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Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
The mobile phone is a magic device widely used these days. Although it has been nearly 30 years since the first commercial mobile-phone network was launched, advertisers have yet to figure out how to get their __36__ out to mobile-phone users in a big way. There are 2.2 billion cell-phone users worldwide, a __37__ that is growing by about 25% each year. Yet spending on ads carried over cell-phone networks last year __38__ to just $1.5 billion worldwide, a fraction of the $424 billion global ad market.
But as the number of eyeballs glued to __39__ screens multiplies, so too does the mobile phone's value as a pocket billboard(廣告牌) Consumers are __40__ using their phones for things other than voice calls, such as text messaging, downloading songs and games, and __41__ the Internet. By 2010, 70 million Asians are expected to be watching videos and TV programs on mobile phones. All of these activities give advertisers __42__ options for reaching audiences. During soccer's World Cup last summer, for example, Adidas used real-time scores and games to __43__ thousands of fans to a website set up for mobile-phone access. "Our target audience was males aged 17 to 25," says Marcus Spurrell, Adidas regional manager for Asia. "Their mobiles are always on, always in their pocket-you just can't __44__ cell phones as an advertising tool." Mobile-phone marketing has become as __45__ a platform as TV, online or print.
【參考答案】
36-45 JMBLI AGDHO
A Mess on the Ladder of Success
A) Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their fortune elsewhere. For the first 300 or so years of European settlement, the story was about moving outward: getting immigrants to the continent and then to the frontier to clear the prairies(大草原), drain the wetlands and build new cities.
B) By the end of the 19th century, as the frontier vanished, the US had a mild panic attack. What would this energetic, enterprising country be without new lands to conquer? Some people, such as Teddy Roosevelt, decided to keep on conquering (Cuba, the Philippines, etc.), but eventually, in industrialization, the US found a new narrative of economic mobility at home. From the 1890s to the 1960s, people moved from farm to city, first in the North and then in the South. In fact, by the 1950s, there was enough prosperity and white-collar work that many began to move to the suburbs. As the population aged, there was also a shift from the cold Rust Belt to the comforts of the Sun Belt. We think of this as an old person's migration, but it created many jobs for the young in construction and health care, not to mention tourism, retail and restaurants.
C) For the last 20 years from the end of the cold war through two burst bubbles in a single decade-the US has been casting about for its next economic narrative. And now it is experiencing another period of panic, which is bad news for much of the workforce but particularly for its youngest members.
D) The US has always been a remarkably mobile country, but new data from the Census Bureau indicate that mobility has reached its lowest level in recorded history. Sure, some people are stuck in homes valued at less than their mortgages(抵押貸款), but many young people-who don't own homes and don't yet have families-are staying put, too. This suggests, among other things, that people aren't packing up for new economic opportunities the way they used to. Rather than dividing the country into the 1 percenters versus(與......相對) everyone else, the split in our economy is really between two other classes: the mobile and immobile.
E) Part of the problem is that the country's largest industries are in decline. In the past, it was perfectly clear where young people should go for work (Chicago in the 1870s, Detroit in the 1910s, Houston in the 1970s) and, more or less, what they'd be doing when they got there (killing cattle, building cars, selling oil). And these industries were large enough to offer jobs to each class of worker, from unskilled laborer to manager or engineer. Today, the few bright spots in our economy are relatively small (though some promise future growth) and decentralized. There are great jobs in Silicon Valley, in the biotech research capitals of Boston and Raleigh-Durham and in advanced manufacturing plants along the southern z-85 corridor. These companies recruit all over the country and the globe for workers with specific abilities. (You don't need to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. to get a job in one of the microhubs(微中心), by the way. But you will almost certainly need at least a B. A. in computer science or a year or two at a technical school.) This newer, select job market is national, and it offers members of the mobile class competitive salaries and higher bargaining power.
