2015年6月第一套
Why the Mona Lisa Stands Out
[A] Have you ever fallen for a novel and been amazed not to find it on lists of great books? Or walked around a sculpture renowned as a classic, struggling to see what the fuss is about? If so, you’ve probably pondered the question a psychologist, James Cutting, asked himself: How does a work of art come to be considered great?
[B] The intuitive answer is that some works of art are just great: of intrinsically superior quality. The paintings that win prime spots in galleries, get taught in classes and reproduced in books are the ones that have proved their artistic value over time. If you can’t see they’re superior, that’s your problem. It’s an intimidatingly neat explanation. But some social scientists have been asking awkward questions of it, raising the possibility that artistic canons (名作目录) are little more than fossilised historical accidents.
[C] Cutting, a professor at Cornell University, wondered if a psychological mechanism known as the “mere-exposure effect” played a role in deciding which paintings rise to the top of the cultural league. Cutting designed an experiment to test his hunch (直觉). Over a lecture course he regularly showed undergraduates works of impressionism for two seconds at a time. Some of the paintings were canonical, included in art-history books. Others were lesser known but of comparable quality. These were exposed four times as often. Afterwards, the students preferred them to the canonical works, while a control group of students liked the canonical ones best. Cutting’s students had grown to like those paintings more simply because they had seen them more.
[D] Cutting believes his experiment offers a clue as to how canons are formed. He points out that the most reproduced works of impressionism today tend to have been bought by five or six wealthy and influential collectors in the late 19th century. The preferences of these men bestowed (给予) prestige on certain works, which made the works more likely to be hung in galleries and printed in collections. The fame passed down the years, gaining momentum from mere exposure as it did so. The more people were exposed to, the more they liked it, and the more they liked it, the more it appeared in books, on posters and in big exhibitions. Meanwhile, academics and critics created sophisticated justifications for its preeminence (卓越). After all, it’s not just the masses who tend to rate what they see more often more highly. As contemporary artists like Warhol and Damien Hirst have grasped, critics’ praise is deeply entwined (交织) with publicity. “Scholars”, Cutting argues, “are no different from the public in the effects of mere exposure.”
[E] The process described by Cutting evokes a principle that the sociologist Duncan Watts calls “cumulative advantage”: once a thing becomes popular, it will tend to become more popular still. A few years ago, Watts, who is employed by Microsoft to study the dynamics of social networks, had a similar experience to Cutting‘s in another Paris museum. After queuing to see the “Mona Lisa” in its climate- controlled bulletproof box at the Louvre, he came away puzzled: why was it considered so superior to the three other Leonardos in the previous chamber, to which nobody seemed to be paying the slightest attention?
[F] When Watts looked into the history of “the greatest painting of all time”, he discovered that, for most of its life, the “Mona Lisa” remained in relative obscurity. In the 1850s, Leonardo da Vinci was considered no match for giants of Renaissance art like Titian and Raphael, whose works were worth almost ten times as much as the “Mona Lisa”. It was only in the 20th century that Leonardo’s portrait of his patron’s wife rocketed to the number-one spot. What propelled it there wasn’t a scholarly re- evaluation, but a theft.
[G] In 1911 a maintenance worker at the Louvre walked out of the museum with the “Mona Lisa” hidden under his smock (工作服). Parisians were shocked at the theft of a painting to which, until then, they had paid little attention. When the museum reopened, people queued to see the gap where the “Mona Lisa” had once hung in a way they had never done for the painting itself. From then on, the “Mona Lisa” came to represent Western culture itself.
[H] Although many have tried, it does seem improbable that the painting’s unique status can be attributed entirely to the quality of its brushstrokes. It has been said that the subject’s eyes follow the viewer around the room. But as the painting’s biographer, Donald Sassoon, dryly notes, “In reality the effect can be obtained from any portrait.” Duncan Watts proposes that the “Mona Lisa” is merely an extreme example of a general rule. Paintings, poems and pop songs are buoyed (使浮起) or sunk by random events or preferences that turn into waves of influence, passing down the generations.
[I] “Saying that cultural objects have value,” Brian Eno once wrote, “is like saying that telephones have conversations.” Nearly all the cultural objects we consume arrive wrapped in inherited opinion; our preferences are always, to some extent, someone else’s. Visitors to the “Mona Lisa” know they are about to visit the greatest work of art ever and come away appropriately impressed—or let down. An audience at a performance of “Hamlet” know it is regarded as a work of genius, so that is what they mostly see. Watts even calls the preeminence of Shakespeare a “historical accident”.
[J] Although the rigid high-low distinction fell apart in the 1960s, we still use culture as a badge of identity. Today’s fashion for eclecticism (折衷主义)—“I love Bach, Abba and Jay Z”—is, Shamus Khan, a Columbia university psychologist, argues, a new way for the middle class to distinguish themselves from what they perceive to be the narrow tastes of those beneath them in the social hierarchy.
[K] The intrinsic quality of a work of art is starting to seem like its least important attribute. But perhaps it’s more significant than our social scientists allow. First of all, a work needs a certain quality to be eligible to be swept to the top of the pile. The “Mona Lisa” may not be a worthy world champion, but it was in the Louvre in the first place, and not by accident. Secondly, some stuff is simply better than other stuff. Read “Hamlet” after reading even the greatest of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and the difference may strike you as unarguable.
[L] A study in the British Journal of Aesthetics suggests that the exposure effect doesn’t work the same way on everything, and points to a different conclusion about how canons are formed. The social scientists are right to say that we should be a little sceptical of greatness, and that we should always look in the next room. Great art and mediocrity (平庸)can get confused, even by experts. But that’s why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more we’re exposed to the good and the bad, the better we are at telling the difference. The eclecticists have it.
46. according to Duncan Watts, the superiority of the “Mona Lisa” to Leonardo’s other works resulted from the cumulative advantage.
47. Some social scientists have raised doubts about the intrinsic value of certain works of art.
48. It is often random events or preferences that determine the fate of a piece of art.
49. In his experiment, Cutting found that his subjects liked lesser known works better than canonical works because of more exposure.
