华宏2007年MBA联考英语阅读理解真题解析

　　王令

　　Questions 41 to 45 are based on the following passage:

　　Prior to the 20th century, many languages with small numbers of speakers survived for centuries. The increasingly interconnected modern world makes it much more difficult for small language communities to live in relative isolation, a key factor in language maintenance and preservation.

　　It remains to be seen whether the world can maintain its linguistic and cultural diversity in the centuries ahead. Many powerful forces appear to work against it: population growth, which pushes migrant populations into the world’s last isolated locations; mass tourism; global telecommunications and mass media; and the spread of gigantic global corporations. All of these forces appear to signify a future in which the language of advertising, popular culture, and consumer products become similar. Already English and a few other major tongues have emerged as global languages of commerce and communication. For many of the world’s peoples, learning one of these languages is viewed as the key to education, economic opportunity, and a better way of life.

　　Only about 3,000 languages now in use are expected to survive the coming century. Are most of the rest doomed in the century after that?

　　Whether most of these languages survive will probably depend on how strongly cultural groups wish to keep their identity alive through a native language. To do so will require an emphasis on bilingualism(mastery of two languages). Bilingual speakers could use their own language in smaller spheres---at home, among friends, in community settings---and a global language at work, in dealings with government, and in commercial spheres. In this way, many small languages could sustain their cultural and linguistic integrity alongside global languages, rather than yield to the homogenizing(同化的)forces of globalization.

　　Ironically, the trend of technological innovation that has threatened minority languages could also help save them. For example, some experts predict that computer software translation tools will one day permit minority language speakers to browse the Internet using their native tongues. Linguists are currently using computer—aided learning tools to teach a variety of threatened languages.

　　For many endangered languages, the line between revival and death is extremely thin. Language is remarkably resilient(有活力的),however. It is not just a tool for communicating, but also a powerful way of separating different groups, or of demonstrating group identity. Many indigenous(原生的, 土著的)communities have shown that it is possible to live in the modern world while reclaiming their unique identities through language.

　　作题指导：

　　按照“高分阅读法”，首先考察个自然段的首句可知，此文以“小语种”为背景的一篇社会科学类文章。根据以往的经验，MBA阅读出题的位置比较均匀。有根据明显的出题原则，可大概揣摩出题目出现的位置。

　　41.Minority languages can be best preserved in __________.

　　A.an increasingly interconnected world

　　B.maintaining small numbers of speakers

　　C.relatively isolated language communities

　　D.following the tradition of the 20th century

　　解题：题干中的best preserved将答案指向第一段最后一句中的key和preservation两个词汇，完整阅读此句可知，少数人使用的小语种只是在孤立的小人群众得以保持。故而正确答案必是C。另外，此题的原句与答案之间属于“正话反说”现象。

　　42.According to Paragraph 2, that the world can maintain its linguistic diversity in the future is _______.

　　A.uncertain B.unrealistic

　　C.foreseeable D.definite

　　解题：题干中的linguistic diversity将答案指向第二段第一句话。据以明显暗示答案A。

　　43.According to the author, bilingualism can help_________.

　　A.small languages become acceptable in work places

　　B.homogenize the world’s languages and cultures

　　C.global languages reach home and community settings

　　D.speakers maintain their linguistic and cultural identity

　　解题：题干中的bilingualism将答案指向第四段第三句话。只要熟悉并掌握了寻找答案句的正确方法，很容易便找到了答案句的出处。由此，不难发现选项D就是原句的改写。

　　44.Computer technology is helpful for preserving minority languages in that it_________.

　　A.makes learning a global language unnecessary

　　B.facilitates the learning and using of those languages

　　C.raises public awareness of saving those languages

　　D.makes it easier for linguists to study those languages

　　解题：题干中的Computer technology将答案指向倒数第二段中的例子，因为也只有这个地方涉及到计算机科技的问题，详细阅读后确认答案为B。

　　45.In the author’s view, many endangered languages are________.

