考研英语经济类阅读理解及答案
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考研英语经济类阅读理解及答案：Staggering
Things are slow to change in America's boardrooms
THE annual review of American company board practices by Korn/Ferry, a firm of headhunters, is a useful indicator of the health of corporate governance. T
his year's review, published on November 12th, shows that the Sarbanes-Oxley act, passed in 2002 to try to prevent a repeat of corporate collapses such as Enron's and WorldCom's, has had an impact on the boardroom--albeit at an average implementation cost that Korn/Ferry estimates at .1m per firm.
Two years ago, only 41% of American firms said they regularly held meetings of directors without their chief executive present; this year the figure was 93%. But some things have been surprisingly unaffected by the backlash against corporate scandals. For example, despite a growing feeling that former chief executives should not sit on their company's board, the percentage of American firms where they do has actually edged up, from 23% in 2003 to 25% in 2004.
Also, disappointingly few firms have split the jobs of chairman and chief executive. Another survey of American boards published this week, by A.T. Kearney, a firm of consultants, found that in 2002 14% of the boards of S&P 500 firms had separated the roles, and a further 16% said they planned to do so. But by 2004 only 23% overall had taken the plunge. A survey earlier in the year by consultants at McKinsey found that 70% of American directors and investors supported the idea of splitting the jobs, which is standard practice in Europe.
Another disappointment is the slow progress in abolishing "staggered" boards--ones where only one-third of the directors are up for re-election each year, to three-year terms. Invented as a defence against takeover, such boards, according to a new Harvard Law School study by Lucian Bebchuk and Alma Cohen, are unambiguously "associated with an economically significant reduction in firm value".
Despite this, the percentage of S&P 500 firms with staggered boards has fallen only slightly--from 63% in 2001 to 60% in 2003, according to the Investor Responsibility Research Centre. And many of those firms that have been forced by shareholders to abolish the system are doing so only slowly. Merck, a pharmaceutical company in trouble over the possible side-effects of its arthritis drug Vioxx, is allowing its directors to run their full term before introducing a system in which they are all re-elected (or otherwise) annually. Other companies' staggered boards are entrenched in their corporate charters, which cannot be amended by a shareholders' vote. Anyone who expected the scandals of 2001 to bring about rapid change in the balance of power between managers and owners was, at best, naive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economist; 11/13/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8401, p67-67, 4/9p
注(1)：本文选自Economist;11/13/2004, p67-67, 4/9p;
注(2)：本文习题命题模仿1998年真题text 1第2题(1)，2002年真题text 2第2题(2)，text 5第3题(3)，2004年真题text 4第2题(4)和1999年真题text 1第4题(5);
1.The Sarbanes-Oxley act is most probably about_________.
[A] corporate scandal
[B] corporate management
[C] corporate cost
[D] corporate governance
2.The word “backlash” (Line 3, Paragraph 2) most probably means_________.
[A] a violent force
[B] a strong impetus
[C] a firm measure
[D] a strong negative reaction
3.According to the text, separating the roles between chairman and chief executive
is________.
[A] a common practice in American companies
[B] what many European companies do
[C] a must to keep the health of a company
[D] not a popular idea among American entrepreneurs
4.We learn from the text that a "staggered" board________.
[A] is adverse to the increment of firm value
[B] gives its board members too much power
[C] has been abolished by most American companies
[D] can be voted down by shareholders
5.Toward the board practice of American companies, the writer’s attitude can be said to
be________.
[A] biased
[B] pessimistic
[C] objective
[D] critical
答案：D D B A D
篇章剖析
本篇文章是一篇议论文，对美国公司的董事会变化缓慢的情况提出了批评。第一段引用一家猎头公司的年度评论说明一项旨在防止公司财务丑闻的法案已经对美国公司的董事会产生了影响;在第二段作者笔锋一转，说明虽然公司丑闻对于公司董事会的做法产生了一些影响，但仍然有一些方面毫无变化或者变化缓慢。接下来作者分析了几种典型的情况;三段指出了一些公司董事和总裁职务不分的情况;第四断指出一些公司在废除“交错董事任期”的董事会方面进展缓慢;第五段以具体的例子对上述情况加以说明并得出结论：要改变职业经理人和公司所有人之间的权力平衡并非一蹴而就之事。
词汇注释
headhunter: [5hedhQntE(r)] n. 用高薪征聘人才者
governance: [5^QvEnEns] n. 治理;管理
boardroom: [5bC:dru:m] n. (董事会)会议室
albeit: [C:l5bi:It] conj. 虽然
backlash: [5bAklAF] n. 激烈反应，激烈反对对一个较早行动的对抗性反应
take the plunge: 冒险，采取断然行动
staggered: [5stA^Ed] adj. 交错的
unambiguously: [5QnAm5bi^juEsli] adv. 明白地,不含糊地
pharmaceutical: [7fB:mE5sju:tikEl] adj. 制药的;调药的
arthritis: [B:5Wraitis] n. 关节炎
entrench: [In5trentF] v. 保护
amend: [E5mend] v. 改正;修改
难句突破
Merck, a pharmaceutical company in trouble over the possible side-effects of its arthritis drug Vioxx, is allowing its directors to run their full term before introducing a system in which they are all re-elected (or otherwise) annually.
