以下是小编为大家准备的考研英语一完形填空真题解读，本文共8篇，供大家参考借鉴，希望可以帮助到有需要的朋友。
篇1：考研英语(一)真题（完形填空）
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A,B,C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)
As many people hit middle age, they often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be. We suddenly can’t remember ___1___ we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old acquaintance’s name, or the name of an old band we used to love. As the brain ___2___, we refer to these occurrences as “senior moments.” ___3___ seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a (n) ___4___ impact on our professional, social, and personal ___5___.
Neuroscientists, experts who study the nervous system, are increasingly showing that there’s actually a lot that can be done. It ___6___ out that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental ___7___ can significantly improve our basic cognitive ___8___. Thinking is essentially a ___9___ of making connections in the brain. To a certain extent, our ability to ___10___ in making the connections that drive intelligence is inherited. ___11___, because these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and fluctuate ___12___ mental effort.
Now, a new Web-based company has taken it a step ___13___ and developed the first “brain training program” designed to actually help people improve and regain their mental ___14___.
The Web-based program ___15___ you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills. The program keeps ___16___ of your progress and provides detailed feedback ___17___ your performance and improvement. Most importantly, it ___18___modifies and enhances the games you play to ___19___ on the strengths you are developing―much like a(n) ___20___exercise routine requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use.
1. [A]where [B]when [C]that [D]why
2. [A]improves [B]fades [C]recovers [D]collapses
3. [A]If [B]Unless [C]Once [D]While
4. [A]uneven [B]limited [C]damaging [D]obscure
5. [A]wellbeing [B]environment [C]relationship [D]outlook
6. [A]turns [B]finds [C]points [D]figures
7. [A]roundabouts [B]responses [C]workouts [D]associations
8. [A]genre [B]functions [C]circumstances [D]criterion
9. [A]channel [B]condition [C]sequence [D]process
10. [A]persist [B]believe [C]excel [D]feature
11. [A] Therefore [B] Moreover [C] Otherwise [D] However
12. [A]according to [B]regardless of [C]apart from [D]instead of
13. [A]back [B]further [C]aside [D]around
14. [A]sharpness [B]stability [C]framework [D]flexibility
15. [A]forces [B]reminds [C]hurries [D]allows
16. [A]hold [B]track [C]order [D]pace
17. [A]to [B]with [C]for [D]on
18. [A]irregularly [B]habitually [C]constantly [D]unusually
19. [A]carry [B]put [C]build [D]take
20. [A]risky [B]effective [C]idle [D]familiar
答案：
1. where 2. fades 3. While 4. limited 5. well-being 6. turns 7. workouts 8. functions
9. process 10. excel 11. However 12. according to 13. further 14. sharpness 15. allows
16. track 17. on 18. constantly 19. build 20. effective
篇2：考研历年英语一完形填空真题
Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
Trust is a tricky business. On the one hand, it's a necessary condition 1 many worthwhile things: child care, friendships, etc. On the other hand, putting your 2, in the wrong place often carries a high 3.
4, why do we trust at all? Well, because it feels good. 5 people place their trust in an individual or an institution, their brains release oxytocin, a hormone that 6 pleasurable feelings and triggers the herding instruct that prompts humans to 7 with one another. Scientists have found that exposure 8 this hormone puts us in a trusting 9: In a Swiss study, researchers sprayed oxytocin into the noses of half the subjects; those subjects were ready to lend significantly higher amounts of money to strangers than were their 10 who inhaled something else.
11 for us, we also have a sixth sense for dishonesty that may 12 us. A Canadian study found that children as young as 14 months can differentiate 13 a credible person and a dishonest one. Sixty toddlers were each 14 to an adult tester holding a plastic container. The tester would ask, “What’s in here?” before looking into the container, smiling, and exclaiming, “Wow!” Each subject was then invited to look 15. Half of them found a toy; the other half 16 the container was empty-and realized the tester had 17 them.
Among the children who had not been tricked, the majority were 18 to cooperate with the tester in learning a new skill, demonstrating that they trusted his leadership. 19, only five of the 30 children paired with the “20”tester participated in a follow-up activity.
