专业英语八级-阅读理解(二十五)
(总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)
一、{{B}}READING COMPREHENSION{{/B}}(总题数：0，分数：0.00)
二、{{B}}TEXT A{{/B}}(总题数：1，分数：25.00)
There are more than 300 million of us in the United States, and sometimes it ems like we're all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth is that Americans are lonelier than ever. Between 1985 and 2004, the number of people who said there was no one with whelm they discusd important matters tripled, to 25 percent, according to Duke University rearchers. Unfortunately, as a new study linking women to incread risk of heart dia shows, all this loneliness can be detrimental to our health.
The bad news doesn't just affect women. Social isolation in all adults has been linked to a raft of physical and mental ailments, including sleep disorders, high blood pressure, and an incread risk of depression and suicide. How lonely you feel today actually predicts how w
ell you'll sleep tonight and how depresd you'll feel a year from now, says John T. Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago and coauthor of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. Studies have shown that loneliness can cau stress levels to ri and can weaken the immune system. Lonely people also tend to have less healthy lifestyles, drinking more alcohol, eating more fattening food, and exercising less than tho who are not lonely.
Though more Americans than ever are living alone (25 percent of U.S. houholds, up from 7 percent in 1940), the connection between single-living and loneliness is in fact quite weak. "Some of the most profound loneliness can happen when other people are prent," says Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. Take college freshmen: even though they're surrounded by people almost all the time, many feel incredibly isolated during the first quarter of the school year with their friends and family members far away, Cacioppo says. Studies have shown that how lonely freshmen will feel can be predicted by how many miles they are from home. By the cond quarter, however, most freshmen have found social replacements for their high-school friends. Un
fortunately, as we age, it becomes more difficult to recreate tho social relationships. And that can be a big problem as America becomes a more transient society, with an increasing number of Americans who say that they're willing to move away from home for a job.
Loneliness can be relative: it has been defined as an aversive emotional respon to a perceived discrepancy between a person's desired levels of social interaction and the contact they're actually receiving. People tend to measure themlves against others, feeling particularly alone in communities where social connection is the norm. That's why collectivist cultures, like tho in Southern Europe, have higher levels of loneliness than individualist cultures, Cacioppo says. For the same reason, isolated individuals feel most acutely alone on holidays like Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving, when most people are surrounded by family and friends.
Still, loneliness is a natural biological signal that we all have. Indeed, loneliness rves an adaptive purpo, making us protect and care for one another. Loneliness esntially puts the brain on high alert, encouraging us not to eat leftovers from the refrigerator but t
o call a friend and eat out. Certain situational factors can trigger loneliness, but long-term feelings of emptiness and isolation are partly genetic, Cacioppo says. What's inherited is not loneliness itlf, but rather nsitivity to disconnection.
Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace may provide people with a fal n of connection that ultimately increas loneliness in people who feel alone. The sites should rve as a supplement, but not replacement for, face-to-face interaction, Cacioppo says. He compares connecting on a Web site to eating celery: "It feels good immediately, but it doesn't give you the same sustenance," he says. For people who feel satisfied and loved in their day-to-day life, social media can be a reassuring extension. For tho who are already lonely, Facebook status updates are just a reminder of how much better everyone el is at making friends and having fun.
So how many friends do you need to avoid loneliness? There's no magic number, according to Cacioppo. An introvert might need one confidante not to feel lonely, whereas an extrovert might require two, three, or four bosom buddies. Experts say it's not the quantity of social relationships but the quality that really matters. "The most popular kid in
school may still feel lonely," Cacioppo says. "There axe a lot of stars who have been idols and lived lonely lives."（分数：25.00）
(1).Which of the following is NOT among the factors which may cau people to feel lonely?
∙ A. Less healthy lifestyles.
∙ B. Being far away from family and friends.
∙ C. Holiday atmosphere.
∙ D. Sensitivity to isolation.
（分数：5.00）
A. √
B.
C.
D.
解析：[解析] 事实细节题。由第二段第五句得知，“较不健康的生活方式”是孤独感带来的后果之一，而不是原因，因此选A。第三段第三至五句用大学新生的例子来证明孤独感可能会与离家和朋友的距离远近有关，排除B。第四段最后一句讲到孤独感是相对的，在圣诞节或感恩节这样的团聚时刻，独处的人会感到格外孤独，排除C。第五段的最后提到孤独感部分是由基因引起的，因为对孤独的那种敏感可能会遗传，排除D。
(2).Which of the following statements is INCORRECT to the passage?
∙ A. There were approximately 8% of Americans who claimed to be lonely in 1985.
∙ B. College sophomores tend to be lonelier than freshmen.
∙ C. The more you expect of social interaction, the lonelier you feel if the reality is the rever.
∙ D. People who often feel lonely are likely to have lonely children.
网上零食店（分数：5.00）
爱护环境人人有责 A.
B. √
C.
D.
解析：[解析] 推理判断题。由第一段第三句的tripled to 25%(增加了两倍，达到25%)可排算出1985年的数字应该约为8%，排除A。第三段倒数第三句说到大学新生在新学年的第二季度就会慢慢交到新朋友，孤独感会有所缓和，由此推断，二年级学生的情况会比新生好一些，故B为答案。第四段首句给出孤独感的定义，当人们对社会交往的期望与实际情况产生了差异，就会产生孤独感，排除C。第五段最后说对孤独的敏感可能会遗传，如果父母经常感到孤独的话，他们的孩子很有可能遗传了对孤独的敏感，排除D。
(3).The author's main purpo of mentioning Facebook is to
∙ A. compare Facebook with face-to-face communication.