主体句式：Merck is allowing its directors to run their full term
结构分析：这是一个复杂句，句子的主语之后又一个较长的同位语短语，句子中还有一个before引导的状语，在这个状语中含有一个which引导的定语从句。before在这种情况下通常译为“才”。
句子译文：因为所生产的关节炎药物Vioxx的潜在副作用而陷入困境的默克制药公司现在允许其董事任期直到届满，然后才会引入一个每年将所有人重新选任一遍(或者别的方法)的制度。
题目分析
1. 答案为D，属推理判断题。根据第一段，the Sarbanes-Oxley act的通过是为了防止再次出现类似安然公司或者世通公司垮掉的情况。而文章又提到在公司治理方面，该法案已经显现出了一定的影响力。可见，该法案是有关公司治理的法案。
2. 答案为D，属猜词题。首先确定“backlash”与反对公司丑闻有关，其次，下文对backlash给了一个具体的例子，就是“越来越多的人认为前任总裁不应该继续留在董事会里”，显然这符合选项D中的“强烈的对抗性/否定性反应”。
3. 答案为B，属事实细节题。根据文章第三段最后一句，将董事长和总裁的职务区分开来是“欧洲的行业惯例”。
4. 答案为A，属事实细节题。根据文章第四段的一份最新哈佛商学院研究，“staggered board”是为了防止公司权力被夺取而被发明的，但它显然“和公司价值的显著下降有关”。可见这种交错董事任期的董事会不利于公司价值的增长。
5. 答案为D，属推理判断题。本文指出虽然出台了防止公司丑闻的法案，但美国公司的董事会变化依然缓慢。继而分析了几种令人失望的情况。在文章最末作者指出，人们不应该天真的相信2001年的丑闻会迅速改变职业经理人和公司所有人之间的权力平衡。可见作者对美国公司的董事会持批评的态度。
参考译文
猎头公司“光辉国际”(Korn/Ferry)推出的美国公司董事会惯例年度评论是了解公司治理状况的有用指南。今年11月12日发表的年度评论表明，2002年通过的旨在防止类似安然公司和世通公司垮掉的事情再次发生的《萨班-奥西利法案》对董事会已经产生了一定的影响---虽然按照“光辉国际”的估计，实施该法案的平均成本是每家公司510万美元。
两年前，只有41%的美国公司说他们会在首席执行官不在场的情况下定期举行董事会;今年这一数字达到了93%。不过，令人惊异的是，对公司丑闻的强烈反对并没有影响到某些事情的发展。例如，虽然越来越多的人认为前任总裁不应该继续留在董事会里，但美国公司董事会中前任总裁的比率不降反升了，从2003年的23%上升到了2004年的25%。
另外，将董事长和总裁的职务区分开来的公司很少，这一点令人颇为失望。一家咨询公司“A.T.卡尼”公司在本周发布的另外一份对美国董事会的调查发现，2002年标准普尔500家公司中，有14%的董事会已经进行了职务角色的区分，另有16%的董事会表示计划这么做。可是到2004年，在全部公司中，只有23%的公司采取了行动。同年早些时候麦肯锡公司的咨询师发布的一项调查发现，70%的美国董事和投资人支持职务区分的想法，而这在欧洲早已是行业惯例了。
另一件令人失望的事情就是在废除“交错董事任期”的董事会方面进展缓慢---所谓交错董事任期，就是每年只改选三分之一的董事，而每一届董事的任期是三年。依据吕西安·贝布查克和阿尔玛·科恩的一份最新哈佛商学院研究，这种为了防止公司权力被夺取而发明的董事会显然“和公司价值的显著下降有关”。
尽管如此，标准普尔500公司中有交错董事任期的董事会比例却只有轻微下降---“投资人责任研究中心”的数据显示，该比率仅从2001年的63%下降到了2003年的60%。许多被股东施压要求放弃这一制度的公司现在只是缓慢地着手这一工作。因为所生产的关节炎药物Vioxx的潜在副作用而陷入困境的默克制药公司现在允许其董事任期直到届满，然后才会引入一个每年将所有人重新选任一遍(或者别的方法)的制度。其他公司交错董事任期的董事会是由公司规章确立的，不能由股东投票改变。如果有人期望2001年的丑闻会迅速改变职业经理人和公司所有人之间的权力平衡的话，那么他未免太天真了。
考研英语经济类阅读理解及答案：Burnished
Up goes gold, down goes the dollar
MOST economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the me
tal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isn't any more. Modern money takes the form of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity.
