银行校园招聘英语练习

银行校园招聘考试英语部分专项练习PartI Reading Comprehension Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Passage One Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.In a few weeks, high school students face the prospect of taking the much-publicized new SAT Reasoning Test, which for the first time will require them to write a timed essay. Yet colleges continue to send confusing signals about whether students applying in the fall to attend college must take the new exam.Some schools, including Harvard, say they will accept scores from either the new test or the old SAT I, which was administered for the last time in January and did not contain a writing section. The University of Central Florida, for example, will require the new test, which will be given for the first time on March 12. Still others, such as the University of Virginia, strongly recommend that prospective applicants take the new test but under some circumstances also will accept the old SAT. A number of colleges are delaying a decision. The College Board, which administers the SAT, surveyed more than 1,900 four-year schools and has heard back from slightly more than 500. Of those, 81% say they will require the new test, including schools such as Harvard that are giving students a choice in what will be a year of transition.Anything new goes through a special lens of evaluation, says Lee Stetson, admissions dean at the University of Pennsylvania, which judiciously will use results from the new writing section until officials have a chance to study the revised SATs predictive validity.A number of admissions deans are skeptical that the new exam will be an improvement. Charles Deacon, dean of undergraduate admissions at Georgetown University, says adding the essay will create more barriers to poor kids who are less well-prepared. The test was rushed to market because the University of California system, a major College Board customer, threatened to stop requiring the SAT, he says. The test was developed and marketed for all the wrong reasons. Deacon, who says he has been badgered by the College Board to endorse the new exam, has refused to do so.Some schools, including Georgetown, Iowas Grinnell College and Pennsylvanias Franklin and Marshall College, say that at least for now, they will not even look at scores from the writing section when making admission decisions. We have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, says Dennis Trotter of Franklin and Marshall.College Board officials counter that based on extensive field tests, they are confident the test is as reliable a predictor of freshman-year performance as the old SAT. Moreover, they say, well-trained scorers, many of them high school English teachers, will grade the essays, which student have 25 minutes to write.Amidst all the confusion, what should students do? Admissions deans and school counselors say to be sure to check with each college for requirements.1. If a student took the SAT in October last year, he has to take another test if he applies for .A) University of Virginia B) Georgetown UniversityC) the University of Central Florida D) Harvard University2. What does the article tell us about Harvard University?A) It will only accept the new SAT this fall.B) It has not made a decision on whether to accept the old SAT this fall.C) It will require scores from the writing section this fall.D) It will ask all applicants to take the new test a year later.3. An important reason for negative attitudes towards the new writing examination is that .A) the examination will add to the difficulty for those students from financially underprivileged familiesB) the examination was marketed much too quickly without careful considerationC) the examination will cause short-term confusion and lead to no long-term benefitsD) the examination was a product of the College Board and various universities4. According to the author, what should students do at the moment?A) Students should make clear which test is acceptable.B) Students should contact the university for the arrangement of the test.C) Students should ask the College Board for the latest information about the program.D) Students should get prepared for the new examination in less that a year.5. What can we infer from the passage about the test?A) Students who have taken the old test are strongly advised not to take the new test.B) As compared with the old test, the new one requires the student to write an essay in a shorter period of time.C) The College Board has decided to invite university teachers to grade the essays.D) The College Board has appealed to many universities to support the new examination.Passage TwoQuestions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.Would George W. Bush have been reelected president if the public understood how much responsibility his administration bears for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed?The answer is unknowable and, at this date, meaningless. Yet it was appalling to learn that the White House suppressed until after the election a report that exposes the administration as woefully incompetent if not criminally negligent. Belatedly declassified excerpts from the 9/11 commission report, which focus on the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to heed multiple warnings that Al Qaeda (基地组织) terrorists were planning to hijack planes as suicide weapons, make clear that this tragedy could have been avoided.For the last three years, administration apologists have tried to make the FAA the scapegoat for the 9/11 attacks. But it is the president who ultimately is responsible for national security.The terrible fact is that the administration