1. [A] on [B] like [C] for [D] from
2. [A] faith [B] concern [C] attention [D] interest
3. [A] benefit [B] debt [C] hope [D] price
4. [A] Therefore [B] Then [C] Instead [D] Again
5. [A]Until [B] Unless [C] Although [D] When
6. [A] selects [B] produces [C] applies [D] maintains
7. [A] consult [B] compete [C] connect [D] compare
8. [A] at [B] by [C]of [D]to
9. [A] context [B] mood [C] period [D] circle
10.[A] counterparts [B] substitutes [C] colleagues [D]supporters
11.[A] Funny [B] Lucky [C] Odd [D] Ironic
12.[A] monitor [B] protect [C] surprise [D] delight
13.[A] between [B] within [C] toward [D] over
14.[A] transferred [B] added [C] introduced [D] entrusted
15.[A] out [B] back [C] around [D] inside
16.[A] discovered [B] proved [C] insisted [D] .remembered
17.[A] betrayed [B]wronged [C] fooled [D] mocked
18.[A] forced [B] willing [C] hesitant [D] entitled
19.[A] In contrast [B] As a result [C] On the whole [D] For instance
20.[A] inflexible [B] incapable [C] unreliable [D] unsuitable
篇3：完形填空考研英语一历年真题
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
People are, on the whole, poor at considering background information when making individual decisions. At first glance this might seem like a strength that 1 the ability to make judgments which are unbiased by 2 factors. But Dr. Uri Simonsohn speculated that an inability to consider the big 3 was leading decision-makers to be biased by the daily samles of information they were working with. 4 , he theorised that a judge 5 of apperaring too soft 6 crime might be more likely to send someone to prison 7 he had already sentenced five or six other defendants only to forced community service on that day.
To 8 this idea, he turned to the university-admissions process. In theory, the 9 of an applicant should not depend on the few others 10 randomly for interview during the same day, but Dr. Simonsoho suspected the truth was 11 .
He studied the results of 9,323 MBA interviews 12 by 31 admissions officers. The interviewers had 13 applicants on a scale of one to five. This scale 14 numerous factors into consideration. The scores were 15 used in conjunction with an applicant’s score on the Granduate Managent Adimssion Test, or GMAT, a standardized exam which is 16 out of 800 points, to make a decision on whether to accept him or her.
Dr. Simonsoho found if the score of the previous candidate in a daily series of interviewees was 0.75 points or more higher than that of the one 17 that, then the score for the next applicant would 18 by an average of 0.075 points. This might sound small, but to 19 the effects of such a decrease a candidate could need 30 more GMAT points than would otherwise have been 20 .
1. [A] grants [B]submits [C]transmits [D]delivers
2. [A] minor [B]objective [C]crucial [D] external
3. [A] issue [B]vision [C]picture [D]external
4. [A] For example [B] On average [C]In principle [D]Above all
5. [A] fond [B] fearful [C]capable [D] thoughtless
6. [A] in [B] on [C] to [D] for
7. [A] if [B] until [C] though [D] unless
8. [A] promote [B] emphasize [C] share [D]success
9. [A] decision [B] quality [C] status [D] success
10. [A] chosen [B] studied [C] found [D] identified
11. [A] exceptional [B] defensible [C] replaceable [D] otherwise
12. [A] inspired [B] expressed [C] conducted [D] secured
13. [A] assigned [B] rated [C] matched [D] arranged
14. [A] put [B] got [C] gave [D] took
15. [A] instead [B] then [C] ever [D] rather
16. [A] selected [B] passed [C] marked [D] introduced
17. [A] before [B] after [C] above [D] below
18. [A] jump [B] float [C] drop [D] fluctuate
19. [A] achieve [B] undo [C] maintain [D] disregard
20. [A] promising [B] possible [C] necessary [D] helpful
篇4：完形填空考研英语一历年真题
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(S) for each numbered blank and mark A, B ,C or D on ANSWER SHEET. (10 Points)
As many people hit middle age, they often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be. We suddenly can't remember 1 we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old acquaintance's name, or the name of an old band we used to love. As the brain 2 , we refer to these occurrences as “senior moments.” 3 seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a(an) 4 impact on our professional, social, and personal 5 .
