1、考研英语（二）模拟试卷 157 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 Warren Buffett, who will host Berkshire Hathaways annual shareholders meeting on May 3rd, is an icon of American capitalism. At 83
2、, he also epitomizes a striking demographic【 C1】_: for highly skilled people to go on working well into【C2 】_was once thought to be old age. Across the rich world,well-educated people【C3 】 _work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the【C
3、4】_, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. In the European Union the pattern is similar.This【C5 】_is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated【C6】_and the unskilled poor that is slicing【C7】_all age groups. Rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skill
4、ed while【C8】_those of the unskilled. Those at the top are working longer hours each year than those at the bottom.【C9】_the well-qualified are extending their working lives, compared with those of less-educated people. The【C10】_, for individuals and society,are profound.The world is on the【C11】_rise
5、in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before.【C12】_the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600m to 1.1 billion. The【C13】_of the 20th century, when greater longevity translated into more years in retirement【C14】_more years a
6、t work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will【C15】_slower economic growth and “secular stagnation“ , while the【C16】_ranks of pensioners will bust government budgets.But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the【C17】_old misses a new trend, the【C18】_gap between the
7、skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people,【C19】_older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are【C20】_retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.1 【
8、C1 】（A）sight（B） trend（C） sign（D）track2 【C2 】（A）what（B） that（C） when（D）where3 【C3 】（A）decreasingly（B） incidentally（C） desperately（D）increasingly4 【C4 】（A）house（B） college（C） workforce（D）retirement5 【C5 】（A）gap（B） similarity（C） concept（D）phenomenon6 【C6 】（A）healthy（B） well-off（C） bright（D）elderly7 【C7
9、 】（A）into（B） among（C） from（D）through8 【C8 】（A）declining（B） squeezing（C） depressing（D）suppressing9 【C9 】（A）And（B） But（C） So（D）Even10 【C10 】（A）reasons（B） substances（C） consequences（D）causes11 【C11 】（A）interesting（B） exaggerating（C） unsurprising（D）staggering12 【C12 】（A）Over（B） About（C） On（D）Until13 【C1
10、3 】（A）result（B） example（C） experience（D）past14 【C14 】（A）apart from（B） rather than（C） in spite of（D）regardless of15 【C15 】（A）turn to（B） lean to（C） tend to（D）lead to16 【C16 】（A）decaying（B） crawling（C） swelling（D）fading17 【C17 】（A）idle（B） rich（C） tired（D）lazy18 【C18 】（A）narrow（B） growing（C） limited（D）v
11、ital19 【C19 】（A）since（B） before（C） whereas（D）although20 【C20 】（A）giving up（B） going against（C） driving away（D）putting offPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)20 Last year nearly one million Americans filed for bank
12、ruptcy. That is far fewer than the number who used to seek bankruptcy protection before the law was made tougher a decade ago. This reform may have done more harm than good. The aim of bankruptcy law is to give people relief from unpayable debts. Some two-thirds of individual bankruptcies are due to
13、 a lost job. Many bankrupts need time to get back on their feet. In the mid-2000s Chapter 7 rules made it easy to wash away debts. That irritated credit-card firms, which claimed that spendthrifts abused the system; so in 2005 the law was toughened. The idea was to shift people to a Chapter 13 bankr
14、uptcy, where they would have to repay some of the debt.The reform had a big impact. At least at first, Chapter 13 filings rose relative to Chapter 7 ones. And a new paper, from Stefania Albanesi, of the New York Federal Reserve, and Jaromir Nosal, of Columbia University, finds that the reform led to
15、 a permanent drop in the bankruptcy rate.However, other recent research suggests that this is not necessarily a good thing. Will Dobbie, of Princeton University, and Jae Song, of the Social Security Administration, look at Chapter 13 bankruptcies before the reforms of 2005. They link half a million
16、bankruptcy filings to tax records and use a novel technique to analyse them. Because some bankruptcy judges are more merciful than others, people in similar straits may end up with different bankruptcy decisions. This quirk allows some useful comparisons.Messrs Dobbie and Song argue that easier bank
17、ruptcy laws have good microeconomic effects. If a creditor may no longer claim large chunks of a bankrupts salary, that may increase his incentive to workand decrease his need to slip out of town, change his job and close down his bank account. On average, those granted bankruptcy earned over 6,000
18、more in the subsequent year than similarly-placed plaintiffs who were rejected. The unlucky ones found it trickier to service their mortgages. Michelle White of the University of California, San Diego and colleagues found that bankruptcy reform caused the default rate on prime mortgages to rise 23%.
