1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 66 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 Look around the world and the forces are massing. On one side are Californian prison guards, British policemen, French railworkers, Greek civil servants,
2、 and teachers just about everywhere. On the other stand the cash-strapped governments of the rich world. Even the mere mention of cuts has brought public-sector workers onto the streets across Europe. When those plans are put into action, expect much worse. In public services union power is magnifie
3、d not just by strikers ability to shut down monopolies that everyone needs without seeing their employer go bust, but also by their political clout over those employers.Politicians have repeatedly given in, usually sneakilyby swelling pensions, adding yet more holidays or dropping reforms, rather th
4、an by increasing pay. This time they have to fight because they are so short of money. But it is crucial that the war with the public-sector unions is won in the right way. For amid all the pain ahead sits a huge opportunityto redesign government. That means focusing on productivity and improving se
5、rvices, not just cutting costs.The immediate battle will be over benefits, not pay. Here the issue is parity. Holidays are often absurdly generous, but the real issue is pensions. Too many state workers can retire in their mid-50s on close to full pay. Americas states have as much as $ 5 trillion in
6、 unfunded pension liabilities. Another battleground will be the unions legal privileges. It would be perverse to ban public-sector unions outright at a time when governments are trying to make public services more like private ones. But their right to strike should be more tightly limited; and the r
7、ules governing political donations and even unionization itself should be changed to “opt-in“ ones, in which a member decides whether to give or join.Fixing the public sector must not be allowed to degenerate into demonising it. Its health is vital to the health of society as a whole, not least beca
8、use of its impact on economic growth. Private-sector productivity has soared in the West over the past quarter-century, even in old industries such as steel and carmaking. Companies have achieved this because they have the freedom to manageto experiment, to expand successful innovations, to close do
9、wn bad ones, to promote talented people. Across the public sector, unions have fought all this, most cruelly in education. It can be harder to restructure government than business, but even small productivity gains can bring big savings.The coming battle should be about delivering better services, n
10、ot about cutting resources. Focusing on productivity should help politicians redefine the debate. The imminent retirement of the baby-boomers is a chance to hire a new generation of workers with different contracts. Politicians face a choice: push a-head, reform and create jobs in the long term; or
11、give in again, and cut more services and raise more taxes.1 The first paragraph mainly discusses_.（A）turbulent world situations（B） strained employment relations（C） dead ended governments（D）magnifying union power2 It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that_.（A）public sector unions have been acting stea
12、lthily（B） the income in the public sector is indirectly augmented（C） public sector unions have taken precedence over politicians（D）public sector unions will fight against government reorganization3 For public sector workers, unionization is currently_.（A）compulsory but beneficial（B） beneficial but n
13、ot required（C） optional but worthwhile（D）voluntary and unrewarding4 Which of the following plays least in fixing the public sector?（A）Weakening the strikers power（B） Restricting unions legal rights（C） Reducing public sector pay deals（D）Making small productivity gains5 “The imminent retirement of bab
14、y boomers“ is mentioned to inform politicians of_.（A）a great challenge to face in the industrial relations（B） a good strategy to employ great employees（C） an important choice to make in labour contracts（D）a fantastic opportunity of fixing the public sector5 It is part of the human condition to have
15、implicit biasesand remain happily ignorant of them. Academic researchers, scientists)and clinicians are no exception. But it is not the cognitive bias thats the problem. Rather, the denial that there is a problem is where the issues arise.Decades of research have demonstrated that cognitive biases a
16、re commonplace and very difficult to e-liminate and more recent studies suggest that disclosure of financial conflicts of interest may actually worsen bias. This is because bias is most often manifested in subtle ways unbeknownst to the researcher or clinician, and thus is usually implicit and unint
17、entional. Indeed, recent neuroscience investigations demonstrate that the interplay of cognitive-emotional processing allows conflicts of interest to affect decision-making in a way that is hidden from the person making the decision.Despite these findings, many individuals are dismissive of the idea
