1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 122 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 The financial crisis took its toll and Britain slid into a severe slump in 2008 and 2009, one big worry was that the economy would also slip into deflat
2、ion, exacerbating the difficulties of debt-laden households and firms. The scare was short-lived. Only a year since the recovery began, prices are surging rather than falling. Inflation, the scourge of Britains economy until the 1990s, seems to have returned.George Osborne has made many changes sinc
3、e he became chancellor of the exchequer last May but he has retained a central plank of economic policy: setting an inflation target and empowering the Bank of England to meet it. But the banks credibility is starting to be questioned as inflation keeps on exceeding the 2% target for consumer prices
4、. Since the middle of 2006, undershoots have become the exception, with inflation above 2% in all but a few months. Throughout 2010 it was at or above 3%, most recently moving up to 3.3% in November.The inflationary relapse is set to get worse in early 2011. The main rate of VAT, a consumption tax,
5、went up from 17.5% to 20% on January 4th. The rise is an essential part of Mr. Osbornes plans to plug the budget deficitbut an unwelcome side-effect is that it will add to inflation. Because the tax increase is permanent, it is likely to be passed through to prices in full, whereas only about half t
6、he rise was passed on a year ago when VAT returned to its previously normal level of 17.5%, after being lowered to 15% to fight the recession.There are other inflationary forces at work, too, as Asias rapid economic growth stokes up commodity prices. Most food escapes VAT, but that will not spare co
7、nsumers: global food prices have risen by 27% in the past year, according to The Economists commodity-price index. World oil prices have also jumped recently.That margin of spare capacity should persist this year since growth is likely to be lacklustre, not least because Mr. Osbornes austerity measu
8、res include harsh spending cuts and other tax rises starting in April, as well as this months VAT increase. Although the economy has recovered more briskly than once expected, growing by 2.7% in the year to the third quarter of 2010, that pace will abate. The OBR is forecasting especially low growth
9、 in the first half of this year, and for GDP to rise by just 2.1% in 2011 as a wholebelow its 2.4% estimate of the economys trend rate of growth.One worry is that inflation expectations have been rising. A household survey published by the Bank of England last month showed that people are expecting
10、inflation of 3.9% over the next year, up from the 3.4% rate they predicted last August. But while business conditions remain tough and unemployment high it is difficult to see these elevated expectations actually leading to higher wages growth. Regular pay, which excludes bonuses, has picked up a bi
11、t but the most recent rate of 2.3% is still subdued by historical standards.The Bank of England may have lost some credibility of late, but it has not lost the argument about spare capacity. As a fierce fiscal contraction gets under way, the current ultra-loose monetary stance remains reasonable. If
12、 the economy performs more strongly this year than expected, that should be the spur to start tightening, by raising the base rate from its all-time low of 0.5%.1 The first paragraph discusses that_.（A）British economy has enjoyed a major plunge 2 or 3 years ago（B） British economy has suffered from d
13、eflation in 2008 and 2009（C） Britain is seemingly having a relapse of inflation（D）thanks to the economic recovery, the prices tend to surge in British Isles2 According to the text, the inflationary factors of Britain EXCLUDE_.（A）Mr. Osbornes plan of cutting deficit（B） the increase of VAT（C） Asias ra
14、pid economic growth（D）rapid economic recovery3 The author argued in Paragraph 5 that “that margin of spare capacity should persist this year“ due to_.（A）Mr. Osbornes austerity measures（B） the publics rising worry over inflation（C） inflationary disruption（D）the economic recovery will be still healthy
15、4 On which of the following would the author most probably agree on?（A）George Osborne increases the rate of VAT merely to obtain more revenue.（B） The pace of British recovery will moderate to some extent.（C） The Bank of England has lost some credibility due to forecasting lapses.（D）The inflation rat
16、e in 2010 was above 3% in British Isles.5 Which of the following is the most proper title of the text?（A）George Osbornes New Policy（B） The Power House of British Economic Recovery（C） Inflation Should Be Tamed By Spare Capacity（D）Britains Inflationary Relapse A Test of Nerves5 The price of oil has ha
17、d an unnerving ability to blow up the world economy, and the Middle East has often provided the spark. The Arab oil embargo of 1973, the Iranian revolution in 1978-79 and Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait in 1990 are all painful reminders of how the regions combustible mix of geopolitics and geolog
