Sarah六级真题第七次阅读

戴氏教育 快乐学习 Miss Sarah Passage OneDepression is more than a serious economic downturn. What distinguishes a depression from a harsh recession is paralyzing fear-fear of the unknown so great that it causes consumers, businesses, and investors to retreat and panic. They save up cash and desperately cut spending. They sell stocks and other assets. A shattering loss of confidence inspires behavior that overwhelms the normal self-correcting mechanisms that usually prevent a recession from becoming deep and prolonged: a depression.Comparing 1929 with 2007-09, Christina Romer, the head of President Obamas Council of Economic Advisers, finds the initial blow to confidence far greater now than then. True, stock prices fell a third from September to December 1929, but fewer Americans then owned stocks. Moreover, home prices barely dropped. From December 1928 to December 1929，total household wealth declined only 3%. By contrast, the loss in household wealth between December 2007 and December 2008 was 17%. Both stocks and homes, more widely held, dropped more. Thus traumatized (受到创伤)，the economy might have gone into a free fall ending in depression. Indeed, it did go into free fall. Shoppers refrained from buying cars, appliances, and other big-ticket items. Spending on such durables dropped at a 12% annual rate in 2008s third quarter, a 20% rate in the fourth. And businesses shelved investment projects.That these huge declines didnt lead to depression mainly reflects, as Romer argues, counter-measures taken by the government. Private markets for goods, services, labor, and securities do mostly self-correct, but panic feeds on itself and disarms these stabilizing tendencies. In this situation, only government can protect the economy as a whole, because most individuals and companies are involved in the self-defeating behavior of self-protection.Governments failure to perform this role in the early 1930s transformed recession into depression. Scholars will debate which interventions this time-the Federal Reserves support of a failing credit system, guarantees of bank debt, Obamas “stimulus” plan and bank stress test -counted most in preventing a recurrence. Regardless, all these complex measures had the same psychological purpose: to reassure people that the free fall would stop and, thereby, curb the fear that would perpetuate (使持久）a free fall.All this improved confidence. But the consumer sentiment index remains weak, and all the rebound has occurred in Americans evaluation of future economic conditions, not the present. Unemployment (9.8%) is abysmal (糟透的)，the recoverys strength unclear. Here, too, there is an echo from the 1930s. Despite bottoming out in 1933，the Depression didnt end until World War II. Some government policies aided recovery; some hindered it. The good news today is that the bad news is not worse.52. Why do consumers, businesses and investors retreat and panic in times of depression?A) They suffer great losses in stocks, property and other assets.B) They find the self-correcting mechanisms dysfunctioning.C) They are afraid the normal social order will be paralyzed.D) They dont know what is going to happen in the future.53. What does Christina Romer say about the current economic recession?A) Its severity is no match for the Great Depression of 1929.B) Its initial blow to confidence far exceeded that of 1929.C) It has affected house owners more than stock holders.D) It has resulted in a free fall of the prices of commodities.54. Why didnt the current recession turn into a depression according to Christina Romer?A) The government intervened effectively.B) Private markets corrected themselves.C) People refrained from buying durables and big-ticket items.D) Individuals and companies adopted self-protection measures.55. What is the chief purpose of all the countermeasures taken?A) To create job opportunities.B) To curb the fear of a lasting free fall.C) To stimulate domestic consumption.D) To rebuild the credit system.56. What does the author think of todays economic situation?A) It may worsen without further stimulation.B) It will see a rebound sooner or later.C) It has not gone from bad to worse.D) It does not give people reason for pessimism.Passage Two“Usually when we walk through the rain forest we hear a soft sound from all the moist leaves and organic debris on the forest floor,” says ecologist Daniel Nepstad. “Now we increasingly get rustle and crunch. Thats the sound of a dying forest.”Predictions of the collapse of the tropical rain forests have been around for years. Yet until recently the worst forecasts were almost exclusively linked to direct human activity, such as clear- cutting and burning for pastures or farms. Left alone, it was assumed, the worlds rain forests would not only flourish but might even rescue us from disaster by absorbing the excess carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases. Now it turns out that may be wishful thinking. Some scientists believe that the rise in carbon levels means that the Amazon and other rain forests in Asia and Africa may go from being assets in the battle against rising temperatures to liabilities. Amazon plants, for instance, hold more than 100 billion metric tons of carbon, equal to 15-years of tailpipe and chimney emissions. If the collapse of the rain forests speeds up dramatically, it could eventually release 3.5-5 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year making forests the leading source, of greenhouse gases.Uncommonly severe droughts brought on by global climate change have led to forest-eating wildfires from Australia to Indonesia, but nowhere more acutely than in the Amazon. Some experts say that the rain forest is already at the brink of collapse.Extreme weather and reckless development are plotting