1、考博英语模拟试卷 51及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 With the US economy slowing down, layoffs are everywhere. No industry is spared. If you end up having to start over, in addition to starting your job search, there are several things you should take care of to make your transition a smooth one. First and
2、foremost, clear up any misunderstanding about how and why you left your last job with your exboss. Whether you left voluntarily, were fired or were laid off due to budget cutbacks, make sure you both have the same explanation. Agree on job titles accordingly. Also ask for a reference if you think yo
3、ur ex-boss will offer one and you trust that he or she will speak honestly about your performance. You should have a source of emergency cash that you can use in the interim. Dont panic and liquidate your stocks and bonds just yet, be optimistic in your prospects while also be more frugal than usual
4、. You should save money on not having to dry clean work clothes so often and eating less take-out lunches. Save money by not eating out at restaurants and watch videos rather than going to the movies every weekend. Make a note of your job-hunting expenses, such as career counselor consulting fees an
5、d resume printing costs, and save the receipts. By next years taxfIIing time, you could get deductions on your job-search expense (unless you left a job willingly or was a college graduate looking for your first job). Most companies terminate your medical insurance coverage as soon as you stop worki
6、ng for them. But it doesnt mean you have to forgo medical coverage altogether. There is something called Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) in the United States that legally protects an ex-employees right to stay in the companys health care plan. However, the company will stop pa
7、ying your premiums, and you will have to pay out of your pocket the expenses-This is still a good option compared to no health insurance at all. Another important thing to take care of when you change jobs is your 401 (k) account. A 401 (k) is the retirement fund that most companies offer. Its named
8、 after section 401 (k) in the Internal Revenue Services policy documents. You put aside a percentage of your paycheck each pay period, and the money accumulated will be managed by the 401 (k) fund manager your employer has hired and is invested in the stock market. You cannot withdraw money from thi
9、s account until you reach this age, or you will incur penalties. When you leave a job, the money can sometimes be kept with your ex-employer for a while. Its always a good idea to compare your new employers 401 (k) plan with your old one. Every company offers different types of investment options, f
10、orm over- seas stocks to high-tech stocks and everything in between. If you do want to transfer the account to your new employer, you need to go to the human resources department and ask for forms that help you make the transition. Dont forget to ask for job leads form your ex-coworker. Even if you
11、are leaving for a job in an- other industry, you never know what people they happen to know that can help with your job search. Keep in touch with the friends you have make at your old job. Remember to anchor yourself to people, not institutions, and you will find that any transition is made easier.
12、 1 According to paragraph 1, in the United States, _. （ A） most industries stay unaffected by global economic recession （ B） each and every company spares no effort to survive the fierce competition （ C） compulsory redundancy is going on in every industry （ D） employees are laid off because they are
13、 not qualified for their jobs 2 The word “interim“ most probably means _. （ A） interval （ B） hard time （ C） transitional period （ D） emergency 3 Whats the point of saving the receipts of job-searching expense? （ A） To get reductions at tax-filing time. （ B） To keep a record of ones job-hunting exper
14、ience. （ C） To be aware of ones expenditure and be frugal. （ D） Because ones ex-boss will reimburse the job-searching expense. 4 COBRA ensures an ex-employee stay in the health care plan _. （ A） as long as the ex-employer continues to pay the premium （ B） as long as the ex-employee continues to pay
15、the premium （ C） as long as the ex-employee finds a new job （ D） as soon as the ex-employee is called back to the company 5 Which statement is true according to this passage? （ A） 401 (k) account can be terminated by the employers anytime they want. （ B） 401 (k) account can be withdrawn by the unemp
16、loyed staff before their retirement. （ C） 401 (k) fund is invested in international stock market only. （ D） 401 (k) account can be transferred from ones ex-employer to ones new employer. 5 Why would any woman in her fight mind choose to walk on the balls of her feet with her heels propped up by spik
17、es? The historical answer is that high heels reflect aristocratic tastes-specifically, the tastes of the seventeenth-century French court, which first popularized them in Europe. Not only did heels keep the wearers feet relatively mud free, they also created a physical elevation to match the social
18、elevation of the stylish, exaggerated the strutting gait of the noble classes, and they suggested, by their very precariousness, that their owners could afford not to worry about falling on their faces. Indeed, as Bernard Rudofsky points out, seventeenth-century wearers of high heels, men and women,
19、 frequently had to be transported in sedan chairs because they could not manage cobblestones on foot. Some “heels“ in that era were actually full-soled platforms, and to walk on these things at all, one needed the constant elbow support of two Servants. The helplessness associated with the raised-he
20、el style encouraged the notion that heeled persons were above having to care for themselves. In view of this, it is not surprising that even today it is women, almost exclusively, who wear heels. High heels are the cobblers contribution to what I have called the pedestal ploy. They link physical inc
21、apacity with the notion of woman as a “higher being“-too high to get along on her own. Women have taken to high heels, of course, because they feel, correctly, that they increase their attractiveness to men. Part of that increased attractiveness has to do with male fantasies of female fragility. As
22、fashion-iconoclast Elizabeth Hawes puts it, “The idea is that he, in his heavy shoes, should feel stronger and more capable than she on her fragile stilts. Never mind the realities.“ Another part of it may be biological. In his discussion of rump display among mammals, Dale Guthrie notes that the “l
23、ines of the buttocks, thigh, calf and ankle have a native sexual stimulation, but this can be increased with high-heeled shoes; the curves are exaggerated when the heel is lifted.“ Heels also exaggerate the lateral motion of buttocks the. ultimate function of high heels, therefore, may be to fuel th
