1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 68 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 city, Rousseau once suggested, is “the abyss of the human species. “And while that judgment represents a fairly 18th century view of the unpleasant i
2、ndustrial life, present examples dont necessarily dispute it. Many metropolitan areas have developed into dense grids of humanity surrounded by soulless office parks and a few nice, leafy streets.Yet this, according to Edward Glaeser, can be a good thing. Triumph of the City, the Harvard University
3、economics professors deeply researched manifesto on the importance of urban life to, among other things, business and innovation, suggests the most important investment in any city is human capitalor, more simply, population. His book convincingly argues that concentrated populations can have “magic
4、al consequences. “ A steady infusion of human capital helped transform New York City from a manufacturing hub into the worlds financial capital.Millions of Americans embrace the suburbs because they offer affordable housing, better schools, and decent-sized backyards. However, Glaeser also believes
5、the growth of suburbia typifies a nearsighted view of conservation. All that air-conditioning and driving comes at a cost. The environmentalists whove worked for laws that make it impossible to build in temperate regions have insidiously pushed the sprawl to some growing southern district -along the
6、 way facilitating a carbon emissions nightmare.However, Glaeser isnt out to attack the suburban life; instead, hes hoping to increase the number of options. He points out that many cities to a large extent are fast becoming provinces for the truly wealthy. Middle-class strivers have to take the comm
7、uter train home. Glaesers solution is simple: Where land is scarce, density becomes vital. Cities that cannot build out must build up. Freed from restrictive regulations, Glaeser notes Houston has built up and out to become the fourth-largest city in the U. S. Owing mainly to affordable housing and
8、the availability of jobs, an average family in high-density Houston is much better off than a comparable one in Queens or Staten Island.In Glaesers appraisal, cities must also aim for a sweet spot that combines good public schools and non-prohibitive zoning policies. From Bangalore to Vancouver, edu
9、cational institutions and the freedom to build help produce the kind of successful hubs that attract human capital. Human capital makes reinvention possible but complicated. Detroit, Glaeser argues, suffered from too much specialization: Huge integrated car companies crowded out other ideas that cou
10、ld have fostered valuable results long before disaster struck the Big Three.The authors prescription for Detroit, is to “shrink to greatness“ by searching for fresh advantages. Glaeser believes cities are about people, not places or buildings. Does it make economic sense to resurrect Detroit when th
11、e cost of building a house is greater than the reward from selling it? It could have been cheaper, he notes, to hand every household in New Orleans $200,000 after Hurricane Katrina rather than pump vast quantities of public money into rebuilding a city of diminishing economic significance.Glaeser ma
12、y be right. As the latest U. S. Census figures prove, the citys capital is disappearing in droves.1 The word “abyss“(Line Para. 1)most probably means “_“.（A）very threatening situation（B） densely-populated region（C） highly-industrialized area（D）quite splendid place2 According to Paragraphs 2 and 3, G
13、laeser most probably agrees_.（A）concentrated populations hinder the development of cities（B） city pollution is posing a threat to surrounding suburbs（C） suburbs develop at the expenses of environment（D）environmentalists are wrong in opposing building in temperate areas3 It is indicated in Paragraph
14、5 that human capital_.（A）invites constant conflicts with small companies（B） can produce negative effect in city reinvention（C） often suffer from over-specialization（D）can help huge companies avert disasters4 New Orleans is cited as an example of cities_.（A）searching actively for fresh advantages（B）
15、failing to weigh rebuilding risks against returns（C） focusing on people instead of buildings（D）responding effectively to economic depression5 Toward Glaesers opinion on city, the authors attitude is one of_.（A）appreciation（B） indifference（C） skepticism（D）disapproval5 The outcry over internet firms h
16、abit of surreptitiously tracking web surfers activities has clearly resonated inside the White House. The Obama administration announced that it intends to work with Congress to produce “a privacy bill of rights“ giving American consumers greater control over how their information is collected and u
17、sed by digital marketers.Those who have been lobbying for change agree with, but are unsympathetic to, internet firms worries that such a law could dent their advertising-driven business models, which rely on tracking and targeting consumers to maximise revenues. “This is dimming the prospects of Go
