2018年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）真题（阅读理解）

Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

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

Text 1

It is curious that Stephen Koziatek feels almost as though he has to justify his efforts to give his students a better future.

Mr.Koziatek is part of something pioneering. He is a teacher at a New Hampshire high school where learning is not something of books and tests and mechanical memorization, but practical. When did it become accepted wisdom that students should be able to name the 13th president of the United States but be utterly overwhelmed by a broken bike chain?

As Koziatek knows,there is learning in just about everything. Nothing is necessarily gained by forcing students to learn geometry at a graffitied desk stuck with generations of discarded chewing gum. They can also learn geometry by assembling a bicycle.

But he’s also found a kind of insidious prejudice. Working with your hands is seen as almost a mark of inferiority.Schools in the family of vocational education “have that stereotype..that it’s for kids who can’t make it academically,”he says.

On one hand,that viewpoint is a logical product of America’s evolution.Manufacturing is not the economic engine that it once was.The job security that the US economy once offered to high school graduates has largely evaporated.More education is the new principle.We want more for our kids,and rigitfully so.

But the headlong push into bachelor’s degrees for all -and the subtle devaluing of anything less-misses an important point:That’s not the only thing the American economy neds.Yes,a bachelor’s degree opens more doors.But even now,54 percent of the jobs in the country are middle-skill jobs,such as construction and high-skill manufacturing.But only 44 percent of workers are adequately trained.

In other words,at a time when the working class has turned the country on its political head,frustrated that the opportunity that once defined America is vanishing,one obvious solution is staring us in the face.There is a gap in working-class jobs,but the workers who need those jobs most aren’t equipped to do them.Koziatek’s Manchester School of Technology High School is trying to fill that gap.

Koziatek’s school is a wake-up call.When education becomes one-size-fits-all,it risks overlooking a nation’s diversiy of gifts.

21.A brokan bike chain is mentioned to show students’ lack of______.

A.mechanical memorization

B.academic training

C.practical ability

D.pioneering spirit

22.There existsthe prejudice that vocational education is for kids who______.

A.are financially disadvantaged

B.are not academically successful

C.have a stereotyped mind

D.have no career motivation

23.We can infer from Paragraph 5 that high school graduates______.

A.are entitled to more “ducational privileges

B.are reluctant to work in manufacturing

C.used to have more job opportunities

D.used to have big financial concerns

24.The headlong push into bacheloi’s degrees for all_____.

A.helps create a lot of middle-skill jobs

B.may narrow the gap in working-class jobs

C.is expected to yield a better-trained workforce

D.indicates the overvaluing of higher education

25.The author’s attitude toward Koziatek’s school can be described as_____.

A.supportive

B.disappointed

C.tolerant

D.cautious

Text2

While fossil fuels- coal,oil,gas- still generate roughly 85 percent of the world's energy supply,it'sclearer than ever that the future belongs to renewablesources such as wind and solar.The move to renewables is picking up momentumaround the world: They now account for more than half ofnew power sourcesgoing on line.

Some growth stems from a commitment bygovernments and farsighted Businssesto fundcleanerenergy sources.But increasinglythestoryisabout theplummeting prices of renewables,especially wind and solar.The cost of solarpanels has dropped by 80 percent and the cost of wind turbines by close taone-third in the past eight years.

In many parts of the world renewable energy is already a principal energy source.In Scotland,for example, wind turbines provide enough electricity to power 95 percent of homes. While the rest of the world takes the lead, notably China and Europe, the United States is also seeing a remarkable shift. In March,for the first time,wind and solar power accounted for more than 10 percent of the power generated in the US,reported the US Energy Information Administration.

President Trump has underlined fossil fuels - especially coal - as the path to economic growth. In a recent speech in Iowa, he dismissed wind power as an unreliable energy source, But that message did not play well with many in Iowa,where wind turbines dot the fields and provide 36 percent of the state's electricity generation - and where tech giants like Microsoft are being attracted by the availability of clean energy to power their data centers.

The question “what happens when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn'tshine?" has provided a quick put-down for skeptics. But a boost in the storage apacity of batteries is making their ability to keep power flowing around the clock more likely.

The advance is driven in par by vehicle manufacturers, who are placing big bets on battery-powered electric vehicles. Although electric cars are still a rarity on roads now. this massive investment could change the picture rapidly in coming years.

While there's a long way to go,the trend lines for renewables are spiking. The pace of change in energy sources appears to be speeding up perhaps: just in time to have a meaningful effect in slowing climate change.What Washington does-or doesn't do- to promote alternative energy may mean less and less a time of a global shift in thought.

