1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 266 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 Organizations and societies rely on fines and rewards to harness peoples self-interest in the service of the common good. The threat of a ticket keeps d
2、rivers in line, and the promise of a bonus inspires high performance. But incentives can also backfire, diminishing the very behavior theyre meant to encourage.A generation ago, Richard Titmuss claimed that paying people to donate blood reduced the supply. Economists were skeptical, citing a lack of
3、 empirical evidence. But since then, new data and models have prompted a sea change in how economists think about incentivesshowing, among other things, that Titmuss was right often enough that businesses should take note.Experimental economists have found that offering to pay women for donating blo
4、od decreases the number willing to donate by almost half, and that letting them contribute the payment to charity reverses the effect. Dozens of recent experiments show that rewarding self-interest with economic incentives can backfire when they undermine what Adam Smith called “the moral sentiments
5、.“ The psychology here has escaped blackboard economists, but it will be no surprise to people in business: When we take a job or buy a car, we are not only trying to get stuffwe are also trying to be a certain kind of person. People desire to be esteemed by others and to be seen as ethical and dign
6、ified. And they dont want to be taken for suckers. Rewarding blood donations may backfire because it suggests that the donor is less interested in being altruistic than in making a dollar. Incentives also run into trouble when they signal that the employer mistrusts the employee or is greedy. Close
7、supervision of workers coupled with pay for performance is textbook economicsand a prescription for sullen employees.Perhaps most important, incentives affect what our actions signal, whether were being self-interested or civic-minded, manipulated or trusted, and they can implysometimes wronglywhat
8、motivates us. Fines or public rebukes that appeal to our moral sentiments by signaling social disapproval(think of littering)can be highly effective. But incentives go wrong when they offend or diminish our ethical sensibilities.This does not mean its impossible to appeal to self-interested and ethi
9、cal motivations at the same timejust that efforts to do so often fail. Ideally, policies support socially valued ends not only by harnessing self-interest but also by encouraging public-spiritedness. The small tax on plastic grocery bags enacted in Ireland in 2002 that resulted in their virtual elim
10、ination appears to have had such an effect. It punished offenders monetarily while conveying a moral message. Carrying a plastic bag joined wearing a fur coat in the gallery of anti-social anachronisms.1 From the first two paragraphs, we know that（A）organizational and social progresses depend on eco
11、nomic incentives.（B） economic incentives actually discourage people to behave well.（C） economists didnt agree with Titmuss for the lack of empirical evidence（D）economists now prompt businesses to note down Titmusss claim.2 According to experimental economists,（A）more money is offered, fewer people d
12、onate blood.（B） economic incentives may run in the opposite direction.（C） a decreasing number of people donate blood for charity.（D）economic incentives clash with “the moral sentiments“.3 We know from the text that incentives are characterized as（A）counterproductive.（B） manipulating.（C） implicative.
