1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 135 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 Why are young people less likely to purchase cars, or even have drivers licenses nowadays? One theory has it that the generation that came of age with t
2、he Internet and smartphones thinks cars are pretty lame. Automakers prefer to see the situation differentlythat young people today love cars just as much as any other group, but just cant afford them right now.The auto industry has been in recovery mode over the past few years. Automakers sold 14.5
3、million new cars and trucks in 2012, a 13% increase over the prior year, and the highest total since 2007. Projected auto sales totals for 2013 should easily beat last year too, topping 15 million. Even so, the comeback has been called a “subpar recovery,“ and a prime reason why sales havent truly t
4、aken off is that younger consumers today arent buying cars like younger consumers traditionally have in the car-crazed U.S.Gen Y has been called “Gen N“ , as in Generation Neutralwhich is the way some describe how millennials feel about car ownership. Studies have shown that fewer young adults have
5、drivers licenses, that this group hates the traditional car-buying process more than other demographics, and that they prefer urban living and socializing online and therefore have less need for cars.Overall, the impression one gets is that millennials just dont have the passion for driving and owni
6、ng a set of wheels that previous generations have hadat least not to the extent that theyll devote a significant portion of their income to owning a car.So younger consumers just dont particularly care for car ownership, right? Wrong, say automakers. “I dont see any evidence that the young people ar
7、e losing interest in cars,“ Mustafa Mohatarem, GMs longtime chief economist, said to Automotive News. “Its really the economics doing what were seeing, and not a change in preferences.“Instead of accepting the premise that millennials see car ownership as “not cool,“ automakers are insisting that lo
8、w rates of drivers licenses and vehicle purchasing by young people come mainly as a result of car ownership being out of reach financially for this group right now. As the economy improves, and as millennials get a little older and have more need for cars due to work and family responsibilities, aut
9、o experts assume that this generation will have to embrace car ownership to a much larger degree. They see the car ownership alternativespublic transportation, as well as services like ride sharing and car sharingas having only a negligible impact on the auto sales business in the future.1 In automa
10、kers eyes, young people today（A）indulge themselves in virtual life.（B） are more environmental-friendly than ever.（C） still have passion towards cars.（D）are quite dependent economically.2 Which of the following can best describe the present auto industry?（A）Its recovery has little to do with the youn
11、g consumers.（B） It is slowly recovering from the past gloomy years.（C） It is expecting a true take-off in the near future.（D）It is out of the expectation of automakers.3 What is the possible factor that influences Gen Ys desire for cars?（A）Public image of cars.（B） Higher cost of fuel.（C） Desire of b
12、reaking rules.（D）New way of communication.4 It can be inferred from Paragraph 5 that（A）automakers still consider young people as potential customers.（B） more evidence is needed to understand young peoples interest.（C） the young generation is greatly different from the old one.（D）automakers have a wr
13、ong impression of young consumers.5 What do auto experts think of the future of cars?（A）People will grow more and more independent of cars.（B） The price of cars will strongly affect the industry.（C） Over time, young people will realize their needs of cars.（D）Cars will compete fiercely with other mea
14、ns of transportation.5 A recent study concluding that the first two years of undergraduate education makes very little difference in students abilities to read critically and write clearly points to a troubling fact in higher education. We are not doing an adequate job of preparing students for life
15、 and work in the 21st century. There are many reasons for students difficulties. Far too many come to college today less well prepared than in the past and are not able to work at the level that should be required of them. It is essential to develop an approach to reform that integrates K-12 and col
16、lege education.The challenges students face are compounded by pressures faculty members face. The imbalance between research and teaching has led to curricula that are over-specialized. Many of the courses offered are of little interest or use to students. When a persons professional future depends
17、on research and publication, there is very little incentive to spend time teaching and working with students.But even well intentioned teachers who would like to do more for their students often face insurmountable difficulties. Growing financial problems make it virtually impossible to provide the
