1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 26及答案解析(总分：60.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：6，分数：60.00)1.Section II Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_2.Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.（分数：10.00）_Last November, the U. S. National Academy of Sciences
2、 delivered a stinging verdict on a White House plan to change the rules on how the government“s agencies measure risks, such as those resulting from chemical exposure or from smoking cigarettes. The academy said that a draft risk-assessment bulletin containing the plan was “fundamentally flawed“ and
3、 ought to be completely withdrawn. Ten months later, the bulletin is still very much alive. After some hesitancy, Susan Dudley, head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget(OMB), has indicated that it is still under review and likely to
4、be finalized in some shape or form. Risk assessment is a complex and exacting activity, and the National Academies have played a globally acknowledged role over many years in providing guidance on how it should be done. But the academy panel, chaired by John Ahearne, a former president of the Nuclea
5、r Regulatory Commission and director of ethics at the scientific society Sigma Xi, said that the bulletin was wrong in attempting to impose a “one-size-fits-all“ approach to risk assessment overseen by so political an office as the OMB. It also charged that the bulletin failed to take account of the
6、 different approaches appropriate to the various fields of science and engineering, or of risks to particular groups, such as children or pregnant women. Thankfully, Congress is now applying some oversight to the OMB. In May, for example, Senators Jeff Bingaman(Democrat, New Mexico)and Joe Lieberman
7、(Independent, Connecticut)wrote to Rob Portman, the director of the OMB, to seek assurances that it would take the National Academy of Sciences“ advice and withdraw the risk-assessment bulletin. In an evasive response, Portman would say only that his office would “not finalize the bulletin without r
8、evision“indicating, in effect, that it is planning to press ahead with the exercise in a revised form. Now the senators have written to the OMB again, asking its officials to state by next week exactly how they intend to proceed, given the devastating critique issued by the academy panel last year.
9、“We began our review of the draft bulletin thinking we would only be recommending changes,“ said Ahearne at the time. “But the more we dug into it, the more we realized that from a scientific and technical standpoint, it should be withdrawn altogether. “ The White House specifically went out and sou
10、ght this advice: why won“t it take it?（分数：10.00）(1).The U. S. National Academy of Sciences held that_.（分数：2.00）A.the rules on risk-assessment should be modifiedB.its ruling on the White House plan was justifiableC.the risk-assessment bulletin should be discontinuedD.chemical exposure was as risky as
11、 smoking cigarettes(2).Susan Dudley hinted that_.（分数：2.00）A.OMB was responsible for controlling risk assessmentB.OMB persisted in revising and finalizing the bulletinC.OMB was ready to keep the bulletin alive and activeD.OMB“s risk-assessment bulletin was surely imperfect(3).According to the academy
12、 panel,_.（分数：2.00）A.different approaches should be taken into accountB.particular groups of people are subject to more risksC.there isn“ t an omnipotent approach to risk-assessmentD.the National Academies have been acknowledged globally(4).It is implied by what the director of the OMB says that his
13、office_.（分数：2.00）A.would continue to exercise its bulletinB.would perfect its risk-assessment bulletinC.would totally withdraw its risk-assessment bulletinD.would take the National Academy of Sciences“ advice(5).The author argues that the White House OMB_.（分数：2.00）A.should revise its risk-assessment
14、 bulletinB.should replace its bulletin with a new draftC.should finalize its bulletin without revisionD.should withdraw its risk-assessment bulletinAmidst troubling reports of our nation“s economic woes and pressing national security issues, one news story earlier this month received fairly little a
15、ttention: President Obama“s March 11 executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. While the Council“s role is likely to be more symbolic than practical, its creation, and the accompanying rhetoric, suggests that the Obama White House is bringing a blinkered, outdated approa
16、ch to gender issuesone that, far from transcending ideological divisions, takes us back to a narrow and dogmatic feminist ideology. In his remarks at the signing, Barack Obama noted that women have made great strides since the days when his grandmother encountered a glass ceiling after reaching the
17、level of bank vice president. Yet, despite the broken barriers, he argued that “inequalities stubbornly persist“: “women still earn just 78 cents for every dollar men make“; “one in four women still experiences domestic violence in their lifetimes“; and, despite being close to half the workforce, wo
