-
2011
:
Read the
following text. Choose the best word
(
p>
s
)
for
each numbered black and mark
A
,
B
,
C
or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.
(
10
points
)
The Internet
affords anonymity to its
users
,
a blessing
to privacy and freedom of speech.
But
that very anonymity is also behind the explosion
of cyber-crime that has 1 across the Web.
Can
privacy be preserved 2 bringing safety and
security to a world that seems increasingly
3
?
Last
month
,
Howard
Schmidt
,
the
nation?s
cyber
-czar
,
offered the federal government a
4 to make the Web a safer
place-
a ―voluntary trusted identity‖
system that would be the high
-tech
5 of a physical
key
,
a
fingerprint and a photo ID
card
,
all rolled
6 one. The system might use a
smart
identity card
,
or
a digital credential 7 to a specific computer .and
would authenticate users
at a range of
online services.
The idea is to 8 a
federation of private online identity systems.
User could 9 which system to
join
,
and only registered users whose
identities have been authenticated could navigate
those
systems. The approach contrasts
with one that would require an Internet driver?s
license
10 by the
government.
Google and Microsoft are
among companies that already have these―single
sign
-
on‖ systems
that make it possible for users to 11
just once but use many different services.
12
.
the approach would create a ―walled
garden‖ n cyberspace
,
with safe ―neighborhoods‖
and bright ―streetlights‖ to establish
a sense of a
13 community.
Mr. Schmidt
described it as a ―voluntary ecosystem‖ in which
―indivi
duals and organizations
can complete online transactions with
14
,
trusting the identities
of each other and the identities of
the
infrastructure 15
which the transaction
runs‖
。
Still
,
the administration?s plan
has
16 privacy rights activists. Some
applaud the approach
;
others are concerned. It seems clear
that such a scheme is an initiative push toward
what would 17
be a compulsory Internet
―drive‘s license‖ mentality.
The plan has
also been greeted with 18 by some computer
security experts
,
who worry that
the
―voluntary ecosystem‖ envisioned by Mr. Schmidt
would still leave much of the Internet
19 .They argue that all Internet users
should be 20 to register and identify
themselves
,
in
the
same way that drivers must be
licensed to drive on public roads.
1. d
2.
3. ss s ess ss
4.
er mise al
5. ation erence ainment lent
6.
7.
ed d ed
8. s er e
9. t e
10. ed buted
red
11. on on in in
12. vain
effect return contrast
13. d ized ng ing
14.
n t ence ce
15.
16. d ointed ted
17.
stly ntally onally ally
18. cism nce erence iasm
19.
able able able ble
20. d ted d
Section II
Reading Comprehension
Part A
Text 1
Ruth Simmons joined Goldman
Sachs?s board as an outside director in January
2000
:
a year
later she became president of Brown
University. For the rest of the decade she
apparently
managed both roles without
attracting much eroticism. But by the end of 2009
Ms. Simmons was
under fire for having
sat on Goldman‘s compensation
committee
;
how
could she have let those
enormous bonus
payouts pass unremarked
?
By February the next year Ms. Simmons
had left the
board. The position was
just taking up too much
time
,
she said.
Outside directors are supposed to serve
as helpful
,
yet
less biased
,
advisers on a firm?s
board.
Having made their wealth and their reputations
elsewhere
,
they
presumably have enough
independence to
disagree with the
chief executive‘s
proposals. If the sky
,
and the share price is
falling
,
outside directors should be able to
give advice based on having weathered their own
crises.
The researchers from Ohio
University used a database hat covered more than
10
,
000 firms
and
more than 64
,
000 different
directors between 1989 and 2004. Then they simply
checked
which directors stayed from one
proxy statement to the next. The most likely
reason for departing
a board was
age
,
so the
researchers concentrated on those ―surprise‖
disappearances by directors
under the age of 70. They fount that
after a surprise departure
,
the probability that the company
will subsequently have to restate
earnings increased by nearly 20%. The likelihood
of being
named in a federal class-
action lawsuit also
increases
,
and
the stock is likely to perform worse.
