1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(二十二)及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、BREADING COMPREH(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、BTEXT A/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Globalisation is the more or less simultaneous marketing and sale of identical goods and services around the world. So widespread has the phenomenon become over the past two decades that no one is
2、surprised any more to find Coca-Cola in rural Vietnam, Accenture in Tashkent and Nike shoes in Nigeria. The statistic that perhaps best reflects the growth of globalisation is the value of cross-border world trade expressed as a percentage of total global GDP: it was around 15% in 1990, is some 20%
3、today and is expected by McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, to rise to 30% by 2015.Use of the word in this business context is alleged to go back at least as far as 1944, but its first very visible appearance was in the writings of Theodore Levitt, a professor of marketing whose article publishe
4、d by Harvard Business Review in 1983 was entitled The G1obalisation of Markets. In it he foresaw the emergence of global markets for standardised products on a previously unimagined scale of magnitude.In Can We Sustain Globalisation?, a report published in 2007 by SustainAbility, a consulting firm,
5、the authors wrote: Frustratingly Levitt did not provide a compelling definition of globalisation in his article and the void has subsequently encouraged a dizzying proliferation of competing definitions.The report claims to have come across more than 5,000 of them. SustainAbilitys favourite is one p
6、rovided by two The Economist journalists. G1obalisation, they wrote, is the freer movement of goods, services, ideas and people around the world.The concept was popularised by an American journalist, Thomas Friedman, in his book The World is Flat. Published in 2005, it reached the top of several bes
7、tseller lists with its headline message that the world is now just one big integrated market.Globalisation has been encouraged by: the growing liberalisation of markets around the world, giving western multinationals access to customers they never thought they would reach; easy Internet access and c
8、heap international telecommunications, the most obvious manifestation of which is call centres in India that are servicing customers and corporations in Europe and the United States; the rapid growth of large developing countries such as China, India and Brazil, and their growing demand not only for
9、 western consumer goods and technologies but also for goods and services from other developing countries. Trade between China and Africa, for instance, rose from $3 billion in 1995 to over $32 billion in 2005.Companies have approached globalisation in two distinct ways. On the one hand are those suc
10、h as Gillette and Heineken that have made little concession to local tastes and manufacture their goods in a few centralised production facilities that follow strictly uniform standards. The product must be the same everywhere, wrote a Heineken chairman recently. To ensure quality, every 14 days our
11、 breweries send samples to professional tasters in the Netherlands.On the other hand are companies that tailor their products or services for each local market. Among them are Japanese carmakers such as Toyota, which now has plants in several countries producing for local markets, and Coca-Cola, whi
12、ch never tastes quite the same from one country to the next. A former chief executive of Coca-Cola admitted that the company had once upon a time changed its globalisation strategy. We used to be an American company with a large international business, he said. Now were a large international company
13、 with a sizeable American business.（分数：25.00）(1).Accenture is mentioned in the opening paragraph A. to illustrate the world market has been globalised. B. to show the worldwide prestige of Accenture. C. to compare the globalisation of Vitenam, Tashkent and Nigeria. D. to exemplify the backwardness o
14、f Tashkent.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Which of the following can best reflect the trend of globalisation? A. The value of cross-border world trade. B. The globalised markets for standardized products. C. The ratio of value of cross-border world trade to that of global GDP. D. The sales volume of identical
15、 goods and services around the world.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).According to SustainAbility, what is the reason for the appearance of so many different definitions for globalisation? A. Because theres no authoritative definition for globalisation. B. Because others definitions are more convincing than Pro
16、fessor Levitts. C. Because different people have different ideas on globalisation. D. Because things are different after two decades time.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Which of the following is a reason why the world market is being globalised? A. The developing countries can get goods and services from west
17、ern countries only. B. Some western multinationals are eager to reap profits from other countries. C. The developed countries depend more on resources of the developing countries. D. The world is becoming more connected through Internet and telecommunications.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Which of the follow
18、ing is true of Coca-Colas approaching globalisation? A. It produces goods by uniform standards. B. It caters to the taste of local markets. C. It loses business to keep the quality standards. D. It changes its taste in order to reduce cost.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.三、BTEXT B/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Young drivers wh
19、o use cell phones at the wheel drive like the elderly with slower reaction times and an increased risk of accidents a new study shows. And whats more, hands-free phones are no safer than handheld ones, scientists behind the study say.If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone
20、, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone, said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study. For five years or so weve been interested in what happens when someone picks up a cell phone and starts to drive
21、, Strayer said. One thing that appears to happen is that phone-using drivers of all ages have significantly diminished reaction times. They are slower to hit the brakes and more likely to get into accidents.Subjects took freeway drives in a simulator, using a hands-free mobile phone for half of the
22、drive. Were seeing an 18 to 20 percent slowing of reaction times, Strayer explained. That means if someone is talking on a phone, it takes them longer to hit the brakes. They are more likely to get into an accident, and if they do get into one, it might be more severe, because they wont be able to d
23、ecelerate as much. What youve effectively done is made the reactions of a 20-year-old comparable to those of a 70-year-old.Elderly drivers saw similar declines in reaction times when they took the wheel with phones. In a bit of a surprise, however, their reactions did not deteriorate at a greater ra
24、te than those of their younger counterparts. We see in the lab that older adults tend to have slower reaction times in general and also sometimes have difficulty multitasking relative to maybe a 20-year-old, Strayer said. But in the study the 20 older subjects (average age: 70) suffered no greater i
