Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is a passage withten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in aword bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making yourchoices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letteron Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words inthe bank more than once.

　　Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

　　Millions of Americans are entering their 60s and are more concerned than ever aboutretirement. They know they need to save, but how much? And what exactly are they saving for-to spend more time __36__ the grandkids, go traveling, or start another career? It turns outthat husbands and wives may have __37__ different ideas about the subject.

　　The deepest divide is in the way spouses envisage their lifestyle in their later years. FidelityInvestments Inc. found 41 percent of the 500 couples it surveyed __38__ on whether both orat least one spouse will work in retirement. Wives are generally right regarding their husbands'retirement age, but men __39__ the age their wives will be when they stop working. Andhusbands are slightly more __40__ about their standard of living than wives are.

　　Busy juggling (穷于应付) and families, most couples don't take time to sit down, __41__ ortogether, and think about what they would like to do 5, 10 or 20 years from now. They __42__they are on the same page, but the __43__ is they have avoided even talking about it.

　　If you are self-employed or in a job that doesn't have a standard retirement age, you may bemore apt to delay thinking about these issues. It is often a __44__ retirement date thatprovides the catalyst (催化剂) to start planning. Getting laid off or accepting an early-retirement__45__ can force your hand. But don't wait until you get a severance (遣散费) check to beginplanning.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

　　A) assume

　　B) confidential

　　C) disagree

　　D) formula

　　E) forthcoming F) illustrating

　　G) mysteriously

　　H) observe

　　I) optimistic

　　J) package K) radically

　　L) reality

　　M) separately

　　N) spoiling

　　O) underestimate

　　Section B

　　Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs Identify the paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Eachparagraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 2.

　　What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear?

　　A) The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, two years after theofficial end of the recession, few Americans would say that economic troubles are behind us.The unemployment rate, in particular, remains above 9%. Some labor market indicators, suchas the proportion of long-term unemployed, are worse now than for any postwar recession.

　　B) There are two widely circulated narratives to explain what's going on. The Keynesiannarrative is that there has been a major drop in aggregate demand. According to thisnarrative, the slump can be largely cured by using monetary and fiscal (财政的) stimulus. Themain anti-Keynesian narrative is that businesses are suffering from uncertainty and over-regulation. According to this narrative, the slump can be cured by having the governmentcommit to and follow a more hands-off approach.

　　C) I want to suggest a third interpretation. Without ruling out a role for aggregate demandor for the regulatory environment, I wish to suggest that structural change is an importantfactor in the current rate of high unemployment. The economy is in a state of transition, inwhich the middle-class jobs that emerged after World War II have begun to decline. As ErikBrynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee put it in a recent e-book Race Against the Machine: "The rootof our problems is not that we're in a great recession, or a great stagnation (停滞) , but ratherthat we are in the early throes (阵痛) of a great restructuring."

　　D) In fact, I believe the Great Depression of the 1930s can also be interpreted in part as aneconomic transition. The impact of the internal combustion engine (内燃机) and the smallelectric motor on farming and manufacturing reduced the value of uneducated laborers. Instead,by the 1950s, a middle class of largely clerical (从事文秘工作的) workers was the most significant,part, of the labor force. Between 1930 and 1950, the United States economy underwent a greattransition. Demand fell for human effort such as lifting, squeezing, and hammering. Demandincreased for workers who could read and follow directions. The evolutionary processeventually changed us from a nation of laborers to a nation of clerks.

　　E) The proportion of employment classified as "clerical workers" grew from 5.2% in 1910 to apeak of 19.3% in 1980. (However, by 2000 this proportion had edged down to 17.4%.)Overall, workers classified as clerical workers, technical workers, managers and officialsexceeded 50% of the labor force by 2000. Corresponding declines took place in the manualoccupations. Workers classified as laborers, other than farm hands or miners, peaked at 11.4%of the labor force in 1920 but were barely 6% by 1950 and less than 4% by 2000. Farmers andfarm laborers fell from 33% of the labor force in 1910 to less than 15% by 1950 and only 1.2%in 2000.

　　F) The introduction of the tractor and improvements in the factory rapidly reduced the demandfor uneducated workers. By the 1930s, a marginal farm hand could not produce enough tojustify his employment. Sharecropping, never much better than a subsistence occupation,was no longer viable (可行的). Meanwhile, machines were replacing manufacturing occupationslike cigar rolling and glass blowing for light bulbs.

　　G) The structural-transition interpretation of the unemployment problem of the 1930swould be that the demand for uneducated workers in the United States had fallen, but thesupply remained high. The high school graduation rate was only 8.8% in 1912 and still just29% in 1931. By 1950, it had reached 59%. With a new generation of workers who hadcompleted high school, the mismatch between skills and jobs had been greatly reduced.

　　H) What took place after World War II was not the revival of a 1920s economy, with its smallfarming units, urban manufacturing, and plurality of laborers. Instead, the 1950s saw thecreation of a new suburban economy, with a plurality of white-collar workers. With anexpanded transportation and communications infrastructure (基础建设) , businesses neededtelephone operators, shipping clerks and similar occupations. If you could read, follow simpleinstructions, and settle into a routine, you could find a job in the post-war economy.

