62. Despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its ________.

[A] failure to realize its real problem

[B] tendency to hire annoying reporters

[C] likeliness to do inaccurate reporting

[D] prejudice in matters of race and gender

Text 4

The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: “Won’t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?”

There’s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.

I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customer’s demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world’s wealth increases.

Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing -- witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan -- but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.

Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won’t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of “defending competition” on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U.S. vs. Microsoft case?

63. What is the typical trend of businesses today?

[A] to take in more foreign funds

[B] to invest more abroad

[C] to combine and become bigger

[D] to trade with more countries

64. According to the author, one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is ________.

[A] the greater customer demands

[B] a surplus supply for the market

[C] a growing productivity

[D] the increase of the world’s wealth

65. From Paragraph 4 we can infer that ________.

[A] the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers

[B] WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs

[C] the costs of the globalization process are enormous

[D] the Standard Oil Trust might have threatened competition

66. Toward the new business wave, the writer’s attitude can be said to be ________.

[A] optimistic

[B] objective

[C] pessimistic

[D] biased

Text 5

When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family”.

Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term “downshifting” has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all,” preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.

I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life,” and making the alternative move into “downshifting” brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time”.

In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting -- also known in America as “voluntary simplicity” -- has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-’90s equivalent of dropping out.

While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline -- after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late ’80s -- and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.

For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the ’80s, downshifting in the mid-’90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life -- growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one -- as a personal recognition of your limitations.

67. Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 1?

[A] Full-time employment is a new international trend.

[B] The writer was compelled by circumstances to leave her job.

[C] “A lateral move” means stepping out of full-time employment.

[D] The writer was only too eager to spend more time with her family.

68. The writer’s experiment shows that downshifting ________.

[A] enables her to realize her dream

[B] helps her mold a new philosophy of life

[C] prompts her to abandon her high social status

[D] leads her to accept the doctrine of She magazine

69. “Juggling one’s life” probably means living a life characterized by ________.

[A] non-materialistic lifestyle

[B] a bit of everything

[C] extreme stress

[D] anti-consumerism

70. According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of ________.

[A] the quick pace of modern life

[B] man’s adventurous spirit

[C] man’s search for mythical experiences

[D] the economic situation

Section IV English-Chinese Translation

Directions:

Read the following passage carefully and then translate the underlined sentences into Chinese. Your translation must be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

In less than 30 years’ time the Star Trek holodeck will be a reality. Direct links between the brain’s nervous system and a computer will also create full sensory virtual environments, allowing virtual vacations like those in the film Total Recall.

71) There will be television chat shows hosted by robots, and cars with pollution monitors that will disable them when they offend. 72) Children will play with dolls equipped with personality chips, computers with in-built personalities will be regarded as workmates rather than tools, relaxation will be in front of smell-television, and digital age will have arrived.

According to BT’s futurologist, Ian Pearson, these are among the developments scheduled for the first few decades of the new millennium (a period of 1,000 years), when supercomputers will dramatically accelerate progress in all areas of life.

73) Pearson has pieced together the work of hundreds of researchers around the world to produce a unique millennium technology calendar that gives the latest dates when we can expect hundreds of key breakthroughs and discoveries to take place. Some of the biggest developments will be in medicine, including an extended life expectancy and dozens of artificial organs coming into use between now and 2040.

Pearson also predicts a breakthrough in computer-human links. “By linking directly to our nervous system, computers could pick up what we feel and, hopefully, simulate feeling too so that we can start to develop full sensory environments, rather like the holidays in Total Recall or the Star Trek holodeck,” he says. 74) But that, Pearson points out, is only the start of man-machine integration: “It will be the beginning of the long process of integration that will ultimately lead to a fully electronic human before the end of the next century.”

Through his research, Pearson is able to put dates to most of the breakthroughs that can be predicted. However, there are still no forecasts for when faster-than-light travel will be available, or when human cloning will be perfected, or when time travel will be possible. But he does expect social problems as a result of technological advances. A boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will, for example, cause problems in 2010, while the arrival of synthetic lifelike robots will mean people may not be able to distinguish between their human friends and the droids. 75) And home appliances will also become so smart that controlling and operating them will result in the breakout of a new psychological disorder -- kitchen rage.

Section V Writing

76. Directions:

Among all the worthy feelings of mankind, love is probably the noblest, but everyone has his/her own understanding of it.

There has been a discussion recently on the issue in a newspaper. Write an essay to the newspaper to

1) show your understanding of the symbolic meaning of the picture below,

2) give a specific example, and

3) give your suggestion as to the best way to show love.

You should write about 200 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)

答案

Section I: Structure and Vocabulary (15 points)

Part A (5 points)

1. [C] 2. [B] 3. [D] 4. [A] 5. [B]

6. [D] 7. [D] 8. [A] 9. [C] 10. [A]

Part B (10 points)

11. [B] 12. [A] 13. [B] 14. [C] 15. [C]

16. [C] 17. [D] 18. [A] 19. [C] 20. [B]

21. [D] 22. [C] 23. [B] 24. [A] 25. [C]

26. [A] 27. [D] 28. [B] 29. [B] 30. [D]

Section II: Cloze Text (10 points)

31. [D] 32. [A] 33. [D] 34. [B] 35. [A]

36. [C] 37. [D] 38. [B] 39. [B] 40. [A]

41. [B] 42. [C] 43. [B] 44. [A] 45. [C]

46. [A] 47. [D] 48. [C] 49. [D] 50. [C]

Section III: Reading Comprehension (40 points)

51. [D] 52. [B] 53. [A] 54. [C] 55. [C]

56. [A] 57. [D] 58. [A] 59. [B] 60. [D]

61. [C] 62. [A] 63. [C] 64. [A] 65. [D]

66. [B] 67. [B] 68. [B] 69. [C] 70. [D]

Section IV: English-Chinese Translation (15 points)

71. 届时，将出现由机器人主持的电视谈话节目以及装有污染监控器的汽车，一旦这些汽车排污超标 (违规)，监控器就会使其停驶。

72. 儿童将与装有个性化芯片的玩具娃娃玩耍，具有个性内置的计算机将被视为工作伙伴而不是工具，人们将在气味电视机前休闲，届时数字体时代就来到了。

73. 皮尔森汇集世界各地数百位研究人员的成果，编制了一个独特的新技术千年历，它列出了人们有望看到数百项重大突破和发现的最迟日期。

74. 但皮尔森指出，这个突破仅仅是人机一体化的开始：“它是人机一体化漫长之路的第一步，最终会使人们在下世纪末之前就研制出完全电子化的仿真人。”

75. 家用电器将会变得如此智能化，以至于控制和操作它们会引发一种新的心理疾病 -- 厨房狂躁。

Section V: Writing (20 points)

76. 参考范文

This picture is a symbol that tells us how we should use our love: our love is like a lamp; the darker the place, the brighter the light. Indeed, love is most precious when it is offered to someone who is in difficulty.

I can tell you a real story here. When I was a child, my family moved to the countryside. Among our new neighbors was a paralyzed woman. As an innocent child, I somehow showed some interest in her. When I had time, I would to see her. When I had something to eat, I would let her share with me. One day she suddenly said to me, tear in her eyes, “I will bless you when I am in heaven.” I knew my love for her had worked wonders, for I had never heard her speaking and I thought she had lost her ability to speak. Her blessing may have really worked for I have been a lucky person in work and in life.

As far as I understand, love is sympathy and sincerity that needs not be expressed in terms of money or sweet words. As the proverb goes, “a hand may smell fragrant when it gives roses to others.” I believe love is the most precious thing in the world and we should give it to those who need it most.

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