1、考研英语（二）模拟试卷 156 及答案与解析一、Section I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D. (10 points) 0 For months Twitter, the micro-blogging service, has received the kind of free attention of which most companies can only dream. Po
2、liticians, corporate bosses, activists and citizens【C1】_the platform to catch every tweet of Americas new president, who has become the services【C2】_“The whole world is watching Twitter,“【C3】_Jack Dorsey, the companys chief executive,【C4 】_he presented its results on February 9th. He has little else
3、 to brag about.But Donald Trump has not provided the kind of boost the【C5】_firm really needs. It reported【C6 】_revenue growth and a loss of $ 167m. User growth has been sluggish, too; it added just 2m users in that period. Facebook added 72m. The day of the results, shares in Twitter dropped by 12%.
4、【C7】 _news outlets around the world already report【C8】_Mr Trumps most sensational tweets, many do not feel compelled to join the platform to【C9】_them. Others are 【C10 】_by mobs of trolls and large amounts of misinformation.And not【C11】_Mr Trump could change the cold, hard truth about Twitter: that i
5、t can never be Facebook. True, it has become one of the most important【C12】_for public and political【C13 】_among its 319m monthly users. It played an important role in the Arab spring and【C14】_such as Black Lives Matter. But the platforms freewheeling nature makes it hard to spin gold from.【C15】_, r
6、eally trying to do soby packing Twitter feeds【C16】_advertising, saywould drive away users. Twitters latest results are likely to encourage those who think it should never have become a【C17】_listed company, and want it to consider alternate models of ownership, such as a co-operative. They【C18】_Twitt
7、er as a kind of public utilitya “peoples platform“ the management of which should concern public【C19】_rather more than commercial ones. If the company were cooperatively owned by users, it would be【C20】_from short-term pressure to please its investors and meet earnings targets.1 【C1 】（A）turn to（B） l
8、ook for（C） take up（D）give out2 【C2 】（A）chairman（B） director（C） spokesman（D）supervisor3 【C3 】（A）confessed（B） boasted（C） interpreted（D）advocated4 【C4 】（A）since（B） after（C） before（D）as5 【C5 】（A）prosperous（B） innovative（C） struggling（D）unlucky6 【C6 】（A）slowing（B） difficult（C） prompt（D）resurgent7 【C7 】（A
9、）Although（B） Because（C） When（D）Hence8 【C8 】（A）to（B） in（C） at（D）on9 【C9 】（A）discover（B） observe（C） discuss（D）debate10 【C10 】（A）given up（B） taken away（C） put off（D）sent back11 【C11 】（A）only（B） but（C） always（D）even12 【C12 】（A）websites（B） services（C） businesses（D）industries13 【C13 】（A）contact（B） communi
10、cation（C） connection（D）community14 【C14 】（A）movements（B） activities（C） migrations（D）actions15 【C15 】（A）In a word（B） As a result（C） In fact（D）At least16 【C16 】（A）back（B） against（C） for（D）with17 【C17 】（A）commonly（B） publicly（C） massively（D）generally18 【C18 】（A）view（B） dismiss（C） serve（D）realize19 【C19
11、 】（A）investments（B） behaviors（C） interests（D）policies20 【C20 】（A）revealed（B） recovered（C） rejected（D）releasedPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)20 When George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is spotted outs
12、ide Westminster, he is very often making an appearance on a building site, wearing a fluorescent safety jacket. It was no surprise to hear him claim once again, in his budget speech on March 19th, that “Were getting Britain building“. Sadly, given the huge extent of Britains housing shortage, the ch
13、ancellors proposed interventions do not add up to much.The biggest announcement was that the government will extend Help to Buy, a scheme that guarantees mortgages for people purchasing newly built homes. Mr Osborne also hopes to build a new town at Ebbsfleet, a patch of post-industrial land in the
14、Thames estuary, and promises to speed up the redevelopment of several rotting 1960s and 1970s social housing estates in London.By making it easier for house builders to shift their stock, Help to Buy has probably helped boost building slightly, especially in northern cities where construction had al
15、l but ceased. Extending the programme will boost Britains housing stock by 120,000 by 2020, the Treasury claims, though it will also expose taxpayers to any future house-price crash. Mr Osborne also announced a new fund to support lending to small house builderswho have struggled to get financing in
16、 recent years which ought to have a similar effect.The new town is more adventurous. Ebbsfleet, where a high-speed rail link to London opened in 2007, has had plans for new homes for almost 20 years. Few have been built, mostly because the site is a partially flooded quarry with little in the way of
17、 shops, public transport or infrastructure. The governments new idea is to create a development corporation with control over planning and the ability to borrow to clean up and prepare the site. That was how post-war new towns such as Milton Keynes and Stevenage were built.A similar interventionism