18、y can wreak havoc. With protests cascading across Arabia, is the world in for another oil shock?There are good reasons to worry. The Middle East and North Africa produce more than one-third of the worlds oil. Libyas turmoil shows that a revolution can quickly disrupt oil supply. Even while Muammar Q
19、addafi hangs on with delusional determination and Western countries debate whether to enforce a no-fly zone, Libyas oil output has halved, as foreign workers flee and the country fragments. The spread of unrest across the region threatens wider disruption.The markets reaction has been surprisingly m
20、odest. The price of Brent crude jumped 15% as Libyas violence flared up, reaching $120 a barrel on February 24th. But the promise of more production from Saudi Arabia pushed the price down again. It was $116 on March 2nd20% higher than the beginning of the year, but well below the peaks of 2008. Mos
21、t economists are sanguine: global growth might slow by a few tenths of a percentage point, they reckon, but not enough to jeopardise the rich worlds recovery.That glosses over two big risks. First, a serious supply disruption, or even the fear of it, could send the oil price soaring. Second, dearer
22、oil could fuel inflationand that might prompt a monetary clampdown that throttles the recovery. A lot will depend on the skill of central bankers.So far, the shocks to supply have been tiny. Libyas turmoil has reduced global oil output by a mere 1%. In 1973 the figure was around 7.5%. Todays oil mar
23、ket also has plenty of buffers. Governments have stockpiles, which they didnt in 1973. Commercial oil stocks are more ample than they were when prices peaked in 2008. Saudi Arabia, the central bank of the oil market, technically has enough spare capacity to replace Libya, Algeria and a clutch of oth
24、er small producers. And the Saudis have made clear that they are willing to pump.Yet more disruption cannot be ruled out. The oil industry is extremely complex: getting the right sort of oil to the right place at the right time is crucial. And then there is Saudi Arabia itself. The kingdom has many
25、of the characteristics that have fuelled unrest elsewhere, including an army of disillusioned youths. Despite spending $36 billion so far buying off dissent, a repressive regime faces demands for reform. A whiff of instability would spread panic in the oil market.Even without a disruption to supply,
26、 prices are under pressure from a second source: the gradual dwindling of spare capacity. With the world economy growing strongly, oil demand is far outpacing increases in readily available supply. So any jitters from the Middle East will accelerate and exaggerate a price rise that was already on th
27、e way.6 The first paragraph of the passage discusses that_.（A）the Middle East will be a potential threat to world economy（B） the 1970s oil shocks have transformed the world economy（C） oil price and Middle East are closely intertwined with world economy（D）the new oil shock is on its course7 The first
28、 word of Paragraph 4 “That“ refers to_.（A）most economists optimism（B） rich worlds recovery（C） global growth（D）modest market reaction8 According to the text, which of the following factor is NOT the one affecting the price of oil?（A）Political situation in Middle East（B） Oil supply（C） Diminishing spar
29、e capacity（D）Inflation9 The difference between what happed in the 1970s and what is happening now is that _.（A）much more oil was produced back in the 1970s than today（B） microscopic control is much better nowadays than in 1970s（C） current oil market have cushions thanks to governments stockpiles（D）t
30、he oil situation enjoyed a more stability 40 years ago10 Which of the following statement shows the main idea of the text?（A）The 2011 oil shock is less of a threat to world economy than investors to think.（B） What oil market experienced in the 1970s and what is happening have big differences.（C） Oil
31、 crisis is an vicious circle and a potential threat to world economy.（D）The world economy has liberated itself from the turmoil of oil market.10 Sometime late last year I noticed I was having trouble sitting down to read. Thats a problem if you do what I do, but its an even bigger problem if youre t
32、he kind of person I am. Since I discovered reading, Ive always been surrounded by stacks of books. I read my way through camp, school, nights, weekends; when my girlfriend and I backpacked through Europe after college graduation, I had to buy a suitcase to accommodate the books I picked up along the
33、 way.In his 1967 memoir, “Stop-Time,“ Frank Conroy describes his initiation into literature as an adolescent on Manhattans Upper East Side. “Id lie in bed. ,“ he writes, “and read one paperback after another until two or three in the morning. The real world dissolved and I was free to drift in fanta