took none of the steps that would have put the protection of human life ahead of a diverse set of economic and political interests, which included not offending our friends the Saudis and not hurting the share prices of airline corporations.The warnings provided by intelligence agencies to the FAA were far clearer and more specific than suggested by Condoleezza Rices testimony before the 9/11 commission when she reluctantly conceded the existence of a presidential briefing that warned of impending Al Qaeda attacks.Given this shocking record of indifference on the part of the administration, it is politically understandable that it tried to prevent the formation of the 9/11 commission in the first place, and then for five months prevented the declassification of key sections of the final report.Had the business-friendly administration put safety first, nearly 3,000 people might not have died that day. And had the president of the United States taken some time from his ranch vacation that August to order a nationwide airport alert, two bloody wars abroad probably would not have happened.Instead, an administration that resisted spending the tens of millions required to fortify airline security before 9/11 is nearing the $300-billion mark on Afghanistan and Iraq. And declassified documents have unmistakably said the latter had nothing to do with 9/11, while those countries that at least indirectly did have been let off the hook.Indeed, the 9/11 commission was not allowed to get near that story: The basic narrative on the tragedy derives from the interrogations of key detainees whom the 9/11 commissioners were not allowed to interview. Nor were they permitted to even take testimony from the U.S. intelligence personnel who interrogated those prisoners.As a result, the public is simply incapable of making informed decisions on the most crucial decisions we face-starting with whom we elect as our commander in chief.6. According to the author, who should shoulder the major responsibility for allowing the 9/11 tragedy to happen?A) Saddam Hussein. B) FAA.C) George W. Bush. D) Condoleezza Rice.7. What does the word declassify (Line 3, Para. 2) most probably mean?A) To hide the important details of B) To report or represent in a untrue wayC) To form a large group D) To become no longer secret8. What do we learn from the passage about Afghanistan and Iraq?A) Al Qaeda terriorists had gained support from at least one of the governments.B) 9/11 was the chief reason for the Bush government to initiate both wars.C) The two wars had already cost the Americans tens of millions of dollars.D) These two countries should be held responsible for 9/11.9. What can we infer from the passage?A) The Federal Aviation Administration was not to blame in this tragedy.B) Consideration of economic interests had hindered life protection.C) The Bush government had paid such a high price for poor information collection.D) Some government officials had been bribed by Al Qaeda terrorists.10. What is the authors opinion towards President Bush?A) He had been intentionally misleading as to the reasons of initiating the two wars.B) He had been late in preventing the attacks because of a personal vocation.C) He had done everything to help the 9/11 commission do a better job.D) He will have probably failed to be reelected if the public had been well informedPassage ThreeQuestions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.Polls can provide important guidance for politicians, but there are times when it is foolish and dangerous to rely on a temporarily misinformed public for a political compass. The current debate over Social Security provides one of the most compelling examples in modern history of the pitfalls of poll-driven political strategy.Yesterday two leading Democratic strategists publicly took their party to task for theirjust say no approach to President Bushs program. To say there is no problem simply puts Democrats out of the conversation for the great majority of the country that want political leaders to secure this very important retirement program, they warned, Voters are looking for reform, change, and new ideas, but Democrats seem stuck in concrete.Stuck, indeed. To be more exact, they are holding their ground and refusing to surrender to a president who is once again manufacturing a crisis for a political purpose. And why should they do otherwise, when this strategy is clearly working?Lets start with the facts. According to President Bush, Social Security can pay all promised benefits for the next 37 years without any changes at all. Even if nothing were done by 2043, the program would still pay a higher real benefit than what people receive today.And even looking into the future of the 75-year planning period, the shortfall is less than what we fixed in the 50s, 60s, and 80s. In other words, Social Security is financially stronger today than it has been throughout most of its history.So this attack on Social Security has nothing to do with the solvency (偿付能力) of the program. Nonetheless last week, a Quinnipiac University poll found that respondents, by a 49 to 42 percent margin, believed that Social Security would not be able to pay them a benefit when they retire. But this is a ridiculous idea, based completely on misinformation. It is even more far fetched（牵强的） than the notion, which also commanded a majority before the invasion of Iraq, that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the massacre of 9/11.In the case of Social Security, there is no dispute about the facts. There are just a few cheap verbal and accounting tricks that have been used to convince the public that Social Security