50. The author thinks the greatness of an art work still lies in its intrinsic value.
51. It is true of critics as well as ordinary people that the popularity of artistic works is closely associated with publicity.
52. We need to expose ourselves to more art and literature in order to tell the superior from the inferior.
53. A study of the history of the greatest paintings suggests even a great work of art could experience years of neglect.
54. Culture is still used as a mark to distinguish one social class from another.
55. Opinions about and preferences for cultural objects are often inheritable.
2015年6月第二套
Inequality Is Not Inevitable
[A] An dangerous trend has developed over this past third of a century. A country that experienced shared growth after World WarⅡ began to tear apart, so much so that when the Great Recession hit in late 2007, one could no longer ignore the division that had come to define the American economic landscape. How did this “shining city on a hill” become the advanced country with the greatest level of inequality?
[B] Over the past year and a half, The Great Divide, a series in The New York Times, has presented a wide range of examples that undermine the notion that there are any truly fundamental laws of capitalism. The dynamics of the imperial capitalism of the 19th century needn’t apply in the democracies of the 21st. We don’t need to have this much inequality in America.
[C] Our current brand of capitalism is a fake capitalism. For proof of this go back to our response to the Great Recession, where we socialized losses, even as we privatized gains. perfect competition should drive profits to zero, at least theoretically, but we have monopolies making persistently high profits. C. E. O. s enjoy incomes that are on average 295 times that of the typical worker, a much higher ratio than in the past, without any evidence of a proportionate increase in productivity.
[D] If it is not the cruel laws of economics that have led to America’s great divide, what is it? The straightforward answer: our policies and our politics! People get tired of hearing about Scandinavian success stories, but the fact of the matter is that Sweden, Finland and Norway have all succeeded in having about as much or faster growth in per capita(人均的)incomes than the United States and with far greater equality.
[E] So why has America chosen these inequality-enhancing policies? Part of the answer is that as World War II faded into memory, so too did the solidarity it had created. As America triumphed in the Cold War, there didn’t seem to be a real competitor to our economic model. Without this international competition, we no longer had to show that our system could deliver for most of our citizens.
[F] Ideology and interests combined viciously. Some drew the wrong lesson from the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991. The pendulum swung from much too much government there to much too little here. Corporate interests argued for getting rid of regulations, even when those regulations had done so much to protect and improve our environment, our safety, our health and the economy itself.
[G] But this ideology was hypocritical(虚伪的). The bankers, among the strongest advocates of laissez-faire(自由放任的)economics, were only too willing to accept hundreds of billions of dollars from the government in the aid programs that have been a recurring feature of the global economy since the beginning of the Thatcher-Reagan era of “free” markets and deregulation.
[H] The American political system is overrun by money. Economic inequality translates into political inequality, and political inequality yields increasing economic inequality. So corporate welfare increases as we reduce welfare for the poor. Congress maintains subsidies for rich farmers as we cut back on nutritional support for the needy. Drug companies have been given hundreds of billions of dollars as we limit Medicaid benefits. The banks that brought on the global financial crisis got billions while a tiny bit went to the homeowners and victims of the same banks’ predatory(掠夺性的)lending practices. This last decision was particularly foolish. There were alternatives to throwing money at the banks and hoping it would circulate through increased lending.
[I] Our divisions are deep. Economic and geographic segregation has immunized those at the top from the problems of those down below. Like the kings of ancient times, they has come to perceive their privileged positions essentially as a natural right.
[J] Our economy, our democracy and our society have paid for these gross inequalities. The true test of an economy is not how much wealth its princes can accumulate in tax havens(庇护所),but how well off the typical citizen is. But average incomes are lower than they were a quarter-century ago. Growth has gone to the very, very top, whose share has almost increased four times since 1980. Money that was meant to have trickled(流淌)down has instead evaporated in the agreeable climate of the Cayman Islands.
[K] With almost a quarter of American children younger than 5 living in poverty, and with America doing so little for its poor, the deprivations of one generation are being visited upon the next. Of course, no country has ever come close to providing complete equality of opportunity. But why is America one of the advanced countries where the life prospects of the young are most sharply determined by the income and education of their parents?
[L] Among the most bitter stories in The Great Divide were those that portrayed the frustrations of the young, who long to enter our shrinking middle class. Soaring tuitions and declining incomes have resulted in larger debt burdens. Those with only a high school diploma have seen their incomes decline by 13 percent over the past 35 years.
[M] Where justice is concerned, there is also a huge divide. In the eyes of the rest of the world and a significant part of its own population, mass imprisonment has come to define America—a country, it bears repeating, with about 5 percent of the world’s population but around a fourth of the world’s prisoners.
[N] Justice has become a commodity, affordable to only a few. While Wall Street executives used their expensive lawyers to ensure that their ranks were not held accountable for the misdeeds that the crisis in 2008 so graphically revealed, the banks abused our legal system to foreclose(取消赎回权)on mortgages and eject tenants, some of whom did not even owe money.
[O] More than a half-century ago, America led the way in advocating for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Today, access to health care is among the most universally accepted rights, at least in the advanced countries. America, despite the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, is the exception. In the relief that many felt when the Supreme court did not overturn the Affordable Care Act, the implications of the decision for Medicaid were not fully appreciated. Obamacare’s objective —to ensure that all Americans have access to health care—has been blocked: 24 states have not implemented the expanded Medicaid program, which was the means by which Obamacare was supposed to deliver on its promise to some of the poorest.
[P] We need not just a new war on poverty but a war to protect the middle class. Solutions to these problems do not have to be novel. Far from it. Making markets act like markets would be a good place to start. We must end the rent-seeking society we have gravitated toward, in which the wealthy obtain profits by manipulating the system.
[Q] The problem of inequality is not so much a matter of technical economics. It’s really a problem of practical politics. Inequality is not just about the top marginal tax rate but also about our children’s access to food and the right to justice for all. If we spent more on education, health and infrastructure(基础设施), we would strengthen our economy, now and in the future.
36.In theory, free competition is supposed to reduce the margin of profits to the minimum.
37.The United States is now characterized by a great division between the rich and the poor.
38.America lacked the incentive to care for the majority of its citizens as it found no rival for its economic model.
