商英阅读试卷10级下a

1、1 / 8 光华管理学院光华管理学院 2010 2011 学年第学年第二二学期期末考试试题学期期末考试试题（A 卷）卷） 课程名称：课程名称：商务英语（商务英语（阅读）阅读） 任课教师：任课教师： 考试日期：考试日期：2011 年年 6 月月 日日 考试时间：考试时间： 1.5 小时小时 学生类别：学生类别：本科本科 年级班号：年级班号： 考生姓名：考生姓名： 考生学号：考生学号： 考试方式：闭卷考试方式：闭卷 试试 题： （注意：答案一律写在答题纸，否则不计分）题： （注意：答案一律写在答题纸，否则不计分） I. Reading comprehension (60 points in tot

2、al; paraphrasing items in Passage Four: 3 points each; others: 1.5 points each) Passage ONE WHEN Parliament decided, in 1709, to create a law that would protect books from piracy, the London-based publishers and booksellers who had been pushing for such protection were overjoyed. When Queen Anne gav

3、e her assent on April 10th the following year300 years ago this weekto “An act for the encouragement of learning” they were less enthused. Parliament had given them rights, but it had set a time limit on them: 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new ones, with an additional 14 years

4、 if the author was still alive when the first term ran out. After that, the material would enter the public domain so that anyone could reproduce it. The lawmakers intended thus to balance the incentive to create with the interest that society has in free access to knowledge and art. The Statute of

5、Anne thus helped nurture and channel the spate of inventiveness that Enlightenment society and its successors have since enjoyed. Over the past 50 years, however, that balance has shifted. Largely thanks to the entertainment industrys lawyers and lobbyists, copyrights scope and duration have vastly

6、increased. In America, copyright holders get 95 years protection as a result of an extension granted in 1998, derided by critics as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”. They are now calling for even greater protection, and there have been efforts to introduce similar terms in Europe. Such arguments sh

7、ould be resisted: it is time to tip the balance back. Lengthy protection, it is argued, increases the incentive to create. Digital technology seems to strengthen the argument: by making copying easier, it seems to demand greater protection in return. The idea of extending copyright also has a moral

8、appeal. Intellectual property can seem very like real property, especially when it is yours, and not some faceless corporations. As a result people feel that once they own itespecially if they have made itthey should go on owning it, much as they would a house that they could pass on to their descen

9、dants. On this reading, protection should be perpetual. Ratcheting up the time limit on a regular basis becomes a reasonable way of approximating that perpetuity. The notion that lengthening copyright increases creativity is questionable, however. Authors and artists do not generally consult the sta

10、tute books before deciding whether or not to pick up pen or paintbrush. And overlong copyrights often 2 / 8 limit, rather than encourage, a works dissemination, impact and influence. It can be difficult to locate copyright holders to obtain the rights to reuse old material. As a result, much content

11、 ends up in legal limbo (and in the case of old movies and sound recordings, is left to deterioratecopying them in order to preserve them may constitute an act of infringement). The penalties even for inadvertent infringement are so punishing that creators routinely have to self-censor their work. N

12、or does the advent of digital technology strengthen the case for extending the period of protection. Copyright protection is needed partly to cover the costs of creating and distributing works in physical form. Digital technology slashes such costs, and thus reduces the argument for protection. The

13、moral case, although easy to sympathize with, is a way of trying to have ones cake and eat it. Copyright was originally the grant of a temporary government-supported monopoly on copying a work, not a property right. From 1710 onwards, it has involved a deal in which the creator or publisher gives up

14、 any natural and perpetual claim in order to have the state protect an artificial and limited one. So it remains. The question is how such a deal can be made equitably. At the moment, the terms of trade favor publishers too much. A return to the 28-year copyrights of the Statute of Anne would be in

15、many ways arbitrary, but not unreasonable. If there is a case for longer terms, they should be on a renewal basis, so that content is not locked up automatically. The value society places on creativity means that fair use needs to be expanded and inadvertent infringement should be minimally penalize

16、d. None of this should get in the way of the enforcement of copyright, which remains a vital tool in the encouragement of learning. But tools are not ends in themselves. (713 words) i. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) or not mentioned (NM). 1. The booksellers and pub

17、lishers at Queen Annes time were opposed to the Statute of Anne. 2. The writer does not think that copyrights should be possessed for ever though he agrees with the protectionists that copyright resembles real property. 3. The writer thinks that digital technology reduces the costs of creating and d

18、istributing works in physical form and thus cannot be the excuse for stronger protection for copyrights. 4. The writers understanding of the 1709/1710 law concerning piracy is that copyright holders have exchanged everlasting rights to their own creation for limited state protection of it. 5. The wr

19、iter neither thinks the current copyright laws favor the learners enough nor suggests a return to the statute of Anne. ii. Choose the right meanings of the underlined words in the passage. 1. spate: a. sentiment b. spirit c. enthusiasm d. outpouring 2. derided: a. mocked b. criticized c. nicknamed d

20、. denounced 3. limbo: a. trap b. lawsuit c. helplessness d. complication 3 / 8 4. inadvertent: a. insignificant b. inconspicuous c. unintentional d. unavoidable 5. advent: a. improving b. advancing c. progressing d. coming 6. ends: a. methods b. terminals c. purposes d. conclusions Passage TWO One o

