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1、Passage 1Surviving the RecessionA）Americas recession began quietly at the end of 2007. Since then it has evolved into a global crisis. Reasonable people may disagree about whom to blame. Financiers who were not as clever as they thought they were? Regulators falling asleep at work? Consumers who bor

2、rowed too much? Politicians who thoughtlessly promoted home-ownership for those who could not afford it? All are guilt; and what a mess they have created.B）Since 2007 America has shed 5 million jobs. More than 15% of the workforce are jobless or underemployedroughly 25 million workers. The only indu

3、stries swelling their payrolls are health care, utilities and the federal government. The value of listed shares in American firms collapsed by 57% from its peak in October 2007 to a low in March this year, though it has since bounded back somewhat. Industrial production fell by 12.8% in the year to

4、 March, the worst slide since the Second World War. Mark Zandi, an economist at Moodys E, predicts that the recession will shrink Americas economy by 3.5% in total. “For most executives, this is the worst business environment theyve ever seen.”C）Times are so tough that even bosses are taking pay cut

5、s. Median （中位数的）pay for chief executives of S&P 500 companies fell 6.8% in 2008. The overthrown business giants of Wall Street took the biggest knock, with average pay cuts of 38% and median bonuses of zero. But there was some pain for everyone: median pay for chief executives of non-financial firms

6、 in the S&P 500 fell by 2.7%.D）Nearly every business has a sad tale to tell. For example, Arne Sorenson, the president of Marriott hotel, likens the crisis to the downturn that hit his business after September 11th, 2001. When the twin towers fell, Americans stopped travelling. Marriott had its wors

7、t quarter ever, with revenues per room falling by 25%. This year, without a terrorist attack, the hotel industry is “putting the same numbers on the board”, says Mr. Sorenson.E）Other industries have suffered even more. Large numbers of builders, property firms and retailers have gone bankrupt. And a

8、 disaster has hit Detroit. Last year the American car industry had the capacity to make 17 million vehicles. Sales in 2009 could be barely half of that. The Big Three American carmakersGeneral Motors, Ford and Chrysleraccumulated ruinous costs over the post-war years, such as gold-plated health plan

9、s and pensions for workers who retired as young as 48. All three are desperately restructuring. Only Ford may survive in its current form.F）Hard times breed hard feeling. Few Americans understand what caused the recession. Some are seeking scapegoats （替罪羊）. Politicians are happy to take advantage. B

10、osses have been summoned to Washington to be scolded on live television. The president condemns their greed.G）Business folks are bending over backwards to avoid seeming extravagant. Meetings at resorts are suddenly unacceptable. Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, cancelled a conference in Las Vegas

11、at the last minute and rebooked it in San Francisco, which cost more but sounded less fun.H）Anyway, the pain will eventually end. American business will regain its shine. Many firms will die, but the survivors will emerge leaner and stronger than before. The financial sectors share of the economy wi

12、ll shrink, and stay shrunk for years to come. The importance of non-financial firms will accordingly rise, along with their ability to attract the best talent. America will remain the best place on earth to do business, so long as Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress resist the temptation to i

13、nterfere too much, and so long as organized labors does not overplay its hand. I）Mr. Obamas plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions （排放）, though necessary, will be far from cost-free, whatever his sunny speeches on the subject might suggest. The shift to a low-carbon economy will help some firms, hurt

14、 others and require every organization that uses much energy to rethink how it operates. It is harder to predict how Mr. Obamas proposed reforms to the failing health-care system will turn out. If he succeeds in curbing costsa big ifit would be a huge gain for America. Some business will benefit but

15、 the vast bulk of the savings will be captured by workers, not their employers.J）In the next couple of years the businesses that thrive will be those that are tight with costs, careful of debt, cautious with cash flow and extremely attentive to what customers want. They will include plenty of names

16、no one has yet heard of.K）Times change, and corporations change with them. In 1955 Times Man of the Year was Harlow Curtice, the boss of GM. His firm was leading America towards “a new economic order”, the magazine wrote. Thanks to men like Curtice, “the bonds of scarcity” had been broken and Americ

17、a was rolling “to an all-time high of prosperity”. Soon, Americans would need to spend “comparatively little time earning a living”.L）Half a century later GM is a typical example for poor management. In March its chief executive was fired by Times current Man of the Year, Mr. Obama. The government n

18、ow backs up the domestic car industry, lending it money and overseeing its turnaround plans. With luck, this will be short-lived. But there is a danger that Washington will end up micromanaging not only Detroit but also other parts of the economy. And clever as Mr. Obamas advisers are, history sugge

19、sts they will be bad at this. 1.The Americas recession affected the hotel industry as badly as the 9/11 terrorist attack.2.Businessmen are trying to avoid seeming wasteful in response to the recession.3.In the near future, a thriving business will go with cautious management tactics. 4.Much doubt re

20、mains whether the Obama administration will do well in micromanaging the Americas economy.5.A combination of causes is responsible for the current American recession, which began in 2007.6.The government is not supposed to interfere too much in American businesses.7.The big Three American carmakers

21、need restructuring to survive due to their accumulation of the ruinous costs over the post-war years.8.In March, GM”s chief executive was fired by Obama for poor management.9.According to the author, Obamas plan to limit carbon dioxide emissions will by no means be inexpensive.10.At the worst time,

22、the total value of listed shares in American firms shrank by fifty-seven percent.（D G J L A H E L I B）Passage twoSmall schools RisingA）This years list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, those with fewer students are flourishing.B）Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational

23、reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the thousands. As baby boomers（二战后婴儿潮时期出生的人）came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency. A greater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs thi

24、s involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracies（官僚机构）,the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping in 1963; today, on average, 30% of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50% in poor urban neighborho

25、ods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards as set in No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary （and some middle） schools, high schools for a variety of reason seemed to have made little progress.C）Size isnt everything, but it does matte

26、r, and the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools. This has been due, in part, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1000 small schoolsmost of them with about 400 kids each, with an ave

27、rage enrollment of only 150 per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the county are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as No.1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 hig

28、h-schools and 18 graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, such as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engineering Magnet, with 383, which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, N.Y., which grew out of v

29、olunteer evening seminars for students. And it includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery（抽签）, such as H.B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundre

30、d, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted thousands of students all marching to the same band.D）Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., is one of those, ranking No. 423among the top 2% in the countryon Newsweeks annual ranking of Americas top high schools. The success of small sc

31、hools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.E）Although many of Hillsdales students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990 average test scores were sliding a