2013年6月四级考试真题(第1套)12760.pdf
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1、 学英语 找长喜 2 Part II Reading Comprehension(Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 17,choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C)and D).For questions 810,
2、complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Surviving the Recession Americas recession began quietly at the end of 2007.Since then it has evolved into a global crisis.Reasonable people may disagree about whom to blame.Financiers who were not as clever as they thought they were?R
3、egulators falling asleep at work?Consumers who borrowed too much?Politicians who thoughtlessly promoted home-ownership for those who could not afford it?All are guilty;and what a mess they have created.Since 2007 America has shed 5 million jobs.More than 15%of the workforce are jobless or underemplo
4、yed roughly 25 million workers.The only industries swelling their payrolls are health care,utilities and the federal government.The value of listed shares in American firms collapsed by 57%from its peak in October 2007 to a low in March this year,though it has since bounced back somewhat.Industrial
5、production fell by 12.8%in the year to March,the worst slide since the Second World War.Mark Zandi,an economist at Moodys E,predicts that the recession will shrink Americas economy by 3.5%in total.For most executives,this is the 学英语 找长喜 3 worst business environment theyve ever seen.Times are so toug
6、h that even bosses are taking pay cuts.Median(中位数的)pay for chief executives of S&P 500 companies fell 6.8%in 2008.The overthrown giants of Wall Street took the biggest knock,with average pay cuts of 38%and median bonuses of zero.But there was some pain for everyone:median pay for chief executives of
7、 non-financial firms in the S&P 500 fell by 2.7%.Nearly every business has a sad tale to tell.For example,Arne Sorenson,the president of Marriott hotels,likens the crisis to the downturn that hit his business after September 11th,2001.When the twin towers fell,Americans stopped travelling.Marriott h
8、ad its worst quarter ever,with revenues per room falling by 25%.This year,without a terrorist attack,the hotel industry is“putting the same numbers on the board”,says Mr Sorenson.The hotel bust(不景气),like most busts,was preceded by a breathtaking boom.Although many other big firms resisted the tempta
9、tion to over-borrow,developers borrowed heavily and built bigger and fancier hotels as if the whole world were planning a holiday in Las Vegas.When the bubble burst,demand collapsed.Hotel owners found themselves with a huge number of empty rooms even as a lot of unnecessary new hotels were ready to
10、open.Other industries have suffered even more.Large numbers of builders,property firms and retailers have gone bankrupt.And a disaster has hit Detroit.Last year the American car industry had the capacity to make 17 million vehicles.Sales in 2009 could be barely half of that.The Big Three American ca
11、rmakersGeneral Motors,Ford and Chrysleraccumulated ruinous costs over the post-war years,such as gold-plated health plans and pensions for workers who retired as young as 48.All three are desperately restructuring.Only Ford may survive in its current form.Hard times breed hard feelings.Few Americans
12、 understand what caused the recession.Some are seeking scapegoats(替罪羊).Politicians are happy to take advantage.Bosses have been summoned to Washington to be scolded on live television.The president condemns their greed.Extravagance(奢侈)is out Businessfolk are bending over backwards to avoid seeming e
13、xtravagant.Meetings at resorts are suddenly unacceptable.Goldman Sachs,an investment bank,cancelled a conference in Las Vegas at the last minute and rebooked it in San Francisco,which cost more but sounded less 学英语 找长喜 4 Anyway,the pain will eventually end.American business will regain its shine.Man
14、y firms will die,but the survivors will emerge leaner and stronger than before.The financial sectors share of the economy will shrink,and stay shrunk for years to come.The importance of non-financial firms will accordingly rise,along with their ability to attract the best talent.America will remain
15、the best place on earth to do business,so long as Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress resist the temptation to interfere too much,and so long as organised labour does not overplay its hand.The crisis will prove hugely disruptive(破坏性的),however.Bad management techniques will be exposed.Necessit
16、y will force the swift adoption of more efficient ones.At the same time,technological innovation(创新)will barely pause for breath,and two big political changes seem likely.Mr Obamas plan to curb carbon dioxide(CO2)emissions(排放),though necessary,will be far from cost-free,whatever his sunny speeches o
17、n the subject might suggest.The shift to a low-carbon economy will help some firms,hurt others and require every organisation that uses much energy to rethink how it operates.It is harder to predict how Mr Obamas proposed reforms to the failing health-care system will turn out.If he succeeds in curb
18、ing costsa big ifit would be a huge gain for America.Some businesses will benefit but the vast bulk of the savings will be captured by workers,not their employers.In the next couple of years the businesses that thrive will be those that are tight with costs,careful of debt,cautious with cash flow an
19、d extremely attentive to what customers want.They will include plenty of names no one has yet heard of.Times change,and corporations change with them.In 1955 Times Man of the Year was Harlow Curtice,the boss of GM.His firm was leading America towards“a new economic order”,the magazine wrote.Thanks t
20、o men like Curtice,“the bonds of scarcity”had been broken and America was rolling“to an all-time high of prosperity”.Soon,Americans would need to spend“comparatively little time earning a living”.Half a century later GM is a typical example of poor management.In March its chief executive was fired b
21、y Times current Man of the Year,Mr Obama.The government now backs up the domestic car industry,lending it money and overseeing its turnaround plans.With luck,this 学英语 找长喜 5 will be short-lived.But there is a danger that Washington will end up micromanaging not only Detroit but also other parts of th
22、e economy.And clever as Mr Obamas advisers are,history suggests they will be bad at this.1.From the first paragraph,we learn that Americas recession is the result of _.A)a messy real estate market C)unregulated competition B)a combination of causes D)financiers mismanagement 2.At the worst time,the
23、total value of listed shares in American firms shrank by _.A)57%C)12.8%B)15%D)3.5%3.According to Arne Sorenson,the president of Marriott hotels,the current recession _.A)was the worst he had ever seen since World War II B)reduced his revenues to a quarter of normal years C)hit his business as hard a
24、s the 9/11 terrorist attack D)spoiled his plans to build more hotels in Las Vegas 4.The Big Three American carmakers need restructuring to survive because _.A)their production capacity has shrunk to less than half of the previous year B)their technology has fallen behind their competitors elsewhere
25、in the world C)they have borrowed too heavily and accumulated too large amounts of debt D)they cannot cope with the ruinous costs accumulated over the post-war years 5.Goldman Sachs,an investment bank,cancelled a conference in Las Vegas in order to _.A)raise its efficiency C)avoid seeming wasteful B
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