英语六级考试网(CET6)

        Western airliner manufacturers seem to be tripping over themselves in their eagerness to sign collaborative agreements with Asian partners as a low-cost route to developing new airliners. Their potential Asian partners seem to be tripping over themselves to sign such agreements， as a low-cost route to acquiring new airliner technology. If they are not careful the two sides will end up tripping over each other： the one by selling its birth-right for short-term gain， the other by trying to break into a market which isn‘t big enough to sustain it.
     Technology transfer works in a growing market， where the aspirations of the new entrant receiving that technology can be met through expansion. The airliner market is not such a device.
Even the most optimistic projections of airliner sales for the next 20 years show that airliner manufacture can only be profitable if a small number of aircraft builders share the available sales. It follows that if new manufacturers come into the market and take sales， their sales must come from substitution， not expansion.
     Given the complexity of today‘s airliners， it is unlikely that any new entrant will have both the financial and technical resources to come into the market without the involvement of an established manufacturer. In the short term， such involvement may not be to the exclusive benefit of the new entrant： most of the established manufacturers are searching for ways to reduce costs of manufacture.
     In the short term，， it can be of benefit to an established Western manufacturer to have either components of complete air – frames made or assembled in lower-wage economics such a China， Taiwan or Korea， while retaining the design， development and marketing of aircraft for itself. It would be a very unwise Western manufacturer which did not heed the fact that these developing economies are acquiring skills （ like computing ） at least as quickly as they are acquiring skills in metallbashing.
     The danger comes when the new entrant no longer needs the established Western partner because it has acquired the technical and intellectual ability to design and build its own aircraft. An Asian partner may well find itself in the happy position of having the low-cost labour base， the high-cost technology base and the vital financial base to build a new airliner.

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1.The author‘s attitude towards Western/eastern collaboration can be depicted as ________.
A.positive      B.progressive     C.conservative      D.negative

2.“The airliner market is not such a device ” means that the airliner market _______.
A.does not encourage technology transfer
B.is too limited to offer chances of success
C.requires hi-tech rather than unaccepted devices
D.is full of competitions even for new entrants

3.Established manufacturers search for partners in order to _______.
A.save the cost of the airframe   B.improve some aircraft components
C.save the cost of labour            D.develop new technology

4.According to the author，a wise established manufacturer should ______.
A.try to benefit from both financial and technical resources
B.break up his partnership with the East once profits are made
C.keep a tight told over hi-tech development and marketing of airliners
D.collaborate with Asian partners for a short time

5.The word “base” in the last paragraph represents_______.
A.a production place
B.the initial operation of building aircraft
C.a research institute
D.a position where to start building

     There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system， the administered system， and the traditional system.
     In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market， transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy， real goods such as automobiles， shoes， and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously， finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence， the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy， goods and services are bought or sold for money.
     An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agency over all transactions. This agency will issue edicts or commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced， exchanged， and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan， drawn up by the government， shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated to different households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production， consumption， and exchange for the whole economy.
     In a traditional society， production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition； every person‘s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage， religion， and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition， too. People belonging to a certain group or caste may have an obligation to care for other persons， provide them with food and shelter， care for their health， and provide for their education. Clearly， in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone， progress may be difficult to achieve. A stagnant society may result.

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1.What is the main purpose of the passage？
A.To outline contrasting types of economic systems.
B.To explain the science of economics.
C.To argue for the superiority of one economic system.
D.To compare barter and money-exchange markets.

2.In the second paragraph， the word “real” in “real goods” could best be replaced by ___，
A.high quality
B.concrete
C.utter
D.authentic.

3.According to the passage， a barter economy can generate ___.
A.rapid speed of transactions.
B.misunderstandings.
C.inflation
D.difficulties for the traders.

4.According to the passage， who has the greatest degree of control in the administered system？
A.Individual households
B.Small businesses.
C.Major corporations.
D.The government.