18、is visible in the plan to rebuild 1960s estates. Many of these, such as the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark and Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets, are crumbling. By increasing the density on the sites, and using the proceeds of selling the extra houses built, it ought to be possible to cover the cos
19、t of reconstruction. But councils have been short of money to do much themselves, and private developers extract high returns in exchange for putting up capital. With central-government money, those projects ought to move quicker and councils ought to get more for their land.21 George Osbornes housi
20、ng proposal seems to be ineffective because of_.（A）the lack of support from local government（B） the enormous gap of the real estate market（C） the financial difficulties of the government（D）the huge expansion of housing construction22 According to Paragraph 2, Help to Buy is a project designed to_.（A
21、）help people to build new homes（B） guarantee mortgage for everyone（C） ensure easy loan for home buyers（D）speed up social housing construction23 We can learn from Paragraph 3 that extending Help to Buy_.（A）will bring numerous benefits（B） may greatly boost the stock market（C） will do more harm than go
22、od（D）may be both constructive and risky24 Ebbsfleet is mentioned in the text to show_.（A）the necessary part of urbanization（B） the boldness of building new towns（C） the urgency of housing construction（D）the importance of building infrastructure25 In return for investing in estate reconstruction, pri
23、vate developers need_.（A）ample reward（B） new projects（C） quick return（D）more power25 Tropical rain pounds on the roof of a cavernous warehouse near Jakarta, Indonesias capital. Inside , youngsters in orange T-shirts haul around clothes, luggage and electrical goods for Lazada, an e-commerce firm, wh
24、ich has just moved in. The 12,000 square metre space is three times the size of the old one, but it already looks full. Three years ago Lazadas entire stock filled a storeroom the size of a studio flat, recalls Magnus Ekbom, its twenty-something boss in Indonesia.Internet shopping accounts for less
25、than 1 % of all purchases in South-East Asiaa region twice as populous as America, where the proportion is nearly 10%. But surging smartphone use and a broadening middle class mean the market is set to multiply; perhaps five fold by 2018,reckons Frost California is the only state with more. But the
26、juicy state incentives for buying them are coming under attack.Residents can claim an income-tax credit for 20% of the cost of leasing or purchasing an electric vehicle, up to $ 5,000. Combined with a possible federal tax incentive worth $ 7,500,savvy Georgians are driving all the way to the bank in
27、 nearly-free electric cars. Nissan sells more of its Leaf models in Atlanta than in any other city, according to Don Francis from Georgia, which promotes the use of cars like these.Such trends motivated Chuck Martin, a representative in Georgias House, to sponsor a bill to end state incentives for e
28、lectric vehicles. He argues that the income-tax credit costs too muchabout $ 13. 6m in 2013and that only urban types benefit from these sorts of cars. Mr Martins bill was voted down in committee in February, but seems to be still breathing. Another House bill, mostly to finance transport projects, w
29、ould reduce the credits; it is now before the Senate.Fans of electric vehicles say Georgia now leads the country in clean transport. Local power companies have helped by offering off-peak prices of 1. 3 cents per kilowatt hour for charging the cars at night. And the sales tax levied on this power st
30、ays in the state, whereas cash spent on petrol largely goes elsewhere, says Jeff Cohen, founder of the Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition.Cutting the credits altogether might also harm Georgia in other ways. A study by Keybridge Public Policy Economics, a consultancy, says the state coul
31、d lose $ 252m by 2030 if they disappear and people buy gas-guzzlers instead. That is because drivers will spend $ 714m on petrol to get around (in contrast with the $ 261m they would have paid in electricity bills) , and will no longer fritter away their savings from the federal electric-vehicle tax
32、 credit in Georgias shops. But the states incentives may be safe in the legislature after all; the president of the Senate drives an electric car himself.31 According to Paragraph 1, Georgia may_.（A）be under attack for its unreasonable policies（B） encourage people to purchase electric vehicles（C） en
33、d state incentives for buying electric cars soon（D）have the largest number of electric cars in America32 Chuck Martin seeks to end state incentives for electric vehicles because_.（A）the policy proves to be costly（B） no one benefits from the policy（C） the government is short of money（D）these incentiv