21、f the strangest developments in financial markets this year is the “Lafite effect.” It offers a valuable lesson about investing. This financial crisis has walloped just about everything. It has even pushed down prices for fine wine. The Vintage Wine Fund, which invests “in fine wine with an objectiv

22、e of steady, high capital growth,” declined 33 percent in 2008. This is newsworthy. In a 2008 paper, economists Lee Sanning, Sherrill Shaffer and Jo Marie Sharratt at the University of Wyoming demonstrated that wine investments provide enormous positive returns over time, with almost no correlation

23、to the market as a whole. Their study provides a textbook example of the problem with risk analysis. Until that time, the correlation of wine with the overall stock market was essentially zero. A hedge fund that bet on that remaining true would have lost big, because this time everything moved toget

24、her. One set of wine investors survived unscathed: those who bought and held the fine French wine Chateau Lafite Rothschild. According to data compiled by wine exchange Liv-ex, the average list price for a bottle of 1982 Lafite was $3,386 in July, the highest ever. Thats about $280 higher than it wa

25、s last year, and more than $1,100 higher than in 2007. Not bad for a bottle that you could have purchased for about $20 back in the 1980s. So strong is the 1982 Lafite that its value largely withstood a downgrade, to 97 from a perfect 100, by U.S. wine maven Robert Parker. If you consider how much w

26、ealth has been destroyed in the past year, you would think that such a markdown would have devastated prices. Think again. The run-up appears to have affected all things Lafite, not just the 1982 vintage. The effect is so striking that Liv-ex created a new index to track the prices of the Lafite vin

27、tages from 2000 to 2006. That index is now only 4.4 percent below its long-term high. Few investments have done better. The question for an investor is this: Is the Lafite price spike yet another bubble, or are there sound fundamental reasons? One sound argument that might explain the increase is th

28、at there is a special “Lafite effect” associated with Asia. As wealth has increased there, the demand for luxury commodities such as Lafite has skyrocketed. “Right now, its almost an insult in some places to serve something other than Lafite,” Liv-exs director, James Miles, told me last week. With t

29、he Lafite supply limited, this high demand for the supreme trophy wine has pushed prices through the roof. Since Asia will presumably continue to grow in wealth, one might expect that demand will skyrocket and that todays prices will someday look cheap. The Lafite price might just as well drop sharp

30、ly, and the argument for a decline is probably more compelling. For one thing, prices might be higher now because of a speculative bubble. Also, Asian consumers might become more sophisticated and grow to appreciate other wines, which they now shun, that are close substitutes for Lafite. If they do

31、that, todays prices might be a high water mark for some time. The 2000 4 / 8 vintages of both Lafite and La Mission Haut Brion both received perfect scores of 100 from Parker, for example. Right now Lafite costs more than twice as much. The decision on investing today in Lafite probably turns on thi

32、s question of whether it will become more socially acceptable to serve fine wines other than Lafite in the wealthiest corners of Asia. Todays high prices suggest there are enough people willing to bet that Asian demand for Lafite continues on its trajectory. Its a tempting bet, and a risky one. As L

33、afite prices have soared away from those of close substitutes, Lafite has begun to look - especially to unsophisticated investors, and those who rely on past correlations - like an increasingly safe investment, with steady and predictable returns. In fact, the opposite is true. The risk of Lafite pr

34、ices plummeting and wiping out your investment has skyrocketed along with the price. It might be possible to make money as Lafite prices continue to soar. But prudence demands that sensible investors stay on the sidelines. Whether you are buying wine for consumption or investment, Id go with La Miss

35、ion Haut Brion. (712 words) Answer the following questions. The MAXIMUM LENGTH of each of your answer is 10 WORDS. 1 In the second paragraph, what does the second “that” in “A hedge fund that bet on that remaining true would have lost big” refer to? 2 Were all the wine investors badly hurt by the fi

36、nancial crisis? (Dont just say “yes” or “no”.) 3 How would you describe the influence of Robert Parkers grading of the 1982 Lafite on its price? 4 In what way is Asia associated with Lafite? 5 What changes in Asian consumers might cause the Lafite price decline? 6 What is the writers view on investi

37、ng in Lafite at the time of writing the article? 7 List at least THREE NOUNS from the passage that mean “(of price) going up”. Passage THREE THE French love to joke about the ghastliness of English food, but in the 1990s Parisians discovered a surprising (1) a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ for the convenience food o

38、ffered by Marks 1 point each) 1 d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Purposeful, intentional 2 p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The matter to be considered first 3 e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Too much, more than necessary 4 h _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Any system of persons or things ranked one above 5 r _ _ _ _ Stiff, inflexible 6 s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A

39、 person who monitors workers or the work done by others 7 d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Repeat, double 8 d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Disadvantage, shortcoming 9 d _ _ _ _ _ _ Of different kinds 10 r _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ To strengthen 11 m _ _ _ _ _ To change, make less extreme 12 s _ _ _ _ _ _ Supporter of an event , activity, or person 13 s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Taking place at the same time 14 s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Lower in rank or position 15 p _ _ _ _ _ Quick, done without delay 16 a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ To come nearer to 17 p _ _ _ _ _