18、men make up only 17 percent of members of Congress and 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. But are these inequalities rooted in discrimination and fixable by the government? Numerous studies show that when differences in training, work hours, and continuity of employment are taken into account, the pay g
19、ap all but disappears. Most economists, including liberal feminists such as Harvard“s Claudia Goldin, agree that while sex discrimination exists, male-female disparities in earnings and achievement are due primarily to personal choices and priorities. Women are far more likely than men to avoid jobs
20、 with 60-hour workweeks and to scale down their careers while raising children. They are also more likely to choose less lucrative but more fulfilling jobs. Indeed, one might ask why the only gender-specific issues that seem to deserve federal attention are ones that affect women. Why not look at th
21、e fact that men account for 80 percent of suicides and 90 percent of workplace fatalities(as well as 70 percent of nonfatal on-the-job injuries)? What about the troubling trend of boys and young men lagging substantially behind their female peers in education, with women earning nearly 60 percent of
22、 college degrees at a time when a college diploma is increasingly essential in the job market? Why not talk about the marginalization of fatherhood and the fact that many men who want to be involved in their children“s lives are denied that chance? This is not a call for a new federal bureaucracy fo
23、r “men“s issues“. However, the discussion of gender equality in our culture needs to include these issues. For the White House to exclude them while calling for a new effort to combat inequality is at best myopic.（分数：10.00）(1).The establishment of White House Council on Women and Girls shows that Ob
24、ama _.（分数：2.00）A.paid more attention to women“s issue than to anything elseB.failed to pay enough attention to America“s economic crisisC.prefers to use impressive rhetoric in defending things he doesD.clung to outdated ideas and theories about sex discrimination(2).Obama maintains that women _.（分数：
25、2.00）A.have made great progress in social statusB.are as competent as men for executive jobsC.still encounter unequal treatment in societyD.experience more domestic violence than men(3).The author argues that male-female inequalities in society_.（分数：2.00）A.are inevitable and will stubbornly persistB
26、.are practically caused by personal reasonsC.result from inveterate sex discriminationD.can easily be equalized by the government(4).The author notes that men are _.（分数：2.00）A.treated unequally in some aspectsB.generally inferior to women in studyC.disposed to engage in risky activitiesD.more emotio
27、nally fragile than women(5).The author calls for _.（分数：2.00）A.a new notion of social equalityB.a new approach to gender issuesC.a new definition of discriminationD.a new effort to get rid of inequalityIf all we did were simply work to live, the reality of our everyday existence would be equivalent t
28、o that of stone-age man. All of human achievement that makes modern life possible has happened because of time that has been freed up from the work of everyday survival. For most of the human species term on earth man and woman have been preoccupied with the simple business of staying alive in as mu
29、ch relative comfort as possible. Hunting and gathering, finding or building shelter, defending the little that one has from plunder, surviving long enough to have progeny of a mature enough age to contribute to the welfare of the groupthis was initially the main business of living. It has only been
30、comparatively recently, since the agrarian and industrial revolutions that utilised emerging technologies to free human beings from the drudgery of day-to-day survival, that time has become available to do other than simply survive. Living to work is a luxury that we should not take for granted, for
31、 even now there are many, in the developed world as well as the rest, that do not have such a choice. When we live to work we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we wouldn“t be doing it. The term “live to work“ implies choice. Working to live denotes the exact opposite: anything will do that pays the
32、 bills. Anyone in the latter situation will attest to the undesirability of being in such a position. Living to work suggests exhilaration in one“s calling; it summons images of freedom and excitement at the prospect of what each new day will bring, whereas working to live suggests drudgery and slav
33、ery, and little choice if any. “What do you want to do when you grow up?“ is a question with which most children will be familiar, perhaps even weary. It is a question of which even a young adult can often not be sure until they have had experience of many different jobs, or at least the ones they i
