专业英语八级(政治财经类阅读理解)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语八级（政治财经类阅读理解）模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解
析)
题型有：1.47% on ten-year notes—the lowest in the history of the United States. Record interest rates—high or low—are generally not a good thing. When they are super high, as they were in the early 1980s, or super low as they are now, something is wrong somewhere. In the early 1980s, the problem was inflation. Now the problem is the weak state of the jobs market in the U.S. and economic chaos in Europe—especially Greece and Spain, where crushing debt, high unemployment rates, and low productivity are threatening the banking systems. When investors are worried about the economy in or financial stability of their homelands, they gather up their Euros and dollars and park them in the safest place they can find. That would be the U.S. Treasury market. The newest impetus in the so-called “flight to quality”: The Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday morning revealing that nonfarm jobs grew by a meager 69,000—well below expectations. The report tops a series of weak economic releases from around the world, prompting investors to move their investments from assets that do well in strong economies—like stocks—and pouring them into safe havens. As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has completely wiped out its gains this year and U.S. Treasuries yields are setting new lows as investors drive up the prices on the securities. But the race to safety began earlier this year with overseas investors, especially in the most wounded European economies. Greeks have been on the cutting edge, fearing they may wake up one morning and find all their Euros transformed into drachmas—which could easily cut their wealth in half. Bloomberg terminals have already created a trading screen for the Greek Drachma. Spaniards are now going the Grecian route as well, withdrawing assets again, just in case. Currency devaluation is an old tool in the sovereign debt tool box. It wasn’t that long ago—in 2001—that Argentina shut down the banks for a week. When the Argentines canae back to their local branches, their money was all there but deeply devalued. And so the fear-of-the-unknown trade is spreading across the continent, driving investors to U.S. Treasuries. These investors don’t even care about yield, says James Bianco, president of Bianco Research, a Chicago firm that keeps tabs on where bonds rates have been and where they are going. “They care about the return of their money.” So what if the U.S. lost its vaunted triple-A rating last August. And that fiscal cliff we keep hearing about? It’s a mole hill compared to what Greece and Spain face. And though U.S. growth may be weak, at least it exists. Praise the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam. Or, as the wags on Wall Street would say, we are the cleanest dirty shirt. The U.S. is not the only safe haven, but it is the primes inter pares because it is the largest and deepest market in the world. Still, nervous Europeans are also buying bonds issued by the German and Swiss governments. Yields have actually turned negative on the Swiss five-year note, which means that investors are paying the Swiss for the privilege of lending money to a country that did not adopt the Euro. It’s not so unusual these days for short-term bills
to produce negative returns, but a five-year note? That’s a record, says Bianco. Anxious Europeans are also swapping Euros for U.S. dollars or Swiss francs. In theory, the super-low rates here should be good for the economy, encouraging people to borrow money to start or expand businesses, or to buy homes and new cars. But the Federal Reserve has kept rates unusually low ever since the economic crisis began in 2008. That means the current drop in rates is unlikely to do much more for the economy. (If you haven’t refinanced by now, marginally lower rates are unlikely to push you to do it now.) Indeed, the New York Fed reports that household debt continues to decline, falling 0.9% in the first quarter from the previous quarter to $11.44 trillion. From The Times, June 4, 2012
6．According to the passage, what does “the most respected debt issuer in the world” in paragraph 1 refer to ?
A．U.S. Treasury
B．German government
C．Swiss government
D．Wall Street
正确答案：A
解析：本题为推理题。

根据题干，这是个发行10年期国债的机构，而且，如此低的国债利率连美国国父都会觉得吃惊，是美国历史上最低的利率，由此可以推理出这是美国发行国债的机构，答案为A。

知识模块：政治财经
7．According to the passage, what is the cause of the super high interest rate in the early 1980s?
A．high unemployment rates
B．crushing debt
C．low productivity
D．inflation
正确答案：D
解析：本题为细节题。

根据文章第二段的第三句In the early 1980s，the problem was inflation．可以得出答案为D，而A、B、C是现在希腊和西班牙出现的一些状况，与题干无关。

知识模块：政治财经
8．According to the passage, what do the investors investing in U.S. Treasuries care about?
A．how much money they can earn through the investment
B．the return of their money
C．the length of their investment
D．the profit of their investment
正确答案：B
解析：本题为细节题。

