華宏2007年MBA聯(lián)考英語閱讀理解真題解析

　　王令

　　Questions 41 to 45 are based on the following passage:

　　Prior to the 20th century, many languages with small numbers of speakers survived for centuries. The increasingly interconnected modern world makes it much more difficult for small language communities to live in relative isolation, a key factor in language maintenance and preservation.

　　It remains to be seen whether the world can maintain its linguistic and cultural diversity in the centuries ahead. Many powerful forces appear to work against it: population growth, which pushes migrant populations into the world’s last isolated locations; mass tourism; global telecommunications and mass media; and the spread of gigantic global corporations. All of these forces appear to signify a future in which the language of advertising, popular culture, and consumer products become similar. Already English and a few other major tongues have emerged as global languages of commerce and communication. For many of the world’s peoples, learning one of these languages is viewed as the key to education, economic opportunity, and a better way of life.

　　Only about 3,000 languages now in use are expected to survive the coming century. Are most of the rest doomed in the century after that?

　　Whether most of these languages survive will probably depend on how strongly cultural groups wish to keep their identity alive through a native language. To do so will require an emphasis on bilingualism(mastery of two languages). Bilingual speakers could use their own language in smaller spheres---at home, among friends, in community settings---and a global language at work, in dealings with government, and in commercial spheres. In this way, many small languages could sustain their cultural and linguistic integrity alongside global languages, rather than yield to the homogenizing(同化的)forces of globalization.

　　Ironically, the trend of technological innovation that has threatened minority languages could also help save them. For example, some experts predict that computer software translation tools will one day permit minority language speakers to browse the Internet using their native tongues. Linguists are currently using computer—aided learning tools to teach a variety of threatened languages.

　　For many endangered languages, the line between revival and death is extremely thin. Language is remarkably resilient(有活力的),however. It is not just a tool for communicating, but also a powerful way of separating different groups, or of demonstrating group identity. Many indigenous(原生的, 土著的)communities have shown that it is possible to live in the modern world while reclaiming their unique identities through language.

　　作題指導(dǎo)：

　　按照“高分閱讀法”，首先考察個(gè)自然段的首句可知，此文以“小語種”為背景的一篇社會(huì)科學(xué)類文章。根據(jù)以往的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，MBA閱讀出題的位置比較均勻。有根據(jù)明顯的出題原則，可大概揣摩出題目出現(xiàn)的位置。

　　41.Minority languages can be best preserved in __________.

　　A.an increasingly interconnected world

　　B.maintaining small numbers of speakers

　　C.relatively isolated language communities

　　D.following the tradition of the 20th century

　　解題：題干中的best preserved將答案指向第一段最后一句中的key和preservation兩個(gè)詞匯，完整閱讀此句可知，少數(shù)人使用的小語種只是在孤立的小人群眾得以保持。故而正確答案必是C。另外，此題的原句與答案之間屬于“正話反說”現(xiàn)象。

　　42.According to Paragraph 2, that the world can maintain its linguistic diversity in the future is _______.

　　A.uncertain B.unrealistic

　　C.foreseeable D.definite

　　解題：題干中的linguistic diversity將答案指向第二段第一句話。據(jù)以明顯暗示答案A。

　　43.According to the author, bilingualism can help_________.

　　A.small languages become acceptable in work places

　　B.homogenize the world’s languages and cultures

　　C.global languages reach home and community settings

　　D.speakers maintain their linguistic and cultural identity

　　解題：題干中的bilingualism將答案指向第四段第三句話。只要熟悉并掌握了尋找答案句的正確方法，很容易便找到了答案句的出處。由此，不難發(fā)現(xiàn)選項(xiàng)D就是原句的改寫。

　　44.Computer technology is helpful for preserving minority languages in that it_________.

　　A.makes learning a global language unnecessary

　　B.facilitates the learning and using of those languages

　　C.raises public awareness of saving those languages

　　D.makes it easier for linguists to study those languages

　　解題：題干中的Computer technology將答案指向倒數(shù)第二段中的例子，因?yàn)橐仓挥羞@個(gè)地方涉及到計(jì)算機(jī)科技的問題，詳細(xì)閱讀后確認(rèn)答案為B。

　　45.In the author’s view, many endangered languages are________.

