英语二新题型模拟选编.doc

考研英语（二）新题型模拟题选编
一、多项对应题
Test 1
Directions:
Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

Most people may drink only two liters of water a day, but they consume about 3,000 liters a day if the water that goes into their food is taken into account. The rich gulp down far more, since they tend to eat more meat, which takes far more water to produce than grains. So as the world’s population grows and incomes rise, farmers will need a great deal more water to keep everyone fed: 2,000 more cubic kilometers a year by 2030, according to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Yet in many farming regions, water is scarce and likely to get scarcer as global warming worsens. The world is facing not so much a food crisis as a water crisis, argues Colin Chartres, IWMI’s director-general.
The solution, Mr Chartres and others contend, is more efficient use of water or, as the sloganeers put it, “more crop per drop”. Some 1.2 billion people live in places that are short of water. Farming accounts for roughly 70% of human water consumption. So when water starts to run out, farming tends to offer the best potential for thrift. But governments rarely charge farmers a market price for water. So they are usually more wasteful than other consumers——even though the value they create from the water is often less than households or industry would be willing to pay for it.
The pressing need is to make water go further. Antoine Frérot, the head of the water division of Veolia Environment, promotes recycling of city wastewater to be used in industry or agriculture. This costs less and cuts pollution.
Yet as Mr Frérot himself concedes, there are many even cheaper ways to save water. As much as 70% of water used by farmers never gets to crops, perhaps lost through leaky irrigation channels or by draining into rivers or groundwater. Investment in drip irrigation, or simply repairing the worst leaks, could bring huge savings.
Farmers in poor countries can usually afford such things only if they are growing cash crops, says David Molden of IWMI. Even basic kit such as small rainwater tanks can be lacking. Ethiopia, for example, has only 38 cubic meters of storage capacity per inhabitant, compared to almost 5,000 in Australia. Yet modes water storage can hugely improve yields in rain fed agriculture, by smoothing over short dry spells. Likewise, pumping water into natural aquifers for seasonal storage tends to be much cheaper than building a big dam, and prevents the great waste of water through evaporation.
Agronomists are beginning to devise tools to help monitor the efficiency of water use. Some have designed algorithms that use satellite data on surface temperatures to calculate the rate at which plants are absorbing and transpiring water. That allows governments and development agencies to concentrate their efforts on the most prodigal areas.
Raising yields does not always involve greater water consumption, especially when farms are inefficient. It would take little extra water to double cereal output in many parts of Africa, Mr Molden argues. IWMI reckons that some three quarters of the extra food the world needs could be provided simply by bringing yields in poor countries closer to those of rich ones. That is more realistic than the absolute alternative: giving up meat and other thirsty products altogether.

[A] cultivating cash crops
1. The world is meeting with challenges more from
[B] leaking irrigation system
2. Farmers waste more water due to
[C] expenses and efficiency
3.Farmers in poor countries can pay for irrigation improvement by
[D] surface temperature data
4. Building big dams is less effective for their
[E] low water price
5. The water use rate of plants is computed with
[F] water shortage

[G] food crisis

【文章主题及结构】
本文为说明文。文章开始提出用水危机的现象，分析了造成用水危机的各种原因，如灌溉系统老化漏水，农民由于水价低浪费用水等，最后从不同角度分析了解决方案，如循环利用水生的效益来修整灌溉设备等。

【答案详解】
1.【答案】F
题目对应信息在第一段最后一句，“The world is facing not so much a food crisis as a water crisis…”。意思是与其说世界面临的是食物危机不如说是用水危机。“Not so much…as…”比较结构，意思是“与其说……不如说……”。因此干扰项[G]要排除。
2.【答案】E
题目对应信息在第二段第五、六句，“But governments rarely charge farmers a market price for water. So they are usually more waste than other consumers…”大意是，“政府很少按市场价向农民收水费，所以农民通常比其他消费者更浪费水。因此水价低造成了农民浪费水多。”干扰项[B]中1eaking irrigation system漏水的灌溉系统只是表象，根本原因是水价低。如果水价高，农民为了省钱也会想办法解决这些水浪费问题的。
3.【答案】A
题目对应信息分别在第四段最后一句和第五段首句，“Investment in drip irrigation…could bring huge savings”意思是“投资滴灌或修复最严重的漏水会带来巨大的节水效益”。Farmers in poor countries can usual1y afford such things only if they are growing cash crops，这句话里的such things就是上一句中相关的新灌溉设备和修理费用。因此应该是种植经济作物来补贴这笔改造费用。
4.【答案】C
题目对应信息在第五段最后一句，“likewise, pumping water into natural aquifers for seasonal storage tends to be much cheaper than building a big dam, and prevents the great waste of water through evaporation”大意是“将水抽到自然蓄水层比建水坝便宜得多，并能防止大量蒸发造成的浪费”。因此建水坝效果差是因为费用和效率问题。
5.【答案】D
题目对应信息在倒数第二段第二句，“Some have designed algorithms that use satellite data on surface temperatures to calculate the rate at which plants are absorbing and evaporating water”大意是“一些农学家设计了一些算法，利用地表温度卫星数据来计算植物吸收和蒸发水分的速度”。题干中water use rate of plants“植物对水的利用速度”就是概括了原文“the rate…evaporating water”“植物吸收和蒸发水速度”的说法。

