1、考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 104及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile
2、 career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family“. Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term “downshifting“ has turned my tired excuse into an absolu
3、te reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all“, preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything. I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-pu
4、blicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life“ ,and making the alternative move into “downshifting“ brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to th
5、e kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12 hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time“. In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-establishe
6、d trend. Downshifting also known in America as “voluntary simplicity“ has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anticonsumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwa
7、d Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-90s equivalent of dropping out. While in America the trend started as a reaction to the econom
8、ic decline after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late 80s and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class down-shifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives. For the women of my generation who wer
9、e urged to keep juggling through the 80s, downshifting in the mid-90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one as a personal recognition of your limitations. 1 Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 1? （ A） Fu
10、ll-time employment is a new international trend. （ B） The writer was compelled by circumstances to leave her job. （ C） A lateral move means stepping out of full-time employment. （ D） The writer was only too eager to spend more time with her family. 2 The writers experiment shows that downshifting_.
11、（ A） enables her to realize her dream （ B） helps her mold a new philosophy of life （ C） prompts her to abandon her high social status （ D） leads her to accept the doctrine or She magazine 3 “Juggling ones life“ probably means living a life characterized by_. （ A） non-materialistic lifestyle （ B） a b
12、it of everything （ C） extreme stress （ D） anti-consumerism 4 According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of_. （ A） the quick pace of modern life （ B） mans adventurous spirit （ C） mans search for mythical experiences （ D） the economic situation 4 A history of long and effor
13、tless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of
14、scale. Its scientists were the worlds best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed. It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevit
15、ably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only o
16、ne American television maker left, Zenith.(Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Koreas LG Electronics in July.)Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. Americas machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors
17、, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty. All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes w
18、ould therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of Americas industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas. How things have changed! In 1995 the United States
19、 can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. “American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet,
20、 has learnt to be more quick-witted,“ according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvards Kennedy School of Management, “It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,“ says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington. A
21、nd William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as “ a golden age of business management in the United States“. 5 The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because_. （ A） it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal （ B） its domes
22、tic market was eight times larger than before （ C） the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors （ D） the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy 6 The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the Am
23、erican_. （ A） TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market （ B） semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises （ C） machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions （ D） auto industry had lost part of its domestic market 7 What can be inferred from the passage? （ A）
24、It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried. （ B） Intense competition may contribute to economic progress. （ C） The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation. （ D） A long history of success may pave the way for further development. 8 The author seems to believe t
25、he revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the_. （ A） turning of the business cycle （ B） restructuring of industry （ C） improved business management （ D） success in education 8 Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this
26、 ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed now, by babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in thos
27、e crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby)surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almo
28、st no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes one more agent of evolution has gone. There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women has 15 children
29、. Nowadays, the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished India shows what is happening. The country offers wea
30、lth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes. For us, this means that
