考研模拟考研英语命题预测模拟四

考研英语命题预测模拟试题(四)(1)考研英语命题预测模拟试题(四) 北京新航道学校考研阅读主讲 印建坤Section Use of EnglishDirections:Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A,B,C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1( points)ALAN ACE GREENBERG chose his nickname to improve his chances with girls at the University of Missouri. But it is an apt 1 of his trading skills on Wall Street. This week, as the 73-year-old 2 down 3 chairman of Bear Stearns, the investment bank where he has worked since 49 is in a high. It 4 an increase in post-tax profits in the second quarter of 43% on a year earlier, 5 a time when many of its Wall Street rivals have 6 . On June 26th Merrill Lynch 7 a warning that its profits in the second quarter would fall by half, far 8 of expectations. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also reported lower profits.Strange that this surprised. 9 Alan Greenspans frenetic cuts interest rates, times are good for underwriters and traders of bonds, core activities for Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, also recorded a sharp increase in profits. It has been a lousy for equity underwriters and for advisers on the meagre amounts of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) this year.Merrill, Goldman and Morgan Stanley are three of the investment banks that gained during the boom in equity and M&A business, and they are now the most. Of the three, Merrill is weakest in bonds. It cut its fixed- income activities after the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 98. As it happens, both Bear Stearns and Lehman have long been criticised for their weakness in equities.Mr Greenberg is famous for worrying about even the price of a paper-clip at Bear Stearns. This used to seem terribly , but these days other Wall Street firms are about costs. Lay- offs are though not yet alarmingly-not least, because banks saw how Merrill Lynch lost when the markets rebounded quickly after the LTCM crisis. Still, if few 20 of improvement show soon, expect real blood-letting on Wall Street.1. A. cover B. encapsulation C.jacket D.shell2. A. goes B comes C strides D. steps3.A.be B. being C. as D. to be4. A. recorded B. logged C.chronicled D. noted5,A.during B.at C. on D. in6.A. stumbled B. slip C.blundered D. crept7.A. delivered Bdistributed C. conveyed D. issued8.A. out B. lacking C. lack D. short9.A. because of B. on account of C.thanks to D.due to.A. at B. in C.on D. upon.A who Bwhat C.whom D.whichA. time B.period C.epoch D.era.A. most B.much C. a lot D. a great deal.A. lost B. losing C. suffering D. suffered.A. down B. back C. off D. out.A. unnecessary B. unreasonable C. unpopular D. unfashionable.A obsessed B worried C.concerned D. bothered.A. decreased B.increased C. increasing D.decreasing.A. field B. ground C. future D. hope20.A. signals B.symbol C. signs D.symptomSection Reading ComprehensionPart ATEXT 1The news hit the British High Commission in Nairobi at nine-thirty on a Monday morning. Sandy Woodrow took it like a bullet, jaw rigid, chest out, smack through his divided English heart. Crikey. So thats how you take a bullet. Poor old Sandy. His English heart must be really divided now. This deliriously hardboiled opening sets the tone for whats to come. White mischief? Pshaw! White plague, more like it.Sandy Woodrow is head of chancery at the British High Commission in Nairobi. The news that neatly subdivides his heart as the novel opens is the death of a young, beautiful and idealistic lawyer turned aid worker named Tessa Quayle. Tessa has been murdered for learning too much about the unscrupulous practices of a large pharmaceutical company operating in Africa. Her body is found at Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya near the border with Sudan. Tessas husband, Justin, is also a British diplomat stationed in Nairobi. Until now Justin has been an obedient civil servant, content to toe the official line-in short, a plodder. But all that changes in the after math of his wifes murder. Full of righteous indignation, he resolves to get to the bottom of it, come what may.The Constant Gardener has got plenty of tense moments and sudden twists and comes complete with shadowy figures lurking in the shrubbery. There is a familiar tone of gentlemanly world-weariness to it all, which should keep Mr. le Carres fans happy. But the novel is also an impassioned attack on the corruption which allows Africa to be used as a sort of laboratory for the testing of new medicines. Elsewhere, Mr. le Carre has denounced the corporate cant, hypocrisy, corruption and greed of the pharmaceutical industry. This position is excitingly dramatized in his book, even if the abuses he rails against are not exactly breaking news.In other respects The Constant Gardener is less satisfactory. Mr. le Carre cant seem to make up his mind whether hes writing a thriller or an expose. In a recent article for the New Yorker he described his creative process as a kind of deliberately warped journalism, where nothing is quite what it is and where any encounter may be freely recast for its dramatic possibilities. Such is the method employed in The Constant Gardener, whose heroine, Mr. le Carre says, was inspired by an old friend of his. One or two prominent real-life Kenyan politicians are mentioned often enough to become, in effect, characters in the story. And in a note at the end of the book Mr. le Carre thanks the various diplomats, doctors, pharmaceutical experts and old Africa hands who gave him advice and assistance, though in the same breath he insists that the staff of the British mission in Nairobi are no doubt all jolly good eggs who bear no resemblance whatsoever to the heartless scoundrels in his story.Theres nothing wrong with a bit of artistic license, of course. But Mr. le Carres equivocation about the novels relation to fact undermines its effectiveness as a work of social criticism, which is pretty clearly what it aspires to be. The Constant Gardener is a cracking thriller but a flawed exploration of a complicated set of political issues.21“The Constant Gardener” is aA filmB comedyC novelD document22. A thriller is not always full ofA tense instantsB truth-exposureC frightening backgroundD sudden twists23. The characters in “The Constant Gardener” are notA connected with the authors friendsB based on real-life peopleC similar to the staff of the British MissionD outside to the real life24. “equivocation” meansA clear attitudeB effectivenessC ambiguousD determination25. Which is the authors attitude to Mr. Le Carre?A disappointmentB indifferenceC animadversionD appreciationTEXT 2 (another old article!)AFTER over two years of relative oblivion in self-imposed exile, Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, has jumped on to the front pages of the countrys newspapers. She has done so, as it happens, on the basis of a report in a British newspaper. The report claims that the former government of Nawaz Sharif leaned on some judges to convict Miss Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari, for corruption in 99. The evidence for this is said to be in the form of taped conversations between senior government officials and a judge at Miss Bhuttos trial. The tapes were made by a member of Pakistani intelligence who decamped to London and has now, so the story goes, been pricked by conscience.Miss Bhuttos footprints seem to be all over the story. After her conviction in 99, she claimed that she had not had a fair trial. The Supreme Court routinely postponed hearing her petition for one reason or another. Last December, when Mr. Sharif was exiled to Saudi Arabia by the present military government of General Pervez Musharraf, Miss Bhutto sensed a political vacuum in the country and considered returning to Pakistan and taking on the generals.The Musharraf regime said it would arrest her if she set foot in Pakistan and dug up more evidence of her corrupt activities. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear her 99 petition on February 26th. This led pundits to speculate that the military regime, having got rid of one prime minister, was gearing up to finish off another. But the tapes have compromised the judiciary, whose credibility is already low after decades of battering by generals and politicians. The Supreme Court will be under pressure to acquit Miss Bhutto or order a lengthy retrial which would give her lawyers a chance to air her grievances.This may be just the beginning of General Musharrafs troubles. Disgruntled opponents of the regime have asked the Supreme Court to strike down an accountability law under which hundreds of politicians and bureaucrats have been imprisoned or sidelined from politics. Lawyers organizations across the country have banded together to announce a national strike on February 27th, demanding an early restoration of civilian rule. And the Alliance fo