∙ B. emphasize the supplementary function of Facebook to daily communication.
∙ C. illustrate the importance of Facebook in helping people to relieve loneliness.
∙ D. introduce the ways to make friends on Facebook.
宁波师范大学（分数：5.00）
A.
B. √
C.
D.
解析：[解析] 推理判断题。第六段首句提到Facebook等社交网站，紧接着第二句引用卡乔波的话来强调这些社交网站应当成为日常交流方式的补充而不是替代品，可见作者的目的是引出卡乔波的观点，因此选B。A、D与文章内容无关，是干扰项。第一段前两句指出：Facebook这样的社交网站非但没有减轻人们的孤独感，反而会使情况更糟糕，C与文章内容相反，故排除。
(4).Among the following, who tends to be the least lonely according to the passage?
∙ A. A person who is always surrounded by others.
∙ 广告制作合同模板B. A person who has a lot of friends on Facebook.
∙ C. A person who often moves away from home for a job.
∙ D. A person who lives in an individualist culture.
（分数：5.00）
A.
B.
C.
游戏昵称女生简短好听 D. √
解析：[解析] 推理判断题。第四段第二句说人们会以别人为标准衡量自己，当生活在以社会联系为准则的社会中时会感到特别孤独，第三句提到生活征集体主义文化中的人会比个人主义文化中的人更容易感到孤独，由此可推知答案为D。第三段第二句指出，一些最深刻的孤独感往往发生在其他人在场的时候，故排除A。文章中有两个地方提到Facebook，第一段和第六段，第一段说有时好像我们都在Facebook上交朋友，但却比以前更孤独，笫六段第一句说Facebook这样的社交网站给人们一种联系的错觉但最终却加剧了孤独者的孤独感，排除B。第三段最后两句指出，随着年龄的增长，人们重新建立社会关系会越来越难，而很多美国人因为工作原因要离家，这就使得这些人既远离了原来的朋友，又难以结交新的社会关系，故排除C。
(5).This passage mainly talks about 瑞士的英文
吊车维修
∙ A. the caus of loneliness.
∙ B. the effects of loneliness.
∙ C. the ways to avoid loneliness.
∙ D. loneliness and lifestyles.
（分数：5.00）
A. √
B.
C.
D.
解析：[解析] 主旨大意题。虽然第一、二段提到了孤独感可能带来的后果，但接下来用大量篇幅解释可能会引发孤独感的原因，也只有在最后一段提到了避免孤独感最重要的是社
会交往的质量，因此选A。
三、{{B}}TEXT B{{/B}}(总题数：1，分数：25.00)
In 1880, Sir Joshua Waddilore, a Victorian philanthropist, founded Provident Financial to provide affordable loans to working-class families in and around Bradford, in northern England. This month his company, now one of Britain's leading providers of "home credit" — small, short-term, uncured loans — began the nationwide rollout of Vanquis, a credit card aimed at people that mainstream lenders shun. The card offers up to ￡200 ($380) of credit, at a price: for the riskiest customers, the annual interest rate will be 69%.
Provident says that the typical interest rate is clor to 50% and that it charges no fees for late payments or breaching credit limits. Still, that is triple the rate on regular credit cards and far above the 30% charged by store cards. And the Vanquis card is being launched just when Britain's politicians and media are full of worry about soaring consumer debt. Last month, a man took his own life after running up debts of ￡130,000 on 22 different credit cards.
Credit cards for "sub-prime" borrowers, as the industry delicately calls tho with poor credit records, are new in Britain but have been common in America for a while. Lenders began issuing them when the prime market became saturated, prompting them to look for new sources of profit. Even in America, the sub-prime market has plenty of room for growth. David Robertson of the Nilson Report, a trade magazine, reckons that outstanding sub-prime credit-card debt accounts for only 3% of the $597 billion that Americans owe on plastic. The sub- prime ctor grew by 7.9% last year, compared with only 2.6% for the industry as a whole.
You might wonder, though, how companies can make money from lending to customers they know to be bad risks — or at any rate, how they can do it legitimately. Whereas delinquencies in the credit-card industry as a whole are around 4%-5%, tho in the sub- prime market are almost twice as high, and can reach 15% in hard times.
Obviously, issuers charge higher interest rates to compensate them for the higher risk of not being repaid. And all across the credit-card industry, the asssment and pricing of risks has been getting more and more refined, thanks largely to advances in technology a
nd data processing. Companies also u sophisticated computer programs to track slower payment or other signs of incread risk. Sub-prime issuers pay as much attention to collecting debt as to managing risk; they impo extra charges, such as application fees; and they cap their potential loss by lending only small amounts ($500 is a typical credit limit).
All this is easier to describe than to do, especially when the economy slows. After the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, veral sub-prime credit-card providers failed. Now there are only around 100, of which nine issue credit cards. Survivors such as Metris and Providian, two of the bigger sub-prime card companies, have become choosier about their customers' credit histories.
As the economy recovered, so did lenders' fortunes. Fitch, a rating agency, says that the proportion of sub-prime credit-card borrowers who are more than 60 days in arrears (a good predictor of eventual default) is the lowest since November 2001. But with American interest rates rising again, some worry about another squeeze. As Fitch's Michael Dean points out, sub-prime borrowers tend to have not just higher-rate credit cards, but dearer
auto loans and variable-rate mortgages as well. That makes a risky business even riskier.（分数：25.00）
特长怎么写有哪些
