环球时代，模拟题4

北京环球时代学校 http://www.globaltimesschool.com/ 英语专业考研 MTI翻译硕士 专四专八 汉语国际教育硕士 日语专业考研等 环球时代 模拟题（四） I. READING COMPREHENSION (60 points). A. Multiple Choice (36 points). Please read the following passages and choose A, B, C or D to best complete the statements about them. Obama Derangement Syndrome BY MOST people’s standards Barack Obama has had an excellent week. He enjoyed a counter-Carter moment when navy commandos rescued an American hostage, leaving three kidnappers dead. He gave a measured speech on the economy. And, to cap it all, he gave his daughters a Portuguese water dog named “Bo”. What’s not to like? Plenty, according to some people. Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred. The American Spectator, which came of age demonising the Clintons, has run an article on its website on Mr Obama entitled “Il Duce, Redux?” The internet crackles with comparisons between Mr Obama and various dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini) or assorted psychotics (Charles Manson and David Koresh). When Jonah Goldberg, a conservative pundit, praised Mr Obama over the dispatching of the Somali pirates, his e-mail inbox immediately overflowed, he said, with “snark and bile”. (1) What does the “snark and bile” most likely refer to? [A] virus [B] dump mails [C] advertisement [D] censureship A recent Pew poll showed that public opinion about Mr Obama is sharply divided along party lines. Some 88% of Democrats approve of the job that he is doing compared with only 27% of Republicans. The approval gap between the two parties is actually bigger than it was for George Bush in April 2001. Bush loyalists, led by Karl Rove, have duly over-interpreted this poll in order to soften their former boss’s reputation as America’s most divisive president. Today’s Republican base is significantly smaller than the Democratic base was in 2001, so surviving Republicans are more likely to have hard-core views. But there are nevertheless enough people out there who dislike the president to constitute a significant force in political life. (2) Why Bush loyalists over-interpreted the recent Pew poll? [A] The approval gap between the two parties is smaller than it was for George Bush in 2001. [B] They aimed to change Bush’s reputation as America’s most decisive president. [C] They doubted the credibility of the poll. [D] They need to enlarge the base of Democratic party. As The Economist went to press, the bestselling book in the United States was Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny”. Mr Levin frequently denounces Mr Obama on his radio show as an exponent of the second of those two qualities. The new sensation in the world of cable is Fox News’s Glenn Beck, who has already attracted 2.2m regular viewers since his show was launched in January. Mr Beck recently apologised to his viewers for saying that Mr Obama’s America is on the path to “socialism” when it is really on the march to fascism. Media Matters, a left-wing organisation that monitors the media, reports that, since the inauguration, “there have been over 3,000 references to socialism, fascism or communism” in describing the president. Rush Limbaugh claims that he has seen an uptick in his audience since he announced that he hopes that Mr Obama fails. He has no time for the idea that all Americans should wish their president well (“We are being told that we have to hope Obama succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles…because his father was black”). Mr Limbaugh is not the ankle-grabbing type. He has also added Robert Mugabe to the list of people to whom Mr Obama can be likened. Why are some people so angry? For all his emollient manner and talk of “post partisanship”, Mr Obama is just as much an embodiment of liberal America as Mr Bush was of conservative America—an Ivy League-educated lawyer who became a community organiser before launching a political career in one of America’s most cosmopolitan and corrupt big cities, Chicago. Mr Obama almost lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton because of his lack of rapport with white working-class voters. In the general election he did worse than Michael Dukakis in the Appalachian states of Kentucky and West Virginia. (3) Which of the following statements is not true about Mr Orbama? [A] He is graduated from Ivy League [B] Mr. Levin describes him as an exponent of Liberty [C] He is often by compared with the dictators and psychotics [D] Many people think his policy sound communism like. (4) According to the author, why do people dislike Orbama ? [A] He made people bow in front of him [B] He sent military ship to Somalia [C] He is black [D] He spent a lot of money on stimulating the economy (5) What is the author’s purpose for this article? [A] To blame Obama’s policy and personality [B] To Blame the Multi-partism [C] To fight against the conservative speakers who criticize Mr. Obama [D] To criticize the unhealthy president-hatred trend The economic crisis has transformed this cultural suspicion into a much more potent political force. It is true that Mr Obama’s solution to the recession—spending public money in order to stimulate demand and trying to prevent a run on the banks—is supported by most economists. Mr Bush would have done much the same thing. But it is nevertheless driving many Americans crazy. April 15th—the last day on which Americans can perform the melancholy duty of filing their tax returns—saw rallies in every state, 500 or so in all. The protesters, some of whom dressed in three-cornered hats and waved “Don’t tread on me” flags, repeated a litany of criticisms that has been mounting since Mr Obama won the election—that he is a big government socialist (or fascist) who wants to take people’s money away and crush their freedoms. It is hard to judge so early in the game what the rise of anti-Obama sentiment means for the Obama presidency. Bush-hatred eventually spread from a molten core of leftists