1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 113及答案与解析 SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A , B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. 0 (1)Wh
2、en times are good, they are very, very good for consultants. But when they are bad, they are horrid. As the economy stalled in 2009, the global consulting industry shrank by 9.1%. It was the worst year since at least 1982, according to Kennedy Information, an industry monitor. (2)Now the kids are ba
3、ck in the conference rooms. Companies that shelved plans during the recession are dusting them off and looking for help. And the work is more cheerful. When bosses did hire consultants in 2009, 87% of projects were aimed at cutting costs rather than boosting growth, says Kennedy. This year, just 47%
4、 of project spending will be on cutting costs. The rest will go on growth plans, from mergers to installing new computer systems. But not all will benefit equally. (3)Consulting is a diverse industry. Best known are the elite strategy consultancies such as McKinsey & Co, the Boston Consulting Group(
5、BCG)and Bain. Firms such as AT Kearney, Booz & Company and Oliver Wyman do the same sort of work but are smaller. A second category comprises the consulting units of the Big Four accounting firmsPwC, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young. All but Deloitte shed their consulting units in the early 2000s, a
6、mid post-Enron fears of conflict-of-interest, but have since grown new ones. A third group consists of technology firms with big consulting businesses, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, which focus on installing and integrating computer systems. Finally, some consultants are hard to distinguish from
7、pure outsourcing firms. (4)Strategy consulting, the most famous variety, is also the most controversial. “I like to con people. And I like to insult people. If you combine con and insult, you get consult,“ observes Dogbert, a comic-strip character. Many firms share this harsh view of me highly paid
8、advisers who walk in and tell them to re-invent their businesses. Spending on strategy consulting is expected to grow by an annual average of just 1.1% to 2014(it currently accounts for 12% of all spending on consulting). But more ordinary work is booming. Kennedy forecasts that consulting on operat
9、ions-management(advice on how to do the same things better)will grow by 5.1% a year, that on IT by 3.9% and that on personnel by 4.0%, between 2010 and 2014. (5)North America invented the strategic consultant, but appears not to need many more. Western Europe seems satiated, too. Companies are now p
10、acked with MBA-holding bosses, many of them former consultants. Well-run companies still know when they need outside expertise, which is why strategy consulting is far from dead. But it is increasingly overshadowed by the less glamorous variety. Small wonder, then, that the strategy houses are compe
11、ting for that work. BCG was one of just three big firms to grow(by about 3%)in 2009, and had a good 2010, expanding by some 12%. It is expecting an even better 2012, with 15% growth. One reason is rapid growth in emerging markets. But BCG, like the other strategy firms, has also made money by grabbi
12、ng a larger share of “downstream“ work. (6)This is bringing the strategy shops into competition with the biggest players: the Big Four audit firms. They are buying specialist firms in areas such as technology and health care, thus expanding their size and reach by both specialism and geography. In A
13、merica they are forbidden from selling consulting to their audit clients. But elsewhere the rules are looser, giving the Big Four a potential “one-stop-shop“ offer. Everywhere, they have scale that impresses clients. But those clients are driving harder bargains. (7)In the past two decades most cons
14、ulting firms have attached many junior consultants to projects with just a few senior people and partners, moving this army into the clients offices and billing for as many hours as possible. But increasingly, clients are refusing to pay for junior staffs on-the-job training. Instead, they are askin
15、g for fewer and better consultants and setting them to work alongside their own staff. (8)In short, consulting is looking less like a licence to print money and more like temporary labour. Clients can bypass the big names and hire consultancies such as Eden McCallum, a British firm that packages tea
16、ms of experienced independent consultants, or Point B, an American firm that provides only a project manager, letting the client select the team. Big consulting firms(with their big brands)can probably coexist with smaller operators. But midsized firms, which cannot command the same fees and loyalty
17、 as the big boys, are feeling the squeeze. 1 Which of the following is NOT the purpose of consulting projects? （ A） To reduce costs. （ B） To enhance development. （ C） To manage operations. （ D） To remodel business. 2 How many types of consulting companies are there in the consulting industry? （ A） T
18、wo. （ B） Three. （ C） Four. （ D） Five. 3 Which of the following statements is true according to the fifth paragraph? （ A） Strategy consulting firms are no longer needed. （ B） Strategy consulting business thrives in Europe. （ C） Strategy consultants are in great demand. （ D） Some proportion of strateg
19、y consulting has been occupied by its peers. 4 Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Big Four? （ A） They have acquired companies in technological field. （ B） They can offer consulting service to their audit clients anywhere. （ C） They have their own consulting branch. （ D） They are
20、 globally-operated firms. 4 (1)One of the Labour Partys many transformations during Tony Blairs leadership was its conversion to environmentalism. A party with its roots in dirty, heavy industry such as coal-mines and blast-furnaces presented itself as an eco-friendly guardian of the planets future.
