Section II Reading Comprehension

　　Part A

　　Directions :

　　Read the following four passages. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C, or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET .(40 points)

　　 

　　Text 1

　　Most American movies are produced in Hollywood, California. Hollywood, which is actually not a separate city but a part of Los Angeles, is an ideal spot for the movie industry. The sun shines most of the time, and the climate is mild. Almost every kind of natural scenery is within a few hours’ drive.

　　Hollywood becomes the center of national attention one evening a year-Academy Award night. At the Academy Award presentation held each spring, statuettes called Oscars are given to film industry winners in dozens of categories, including best actor, best actress, and best picture. The winners are chosen by members of the industry before the ceremony, but their names are kept secret until presentation night, when they are announced in a long, nationally televised program.

　　Motion pictures were extremely popular in the United States after World War II, when television captured much of the movie audience. Geared to the masses, Hollywood movies offered much the same type of entertainment as television does. With free entertainment in their homes, many Americans simply stopped going to movies. Between 1946 and 1956, movie attendance was cut in half. At the same time, production costs zoomed. The movie industry was in trouble.

　　The industry adjusted itself in a number of ways. Movie companies rented sound stages to TV companies and sold old movies to TV. To cut costs, Hollywood produced fewer movies and filmed many of them overseas. To lure audiences, the industry invested in new lenses, wider screens, and stereophonic sound. Studios also began producing kinds of entertainment that could not be offered by TV-films with controversial or shocking themes, films with huge casts and lavish settings. As a result of these changes, today the American motion picture industry is thriving.

　　21.What makes Hollywood a great place for American movie industry according to the passage?

　　[A] A famous part of Los Angeles

　　[B] Favorable natural and traffic conditions

　　[C] Natural scenery with mild climate and the shining sun

　　[D] A great industrial base of American

　　22.Which one about Oscars is correct according to the passage?

　　[A] It is the name of a great film figure

　　[B] It is given to World Academy Award in America each year

　　[C] It is a yearly honor to winners in movie industry

　　[D] It doesn’t produce until Academy Award night in each spring

　　23.Why did many Americans like entertaining in homes instead of going to cinema after World War II?

　　[A] Because the quality of film was becoming worse and worse

　　[B] Because Hollywood movies couldn’t offer entertainment similar to television

　　[C] Because the movie industry was in trouble for expensive production cost

　　[D] Because TV’s popularity made them enjoy without paying

　　24.What does the word “zoomed” (in the last sentence of the third paragraph) mean?

　　[A] Moved along very quickly

　　[B] Rose upward into the air

　　[C] Increased high in price

　　[D] Moved with a low humming noise

　　25.The movie industry tried many methods to lure audiences except__________.

　　[A] building commercial relationship with TV companies

　　[B] improving its basic equipment

　　[C] producing films with famous stars in low cost

　　[D] offering types of entertainment different from TV

　　 

　　Text2

　　The Arctic Ocean has given up tens of thousands more square kilometers of ice in a relentless summer of melt, with scientists watching through satellite eyes for a possible record low polar ice cap.

　　From the barren Arctic shore of a village in Canada’s far northwest, veteran observer Eddie Gruben has seen the summer ice retreating more each decade as the world has warmed. By this weekend the ice edge lay 128 kilometers at sea, but forty years ago, it was 64 kilometers out. Global average temperatures rose 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, but Arctic temperatures rose twice as much or even faster, almost certainly in large part because of manmade greenhouse gases, researchers say. In late July the mercury soared to almost 86 degrees Fahrenheit in this settlement of 900 Arctic Eskimos.

　　As of Thursday, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Date Center reported, the polar ice cap extended over 6.75 million square kilometers after having shrunk an average 106,000 square kilometers a day in July—equivalent to one Indiana or three Belgiums daily. The rate of melt was similar to that of July 2007, the year when the ice cap dwindled to a record minimum extent of 4.3 million square kilometers in September. In its latest analysis, NSIDC said Arctic atmospheric conditions this summer have been similar to those of the summer of 2007, including a high-pressure ridge that produced clear skies and strong melt in the Beaufort Sea, the arm of the Arctic Ocean off northern Alaska and northwestern Canada.