　　A.remarkably well-kept in this modern world

　　B.exceptionally powerful tools of communication

　　C.quite possible to be revived instead of dying out

　　D.a unique way of bringing different groups together

　　解題：題干中的endangered languages將答案指向最后一段的首句。閱讀后并不能找到答案，然而第二句后的重要轉(zhuǎn)折however將我們的注意力牽引到第三句上。詳細(xì)閱讀后得知答案為C。

　　Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage:

　　Everyone, it seems, has a health problem. After pouring billions into the National Health Service, British people moan about dirty hospitals, long waits and wasted money. In Germany the new chancellor, Angela Merkel, is under fire for suggesting changing the financing of its health system. Canada’s new Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, made a big fuss during the election about reducing the country’s lengthy medical queues. Across the rich world, affluence, ageing and advancing technology are driving up health spending faster than income.

　　But nowhere has a bigger health problem than America. Soaring medical bills are squeezing wages, swelling the ranks of the uninsured and pushing huge firms and perhaps even the government towards bankruptcy. Ford’s announcement this week that it would cut up to 30.000 jobs by 2012 was as much a sign of it’s “l(fā)egacy” health –care costs as of the ills of the car industry. Pushed by polls that show health care is one of his main domestic problems and by forecasts showing that the retiring baby-boomers (生育高峰期出生的人) will crush the government’s finances, George Bush is to unveil a reform; plan in next week’s state-of –the –union address.

　　America’s health system is unlike any other. The Unite States spends 16% of its GDP on health, around twice the rich-country average, equivalent to $6,280 for every American each year. Yet it is the only rich country that does not guarantee universal health coverage. Thanks to an accident of history, most Americans receive health insurance through their employer, with the government picking up the bill for the poor and the elderly.

　　This curious hybrid(混合物)certainly has its strengths. Americans have more choice than anybody else, and their health-care system is much more innovative. Europeans’ bills could be much higher if American medicine were not doing much of their Research and Development(R&D)for them. But there are also huge weaknesses. The one most often cited—especially by foreigners—is the army of uninsured. Some 46 million Americans do not have cover. In many cases that is out of choice and, if they fall seriously ill, hospitals have to treat them. But it is still deeply unequal. And there are also shocking inefficiencies: by some measures, 30% of American health spending is wasted.

　　Then there is the question of state support. Many Americans disapprove of the “socialized medicine” of Canada and Europe. In fact, even if much of the administration is done privately, around 60% of America’s heath-care bill ends up being met by the government. Proportionately, the American state already spends as much on health as the OECD(Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)average, and that share is set to grow as the baby-boomers run up their Medicare bills and ever more employers avoid providing health-care coverage. America is, in effect, heading towards a version of socialized medicine by default.

　　作題指導(dǎo)：

　　此文有一定的閱讀難度，尤其是對于上來就把全文通讀一遍的考生，往往會(huì)有一種一頭霧水沒讀懂的感覺。這就顯示出閱讀方法的重要性。各段首句讀來就可以明確文章的方向著重點(diǎn)內(nèi)容，而且更有趣的是，文章有五個(gè)自然段，而題目也只有五道。那么合理的推理就是每一段落應(yīng)該分配一道題目。這樣來作題，效率會(huì)提高很多，而且在原有基礎(chǔ)上是自己的成績和作題速度提高不少。

　　46.Health problems mentioned in the passage include all the following EXCEPT_________.

　　A. poor hospital conditions in U.K.

　　B. Angela Merkel under attack

　　C. health financing in Germany

　　D. long waiting lines in Canada

　　解題：表面上這是一道列舉題，但是在MBA這樣的考試中，真正的列舉題并不存在。以列舉題出現(xiàn)的題目多屬于“排除性”列舉，即指需要原文中的一個(gè)信息點(diǎn)就可以做出來的題目。實(shí)際上，就是變相的細(xì)節(jié)題。此題目更是經(jīng)典，只因?yàn)榈谝欢蔚诙湓捴械膗nder fire一個(gè)詞匯，就可以確定選項(xiàng)B為正確答案。唯一的就是要求考生必須認(rèn)識(shí)這個(gè)詞組的意思是“受攻擊”。

　　47.Ford’s announcement of cutting up to 30,000 jobs by 2012 indicates that Ford_________.

　　A. has the biggest health problem of the car industry

　　B. has made profits from its health-care legacy

　　C. has accumulated too heavy a health-care burden

　　D. owes a great deal of debt to its employees

　　解題：題干中的數(shù)字非常明確地將原文答案出處指向第二段第二句話。詳細(xì)閱讀后確認(rèn)選項(xiàng)C。

　　48.In the author’s opinion, America’s health system is _________.

　　A. inefficient B. feasible

　　C. unpopular D. successful

　　解題：題干中的America’s health system一下子將答案指向了第三段。重點(diǎn)在于第二句話開始的轉(zhuǎn)折，看來作者認(rèn)為美國衛(wèi)生系統(tǒng)比較低效率。所以答案也就成為A。

　　49.It is implied in the passage that_________.