21、 The most visible form of this was a commitment, in Labours 1997 manifesto, to cut 20% off British greenhouse-gas emissions by 2010 compared with their 1990 levels. That went above and beyond the 12.5% required by the Kyoto treaty. (2)This pledge has been repeated as recently as the last election, b
22、ut the promises have not stood up to reality. Since 1999, British greenhouse-gas emissions have been broadly unchanged. Disillusionment among environmentalists has gradually given way to an anger which found an attention-grabbing means of expression this week, when Greenpeace dumped a lorry-load of
23、coal outside Downing Street. Stephen Tindale, its boss and a former government adviser, accused Mr. Blair of empty rhetoric. (3)So far, Britain has had an easy ride cutting emissions. The rhythm of technological change and relatively painless policy choices have helped put the country on course to m
24、eet its Kyoto obligations. In an attempt to rescue the 20% target, ministers have ordered a policy review. The review acknowledged that cutting emissions further will be hard. (4)Power generation is a good example of why. The governments “flagship policy“ on climate change has been to offer subsidie
25、s to renewable energy. But much of the cut in emissions predates these handouts and owed more to economy than ecology. Newly liberalized electricity firms replaced old, dirty coal-fired power plants with new, clean gas-fired ones in the “dash for gas“ in the 1990s because they were cheaper, not beca
26、use they were cleaner that was just a happy coincidence. (5)Industry already bears the brunt of Britains climate commitments through the Climate Change Levy, a tax on energy use, and the European Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS), which allocates tradable emissions limits for firms. Introducing new rest
27、rictions will be politically difficult. Ministers tacitly acknowledged as much last year, when they bowed to industry pressure to seek a rise, in Britains European emissions allowances. (6)So, too, in transport, where emissions have risen by 10% since 1990 and which now accounts for a quarter of Bri
28、tains greenhouse-gas output. Most of the emissions come from road transport, but motorists face only weak incentives to buy carbon-friendly cars(the difference in road tax between the most and least efficient is only 115 a year). Labour has been scared of the road lobby ever since the fuel protests
29、of 2000, which brought the country to a halt and ended the policy of annual fuel-tax rises the one measure that might curb emissions. Ministers says they want to bring airlines into the ETS, but that would require Europe-wide cooperation. (7)Many greens pin their hopes on energy efficiency. Many peo
30、ple have already installed insulation and double-glazing, but more is to be done. Higher efficiency standards for new buildings will help, but will take many decades to affect the overall efficiency of Britains dwellings and workplaces. Other savings from conservation tend to call for new habits, wh
31、ich William Blyth, an environmental analyst at Chatham House, reckons will make them difficult to realise. Others worry about the “rebound effect“that, while conservation saves money, the gains are spent on such polluting activities as, say, holidaying abroad, which offset much of the environmental
32、benefit. (8)Mr Blairs domestic reputation is not the only thing at stake. He has been using Britains presidency of the G8 rich nations club to harangue other global leaders on the need for a successor treaty to Kyoto. Preliminary discussions are due to begin later this month at a summit in Montreal.
