2011年考研英语(一)真题Section II Reading Comprehension Part A
Section II Reading Comprehension Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points) Text 1 The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. “Hooray! At last!” wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic. One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert’s appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.” As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise. For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes. Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. There recordings are cheap, available everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today’s live performances; moreover, they can be “consumed” at a time and place of the listener’s choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert. One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert’s own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into “a markedly different, more vibrant organization.” But what will be the nature of that difference? Merely expanding the orchestra’s repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between America’s oldest orchestra and the new audience it hops to attract. 21. We learn from Para.1 that Gilbert’s appointment has [A]incurred criticism. [B]raised suspicion. [C]received acclaim. [D]aroused curiosity. 22. Tommasini regards Gilbert as an artist who is [A]influential. [B]modest. [C]respectable. [D]talented. 23. The author believes that the devoted concertgoers [A]ignore the expenses of live performances. [B]reject most kinds of recorded performances. [C]exaggerate the variety of live performances. [D]overestimate the value of live performances. 24. According to the text, which of the following is true of recordings? [A]They are often inferior to live concerts in quality. [B]They are easily accessible to the general public. [C]They help improve the quality of music. [D]They have only covered masterpieces. 25. Regarding Gilbert’s role in revitalizing the Philharmonic, the author feels [A]doubtful. [B]enthusiastic. [C]confident. [D]puzzled. Text 2 When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving “to pursue my goal of running a company.” Broadcasting his ambition was “very much my decision,” McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29. McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn’t alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don’t get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations. As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders. The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:”I can’t think of a single search I’ve done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first.” Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later. Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. “The traditional rule was it’s safer to stay where you are, but that’s been fundamentally inverted,” says one headhunter. “The people who’ve been hurt the worst are those who’ve stayed too long.” 26. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being [A]arrogant. [B]frank. [C]self-centered. [D]impulsive. 27. According to Paragraph 2, senior executives’ quitting may be spurred by [A]their expectation of better financial status. [B]their need to reflect on their private life. [C]their strained relations with the boards. [D]their pursuit of new career goals. 28. The word “poached” (Line 3, Paragraph 4) most probably means [A]approved of. [B]attended to. [C]hunted for. [D]guarded against. 29. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that [A]top performers used to cling to their posts. [B]loyalty of top performers is getting out-dated. [C]top performers care more about reputations. [D]it’s safer to stick to the traditional rules. 30. Which of the following is the best title for the text? [A]CEOs: Where to Go? [B]CEOs: All the Way Up? [C]Top Managers Jump without a Net [D]The Only Way Out for Top Performers Text 3 The rough guide to marketing success used to be that you got what you paid for. No longer. While traditional “paid” media – such as television commercials and print advertisements – still play a major role, companies today can exploit many alternative forms of media. Consumers passionate about a product may create “owned” media by sending e-mail alerts about products and sales to customers registered with its Web site. The way consumers now approach the broad range of factors beyond conventional paid media. Paid and owned media are controlled by marketers promoting their own products. For earned media , such marketers act as the initiator for users’ responses. But in some cases, one marketer’s owned media become another marketer’s paid media – for instance, when an e-commerce retailer sells ad space on its Web site. We define such sold media as owned media whose traffic is so strong that other organizations place their content or e-commerce engines within that environment. This trend ,which we believe is still in its infancy, effectively began with retailers and travel providers such as airlines and hotels and will no doubt go further. Johnson & Johnson, for example, has created BabyCenter, a stand-alone media property that promotes complementary and even competitive products. Besides generating income, the presence of other marketers makes the site seem objective, gives companies opportunities to learn valuable information about the appeal of other companies’ marketing, and may help expand user traffic for all companies concerned. The same dramatic technological changes that have provided marketers with more (and more diverse) communications choices have also increased the risk that passionate consumers will voice their opinions in quicker, more visible, and much more damaging ways. Such hijacked media are the opposite of earned media: an asset or campaign becomes hostage to consumers, other stakeholders, or activists who make negative allegations about a brand or product. Members of social networks, for instance, are learning that they can hijack media to apply pressure on the businesses that originally created them. If that happens, passionate consumers would try to persuade others to boycott products, putting the reputation of the target company at risk. In such a case, the company’s response may not be sufficiently quick or thoughtful, and the learning curve has been steep. Toyota Motor, for example, alleviated some of the damage from its recall crisis earlier this year with a relatively quick and well-orchestrated social-media response campaign, which included efforts to engage with consumers directly on sites such as Twitter and the social-news site Digg. 31.Consumers may create “earned” media when they are [A] obscssed with online shopping at certain Web sites. [B] inspired by product-promoting e-mails sent to them. [C] eager to help their friends promote quality products. [D] enthusiastic about recommending their favorite products. 