考研英語閱讀理解命題思路透析和真題揭秘(41)

2000年Passage 1

A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight ties larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world's best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.

It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith.(Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea's LG Electronics in July.)Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market America's machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.

All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.

How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride." American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted," according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government," It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity, says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as" a golden age of business management in the United States."

53. What can be inferred from the passage?
[A] It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried.
[B] Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.
[C] The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.
[D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.

[答案] B

[解題思路]

本題需要將各選項與原文進行一一比較。A選項對應于原文第四段的第四句話"Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride"（到如今，對自我懷疑已被盲目樂觀所取代），但卻與選項的表述風馬牛不相及。C選項的說法看似有道理，卻與原文并沒有關系。D選項對應于文章的第一句話"A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force"（長期輕而易舉地獲得成功的歷史可能成為一種可怕的不利因素，但若處理得當，這種不利因素也有可能轉化為一種積極的推動力），這句話提出兩個可能性的結果，但選項表述則過于絕對。B選項則是正確答案，因為文中指出美國經濟在80年代經歷滑坡，第三段最后一句指出"Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas"（在美國人那些有時聳人聽聞的發(fā)現(xiàn)中，充滿了對來自海外的經濟競爭的警告之詞），而下一段美國在海外競爭的壓力下又迎頭趕上，因此B選項與原文的意思相符。

[題目譯文]

我們可以從文中推斷中以下哪一項？
[A] 在自我懷疑和自高自大之間變化是人類的天性
[B] 激烈的競爭可能有利于經濟的發(fā)展
[C] 經濟的復蘇取決于國際間的合作
[D] 長期的成功可能為將來的發(fā)展鋪平道路

54. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the____.
[A] turning of the business cycle
[B] restructuring of industry
[C] improved business management
[D] success in education

[答案] A

[解題思路]

文章最后一段的第三句指出"Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle"（沒幾個美國人將這一巨變單純地歸因于美元貶值或商業(yè)周期循環(huán)這些顯而易見的原因），閱讀下一句中作者的評論便可以發(fā)現(xiàn)作者的觀點與上述說法正好相反，因而A為正確選項。B與C選項都是作者后面舉的反面例子的論據，而D選項的"教育"問題在文中沒有論及。

[題目譯文]

作者看起來相信美國經濟在20世紀90年代的復蘇是由于            。
[A] 商業(yè)周期的變化
[B] 工業(yè)重組
[C] 企業(yè)管理的改進
[D] 成功的教育