5. C 推理题。文章第一段指出19世纪就出现了企业履行社会责任的做法，因此A不正确。B和D的信息文章中没有提供，因此也不能入选。文章第三段指出“个别缺乏社会责任感的企业不仅会影响企业自身的声誉，还会累及整个行业”，所以C是正确答案。





参考译文


企业不只对股东负有责任，这一观念并不是最近才出现。19世纪，很多企业专门为员工提供了住房，他们认为，比起居住条件简陋的员工，居住条件好的员工生产效率更高。20世纪初期，时任美国总统的西奥多·罗斯福就说：“企业是现代文明进程中不可或缺的工具，但是我认为必须对其加以监管，使其为整个社会的利益服务。”罗斯福在位期间颁布了“反托拉斯法”，以及一系列关于健康、安全、工时等的法规。

1987年，吉百利巧克力公司的董事长阿德里安·卡德伯里在《哈佛商业评论》中写道：道德和商业决策之间会存在冲突是公司经营者一直面临的问题。这并不是一个新问题，如今的不同在于，每个决策及其背后的道德评判都触及了更广、更重要的利益。

人们争论的焦点在于，要确保企业充分地为整个社会谋利，罗斯福所提出的监管有多大必要。极端自由市场主义者认为，要保证企业承担责任，只需将其各项事务透明公开。这样一来，不需要任何强制措施，公司就会主动承担社会责任，因为这样做符合公司自身的利益。英国化妆品公司“美体小铺”是一家“道德水平高的”公司，其创始人安妮塔·罗迪克说：“做善事的企业，才是好的企业。”美国的商业促进局更进一步表示，个别缺乏社会责任感的企业不仅会影响企业自身的声誉，还会累及整个行业。

近期对企业社会责任的争论主要集中在以下三方面：

一、环境。这不仅仅是要求企业停止用烟囱排烟，还要求它们控制其对自然资源的掠夺，例如巴西的热带雨林，或者稀有动物的皮。有组织的抗争活动已迫使相关企业做出改变。例如，慑于反皮毛游说组织的攻击，一些供应商不得不声称：“不要搞错，我们所有的皮毛都是仿制品。”

二、剥削行为。第二方面是企业对工人的剥削，尤其是在发达国家对女性员工的剥削，和在发展中国家对童工的剥削。人们觉得全球化助长了跨国公司剥削穷困工人的势力，同时也削弱了工会和其他为保护员工权益而设立的组织的影响力。

三、贿赂和腐败。第三方面是腐败问题，尤其是如何定义腐败（企业各种慷慨接待的底线在哪），以及怎样保护举报者（举报公司不当行为的内部员工或其他知情者）。文化因素使这些问题更加复杂。例如，在西方国家被认定为贿赂的行为在中东地区或许是合情合理的。





Unit 27


In both rich and poor countries, poverty most often has a feminine face. It is bad enough in America: according to the Census Bureau 14.1% of women live in poverty, compared with 11.1% of men. In the developing world, the situation is much worse. By some estimates 70% of the world's poor are women and the depth of their deprivation, which often involves subsisting on less than $2 a day, makes American poverty look positively benign.

The World Bank would like this to change. Late in February, together with the OECD and several European governments, it convened a conference in Berlin on increasing the economic power of women. The bank reckons that restricting women's participation in the economy is not merely unfair, but bad economics. To put matters right it has released a “Gender Action Plan”, which calls for better data and a harder push for World Bank schemes that seek to move women into the economic mainstream.

Currently, the World Bank says that women earn an average of 22% less than men, and have much less access to credit; in Africa, for example, they receive just 1% of the credit going to the agricultural sector. Changing this could have an enormous impact on deprivation around the world. This is why Grameen Bank, among other poverty-fighting institutions, has chosen to focus its efforts on women. Almost all of its borrowers are women, and the micro-lender tries to ensure that its loans raise the economic status of women within their families by ensuring, for example, that ownership of houses built with Grameen loans staying with the women.

There is also evidence that giving women more financial power fosters economic development. Where men control most of the finances, it is more likely that households will distribute what they have unequally between male and female children, leaving the female family members with insufficient resources to meet basic needs. This, in turn, can hinder development of both mind and body. Giving women economic power can significantly alter decision-making in ways that improve general welfare. Households where women contribute a significant portion of the revenue spend more money on food and childcare and less on alcohol and tobacco.

