1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 70及答案与解析 0 If you are a youngish man who sits on a European corporate board, you should worry: the chances are that your chairman wants to give your seat to a woman. In January the lower house of Frances parliament approved a new law which would force companies to lift the proportion
2、of women on their boards to 40% by 2016. The law would oblige Frances 40 biggest listed firms to put women into 169 seats currently occupied by men. Spain has also introduced a quota at 40% , to be reached by 2015. Italy and the Netherlands are contemplating similar measures. This week Britains gove
3、rnment threatened to make companies report formally on their recruitment of female directors. Compared with America, where women held 15% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies in 2009 according to Catalyst, a lobbying organization, European countries have relatively few female board members. Brita
4、in is not too far behind at 12% , according to a survey of Europes 300 biggest firms by the European Professional Womens Network(EPWN). Spain, Italy, France and Germany, however, all lag behind the European average of 10%. The exception is Scandinavia, and in particular, Norway, where quotas for wom
5、en on boards originated. In 2005 the government gave listed firms two years to put women in 40% of board seats on pain of liquidation. Businessmen howled. Riulf Rustad, a professional investor with stakes in several Norwegian companies, said 70% of the new recruits would fail. In fact, there have be
6、en no obvious disasters. But a close look at Norway nonetheless suggests that imposing high gender quotas with tight deadlines can be bad for companies. The usual arguments for adding women directors are that diverse boards are more creative and innovative, less inclined to “ groupthink“ and likely
7、to be more independent from senior management. Numerous studies show that high proportions of women directors coincide with superior corporate performance. But there is little academically accepted evidence of a causal relationship. It may be that thriving firms allow themselves the luxury of attend
8、ing to social issues such as board diversity, whereas poorly performing ones batten down the hatches. Women do seem to be particularly effective board members at companies where things are going wrong. A 2008 paper on the impact of female directors by Renee Adams and Daniel Ferreira of the Universit
9、y of Queensland and the London School of Economics found that bosses of American firms whose shares perform poorly are more likely to be fired if the firm has a relatively high number of women directors. On average, however, the paper concluded that firms perform worse as the proportion of women on
10、the board increases. There is certainly no shortage of companies capable of producing stellar results with few or no women on the board. LVMH, a successful French luxury-goods group whose customers are mostly women, has had just one female director over the past ten years: Delphine Arnault, daughter
11、 of the firms chief executive and controlling shareholder. Nor is there any doubt that in many cases low female representation also reflects a broader lack of meritocracy in corporate culture. In France, for instance, interlocking board memberships are common. Women, and many other deserving busines
12、speople, are excluded from the system. Emma Marcegaglia, head of Confindustria, Italys main business lobby, says the dearth of women on boards and in management mainly reflects a controlling male elite at the top of business, the members of which have hardly changed for the past 30 years.(Silvio Ber
13、lusconi, Italys prime minister and a prominent tycoon, last year referred to Ms Marcegaglia as a “velina“ or showgirl.) But what most prevents women from reaching the boardroom, say bosses and headhunters, is lack of hands-on experience of a firms core business. Too many women go into functional rol
14、es such as accounting, marketing or human resources early in their careers rather than staying in the mainstream, driving profits. Some do so by choice, but others fear they will not get ahead in more chauvinist parts of a business. Getting men to show up at every board meeting another effect of hav
15、ing more women on boards is all very well, but what firms really need is savvy business advice. Yet according to EPWN, the pipeline of female executives is “almost empty“: women occupy only 3% of executive roles on boards, compared with 12% of non-executive ones. That suggests that the best way to i
16、ncrease the number of women on boards is to ensure that more women gain the right experience further down the corporate hierarchy. That may be a slower process than imposing a quota, but it is also likely to be a more meaningful and effective one. 1 According to the first three paragraphs, which of