39.The wealthy top have come to take privileges for granted.
40.Many examples show the basic laws of imperial capitalism no longer apply in present-day America.
41.The author suggests a return to the true spirit of the market.
42.A quarter of the world’s prisoner population is in America.
43.Government regulation in America went from one extreme to the other in the past two decades.
44.Justice has become so expensive that only a small number of people like corporate executives can afford it.
45.No country in the world so far has been able to provide completely equal opportunities for all.
2015年6月第三套
Plastic Surgery
A better credit card is the solution to ever larger hack attacks.
[A] A thin magnetic stripe (magstripe) is all that stands between your credit-card information and the bad guys. And they’ve been working hard to break in. That’s why 2014 is shaping up as a major showdown: banks, law enforcement and technology companies are all trying to stop a network of hackers who are succeeding in stealing account numbers, names, email addresses and other crucial data used in identity theft. More than 100 million accounts at Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels stores were affected in some way during the most recent attacks, starting last November.
[B] Swipe(刷卡)is the operative word: cards are increasingly vulnerable to attacks when you make purchases in a store. In several recent incidents, hackers have been able to obtain massive information of credit-debit-(借记)or prepaid-card numbers using malware, i.e. malicious software, inserted secretly into the retailers’ point-of-sale system—the checkout registers. Hackers then sold the data to a second group of criminals operating in shadowy corners of the web. Not long after, the stolen data was showing up on fake cards and being used for online purchases.
[C] The solution could cost as little as $2 extra for every piece of plastic issued. The fix is a security technology used heavily outside the U.S. While American credit cards use the 40-year-old magstripe technology to process transactions, much of the rest of the world uses smarter cards with a technology called EMV (short for Europay, MasterCard, Visa) that employs a chip embedded in the card plus a customer PIN (personal identification number) to authenticate(验证)every transaction on the spot. If a purchaser fails to punch in the correct PIN at the checkout, the transaction gets rejected. (Online purchases can be made by setting up a separate transaction code.
[D] Why haven’t big banks adopted the more secure technology? When it comes to mailing out new credit cards, it’s all about relative costs, says David Robertson, who runs the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter. “The cost of the card, putting the sticker on it, coding the account number and expiration date, embossing(凸印)it, the small envelope—all put together, you’re in the dollar range. ” A chip- and-PIN card currently costs closer to $3, says Robertson, because of the price of chips. (Once large issuers convert together, the chip costs should drop.
[E] Multiply $3 by the more than 5 billion magstripe credit and prepaid cards in circulation in the U.S. Then consider that there’s an estimated $12.4 billion in card fraud on a global basis, says Robertson. With 44% of that in the U.S. American credit-card fraud amounts to about $5.5 billion annually. Card issuers have so far calculated that absorbing the liability for even big hacks like the Target one is still cheaper than replacing all that plastic.
[F] That leaves American retailers pretty much alone the world over in relying on magstripe technology to charge purchases—and leaves consumers vulnerable. Each magstripe has three tracks of information, explains payments security expert Jeremy Gumbley, the chief technology officer of Credit Call, an electronic-payments company. The first and third are used by the bank or card issuer. Your vital account information lives on the second track, which hackers try to capture. “Malware is scanning through the memory in real time and looking for data,” he says. “It creates a text file that gets stolen.”
[G] Chip-and-PIN cards, by contrast, make fake cards or skimming impossible because the information that gets scanned is encrypted(加密). The historical reason the U.S. has stuck with magstripe, ironically enough, is once superior technology. Our cheap, ultra-reliable wired networks made credit- card authentication over the phone frictionless. In France, card companies created EMV in part because the telephone monopoly was so maddeningly inefficient and expensive. The EMV solution allowed transactions to be verified locally and securely.
[H] Some big banks, like Wells Fargo, are now offering to convert your magstripe card to a chip-and-PIN model. (It’s actually a hybrid(混合体)that will still have a magstripe, since most U.S. merchants don’t have EMV terminals.) Should you take them up on it? If you travel internationally, the answer is yes.
[I] Keep in mind, too, that credit cards typically have better liability protection than debit cards. If someone uses your credit card fraudulently(欺诈性的)，it’s the issuer or merchant, not you, that takes the hit. Debit cards have different liability limits depending on the bank and the events surrounding any fraud. “If it’s available, the logical thing is to get a chip-and-PIN card from your bank,” says Eric Adamowsky, a co-founder of Credit Cardlnsider.com. “I would use credit cards over debit cards because of liability issues.” Cash still works pretty well too.
[J] Retailers and banks stand to benefit from the lower fraud levels of chip-and-PIN cards but have been reluctant for years to invest in the new infrastructure (基础设施)needed for the technology, especially if consumers don’t have access to it. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: no one wants to spend the money on upgraded point-of-sale systems that can read the chip cards if shoppers aren’t carrying them—yet there’s little point in consumers’ carrying the fancy plastic if stores aren’t equipped to use them. (An earlier effort by Target to move to chip and PIN never gained progress.) according to Gumbley, there’s a “you-first mentality. The logjam(僵局)has to be broken.”
[K] JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently expressed his willingness to do so, noting that banks and merchants have spent the past decade suing each other over interchange fees—the percentage of the transaction price they keep—rather than deal with the growing hacking problem. Chase offers a chip- enabled card under its own brand and several others for travel-related companies such as British Airways and Ritz-Carlton.
[L] The Target and Neiman hacks have also changed the cost calculation: although retailers have been reluctant to spend the $6.75 billion that Capgemini consultants estimate it will take to convert all their registers to be chip-and-PIN-compatible, the potential liability they now face is dramatically greater. Target has been hit with class actions from hacked consumers. “It’s the ultimate nightmare,” a retail executive from a well-known chain admitted to TIME.
[M] The card-payment companies MasterCard and Visa are pushing hard for change. The two firms have warned all parties in the transaction chain—merchant, network, bank—that if they don’t become EMV-compliant by October 2015, the party that is least compliant will bear the fraud risk.
