1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 111及答案与解析 Section A 0 At work, as in life, attractive women get a lot of the breaks. Studies have shown that they are more likely to be promoted than their plain-Jane colleagues. Because people tend to【 C1】 _positive traits onto them, such as sensitivity and poise(镇静 ), they may a
2、lso be at an advantage in job interviews. The only downside to hotness is having to fend off【 C2】 _male colleagues; or so many people think. But research by two Israelis suggests otherwise. Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Zeev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre looked at what happens w
3、hen job hunters include photos with their curriculavitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia. The pair sent fictional applications to over 2,500 real-life【 C3】 _For each job, they sent two very similar resumes, one with a photo, one without. Subjects had【 C4】 _been graded for their attractive
4、ness. For men, the results were as expected. Hunks were more likely to be called for an interview if they included a photo. Ugly men were better off not including one. However, for women this was【 C5】 _Attractive females were less likely to be offered an interview if they included a photo. When appl
5、ying directly to a company(rather than through an agency)an attractive woman would need to send out 11 CVs on average before getting an interview; an equally【 C6】 _plain one just seven. At first, Mr. Ruffle considered what he calls the “dumb-blonde hypothesis“ that people assume beautiful women to b
6、e stupid. However, the photos had also been rated on how intelligent people thought each subject looked; there was no【 C7】 _between perceived intellect and pulchritude(美丽 ). So the cause of the discrimination(歧视 )must lie elsewhere. Human resources departments tend to be staffed mostly by women. Ind
7、eed, in the Israeli study, 93% of those tasked with selecting whom to invite for an interview were female. The researchers unavoidable and unpleasant conclusion is that old-fashioned jealousy led the women to【 C8】 _against pretty candidates. So should attractive women simply attach photos that make
8、them look plain? No. Better, says Mr. Ruffle, to【 C9】 _the practice of including a photo altogether. Companies might even consider the【 C10】 _model used in the Belgian public sector, where CVs do not even include the candidates name. A)irrelevant I)ornamentally B)reversed J)discriminate C)personnel
9、K)ghastly D)discourage L)propagate E)vacancies M)previously F)disperse N)anonymous G)project O)correlation H)qualified 1 【 C1】 2 【 C2】 3 【 C3】 4 【 C4】 5 【 C5】 6 【 C6】 7 【 C7】 8 【 C8】 9 【 C9】 10 【 C10】 Section B 10 Shopping and the Internet, Making It Click ATerry Lundgren and Kevin Ryan know and lik
10、e each other. But when it comes to the future of retailing the boss of Macys, an American department-store giant, and the chief executive of Gilt Groupe, an online retailer, disagree wildly. Mr. Lundgren remains a firm believer in an empire of bricks and mortar(实体店 ). Mr. Ryan is betting big on onli
11、ne-only selling. B“It used to be mail-order catalogues killing physical stores, then it was TV shopping and now it is online retail,“ says Mr. Lundgren. Although he will not be pinned down on whether the Internet is a threat to shopkeepers or an opportunity for them,he is convinced that his chain is
12、 on the right path. Macys is embracing “ omnichannel“ integration, that is, selling stuff on television, through mail-order catalogues and online, as well as keeping its department stores. The company runs 810 shops across America under the mid-price, mid-market Macys brand and 38 more luxurious Blo
13、omingdales outlets. Mr. Ryan argues that bricks-and-mortar shops are gravely threatened by Amazon and other online-only retailers, and says he can see “ no evidence that there are big opportunities for traditional retailers in online retail. “ COverall, retail sales in America are pretty flat, so th
14、e double-digit growth of online sellers is coming at the expense of physical shops. Amazons sales in the past year were $ 48 billion, compared with Macys $ 26 billion. Last year online sales in America reached $ 188 billion, about 8% of total retail sales. They are forecast to reach $270 billion by
15、2015. So far, Mr. Lundgren has good reason not to worry that the sky is falling. Most relevant for Mr. Lundgrens debate with his friendly rival, online sales from the websites of Macys and Bloomingdales jumped by 40%. This reflects Macys efforts to expand its online business. It is building a new lo
16、gistics(物流 )center for online sales in West Virginia and expanding an existing one in Tennessee. And it is fixing a glaring flaw in its Internet-sales operation; until now online shoppers have only been able to buy goods in Macys warehouses; soon they will be able to order items from the stock of it