Neuroscientists, experts who study the nervous system, are increasingly showing that there's actually a lot that can be done. It 6 out that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental 7 can significantly improve our basic cognitive 8 . Thinking is essentially a 9 of making connections in the brain. To a certain extent, our ability to 10 in making the connections that drive intelligence is inherited. 11 , because these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and fluctuate 12 mental effort.
Now, a new Web-based company has taken it a step 13 and developed the first “brain training program” designed to actually help people improve and regain their mental 14 .
The Web-based program 15 you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills. The program keeps 16 of your progress and provides detailed feedback 17 your performance and improvement. Most importantly, it 18 modifies and enhances the games you play to 19 on the strengths you are developing--much like a(n) 20 exercise routine requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use.
1.[A]where [B]when [C]that [D]why
2.[A]improves [B]fades [C]recovers [D]collapses
3.[A]If [B]Unless [C]Once [D]While
4.[A]uneven [B]limited [C]damaging [D]obscure
5.[A]wellbeing [B]environment [C]relationship [D]outlook
6.[A]turns [B]finds [C]points [D]figures
7.[A]roundabouts [B]responses [C]workouts [D]associations
8.[A]genre [B]functions [C]circumstances [D]criterion
9.[A]channel [B]condition [C]sequence [D]process
10.[A]persist [B]believe [C]excel [D]feature
11.[A]Therefore [B]Moreover [C]Otherwise [D]However
12.[A]according to [B]regardless of [C]apart from [D]instead of
13.[A]back [B]further [C]aside [D]around
14.[A]sharpness [B]stability [C]framework [D]flexibility
15.[A]forces [B]reminds [C]hurries [D]allows
16.[A]hold [B]track [C]order [D]pace
17.[A] to [B]with [C]for [D]on
18.[A]irregularly [B]habitually [C]constantly [D]unusually
19.[A]carry [B]put [C]build [D]take
20.[A]risky [B]effective [C]idle [D]familiar
篇5：考研英语一历年完形填空真题
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark [A], [B], [C] or [D] on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Though not biologically related, friends are as “related” as fourth cousins, sharing about 1% of genes. That is 1 a study published from the University of California and Yale University in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has 2 .
The study is a genome-wide analysis conducted 3 1932 unique subjects which 4 pairs of unrelated friends and unrelated strangers. The same people were used in both 5 .While 1% may seem 6 , it is not so to a geneticist. As James Fowler, professor of medical genetics at UC San Diego, says, “Most people do not even 7 their fourth cousins but somehow manage to select as friends the people who 8 our kin.”
The study 9 found that the genes for smell were something shared in friends but not genes for immunity. Why this similarity in olfactory genes is difficult to explain, for now. 10 Perhaps, as the team suggests, it draws us to similar environments but there is more 11 it. There could be many mechanisms working in tandem that 12 us in choosing genetically similar friends 13 than “functional kinship” of being friends with 14 !One of the remarkable findings of the study was that the similar genes seem to be evolving 15 than other genes. Studying this could help 16 why human evolution picked pace in the last 30,000 years, with social environment being a major 17 factor.
The findings do not simply corroborate people's 18 to befriend those of similar 19 backgrounds, say the researchers. Though all the subjects were drawn from a population of European extraction, care was taken to 20 that all subjects, friends and strangers were taken from the same population. The team also controlled the data to check ancestry of subjects.
Section II Reading Comprehension?
1、What
2、Concluded
3、On
4、Compared
5、Samples
6、Insignificant
7、Know
8、Resemble
9、Also
10、Perhaps
11、To
12、Drive
13、Ratherthan
14、Benefits
15、Faster
16、understand
17、Contributory
18、Tendency
19、Ethnic
20、see
篇6：考研英语一历年完形填空真题
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark [A]， [B]， [C] or [D] on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.” But __1___some claims to the contrary， laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness Laughter does __2___short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels， ___3_ heart rate and oxygen consumption But because hard laughter is difficult to __4__， a good laugh is unlikely to have __5___ benefits the way， say， walking or jogging does.