18、kind of education students deserve. While faculty members and graduate students are being cut, many schools are trying to increase income by admitting more students, leaving insufficient professional teacher for the students recruited.When there is pressure to teach large classes to help the bottom
19、line, the wisest policy is to assign little reading or writing and to grade easily. Teaching well takes lots of time and helping student to learn to read critically and write well cannot be done in lecture halls with hundreds of students.The situation is even worse than recent reports suggest. Stude
20、nts are going to need new skills and different literacy in the future. The technological revolution that continues to take place is transforming the very structure of knowledge and, by extension, is changing the way people think, read and write. Traditional skills and competence in reading and writi
21、ng are still necessary but are no longer sufficient. We must also teach students to be as critical and creative in new media as they should be in the old.None of this will be easy or cheap but it must be done now. There has to be a thorough reassessment of the value of teaching and significant reall
22、ocation of resources within colleges and universities as well as the country at large.6 What can we infer from the recent study?（A）People begin to doubt the significance of higher education.（B） Higher education is reduced to worthless for students.（C） Students are causing great trouble to higher edu
23、cation.（D）A great revolution has taken place in undergraduate education.7 What has caused the specialization of the courses at colleges?（A）The requirement of the modern society on students.（B） Strong interest from students at colleges.（C） Challenges faced with the students nowadays.（D）Disproportione
24、d relation between research and teaching.8 Which of the following is true about the students and teachers nowadays?（A）Students are suffering from more reading and writing assignments after school.（B） Teachers have been reallocated for better teaching of students.（C） Students are now taking a variety
25、 of courses for interest.（D）Teachers have been asked to do more academic studies and papers.9 What kind of impact does technological revolution bring on students?（A）It has made them more critical and creative.（B） It has brought unprecedented challenges for students to meet.（C） It has made more and m
26、ore students be cut.（D）It has converted teachers pressures to students.10 On which of the following statements would the author probably agree?（A）Current students are more prepared for the changing society.（B） Universities are trying to stimulate teachers by increasing their income.（C） There is no t
27、eacher willing to help students when confronted with research pressure.（D）The current situation urgently needs attention and resolutions.10 Leading up to the debt-ceiling deadline, everyone was talking about how the stock market would crater if Washington didnt reach a deal. In fact, the opposite ha
28、s happened. Just when it became clear last week that Washington was moving closer to a deal is exactly when Wall Street started to stumble. And now that we have a deal, the falls have been getting worse. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 500 points Thursday. Overall, the market has
29、fallen 9 out of the last 10 trading days, one of the worst stretches of down days in recent years.In the Aug. 15th issue of TIME,columnist Rana Foroohar argues that the debt deal will increase the level of inequality in the US. A cut in spending, be it from consumers or the government, during a rece
30、ssion is sure to cost the economy jobs. Still, the direct drag from the debt deal on the economy is unlikely to be that big, mostly because the $2.1 trillion in cuts over the next decade wont really kick in for a few years. Thomas Lam, chief economist at Singapore-based financial firm OSK/DMG, calcu
31、lates that the drag on the economy will lower economic growth by only 0.3 percentage points in each of the next two years, which is something but not disastrous. So why is Wall Street reacting so badly in the wake of the deal?Because the big impact of the deal may not be the direct drag of a decreas
32、e in spending. At times in the debt-deal negotiations, it looked like we might get either an increase in taxes for the wealthiest Americans, an increase in unemployment benefits or both. In the end, we didnt get any of those things. Nor did we get a reduction in entitlement programs that benefit eve
33、ryone. Instead, what was cut was largely discretionary funds, a large portion of which go to programs that help the poor.Thats why Foroohar says the deal will probably exacerbate income inequality in the US. And income inequality is one of the main factors that caused the financial crisis. But thats
