1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 371 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 Last November, the U. S. National Academy of Sciences delivered a stinging verdict on a White House plan to change the rules on how the governments agen
2、cies measure risks, such as those resulting from chemical exposure or from smoking cigarettes. The academy said that a draft risk-assessment bulletin containing the plan was “fundamentally flawed“ and ought to be completely withdrawn.Ten months later, the bulletin is still very much alive. After som
3、e hesitancy, Susan Dudley, head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget(OMB), has indicated that it is still under review and likely to be finalized in some shape or form.Risk assessment is a complex and exacting activity, and the Nation
4、al Academies have played a globally acknowledged role over many years in providing guidance on how it should be done. But the academy panel, chaired by John Ahearne, a former president of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and director of ethics at the scientific society Sigma Xi, said that the bulle
5、tin was wrong in attempting to impose a “one-size-fits-all“ approach to risk assessment overseen by so political an office as the OMB. It also charged that the bulletin failed to take account of the different approaches appropriate to the various fields of science and engineering, or of risks to par
6、ticular groups, such as children or pregnant women. Thankfully, Congress is now applying some oversight to the OMB. In May, for example, Senators Jeff Bingaman(Democrat, New Mexico)and Joe Lieberman(Independent, Connecticut)wrote to Rob Portman, the director of the OMB, to seek assurances that it wo
7、uld take the National Academy of Sciences advice and withdraw the risk-assessment bulletin.In an evasive response, Portman would say only that his office would “not finalize the bulletin without revision“indicating, in effect, that it is planning to press ahead with the exercise in a revised form. N
8、ow the senators have written to the OMB again, asking its officials to state by next week exactly how they intend to proceed, given the devastating critique issued by the academy panel last year. “We began our review of the draft bulletin thinking we would only be recommending changes,“ said Ahearne
9、 at the time. “But the more we dug into it, the more we realized that from a scientific and technical standpoint, it should be withdrawn altogether. “ The White House specifically went out and sought this advice: why wont it take it?1 The U. S. National Academy of Sciences held that_.（A）the rules on
10、 risk-assessment should be modified（B） its ruling on the White House plan was justifiable（C） the risk-assessment bulletin should be discontinued（D）chemical exposure was as risky as smoking cigarettes2 Susan Dudley hinted that_.（A）OMB was responsible for controlling risk assessment（B） OMB persisted i
11、n revising and finalizing the bulletin（C） OMB was ready to keep the bulletin alive and active（D）OMBs risk-assessment bulletin was surely imperfect3 According to the academy panel,_.（A）different approaches should be taken into account（B） particular groups of people are subject to more risks（C） there
12、isn t an omnipotent approach to risk-assessment（D）the National Academies have been acknowledged globally4 It is implied by what the director of the OMB says that his office_.（A）would continue to exercise its bulletin（B） would perfect its risk-assessment bulletin（C） would totally withdraw its risk-as
13、sessment bulletin（D）would take the National Academy of Sciences advice5 The author argues that the White House OMB_.（A）should revise its risk-assessment bulletin（B） should replace its bulletin with a new draft（C） should finalize its bulletin without revision（D）should withdraw its risk-assessment bul
14、letin5 Amidst troubling reports of our nations economic woes and pressing national security issues, one news story earlier this month received fairly little attention: President Obamas March 11 executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. While the Councils role is likely t
15、o be more symbolic than practical, its creation, and the accompanying rhetoric, suggests that the Obama White House is bringing a blinkered, outdated approach to gender issuesone that, far from transcending ideological divisions, takes us back to a narrow and dogmatic feminist ideology. In his remar
16、ks at the signing, Barack Obama noted that women have made great strides since the days when his grandmother encountered a glass ceiling after reaching the level of bank vice president. Yet, despite the broken barriers, he argued that “inequalities stubbornly persist“: “women still earn just 78 cent
17、s for every dollar men make“; “one in four women still experiences domestic violence in their lifetimes“; and, despite being close to half the workforce, women make up only 17 percent of members of Congress and 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. But are these inequalities rooted in discrimination and fi
18、xable by the government? Numerous studies show that when differences in training, work hours, and continuity of employment are taken into account, the pay gap all but disappears. Most economists, including liberal feminists such as Harvards Claudia Goldin, agree that while sex discrimination exists,
19、 male-female disparities in earnings and achievement are due primarily to personal choices and priorities. Women are far more likely than men to avoid jobs with 60-hour workweeks and to scale down their careers while raising children. They are also more likely to choose less lucrative but more fulfi
20、lling jobs.Indeed, one might ask why the only gender-specific issues that seem to deserve federal attention are ones that affect women. Why not look at the fact that men account for 80 percent of suicides and 90 percent of workplace fatalities(as well as 70 percent of nonfatal on-the-job injuries)?