A项和D项是一个意思，根据第五段的第二句These investors don’t even care about yield，得出A和D均错误。

C项文中未提及，所以不选。

根据第五段的第三句“They care about the return of their money．”可以看出答案为B。

知识模块：政治财经
9．Why is the current drop in rates unlikely to promote economic growth?
A．Because the Federal Reserve has kept rates unusually low ever since the economic crisis began in 2008.
B．Because people do not want to buy homes or cars.
C．Because household debt continues to decline.
D．Because Europeans are also swapping Euros for U.S. dollars or Swiss francs.
正确答案：A
解析：本题为细节题。

根据最后一段的第二句和第三句But the Federal Reserve has kept rates unusually low ever since the economic crisis began in 2008．That means the current drop in rates is unlikely to do much more for the economy．可以看出答案为A。

B项和C项是现象而不是原因，D项与题干毫无关系。

知识模块：政治财经
With all the fuss over Obama and Romney’s duelling speeches about the economy in Ohio yesterday, an intriguing political yarn hasn’t received much attention: early last year, Timothy Geithner tried to get Hillary Clinton to take his job as Treasury Secretary. It’s well known that Geithner has long been keen to return to New York for family reasons. (It would be surprising if he hadn’t also grown weary of all the criticism he’s received, from liberal Democrats as well as Republicans.) In the spring of last year, according to a humdinger of a story by the Washington Post’s Ned Martel, Geithner suggested that Hillary could replace him, and the White House took the notion seriously. If Geithner had quit, the Administration would have needed a heavyweight replacement who could be confirmed quickly, and the Secretary of State met both requirements. According to Martel, William Daley, who was then President Obama’s chief of staff, broached the idea of a job-switch with Clinton, and she “expressed cautious interest.” But a source close to Clinton that Martel quoted had a different take. This person said Hillary “listened respectfully and politely.”I bet she did. In diplomatic circles—that is, in Hillary’s circles—to say that the Secretary of State listened to somebody “respectfully and politely” is really to say that she heard the person out without gagging or tossing her paper weight. Secretaries of State are paid to listen “respectfully and politely” to Third World dictators who run countries where the U.S. has military bases, to Afghan warlords who are on the side of the U.S.-backed government, and to former K..G.B. agents who are running Russia. Obviously, Bill Daley doesn’t fall into any of these categories, but his intimation to Clinton that she might move from Foggy Bottom to 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue must have been about as welcome as a suggestion that she have an elective root canal. As Secretary of State, Hillary might not have any great policy successes to her credit, but the job has done wonders for her popularity. While Geithner and Obama have been
battered for their handling of the economy, Clinton has been donning her sunglasses and BlackBerry and flying around the globe, burnishing her approval ratings and her credentials for a possible run at the White House in 2016. Clinton has said that she isn’t interested in another Presidential bid and that at the end of this year she plans to retire. There’s no reason to doubt her words. But politicians have been known to change their minds and un-retire. Clinton could be another. A couple of years away from it all, with a gig at an Ivy League college, or somewhere similar, and the former First Lady might feel very differently about things. She is a Clinton, after all: politics is second nature to her. If nothing else, 2016 is an option well worth keeping open —and replacing Geithner could well have closed it off. As Treasury Secretary, Clinton wouldn’t have been able to avoid responsibility for the weak economy. And she wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it—no more than Geither was able to do, anyway. By the start of last year, there was little the Treasury Secretary could do: the 2009 stimulus was running down, and the Republicans on Capitol Hill were blocking virtually anything the Administration suggested. No wonder Hillary didn’t show any enthusiasm for Geithner’s idea, which ran into other objections, as well. The negotiations over the budget and the debt ceiling were getting serious, and, according to Martel, the White House was concerned about a big changeover in staff at the Treasury Department. Plus, the President wanted Geithner to stay in place. So, Hillary stayed where she was, and everybody except Geithner was happy. He tried to be a good soldier. As Martel recalled, he appeared onstage with Bill Clinton at a meeting of his anti-poverty charity, the Clinton Global Initiative. Asked by the former President about his career plans, he said he lived for the job and would be doing it for the foreseeable future. To which Bill replied: “Good for you. That’s good for America.”And good for the Clintons, too. From The New Yorker, June 15, 2012
10．What’s the main idea of this passage?
A．Geithner’s plan of retiring and getting away from all the troublesome political issues.
B．The Whitehouse’s decision to replace Geithner with Hilary.
C．An analysis of Hilary’s status quo in face of the job-switch suggestion.
D．None of the above.
正确答案：C
解析：本题为主旨题。