The effect tended to be larger for
larger firms. Although a correlation between them
leaving and
subsequent bad performance
at the firm is suggestive
,
it does not mean that such directors
are
alwa
ys jumping off a
sinking ship. Often they ―trade up.‖ Leaving
riskier
,
smaller
firms for
larger and more stable firms.
But
the researchers believe that outside directors
have an easier time of avoiding a blow to
their reputations if they leave a firm
before bad news breaks
,
even if a review of history shows
they were on the board at the time any
wrongdoing occurred. Firms who want to keep their
outside
directors through tough times
may have to create incentives. Otherwise outside
directors will
follow the example of
Ms. Simmons
,
once
again very popular on campus.
21. According
to Paragraph 1
,
Ms. Simmons was criticized for .
[A]gaining excessive profits
[B]failing to fulfill her duty
[C]refusing to make compromises
[D]leaving the board in tough times
22.
We learn from Paragraph 2 that outside directors
are supposed to be .
[A]generous investors
[B]unbiased executives
[C]share price
forecasters
[D]independent advisers
23. According
to the researchers from Ohio University
aft
er an outside director?s surprise
departure
,
the firm is likely to .
[A]become more
stable
[B]report increased earnings
[C]do less well in the stock market
[D]perform worse in lawsuits
24.
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that
outside directors .
[A]may stay for the
attractive offers from the firm
[B]have often
had records of wrongdoings in the firm
[C]are
accustomed to stress-free work in the firm
[D]will decline incentives from the
firm
25. The author?s attitude
tow
ard the role of outside directors is
.
[A]permissive
[B]positive
[C]scornful
[D]critical
Text 2
Whatever
happened to the death of
newspaper
?
A year
ago the end seemed near. The
recession
threatened to remove the advertising and readers
that had not already fled to the internet.
Newspapers like the San Francisco
Chronicle were chronicling their own doom.
America?s
Federal Trade commission
launched a round of talks about how to save
newspapers. Should they
become
charitable corporations
?
Should the state subsidize them
?
It will hold
another
meeting soon. But the
discussions now seem out of date.
In much of the
world there is the sign of crisis. German and
Brazilian papers have shrugged
off the
recession. Even American
newspapers
,
which
inhabit the most troubled come of the
global industry
,
have not only survived but often
returned to profit. Not the 20% profit margins
that were routine a few years
ago
,
but profit
all the same.
It has not been much fun. Many papers
stayed afloat by pushing journalists overboard.
The
American Society of News Editors
reckons that 13
,
500 newsroom
jobs have gone since 2007.
Readers are
paying more for slimmer products. Some papers even
had the nerve to refuse delivery
to
distant suburbs. Yet these desperate measures have
proved the right ones and
,
sadly for many
journalists
,
they can be pushed further.
Newspapers are
becoming more balanced
businesses
,
with
a healthier mix of revenues from
readers and advertisers. American
papers have long been highly unusual in their
reliance on ads.
Fully 87% of their
revenues came from advertising in
2008
,
according
to the Organization for
Economic
Cooperation Development
(
OEC
D
)。
In Japan the
proportion is 35%. Not
surprisingly
,
Japanese newspapers are much more
stable.
The whirlwind that swept through
newsrooms harmed everybody
,
but much of the damage
has
been concentrated in areas where newspaper are
least distinctive. Car and film reviewers have
gone. So have science and general
business reporters. Foreign bureaus have been
savagely cut off.
Newspapers are less
complete as a result. But completeness is no
longer a virtue in the newspaper
business.
26. By saying ―Newspapers
like … their own doom‖
(
Lines
3-4
,
Para.
1
),
the author
indicates that newspaper .
[A]neglected
the sign of crisis
[B]failed to get state
subsidies
[C]were not charitable corporations
[D]were in a desperate situation
27.
Some newspapers refused delivery to distant
suburbs probably because .
[A]readers threatened to
pay less
[B]newspapers wanted to reduce costs
[C]journalists reported little about
these areas
[D]subscribers complained about slimmer
products
28. Compared with their American
counterparts
,
Japanese newspapers are much more
stable
because they .
[A]have more
sources of revenue
[B]have more balanced
newsrooms
[C]are less dependent on advertising
[D]are less affected by readership
29.
