1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 218 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A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Theres no such thing as a fr
2、ee lunch. But as so often happens, the dismal science actually has it right. When it looks like youre getting something for nothing, somebody is paying, and its often instructive to know who that is.Ive been testing a new phone service called ooma that provides an interesting case in point. Once you
3、 pay $399 up front for a box called the ooma Hub and connect it to your phone and the Internet via your home network, you are promised free, unlimited phone calls over two lines, plus voice mail. The system works fine and is simple to set up.When a voice-over-Internet call has to go to a regular pho
4、ne number, a service such as ooma usually has to pay a termination fee“ to a carrier such as Verizon. Skype, for example, charges 2% per minute for calls outside the Skype network. But ooma avoids this by using some of its customersthose who have kept regular phone linesto serve as gateways onto the
5、 local phone network at no charge.When you want to call outside the ooma network, the call moves from your Hub over the Internet to a second landline-connected Hub within the destinations local calling area. The Hub dials the target number and patches the call through. In effect, ooma customers with
6、 landlines pay to keep the whole system going. You dont even notice if your landline is being used because your own phone calls go out over your broadband connection, with your flat-rate monthly phone bill covering the ooma traffic. In fact, this improves the efficiency of the phone system by puttin
7、g idle lines to work. But if ooma ever gains real traction, I expect a legal assault from big phone companies, which are losing income from termination fees.Web services do take advantage of genuine economies. The phone network is more expensive than the Net. Lots of Net players build on these advan
8、tages. Skype relies on selected users who act, often without their knowledge, as “super nodes“ to manage the system. FreeC provides calls by taking advantage of regulatory quirksnamely, the stiff termination fees long-distance carriers must pay to certain rural phone companies that handle calls into
9、 their territory. In effect, the free conferences are subsidized by customers and shareholders of the long-distance carriers. You may as well enjoy free calls while you can. But its always a good idea to read the fine print. If it isnt obvious whos paying for a free service, it might well be you.1 T
10、he phrase “a free lunch“ (Para 1) implies that the free stuff on the Internet seems to be _.（A）totally free（B） impossible as a free lunch（C） as right as the science（D）paid by someone you know2 The ooma system promised free, unlimited phone calls by _.（A）connecting the ooma Hub to your phone（B） takin
11、g advantage of their customers（C） paying termination fee to carrier Verizon（D）keeping regular local phone lines3 It could be concluded from the passage that the ooma service _.（A）worked illegally by losing termination fees（B） improved the efficiency of the phone system（C） was paid by the ooma custom
12、ers（D）covered the ooma traffic by broadband connection4 One cannot notice if the landline is being used by others because _.（A）the ooma traffic cannot be calculated by the outside network（B） your monthly phone bill still remains stable with new traffic（C） your Hub will dial the target number from a
13、second Hub（D）the whole system keeps going with the broadband connection5 The author suggests that readers _.（A）enjoy their free calls（B） pay their bills by themselves（C） read carefully their bills（D）avoid paying others bills5 Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things
14、more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder. This spiral of complexity, often called “feature creep,“ costs consumers time, but it also costs businesses money.Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Ph
15、ilips Electronics,found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldnt figure out how to use them. Companies now know a great deal about problems of usability and consumer behavior, so why is it that feature creep proves unstoppable?In part, feature cree
16、p is the product of the so-called internal-audience problem: the people who design and sell products are not the ones who buy and use them, and what engineers and marketers think is important is not necessarily whats best for consumers. The engineers tend not to notice when more options make a produ
17、ct less usable. And marketing and sales departments see each additional feature as a new selling point, and a new way to lure customers.You might think, then, that companies could avoid feature creep by just paying attention to what customers really want. But thats where the trouble begins, because
18、although consumers find overloaded gadgets unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. Its only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of si
19、mplicity.It seems odd that we dont anticipate feature fatigue and thus avoid it. But, as numerous studies have shown, people are not, in general, good at predicting what will make them happy in the future. As a result, we will pay more for more features because we systematically overestimate how oft
20、en well use them. We also overestimate our ability to figure out how a complicated product works.The fact that buyers want bells and whistles but users want something clear and simple creates a peculiar problem for companies.A product that doesnt have enough features may fail to catch our eye in the
21、 store. But a product with too many features is likely to annoy consumers and generate bad word of mouth, as BMWs original iDrive system did.6 In the first paragraph, the author mainly discusses _.（A）the benefits brought by the advanced technology（B） the recent study conducted by Elke den Ouden（C） t
22、he loss incurred by the feature creep of technology（D）many problems of usability known by the consumers7 Which of the following is true according to the second paragraph?（A）It is the audience problem that leads to feature creep.（B） What matters to designers and marketers is not good for consumers.（C
23、） Feature creep brings blessings to the people in marketing and sales.（D）The engineers will not pay attention to the quality of the products.8 Companies find it difficult to avoid feature creep because consumers _.（A）find complex gadgets easy to manage（B） are attracted by gadgets with more features（
24、C） do not like the gadgets featured by simplicity（D）know the virtues of complexity very well9 It is stated in Paragraph 4 that the buyers generally _.（A）are too confident of their ability to use the complicated products properly（B） are deeply convinced that all the products work in a simple way（C） a
25、re fed up with the more and more features of the products（D）are quite clear about the products which will make them happy in the future10 By saying “buyers want bells and whistles“ (Para. 5), the author means that they want to buy _.（A）a variety of products which they could use to generate loud nois
