2018年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语(一)
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts.Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B, C or D.Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(40points)
Text1
Among the annoying challenges facing the middle class is one that will probably go unmentioned in the next presidential campaign:What happens when the robots come for their jobs?
Don't dismiss that possibility entirely.About half of U.S.jobs are at high risk of being automated,according to a University of Oxford study,with the middle class disproportionately squeezed.Lower-income jobs like gardening or day care don't appeal to robots.But many middle-class occupations-trucking,financial advice,software engineering—have aroud their interest,or soon will.The rich own the robots,so they will be fine.
This isn't to be alarmist.Optimists point out that technological upheaval has benefited workers in the past.The Industrial Revolution didn't go so well for Luddites who jobs were displaced by mechanized looms,but it eventually raid living standards and created more jobs than it destroyed.Likewi,automation should eventually boost productivity,stimulate demand by driving down prices,and free workers from hard,boring work.But in the medium term,middle-class workers may need a lot of help adjusting.
The first step,as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in The Second Machine Age,should be rethinking education and job training.Curriculums—from grammar school to college-should evolve to focus less on memorizing facts and more on creativity and complex communication.Vocational schools should do a better job of fostering problem-solving skills and helping students work alongside robots.Online education can supplement the traditional kind.It could make extra training and instruction affordable.Professionals trying to acquire new skills will be able to do so without going into debt.
The challenge of coping with automation underlines the need for the revive its fading business dynamism:Starting new companies must be made easier.In previous eras of drastic technological change,entrepreneurs smoothed the transition by dreaming up ways to combine labor
and machines.The best us of3D printers and virtual reality haven't been invented yet.The ds the new companies that will invent them.
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Finally,becau automation threatens to widen the gap between capital income and labor income,taxes and the safety net will have to be rethought.Taxes on low-wage labor need to be cut,and wage subsidies such as the earned income tax credit should be expanded:This would boost incomes,encourage work,reward companies for job creation, and reduce inequality.
Technology will improve society in ways big and small over the next few years,yet this will be little comfort to tho who find their lives and careers upended by automation.
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Destroying the machines that are coming for our jobs would be nuts.But policies to help workers adapt will be indispensable.
21.Who will be most threatened by automation?
[A]Leading politicians.
[B]Low-wage laborers.
[C]Robot owners.
红烧翅根[D]Middle-class workers.
22.Which of the following best reprent the author’s view?
[A]Worries about automation are in fact groundless.
[B]Optimists'opinions on new tech find little support.
[C]Issues arising from automation need to be tackled
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[D]Negative conquences of new tech can be avoided
23.Education in the age of automation should put more emphasis on
[A]creative potential.
[B]job-hunting skills.
[C]individual needs.
[D]cooperative spirit.
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24.The author suggests that tax policies be aimed at
[A]encouraging the development of automation.
实习月报[B]increasing the return on capital investment.
[C]easing the hostility between rich and poor.
[D]preventing the income gap from widening.
25.In this text,the author prents a problem with
[A]opposing views on it.
[B]possible solutions to it.
[C]its alarming impacts.
[D]its major variations.
Text2
A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of President Trump’s u of Twitter.The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White Hou to be filtered through other source,Not a president’s social media platform.
千年修得共枕眠Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines.Yet as distrust has rin toward all media,people may be starting to beef up their media literacy skills.Such a trend is badly needed.During the2016presidential campaign,nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter urs in the politically critical state of Michigan was fake news, according to the University of Oxford.And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44percent of Facebook urs rarely or never trust news from the media giant.
Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at parating fact from fiction in cyberspace.A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages14and24found they u“distributed trust”to verify stories.They
cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectives—especially tho that are open about any bias.“Many young people assume a great deal of personal
responsibility for educating themlves and actively eking out opposing viewpoints,”the survey con
cluded.
Such active rearch can have another effect.A2014survey conducted in Australia, Britain,and the United States by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young people’s reliance on social media led to greater political engagement.
Social media allows urs to experience news events more intimately and immediately while also permitting them to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests.This forces urs to be more conscious of their role in passing along information.A survey by Barna rearch group found the top reason given by Americans for the fake news phenomenon is“reader error,”more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting.About a third say the problem of fake news lies in“misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news”via social media.In other words,the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue.“This indicates there is a real personal responsibility in counteracting this problem,”says Roxanne Stone,editor in chief at Barna Group.
So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president,they reveal a mental discipline in thinking skills–and in their choices on when to share on social media.
26.According to the Paragraphs1and2,many young Americans cast doubts on
[A]the justification of the news-filtering practice.
[B]people’s preference for social media platforms.
[C]the administrations ability to handle information.
[D]social media was a reliable source of news.
27.The phra“beer up”(Line2,Para.2)is clost in meaning to
[A]sharpen
[B]define
[C]boast
[D]share
28.According to the knight foundation survey,young people
[A]tend to voice their opinions in cyberspace.
[B]verify news by referring to diver resources.
[C]have s strong n of responsibility.
[D]like to exchange views on“distributed trust”
29.The Barna survey found that a main cau for the fake news problem is
[A]readers outdated values.
[B]journalists’biad reporting
[C]readers’misinterpretation
[D]journalists’made-up stories.
30.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
[A]A Ri in Critical Skills for Sharing News Online
[B]A Counteraction Against the Over-tweeting Trend
[C]The Accumulation of Mutual Trust on Social Media.
