2017年武漢大學(xué)考博英語真題1

Reading Comprehension 1

Mr Gordon is right that the second industrial revolution involved never-to-be-repeated changes.But that does not mean that driverless cars count for nothing.Messrs Erixon and Weigel are also right to worry about the West's dismal recent record in producing new companies.But many old firms are not run by bureaucrats and have reinvented themselves many times over:General Electric must be on at least its ninth life.And the impact of giant new firms born in the past 20 years such as Uber,Google and Facebook should not be underestimated:they have all the Schumpeterian characteristics the authors admire.

On the pessimists'side the strongest argument relies not on closely watching corporate and investor behavior.but rather on macro-level statistics on productivity.The figures from recent years are truly dismal.Karim Foda,of the Brookings Institution,calculates that labor productivity in the rich world is growing at its slowest rate since Total factor productivity(which tries to measure innovation)has grown at just 0.1%in advanced economies since 2004,well below its historical average.

Optimists have two retorts.The first is that there must be something wrong with the figures.One possibility is that they fail to count the huge consumer surplus given away free of charge on the internet.But this is unconvincing.The official figures may well be understating the impact of the internet revolution,just as they downplayed the impact of electricity and cars in the past,but they are not understating it enough to explain the recent decline in productivity growth.

Another,second line of argument that the productivity revolution has only just begun is more persuasive.Over the past decade many IT companies may have focused on things that were more"fun than fundamental"in Paul Krugman's phrase.But Silicon Valley's best companies are certainly focusing on things that change the material world.

Uber and Airbnb are bringing dramatic improvements to two large industries that have been more or less stuck for decades.Morgan Stanley estimates that driverless cars could result in$507 billion a year of productivity gains in America,mainly from people being able to stare at their laptops instead of at the road.

1．What has led to the pessimistic opinion concerning the world's economy?

A．It is based on macro-level statistics on productivity.

B．It is based on close observation on corporate and investor behavior.

C．It is due to the fact that many old firms are not run by bureaucrats.

D．It is due to the fact that not enough new firms have been created.

2．The first argument on the optimists'side is unconvincing because the official figures ________.

A．a(chǎn)re both wrong and unconvincing

B．downplay the internet revolution

C．fail to include the consumer surplus

D．can't explain the decline in productivity growth

3．What is true about the IT companies in Silicon Valley?

A．They have only focused on the fun part of life.

B．They have made a difference in the real world.

C．They have more persuasive productivity.

D．They have only just begun to develop.

4．How can driverless cars benefit American industries?

A．Driverless cars have revived two large American industries.

B．The sale of driverless cars can reach hundreds of billion dollars.

C．Thanks to them people free from driving can do more creative work.

D．Driverless cars have stimulated the development of Uber and Airbnb.

【參考翻譯】

戈登說的沒錯，第二次工業(yè)革命包含了無法重復(fù)的變化。但這并不意味著無人駕駛汽車一無是處。埃里克松和魏格爾對西方最近在創(chuàng)建新公司方面糟糕的記錄的擔(dān)憂也是正確的。但是，許多老公司并不是由官僚們管理的，并且已經(jīng)多次自我改造:通用電氣至少已經(jīng)進(jìn)入第九個生命了。過去20年里誕生的Uber、谷歌和Facebook等新興巨頭的影響不應(yīng)被低估:它們擁有作者所推崇的熊彼特式特征。

在悲觀主義者看來，最有力的論據(jù)不在于密切關(guān)注企業(yè)和投資者的行為。而是在生產(chǎn)率的宏觀統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)上。近年來的數(shù)據(jù)確實令人沮喪。布魯金斯學(xué)會(Brookings Institution)的卡利姆•福達(dá)(Karim Foda)估計，自2004年以來，發(fā)達(dá)經(jīng)濟(jì)體的全要素生產(chǎn)率(旨在衡量創(chuàng)新)僅增長0.1%，遠(yuǎn)低于歷史平均水平以來，發(fā)達(dá)的勞動生產(chǎn)率增速最慢。

樂觀者有兩個反駁。首先，數(shù)據(jù)肯定有問題。一種可能是，他們沒有計算出互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上免費(fèi)贈送的巨大消費(fèi)者剩余。但這并不令人信服。數(shù)據(jù)很可能低估了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)革命的影響，就像他們過去低估了電力和汽車的影響一樣，但他們低估的程度不足以解釋最近生產(chǎn)率增長的下降。

生產(chǎn)率革命才剛剛開始的第二種說法更具說服力。在過去的十年里，許多IT公司可能把重點放在了保羅•克魯格曼(Paul Krugman)所說的更“有趣而非根本”的事情上。但硅谷最好的公司肯定專注于改變物質(zhì)世界的事情。

優(yōu)步(Uber)和Airbnb正在給兩個或多或少停滯了幾十年的大行業(yè)帶來戲劇性的改善。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)估計，無人駕駛汽車每年可能為美國帶來5,070億美元的生產(chǎn)率增長，主要是因為人們可以盯著筆記本電腦而不是在路上看。

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