Born to win 2000年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题 Section II Cloze Test Directions: For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (10 points) If a farmer wishes to succeed, he must try to keep a wide gap between his consumption and his production. He must store a large quantity of grain 大41家 consuming all his grain immediately. He can continue to support himself and his family 大42家he produces a surplus. He must use this surplus in three ways: as seed for sowing, as an insurance 大43家the unpredictable effects of bad weather and as a commodity which he must sell in order to 大44家old agricultural implements and obtain chemical fertilizers to 大45家the soil. He may also need money to construct irrigation 大46家and improve his farm in other ways. If no surplus is available, a farmer cannot be 大47家 . He must either sell some of his property or 大48家extra funds in the form of loans. Naturally he will try to borrow money at a low 大49家of interest, but loans of this kind are not 大50家 obtainable. 41. A other than B as well as C instead of D more than 42. A only if B much as C long before D ever since 43. A for B against C of D towards 44. A replace B purchase C supplement D dispose 45. A enhance B mix C feed D raise 46. A vessels B routes C paths D channels Born to win 47. A self-confident B self-sufficient C self-satisfied D self-restrained 48. A search B save C offer D seek 49. A proportion B percentage C rate D ratio 50. A genuinely B obviously C presumably D frequently Section III Reading Comprehension Directions: Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers marked A, B, C and D. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (40 points) Text 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 times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the worlds 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 invented and 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. Born to win 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 Harvards 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.” 51. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because _. A it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal B its domestic market was eight times larger than before C the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors D the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy 52