But the World Bank may have cause and effect reversed. Does liberating women promote economic growth or does economic growth spur women's liberation? In an economy where adding economic value involves muscle power, women are bound to be paid less, and valued less, than men even before the effects of childbirth and childcare are taken into account. And in most societies, lower economic value translates into reduced social and political status.

The experience of developed countries certainly seems to indicate that economic growth is profoundly liberating for women. As the value of brute force falls opportunities in the labour market for women grow. Modern contraceptives, and labour-saving appliances, make it easier for them to take paid work. And with that comes economic and political power. There is a strong argument that women's liberation movement owes less to the “feminine mystique”than to the dishwashers and washing machines that reduced household drudgery. If so the bank would do better to concentrate on spurring economic growth rather than fretting about gender.

注（1）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2004年真题Text 1。

1. Why does the author claim that poverty has a feminine face?

A) Because it is a global phenomenon that women are in general poorer than men.

B) Because most of the world's poorest people are women who are unable to sustain themselves.

C) Because there is a higher concentration of women in poverty than men.

D) Because it is a common practice around the world that women are paid less than men.

2. Which of the following is NOT the opinion of the World Bank?

A) Changing American poverty situation does not fall into the World Bank's consideration.

B) Raising women's economic status is not only a political issue, but is desirable in terms of sheer economic concern.

C) Women should be entitled to access more credit and that is going to change the world.

D) Giving women more economic power is good for families in the micro perspective.

3. The expression “translates into”（Line 5, Paragraph 5) most probably means_______.

A) turning one language into another

B) transforming into

C) transfering to

D) leading to

4. What is the author's attitude towards the World Bank's interpretation of female poverty?

A) Reserved consent.

B) Strong disapproval.

C) Slight contempt.

D) Enthusiastic support.

5. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A) Poverty in America is of the similar condition as that of the rest of the world.

B) Female children and male children usually receive equal attention in households.

C) To raise women's economic status, it is important to liberate them from housework.

D) Grameen Bank only deals with small-loan businesses.





篇章剖析


本文是一篇以女性贫困为话题的议论文。第一段简单介绍了当前世界上关于女性的贫困问题；第二段中世界银行指出女性经济地位低导致了其贫困状况，第三、四段通过事例和理论分析来进一步论证上述观点；第五、六段为作者对世界银行观点的反驳。





词汇注释


deprivation /ˌdeprɪˈveɪˈʃən/ n. 剥夺

subsist /səbˈsɪst/ v. 生存，存在，供养

alter /ˈɔːltə/ v. 改变

contraceptive /ˌkɒntrəˈseptɪv/ n. 避孕品，避孕用具

mystique /mɪsˈtiːk/ n. 神秘性，奥秘

drudgery /ˈdrʌdʒəri/ n. 苦差事，苦工

fret /fret/ v. （使）烦恼，（使）焦急





难句突破


Almost all of its borrowers are women, and the micro-lender tries to ensure that its loans raise the economic status of women within their families by ensuring, for example, that ownership of houses built with Grameen loans staying with the women.

主体句式：Almost all of its borrowers are women, and the micro-lender tries to ensure that…

结构分析：这个句子由两个并列结构构成，以第一个逗号后面的and连接。第一部分是一个简单句，而第二部分则较为复杂。首先，第一个that后面引导的是一个宾语从句，其次by后面跟了一个名词性动词短语，而在插入语for example后又由that引导了一个宾语从句。

