1、v1.0可編輯可修改 v1.0可編輯可修改 #大學(xué)英語四、六級考試信息匹配題閱讀訓(xùn)練Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraph. Identify the paragraph from which the informationis derived. You may choose a paragraph more t

2、han once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Passage 1Surviving the RecessionAmerica s recession began quietly at the end of 2007. Since then ithas evolved into a global crisis. Reasonable people may disagree about whom

3、to blame. Financiers who were not as clever as they thought they were Regulators falling asleep at work Consumers whoborrowed too much Politicians who thoughtlessly promoted home-ownership for those who could not afford it All are guilt; and what a mess they have created.Since 2007 America has shed

4、5 million jobs. More than 15% of the workforce are jobless or underemployed 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 l

5、ow in March this year, though it has since bounded back somewhat.Industrialproduction fell by % in the year to March, the worst slide since the Second World War. Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody s , predicts that the recession will shrink America s economyby %in total. “For mostexecutives, this is

6、the worst business environment they ve everv1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 seen.Times are so tough that even bosses are taking pay cuts. Median(中位數(shù)的)pay for chief executives of S&P500 companies fell %in 2008. The overthrown business giants of Wall Street took the biggest knock, with average pay cuts of 38%an

7、d median bonuses of zero. But there was some pain for everyone: median pay for chief executives of non-financial firms in the S&P 500 fell by %.Nearly every business has a sad tale to tell. For example, Arne Sorenson, the president of Marriott hotel, likens the crisis to the downturn that hit his bu

8、siness after September 11th, 2001. Whenthe twin towers fell, Americans stopped travelling. Marriott had its worst quarter ever, with revenues per room falling by 25%. This year, without a terrorist attack, the hotel industry is “putting the samenumbers on the board” , says Mr. Sorenson.Other industr

9、ies 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 carmakers Gene

10、ral Motors, Ford and Chrysler accumulated ruinous costs over the post-war years,such asgold-plated health plans and pensions for workers who retired as young as 48. All three are desperately restructuring. Only Ford maysurvive in its current form.Hard times breed hard feeling. Few Americans understa

11、nd what caused the recession. Someare 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.v1.0可編輯可修改v1.0可編輯可修改Business folks are bending over backwards to avoid seeming extravag

12、ant. 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 fun.Anyway, the pain will eventually end. American business will regain its shine. Many fir

13、ms will die, but the survivors will emerge leaner and stronger than before. The financial sector s 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 remai

14、n 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 organized labors does not overplay its hand.Mr. Obama s plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions (NF放),though necessary, will be far from cost-free

15、, whatever his sunny speeches on the subject might suggest. The shift to a low-carbon economywill help somefirms, hurt others and require every organization that uses much energy to rethink how it operates. It is harder to predict how Mr.Obama s proposed reforms to the failing health-care system wil

16、l turn out. If he succeeds in curbing costs a big if it would be a huge gain for America. Somebusiness 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, carefu

17、l of debt, cautious with cash flow and 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 Time s Man 33v1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 of the Year was Harlow Curtice, the boss of GM. His firm was leadi

18、ngto men like Curtice,America towards “a new economic order ” , the magazine wrote. Thanks“the bonds of scarcity had been broken andAmerica was rolling“to an all-time high of prosperity.Soon,Americans would need to spend comparatively little time earning alivingHalf a century later GM is a typical e

19、xample for poor management. In March its chief executive was fired by Time s current Manof the Year, Mr. Obama. The government now backs up the domestic car industry, lending it money and overseeing its turnaround plans. With luck, this will be short-lived. But there is a danger that Washington will

20、 endup micromanaging not only Detroit but also other parts of the economy. And clever as Mr. Obama s advisers are, history suggests they will be bad at this.The America s recession affected the hotel industry as badly as the 9/11 terrorist attack.Businessmen are trying to avoid seeming wasteful in r

21、esponse to the recession.In the near future, a thriving business will go with cautious management tactics.Much doubt remains whether the Obama administration will do well in micromanaging the America s economy.A combination of causes is responsible for the current American recession, which began in

22、2007.The government is not supposed to interfere too much in Americanbusinesses.v1.0可編輯可修改 v1.0可編輯可修改 #The big Three American carmakers need restructuring to survive due to their accumulation of the ruinous costs over the post-war years.In March, GM s chief executive was fired by Obamaor poor manage

23、ment.According to the author, Obama s plan to limit carbon dioxide emissions will by no means be inexpensive.At the worst time, the total value of listed shares in American firms shrank by fifty-seven percent.(D G J L A H E LI B) Passage twoSmall schools RisingThis year s list of the top 100 high sc

24、hools shows that today, those with fewer students are flourishing.Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the thousands. As baby boomers (二戰(zhàn)后嬰兒潮時(shí)期出生的人)came of high-school age,big schools promised economic efficien

25、cy. A greater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracies (官僚機(jī)構(gòu)),the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping in 1963; tod

26、ay, on average, 30%of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50%in poor urban neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards as setin No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performancein elementary (and some middle) s

27、chools, high schools for a varietyv1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 of reason seemed to have made little progress.Size isn t everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools. This has been due, in part, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which

28、 has invested $ billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1000 small schools most of them with about 400 kids each, with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the county are taking notice, along with mayors in cities li

29、ke New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high-schools and 18 graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, such as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and

30、 Engineering Magnet, with 383, which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, .,which grew out of volunteer evening seminars forstudents. And it includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery(抽簽) ,such as Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And mostnoticeable

