1、笔译二级综合能力（阅读理解）模拟试卷 6及答案与解析 0 Dubai: A Modern Parable When future generations sit their children down to tell the story of the great crash of the early 21st century, they will surely begin with the parable of a place called Dubai. As the decades pass, and the details become hazy, it will sound like a
2、 Bible story or one of Aesops fables. “This, children, is the tale of a desert king who yearned to rule the most luxurious kingdom in the world. He wanted the tallest building on the planet and hotels of an opulence beyond imagination. Gold and silver tumbled from the sky, until the sands were cover
3、ed with the fastest cars, champagne flowed all night and people dined on gold-dipped, foie-gras-fragranced, lobster-infused maki rolls each one costing 100. “Even nature itself could not stand in the way. Where there were no beaches, the sheikh ordered that beaches be made, crafting them so that, wh
4、en the gods looked down from the heavens, they would see the shape of a palm tree or a map of the world. He spent so much money, so fast, it was impossible to keep up. There was only one problem. The money was all borrowed. And one day, it began to slide back into the sand.“ Perhaps it wont end exac
5、tly that way, but the story is bound to have staying power. For Dubai is a perfect metaphor for the crisis currently crippling global capitalism. The dream of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the autocrat who rules Dubai, was unsustainable in every sense: economically, morally and environmenta
6、lly. But there is no room for first world condescension here, wagging a finger as we tell the Arabs they were deluded to think they could build a financial centre to match the western citadels of London, New York and Frankfurt. We cannot condescend to Dubai because its flaws are ours even if they ar
7、e lit in outlandishly vivid colours. Thats why the money men are already asking themselves who will be next; will it be Greece, wonders the Financial Times, while others fret for Latvia, Hungary and even Ireland. They all made Dubais mistake, if not quite at the same pace. They pulled out the credit
8、 card and went on a wild spending binge-and now the bill has fallen due. But it wasnt just them: weve all been at it. Japan is on course to have a public debt twice the size of its gross domestic product next year, while the US debt is set nearly to equal the countrys economic output. The United Kin
9、gdom is not far behind, with a debt forecast at 89% of GDP. Weve all been living on tick credit. In this sense, the sheikh who wanted the Burj al-Arab to be the worlds only seven-star hotel is not that different from the Florida couple who moved out of the trailer park and into a condo. They both bo
10、ught something they couldnt afford with money that wasnt theirs. Dubai was simply a sub-prime statelet in a sub-prime world. Of course it was economically unsustainable, but the difference between us and them is one of degree rather than kind. Their boom was fuelled by rising property prices that no
11、body thought would ever fall, and by cheap money that kept flowing through the tap marked low interest rates. That sounds familiar, and not only as a description of our recent past. It fits our present, too. Todays regime of near-zero interest rates means that were trying to get ourselves out of the
12、 current hole by the very means that got us into it: spending cash that was borrowed on the cheap. We in Britain have more reason than most to avoid smugness in our view of Dubai. The great criticism of the emirate that sought to be a magnet for finance and tourism is that it was built on nothing. T
13、here was no real economy; Dubai didnt actually make anything. Can post-industrial Britain, reliant on the City Londons traditional financial district and on service industries, really say we are so different? The truth is, we dont make much either. Nevertheless, something else sticks in our craw abo
14、ut Dubai. Its that the eye-popping luxury was built on the backs of foreign workers, toiling in a form of human bondage. Over a million men and women from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and across Asia have turned Dubai from a sleepy village of pearl-divers and fishermen into a shimmering Arabian Las Vega
15、s and have been rewarded with next to no rights and meagre pay. They sleep in labour camps, each one crammed with 3, 000 or more people. In the strict hierarchy of the emirate, their role is to serve the expats and wealthy natives. It is all but a slave society. We are right to find that morally rep
16、ugnant. But we should beware the mote in our own eye. For if the west enjoyed economic boom times for the 15 years that preceded 2008, it did so thanks to low inflation. How did inflation stay so low? Because labour costs were kept down, thanks to millions of Chinese workers prepared to sweat for wa