against the rain forest in ways that scientists have never seen. Trees need more water as temperatures rise, but the prolonged droughts have robbed them of moisture, making whole forests easily cleared of trees and turned into farmland. The picture worsens with each round of El Nino, the unusually warm currents in the Pacific Ocean that drive up temperatures and invariably presage (预示）droughts and fires in the rain forest. Runaway fires pour even more carbon into the air, which increases temperatures, starting the whole vicious cycle all over again.More than paradise lost, a perishing rain forest could trigger a domino effect sending winds and rains kilometers off course and loading the skies with even greater levels of greenhouse gasesthat will be felt far beyond the Amazon basin. In a sense, we are already getting a glimpse of whats to come. Each burning season in the Amazon, fires deliberately set by frontier settlers and developers hurl up almost half a billion metric tons of carbon a year, placing Brazil among the top five contributors to greenhouse gases in the world.57. We learn from the first paragraph that _.A) dead leaves and tree debris make the same soundB) trees that are dying usually give out a soft moanC) organic debris echoes the sounds in a rain forestD) the sound of a forest signifies its health condition58. In the second paragraph, the author challenges the view that _.A) the collapse of rain forests is caused by direct human interferenceB) carbon emissions are the leading cause of current global warmingC) the condition of rain forests has been rapidly deterioratingD) rain forests should not be converted into pastures or farms59. The author argues that the rising carbon levels in rain forests may _.A) turn them into a major source of greenhouse gasesB) change the weather patterns throughout the world leavesC) pose a threat to wildlifeD) accelerate their collapse60. What has made it easier to turn some rain forests into farmland?A) Rapid rise in carbon levels.B) Reckless land development.C) Lack of rainfall resulting from global warming.D) The unusual warm currents in the Pacific Ocean.61. What makes Brazil one of the worlds top five contributors to greenhouse gases?A) The domino effect triggered by the perishing rain forests,B) Its practice of burning forests for settlement and development,C) The changed patterns of winds and rains in the Amazon area.D) Its inability to curb the carbon emissions from industries.Passage ThreeAmong the governments most interesting reports is one that estimates what parents spend on their children. Not surprisingly, the costs are steep. For a middle-class, husband-and-wife family (average pretax income in 2009: $76,250), spending per child is about $12,000 a year. With inflation the familys spending on a child will total $286,050 by age 17.The dry statistics ought to inform the ongoing deficit debate, because a budget is not just a catalog of programs and taxes. It reflects a societys priorities and values. Our society does not despite rhetoric(说辞) to the contraryput much value on raising children. Present budget policies tax parents heavily to support the elderly. Meanwhile, tax breaks for children are modest. If deficit reduction aggravates these biases, more Americans may choose not to have children or to have fewer children. Down that path lies economic decline.Societies that cannot replace their populations discourage investment and innovation. They have stagnant (萧条的) or shrinking markets for goods and services. With older populations, they resist change. To stabilize its populationdiscounting immigrationwomen must have an average of two children. Thats a fertility rate of 2.0.Many countries with struggling economies are well below that.Though having a child is a deeply personal decision, its shaped by culture, religion, economics, and government policy. “No one has a good answer” as to why fertility varies among countries, says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of The Johns Hopkins University. Eroding religious belief in Europe may partly explain lowered birthrates. In Japan young women may be rebelling against their mothers isolated lives of child rearing. General optimism and pessimism count. Hopefulness fueled Americas baby boom. After the Soviet Unions collapse, says Cherlin, “anxiety for the future” depressed birthrates in Russiaand Eastern Europe.In poor societies, people have children to improve their economic well-being by increasing the number of family workers and providing supports for parents in their old age. In wealthy societies, the logic often reverses. Government now supports the elderly, diminishing the need for children. By some studies, the safety nets for retirees have reduced fertility rates by 0.5 children in the United States and almost 1.0 in Western Europe, reports economist Robert Stein in the journal National Affairs. Similarly, some couples dont have children because they dont want to sacrifice their own lifestyles to the lime and expense of a family.Young Americans already face a bleak labor market that cannot instill (注入) confidence about having children. Piling on higher taxes wont help, “If higher taxes make it more expensive to raise children,” says Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, “people will think twice about having another child.” That seems like common sense, despite the multiple influences on becoming parents.56. What do we learn from the government report?A) Inflation increases families expenses. B) Raising children is getting expensive.C) Budget reduction in around the corner. D) Average family expenditure is increasing.57. What is said to be the consequence of a shrinking population?A) Weakened national strength.C) Economic downturn.B) Increased immigration.D) Social instability.58. What accounted for Americas baby boom?A) Optimism for the future.C) Religious beliefs.B) Improved living conditions.D) Economic prosperity. 