2001-2009MBA英語閱讀理解真題總結(jié)

1、精品文檔 目錄2001年 5篇2002年 4篇2004年 4篇2005年 4篇2006年 4篇2007年 4篇2021年 4篇2021年 4篇 2001-1 The stability of the U.S. banking system is maintained by means of supervision and regulation,inspections,deposit insurance,and loans to troubled banks.For over 50 years,these precautions have prevented banking panics.How

2、ever,there have been some close calls.The collapse of Continental lllinois Bank & Trusted Company of Chicago in 1984 did not bring down the banking system,but it certainly rattled some windows.In the late 1970s,Continental soared to a leadership position amongMidwestern banks.Parts of its gr

3、owth strategy were risky,however.It made many loans in the energy field,including billion that it took over from Penn Square Band of Oklahoma City.To obtain the funds it needed to make theseloans,Continental relied heavily on shortterm borrowing from other banks and large,30day certificates of depos

4、it-"hot money",in banking jargon.At least one Continental officer saw danger signs and wrote a warning memo to her superiors,but the memo went unheeded .Although the Comptroller of the Currency inspected Continental on a regular basis,it failed to see low serious its problems were

5、going to be.Penn Square Bank was closed by regulators in July 1982.When energy prices began to slip,most of the billion in loans that Continental had taken over fromthe smaller banks turned out to be had.Other loans to troubled companies such Chrysler,lnternational Harvester,and Braniff looked quest

6、ionable.Seeing these problem，"hot money"owners began to pull their funds out of Continental. By the spring of 1984,a run on Continental had begun.In May,the bank had to borrow .5 billion from the Fed to replace overnight funds it bad lost.But this was not enough.To try to stem the

7、outflow of deposits from Continemtal,the FDIC agreed to guarantee not just the first ,000 of each depositors money but all of it.Nevertheless,the run continued.Federal regulators tried hard to find a sound bank that could take over Continental-a common way of rescuing failing banks.But Continental w

8、as just too big for anyone to buy.By July,all hope of a private sector rescue wasdashed.Regulators faced a stark choice:Let Continental collapse,or take it over themselves.Letting the bank fail seemed too risky.It was estimated that more than 100 other banks had placed enough funds in Continental to

9、 put them at risk if Continental failed.Thus,on a rainy Thursday at the end of July,the FDIC in effect nationalized Continental Illinois at a cost of .5 billion.This kept the banks doors open and prevented a chain reaction.However,in all but a technical sense,Continental had become the biggest bank

10、failure in U.S.history. 2001-2 If sustainable competitive advantage depends on workforce skills,American firms have a problem.Humanresource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States.Skill acquisition is considered as an individual re

11、sponsibility.Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired-rented at the lowest possible cost-much as one buys raw materials or equipment.The lack of importance attached to humanresource management can be seen in the corporation hierarchy.In an American firm the chief financial officer is

12、 almost always second in command.The post of head of humanresource managements is usually a specialized job,off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy.The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer(CEO).By way of con

13、trast,in Japan the head of humanresource management is central-usually the second mostimportant executive,after the CEO,in the firms hierarchy.While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces,in fact they invest less in the skill of their employees than do t

14、he Japanese or German firms.The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees.And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basi

15、c background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.As a result,problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive.If American workers,for example,take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany(as they do),the effective co

16、st of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United Stated.More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity,and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed.The result is a sl

17、ower pace of technological change.And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half.If the bottom half cant effectively staff the processes that have to be operated,the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear. 2001-3

18、Internet is a vast network of computers that connects many of the worlds businesses,institutions,and individuals.The internet,which means interconnected network of networks,links tens of thousands of smaller computer networks.These networks transmit huge amounts of information in the form of words,i

19、mages,and sounds.The Internet was information on virtually every topic.Network users can search through sources ranging from vast databases to small electronic"bulletin boards ,"where users form discussion groups around common interests.Much of the Internets traffic consists of mes