　　I) The trend away from manual labor has continued. Even within the manufacturing sector, theshare of production and non-supervisory workers in manufacturing employment went from over85% just after World War II to less than 70% in more recent, years. To put this another way,the proportion of white-collar work in manufacturing has doubled over the past 50 years. Onthe factory floor itself, work has become less physically demanding. Instead, it requires morecognitive skills and the ability to understand and carry out well-defined procedures.

　　J) As noted earlier, the proportion of clerical workers in the economy peaked in 1980. By thatdate, computers and advanced communications equipment had already begun to affecttelephone operations and banking. The rise of the personal computer and the Internet haswidened the impact of these technologies to include nearly every business and industry.

　　K) The economy today differs from that of a generation ago. Mortgage and consumer loanunderwriters (风险评估人) have been replaced by credit scoring. Record stores have beenreplaced by music downloads. Book stores are closing, while sales of books on electronicreaders have increased-Data entry has been moved off shore. Routine customer support alsohas been outsourced (外包) overseas.

　　L) These trends serve to limit the availability of well-defined jobs. If a job can becharacterized by a precise set of instructions, then that job is a candidate to be automated oroutsourced to modestly educated workers in developing countries. The result is what DavidAutor calls the polarization of the American job market.

　　M) Using the latest Census Bureau data, Matthew Slaughter found that from 2000 to 2010 thereal earnings of college graduates (with no advanced degree) fell by more in percentage termsthan the earnings of high school graduates. In fact, over this period the only educationcategory to show an increase in earnings was those with advanced degrees.

　　N) The outlook for mid-skill jobs would not appear to be bright.. Communications technologyand computer intelligence continue to improve, putting more occupations at risk. For example,marry people earn a living as drivers, including trucks and taxicabs. However, the age ofdriverless vehicles appears to be moving closer. Another example is in the field of education. Inthe fall of 2011, an experiment with an online course in artificial intelligence conducted by twoStanford professors drew tens of thousands of registrants (报名者). This increases the student-teacher ratio by a factor of close to a thousand. Imagine the number of teaching jobs thatmight be eliminated if this could be done for math, economics, chemistry, and so on.

　　O) It's important to bear in mind that when we offer a structural interpretation ofunemployment, a "loss of jobs" means an increase in productivity. Traditionally, economistshave argued that productivity increases are a good thing, even though they may causeunemployment for some workers in the short run. In the long run, the economy does not runout of jobs. Rather, new jobs emerge as old jobs disappear. The story we tell is that averagewell-being rises, and the more people are able to adapt, the more widespread theimprovement becomes.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

　　46. Even factory floor work today has become intellectually challenging rather than physicallydemanding.

　　47. Increases in productivity prove beneficial though some people may lose their jobstemporarily.

　　48. The unemployment rate remained high even two years after the government declared therecent recession was over.

　　49. The author suggests that the recent high unemployment rate is mainly caused by adecrease of middle-class jobs.

　　50. The creation of a suburban economy in the 1950s created lots of office jobs.

　　51. hi the first decade of the 21st century, only people with postgraduate degreesexperienced an increase in earnings.

　　52. One economics theory suggests using monetary and fiscal stimulus to cope with aneconomic recession.

　　53. The popularity of online courses may eliminate many teaching jobs.

　　54. Computer technology has brought about revolutionary changes in the record and bookbusiness.

　　55. White-collar workers accounted for more than half of the labor force by the end of the20th century.

　　Section C

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questionsor unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

　　"Deep reading" - as opposed to the often superficial reading we do on the Web-is anendangered practice, one we ought to take steps to preserve as we would a historic building ora significant work of art. Its disappearance would jeopardize the intellectual and emotionaldevelopment of generations growing up online, as well as the preservation of a critical part ofour culture; the novels, poems and other kinds of literature that can be appreciated only byreaders whose brains, quite literally, have been trained to understand them.

　　Recent research in cognitive science and psychology has demonstrated that deep reading-slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity-is a distinctiveexperience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. Although deep reading does not,strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the built-in limits of the printed page areuniquely helpful to the deep reading experience. A book's lack of hyperlinks (超链接), forexample, frees the reader from making decisions Should I click on this link or not? - allowing herto remain fully immersed in the narrative.

　　That immersion is supported by the way the brain handles language rich in detail, indirectreference and figures of speech; by creating a mental representation that draws on the samebrain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life. The emotionalsituations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for thebrain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest,increasing our real-life capacity for empathy (认同).

　　None of this is likely to happen when we're browsing through a website. Although we call theactivity by the same name, the deep reading of books and the information-driven reading we doon the Web are very different, both in the experience they produce and in the capacities theydevelop. A growing body of evidence suggests that online reading may be less engaging andless satisfying, even for the M digital natives" to whom it is so familiar. Last month, for example,Britain's National Literacy Trust released the results of a study of 34,910 young people aged 8to 16. Researchers reported that 39% of children and teens read daily using electronic devices,but only 28% read printed materials every day. Those who read only onscreen were three timesless likely to say they enjoy reading very much and a third less likely to have a favorite book.The study also found that young people who read daily only onscreen were nearly two timesless likely to be above-average readers than those who read daily in print or both in print andonscreen.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

　　56. What does the author say about "deep reading"?

　　A) It serves as a complement to online reading.

