2016考研英语二阅读理解解题2016考研英语二阅读理解解题

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　Text 1

　 The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. “Hooray! At last!” wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic.

　 One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert‘s appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.” As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise.

　 For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes.

　 Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. These recordings are cheap, available everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today’s live performances; moreover, they can be “consumed” at a time and place of the listener’s choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert.

　One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert‘s own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into “a markedly different, more vibrant organization.” But what will be the nature of that difference? Merely expanding the orchestra’s repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between America‘s oldest orchestra and the new audience it hopes to attract.

　 21. We learn from Paragraph 1 that Gilbert’s appointment has________.

　 [A]incurred criticism

　[B]raised suspicion.

　 [C]received acclaim

　[D]aroused curiosity.

　 22. Tommasini regards Gilbert as an artist who is _______.

　 [A]influential

　[B]modest

　 [C]respectable

　[D]talented

　 23. The author believes that the devoted concertgoers _________.

　 [A]ignore the expenses of live performances

　 [B]reject most kinds of recorded performances

　 [C]exaggerate the variety of live performances

　 [D]overestimate the value of live performances

　 24. According to the text, which of the following is true of recordings？

　 [A]They are often inferior to live concerts in quality.

　 [B]They are easily accessible to the general public.

　 [C]They help improve the quality of music.

　 [D]They have only covered masterpieces.

　 25. Regarding Gilbert‘s role in revitalizing the Philharmonic, the author feels ______.

　 [A]doubtful

　[B]enthusiastic

　 [C]confident

　[D]puzzled

　Text 2

　 When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving “to pursue my goal of running a company.” Broadcasting his ambition was “very much my decision,” McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.

　 McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn‘t alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don’t get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.

　 As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.

　 The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey: “I can‘t think of a single search I’ve done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first.”

　 Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.

　 Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. “The traditional rule was it’s safer to stay where you are, but that’s been fundamentally inverted,” says one headhunter. “The people who’ve been hurt the worst are those who’ve stayed too long.”

　 26. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being ________.

　 [A]arrogant

　[B]frank

　 [C]self-centered

　[D]impulsive

　 27. According to Paragraph 2, senior executives’ quitting may be spurred by ______.

　 [A]their expectation of better financial status

　 [B]their need to reflect on their private life

　 [C]their strained relations with the boards

　 [D]their pursuit of new career goals

　 28. The word “poached”（Line 3, Paragraph 4）most probably means _______.

　 [A]approved of

　[B]attended to

　 [C]hunted for

　[D]guarded against

　 29. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _______.

　 [A]top performers used to cling to their posts

　 [B]loyalty of top performers is getting out-dated

　 [C]top performers care more about reputations

　 [D]it’s safer to stick to the traditional rules

　 30. Which of the following is the best title for the text？

　 [A]CEOs: Where to Go?

　 [B]CEOs: All the Way Up?

　 [C]Top Managers Jump without a Net

　 [D]The Only Way Out for Top Performers

　Text 3

　 The rough guide to marketing success used to be that you got what you paid for. No longer. While traditional “paid” media – such as television commercials and print advertisements – still play a major role, companies today can exploit many alternative forms of media. Consumers passionate about a product may create “earned” media by willingly promoting it to friends, and a company may leverage “owned” media by sending e-mail alerts about products and sales to customers registered with its Web site. The way consumers now approach the process of making purchase decisions means that marketing’s impact stems from a broad range of factors beyond conventional paid media.

　 Paid and owned media are controlled by marketers promoting their own products. For earned media, such marketers act as the initiator for users‘ responses. But in some cases, one marketer’s owned media become another marketer’s paid media – for instance, when an e-commerce retailer sells ad space on its Web site. We define such sold media as owned media whose traffic is so strong that other organizations place their content or e-commerce engines within that environment. This trend, which we believe is still in its infancy, effectively began with retailers and travel providers such as airlines and hotels and will no doubt go further. Johnson & Johnson, for example, has created BabyCenter, a stand-alone media property that promotes complementary and even competitive products. Besides generating income, the presence of other marketers makes the site seem objective, gives companies opportunities to learn valuable information about the appeal of other companies’ marketing, and may help expand user traffic for all companies concerned.

　 The same dramatic technological changes that have provided marketers with more（and more diverse）communications choices have also increased the risk that passionate consumers will voice their opinions in quicker, more visible, and much more damaging ways. Such hijacked media are the opposite of earned media: an asset or campaign becomes hostage to consumers, other stakeholders, or activists who make negative allegations about a brand or product. Members of social networks, for instance, are learning that they can hijack media to apply pressure on the businesses that originally created them.

　 If that happens, passionate consumers would try to persuade others to boycott products, putting the reputation of the target company at risk. In such a case, the company‘s response may not be sufficiently quick or thoughtful, and the learning curve has been steep. Toyota Motor, for example, alleviated some of the damage from its recall crisis earlier this year with a relatively quick and well-orchestrated social-media response campaign, which included efforts to engage with consumers directly on sites such as Twitter and the social-news site Digg.