[N] In the meantime, app-equipped smartphones and digital wallets—all of which can use EMV technology—are beginning to make inroads(侵染)on cards and cash. PayPal, for instance, is testing an app that lets you use your mobile phone to pay on the fly at local merchants—without surrendering any card information to them. And further down the road is biometric authentication, which could be encrypted with, say, a fingerprint.
[O] Credit and debit cards, though, are going to be with us for the foreseeable future, and so are hackers, if we stick with magstripe technology. “It seems crazy to me,” says Gumbley, who is English, “that a cutting-edge-technology country is depending on a 40-year-old technology.” That’s why it may be up to consumers to move the needle on chip and PIN. Says Robertson: “ When you get the consumer into a position of worry and inconvenience, that’s where the rubber hits the road.”
36. It is best to use an EMV card for international travel.
37. personal information on credit and debit cards is increasingly vulnerable to hacking.
38. The French card companies adopted EMV technology partly because of inefficient telephone service.
39. While many countries use the smarter EMV cards, the U.S. still clings to its old magstripe technology.
40. Attempts are being made to prevent hackers from carrying out identity theft.
41. Credit cards are much safer to use than debit cards.
42. Big banks have been reluctant to switch to more secure technology because of the higher costs involved.
43. The potential liability for retailers using magstripe is far more costly than upgrading their registers.
44. The use of magstripe cards by American retailers leaves consumers exposed to the risks of losing account information.
45. Consumers will be a driving force behind the conversion from magstripe to EMV technology.
2015年12月第一套
The Impossibility of rapid energy Transitions
[A] Politicians are fond of promising rapid energy transitions. Whether it is a transition from imported to domestic oil or from coal-powered electricity production to natural-gas power plants, politicians love to talk big. Unfortunately for them (and often the taxpayers), our energy systems are a bit like an aircraft carrier: they are unbelievably expensive, they are built to last for a very long time, they have a huge amount of inertia (meaning it takes a lot of energy to set them moving), and they have a lot of momentum once they are set in motion. No matter how hard you try, you can’t turn something that large on a dime (10美分硬币), or even a few thousand dimes.
[B] In physics, moving objects have two characteristics relevant to understanding the dynamics of energy systems: inertia and momentum. Inertia is the resistance of objects to efforts to change their state of motion. If you try to push a boulder(大圆石), it pushes you back. Once you have started the boulder rolling, it develops momentum, which is defined by its mass and velocity. Momentum is said to be “conserved,” that is, once you build it up, it has to go somewhere. So a heavy object, like a football player moving at a high speed, has a lot of momentum—that is, once he is moving, it is hard to change his state of motion. If you want to change his course, you have only a few choices: you can stop him, transferring (possibly painfully) some of his kinetic energy(动能)to your own body, or you can approach alongside and slowly apply pressure to gradually alter his course.
[C] But there are other kinds of momentum as well. After all, we don’t speak only of objects or people as having momentum; we speak of entire systems having momentum. Whether it’s a sports team or a presidential campaign, everybody relishes having the big momentum, because it makes them harder to stop or change direction.
[D] One kind of momentum is technological momentum. When a technology is deployed, its impacts reach far beyond itself. consider the incandescent(白炽灯的)bulb, an object currently hated by many environmentalists and energy-efficiency advocates. The incandescent light bulb, invented by Thomas Edison, which came to be the symbol of inspiration, has been developed into hundreds, if not thousands, of forms. Today, a visit to a lighting store reveals a stunning array of choices. There are standard-shaped bulbs, flame-shaped bulbs, colored globe-shaped bulbs, and more. It is quite easy, with all that choice, to change a light bulb.
[E] But the momentum of incandescent lighting does not stop there. All of those specialized bulbs led to the building of specialized light fixtures, from the desk lamp you study by, to the ugly but beloved hand-painted Chinese lamp you inherited from your grandmother, to the ceiling fixture in your closet, to the light in your oven or refrigerator, and to the light that the dentist points at you. It is easy to change a light bulb, sure, but it is harder to change the bulb and its fixture.
[F] And there is more to the story, because not only are the devices that house incandescent bulbs shaped to their underlying characteristics, but rooms and entire buildings have been designed in accordance with how incandescent lighting reflects off walls and windows.
[G] As lighting expert Howard Brandston points out, “Generally, there are no bad light sources, only bad applications.” There are some very commendable characteristics of the CFL [compact fluorescent(荧光的)light bulb], yet the selection of any light source remains inseparable from the luminaire(照明装置)that houses it, along with the space in which both are installed, and lighting requirements that need to be satisfied. The lamp, the fixture, and the room, all three must work in concert and for the true benefits of end-users. If the CFL should be used for lighting a particular space, or an object within that space, the fixture must be designed to work with that lamp, and that fixture with the room. It is a symbiotic(共生的)relationship. A CFL cannot be simply installed in an incandescent fixture and then expected to produce a visual appearance that is more than washed out, foggy, and dim. The whole fixture must be replaced—light source and luminaire—and this is never an inexpensive proposition.
[H] And Brandston knows a thing or two about lighting, being the man who illuminated the Statue of Liberty.
[I] Another type of momentum we have to think about when planning for changes in our energy systems is labor-pool momentum. It is one thing to say that we are going to shift 30 percent of our electricity supply from, say, coal to nuclear power in 20 years. But it is another thing to have a supply of trained talent that could let you carry out this promise. That is because the engineers, designers, regulators, operators, and all of the other skilled people needed for the new energy industry are specialists who have to be trained first (or retrained, if they are the ones being laid off in some related industry), and education, like any other complicated endeavor, takes time. And not only do our prospective new energy workers have to be trained, they have to be trained in the right sequence. One needs the designers, and perhaps the regulators, before the builders and operators, and each group of workers in training has to know there is work waiting beyond graduation. In some cases, colleges and universities might have to change their training programs, adding another layer of difficulty.
[J] By far the biggest type of momentum that comes into play when it comes to changing our energy systems is economic momentum. The major components of our energy systems, such as fuel production, refining, electrical generation and distribution, are costly installations that have lengthy life spans. They have to operate for long periods of time before the costs of development have been recovered. When investors put up money to build, say, a nuclear power plant, they expect to earn that money back over the planned life of the plant, which is typically between 40 and 60 years. Some coal power plants in the United States have operated for more than 70 years! The oldest continuously operated commercial hydro-electric plant in the United States is on New York’s Hudson River, and it went into commercial service in 1898.