18、ogle, Facebook and other digital ad companies,“ says Jeffrey Chester of the Centre for Digital Democracy. Quite how dark things get for them will depend on the details of the bill. It will seek to lay down the basic principles of internet privacy rights, broadly following recommendations published l
19、ast December by the Department of Commerce. The departments report said consumers should be told more about why data are being collected a-bout them and how they are used; and it called for stricter limits on what companies can do with information they collect.Whatever legislation finally emerges is
20、 likely to give a broader role to the Federal Trade Commission(FTC), which will almost certainly be charged with deciding how those principles are translated into practice and with policing their implementation. Among other things, the FTC is known to be keen on a formal “do not track“ system, which
21、 would allow users to block certain sites from monitoring their online activities.Keen to avoid this, the online-advertising industry has been working overtime to convince policymakers that it can police itself using systems such as icons on web pages that show surfers when they are being tracked. A
22、nd it is telling anyone who will listen that consumers will suffer if tough do-not-track rules hit ad revenues, forcing web firms to charge for more content. With Mr Obama throwing his weight behind internet privacy, this rearguard action is less likely to be successful. Some ad firms have started t
23、alking of creating a do-not-track system of their own, that would limit the damage to their digital activities.Although all this may dent their revenues, Americas internet giants could also benefit from the legislation if it helps them in their dealings with the European Union. The EUs already fairl
24、y strict rules on privacy which it considers a fundamental human rightare being tightened further. The time-consuming and expensive legal hoops the EU makes American internet firms jump through, to be allowed to handle Europeans online data, will become more demanding. If by passing its own online-p
25、rivacy “bill of rights“ America can convince the EU to ease this legal burden, then it will be an important win for A-merican companies, says Joel Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham Universitys law school. Google, Facebook and others will no doubt be trackingboth online and offlinethe progress of EU
26、-American talks on this matter very closely.6 The privacy bill of rights is meant to_.（A）clamp down web surfers s dishonest behaviours（B） restrict internet firms control over information（C） give American government control over information（D）ease the tension between digital marketers and web users7
27、What is the biggest concern of internet firms with the privacy bill?（A）downsizing ad revenues（B） decreasing digital data（C） ever-growing user base（D）increasingly demanding users8 Whats the response of the online-advertising industry towards the formal “do not track system“?（A）A gentle persuasioa（B）
28、A stiff resistance.（C） A forced surrender.（D）A combination of tough and soft.9 The author suggests in the last paragraph that the privacy bill could_.（A）be harmful to Europeans privacy rights（B） be desirable for American internet firms（C） be helpful with the EU-American relationship（D）be questionabl
29、e in dealing with privacy problems10 According to the text, who will most fancy the privacy bill?（A）EU.（B） FTC.（C） Web consumers.（D）The Centre for Digital Democracy.10 Economics as currently presented in textbooks and taught in the classroom does not have much to do with business management, and sti
30、ll less with entrepreneurship. The degree to which economics is isolated from the ordinary business of life is extraordinary and unfortunate.That was not the case in the past. When modern economics was born, Adam Smith envisioned it as a study of the “nature and causes of the wealth of nations. “ Hi
31、s seminal work, The Wealth of Nations, was widely read by businessmen, even though Smith belittled them quite bluntly for their greed, shortsightedness, and other defects. The academic community in those days was small, and economists had to appeal to a broad audience. Even at the turn of the 20th c
32、entury, Alfred Marshall managed to keep economics as “both a study of wealth and a branch of the study of man. “ Economics remained relevant to industrialists.In the 20th century, economics consolidated as a profession; economists could afford to write exclusively for one another. At the same time,
33、the field experienced a paradigm shift, gradually identifying itself as a theoretical approach of economization and giving up the real-world economy as its subject matter. Today, production is marginalized in economics, and the paradigmatic question is a rather static one of resource allocatioa The