20、sages sent from one computer user to another.These messages are called electronic mail or email.Internet users have electronic addresses that allow them to send and receive email.Other uses of the network include obtaining news,joining electronic debates,and playing electronic games.One feature of t

21、he Internet,known as the World Wide Web,provides graphics,audio,and video to enhance the information in its documents.These documents cover a vast number of topics.People usually access the Internet with a device called a modem.Modems connect computers to the network through telephone lines.Much of

22、the Internet operates through worldwide telephone networks of fiberoptic cables.These cables contain hairthin strands of glass that carry data as pulses of light.They can transmit thousands of times more data than local phone lines,most of which consist of copper wires.The history of the Internet be

23、gan in the 1960s.At that time,the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)of the United States Department of Defense developed a network of computers called ARPAnet.Originally,ARPAnet connected only military a nd government computersystems.Its purpose was to make these systems secure in the event of

24、 a disaster or was.Soon after the creation of ARPAnet,universities and other institutions developed their own computer networks.These networks eventually were merged with ARPAnet to form the Internet.By the 1990s,anyone with a computer,modem,and Internet software could link up to the Internet.In the

25、 future,the Internet will probably grow more sophisticated as computer technology becomes more powerful.Many experts believe the Internet may become part of a larger network called the information superhighway.This network,still under development,would link computers with telephone companies,cable t

26、elevision stations,and other communication systems.People could bank,shop,watch TV,and perform many other activities through the network. 2001-4 Sex prejudices are based on and justified by the ideology that biology is destiny.According to this ideology,basic biological and psychological differences

27、 exist between the sexes.These differences require each sex to play a separate role in social life.Women are the weaker sexboth physically and emotionally.Thus,they are naturally suited,much more so than men,to the performance of domestic duties .A womans place,under normal circumstances,is within t

28、he protective environment of the home.Nature has determined that women play caretaker roles,such as wife and mother and homemaker.On the other hand,men are best suited to go outsintosthe competitive world of work and politics,where serious responsibilities must be taken on.Men are to be the provider

29、s;women and children are"dependents."The ideology also holds that women who wish to work outside the household should naturally fill these jobs that are in line with the special capabilities of their sex.It is thus appropriate for women,not men,to be employed as nurses,social worke

30、rs,elementary school teachers,household helpers,and clerks and secretaries.These positions are simply an extension of womens domestic role.Informal distinctions between"womens work"and"mens work"in the labor force,according to the ideology,are simply a functional

31、reflection of the basic differences between the sexes.Finally,the ideology suggests that nature has worked her will in another significant way.For the human species to survive over time,its members must regularly reproduce.Thus,women must,whether at home or in the labor force,make the most of their

32、physical appearance.So goes the ideology.It is,of course,not true that basic biological and psychological differences between the sexes require each to play sexdefined roles in social life.There is ample evidence that sex roles vary from society to society,and those role differences that to exist ar

33、e largely learned.But to the degree people actually believe that biology is destiny and that nature intended for men and women to make different contributions to society,sexdefined roles will be seen as totally acceptable. 2001-5 In a sense,the new protectionism is not protectionism at all,at least

34、not in the traditional sense of the term.The old protectionism referred only to traderestricting and tradeexpanding devices,such as the tariff or export subsidy.The new protectionism is much broader than this;it includes interventionssintosforeign trade but is not limited to them.The new protectioni

35、sm,in fact,refers to how the whole of government interventionsintosthe private economy affects international trade.The emphasis on trade is still there,thus came the term"protection."But what is new is the realization that virtually all government activities can affect internationa

36、l economic relations.The emergence of the new protectionism in the Western world reflects the victory of the interventionist,or welfare economy over the market economy.Jab Tumiler writes,"The old protectionismcoexisted,without any apparent intellectual difficulty with the acceptance of the