__6__， instead of straining muscles to build them， as exercise does， laughter apparently accomplishes the __7__， studies dating back to the 1930‘s indicate that laughter__8___ muscles， decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down.
Such bodily reaction might conceivably help _9__the effects of psychological stress. Anyway， the act of laughing probably does produce other types of ___10___ feedback， that improve an individual‘s emotional state. __11____one classical theory of emotion， our feelings are partially rooted ____12___ physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry ___13___they are sad but they become sad when the tears begin to flow.
Although sadness also ____14___ tears， evidence suggests that emotions can flow __15___ muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988，social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of würzburg in Germany asked volunteers to __16___ a pen either with their teeth-thereby creating an artificial smile – or with their lips， which would produce a(n) __17___ expression. Those forced to exercise their enthusiastically to funny catoons than did those whose months were contracted in a frown， ____19___ that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around __20__ ， the physical act of laughter could improve mood.
1.[A]among [B]except [C]despite [D]like
2.[A]reflect [B]demand [C]indicate [D]produce
3.[A]stabilizing [B]boosting [C]impairing [D]determining
4.[A]transmit [B]sustain [C]evaluate [D]observe
5.[A]measurable [B]manageable [C]affordable [D]renewable
6.[A]In turn [B]In fact [C]In addition [D]In brief
7.[A]opposite [B]impossible [C]average [D]expected
8.[A]hardens [B]weakens [C]tightens [D]relaxes
9.[A]aggravate [B]generate [C]moderate [D]enhance
10.[A]physical [B]mental [C]subconscious [D]internal
11.[A]Except for [B]According to [C]Due to [D]As for
12.[A]with [B]on [C]in [D]at
13.[A]unless [B]until [C]if [D]because
14.[A]exhausts [B]follows [C]precedes [D]suppresses
15.[A]into [B]from [C]towards [D]beyond
16.[A]fetch [B]bite [C]pick [D]hold
17.[A]disappointed [B]excited [C]joyful [D]indifferent
18.[A]adapted [B]catered [C]turned [D]reacted
19.[A]suggesting [B]requiring [C]mentioning [D]supposing
20.[A]Eventually [B]Consequently [C]Similarly [D]Conversely
篇7：考研英语二真题完形填空
Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?
People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
A different, less paranoid, and not mutually exclusive prediction holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one characterized by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives meaning, people will simply become lazy and depressed. Indeed, today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for working Americans. Also, some research suggests that the explanation for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addiction among poorly-educated, middle-aged people is a shortage of well-paid jobs. Another study shows that people are often happier at work than in their free time. Perhaps this is why many worry about the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with malaise. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could yield strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today, the virtue of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a squandering of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway who has written about a world without work. “Global surveys find that the vast majority of people are unhappy at work.”
These days, because leisure time is relatively scarce for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional demands of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel tired,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”―perhaps different enough to throw himself into a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for professional matters.
Having a job can provide a measure of financial stability, but in addition to stressing over how to cover life’s necessities, today’s jobless are frequently made to feel like social outcasts. “People who avoid work are viewed as parasites and leeches,” Danaher says. Perhaps as a result of this cultural attitude, for most people, self-esteem and identity are tied up intricately with their job, or lack of job.
Plus, in many modern-day societies, unemployment can also be downright boring. American towns and cities aren’t really built for lots of free time: Public spaces tend to be small islands in seas of private property, and there aren’t many places without entry fees where adults can meet new people or come up with ways to entertain one another.
The roots of this boredom may run even deeper. Peter Gray, a professor of psychology at Boston College who studies the concept of play, thinks that if work disappeared tomorrow, people might be at a loss for things to do, growing bored and depressed because they have forgotten how to play. “We teach children a distinction between play and work,” Gray explains. “Work is something that you don’t want to do but you have to do.” He says this training, which starts in school, eventually “drills the play” out of many children, who grow up to be adults who are aimless when presented with free time.
“Sometimes people retire from their work, and they don’t know what to do,” Gray says. “They’ve lost the ability to create their own activities.” It’s a problem that never seems to plague young children. “There are no three-year-olds that are going to be lazy and depressed because they don’t have a structured activity,” he says.
