二、阅读理解 It was the summer of 1965. DeLuca, then 17, visited Peter Buck, a family friend. Buck asked DeLuca about his plans for the future. "I'm going to college, but I need a way to pay for it," DeLuca recalls saying. "Buck said, 'You should open a sandwich shop.'" That afternoon, they agreed to be partners. And they set a goal: To open 32 stores in ten years. After doing some research, Buck wrote a check for $1,000. DeLuca rented a storefront (店面) in Connecticut, and when they couldn't cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1,000. But business didn't go smoothly as they expected. DeLuca says, "After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn't know how badly, because we didn't have any financial controls." All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs. DeLuca was managing the store and going to the University of Bridgeport at the same time. Buck was working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They'd meet Monday evenings and brainstorm ideas for keeping the business running. "We convinced ourselves to open a second store. We figured we could tell the public, 'We are so successful, we are opening a second store.'" And they did—in the spring of 1966. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error. But the partners' learn-as-you-go approach turned out to be their greatest strength. Every Friday, DeLuca would drive around and hand-deliver the checks to pay their suppliers. "It probably took me two and a half hours and it wasn't necessary, but as a result, the suppliers got to know me very well, and the personal relationships established really helped out," DeLuca says. And having a goal was also important. "There are so many problems that can get you down. You just have to keep working toward your goal," DeLuca adds. DeLuca ended up founding Subway Sandwich, the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain.
1. DeLuca opened the first sandwich shop in order to ______.
A.support his family
B.pay for his college education
C.help his partner expand business
D.do some research
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节理解题。由第一段关键句“I'm going to college, but I need a way to Pay for it”可知其目的是为了支付大学的费用。
2. Which of the following is true of Buck? ______.
A.He put money into the sandwich business
B.He was a professor of business administration
C.He was studying at the University of Bridgeport
D.He rented a storefront for DeLuca
A B C D
A
[解析] 判断正误题。由第二段关键句“Buck wrote a check for $1,000”和“Buck kicked in another $1,000.”可知是投资人，他投入了很多运转资金。B项错在a professor of，C项错在studying at，D项错在rented a store front。
3. What can we learn about their first shop? ______.
A.It stood at an unfavorable place
B.It lowered the prices to promote sales
C.It made no profits due to poor management
D.It lacked control over the quality of sandwiches
A B C D
C
[解析] 推理判断题。由第三段的内容描述，“But business didn't go smoothly as they expected. DeLuca says, 'After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn't know how badly, because we didn't have any financial controls.' All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.”可判断出他们的第一家商店由于经营不善，以亏本失败而告终。
4. They decided to open a second store because they ______.
A.had enough money to do it
B.had succeeded in their business
C.wished to meet the increasing demand of customers
D.wanted to make believe that they were successful
A B C D
D
[解析] 细节理解题。由第四段的“We convinced ourselves to open a second store. We figured we could tell the public. 'We are so successful, we are opening a second store.'”可知他们之所以再开第二家商店主要就是为了向别人证明他们是能够成功的。
5. What contributes most to their success according to the author? ______.
A.Learning by trial and error
B.Making friends with suppliers
C.Finding a good partner
D.Opening chain stores
A B C D
A
[解析] 推理判断题。总结全文故事发展脉络，根据第四段最后一句话“Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error.”可推出他们取得成功的主要原因在于他们的坚持不懈、反复尝试。
As colleges and universities send another wave of graduates out into the world this spring, thousands of other job seekers with liberal-arts degrees like Martin's find themselves in a similar bind. True enough, this is an era of record-breaking lows in unemployment. But technology companies, which are contributing the lion's share of new jobs, are simultaneously declaring a shortage of qualified workers. The emphasis is on the word qualified. It's no surprise that high-tech companies rarely hire liberal-arts graduates. "Our P.R. people, our marketers, even our attorneys have technical talent," says Tracy Koon, director of corporate affairs at Intel. The need for technical expertise is so pervasive that even retailers are demanding such skills. "Company-wide, we're looking for students with specific information-systems skills," says David McDearmon, director of field human resources at Dollar Tree Stores. "Typically we shy away from independent college students who don't have them." Fortunately for Martin, some invaluable help was at hand when he needed it. The Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, a network of 15 liberal-arts colleges in the state, has teamed up with local companies to bridge the learning gap faced by its members' graduates. VFIC invited 30 companies, including First Union and Electronic Data Systems, to link the needs of businesses with the skills being taught in college classrooms. With grants from corporate sponsors like AT&T, VFIC asked 20 information-technology managers to help its members create an exam, based on the work students will be expected to do in the real world, to test and certify their technological proficiency. The result, Tek-Xam, is an eight-part test that requires students to design a website, build and analyze spreadsheets, research problems on the Internet and demonstrate understanding of legal and ethical issues. Says Linda Dalch, president of VFIC: "If an art-history major wants a job at a bank, he needs to prove he has the skills. That's