题目内容
Economy of the world in 2010 was not so good. Many small companies ______.
A、closed up B、drew up C、picked up D、grew up
A 考查动词短语辨析。语意:2010年全球经济形势不好,许多小公司都关门大吉了。Close up 关门,停业;draw up 拟定,起草:pick up 改善,拿起:grow up 长大。
Is it time to kick Russia out of the BRICs (金砖四国)? If so, it may end up sounding like a famous ball-point pen maker-BIC. An argument is being made that Goldman Sach’s famous marketing device(策略),the BRICs, should really be the BICs.
“Is Russia really worth the name BRICs?” asks Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in an article for Foreigh Policy. Aslund, who is also co-author with Andrew Kuchins of “The Russian Balance Sheet”, thinks the Russia of Putin and Medvedev is just not worthy of inclusion alongside Brazil, India and China in the list of future economic powerhouses. He writes:
“The country’s economic performance has fallen to such a weak level that one must ask whether it has any say at all on the global economy, compared with the other members of its group. I have just returned from Moscow, which is always dull around this season. For the last seven years, Russia has taken very few measures to improve its economy. Instead, the state has been living on oil and gas. ”
Economically, Aslund has the numbers on his side. The International Monetary Fund figures that the Russian economy will fall by 6.7 percent in 2009, while China will grow 8.5 percent and India 5.4 percent. There is less of a case for Brazil, with a fall of 0.7 percent, but it is still doing
far better than Russia.
But the BRICs are not just about economy. As is mentioned above, it is a marketing device to encourage investors to focus on the big promising players. From an investment standpoint, it could be argued that Russia is leading the BRICs. Its stock(股票)market is up 128 percent this year while around 80 percent is for the other three.
At very least, however, Russia’s economic underperformance and stock market outperfoumance does suggest it is indeed one of the group.
【小题1】According to the passage, which country will enjoy the biggest increase in 2009?
| A.China. | B.Russia. | C.Brazil. | D.India. |
| A.Russia’s economic performance is far worse than the other three |
| B.Russia’s leaders are not good at managing economy |
| C.Russia has taken effective measures to improve its economy |
| D.Russia will no longer attract investors from other countries |
| A.Anders Aslund is working for the Russian government |
| B.Russia outperfoumed the other three countries in stock market |
| C.most people disagree Russia is included in BRICs |
| D.the BRICs would end up being the BICs sooner or later |
| A.suggest it’s time to kick Russia out of the BRICs? |
| B.feel worried about the economy of the BRICs |
| C.think Russia is worth being one of the group |
| D.show disappointment to Russia’s economy |
Nineteenth-century writers in the United States, whether they wrote novels, short stories, poems or plays, were powerfully drawn to the railroad in its golden years. In fact, writers responded to the railroads as soon as the first were built in the 1830’s. By the 1850’s, the railroad was a major presence in the life of the nation. Writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David saw the railroad both as a boon(要求) to democracy(民主国家) and as an object of suspicion. The railroad could be and was a despoiler(掠夺者) of nature, furthermore, in its manifestation of speed and noise. It might be a despoiler of human nature as well. By the 1850’s and 1860’s, there was a great distrust among writer and intellectuals of the rapid industrialization of which the railroad was a leading force. Deeply philosophical historians such as Henry Adams lamented the role that the new frenzy for business was playing in eroding traditional values. A distrust of industry and business continued among writers throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.
For the most part, the literature in which the railroad plays and important role belong to popular culture rather than to the realm of serious art. One thinks of melodramas, boys’ books, thrillers, romances, and the like rather than novels of the first rank. In the railroads’ prime years, between 1890 and 1920, there were a few individuals in the United States, most of them with solid railroading experience behind them, who made a profession of writing about railroading—works offering the ambience of stations, yards, and locomotive cabs. These writers, who can genuinely be said to have created a genre, the “railroad novel”, are now mostly forgotten, their names having faded from memory. But anyone who takes the time to consult their fertile writings will still find a treasure trove of information about the place of the railroad in the life of the United States.
【小题1】The underlined word “it” in the passage refers to______.
| A.railroad | B.manifestation | C.speed | D.nature |
| A.highly enthusiastic | B.both positive and negative | C.unchanging | D.Disinterested |
| A.thrillers | B.boys’ books | C.romances | D.important novels |
| A.largest category(类别) | B.highest quality | C.earliest writers | D.most difficult language |
| A.The role of the railroad in the economy of the USA |
| B.Major nineteenth century writers |
| C.The conflict between expanding industry and preserving nature |
| D.The railroad as a subject for literature |