Why doesn’t the unemployment rate ever reach zero? Economists, who generally believe that supply tends to meet demand, have long thought about this question. Even in good times, i.e. not now, there are people who can’t find work. And even in bad times, i.e. now, there are job openings. With over 14 million people out of work and looking for a job, you would think every available job would be filled. But that’s not the case. Not now and not ever.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize committee awarded the prize for economics to the three scholars who have done the most to explain this phenomenon. Two of the winners are Americans, Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Mortensen of Northwestern. The third winner is Christopher Pissarides, who teaches at the London School of Economics and was born on Cyprus.
Like most of economics, what they have found about why the jobless and ready-employers don’t find each other seems obvious. You have to find out there is job opening you are interested in. Employers need to get resumes （简历）. It takes a while for both employers and employees to make the decision that this is what they want. And these guys came up with a frame-work to study the problem of why people stay unemployed longer than they should and what can be done about it.
So what would today’s Nobel Prize winners do to solve the current problem of the unemployed? And does the awarding of the prize contribute to the politicians’ lowering joblessness?
Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as “a complete surprise” though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.
For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government policy aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long periods of unemployment, “is very much based on our work,” he said.
“One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don’t lose their feel for the labor force,” Pissarides told reporters in London. “The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training – it could be as simple as providing work experience.”According to the writer, which is true about finding jobs?
| A．It is always difficult to find a job. |
| B．Everyone can find a job in good times. |
| C．Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to find a job in bad times. |
| D．It is possible to find a job even in times as bad as now. |
What is it that leads to their winning the prize?
| A．They have found the reason for unemployment. |
| B．They have put forward a set of ideas to deal with unemployment. |
| C．They have found out why people don’t want to be employed. |
| D．They have long studied the problem of unemployment. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Pissarides thinks his work surprising. |
| B．The work of Pissarides has influenced many economists. |
| C．Some of the winners’ ideas have been put into practice. |
| D．It is probable that unemployed young people in Britain benefit from Pissarides’ work. |
According to Pissarides, _________ is effrctive in dealing with unemployment.
| A．spending large sums of money on training |
| B．teaching some knowledge of economics |
| C．providing work experience |
| D．keeping people unemployed for some time |
There was once an 11-year-old boy who went fishing every time he went to an island in the middle of a New Hampshire lake.
On the day before bass (巴斯鱼) season opened, he and his father were fishing early in the evening, catching other fish with worms. Then he tied on a small silver lure (鱼饵) and put it into the lake. Suddenly the boy felt something very big pulling on the lure. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully brought the fish beside the bank. Finally he lifted the tired fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass.
The boy and his father looked at the big fish. The father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10 pm — two hours before the season opened．He looked at the fish, then at the boy. “You’ll have to put it back, son,” he said．
“Dad!” cried the boy. “There will be other fish,” said his father. “Not as big as this one,” cried the boy. He looked around the lake. No other fishermen or boats could be seen in the moon-
light. He looked again at his father.
Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he had caught the fish, the boy could tell from his father’s v
oice that the decision couldn’t be changed．He threw the huge bass into the black water.
The big fish disappeared. The boy thought that he would never again see such a big fish. That
was 34 years ago. Today the boy is a successful architect in New York City. He often takes his own son and daughters to fish at the same place.
And he was right. He has never again caught such a large fish as the one he got that night long ago. But he does see that same fish ... again and again ... every time he has an ethical (道德的) decision to make. Fo
r, as his father had taught him, ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult.．How did the father feel when he saw his son skillfully pulling a big fish out of the water?
| A．Delighted． | B．Nervous. | C．Embarrassed． | D．Shocked． |
What happened when it became clear that the big fish was a bass?
| A．The boy and his father discussed what to do with the big fish. |
| B．The boy threw the bass back into the water willingly. |
| C．The father made a decision that the fish must be set free. |
| D．They worried other fishermen might know what they had done. |
The successful architect went fishing with his children at the same place because .
| A．they might catch a big fish there | B．he remembered the moral lesson from his father |
| C．he wanted to remember his father | D．their children enjoyed fishing there |
What does the author want to show in the story?
| A．It is easy to say something, but difficult to do. |
| B．An ethical decision is not difficult to make. |
| C．It is hard to tell right from wrong sometimes. |
| D．Fishing helps you to make right ethical decisions. |
根据短文内容，从从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项是多余选项。(共5小题,每小题2分,满分10分)
We’re raising children!
