16.[A]compared[B]combined[C]ttled[D]associated
17.[A]Even[B]Still[C]Yet[D]Only
18.[A]despid[B]corrected[C]ignored[D]grounded
19.[A]discussions[B]business[C]policies[D]studies
20.[A]for[B]against[C]with[D]without
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
What would you do with$590m?This is now a question for Gloria Mackenzie,an84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small,tin-roofed hou in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history.If she hopes her new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfillment,she could do wor than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dumn and Michael Norton.
The two academics u an array of behavioral rearch to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive.Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes.Yet satisfaction with the material purchas wears off fairly quickly.What was once exciting and new becomes old-hat;regret creeps in.It is far better to spend money on experiences,say Ms.Dumn and Mr.Norton, like interesting trips,unique meals or even going to the cinema.The purchas often become more valuable with time—as stories or memories—particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others.
This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most“happiness bang for your buck.”It ems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television(something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing,and is hardly jollier for it).Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things f
or onelf,and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly.This is apparently the reason MacDonald’s restricts the availability of its popular McRib—a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obssion.
Readers of Happy Money are clearly a privileged lot,anxious about fulfillment,not hunger.Money may not quite buy happiness,but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than tho in poor ones.Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be en among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people.Not everyone will agree with the authors’policy ideas,which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.
21.According to Dumn and Norton,which of the following is the most rewarding purcha?_____.
[A]A big hou[B]A special tour
[C]A stylish car[D]A rich meal
22.The author’s attitude toward Americans’watching TV is_____.
[A]critical[B]supportive
[C]sympathetic[D]ambiguous
23.Macrib is mentioned in Paragraph3to show that_____.
[A]consumers are sometimes irrational[B]popularity usually comes after quality
传染病报告
[C]marketing tricks are often effective[D]rarity generally increas pleasure
24.According to the last paragraph,Happy Money_____.
[A]has left much room for readers’criticism
[B]may prove to be a worthwhile purcha
[C]has predicted a wider income gap in the US
[D]may give its readers a n of achievement
25.This text mainly discuss how to_____.
[A]balance feeling good and spending money
[B]spend large sums of money won in lotteries
[C]obtain lasting satisfaction from money spent
[D]become more reasonable in spending on luxuries
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洗衣机不甩干Text2
An article in Scientific American has pointed out that empirical rearch says that,actually,you think you’re more beautiful than you are.We have a deep-ated need to feel good about ourlves and we naturally employ a number of lf-enhancing strategies to achieve this.Social psychologists have amasd oceans of rearch into what they call the“above average effect”,or“illusory superiority”,and shown that,for example,70%of us rate ourlves as above average in leadership,93%in driving and85%at getting on well with others—all obviously statistical impossibilities.
We ro-tint our memories and put ourlves into lf-affirming situations.We become defensive when criticized,and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem,we stalk around thinking we’re hot stuff.
Psychologist and behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into lf-enhancement and attractiveness.Rather than have people simply rate their beauty compared with others,he asked them to identify an original photograph of themlves from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive.Visual recognition,reads the study,is“an automatic psychological process,occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation”.If the subjects quickly cho a fally flattering image—which most did—they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.
琵琶行并序翻译Epley found no significant gender difference in respons.Nor was there any evidence that,tho who lf-enhance the most(that is,the participants who thought the most positively-doctored picture were real)were doing so to make up for profound incurities.In fact tho who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with tho who showed other markers for having higher lf-esteem.“I don’t think the findings that we have are any evidence of personal delusion”,says Epley.“It’s a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themlves’.If you are depresd,you won’t be lf-enhancing.
Knowing the results of Epley’s study,it makes n that why people hate photographs of themlves viscerally—on one level,they don’t even recognize the person in the picture as themlv
es.Facebook therefore,is a lf-enhancer’s paradi,where people can share only the most flattering photos,the cream of their wit,style, beauty,intellect and lifestyles.It’s not that people’s profiles are dishonest,says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Mad-ison University,“but they portray an idealized version of themlves.”
26.According to the first paragraph,social psychologists have found that______.