　　Scientists say the makeup of the frozen polar sea has shifted significantly the past few years, as thick multiyear ice has given way as the Arctic’s dominant form to thin ice that comes and goes with each winter and summer. The past few years have “signaled a fundamental change in the character of the ice and the Arctic climate,” Meier said. Ironically, the summer melts since 2007 appear to have allowed disintegrating but still thick multiyear ice to drift this year into the relatively narrow channels of the Northwest Passage. Usually, impassable channels had been relatively ice-free the past two summers.

　　Observation satellites’ remote sensors will tell researchers in September whether the polar cap diminished this summer to its smallest size on record. Then the sun will begin to slip below the horizon for several months, and temperatures plunging in the polar darkness will freeze the surface of the sea again, leaving this and other Arctic coastlines in the grip of ice. Most of the sea ice will be new, thinner and weaker annual formations, however.

　　At a global conference last March in Copenhagen, scientists declared that climate change is occurring faster than had been anticipated, citing the fast-dying Arctic cap as one example. A month later, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years, not at the century’s end earlier predicted.

　　26.The word “retreating” (Line2, Paragraph2) most probably means________.

　　[A] withdrawing [B] moving back

　　[C] melting [D] treating again

　　27.We may infer from Paragraph 2 and 3 that____________.

　　[A] rising Arctic temperatures result completely from manmade greenhouse gases

　　[B] the summer ice edge was 192 kilometers at sea 40 years ago

　　[C] the polar ice cap was over 6.87million square kilometers in July

　　[D] the ice cap reduced to a record low minimum extent in July

　　28.We may know that summer melts made____________.

　　[A] some impassable channels covered by ice

　　[B] no contribution to the makeup change of polar ice

　　[C] thin ice become multiyear ice

　　[D] the world climate change its character

　　29.We learn from the last two paragraphs that____________.

　　[A] scientists predicted future climate changes accurately

　　[B] the polar cap diminished this summer to its smallest size on record

　　[C] the future ice may be annually formed thinness

　　[D] Arctic summers couldn’t be ice-free until next century

　　30.Which of the following is the best title for this text?

　　[A] Arctic ice lowers to its smallest size

　　[B] Arctic ice disappears under summer sun

　　[C] Why Arctic ice disappears soon

　　[D] Arctic ice closely relates to climate changes

　　Text3

　　The classic American identity theft scam works like this: the thief convinces some bank or credit card company he’s actually you and borrows God knows how many dollars in your name. Once you discover and report this, you’re not liable for money the bank lost, but neither are you entitled to compensation for the time and effort you spend straightening the matter out. Bear in mind that when I say “the thief convinces the bank he’s you”, I’m not talking about a brilliant actor and master of disguise who imitates your voice and mannerisms well enough to fool your own mother. No, all that’s necessary to fool a bank is your birth date and US social security number, or just discarded credit card offer taken from your bin.

　　Why are lenders so careless with their money? The snarky answer is: because they know taxpayers will bail them out. But identity theft was a problem in America long before phrases like “too big to fail” entered our vocabulary. I became an identity-theft statistic nine years ago, when I opened my mail to find a bill for a maxed- out credit card I never knew I had. I spent over two weeks cleaning the mess: filing police reports, calling the company, sitting on hold, getting disconnected and calling back to sit on hold again. Considering my salary back then, I spent over a thousand dollars’ worth of my time and wasn't entitled to a penny in damages.

　　It all could easily have been avoided, had the company made a minimal effort to ensure they were loaning money to me rather than my dishonest doppelganger. So why didn't they? Because that would take time -at least a day or two. And if people had to wait a day between applying for and receiving credit, on-the-spot loans would be impossible. Every major retail chain in America pushes these offers: “Apply for a store credit card and receive 15% off your first purchase!” From the lenders’ perspective, writing off a few bad ID-theft debts is cheaper than losing the lucrative “impulse buyer” market.