18、 that researchers financial ties to industry are problematic. Many argue that subjectivity in the research process and the potential for bias can be eliminated by strict adherence to the scientific method and transparency about industry relationships. Together, scientists believe, these practices ca
19、n guarantee evidence-based research that leads to the discovery and spread of “objective“ scientific truths. The assumption is that the reporting of biased results is a “bad apple“ problem, but what we have today is a bad barrel.Some have begun to use the analytic framework of “institutional corrupt
20、ion“ to bring attention to the fact that the trouble is not with a few corrupt individuals hurting an organization whose integrity is basically intact. Institutional corruption refers to the systemic and usually legal practices that bring an organization or institution off course, undermine its effe
21、ctiveness, and weaken public trust. Although the entire field of biomedicine has come under scrutiny because of concerns about an improper dependence on industry and all medical specialties have struggled with financial conflicts of interest, psychiatry has been particularly troubled, being describe
22、d by some as having a crisis of credibility.This credibility crisis has been played out most noticeably in the public controversy surrounding DSM-5, the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Concerns have been raised that because the individuals responsible fo
23、r making changes and adding new disorders have strong and long-standing financial associations to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the drugs used to treat these disorders, the revision process may be compromised by improper industry influence. Therefore, the APA(American Psychiatric Associa
24、tion)required that DSM-5 panel members file financial disclosures.However, the new disclosure policy has not been accompanied by any reduction in the financial conflicts of interest of DSM panel members. As science has repeatedly shown, transparency alone cannot alleviate bias and is an insufficient
25、 solution for protecting the integrity of the revision process. Sinclair Lewis once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. “6 It can be learned from the first two paragraphs that cognitive bias_.（A）is in fact not a serious p
26、roblem（B） has little to do with financial conflicts（C） occurs without our realizing it（D）can sometimes bring us happiness7 “A bad apple problem“ is most likely to refer to “_“.（A）a few corrupt individuals hurting a team or an organization（B） systematic practices that bring an organization off course
27、（C） the failure in discovering objective scientific truths（D）research errors resulted from violation of scientific methods8 The controversy surrounding DSM-5 focuses on_.（A）the fact that its panel members refuse to file financial disclosures（B） the fact that there exists economic disputes among its
28、panel members（C） the possibility that the panel favors drug companies（D）the possibility that the panels decisions produce improper influences on drug industry9 The author quotes Sinclair Lewis to convey the idea that_.（A）the disclosure policy should be strengthened（B） financial conflicts of interest
29、 produce biases（C） biases against industry-sponsored research are difficult to eliminate（D）many scientists have lost their work ethics nowadays10 Which of the following would be the best title of the text?（A）Implicit Biases; An Unsolvable Problem（B） Financial Disclosure: A Guarantor of Public Trust（
30、C） The Path to Evidence-Based Research（D）Institutional Corruption in the Research Field10 The summers most talked about working paper in economics is by Robert Gordon, and it is simply titled “Is US Economic Growth Over?“ And well he might ask: GDP per capita, the most obvious measure of economic gr
31、owth, is lower today than it was when the financial crisis began in 2007.The western worlds failure to recover from the crisis surely explains why Gordons gloomy thesis is getting so much attention, but, in fact, he takes great pains to avoid drawing conclusions from any short-term difficulties even
32、 if the short term has now lasted more than half a decade. Gordon has been arguing since the days of the dotcom mania that the information revolution looks rather trivial compared with earlier waves of innovation, such as the internal combustion engine, indoor plumbing, electrification and the telep
33、hone all of which took hold from about 1850 to 1900. This claim was plausible then and its plausible now.Lets take this line of argument further. Economic growth is a modern invention; 20th-century growth rates were far higher than those in the 19th century, and pre-1750 growth rates were almost imp
