考研英语阅读unit16

1、Unit 16 The shortest answer is doing.最简单的回答就是干。学习内容题 材词 数建议时间得分统计做题备忘Part AText 1社会生活437/10Text 2科普知识417/10Text 3商业经济442/10Text 4文化教育420/10Part B科普知识653/10Part C生态环境460/10Part ADirections：Read the following texts. Answer the questions blow each text by choosing A,B,C or D.Text 1Truth in advertising

2、is a concept central to the American free market economic system. According to this theory, companies that advertise their products to mass audiences must strictly deliver on their promises, and the quality of their goods must live up to the hype put out by the sellers. In order to examine just how

3、important truthful advertising is, let us consider for a moment a world in which there was no such constraint imposed upon sellers. It would be a world where advertisers were free to exaggerate or even lie as they pleased, doing anything to make their products look great, even when its of inferior q

4、uality.Firstly, the unreliability of the goods in question would no doubt shatter consumer confidence. Wary buyers would shop much less, thus decreasing the volume of trade and leading to a weakened overall economy. Further, the market would find itself stagnating, the lack of growth attributable to

5、 the fact that everyone is reluctant to buy products of which they are uncertain. Without growth, no progress is achieved.Innovation on all fronts would suffer as well. With consumers constantly on guard against getting ripped off, brand loyalty, would be more important than ever; Buyers would simpl

6、y stick with products that they know to be of good quality and be very hesitant to spend their money on “riskier,” unfamiliar ones. This would make entry into the market by new sellers or producers almost impossible, even if their products were of better quality than existing ones, simply because no

7、 one would be willing to give them a try. With new players effectively barred from the game，were left with the same goods in the market, day after day, year after year.In the real world, however, truth in advertising allows American consumers to trust the boasts of producers. Thus, brand loyalty is

8、less of an impenetrable barrier to entry. In order to enter into the market, new sellers or producers would simply have to create a better product and then announce the fact. Those who violate the principle of truth in advertising by making false claims of quality are punished on two fronts. The fir

9、st is by the law and the second, perhaps more effectively, is by the buyers themselves, who will refuse to do business with the dishonest seller in the future. Imposed by both law and market forces, the principle of truth in advertising is a useful tool that allows for a more efficient, pliable mark

10、et poised for growth and constantly reinvigorating itself with new producers and goods. These producers are constantly competing against one another for the right to sing the praises of their products truthfully, of course.1. According to paragraph 1, the authorA believes truthful advertising is wor

11、thy of serious study.B wholly supports the concept of truthful advertising.C intends to educate the reader on the effects of truthful advertising.D considers truthful advertising the most important in economic system.2. It can be inferred from paragraph 2 thatA economic growth guarantees a countrys

12、overall development. B when growth is not occurring, shoppers will buy less goods.C customers are reluctant to buy goods which are unreliable.D if an economy is experiencing growth it will be a strong one.3. The first sentence of Paragraph 4 tells us thatA truthful advertising helps avoid the negati

13、ve results previously mentioned.B once exaggeration and lies are avoided, truthful advertising feasibly occurs.C because of laws, the quality of a product can live up to its producers boasts.D in the real economy, consumers trust the boasts of producers.4. The author would most likely agree with the

14、 principle thatA the boasts of consumers must be exactly accurate, no matter what.B to protect consumers, producers must not be permitted to falsely advertise.C to avoid stagnation in the economy, truthful advertising must be enforced.D truthful advertising is the best way to avoid decline of the Am

15、erican economy.5. The main point of the text is thatA a lack of truthful advertising laws must be avoided at all costs.B the truthful advertising laws ensure the prosperity the economy.C the American economic system functions well because of truth in advertising.D the result of a lack of truthful ad

16、vertising laws in the U.S. is examinable.Text 2Mr. Mitsuyasu Ota, the Mayor of Hirate, in western Japan, made this weeks news columns after imposing a one-day-a-week ban on the use of computer equipment in the towns municipal offices. The step was taken on the grounds that young staff “mistakenly th

17、ink they are working” when sitting raptly at their computer screens. At the same time, Mr. Ota lamented that “young people are not in the habit of writing by hand any more”.One of the favorite arguments brought out by the opposition in technology wars is the notion that a technical short cut is simu

18、ltaneously a kind of mental impoverishment, and that the man with the pen will think and write more effectively than the man with the Compaq.Leaving aside the question of whether advanced technology makes you think less dynamically, the idea that there should be recognizable stylistic discrepancies

19、between the work of pen-pushers and key-tappers shouldnt in the least surprise us. Historically, literary styles have always borne a strong relationship to the available technology. The quill pen, most obviously, allowed its owner only a certain number of words between refills, thereby encouraging a