17、ges we would consider close to slavery. So, yes, we can be repelled at those ladies buying Hermes bags and Manolo Blahniks by the crateload in the Dubai shopping mails. But they werent that different from the folks snapping up the bargains at the European budget-store chain Primark. Both groups rely
18、 on the fact that, far away and out of sight, somebody is prepared to work very hard for very little money. Environmentally, Dubai makes the jaw drop. The air conditioners blowing full blast into the open air, to make the gardens cooler, the de rigueur 4x4s and the indoor ski resort, where sub-zero
19、temperatures are maintained even in the middle of a baking desert no wonder the UAE ranks second in the global league table of per-capita carbon emissions(beaten only by its Gulf neighbour, Qatar). But our own consumption of fossil fuels hardly makes us blameless. In this, as in so much else, Dubai
20、is just like us only more so. Still, the universality of the Dubai parable should not obscure an equally important, and specific, part of the story. Despite the sheikhs best efforts to pretend otherwise, Dubai is not some invented wonderland that could have existed anywhere. It is part of the Persia
21、n Gulf and utterly revealing of that regions ugliest face. For Dubai, like the rest of the emirates and the other Gulf states, did not use its enormous wealth to develop its own people, let alone the peoples of the wider Arab region. Instead, as Durham Universitys Christopher Davidson puts it, “they
22、 just imported what they needed ready-made. “ So the oil-rich Gulf states buy in the architects and the chefs who might present the glitzy front of a westernized society-skipping out the awkward intermediate stage of nurturing the talents of their own people. A choice example is Qatar, which solved
23、the problem of sporting achievement, not by training its children at athletics, but by paying foreigners to become Qataris. It worked a treat in 2000, when Saif Saeed Asaad won an Olympic bronze for weightlifting. Only the pedantic pointed out that Asaad was actually Angel Popov of Bulgaria, competi
24、ng under his new name. There is another route open, one that would dream not of hotels shaped like sails, fake archipelagos and parties fit for Paris Hilton, but of a region packed with universities and seats of learning to rival the great scholarship of the Islamic golden age. Imagine that, a Gulf
25、region that might serve as an inspiration for the whole Arab world, rather than a playground for its richest kids. There could be a fable in that, too. 1 At the beginning of the article, the author tells a story about “ the parable of a place called Dubai“. What does this mean? （ A） The story is ima
26、ginary and is not consistent with the reality. （ B） It helps readers to know the background and reality of Dubai. （ C） The world should learn a lesson from what has happened in Dubai today. （ D） The parable teaches us not to waste money on being against the nature. 2 According to the authors view, w
27、hich country will be the next “Dubai“? （ A） It will be Greece, because the Financial Times, a mainstream newspaper, thinks so. （ B） It will be Latvia, Hungary and even Ireland, because they all made Dubais mistake. （ C） It will be the US and the UK, because they have taken too much debt. （ D） It wil
28、l be any country, because we have all been living on tick. 3 The passage tells us_fuelled the boom of Dubai. （ A） the borrowed money and rising property prices （ B） rising property prices and cheap money that kept flowing （ C） cheap money that kept flowing and high rising GDP （ D） high rising GDP an
29、d prosperous trading center 4 Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage? （ A） Dubai is the most luxurious kingdom in the world. （ B） Other countries have similar flaws as Dubai, so they cannot condescend to it. （ C） Pulling out credit card and went on a wild spending binge will fin
30、ally bring bills. （ D） Dubai was simply a sub-prime statelet in a sub-prime world. 5 The author says “We in Britain have more reason than most to avoid smugness in our view of Dubai“ because_. （ A） post-industrial Britain, reliant on the finance industry and on service industries, is not so differen
31、t from Dubai （ B） those ladies buying Hermes bags and Manolo Blahniks in the Dubai shopping malls werent that different from the folks snapping up the bargains at Primark （ C） both Dubai and Britain were built on the backs of hard-working but low-paying foreign workers （ D） the carbon emissions of B
32、ritain is no less than that of Dubai 6 What is NOT mentioned when the author talks about the criticism of Dubai? （ A） Dubai didnt actually make anything where there was no real economy. （ B） Dubais eye-popping luxury was built on the backs of foreign workers, toiling in a form of human bondage. （ C）
33、 Dubai was not an environmentally-friendly country with a high emissions of carbon dioxide. （ D） We can be repelled at those ladies buying Hermes bags and Manolo Blahniks by the crateload in the Dubai shopping malls. 7 Which of the following conclusions can NOT be drawn from the passage? （ A） Spendi
