1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 58 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 Hostess Brands is not dead just yet, but the prospects for the companys survival are now dim at best. Hostesswhich still makes iconic food products like
2、Twinkies and Ding Dongsfiled for bankruptcy back in January for the second time in eight years, in an attempt to get out from under a pile of debt and labor obligations. But last week, after Hostess put in place a contract that the bakers union said would end up cutting wages and benefits between tw
3、enty-seven and thirty-two per cent, that union went on strike. Hostess claims the strike has irreparably damaged production and made it impossible for it to continue operating. As a result, on Friday the company asked a bankruptcy judge to allow it to liquidate the company.Management, of course, bla
4、mes the companys demise on the greedy, unreasonable unions. But, while the strike may well have sent Hostess over the edge, the hard truth is that it probably should have gone out of business a long time ago. The company has been steadily losing money, and market share, for years. And its core probl
5、em has not been excessively high compensation costs or pension contributions. Its core problem has been that the market for its products changed, but it did not. The simple truth is that this kind of failure is regularly found in the creative destruction process.The problem, of course, is that that
6、destruction is going to make the lives of thousands of workers upside down. And to the extent, then, that Hostesss demise shows us something important about the plight of organized labor today, its not that greedy workers have brought on their own demise. Its rather that one of organized labors bigg
7、est challenges over the past four decades has been that union strength was concentrated in industries and among companies that, though once dominant players in the postwar American economy, have often ended up in a slow slide to obsolescence, employing fewer and fewer workers and having less and les
8、s money to pay them with.The real issue here is that peoples image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U. S. , on how common unions are in the workforce. When organized labor represented more than a third of American
9、 workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, its become easier for people to dismis
10、s them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets. It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems
11、 to many like a relic.1 It can be learned that_.（A）the future is still bright for Hostesss iconic brands（B） Hostess filed for bankruptcy with debts that far outweigh its assets（C） the bakers union is an immediate trigger for Hostesss death（D）Hostess secured a bankruptcy judges permission to go out o
12、f business2 According to Paragraph Hostesss demise is brought on by_.（A）its greedy union members（B） its financial-management problems（C） its increasing labor costs（D）its lack of market consciousness3 In the authors view, Hostesss demise tells us about_.（A）the ends of greedy unionized workers（B） the
13、weakening of union strength（C） the stagnation of American economy（D）once-dominant businesses4 Its implied in the last paragraph that unions used to_.（A）fight for a lot for workers in general（B） care much for their own interests（C） share common interests with workers in general（D）commit themselves to
14、 building the middle class5 The last sentence “that concept seems to many like a relic“ means that_.（A）peoples image of unions is outdated（B） activities like going on strike are unjustifiable（C） unions are no longer popular in U. S.（D）security of retired workers is not guaranteed5 So thats what a di
15、gital revolt looks like. A million-and-a-half emails and almost 90,000 phone calls to US Congress. Public complaints from Google and Facebook. Even a few thousand old-fashioned letters to the US House of Representatives. This internet anger, marshalled under the banner of American Censorship Day on
16、16 November, came in opposition to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA), legislation aimed at tackling the online trade in copyrighted movies and music. Claims that the act, if passed, will “break the internet“ helped persuade several big companies, including a trade group which represents Appl
17、e and Microsoft, to withdraw their support. Then, last week, SOPAs backers in the House said they were open to changing the bill. Internet Activists 1, Big Media 0.But elsewhere the media barons appear to be winning. Over the past few years, several countries have debated or enacted laws that, in th
18、e name of tackling piracy, have handed more power to large companies. In the process, say activists, the movie and music industries have gained the ability to censor websites. The recent revolt was louder because SOPA is one of the more radical new proposals. It would give copyright holders the lega
19、l right to have sites which they deem to be peddling stolen content shut down, a controversial power the European Court of Justice has just ruled against. Concern here is less a-bout obvious piracy, which gets limited sympathy from activists, and more about sites on which copyrighted content is used
20、 in creative ways. The bill also gives copyright holders the right to force search engines to block infringing sites from search results. Google and others know that it is often impossible to determine whether a site is engaging in piracy or creative reuse or some combination of the two. Thats one r
21、eason why the search engine teamed up with Facebook and other sites to run a full-page advert opposing the bill in The New York Times.Other moves by copyright advocates have been less crude and more successful. This July, five big US internet service providers committed to repeatedly caution -and th
22、en potentially disconnectsubscribers who share copyrighted material. The measure had limited opposition, but some activists warn that it is not sufficiently overseen. Thats a fear shared across the Atlantic, where British activists have warned that any proposals to speed up processing of industry re
23、quests will erode courts ability to assess claims of copyright breaches. In Ireland, judges have already been sidelined. After a legal battle in 2009 with a recording industry group, eircom, the countrys largest ISP said it would no longer contest blocking requests from the group. None have yet been
24、 submitted.There is a lot of copyright theft online, and content creators have a right to demand protection. Yet the reusers of content, from music remixers to bloggers, are also creators. Striking a balance between the two will prove important if politicians want to stop the angry emails.6 The digi
25、tal revolt was launched to_.（A）combat illegal online content trading（B） oppose harsh restraint on online piracy（C） defend the freedom of online business（D）persuade trade groups to oppose SOPA7 We can infer that “large companies“(Line 2, para2)refer to_.（A）huge media companies（B） important websites（C
26、） major search engines（D）big online traders8 Online activists oppose SOPA in that_.（A）it declares to tackle online piracy（B） it favors large companies to small ones（C） it threats creative reuse of online content（D）it requires search engines to block certain sites9 The author cites Ireland as an exam
27、ple to demonstrate that_.（A）the judging power of court has been largely curbed（B） the actions of media industry lack effective supervision（C） copyright advocates successfully stopped copyright breaches（D）ISP has reached an agreement with media industry10 The authors attitude towards SOPA is one of_.