34、tools used by economists to analyze business firms are too abstract and speculative to offer any guidance to entrepreneurs and managers in their constant struggle to bring novel products to consumers at low cost.This separation of economics from the working economy has severely damaged both the busi
35、ness community and the academic discipline. Since economics offers little in the way of practical insight, managers and entrepreneurs depend on their own business brains, personal judgment, and rules of thumb in making decisions. In times of crisis, when business leaders lose their self-confidence,
36、they often look to political power to fill the void. Government is increasingly seen as the ultimate solution to tough economic problems, from innovation to employment.Today, a modern market economy with its ever-finer division of labor depends on a constantly expanding network of trade. It requires
37、 an intricate web of social institutions to coordinate the working of markets and firms across various boundaries. At a time when the modern economy is becoming increasingly institutions-intensive, the reduction of economics to price theory is troubling enough. It is suicidal for the field to slide
38、into a hard science of choice, ignoring the influences of society, history, culture, and politics on the working of the economy.It is time to reengage the severely impoverished field of economics with the economy. Market economies springing up herald a new era of entrepreneurship, and with it unprec
39、edented opportunities for economists to study how the market economy gains its resilience in societies with cultural, institutional, and organizational diversities. But knowledge will come only if economics can be reoriented to the study of man as he is and the economic system as it actually exists.
40、11 The Wealth of Nations is mentioned to exemplify that the community of economists used to_.（A）divorce from the ordinary business of life（B） provide businessmen with economic instructions（C） study entrepreneurship rather than business management（D）denounce businessmen as profiteers12 We can learn f
41、rom Paragraph 3 that economics today highlights_.（A）the pure study of the practice of using resources to the best effect（B） its practical insights into the real-world economy（C） the rational distribution of economic resources in the marketplace（D）the management ability development of businessmen13 T
42、he separation of economics from the working economy_.（A）has improved the image of government in the eyes of business leaders（B） has motivated a closer relationship between businessmen and government（C） has bridged the gap between economists and government（D）has facilitated governments replacement fo
43、r economists in providing economic guidance14 Modern market economies require economics to_.（A）deal with how social institutions work（B） give up the study of price theory（C） act more as a social science than a hard one（D）primarily concern itself with economic solutions15 As for reengaging economics
44、with economy, the author suggests that economists should primarily_.（A）conduct research on the spirit of entrepreneurship（B） make a close examination of the market elasticity（C） offer insightful guidance in business management（D）study how a society organizes its economy15 When Johannes Gutenberg inv
45、ented movable type a half-millennium ago, he also gave us immovable text. Before Gutenberg, books were handwritten by scribes, and no two copies were exactly the same. Scribes werent machines; they made mistakes. With the arrival of the letterpress, thousands of identical copies could enter the mark
46、etplace simultaneously. The publication of a book became an event.A new set of literary workers assembled in publishing houses, collaborating with writers to perfect texts before they went on press. The verb “to finalize“ became common in literary circles, expressing the permanence of printed words.
47、 Different editions still had textual variations, but books still came to be viewed as immutable objects. They were written for posterity.Beyond giving writers a spur to eloquence, what the historian Elizabeth Eisenstein calls “typographical fixity“ served as a cultural preservative. It helped to pr
48、otect original documents from corruption, providing a more solid foundation for the writing of history. It established a reliable record of knowledge, aiding the spread of science. It accelerated the standardization of everything from language to law. The preservative qualities of printed books, Ms.
49、 Eisenstein argues, may be the most important legacy of Gutenbergs invention.Once digitized, a page of words loses its fixity. It can change every time its refreshed on a screen. A book page turns into something like a Web page, able to be revised endlessly after its initial uploading. Thats an attractive development in many ways. It makes it easy for writers to correct errors and update facts. Guidebooks will no longer send travelers to restaurants that have closed. Even literary authors will
