1、考研英语（二）模拟试卷 24 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 The Pew Foundation discovered in a recent【C1 】_that tensions over inequality in wealth now【C2】_tensions over race and immigration.
2、But income inequality isnt really the problem. A new upper class is the problem. And their wealth isnt what sets them【C3】_or creates so much【C4 】_toward them.Lets take a guycall him Hankwho built a successful auto-repair business and【C5】_it to 30 locations, and now his【C6】_in the business is worth $
3、100 million. He went to a second-tier state university, or maybe he didnt complete college at all. He grew up in a working-class or middle-class home and married a woman who didnt complete college, either. He now lives in a neighborhood with other rich people, but theyre mostly other people who got
4、rich the same way he did. He has a lot of money, but he doesnt have power or influence over national culture, politics or economy,【C7】_does he even have any particular influence over the culture, politics or economy of the city where he lives. Hes just rich.The new upper class is different. It consi
5、sts of the people who run the country. By “the people who run the country,“ I mean a small【C8】_of peoplewell under 100,000, by a【C9 】_definitionwho are【C10】_for the films and television shows you watch, the news you see and read, the success (or failure) of the nations leading corporations and finan
6、cial institutions and the jurisprudence, legislation and regulations produced by government.What makes the new upper class new is that its members not only have power and influence but also increasingly【C11】_a common culture that【C12】_them from the rest of the country. Fifty years ago, the people wh
7、o rose to the most influential positions overwhelmingly had Hanks kind of【C13】_, thoroughly【C14】_in the American mainstream. They have【C15】_tastes and preferences and seek out enclaves of others who share them. Their culture【C16 】_little with the lifestyle or the popular culture of the rest of the n
8、ation; in fact, members of the new upper class increasingly【 C17】_that mainstream lifestyle and culture. If this divide continues to widen, it will completely destroy【C18】_has made Americas national civic culture【C19】_: a fluid,【C20】_society where people from different backgrounds live side by side
9、and come together for the common good.1 【C1 】（A）toll（B） doll（C） poll（D）roll2 【C2 】（A）outweighs（B） outnumbers（C） outpaces（D）outgrows3 【C3 】（A）aside（B） apart（C） about（D）aboard4 【C4 】（A）hysteria（B） hospitality（C） hostility（D）hardship5 【C5 】（A）amplified（B） magnified（C） stretched（D）expanded6 【C6 】（A）inte
10、rest（B） bond（C） stake（D）bonus7 【C7 】（A）either（B） nor（C） neither（D）none8 【C8 】（A）set（B） fraction（C） part（D）portion9 【C9 】（A）vigorous（B） rigorous（C） outrageous（D）conspicuous10 【C10 】（A）charging（B） responsible（C） obliging（D）presiding11 【C11 】（A）confess（B） concede（C） embrace（D）despise12 【C12 】（A）diffuse
11、（B） dismiss（C） distract（D）distinguish13 【C13 】（A）resource（B） source（C） origin（D）base14 【C14 】（A）grounded（B） immersed（C） submerged（D）absorbed15 【C15 】（A）evident（B） distinctive（C） apparent（D）obvious16 【C16 】（A）interferes（B） incorporates（C） interacts（D）instills17 【C17 】（A）look down upon（B） look out for
12、（C） look forward to（D）look up to18 【C18 】（A）that（B） all（C） what（D）those19 【C19 】（A）excessive（B） exclusive（C） exceptional（D）eccentric20 【C20 】（A）mobile（B） motive（C） modern（D）multiplyPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 poi
13、nts)20 Imagine a Britons new year resolutions: he vows to stop smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and abandon his daily bottle of claret and nightly whisky. Confronting his enlarging gut, he may even promise to make his ten-mile round-trip commute by bike, not car.What admirable goals. And since this gent
14、lemans annual vice bill comes to around 7,500 pounds, he will be well-rewarded for his virtue even before considering the effect on his health. But the Treasury might rejoice a little less. In the fiscal year 2010-11 nearly 10% of all taxes collected came from duty on alcohol, tobacco, and fuel as w
15、ell as from vehicle excise duty, a tax that falls most heavily on the least efficient cars. You may say that New Year resolutions are notoriously short-lived, but the longer-run trend still looks bad for the exchequer. Because many vices are in constant decline, so are receipts, predicts the Office
16、for Budget Responsibility (OBR).Smoking rates have been falling for decades, attributed partly to high taxes, and partly to public health campaigns changing social mores and a smoking ban in workplaces introduced across Britain in 2007. The government could respond by increasing sin tax rates. But w
17、hen duties rise, so do the incentives to get around them, by buying abroad or on the black market. This is particularly common with cigarettes, which are easy for individual smokers to import. In 2000 non-duty consumption reached a peak of 78% , a consequence of the weak euro as well as a sudden inc
