2024年4月6日发(作者：)

考研真题历年英语二阅读

考研真题历年英语二阅读1

Text 4

Many people talked of the 288,000 new jobs the Labor Department

reporledfor Jure, along with the drop in the unemployment take to 6 J

percent. at goodnews. And they were right. For now it appears the

economy is creating jobs at adecent pace. We still have a long way to go

to get back to full employment, butat least we are now finally moving

forward at a faster pace.

However there is another important part of the jobs picture that

wastargely ovedookcd. There was a big jump in the number of people who

reportvoluntarily working part-time. This figure is now 830,000(4,4

percent)above itsyear ago level.

Before explaining the connection to the Obamacare, it is worth

making animportant distinction. Many people who work part-time jobs

actually wantfull-time jobs. They take part-time work because this is all

they can get. Anincrease in involuntary part-time work is evidence of

weakness in the labormarket and it means that many people will be having

a very hard time making endsmeet.

There was an increase in involuntary part-time in June, but the

generaldirection has been down. Involuntary part-time employment is still

far higherthan before the recession, but it is down by 640,000(7.9

percent)from its yearago level.

We know the difference between voluntary and involuntary part-

timeemployment because people tell us. The survey used by the Labor

Department askspeople if they worked less than 35 hours in the reference

week. If the answer is“yes."they are classified as working part-time. The

survey then asks whetherthey worked less than 35 hours in that week

because they wanted to work lessthan full time or because they had no

choice. They are only elassified asvoluntary part-time workers if they tell

the survey taker they chose to workless than 35 hours a week.

The issue of voluntary part-time relates to Obamacare becanse one of

themain purposes was to allow people to get insurance outside of

employment. Formany people, especially those with serious health

conditions or family memberswith serious health conditions, before

Obamacare the only way to get insurancewas through a job that provided

health insurance.

However, Obamacare has allowed more than 12 million people to

either getinsurance through Medicaid or the exchanges. These are people

who may previouslyhave felt the need to get a full-time job that provided

insurance in order tocover themselves and their families. With Obamacare

there is no longer a linkbetween employment and insurance.

36. Which part of the jobs picture was neglected?

A. The prospect of a thriving job market.

B. The increase of voluntary part-time jobs.

C. The possibility of full employment.

D. The acceleration of job creation.

37. Many people work part-time because they

A. prefer part-time jobs to full-time jobs

B. feel that is enough to make ends meet

C. cannot get their hands on full-time jobs

D. haven' t seen the weakness of the market

38. Involuntary part-time employment in the US

A. is harder to acquire than one year ago

B. shows a general tendency of decline

C. satisfies the real need of the jobless

D. is lower than before the recession

39. It can be learned that with Obamacare, .

A. it is no longer easy for part-timers to get insurance

B. employment is no longer a precondition to get insurance

C. it is still challenging to get insurance for family members

D. full-time employment is still essential for insurance

40. The text mainly discusses.

A. employment in the US

B. part-timer classification

C. insurance through Medicaid

D. Obamacare's trouble

考研真题历年英语二阅读2

Text 4

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the

economythe focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy.

Housing is seldommentioned.

Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the

blame. Wehave not been good at communicating the real value that

housing can contributeto economic growth. Then there is the scale of the

typical housing project. Itis hard to shove for attention among multibillion-

pound infrastructure project,so it is inevitable that the attention is focused

elsewhere. But perhaps themost significant reason is that the issue has

always been so politicallycharged.

Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting

listsincrease all the time and we are simply not building enough new

homes.

The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the

governmentto help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one

side and takesome steps to address our urgent housing need.

There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that.

Thecommunities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne,

Chancellor ofthe Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current

cap on the amountthat local authorities can borrow against their housing

stock debt. Evidenceshows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built

over the next five years if thecap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.

Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the

rentalenvironment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of

registeredproviders to fund new developments from revenues.

But it is not just down to the government. While these measures

would bewelcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the

existing ?4.5bnprogramme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set

to expire in 2022年,isunlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour

party has recently announcedthat it will retain a large part of the coalition’s

spending plans if returns topower. The housing sector needs to accept

that we are very unlikely to everreturn to era of large-scale public grants.

We need to adjust to this changingclimate.

36. The author believes that the housing sector__

[A] has attracted much attention

[B] involves certain political factors

[C] shoulders too much responsibility

[D] has lost its real value in economy

37. It can be learned that affordable housing has__

[A] increased its home supply

[B] offered spending opportunities

[C] suffered government biases

[D] disappointed the government

38. According to Paragraph 5,George Osborne may_______.

[A] allow greater government debt for housing

[B] stop local authorities from building homes

[C] prepare to reduce housing stock debt

[D] release a lifted GDP growth forecast

can be inferred that a stable rental environment would_______.

[A]lower the costs of registered providers

[B]lessen the impact of government interference

[C]contribute to funding new developments

[D]relieve the ministers of responsibilities

author believes that after 2022年,the government may______.

[A]implement more policies to support housing

[B]review the need for large-scale public grants

[C]renew the affordable housing grants programme

[D]stop generous funding to the housing sector

考研真题历年英语二阅读3

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