21、What about the troubling trend of boys and young men lagging substantially behind their female peers in education, with women earning nearly 60 percent of college degrees at a time when a college diploma is increasingly essential in the job market? Why not talk about the marginalization of fatherhoo
22、d and the fact that many men who want to be involved in their childrens lives are denied that chance?This is not a call for a new federal bureaucracy for “mens issues“. However, the discussion of gender equality in our culture needs to include these issues. For the White House to exclude them while
23、calling for a new effort to combat inequality is at best myopic.6 The establishment of White House Council on Women and Girls shows that Obama _.（A）paid more attention to womens issue than to anything else（B） failed to pay enough attention to Americas economic crisis（C） prefers to use impressive rhe
24、toric in defending things he does（D）clung to outdated ideas and theories about sex discrimination7 Obama maintains that women _.（A）have made great progress in social status（B） are as competent as men for executive jobs（C） still encounter unequal treatment in society（D）experience more domestic violen
25、ce than men8 The author argues that male-female inequalities in society_.（A）are inevitable and will stubbornly persist（B） are practically caused by personal reasons（C） result from inveterate sex discrimination（D）can easily be equalized by the government9 The author notes that men are _.（A）treated un
26、equally in some aspects（B） generally inferior to women in study（C） disposed to engage in risky activities（D）more emotionally fragile than women10 The author calls for _.（A）a new notion of social equality（B） a new approach to gender issues（C） a new definition of discrimination（D）a new effort to get r
27、id of inequality10 If all we did were simply work to live, the reality of our everyday existence would be equivalent to that of stone-age man. All of human achievement that makes modern life possible has happened because of time that has been freed up from the work of everyday survival. For most of
28、the human species term on earth man and woman have been preoccupied with the simple business of staying alive in as much relative comfort as possible. Hunting and gathering, finding or building shelter, defending the little that one has from plunder, surviving long enough to have progeny of a mature
29、 enough age to contribute to the welfare of the groupthis was initially the main business of living. It has only been comparatively recently, since the agrarian and industrial revolutions that utilised emerging technologies to free human beings from the drudgery of day-to-day survival, that time has
30、 become available to do other than simply survive. Living to work is a luxury that we should not take for granted, for even now there are many, in the developed world as well as the rest, that do not have such a choice. When we live to work we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we wouldnt be doing i
31、t. The term “live to work“ implies choice. Working to live denotes the exact opposite: anything will do that pays the bills. Anyone in the latter situation will attest to the undesirability of being in such a position. Living to work suggests exhilaration in ones calling; it summons images of freedo
32、m and excitement at the prospect of what each new day will bring, whereas working to live suggests drudgery and slavery, and little choice if any. “What do you want to do when you grow up?“ is a question with which most children will be familiar, perhaps even weary. It is a question of which even a
33、young adult can often not be sure until they have had experience of many different jobs, or at least the ones they initially thought to try. But to be forced to work at a task that one does not enjoy day after day for survival would be last choice on anyone s list. Enlightened humanity, while acknow
34、ledging that some undesirable jobs must be done regardless, would acknowledge that if one is motivated in their work, their work will be so much the better for it. Wouldnt you rather live to work than work to live?11 The author argues that working to live_.（A）safeguards the survival of human species
35、（B） is unlikely to bring about our modern life（C） results in remarkable human achievement（D）lays the foundation for modern way of life12 It is implied in the text that human beings _.（A）have been intent on contributing to the welfare of the group（B） stayed alive in as much as comfort as possible for