5.Which of the following is not mentioned by the author as a criterion for determining a person‘s position in a traditional society？
A.Family background
B.Age
C.Religious beliefs.
D.Custom

          The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise， market-oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen， striving to make profits， produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen； and the profit motive， operating under competitive pressures， largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus， in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers，coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes， that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
     An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy， this mechanism is provided by a price system， a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand， the price will be bid up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If， on the other hand， producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost， this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers， which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus， price is the regulating mechanism in the America economic system.
     The important factor in a private-enterprise economy is that individual are allowed to own productive resources （private property）， and they are permitted to hire labor， gain control over natural resources， and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy， the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights， including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.

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1.In Para. 1，“ the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes” means ___.
A.Americans never feel satisfied with their incomes.
B.Americans tend to overstate the amount of their incomes.
C.Americans want to have their incomes increased.
D.Americans want to increase the purchasing power of their incomes.

2.The first two sentences in the second paragraph clarity the idea to us that ___.
A.producers can satisfy the consumers by mechanized production.
B.consumers can express their demands through producers.
C.producers decide the prices of products.
D.supply and demand regulate prices.

3.The word “embraces” in Para. 3 probably parallels ___.
A.enfold
B.hug
C.comprehend
D.support

4.According to the passage， a private-enterprise economy is characterized by ___.
A.private property and rights concerned.
B.manpower and natural resources control.
C.ownership of productive resources
D.free contracts and prices.

5.The passage is mainly talking about ___.
A.how American goods are produced.
B.how American consumers buy their goods.
C.how American economic system works.
D.how American businessman make their profits.