But need it be this way? Work-free societies are more than just a thought experiment―they’ve existed throughout human history. Consider hunter-gatherers, who have no bosses, paychecks, or eight-hour workdays. Ten thousand years ago, all humans were hunter-gatherers, and some still are. Daniel Everett, an anthropologist at Bentley University, in Massachusetts, studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Pirah? for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun,” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”
“It’s a pretty laid-back life most of the time,” Everett says. He described a typical day for the Pirah?: A man might get up, spend a few hours canoeing and fishing, have a barbecue, go for a swim, bring fish back to his family, and play until the evening. Such subsistence living is surely not without its own set of worries, but the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins argued in a 1968 essay that hunter-gathers belonged to “the original affluent society,” seeing as they only “worked” a few hours a day; Everett estimates that Pirah? adults on average work about 20 hours a week (not to mention without bosses peering over their shoulders). Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employed American with children works about nine hours a day.
Does this leisurely life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything remotely like depression there, except people who are physically ill,” Everett says. “They have a blast. They play all the time.” While many may consider work a staple of human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of thousands of years of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Pirah?, it’s quite a desirable state.”
Gray likens these aspects of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the carefree adventures of many children in developed countries, who at some point in life are expected to put away childish things. But that hasn’t always been the case. According to Gary Cross’s 1990 book A Social History of Leisure Since 1600, free time in the U.S. looked quite different before the 18th and 19th centuries. Farmers―which was a fair way to describe a huge number of Americans at that time―mixed work and play in their daily lives. There were no managers or overseers, so they would switch fluidly between working, taking breaks, joining in neighborhood games, playing pranks, and spending time with family and friends. Not to mention festivals and other gatherings: France, for instance, had 84 holidays a year in 1700, and weather kept them from farming another 80 or so days a year.
This all changed, writes Cross, during the Industrial Revolution, which replaced farms with factories and farmers with employees. Factory owners created a more rigidly scheduled environment that clearly divided work from play. Meanwhile, clocks―which were becoming widespread at that time―began to give life a quicker pace, and religious leaders, who traditionally endorsed most festivities, started associating leisure with sin and tried to replace rowdy festivals with sermons.
As workers started moving into cities, families no longer spent their days together on the farm. Instead, men worked in factories, women stayed home or worked in factories, and children went to school, stayed home, or worked in factories too. During the workday, families became physically separated, which affected the way people entertained themselves: Adults stopped playing “childish” games and sports, and the streets were mostly wiped clean of fun, as middle- and upper-class families found working-class activities like cockfighting and dice games distasteful. Many such diversions were soon outlawed.
With workers’ old outlets for play having disappeared in a haze of factory smoke, many of them turned to new, more urban ones. Bars became a refuge where tired workers drank and watched live shows with singing and dancing. If free time means beer and TV to a lot of Americans, this might be why.
At times, developed societies have, for a privileged few, produced lifestyles that were nearly as play-filled as hunter-gatherers’. Throughout history, aristocrats who earned their income simply by owning land spent only a tiny portion of their time minding financial exigencies. According to Randolph Trumbach, a professor of history at Baruch College, 18th-century English aristocrats spent their days visiting friends, eating elaborate meals, hosting salons, hunting, writing letters, fishing, and going to church. They also spent a good deal of time participating in politics, without pay. Their children would learn to dance, play instruments, speak foreign languages, and read Latin. Russian nobles frequently became intellectuals, writers, and artists. “As a 17th-century aristocrat said, ‘We sit down to eat and rise up to play, for what is a gentleman but his pleasure?’” Trumbach says.
It’s unlikely that a world without work would be abundant enough to provide everyone with such lavish lifestyles. But Gray insists that injecting any amount of additional play into people’s lives would be a good thing, because, contrary to that 17th-century aristocrat, play is about more than pleasure. Through play, Gray says, children (as well as adults) learn how to strategize, create new mental connections, express their creativity, cooperate, overcome narcissism, and get along with other people. “Male mammals typically have difficulty living in close proximity to each other,” he says, and play’s harmony-promoting properties may explain why it came to be so central to hunter-gatherer societies. While most of today’s adults may have forgotten how to play, Gray doesn’t believe it’s an unrecoverable skill: It’s not uncommon, he says, for grandparents to re-learn the concept of play after spending time with their young grandchildren.