to set the cultural tone of the country. But Obama-hatred could just as easily do the opposite and brand all conservatives as a bunch of Obama-hating cranks. (6) According to the author what will be the result of this Obama-hatred trend? [A] Obama will be forced to change his policy [B] The hatred trend will spread and a culture will be coined. [C] The critics will ask FOR an insult. [D] The people will get more freedom during the tough time. What is clear is that the rapid replacement of Bush-hatred with Obama-hatred is not healthy for American politics, particularly given the president’s dual role as leader of his party and head of state. A majority of Republicans (56%) approved of Jimmy Carter’s job performance in late March 1977. A majority of Democrats (55%) approved of Richard Nixon’s job performance at a comparable point in his first term. But today polarisation is almost instant, thanks in part to the growing role of non-negotiable issues such as abortion in American politics, in part to the rise of a media industry based on outrage, and in part to a cycle of tit-for-tat demonisation. This is not only poisoning American political life. It is making it ever harder to solve problems that require cross-party collaboration such as reforming America’s health-care system or its pensions. Unfortunately, the Glenn Becks of this world are more than just a joke. (7) According to the author which of the following statements is not the cause of the president-hatred trend? [A] The non-negotiable issues are of increasing importance [B] The economic crisis hit the America all of a sudden [C] Media tends to create fighting, which can be used to attract public attention. [D] He critics are very likely to be criticized in return by mean words. In the eighteenth century, Japan's feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords' failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords' control. Concentration of the samurai in castle-towns had acted as a stimulus to trade. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords' income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overlords' income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an increase in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover. It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since the income of Japan's central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun form his huge domain, the government was too constrained. Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income. Most of the country's wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun's burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns' search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet. (8) Which of the following financial situations is most analogous to the financial situation in which Japan's Tokugawa shoguns found themselves in the eighteenth century? [A] A small business borrows heavily to invest in new equipment, but is able to pay off its debt early when it is awarded a lucrative government contract. [B] Fire destroys a small business, but insurance covers the cost of rebuilding. [C] A small business is able to cut back sharply on spending through greater commercial efficiency and thereby compensate for a loss of revenue. [D] A small business has to struggle to meet operating expenses when its profits decrease. (9) According to the passage, the major reason for the financial problems experienced by Japan's feudal overlords in the eighteenth century was that [A] profits from mining had declined [B] spending had outdistanced income [C] the samurai had concentrated in castle-towns [D] the coinage had been sharply debased (10) The passage implies that individual samurai did not find it easy to recover from debt for which of the following reasons? [A] Taxes were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount. [B] The Japanese government had failed to adjust to the needs of a changing economy. [C] There was a limit to the amount in taxes that farmers could be made to pay. [D] The domains of samurai overlords were becoming smaller and poorer as government revenues increased. (11) The passage suggests that, in eighteenth-century Japan, the office of the tax collector [A] remained within families [B] was regarded with derision by many Japanese [C] was a source of personal profit to the officeholder [D] took up most of the officeholder's time (12) According to the passage, the actions of the Tokugawa shoguns in their search for solvency for the government were regrettable because those actions [A] resulted in the exhaustion of the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold [B] raised the cost of living by pushing up prices [C] were far lower in yield than had originally been anticipated [D] acted as deterrent to trade B. True or False (10 points). Read the following passage carefully and then decide whether the statements which follow are true (T) or false (F) or not given(NG). A Remarkable Beetle Some of the most remarkable beetles are the dung beetles, which spend almost their whole lives eating and breeding in dung. More than 4,000 species of these remarkable creatures have evolved and adapted to the world's different climates and the dung of its many animals. Australia's native dung beetles are scrub and woodland dwellers, specialising in coarse marsupial droppings and avoiding the soft cattle dung in which bush flies and buffalo flies breed. In the early 1960s George Bornemissza, then a scientist at the Australian Government's premier research organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), suggested that dung beetles should be introduced to Australia to control dung-breeding flies. Between 1968 and 1982, the CSIRO imported insects from about 50 different species of dung beetle, from Asia, Europe and Africa, aiming to match them to different climatic zones in Australia. Of the 26 species that are known to have become successfully integrated into the local environment, only one, an African species released in northern Australia, has reached its natural boundary. Introducing dung beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are released, a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats in the cow pasture. The beetles immediately disappear beneath the pats digging and tunnelling and, if they successfully adapt to their new environment soon become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they multiply and within three or four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious. Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from predators such as birds and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung in tunnels directly underneath the pats, which are hollowed out from within. Some large species originating from France excavate tunnels to a depth of approximately 30 cm below the dung pat. These beetles make sausage-shaped brood chambers along the tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to a much smaller Spanish species that buries dung in chambers that hang like fruit from the branches of a pear tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels of approximately 20 cm below the surface of the pat. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South African species, cut perfectly-shaped balls from the pat, which are rolled away and attached to the bases of plants. For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require a variety of species with overlapping periods of activity. In the cooler environments of the state of Victoria, the large French species (2.5 cms long) is matched with smaller (half this size), temperate-climate Spanish species. The former are slow to recover from the winter cold and produce only one or two generations of offspring from late spring until autumn. The latter, which multiply rapidly in early spring, produce two to five generations annually. The South African ball-rolling species, being a subtropical beetle, prefers the climate of northern and coastal New South Wales where it commonly works with the South African tunnelling species. In warmer climates, many species are active for longer periods of the year. Dung beetles were initially introduced in the late 1960s with a view to controlling buffalo flies by removing the dung within a day or two and so preventing flies from breeding. However, other benefits have become evident. Once the beetle larvae have finished pupation, the residue is a first-rate source of fertiliser. The tunnels abandoned by the beetles provide excellent aeration and water channels for root systems. In addition, when the new generation of beetles has left the nest the abandoned burrows are an attractive habitat for soil-enriching earthworms. The digested dung in these burrows is an excellent food supply for the earthworms, which decompose it further to provide essential soil nutrients. If it were not for the dung beetle, chemical fertiliser and dung would be washed by rain into streams and rivers before it could be absorbed into the hard earth, polluting water courses and causing blooms of blue-green algae. Without the beetles to dispose of the dung, cow pats would litter pastures making grass inedible to cattle and depriving the soil of sunlight. Australia's 30 million cattle each produce 10-12 cow pats a day. This amounts to 1.7 billion tonnes a year, enough to smother about 110,000 sq km of pasture, half the area of Victoria. Dung beetles have become an integral part of the successful management of dairy farms in Australia over the past few decades. A number of species are available from the CSIRO or through a small number of private breeders, most of whom were entomologists with the CSIRO's dung beetle unit who have taken their specialised knowledge of the insect and opened small businesses in direct competition with their former employer. (13) Bush flies are easier to control than buffalo flies. (14) Four thousand species of dung beetle were initially brought to Australia by the CSIRO. (15) Dung beetles were brought to Australia by the CSIRO over a fourteen-year period. (16) At least twenty-six of the introduced species have become established in Australia. (17) The dung beetles cause an immediate improvement to the quality of a cow pasture. C. Gap Filling (14 points). Please choose the best sentence from the list after the passage to fill in each of the gaps in the text. There are more sentences than gaps. Hart and Risley showed that language exposure in early childhood correlated strongly with I.Q. and academic success later on in a child's life. Hearing fewer words, and a lot of prohibitions and discouragements, had a negative effect on I.Q.; hearing lots of words, and more affirmations and complex sentences, had a positive effect on I.Q. The professional parents were giving their children an advantage with every word they spoke, and the advantage just kept building up. In the years since Hart and Risley published their findings, social scientists have examined other elements of the parent-child relationship, and while their methods have varied, their conclusions all point to big class differences in children's intellectual growth. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a professor at Teachers College, has overseen hundreds of interviews of parents and collected thousands of hours of videotape of parents and children, and she and her research team have graded each one on a variety of scales. Their conclusion: (18)__________ They analyzed the data to see if there was something else going on in middle-class homes that could account for the advantage but found that while wealth does matter, child-rearing style matters more. Martha Farah, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has built on Brooks-Gunn's work, using the tools of neuroscience to calculate exactly which skills poorer children lack and which parental b