　　A.remarkably well-kept in this modern world

　　B.exceptionally powerful tools of communication

　　C.quite possible to be revived instead of dying out

　　D.a unique way of bringing different groups together

　　解题：题干中的endangered languages将答案指向最后一段的首句。阅读后并不能找到答案，然而第二句后的重要转折however将我们的注意力牵引到第三句上。详细阅读后得知答案为C。

　　Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage:

　　Everyone, it seems, has a health problem. After pouring billions into the National Health Service, British people moan about dirty hospitals, long waits and wasted money. In Germany the new chancellor, Angela Merkel, is under fire for suggesting changing the financing of its health system. Canada’s new Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, made a big fuss during the election about reducing the country’s lengthy medical queues. Across the rich world, affluence, ageing and advancing technology are driving up health spending faster than income.

　　But nowhere has a bigger health problem than America. Soaring medical bills are squeezing wages, swelling the ranks of the uninsured and pushing huge firms and perhaps even the government towards bankruptcy. Ford’s announcement this week that it would cut up to 30.000 jobs by 2012 was as much a sign of it’s “legacy” health –care costs as of the ills of the car industry. Pushed by polls that show health care is one of his main domestic problems and by forecasts showing that the retiring baby-boomers (生育高峰期出生的人) will crush the government’s finances, George Bush is to unveil a reform; plan in next week’s state-of –the –union address.

　　America’s health system is unlike any other. The Unite States spends 16% of its GDP on health, around twice the rich-country average, equivalent to $6,280 for every American each year. Yet it is the only rich country that does not guarantee universal health coverage. Thanks to an accident of history, most Americans receive health insurance through their employer, with the government picking up the bill for the poor and the elderly.

　　This curious hybrid(混合物)certainly has its strengths. Americans have more choice than anybody else, and their health-care system is much more innovative. Europeans’ bills could be much higher if American medicine were not doing much of their Research and Development(R&D)for them. But there are also huge weaknesses. The one most often cited—especially by foreigners—is the army of uninsured. Some 46 million Americans do not have cover. In many cases that is out of choice and, if they fall seriously ill, hospitals have to treat them. But it is still deeply unequal. And there are also shocking inefficiencies: by some measures, 30% of American health spending is wasted.

　　Then there is the question of state support. Many Americans disapprove of the “socialized medicine” of Canada and Europe. In fact, even if much of the administration is done privately, around 60% of America’s heath-care bill ends up being met by the government. Proportionately, the American state already spends as much on health as the OECD(Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)average, and that share is set to grow as the baby-boomers run up their Medicare bills and ever more employers avoid providing health-care coverage. America is, in effect, heading towards a version of socialized medicine by default.

　　作题指导：

　　此文有一定的阅读难度，尤其是对于上来就把全文通读一遍的考生，往往会有一种一头雾水没读懂的感觉。这就显示出阅读方法的重要性。各段首句读来就可以明确文章的方向着重点内容，而且更有趣的是，文章有五个自然段，而题目也只有五道。那么合理的推理就是每一段落应该分配一道题目。这样来作题，效率会提高很多，而且在原有基础上是自己的成绩和作题速度提高不少。

　　46.Health problems mentioned in the passage include all the following EXCEPT_________.

　　A. poor hospital conditions in U.K.

　　B. Angela Merkel under attack

　　C. health financing in Germany

　　D. long waiting lines in Canada

　　解题：表面上这是一道列举题，但是在MBA这样的考试中，真正的列举题并不存在。以列举题出现的题目多属于“排除性”列举，即指需要原文中的一个信息点就可以做出来的题目。实际上，就是变相的细节题。此题目更是经典，只因为第一段第二句话中的under fire一个词汇，就可以确定选项B为正确答案。唯一的就是要求考生必须认识这个词组的意思是“受攻击”。

　　47.Ford’s announcement of cutting up to 30,000 jobs by 2012 indicates that Ford_________.

　　A. has the biggest health problem of the car industry

　　B. has made profits from its health-care legacy

　　C. has accumulated too heavy a health-care burden

　　D. owes a great deal of debt to its employees

　　解题：题干中的数字非常明确地将原文答案出处指向第二段第二句话。详细阅读后确认选项C。

　　48.In the author’s opinion, America’s health system is _________.

