1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 416 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A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 The staggering variety of free stuff available on the Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Theres no such thing as a fr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 “temination 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 putting
7、 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 advant
8、ages. 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 Th
10、e phrase “a free lunch“(Line 3, Paragraph 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 know.2 The ooma system promised free, unlimited phone calls by（A）connecting the ooma Hub to your phone.
11、（B） taking advantage of their customers.（C） paying termination fee to carrier Verizon.（D）keeping regular local phone lines.3 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
12、ooma customers.（D）covered the ooma traffic by broadband connection.4 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 nu
13、mber from a second Hub.（D）the whole system keeps going with the broadband connection.5 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 bills.5 As long as people have looked up at the night sky, they hav
14、e wondered whether humanity is alone in the universe. Of places close enough for people to visit, Mars is the only one that anybody seriously thinks might support life. The recent confirmation of a five-year-old finding that there is methane(a colorless gas with no smell)in the Martian atmosphere ha
15、s therefore excited the hopes of those scientists who study the outer space. These sources are probably geological but they might, just, prove to be biological.The possibility of life on Mars is too thrilling for mankind to ignore. But how should we explore such questionswith men, or machines? Georg
16、e Bushs administration strongly supported manned exploration, but the new administration is likely to have different prioritiesand so it should.Michael Griffin, the boss of NASA, a physicist and aerospace engineer who supported Mr. Bushs plan to return to the moon and then push on to Mars, has gone.
17、 Mr. Obamas transition team had already been asking difficult questions of NASA, in particular about the cost of scrapping parts of the successor to the ageing and old-fashioned space shuttles that now form Americas manned space program. That successor system is also designed to return humans to the
18、 moon by 2020, as a stepping stone to visiting Mars. Meanwhile, Mr. Obamas administration is wondering about spending more money on lots of new satellites designed to look down at the Earth, rather than outward into space.These are sensible priorities. In space travel, as in politics, domestic polic
19、y should usually by far outweigh foreign adventures. Moreover, cash is short and space travel costly. Yet it would be a shame if man were to give up exploring celestial bodies, especially if there is a possibility of meeting life forms even ones as lowly as microbesas a result.Luckily, technology me
20、ans that man can explore both the moon and Mars more fully without going there himself. Robots are better and cheaper than they have ever been. They can work tirelessly for years, beaming back data and images, and returning samples to Earth. They can also be made germless, which germ-infected humans
21、, who risk spreading disease around the solar system, cannot.Humanity, some will argue, is driven by a yearning to boldly go to places far beyond its crowded corner of the universe. If so, private efforts will surely carry people into space. In the meantime, Mr. Obamas promise in his inauguration sp
22、eech to “restore science to its rightful place“ sounds like good news for the sort of curiosity-driven research that will allow us to find out whether those columns of methane are signs of life.6 According to the first paragraph, men want to explore Mars because they（A）have found columns of gas in t
23、he Martian atmosphere.（B） think it is the nearest place for men to go in the universe.（C） are convinced that Mars have something biological.（D）want to figure out whether there is life beyond earth.7 To which of the following statements would Mr. Obamas administration most likely agree?（A）The cost of
24、 manned space program is overestimated by Bushs administration.（B） The successor system should be updated and act as a stepping stone to Mars.（C） Spending money on satellites travelling around the Earth sounds more realistic.（D）Americas manned space program has to proceed to explore life possibiliti
25、es.8 Man can explore both the moon and Mars more fully in that（A）technology ensures that robots work more and harder than human beings.（B） robots can work better than human beings in exploring celestial bodies.（C） robots are made germ-free to avoid contamination in the solar system.（D）advanced techn
26、ologies are used widely in information transmission.9 The word “rightful“(line 3, Paragraph 6)is closest in meaning to（A）legal.（B） due.（C） independent.（D）normal.10 From the text we can conclude that the author thinks（A）private efforts will be more rewarding than official acts.（B） humanity will conqu
27、er the universe someday in the future.（C） people are determined to explore the space regardless of difficulties.（D）curiosity makes people believe in signs of life in the universe.10 In 1956, when the cold war was at its peak, America deployed a “secret sonic weapon“, as a newspaper headline put it a
28、t the time. That weapon was Dizzy Gillespie, a famed jazz musician, who was given the task of changing the worlds view of American culture through rhythm and beat. Crowds poured into the street to dance. Cultural diplomacy died down after the cold war ended. But the attacks of September 11th 2001 co
29、nvinced the State Department to send out Americas musicians once again to woo hearts and minds with melody.Rhythm Road, a program run by the State Department and a non-profit organization, Jazz at Lincoln Centre, has made informal diplomats out of both musicians and audiences. Since it began in 2005