F) Many members of the immobile class, on the other hand, live in the America of the gloomy headlines. If you have no specialized skills, there's little reason to uproot to another state and be the last in line for a low-paying job at a new auto plant or a green-energy startup. The surprise in the census(普查) data, however, is that the immobile workforce is not limited to unskilled workers. In fact, many have a college degree.
G) Until now, a B. A. in any subject was a near-guarantee of at least middle-class wages. But today, a quarter of college graduates make less than the typical worker without a bachelor's degree. David Autor, a prominent labor economist at M.I.T., recently told me that a college degree alone is no longer a guarantor of a good job. While graduates from top universities are still likely to get a good job no matter what their major is, he said, graduates from less-famous schools are going to be judged on what they know. To compete for jobs on a national level, they should be armed with the skills that emerging industries need, whether technical or not.
H) Those without such specialized skills-like poetry, or even history, majors-are already competing with their neighbors for the same sorts of second-rate, poorer-paying local jobs like low-level management or big-box retail sales. And with the low-skilled labor market atomized into thousands of microeconomics, immobile workers are less able to demand better wages or conditions or to acquire valuable skills.
I) So what, exactly, should the ambitious young worker of today be learning? Unfortunately, it's hard to say, since the US doesn't have one clear national project. There are plenty of emerging, smaller industries, but which ones are the most promising? (Nanotechnology's(納米技術) moment of remarkable growth seems to have been 5 years into the future for something like 20 years now.) It's not clear exactly what skills are most needed or if they will even be valuable in a decade.
J) What is clear is that all sorts of government issues--education. health-insurance portability, worker retraining-are no longer just bonuses to already prosperous lives but existential requirements. It's in all of our interests to make sure that as many people as possible are able to move toward opportunity, and America's ability to invest people and money in exciting new ideas is still greater than that of most other wealthy countries. (As recently as five years ago, US migration was twice the rate of European Union states.) That, at least, is some comfort at a time when our national economy seems to be searching for its next story line.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
46. Unlike in the past, a college degree alone does not guarantee a good job for its holder.
47. The census data is surprising in that college graduates are also among the immobile workforce.
48. New figures released by the government show that Americans today are less mobile than ever before.
49. The migration of old people from cold to warm places made many jobs available to the young.
50. America is better at innovation than most other rich nations-
51. Early American history is one of moving outward.
52. Young people don't know what to learn because it is hard to predict what skills are most needed or valued ten years from now.
53. Computer or other technical skills are needed to get a well-paying job in high-tech or advanced manufacturing.
54. When the frontier vanished about a century ago, America found new economic mobility in industrialization.
55. America today can be divided into two classes: those who move and those who don't.
【參考答案】
46-55 GFDBJ AIEBD
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
A new study shows a large gender gap on economic policy among the nation's professional economists, a divide similar to the gender divide found in the general public.
"As a group, we are pro-market." says Ann Mari May. co-author of the study and a University of Nebraska economist. "But women are more likely to accept government regulation and involvement in economic activity than our male colleagues."
"It's very puzzling," says free market economist Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "Not a day goes by that I don't ask myself why there are so few women economists on the free market side."
A native of France, de Rugy supported government intervention(干預) early in her life but changed her mind after studying economics. "We want many of the same things as liberals-less poverty, more health care-but have radically different ideas on how to achieve it."
Liberal economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, says male economists have been on the inside of the profession, confirming each other's anti-regulation views. Women, as outsiders, "are more likely to think independently or at least see people outside of the economics profession as forming their peer group," he says.
The gender balance in economics is changing. One-third of economics doctorates (博士學位) now go to women. "More diversity is needed at the table when public policy is discussed," May says.
Economists do agree on some things. Female economists agree with men that Europe has too much regulation and that Wal-mart is good for society. Male economists agree with their female colleagues that military spending is too high.
The genders are most divorced from each other on the question of equality for women. Male economists overwhelmingly think the wage gap between men and women is largely the result of individuals' skills, experience and voluntary choices. Female economists overwhelmingly disagree by a margin of 4-to-1.