13、（D）effective.4 The small tax on plastic grocery bags in Ireland is mentioned to show that（A）Ireland is determined to eliminate plastic pollution.（B） incentive policies by the government are more effective.（C） incentives can harness egoism and inspire altruism.（D）monetary punishments usually have mor
14、al implications.5 The text intends to tell us that（A）businesses might as well put economic incentives to fuller play.（B） incentives have more negative influences than positive ones.（C） money is not everything, instead, there is always something else.（D）incentives may go wrong when they clash with “t
15、he moral sentiments“.5 Superior customer service can be an essential source of strength as companies emerge from the recession, but managers need to understand the extent to which the consumer landscape has shifted. Weakened brands, customers easy access to information about vendors, and the erosion
16、 of barriers to switching a-mong competitors have combined to create a much more challenging environment for service, whether its outsourced or delivered in-house. Evidence shows that customers will no longer tolerate the rushed and inconvenient service that has become all too common. Instead, they
17、are looking for a satisfying experience. Companies that provide it will win their loyalty.Our recent research demonstrates that when customers contact companies for service, they care most about two things: Is the frontline employee knowledgeable? And is the problem resolved on the first call? Yet t
18、hose factors often arent even on customer-service managers dashboards. Most service centers continue to measure time on hold and minutes per call, as they have for decades. Such metrics encourage agents to hurry through callsresulting in just the kind of experience customers dislike. More than half
19、of the customers we surveyed across industries say theyve had a bad service experience, and nearly the same fraction think many of the companies they interact with dont understand or care about them. On average, 40% of customers who suffer through bad experiences stop doing business with the offendi
20、ng company.To get a better understanding of what customers experience, managers should draw on a variety of information sources, including customer satisfaction surveys, behavioral data collected through self-service channels, and recorded customer-agent conversations. In addition, companies must re
21、vise processes to give agents the leeway and authority to meet individual customers needs and provide positive, satisfying experiences.In evaluating service, managers should measure across all channels the percentage of customer problems resolved within the first contact, determine what is at the ro
22、ot of problems that arent settled in one call, and make any necessary changes. They should also aim to have consistently high-quality interactions between customers and frontline employees. That may sound costly, but knowledge-management systems, speech recognition for automated calls, and other tec
23、hnologies can help to substantially offset the expense.Some executives believe that irritated customers will forgive vendors and come back for more. Our research indicates that, on the contrary, alienated customers often disappear without the slightest warning. And as companies rebuild themselves af
24、ter the recession, this silent attrition represents a host of lost opportunities for future sales and positive word of mouth.6 Providing superior customer service now is more challenging mainly because（A）companies have just recovered from the economic recession.（B） consumers can easily change vendor
25、s thanks to the Internet.（C） customers prefer services delivered in-house to outsourced ones.（D）consumers have come to demand satisfying customer services.7 It is indicated in Paragraph 2 that（A）customers today are demanding and hasty.（B） most customer-service managers are lazy.（C） customer service
26、need change with the times.（D）customers surveyed dont care about the service.8 We can infer from Paragraph 3 that companies（A）did not understand what customers experienced.（B） did not record customer-agent conversations.（C） did not allow agents to provide individualized service.（D）did not have enoug
27、h money to collect information.9 High-quality interactions between customers and frontline employees（A）can settle the problems at the first shot.（B） call for a radical change within the company.（C） should be one of managers consistent pursuits.（D）are too expensive for a company to implement.10 Accor
28、ding to the author, offended customers are most likely to（A）tolerate the vendors bad service.（B） continue business with the vendors.（C） warn and accuse the vendors.（D）leave and switch to another vendor.10 Man is born free but is everywhere in debt. In the rich world, getting hold of your first credi
29、t card is a rite of passage far more important for your daily life than casting your first vote. Buying your first home normally requires taking on a debt several times the size of your annual income. And even if you shun the temptation of borrowing to indulge yourself, you are still saddled with yo
30、ur portion of the national debt.Throughout the 1980s and 1990s a rise in debt levels accompanied the “great moderation“, when growth was steady and unemployment and inflation remained low. No longer did Western banks have to raise rates to halt consumer booms. By the early 2000s a vast international
31、 scheme of vendor financing had been created. Those who cautioned against rising debt levels were dismissed as doom-mongers; after all, asset prices were rising even faster, so balance-sheets looked healthy. And with the economy advancing, debtors could afford to meet their interest payments. In sho