26.The word "plummeting"(Line 3,Para.2)is closest in meaning to ______

A.stabilizing

B.changing

C.falling

D.rising

27. According to Paragraph 3,the use of renewable energy in America ______

A. is progressing notably

B. is as extensive as in Europe

C. faces many challenges

D. has proved to be impractical

28. It can be learned that in Iowa,______.

A. wind is a widely used energy source

B. wind energy has replaced fossil fuels

C. tech giants are investing in clean energy

D. there is a shortage of clean energy supply

29. Which of the following is true about clean energy according to Paragraphs 5&6?A. Its application has boosted battery storage.B. It is commonly used in car manufacturing.C. Its continuous supply is becoming a reality.D. Its sustainable exploitation will remain difficult. 30. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that renewable energy _____.

A. will bring the US closer to other countries

B. will accelerate global environmental change

C. is not really encouraged by the US government

D. is not competitive enough with regard to its cost

30. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that renewable energy _____.

A. will bring the US closer to other countries

B. will accelerate global environmental change

C. is not really encouraged by the US government

D. is not competitive enough with regard to its cost

Text 3

The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing —Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn’t have any physical product at all. What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.

Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through. Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be. What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops ft owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.

Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power. But it is clumsy. For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy. By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power. But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too. Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them. The users of their services are not their customers. That would be the people who buy advertising from them — and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.

The product they’re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants. Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce whe

31.According to Paragraph1，Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its 。

A.digialproducts

B.userinformation

C.physical assets

D.quality service

32.Linking phone numbers to Faccbook identities may

A.worsen political disputes

B.mess up customer records

C.pose a risk to Facebook users

D.mislead the European commission

33.According to the author，competition law

A.should serve the new market powers

B.may worsen the economic imbalancens

C.should not provide just one legal solution

D.cannot keep pace with the changing market

34.Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook nsers

Because

A.they are no defined as customers

B.they are not financially reliable

C.these rvices aregenerally digital

D.the services are paid for by advertisers

35.The ants analogy is used to llustrate

A.a win-win business model between digital giants

B.a typical competition pattem among digital giants

C.the benefits provided for digital giants' customers

D.the relationship between digital giants and their users

Text4

To combat the trap of putting a premium on being busy, Cal Newport,author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World,recommends building a habit of “deep work” - the ability to fucus without distraction.

There are a number of approaches to mastering the art of deep work - be it lengthy retreats dedicated to a specific task; developing a daily ritual;or taking a “journalistic” approach to seizing moments of deep work when you can throughout the day. Whichever approach,the key is to determine your length of focus time and stick to it.

Newport also recommends “deep scheduling” to combat constant interruptions and get more done in less time. “At any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month.Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor’s appointment or important meeting,” he writes.

Another approach to getting more done in less time is to rethink how you prioritise your day-in particular how we craft our to-do lists.Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, points to a study in the early 1980s that divided undergraduates into two groups: some were advised to set out monthly goals and study activities; others were told to plan activities and goals in much more detail, day by day.

While the researchers assumed that the well-structured daily plans would be most effective when it come to the execution of tasks, they were wrong: the detailed daily plans demotivated students. Harford argues that inevitable distractions often render the daily to-do list ineffective,while leaving room for improvisation in such a list can reap the best results.

In order to make the most of our focus and energy, we also need to embrace downtime, or as Newport suggests, “be lazy.”

“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body...[idleness] is ,paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done,” he argues.

Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, believes this counterintuitive link between downtime and productivity may be due to the way our brains operate. When our brains switch between being focused and unfocused on a task, they tend to be more efficient.

“What people don’t realise is that in order to complete these tasks they need to use both the focus and unfocus circuits in their brain，” says Pillay.

36.The key to mastering the art of deep work is to______

A. seize every minute to work

B. list you immediate tasks

C. make specific daily plans

D. Keep to your focus time

37. The study in the early 1980s cited by Harford shows that

A. students are hardly motivated by monthly goals

B. detailed plans may not be as fruitful as expected

C. distractions may actually increase efficiency

D. daily schedules arc indispensable to studying

38. According to Newport, idleness is __________-

A. a desirable mental state for busy people

B. a major contributor to physical health

C. an effective way to save time and energy

0. an essential factor in accomplishing any work

39. Pillay believes that our brain’s shift between being focused and infocused ______

A. can bring about greater efficiency

B. can result in psychological well-being

C. is driven by task urgency

D. is aimed at better balance in work

40. This text is mainly about_____

A. approaches to getting more done in less time

B. Ways to relieve the tension of busy life

C. The key to eliminating distractions

D. The cause of the lack of focus time