19、Making consumer-bankruptcy law more debtor-friendly could hit Americans in other ways. If lenders are exposed to bigger losses, some argue, interest rates for such things as creditcards are bound to rise. But that danger can be overstated. Credit-card companies may be reluctant to charge rates highe
20、r than their competitors lest they attract more customersthose not put off by high rates because they know that, with luck, they wont have to pay their debts back.21 According to Paragraph 1, bankruptcy law is designed to_.（A）protect American banks（B） abolish individual debts（C） help unemployed peop
21、le（D）alleviate debtors burden22 Credit-card firms were angry because_.（A）legislators abused their authority（B） debtors controlled the law system（C） laws made it easy to pay off debts（D）some regulations did harm to them23 The word “straits“ (Line 5, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to_.（A）channels（B） p
22、lights（C） contexts（D）phenomena24 Dobbie and Song believe that easier bankruptcy laws_.（A）may stimulate the debtors（B） will do more harm than good（C） may increase bankers incentive（D）will raise peoples average salary25 Creditors are unlikely to raise their rates because_.（A）they are restricted by the
23、 law（B） consumers cant afford the debts（C） they are stuck in fierce competition（D）customers will not pay their debts back25 Economic refugees have traditionally lined up to get into America. Lately, they have been lining up to leave. In the past few months, half a dozen biggish companies have announ
24、ced plans to merge with foreign partners and in the process move their corporate homes abroad. The motive is simple; corporate taxes are lower in Ireland, Britain and, for that matter, almost everywhere else than they are in America.In Washington, D. C. , policymakers have reacted with indignation.
25、Jack Lew, the treasury secretary, has questioned the companies patriotism and called on Congress to outlaw such transactions. His fellow Democrats are eager to oblige, and some Republicans are willing to listen.The proposals are misguided. Tightening the rules on corporate “inversions“ , as these mo
26、ves are called, does nothing to deal with the reason why so many firms want to leave; America has the rich worlds most dysfunctional corporate-tax system. It needs fundamental reform, not new complications.Americas corporate tax has two horrible flaws. The first is the tax rate, which at 35% is the
27、highest among the 34 mostly rich-country members of the OECD. Yet it raises less revenue than the OECD average thanks to countless loopholes and tax breaks aimed at everything from machinery investment to NASCAR race tracks. Last year these breaks cost $ 150 billion in forgone revenue, more than hal
28、f of what America collected in total corporate taxes.The second flaw is that America levies tax on a companys income no matter where in the world it is earned. In contrast, every other large rich country taxes only income earned within its borders. Here, too, Americas system is absurdly ineffective
29、at collecting money. Firms do not have to pay tax on foreign profits until they bring them back home. Not surprisingly, many do not: American multinationals have some $ 2 trillion sitting on their foreign units balance-sheets, and growing.All this imposes big costs on the economy. The high rate disc
30、ourages investment and loopholes distort it, because decisions are driven by tax considerations rather than a projects economic merits. The tax rate companies actually pay varies wildly, depending on their type of business and the creativity of their lawyers; some pay close to zero, others the full
31、35%. But as other countries chopped their rates and Americas stayed the same, the incentive to flee grew. A possible solution is to lower the corporate rate, eliminate tax breaks and move America from a worldwide system to a territorial one.26 Many corporations decide to withdraw from America becaus
32、e of_.（A）low corporate tax rate（B） enormous tax pressure（C） intense domestic competition（D）numerous economic refugees27 According to Paragraph 2, the act of some companies has_.（A）overstepped state laws（B） annoyed patriotic groups（C） aroused public indignation（D）irritated government officials28 The
33、author suggests that the corporate-tax system in America is_.（A）misguided（B） complicated（C） incomplete（D）fundamental29 We can infer from Paragraph 4 that_.（A）some tax reduction in America might be irrational（B） most rich countries in OECD have sound tax systems（C） Americas corporate tax rate is the
34、highest in the world（D）American firms raise less revenue than other countries30 Which of the following would be the best title for the text?（A）Corporate Tax in America: Time to Reform（B） The Questionable Tax Breaks in America（C） Corporations in America: Time to Leave（D）The Hopeless Corporate Tax in
