1、This week's decision by the GMB union to bring a legal case against firms delivering for Amazon,the rcommerce giant,throws into sharp relief how much the modern economy has been stretched to benefit a monopolistic form of tech-capitalism.On the surface,the action is about employment law:it argues that couriers working for three delivery companies are not entrepreneurs working for themselves who contract their labour to anyone willing to pay,but are in fact employees of Amazon's latent delivery and logistics network.If the trade union is right,then these couriers should be treated as staff and paid the minimum wage,as well as sick and holiday pay.Amazon has established itself as an essential part of the internet economy and its dominance-its sheer scale and breadth-has been enabled in part by privatising profit and socialising losses.The firm seems to be firmly establishing a model of cheap-labour doorstep delivery by recognising an easily divided workforce is more easily conquered.This model may also one day compete with the Royal Mail;Amazon is reportedly planning to launch its own delivery service to rival the state-owned US Postal Service.Amazon's skill is not just in technology but also in finance.Last year it generated UK sales of￡9bn,a quarter more than the previous 12 months-while pre-tax profits halved to just￡24m.Its effective UK profit margin is just 0.3%.an indication perhaps of its low pricing strategy.In revolutionising e-commerce the company has delivered enormous benefits to consumers:but at what cost?Surely it is morally right that large employers are accountable for the treatment of workers down the supply chain,so long as they are economically dependent on them.Amazon might think differently.The tech giant wants privileged treatment because it thinks only corporate monopolies,with their economies of scale and ability to innovate,can promote growth.This view should be resisted.Amazon's service ensures consumers are better off,but undue focus on this neglects the interests of workers,rival entrepreneurs and voters.This is why the spirit of employment law must be honoured so Amazon shoulders the responsibility(and the cost)for contracted workers,or works out how to compel its suppliers to do so.Amazon clearly would like to control the pipes of capitalism,drawing off consumer demand for itself when it is lucrative to do so and charging others for use of its network.Amazon's website is the dominant platform for online retail sales.Whether it is cloud computing or what ebooks are published,Amazon wants business to be done in arenas where it sets the rules.This i.s bad for democracy.Commerce ought to reside in markets governed by regulations set by democratic political process not those chosen by the world's richest men. According to Paragraph l,the GMB union

　　A hurts Amazon's regular employees.

　　B actually encourages Amazon's monopoly.

　　C is dissatisfied with employment law.

　　D deems the couriers to be Amazon's staff.

　　正确答案：D  

　　答案解析：首段②句指出，工会认为亚马逊合作快递公司的快递员不是个体户，而是亚马逊快递物流网的雇员(in fact employees of Amazon's.…);随后进一步说明：亚马逊应该把他们视为自己的员T(should be treated as staff).给予与正式工同等的待遇，可见D.正确。[解题技巧]A.从末句“应给予快递员正式员工待遇”过度推断出“正式员工的利益受连累”。B.把首句throws into sharp relief how mucl1.benefit a monopolistic form.…(工会决议突显“现代经济催生技术企业垄断”)反向曲解为“工会助长垄断”。C.源于②句“表面看这是劳动法问题(其实更是垄断的负面影响问题)”，但此处并非表示“劳动法存争议”.相反.工会通过劳动法维护快递员权益。