　　A. inefficient B. feasible

　　C. unpopular D. successful

　　解题：题干中的America’s health system一下子将答案指向了第三段。重点在于第二句话开始的转折，看来作者认为美国卫生系统比较低效率。所以答案也就成为A。

　　49.It is implied in the passage that_________.

　　A. America’s health system has its strengths and weaknesses

　　B. the US government pays medical bills for the poor and the elderly

　　C. some 46 million Americans do not have medical insurance

　　D. Europeans benefit a lot from America’s medical research

　　解题：表面上这是一道面向全文的推理题，但是从此题所处的位置来说很有可能答案句出现在第四段当中。考生遇到这种情况，完全可以先处理最后一道题，如果发现最后一道题目的答案句出现在最后一段的话，那么就可以确定这个49题的答案必然在倒数第二段当中。果然，阅读第二段的结果可以确定出答案为D。另外，很多考生被选项C所迷惑，要知道这个选项应该是细节题的答案，而因为此题属于“推理题”，故而答案必不能是文章中直接的细节改写。所以排除选项C。

　　50. From the last paragraph we may learn that the “socialized medicine” is____________.

　　A. a practice of Canada and Europe

　　B. a policy adopted by the US government

　　C. intended for the retiring baby-boomers

　　D. administered by private enterprises

　　解题：此题比较简单，属于细节题的范畴，而且答案出处明确，为A。

　　Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage:

　　When Thomas Keller, one of America’s foremost chefs, announced that on Sept. I he would abolish the practice of tipping at Per Se. his luxury restaurant in New York City, and replace it with European-style service charge, I knew three groups would be opposed: customers, servers and restaurant owners. These three groups are all committed to tipping——as they quickly made clear on Web sites. To oppose tipping , it seems, is to be anticapitalist , and maybe even a little French..

　　But Mr. Keller is right to move away from tipping—and it’s worth exploring why just about everyone else in the restaurant world is wrong to stick with the practice.

　　Customers believe in tipping because they think it makes economic sense.“Waiters know that they won’t get paid if they don’t do a good job”is how most advocates of the system would put it. To be sure, this is a tempting, apparently rational statement about economic theory, but it appears to have little applicability to the real world of restaurants.

　　Michael Lynn, an associate professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, has conducted dozens of students of tipping and has concluded that consumers assessments of the quality of service correlate weakly to the amount they tip.

　　Rather, customers are likely to tip more in response to servers touching them lightly and leaning forward next to the table to make conversation than to how often their water glass is refilled——in other words, customers tip more when they like the server, not when the service is good. Mr. Lynn’s studies also indicate that male customers increase their tips for female servers while female customers increase their tips for male servers,.

　　What’s more,. consumers seem to forget that the tip increases as the bill increases. Thus, the tipping system is an open invitation to what restaurant professionals call “upwelling”: every bottle of imported water, every espresso and every cocktail is extra money in the server’s pocket. Aggressive upwelling for tips is often rewarded while low-key, quality service often goes unrecognized.

　　In addition , the practice of tip pooling , which is the norm in fine-dining restaurants and is becoming more in every kind of restaurant above the level of a greasy spoon , has ruined whatever effect voting with your tip might have had on an individual waiter . In an unreasonable outcome , you are punishing the good waiters in the restaurant by not tipping the bad one . Indeed , there appear to be little connection between tipping and good service .

　　51.It may be inferred that a European-style service______.

　　A . is tipping-free　　　　　　　　　B .charges little tip

　　C .is the author’s initiative 　　　　　D .is offered at Per-se

　　这道题的定位在原文第一段。选项AB不难看出是对立的。C项明显错误，不要小费的是Thomas Keller 。D项虽然对，但是这是原文中明确给出的细节，题目要求的是从文章inferred出来，所以D项不能选。

　　52.Which of the following is NOT true according to the author .

　　A .Tipping is a common practice in the restaurant world.

　　B .Waiters don’t care about tipping

　　C .Customers generally believe in tipping.

　　D .Tipping has little connection with the quality of service.