17、the following is CORRECT? （ A） French firms have to give the 169 positions held by men to women by 2016. （ B） British companies would have to add women to their boardrooms after this week. （ C） Quotas for women policy dont arouse obvious sensation among the businessmen in Norway. （ D） The reason for
18、 European countries to impose quotas for women is that they lag behind America. 2 Which of the following will the author most probably agree with? （ A） Boardrooms with more women will be more likely to have new ideas. （ B） Boardrooms with more women tend to perform better than those with less. （ C）
19、Women can lead the boardrooms to think more independently. （ D） Boardrooms with more women may lead to worse performance. 3 The author quotes the example of LVMH in the fifth paragraph to_. （ A） show that Delphine Arnault is a successful female chief executive （ B） illustrate that a company with a f
20、ew women can still be very successful （ C） convince us that the company should list more female directors to get more success （ D） prove that a comparatively high number of females will produce good result 4 According to the passage, what is the real reason in blocking women from the higher position
21、s? （ A） The deficiency of experience on the mainstream of the corporations. （ B） The relatively bad performance of the corporations. （ C） The male-elite system existing among the corporations. （ D） The hierarchical system among the corporations. 5 It can be inferred from the passage that_. （ A） all
22、the European countries fall behind the average as far as the women on boards are concerned （ B） the more females in the boardroom, the better the corporations performance will be （ C） females first choice of their career may exert far-lasting influences on their future development （ D） meritocracy i
23、n the corporation is the root that causes low female representation 5 The bizarre antics of sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers for centuries. There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Person have been said to climb on steep roofs, solve mat
24、hematical problems, compose music, walk though plate glass windows, and commit murder in their sleep. How many of these stories have a basic in fact, and how many are pure fakery? No one knows, but if some of the most sensational stories should be taken with a barrel of salt, others are a matter of
25、record. There is an early medical record of a somnambulist who wrote a novel in his sleep. And the great French writer Voltaire knew a sleepwalker who once got out of bed, dressed himself, made a polite bow, danced a minuet, and then undressed and went back to bed. At the University of Iowa, a stude
26、nt was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Iowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed. The worlds champion sleepwalker was supposed to have been an Indian, Pandit Ramrakha, who walked sixteen miles
27、along a dangerous road without realizing that he had left his bed. The leading expert on sleep in American is Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist at the University of Chicago. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years had lost a lot of sl
28、eep watching people sleep. Says he, “Of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepwalkers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt that Id get many takers. “ Sleepwalking, nevertheless,
29、is a scientific reality. Like hypnosis, it is one of those dramatic, eerie, awe-inspiring phenomena that sometimes border on the fantastic. What is certain about sleepwalking is that it is a symptom of emotional disturbance, and that the only way to cure it is to remove the worries and anxieties tha
30、t cause it. The simplest explanation of sleepwalking is that it is the acting out of vivid dream. The dream usually comes from guilt, worry, nervousness, or some other emotional conflict. The classic sleepwalker is Shakespeares Lady Mac Beth. Her nightly wanderings were caused by her guilty conscien
31、ce at having committed murder. Shakespeare said of her, “The eyes are open but their sense is shut. “ The age-old question is: Is the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep? Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Like Lady Mac Beth, she had weighty problems on her mind. Dr. Zelda Tepl
32、itz, who made a ten-year study of the subject, say, “Some people stay awake all night worrying about their problems. The sleepwalker thrashes them out in his sleep. He is awake in the muscular area, partially asleep in the sensory area.“ In other words, a person can walk in his sleep, move around, a
33、nd do other things, but he does not think about what he is doing. There are many myths about sleepwalkers. One of the most common is the idea that its dangerous or even fatal to waken a sleepwalker abruptly. Experts say that the shock suffered by a sleepwalker suddenly awakened is no greater than th