句子译文：该银行的贷款人大部分是女性，小额贷款通过诸如担保贷款建房的房屋所有权归妇女等措施，试图确保其贷款能提高女性在家庭中的经济地位。





题目分析


1. C 细节题。从文章第一段中可以推断，所谓的“贫穷总带着女性的面具”意指女性的贫困率要高于男性。A和B选项的表述不符合文章原意，而D选项与题目的问题无关。

2. A 细节题。B、C和D选项的内容分别可以在文章第二、三、四段中找到。同时，文章第二段第一句话就指出，世界银行要努力改变女性高贫困率这一状况。A选项的错误原因在于文章并没有谈到世界银行对于美国贫富状况的看法。

3. D 语义题。从文章第五段最后一句中可以看出，translates into的上下文分别为lower economic value 和social and political status，可以看出二者存在因果关系，因此答案为D。

4. B 情感态度题。文章第五段称世界银行将妇女解放和经济发展两者之间的因果关系本末倒置了，这说明作者对世界银行就妇女贫困问题做出的解释持反对态度，认为世界银行没有抓住问题的重点和关键。

5. C 细节题。文章第五、六段涉及了相关论述，如“妇女解放运动…应该归功于减轻家务负担的洗碗机和洗衣机”等，答案显然为C。A和B选项的表述都与原文意思相反，而D选项错误在于小额贷款只是该银行业务的一部分，并不是全部。





参考译文


不论在发达国家还是贫穷国家，贫穷总带着女性的面具。这个问题在美国已经够严重的了：根据人口调查局统计，14. 1%的妇女生活在贫困中，相比却只有11. 1%的男人生活贫困。但在发展中国家，这一情况就更糟糕了。据估计，世界70%的穷人是女性，她们通常依靠每日不足2美元的费用生活，相比之下，美国国内所谓的贫困就显得没那么严重了。

世界银行希望改变这一现状，并于二月底与经济合作与发展组织及欧洲部分国家的政府携手，在柏林召开了一次关于加强妇女的经济实力的会议。世界银行认为限制妇女参与经济不仅对妇女不公平，在经济学上看来也非常不利。为扭转这一现象，会议发表了一项“性别行为草案”，呼吁搜集更好的资料，并更加积极地推动世界银行争取使妇女踏入经济主流地位的方案。

目前，世界银行称，妇女平均比男人少赚22%，且贷款能力也更加有限；比如在非洲，妇女仅获取了农用贷款的1%。改变这一现状将对世界范围内的妇女受剥夺状况产生巨大的影响。因此孟加拉的格莱明银行同其他努力减少贫困的组织一道，决定集中力量关注妇女。该银行的贷款人大部分是女性，小额贷款通过诸如担保贷款建房的房屋所有权归妇女等措施，试图确保其贷款能提高女性在家庭中的经济地位。

有证据表明，赋予女性财政权力能够促进经济发展。当男人掌控大部分财政时，家庭支出更有可能在男孩和女孩间分配不均，导致家庭女性成员得不到维持基本生活需要的资源。这会阻碍女性成员们的身心发展。赋予女性经济权力能够改变家庭中的决策机制，从而改进公众福利。女性掌管财政支出时，家庭会在食品和育儿方面花费更多，而不是在烟酒上。

但是世界银行似乎将事情本末倒置了。是解放妇女促进经济增长还是经济增长刺激妇女解放？在那种体力创造经济价值的经济体中，即使考虑了生儿育女等因素，妇女仍然注定比男人得到更少的回报，体现更小的价值。在多数社会中，经济价值低意味着社会和政治地位也很低。

发达国家的经验看起来意味着经济增长引发了根本性的妇女解放。随着蛮力价值的下降，劳动力市场为女性提供了更多的机会。现代避孕用品、省力的工具使得女性更容易得到带薪工作，于是随之而来的就是她们的经济和政治实力。有一种观点认为，妇女解放运动的成功并不是由于所谓的“女性的神秘性”，而应该归功于减轻家务负担的洗碗机和洗衣机。倘若如此，世界银行更应该注重促进经济增长而不是操心性别问题。





Unit 28


Leandre Nsabi, a senior at Rainier Beach High School here, received some bluntly practical advice from an instructor recently. “My teacher said there's a lot of money to be made in computer science,”Leandre said. “It could be really helpful in the future.”That teacher, Steven Edouard, knows a few things about the subject. When he is not volunteering as a computer science instructor four days a week, Mr. Edouard works at Microsoft. He is one of 110 engineers from high-tech companies who are part of a Microsoft program aimed at getting high school students hooked on computer science, so they go on to pursue careers in the field. In doing so, Microsoft is taking an unusual approach to tackling a shortage of computer science graduates——one of the most serious issues facing the technology industry, and a broader challenge for the nation's economy.

There are likely to be 150,000 computing jobs opening up each year through 2020, according to an analysis of federal forecasts by the Association for Computing Machinery, a professional society for computing researchers. But despite the hoopla around start-up celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, fewer than 40,000 American students received bachelor's degrees in computer science during 2010, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates. And the wider job market remains weak. “People can't get jobs, and we have jobs that can't be filled,”Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel who oversees its philanthropic efforts, said in a recent interview.

