Passage one
Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage
Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you're not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already-expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $8.
The once all-powerful dollar isn't doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar.
The weak dollar is a source of humiliation, for a nation's self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It's also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy-from giant companies like Coca-Cola to mom-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami-for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.
Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak? Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico-as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can't afford to join the merrymaking.
The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006.
If you own shares in large American corporations, you're a winner in the weak-dollar gamble. Last week Coca-Cola's stick bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke's beverage business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald's and IBM.
American tourists, however, shouldn't expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up- slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don't turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.
52. Why do Americans feel humiliated?
A) Their economy is plunging
B) They can't afford trips to Europe
C) Their currency has slumped
D) They have lost half of their assets.
53. How does the current dollar affect the life of ordinary Americans?
A) They have to cancel their vacations in New England
B) They find it unaffordable to dine in mom-and-pop restaurants.
C) They have to spend more money when buying imported goods.
D) They might lose their jobs due to potential economic problems.
54. How do many Europeans feel about the U.S with the devalued dollar?
A)They feel contemptuous of it
B) They are sympathetic with it.
C) They regard it as a superpower on the decline.
D)They think of it as a good tourist destination.
55. What is the author's advice to Americans?
A) They treat the dollar with a little respect
B)They try to win in the weak-dollar gamble
C)They vacation at home rather than abroad
D) They treasure their marriages all the more.
56. What does the author imply by saying “currencies don't turn on a dime” (Line 2, Para 7)?
A)The dollar's value will not increase in the short term.
B)The value of a dollar will not be reduced to a dime
C)The dollar's value will drop, but within a small margin.
D) Few Americans will change dollars into other currencies.
Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage
In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fights. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I've twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids' college background as e prize demonstrating how well we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough prizes to go around Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible——and mostly wrong. We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures——professors' feedback and the number of essay exams——selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates' lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-poinnt increase in a school's average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it's not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life only competition. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of prestigious universities didn't.
So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
57. Why dose the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A) They have the final say in which university their children are to attend
B) They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C) They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D) They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
58. Why do parents urge their children to apply to more school than ever?
A) They want to increase their children chances of entering a prestigious college.
B) They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C) Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D) Elite universities now enroll fewer students than they used to.
59. What does the author mean by kids count more than their college (Line1, Para. 4)？
A) Continuing education is more important to a person success.
B) A person’s happiness should be valued more than their education.
C) Kids’ actual abilities are more important than their college background
D) What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
60. What does Krueger study tell us?
A) Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B) Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C) Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D) Connections built in prestigious universities may be sustained long after graduation.
61.One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A) they earn less than their peers from other institutions
B) they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C) they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D) they overemphasize their qualifications in job application
试题详解
Passage One
52．C
细节题。由题干中的humiliated定位到原文第三段第一句。本题提问美国人感到屈辱的原因。第三段第一句指出：美元贬值是屈辱之源。因为货币是否坚挺在一定程度上体现了一个民族的自尊心。由此可以得出，美国人感到屈辱是因为他们的货币持续走弱。
53．C
细节推理题。本题可以通过第52题与第53题的定位，利用依次而下的顺序出题原则，定位在文章第三段的后半部分。原文中提到了美元贬值造成的影响：进口物品的价格飞涨．对利率的压力也不断增大。对普通民众影响较大的是前者，也就意味着民众在购买进口食品时需要花更多的钱。
54．D
细节题。根据题干关键词Europeans定位到原文第四段。整段文字都就谈论欧洲人的想法，但是在段末出现了明显的特殊标点，出题重心显现 —— 很多欧洲人眼中的美国就像美国人心中的墨西哥一样，是一个价格低廉，购物聚会的好去处。这说明欧洲人认为美元贬值后，美国时他们比较理想的旅游目的地。
55．C
暗示推论题。依据文章顺序出题原则，答案定位到原文最后三段。但倒数第二、三段为举例，而举例的目的是为了证明作者的观点。因此答案应该在文章末段最后两句：如果想避免伤痛，最好取消去英国的 旅行，转而前往新英格兰旅行，换句话说，就是取消去国外的旅行，转而在国内旅行。这里的关键是需要丰富的背景知识，England指代英国，而New England指代美国的新英格兰州。
56．A
猜词题。答案在文章最后一段开头。所猜句子开头有单词and出现，表明该句与上句之间在意思上是递进平行的，前句含义为：美元走弱就像许多婚姻一样，是慢慢的，最后突然爆发。因此，所猜句的含义与之保持一支：目前这种持续走弱的形势不会在短期内发生转变，不会立即走强，选项A是对这句的正确理解。
Passage Two
57．D
细节题。由题干中的parents are the true fighters定位到第一段第一句。题干中的内容与原文首句几乎无异。但是题干由Why提问，考查原因，从第一段的信息词our first choice，a prize demonstrating how well we raised them等，可以看出孩子要上家长首选的大学，并且大学情况如何将表明家长对孩子教育的优劣。处处体现家长的攀比心理。最后三句表明家长虽然不承认他们比孩子在上大学问题上更痴迷更在意，但是他们却承认在此基础上所设计的种种理由都是不真实，有偏见或是虚幻不切实际的。最后一句更能体现作者的态度，对于Aaron和Nicole而言，能否上斯坦福大学并不重要。由此可见，更在乎学校优劣的是父母而不是孩子。
58．A
细节题。由题干中urge their children to apply to more schools定位到第二段第一、二句。本段第一句说家长还是存在一种名校的恐慌，即担心孩子无法进入名校，由此萌生让学生申请多所学校的想法。第三句紧接着提出名校毕业生的种种优势，如能够接受更好的教育，更有可能成功等。由此可知，家长们让孩子向更多的大学提出申请是为了保障孩子有更多的机会迈人名校门槛。
59．C
猜词题。答案在文章第四段。题干中的count意为“很重要”，第二句话意思是：进入耶鲁大学也许意味着天资聪颖、才华横溢、雄心勃勃。随后作者用but引出真正的想法：但这并不是唯一的指标，现在这种重要性已经开始下降了。由此可以推断，学生除了努力学习进好大学，也要学习其他。
60．B
细节推论题。由题干中的Krueger’s study定位到第四段最后两句。这两句话介绍了Alan Krueger的研究结果：最能说明谁被录取的是GRE的高分，而不是一流大学的学位证书。进一步证明前面提出的观点：上大学不是人生的唯一竞争，能上名校并不一定就代表在以后的人生路上处处优越于别人。B选项 “名牌大学学位并不能保证一定有进入研究生等更高领域学习的机会”，与原文一致。
6l. C
细节推论题。根据顺序出题原则定位到最后一段，文章最后一段提到我们把上名校和孩子的未来之间的利害关系过于夸大，too much pushiness将是毁灭性的。其结果是名校毕业生在未来的工作中有更多的不满。c)和原文中graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction是同义转述。