What can be inferred from the last paragraph about
the current newspaper
business
?
[A]Distinctiveness is an essential
feature of newspapers.
[B]Completeness is to blame
for the failure of newspaper.
[C]Foreign
bureaus play a crucial role in the newspaper
business.
[D]Readers have lost their interest in
car and film reviews.
30. The most appropriate
title for this text would be .
[A]American
Newspapers
:
Struggling for Survival
[B]American
Newspapers
:
Gone
with the Wind
[C]American
Newspapers
:
A
Thriving Business
[D]American
Newspapers
:
A
Hopeless Story
Text 3
We tend to think of the
decades immediately following World War II as a
time of prosperity
and
growth
,
with
soldiers returning home by the
millions
,
going
off to college on the G. I. Bill
and
lining up at the marriage bureaus.
But when it
came to their houses
,
it was a time of common sense and a
belief that less could
truly be more.
During the Depression and the
war
,
Americans
had learned to live with
less
,
and
that restraint
,
in combination with the postwar
confidence in the future
,
made small
,
efficient
housing positively
stylish.
Economic condition was only a stimulus
for the trend toward efficient living. The phrase
―less is more‖ was actually first
popularized by a German
,
the architect Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe
,
who like other people associated with
the Bauhaus
,
a
school of design
,
emigrated to the
United
States before World War II
and took up posts at
American architecture schools. These designers
came to exert enormous
influence on the
course of American
architecture
,
but
none more so that Mies.
Mies?s signature phrase
me
ans that less
decoration
,
properly
organized
,
has
more impact
that a lot.
Elegance
,
he
believed
,
did not
derive from abundance. Like other modern
architects
,
he
employed metal
,
glass and laminated wood-materials that
we take for granted today buy that
in
t
he 1940s symbolized the future. Mies‘s
sophisticated presentation masked the fact that
the
spaces he designed were small and
efficient
,
rather
than big and often empty.
The apartments in the
elegant towers Mies built on Chicago?s Lake Shore
Drive
,
for
example
,
were smaller-two-bedroom units under
1
,
000 square feet-than those
in their older
neighbors along the
city‘s Gold Coast. But they were popular because
of their airy glass walls
,
the views they afforded and the
elegance of the buildings? details and
proportions
,
the
architectural equivalent
of the abstract art so popular at the time.
The
trend toward ―less‖ was not entirely foreign. In
the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright started
building more modest and efficient
houses-usually around 1
,
200
square feet-than the spreading
two-
story ones he had designed in the 1890s and the
early 20th century.
The ―Case Study Houses‖
commissioned from talented modern architects by
California Arts
Architecture magazine
between 1945 and 1962 were yet another homegrown
influence on the
―less is more‖ trend.
Aesthetic effect came from the
landscape
,
new
materials and forthright
detailing. In
his Case Study House
,
Ralph everyday life
–
few American families
acquired
helicopters
,
though most eventually got clothes
dryers
–
but his belief that
self-sufficiency was
both desirable and
inevitable was widely shared.
31. The postwar
American housing style largely reflected the
Americans? .
[A]prosperity and growth
[B]efficiency
and practicality
[C]restraint and confidence
[D]pride and faithfulness
32. Which of
the following can be inferred from Paragraph 3
about Bauhaus
?
[A]It was
founded by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
[B]Its
designing concept was affected by World War II.
[C]Most American architects used to be
associated with it.
[D]It had a great influence
upon American architecture.
33. Mies held
that elegance of architectural design .
[A]was related to large space
[B]was identified with emptiness
[C]was not reliant on abundant
decoration
[D]was not associated with efficiency
34.
What is true about the apartments Mies building
Chicago?s Lake Shore Drive
?
[A]They ignored details and
proportions.
[B]They were built with materials
popular at that time.
[C]They were more spacious
than neighboring buildings.
[D]They shared
some characteristics of abstract art.
35. What can we
learn about the design of the ―Case Study
House‖
?
[A]Mechanical
devices were widely used.
[B]Natural scenes were
taken into consideration
[C]Details were sacrificed
for the overall effect.
[D]Eco-friendly materials
were employed.
Text 4