31、 evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the pass 100,000 years even the pass 100 year our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines
32、 and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they “look at an organic being as average looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.“ No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But howeve
33、r amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us. 9 What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph? （ A） A lack of mates. （ B） A fierce competition. （ C） A lower survival rate. （ D） A defective gene. 10 What does the example of I
34、ndia illustrate? （ A） Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people. （ B） Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor. （ C） The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes. （ D） India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate. 11 The author a
35、rgues that our bodies have stopped evolving because_. （ A） life has been improved by technological advance （ B） the number of female babies has been declining （ C） our species has reached the highest stage of evolution （ D） the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing 12 Which of the fo
36、llowing would be the best title for the passage? （ A） Sex Ration Changes in Human Evolution （ B） Ways of Continuing Mans Evolution （ C） The Evolutionary Future of Nature （ D） Human Evolution Going Nowhere 12 Electronic mail has been in widespread use for more than a decade, simplifying the flow of i
37、deas, connecting people from distant offices and eliminating the need for meetings, but E-mail should be carefully managed to avoid unclear and inappropriate communication. As time goes on, and more people surf the Net, the amount of unsolicited e-mail grows. Some folks reasonably assume that cybers
38、pace mirrors many aspects of other forms of communications. It would seem that since telemarketing and direct mail are successfully used as marketing techniques for many businesses, it should follow that direct e-mail, or unsolicited e-mail, should also work. This topic is hotly debated between expe
39、rienced Internet users and newcomers. Unlike receiving promotional materials through the mail or over the phone, e-mail does carry a cost to the recipient. “Bandwidth“ is used every time an e-mail message is sent and places a load on existing resources. The process of sending unsolicited e-mail to l
40、arge, untargeted lists, or through mailing list discussion groups or Usenet newsgroups, is known as “spamming“. Spamming wastes bandwidth. Imagine if it became common practice for businesses to market this way. Not only would it be annoying for many, the load on the system would translate to higher
41、access fees. Unlike regular mail where the sender pays the cost of delivering the mail, e-mail is cheap to send, and in some cases, expensive to receive. Many businesses responsibly market by e-mail, for example, by inviting existing customers or website visitors to receive future e-mail announcemen
42、ts. Some of the free e-mail services are advertiser supported and hence using e-mail marketing in an up front acceptable manner. Hopefully, this will be the norm, rendering the inconvenience of spam a thing of the past. 13 Though e-mail marketing will inevitably get more sophisticated, the author be
43、lieves_. （ A） the trend will not continue for much longer （ B） it is time to put a stop to it （ C） it will get worse （ D） it is time for senders to be more responsible with it 14 The general use of the term “spare“ in this text refers to_. （ A） any unwanted e-mail （ B） any untargeted e-mail （ C） any
44、 unsolicited e-mail （ D） any targeted e-mail 15 The difference between regular mail and e-mail in terms of costs is_. （ A） e-mail is many times more expensive （ B） e-mail costs the receiver （ C） e-mail costs nothing to send （ D） e-mail saves the cost of paper 16 In order to market responsibly, the a
45、uthor suggests that businesses_. （ A） obtain permission first （ B） cut down on the number of e-mails （ C） only send e-mail to existing customers （ D） do not use advertisements through e-mail 17 Which of the following can best sum up the text? （ A） The trend towards e-mail marketing must be stopped.
46、（ B） E-mail marketing has changed a lot since it first began a decade ago. （ C） E-mail marketing is unproductive when used incorrectly. （ D） E-mail marketing messages must be managed wisely. 考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 104答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 【知识模块】 阅读理解 1 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 本题可参照文章的第 1段。从中可知，当我决定辞去全职工作时，
47、我从未想到自己可能成为国际新潮流的一分子；一次平级调动 伤害了我的自尊，也妨碍了我的业务上的进步，这件事促使我放弃了我那前途令人欣羡的职业；但是，我以一种失宠的政府大臣的口气宣称， “我想多陪陪家人 ”，以此来掩饰我辞职的真正原因。据此可知，作者是因为形势所迫而辞职的。 B项与文章意思相符，因此 B项为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读理解 2 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 从文章第 2段的内容可知，令人惊讶的是，大约两年半的时间，我写了两部小说，随后，我的这种被美国人称为 “慢节拍 ”的尝试已经将我那陈旧的借口变成了事实；我已经由过去七年里 Linda Kelsey在她杂志上一再宣扬的“拥有一
48、切 ”哲学的积极倡导者，变成一个对一切浅尝辄止就感到喜悦的女人；从第 3段的内容可知，我发现，放弃那种 “快节奏生活 ”的教条而选择 “放缓节奏 ”的做法带来的回报要比金融方面的成就和社会地位的提高丰厚得多。据此可知， “放缓节奏 ”的实践促使作者改变了人生观。 B项与文章的意思相符，因此 B项为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读理解 3 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 本题可参照文章的第 3段。从中可知，我发现，放弃那种 “快节奏生活 ”的教条而选择 “放缓节奏 ”的做法带来的回报要比金 融方面的成就和社会地位的提高丰厚得多，正如 Kelsey在经受长期的巨大压力后，多次公开宣称辞去她杂志编辑职
49、位后可能发现的那样；什么也说服不了我重过 Kelsey过去倡导的、我曾经喜爱过的那种生活了 每天工作 12小时的工作日、令人觉得压抑的最后期限、办公室管理中令人胆怯的作风以及在 “最佳年龄 ”成为父 (母 )的限制。据此可知， “Juggling ones life”可能指的是一种紧张、压抑的生活。 C项与文章的意思相符，因此 C项为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读理解 4 【正确答案】 D 【试题 解析】 本题可参照文章的第 5段。从中可知，在美国，虽然这种趋势起初是对经济衰败的一种反应 80年代晚期，由于企业缩减规模，导致大量的人员剩余 它还与节俭的政治策略有关，但是，在英国，至少在我所认识的那些过慢节拍生活的中产阶层中，我们寻求简化生活的原因不尽相同。据此可知，美国出现降低节奏的生活方式与经济有关。 D项与文章的意思相符，因此 D项为正确答案。 【知识模块】 阅读理解 【知识模块】 阅读理解 5 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 本题可参照文章的第 1段。从中可知，二战结束后，美国 刚好进入了这样一段辉煌时期，其市场是任何竞争者的 8倍，这使得美国的经济达到了一个空前的规模；美国科学