59. Why do people in wealthy countries prefer to have fewer children?A) They want to further improve their economic well-being.B) They cannot afford the time and expenses of rearing children.C) They are concerned about the future of the coming generation.D) They dont rely on their children to support them in old age.60. What is the authors purpose in writing the passage?A) To instill confidence in the young about raising children.B) To advise couples to think twice before having children.C) To encourage the young to take care of the elderly.D) To appeal for tax reduction for raising children.Passage FourSpace exploration has always been the province of dreamers: The human imagination readily soars where human ingenuity (创造力)struggles to follow. A Voyage to the Moon,often cited as the first science fiction story, was written by Cyrano de Bergerac in 1649. Cyrano was dead and buried for a good three centuries before the first manned rockets started to fly.In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would send a man to the moon by the decades end, those words, too, had a dreamlike quality. They resonated(共鸣) with optimism and ambition in much the same way as the most famous dream speech of all, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. two years later. By the end of the decade, both visions had yielded concrete results and transformed American society. And yet in many ways the two dreams ended up at odds with each other. The fight for racial and economic equality is intensely pragmatic (讲求实用的) and immediate in its impact. The urge to explore space is just the opposite. It is figuratively and literally otherworldly in its aims.When the dust settled, the space dreamers lost out. There was no grand follow-up to the Apollo missions. The technologically compromised space shuttle program has just come to an end, with no successor. The perpetual argument is that funds are tight, that we have more pressing problems here on Earth. Amid the current concerns about the federal deficit, reaching toward the stars seems a dispensable luxuryas if saving one-thousandth of a single years budget would solve our problems.But human ingenuity struggles on. NASA is developing a series of robotic probes that will get the most bang from a buck. They will serve as modem Magellans, mapping out the solar system for whatever explorers follow, whether man or machine. On the flip side, companies like Virgin Ga-lactic are plotting a bottom-up assault on the space dream by making it a reality to the public. Private spaceflight could lie within reach of rich civilians in a few years. Another decade or two and it could go mainstream.The space dreamers end up benefiting all of usnot just because of the way they expand human knowledge, or because of the spin-off technologies they produce, but because the two types of dreams feed off each other. Both Martin Luther King and John Kennedy appealed to the idea that humans can transcend what were once considered inherent limitations. Today we face seeming challenges in energy, the environment, health care. Tomorrow we will transcend these as well, and the dreamers will deserve a lot of the credit. The more evidence we collect that our species is capable of greatness, the more we will actually achieve it.61. The author mentions Cyrano de Bergerac in order to show that_.A) imagination is the mother of inventionB) ingenuity is essential for science fiction writersC) it takes patience for humans to realize their dreamsD) dreamers have always been interested in science fiction62. How did the general public view Kennedys space exploration plan?A) It symbolized the American spirit.B) It was as urgent as racial equality.C) It sounded very much like a dream.D) It made an ancient dream come true.63. What does the author say about Americas aim to explore space?A) It may not bring about immediate economic gains.B) It cannot be realized without technological innovation.C) It will not help the realization of racial and economic equality.D) It cannot be achieved without a good knowledge of the other worlds.64. What is the authors attitude toward space programs?A) Critical.C) Unbiased. B) Reserved. D) Supportive.65. What does the author think of the problems facing human beings?A) They pose a serious challenge to future human existence.B) They can be solved sooner or later with human ingenuity.C) Their solutions need joint efforts of the public and private sectors.D) They can only be solved by people with optimism and ambition.Passage Five It is a curious paradox that we think of the physical sciences as “hard”, the social sciences as “soft”, and the biological sciences as somewhere in between. This is interpreted to mean that our knowledge of physical systems is more certain than our knowledge of biological systems, and these in turn are more certain than our knowledge of social systems. In terms of our capacity to sample the relevant universes, however, and the probability that our images of these universes are at least approximately correct, one suspects that a reverse order is more reasonable. We are able to sample earths social systems with some degree of confidence that we have a reasonable sample of the total universe being investigated. Our knowledge of social systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries. Even the folk knowledge in social systems on which ordinary life is based in earning, spending, organizing, marrying, taking part in political activities, fighting and so on, is not very dissimilar from the more sophisticated images of the social system derived from the social sciences, even though it is built upon the very imperfect