[D]The Platforms for Projection of Personal Interests.
Text3
Any fair-minded asssment of the dangers of the deal between Britain's National Health Service(NHS)and DeepMind must start by acknowledging that both sides mean well.DeepMind is one of the leading artificial intelligence(AI)companies in the world.The potential of this work applied to healthcare is very great,but it could also lead to further concentration of power in the tech giants.It Is against that background that the information commissioner,Elizabeth Denham,has issued her damning verdict against the Royal Free hospital trust under the NHS,which handed over to DeepMind the records of1.6million patients In2015on the basis of a vague agreement which took far too little account of the patients'rights and their expectations of privacy.
DeepMind has almost apologized.The NHS trust has mended its ways.Further arrangements-and there may be many-between the NHS and DeepMind will be carefully scrutinid to ensure that all necessary permissions have been asked of patients and all unnecessary data has been cleaned.There are lessons about informed patient connt to learn.But privacy is not the only angle i
n this ca and not even the most important.Ms Denham cho to concentrate the blame on the NHS trust,since under existing law it “controlled”the data and DeepMind merely“procesd"it.But this distinction miss the point that it is processing and aggregation,not the mere posssion of bits,that gives the data value.
The great question is who should benefit from the analysis of all the data that our lives now generate.Privacy law builds on the concept of damage to an individual from identifiable knowledge about them.That miss the way the surveillance economy works. The data of an individual there gains its value only when it is compared with the data of countless millions more.
The u of privacy law to curb the tech giants in this instance feels slightly maladapted.This practice does not address the real worry.It is not enough to say that the algorithms DeepMind develops will benefit patients and save lives.What matters is that they will belong to a private monopoly which developed them using public resources.If software promis to save lives on the scale that dugs now can,big data may be expected to behave as a big pharm has done.We are still at the beginning of this revolution and small choices now may turn out to have gigantic conquences later.A long struggle will be needed to avoid a future of digital feudalism.Ms Denham's report is a welcome start.
31.Wha is true of the agreement between the NHS and DeepMind?
[A]It caud conflicts among tech giants.
[B]It failed to pay due attention to patient’s rights.
[C]It fell short of the latter's expectations
[D]It put both sides into a dangerous situation.
32.The NHS trust responded to Denham's verdict with
[A]empty promis.
[B]tough resistance.
[C]necessary adjustments.
[D]sincere apologies.
33.The author argues in Paragraph2that
[A]privacy protection must be cured at all costs.
[B]leaking patients'data is wor than lling it.
[C]making profits from patients'data is illegal.
[D]the value of data comes from the processing of it
34.According to the last paragraph,the real worry arising from this deal is
[A]the vicious rivalry among big pharmas.
[B]the ineffective enforcement of privacy law.
[C]the uncontrolled u of new software.
鱼籽怎么做才好吃[D]the monopoly of big data by tech giants.
35.The author's attitude toward the application of AI to healthcare is
[A]ambiguous.
[B]cautious.
[C]appreciative.
[D]contemptuous.
Text4
The U.S.Postal Service(USPS)continues to bleed red ink.It reported a net loss of $5.6billion for fiscal2016,the10th straight year its expens have exceeded revenue. Meanwhile,it has more than$120billion in unfunded liabilities,mostly for employee health and retirement costs.There are many bankruptcies.Fundamentally,the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decread demand for its bread-and-butter product,first-class mail,and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality
And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert
lf-interested pressure on the USPS’s ultimate overer-Congress-insisting that whatever el happens to the Postal Service,aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected.This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years,leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
Now comes word that everyone involved---Democrats,Republicans,the Postal Service,the unions and the system's heaviest urs—has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system.Legislation is moving through the Hou that would save USPS an estimated $28.6billion over five years,which could help pay for new vehicles,among other survival measures.Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increa and from shifting postal retirees into Medicare.The latter step would largely offt the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care,thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its union.
If it clears the Hou,this measure would still have to get through the Senate–where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare,bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat,not comprehensive reform.There’s no change to collective bargaining at the USPS,a major omission considering that personnel accounts for80 percent of the agency’s costs.Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery.That common-n change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS$2billion per year.But postal special-interest groups em to have killed it,at least in the Hou.The emerging connsus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collap at the USPS.It is not,
however,a sign that they’re getting rious about transforming the postal system for the 21st century.
36.The financial problem with the USPS is caud partly by
[A].its unbalanced budget.
[B].its rigid management.
[C].the cost for technical upgrading.
[D].the withdrawal of bank support.
37.According to Paragraph2,the USPS fails to modernize itlf due to
[A].the interference from interest groups.
[B].the inadequate funding from Congress.
[C].the shrinking demand for postal rvice.
[D].the incompetence of postal unions.
38.The long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions can be addresd by
[A].removing its burden of retiree health care.
[B].making more investment in new vehicles.
[C].adopting a new rate-increa mechanism.
[D].attracting more first-class mail urs.
39.In the last paragraph,the author ems to view legislators with
[A]respect.
[B]tolerance.
[C]discontent.
[D]gratitude.
40.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
[A].The USPS Starts to Miss Its Good Old Days
[B].The Postal Service:Keep Away from My Chee
[C].The USPS:Chronic Illness Requires a Quick Cure
[D].The Postal Service Needs More than a Band-Aid
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