The biggest disagreement: 76% of women say faculty opportunities in economics favor men. Male economists point the opposite way: 80% say women are favored or the process is neutral.
56. What is the finding of the new study?
A) The gender divide is a big concern of the general public.
B) Men and women understand economics quite differently.
C) The gap between male and female economists needs to be closed.
D) Male and female economists disagree widely on economic policy.
57. What does Ann Mari May say about female economists?
A) They are strongly against male domination in the economics profession.
B) They tend to support government intervention in economic activity.
C) They usually play an active role in public policy-making.
D) They are mostly strong advocates of free market economy.
58. What do we learn about economist Veronique de Rugy?
A) She represents most female economists' standpoint.
B) She devotes herself to eliminating women's poverty.
C) Her study of economics changed her view on government's role in economic activities.
D) Her academic background helped her get into the inner circle of the economics profession.
59. What does Ann Mari May imply about public policy-making?
A) More female economists should get involved.
B) It should do justice to female economists' studies.
C) More attention should be paid to women's rights.
D) It should aim at sustainable development.
60. On what issue do male and female economists differ most?
A) Government regulation.
B) Job creation.
C) Military spending.
D) Gender equality.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
The number of postgraduate students travelling from non-EU countries to study at UK universities has fallen for the first time in 16 years, fuelling fears that the government's immigration crackdown is discouraging thousands of the brightest students from continuing their studies in Britain.
Jo Beall, British Council director of education and society, said the fall would cause alarm among UK vice-chancellors(大學行政主管). "The sector was expecting a decline in growth, but the actual reduction in postgraduate numbers is of real concern as international students make up the majority of numbers in many postgraduate courses and research teams in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."
"Attracting the brightest and most ambitious postgraduate and research students is critical if the UK is to maintain its quality reputation for research," Beall said.
Universities get a third of their tuition(學費) fee revenue from non-EU students. There is growing fear among vice-chancellors that this revenue-as well as the cultural, academic and economic benefit international students bring-is being put at risk.
Tim Westlake, director for the student experience at Manchester University, said students whose families relied on them working in the UK after their studies to gain experience and repay the fees were starting to look elsewhere.
Last month the home secretary. Theresa May. announced that embassy staff would interview more than 100 000 applicants in an attempt to prevent bogus(假冒的) ones entering the country. She also said immigrants were responsible for pushing up UK house prices. The comments followed the introduction of new limitations on students' right to work during and after their studies.
Beall said: "Government statistics for the first time provide real evidence that the changes to UK visa regulations may have discouraged many students from applying to the UK. and in particular postgraduate students who are so important to the UK's research output. The UK enjoys an excellent reputation around the world for the high quality of our education system, so the government needs to ensure that institutions have all the support they need to attract international students who make a tremendous academic, cultural and economic contribution to the UK."
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
61. What has caused the decline of the number of non-EU postgraduates in the UK?
A) The increase in tuition and fees.
B) The ever-rising living expenses.
C) Changed immigration policies.
D) Universities' tightened budgets.
62. What is UK vice-chancellors' biggest concern?
A) How to obtain financial support from the government.
B) How to keep the academic reputation of their institutions.
C) How to prevent bogus applicants entering their universities.
D) How to stimulate the creativity of their research teams.
63. Why do UK universities try to attract postgraduate students from outside the EU?
A) A substantial part of their revenue comes from non-EU students' tuition and fees.
B) Non-EU postgraduate students are usually highly motivated.
C) The number of UK postgraduate students has fallen sharply.
D) Some of the postgraduate programmers are specially designed for non-EU students.
64. What were the expectations of some non-EU students' families?
A) Their children could enjoy the UK's cultural benefits.
B) Their children could find well-paying jobs upon their return.
C) Their children could become established academically.
D) Their children could work in the UK after graduation.
65. What does Beall suggest the UK government should do?
A) Allow promising international students to work in research teams.
B) Revise UK visa regulations to accommodate non-EU students.
C) Give universities adequate support to attract non-EU students.
D) Try to address the needs of international students in the UK.