A famous research scientist was being interviewed why he was so much more creative. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his balance and it fell, spilling its contents all the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, she said , “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk.Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”
Indeed, he did. After several minutes, his mother said,“You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, “You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle. Let’s fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.” The boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it.
This scientist remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes.
Wouldn’t it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert’s mother responded to him?
| A．Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new. |
| B．Well, the damage has already been done. |
| C．What set him so far apart from others? |
| D．What a wonderful lesson! |
E. So, how would you like to do that?
F. Such an opportunity of experiencing was delightful to him.
G. He responded that it all came from an experience when he was about two years old.
A research shows that humans switch from selfish to unselfish behaviour when they are watched. Do you? A picture of a set of eyes on a computer screen can cause a change in the way people act. Even images of eyes on a charity donation collection box encourage people to be unselfish, because people put more money in a collection box that has a picture of eyes on it than they do when a flower symbol is on the box.
Manfred Milinski from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany and Bettina Rockenbach of the University of Berlin, the authors of a new study, found that people act better when they are being watched because they feel they will be rewarded for good behaviour. Their report also referred to other researches showing that this response of behaving well when watched is somehow coded into humans, and people respond this way unconsciously, or without realising it.
It is not just humans that act unselfishly when they are being watched. A fish called the grooming fish cleans other fish. When other fish are around, it is gentler. When no other fish are around, however, the grooming fish bites chunks from the fish it is supposed to be cleaning.
The researchers suggest that the best way to get people to behave in the correct way is to make them feel watched. This could be the reason for the success of a famous American army poster. On it was a picture of an elderly man staring fiercely and pointing, it appeared, to the person who was looking at the poster. Under the picture was the caption “I Want You”. It encouraged hundreds of thousands of young American men to join the army during the Second World War to fight the Germans and Japanese.The underlined word “coded” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to .
| A．hidden | B．programmed | C．forgotten | D．learned |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．It describes changed behaviour when observed. |
| B．It details ways to control people's behaviour. |
| C．It tells how to make people work harder. |
| D．It discusses different advertising methods. |
According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
| A．People pretend to behave better when they are watched. |
| B．Fish bite other fish in a fish tank when they are alone. |
| C．People donate more money when they feel they are watched. |
| D．Soldiers fought better during World War II because of a poster. |
Where would the study described in the text most likely be found?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a scientific journal. |
| C．In an advertising magazine. | D．In a science textbook. |
Michael Fish may soon be replaced as a weather forecaster by something truly fishier---the shark(鲨鱼).
Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms.
Lauren Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark’s ability to sense pressure. If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behavior of sharks to predict bad weather.
Miss Smith had previously studied the behaviour of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.
She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish, for further research at Aberdeen University. Her work---thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory ---- resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.
Miss Smith said: “I’ve always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”
“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there’s so much more we need to understand ---- but it certainly opens the way to more research.”
It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.
At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal(潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish----none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic(模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.
She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.The passage is most probably taken from _____.
| A．a short-story collection | B．a popular science magazine |
| C．a research paper | D．a personal diary |
What do we learn from the first four paragraph of the passage?
| A．Sharks may be used to predict bad weather . |
| B．Sharks’ behaviour can be controlled. |
| C．Michael Fish is not qualified for his job. |
| D．Lauren Smith will become a weather forecaster. |
Lauren Smith conducted her research by _______.
| A．removing hair cells from a shark’s balance system |
| B．measuring the air pressure of weather fronts |
| C．recording sharks’ body temperature |
| D．monitoring sharks’ reaction to weather changes |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．A popular way of forecasting weather. |
| B．A new research effort in predicting storms. |
| C．Biologists’ interest in the secrets of sharks. |
| D．Lauren Smith’s devotion to scientific research. |
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”
“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. | B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. | D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.
| A．work for a school magazine | B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends | D．develop her writing style |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. | B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her feeling of being different. | D．Her childhood experience. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It is quite popular among students. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
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