Unions are organizations of workers that bargain with employers for economic and job benefits. They exist to create 1 and economic power against private management and the 2 to achieve their goals. These goals are primarily higher 3 , better working conditions, and job security. 4 organized to achieve these goals are usually complex in their social and psychological detail。
Union movements occurred in the 5 half of the 1700s in the U.S. Carpenters, printers, and shoemakers formed organizations as early as 1791 in Philadelphia, Boston and New York. These 6 in most cases over social and economic 7 between workers and employers when rapid 8 in a young development country began to break down the familiar modes of 9 and the close ties between workers and employers。
A long, hard drive for legalization of union 10 Unions fought with companies and 11 courts for legitimacy and status. Unions were 12 as a threat to free enterprise and private property, and 13 to political and economic stability. They were also considered radical, and companies resisted them 14 . Violent conducts were frequent on both sides. The government at times moved in state police to suppress the more 15 conflicts. Union workers themselves often punished other workers who did not back their policies。
Unions in the U.S. have always 16 a practical direction. They have not adopted radical ideologies or 17 goals. A major force in union organizing in the early part of the century, Samuel Gompers, took a practical approach. He 18 “bread and butter unionism” or “pure and simple unionism。” He was interested in immediate, practical gains—higher wages and shorter 19 . He sided with no political party, only 20 politicians who could help。
1. A. political B. principal C. crucial D. communal
2. A. department B. government C. section D. compartment
3. A. position B. rank C. wages D. benefits
4. A. Arrangements B. Adjustments C. Dynamics D. Movements
5. A. latter B. former C. early D. later
6. A. arouse B. arose C. arised D. aroused
7. A. contradiction B. dispute C. conflict D. debate
8. A. improvements B. rhythm C. pace D. alterations
9. A. production B. living C. communication D. commerce
10. A. pursued B. followed C. gathered D. launched
11. A. idealistic B. supportive C. unsympathetic D. advisable
12. A. depicted B. defined C. determined D. referred to
13. A. therefore B. moreover C. nevertheless D. nonetheless
14. A. energetically B. vigorously C. spontaneously D. promptly
15. A. brutal B. urgent C. fierce D. emergent
16. A. stood by B. strove for C. sought after D. stuck to
17. A .unrealistic B. practical C. unreasonable D. practicable
18. A. opposed B. advocated C. rejected D. approved
19. A. times B. hours C. whiles D. periods
20. A. against B. to C. for D. with
II Reading and Vocabulary: 50 points
Text 1
Tight-lipped elders used to say, “It’s not what you want in this world, but what you get。”
Psychology teaches that you do get what you want if you know what you want and want the right things。
You can make a mental blueprint of a desire as you would make a blueprint of a house, and each of us is continually making these blueprints in the general routine of everyday living. If we intend to have friends to dinner, we plan the menu, make a shopping list, decide which food to cook first, and such planning is an essential for any type of meal to be served。
Likewise, if you want to find a job, take a sheet of paper, and write a brief account of yourself. In making a blueprint for a job, begin with yourself, for when you know exactly what you have to offer, you can intelligently plan where to sell your services。
This account of yourself is actually a sketch of your working life and should include education, experience and references. Such an account is valuable. It can be referred to in filling out standard application blanks and is extremely helpful in personal interviews. While talking to you, your could-be employer is deciding whether your education, your experience, and other qualifications, will pay him to employ you and your “wares” and abilities must be displayed in an orderly and reasonably connected manner。
When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires, you have something tangible to sell. Then you are ready to hunt for a job. Get all the possible information about your could-be job. Make inquiries as to the details regarding the job and the firm. Keep your eyes and ears open, and use your own judgment. Spend a certain amount of time each day seeking the employment you wish for, and keep in mind: Securing a job is your job now。
1.What do the elders mean when they say, “It’s not what you want in this world, but what you get。”？
[A] You’ll certainly get what you want。
[B] It’s no use dreaming。
[C] You should be dissatisfied with what you have。
[D] It’s essential to set a goal for yourself。
2.A blueprint made before inviting a friend to dinner is used in this passage as ________。
[A] an illustration of how to write an application for a job
[B] an indication of how to secure a good job
[C] a guideline for job description
[D] a principle for job evaluation
3.According to the passage, one must write an account of himself before starting to find a job because ________。
[A] that is the first step to please the employer
[B] that is the requirement of the employer
[C] it enables him to know when to sell his services
[D] it forces him to become clearly aware of himself
4.When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires, you have something ________。
[A] definite to offer
[B] imaginary to provide
[C] practical to supply
[D] desirable to present
写出下列词汇(词组)在文章中的意思。
Para. 1
tight-lipped (L1)
Para. 3
essential (L4)
Para. 4
account (L1)
Para. 5
wares (L5)
reasonably (L6)
Para. 6
inquiry (L3)
regarding (L3)
Text 2
It’s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers’ misfortunes。
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might — surprise! — fall off. The label on a child’s Batman cape cautions that the toy “does not enable user to fly。”
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary — the dangers of drug interactions, for example — and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn’t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court。
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn’t have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. “We’re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren’t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries,” says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete’s injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute — a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight — issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. “Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities,” says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability。
5.What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?