　31.Consumers may create “earned” media when they are_______.

　 [A] obsessed with online shopping at certain Web sites

　 [B] inspired by product-promoting e-mails sent to them

　 [C] eager to help their friends promote quality products

　 [D] enthusiastic about recommending their favorite products

　32. According to Paragraph 2, sold media feature __________.

　 [A] a safe business environment

　 [B] random competition

　 [C] strong user traffic

　 [D] flexibility in organization

　33. The author indicates in Paragraph 3 that earned media _________.

　 [A] invite constant conflicts with passionate consumers

　 [B] can be used to produce negative effects in marketing

　 [C] may be responsible for fiercer competition.

　 [D] deserve all the negative comments about them.

　34. Toyota Motor‘s experience is cited as an example of __________.

　 [A] responding effectively to hijacked media

　 [B] persuading customers into boycotting products

　 [C] cooperating with supportive consumers

　 [D] taking advantage of hijacked media

　35. Which of the following is the text mainly about?

　 [A] Alternatives to conventional paid media.

　 [B] Conflict between hijacked and earned media.

　 [C] Dominance of hijacked media.

　 [D] Popularity of owned media.

　Text 4

　 It‘s no surprise that Jennifer Senior’s insightful, provocative magazine cover story. “I love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter – nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience. Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition. Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight.”

　 The magazine cover showing an attractive mother holding a cute baby is hardly the only Madonna-and-child image on newsstands this week. There are also stories about newly adoptive – and newly single – mom Sandra Bullock, as well as the usual “Jennifer Aniston is pregnant” news. Practically every week features at least one celebrity mom, or mom-to-be, smiling on the newsstands.

　 In a society that so persistently celebrates procreation, is it any wonder that admitting you regret having children is equivalent to admitting you support kitten-killing? It doesn‘t seem quite fair, then, to compare the regrets of parents to the regrets of the childless. Unhappy parents rarely are provoked to wonder if they shouldn’t have had kids, but unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world: obviously their misery must be a direct result of the gaping baby-size holes in their lives.

　 Of course, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like US Weekly and People present is hugely unrealistic, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock. According to several studies concluding that parents are less happy than childless couples, single parents are the least happy of all. No shock there, considering how much work it is to raise a kid without a partner to lean on; yet to hear Sandra and Britney tell it, raising a kid on their “own”（read: with round-the-clock help）is a piece of cake.

　 It’s hard to imagine that many people are dumb enough to want children just because Reese and Angelina make it look so glamorous: most adults understand that a baby is not a haircut. But it’s interesting to wonder if the images we see every week of stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthood aren’t in some small, subconscious way contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience, in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting “ the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston.

　36.Jennifer Senior suggests in her article that raising a child can bring______.

　 [A]temporary delight

　[B]enjoyment in progress

　 [C]happiness in retrospect

　[D]lasting reward

　37.We learn from Paragraph 2 that ________.

　 [A]celebrity moms are a permanent source for gossip

　 [B]single mothers with babies deserve greater attention

　 [C]news about pregnant celebrities is entertaining

　 [D]having children is highly valued by the public

　38.It is suggested in Paragraph 3 that childless folks ________.

　 [A]are constantly exposed to criticism

　 [B]are largely ignored by the media

　 [C]fail to fulfill their social responsibilities

　 [D]are less likely to be satisfied with their life

　39.According to Paragraph 4, the message conveyed by celebrity magazines is ______.

　 [A]soothing

　 [B]ambiguous

　 [C]compensatory

　[D]misleading

　40.Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph？

　 [A]Having children contributes little to the glamour of celebrity moms.

　 [B]Celebrity moms have influenced our attitude towards child rearing.

　 [C]Having children intensifies our dissatisfaction with life.

　 [D]We sometimes neglect the happiness from child rearing.

　Text 5

　Text 3

　The US$3-million Fundamental Physics Prize is indeed an interesting experiment, as Alexander Polyakov said when he accepted this year’s award in March. And it is far from the only one of its type. As a News Feature article in Nature discusses, a string of lucrative awards for researchers have joined the Nobel Prizes in recent years. Many, like the Fundamental Physics Prize, are funded from the telephone-number-sized bank accounts of Internet entrepreneurs. These benefactors have succeeded in their chosen fields, they say, and they want to use their wealth to draw attention to those who have succeeded in science.

　What’s not to like? Quite a lot, according to a handful of scientists quoted in the News Feature. You cannot buy class, as the old saying goes, and these upstart entrepreneurs cannot buy their prizes the prestige of the Nobels. The new awards are an exercise in self-promotion for those behind them, say scientists. They could distort the achievement-based system of peer-review-led research. They could cement the status quo of peer-reviewed research. They do not fund peer-reviewed research. They perpetuate the myth of the lone genius.

　The goals of the prize-givers seem as scattered as the criticism. Some want to shock, others to draw people into science, or to better reward those who have made their careers in research.