Big technology companies have complained for years about a dearth of technical talent, a problem they have tried to solve by lobbying for looser immigration rules to accommodate more foreign engineers and sponsoring tech competitions to encourage student interest in the industry. Google, for one, holds a programming summer camp for incoming ninth graders and underwrites an effort called CS4HS, in which high school teachers sharpen their computer science skills in workshops at local universities.

But Microsoft is sending its employees to the front lines, encouraging them to commit to teaching a high school computer science class for a full school year. Its engineers, who earn a small stipend for their classroom time, are in at least two hourlong classes a week and sometimes as many as five. Schools arrange the classes for first thing in the day to avoid interfering with the schedules of the engineers, who often do not arrive at Microsoft until the late morning.

The program started as a grass-roots effort by Kevin Wang, a Microsoft engineer with a master's degree in education from Harvard. In 2009, he began volunteering as a computer science teacher at a Seattle public high school on his way to work. After executives at Microsoft caught wind of what he was doing, they put financial support behind the effort——which is known as Technology Education and Literacy in Schools, or Teals——and let Mr. Wang run it full time. The program is now in 22 schools in the Seattle area and has expanded to more than a dozen other schools in Washington, Utah, North Dakota, California and other states this academic year. Microsoft wants other big technology companies to back the effort so it can broaden the number of outside engineers involved.

注（1）：本文选自The New York Times;

注（2）：本文习题模仿对象：第1、5题模仿2011年真题Text 1 的第1、5题；第2题模仿2010年真题Text 2 的第2题；第3、4题模仿2011年真题Text 2 的第3、4题。

1. We can learn from the first two paragraphs that______.

A) America faces a serious issue——lack of computer science graduates

B) computer science is promising

C) Microsoft sends its employees to high schools to be the computer science instructors

D) there are not enough people hunting for jobs in the computer field

2. All the below are the solutions to the lack of qualified technical talents, except______.

A) persuading the government to make looser immigration rules to introduce more foreign talents

B) funding the technology competitions to inspire more students on tech

C) holding a programming summer camp for incoming ninth graders

D) making students improve their science skills in CS4HS

3. The word “stipend”（Line 2, Paragraph 4) most probably means______.

A) salary

B) reputation

C) prize

D) respect

4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that______.

A) the program is a grass-roots effort originally

B) Kevin Wang was praised by the executives at Microsoft

C) 22 schools in the Seattle area have involved in the program

D) Microsoft's plan has already caused attention of other schools and Microsoft hopes for more companies to participate

5. From the text we can see that the writer seems______.

A) positive

B) negative

C) uncertain

D) neutral





篇章剖析


本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了美国当前面临着科技人员短缺的问题。面对这一问题，微软做出新的举措试图挽救这一局面。前两段首先指出，美国出现的科技人才短缺危机已影响到国民经济，微软采取一些计划试图改变这一现状；紧接着第三段讲述了美国其他大型科技公司采取的各种挽救措施；第四段介绍了微软把自己的员工派驻到学校进行科技课程的指导，也就是所谓的“校园科技教育与扫盲”活动；最后一段讲述了这一草根行动受到许多学校的大力支持，微软鼓励其他公司也参与进来，以吸引更多外部工程师的参与。





词汇注释


bluntly /ˈblʌntli/ adv. 坦率地；迟钝地

hoopla /ˈhuːplɑː/ n. 大吹大擂，喧闹；投环套物游戏

philanthropic /ˌfɪlənˈθrɔpɪk/ adj. 慈善的；博爱的

underwrite /ˌʌndəˈraɪt/ v. 同意资助；签署（保险单）；认购

stipend /ˈstaɪpend/ n. 薪水，薪金





难句突破


He is one of 110 engineers from high-tech companies who are part of a Microsoft program aimed at getting high school students hooked on computer science, so they go on to pursue careers in the field.

主体句式：He is one of 110 engineers.

结构分析：这个长句看上去结构复杂，其实主句很短。主句后面的介宾结构作engineers 的后置定语，这里面包含一个由who引导的限制性定语从句，先行词是engineers，用来补充说明这110名工程师的情况，aimed at后面的动名词短语是目的状语，so引导一个结果状语从句。

句子译文：他是高科技公司派驻到中学里的110名工程师之一，是微软发起的一个项目的成员，这个项目旨在让高中学生迷上计算机科学，进而在这一领域谋求职业发展。





题目分析


1. A 推断题。B、C和D都只是现象，是文中提到的事实，而A则是在这些事实基础之上推断出来的结果。