　　2、"Welfare makes people lazy"is an intellectual pillar of conservative economic theory,which recommends cutting programs like Medicaid and cash assistance,partly out of a fear that self-reliance degenerates in the face of government assistance.Many economists have for decades argued that this orthodoxy is simply wrong.Welfare isn't just a moral imperative to raise the Iiving standards of the poor.lt's also a critical investment in the health and future careers of low-income kids.However,a core mission of the Republican Party is to reduce government aid to the poor.Many conservative economists argue that some adults might reject certain jobs or longer work hours because doing so would eliminate their eligibility for programs like Medicaid.But this concern has little basis in reality.One of the latest studies on the subject found that Medicaid has"little if any"impact on employment or work hours.In research based in Canada and the U.S.,the economist Ioana Marinescu has found that even when basic-income programs do reduce working hours,adults don't typically stay home to,say,play video games;instead,they often use the extra cash to go back to school or hold out for a more desirable job.But the standard conservative critique of Medicaid and other welfare programs is wrong on another plane entirely.It fails to account for the conclusion of a 2015 paper:Anti-poverty programs can work wonders for their youngest recipients.According to the paper,American adults whose families had access to prenatal coverage under Medicaid have lower rates of obesity,higher rates of high-school graduation,and higher incomes as adults than those from similar households in states without Medicaid."Welfare helps people work"may sound like a strange and counterintuitive claim to some.But it is perfectly obvious when the word people in that sentence refers to low-income children in poor households.Poverty and lack of access to health care is a physical,psychological,and vocational burden for children.Poverty is a slow-motion trauma,and impoverished children are more likely than their middle-class peers to suffer from chronic physiological stress and exhibit antisocial behavior.It's self-evident that relieving children of an ambient trauma improves their lives and,indeed,relieved of these burdens,children from poorer households are more likely to follow the path from high-school graduation to college and then full-time employment,Republicans have a complicated relationship with the American Dream.Conservative politicians praise the virtues of hard work and opportunity.But when they use these virtues to strongly criticize welfare programs,they ignore the overwhelming evidence that government aid relieves low-income children of the psychological and physiological stresses that get in the way of embracing those very ideals.Welfare is so much more than a substitute for a paycheck.It is a remedy for the myriad burdens of childhood poverty,which gives children the opportunity to become exactly the sort of healthy and striving adults celebrated by both political parties. According to loana Marinescu.basic-income programs

　　A justify concerns over aid dependency.

　　B will not reduce working hours.

　　C help raise the employment rate.

　　D allow people to make progress.

　　正确答案：D  

　　答案解析：第三段末句介绍Ioana的研究发现：就算工作时长因基本收入计划缩短了，工作者也往往不会懒在家中.而是会利用福利项目发放的资金重返校园充实自己或者等待一份更理想的工作，即基本收入计划为自我提升提供了条件，故D.正确。[解题技巧]首句“这种担忧基本没有现实依据”为第三段主旨句，而经济学家Ioana的观点属于正面论据，A.与段落主旨相悖.B.、C.对②句“医疗补助(与基本收入计划同为福利项目)对就业和工作时长几乎没有影响”断章取义，其中B.将“little if any”篡改为表示否定的will not，忽略了末句even when体现的“仍可能发生”小概率情形，C.将“little if any'’篡改为表示肯定的help raise.…，也与②句语义相悖。

　　3、The Open University,one of the great successes of modern Britain,is facing a crisis.On the surface,this centres on the embattled vice-chancellor.Peter Horrocks,whom the staff want to resign.The UCU(University and College Union)branch at the university has passed a motion of no confidence in him.and says he no longer commands the respect of staff.The immediate cause was a remark for which he has been forced to apologise,to the effect that some academics had been allowed"to get away with not teaching for decades",but this came in a context of brutal budget cuts he has proposed.More profoundly.the crisis exposes a huge disagreement about what actually constitutes teaching,and why it is a worthwhile activity.Is it a way to produce exam resulis and certificates of employability,or is the purpose to share whaiever makes a subject worth studying for itself,and to inculcate the skills that will enable students to glimpse and pursue that vision?But the deeper crisis reaches far beyond the vice-chancellor's inadequacies.Some of the challenges facing the university are simply a result of the huge changes in society and technology since it was founded in 1969.In the early days,staff agonised over whether to include colour in their television programmes,since many viewers might still own black and white sets.In those days,too.there was a very large pool of middle-aged people who had been denied tertiary education,and for whom this really was the university of the seconcl chance.But the pool of second chancers has now largely gone the way of black and white televisions.Those are difficulties that would face the university under any administration.So would the widespread competition in the field of distance learning.But with all that said,it is central government that is largely responsible for the difficulties of the OU.The government's conception of higher education as a marketplace where students can shop for qualifications is profoundly destructive to all universities,and the OU is only the most exposed and vulnerable.The introduction,and then the tripling,of tuition fees has wrecked its financial model,so that student numbers have dropped by a third since 2010.The only thing to fall as fast has been the university's rating for student satisfaction,from lst t0 47th.So much for the conception of universities as selling to"customers",rather than teaching students.The university is an institution that enriches the lives of those who attend it.It is on that basis that the government should still recognise,and support,the ideal that everyone deserves access to the benefits of a real university,whatever their past,and whenever they decide they need it. Peter Horrocks has come under criticism directly due to his《》()

