2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析.doc

2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析Section I Use of English（江南博哥）Directions:Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)Its not difficult to set targets for staff. It is much harder, _(1), to understand their negative consequences. Most work-related behaviors have multiple components. _(2)one and the others become distorted.Travel on a London bus and youll _(3)see how this works with drivers. Watch people get on and show their tickets. Are they carefully inspected? Never. Do people get on without paying? Of course! Are there inspectors to _(4)that people have paid? Possibly, but very few. And people who run for the bus? They are _(5). How about jumping lights? Buses do so almost as frequently as cyclists.Why? Because the target is _(6).People complained that buses were late and infrequent. _(7), the number of buses and bus lanes were increased, and drivers were _(8)or punished according to the time they took. And drivers hit these targets. But they _(9)hit cyclists. If the target was changed to _(10),you would have more inspectors and more sensitive pricing. If the criterion changed to safety, you would get more _(11)drivers who obeyed traffic laws. But both these criteria would be at the expense of time.There is another _(12)people became immensely inventive in hitting targets. Have you _(13)that you can leave on a flight but still arrive on time? Tailwinds? Of course not! Airlines have simply changed the time a _(14)is meant to take. A one-hour flight is now ballad as a two-hour flight.The _(15)of the story is simple. Most jobs are multidimensional, with multiple criteria. Choose one criterion and you may well _(16)others. Everything Can be done faster and made cheaper, but there is a _(17). Setting targets can and does have unforeseen negative consequences.This is not an argument against target-setting. But it is an argument for exploring consequences first. All good targets should have multiple criteria _(18)critical factors such as time, money, quality and customer feedback. The trick is not only to _(19)just one or even two dimensions of the objective, but also to understand how to help people better _(20)the objective.1.【题干】1._.【选项】A.thereforeB.howeverC.againD.moreover【答案】B2.【题干】2._.【选项】A.EmphasizeB.IdentifyC.AssessD.Explain【答案】A3.【题干】3._.【选项】A.nearlyB.curiouslyC.eagerlyD.quickly【答案】D4.【题干】4._.【选项】A.claimB.proveC.cheekD.recall【答案】C5.【题干】5._.【选项】A.threatenedB.ignoredC.mockedD.blamed【答案】B2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 6.【题干】6._.【选项】A.punctualityB.hospitalityC.competitionD.innovation【答案】A7.【题干】7._.【选项】A.YetB.SoC.BesidesD.Still【答案】B8.【题干】8._.【选项】A.hiredB.trainedC.rewardedD.grouped【答案】C9.【题干】9._.【选项】A.onlyB.ratherC.onceD.also【答案】D10.【题干】10._.【选项】A.comfortB.revenueC.efficiencyD.security【答案】B11.【题干】11._.【选项】A.friendlyB.quietC.cautiousD.diligent【答案】C12.【题干】12._.【选项】A.purposeB.problemC.prejudiceD.policy【答案】B13.【题干】13._.【选项】A.interestingB.revealedC.admittedD.noticed【答案】D2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 14.【题干】14._.【选项】A.breakB.tripC.departureD.transfer【答案】B15.【题干】15._.【选项】A.moralB.backgroundC.styleD.form【答案】A16.【题干】16._.【选项】A.interpretB.criticizeC.sacrificeD.tolerate【答案】C17.【题干】17._.【选项】A.taskB.secretC.productD.cost【答案】D18.【题干】18._.【选项】A.leading toB.calling forC.relating toD.accounting for【答案】C19.【题干】19._.【选项】A.specifyB.predictC.restoreD.create【答案】A20.【题干】20._.【选项】A.modifyB.reviewC.presentD.achieve【答案】D2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 Section II Reading Comprehension Part ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Reskilling is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually a requirement if we plan to have a future where a lot of would-be workers do not get left behind.We know we are moving into a period where the jobs in demand will change rapidly, as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. Research by the WEF detailed in the Harvard Business Review, finds that on average 42 per cent of the "core skill" within job roles will change by 2022. That is a very short timeline, so we can only imagine what the changes will be further in the future.The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. For individual companies, the temptation is always to let go of workers whose skills are no longer demand and replace them with those whose skills are. That does not always happen. AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company who decided to do a massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hire strategy ultimately retraining 18,000 employees. Prepandemic, other companies including Amazon and Disney had also pledged to create their own plans. When the skills mismatch is in the broader economy though, the focus usually turns to government to handle. Efforts in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languid at best, and have given us a situation where we frequently hear of employers begging for workers even at times and in regions where unemployment is high.With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed. In February, at 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively, unemployment rates in Canada and the United States were at generational lows and worker shortages were everywhere. As of May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, and although many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had done so. In the medical field, to take an obvious example the pandemic meant that there were still clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train him to be doctor in few weeks, no matter who pays for it. But even if you cannot close that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing so would be to the benefit of all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden, where the pandemic kick-started a retraining program where business as well as government had a role.Reskilling in this way would be challenging in a North American context. You can easily imagine chorus of "cant do that" because teachers or nurses or whoever have special skills, and using any support who has been quickly trained is bound to end in disaster, Maybe. Or maybe it is something that can work well in Sweden, with its history of co-operation between businesses, labor and government, but not in North America where our history is very different. Then again, maybe it is akin to wartime, when extraordinary things take place but it is business as usual after the fact. And yet, as in war the pandemic is teaching us that many things, including rapid reskilling, can be done if there is a will to do them. In any case. Swedens work force is now more skilled, in more things, and more flexible than it was before.Of course, reskilling programs, whether for pandemic needs or the post pandemic world, are expensive and at a time when everyones budgets are lean this may not be the time to implement them. Then again, extending income support programs to get us through the next months is expensive, too, to say nothing of the cost of having a swath of long-term unemployed in the POST-COVID years given that, perhaps we should think hard about whether the pandemic can jump-start us to a place where reskilling becomes much more than a buzzword.21.