[K] As Vaclav Smil points out, “All the forecasts, plans, and anticipations cited above have failed so miserably because their authors and promoters thought the transitions they hoped to implement would proceed unlike all previous energy transitions, and that their progress could be accelerated in an unprecedented manner.”
[L] When you hear people speaking of making a rapid transition toward any type of energy, whether it is a switch from coal to nuclear power, or a switch from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars, or even a switch from an incandescent to a fluorescent light, understanding energy system inertia and momentum can help you decide whether their plans are feasible.
36. Not only moving objects and people but all systems have momentum.
37. Changing the current energy system requires the systematic training of professionals and skilled labor.
38. Changing a light bulb is easier than changing the fixture housing it.
39. Efforts to accelerate the current energy transitions didn’t succeed as expected.
40. To change the light source is costly because you have to change the whole fixture.
41. Energy systems, like an aircraft carrier set in motion, have huge momentum.
42. The problem with lighting, if it arises, often doesn’t lie in light sources but in their applications.
43. The biggest obstacle to energy transition is that the present energy system is too expensive to replace.
54. The application of a technology can impact areas beyond itself.
55. physical characteristics of moving objects help explain the dynamics of energy systems.
2015年12月第二套
First-Generation College-Goers: Unprepared and Behind
Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation.
[A] When Nijay Williams entered college last fall as a first-generation student and Jamaican immigrant, he was academically unprepared for the rigors of higher education. Like many first-generation students, he enrolled in a medium-sized state university many of his high school peers were also attending, received a Pell Grant, and took out some small federal loans to cover other costs. Given the high price of room and board and the closeness of the school to his family, he chose to live at home and worked between 30 and 40 hours a week while taking a full class schedule.
[B] What Nijay didn’t realize about his school—Tennessee State University—was its frighteningly low graduation rate a mere 29 percent for its first-generation students. At the end of his first year, Nijay lost his Pell Grant of over $ 5,000 after narrowly missing the 2.0 GPA cut-off, making it impossible for him to continue paying for school.
[C] Nijay represents a large and growing group of Americans: first-generation college students who enter school unprepared or behind. To make matters worse, these schools are ill-equipped to graduate these students—young adults who face specific challenges and obstacles. They typically carry financial burdens that outweigh those of their peers, are more likely to work while attending school, and often require significant academic remediation(补习).
[D] Matt Rubinoff directs I’m First, a nonprofit organization launched last October to reach out to this specific population of students. He hopes to distribute this information and help prospective college- goers find the best post-secondary fit. And while Rubinoff believes there are a good number of four-year schools that truly care about these students and set aside significant resources and programs for them, he says that number isn’t high enough.
[E] “It’s not only the selective and elite institutions that provide those opportunities for a small subset of this population,” Rubinoff said, adding that a majority of first-generation undergraduates tend toward options such as online programs, two-year colleges, and commuter state schools. “Unfortunately, there tends to be a lack of information and support to help students think bigger and broader.”
[F] despite this problem, many students are still drawn to these institutions—and two-year schools in particular. As a former high school teacher, I saw students choose familiar, cheaper options year after year. instead of skipping out on higher education altogether, they chose community colleges or state schools with low bars for admittance.
[G] “They underestimate themselves when selecting a university,” said Dave Jarrat, a marketing executive for Inside Track, a for-profit organization that specializes in coaching low-income students and supporting colleges in order to help students thrive. “The reality of it is that a lot of low-income kids could be going to elite universities on a full ride scholarship and don’t even realize it.”
[H] “Many students are coming from a situation where no one around them has the experience of successfully completing higher education, so they are coming in questioning themselves and their college worthiness,” Jarrat continued. That helps explain why, as I’m First’s Rubinoff indicated, the schools to which these students end up resorting can end up being some of the poorest matches for them. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville offers one example of this dilemma. A flagship university in the South, the school graduates just 16 percent of its first-generation students, despite its overall graduation rate of 71 percent. Located only a few hours apart, The University of Tennessee and Tennessee State are worth comparing. Tennessee State’s overall graduation rate is a tiny 39 percent, but at least it has a smaller gap between the outcomes for first-generation students and those of their peers.
[I] Still, the University of Tennessee deserves credit for being transparent. Many large institutions keep this kind of data secret—or at least make it incredibly difficult to find. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for instance, admits only that the graduation rate for its first-generation pupils is “much lower” than the percentage of all students who graduate within four years (81 percent).
[J] It is actually quite difficult to find reliable statistics on the issue for many schools. Higher education institutions are, under federal law, required to report graduation rates, but these reports typically only include Pell recipient numbers—not necessarily rates specific to first-generation students. Other initiatives fail to break down the data, too. imagine how intimidating it can be for prospective students unfamiliar with the complexities of higher education to navigate this kind of information and then identify which schools are the best fit.
[K] It was this lack of information that prompted the launch of I’m First in 2013, originally as an arm of its umbrella organization, the center For Student Opportunity. “If we can help to direct students to more of these types of campuses and help students to understand them to be realistic and accessible places, have them apply to these schools at greater frequency and ultimately get in and enroll, we are going to raise the success rate,” Rubinoff said, citing a variety of colleges ranging from large state institutions to smaller private schools.
[L] Chelsea Jones, who now directs student programming at I’m First, was a first-generation college student at Howard. Like other students new to the intimidating higher-education world, she often struggled on her path to college, “There wasn’t really a college-bound culture at my high school,” she said. “I wanted to go to college but I didn’t really know the process.” Jones became involved with a college-access program through Princeton University in high school. Now, she attributes much of her understanding of college to that: “But once I got to campus, it was a completely different ball game that no one really prepared me for.”
[M] She was fortunate, though. Howard, a well-regarded historically black college, had an array of resources for its first-generation students, including matching kids with counselors, connecting first-generation students to one another, and TRIO, a national program that supported 200 students on Howard’s campus. Still, Jones represents a small percentage of first-generation students who are able to gain entry into more elite universities, which are often known for robust financial aid packages and remarkably high graduation rates for first-generation students. (Harvard, for example, boasts a six- year graduation rate for underrepresented minority groups of 98 percent.