17、s stores. Magic mirrors and Facebook friends DMr. Lundgren is keen to continue experimenting with ways to use the Internet. In 2010 Macys introduced a virtual fitting room where customers tried on digital representations of clothes through their reflection in a “ magic mirror“ and shared them with t
18、heir friends on Facebook. “ It didnt work,“ admits Mr. Lundgren. So Macys is now trying out virtual models. With its thriving Internet business, Macys is ahead of many other retailers. EWalmart, the worlds biggest, waited for a long time and hesitated over its online strategy until it finally decide
19、d to “ make winning of e-commerce a key priority“ , as Mike Duke, its chief executive, puts it. Like an increasing number of store chains, Walmart is inviting online shoppers to pick up their purchases from its physical stores if that suits them. Since last June they have been able to do so on the d
20、ay they place their order. Now, says Joel Anderson, who runs the companys online business, more than half of Internet orders are collected from stores. The company claims this is saving shoppers millions of dollars in delivery charges. In spite of these recent improvements, Walmart is not yet reapin
21、g big profits from its online business. It does not break out its Internet sales from the total, but they are still tiny for its size. FThere are some retailers, in particular those at the extremes of the market, that can safely ignore the threat from shoppers migration to the Internet. At the luxur
22、y end, Yves Saint Laurent is unlikely to start selling its ball gowns over the net; at the cost-conscious end, dollar stores will continue “piling it high and selling it cheap“. But the vast majority of retailers in between may have little choice but to counter the rise of online-only rivals by crea
23、ting strong Internet operations of their own. The biggest threat to most of them is Amazon, the undisputed champion of online selling. Other online-only retailers have little chance of felling this giant. Their best bet is to be distinctive. GMr. Ryans Gilt Groupe is modeled on Frances Vente Privee,
24、 an online shopping club for expensive branded stuff at reduced prices. The customers average age for Mr. Ryans business is 34. Consumers aged 24 to 35 already do about a quarter of their shopping online, says John Deighton of Harvard Business School. In Mr. Deightons view the Internet-retail revolu
25、tion is over, in that online buying is well established and will only keep growing. However, he says it is unclear how important a sales tool social networks like Facebook and Twitter, to which some online retailers are pinning their hopes, will turn out to be. HSome bricks-and-mortar retailers have
26、 already had disappointing experiences trying to sell through social media. Over the past year GAP, J. C. Penney and Nordstrom have opened and closed storefronts on Facebook. The social-networking site, which this month filed for an IPO(首次公开募股 ), is trying hard to be a top shopping destination for i
27、ts 845m members. Yet so far people still tend to visit Facebook to socialize with their friends. Shopping by smartphone IWhat does seem clear is that as personal computing goes mobile people are buying more via smart phones. Four years ago hardly anyone bought things on their mobile devices but toda
28、y nearly one-quarter of Gilt Groupes revenue comes from smart phone shoppers; on some weekends the proportion reaches 40%. Nearly one third of people living in America own a smart phone, and 70% of these use it to do searches while they are inside a shop, usually to compare prices. “By 2014 mobile I
29、nternet will overtake desktop Internet usage for shopping, “ predicts Nigel Morris, chief executive of Aegis Media Americas. Order online, pay cash in store JThe most clued-up shopkeepers realize that they must make the most of such advantages over online rivals, and that to do so they must make the
30、ir stores more enjoyable places to visit. In 2010 Macys company launched a training programme for its more than 130,000 sales people, “MAGIC Selling“ , which coached them to be more helpful and friendlier with customers. It is tailoring the merchandise stocked in its stores more closely to local tas
31、tes. Retailers with lavishly furnished stores and helpful assistants will increasingly have to put up with free-riders who come into the shop to check out the products and get some advice, before sneaking away to buy them for less online. Have you got this in my size? KHowever, there is no single re
32、cipe for retailing success in the Internet age. Retailers will need to balance their investment between staff, locations, inventory and online operations, says Jose Alvarez of Harvard Business School. For some expensive products it makes sense to have a low inventory, a big investment in showrooms,
33、elaborate online operations and well qualified sales people. For more commoditized items it is more important to have a big inventory than a flashy display. Things that are increasingly being bought online must be swept off the shelves to make way for products that people still want to examine and c