【题干】Research by the World Economic Forum suggests_【选项】A.an increase in full-time employmentB.an urgent demand for new job skillsC.a steady growth of job opportunitiesD.a controversy about the "core skills"【答案】B2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 22.【题干】AT&T is cited to show_【选项】A.an alternative to the fire-and-hire strategyB.an immediate need for government supportC.the importance of staff appraisal standardsD.the characteristics of reskilling program【答案】A23.【题干】Efforts to resolve the skills mismatch in Canada_【选项】A.have driven up labor costsB.have proved to be inconsistentC.have met with fierce oppositionD.have appeared to be insufficient【答案】D24.【题干】We can learn from Paragraph 3 that there was_.【选项】A.a call for policy adjustment.B.a change in hiring practices.C.a lack of medical workers.D.a sign of economic recovery.【答案】C25.【题干】Scandinavian Airlines decided to_.【选项】A.Great job vacancies for the unemployed.B.Prepare their laid-off workers for other jobs.C.Retrain their cabin staff for better services.D.finance their staffs college education.【答案】BWith the global population predicted to hit close to 10 billion by 2050, and forecasts that agricultural production in one regions will need to nearly double to keep pace, food security is increasingly making headlines In the UK, it has become a big talking point recently too, for a rather particular reason: Brexit.Brexit is seen by some as an opportunity to reverse a recent trend towards the UK importing food. The country produces only about 60 per cent of the food it eats, down from almost three-quarters in the late 1980s. A move back to self-sufficiency, the argument goes, would boost the farming industry, political sovereignty and even the nations health, Sounds great but how feasible is this vision?According to a report on UK food production from the University of Leeds, UK, 85 percent of the countrys total land area is associated with meat and dairy production. That supplies 80 percent of what is consumed, so even covering the whole country in livestock farms wouldnt allow us to cover all our meat and dairy needs.There are many caveats to those figures, but they are still grave. To become much more self-sufficient. The UK would need to drastically reduce its consumption of animal foods, and probably also farm more intensively meaning fewer green fields and more factory style production.2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 But switching to a mainly plant-based diet wouldnt help. There is a good reason why the UK is dominated by animal husbandry, most of its terrain doesnt have the right soil or climate to grow crops on commercial basis. Just 25 per cent of the countrys land is suitable for crop-growing, most of which is already occupied by arable fields. Even if we converted all the suitable land to fields of fruit and vegetable which would involve taking out all the nature reserves and removing thousands of people from their homes-we would achieve only a 30 percent boost in crop production.Just 23 per cent of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK are currently home-grown, so even with the most extreme measures we could meet only 30 per cent of our fresh produce needs. That is before we look for the space to grow the grains, sugars, seeds and oils that provide us with the vast bulk of our current calorie intake.26.【题干】Some people argue that food self-sufficiency in the UK would_.【选项】A.a be hindered by its population growthB.contribute to the nations well-beingC.become a priority of the governmentD.post a challenge to its farming industry【答案】D27.【题干】The report by the University of Leeds showed that in the UK_.【选项】A.farmland has been inefficiently utilisedB.factory style production needs reformingC.most land is used for meat and dairy productionD.more green fields will be converted for farming【答案】C28.【题干】Crop-growing in the UK is restricted due to_.【选项】A.its farming technologyB.its dietary traditionC.its natural conditionsD.its commercial interests【答案】C29.【题干】It can be learned from the last paragraph that British people_.【选项】A.rely largely on imports for fresh produceB.enjoy a steady rise in fruit consumptionC.are seeking effective ways to cut calorie intakeD.are trying to grow new varieties of grains【答案】A30.【题干】The authors attitude to food self-efficiency in the UK is_.【选项】A.defensiveB.doubtfulC.tolerantD.optimistic【答案】B2021年考研英语二真题及参考答案解析 When Microsoft bought task management app. Wunerlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked up two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsoft own Office dominates the market for "productivity" software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smartphone world.Both apps, however, were later scrapped, after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products. Their teams of engineers stayed on, making them two of the many "acqui-hires" that the biggest companies have used to feed their insatiable hunger for tech talent.To Microsofts critics, the fates of Wunderlist and Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their path. "They bought the seedlings and closed them down," complained Paul Amold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting paid to businesses that might one day tum into competitors. Microsoft declined to comment.Like other start-up investors, Mr Amolds own business often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result: "I think these things are good for me, if I put my selfish hat on. But are they good for the American economy? I dont know."The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question. This week, it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade. Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach.Given their combined market value of more than$5.5tm, rifling through such small deals-many of them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise-might seem beside the point. Between them, the five companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook) have spent an average of only $3.4 billion a year on sub-$1 billion acquisitions over the past five years-a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and the more than $130 billion of ve