31、of all, there is the phenomenonof large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted thousands of students all marching to the same band.Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., is one of those, rank

32、ingNo. 423 amongthe top 2%in the country on Newsweek s annual ranking of America s top high schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweeklist based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had gra

33、duating classes smaller than 100 students.v1.0可編輯可修改 v1.0可編輯可修改 #This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.Although many of Hillsdale s students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990 average

34、test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname “Hillsjail ” . Jeff Gibert, a Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, “ How did that stud

35、ent graduated ”So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three “houses” , romantically named Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to ano

36、ther for 11th and 12th grades. The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of“advisory classes.Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also m

37、eet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students success.“We re constantly talking about one another sadvisers, “ says English teacher Chris Crockett.If you hear thatyours isn t doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the dean s office,

38、it s like a personal failure. Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95.“It was rough for some. But bysenior year, two-thirds have movedup to physics, says Gilbert. Our kids are coming to school in part because

39、 they know there are adults v1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 here who know them and care for them. But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.The Newsweekist of top . high schools was madethis year, as in years past, accord

40、ing to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams. Over the years the system has comein for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it s easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they d like.Ranking

41、 schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents (地區(qū)教育主管)from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation.“It is impossible to knowwhich high schools are the best in the nation, “ their letter read, in part. Determining whether different

42、schools do or don t offer a high quality of education requires a look at manydifferent measures, including students overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college. And taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities. ”In the end the superintendents agree

43、d to provide the data we sought, which is, after all, public information. There is, in our view, no real dispute here; we are all seeking the samething, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by encouraging students to make tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers

44、. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps a list won t benecessary.In practical use, simplicity is still considered a strength ofv1.0可編輯可修改 v1.0可編輯可修改 #Newsweek s school ranking system in spite of the criticism it receives.As a result setting up big schools, students performance de

45、clined.Newsweek ranked high schools according to their college-level test participation.Half a century ago, big, modern, suburban high schools were established to ensure efficient education for baby boomers.It is agreed that qualified teachers, better services and encouragement are keys to reaching

46、the ultimate goal of school education.The most noticeable trend in high school education is the splitting of large schools into smaller ones.It is still unknown whether smaller schools will be a solution to all educational problems.High schools funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are sma

47、ll in size.Different measures should be used in assessing the quality of school education.The “advisory classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could maintain closer relationship with their teachers.(G B D B I C F C H F)Passage 3.HighwaysEarly in the 20 th century, most of the streets and

48、roads in the . were madeof dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks. Built for horse, carriage,and foot traffic, they were usually poorly cared for and too narrowv1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 to accommodate （容納）automobiles.（收費(fèi)公路）With the increase in auto production, private turnpikecompanies under local authorit

49、ies began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387000 miles of paved roads. Manywere built using specifications of 19th century Scottish engineers ThomasTelford and John MacAdamfor whomthe macadamsurface is named）, whose specifications stressed the importance of adequate drainage. Beyond that, there

50、 were no national standards for size, weight restrictions, or commercial signs. DuringWorld War I. roads throughout the country were nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. WherGeneral Eisenhower returned from Germanyin 1919, after serving in the . army s first transcontinental motor convoy（車隊(duì)）,he

51、 noted: The old convoy had started methinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany s Autobahn or motorway had mademesee the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land. ”It would take another war before the federal government would act ona national highway system. During World War II, a tremendo

52、us increase in trucks and new roads were required. The war demonstrated how critical highways were to the defense effort. Thirteen percent of defense plants received all their supplies by truck, and almost allother plants shipped more than half of their products by vehicle. The war also revealed tha

53、t local control of highways had led to a confusing variety of design standards. Even federal and state highways did notfollow basic standards. Somestates allowed trucks up to 36000 pounds, while others restrictedanything over 7000 pounds. A government studyrecommendeda national highway system of 339

54、20 miles, and congress soon passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, which called for strict, centrally controlled design criteria.v1.0可編輯可修改 v1.0可編輯可修改 #The interstate highway system was finally launched in 1956 and has been hailed as one of the greatest public works projects of the century.To b

55、uild its 44000-mile webof highways, bridges, and tunnels, hundreds of unique engineering designs and solutions had to be worked out.Consider the manygeographic features of the country: mountains, steep grades, wetlands, rivers, deserts and plains. Variables included the slope of the land, the abilit

56、y of the pavement to support the load, the intensity of road use, and the nature of the underlying soil. Urban areas were another problem. Innovative designs of roadways, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, and interchanges that could run through or bypass urban areas soon began to weave their way across

57、the country, forever altering the face of America.Long-span, segmented-concrete, cable-stayed bridges such as Hale Boggs in Louisiana and the Sunshine Skyway in Florida, and remarkable tunnels like Fort McHenyin Maryland and Mt. Baker in Washington, met manyof the nation s physical challenges. Traff

58、ic control systems and methods of construction developed under the interstate program soon influenced highway construction around the world, and were invaluable in improving the condition of urban streets and traffic patterns.Today, the interstate system links every major city in the . with Canada a

59、nd Mexico. Built with safety in mind, the highways have wide lanes and shoulders, dividing medians, or barriers, long entry and exit lanes, curves engineered for safe turns, and limited access. The death rate on highways is half of all other . roads (.86 deaths per 100 million passenger miles compar

60、ed to per 100 million on all other roads).By opening the North American continent, highways have enabled consumer goods and services to reach people in remote and rural areas v1.0可編輯可修改 #v1.0可編輯可修改 of the country, spurred the growth of suburbs, and provided people with greater options in term ofjobs