1、考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 129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 Para. 1? （ A） Full-t
10、ime 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 _. （ A
11、） 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 bit
12、 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 effort
13、less 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 s
14、cale. 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 inevita
15、bly, 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 on
16、e 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 semiconductor
17、s, 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
18、would 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 State
19、s 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.
21、And 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 dom
22、estic 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
23、American _. （ 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? （
24、A） 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 believ
25、e the 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
26、this 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
27、those 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 make
28、s almost 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 ch
29、ildren. 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 off
30、ers wealth 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 mea
31、ns that 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 past 100,000 years even the past 100 years our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because
32、machines 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. Bu
33、t however 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 exam
34、ple of India 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
35、author argues 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
36、of the following 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 Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and soc
37、ial harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs,
38、 and young people dont know where they should go next. The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teenagers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japans rigid social la
39、dder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did th
40、eir counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed. While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. “Those things that do not show up in the test scores personality, ability
41、, courage or humanity are completely ignored,“ says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Partys education committee, “Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild.“ Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assault
42、s on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War
43、II had weakened the “Japanese morality of respect for parents“. But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. “In Japan,“ says educator Yoko Muro, “its never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.“ With economic growth has come centralizat
44、ion; fully 76 percent of Japans 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old
45、group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter. 13 In the Westerners eyes, the postwar Japan
46、 was _. （ A） under aimless development （ B） a positive example （ C） a rival to the West （ D） on the decline 14 According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society? （ A） Womens participation in social activities is limited. （ B） More workers are dissatis
47、fied with their jobs. （ C） Excessive emphasis has been placed on the basics. （ D） The life-style has been influenced by Western values. 15 Which of the following is true according to the author? （ A） Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder. （ B） Japanese education
48、 is characterized by mechanical learning as well as creativity. （ C） More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity. （ D） Dropping out leads to frustration against test taking. 16 The change in Japanese life-style is revealed in the fact that _. （ A） the young are less tolerant of dis
49、comforts （ B） the divorce rate in Japan exceeds that in the U.S. （ C） the Japanese endure more than ever before （ D） the Japanese appreciate their present life 考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 129答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 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，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。 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