26、es（B） the product which will generate good word of mouth for its features（C） the product which has many features but doesnt annoy consumers（D）the product with many non-essential but often engaging features10 Judith Vogtli, director of an upstate New York-based abstinence (the practice of refraining
27、from sex, alcohol, etc) organization called Project Truth, is worried that the golden age of “abstinence-only“ education may have come to an end. The former president helped increase funding for this kind of sex education which focuses on chastity as the way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmi
28、tteddiseases, and discusses condoms only in terms of failureto over $175m a year. The fate of that money, and of abstinence education itself, is uncertain under a new adrninistration and Congress.Ms Vogtli need only wait a few weeks. The president will submit the first draft of his budget to Congres
29、s later this month. In the meantime, her organization, funded entirely by a government grant, is trying to go about business as usual. That means teaching about abstaining from sex, drugs and alcohol in New York schools and holding its sixth annual abstinence Creativity Contest, to which students su
30、bmitted essays, poems, artwork and music on the theme of “Waiting is easier because.“Abstinence-only education programs have been controversial ever since they were introduced under Ronald Reagan in 1981.Some liberals have labeled it “ignorance-only“ education and most favor a curriculum that includ
31、es discussion of both abstinence and contraception (the method to prevent pregnancy). Since the start of abstinence-only programs, the federal government has spent over $1.5 billion on them, but the United States still has one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates of any developed country. Supporters
32、of abstinence-only education mostly think that the media and a culture of casual sexual behaviors are to blame for this and that more government support for abstinence could help offset the rise of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. But opponents blame abstinence-only education.Ther
33、e is some evidence to support their case. According to Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, an advocacy organization, there has been no randomized study showing that abstinence-only education delays sexual activity, and research from the University of Washing
34、ton suggests that teens who receive comprehensive sex education have a 50% lower risk of becoming pregnant than those enrolled in abstinence-only courses.Abstinence-only advocates want the government to let school districts choose which type of sex education they prefer. But in an unfavorable sign f
35、or them, the new Congress is already shifting its emphasis. Louise Slaughter, a congresswoman from New York and a former scientist, has introduced a bill that would fund “medically accurate“ comprehensive sex education in schools. It is likely to pass.11 We learn from the first paragraph that “absti
36、nence-only“ education _.（A）fails to win the support from the new administration（B） focuses on both chastity and condoms（C） enjoys great popularity among the young people（D）might see a decline of public interest in such education12 Which of the following is true of Paragraph 2?（A）Ms Vogths organizati
37、on is funded by the government and the private companies.（B） Ms Vogths organization is trying its best to do business well as usual.（C） The annual abstinence Creativity Contest has been held for six consecutive years.（D）Student participants of the contest should submit essays, poems, artwork of any
38、themes.13 According to Paragraph 3, the teen-pregnancy rates are high because of_.（A）a lack of government support for abstinence education（B） the casual attitude towards abstinence education（C） the casual attitude towards sex and mass media（D）the curriculum that excludes discussion of contraception1
39、4 It is suggested in the fourth paragraph that comprehensive sex education _.（A）does not put off sexual activity among the teens（B） helps the teens reduce the risk of becoming pregnant by 50%（C） helps 50% of the teens avoid the sexual behavior（D）helps the teens avoid becoming pregnant more effective
40、ly15 We may infer from the last paragraph that _.（A）the new Congress still emphasizes the abstinence-only education（B） the comprehensive sex education may receive more support（C） a bill of funding comprehensive sex education has been passed（D）Louise Slaughter is in favor of abstinence-only education
41、15 Dont talk: your cell phone may be eavesdropping. Thanks to recent developments in “spy phone“ software, a do-it-yourself spook can now wirelessly transfer a wiretapping program to any mobile phone. The programs are inexpensive, and the transfer requires no special skill. The would-be spy needs to
42、 get his hands on your phone to press keys authorizing the download, but ittakes just a few minutesabout the time needed to download a ringtone.This new generation of user-friendly spy-phone software has become widely available in the last year and it confers stunning powers. The latest programs can
43、 silently turn on handset microphones even when no call is being made, allowing a spy to listen to voices in a room halfway around the world. Targets are none the wiser: neither call logs nor phone bills show records of the secretly transmitted data.More than 200 companies sell spy-phone software on
44、line, at prices as low as $50. Vendors are loath to release sales figures. But some experts claim that a surprising number of people carry a mobile that has been compromised, usually by a spouse, lover, parent or co-worker. Many employees, experts say, hope to discover a supervisors dishonest dealin
45、gs and tip off the top boss anonymously. Max Maiellaro, head of Agata Christie Investigation, a private-investigation firm in Milan, estimates that 3 percent of mobiles in France and Germany are tapped, and about 5 percent or so in Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain. James Atkinson, a spy-phone expert
46、 at Granite Island Group, a security consultancy in Gloucester, Massachusetts, puts the number of tapped phones in the U.S. at 3 percent. Even if these numbers are inflated, clearly many otherwise law-abiding citizens are willing to break wiretapping laws.Spyware thrives on iPhones, BlackBerrys and
47、other smart phones because they have ample processing power. In the United States, the spread of GSM networks, which are more vulnerable than older technologies, has also enlarged the pool of potential victims. Spyware being developed for law-enforcement agencies will accompany a text message and au
48、tomatically install itself in the victims phone when the message is opened, according to an Italian developer who declined to be identified. One worry is that the software will find its way into the hands of criminals.The current embarrassment is partly the result of decisions by Apple, Microsoft an
49、d Research In Motion (producer of the BlackBerry) to open their phones to outside application-software developers, which created the opening for spyware. Antivirus and security programs developed for computers require too much processing power, even for smart phones. Although security programs are available for phones, by and large users havent given the threat much thought. If the spying keeps spreading, that may change soon.16 The cell phone may be eavesdropping in that _.（A）the softw
