1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 151 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 As more and more electrified vehicles hit the floors of car dealerships, conventional wisdom has it that the market wont get moving without richer incen
2、tives and dense battery-charging networks.It s not surprising that the market may take root in big cities: nowhere is the need for cleaner air and reduced carbon dioxide emissions more pressing, and nowhere else can you expect to find as many green-minded early adopters who will welcome a clean vehi
3、cle that takes them the short distances they need to go on one charge. These characteristics make large urban areas the ideal labs for the next phase of electric-vehicle development. Our research offers insights that can guide auto companies, battery makers, infrastructure providers, and city govern
4、ments alike as they consider moving forward with this technology and the networks that support it.Large markets are waiting to be served. We found big clusters of potential early adopters 20 percent in New Yorkwho were distinguished by their green thinking and would consider buying an electric car.F
5、or early adopters, the charging problem isnt as big as it seems. Unlike other groups of car buyers in New York and Shanghai, early adopters were willing to adjust their driving and parking habits to own an electric car. In fact, they indicated that a dense public charging infrastructure would only m
6、odestly increase their interest in buying such cars and that they were willing to cope with more limited charging options. This attitude reduces the need for public investments in the start-up stage, though a broad plug-in infrastructure will no doubt be critical as electrified vehicles migrate to m
7、ass adoption in large cities and elsewhere.This is also good news for automakers, which have the opportunity to overcome another major obstacle: battery limits. Since many drivers in large cities travel only short distancesto and from work, for instancethe near-term cost and duration of electric-car
8、 batteries is less of a problem there than it is elsewhere. Rather than offering only all-purpose electric vehicles, automakers can segment buyers according to their driving missions and develop attractively priced models with no more battery energy storage than many of their city drivers need.Consu
9、mer education is one such measure that will be critical for catalyzing both early and mass adoption. Forty percent of New York and Shanghai respondents said they didnt know much about electric vehicles and many were anxious about driving-range limitations. Few knew that battery-powered cars are rela
10、tively quiet and can potentially accelerate faster than conventional ones. And more important, many werent aware that electric cars help drivers save money on both fuel and maintenance in the long run.1 Why are the big cities more likely to be large markets of electric vehicles?（A）Because city dwell
11、ers like the idea of saving money on gas.（B） Because the distance between the charging places is short.（C） Because there are many environmental friendly people.（D）Because people in large cities are willing to try new things.2 It can be inferred from the passage that the public charging infrastructur
12、e（A）is critical at the start-up stage of electric vehicles.（B） has no influence on consumers buying interest.（C） can greatly reduce the citys pollutant emission.（D）should support the mass adoption of electric vehicles.3 What kind of electric vehicles should automakers produce for city users?（A）All-p
13、urpose vehicles that suit everybody.（B） Economic models for specific consumers.（C） Cheaper and more environment-friendly vehicles.（D）Models with high energy storage batteries.4 Which of the following may discourage the buyers of electric vehicles?（A）Driving range on one charge.（B） Noise of operation
14、.（C） Acceleration speed.（D）Cost on maintenance.5 What is the authors attitude towards electric vehicles?（A）Critical.（B） Favorable.（C） Neutral.（D）Uncertain.5 Helping teachers to lift student achievement more effectively has become a major theme in US education. Most efforts that are now in their earl
15、y stages or being planned focus either on building the skills of teachers already in the classroom or on retaining the best and dismissing the least effective performers. The question of who should actually teach and how the nations schools might attract more young people from the top tier of colleg
16、e graduates, as part of a systematic effort to improve teaching in the United States, has received comparatively little attention.McKinseys experience with school systems in more than 50 countries suggests that there is an important gap in the US teaching. In a new report, Closing the talent gap: At
17、tracting and retaining top-third graduates to careers in teaching, we review the experiences of the worlds top-performing systems, in Finland, Singapore, and South Korea. These countries recruit 100 percent of their teacher corps from the top third of the academic cohort. Along with strong training
18、and good working conditions, this extraordinary selectivity is part of an integrated system that promotes the prestige of teachingand has achieved extraordinary results. In the United States, by contrast, only 23 percent of new teachers come from the top third, and just 14 percent of new teachers wh
19、o come from the top third work in high-poverty schools, where attracting and retaining talented people is particularly difficult. The report asks what it would take to emulate nations that systematically recruit top students to teaching if the United States decided that it was worthwhile to do so.Mc
20、Kinseys survey of nearly 1,500 top-third US college students and current teachers, highlighted in the report, shows that a major effort would be needed to attract and retain the best students to teaching. The stakes are high: recent McKinsey research found that a persistent achievement gap between U
21、S students and those in top-performing nations imposes the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.Research on whether the academic background of teachers is a useful predictor of classroom effectiveness has had mixed results, and no single reform can be depicted as a silver bullet. Bu
22、t the success of the best-performing national systems suggests that an effort to attract the countrys top students to teaching deserves serious examination as part of a comprehensive human-capital strategy for the US education system.6 What measures has the US considered to take to increase the stud
23、ents achievement?（A）Investing more money on teaching facilities.（B） Providing various training for students.（C） Attracting good graduates in teaching.（D）Firing the incompetent teachers.7 The word “cohort“(Line 5, Para.2)most probably means（A）group.（B） achievement.（C） order.（D）region.8 It can be infe
24、rred from McKinsey research that（A）schools in poor areas have difficulty in attracting good teachers.（B） only around 1,500 top-third students choose to be teachers.（C） improving the students performance may have positive effect on economy.（D）teachers in the US have lower prestige than those in other
25、 top-performing nations.9 According to the passage, the academic background of teachers is（A）part of the useful system that can predict the classroom effectiveness.（B） worth the serious consideration of US government and educators.（C） the biggest difference between the US and other top-performing na