So why is its price soaring? Over the past week, this has topped 0 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollar's fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its unit of account.
This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars--indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low--a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world's reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worth less.
The striking exception to this extra demand comes from central banks, which would like to sell some of the gold they already have. As a legacy of the days when their currencies were backed by the metal, central banks still hold one-fifth of the world's gold. Last month the Bank of France said it would sell 500 tonnes in coming years. But big sales by central banks can cause the price to plunge--as when the Bank of England sold 395 tonnes between 1999 and 2002. The result was an agreement between central banks to co-ordinate and limit future sales.
If the price of gold marches higher, this agreement will presumably be ripped up, although a dollar crisis might make central banks think twice about switching into paper money. Will the overhang of central-bank gold drag the price down again? Not necessarily. As James Grant, gold bug and publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a newsletter, points out, in recent years the huge glut of government debt has not stopped a sharp rise in its price.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economist; 12/4/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8404, p76-76, 1/3p, 1 graph
注(1)：本文选自Economist;12/4/2004, p76-76, 1/3p;
注(2)：本文习题命题模仿2000年真题text 4第3题(1)，2001年真题text 4第2题(2)，text 1第2题(3)，2002年真题text 2第2题(4)和text 5第3题(5);
1.In economists’ eyes, gold is something__________.
[A] they look down upon
[B] that can be exchanged in the market
[C] worth people’s reverence
[D] that should be replaced by other forms of money
2.According to the author, one of the reasons for the rising of gold price is___________.
[A] the increasing demand for gold
[B] the depreciation of the euro
[C] the link between the dollar and gold
[D] the increment of the value of the dollar
3.We can infer from the third paragraph that_________.
[A] the decline of the dollar is inevitable
[B] America benefits from the depreciation of the dollar
[C] the depreciation of the dollar is good news to other currencies
[D] investment in the dollar yields more returns than that in gold
4.The phrase “ripped up” (Line 1, Paragraph 5) most probably means__________.
[A] strengthened
[B] broadened
[C] renegotiated
[D] torn up
5.According to the passage, the rise of gold price__________.
[A] will not last long
[B] will attract some central banks to sell gold
[C] will impel central banks to switch into paper money
[D] will lead to a dollar crisis
答案：B A B D B
篇章剖析
本篇文章采用了提出问题-分析问题的模式，分析了金价上涨，美元下跌的经济态势。第一段说明黄金是一种商品;第二段分析了金价上涨的原因：金价的上涨反映了需求的增加以及计价单位的贬值;第三段美元下跌的原因;第四段分析了各国央行的反应;最后一段对金价继续上扬可能带来的影响进行了分析。
词汇注释
reverence: [5revErEns] n. 崇敬，尊敬
millennia: [mI`lenIE] n. millennium的复数
soaring: [5sC:riN] adj. 剧增的;上升到明显高于正常水平的
troy ounce: n. 金衡制盎司, 金衡?
denominate: [di5nCmineit] v. 以…面值发行以某种给定的货币单位发行或表达
euro: [`jJErEJ] n. 欧元
depreciation: [dIpri:FI5eIF(E)n] n. 跌价;贬值
bull: [bul] n. 买空;(做)多头
stink: [stiNk] v. 发出臭味
longish: [5lRNIF] adj. 相当长的
rally: [5rAli] n. (行情、价格等)跌后复升
greenback: [`^ri:nbAk] n. 美钞
tonne: [tQn] n. 公吨(=1,000公斤或称 metric ton)
rip up: 斯毁;取消
overhang: [5EuvE5hAN] n. 突出量
难句突破
At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars--indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low--a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world's reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them.