30、, musicians have travelled to 96 countries. One band went to Mauritania, a country in northwestern Africa, after last years coup; many depart for countries that have strained relationships with America. The musicians travel to places where some people have never seen an American.Jazz, so participant
31、s in the program, is well-suited to diplomacy. It is collaborative, allowing individuals both to harmonize and play solomuch like a democracy, says Ari Roland, who plays bass for a band that left New York to tour the Middle East on March 31st. Jazz is also a reminder of musics power. It helped break
32、 down racial barriers, as enthusiasts of all colors gathered to listen to jazz when segregation was still the law of the land.The State Department spent 10 million US dollars on cultural diplomacy programs in the year to September 30th 2008. But most expect funding for the initiative to increase und
33、er Barack Obama, who pledged his support for cultural diplomacy during his campaign. Rhythm Road now sends out hip-hop and bluegrass bands as well.There are some dissenters. Nick Cull, the director of the Public Diplomacy Program at the University of Southern California, thinks that these diplomatic
34、 projects would be more productive if they were not administered by the same agency that oversees the countrys foreign-policy agenda. And there is also clamor for Mr. Obama to appoint a secretary of culture in his cabinet. What good, they ask, is sending American culture abroad, when the country is
35、not giving it proper attention at home?11 Why was Dizzy Gillespie regarded as a “secret sonic weapon“ in 1956?（A）He was deployed to help the U.S. gain the victory of the cold war.（B） He was assigned to beat enemies at the peak of the cold war.（C） He had the power to influence the world during the co
36、ld war.（D）He could help to reshape a new image of American culture to the world. 12 What is the position of cultural diplomacy in American politics?（A）It has always been highly valued throughout history.（B） It was a vital weapon in the second half of the 20th century.（C） It was neglected for decades
37、 after oace being successful.（D）It was welcomed by American citizens during the war.13 The word “well-suited“(Line 1, Paragraph 3)most probably implies（A）the participants of the program are all well dressed.（B） jazz music is collaborative as well as individual.（C） the participants are suitable for t
38、he program.（D）jazz music best represents the democratic spirit.14 The Rhythm Road program（A）only involves professional musicians.（B） is a cultural and political program.（C） aims at Americas opponent countries.（D）sends out mainly bands of Jazz music.15 The last paragraph suggests that（A）the cultural
39、democracy programs are not successful and productive at all.（B） Barack Obama fails to realize his pledges for support to cultural democracy.（C） the government should emphasize American culture only at home.（D）authorities should give more attention to American culture domestically.15 Nice guys knew i
40、t, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of anti-social personality traits known as the “dark triad“ persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs.The traits are the self-obsession of narcissi
41、sm; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and unfeeling behavior of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People with these personalities risk being shunned by others and
42、 shut out of relationships, leaving them without a mate, hungry and vulnerable to predators.But being just slightly evil could have an upside: a prolific sex life, says Peter Jonason at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. “We have some evidence that the three traits are really the same thing
43、and may represent a successful evolutionary strategy.“ Jonason and his colleagues subjected 200 college students to personality tests designed to rank them for each of the dark triad traits. They also asked about their attitudes to sexual relationships and about their sex lives, including how many p
44、artners theyd had and whether they were seeking brief affairs. The study found that those who scored higher on the dark triad personality traits tended to have more partners and more desire for short-term relationships. But the correlation only held in males.James Bond epitomizes this set of traits,
45、 Jonason says. “Hes clearly disagreeable, very extroverted and likes trying new thingskilling people, new women.“ Just as Bond seduces woman after woman, people with dark triad traits may be more successful with a quantity style or shotgun approach to reproduction, even if they dont stick around for
46、 parenting. “The strategy seems to have worked. We still have these traits,“ Jonason says.This observation seems to hold across cultures. David Schmitt of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, presented preliminary results at the same meeting from a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countrie
47、s. He found a similar link between the dark triad and reproductive success in men. “It is universal across cultures for high dark triad scorers to be more active in short-term mating,“ Schmitt says. “They are more likely to try and poach other peoples partners for a brief affair.“ Matthew Keller of
48、the University of Colorado in Boulder remarks: “They still have to explain why it hasnt spread to everyone? There must be some cost of the traits.“ One possibility, both Keller and Jonason suggest, is that the strategy is most successful when dark triad personalities are rare. Otherwise, others woul
49、d become more wary and guarded.16 Unlike others, people with slight dark triad personalities are more likely to（A）run the risk of being avoided by others.（B） be left alone and attacked by predators.（C） enjoy a productive and successful sex life.（D）ruin the good relationship.17 On which of the following statements would Jonason and his colleagues most probably agree?（A）Both men and women scoring higher had more partners in life.（B） There is a tie between the dark triad and sex success among all the people.（C） Being a monster could brin