where this credential can help." This year 245 students at VFIC's member colleges have gone through the program. The long-term hope is that Tek-Xam will win the same kind of acceptance as the LSAT or CPA for law or accounting students. "To know a student has taken the initiative and passed could mean that less training is needed," explains John Rudin, chief information officer at Reynolds Metals, one of the corporations that helped create the test. All this begs an important question: Has the traditional liberal-arts curriculum become obsolete? College presidents naturally argue that the skills their schools provide are invaluable. A B. A. degree, says Mary Brown Bullock of Atlanta's Agnes Scott College, "gives graduates the ability to reinvent themselves time and time again ... and the knowledge and thinking skills that transcend a particular discipline or time frame." Martin is finding that to be the truth. "It would be nice to have computer classes on my transcript," he says, but Tek-Xam has armed him with the power to learn those skills on his own— and a credential to show he has done so. He's now waiting to hear when his job as a network-support assistant for a large Boston firm will start.
6. The main problem many liberal-arts students face in job seeking is ______.
A.too much competition in job market
B.their lack of technical expertise
C.company's discrimination against liberal-arts students
D.the recording-breaking unemployment rate
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节题。从第一段和第二段的内容可知，技术公司的用人需求最大，但却缺少合格的员工。第二段提到对技术知识的需求如此普遍，连零售商都要求员工具有这种技能。最后一句“Typically we shy away from independent-college students who don't have them.”解释了文科生找工作难的原因，即他们因缺少技能而难以找到工作。因此B项正确。
7. It can be inferred from the text that ______.
A.in the modem era, technical talent means everything in securing a job
B.independent colleges are not giving their students proper education
C.retailers are following the fashion only to promote sales
D.there is a big demand for students with technical skills
A B C D
D
[解析] 推断题。文章第二段The need for technical expertise is so pervasive that even retailers are demanding such skills提到对技术知识的需求如此普遍，连零售商都要求员工具有这种技能。由此可见，D项为正确答案。
8. Tek-Xam is designed to ______.
A.offer VFIC members' graduates more job opportunities
B.compete with LSAT and CPA
C.help students cope with real world problems
D.test students' technical skills
A B C D
D
[解析] 细节题。第四段开头为The result，Tek-Xam，上一段最后一行to test and certify their technological proficiency揭示了设立Tek-Xam这一考试的目的，即“测试和确定学生的技术水平”，因此D项为正确答案。
9. We can draw a conclusion from the text that ______.
A.liberal arts education still proves valuable to students
B.Tek-Xam is gaining wide acceptance among employers and students alike
C.Technology companies are eager to promote Tek-Xam
D.computer classes will be excluded from the curriculum of liberal-arts students
For most of the last 50 years, globalization has been a win-win proposition, making America richer while lifting hundreds of millions in the developing world out of poverty and despair. Recently, however, it has begun to operate differently, undermining U.S. welfare while creating imbalances likely to end in a global economic crisis. In this new mode, globalization is tilting the world like a giant sliding board game on which the "flattening" of old barriers is accelerating the transfer of the supply side of the U.S. economy to the rest of the world, especially Asia. Take the semiconductor king, Intel, as an example. When economists and political leaders say American industry should concentrate on producing very-high-technology products where it has a clear comparative advantage, Intel's chips are what they have in mind. Yet company executives recently told a presidential advisory panel that under present circumstances they must consider building more of their new factories abroad. Over the next 10 years, they explained, the cost of running a semiconductor factory in the United States could be $1 billion more than that of running it abroad. That there is something odd here is not yet widely acknowledged. Indeed, most business, academic, media and political leaders continue to insist that globalization is proceeding smoothly, making the world rich, more democratic and more peaceful. Nor is this view entirely unjustified. U.S. GDP and productivity growth are the highest in the developed economies, while inflation, unemployment and interest rates are among the lowest. Nevertheless, a closer look reveals a dark side. The U.S. trade deficit is now more than $800 billion, or 7 percent of GDP, and grows inexorably as Americans continue to consume more than they produce. Economists typically expect the United States to import commodities and cheap manufactured goods while exporting high-tech products, sophisticated services and agricultural goods, for which its land and climate are well suited. In reality, the U.S. high-tech trade surplus of $30 billion in 1998 has collapsed to a deficit of about $40 billion. Agricultural trade is now also in deficit for the first time in memory, and the modest surplus in services is declining as global deployment of the high-speed Internet has made it possible for services to move offshore as easily as manufacturing. Some economists speak bravely of a "soft landing". In this scenario, the United States reduces its budget deficit and excess consumption, while a gradually failing dollar results in rising exports to foreign markets where governments are stimulating consumption. While desirable, this will not occur automatically. Thus, for the sake not only of the United States but of all nations with a stake in globalization, it is imperative that political leaders change its current mode. The game cannot continue with one participant playing consumer while nearly all the others play producer. For the long-term success of all, everyone must agree to play the same globalization game.