【答案见文章最下方】
      In my opinion, young students are sensitive to fashions and new trends, thus they easily found it impossible to make ends meet and run into debt.When a student’s spending steps beyond the boundaries of daily necessities, it becomes a kind of waste. Furthermore, widespread extravagant spending on campus could have a bad influence on people’s values. But many students see it as a common practice and not a fault. Though everyone has the right to enjoy a comfortable life, campus is a place for study. So just think twice before you sign a bill.
Part ⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)
Even as the economy improves, a jobless executive may face up to a year or more of unemployment. This is a lot of time, especially for hard-charging high-performers who are not used to having any free time. While some job seekers spend hundreds—even thousands—of hours discovering daytime television, others seem to thrive on activities that boost their professional careers or resolve family issues when they aren’t working.
Having an extended period of free time in the prime of one’s life can in fact be a unique opportunity to focus on volunteer service, professional education or personal growth.
Community Involvement
For Lisa Perez, the wakeup call was burned pork chops. An executive who previously hadn’t been particularly interested in home and health had become obsessed with homemaking during a stint of unemployment.来源：www.examda.com
She realized that cleaning and organizing her home wasn’t helping her job search. Nevertheless, “I made lists of 50 things to do every day,” says Ms. Perez, a political and public-relations consultant in Scottsdale, Ariz. “My house was spotless, just so I’d have something to do.”
One day, her boyfriend didn’t arrive on time for dinner because he had to work late, and her pork chops were ruined. She threw a fit. “I’d never been a person like that,” she says. “So I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself, and go out and do something productive.”
Ms. Perez, 35, resolved to become an active volunteer for the duration of her search. She gave her time to a health-care concern, a housing program and a political campaign.
The work bolstered her self-confidence. “Volunteering takes the focus off of you. One thing you have that’s still valuable is your time. And, of course, you learn that there are thousands of people with a life that’s much worse than yours,” she says.来源：www.examda.com
Volunteer assignments are also great ways to meet powerful and well-connected people. Over a six-month period, her volunteering evolved into working as a paid consultant and then as a full-time employee, a job she still holds today. In all, she was unemployed for eight months.
Before her job loss, she thought she didn’t have time to volunteer while working. “Now, even though I have a demanding job, I still volunteer, because of what I got out of it,” says Ms. Perez.
Continuing Education
Gene Bellavance, a 36-yearold information-technology project manager, took another route during his unemployment. When he was laid off from a steel company near Cleveland, he knew his immediate prospects were bleak. He expected his search to take a year. He faced a decision: take a job that would set back his career or hold out for an offer he really wanted.
Mr. Bellavance, single and virtually debt free, shifted his finances into survival mode. He cashed out his pension, sold his house, unloaded things he didn’t need at garage sales, and rented an apartment with a roommate. Then, he says, “I signed up for every benefit I could find.”
But he wasn’t just waiting out the year. He spent the rest of his search updating his skills, including becoming certified in new database and project-management software. “You have to invest in yourself,” Mr. Bellavance says. “I estimated what technology was going to be the most beneficial and chose applications that were going to be pervasive, that were right for my market, and that were going to ensure top pay.”
In addition to income from the occasional IT-consulting assignment, he relied on a combination of displaced-worker-retraining grants and unemployment benefits. “I went out and found the classes, submitted the paperwork, and dealt with the bureaucracy. You have to stay after them, keeping your benefits moving forward. It’s up to you to make it work with your overall transition plan,” he says.
His job search was one month shy of the full year he’d expected. He looked for work during his training and says he would have finished the certification programs even if he’d been hired before completing them.
“People should not feel guilty” about accepting government aid, he says. “I saw this in a lot of people. They felt they were some kind of loser for taking benefits. My advice is: Get all you can. You’ve been paying for these programs in your entire career, and you may as well start to benefit from them.”
Family Matters
In addition to pursuing training or volunteering, some displaced careerists use their time off work to attend to family matters. Many executives rediscover their children or find time to help their parents.
Stanford Rappaport held three jobs in San Francisco, including high-tech and teaching positions. When he was laid off from the high-tech job last year, he knew it might be a long slog before he could get another post like it in the Bay Area. “I was able to do the math,” says Mr. Rappaport, 46. “The number of people laid off: huge; and the number of available jobs: miniscule. At the time, I thought it might be two or three years before the tech industry recovered.”
Mr. Rappaport’s remaining job, a part-time faculty position with City College of San Francisco, didn’t pay enough to support him. After a couple of months of searching with no results, he decided to escape the Northern California jobs meltdown. “My plan,” he says, “was to get out of an expensive living situation, and either seek work in another section of the U.S. or overseas, for those two years.” Mr. Rappaport, who speaks five languages, had worked overseas before.
Before he found an assignment, his Arkansas-based mother was diagnosed with a serious chronic illness, and he was called into duty as a son. Mr. Rappaport was able to help his mother get her affairs in order not to interrupt his search by using a San Francisco mail drop and cellphone. “I continued to look for work in California while I was in Fayetteville, Ark., helping my mother through this crisis.”来源：考试大
He took his mother to medical appointments, made repairs on her house, bought her a better car, and straightened out her legal and financial affairs. “I even got to go through my father’s effects, which in the five years since he had died were simply piled in boxes in his office,” he says.
Mr. Rappaport’s stay in Arkansas lasted six months. “It’s amazing that at this stage I had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with my mother and improve her life and get a lot of things done for her. Most people never have that opportunity. I’m very thankful that I had the chance. It was absolutely worth it,” he says.
One of the unexpected benefits was the huge boost in confidence he gained from his role as caregiver. He’d been feeling depressed and defeated when he left California, but after returning, he felt renewed. He landed a job with a former employer after returning to San Francisco and remains a part-time faculty member.
Discovery and Exploration
Instead of spending time off lamenting your unemployed status, ask yourself: “Is there something I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t because of the demands of my job?”
Felice Fisk, a 29yearold in Seattle, recently left an account-manager position at a contract-furniture company. During seven months of unemployment, she took an interest in fine-art painting and completed 18 pieces before returning to work. “I found the art work, or some kind of creative outlet, to be really beneficial,” she says. She’s now an interior designer for an interior-design firm.来源：考试大
Michael Ross, 42, a former IT administrator in El Cerrito, Calif., recently spent his 10 months of unemployment playing guitar and exploring his lifelong interest in scriptwriting and the movie business. “After 18 years at my former employer and how hard I had worked, I knew I had to recover, to get restored,” he says. “I looked at this as an opportunity, rather than a penalty. This was very much about clearing space for me.”
At the executive level, even a very efficient and successful job search may be quite lengthy. It makes sense to spend that time in an enriching and productive manner. These job seekers pursued service, continuing education and shoring up family bonds. How you’ll look back on a period of unemployment depends on what you do with it.

【第一页】阅读正文&题目
【第二页】阅读答案&解析

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