34、ompare before buying. LWhatever priorities retailers set, their physical stores are likely to shrink as the share of sales made online keeps rising. The retailers who will survive the drift online are the ones “ listening to the dynamic demands of customers,“ says Walmarts Mr. Anderson. 11 John Deig
35、hton of Harvard Business School thinks that shopping online is well established. 12 Mr. Lundgren believes at present physical stores are threatened by online retail. 13 Mr. Anderson suggests the retailers who will survive the drift online should change with the dynamic demands of customers. 14 In 20
36、10 Macys not only starts “MAGIC Selling“ ,but also adjusts its goods in the stores to local tastes. 15 The retailers selling moderate price goods are influenced most when customers begin to buy goods online. 16 The virtual fitting room introduced by Macys in 2010 turned out to be useless. 17 Accordi
37、ng to Jose Alvarez, when retailers sell high price products, they should hire high excellent sales people. 18 The smart phones will replace desktop for shopping online by 2014. 19 Macys defect being corrected in online sales operation is that its only source of goods for online customers is the ware
38、houses. 20 In its online strategy, Walmart finally put “to succeed in the business“ in the first place after considering for a long time. 20 How Customs Work AOne of the little rituals all international travelers go through is customs. To most people, this is just another stop in an airport or a min
39、or inconvenience at a countrys borders. But when you go through customs, you are actually taking part in a key component of the global economy. BA nations customs service has many responsibilities. At its most basic level, its purpose is to regulate what comes into and goes out of a country. The for
40、emost element of this regulation is controlling international trade. The concept of trade is as old as civilization itself. If my tribe has a huge supply of bananas, and your tribe has a huge supply of fur, we will trade goods so that both our tribes can eat and both can keep warm. In the modern wor
41、ld, international trade is based on money, but it works in pretty much the same way. CAny nation wants its own businesses to do well, so most of the time they prefer their people buy domestic goods over competing foreign goods. But in many cases, goods are available cheaper in another country than i
42、n your country, and people naturally want to buy them at the lower price. To tilt the balance in favor of domestic businesses, governments impose tariffs, also called duty, on foreign goods coming into the country. DIn addition to encouraging domestic trade, duty also gives the nation a “ piece of t
43、he action“ when somebody buys something produced overseas. Customs agencies are often major sources of revenue for the government. The US Customs Service, for example, brings in more money than any other government office except the Internal Revenue Service. To control specific sorts of trade, a gov
44、ernment may impose a higher tariff on certain types of goods(alcohol, for example). Certain countries may join together to work out mutually beneficial trade agreements, enabling businesses in those nations to trade more freely with each other than they can with businesses in other nations. This giv
45、es an advantage to nations that a country has a good relationship with. ECustoms agencies also monitor what is being exported from a country. For example, most governments strictly regulate what weapons can be exported to other nations. This is simply a common-sense safety measure: Its not a good id
46、ea to arm enemy nations, so the government has to know who is buying any domestically-produced weaponry. As well see later on, customs agencies also pay careful attention to how much money citizens are transporting out of the country. FDuty charges have a huge effect on big businesses, which may imp
47、ort millions of dollars worth of goods every year. To regulate trade on this level, a countrys customs agency must keep track of all shipments that come into the nations ports or cross its borders. They cant check every bit of foreign cargo, of course, so agents pick certain boxes to inspect and cer
48、tain shipments to scrutinize. In an effort to speed up the process, the US Customs Service is implementing new, computerized systems for processing shipments and charging importers. GWhile large businesses are the main importers in a country, trade restrictions also apply to the individual traveler.
49、 When you bring home souvenirs(纪念品 )from another country, you are actually importing goods. In the United States and many other countries, the customs agency grants each traveler a nominal duty exemption(免除 )to allow them to bring back a reasonable amount of goods without having to pay tariffs. HIn most countries, it isnt feasible for the customs agency to check all of the goods that every single traveler is importing, so governments hav