[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits。
[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system。
[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings。
[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised。
6.Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to ________。
[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products
[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products
[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability
[D] feel obliged to view customers’ safety as their first concern
7.The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that ________。
[A] some injury claims were no longer supported by law
[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries
[C] product labels would eventually be discarded
[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes
8.The author’s attitude towards the issue seems to be ________
[A] biased [B] indifferent
[C] puzzling [D] objective
写出下列词汇(词组)在文章中的意思。
Para. 1
compensate (L3)
(be) liable for (L4)
Para. 2
anticipate (L2)
caution (L4)
Para. 3
regulation (L2)
Para. 4
side with (L2)
involve (L4)
triviality (L11)
Text 3
Good news for people who always fail to see the silver lining on clouds. A report in this month’s New Scientist, suggests that a tendency to get down when life beats you up can be good for you. A growing number of cautionary voices from the world of mental-health research are claiming that it isn’t a good idea to use antidepressants to help get rid of unhappiness in the consequence of a marriage breakdown, death or redundancy because, “they fear that the increasing tendency to treat normal sadness as if it were a disease is playing fast and loose with a crucial part of our biology. Sadness, serves an evolutionary purpose。”
Jerome Wakefield, a clinical social worker at New York University explains that depressive feelings are part of our biological makeup. “When you find something this deeply in us biologically, you presume that it was selected because it had some advantage, otherwise we wouldn’t have been burdened with it. I think that one of functions of intense negative emotions is to stop our normal functioning, to make us focus on something else for a while。” While Paul Keedwell, psychiatrist at Cardiff University claims that even full-blown depression may have its purpose, saving the sufferer from the effects of long-term stress. Without a mental pause, he argues, “you might stay in a state of chronic stress until you’re exhausted or dead”。
Although, it is important to be careful when talking about depression, having the upside traced in your downside will have an irresistible appeal to all those who take the phrase “Cheer up. Love, it might never happen” as a personal insult. It will be manna especially for creative types, who will have long suspected that crying a lot was a sign of their inward genius. During test(微博)s at Harvard, the News Scientist reports, people with signs of depression performed better at a creative task, especially after receiving feedback that was designed to reinforce their low mood. Although it is old-fashioned to claim that creativity is connected to gloomy moods and a grey outlook on life, all the best stuff is written by some grim-faced pencil chewer with a heart pumped by angst。
Richard Yates, whose novel Revolutionary Road is about to win an Oscar, has written seven novels and two collections of short stories, each more hopelessly miserable than the last. After years of accounting the impossibility of his toothless, drunken mother, his experiences in the second world war and divorces, Yates finally rounds things off in Disturbing the Peace by fictionalizing how a cocktail of alcoholism and psychotropic drugs had him take off his clothes and wander the streets of LA, giving all his money to beggars, convinced that he was Jesus. It is cruel-but so readable。
So, although the grand majority will never write anything as good as Yates, there is something to be gained from looking on the dark side. In a work environment, for example, disconnected people tend to achieve greater success than those of a sunny nature. It’s enough to make a pessimist dissolve into a Cheshire Cat grin。
9.Researchers in mental-health field regard sadness as____。
[A] a glimmer of hope to people in difficulties
[B] a normal disease among the distressed
[C] a biological component of human being
[D] a contributing factor to eventual success
10.The views of Jerome Wakefield and Paul Keedwell on depressive feeling are____。
[A] different [B] complementary [C] opposite [D] similar
11.The word “manna”(Paragraph 3) most probably means____。
[A] a gift [B] a pain [C] a reward [D] a challenge
12.The story of Richard Yates shows that depressive men tend to be____。
[A] serious and mature
[B] brave and talented
[C] creative and persistent
[D] unfortunate and degenerate
13.According to the text, we can learn that____。
[A] The number of people addicted to antidepressants is on the rise
[B] Antidepressants may be going against human being evolution
[C] The writers are at high risk of suffering from depressive disorder
[D] Discontented workers may be more popular than the sunny ones
写出下列词汇(词组)在文章中的意思。
Para. 1
in the consequence of (L4)
redundancy (L5)
Para. 2
presume (L3)
chronic (L8)
Para. 3
irresistible (L2)
appeal (L2)
insult (L3)
Para. 4
miserable (L2)
Para. 5
tend to (L3)
III Translate the following passage into Chinese: 30 points
In country after country, talk of non-smokers’ right is in the air. While a majority of countries have taken little or no action yet, some 30 nations have introduced legislative steps to control smoking. Many laws have been introduced in other countries to help clear the air for nonsmokers, or to cut cigarette consumption。
In some developed countries the consumption of cigarettes has become more or less stabilized. However, in many developing nations, cigarette smoking is seen as a sign of economic progress — and is even encouraged. As more tobacco companies go international, new markets are sought to gain new smokers in those countries。
Smoking is harmful to the health of people. World governments should conduct serious campaigns against it. Restrictions on cigarette advertisements, plus health warnings on packages and bans on public smoking in certain places such as theatres, cinemas and restaurants, are the most popular tools used by nations in support of nonsmokers or in curbing smoking. But world attention also is focusing on another step which will make the smoker increasingly self-conscious and uncomfortable about his habit. Great efforts should be made to inform young people especially of the dreadful consequences of taking up the habit. And cigarette price should be boosted。
In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether, but people are not ready for such drastic action。作者: 郑大考研网1 时间: 2011-8-13 10:57
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