34、es will hurt economy33 Supporters of electric vehicles believe that these cars are_.（A）convenient to charge and duty-free（B） powerful and good to environment（C） environmental-friendly and money-saving（D）inexpensive and faster than traditional cars34 A study suggests that cutting the credits in Georg
35、ia might_.（A）boost economic growth（B） do harm to the market（C） reduce vehicle sales（D）lead to greater loss35 The authors attitude towards Georgias policies on electric cars seems to be_.（A）worried（B） doubtful（C） optimistic（D）sympathetic35 As the country with the European Unions fastest ageing popula
36、tion, Germany has repeatedly adjusted its pension system to avert a slow-motion demographic disaster. The biggest reform came during Angela Merkels first term as chancellor. Then, as now, Christian Democrats were yoked with Social Democrats in a “grand coalition“. In 2007 the coalition decided that
37、the normal retirement age should gradually rise from 65 to 67.Mrs Merkel has since preached similar demographic and economic wisdom to most of her EU partners, criticizing France in particular for straying off the right path. So it comes as something of a shock that Mrs Merkel, now in her third term
38、 and running another grand coalition, is reversing course. On the campaign trail for last Septembers election, she promised to raise pensions for older mothers. The Social Democrats countered with promises to let certain workers retire at 63 instead of 65. As coalition partners, they will do both at
39、 once.It falls to Andrea Nahles, the labour minister and a Social Democrat who likes to wave the banner of “social justice“ , to push the pension package through parliament by the summer so that it can take effect on July 1st. A previous reform let women with children born after 1992 treat three of
40、their stay-at-home maternity years if they had worked and paid full pension contributions. The new “mother pension“ will be for the 8m-9m women who took time off for children before 1992. They will be allowed to count two of those years, instead of just one, as working years for pension purposes.The
41、 second part of Mrs Nahless reforms, retirement at 63, is aimed at people who have contributed to the pension system for at least 45 years. But Mrs Nahles wants to count not only years spent working or caring for children or other family members but also periods of short-term unemployment. Separatel
42、y, she will also boost the pensions of people who cannot work due to disability, and spend more money to help them to recover.Individually, these proposals may seem noble-minded. But as a package, the plan is “shortsighted and one-sided,“ thinks Axel Bersch-Supan, a pension adviser at the Munich Cen
43、tre for the Economics of Ageing. It benefits the older generation, which is already well looked after, at the expense of younger people who will have to pay higher contributions or taxes. “The financial and psychological costs of the pension at 63 are disastrous,“ Mr Bersch-Supan says. There will no
44、 longer be any incentive to keep working longer. In some cases, people may, in effect, retire at 61, register as unemployed for two years, and then draw their full pensions.36 Pension system in Germany has been adjusted to_.（A）avert ageing trend（B） tackle ageing problem（C） avoid a natural disaster（D
45、）reduce ageing population37 Merkel has astonished the public because she_.（A）changed her curriculum（B） made a unrealistic promise（C） overturned her old decision（D）criticized her coalition partner38 Andrea Nahless pension reforms focus on the following parts except_.（A）retirement age（B） working mothe
46、rs（C） handicapped people（D）unemployed women39 Axel Bersch-Supan believes that Nahless proposals are_.（A）lofty but unrealistic（B） noble and insightful（C） considerate but costly（D）foolish and disastrous40 Which of the following is the best title for the text?（A）The Ageing Problem in Germany: Hard to H
47、andle（B） Germanys Pension Reform: Noble and Sensible（C） The New Pension System: Good News for Mothers（D）Germanys Pension Reform: In the Wrong DirectionPart B (10 points) 40 Shortly after The Economist went to press, about 25,000 people were expected to turn up at the London Art Fair. Your correspond
48、ent visited just before, as 128 white booths were being filled with modern paintings and sculptures. Dealers clutched mobile phones to their ears or gathered in small groups. They seemed nervousas well they might be. “I can earn a years living in one fair,“ said one harried dealer while stringing up
49、 a set of lights. Before 1999 London had just one regular contemporary art fair, remembers Will Ramsay,boss of the expanding Affordable Art Fair. This year around 20 will be held in Britain, mostly in the capital. Roughly 90 will take place worldwide. The success of larger events such as Frieze, which started in London, has stimulated the growth of smaller fairs specialising in