[N] Christian Vazquez, a first-generation Yale graduate, is another exception, his success story setting him far apart from students such as Nijay. “There is a lot of support at Yale, to an extent, after a while, there is too much support,” he said, half-joking about the countless resources available at the school. Students are placed in small groups with counselors (trained seniors on campus); they have access to cultural and ethnic affinity(联系)groups, tutoring centers and also have a summer orientation specifically for first-generation students (the latter being one of the most common programs for students).
[O] “Our support structure was more like: ‘You are going to get through Yale; you are going to do well,’” he said, hinting at mentors(导师), staff, and professors who all provided significant support for students who lacked confidence about “belonging” at such a top institution.
36. Many first-generation college-goers have doubts about their abilities to get a college degree.
37. First-generation college students tend to have much heavier financial burdens than their peers.
38. The graduation rate of first-generation students at Nijay’s university was incredibly low.
39. Some top institutions like Yale seem to provide first-generation students with more support than they actually need.
40. On entering college, Nijay Williams had no idea how challenging college education was.
41. Many universities simply refuse to release their exact graduation rates for first-generation students.
42. according to a marketing executive, many students from low-income families don’t know they could have a chance of going to an elite university.
43. Some elite universities attach great importance to building up the first-generation students, self-confidence.
44. I’m First distributes information to help first-generation college-goers find schools that are most suitable for them.
45. Elite universities tend to graduate first-generation students at a higher rate.
答案解析：
2015年6月第一套
46. 由题干中的关键词“Duncan Watts”和“the superiority of the ‘Mona Lisa’ to Leonardo’s other works”以及“cumulative advantage”定位到[E]段，该段提到“The process described by Cutting evokes a principle that the sociologist Duncan Watts calls ‘cumulative advantage’: once a thing becomes popular, it will tend to become more popular still...he came away puzzled: why was it considered so superior to the three other Leonardos in the previous chamber...”，说明根据Duncan Watts的观点，《蒙娜丽莎》相对于达芬奇其他作品的优势源于累积优势，所以46题选[E]。
47. 由题干中的关键词“Some social scientists”和“raised doubts about the intrinsic value of certain works of art”定位到[B]段，该段提到“But some social scientists have been asking awkward questions of it, raising the possibility that artistic canons (名作目录) are little more than fossilised historical accidents.”，表明一些社会科学家对某些艺术作品的内在价值提出了质疑，所以47题选[B]。
48. 由题干中的关键词“random events or preferences”和“determine the fate of a piece of art”定位到[H]段，该段提到“Duncan Watts proposes that the ‘Mona Lisa’ is merely an extreme example of a general rule. Paintings, poems and pop songs are buoyed (使浮起) or sunk by random events or preferences that turn into waves of influence, passing down the generations.”，说明往往是随机事件或偏好决定了一件艺术作品的命运，所以48题选[H]。
49. 由题干中的关键词“Cutting”和“his subjects liked lesser known works better than canonical works because of more exposure”定位到[C]段，该段提到“Cutting’s students had grown to like those paintings more simply because they had seen them more.”，说明在实验中，Cutting发现因为接触更多，受试者更喜欢不太知名的作品而非经典作品，所以49题选[C]。
50. 由题干中的关键词“the greatness of an art work still lies in its intrinsic value”定位到[K]段，该段提到“The intrinsic quality of a work of art is starting to seem like its least important attribute. But perhaps it’s more significant than our social scientists allow. First of all, a work needs a certain quality to be eligible to be swept to the top of the pile... Secondly, some stuff is simply better than other stuff.”，表明作者认为艺术作品的伟大之处仍在于其内在价值，所以50题选[K]。
51. 由题干中的关键词“critics”和“ordinary people”以及“the popularity of artistic works is closely associated with publicity”定位到[D]段，该段提到“As contemporary artists like Warhol and Damien Hirst have grasped, critics’ praise is deeply entwined (交织) with publicity. ‘Scholars’, Cutting argues, ‘are no different from the public in the effects of mere exposure.’”，说明对于评论家和普通人来说，艺术作品的流行与宣传密切相关，所以51题选[D]。
52. 由题干中的关键词“expose ourselves to more art and literature”和“tell the superior from the inferior”定位到[L]段，该段提到“But that’s why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more we’re exposed to the good and the bad, the better we are at telling the difference.”，说明我们需要接触更多的艺术和文学，以便分辨优劣，所以52题选[L]。
53. 由题干中的关键词“history of the greatest paintings”和“even a great work of art could experience years of neglect”定位到[F]段，该段提到“When Watts looked into the history of ‘the greatest painting of all time’, he discovered that, for most of its life, the ‘Mona Lisa’ remained in relative obscurity.”，说明对伟大绘画历史的研究表明，即使是一件伟大的艺术作品也可能经历多年的被忽视，所以53题选[F]。
54. 由题干中的关键词“Culture”和“a mark to distinguish one social class from another”定位到[J]段，该段提到“Although the rigid high-low distinction fell apart in the 1960s, we still use culture as a badge of identity. Today’s fashion for eclecticism (折衷主义)—‘I love Bach, Abba and Jay Z’—is, Shamus Khan, a Columbia University psychologist, argues, a new way for the middle class to distinguish themselves from what they perceive to be the narrow tastes of those beneath them in the social hierarchy.”，说明文化仍然被用作区分不同社会阶层的标志，所以54题选[J]。