　　B) It should be preserved before it is too late.

　　C) It is mainly suitable for reading literature.

　　D) It is an indispensable part of education.

　　57. Wiry does the author advocate the reading of literature?

　　A) It helps promote readers' intellectual and emotional growth.

　　B) It enables readers to appreciate the complexity of language.

　　C) It helps readers build up immersive reading habits.

　　D) It is quickly becoming an endangered practice.

　　58. In what way does printed-page reading differ from online reading?

　　A) It ensures the reader's cognitive growth.

　　B) It enables the reader to be fully engaged.

　　C) It activates a different region of the brain.

　　D) It helps the reader learn rhetorical devices.

　　59. What do the studies show about online reading?

　　A) It gradually impairs one's eyesight.

　　B) It keeps arousing readers' curiosity.

　　C) It provides up-to-date information.

　　D) It renders reading less enjoyable.

　　60. What do we learn from the study released by Britain's National Literacy Trust?

　　A) Onscreen readers may be less competent readers.

　　B) Those who do reading in print are less informed.

　　C) Young people find reading onscreen more enjoyable.

　　D) It is now easier to find a favorite book online to read.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　Many current discussions of immigration issues talk about immigrants in general, as if theywere abstract people in an abstract world. But the concrete differences between immigrantsfrom different countries affect whether their coming here is good or bad for the Americanpeople.

　　The very thought of formulating immigration laws from the standpoint of what is best for theAmerican people seems to have been forgotten by many who focus on how to solve theproblems of illegal immigration.

　　It is hard to look for "the ideal outcome" on immigration in the abstract. Economics professorMilton Friedman once said, "The best is the enemy of the good," which to me meant thatattempts to achieve an unattainable ideal can prevent us from reaching good outcomes thatare possible in practice.

　　Too much of our current immigration controversy is conducted in terms of abstract ideals,such as "We are a nation of immigrants." Of course we are a nation of immigrants. But we arealso a nation of people who wear shoes. Does it follow that we should admit anybody whowears shoes?

　　The immigrants of today are very different from those who arrived here a hundred years ago.Moreover, the society in which they arrive is different. To me, it is better to build a wall aroundthe welfare state than the country.

　　But the welfare state is already here-and, far from having a wall built around it, the welfare stateis expanding in all directions. We do not have a choice between the welfare state and openborders. Anything we try to do as regards immigration laws has to be done in the context of ahuge welfare state that is already a major, inescapable fact of life.

　　Among other facts of life utterly ignored by many advocates of de facto amnesty (事实上的大赦)is that the free international movement of people is different from free international trade ingoods. Buying cars or cameras from other countries is not the same as admitting people fromthose countries or any other countries. Unlike inanimate objects, people have cultures and notall cultures are compatible with the culture in this country that has produced such benefits forthe American people for so long.

　　Not only the United States, but the Western world in general, has been discovering the hardway that admitting people with incompatible cultures is an irreversible decision withincalculable consequences. If we do not see that after recent terrorist attacks on the streets ofBoston and London, when will we see it?

　　"Comprehensive immigration reform" means doing everything all together in a rush, withouttime to look before we leap, and basing ourselves on abstract notions about abstract people.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。

　　61. What does the author say about immigrants in America?

　　A) They all hope to gain citizenship and enjoy the welfare.

　　B) They come to America with different dreams and purposes.

　　C) Their background may determine whether they benefit the American people.

　　D) Their cultures affect the extent to which they will achieve success in America.

　　62. What does the author try to say by citing Milton Friedman's remark?

　　A) It is hardly practical to find an ideal solution to America's immigration problem.

　　B) Ideal outcomes could be produced only by comprehensive immigration reform.

　　C) As for immigration, good results cannot be achieved without good intentions.

　　D) The proper solution of immigration issues is an ideal of the American public.

　　63. What is the author's view regarding America's immigration policy?

　　A) America should open its borders to immigrants from different countries.

　　B) Immigrants have contributed greatly to the welfare of American people.

　　C) Unrestricted immigration will undermine the American welfare state.

　　D) There is no point building a wall around the American welfare state.

　　64. What is the author's purpose in citing the recent terrorist attacks on the streets of Bostonand London?

　　A) To show that America should join hands with Europe in fighting terrorists.

　　B) To prove that it is high time America made comprehensive immigration reforms.

　　C) To prove that terrorism is the most dangerous threat to America and the world ill general.

　　D) To show that immigrants' cultural incompatibility with the host country has consequences.

　　65. What is the author's attitude towards "comprehensive immigration reform"?

　　A) Supportive. B) Negative. C) Wait-and-see. D) Indifferent.

责任编辑：lzx