26、tions.（D）the key to the success of the best-performing national systems.10 What is the main idea of the passage?（A）There is still a long way to go before the US can recruit the top talent in teaching.（B） Teachers with strong academic background and good working conditions make an ideal teaching syst
27、em.（C） The US should learn from other countries experience and attract top graduates to teach.（D）More research should be made on the relationship between teachers academic background and students performance.10 Women are crucial to US economic growth. Indeed, since womens participation in the workfo
28、rce took off, in the 1970s, their productivity has accounted for about a quarter of current GDP. But women still arent reaching their full economic potential. One important reason is that far too many highly skilled women simply dont progress up the ladder in corporate America.A new McKinsey report,
29、 Unlocking the full potential of women in the US economy, delves into the details of this well-known phenomenon. The problem isnt simply a lack of flexible working conditions or support for working mothers. Nor is it an inability to get women into the workforce or womens desire to opt out; most cant
30、 afford to. Instead, entrenched mind-sets and behaviors at companies and among women themselvesare two of the biggest culprits in preventing women from advancing. The issue is particularly acute at the transition from middle manager to senior manager, a point when women have proven themselves profes
31、sionally yet a disproportionate share leave corporate careers. For many, invisible biases become impassable.Our research included a survey of some 2,500 college-educated men and women. One striking discovery is that women who have progressed from entry-level jobs to middle management, and then from
32、middle management to senior management, have, at each stage, an increasing interest in being leaders and an increasing belief that opportunities exist.How can companies help more women retain that enthusiasm? Most companies are already working hard to reduce structural problems(such as a lack of rol
33、e models or access to informal networks)and are trying to shift work practices to meet their employees desire for a work-life balance. However, our survey and interviews uncovered some more insidious, difficult-to-address problems. These include senior executives perceptions that certain jobs just s
34、houldnt be available to women and a tendency to reward men for their potential but women only for their performance. Many women react to these barriers and biases by reducing their corporate ambitions in favor of achieving greater satisfaction across their livesand companies lose out entirely.If wom
35、en are to reach their full potential in the economy, companies must do at least as much to address those issues as they are doing to address the ones they can more easily see. Helping middle-management women to develop and advance will make the biggest difference because it will begin to reshape the
36、 corporate talent pipeline and help companies reach their goal of advancing more women to the top.11 According to the new McKinsey report, women stopped to progress because（A）working mothers find it difficult to balance work and family.（B） women prefer to stay away from the competitive work.（C） most
37、 women cant take the risk to change their posts.（D）women cant overcome the deep-rooted biases at the workplace.12 According to the survey in the research, as women get higher level jobs,they（A）have more confidence in proving their professional ability.（B） have more desire to stand out to lead the te
38、am.（C） face more pressure from the company and their peers.（D）find they are able to catch more opportunities of promotion.13 The word “insidious“(Line 4, Para.4)most probably means（A）widespread.（B） superficial.（C） harmful.（D）stubborn.14 According to the passage, middle-management women（A）are the mos
39、t productive force in the company.（B） are mostly content with what they have achieved.（C） need companys help to fully realize their potential.（D）are willing to face the issues with their companies.15 What is the authors attitude towards womens getting into top-level management?（A）Supportive.（B） Unce
40、rtain.（C） Critical.（D）Hopeful.15 As overfishing destabilizes marine ecosystems around the world, fisheries are finding themselves in rough waters. Data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)indicate that 30 percent of all fish stocks are now overexploited(beyond their maximum sustainable
41、 limits)and an additional 50 percent are fully exploited(at or close to those limits). Their erosion and eventual collapse would pose an economic threat not only to fishers but also to everyone else whose livelihood depends on fisheries, which(according to the FAO)provide employment for 180 million
42、people and account for a significant part of the animal protein consumed globally, particularly in developing countries. With 2008 exports that some experts estimate at more than $85 billion, fish and fishery products rank among the most widely traded agricultural commodities in the world, in a valu
43、e chain the FAO says may generate $500 billion a year.A number of studies have shown that fisheries could make a significantly larger economic contribution if they were managed to their maximum sustainable yields. The World Bank puts the lost revenues at $51 billion a year; other estimates range fro
44、m $46 billion to $90 billion. But though establishing sustainable fisheries is clearly desirable and necessary, only limited research has explored in detail the challenges of the transition, particularly the economic implications for different participants. A new McKinsey report, Design for Sustaina
45、ble FisheriesModeling Fishery Economics, helps to fill these gaps.The report finds that the transition to sustainable fisheries will be challenging for three main reasons. First, it typically requires a reduction in levels of fishing and changes in fishing practices, so short-term financial losses u
46、sually percolate through the value chain. Participants who lack alternatives or a longer-term interest in a fishery may be more concerned about losing short-term harvests than about driving a fishery to collapse. Second, even when a fishery becomes sustainable, the economic and other benefits may be
47、 unevenly distributed among participants. Finally, although sustainable fishing usually calls for data gathering and adequate management, in many areas these are hard to implement. Lacking good indications of a fish stocks health, even people with the best intentions may overfish.To help address the
48、se challenges, McKinsey collaborated with experts from the University of California Santa Barbara. The researchers devised a methodology to compare the biological and economic impacts of different transition pathways to sustainability for specific fisheries and applied it to three case studies. Deta
49、iled field research uncovered the problems of stakeholders and the value chain dynamics, and in-depth modeling explored the biological and economic consequences of various management scenarios. To highlight the significantly different possibilities, the researchers compared the consequences of a “business as usual“ scenario with those of various paths to sustainability. This approach can help align the interests of different stakeholders and provide them with an optimal solution based on the study of detailed biological and economic scenarios.1
