第一套

本篇原文是美国著名程序员、风险投资家Paul Graham（保罗·格雷厄姆）于06年在自己的博客所写的一篇由硅谷发展引起的对如何投资和发展信息技术公司的思考的文章的节选。

原文地址http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere， or is there something unique about it？

It wouldn't be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries， because you couldn't reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make a silicon valley？

It is the right people. If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from Silicon Valley to Buffalo， Buffalo would become Silicon Valley.

You only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub： rich people and nerds.

Observation bears this out： within the US， towns have become startup hubs if and only if they have both rich people and nerds. Few startups happen in Miami， for example， because although it's full of rich people， it has few nerds. It's not the kind of place nerds like.

Whereas Pittsburgh has the opposite problem： plenty of nerds， but no rich people. The top US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT， Stanford， Berkeley， and Carnegie-Mellon. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded Silicon Valley. But Carnegie-Mellon？ The record skips at that point. Lower down the list， the University of Washington yielded a high-tech community in Seattle， and the University of Texas at Austin yielded one in Austin. But what happened in Pittsburgh？ And in Ithaca， home of Cornell， which is also high on the list？

I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to college at Cornell， so I can answer for both. The weather is terrible， particularly in winter， and there's no interesting old city to make up for it， as there is in Boston. Rich people don't want to live in Pittsburgh or Ithaca. So while there are plenty of hackers who could start startups， there's no one to invest in them.

Do you really need the rich people？ Wouldn't it work to have the government invest in the nerds？ No， it would not. Startup investors are a distinct type of rich people. They tend to have a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. This helps them pick the right startups， and means they can supply advice and connections as well as money. And the fact that they have a personal stake in the outcome makes them really pay attention.

56.原文第一段第一句反问句“Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere， or is there something unique about it？”可得知答案选A——Its success is hard to copy anywhere else. 选项copy同义改写原文的reproduce.

57.由题干大写字母Miami定位到原文第五段“Few startups happen in Miami， for example， because although it's full of rich people， it has few nerds. It's not the kind of place nerds like.”由因果关系词because找到原因——这里既是有很多富裕的人，却几乎没有nerds（痴迷科研的人）.所以答案选B——Lack of the right kind of talents.

58，由题干大写字母Carnegie-Mellon， MIT， Stanford， Berkeley等定位到第六段，问CM和其他的是哪里有不同.“The top US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT， Stanford， Berkeley， and Carnegie-Mellon. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded Silicon Valley. But Carnegie-Mellon？ The record skips at that point.”原文讲到了MIT， Stanford， Berkeley都yielded产生了很有名的science department，而Carnegie-Mellon呢？这个记录可以直接跳过忽略.言下之意就是CM没有出名的science department，所以答案选D——It does not pay much attention to business startups.

59题，由题干大写字母Boston定位到倒数第二段.定位句“The weather is terrible， particularly in winter， and there's no interesting old city to make up for it， as there is in Boston”说到了Boston是一个无聊的老城市，而定位句的下一句“So while there are plenty of hackers who could start startups， there's no one to invest in them”说到了这样的城市无法吸引投资.所以答案选C——It is not likely to attract lots of investors and nerds.

60题，由startup investors定位到最后一段.Startup investors不仅富有，他们一般都经验丰富，而且能给提供一些建议，所以答案选C——They can do more than providing money.

61. C——It may prevent your business and career from advancing.

62. B——Encourage people to disagree and argue.

63. C——To remove misunderstanding.

64. D——They take care not to hurt each other's feelings.

65. D——Acknowledge their contribution.

第二套

56.A——it is disappearing

57.B——Electronically

58.D——Spending money is so fast and easy

59.A——It represents a change in the modern world

60.D——He feels insecure in ever-changing modern world

这篇文章是发表在the Atlantic上的一篇新闻报道的节选段拼凑而成的，最后一段是出题人自己纂写的.原文地址http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/the-year-in-sleep/383990/

Everybody sleeps—so goes the Sesame Street song meant for obstinately awake children. That may be true， but what people stay up late to catch—or wake up early in order not to miss—varies by culture.

Around the world， people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians， for example， began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to "winter time" starting on October 26.

Russia's other late nights and early mornings generally coincided with public holidays. One such spike was on New Year's Eve， which Russians tend to ring in with unusual fervor，as well as on World War II Victory Day. According to another Jawbone finding， Russians have the world's latest bedtime on December 31， hitting the hay at around 3：30 a.m.

Russians also got up an hour later on International Women's Day， the day for coddling and celebrating female relatives.

Similarly， Americans' late nights， late mornings, and longest sleeps coincided with three-day weekends.

Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey final.

The World Cup was also a major sleep-deprivation culprit. The worst night for sleep in the U.K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it， and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights， the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing， though， compared to Germans， Italians， and the French， who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.

It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns； in some of these nations， it's likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that's the case， though， the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year， how much sleep are the rest of us losing？

61题，定位到第一段最后一句“varies by culture”，所以答案选A——They are culture-related.

62题，由题干的大写名词Russian定位到第二段和第三段.第二段的“Russian， for example， began to wake up about a half-hour later each day”这一句是干扰句，起得晚不一定睡得早，所以答案推不出“他们比其他地方的人睡得更久”.然后看到第三段“Russia's other late nights and early mornings generally coincided with public holidays”，所以答案为C——They don't sleep much on holidays.

63题，题干问的是欧洲人缺乏睡眠的major cause主要原因是什么，由题干的大写名词Europeans' loss定位到倒数第二段的“compared to Germans， Italians， and the French， who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup”，原文的Germans， Italians， and the French就是题干中“Europeans”的同义改写，而他们stayed up就是为了to watch the Cup，所以说他们缺乏睡眠的原因便是C选项——The World Cup.

64题，问的是富有的人使用设备来记录他们的睡眠模式的原因.由rich people以及device定位到最后一段第一句，定位句只说到了记录的事实，而非其原因。按照四级阅读金三句原则看到定位句的下一句“And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person”，记录睡眠的人是想要得到比普通人更多的睡眠，所以答案是B——They want to get sufficient sleep.

65题，问的是作者在最后一段所表达的观点，定位到最后一句If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year， how much sleep are the rest of us losing？ 作者提到了health-conscious，人们对健康的意识是缺乏的，对健康是视而不见的，所以答案选B——Few people really know the importance of sleep.

第三套

56 C It might have a negative effect on creative work.

57 A They combine clock-based and task-based planning

58 D They tend to be more productive.

59 B It does not attach enough importance to task-based practice.

60 D A scientific standard should be adopted in a job evaluation.

61 A Her past record might stand in her way to a new life.

62 B They are deprived of chances to turn over a new leaf

63 C They are marginalized in society

64 D A lot of them have negative effects on society

65 B To appeal for changes in America's criminal justice system.