根据文章第二段得知，众所周知，美国财长盖特纳因为家庭原因早就想要回到纽约(据说儿子要到纽约读高中)，并且他在自由民主党和保守共和党的夹击下疲惫不堪也已经是司空见惯的事了。

从第二段the Whitehouse took the notion seriously可以知道，让希拉里任财长一事，不是白宫提出的。

接着我们发现，从第三段开始到文章末尾，说的都是作者推断希拉里对此事的回应，和盖特纳关系并不是那么大了。

因此选择C。

知识模块：政治财经
11．In the author’s opinion, which one of the following would be more like Hilary’s initial reaction to Geithner’s proposal?
A．calm and composed on the surface
B．disinterested in reality
C．ambiguous
D．envious
正确答案：A
解析：本题为推断题。

从第四段I bet she did和后面的“respectfully and politely”可以看出来，作者认为，作为国务卿，希拉里被要求面对这种问题时都要表现得沉着冷静、不卑不亢，因此选A；而选项B虽然在第八段No wonder Hillary didn’t show any enthusiasm for Geithner’s idea中得到了反映，但这是作者经过分析推断出来的希拉里的想法，并没有选项A那么明显地带有作者的意见。

知识模块：政治财经
12．What has Hilary Clinton been doing recently?
A．Preparing for the incoming presidential election.
B．Gaining her popularity all around the world.
C．Shouldering the responsibility for feeble economy.
D．Doing charity work with her husband Bill.
正确答案：B
解析：本题为细节题。

从文章第五段可以看出，当奥巴马之流在为经济忙得焦头烂额的时候，克林顿却带个墨镜拿个蓝莓手机到处增加支持率。

而后面两段也表明，虽然她声称对2016年大选没有兴趣，但事实并非如此。

因此选B。

知识模块：政治财经
13．Which one of the following statements is NOT true?
A．Politicians don’t speak the truth.
B．The Clintons don’t want to take the place of treasury secretary.
C．The situation of treasury secretary is really between the devil and the deep blue sea.
D．The White House has initiated a reform inside the government.
正确答案：B
解析：本题为细节题。

从文章第六段But politicians have been known to change their minds and un-retire得知政客是言不由衷的，因此A正确，B错误。

