考研英语阅读理解精选试题及答案2014 年考研英语阅读真题 1SectionReading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text1In order to “change lives for the better” and reduce “dependency” George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the “upfront work search” scheme. Only if the jobless arrive at the job centre with a CV, register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly. What could be more reasonable?More apparent reasonableness followed. There will now be a seven-day wait for the jobseekers allowance. “Those first few days should be spent looking for work, not looking to sign on. ” he claimed. “Were doing these things because we know they help people stay off benefits and help those on benefits get into work faster. ” Help? Really? On first hearing, this was the socially concerned chancellor, trying to change lives for the better, complete with “reforms” to an obviously indulgent system that demands too little effort from the newly unemployed to findwork, and subsidizes laziness. What motivated him, we were to understand, was his zeal for “fundamental fairness” protecting the taxpayer, controlling spending and ensuring that only the most deserving claimants received their benefits.Losing a job is hurting: you dont skip down to the jobcentre with a song in your heart, delighted at the prospect of doubling your income from the generous state. It is financially terrifying, psychologically embarrassing and you know that support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you are now excluded from the work environment that offers purpose and structure in your life. Worse, the crucial income to feed yourself and your family and pay the bills has disappeared. Ask anyone newly unemployed what they want and the answer is always: a job.But in Osborneland, your first instinct is to fall into dependency permanent dependency if you can get it supported by a state only too ready to indulge your falsehood. It is as though 20 years of ever-tougher reforms of the job search and benefit administration system never happened. The principle of British welfare is no longer that you can insure yourself against the risk of unemployment and receive unconditional payments if the disaster happens. Even the very phrase “jobseekers allowance”is about redefining the unemployed as a “jobseeker” who had no fundamental right to a benefit he or she has earned through making national insurance contributions. Instead, the claimant receives a time-limited “allowance,” conditional on actively seeking a job; no entitlement and no insurance, at 71.70 a week, one of the least generous in the EU.21.George Osbornes scheme was intended to.Aprovide the unemployed with easier access to benefits Bencourage jobseekers active engagement in job seeking Cmotivate the unemployed to report voluntarily Dguarantee jobseekers legitimate right to benefits22.The phrase, “to sign on” (Line 3, Para.2) most probably means.Ato check on the availability of jobs at the jobcentre Bto accept the governments restrictions on the allowanceCto register for an allowance from the government Dto attend a governmental job-training program 23.What prompted the chancellor to develop his scheme?AA desire to secure a better life for all.BAn eagerness to protect the unemployed.CAn urge to be generous to the claimants.DA passion to ensure fairness for taxpayers.24.According to Paragraph 3, being unemployed makes one feel.AuneasyBenragedCinsultedDguilty25.To which of the following would the author most probably agree?AThe British welfare system indulges jobseekers laziness. BOsbornes reforms will reduce the risk of unemployment. CThe jobseekers allowance has met their actual needs. DUnemployment benefits should not be made conditional.2014 年考研英语阅读真题 2Text 2All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility thanthe members of any other professionwith the possible exception of journalism. But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America.During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation. The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools. But most law graduates never get a big-firm job. Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the