　　But that would change if companies had to pay damages to identity theft victims. Should they have to? The supreme court of the state of Maine is currently pondering that question. In March 2008 the Hannaford supermarket chain announced that hackers broke into their database and stole the credit card information of over 4 million customers, some of whom sued Hannaford for damages. None of the customers lost money, of course, but they felt-as I did-that their time and effort are worth something too.

　　It’s too early to know how the court will rule, but I’ll make a prediction anyway: nothing will change from the consumers’ perspective, and protecting lenders from their own bad habits will continue to be our unpaid job. When the worldwide economic meltdown started, I naively thought the subsequent tightening of credit lines would at least make identity theft less of a problem than before. But I was just being silly.

　　31.After suffering from identity theft, you_____________.

　　[A] should pay for money the bank lost

　　[B] are required to report to your bank immediately

　　[C] have to assume the cost of getting your identity back

　　[D] won’t have to take any loss caused by it

　　32.What’s the real meaning of “too big to fail” in para. 2?

　　[A] Leaders are so big that they couldn’t fail at all.

　　[B] Leaders won’t pay for their loaning carelessness.

　　[C] Leaders are big enough to pay for any large loans.

　　[D] America is big enough to solve any problems.

　　33. The 3rd paragraph mainly talks about___________.

　　[A] Why companies take efforts to avoid identity theft

　　[B] The reason of companies’ effortlessness to help avoid identity theft

　　[C] The reason of taking time to solve the problem of identity theft

　　[D] The cause of companies offering on-the-spot loans

　　34. The example in the 4th paragraph is cited to show that________.

　　[A] Companies have paid for damages to identity theft victims

　　[B] Customers often suffer from identity theft in America

　　[C]Companies should be responsible for identity theft

　　[D]Companies often suffer from identity theft in America

　　35. What’s the author’s attitude to current solutions to identity theft?

　　[A] Disappointed [B] Confident

　　[C] Complicated [D] Optimistic

　　Text4

　　Death is a difficult subject for anyone, but Americans want to talk about it less than most. They have a cultural expectation that whatever may be wrong with them, it can be fixed with the right treatment, and if the first doctor does not offer it they may seek a second, third or fourth opinion. Legal action is a constant threat, so even if a patient is very ill and likely to die, doctors and hospitals will still persist with aggressive treatment, paid for by the insurer or, for the elderly, by Medicare. That is one reason why America spends 18% of its GDP on health care, the highest proportion in the world.

　　That does not mean that Americans are getting the world's best health care. For the past 20 years doctors at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice have been compiling the “Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care”, using Medicare data to compare health-spending patterns in different regions and institutions. They find that average costs per patient during the last two years of life in some regions can be almost twice as high as in others, yet patients in the high-spending areas do not survive any longer or enjoy better health as a result.

　　Ira Byock is the director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. His book is a plea for those near the end of their life to be treated more like individuals and less like medical cases on which all available technology must be let loose. With two decades' experience in the field, he makes a good case for sometimes leaving well alone and helping people to die gently if that is what they want.

　　That does not include assisted suicide, which he opposes. But it does include providing enough pain relief to make patients comfortable, co-coordinating their treatment among the different specialists, keeping them informed, having enough staff on hand to see to their needs, making arrangements for them to be cared for at home where possible—and not officiously keeping them alive when there is no hope.

　　But it is not easy to decide when to stop making every effort to save someone's life and allow them to die gently. The book quotes the case of one HIV-positive young man who was acutely ill with multiple infections. He spent over four months in hospital, much of the time on a ventilator, and had countless tests, scans and other interventions. The total bill came to over $1m. He came close to death many times, but eventually pulled through and has now returned to a normal life. It is an uplifting story, but such an outcome is very rare.

　　Dr Byock's writing style is not everybody's cup of tea, but he is surely right to suggest better management of a problem that can only get worse. As life expectancy keeps on rising, so will the proportion of old people in the population. And with 75m American baby-boomers now on the threshold of retirement, there is a limit to what the country can afford to spend to keep them going on and on.