25、mpairment than their 20 younger colleagues (average age: 20). Phone users of all ages also took 17 percent longer to return to the speed of traffic after braking. Such sluggish driving can affect the likelihood and severity of rear-end collisions and help to create gridlock, especially when many dri
26、vers display such behavior.Strayer and his group employed only hands-free phones for testing. Some states, including New York and New Jersey, have enacted safety legislation that restricts drivers to hands-free mobile phone use. But many researchers say the taws arent enough and may be completely us
27、eless. We have research that concludes that the use of a phone, whether handheld or hands-free, can have the same negative impact, said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In fact, NHTSA studies at the University of Iowa suggested that in some ca
28、ses, hands-free devices could pose a greater risk, because tasks like dialing can be more difficult and take longer. The University of Utah teams research delivered similar results. The distinction some laws make between hands-free and regular phones doesnt stand up to scientific scrutiny, Strayer e
29、xplained. Weve done studies, and other studies in Sweden and Australia have all come to the same conclusion: that its a very similar signature of impairment.The distracting effects of cell phones are attributed largely to the conversations themselves, which draw a drivers attention away from the roa
30、d. The effect is dubbed inattention blindness. Not to say that dialing isnt a problem, but you can probably develop work-arounds where your hands are off the wheel for a limited amount of time, Strayer said. Drivers engage in multitasks, like eating a sandwich or tuning the radio, when they perceive
31、 a lull in traffic and think its safer. People are not too bad at judging those lulls if its a relatively short activity. But the context of phone conversation seems too big a distraction for most motorists. We used an eye tracker to try to see what they were looking at while talking on the phone, S
32、trayer said. The measurements show that they simply arent picking up information thats right in front of them, whether its as mundane as a street sign or even a person or child on the side of road.Interestingly subjects in earlier studies displayed no similar distractions when talking to passengers,
33、 or listening to the radio or books on tape. The NHTSA believes that driver distractions of all types are a factor in probably 25 to 30 percent of crashes, but more specific data are unavailable. Our findings and those of others are that driving performance can be compromised by using wireless commu
34、nication devices, Tyson said. In general there is certainly the potential for deterioration of driving skills if you are talking and driving at the same time but nobody knows precisely what the impact of cell phones has been.（分数：25.00）(1).Which of the following is true about the findings of the new
35、study? A. 18 to 20 percent of the phone-using drivers are likely to get into accidents. B. Using hands-free phones while driving can help decrease accidents. C. Using cell phones while driving is very dangerous for young people. D. Young phone-using drivers have slower reaction times than elderly on
36、es.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Which of the following is INCORRECT about the subjects of the new Utah study? A. There were at least 40 subjects who were studied on. B. Half of the subjects used cell phones while the other half didnt. C. The subjects were driving in a simulator instead of in the real roads.
37、 D. The subjects used only hands-free cell phones during the study.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).Gridlock in the last sentence in Para. Four can be best replaced by A. casualties. B. traffic jam. C. dispute. D. scraping.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Both the Utah team and NHTSA conclude that A. drivers should be rest
38、ricted to hands-free mobile phones only. B. phone-users need longer time to return to the normal speed after braking. C. hands-free mobile phones are no safer than handheld ones for drivers. D. a 20-year-old phone-using driver is just like a 70-year-old driver.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).We can infer from
39、the last two paragraphs that A. drivers will have inattention blindness while talking on the phone. B. dialing numbers while driving seems to be harmless to drivers. C. eating a sandwich or tuning the radio while driving is safe to a driver. D. talking on the phone while driving will not affect a dr
40、ivers driving skills.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.四、BTEXT C/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)It may not have generated much interest outside energy and investment circles, but a recent comment by Tidewater, Inc. president Dean Taylor sent earthquakes through the New Orleans business community. In June, Taylor told the Houston
41、Chronicle that the international marine services company the worlds largest operator of ships service the offshore oil industry was seriously considering moving its headquarters, along with scores of administrative jobs, from the Crescent City to Houston. We have a lot of sympathy for the city, Tayl
42、or said. But our shareholders wont pay us to have sympathy. They pay us to have results for them.It was the last thing the hurricane-scarred city needed to hear. Tidewater was founded here a little more than 50 years ago, and kept its main office in New Orleans throughout the oi1 bust of the 1980s a
43、nd the following decades of industry consolidation, when dozens of energy firms all but abandoned New Orleans for greener pastures on the Texas coast. In the nearly two years since Hurricane Katringa ravaged the city, the pace of exodus has accelerated, complicating New Orleans halting recovery; acc
44、ording to the local business weekly City Business, the metropolitan area has lost 12 of the 23 publicly traded companies headquartered here, taking white-collar jobs, corporate community support and sorely needed taxpayers with them and threatening to leave the city even more dependent on a tourism-
45、based economy than it was before the storm.Making matters worse, some observers say, is the city leaderships apparent indifference to the bloodletting. Just weeks after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Mayor Ray Nagin, then in the very early stages of a heated reelection bid, dismissed warnings tha
46、t many companies, like displaced residents, might opt to relocate. Nagin said he hoped they would stay. But if they dont, he said with typical glibness, Ill send them a postcard. The comment might have been written off as one of Nagins many verbal missteps. But in the months that followed, the warni
47、ngs turned out in many cases to be true, even as the citys rebuilding effort languished, infrastructure repairs limped along, the state reimbursement program for damaged homes faltered and the New Orleans infamous crime rate made a sickening comeback.New Orleans wasnt considered a great city for doi
48、ng business before the storm. People were always dribbling out, says Peter Ricchiuti, a professor of economics at Tulane University. While many of the companies that made it through the storm could stand to benefit from the citys recovery, he says, Katrina may have hastened the loss of high-paying energy jobs. Were losing the white-collar jobs and keeping the blue-collar jobs, he says