36、 centuries（C） made little progress before the emergence of technologies（D）were addicted to hunting, gathering, and building shelters13 The author thinks that living to work is _.（A）exactly opposite to working to live（B） a worthless form of self-indulgence（C） a choice everyone takes for granted（D）an
37、ideal many people fail to realize14 According to the text, those who work to live _.（A）treasure the fruits of their hard work（B） have to do something they hate to do（C） have become accustomed to drudgery（D）seize any opportunity to get a good job15 The author advocates that we should _.（A）learn to li
38、ve to work despite difficulty（B） free ourselves from tiresome drudgery（C） be generous in doing undesirable jobs（D）develop intrinsic motivation in work15 An important new study has cast an appalling light on a place where workplace laws fail to protect workers, where wages and tips are routinely stol
39、en, where having to work sick, injured or off the clock is the price of having a job.The place is the United States, all across the lower strata of the urban economy.The most comprehensive investigation of labor-law violations in years surveyed 4,387 workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Its
40、 researchers sought out people often missed by standard surveys and found abuses everywhere: in factories, grocery stores, retail shops, construction sites, offices, warehouses and private homes. The word sweatshop clearly is not big enough anymore to capture the extent and severity of the rot in th
41、e low-wage workplace.Workers told of employers who ignored the minimum wage, denied overtime, took illegal deductions to pay for tools or transportation, or forced them to work unpaid before or after their shifts. More than two-thirds of them had endured at least one wage violation in the previous w
42、orkweek. More than a quarter had been paid less than the minimum wage, often by more than $ 1 an hour. Violations typically robbed workers of $ 51 a week, from an average paycheck of $ 339.The report paints an acute picture of powerlessness. Of workers who had been seriously injured on the job, only
43、 8 percent had filed for workers compensationa symptom, researchers said, of the power of employer pressure. Although 86 percent of respondents had worked enough consecutive hours to be entitled to time off for meals, more than two-thirds had had their breaks denied, interrupted or shortened. Worker
44、s who complained to bosses or government agencies or tried to form unions suffered illegal retaliation; firing, suspension, pay cuts or threats to call immigration authorities.It is, of course, morally abhorrent that the American economy should be so riddled with exploitation. But it is also powerfu
45、lly evident that there are practical consequences when the powerless are abused. Low-wage workers spend a high proportion of their income on necessities; when their paychecks are systematically bled by greedy employers, an entire communitys economic vitality is sapped as well. The answers are basic,
46、 though too long ignored. Government needs to send more investigators to back rooms, offices and factory floors, and to enlist labor organizations and immigrant-rights groups as their investigative eyes and ears. Penalties for wage-law violations need toughening. Employees who have historically been
47、 denied basic labor rightsdomestic workers and home health aidesneed to finally be given the protection of wage-and-hour laws. Companies must not be allowed to skirt their legal obligations by outsourcing hiring to subcontractors, letting others break the law for them.16 According to a new study, th
48、e United States_.（A）is unanimously considered to be an appalling workplace（B） encourages workers to work sick, injured or off the clock（C） assists employers to steal wages and tips from employees（D）has done little to protect workers at the bottom of society17 A survey shows that workers in the low-w
49、age workplace_.（A）have no courage to resent the working conditions（B） work long hours under extremely bad conditions（C） are often overlooked by common investigations（D）suffer more physical abuses than anywhere else18 Labor-law violations are manifested in the fact that employees_.（A）are driven to work longer hours without pay（B） get used to working before or after their shifts（C） accept paycheck less than the minimum wage（D）merely complain when they have been abused19 Acc
