers. The pension plan was frozen in 2010, with new employees enrolled in a defined contribution retirement plan. St. Peters spokesman Phil Hartman notes that the hospital was created by an order of nuns and that it has considered itself to have offered a church plan since 2007. But he added that
15、St. Peters has operated to this point in compliance with ERISA, has made all the required PBGC insurance contributions ($2 million since 2006) and intends to continue doing so even if it receives a church plan private letter ruling from the IRS. “The main incentive for us was to get more flexibility
16、 in the timing and method of funding the pension plan,“ said Hartman. The IRS told Reuters in statement that “based on the changes made by, the Service believes that plans of organizations associated with a church or convention or association of churches, may in appropriate cases be church plans.“ P
17、BGC and the Archdiocese of Newark declined to comment. PRC hopes that the new notification requirements will prompt plan sponsors who had been seeking private letter rulings to drop their plans. Meanwhile, Mary Rich and other plan beneficiaries have been engaged in a nine-year battle to restore PBGC
18、 protection to their plan, and the latest temporary legal settlement expires at the end of this year. From Reuters, January 25, 2012 1 Mary Richs problem was that_. （ A） she had to work for a hospital for 25 years （ B） she would not receive the benefit at retirement （ C） she had to begin as a regist
19、ered nurse and later as an executive （ D） her former employer was in financial trouble 2 Normally, most plan participants in HCO would receive 100 percent of promised benefits from_after it closed down. （ A） churches （ B） the government （ C） PBGC （ D） HCO 3 Why have many plan sponsors declared thems
20、elves church plans even if they have no direct ties to religious organizations? （ A） Because they believe in religious organizations. （ B） Because they can receive financial aid from churches. （ C） Because they want to help more people. （ D） Because they can save a lot of money. 4 What was the IRSs
21、decision after the HCOs case? （ A） It would reconsider the matter. （ B） It would not switch pension plans to church plans. （ C） It would pay the plan participants. （ D） It would count the number of church plans throughout the country. 4 Sign language, hip-hop and Maori are just some of the diverse w
22、ays in which all of Shakespeares plays will be performed at Londons Globe Theatre as part of 2012s Cultural Olympiad. The theatres artistic director Dominic Dromgoole described Globe to Globe as both “bizarre and exciting“. He said it will be the first time a full Shakespeare play is performed in Br
23、itish Sign Language for an audience of both deaf and hearing people. Each play is in a different language. Globe to Globe, which is produced by the theatre, is part of the World Shakespeare Festival (WSF), which will include thousands of global performers in 70 shows as well as a British Museum exhi
24、bition. The WSF is part of London 2012 Festival, which is organised by the Cultural Olympiad a cultural celebration for next years Olympics. Dromgoole spoke at the launch of Globe to Globe of the “overwhelming enthusiasm from the international community to come here“. He said the Globe, on the banks
25、 of Londons River Thames, was a “temple of theatre and Shakespeare“ and that he had been surprised by its ability to “bring in heavyweight international theatre companies“. Definitely Theatre from London, has translated and will perform the text of Loves Labours Lost in British Sign Language (BSL).
26、Dromgoole described the performance as a “thrilling theatrical adventure for anyone“. Othello is to be staged in hip-hop by the “delightfully cheeky“ Q Brothers from Chicago in the US, Dromgoole said, adding they offer a “fresh, urban take on Shakespeares tragedy“ which will be “spun out, smashed up
27、 and lyrically rewritten over original beats“. Cymbeline will be performed by a specially formed theatre company from the newly independent South Sudan, which became a country in its own right in July this year following decades of conflict. Dromgoole said the company had sent him a 20-page document
28、 requesting participation in Globe to Globe, adding: “The size of their desire to come here was simply overwhelming. “Out of the horrific troubles suffered by this countrys people, the first signs of hope for the future are springing. This production marks an historic step for the countrys future.“
29、Theatre companies from the Balkans Serbia, Albania and Macedonia will each perform one of the three Henry VI plays, which focus on the turbulent civil Wars of the Roses in 15th century England. Describing the Balkan trilogy as a performance of “electrifying plays“, he said it will be the first time
30、they have all been performed at the Globe. One of the stars of the 2002 film Whale Rider, Rawiri Para-tene, has produced New Zealands version of Troilus and Cressida featuring the haka, waiata and many other aspects of Maori culture. The film received an Oscar nomination for best actress. Despite th
31、e variety of languages being used for the performances, surtitles translating the text into English will not be used. Surtitles are translated or transcribed dialogue or lyrics projected above a stage or displayed on a screen for the audience. The Globes artistic director has described them as an “i