　　A improper statement.

　　B planned brutal budget cuts.

　　C short-sighted teaching vision.

　　D infeasible managerial practices.

　　正确答案：A  

　　答案解析：首段①句明确指出霍洛克斯招致全体教职员工不满的直接原因是“他说过的一句话，为这句话他还被迫道歉过”，可见，霍洛克斯招致教职员工不满的直接原因是其某个不恰当言论，故A.正确。[解题技巧]B.是教职员工不满霍洛克斯的背景，但并非直接原因。C.源自末两句碎片信息ieaching、vision.但文中vision实际指代“某一学科的真知灼见/精华”而非“霍洛克斯的教育卓见”;同时末两句所述“教育()R市场”这一拉锯战是整个教育体制面临的问题，而霍洛克斯本人对“教育OR市场”这一问题的真实看法并不知晓.所以无法确认他的教育设想是短浅还是长远。D.由②③句所述霍洛克斯所处的境地“教职员工想辞退他、大学学院工会对他没有信心、教职员工不再尊敬他”以及第三段administraiion一词凭空捏造出“他的管理实践不可行”，而文中并未提到他的管理措施。

　　4、This week's decision by the GMB union to bring a legal case against firms delivering for Amazon,the rcommerce giant,throws into sharp relief how much the modern economy has been stretched to benefit a monopolistic form of tech-capitalism.On the surface,the action is about employment law:it argues that couriers working for three delivery companies are not entrepreneurs working for themselves who contract their labour to anyone willing to pay,but are in fact employees of Amazon's latent delivery and logistics network.If the trade union is right,then these couriers should be treated as staff and paid the minimum wage,as well as sick and holiday pay.Amazon has established itself as an essential part of the internet economy and its dominance-its sheer scale and breadth-has been enabled in part by privatising profit and socialising losses.The firm seems to be firmly establishing a model of cheap-labour doorstep delivery by recognising an easily divided workforce is more easily conquered.This model may also one day compete with the Royal Mail;Amazon is reportedly planning to launch its own delivery service to rival the state-owned US Postal Service.Amazon's skill is not just in technology but also in finance.Last year it generated UK sales of￡9bn,a quarter more than the previous 12 months-while pre-tax profits halved to just￡24m.Its effective UK profit margin is just 0.3%.an indication perhaps of its low pricing strategy.In revolutionising e-commerce the company has delivered enormous benefits to consumers:but at what cost?Surely it is morally right that large employers are accountable for the treatment of workers down the supply chain,so long as they are economically dependent on them.Amazon might think differently.The tech giant wants privileged treatment because it thinks only corporate monopolies,with their economies of scale and ability to innovate,can promote growth.This view should be resisted.Amazon's service ensures consumers are better off,but undue focus on this neglects the interests of workers,rival entrepreneurs and voters.This is why the spirit of employment law must be honoured so Amazon shoulders the responsibility(and the cost)for contracted workers,or works out how to compel its suppliers to do so.Amazon clearly would like to control the pipes of capitalism,drawing off consumer demand for itself when it is lucrative to do so and charging others for use of its network.Amazon's website is the dominant platform for online retail sales.Whether it is cloud computing or what ebooks are published,Amazon wants business to be done in arenas where it sets the rules.This i.s bad for democracy.Commerce ought to reside in markets governed by regulations set by democratic political process not those chosen by the world's richest men. The author indicates in the last paragraph that the rules of commerce should

　　A avoid being manipulated by monopolies.