34、ng cash that was borrowed is the way we are trying to get ourselves out of the current hole but also got us into it. （ B） In the strict hierarchy of the emirate, the foreign workers role is to serve the wealthy natives. （ C） Dubai like the rest of the emirates and other Gulf states use its wealth to
35、 develop its own people. （ D） Dubai imported “ready-made“ which might present the glitzy front of a westernized society, but actually were not useful for their development. 8 At the end of the passage, the author says “There could be a fable in that, too. “ What does this mean? （ A） The parable at t
36、he beginning of the passage is not true. （ B） Finding another route for Dubais development will create a new fable. （ C） Dreaming of hotels shaped like sails and parties fit for Paris Hilton is not a fable. （ D） Establishing more universities and serving as an inspiration for the whole Arab world is
37、 just an illusion for Dubai. 8 American Youth Issues For years now, weve heard the gripes by and about millennials. Their plight seems so very 21st century: the unstable careers, the confusion of technologies, the delayed romance, parenthood and maturity. Many of the same concerns and challenges fac
38、ed the children of the industrial revolution, as the booms and busts of Americas wild 19th century tore apart the accepted order. These Americans were born into an earthquake. During the 1800s Americas population exploded from 5 million to 75 million. The nation went from a rural backwater to an ind
39、ustrial behemoth producing more than Britain, Germany and France combined but every decade the economy crashed. For rootless 20-somethings, each national shock felt intimate, rattling their love lives and careers. Many young adults could not accept that their personal struggles were just ripples of
40、a large-scale social dislocation. So each New Years, they blamed themselves. Romance worried them above all. Today some fret about the changing institution of marriage, but we are used to such adjustments; 19th-century Americans were blind-sided when the average age of marriage rose precipitously to
41、 26 a level America didnt return to until 1990. In a world where life expectancy hovered below age 50, delaying marriage until 26 was revolutionary. While some looked for love, others looked for jobs. Before the modern era, young people found work within family networks, laboring at home or on a far
42、m. The industrial economy changed that. The good news was that there were more jobs; the bad news was that they were isolating and temporary. Work now meant small factories or lumber camps or railroad crews of strangers. For young people this meant chronic instability. A young man might brag about h
43、is new job one week and find himself begging for money from his father the next. While 19th-century young adults faced many of the anxieties that trouble 23-year-olds today, they found novel solutions. The first was to move. Young men and women were notoriously transient, heading out on “wander year
44、s“ when life at home seemed stalled. Another solution was to find like-minded young adults to share their baffling discouragements and buoyant hopes. Nineteenth-century young people were compulsive joiners. Political movements, literary societies, religious organizations, dancing clubs and even gang
45、s proliferated. The men and women who joined cared about the stated cause, but also craved the community these groups created. They realized that while instability was inevitable, isolation was voluntary. Todays young adults are constantly rebuked for not following the life cycle popular in 1960. Bu
46、t a quick look at earlier eras shows just how unusual mid-20th-century young people were. A society in which people married out of high school and held the same job for 50 years is the historical outlier. Americans considered young adulthood the most dangerous part of life, and struggled to find a p
47、ath to maturity. Those who did best tended to accept change, not to berate themselves for breaking with tradition. Young adults might do the same today. Stop worrying about how they appear from the skewed perspective of the mid-20 th century and find a new home, a new stability and a new community i
48、n the new year. 9 The word “gripe“ underlined in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to_. （ A） dilemma （ B） anxiety （ C） complaint （ D） compliment 10 The following are the worries and concerns of millennials EXCEPT_. （ A） unstable jobs （ B） longing for love and marriage （ C） pressure from parents （ D）
49、 immature mentality 11 Which of the following is NOT true about American youth of the 19th century? （ A） An earthquake hit America when they were born. （ B） They lived in an era when America transformed from an agrarian rural society to an industrial urban one. （ C） They witnessed historical changes within society structures. （ D） Their average life span was less than 50 years. 12 According to the author, which of the following is true about the underlying reason for young peoples anxiety?
