考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇【經濟類】

考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇unit6

Unit 6  

Thanks to slumping markets, investment banks are shedding many of their highly-paid traders.

When markets recover, the banks might be tempted to replace them with rather cheaper talent.

One alternative has been around for a while but has yet to catch on: autonomous trading

agents-computers programmed to act like the human version without such pesky costs as

holidays, lunch breaks or bonuses. Program trading has, of course, been done before; some

blamed the 1987 stockmarket crash on computers instructed with simple decision-making rules.

But robots can be smarter than that.

Dave Cliff, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol, England, has been

creating trading robots for seven years. In computer simulations he lets them evolve

"genetically", and so allows them to adapt and fit models of real-world financial markets. His

experiments have suggested that a redesign of some markets could lead to greater efficiency.

Last year, a research group at IBM showed that Mr Cliff's artificial traders could

consistently beat the human variety, in various kinds of market. Nearly all take the shape of

an auction. One well-known type is the English auction, familiar to patrons of the salesrooms

of Christie's and Sotheby's, where sellers keep mum on their offer price, and buyers increase

their bids by stages until only one remains.

At the other extreme is the Dutch auction, familiar to 17th-century tulip-traders in the

Netherlands as well as to bidders for American Treasury bonds. Here, buyers remain silent, and

a seller reduces his price until it is accepted. Most markets for shares, commodities, foreign

exchange and derivatives are a hybrid of these two types: buyers and sellers can announce

their bid or offer prices at any time, and deals are constantly being closed, a so-called

"continuous double auction".

Mr Cliff's novel idea was to apply his evolutionary computer programs to marketplaces

themselves. Why not, he thought, try and see what types of auction would let traders converge

most quickly towards an equilibrium price? The results were surprising. In his models,

auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of today's financial exchanges

were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from either buyers or

sellers. These "evolved auctions" also withstood big market shocks, such as crashes and

panics, better than today's real-world versions. Mr Cliff's most recent results, which will be

presented in Sydney, Australia, on December 10th, show that the best type of auction for any

market depends crucially on even slight differences in the number of buyers and sellers.

Bank of America has been investigating these new auctions, along with robotic traders, for

possible use in electronic exchanges. The hope is that today's financial auctions and online

marketplaces might work better by becoming more like their English and Dutch forebears. But

what to call such multi-ethnic hybrids? Here's introducing the "Cliffhanger".

注（1）：本文選自Economist；11/30/2002, p65, 1/2p, 1c；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿2000年真題text 3第1題（1），text 4第3題（2），2004年真題text 4第1題，

2001年真題text 1第2題（4），1999年真題text 1第4題（5）；

1.       The passage is mainly__________.

[A] a review of two kinds of auctions

[B] an introduction of trading robots

[C] a survey of the trading market

[D] about trading alternatives

2.       Which of the following is true according to the text?

[A] David’s robot traders have now been used in real-world markets.

[B] Robot traders can evolve like creatures.

[C] There is room for improvement in efficiency in trading markets.

[D] The English auction is the most popular trading form.

3.       If you were trading American Treasury bonds, you would most likely take the trading

form of ___________. 

[A] the English auction

[B] the continuous double auction

[C] the Dutch auction

[D] the evolved auction

4.       We can infer from the text that______________.

[A] existing auctions can not withstand market shocks

[B] the Dutch auction is better than the continuous double auction

[C] it’s hard for traders to reach an equilibrium price

[D] the best type of auction takes place when the number of the buyers is equal to that of

sellers

5.       Toward robot traders, the writer’s attitude can be said to be__________.

[A] biased

[B] objective

[C] pessimistic

[D] optimistic

答案：B C C B D

篇章剖析

本篇文章是一篇說明文，介紹了一種機器人交易員。第一段以銀行也需要薪資更低廉的交易員開始引入機器

人交易員的話題，說明機器人交易員不同于程序交易，是聰明的交易員。第二段介紹了這種機器人交易員的

研發(fā)過程和其模擬的一種拍賣形式。第三段介紹了其他拍賣形式。第四段介紹了這種機器人交易員在模擬拍

賣中的表現(xiàn)。最后一段對這種機器人交易員的前景及影響作了簡單評價。

詞匯注釋

slump: [slQmp] v. (價格等)暴跌, (買賣)清淡; 衰落; 蕭條

shed: [Fed] v. 去除除去（不想要或不需要的東西）

pesky: [5peski] adj. 討厭的，麻煩的

auction: [5C:kFEn] n. 拍賣

patron: [5peitrEn] n. 顧客；主顧

salesroom: n. 拍賣場

mum: [mQm] adj. 沉默的；無言的；不說話的

derivative: [di5rivEtiv] n. 衍生物

hybrid: [5haibrid] n. 混合物

converge: [kEn5vE:dV] v. 達成一致趨于或達成聯(lián)合、共同結論或者結果

equilibrium: [7i:kwi5libriEm] n. 平衡

forebear: [5fC:bZE] n. 祖先，祖宗

cliffhang: [`klIfhAN] v. 扣人心弦,懸疑

難句突破

In his models, auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of today's

financial exchanges were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from

either buyers or sellers.

主體句式：auctions… were less efficient than ones..