24、e male belief that women are both impotent and seductive. 6 The passage is mainly about _. （ A） high heels （ B） functions of high heels （ C） history of high heels （ D） women on high heels 7 From historical point of view, high heels _. （ A） were the exclusive passion of women （ B） were worn by both m
25、en and women （ C） symbolized the tastes of aristocracy （ D） were the characteristics of noble classes 8 Women on high heels suggest that _. （ A） they are always helpless as high heels （ B） they are dependable as well as fragile （ C） they always have some superiority （ D） high heels are still fashion
26、able 9 The most important reason for womens preference to high heels is that _. （ A） biological weak-points can be reduced （ B） attractiveness to men is increased （ C） social elevation can be shown （ D） aristocratic tastes are reflected 10 The mens attitudes towards womens wearing high heels are tha
27、t _. （ A） they are considered weaker than men （ B） they are regarded as biologically incapable （ C） they are just in biological need （ D） they are thought to be charming and feeble 10 The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photographys fidel
28、ity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art, as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defense of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechan
29、ical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting. Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant t
30、o label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves-anything but making works of art. In the nineteen century, photography s association with the real world placed it in an ambivalent relation to art; late
31、 in the twentieth century, an ambivalent relation exists because of the Modernist heritage in art. That important photographers are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art, shows the extent to which they
32、 simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art. Photographers disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried slaws of the contemporary notion of art than about whe
33、ther photography is or not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity o
34、f classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of th
35、e traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity-in short, an art. 11 In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with _. （ A） defining the Modernist attitude toward art （ B） explaining the attitudes of serious
36、contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context （ C） explaining how photography emerged as a fine art after the controversies of the nineteenth century （ D） defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take towar
37、d the art and assessing the value of each of those approaches 12 According to the author, the nineteenth-century defenders of photography mentioned in the passage stressed that photography was _. （ A） a technologically advanced activity （ B） an art for observing the world impartially （ C） an art com
38、parable to painting （ D） an art that would eventually replace the traditional arts 13 Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism“ as the author represents it in the last sentence of the second paragraph? （ A） Objective. （ B） Mechanical. （
39、 C） Dramatic. （ D） Paradoxical. 14 According to the passage, which of the following best explains tile reaction of serious con- temporary photographers to tile question of whether photography is an art? （ A） The photographers belief that their reliance on an impersonal machine to produce their art r
40、equires the surrender of the authority of their personal vision. （ B） The photographers fear that serious photography may not be accepted as an art by the con- temporary art public. （ C） The photographers belief that the best art is subversive of art as it has previously been de- fined. （ D） The not
41、orious difficulty of defining art in its relation to realistic representation. 15 The author introduces Abstract Expressionist painters in order to _. （ A） set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters （ B） provide a contrast against serious contem
42、porary photographers （ C） provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other Contemporary visual forms, not and should not pretend to be an art （ D） provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modem art 15 The Fourte
43、enth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1868, prohibits state governments from denying citizens the “equal protection of the laws“. Although precisely what the framers of the amendment meant by this equal protection clause remains unclear, all interpreters agree that the framer
44、s immediate objective was to provide a constitutional warrant for the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed the citizenship of all persons born in the United States and subject to United States jurisdiction. This declaration, which was echoed in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment, was designe
45、d primarily to counter the Supreme Courts ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford that Black people in the United States could be denied citizenship. The act was vetoed by President An- drew Johnson, who argued that the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, did not provide Congress with authority,
46、to extend citizenship and equal protection the freed slaves. Although Congress promptly overrode Johnsons veto, supporters of the act sought to ensure its constitutional foundations with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. The broad language of the amendment strongly suggests that its framers w
47、ere proposing to write into the Constitution not a laundry list of specific civil rights but a principle of equal citizenship that forbids organized society from treating any individual as a member of an inferior class. Yet for the first eight decades of the amendments existence, the Supreme Courts
48、interpretation of the amendment betrayed this ideal of equality. In the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, for example, the Court in- vented the “state action“ limitation, which asserts that “private“ decisions by owners of public accommodations and other commercial businesses to segregate their facilities
49、 are insulated from file reach of the Fourteenth Amendment s guarantee of equal protection under the law. After the Second World War, a judicial climate more hospitable to equal protection claims culminated in the Supreme Courts ruling in Brown V. Broad of Education that racially segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 16 According to this passage, which of the following is correct? （ A） By presenting a list of specific rights, framers of the Fourteen