34、erceptible by modern standards. Many have seen this as an encouraging trend, but Gordon draws a different lesson: growth is a recent phenomenon, so why assume that it will last? If Gordon is right to claim that modern inventions are less impressive than those of the late 19th century, we would expec
35、t to see slow growth in US real GDP per capita. And, indeed, growth has been slowing since the 1960s, even setting the current recession to one side.All these observations raise uncomfortable questions. But for some answers, we need to ponder the likely forces at play. Both Gordon and Tyler Cowen, a
36、uthor of The Great Stagnation, point out that some easy gainssuch as sending children to secondary school or allowing women to have careers can only be enjoyed once. Important inventions, too such as the car, the washing machine and the lavatory admit only gradual improvement after the first few dec
37、ades. Demographics and debt accumulation have both speeded up growth in the past and, as the pendulum swings back, demographics and debt repayment will reduce it in the future. Then there are pure resource constraints.Despite all this, I remain an optimist. My inner contrarian also tells me to ignor
38、e Robert Gordon. During the dotcom boom I cited his work to anyone who would listen, but we are all stagnationists now. And yet: innovation wont happen by magic. I argued in my last book, Adapt, that scientific and technical progress now seem to require larger teams, more cross-disciplinary work, mo
39、re money, and older, more specialised scientists. It has become an organisational challenge that we are yet to take as seriously as we should. Weve lived with astonishing economic growth for 250 years; perhaps we are starting to take this exciting companion for granted.11 Gordons gloomy thesis is ma
40、inly based on_.（A）a careful analysis of the current economic situation（B） an accurate comparison of GDP before and after the financial crisis（C） a comprehensive estimate of the economic prospect（D）a long-term observation of technology development12 According to Gordon, the major driving force of the
41、 20“ century growth is the innovations of_.（A）the information revolution（B） late 19th century（C） years between 1750 to 1850（D）years before 175013 It can lie inferred from Paragraph 4 that_.（A）growth of population once accelerated economic development（B） important inventions contributed little to 20t
42、h century growth（C） debt accumulation has lost its power to promote economic growth（D）economic growth will depend less on resource consumption14 In the last paragraph, the author suggests we_.（A）accept the gloomy prospect of economy（B） realize the great difficulty in making innovations（C） understand
43、 that innovation is insufficient in stimulating economy（D）keep confident about regaining the growth of the past 250 years15 The author may think of Gordons argument as being_.（A）reasonable（B） exaggerated（C） self-contradictory（D）biased15 One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking provi
44、nce of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive English courses would be offered to students in state schools. Odd, because in the past half-century, much of the Quebecois identity has been built on resisting English. Authorities throw the book at people for doing things that would be no
45、rmal elsewhere in Canada. Last autumn, the Montreal newspaper La Presse revealed that two real estate executives had made presentations in English to a Montreal-based pension fund, violating the provinces language laws, which give workers the right to a French-speaking environment.Now, school author
46、ities in Quebec City are questioning whether the time is ripe for introducing those English classes after all. Their hesitation has left French-speaking parents angry. On one hand, those parents want their children to cherish their own community and its language. On the other hand, English is the in
47、ternational language of business, and their children will have a hard time climbing the social ladder without it.Not all cultures have the same historical anguish over English that Quebecois do. But almost all are being dragged inevitably towards giving English a bigger role in their societies. So n
48、ow we can all talk, we peoples of the world. The universalisation of English has happy consequences. But like the building of the Tower of Babel, it has negative ones, too. English as a lingua franca offers unfair advantages to the half-billion people who speak English as a native language. We somet
49、imes assume that English is a world standard only for superficial interactionshotel personnel saying “How was your stay?“ or business consultants importing words like “benchmarking“ into their own languages. But French and German professors, for instance, often grumble that it is hard to build a career when academic journals are all in English.Meanwhile, there can be a diversity-stifling effect to “diversity“. When universities teach classes in global English, they can adorn their student