32、ncessant distraction“ and said they would be used during the Globe performances only to describe the action of the scene. He also spoke of the “joy of hearing stories in unfamiliar languages“ but said that the Globe was still going to send “ambassadors“ to ex-pat communities in the UK to encourage p
33、eople to go and hear Shakespeare in their own tongue. The “ambassadors“ will visit the South Korean community in Kingston-upon-Thames, Bangla speakers in Tower Hamlets and Brazilians in Stockwell, Brent and Bayswater. He said he hoped Globe to Globe “might be something that would greatly appeal“. He
34、 added that the event will cost about 1.8m in total and that 45% of the costs would be covered by box office. The Globe has also received funding from the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog). The languages represented in the Globe to Globe season are: Afrikaans, A
35、lbanian, Argentine Spanish, Armenian, Bangla, Belarusian, Brazilian Portuguese, British Sign Language, Cantonese, Castilian Spanish, Dari Persian, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hip-Hop, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Italian, Japanese, Juba Arabic, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedo
36、nian, Mandarin, Maori, Mexican Spanish, Palestinian Arabic, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Setswana, Shona, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu and Yoruba. The countries and territories they represent are Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, China, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, H
37、ong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA and Zimbabwe. Globe to Globe will run for six weeks, starting on Shakespeares birthday next ye
38、ar on 23 April. Ticket prices start at 5, and a 100 Yard Olympian ticket will grant you admission to all the plays. There are other multi-buy tickets available each with an Olympic-themed name. From BBC, September 27, 2011 5 All of Shakespeares plays will be performed at Londons Globe Theatre in div
39、erse ways EXCEPT_. （ A） body language （ B） sign language （ C） hip-hop （ D） Maori 6 _features many aspects of Maori culture. （ A） Othello in Hip-hop （ B） Cymbeline performed by a specially formed theatre company （ C） Henry VI plays performed by theatre companies from the Balkans （ D） New Zealands ver
40、sion of Troilus and Cressida 7 Surtitles will not be employed because_. （ A） they are not easy to be translated into English （ B） the audience prefer to hear stories in unfamiliar languages （ C） they will distract the audience （ D） the audience is encouraged to hear stories in their own tongue 8 Nea
41、rly half of the coasts of the event would be covered by_. （ A） Locog （ B） box office （ C） theatre companies （ D） the UN 9 Which of the following statements is NOT true? （ A） The event will cost about 1.8 m. （ B） The event will last for seven weeks. （ C） You can watch all the plays if you buy a 100 Y
42、ard Olympian ticket. （ D） The event is part of 2012s cultural Olympiad. 9 Its been described as one of the greatest Victorian gothic horror stories of all time. Two ships with 129 men on board and fitted with the latest technology, vanish with barely a trace left behind. One hundred and sixty years
43、of searching one attempt as recent as last month have failed to find “HMS Erebus“ and her sister ship, the somewhat appropriately named “HMS Terror“ the two vessels lost in the Arctic. In 1845 British Royal Navy captain Sir John Franklin set out with some of the finest sailors of the time on a missi
44、on to map the Northwest Passage, Franklins expedition wasnt the first to the region, but it is the most infamous. “Why did this fail when all the others didnt,“ asks William Battersby. “There was something jinxed about the expedition.“ Battersby is one of many to be transfixed by the mystery of Fran
45、klins last voyage. “We love adventure stories, of derring-do, win against all odds, but in this story they dont and we still dont know why.“ The environment of the Northwest Passage is unforgiving. The landscape is vast and deserted, comparable only to Jupiters moons. The winters are unrelenting and
46、 bleak. Franklins men were faced with particularly brutally harsh temperatures and blizzards when they reached the region. Despite the ships being reinforced with steel and holding three years worth or provisions, it appears the environment got the better of the crew. “Man proposes, God disposes,“ s
47、ays Bob Headland from the Scott Polar Research Institute, who regularly visits the region. “And the ice gods are a fickle lot.“ The disappearance of the Erebus and the Terror has prompted the longest search mission in history: Although there have been numerous attempts to find the ships, there has b
48、een no sign of them. Ryan Harris from Parks Canada led the most recent mission to try to locate the shipwrecks. Last month, his crews spent hours scouring the ocean floor, searching waters up to 50 meters deep. “Its an incredible story. Its got shipwrecks, the remoteness of the Arctic, putting the m
49、ight of English industrialism against Mother Nature,“ says Harris. Since 1997 Parks Canada has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to locate the “Erebus“ and “Terror.“ The tale of the Franklin expedition has enthralled Canadians the wreckage has the dubious honor of being the only national historic site in Canada that hasnt been found yet. “Once Franklin received his orders that sealed his fate,“ Harris explains. “In directing them south-west into ultimately the Victoria Strait it