32、rt, it paid to borrow and it paid to lend. Like alcohol, a debt boom tends to induce euphoria. Traders and investors saw the asset-price rises as proof of their brilliance; central banks and governments thought that rising markets and higher tax revenues attested to the soundness of their policies.T
33、he answer to all problems seemed to be more debt. Depressed? Use your credit card for a shopping spree “because youre worth it“. Want to get rich quick? Work for a private-equity or hedge-fund firm, using borrowed money to enhance returns. Looking for faster growth for your company? Borrow money and
34、 make an acquisition. And if the economy is in recession, let the government go into deficit to bolster spending.Debt increased at every level, from consumers to companies to banks to whole countries. The effect varied from country to country, but a survey by the McKinsey Global Institute found that
35、 average total debt(private and public sector combined)in ten mature economies rose from 200% of GDP in 1995 to 300% in 2008. There were even more startling rises in Iceland and Ireland, where debt-to-GDP ratios reached 1,200% and 700% respectively. The burdens proved too much for those two countrie
36、s, plunging them into financial crisis. Such turmoil is a sign that debt is not the instant solution it was made out to be.From early 2007 onwards there were signs that economies were reaching the limit of their ability to absorb more borrowing. The growth-boosting potential of debt seemed to peter
37、out. According to Leigh Skene of Lombard Street Research, each additional dollar of debt was associated with less and less growth.11 It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that a credit card may（A）symbolize adulthood.（B） replace voting right.（C） encourage loaning.（D）reduce inflation.12 We know from Par
38、agraph 2 that debt boom in the last decades has（A）halted consumer booms.（B） won universal welcome.（C） promoted economic growth.（D）confronted strong suspicions.13 “Like alcohol, a debt boom tends to induce euphoria“(Line 7, Para 2)indicates a debt boom（A）is beneficial to both borrowers and lenders.（B
39、） seems to inspire self-satisfaction.（C） is hard to control like strong wine.（D）has much potential to create profits.14 The examples of Iceland and Ireland are intended to show that（A）the effect of debt differs in each country.（B） the two countries have the highest debt rise.（C） debt isnt always an
40、instant solution as believed.（D）debt rise is the origin of the financial crisis.15 According to this text, the author is likely to agree that（A）debt is unavoidable as well as necessary.（B） a booming economy always follows a debt rise.（C） more debt has been related to less growth.（D）debt is reaching
41、its limit to boost economy.15 Labor is not just a meaningful experienceits also a marketable one. When instant cake mixes were introduced, in the 1950s, housewives were initially resistant: The mixes were too easy, suggesting that their labor was undervalued. When manufacturers changed the recipe to
42、 require the addition of an egg, adoption rose dramatically. Ironically, increasing the labor involvedmaking the task more arduousled to greater liking.Research conducted with my colleagues Daniel Mochon, of Yale University, and Dan Ariely, of Duke University, shows that labor enhances affection for
43、 its results. When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their(often poorly made)creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly req
44、uired.In one of our studies we asked people to fold origami(the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes representing objects)and then to bid on their own creations along with other peoples. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so fond of their amateu
45、rish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.We also investigated the limits of the IKEA effect, showing that labor leads to higher valuation only when the labor is fruitful: When participants failed to complete an effortful task, the IKEA effect dissipated. Our research
46、 suggests that consumers may be willing to pay a premium for do-it-yourself projects, but theres an important caution: Companies hoping to persuade their customers to assume labor costs for example, by nudging them toward self-service through internet channelsshould be careful to create tasks diffic
47、ult enough to lead to higher valuation but not so difficult that customers cant complete them.Finally, the IKEA effect has broader implications for organizational dynamics: It contributes to the sunk cost effect, whereby managers continue to devote resources to(sometimes failing)projects in which th
48、ey have invested their labor, and to the not-invented-here syndrome, whereby they discount good ideas developed elsewhere in favor of their(sometimes inferior)internally developed ideas. Managers should keep in mind that ideas they have come to love because they invested their own labor in them may
49、not be as highly valued by their coworkersor their customers.16 Instant cake mixes is mentioned to（A）highlight the lifestyle in the 1950s.（B） demonstrate how peoples labor was undervalued.（C） stress the markets effect on human labor.（D）illustrate that labor leads to love for its results.17 Which of the following is true of the IKEA effect?（A）It refers to the phenomenon that people usually undervalue their creations.（B） It is put forward by the honorable and successful manufacturer IKEA.（C） It explains why the participants think highly of their own