[A]our lf-ratings are unrealistically high
[B]illusory superiority is a baless effect
[C]our need for leadership is unnatural赤砂糖是红糖吗
[D]lf-enhancing strategies are ineffective
27.Visual recognition is believed to be people’s______.
[A]rapid watching[B]conscious choice
[C]intuitive respon[D]automatic lf-defen
28.Epley found that people with higher lf-esteem tended to______.
[A]underestimate their incurities[B]believe in their attractiveness
[C]cover up their depressions[D]oversimplify their illusions
29.The word“viscerally”(Line2,Para.5)is clost in meaning to_____.
cool的反义词[A]instinctively[B]occasionally
[C]particularly[D]aggressively
30.It can be inferred that Facebook is lf-enhancer’s paradi becau people can_____.
[A]prent their dishonest profiles[B]define their traditional lifestyles
[C]share their intellectual pursuits[D]withhold their unflattering sides
Text3
The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution,but this phenomeno
尘封已久
n tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries.And yet,it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle.Certain jobs have gone away for good,outmoded by machines.Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs,this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we can’t immediately foree.
When there is exponential improvement in the price and performance of technology,jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened.This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine,by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee,who both hail from MIT’s Center for Digital Business.
This is a powerful argument,and a scary one.And yet,John Hagel,author of The Power of Pull and other books,says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why the jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.
Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S.that tend to be“tightly scripted”and“highly standardized”ones that leave no room for“individual initiative or creativity.”In short,the are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings.That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers,Hagel says.
周公解梦大鱼It’s time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted,since we are still relying on a very20th century notion of work,Hagel says.In our rapidly changing economy,we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exerci their imagination“to respond to unexpected events.”That’s not something machines are good at.They are designed to perform very predictable activities.
As Hagel notes,Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book.We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine.In other words,we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it.So then the problem is not really about technology,but rather,“how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?”
31.According to the first paragraph,economic downturns would_____.
[A]ea the competition of man vs.machine[B]highlight machines’threat to human jobs
[C]provoke a painful technological revolution[D]outmode our current economic structure
32.The authors of Race Against the Machine argue that_____.
[A]technology is diminishing man’s job opportunities
[B]automation is accelerating technological development
[C]certain jobs will remain intact after automation
[D]man will finally win the race against machine
33.Hagel argues that jobs in the U.S are often_____.
[A]performed by innovative minds[B]scripted with an individual style
[C]standardized without a clear target[D]designed against human creativity
34.According to the last paragraph,Brynjolfssonan and MacAfee discusd_____.
[A]the predictability of machine behavior in practice
[B]the formula for how work is conducted efficiently
[C]the ways machines replace human labor in modern times
[D]the necessity of human involvement in the workplace
35.Which of the following could be the most appropriate title for the text?_____.
[A]How to Innovate Our Work Practices
[B]Machines will Replace Human Labor
[C]Can We Win the Race Against Machines?
[D]Economic Downturns Stimulate Innovations
Text4
When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways,broadband and energy.Housing is ldom mentioned.
Why is that?To some extent the housing ctor must shoulder the blame.We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.Then there is the scale of the typical housing project.It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects,so it is inevitable that the attention is focud elwhere.But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.This government does not
want to e a return to large-scale provision of council housing,so it is naturally wary of measures that will lead us down that route.
Nevertheless,the affordable housing situation is desperate.Waiting lists increa all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.
The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this.It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.
There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that.The communities minister,Don Foster,has hinted that George Osborne,Chancellor of the Exchequer,may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt.Evidence shows that60,000extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted,increasing GDP by0.6%.
Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment,which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.
But it is not just down to the government.While the measures would be welcome in the short term,we must face up to the fact that the existing£4.5bn program of grants to fund new affordable housing,t to expire in 2015,is unlikely to be extended beyond then.The Labour Party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if it returns to power.The housing ctor needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era of large-scale public grants.We need to adjust to this changing climate.
36.The author believes that the housing ctor_______.
[A]has attracted much attention[B]involves certain political factors
[C]shoulders too much responsibility[D]has lost its real value in economy
37.It can be learned that affordable housing has_______.