【难词注释】
gulp v. 狼吞虎咽地吃；大口地吸
leaky adj. 漏的；有漏洞的
irrigation n. 灌溉；[临床] 冲洗；冲洗法
aquifer n. 蓄水层；含水土层
evaporation n. 蒸发；消失
algorithms n. 算法；算法式
transpire v. 发生；蒸发；泄露
prodigal adj. 挥霍的；十分慷慨的

Test 2
Directions:
Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

The National Association of Securities Dealers is investigating whether some brokerage houses are inappropriately pushing individuals to borrow large sums on their houses to invest in the stock market. Can we persuade the association to investigate would-be privatizers of Social Security? For it is now apparent that the Bush administration’s privatization proposal will amount to the same thing: borrow trillions, put the money in the stock market and hope.
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government would have to borrow to make up the shortfalls. This would sharply increase the government’s debt. “Never mind,” privatization advocates say, “in the long run, people would make so much on personal accounts that the government would save money by cutting retirees’ benefits.”
Even so, if personal investment accounts were invested in Treasury bonds, this whole process would accomplish precisely nothing. The interest workers would receive on their accounts would exactly match the interest the government would have to pay on its additional debt. To compensate for the initial borrowing, the government would have to cut future benefits so much that workers would gain nothing at all. However, priatizers claim that these investments would make a lot of money and that, in effect, the government, not the workers, would reap most of those gains, because as personal accounts grew, the government could cut benefits.
We can argue at length about whether the high stock returns such schemes assume are realistic (they aren’t), but let’s cut to the chase: in essence, such schemes involve having the government borrow heavily and put the money in the stock market. That’s because the government would, in effect, confiscate workers’ gains in their personal accounts by cutting those worker’s benefits.
Once you realize what privatization really means, it doesn’t sound so responsible, does it? But the details make it considerably worse. First, financial markets would, correctly, treat the reality of huge benefits today as a much more important indicator of the government’s fiscal health than the mere promise that government could save money by cutting benefits in the distant future. After all, a government bond is a legally binding promise to pay, while the benefits formula that supposedly cuts costs 40 years from now is nothing more than a suggestion to future Congresses. If a privatization plan passed in 2005 called for steep benefit cuts in 2045, what are the odds that those cuts would really happen? Second, a system of personal accounts would pay huge brokerage fees. Of course, from Wall Street’s point of view that’s a benefit, not a cost.

[A] the future Congresses
6. Privatizers are those who are
[B] its similarities with the government’s Social Security policies
7. The government’s debt will rise by
[C] suspicion
8. Those who will gain from the privatization of Social Security, according to its advocates, are
[D] borrowing large sums to invest in the stock market
9. Individual borrowing is cited because of
[E] belonging to Bush Administration
10. The author’s attitudes towards the privatization proposal is full of
[F] borrowing money to make up the shortfall

[G] approval

【文章主题及结构】
本文主要讲述了全国证券交易商协会正在调查一些证券行是否不适当地促使个人以房屋为抵押大举借款投资股票市场。布什政府采取私有化措施将产生的效果就是：大量借款、投资股市并期望从中获利。这种投资将赚很多钱，实际上是政府而非工人将从中获益最大，因为当个人账户增长时，政府将减少福利开支。

【答案详解】
6.【答案】D
由题干中的“Privatizers”定义到文章第一段第二句，提到我们能否说服该协会来调查提倡社会保障私有化的人。本句中出现了privatizers但没有解释，根据常识，我们应该从前文中寻找答案。本段第一句提到，全国证券交易商协会正在调查一些证券行是否不适当地促使个人以房屋为抵押大举借款投资股票市场。综合两句可知，privatizers应该指的是那些支持以房屋为抵押大举借款投资股票市场的人，这与[D]表达的意思基本一致，故答案为D。
7.【答案】F
题干中的“government’s debt”定位到文章第二段的第三句，提到“This would sharply increase the government’s debt”，其中的This指代的是前一句中的“government would have to borrow to make up the shortfall”。综合两句可知，答案为F。
8.【答案】A
由题干中的“gain from the privatization of Social Security, according to its advocates”定位到文章第三段最后一句。私有化的提倡者声称，这些投资将赚很多钱，而且实际上是政府而非工人将从中获益最大。结合最后一段第四句话，从现在起四十年后会削减开支的利润公式只不过是对未来众国会的一个建议。可见，将来受益的应该是未来的美国国会，故A正确。
9.【答案】B
由题干中的“Individual borrowing is cited”可以发现，本题涉及到文章多个地方的理解，应该是考查考生对文章的整体理解。全文论述的重点是布什政府有关社会福利的一些宏观经济的调控举措，而非个人贷款的问题。两个事情为什么相提并论？第一段末句给出了原因：因为现在很明显，布什政府的私有化措施将产生同样的效果：大量借款、投资股市并期望从中获利。由此可知，使用个人房贷作为引子是因为两件事情有相似性，故B正确。
10. 【答案】C
由题干中的“attitude towards the privatization proposal”可知，本题考查考生对整篇文章的理解。作者以全国证券交易商协会正在调查一些证券行是否不适当地促使个人以房屋为抵押大举借款投资股票市场为开头，介绍了布什政府有关社会福利的一些举措，从而发表自己的看法。文章最后一段提到：一旦你意识到私有化的真正含义时，它听起来不是很负责，对吗？如果在2005年通过的一个私有化计划要求在2045年大幅度削减受益，那么这种情况真正发生的几率是多少呢？从这句话可知，作者对此是充满怀疑，故答案为C。