34、at suffered in waking up to the noise of an alarm clock. Another mistaken belief is that sleepwalkers are immune to injury. Actually most sleepwalkers trip over rugs or bump their heads on doors at some time or other. What are the chances of a sleepwalker committing a murder or doing something else
35、extraordinary in his sleep? Some cases of this have been reported, but they very rarely happen. Of course the few cases that are reported receive a great deal of publicity. Dr. Teplitz say, “Most people have such great inhibitions against murder or violence that they would awaken if someone didnt wa
36、ken them. “ In general, authorities on sleepwalking agree with her. They think that people will not do anything in their sleep that is against their own moral code. As for the publicized cases, Dr. Teplitz points out, “Sleepwalking itself is dramatic.sleepwalkers can always find an audience. I think
37、 that some of their tall tales get exaggerated in the telling.“ In her own file of case histories, there is not one sleepwalker who ever got beyond his own front door. Parent often explain their childrens or their own nocturnal oddities as sleepwalking. Sleepwalking is used as an excuse for all kind
38、s of irrational behavior. There is a case on record of a woman who dreamed that her house was on fire and flung her baby out of the window. Dr. Teplitz believes that this instance of irrational behavior was not due to somnambulism. She believes the woman was seriously deranged or insane, not a sleep
39、walker. Children who walk in their sleep usually outgrow the habit. In many adults, too, the condition is more or less temporary. If it happens often, however, the sleepwalker should seek help. Although sleepwalking itself is nothing to become alarmed about, the problems that cause the sleepwalking
40、may be very serious. 6 What does the phrase “taken with a barrel of salt“ mean in the second paragraph? （ A） Rampant. （ B） Conceivable. （ C） Enormous. （ D） Implausible. 7 Who was believed to deserve the worlds championship of sleepwalking? （ A） The man walked sixteen miles along a dangerous road. （
41、B） The boy walked five hours in his sleep. （ C） The student habitually walked to the Iowa River and swam in his sleep. （ D） The man danced a minuet in his sleep. 8 According to the passage, which of the following is CORRECT about sleepwalking? （ A） It is caused by emotional conflict. （ B） It is the
42、acting out of a vivid dream. （ C） Somnambulists are asleep during their sleepwalking. （ D） It is dangerous to waken a sleepwalker. 9 Which statement is CORRECT concerning Dr. Zelda Teplitz? （ A） He studies sleepwalking for at least ten years. （ B） He concludes that sleepwalkers are totally asleep in
43、 their sensory area. （ C） He maintains that it is a mistaken belief that sleepwalkers are immune to injury. （ D） He is the leading expert on sleep in America. 10 At the end of the passage, the writer makes it obvious that_. （ A） sleepwalkers are often awakened by dangers （ B） the underlying cause of
44、 sleepwalking is more serious than sleepwalking itself （ C） most sleepwalkers are deranged or insane （ D） most children will fall into habitual sleepwalking behavior when they grow up 10 “You are the salt of the earth.“ This figure of speech is plain and pungent. Salt is savory, purifying, preservat
45、ive. It is one of those superfluities which the great French wit defined as“things that are very necessary“. A bag of salt, among the barbarous tribes, was worth more than a man. The Jews prized it especially, because their religion laid particular emphasis on cleanliness, and because salt was large
46、ly used in their sacrifices. Christ chose an image which was familiar, when he said to his disciples,“You are the salt of the earth. “This was his conception of their mission, their influence. They were to cleanse and sweeten the world in which they lived, to keep it from decay, to give a new and mo
47、re wholesome flavor to human existence. Their function was not to be passive, but active. The sphere of its action was to be this present life. There is no use in saving salt for heaven. It will not be needed there. Its mission is to permeate, season, and purify things on earth. Men of privilege wit
48、hout power are waste material. Men of enlightenment without influence are the poorest kind of rubbish. Men of intellectual and moral and religious culture, who are not active forces for good in society, are not worth what it costs to produce and keep them. If they pass for Christians they are guilty
49、 of obtaining respect under false pretenses. They were meant to be the salt of the earth. And the first duty of salt is to be salty. This is the subject on which I want to speak to you today. The saltiness of salt is the symbol of a noble, powerful, truly religious life. You college students are men of privilege. It costs ten times as much, in labor and care and money, to bring you out where you are today, as it costs to educate the average man, and a hundred times as much as it costs to raise a boy without any education. This fact brings you face t