35、America30 Even before economist Howard Davies thinking where to put extra airport capacity in Britain, rejecting the idea of building a big new hub in the Thames Estuary, the backlash had begun. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London and an enthusiastic supporter of the Thames plan, spluttered in advanc
36、e, then branded the decision “shortsighted“. NIMBYs opposing the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick groaned, knowing that the remaining options all involve building or extending runways at one of those airports. Sir Howards final recommendation is sure to run into heavy fire. To make matters worse, h
37、e and his team must hazard a guess about the future of air travel.Heathrow and Gatwick are both full, or close to it, and want to expand. But the two airports presently serve quite different parts of the market. Some 37% of passengers at Heathrow transfer between flights. Nearly a third of its custo
38、mers are on business. By contrast, only 13% of Gatwicks customers are business travellers. Most are going on holiday. Just 7% transfer therea proportion that has fallen by half over the past decade.Heathrows shiny new Terminal 2, which opened in June, is full of expensive shops and restaurants run b
39、y Michelin-starred cooks to entice rich passengers. At Gatwick, recent improvements reflect its popularity with holiday goers: a wider lane at security gate has been set aside for families, while an area in the southern terminal is now reserved for elderly passengers, with comfortable seats and a sm
40、all duty-free shop.The airports managers also hold entirely different views about the way the airline industry will develop, and its place in the broader economy. Much of the argument for expanding Heathrow rests on the idea that hub airports are, and will remain, vital. Without further expansion, b
41、oosters argue, fewer flights to distant places such as Wuhan and Xiamen will be available to businessmen. If the capacity plight persists, domestic flights are more likely to be delayed or cancelled. European airports will pick up those passengers instead. “Thats our GDP leaking out,“ says Jon Proud
42、love, the general manager of air-traffic control at Heathrow.Not surprisingly, Gatwick takes a different view. Over the past ten years the growth of low-cost airlines has been explosive, points out Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of the Gatwick group. People are travelling in different ways, with more “se
43、lf-connecting“ to keep costs down. Although connections with emerging markets are important, Europe and North America will remain Britains largest trading partners, he argues. London will be a destination in its own right.31 Howard Daviess plan to expand the airport has_.（A）caused great concern（B） g
44、ained public recognition（C） aroused strong opposition（D）received enthusiastic support32 Heathrow and Gatwick are different in terms of_.（A）scale and capacity of passengers（B） the proportion of foreign tourists（C） passengers power of consumption（D）passengers nature and destination33 It can be inferre
45、d from Paragraph 3 that_.（A）Michelin restaurants are popular around the world（B） Heathrows Terminal 2 aims at high-end customers（C） Gatwick airport is designed to attract all passengers（D）both Heathrow and Gatwick cater to public demand34 Domestic flights at Heathrow may be cancelled if_.（A）the airp
46、ort enlarges its scale（B） there are too few passengers（C） the airport remains its current size（D）a new airport wont be constructed35 In regard of the future of the airport, Roy McNulty seems to feel_.（A）confident（B） perplexed（C） concerned（D）indifferent35 Eva Ullmann took her masters degree in 2002 o
47、n the part that humour has to play in psychotherapy, and became hooked on the subject. In 2005 she founded the German Institute for Humour in Leipzig. It is dedicated to “the combination of seriousness and humour“. She offers lectures, seminars and personal coaching to managers, from small firms to
48、such corporate giants as Deutsche Bank and Telekom. Her latest project is to help train medical students and doctors.There is nothing peculiarly German about humour training. It was John Morreall, an American, who showed that humour is a market segment in the ever-expanding American genre of self-he
49、lp. In the past two decades, humour has gone global. An International Humour Congress was held in Amsterdam in 2000. And yet Germans know that the rest of the world considers them to be at a particular disadvantage.The issue is not comedy, of which Germany has plenty. The late Vicco von Buelow, alias Lori-ot, delighted the elite with his mockery of German seriousness and stiffness.