When people ponder the nature of a world without work, they often transpose present-day assumptions about labor and leisure onto a future where they might no longer apply; if automation does end up rendering a good portion of human labor unnecessary, such a society might exist on completely different terms than societies do today.
So what might a work-free U.S. look like? Gray has some ideas. School, for one thing, would be very different. “I think our system of schooling would completely fall by the wayside,” says Gray. “The primary purpose of the educational system is to teach people to work. I don’t think anybody would want to put our kids through what we put our kids through now.” Instead, Gray suggests that teachers could build lessons around what students are most curious about. Or, perhaps, formal schooling would disappear altogether.
Trumbach, meanwhile, wonders if schooling would become more about teaching children to be leaders, rather than workers, through subjects like philosophy and rhetoric. He also thinks that people might participate in political and public life more, like aristocrats of yore. “If greater numbers of people were using their leisure to run the country, that would give people a sense of purpose,” says Trumbach.
Social life might look a lot different too. Since the Industrial Revolution, mothers, fathers, and children have spent most of their waking hours apart. In a work-free world, people of different ages might come together again. “We would become much less isolated from each other,” Gray imagines, perhaps a little optimistically. “When a mom is having a baby, everybody in the neighborhood would want to help that mom.” Researchers have found that having close relationships is the number-one predictor of happiness, and the social connections that a work-free world might enable could well displace the aimlessness that so many futurists predict.
In general, without work, Gray thinks people would be more likely to pursue their passions, get involved in the arts, and visit friends. Perhaps leisure would cease to be about unwinding after a period of hard work, and would instead become a more colorful, varied thing. “We wouldn’t have to be as self-oriented as we think we have to be now,” he says. “I believe we would become more human.”
新题型
The surprising truth about American manufacturing
The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. “We don’t make anything anymore,” he told Fox News last October, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.
On Tuesday, in rust belt Pennsylvania, he doubled down, saying that he had “visited cities and towns across this country where a third or even half of manufacturing jobs have been wiped out in the last 20 years.” The Pacific trade deal, he added, “would be the death blow for American manufacturing.”
Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.
But there is also a different way to look at the data.
In reality, United States manufacturing output is at an all-time high, worth $2.2 trillion in , up from $1.7 trillion in . And while total employment has fallen by nearly a third since 1970, the jobs that remain are increasingly skilled.
Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: Instead of having too many workers, as they did during the Great Recession, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every year. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place. Other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay. And those industries don’t have the stigma of 40 years of recurring layoffs and downsizing.
“We’ve never had so much attention from manufacturers. They’re calling and saying: ‘Can we meet your students?’ They’re asking, ‘Why aren’t they looking at my job postings?' ” says Julie Parks, executive director of workforce training at Grand Rapids Community College in western Michigan.
The region is a microcosm of the national challenge. Unemployment here is low (around 3 percent, compared with a statewide average of 5 percent). There aren’t many extra workers waiting for a job. And the need is high:1 in 5 people work in manufacturing, churning out auto parts, machinery, plastics, office furniture, and medical devices. Other industries, including agribusiness and life sciences, are vying for the same workers.
For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers C and upward pressure on wages. “They’re harder to find and they have job offers,” says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm. “They may be coming [into the workforce], but they’ve been plucked by other industries that are also doing as well as manufacturing,”
Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture. He is also part of a public-private initiative to promote manufacturing to students that includes job fairs and sending a mobile demonstration vehicle to rural schools. One of their messages is that factories are no longer dark, dirty, and dangerous; computer-run systems are the norm and recruits can receive apprenticeships that include paid-for college classes.
At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keeps a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers. Five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.
At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he’s trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It’s his first week on the job; this is his first encounter with Roth, his boss. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering.
“I love working with tools. I love creating,” he says.
But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials “remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession,” says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.
These concerns aren’t misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2015. The steepest declines came after , when China gained entry to the World Trade Organization and ramped up exports of consumer goods to the US and other rich countries. In areas exposed to foreign trade, every additional $1,000 of imports per worker meant a $550 annual drop in household income per working-age adult, according to a study in the American Economic Review. And unemployment, Social Security, and other government benefits went up $60 per person.