18、rease in taxes of inflation plus 5%.Petrol taxes are leaking more quickly. As with smoking, behavior is changing; car and van mileage has fallen for four consecutive years, partly because petrol is so expensive and new vehicles have better engines. These trends, as well as the rise of electric and h
19、ybrid cars, are forecast to compress receipts from 1.8% of GDP in 2010 to just 1.1% in 2030.There are, of course, advantages to Britons giving up their filthy habits. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Britain. It cost the National Health Service more than 5 b
20、illion pounds a year in 2005-06, some 5.5% of its budget at the time, according to an Oxford University study. But any benefit to the NHS may be short-lived. Those who do not perish from diseases associated with smoking are likely to die more slowly of age-related illnesses.In moral terms, a decline
21、 in sin tax receipts suggests a job well done. But in fiscal terms, a hole is a hole. As the OBR sees it, falling Treasury income means Britons will be getting, in effect, an unannounced tax cut. Other taxes could therefore rise without leaving people worse off in aggregate. The maths makes sense. F
22、or the virtuous, though, being clobbered with new taxes may seem a rather poor reward.21 An ordinary Britains New Year resolution is mentioned in Paragraph 1 to_.（A）indicate the significant role played by tax in changing the lifestyle（B） illustrate that the decline of tax revenue is only short-lived
23、（C） stress the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle（D）demonstrate how a healthy lifestyle may affect the fiscal revenue22 It can be inferred from the passage that the sin tax is_.（A）a tax levied to curb unhealthy consumption（B） the most important source of revenue of British government（C） a tax l
24、evied on the basis of personal income（D）a tax borne by enterprises rather than consumers23 According to Paragraph 3, increasing tax rates on cigarettes is not a reasonable way for government to counteract effects of less people smoking because_.（A）it will force more people to give up smoking（B） it w
25、ill stimulate people to access cigarettes from alternative channels（C） it can not counter the effects of weak euro（D）it can not counter the effects of inflation24 According to the last paragraph, in moral terms, a decline in sin tax receipts suggests that_.（A）governments job to curb unhealthy consum
26、ption is fulfilled（B） governments job to relieve the tax burden of British people is fulfilled（C） governments job to advocate public health campaign is fulfilled（D）governments job to elevate the moral level of British people is fulfilled25 The lost revenue from sin taxes may be balanced by_.（A）raisi
27、ng sin tax rates（B） the money saved from curbing disease linked to smoking or drinking（C） imposing new taxes or increasing rates of other taxes（D）collecting more personal income tax25 Death is a difficult subject for anyone, but Americans want to talk about it less than most. They have a cultural ex
28、pectation that whatever may be wrong with them, it can be fixed with the right treatment, and if the first doctor does not offer it they may seek a second, third or fourth opinion. Legal action is a constant threat, so even if a patient is very ill and likely to die, doctors and hospitals will still
29、 persist with aggressive treatment, paid for by the insurer or, for the elderly, by Medicare. That is one reason why America spends 18% of its GDP on health care, the highest proportion in the world.That does not mean that Americans are getting the worlds best health care. For the past 20 years doct
30、ors at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice have been compiling the “Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care“ , using Medicare data to compare health-spending patterns in different regions and institutions. They find that average costs per patient during the last two years of life
31、in some regions can be almost twice as high as in others, yet patients in the high-spending areas do not survive any longer or enjoy better health as a result.Ira Byock is the director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre. His book is a plea for those near the end of their li
32、fe to be treated more like individuals and less like medical cases on which all available technology must be let loose. With two decades experience in the field, he makes a good case for sometimes leaving well alone and helping people to die gently if that is what they want.That does not include ass
33、isted suicide, which he opposes. But it does include providing enough pain relief to make patients comfortable, co-coordinating their treatment among the different specialists, keeping them informed, having enough staff on hand to see to their needs, making arrangements for them to be cared for at h