28、（A）puzzlement（B） sympathy（C） indifference（D）disapproval10 GOOGLE dodged a particularly large legal bullet on January 3rd, when Americas Federal Trade Commission(FTC)announced the results of a long-running investigation into allegations that the internet giant has been abusing its dominant position i
29、n online search to promote its own businesses at the expense of rivals. Googles competitors had hoped the FTC would put a stop to what they have labeled “search bias“, which would have greatly impaired the web firms commercial prospects. But in the event, the commission found no evidence that Google
30、 was suppressing competition in this way.That is a significant victory for the company, which has long argued that it should be allowed to cross-promote services such as travel-related offerings via its search engine. The FTC ruled that Googles “universal search“ service, which prominently displays
31、Google companies in results to shopping searches, and other tweaks to the firms search algorithms, could be considered as innovations that improved the experience of users. Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer, said that although Google took “aggressive actions“ to gain competitive advantage over rivals, its
32、tactics “did not violate competition law“.In other areas, however, the firm has had to make concessions. On patents, Google has agreed to license other firms patents deemed essential to make popular devices such as smartphones on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms“. This matters, because
33、 the web giant pocketed thousands of patents when it swallowed up Motorola Mobility. The FTC alleges that Google then broke its commitment to license essential patents on fair terms and used legal injunctions to stop some rivals from using them. Google has also agreed to allow other websites to remo
34、ve pieces of their content, such as consumer reviews, from Googles specialised search offerings in areas such as shopping, while leaving them on display in its general search service. It has also pledged to make it easier for advertisers to shift data generated by ad campaigns run on Google to other
35、 search engines.None of this has impressed Googles most furious critics. For example, the deputy-general counsel of Microsoft, Googles arch-rival in search, said it was doubtful that Google could be trusted “on the basis of non-binding assurances that it will not abuse its market position further“.S
36、uch sour grapes are hardly surprising, but as Ms Wilkinson noted in the commissions statement on the settlement with Google, “the FTCs mission is to protect competition, and not individual competitors“. The commissions approach to Googles case makes sense in a market where rapid changes in technolog
37、y and shifts in the competitive landscape mean that heavy-handed regulation is likely to cause far more harm than good.The antitrust battle is not yet over in America, where Googles activities are also being scrutinised by the attorneys-general of several states. But this weeks settlement will great
38、ly strengthen Googles hand in any future legal combat there.11 The word “dodged“ most probably means “_ “ .（A）avoided something successfully（B） ran into something unfortunately（C） shrank from something fearfully（D）initiated something purposely12 The FTC believed that_.（A）Google has biased search res
39、ults to promote its own businesses（B） Google has not gained competitive advantage over its rivals（C） Cross-promote services are a violation to competition law（D）Universal search service is a pro-consumer activity13 It is indicated in Paragraph 3 that Google is required to_.（A）acquire patent licenses
40、 from other smart phone firms（B） remove the contents copied from other websites（C） confine consumer reviews to its general search service（D）remove restrictions hampering advertisers use of other search engines14 To which of the following would Ms Wilkinson most likely agree?（A）The comments from the
41、deputy-general counsel of Microsoft might be reasonable.（B） Google may have hurt its rivals, but it should not be punished for that.（C） The rapid changes in the competitive market makes it impossible to protect competition.（D）Google should come up with a proposal to address the charge of search bias
42、.15 It can be inferred from the last paragraph that_.（A）Google will be trapped in lawsuits in the future（B） The antitrust battle will become fiercer（C） Googles odds of winning future lawsuits have improved（D）Some states will join up to scrutinize Googles activities15 Generation Y gets called a lot o
43、f names. Personal finance advisers call gen Y-ers spendthrifts. Marketers consider them brand-lovers. Pop psychologists describe them as coddled products of helicopter parents: a generation that can barely survive in the real world on its own. But one of their defining characteristicstheir talent as
44、 consumers, derived from growing up in the Internet age as well as experiencing the most recent recessionhas been largely ignored. As a result, many of the companies trying to win them over are doing it all wrong.Gen Y likes to feel influence and power. They like to feel that companies are serving t
45、hem and are really disgusted at the idea of being taken advantage of. These relatively new consumers are also on the lookout for potential frauds and bad deals, and are alert to the first sign that they are being manipulated.For the most part, banks, retailers, and other companies have failed to emb
46、race this generations new mind-set. Banks further corrode the trust of many young customers, who already regard financial institutions with suspicion, every time they blast off a good deal of product offers. “People feel like theyre getting bombarded with irrelevant offers,“ says Ron Shevlin, senior
47、 analyst at Aite Group, a research and advisory firm.In the retail sector, traditional lifestyle advertising has become as outdated as low-rise jeans. Aber-crombie & Fitchs reliance on its “cool and sexy“ collegiate image no longer resonates with 20-somethings who now set a priority on saving money
48、over following the latest fashion trends. “These consumers are very adept at Internet searches and feel comfortable price-comparison shopping,“ says Stephanie Noble, associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Instead of feeling embarrassed about being “cheap,“ they have a sen
49、se of accomplishment at finding the lowest price, Noble adds. Thats not to say gen Y doesnt also love brands. The brands that resonate are the brands that provide value.That focus on value can work in retailers favor, if they know how to exploit it. Nita Rollins, a trends expert at Resource Interactive, a digital marketing agency, urges companies to embrace the kind of secondhand things transaction popular on sites such as Craigslist and eBay. A snowboarding comp