主体句式：extra demand has come
结构分析：本句是一个复杂句，from这个介词所引导的状语中包含一个who 引导的定语从句，一个插入语，主句之后是一个because引导的原因状语从句。nothing more than的意思是“只不过，仅仅”。
句子译文：在此下跌情况下，导致金价上扬的额外需求来自于那些认为美元---或者任何一种依靠抑制通胀的许诺来支撑的货币—无疑是一种高风险投资的人，主要因为美国拥有美元这一世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。
题目分析
1. 答案为B，属事实细节题。文章第一段提到经济学家不喜欢黄金的原因是人们对黄金缺乏理性的崇拜。在他们看来，黄金只不过是一种商品，也就是可以在市场交换的东西。
2. 答案为A，属事实细节题。文章第二段分析了金价上涨的两个主要原因：金价用美元表示，而美元相对于其他货币贬值了;市场对黄金需求的增加。
3. 答案为B，属推理判断题。根据文章第三段，美国因为拥有世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。要偿还这些美元，最不费力的方式就是让美元贬值。可见，美元贬值对美国是有益无害的事情。
4. 答案为D，属猜词题。根据文章第四段，为了防止出现一国央行大量抛售黄金导致金价下跌的情况，各国央行达成协议，协调和限制今后的黄金销售。如果金价持续上涨，很可能一些央行会再次抛售黄金(文中提到法国央行出售黄金的决定)，那样各国央行之间的协议就会被破坏。因此，根据上下文，“ripped up”最有可能的意思就是“torn up”(撕毁)。
5. 答案为B，属推理判断题。根据文章第四段，在许多买家大量买入黄金的同时，许多央行却打算将他们囤积的黄金出售。文章第五段说，如果金价继续上扬，各国央行之间的“限制和协调未来黄金销售”的协议将会被打破，也就是说金价的上涨会吸引各国央行出售黄金。
参考译文
大多数经济学家都讨厌黄金。要知道，这可不是因为他们瞧不起一两块金条，而是因为他们发现许多人对这种金属的崇敬几乎到了毫无理性的地步。这与它被用作千禧年的货币并无关系：那已经是昨日黄花了。现代货币采用的是纸币的形式，或者，更多时候，采用的是电子数据的形式。对经济学家来说，黄金现在只是另外一种商品。
那么为什么金价会大幅上涨呢?在过去一周里，每金衡(1金衡约31.1025克)的价格达到了450美元，比年初上涨了9%，而比2001年4月则上涨了77%。啊，答案来了，黄金交易是以美元来计数的，价格的上涨只是反映了美元对其他货币的比价，尤其是对欧元比价的下跌，而本周美元对欧元的比价又创新低。用欧元计数的话，金价的波动要小得多。然而，美元价值和黄金价值之间似乎并没有固定联系。像其他任何东西一样，金价的上涨反映了需求的增加以及计价单位的贬值。
因此就出现了黄金买空。美元的下跌之所以重要主要是因为作为一种价值储存手段美钞可谓臭名昭著。自从1971年美元脱离金本位，就一直处于跌势，其间只有为数不多的几次跌后复升。这一次下跌的跌幅更大。在此下跌情况下，导致金价上扬的额外需求来自于那些认为美元---或者任何一种依靠抑制通胀的许诺来支撑的货币—无疑是一种高风险投资的人，主要因为美国拥有美元这一世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。要偿还这些美元，最不费力的方式就是让美元贬值。
各国中央银行的反应跟这种额外需求正好形成鲜明对照。这些银行都想把手里的黄金卖掉一些。以前各国货币都依靠这种金属，历史继承的结果就是各国中央银行的黄金储量是世界黄金总量的五分之一。上个月，法国中央银行宣布即将在未来几年出售500吨黄金。不过中央银行大量出售黄金会导致金价猛跌--- 1999年至2002年之间英格兰银行出售395吨黄金时就发生过这种情况。其结果是各国央行达成协议，协调限制今后的销售。
如果金价继续上扬，这个协议就会被破坏，虽然一场美元危机会让各国央行在转向纸币经营问题上慎之又慎。那么央行所储备的大量黄金是否会将金价再次拉下来呢?那倒不一定。正如黄金迷，时事通讯《格兰特利率观察家》的出版人詹姆斯·格兰特所指出的，最近几年政府的巨额债务并未阻止金价的大幅上涨。
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考研英语经济类阅读理解及答案
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