34、ome where possibleand not officiously keeping them alive when there is no hope.But it is not easy to decide when to stop making every effort to save someones life and allow them to die gently. The book quotes the case of one HIV-positive young man who was acutely ill with multiple infections. He spe
35、nt over four months in hospital, much of the time on a ventilator, and had countless tests, scans and other interventions. The total bill came to over $ lm. He came close to death many times, but eventually pulled through and has now returned to a normal life. It is an uplifting story, but such an o
36、utcome is very rare.Dr Byocks writing style is not everybodys cup of tea, but he is surely right to suggest better management of a problem that can only get worse. As life expectancy keeps on rising, so will the proportion of old people in the population. And with 75m American baby-boomers now on th
37、e threshold of retirement, there is a limit to what the country can afford to spend to keep them going on and on.26 According to Paragraph 1, the disproportional large spending in health care stems from_.（A）Americans failure to admit death as part of their life（B） doctors inclination to overtreat th
38、e patient（C） a culture that is obsessed with youth and health（D）a legal system which has a bias in favor of patients27 The author cited the findings of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice to illustrate that_.（A）the medical care quality differs widely from region to region（B）
39、there is little that hospitals can do in saving peoples lives（C） a lot of medical resources are wasted（D）the American medical system is notorious for its low cost-effectiveness28 The central idea of Ira Byocks book is to appeal to the hospital to_.（A）save every life with every possible means（B） help
40、 people to die if that is his/her will（C） make people feel comfortable in their remaining hours（D）consider whether the cure is worthwhile before conducting it29 In the authors opinion, the example of the HIV-positive young man in Paragraph 5_.（A）eliminates the possibility of applying gentle dying pr
41、ocess in medicare（B） is merely an extreme case that should not be taken as a standard（C） emphasizes the importance of aggressive treatment even with slim hope（D）is used as an irony of the current state of American medical system30 According to the author, the American government will_the proposal of
42、 gentle dying.（A）disapprove of（B） divide at（C） hesitate at（D）side with30 In his new book, Going Solo, New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg argues that were poised to become a nation dominated by single people. Just 51 percent of American adults are married, according to recent census data
43、, and more than a quarter of all U. S. households consist of only one person. Yet singles often dont get a lot of loveand were not talking about their romantic lives.Activists say that unmarried people are systematically discriminated against. “ Singleism stereotyping, stigmatizing, and discriminati
44、on against people who are singleis largely unrecognized and unchallenged,“ says activist Bella DePaulo, the author of Singled Out.DePaulo says: “People dont notice singleism, and if their attention is called to it, they think theres nothing wrong. “ Thats why, for instance, car and health insurance
45、companies get away with charging less for couples and families. “They can attract more business that way,“ DePaulo notes. In the process, they leave single people to essentially subsidize the benefit by paying more. “ When married workers can add spouses to a health-care plan at a discount and singl
46、e workers cant add someone important to them, thats discrimination,“ says DePaulo.The U. S. government not only turns a blind eye to the problem of “singleism,“ but helps enforce it, activists say. Just look at Social Security. “ A childless singleton can work side by side with a childless married p
47、erson, doing the same job, for the same number of years, at the same level of accomplishmentand when the married person dies, that worker can leave his or her Social Security benefits to a spouse,“ says DePaulo. “The single persons benefits go back into the system. “Thats especially true given how m
48、uch they contribute to societymore, activists argue, than married couples with families. “ On average, singles have more disposable income,“ Klinenberg says. “They re fueling urban economies that would be in much worse shape without them. And compared to married people, theyre more likely to spend t
49、ime with neighbors, to participate in public events, and to volunteer. “Singles may also be contributing more at the office, without being compensated for it, activists say. “ Studies have shown that singles are often paid less than married people, even if they share the same title, responsibilities, and years of experience,“ says Langburt. “ And if you agree that time equals dollars, the
