07考研英语阅读理解速成胜经情感态度题

　　三、局部情感态度题历年真题解析

　　例1、In recent years, railroads have been combining　with each other, merging into supersystems, causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top four railroads accounted for under 70 percent of the total ton-miles moved by rails. Next　year, after a series of mergers is completed, just　four railroads will control well over 90 percent of　all the freight moved by major rail carriers.
　　Supporters of the new super systems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reductions and better coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly,　they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them by the throat.
　　The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such “captive”shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for the business.
　　Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appeal to the federal government's Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extreme cases.
　　Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it reduces everyone's cost. If railroads charged all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of keeping up the line. It's theory to which many economists subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail. “Do we really want railroads to be the arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace?”asks Martin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents shipper.
　　Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortunes. still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the $10. 2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year.
　　Conrail's net railway operating income in 1996 was just $427 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who's going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.

　　52.What is many captive shippers’ attitude towards the consolidation in the rail industry?(2003)

　　(A)Indifferent. (B) Supportive. (C) Indignant. (D) Apprehensive.

　　【解析】：

　　第一步：根据局部对象或者局部对象的主体找出本题的出题句；根据该题的题干，我们可以依据many captive shippers找到本题目的出题句(得分句)为最后一段的第一句话。

　　第二步：在出题句(或称得分句)中寻找含有感情色彩的词语或句子；在最后一段的第一句中我们找到了worry这个单词；

　　第三步：比较该感情色彩的词语或句子和四个选项，选择一个意思和该词语最为接近的选项；发现D不仅有理解的意思，还有忧虑的意思，因此本题选D；

　　例2、It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minuts surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death-and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
　　Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians-frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient-too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U. S. spent $12. 7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply
stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way”, so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
　　I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
　　Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. Ask a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people's lives.

　　58.The author’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’s remark is one of .(2003)

　　(A) strong disapproval (B) reserved consent (C) slight contempt (D) enthusiastic support

　　【解析】：

　　第一步：根据局部对象或者局部对象的主体找出本题的出题句；根据该题的题干，我们可以依据Richard Lamm’s remark找到本题目的出题句(得分句)为第三段的最后一句话，但是这句话里并没有作者的情感态度，只有Richard Lamm的看法，因此本句不是出题句(得分句)，但是可以肯定的是出题句就是该句附近。我们发现在第四段第一句话说I would not go that far.这里的I就是指作者，that是指Richard Lamm的看法，所以本句才是真正的出题句；

　　第二步：在出题句(或称得分句)中寻找含有感情色彩的词语或句子；这个句子中没有一个单词是有感情色彩的，但是作为一个整体又是有感情色彩的，意思是作者不会和Richard Lamm走一样远的。不会走一样远并不是说不走，只是说没有走的那么远，所以作者对于Richard Lamm的看法是局部的同意和支持的；

　　第三步：比较该感情色彩的词语或句子和四个选项，选择一个意思和该词语最为接近的选项；因此本题应该选择B；

　 例3、When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn’t cutting, filling or polishing as many nails as she’d like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. “I’m a good economic indicator,” she says. “I provide a service that people can do without when they’re concerned about saving some dollars.” So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. “I don’t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too” she says.
　　Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening.
Consumers say they’re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, “there’s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses,” says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. “Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three,” says john Deadly, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.
　　Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn’t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan’s hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant need to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.

　　52.How do the public feel about the current economic situation? (2004)

　　(A) Optimistic. (B) Confused. (C) Carefree. (D) Panicked.

　　【解析】：

　　第一步：根据局部对象或者局部对象的主体找出本题的出题句；我们发现本题根本就没有对应的出题句。因为文章中没有the public这个短语。在没有一样的词语的时候我们应该寻找一个近意词来替代。结果发现在文章倒数第二段的第一句话中的Consumers即是指大众，因此本句为出题句。

　　第二步：在出题句(或称得分句)中寻找含有感情色彩的词语或句子；在最后一段的第一句中我们找到了not
in despair这个词组，是没有绝望的意思；

　　第三步：比较该感情色彩的词语或句子和四个选项，选择一个意思和该词语最为接近的选项；发现A是乐观的意思，是四个选项中意思最为接近的选项；

　　例4、Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education —— not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find. “Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,” says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance.” Razitch’s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
　　But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. 　We will have a less civil society.”
　　“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,” writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
　　Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children:“We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.”Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized —— going to school and learning to read —— so he can preserve his innate goodness.
　　Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
　　School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’s educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise.”

　　58. The views of Ravish and Emerson on schooling are(2004)

　　(A) identical. (B) similar. (C) complementary. (D)opposite.

　　【解析】：

　　第一步：根据局部对象或者局部对象的主体找出本题的出题句；我们发现本题根本就没有对应的出题句。我们发现文章中没有一句话是即包括Ravish有包括Emerson的，但是我们能很轻易的找到Ravish在第二段的第一句话中，Emerson在第五段的第一句话中，因此这个题目的得分句是这个两句。

　　第二步：在出题句(或称得分句)中寻找含有感情色彩的词语或句子；我们发现这个两句话的意思正好是相反的；

　　第三步：比较该感情色彩的词语或句子和四个选项，我们只能选择D；另外因为这个题目中A、B、C的意思是相近的，所以同时排除，我们也可以知道这个题目选D。