33、 If Mr Blair cannot present a plausible plan to meet his domestic goals, he will be robbed of international credibility. (9)That would be a blow for the prime minister, who is keen to play a part in the delicate negotiations for a new treaty. Besides, a lack of progress in the talks would make it ha
34、rder for him to impose the policies he needs to defend his domestic targets. Businesses will object to strict regulations without the prospect of their international competitors in America, China and India knuckling under. And while the public claims to be worried about climate change, its concern r
35、uns only so deep. A recent poll from the Stockholm Network, a group of European think-tanks, found that while 94% of Britons thought climate change was important, 62% put economic growth before carbon reduction. In other words, a unilateral carbon-reduction policy is unworkable. (10)A draft document
36、 is not the same thing as government policy, but the signs are not encouraging. The review has 58 separate recommendations, making it seem more a set of quick fixes than a coherent policy. These range from the sensible, but difficult(tightening ETS allocations)to gimmicks(stricter enforcement of spe
37、ed limits on motorways). The draft admits that, even if all of them are adopted, Britain may still miss its target. Mr Blair has been an evangelist on climate change. Now comes the big test of his resolve. 5 Greenpeace dumped a lorry-load of coal outside Downing Street to _. （ A） arouse public atten
38、tion to the use of coal （ B） block the government ministers way to work （ C） criticize Tony Blairs lack of action in cutting British green-house gas emissions （ D） demonstrate that the British Labour Partys 1997 Manifesto was against the Kyoto treaty 6 What does the word “harangue“ mean in the eight
39、h paragraph? （ A） To call upon. （ B） To preach to. （ C） To teach. （ D） To guide. 7 It is suggested in the passage that Britain _. （ A） should take advantage of its presidency of the G8 to change emission standards （ B） would undermine its own position in the G8 if its domestic environment policy fai
40、ls （ C） has disagreement with other developed countries on emission standards （ D） is faced with a government crisis over the issue of green-house gas emissions 8 The author thinks that _. （ A） Britain will be faced with another energy crisis （ B） Tony Blair will lose his domestic credibility （ C） t
41、he Labours 1997 manifesto will fail （ D） the transport industry is key to greenhouse emission cutting 8 (1)The most complex object known to humanity is the human brain and not only is it complex, but it is the seat of one of the few natural phenomena that science has no purchase on at all, namely co
42、nsciousness. To try to replicate something that is so poorly understood may therefore seem like hubris. But you have to start somewhere, and IBM and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne(EPFL), in Switzerland, propose to start by replicating “in silico“, as the jargon has it, one of the brain
43、s building blocks. (2)In a partnership announced on June 6th of 2005, the two organizations said they would be working together to build a simulation of a structure known as a neo-cortical column on a type of IBM supercomputer that is currently used to study the molecular functioning of genes. If th
44、at works, they plan to use future, more powerful computers to link such simulated columns together into something mat mimics a brain. (3)In a real brain, a neo-cortical column is a cylindrical element about a third of a millimeter in diameter and three millimeters long, containing some 10,000 nerve
45、cells. It is these columns, arranged side by side like the cells of a honeycomb, which make up the famous “grey matter“ that has become shorthand for human intelligence. The Blue Gene/L supercomputer mat will be used for the simulation consists of enough independent processors for each to be program
46、med to emulate an individual nerve cell in a column. (4)The EPFLs contribution to the Blue Brain Project, as it has inevitably been dubbed, will be to create a digital description of how the columns behave. Its Brain Mind Institute has what is generally regarded as the worlds most extensive set of d
47、ata on the machinations of the neo-cortex the columns natural habitat and the part of the brain responsible for learning, memory, language and complex thought. This database will provide the raw material for me simulation. Biologists and computer scientists will then collaborate to connect the artif
48、icial nerve cells up in a way that mimics nature. They will do so by assigning electrical properties to them, and telling them how to communicate with each other and how they should modify their connections with one another depending on their activity. (5)That will be no mean feat. Even a single ner
49、ve cell is complicated, not least because each one has about 10,000 connections with others. And nerve cells come in great variety relying, for example, on different chemical transmitters to carry messages across those connections. Eventually, however, a digital representation of an entire column should emerge. (6)This part of the project is expected to take two to three years. From then on, things will go in two directions simultaneously. One will be to “grow“ more columns(the human brain contains about 1 million of mem)and get them