The -09 recession was another blow. And advances in computing and robotics offer new ways for factory owners to increase productivity using fewer workers.
When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Electricians, plumbers, and pipefitters are in in short supply across Michigan and elsewhere; vocational schools and union-run apprenticeships aren’t keeping pace with demand and older tradespeople are leaving the workforce. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels.
“The gap is between the jobs that take no skills and those that require a lot of skill,” says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College an hour from Grand Rapids. “There’s enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don’t need to have much skill. It’s that gap in between, and that’s where the problem is.”
Ms. Parks of Grand Rapids Community College points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. “Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives,” she says.
Roth says he gets this distinction. At RoMan, workers can set their own hours on their shift, choosing to start earlier or end later, provided they get the job done. That the factory floor isn’t a standard assembly line C everything is custom-built for industrial clients C makes it easier to drop the punch-clocks.
“People have lives outside,” Roth says. “It’s not always easy to schedule doctors’ appointments around a ‘punch-in at 7 and leave at 3:30’ schedule.”
While factory owners like Roth like to stress the flexibility of manufacturing careers, one aspect is nonnegotiable: location. Millennials looking for a job that allow them to work from home are not likely to get a callback. “I'm not putting a machine tool in your garage,” says Roth.
篇8：考研真题英语二完形填空
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Given the advantages of electronic money, you might think that we would move quickly to the cashless society in which all payments are made electronically. 1 a true cashless society is probably not around the corner. Indeed, predictions have been 2 for two decades but have not yet come to fruition. For example, Business Week predicted in 1975 that electronic means of payment would soon “revolutionize the very 3 of money itself,” only to 4 itself several years later. Why has the movement to a cashless society been so 5 in coming?
Although electronic means of payment may be more efficient than a payments system based on paper, several factors work 6 the disappearance of the paper system. First, it is very 7 to set up the computer, card reader, and telecornmunications networks necessary to make electronic money the 8 form of payment Second, paper checks have the advantage that they 9 receipts, something thai many consumers are unwilling to 10 . Third, the use of paper checks gives consumers several days of “float” - it takes several days 11 a check is cashed and funds are 12 from the issuer's account, which means that the writer of the check can cam interest on the funds in the meantime. 13 electronic payments arc immediate, they eliminate the float for the consumer.
Fourth, electronic means of payment may 14 security and privacy concerns. We often hear media reports that an unauthorized hacker has been able to access a computer database and to alter information 15 there. The fact that this is not an 16 occurrence means that dishonest persons might be able to access bank accounts in electronic payments systems and 17 from someone else's accounts. The 18 of this type of fraud is no easy task, and a new field of computer science is developing to 19 security issues. A further concern is that the use of e lectronic means of payment leaves an electronic 20 that contains a large amount of personal data. There are concerns that government, employers, and marketers might be able to access these data, thereby violating our privacy.
1. [A] However [B] Moreover [C] Therefore [D] Otherwise
2. [A] off [B] back [C] over [D] around
3. [A] power [B] concept [C] history [D] role
4. [A] reward [B] resist [C] resume [D] reverse
5. [A] silent [B] sudden [C] slow [D] steady
6. [A] for [B] against [C] with [D] on
7. [A] imaginative [B] expensive [C] sensitive [D] productive
8. [A] similar [B] original [C] temporary [D] dominant
9. [A] collect [B] provide [C] copy [D] print
10. [A] give up [B] take over [C] bring back [D] pass down
11. [A] before [B] after [C] since [D] when
12. [A] kept [B] borrowed [C] released [D] withdrawn
13. [A] Unless [B] Until [C] Because [D] Though
14. [A] hide [B] express [C] raise [D]ease
15. [A] analyzed [B] shared [C] stored [D] displayed
16. [A] unsafe [B] unnatural [C] uncommon [D] unclear
17. [A] steal [B] choose [C] benefit [D] return
18. [A] consideration [B] prevention [C] manipulation [D] justification
19. [A] cope with [B] fight against [C] adapt to [D] call for
20. [A] chunk [B] chip [C] path [D] trail
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