　As Nature has pointed out before, there are some legitimate concerns about how science prizes – both new and old – are distributed. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, launched this year, takes an unrepresentative view of what the life sciences include. But the Nobel Foundation’s limit of three recipients per prize, each of whom must still be living, has long been outgrown by the collaborative nature of modern research – as will be demonstrated by the inevitable row over who is ignored when it comes to acknowledging the discovery of the Higgs boson. The Nobels were, of course, themselves set up by a very rich individual who had decided what he wanted to do with his own money. Time, rather than intention, has given them legitimacy.

　As much as some scientists may complain about the new awards, two things seem clear. First, most researchers would accept such a prize if they were offered one. Second, it is surely a good thing that the money and attention come to science rather than go elsewhere. It is fair to criticize and question the mechanism – that is the culture of research, after all – but it is the prize-givers’ money to do with as they please. It is wise to take such gifts with gratitude and grace.

　31. The Fundamental Physics Prize is seen as ______

　[A] a symbol of the entrepreneurs’ wealth.

　[B] a possible replacement of the Nobel Prizes.

　[C] an example of bankers’ investments.

　[D] a handsome reward for researchers.

　32. The critics think that the new awards will most benefit ________

　[A]the profit-oriented scientists.

　[B]the founders of the new awards.

　[C]the achievement-based system.

　[D]peer-review-led research.

　33. The discovery of the Higgs boson is a typical case which involves _______

　[A]controversies over the recipients’ status.

　[B]the joint effort of modern researchers.

　[C]legitimate concerns over the new prizes.

　[D]the demonstration of research findings.

　34. According to Paragraph 4, which of the following is true of the Nobels?

　 [A]Their endurance has done justice to them.

　[B]Their legitimacy has long been in dispute.

　[C]They are the most representative honor.

　[D]History has never cast doubt on them.

　35. The author believes that the new awards are ______

　 [A]acceptable despite the criticism.

　[B]harmful to the culture of research.

　[C]subject to undesirable changes.

　[D]unworthy of public attention.

　Text 6

　“The Heart of the Matter,” the just-released report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)，deserves praise for affirming the importance of the humanities and social sciences to the prosperity and security of liberal democracy in America. Regrettably, however, the report’s failure to address the true nature of the facing liberal education may cause more harm than good.

　In 2010, leading congressional Democrats and Republicans sent letters to the AAAS asking that it identify actions that could be taken by “federal, state and local governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors and others” to “maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education.” In response, the American Academy formed the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Among the commission’s 51 members are top-tier-university presidents, scholars, lawyers, judges, and business executives, as well as prominent figures from diplomacy, filmmaking, music and journalism.

　The goals identified in the report are generally admirable. Because representative government presupposes an informed citizenry, the report supports full literacy, stresses the study of history and government, particularly American history and American government; and encourages the use of new digital technologies. To encourage innovation and competition, the report calls for increased investment in research, the crafting of coherent curricula that improve students’ ability to solve problems and communicate effectively in the 21st century, increased funding for teachers and the encouragement of scholars to bring their learning to bear on the great challenges of the day. The report also advocates greater study of foreign languages, international affairs and the expansion of study abroad programs.

　Unfortunately, despite 2? years in the making, “The Heart of the Matter” never gets to the heart of the matter: the illiberal nature of liberal education at our leading colleges and universities. The commission ignores that for several decades America’s colleges and universities have produced graduates who don’t know the content and character of liberal education and are thus deprived of its benefits. Sadly, the spirit of inquiry once at home on campus has been replaced by the use of humanities and social sciences as vehicles for publicizing “progressive, ”or left-liberal propaganda.

　Today, professors routinely treat the progressive interpretation of history and progressive public policy as the proper subject of study while portraying conservative or classical liberal ideas?such as free markets and self-reliance?as falling outside the boundaries of routine, and sometimes legitimate, intellectual investigation.

　The AAAS displays great enthusiasm for liberal education. Yet its report may well set back reform by obscuring the depth and breadth of the challenge that Congress asked it to illuminate.

　36. According to Paragraph 1, what is the author’s attitude toward the AAAS’s report?

　 [A] Critical

　[B] Appreciative.

　[C] Contemptuous.

　[D] Tolerant.

　37. Influential figures in the Congress required that the AAAS report on how to ______

　 [A] retain people’s interest in liberal education.

　[B] define the government’s role in education.

　[C] keep a leading position in liberal education.

　[D] safeguard individuals’ rights to education.

　38. According to Paragraph 3, the report suggests _______

　 [A] an exclusive study of American history.

　[B] a greater emphasis on theoretical subjects.

　[C] the application of emerging technologies.

　[D] funding for the study of foreign languages.

　39. The author implies in Paragraph 5 that professors are ________

　[A] supportive of free markets.

　[B] cautious about intellectual investigation.

　[C] conservative about public policy.

　[D] biased against classical liberal ideas.

　40. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

　 [A] Ways to Grasp “The Heart of the Matter”

　[B] Illiberal Education and “The Heart of the Matter”

　[C] The AAAS’s Contribution to Liberal Education

　[D] Progressive Policy vs. Liberal Education