2021青海大学英语考试真题卷（3）.docx

2021青海大学英语考试真题卷（3）本卷共分为1大题50小题，作答时间为180分钟，总分100分，60分及格。一、单项选择题（共50题，每题2分。每题的备选项中，只有一个最符合题意） 1.Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus became part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay put long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have probably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and prophets to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled(新花样的)computers and complicated mathematical systems in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associate more readily with the description of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable(可叹的) very bad record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecaster with a batting average below that of the Nets, and the President elect of the Association cautioned that "high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of that crude and inadequate statisticians assume." We left somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is induced into mistaking the description of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical attitude.The authors tone can best be described as _.AjocularBscornfulCpessimisticDobjective 2.Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return Since OPEC agreed to supply cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last DecemberThis near tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories ofthe 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 19791980, when they also almost tripledBoth previous shocks resulted in double digit inflation and global economic declineSo where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exportsStrengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the noheru hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past. Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel of car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil importing emerging economies-to which heavy industry has shifted-has become more energy intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed. One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economists commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70% and in 1979 by almost 30%.The main reason for the latest rise ofoil price is _.Aglobal inflationBreduction in supplyCfast growth in economyDIraqs suspension of exports 3.Next time youre out shopping, the person standing behind you in line might just be getting a better deal than you. And yes, theyre speaking with an accent. Thanks to a massive drop in the dolla_rs value against the euro and pound sterling (英国货币) many people from across the pond are heading to the United States to snap up holiday bargains that they quite simply cant find in their home countries. Even with the expense of flying over and staying in a hotel, theyre grabbing gifts at what they consider rock-bottom prices. Right now, every pound gets you two U.S. greenbacks and the euro is near two-year highs against the dollar. "As the euro gets stronger and the holidays approach, we are seeing an upswing in the number of visitors frorn overseas," said Dan Jasper, director of public relations for the Mall of America. And why not, when you consider how good the currency imbalance is treating them. For example, an iPod Nano, which costs 169 pounds in London (approximately $330 based on todays exchange rate) rings up for just $249 at the Mall of Americas Apple Store. And unlike most European nations, Minnesota has no sales tax. Just that one purchase would save a savvy British shopper more than a hundred dollars. If they do all their holiday seasonal shopping, they could easily save enough cash to pay for a round-trip ticket and weekend hotel stay. Jasper says that about 6 percent of the super-malls traffic comes from overseas visitors. They even have a tourist department that works with air carriers and hotels to build cheap shopping tour packages. "I spoke with a woman from Iceland who came over and bought $600 worth of goods and essentially made money on her trip," said Jasper. "She made enough in savings to pay for the airfare and hotel and still got all the goods that she wanted to get. So for her it was an adventure, plus she came out ahead." But its not just American shopping theme parks like Mall of America that are cashing in on the jet-setting deal hounds. Cities that are traditional entry points for foreign travelers-like New York, Chicago and San Francisco-are enjoying the boom as well. "Anywhere you go in the world, youre going to find a lot of the same kind of retailers," said Fred Dixon, vice president of tourism development for New Yorks tourism board, NYC&Co. "So, speaking just to that, New York is a much better value. People know they can come to New York and take advantage of currency exchange and get exactly what theyre looking for.What does the author mean by saying "theyre speaking with an accent" in the first paragraphAThose shoppers cant speak English well.BThere are foreign shoppers shopping in the U.S.CThose shoppers speak with an accent because of their European ancestries.DThere are shoppers from different states of the U.S. shopping in the same stor 4.As in the U.S., the recession in Japan springs from the go-go days of the 1980s. From January 1985 to December 1989, the Nikkei stock average shot up from 13,136 to 38,915, fattening Japanese stock collections with tremendous paper profits. At the same time, the real estate market was so hot that corporate land holdings were typically more valuable than the factories built on them. And since 59% of all Japanese own their own homes, the great sharp increases in real estate values made nearly everyone feel wealthier. Many companies and some individuals began to borrow vast sums of capital for expansion, using their stock or real estate investments as collateral(抵押品). Cheap cash also allowed Japanese companies to fund costly research into technologies like semi-conductors and liquid