【难词注释】
brokerage n. 经纪人之业务
privatization n. 私有化，非国营化
divert v. 转移，转向，使高兴
advocate n. 提倡者，鼓吹者
retiree n. 退休人员
reap v. 收割；收获
chase n. 追逐；打猎
trillion n. 万亿
confiscate v. 没收，充公，查抄，征用
deficit n. 赤字，不足额
fiscal adj. 财政的，会计的，国库岁入的
odds n. 可能的机会，几率
amount to 总计
compensate for 赔偿

Test 3
Directions:
Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

In the late 1980s, Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony Corp., embarked on the most costly slopping expedition of his long career. A visionary who believed that Sony’s future lay in the convergence of hardware and “content” such as music and film, Morita eventually set his sights on Columbia Pictures Entertainment, with its two studios and a vast library of movie titles and television series. In September, 1989, after months of on-gain, off-gain negotiations, Sony agreed to pay the inflated asking price of $ 3.2 billion and assume $ 1.6 billion in debt.
What was the rationale for such a decision? According to John Nathan’s Sony: The Private Life, it was motivated only by senior executives’ desire to please the company patriarch. Even Morita, then Sony’s chairman and CEO, believed that Columbia’s price tag, originally $ 35 per share, was exorbitant. In a closed-door meeting in August, 1989, details of which have never been fully revealed, he told his seven top aides, who made up the decision-making executive committee, that he was abandoning the idea of the acquisition.
That would have been the end of it had Morita not voiced regret over dinner that evening with the committee members. “It’s too bad,” he lamented, “I’ve always dreamed of owning a Hollywood studio.” The next day, the group reconvened and promptly decided that Sony would purchase Columbia after all. In the weeks that followed, Sony upped its bid from an initial $ 15 to $ 27 a share and, by late September, made a deal that was ridiculed by industry experts. In 1994, mismanagement forced Sony to write off $ 2.7 billion and assume a loss of $ 510 million for its Hollywood experiment.
Sony: The Private Life is filled with such insiders’ tales, making it the most vivid and detailed account in English of the personalities who built the $ 50 billion-plus consumer-electronics giant. Nathan, a professor of Japanese cultural studies at the University of California, got access to dozens of executives who had contributed to or witnessed Sony’s development since its 1946 founding in war-devastated Tokyo. Nathan offers, however, only limited analysis of Sony, the corporation. And he tends to go over well-trodden ground: how Sony established itself in the U.S. and how it developed famous products or devices. Much of this has appeared before in articles and, to a lesser extent, in books.
This is not to say that Nathan’s book has no point of view. The company’s underlying problem, as illustrated in the Columbia case, is that the environment in which the Sony Corporation had historically conducted its affairs is less public than personal, less rational than sentimental. In conclusion, Nathan says that, under the current leadership of President Nobuyuki Idei, Sony is emerging as a rational company. Moreover, Idei and his practical-minded managers are intent on reinventing Sony as an Internet company. From now on, says Nathan, “Personal relationships are not likely again to figure decisively.” But how will this Sony fare? Nathan admits that a dazzling future is far from guaranteed.

[A] acquisition of Columbia Pictures
11. In a closed-door meeting in August, 1989, Morita deserted the idea of
[B] enthusiastic support
12. That Sony suffered a great loss for his Hollywood experiment was due to its
[C] implicit criticism
13. How Sony established itself in the U.S. and developed famous products has appeared in articles but less in
[D] an expensive expansion
14. Nathan’s attitude towards Morita seems to be of
[E] books
15. Morita thought of the acquisition of Columbia Pictures as
[F] management problems

[G] pleasing the company patriarch

【文章主题及结构】
本文主要内容是关于约翰·内森所著《索尼公司的私人生活》充满了关于索尼公司的内幕故事。其中讲到了索尼公司的联合创始人盛田昭夫最昂贵的购物旅行，即收购哥伦比亚电影。这次收购让索尼公司损失惨重。这种失败是由索尼公司管理不善造成的。现在的索尼公司在新主席领导下，正趋向于理性化，但是未来还是不能确定。

【答案详解】
11. 【答案】A
由题干中的“closed-door meeting in August，1989”定