选项C 可以在倒数第四段找到。

选项D可以在倒数第三段找到。

知识模块：政治财经
Bryan Fischer, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Soon after Fischer criticized Mitt Romney’s campaign for hiring an openly gay spokesman, the spokesman resigned. Tupelo, Mississippi, is best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and his childhood home remains the town’s top attraction. Another local performer, however, has recently garnered national attention. For two hours every weekday, a broadcaster
named Bryan Fischer hosts “Focal Point,” a popular Christian radio talk show. He is one of the country’s most vocal opponents of what he calls “the homosexual-rights movement.” As he puts it, “A rational culture that cares about its people will, in fact, discriminate against adultery, pedophilia, rape, bestiality, and, yes, homosexual behavior.” His goal is to make this view the official stance of the Republican Party. In April, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, hired an openly gay man, Richard Grenell, to serve as his campaign’s national-security spokesman. The next day, Fischer launched a public attack on Grenell, a Republican foreign-policy expert who had previously worked as the spokesman for John Bolton, President George W. Bush’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Fischer had no argument with Grenell’s political views, which are consistently hawkish. The problem was his sex life: gay men, Fischer said, have “random, frequent, and anonymous sexual encounters—that becomes a significant issue when we talk about appointing somebody to a post as sensitive as the spokesman for national security.” After other conservative pundits took up Fischer’s cause, Grenell resigned from the Romney campaign. The resulting controversy has helped make gay rights one of the defining social issues of the 2012 campaign. The one-story concrete building where Fischer works is indistinguishable from neighboring offices occupied by dentists, except that its front entrance features a statue of a fetus enshrined in a heart and a shoulder-high stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Inside, plaques bearing the words “In God We Trust” underscore that this is the national headquarters of the American Family Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. A “pro-family ministry” founded in 1977, it promotes Bible-based social conservatism and criticizes what it regards as sinful popular culture. Like much of the religious right, the A.F.A. was losing traction until Barack Obama was elected Presi-dent, in 2008. His victory galvanized the group. Its leaders saw Obama as a radical proponent of godless socialism. According to a former employee, staff members at the Tupelo office passed around an image of Obama’s face blended with that of Adolf Hitler, against a backdrop of a swastika. The former employee, who found the image disrespectful, recalls, “Things really took a turn. They were no longer civil about the opposition. The goal became to defeat Obama.” In 2009, the A.F.A. hired Fischer as its director of issue analysis and as the host of “Focal Point,”which is broadcast from a studio across the street. The American Family Association’s radio network comprises two hundred stations in thirty-five states, and Fischer’s program reaches more than a million listeners a day. That’s a fraction of Rush Limbaugh’s audience, but as large as that of Rachel Maddow or Chris Matthews, on MSNBC. Until recently, Fischer’s rising popularity escaped notice in the mainstream media, in part because his show is broadcast primarily on stations in the Southeast and the Midwest, including small cities such as Tullahoma, Tennessee, and Pig-gott, Arkansas. But his program is part of a parallel media universe that provides news and commentary, on everything from science to American history, from a perspective that is far to the right of Fox News. Fischer is a tall man with a wide mouth, a prominent nose, a tanned face, and carefully groomed hair that is as white as a cotton ball. He is proud to be at the far end of the American political spectrum. When I visited his office, I asked him if he could
name anyone who had more conservative social beliefs. “Well, Thomas Jefferson,” he said. “He wanted to castrate homosexuals—I don’t want to do that.”Fischer does, however, want to change homosexuals. “We’re not animals in heat that have a biological compulsion to yield to every sexual impulse,” Fischer said. Gays, he said, can experience a “reorienting of their sexuality—it can be done. Like the saying goes, ‘I’ve never met an ex-black, but I’ve met a lot of ex-gays.’ If one person can do it, two people can do it.”From The New Yorker, June 13, 2012
14．Among the following people, which one of them is NOT on the side of homosexual behavior?
A．Bryan Fischer
B．Mitt Romney
C．Richard Grenell
D．John Bolton
正确答案：A
解析：本题为细节题。

这四个人物在第二、三段中都有提到，其中选项D 的约翰·波顿并没有在文中提及他对同性恋的支持与否，只是说他是布什任总统期间的大使，因此排除。

而很明显布莱恩是反对同性恋的。

因此选A。

知识模块：政治财经
15．Which one of the following statements is TRUE?
A．Grenell was accuse of being arbitrary in sexual intercourse.
B．Fischer worked together with dentists.
C．The ed to be in good terms with Obama.
D．Focal Point is as conservative as the Fox News.
正确答案：A
解析：本题为细节题。

选项A在第三段The problem was his sex life之后的内容中可以看到，是正确的；选项B从第四段可以看到，并不是和牙医共事，而是周围的邻居们主要是牙医；选项C从第五段可以看出，该组织只是自己被奥巴马的上任所激励，后来还转而反对奥巴马，并不代表他们和奥巴马关系友好；选项D从倒数第二段中可以看到Focal Point节目涉猎范围很广，但其立场甚至比福克斯新闻还保守，而不是类似。

因此选A。

知识模块：政治财经
16．What’s the author’s attitude towards gay issue?
A．objective
B．opponent
C．not mentioned
D．supportive
正确答案：C
解析：本题为态度题。

作者对同性恋的态度在本文中并没有被提及，虽然通
篇是以客观的态度来论述的，但是这只能说明作者对布莱恩和他的那个组织的态度是客观的，无法反映其对同性恋的态度。

因此选C。

知识模块：政治财经
17．Which paragraph of this passage adopted descriptive method of writing?
A．paragraph 2
B．paragraph 3
C．paragraph 5
D．last paragraph
正确答案：D
解析：本题为修辞题。

只有最后一段的开头使用了人物描写的手法，因此选D。

知识模块：政治财经。