crystal displays that werent likely to bring returns for many years to come. From 1986 to 1991, $3 trillion was spent on new plant and equipment, including robotics and other labor saving manufacturing devices; an additional $600 billion went for research and development. And $167 billion more went abroad to build new manufacturing facilities and purchase such assets as Rockefeller center, Columbia Pictures and automobile plants in the U.S. and England. But by 1989, there was concern in Japan that this real estate inflated bubble was in danger of bursting. A consensus emerged that it had to be deflatedThe direct reason for the decline of Japanese economy is _.Athe increase of dividend payments to shareholdersBaimless investments into new and high technologiesClarge scale restructuring of its managerial organizationsDthe economic expansion in the 1980s 5.In a sense, the new protectionism is not protectionism at all, at least not in the traditional sense of the term. The old protectionism referred only to trade restricting and trade expanding devices, such as the tariff or export subsidy. The new protectionism is much broader than this: it includes interventions into foreign trade but is not limited to them. The new protectionism, in fact, refers to how the whole of government intervention into the private economy affects international trade. The emphasis on trade is still there, thus came the term "protection". But what is new is the realization that virtually all government activities can affect international economic relations. The emergence of the new protectionism in the Western World reflects the victory of the interventionist, or welfare economy over the market economy. Jab Tumiler writes, "The old protectionism.coexisted, without any apparent intellectual difficulty with the acceptance of the market as a national as well as an international economic distribution mechanism-deed, protectionists as well as (if not more than) free traders stood for laissez faire (放任政策). Now, as in the 1930s, protectionism is an expression of a profound skepticism as to the ability of the market to distribute resources and incomes to societys satisfaction." It is precisely this profound skepticism of the market economy that is responsible for the protectionism. In a market economy, economic change of various colors implies redistribution of resources and incomes. The same opinion in many communities apparently is that such redistributions often are not proper. Therefore, the government intervenes to bring about a more desired result. The victory of the welfare state is almost complete in northern Europe. In Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, government intervention in almost all aspects of economic and social life is considered normal. In Great Britain this is only somewhat less true. Government traditionally has played a very active role in economic life in France and continued to do so. Only West Germany dares to go against the tide towards excessive interventionism in Western Europe. It also happens to be the most successful Western European economy. The welfare state has made significant progress in the United States as well as in Western Europe. Social security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage laws, and rent control are by now traditional welfare state elements on the American scene.Which of the following inferences is TRUE, according to this passageAThe economy developed faster in welfare states than in non-welfare states.BIn the 1930s, protectionism began to rise.CThe new protectionism is so called mainly because it is the latest.DGovernment plays a more active role in economic life in Northern Europe than in Great Britain. 6.Microsoft is no longer the worlds biggest company by market capitalization. Three other U.S. companies have overtaken the software giant in terms of stock market value. The firms value has gone down sharply by 41% so far this year, from nearly $600 billion to $358 billion. Much of the reason for the fall has been the uncertainty prompted by the on-going anti-trust case. It has been overtaken by General Electric, now worth $506 billion, Intel, worth $441 billion and Cisco Systems, $436 billion. Over the past year Microsoft shares have moved downwards from a high of $120 to $68 in early trading on 7 June. Meanwhile rival Cisco has seen its share price rise by $25 to more than $60 as the company has gained its role in providing the hardware for the Internet. And for most of the year it has been competing with computer chip maker Intel for the second place. Intels Pentium chips are widely used in personal computers worldwide. The company that now holds the title of the worlds biggest company is an industrial giant which makes everything from toasters to jet engines. GE has sales of $110 billion-nearly ten times that of Microsoft and 340,000 employees worldwide. It has seen its profits grow by 15% a year to $11 billion. GE Capital Services, its financial subsidiary, make up nearly half its sales. GE produces power generation systems, locomotive, medical imaging equipment and electrical appliances. It also owns the U.S. television network NBC and its financial news subsidiary, CNBC, and ironically, a joint venture with Microsoft to provide news on the Internet. Microsofts shares now face a further period of uncertainty as the companys legal battle continues. It could also face difficulty in recruiting and retaining employees whose pay has been boosted by their share options. The Seattle based firm is likely to go to an appeals court on any rulings. It could suffer further losses from lawsuits brought by competitors, who would be able to claim triple damages for any losses suffered. And with its energy and resources tied up in the lawsuits, the company may find it difficult to continue to innovate in the future, or move so aggressively to buy up competitors.Why is it difficult for Microsoft to retain employeesABecause it faces an uncertai