20、ll those lengthy Gibbonian sentences bristling with subordinate clauses. The fountain pen which allowed you to write as many words as you wanted and the manual typewriter wrought further revolutions. It is not particularly far-fetched, for example, to suggest that the staccato, elliptical prose of e

21、arly-20th-century Modernist masters such as Hemingway derives in part from its having been typed, rather than written down.But what about the computer screen? What effect does that have on the elemental patterns by which the writer downloads the words in his or her head? Without wanting to sound lik

22、e Mayor Ota, I suspect that to a certain kind of writer it is as much a hindrance as a help. A single glance at the average bookshop will demonstrate that novels are getting longer. There are excellent aesthetic reasons for that, of course, but there is also a technical explanation, which is to say

23、that computers allow you to write more words and to write them more quickly, without the restraint of having to alter everything by hand and then rewrite.Every so often, as a reviewer, one stumbles with a sinking heart across one of these enormous rambling affairs, which, however assiduous the atten

24、tions of its editor, betrays its origin as a screen-abetted mental show-off. Perhaps, like the municipal employees of Mayo Otas Hirate, we should all try banning computers one day a week.6. According to the author, new writing instrumentA makes sentences lengthier and lengthier. B renders prose plea

25、santer to read.C causes stylistic differences among the users. D makes writing shorter and more compact.7. In what way is the computer a hindrance to a writer?A A writer may run his writing long just for a mental show-off.B A writer is less willing to rewrite his novel to make it better.C Ideas are

26、put into words before they are made clearer in the mind.D The computer allows a writer to write without careful choice of words.8. The word “assiduous” (Line 2, Para 5) probably means A cautious. B intentional. C conscious. D purposeless.9. The authors attitude towards Mayor Otas ban is one ofA ackn

27、owledgement. B opposition. C neutrality. D enthusiasm.10. Which of the following statements does the author support?A Frequent use of computer leads to mental impoverishment.B Computer users think less effectively than pen users.C Computers give a writer more freedom in expression. D Frequent comput

28、er users cant concentrate on what they do.Text 3Until recently there was much talk of the impending death of dividends. But a confluence of events has conspired of late to make bosses and investors think again. Stock markets have sagged, making investors notice the minimal amounts of cash they were

29、earning from their shares.The declining role of dividends was encouraged by the theories of academics, many of whom instructed todays top managers in business school. One Nobel-Prize-winning theory suggested that whether or not a firm paid a dividend should make no difference to the value of a firm

30、to investors. According to this “irrelevance theory”, every shares value is based on the future cash flows from a company; it does not matter at all whether those cash flows are paid out in dividends or kept as cash on hand by the firm.Anyway the bubble in American share prices in the 1990s has led

31、some academics to ask if the markets can be relied upon to think rationally about anything, including dividends. But in the real world there remains one overwhelming reason why dividend policy is not irrelevant: tax. The way dividends are taxed can have wide-ranging consequences for how a firm is ru

32、n. In particular, it can influence whether a firm finances itself primarily through equity or debt, and how it chooses to return profits to its shareholders.Taxes may largely explain the growing popularity of share buybacks compared with dividends in recent years. Buybacks are, in theory, just anoth

33、er way to return cash to shareholders, by buying up shares on the open market and retiring them. The reduction in the number of shares outstanding means that profits are spread over a smaller base of shares, which should lift share prices for investors who do not sell them back to the firm.In most c

34、ountries, tax rules allow firms to treat interest payments on debt as a tax-deductible expense, whereas cash payments to equity holders in the form of dividends or share repurchases come out of after-tax income. All else being equal, therefore, the tax system typically makes debt a cheaper source of

35、 finance for a firm, at the margin, than equity.In recent years, governments almost everywhere have become increasingly concerned about the impact of taxation on companies. By and large, they have favored tax reforms that are intended to boost business activity, such as cutting marginal tax ratestho

36、ugh in practice their reforms have often had unpredictable results. For example, in 1997 Britain ended all tax exemptions for dividends, ostensibly to encourage reinvestment of profits by firms, but there is no evidence that it achieved this aim, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies in Lond

37、on. 11. The “irrelevance theory” argues that A every shares value is related to the future cash flows from a firm.B dividend a firm paid is relevant to tax.C every shares value has nothing to do with market.D the value of a firm is directly related to the dividend.12. The way that dividends are taxe

38、d influences howA a firm returns profits to its workers.B a firm buys up shares on the open market.C a firm finances itself.D a firm returns cash to its shareholders.13. The word “outstanding” (Line 4, Para.4) most probably meansA excellent. B conspicuous. C not yet paid. D already issued.14. Tax re

