2014考研英语阅读理解

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（17）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　In recent years,railroads have been combining with each other, merging into supersystems,causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top fourrailroads accounted for under 70 percent of the total ton-miles moved by rails.Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four railroads willcontrol well over 90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers。

　　Supporters of the new supersystems argue that these mergers willallow for substantial cost reductions and better coordinated service. Anythreat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks.But many shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances,such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroadstherefore have them by the throat。

　　The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that mostshippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such“captive”shippers 20to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for thebusiness. Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appealto the federal government's Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, butthe process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extremecases。

　　Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers onthe grounds that in the long run it reduces everyone's...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（15）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　To paraphrase18th-century statesman Edmund Burke,“all that is neededfor the triumph of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing。”One suchcause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animalshave rights ruling out their use in research. Scientists need to respondforcefully to animal rights advocates, whose arguments are confusing the publicand thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of theanimal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on publicfunding, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearingallegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, many are perplexed thatanyone would deliberately harm an animal。

　　For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights boothat a recent street fair was distributing a brochure that encouraged readers notto use anything that comes from or is animals—no meat , no fur, nomedicines, Asked if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccinescome from animal research. When assured that they do, she replied, “Then I wouldhave to say yes。” Asked what will happen when epidemics return, she said, “ Don’t worry,scientists will find some way of using computers。” Such well-meaningpeople just don't understand。

　　Scientists must communicate their message to the public in acompassionate, understandable way—in human terms, not in the langua...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（14）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　The Supreme Court'sdecisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for howmedicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering。

　　Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right tophysician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principleof "double effect", a centuries-old moral principle holding that anaction having two effects—a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissibleif the actor intends only the good effect。

　　Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify usinghigh doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients' pain, even thoughincreasing dosages will eventually kill the patient。

　　Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends thatthe principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very stronglyinsisted that they could not give patients sufficient mediation to controltheir pain if that might hasten death."

　　George Annas, chair of the health law department at BostonUniversity, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for alegitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if thepatient uses the drug to hasten death. "It's like surgery, "he says."We don't call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn't intend tokill their patients, although they risked their death. If you're a physician,you can risk...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（13）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　Could the bad olddays of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cutsin March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up fromless than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scarymemories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979-1980, whenthey also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digitinflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning ofgloom and doom this time?

　　The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraqsuspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time aswinter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in theshort term。

　　Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences nowto be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oilnow accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, soeven quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pumpprices than in the past。

　　Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, andso less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift toother fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensiveindustries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobiletelep...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（12）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　If you intend usinghumor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify sharedexperiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience andshould help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand theirsituation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom youare addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a groupof managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries;alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment ontheir disorganized bosses。

　　Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention,of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view ofdoctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. Hesees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on.Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line forlunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, whorushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table byhimself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that’s God,” came thereply, “but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor。”

　　If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will bein a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all ofyou and it’ll be appropriate for you to make...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（11）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　Since the dawn ofhuman ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with workthat is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion hasresulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines.And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction,they have begun to come close。

　　As a result, the modern world is increasingly populated byintelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universalexistence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm ofrobot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals thatthank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains arecontrolled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continualminiaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics, there are already robotsystems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery withsubmillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achievewith their hands alone。

　　But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility,they will have to operate with less human supervision and be able to make atleast a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose areal challenge. “While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error,” says DaveLavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, “we can't yet give arobot enough ‘co...

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　　When I decided toquit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a partof a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked myprofessional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile careeralthough, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exitby claiming“I wanted to spend more time with my family"。

　　Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experimentin what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuseinto an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate ofthe philosophy of “have it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven yearsin the pages of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit ofeverything。

　　I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicizedresignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, thatabandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making thealternative move into “downshifting” brings with it far greater rewards than financial success andsocial status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelseyused to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines,the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time”。

　　In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, lessmaterialistic li...

　　以下《2014考研英语阅读理解专项模拟押题及答案解析（九）》由出国留学网考研英语模拟题为您独家提供，欢迎大家参考。

　　The world is goingthrough the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. Theprocess sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emergingcountries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at thisprocess and worrying: “Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollableanti-competitive force?"

　　There's no question that the big are getting bigger and morepowerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% ofinternational trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growingrapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment ofproduction in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. InArgentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationalswent from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largestfirms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smallereconomic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of theworld economy。

　　I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&Awave are the same that underlie the globalization process: fallingtransportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers andenlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers'demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. Asproductivity grows, the world's we...