55. 由题干中的关键词“Opinions about and preferences for cultural objects”和“inheritable”定位到[I]段，该段提到“Nearly all the cultural objects we consume arrive wrapped in inherited opinion; our preferences are always, to some extent, someone else’s.”，说明对文化物品的观点和偏好往往是可继承的，所以55题选[I]。
2015年6月第二套
36. 由题干中的关键词“free competition”“reduce the margin of profits to the minimum”定位到[C]段“Perfect competition should drive profits to zero, at least theoretically...”，该句提到完美竞争至少在理论上应使利润降为零，也就是自由竞争理论上应使利润幅度降到最低，所以选[C]。
37. 由题干中的关键词“a great division between the rich and the poor”定位到[A]段“How did this ‘shining city on a hill’ become the advanced country with the greatest level of inequality?”，此句表明美国成为不平等程度最高的发达国家，即现在美国的特点是贫富差距巨大，所以选[A]。
38. 由题干中的关键词“lacked the incentive to care for the majority of its citizens”“no rival for its economic model”定位到[E]段“As America triumphed in the Cold War, there didn’t seem to be a real competitor to our economic model. Without this international competition, we no longer had to show that our system could deliver for most of our citizens.”，该段提到美国在冷战中获胜后，经济模式似乎没有真正的竞争对手，没有国际竞争就不必证明其制度能为大多数公民带来利益，即缺乏照顾大多数公民的动力，所以选[E]。
39. 由题干中的关键词“The wealthy top”“take privileges for granted”定位到[I]段“Like the kings of ancient times, they has come to perceive their privileged positions essentially as a natural right.”，此句表明富人把他们的特权地位视为一种自然权利，即认为特权是理所当然的，所以选[I]。
40. 由题干中的关键词“basic laws of imperial capitalism”“no longer apply in present - day America”定位到[B]段“The dynamics of the imperial capitalism of the 19th century needn’t apply in the democracies of the 21st. We don’t need to have this much inequality in America.”，该段提到19世纪帝国资本主义的动力在21世纪的民主国家不一定适用，且有很多例子表明资本主义的基本法则不再适用于当今美国，所以选[B]。
41. 由题干中的关键词“a return to the true spirit of the market”定位到[P]段“Making markets act like markets would be a good place to start. We must end the rent - seeking society we have gravitated toward, in which the wealthy obtain profits by manipulating the system.”，该段提到让市场像市场一样运作是个好的开始，要结束富人通过操纵系统获取利润的寻租社会，即回归市场的真正精神，所以选[P]。
42. 由题干中的关键词“A quarter of the world’s prisoner population is in America”定位到[M]段“a country, it bears repeating, with about 5 percent of the world’s population but around a fourth of the world’s prisoners.”，此句表明美国人口约占世界的5%，但囚犯约占世界的四分之一，所以选[M]。
43. 由题干中的关键词“Government regulation”“from one extreme to the other”定位到[F]段“Some drew the wrong lesson from the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991. The pendulum swung from much too much government there to much too little here.”，该段提到有人从苏联解体中吸取错误教训，钟摆从政府干预过多摆到政府干预过少，即美国政府监管在过去二十年从极端走向另一个极端，所以选[F]。
44. 由题干中的关键词“Justice”“only a small number of people like corporate executives can afford it”定位到[N]段“Justice has become a commodity, affordable to only a few. While Wall Street executives used their expensive lawyers...”，该段提到正义已成为只有少数人能负担得起的商品，像华尔街高管用昂贵律师确保自己不因危机中的不当行为负责，所以选[N]。
45. 由题干中的关键词“No country”“provide completely equal opportunities for all”定位到[K]段“Of course, no country has ever come close to providing complete equality of opportunity.”，此句表明没有国家能接近提供完全平等的机会，所以选[K]。
2015年6月第三套
36. 由题干中的关键词“best to use an EMV card for international travel”定位到H段。H段提到“Some big banks...Should you take them up on it? If you travel internationally, the answer is yes.”，说明如果国际旅行，使用EMV卡(芯片加密卡)是更好的选择，所以选H。
37. 由题干中的关键词“Personal information on credit and debit cards is increasingly vulnerable to hacking”定位到B段。B段提到“cards are increasingly vulnerable to attacks when you make purchases in a store...hackers have been able to obtain massive information of credit-debit-or prepaid-card numbers using malware”，说明信用卡和借记卡上的个人信息越来越容易受到黑客攻击，所以选B。
38. 由题干中的关键词“The French card companies adopted EMV technology partly because of inefficient telephone service”定位到G段。G段提到“In France, card companies created EMV in part because the telephone monopoly was so maddeningly inefficient and expensive.”，说明法国的信用卡公司采用EMV技术部分是因为电话服务效率低下，所以选G。
39. 由题干中的关键词“many countries use the smarter EMV cards和 old magstripe technology”定位到C段。C段提到“While American credit cards use the 40-year-old magstripe technology...much of the rest of the world uses smarter cards with a technology called EMV”，当美国的信用卡孩子使用40年前的磁条技术来处理交易时，其他很多国家则使用了更加智能的卡片，所以选C 。
40. 由题干中的关键词“Attempts are being made to prevent hackers from carrying out identity theft”定位到A段。A段提到“banks, law enforcement and technology companies are all trying to stop a network of hackers who are succeeding in stealing...data used in identity theft.”，说明各方正在努力阻止黑客进行身份盗窃，所以选A。
41. 由题干中的关键词“Credit cards are much safer to use than debit cards”定位到I段。I段提到“credit cards typically have better liability protection than debit cards...If someone uses your credit card fraudulently, it’s the issuer or merchant, not you, that takes the hit.”，说明信用卡比借记卡使用起来更安全，所以选I。
42. 由题干中的关键词“Big banks have been reluctant to switch to more secure technology because of the higher costs involved”定位到D段。D段提到“Why haven’t big banks adopted the more secure technology? When it comes to mailing out new credit cards, it’s all about relative costs...”，E段进一步解释了成本问题，说明大银行因为涉及更高成本而不愿转向更安全的技术，所以选D。
43. 由题干中的关键词“The potential liability for retailers using magstripe is far more costly than upgrading their registers”定位到L段。L段提到“although retailers have been reluctant to spend the...the potential liability they now face is dramatically greater.”，说明使用磁条卡的零售商面临的潜在责任远比升级他们的收银机昂贵，所以选L。