11. According to the author, the imbalance is best demonstrated in ______.
A.the increasing power of the developing countries in world affairs
B.the rapid elimination of trade barriers across country borders
C.the disproportionate transfer of high technology to countries in Asia
D.America's gradual loss of status as a high-technology supplier
12. The Intel example is used to show that ______.
A.high-technology companies are usually run at a higher cost
B.the U.S. should give tax relief to such high-technology companies as Intel
C.the U.S. is losing its advantage as a supplying economy
D.Intel's executives are dissatisfied with the operating environment at home
A B C D
C
[解析] 细节题。根据题干定位到第二段。由In this new mode, globalization is tilting the world like a giant sliding board game on which the "flattening" of old barriers is accelerating the transfer of the supply side of the U.S. economy to the rest of the world, especially Asia. 可知本段提到Intel公司的例子是用来说明美国高技术供应商的地位在向亚洲转移。因此C项“美国正在失去它作为经济供给体的优势”为正确答案。
13. The United States suffers trade deficit in all of the sectors except ______. A agriculture B. high technology C. services D. manufacturing
15. The author's attitude towards America's current practice in globalization is ______.
A.indifferent
B.critical
C.positive
D.tolerant
A B C D
B
[解析] 态度题。根据最后一段中The game cannot continue with one participant playing consumer while nearly all the others play producer. For the long-term success of all, everyone must agree to play the same globalization game. (一个国家消费、其他国家生产的游戏是不能继续下去的，为长久起见，应该每个人都同意玩全球化的游戏。)可知，作者对美国的全球化政策是批评的，故选B项。
Electronic books could revolutionize reading, but people ought to consider their far-reaching. "The e-book promises to wreak a slow havoc on life as we know it." Jason Ohler, professor of technology assessment, University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, warned the World Future Society, Bethesda, Md. His assessment weighed the pros and cons of e-book technology's impact on social relationships, the environment, the economy, etc. Before you curl up with an e-book, consider the disadvantages. They increase eyestrain due to poor screen resolution, replace a relatively cheap commodity with a more expensive one, and displace workers in print book production and traditional publishing. E-books make it easy to share data, thereby threatening copyright agreements and reducing compensation of authors, as well as creating nonbiodegradable trash. On the other hand, e-books save paper and trees, reduce the burden of the carrying and storing of printed books, promote self-sufficiency in learning, and make reading a collaborative experience online. They also create new jobs for writers and artists and encourage self-publishing. In final analysis, Ohler points out, e-books should gain society's approval if a few conditions are met: make them biodegradable and recyclable, solve the problem of eye fatigue, be sure the "have-nots" get the technology, and support e-book training in schools and business.
16. What is the author's purpose of writing the passage? ______.
A.Draw people's attention to the disadvantages of e-books
B.Call on people to reject e-books
C.Criticize schools and business that don't provide e-books
D.Encourage people to use e-books
A B C D
A
[解析] 作者第一段引用Jason Ohler的观点“the e-book promises to wreak a slow hayoc on life”，即电子书籍会缓慢地破坏我们的生活，并在第二段列举电子书籍的种种弊端，意在提醒人们注意电子书籍的负面影响。故选A。
17. What is Jason Ohler's attitude towards e-books? ______.
由此可知现有城镇人口
故本题选B。
深色：已答题 浅色：未答题