34、 not the only way that inequality is haunting this economy. Inequality is probably slowing the recovery as well. So far most of the gains of the recovery have gone to wealthy Americans. Luxury spending is up. So that helps.The debt deal seems to make clear that Washington, at least for now, has no p
35、lans to deal with the income gap. Our best hope to boost the economy is for some deal to lower taxes, either for corporations or for middle-class Americans. But because there was no deal on raising taxes on the wealthy, it is likely that Obama and the rest of the Democrats will hold the line on the
36、Bush tax cuts and let them expire completely. So taxes for everyone are going up. And that could be another drag on the economy. So why was the stock market down on Thursday? Why wouldnt it be?11 If Washington hadnt reached a deal, people might expect the stock market should have（A）risen 500 point o
37、n Tuesday.（B） fallen in a few days.（C） no change in a short term.（D）collapsed immediately.12 What do experts anticipate the direct impact of the debt deal on economy?（A）The debt deal affects a bit the economic growth in recent years.（B） The debt deal is fatal on the recovery of the economy recession
38、.（C） The debt deal factually has no effect on the growth of economy.（D）The debt deal may stimulate the recovery of economic recession.13 The author seems disappointed to the debt-deal negotiations since they（A）made the rich suffer from funds cutting.（B） caused an increase in unemployment rate.（C） le
39、d to a decrease in the funds for the poor.（D）benefited only those who need help most.14 In Foroohars opinion, the debt deal（A）will be taken advantage of by the rich.（B） stimulates the fashion of luxurious goods.（C） redistributes the wealth among people.（D）hinders the development of democracy.15 Acco
40、rding to the passage, deals to lower taxes for middle-class（A）have already been considered by the previous President.（B） turn out to be a failure by the Obama government.（C） are criticized severely by the upper-class Americans.（D）benefit the recovery of a weak economy.15 The economic news for young
41、women recently has been bright. Several studies have suggested that women under 30 who live in cities and work in industries that require a college education are earning more than their male peers, on average. Finally, some closure of the gender wage gap! But now comes that irritating other aspect:
42、another new study has found that women who make more money than their men are more likely to be cheated on.The study, which was presented by Christin Munsch, a sociology Ph. D. candidate at Cornell University, at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, examined 18 to 28 year old
43、s who were living together or married more than a year. It found that men who were completely dependent on their wives incomes were five times likelier to cheat than those who contributed the same amount to the household finances.Munsch believes this is not actually about money, but about mens feeli
44、ngs of sexual identity. “Any identity thats important to you, if you feel its threatened, youre going to engage in behavior that will reinstate your place in that group,“ she says. “Being a man is strongly identified with being a breadwinner. “ Men might engage in “hyper-masculine activities“display
45、ing their sexual competenceas a form of compensatory behavior.At the other end of the spectrum, men who make a lot more money than their wives were also more inclined to cheat, found Munsch. She suggests, however, its for different reasons. While non-earning men cheat because they are unhappy, highe
46、r earning men cheat because. they can.The men least likely to cheat, for those keeping count at home, had partners who made 75% of what they made. Conveniently, thats more or less the same proportion of a mans salary the average U. S. woman earned in 2008. This is whats called a silver lining.As for
47、 women, income disparity works in the opposite way: those who make less than their men or who arent breadwinners at all were much less likely to cheat than those who made more. Either they express their unhappiness in less relationship-jeopardizing ways, or Munsch believes, their minimal wage didnt
48、threaten their gender identity as much.The study, which drew on data from the 2002 to 2007 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, found that only 3.8% of male partners and 1.4% of female partners cheated in any given year during that period, so no matter what, the problem may be less pr
49、evalent than a lot of married folks fear. It also did not factor in age, education level, income, religious attendance, and relationship satisfaction, all of which could be as causal as income.So, ladies, whatever you do, dont use this as an excuse not to ask for that raise.16 According to Munsch, the deep cause for men who earn less to cheat is（A）hyper-masculine activities.（B） household finances.（C） gender identity.（D）unhappy marriage.17 The word “reinstate“(Line 3, Para.3)probably means（A）restore.（B） elevate.（C） lose.（D）hurt.18 According