　　B aim at curbing dominant companies.

　　C ensure online business'slable development.

　　D take consumer demand into account.

　　正确答案：A  

　　答案解析：文章末尾指出，商业应该存在于这样的市场：管控的规则由民主的政策流程制定，而非最有钱的人说了算。the world's richest men代指亚马逊为代表的垄断或具垄断趋势的企业.A.正确。[解题技巧]B.干扰较大，作者确实希望亚马逊得到遏制，但呼吁的对象不是“商业规则”，而是“监管者(对大企业自定规则的现状进行遏制)”，且商业规则应旨在约束一切不合规行为，而非仅遏制大企业。C.从②③句中的online reiail sales、cloud computing、ebooks等信息臆测作者不希望商业规则影响在线商务的稳定发展，但它们实际旨在引出亚马逊想一家独大，凌驾法规之上的野心。D.源于首句信息“抽走消费者需求为己所用”，但这是亚马逊垄断的体现，不涉及“商业规则忽视消费者需求”。

　　5、The Open University,one of the great successes of modern Britain,is facing a crisis.On the surface,this centres on the embattled vice-chancellor.Peter Horrocks,whom the staff want to resign.The UCU(University and College Union)branch at the university has passed a motion of no confidence in him.and says he no longer commands the respect of staff.The immediate cause was a remark for which he has been forced to apologise,to the effect that some academics had been allowed"to get away with not teaching for decades",but this came in a context of brutal budget cuts he has proposed.More profoundly.the crisis exposes a huge disagreement about what actually constitutes teaching,and why it is a worthwhile activity.Is it a way to produce exam resulis and certificates of employability,or is the purpose to share whaiever makes a subject worth studying for itself,and to inculcate the skills that will enable students to glimpse and pursue that vision?But the deeper crisis reaches far beyond the vice-chancellor's inadequacies.Some of the challenges facing the university are simply a result of the huge changes in society and technology since it was founded in 1969.In the early days,staff agonised over whether to include colour in their television programmes,since many viewers might still own black and white sets.In those days,too.there was a very large pool of middle-aged people who had been denied tertiary education,and for whom this really was the university of the seconcl chance.But the pool of second chancers has now largely gone the way of black and white televisions.Those are difficulties that would face the university under any administration.So would the widespread competition in the field of distance learning.But with all that said,it is central government that is largely responsible for the difficulties of the OU.The government's conception of higher education as a marketplace where students can shop for qualifications is profoundly destructive to all universities,and the OU is only the most exposed and vulnerable.The introduction,and then the tripling,of tuition fees has wrecked its financial model,so that student numbers have dropped by a third since 2010.The only thing to fall as fast has been the university's rating for student satisfaction,from lst t0 47th.So much for the conception of universities as selling to"customers",rather than teaching students.The university is an institution that enriches the lives of those who attend it.It is on that basis that the government should still recognise,and support,the ideal that everyone deserves access to the benefits of a real university,whatever their past,and whenever they decide they need it. The UCU branch at the OU regards Peter Horrocks as a leader who is《》()

　　A aggressive.

　　B incompetent.

　　C unconfident.

　　D ineloquent.

　　正确答案：B  

　　答案解析：首段③句指出英国大学学院工会OU分会通过一项对“霍洛克斯没有信心”的动议，并且指出他不再赢得全体教职工的尊重。可见该分会认为霍洛克斯未能胜任好其校长之职，故B.正确。[解题技巧]A.由前段②句enlhattled望文生义出aggressive“好斗的”之意，而该词实际意为“被敌人/困难/问题重重包围的”;C.由首段③句no confidence in him曲解出“他没有信心”，而文意实为“英国大学学院工会OU分会对他没有信心”;D.dl首段④句a remark for which he has been forced to apologise“他被迫为自己所说的一句活道歉”捏造出“他不善言辞”。

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