题型有:1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity—half of which comes from coal. In 2005 the computers of the world ate up 123 billion kilo-watt hours of energy. As a result, the power bill to run a computer over its lifetime will surpass the cost of buying the machine in the first place—giving Internet and computer companies a business reason to cut energy costs, as well as an environmental one. One of the biggest energy sinks comes not from the computers themselves but from the air-conditioning needed to keep them from overheating. For every kilowatt-hour of energy used for computing in a data center, another kilowatt-hour is required to cool the furnace like racks of servers. For Internet giant Google, this reality has driven efforts such as the installation of a solar array that can provide 30 percent of the peak power needs of its headquarters as well as increasing purchases of renewable energy. But to deliver Web pages within seconds, the firm must maintain hundreds of thousands of computer servers in cavernous buildings. “We are actively working to maximize the efficiency of our data centers, which account for most of the energy Google consumes worldwide.” remarks Google’s green energy czar Bill Weihl. Google will funnel some of its profits into a new effort, dubbed RE”a gob on a stick”. A penetrating intelligence is not merely unnecessary, it is counterproductive. Newsreaders who are too intelligent soon stop being newsreaders, much as John Humphrys did, stifled by the commonplace of their duties. Or they give the game away by doing what that German newsreader did and end the programme, shaking their heads sadly, muttering, “it’s all lies, all lies”. Which is not to say BBC newsreaders are bad at their jobs: quite the reverse. But we should not confuse competence with intelligence. Newsreaders believe that because they are reading out serious stuff and everybody is listening to them, they must therefore be creatures possessed of a high IQ. They are confusing the message with the medium.
16. The author holds in the first two paragraphs that a postgraduate degree in journalism
A.is quite unnecessary for newsreaders.
B.is vital for a newsreader to write stuff.
C.matters quite a lot for a newsreader.
D.involves no learning about journalism.
正确答案:A
解析:观点态度题。第一段结尾出现postgraduate degree in journalism,第二段开头作者就以一个反问句表明自己对新闻学硕士学位的置疑,接下来的句子也直接说明作者并不觉得高学历有必要。该段以反问句结尾,“谁说干这行非得有博士文凭才够品?”可以看出作者并不认为播音员一定要具备硕士文凭,故A项正确。 知识模块:阅读理解A节
17. The author cites the example of BBC in Paragraph 3 to show that
A.it is concerned about international affairs and widely reports them.
B.reading the news mainly involves required reading capability.
C.it has laid down a lot of dos and don’ts for its newsreaders.
D.reading the news is an easy job that most people are qualified for.
正确答案:B
解析:事实细节题。例证法中,例子是论据,是为了证明论点的。此处以BBC对其女播音员的要求为例,证明前面所说的“播音只是一种朗读的技能”这个论点,故B项正确。 知识模块:阅读理解A节
18. What does the author mean by saying “a gob on a stick”(Lane 7, Paragraph 3)?
A.A newsreader is like a magician with a magic stick.
B.A newsreader only says what he/she is directed to say.
C.A newsreader possesses penetrating intelligence.
D.A newsreader does not usually express his/her opinion.
正确答案:B
解析:词义理解题。解题关键是利用语境推断词义。前面说到BBC女播音员只需要按照要求读出讲词提示机上的文字,不需要做其他的事情,然后归纳说她们被要求做业界的“a gob on a stick”。可见,B项中“只说该说的话”意义最接近。 知识模块:阅读理解A节
19. If the newsreaders are too intelligent, they are likely to
A.be fired by the TV stations and start all over again.
B.keep telling lies until they shut the programs.
C.be cynical about life and discontent with work.
D.suffer from a sense of guilt and dissatisfaction.
正确答案:D
解析:事实细节题。根据too intelligent定位到第四段。其中讲到太聪明的播音员后来都改行不做播音员,或苦于工作平庸,或苦于节目虚假,可见太聪明的播音员都会感受到一些dissatisfaction或者guilt,故D项正确。 知识模块:阅读理解A节
20. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that
A.sometimes competence and intelligence are unrelated.
B.some newsreaders are at a loss as to how they should perform better.
C.newsreaders have to possess a high IQ to handle difficult stuff.
D.mass media have imposed great pressure on newsreaders.
正确答案:A
解析:推理判断题。最后一段主要讲述不能将播音员的能力和智力混为一谈,播音员需要具备一定的业务能力,但是这和智力并不怎么相关,因此A项正确。 知识模块:阅读理解A节