34、sy.“ I know that boy: Growing up in the same neighborhood, I was that boy. And I have always read like that, although these days, I find myself driven by the idea that in their intimacy, the one-to-one attention they require, books are not tools to retreat from but rather to understand and interact
35、with the world.So what happened? It isnt a failure of desire so much as one of will. Or not will, exactly, but focus: the ability to still my mind long enough to inhabit someone elses world, and to let that someone else inhabit mine. Reading is an act of contemplation, perhaps the only act in which
36、we allow ourselves to merge with the consciousness of another human being. We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their language, but they possess us also, filling us with thoughts and observations, asking us to make them part of ourselves.Such a state is increasingly elusi
37、ve in our over-networked culture, in which everything new is blogged and tweeted. Today, it seems it is not contemplation we seek but an odd sort of distraction masquerading as being in the know. Why? Because of the illusion that illumination is based on speed, that it is more important to react tha
38、n to think, that we live in a culture in which something is attached to every bit of time.Here we have my reading problem in a nutshell, for books insist we take the opposite position, that we immerse, slow down. “After September 11,“ Mona Simpson wrote as part of a 2001 LA Weekly round-table on rea
39、ding during wartime, “I didnt read books for the news. Books, by their nature, are never new enough.“ By this, Simpson doesnt mean she stopped reading; instead, at a moment when it felt as if time was on fast forward, she relied on books to pull back from the onslaught, to distance herself from the
40、present as a way of reconnecting with a more elemental sense of who we are.Of course, the source of my distraction is somewhat different: not an event of great significance but the usual ongoing trivialities. I am too susceptible to the tumult of the culture, the sound and fury signifying nothing. W
41、hat Im struggling with is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there is something out there that merits my attention, when in fact its mostly just a series of disconnected riffs and fragments that add up to the anxiety of the age.11 The word “dissolve“ in Paragraph 2 can be substituted by_.（
42、A）diffuse（B） vanish（C） saturate（D）disintegrate12 We can learn from Paragraph 2 that_.（A）Stop-time led the author into the literature community（B） by reading books, you can escape from the reality（C） the author was born in Manhattan, New York（D）Frank Conroys memoir sparked authors passion for books13
43、 According to the text, why do people have reading problem nowadays?（A）Every rumor and mundanity is on the Internet so that we dont have to read.（B） People tend to prefer to one-time entertainment rather than deep mediation.（C） Quick reaction to news is a better way to obtain knowledge.（D）The extrem
44、ely cyber-conscious world cant get along with books.14 On which of the following would the author most probably agree on?（A）We read both to escape from and to be engaged in the real world.（B） Contemplation is necessary especially in the light of all the overload.（C） The art of reading is becoming ex
45、tinct in the relentless noise of the 21st century.（D）Reading is gradually losing its ground mainly due to its limitations and backwardness.15 The authors attitude towards internet culture is one of_.（A）indifference（B） denial（C） anxiety（D）ambivalence15 New research asks whether psychopaths are born t
46、hat way, or are made so by their upbringings. That, of course, is rather a crude way of putting it. After decades of debate, biologists have come to understand what was blindingly obvious to most laymenwhich is that rather than being shaped by nature or nurture, most behavioural traits are the resul
47、t of an interaction between the two. Nevertheless, one or the other can still be the dominant factor. And the study in question suggests that in the case of psychopathy, the genetic side is very important indeed.Researchers have drawn their conclusion from a study of twins. The twins in question are
48、 on the books of a long-term project known as the Twins Early Development Study(TEDS), which has been following several thousand twins since their births in 1994 and 1995. Among other things, many of the twins in TEDS have been assessed both for a tendency to bad behaviour(“conduct disorder“, in the
49、 argot of the field)and for the display of what are referred to as callous-unemotional traits, such as a lack of feelings of guilt after doing something wrong, or not having at least one good friend. In adults, callous and unemotional traits are symptoms of psychopathy, and those who display such traits in childhood frequently keep them into adult life. The assessments were done by the childrens teachers, whom years of experience have shown are more objective and accurate than a childs par