32. According to Paragraph 2,sold media feature [A] a safe business environment. [B] random competition. [C] strong user traffic. [D] flexibility in organization. 33. The author indicates in Paragraph 3 that earned media [A] invite constant conflicts with passionate consumers. [B] can be used to produce negative effects in marketing. [C] may be responsible for fiercer competition. [D] deserve all the negative comments about them. 34. Toyota Motor’s experience is cited as an example of [A] responding effectively to hijacked media. [B] persuading customers into boycotting products. [C] cooperating with supportive consumers. [D] taking advantage of hijacked media. 35. Which of the following is the text mainly about ? [A] Alternatives to conventional paid media. [B] Conflict between hijacked and earned media. [C] Dominance of hijacked media. [D] Popularity of owned media. Text 4 It’s no surprise that Jennifer Senior’s insightful, provocative magazine cover story, “I love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter – nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience. Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition. Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight.” The magazine cover showing an attractive mother holding a cute baby is hardly the only Madonna-and-child image on newsstands this week. There are also stories about newly adoptive – and newly single – mom Sandra Bullock, as well as the usual “Jennifer Aniston is pregnant” news. Practically every week features at least one celebrity mom, or mom-to-be, smiling on the newsstands. In a society that so persistently celebrates procreation, is it any wonder that admitting you regret having children is equivalent to admitting you support kitten-killing ? It doesn’t seem quite fair, then, to compare the regrets of parents to the regrets of the children. Unhappy parents rarely are provoked to wonder if they shouldn’t have had kids, but unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world: obviously their misery must be a direct result of the gaping baby-size holes in their lives. Of course, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and People present is hugely unrealistic, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock. According to several studies concluding that parents are less happy than childless couples, single parents are the least happy of all. No shock there, considering how much work it is to raise a kid without a partner to lean on; yet to hear Sandra and Britney tell it, raising a kid on their “own” (read: with round-the-clock help) is a piece of cake. It’s hard to imagine that many people are dumb enough to want children just because Reese and Angelina make it look so glamorous: most adults understand that a baby is not a haircut. But it’s interesting to wonder if the images we see every week of stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthood aren’t in some small, subconscious way contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience, in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting “ the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston. 36.Jennifer Senior suggests in her article that raising a child can bring [A]temporary delight [B]enjoyment in progress [C]happiness in retrospect [D]lasting reward 37.We learn from Paragraph 2 that [A]celebrity moms are a permanent source for gossip. [B]single mothers with babies deserve greater attention. [C]news about pregnant celebrities is entertaining. [D]having children is highly valued by the public. 38.It is suggested in Paragraph 3 that childless folks [A]are constantly exposed to criticism. [B]are largely ignored by the media. [C]fail to fulfill their social responsibilities. [D]are less likely to be satisfied with their life. 39.According to Paragraph 4, the message conveyed by celebrity magazines is [A]soothing. [B]ambiguous. [C]compensatory. [D]misleading. 40.Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph? [A]Having children contributes little to the glamour of celebrity moms. [B]Celebrity moms have influenced our attitude towards child rearing. [C]Having children intensifies our dissatisfaction with life. [D]We sometimes neglect the happiness from child rearing.
2011年考研英语(一)真题Section II Reading Comprehension Part A的延伸阅读— —2014考研十一黄金周备考“黄金课表”
一场秋雨一场凉，天气在秋雨中变得更像秋天了。夏日的酷暑已经消失，严冬还未到来，阴雨过后，秋高气爽，正是读书好时节。也许这几天校园里多了几分活跃，大家都在准备十一黄金周的出游、玩乐，而你作为一名考研人，是否还有那份兴致呢。其实十一黄金周是一个短小精悍的自由时光，加之前阵子新大纲刚刚发布，正是调整思路的关键时期。为了帮助广大考生最大限度的提高十一学习效率，特为大家制作了这份“黄金课程表”帮助大家安排假期时间。 十一，普国同庆，热闹非凡!但，热闹是他们的。 反观我们考研人，这7天，是否甚至可以说“成也7天，败也7天”呢?为何如此说： 1、9.13新大纲刚刚发布，正好利用这几天静下心来好好调整思路; 2、别人出游你备考，相当于比别人多了一周的复习时间; 3、这段时间不用为抢座占座发愁，不为学习环境发愁，全身心备考; 4、目前正是网报的高峰期，新东方在线全国研究生入学考试中心在此提醒各位考研的小伙伴儿们，“网报有风险，选校须谨慎”。 为了帮助广大考生最大限度的提高十一学习效率，我们为大家制作了这份“黄金课程表”帮助大家安排假期时间。 假期前五天： 上午 6：30—7：30 起床，吃完早饭，进入学习状态 7：30—8：20 背诵英语考研阅读真题材料、写作范文或者其他英语材料 8： 30—9：30 背诵政治马哲原理、形势政策或最后押题30道 9： 40—12: 20 重点攻克数学知识点或做数学模拟题(不考数学的将数学时间用于专业课的一科) 下午 12：30—13：30 午餐、午休 13：30—16：00 做英语阅读或英语专题，以精读为主，复习后期侧重英语作文 16：00—18：00 做数学或专业课 18：00—18：40 吃晚饭，休息或与同学交流 晚上 18：50—19：30 背诵政治或英语单词(以理解为主，不刻意记忆);晚餐19：40—22：30 重点攻克数学或专业课(可以按照科目或日期单双数调 整) 22：40—23：00 洗漱、上网 23：30 睡前回顾白天复习的内容(躺下默默回忆)，遇到遗忘的第二天早上及时温习记忆 当然，小伙伴儿的考研备考方法如同八仙过海，各有奇招，这份课表是就大多数考研学子的备考情况准备的，大家可以根据自己的复习情况具体调整，一切皆以高效学习为目的。 假期第六天： 第六天为总结日，可以将前五天的学习结果进行简单的总结，尤其是针对各个网络强化课程、大纲增补课程、真题精讲课程的学习，可以在前期复习的基础上进行收尾、整理。通过总结整理前期复习，对十一过后的学习做出一份精准的安排。 假期第七天： 考研伤神伤闹，劳逸结合最重要，抓住假期的最后一天，三五研友，可以一起出行游玩，缓解备考压力，收拾心情，为假期后的学习做好充分准备。 |
