2004年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题Text 1Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the sites “personal search agent.” Its an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. “I struck gold,” says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: “Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility.” says one expert.For any job search, you should start with a narrow conceptwhat you think you want to do - then broaden it. “None of these programs do that,” says another expert. “Theres no career counseling implicit in all of this.” Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database; when you get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again. “I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me,” says the author of a job-searching guide.Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSites agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs - those it considers the best matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them - and they do. “On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic,” says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.Even those who arent hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. “You always keep your eyes open,” he says. Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.41.How did Redmon find his job?A By searching openings in a job database.B By posting a matching position in a database.C By using a special service of a database.（C）D By E-mailing his resume to a database.42.Which of the following can be a disadvantage of search agents?A Lack of counseling.B Limited number of visits.C Lower efficiency.（A）D Fewer successful matches.43.The expression “tip service” (Line 4, Paragraph 3) most probably means _.A advisoryB compensationC interaction（D）D reminder44.Why does CareerSites agent offer each job hunter only three job options?A To focus on better job matches.B To attract more returning visits.C To reserve space for more messages.（B）D To increase the rate of success.45.Which of the following is true according to the text?A Personal search agents are indispensable to job-hunters.B Some sites keep E-mailing job seekers to trace their demands.C Personal search agents are also helpful to those already employed.（C）D Some agents stop sending information to people once they are employed.Text 2Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zo Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bushs predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrtien and Koizumi). The worlds three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of t