历年考研真题专项——考研英语阅读理解

kyfour

       
        　　To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why Americas Second Wave infrastructure-including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be. That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.
        　　1.Digital divide is something _________.
        　　[A]getting worse because of the Internet
        　　[B]the rich countries are responsible for
        　　[C]the world must guard against
        　　[D]considered positive today
        　　2.Governments attach importance to the Internet because it _________.
        　　[A]offers economic potentials
        　　[B]can bring foreign funds
        　　[C]can soon wipe out world poverty
        　　[D]connects people all over the world
        　　3.The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of ______.
        　　[A]providing financial support overseas
        　　[B]preventing foreign capitals control
        　　[C]building industrial infrastructure
        　　[D]accepting foreign investment
        　　4.It seems that now a country's economy depends much on _________.
        　　[A]how well developed it is electronically
        　　[B]whether it is prejudiced against immigrants
        　　[C]whether it adopts Americas industrial pattern
        　　[D]how much control it has over foreign corporations
        　　参考答案：
        　　1.C 　2.A 　3.D 　4.A

kythree

       
        　　Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
        　　Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
        　　But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns) into which they plug each days events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
        　　There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
        　　Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.

kyone

       
        　　Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
        　　This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
        　　1.What is the passage mainly about?
        　　[A]needs of the readers all over the world
        　　[B]causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
        　　[C]origins of the declining newspaper industry
        　　[D]aims of a journalism credibility project
        　　2.The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be .
        　　[A]quite trustworthy　　　[B]somewhat contradictory
        　　[C]very illuminating　　　[D]rather superficial
        　　3.The basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies in their _________.
        　　[A]working attitude　　[B]conventional lifestyle
        　　[C]world outlook　　　[D]educational background
        　　4.Despite its efforts, he newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its _________.
        　　[A]failure to realize its real problem
        　　[B]tendency to hire annoying reporters
        　　[C]likeliness to do inaccurate reporting
        　　[D]prejudice in matters of race and gender
        　　参考答案:
        　　1.B 　2.D 　3.C 　4.A

kysix

       
        　　Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March,the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel,up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock,when prices quadrupled,and 1979-80,when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
        　　The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth,at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere,could push the price higher still in the short term.
        　　Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe,taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price,so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
        　　Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were,and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation,a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy,energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software,consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP(in constant prices)rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that,it oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year,compared with $13 in 1998,this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand,oil-importing emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energy-intensive,and so could be more seriously squeezed.

kythree

       
        　　One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that,unlike the rises in the 1970s,it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economists commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%,and in 1979 by almost 30%.
        　　1. The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is .
        　　[A]global inflation.　　　　　[B]reduction in supply.
        　　[C]fast growth in economy.　　[D]Iraqs suspension of exports.
        　　2. It can be inferred from the text that the retail price of petrol will go up dramatically if .
        　　[A]price of crude rises.　　[B]commodity prices rise.
        　　[C]consumption rises.　　[D]oil taxes rise.
        　　3. The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries .
        　　[A]heavy industry becomes more energy-intensive.
        　　[B]income loss mainly results from fluctuating crude oil prices.
        　　[C]manufacturing industry has been seriously squeezed.
        　　[D]oil price changes have no significant impact on GDP.
        　　4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that .
        　　[A]oil-price shocks are less shocking now.
        　　[B]inflation seems irrelevant to oil-price shocks.
        　　[C]energy conservation can keep down the oil prices.
        　　[D]the price rise of crude leads to the shrinking of heavy industry.
        　　5. From the text we can see that the writer seems .
        　　[A]optimistic.　　[B]sensitive.　　[C]gloomy.　　[D]scared.
        　　参考答案:
        　　1.B 　2.D 　3.D 　4.A 　5.A

kytwo

       
        　　Since the dawn of human ingenuity,people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous,boring,burdensome,or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction,they have begun to come close.
        　　As a result,the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics,there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
        　　But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility,they will have to operate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real challenge."While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error,"says Dave Lavery,manager of a robotics program at NASA, "we can't yet give a robot enough common sense to reliably interact with a dynamic world." Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010,researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.

kyfour

       
        　　What they found,in attempting to model thought,is that the human brains roughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated—than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant,instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth cant approach that kind of ability,and neuroscientists still don't know quite how we do it.
        　　1. Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in .
        　　[A]the use of machines to produce science fiction.
        　　[B]the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry.
        　　[C]the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work.
        　　[D]the elites cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work.
        　　2. The word "gizmos" (line 1,paragraph 2)most probably means .
        　　[A]programs.　　[B]experts.　　[C]devices.　　[D]creatures.
        　　3. According to the text,what is beyond mans ability now is to design a robot that can .
        　　[A]fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery.
        　　[B]interact with human beings verbally.
        　　[C]have a little common sense.
        　　[D]respond independently to a changing world.
        　　4. Besides reducing human labor,robots can also .
        　　[A]make a few decisions for themselves.
        　　[B]deal with some errors with human intervention.
        　　[C]improve factory environments.
        　　[D]cultivate human creativity.
        　　参考答案:
        　　1.C 　2.C　 3.D　 4.B

kyone

       
        　　The Supreme Courts decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering. Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effect," a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects—a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
        　　Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
        　　Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient mediation to control their pain if that might hasten death."
        　　George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. "It's like surgery," he says. "We don't call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn't intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you're a physician, you can risk your patients suicide as long as you don't intend their suicide."
        　　On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying. Just three weeks before the Courts ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the under treatment of pain and the aggressive use of "ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying" as the twin problems of end-of-life care.

kythree

       
        　　The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life. Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. "Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering," to the extent that it constitutes "systematic patient abuse." He says medical licensing boards "must make it clear…that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension."
        　　1. From the first three paragraphs, we learn that .
        　　[A]doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients pain.
        　　[B]it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives.
        　　[C]the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide.
        　　[D]patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide.
        　　2. Which of the following statements its true according to the text?
        　　[A]Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients death.
        　　[B]Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.
        　　[C]The Court ruled that high-dosage pain-relieving medication can be prescribed.
        　　[D]A doctors medication is no longer justified by his intentions.
        　　3. According to the NAS's report, one of the problems in end-of-life care is .
        　　[A]prolonged medical procedures.　　[B]inadequate treatment of pain.
        　　[C]systematic drug abuse.　　　　[D]insufficient hospital care.
        　　4. Which of the following best defines the word "aggressive" (line 3, paragraph 7)?
        　　[A]Bold.　　[B]Harmful.　　[C]Careless.　　[D]Desperate.
        　　5. George Annas would probably agree that doctors should be punished if they .
        　　[A]manage their patients incompetently.
        　　[B]give patients more medicine than needed.
        　　[C]reduce drug dosages for their patients.
        　　[D]prolong the needless suffering of the patients.
        　　参考答案:
        　　1.B　 2.C　 3.B　 4.A 　5.D