　　A. America’s health system has its strengths and weaknesses

　　B. the US government pays medical bills for the poor and the elderly

　　C. some 46 million Americans do not have medical insurance

　　D. Europeans benefit a lot from America’s medical research

　　解題：表面上這是一道面向全文的推理題，但是從此題所處的位置來說很有可能答案句出現(xiàn)在第四段當(dāng)中。考生遇到這種情況，完全可以先處理最后一道題，如果發(fā)現(xiàn)最后一道題目的答案句出現(xiàn)在最后一段的話，那么就可以確定這個(gè)49題的答案必然在倒數(shù)第二段當(dāng)中。果然，閱讀第二段的結(jié)果可以確定出答案為D。另外，很多考生被選項(xiàng)C所迷惑，要知道這個(gè)選項(xiàng)應(yīng)該是細(xì)節(jié)題的答案，而因?yàn)榇祟}屬于“推理題”，故而答案必不能是文章中直接的細(xì)節(jié)改寫。所以排除選項(xiàng)C。

　　50. From the last paragraph we may learn that the “socialized medicine” is____________.

　　A. a practice of Canada and Europe

　　B. a policy adopted by the US government

　　C. intended for the retiring baby-boomers

　　D. administered by private enterprises

　　解題：此題比較簡單，屬于細(xì)節(jié)題的范疇，而且答案出處明確，為A。

　　Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage:

　　When Thomas Keller, one of America’s foremost chefs, announced that on Sept. I he would abolish the practice of tipping at Per Se. his luxury restaurant in New York City, and replace it with European-style service charge, I knew three groups would be opposed: customers, servers and restaurant owners. These three groups are all committed to tipping——as they quickly made clear on Web sites. To oppose tipping , it seems, is to be anticapitalist , and maybe even a little French..

　　But Mr. Keller is right to move away from tipping—and it’s worth exploring why just about everyone else in the restaurant world is wrong to stick with the practice.

　　Customers believe in tipping because they think it makes economic sense.“Waiters know that they won’t get paid if they don’t do a good job”is how most advocates of the system would put it. To be sure, this is a tempting, apparently rational statement about economic theory, but it appears to have little applicability to the real world of restaurants.

　　Michael Lynn, an associate professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, has conducted dozens of students of tipping and has concluded that consumers assessments of the quality of service correlate weakly to the amount they tip.

　　Rather, customers are likely to tip more in response to servers touching them lightly and leaning forward next to the table to make conversation than to how often their water glass is refilled——in other words, customers tip more when they like the server, not when the service is good. Mr. Lynn’s studies also indicate that male customers increase their tips for female servers while female customers increase their tips for male servers,.

　　What’s more,. consumers seem to forget that the tip increases as the bill increases. Thus, the tipping system is an open invitation to what restaurant professionals call “upwelling”: every bottle of imported water, every espresso and every cocktail is extra money in the server’s pocket. Aggressive upwelling for tips is often rewarded while low-key, quality service often goes unrecognized.

　　In addition , the practice of tip pooling , which is the norm in fine-dining restaurants and is becoming more in every kind of restaurant above the level of a greasy spoon , has ruined whatever effect voting with your tip might have had on an individual waiter . In an unreasonable outcome , you are punishing the good waiters in the restaurant by not tipping the bad one . Indeed , there appear to be little connection between tipping and good service .

　　51.It may be inferred that a European-style service______.

　　A . is tipping-free　　　　　　　　　B .charges little tip

　　C .is the author’s initiative 　　　　　D .is offered at Per-se

　　這道題的定位在原文第一段。選項(xiàng)AB不難看出是對立的。C項(xiàng)明顯錯(cuò)誤，不要小費(fèi)的是Thomas Keller 。D項(xiàng)雖然對，但是這是原文中明確給出的細(xì)節(jié)，題目要求的是從文章inferred出來，所以D項(xiàng)不能選。

　　52.Which of the following is NOT true according to the author .

　　A .Tipping is a common practice in the restaurant world.

　　B .Waiters don’t care about tipping

　　C .Customers generally believe in tipping.

　　D .Tipping has little connection with the quality of service.