34、nitially thought to try. But to be forced to work at a task that one does not enjoy day after day for survival would be last choice on anyone“ s list. Enlightened humanity, while acknowledging that some undesirable jobs must be done regardless, would acknowledge that if one is motivated in their wor
35、k, their work will be so much the better for it. Wouldn“t you rather live to work than work to live?（分数：10.00）(1).The author argues that working to live_.（分数：2.00）A.safeguards the survival of human speciesB.is unlikely to bring about our modern lifeC.results in remarkable human achievementD.lays the
36、 foundation for modern way of life(2).It is implied in the text that human beings _.（分数：2.00）A.have been intent on contributing to the welfare of the groupB.stayed alive in as much as comfort as possible for centuriesC.made little progress before the emergence of technologiesD.were addicted to hunti
37、ng, gathering, and building shelters(3).The author thinks that living to work is _.（分数：2.00）A.exactly opposite to working to liveB.a worthless form of self-indulgenceC.a choice everyone takes for grantedD.an ideal many people fail to realize(4).According to the text, those who work to live _.（分数：2.0
38、0）A.treasure the fruits of their hard workB.have to do something they hate to doC.have become accustomed to drudgeryD.seize any opportunity to get a good job(5).The author advocates that we should _.（分数：2.00）A.learn to live to work despite difficultyB.free ourselves from tiresome drudgeryC.be genero
39、us in doing undesirable jobsD.develop intrinsic motivation in workAn important new study has cast an appalling light on a place where workplace laws fail to protect workers, where wages and tips are routinely stolen, where having to work sick, injured or off the clock is the price of having a job. T
40、he place is the United States, all across the lower strata of the urban economy. The most comprehensive investigation of labor-law violations in years surveyed 4,387 workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Its researchers sought out people often missed by standard surveys and found abuses ever
41、ywhere: in factories, grocery stores, retail shops, construction sites, offices, warehouses and private homes. The word sweatshop clearly is not big enough anymore to capture the extent and severity of the rot in the low-wage workplace. Workers told of employers who ignored the minimum wage, denied
42、overtime, took illegal deductions to pay for tools or transportation, or forced them to work unpaid before or after their shifts. More than two-thirds of them had endured at least one wage violation in the previous workweek. More than a quarter had been paid less than the minimum wage, often by more
43、 than $ 1 an hour. Violations typically robbed workers of $ 51 a week, from an average paycheck of $ 339. The report paints an acute picture of powerlessness. Of workers who had been seriously injured on the job, only 8 percent had filed for workers“ compensationa symptom, researchers said, of the p
44、ower of employer pressure. Although 86 percent of respondents had worked enough consecutive hours to be entitled to time off for meals, more than two-thirds had had their breaks denied, interrupted or shortened. Workers who complained to bosses or government agencies or tried to form unions suffered
45、 illegal retaliation; firing, suspension, pay cuts or threats to call immigration authorities. It is, of course, morally abhorrent that the American economy should be so riddled with exploitation. But it is also powerfully evident that there are practical consequences when the powerless are abused.
46、Low-wage workers spend a high proportion of their income on necessities; when their paychecks are systematically bled by greedy employers, an entire community“s economic vitality is sapped as well. The answers are basic, though too long ignored. Government needs to send more investigators to back ro
47、oms, offices and factory floors, and to enlist labor organizations and immigrant-rights groups as their investigative eyes and ears. Penalties for wage-law violations need toughening. Employees who have historically been denied basic labor rightsdomestic workers and home health aidesneed to finally
48、be given the protection of wage-and-hour laws. Companies must not be allowed to skirt their legal obligations by outsourcing hiring to subcontractors, letting others break the law for them.（分数：10.00）(1).According to a new study, the United States_.（分数：2.00）A.is unanimously considered to be an appall
49、ing workplaceB.encourages workers to work sick, injured or off the clockC.assists employers to steal wages and tips from employeesD.has done little to protect workers at the bottom of society(2).A survey shows that workers in the low-wage workplace_.（分数：2.00）A.have no courage to resent the working conditionsB.work long hours unde