結構分析：這是一個復雜句，句子的主語auctions后面有一個that引導的定語從句對它進行修飾，句子主體

結構中包含了一個比較級，在比較的對象ones后面也有一個that引導的定語從句對它進行修飾。

句子譯文：在他的模式中，現(xiàn)今大多數金融交易中采用的讓買賣雙方隨時競價的拍賣方式比起那些需要買賣

雙方提出更多競價的模式效率要低下。

題目分析

1. 答案為B，屬推理判斷題。判斷文章主旨要從文章整體來把握。文章第一段說明機器人交易員可以替代人

類從事交易工作。接下來作者介紹其研發(fā)過程及其模擬的幾種拍賣形式以及拍賣中的表現(xiàn)，最后一段對這種

機器人交易員的前景進行了展望，可見全文都是在介紹機器人交易員。

2. 答案為C，屬事實細節(jié)題。根據文章第二段第四行，克里夫的研究表明“對某些市場進行重新設計可能會

大幅提高效率�！笨梢娊灰资袌鋈匀挥刑岣咝�率的空間。

3. 答案為C，屬事實細節(jié)題。文章第三段介紹荷蘭式拍賣時說它是“今天競拍美國國庫券競標人所熟悉的一

種拍賣形式�！笨梢�，如果交易美國國庫券，最有可能采用荷蘭式拍賣方式。

4. 答案為B，屬推理判斷題。根據文章第四段克里夫的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，現(xiàn)今大多數金融交易中所采用讓買賣雙方

隨時競價的拍賣方式比起那些需要買賣雙方提出更多競價的模式效率要低下。可見荷蘭式的拍賣方式比連續(xù)

雙向拍賣。這也可以從文章最后一段中所說的“今天的金融拍賣和網上市場如果能更多地模仿它們的英國和

荷蘭先祖生意也許就會更好”看出。

5. 答案為D，屬推理判斷題。作者的態(tài)度可以通過材料的選擇和措辭來判斷。在第一段，作者指出，機器人

交易員不同于程序交易，是聰明的交易員。接著作者介紹了IBM的一個研究小組的成果：這種機器人交易員

可以在各種市場上擊敗真人交易員�？梢�，作者對機器人交易員持積極樂觀的態(tài)度。

參考譯文

由于市場不景氣，投資銀行辭退了許多高薪交易員。等到市場恢復，銀行也許會用薪資更低廉的人才來取代

他們。現(xiàn)在他們又多了一個選擇：電子交易員---經過編程可以像人一樣工作，但卻不需要休假，午餐休息

或者獎金等煩人的支出的電腦。這種電子交易員已經面世一段時間了，但尚未流行起來。以前當然也出現(xiàn)過

程序交易；有人就把1987年的股市崩盤歸罪于那些只按照簡單決策規(guī)則指令工作的電腦。不過機器人會聰明

得多。

大衛(wèi)·克利夫是英國布里斯托惠普實驗室的研究員，7年來他一直致力于創(chuàng)造交易機器人。在計算機仿真試

驗中，他使這些機器人“按照遺傳方式”不斷發(fā)展，以使它們適應并且適合真實金融市場的各種模式。他的

實驗意味著對某些市場進行重新設計可能會大幅提高效率。去年，IBM的一個研究小組證明克利夫的人造交

易員可以在各種市場上擊敗真人交易員。幾乎所有這些實驗都是以拍賣的形式進行的。其中一種著名的拍賣

形式就是英式拍賣，克里斯蒂和索斯比拍賣行的顧客對此都很熟悉，賣家不報出他們的競拍價，而買家則不

斷抬高競拍價鉻，直到只有一位買家出價為止。

另外一種形式是荷蘭式拍賣，它是十七世紀荷蘭的郁金香商人以及今天競拍美國國庫券競標人所熟悉的一種

拍賣形式。這一回，買家不報價，由賣家不斷降價，直到有人接受這個價格為止。大部分股票市場，商品市

場，外匯市場和衍生產品市場則采用這兩種類型的混合模式：買賣雙方可以隨時宣布他們的競價或者報價，

交易也隨時完成，即所謂“連續(xù)雙向拍賣”。

克利夫的新思路就是把他研制的可以不斷升級的電腦程序應用于市場。他想，為什么不試試看哪種拍賣形式

能最快地讓交易員趨于一個均衡價格呢？其研究結果令人吃驚。在他的模式中，現(xiàn)今大多數金融交易中采用

的讓買賣雙方隨時競價的拍賣方式比起那些需要買賣雙方提出更多競價的模式效率要低下。這些“進化的拍

賣方式”還承受住了大的市場震蕩，比如崩盤和恐慌，比真人拍賣表現(xiàn)出色�？死�夫將于12月10日在澳大利

亞悉尼演示他的最新研究成果，這些成果表明買賣雙方人數的輕微差異都會對最好的市場拍賣形式產生影響

。

美洲銀行已經開始研究這些新型拍賣形式以及機器人交易員，看看是否可能在電子交易中使用。今天的金融

拍賣和網上市場如果能更多地模仿它們的英國和荷蘭先祖生意也許就會更好。但這種多種類混合體該叫什么

呢？ 叫“克利夫懸疑”如何

二：資料下載

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