faces serious problems. These are easily refuted.The same Quinnipiac poll showed that 59 percent of Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling Social Security, with only 28 percent approving. It makes no political sense to pretend that this attack on our nations most successful and popular government program is actually an attempt to insure its solvency. Even in politics, there are times when honesty is the best policy.11. What can we know about the Democrats, according to the author?A) They want to help secure the retirement program.B) They refuse to admit that the Social Security program has been successful.C) They are making efforts to solve the crisis of the Social Security program.D) They organize polls in order to gain political interests.12. The author raise the example of Saddam Hussein in order to show that .A) the invasion of Iraq represented the wills of common peopleB) no evidence had come up to prove the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the massacre of 9/11C) sometimes the public without proper information will draw foolish conclusionsD) it was wrong for the government to rely on the public for important political decisions13. According to the author, which of the following is correct?A) There is no point in worrying about the solvency of the Social Security program.B) The majority of the public will accept the Social Security program in the near future.C) Only the baby boomers should worry about the future days when they grow old.D) The Democrats attack the Social Security program in order to question its solvency.14. By saying honesty is the best policy, the author seems to disapprove of .A) the Quinnipiac University who organized the pollB) the Bush administration who initiated the Social Security programC) the ill-informed public who worried about their futureD) those Democrats who wanted to gain political interests through this incident15. The best title for this passage should be.A) Time to Reconsider Social SecurityB) Lets be Honest about Social SecurityC) Social Security is an IllusionD) Embrace the Bright Future of Social SecurityPassage FourQuestions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results, Calvin Coolidge once observed. As the U. S. economy crumbles, Coolidges silly maxim might appear to be as apt as ever: the number of unemploymentinsurance claims is rising, and overall joblessness is creeping upward. But in todays vast and complex labor market, things arent always what they seem. More and more people are indeed losing their jobs but not necessarily because the economy appears to be in recession. And old-fashioned unemployment isnt the inevitable result of job loss. New work, at less pay, often is.Call it new-wave unemployment: structural changes in the economy are overlapping the business downturn, giving joblessness a grim new twist. Small wonder that the U. S. unemployment rate is rising. Now at 5.7 percent, it is widely expected to edge toward 7 percent by the end of next year. But statistics alone cant fully capture a complex reality. The unemployment rate has been held down by slow growth in the labor force-the number of people working or looking for work-since few people sense attractive job opportunities in a weak economy. In addition, many more people are losing their jobs than are actually ending up unemployed. Faced with hungry mouths to feed, thousands of women, for example, are taking two or more part-time positions or agreeing to shave the hours they work in service-sector jobs. For better and for worse, work in America clearly isnt what it used to be. Now unemployment isnt, either.Like sour old wine in new bottles, this downturn blends a little of the old and the new reflecting a decades worth of change in the dynamic U. S. economy. Yet, in many respects the decline is following the classic pattern, with new layoffs concentrated among blue-collar workers in the most cyclical (循环的) industries, whose ups and downs track the economy most closely.As the downturn attracts attention on workers-ill fortunes, some analysts predict that political upheaval (动乱) may lie ahead. Real wages for the average U. S. worker peaked in 1973 and have been falling almost ever since. As a result, a growing group of downwardly mobile Americans could soon begin pressing policymakers to help produce better-paying jobs. Just how loud the outcry becomes will depend partly on the course of the recession. But in the long run, theres little doubt that the bleak outlook for jobs and joblessness is politically, socially and psychologically dynamite (具有爆炸性的).16. Why does the author refer to Coolidges maxim as silly?A) More and more people are applying for unemployment insurance.B) Unemployment rate is not likely to rise quickly nowadays.C) Losing jobs doesnt necessarily lead to unemployment.D) Todays labor market is much too complicated than Coolidges time.17. According to the passage, the unemployment rate has been kept under limits because .A) the number of the people in the work force slowly increasesB) very few people really lose their original jobsC) less and less people are out finding new jobsD) the government has taken strong measures to control the unemployment rate18. According to the passage, under the great pressure of life, many women .A) will do a part-time job along with the full-time jobB) would rather stay at home than apply for a part-time positionC) would be fired if they can not finish the job quicklyD) will agree to have their working hours shortened if required19. The present downturn is similar to traditional ones in that .A) we can never predict which way the economy will headB) the economic prospects have been un