　　36. According to Paragraph 1, the disproportional large spending in health care stems from

　　[A] Americans' failure to admit death as part of their life

　　[B] doctors' inclination to overtreat the patient

　　[C] a culture that is obsessed with youth and health

　　[D] a legal system which has a bias in favor of patients

　　37. The author cited the findings of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical practice to illustrate that

　　[A] the medical care quality differs widely from region to region

　　[B] there is little that hospitals can do in saving people's lives

　　[C] a lot of medical resources are wasted

　　[D] the American medical system is notorious for its low cost-effectiveness

　　38. The central idea of Ira Byock's book is to appeal to the hospital to

　　[A] save every life with every possible means

　　[B] help people to die if that is his/her will

　　[C] make people feel comfortable in their remaining hours

　　[D] consider whether the cure is worthwhile before conducting it

　　39. In the author's opinion the example of the HIV-positive young man in Paragraph 5

　　[A] eliminates the possibility of applying gentle dying process in medicare

　　[B] is merely an extreme case that should not be taken as a standard

　　[C] emphasizes the importance of aggressive treatment even with slim hope

　　[D] is used as an irony of the current state of American medical system

　　40. According to the author, the American government will the proposal of gentle dying

　　[A] disapprove of [B] divide at

　　[C] hesitate at [D] side with

　　 

　　Part B

　　Directions:

　　Reading the following text and answer the questions by finding a subtitle for each of the marked parts or paragraphs. There are two extra items in the subtitles. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET .(10 points)

　　[A] Convincing evidence: US is losing its appeal in the eyes of multinationals

　　[B] Biggest hindrance: US divided political system

　　[C] American future: stuck in the middle

　　[D] Overstated statement: US overall competitiveness is declining

　　[E] Voice of experts: pessimism pervades academic world

　　[F] Economic outlook: bad but not desperate

　　[G] Undisputed fact: US is losing its economic edge

　　41.

　　Is America fading? America has been gripped by worries about decline before, notably in the 1970s, only to roar back. But this time it may be serious. There is little doubt that other countries are catching up. Between 1999 and 2009 America’s share of world exports fell in almost every industry: by 36 percentage points in aerospace, nine in information technology, eight in communications equipment and three in cars. Private-sector job growth has slowed dramatically, and come to a halt in industries that are exposed to global competition. Median annual income grew by an anemic 2% between 1990 and 2010.

　　42.

　　The March issue of the Harvard Business Review is devoted to “American competitiveness”. The Review reports that declinism is prevalent among HBS alumni: in a survey, 71% said that American competitiveness would decline in the coming years.

　　43.

　　America is losing out in the race to attract good jobs. Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business points out that multinational firms increased employment in America by 24% in the 1990s. But since then they have been cutting back on jobs in America. They have moved dull repetitive tasks abroad, and even some sophisticated ones, too. The proportion of the employees of American multinationals who work for subsidiaries abroad rose from 21.4% in 1989 to 32.3% in 2009. The share of research-and-development spending going to foreign subsidiaries rose from 9% in 1989 to 15.6% in 2009; that of capital investment rose from 21.8% in 1999 to 29.6% in 2009.

　　44.

　　America’s political system comes in for particularly harsh criticism: 60% of HBS alumni said that it was worse than those in other advanced countries. David Moss of HBS argues that such complaints are nothing new: American politicians have been squabbling about the role of government ever since Thomas Jefferson butted heads with Alexander Hamilton. But in the past this often led to fruitful compromises. But such compromises are rarer these days. Republicans and Democrats are more ideologically divided, and less inclined to make pragmatic concessions.

　　45.

　　For all this gloom, the Review’s gurus argue that, as Bill Clinton said in his first inaugural address, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. The country has huge strengths, from its world-beating universities to its tolerance of risk-taking. It has a highly diverse market: firms that seek cheap labour can move to Mississippi, where wages are a third lower than those in Massachusetts. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of HBS points to the extraordinary amount of innovation that is going on not just in Silicon Valley but across the country.

　　Yet it is difficult to read this collection of essays without a sense of foreboding. The one thing that worries the HBS alumni more than anything else—the state of American politics—is the most difficult to fix. The political pendulum swings unpredictably, making it hard to plan for the future. Should companies assume that they will have to abide by Mr Obama’s health-care law when it comes into effect in 2014, or will the Republicans have repealed it by then? No one knows.