　　這道題是個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)列舉題，B選項(xiàng)明顯錯(cuò)誤，原文定位在第一段，作者明確指出，反對這一做法的有三類人，一是顧客，二是服務(wù)員，三是餐館經(jīng)營者。A選項(xiàng)呼應(yīng)的是原文第一段的abolish一詞。C選項(xiàng)是原文第三段第一句話的重現(xiàn)。D選項(xiàng)實(shí)際上是解釋C選項(xiàng)的原因，是第三段第二句話中的同義表達(dá)。

　　53.According to Michael Lynn’s studies, waiters will likely get more tips if they______

　　A. have performed good service

　　B. frequently refill customers’ water glass

　　C. win customers’ favor

　　D. serve customers of the same sex

　　這道題是細(xì)節(jié)題，題目中的關(guān)鍵詞就是Michael Lynn’s，找到其相關(guān)內(nèi)容，即原文第四段。同義表達(dá)就是C選項(xiàng)。

　　54.We may infer from the context that “upwelling”(Line 2, Para 6) probably means ________

　　A. selling something up

　　B. selling something fancy

　　C. selling something unnecessary

　　D. selling something more expensive

　　這道題是個(gè)詞匯題，其實(shí)答案就在這個(gè)詞后面的那句話every bottle of imported water, every espresso and every cocktail is extra money in the server’s pocket.這句話就解釋了upwelling一詞的含義。很顯然，這些東西就是飯館經(jīng)營者搭賣給消費(fèi)者的，并不是消費(fèi)者需要的。

　　55.This passage is mainly about __________

　　A. reasons to abolish the practice of tipping

　　B. economic sense of tipping

　　C. consumers’ attitudes towards tipping

　　D. tipping for good service

　　這道題是個(gè)主旨題，題目很簡單。文章的結(jié)構(gòu)很清晰，作者上來先引出一個(gè)話題，然后引用其他眾人的觀點(diǎn)，分析了問題的原因。因此A選項(xiàng)正確。

　　Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage:

　　“I promise.” “ I swear to you it’ll never happen again.” “I give you my word.” “Honestly. Believe me.” Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity. I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism(剽竊)appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student’s work with his or her name even if it’s missing from the upper left-hand corner.

　　Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average(GPA)? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. “If you let me pass math I will ….” “Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll….” Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché（陳詞濫調(diào))to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not ?

　　Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.

　　I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it I’d understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays. “I promise…., I’m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I’m just nervous today.”

　　The head of the English department agreed with my finding, and the meeting with the dean had the boy’s parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy’s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation(留校察看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, “He’s only a child” and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such…. Except in this uncomfortable circumstance.

　　56.According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for_____.

　　A.money B.degree C.higher GPA D.reputation

　　這道題是細(xì)節(jié)題，文章第一段作者一直在談自己學(xué)生剽竊的普遍性。隨后作者在第二段第一句話用一個(gè)設(shè)問句引出了這種做法的根本原因，即為了獲得更高的GPA。

　　57.the sentence “ Once the situation is behind us , so are the promises’ implies that_________.

　　A.students usually keep their promises

　　B.some students tend to break their promises

　　C.the promises are always behind the situation

　　D.we cannot judge the situation in advance, as we do to the promises

　　這道題是個(gè)語氣題。作者擺出了幾個(gè)學(xué)生的口頭禪，當(dāng)學(xué)生們說出這類話的時(shí)候，就是他們準(zhǔn)備去剽竊，在剽竊之前用這類話求得心理上的慰藉。所以B選項(xiàng)是正確選項(xiàng)。

　　58.The “borderline passing”(Line 3,Para.3)probably means____________.

　　A.fairly good B.extremely poor

　　C.above average D.below average

　　這道題是個(gè)詞匯題。從詞面上看，我們并不太好判斷其準(zhǔn)確的含義。但是快速通讀第三段后我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個(gè)學(xué)生的成績很糟糕，但是卻交上了一份具有博士水平的論文。而且，在第四段，這個(gè)學(xué)生因?yàn)槌煽冊愀?，已?jīng)要被留校查看了。很顯然，這里面要強(qiáng)調(diào)的是其學(xué)習(xí)成績和最后的論文之間的巨大差異。因此D選項(xiàng)是正確的。

　　59.The boy’s parents thought their son should be excused mainly because_______________.

　　A.teachers should be compassionate

　　B.he was only a child

　　C.instructors were wiser

　　D.he was threatened

　　這道題是個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)題，定位在最后一段結(jié)尾處。這個(gè)學(xué)生的服務(wù)為他辯護(hù)，認(rèn)為他成績不好，剽竊論文，只是因?yàn)樗廊皇莻€(gè)孩子。B選項(xiàng)是原文的重現(xiàn)。

　　60.Which of the following might serve as the title of this passage?

　　A.Human Nature B.Conditional Promises

　　C.How to Detect Cheating D.The Sadness of Plagiarism

　　這道題是個(gè)標(biāo)題題。全在談學(xué)生的剽竊問題，以及任課教師心中的悲哀，所以D選項(xiàng)是正確的。