37、market as a national as well as an international economic distribution mechanism-indeed,protectionists as well as (if not more than)free traders stood for laissezfaire(放任政策).Now,as in the 1930s,protectionism is an expression of a profound skepticism as to the ability of the market to distribute reso

38、urces and incomes to societiessatisfaction."It is precisely this profound skepticism of the market economy that is responsible for the protectionism.In a market economy,economic change of various colors implies redistribution of resources and incomes.The same opinion in many communities app

39、arently is that such redistributions often are not proper.There fore,the government intervenes(干預(yù)；干預(yù))to bring about a more desired result.The victory of the welfare state is almost complete in northern Europe.In Sweden ,Norway,Finland,Denmark,and the Netherlands,government intervention in almost all

40、 aspects of economic and social life is considered normal.In Great Britain this is only somewhat less true.Government traditionally has played a very active role in economic life in France and continued to do so.Only West Germany dares to go against the tide towards excessive interventionism in West

41、ern Europe.It also happens to be the most successful Western European economy.The welfare state has made significant progress in the United States as well as in Western Europe.Social security,unemployment insurance,minimumwage laws,and rent control are by now traditional welfare state elements on th

42、e American scene. 2002-1 Shoppers who have flocked to online stores for their holiday shopping are losing privacy with every mouse click, according to a new report.The study by the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center scrutinized(仔細(xì)審查)privacy policies on 100 of the most popular onl

43、ine shopping sites and compared those policies with a set of basic privacy principles that have come to be known as fair information practices.The group found that none of the 100 sites met all of the basic criteria for privacy protection, which include giving notice of what information is collected

44、 and how it is used, offering consumers a choice over whether the information will be used in certain ways, allowing access to data that give consumers a chance to see and correct the information collected, and instituting the kind of security measures that ensure that information wont fall into the

45、 wrong hands.This study shows that somebody else, other than Santa, is reading your Christmas list, said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, which also worked on the survey.The online privacy of children is protected by Federal Trade Commission rules, but adults do no

46、t share the same degree of privacy protection. The movement, like the online shopping industry, favors selfregulation over imposition of further movement restrictions on electronic commerce.Marc Rosenberg, executive director of the privacy group, said the study shows that self regulations have faile

47、d, We need legislation to enforce fair information pretences, he said. Consumers are at greeter risk than they were in 1997, when the group released its first report.The survey also asked whether the 100 sites used profilebased advertising, and whether the sites incorporate cookies technology, which

48、 gives Web sites basic information on visitors. Profiling is the practice of gathering in then used to create targeted advertising on Wed sites.All but 18 of the top shopping sites did display a privacy policy, a major improvement over the early days of electronic commerce, when such policies were s

49、carce. But that did not satisfy the privacy group: Companies arc posting privacy policies, but these policies are not the same thing As fair information practices, Rosenberg said.The sites also did not perform well by other measures, the group said it found that 35 of the sites feature profilebased

50、advertising, and 87 percent use cookies, The group concluded that the phonies that were posted are typically confusing, incomplete, and inconsistent, The report, Surfer Beware III: Privacy Policies Without Privacy Protection, is the third such survey by the group, It called for further development o

51、f technologies that help consumers protect their privacy and even anonymity (匿名)when exploring the internet. 2002-2Suppose you go into a fritterers shop, wanting an apple-you take up one, and on biting it you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard and green. You take up another one

52、, and that, too, is hard, green, and sour. The shipman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already tried.Nothing can be more simple than that, yo

53、u think; but if you will take the trouble to analyze and trace out into its logical elements what has been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. In the first place you have performed the operation of induction You find that, in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went togeth

54、er with sourness. Itwas so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the second. Trued, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough from which to make an induction; you generalize the facts, and you expect to find spumes in apples where you get hardness and greenness. You found upon that a gen

55、eral law, that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. Well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find it hard and green ,you say, AII hard and green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green; there

56、fore, this apple is sour. That train of reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism ,and has all its various parts and terms-its major premises, its minor premises, and its conclusion, And by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you a