39、forms in Britain are used to illustrate thatA governments have become increasingly concerned about the taxation.B results of tax reforms are unpredictable.C tax reforms have had achieved predictable aims. D British government has ended all tax exemptions for dividends.15.What is authors attitude tow

40、ards dividend, according to the text?A Skeptical. B Puzzled. C Objective. D Critical.Text 4When Oxford University mooted the idea of establishing a business school six years ago, outraged Oxonians unleashed volleys of Ciceronian oratory, arguing that the groves of academe should be out of bounds to

41、commerce. How times have changed. Frustrated by the British governments reluctance to let the university charge real-world tuition fees, demoralized by mounting charges of elitism, with research and teaching stifled by inadequate state subsidies, the dons are realizing that capitalism might just be

42、the key to their future. At the traditional 800-year-old institution, increasing numbers of them are calling for their university to be privatized.Thats a hugely controversial proposal in a country that still clings fiercely to the ideal of providing a free, state-funded education to anyone who meri

43、ts it. Prime Minister Tony Blair wants 50 percent of Britains under-30s in full-time education by 2006, and given his no-new-taxes style, universities suspect theyll be responsible for finding a large proportion of the $ 15 million that will cost. Already Oxford is having trouble paying salaries suf

44、ficient to attract top teachers; a full professor gets $ 68,400 roughly half the salaries of their U.S. counterparts. For Oxford, for long the global epitome of top-drawer education, the question is whether the universitys days as a bastion of world-class excellence might be over.Lately the issue se

45、ems to have taken on a new urgency. Newspapers reported mini-scandal just last week that a 19-year-old deaf student, Anastasia Fedotova, failed to win place despite high exam scores. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown lambasted the admissions system as “more reminiscent of the old-boy network.

46、than genuine justice in our society.” This highlighted just how vulnerable Oxford remains to charges of elitism.“More and more people are saying the only solution is independence,” says classics professor Richard Jenkyns. In the end, Oxford may be hoping for some in-between solution. Since 1998 it h

47、as been pumping funds into a private company called ISIS Innovation, set up to commercialize researchers discoveries. Of a total of 28 fledgling spin-offs, all are still in business. While big payoffs are still a long way off, “that could quickly change”, says managing director Tim Cook, “if one of

48、them hits the jackpot.” More immediately, Oxford bigwigs report that permission to charge the full cost of tuition will almost certainly be given in government report due this November. Oxford still isnt likely to let business interests run wild over its hallowed greensward. But it is learning that

49、the academic freedom it so prizes can be preserved only at a price.16. Which one of the following is the major reason for Oxford Universitys lack of funding?A The idea of building of a business school has been rejected by the teachers.B The government is reluctant to let it charge the students high

50、tuition fees.C It has to pay sufficient salaries to attract top teachers.D The government cant afford the high research subsidies.17. By citing the example of Anastasia Fedotova, the author intends to show that A the university has taken on a new urgency.B the university holds a strong discriminatio

51、n against the disabled.C the university is in favor of a network of older applicants.D the university puts too much emphasis on elitism.18. The phrase “hits the jackpot”(Line 6, Para.4) probably meansA get out of business suddenly.B be discovered accidentally by foresighted businessman.C make a lot

52、of money unexpectedly.D prove to be very useful in daily life by chance.19. On which of the following statements would the author most probably agree?A Oxford University will gradually become a private university like Harvard.B Oxford University is beginning to think of commercial ways to collect mo

53、ney.C The only solution to Oxford Universitys problems is being independent.D The British government will offer Oxford University more subsidies.20. The text is mainly aboutA the future orientation of Oxford University.B the financial and moral problems of Oxford University and the solution.C the in

54、fluence of governments policy on Oxford University.D the purity of Oxford University in its field of academic research Part B Directions: In the article, following sentences have been removed. For Questions 21-25, choose the most suitable one from the list AG to fit into each of the numbered blank.

55、There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps.Many scientists have wondered whether there is some quirk in the way depression is inherited, such that a depressed parent or grandparent is more likely to pass on a predisposition for the disorder to female than to male descendants. B

56、ased on studies that trace family histories of depression, the answer to that question appears to be no. 21. _ .Simply tracing family histories, though, without also considering environmental influences, might not offer a complete picture of how depression is inherited.Indeed, Kenneth S. Kendler and

57、 his colleagues at the Medical College of Virginia found in a study of 2, 060 female twins that genetics might contribute to how women respond to environmental pressures. The researchers examined twins with and without a family history of depression; some twins in both groups had recently undergone a trauma, such as the death of a loved one or a divorce. The investigators found that among the women who did not have a family history of depression, stressful events raised their risk for depression by only 6 per