44. 由题干中的关键词“The use of magstripe cards by American retailers leaves consumers exposed to the risks of losing account information”定位到F段。F段提到“That leaves American retailers...leaves consumers vulnerable. Each magstripe has three tracks of information...Your vital account information lives on the second track, which hackers try to capture.”，说明美国零售商使用磁条卡使消费者面临失去账户信息的风险，所以选F。
45. 由题干中的关键词“Consumers will be a driving force behind the conversion from magstripe to EMV technology”定位到O段。O段提到“That’s why it may be up to consumers to move the needle on chip and PIN.”，说明消费者将是推动从磁条卡向EMV技术转换的驱动力，所以选O。
2015年12月第一套
36. 由题干中的关键词“all systems have momentum”定位到[C]段。“Whether it’s a sports team or a presidential campaign, everybody relishes having the big momentum, because it makes them harder to stop or change direction.” 提到不仅是运动的物体和人，整个系统都有惯性，所以选[C]。
37. 由题干中的关键词“systematic training of professionals and skilled labor”定位到[I]段。“Another type of momentum we have to think about when planning for changes in our energy systems is labor - pool momentum.” 以及后面内容提到改变当前能源系统需要系统地培训专业人员和技术工人，所以选[I]。
38. 由题干中的关键词“Changing a light bulb is easier than changing the fixture housing it”定位到[E]段。“It is easy to change a light bulb, sure, but it is harder to change the bulb and its fixture.” 表明换灯泡比换装灯泡的装置容易，所以选[E]。
39. 由题干中的关键词“Efforts to accelerate the current energy transitions didn’t succeed as expected”定位到[K]段。“All the forecasts, plans, and anticipations cited above have failed so miserably because...and that their progress could be accelerated in an unprecedented manner.” 说明加速当前能源转型的努力没有像预期的那样成功，所以选[K]。
40. 由题干中的关键词“change the light source is costly because you have to change the whole fixture”定位到[G]段。“The whole fixture must be replaced—light source and luminaire—and this is never an inexpensive proposition.” 表明更换光源成本高是因为要更换整个装置，所以选[G]。
41. 由题干中的关键词“Energy systems, like an aircraft carrier set in motion, have huge momentum”定位到[A]段。“our energy systems are a bit like an aircraft carrier...and they have a lot of momentum once they are set in motion.” 说明能源系统就像启动的航空母舰，有很大的惯性，所以选[A]。
42. 由题干中的关键词“The problem with lighting, if it arises, often doesn’t lie in light sources but in their applications”定位到[G]段。“Generally, there are no bad light sources, only bad applications.” 表明照明问题往往不在光源而在应用，所以选[G]。
43. 由题干定位到[J]段。“By far the biggest type of momentum that comes into play when it comes to changing our energy systems is economic momentum. The major components of our energy systems...are costly installations that have lengthy life spans.” 说明能源转型最大的障碍是现有能源系统太贵难以更换，所以选[J]。
44. 由题干中的关键词“The application of a technology can impact areas beyond itself”定位到[D]段。“When a technology is deployed, its impacts reach far beyond itself.” 表明一项技术的应用会影响其以外的领域，所以选[D]。
45. 由题干中的关键词“Physical characteristics of moving objects help explain the dynamics of energy systems”定位到[B]段。“In physics, moving objects have two characteristics relevant to understanding the dynamics of energy systems: inertia and momentum.” 说明运动物体的物理特性有助于解释能源系统的动态，所以选[B]。
2015年12月第二套
36. 由题干中的关键词 doubts about their abilities”定位到 [H] 段。该段提到 ...they are coming in questioning themselves and their college worthiness”，其中 questioning themselves and their college worthiness”与题干中的 have doubts about their abilities to get a college degree”是同义替换。所以选 [H]。
37. 由题干中的关键词 heavier financial burdens”和 peers”定位到 [C] 段。该段明确指出 They typically carry financial burdens that outweigh those of their peers”，其中 outweigh those of their peers”与题干中的 much heavier than their peers”是同义替换。所以选 [C]。
38. 由题干中的关键词 Nijay’s university”和 graduation rate”定位到 [B] 段。该段提到 What Nijay didn’t realize about his school...was its frighteningly low graduation rate a mere 29 percent for its first-generation students”，其中 frighteningly low graduation rate”与题干中的 incredibly low”同义替换。所以选 [B]。
39. 由题干中的关键词 Yale”和 more support than they need”定位到 [N] 段。该段引用 Christian Vazquez 的话说 ...there is too much support”，半开玩笑地提到了耶鲁有无数资源。这与题干中的 provide more support than they actually need”完全对应。所以选 [N]。
40. 由题干中的关键词 Nijay Williams”和 challenging”定位到 [A] 段。该段首句提到 ...he was academically unprepared for the rigors of higher education”，其中 unprepared for the rigors”与题干中的 had no idea how challenging”是同义替换。所以选 [A]。
41. 由题干中的关键词 refuse to release”和 graduation rates”定位到 [I] 段。该段提到 Many large institutions keep this kind of data secret—or at least make it incredibly difficult to find”，其中 keep this kind of data secret”与题干中的 refuse to release”是同义替换。所以选 [I]。
42. 由题干中的关键词 marketing executive”和 elite university”定位到 [G] 段。该段引用了营销高管 Dave Jarrat 的话，他说 a lot of low-income kids could be going to elite universities on a full ride scholarship and don’t even realize it”，这与题干描述完全一致。所以选 [G]。
43. 由题干中的关键词 building up... self-confidence”定位到 [O] 段。该段引用 Christian Vazquez 的话，提到耶鲁的支持结构传递的信息是 You are going to get through Yale; you are going to do well”，并且提到导师和教授为那些缺乏归属感自信心的学生提供了巨大支持。这体现了学校对学生自信心培养的重视。所以选 [O]。
44. 由题干中的关键词 I’m First”和 distributes information”定位到 [D] 段。该段提到 Matt Rubinoff directs I’m First... He hopes to distribute this information and help prospective college-goers find the best post-secondary fit”，其中 find the best post-secondary fit”与题干中的 find schools that are most suitable for them”是同义替换。所以选 [D]。
45. 由题干中的关键词 Elite universities”和 higher rate”定位到 [M] 段。该段末尾提到 ...which are often known for robust financial aid packages and remarkably high graduation rates for first-generation students”，并以哈佛98%的毕业率为例。这直接说明了精英大学有更高的毕业率。所以选 [M]。