　　这道题是个细节列举题，B选项明显错误，原文定位在第一段，作者明确指出，反对这一做法的有三类人，一是顾客，二是服务员，三是餐馆经营者。A选项呼应的是原文第一段的abolish一词。C选项是原文第三段第一句话的重现。D选项实际上是解释C选项的原因，是第三段第二句话中的同义表达。

　　53.According to Michael Lynn’s studies, waiters will likely get more tips if they______

　　A. have performed good service

　　B. frequently refill customers’ water glass

　　C. win customers’ favor

　　D. serve customers of the same sex

　　这道题是细节题，题目中的关键词就是Michael Lynn’s，找到其相关内容，即原文第四段。同义表达就是C选项。

　　54.We may infer from the context that “upwelling”(Line 2, Para 6) probably means ________

　　A. selling something up

　　B. selling something fancy

　　C. selling something unnecessary

　　D. selling something more expensive

　　这道题是个词汇题，其实答案就在这个词后面的那句话every bottle of imported water, every espresso and every cocktail is extra money in the server’s pocket.这句话就解释了upwelling一词的含义。很显然，这些东西就是饭馆经营者搭卖给消费者的，并不是消费者需要的。

　　55.This passage is mainly about __________

　　A. reasons to abolish the practice of tipping

　　B. economic sense of tipping

　　C. consumers’ attitudes towards tipping

　　D. tipping for good service

　　这道题是个主旨题，题目很简单。文章的结构很清晰，作者上来先引出一个话题，然后引用其他众人的观点，分析了问题的原因。因此A选项正确。

　　Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage:

　　“I promise.” “ I swear to you it’ll never happen again.” “I give you my word.” “Honestly. Believe me.” Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity. I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism(剽窃)appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student’s work with his or her name even if it’s missing from the upper left-hand corner.

　　Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average(GPA)? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. “If you let me pass math I will ….” “Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll….” Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché（陈词滥调)to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not ?

　　Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.

　　I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it I’d understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays. “I promise…., I’m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I’m just nervous today.”

　　The head of the English department agreed with my finding, and the meeting with the dean had the boy’s parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy’s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation(留校察看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, “He’s only a child” and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such…. Except in this uncomfortable circumstance.

　　56.According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for_____.

　　A.money B.degree C.higher GPA D.reputation

　　这道题是细节题，文章第一段作者一直在谈自己学生剽窃的普遍性。随后作者在第二段第一句话用一个设问句引出了这种做法的根本原因，即为了获得更高的GPA。

　　57.the sentence “ Once the situation is behind us , so are the promises’ implies that_________.

　　A.students usually keep their promises

　　B.some students tend to break their promises

　　C.the promises are always behind the situation

　　D.we cannot judge the situation in advance, as we do to the promises

　　这道题是个语气题。作者摆出了几个学生的口头禅，当学生们说出这类话的时候，就是他们准备去剽窃，在剽窃之前用这类话求得心理上的慰藉。所以B选项是正确选项。

　　58.The “borderline passing”(Line 3,Para.3)probably means____________.

　　A.fairly good B.extremely poor

　　C.above average D.below average

　　这道题是个词汇题。从词面上看，我们并不太好判断其准确的含义。但是快速通读第三段后我们发现，这个学生的成绩很糟糕，但是却交上了一份具有博士水平的论文。而且，在第四段，这个学生因为成绩糟糕，已经要被留校查看了。很显然，这里面要强调的是其学习成绩和最后的论文之间的巨大差异。因此D选项是正确的。

　　59.The boy’s parents thought their son should be excused mainly because_______________.

　　A.teachers should be compassionate

　　B.he was only a child

　　C.instructors were wiser

　　D.he was threatened

　　这道题是个细节题，定位在最后一段结尾处。这个学生的服务为他辩护，认为他成绩不好，剽窃论文，只是因为他依然是个孩子。B选项是原文的重现。

　　60.Which of the following might serve as the title of this passage?

　　A.Human Nature B.Conditional Promises

　　C.How to Detect Cheating D.The Sadness of Plagiarism

　　这道题是个标题题。全文都在谈学生的剽窃问题，以及任课教师心中的悲哀，所以D选项是正确的。

    更多信息请访问：新浪考研频道 考研论坛 考研博客圈

　　特别说明：由于各方面情况的不断调整与变化，新浪网所提供的所有考试信息仅供参考，敬请考生以权威部门公布的正式信息为准。