Section 2 Reading Comprehension(In this section you will find after each of the passages a number of questions or unfinished statements about the passage, each with 4 (A, B, C and D) choices to answer the question or complete the statement You must choose the one which you think fits best Blacken the corresponding letter as required on your machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.)
1.It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America's most productive oilfield.On the high plains a rig gnaws at rock more than 3,000 feet (0.9km) underground.When the drill bit reaches about a mile and a half in depth, nearly six times the height of the Empire State Building, it will munch its way sideways for another two miles. Then comes the interesting part. After completing one horizontal well, the towering rig will rise virtually intact，shuffle forward for about an hour，then prepare to drill again. Such walking rigs are one way that Concho Resources, the company which owns the well, seeks to extract more oil, more efficiently. Concho is not alone. The shale industry has made America the world's top producer of crude oil. But as the world becomes more dependent on American oil, American oil is becoming more dependent on the Permian Basin, which spans about 75,000 square miles across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. On the surface, the natural landscape is all but barren. But underground lies layer upon layer of shale rich with oil and gas. A geological millefeuille. The region accounted for 30% of America's oil production in July, up from 23% two years earlier. The Permian and other American shale basins had already been drilled for decades using conventional wells. Then after the financial crisis of 2007-08 low interest rates helped companies deploy new techniques on well after well: they drilled horizontally, then pummeled shale with sand and water，a process known as hydraulic fracturing，or fracking, until the rock relinquished its oil and gas. Because about 80% of a shale well's production occurs within two years of fracking， firms kept buying oil rights and drilling. In 2014 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), fed up with giddy American production, declined to curb its own output.Having soared to $115 in June 2014, the price of Brent crude oil plunged to $29 a barrel in January 2016. Since 2015 Texas alone has seen 71 bankruptcies of exploration-and-production firms, says Haynes and Boone, a law firm. As a result，investors' appetite for growth for growth's sake has waned.Shale companies now claim to have changed how they operate. Take Pioneer Natural Resources. In 2015 David Einhorn, a prominent short-seller, unkindly labelled Pioneer a “mother-fracker” for its profligate ways. Today Timothy Dove, the firm's chief executive，tempers his bullishness about the Permian with more attention to costs. Pioneer is selling assets so it can center its business entirely in the Permian, where Mr. Dove says he can drill most economically. Executives are being paid for returns as well as rising output. Companies such as Pioneer and Concho are also revising techniques in the field.Fracking recovers only about 8-10% of oil in shale.“If you can actually go from 10% to 12%，that's a 20% increase in the amount of oil you're recovering，” says Mr. Dove. So firms are drilling several wells on a single site, to reduce drilling time and costs, and then blasting wells with more water and sand, to extract more oil. Concho is continuously testing optimal ways to frack, for instance by targeting one section of a well, then a section of another nearby, then returning to the first well for more fracking. However, investment discipline remains patchy. According to analysis by Sanford C.Bernstein, a research firm, which examined the most recent quarterly results of American exploration and production companies, nine of the biggest dozen firms, including Concho and Pioneer, had cashflow from operations that exceeded capital spending (and Pioneer, just barely). Among the dozen smallest companies reviewed, only three earned more than they spent. Even with high oil prices, now at around $80, the industry faces new pressures.Pipelines from the Permian are jammed with crude. New ones will open late next year, yet other problems will persist. Oil service firms slashed their rates after the most recent crash, but those prices are creeping up. Mr. Trump's tariffs on imported steel will make equipment more expensive. The cost of hiring and housing workers is soaring.
【正确答案-参考解析】：参加考试可见2.The absence of no-fault divorce in England and Wales looks updateD.People stay in loveless marriages for many reasons: anxiety about the impact of splitting up on their children; financial dependency on a spouse; fear of loneliness. Tina Owens is stuck in hers because a judge refused to give her a divorce. She said that her husband5s treatment of her,including scolding her in front of their housekeeper and ignoring her over a meal，amounted to unreasonable behavior, grounds for divorce. The judge, however, disagreed, saying they were “minor altercations...to be expected in a marriage”. Since her husband has refused to consent to the break-up, she must wait five years. Ms. Owens has asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling. Her position would be simpler if England and Wales did not insist on blame being part of divorce. As well as unreasonable behavior, marital breakdown can be demonstrated by evidence of adultery or desertion. The alternative is at least two years9 separation. But the notion of fault is often little more than a charade. Kerstin Beyer，a family lawyer，cites a case where the“unreasonable” behavior involved the wife pursuing an “independent social life”. Insisting that somebody must be to blame makes an already difficult process harder. This week Lord Wilson, a Supreme Court judge，added his voice to those calling for “no-fault” divorce. Others in favor include Sir James Munby, president of the family division of the High Court, Lady Hale, another Supreme Court justice, most of those working in family law and organizations such as Relate, a charity that provides relationship counselling. In 1996 the government tried to introduce no-fault divorce, but the legislation was repealed in 2001 after requirements on the parties to attend "information meetings” to encourage reconciliation proved unworkable. In 2015 Richard Bacon, a Conservative MP, introduced a private members' bill proposing no-fault divorce with a year's cooling-off period, but it failed to get a second reading. There has always been a sensitivity around the notion of undermining marriage, says Nigel Lowe, an emeritus professor of law at Cardiff University who is also a member of the Commission on European Family Law, a group of academics. This is clear in debates over same-sex and civil unions. Opponents of no-fault divorce worry that it might make ending marriage too easy. Other countries, such as America, the Netherlands and even largely Catholic Spain allow couples to divorce without allocating blame. The evidence from elsewhere suggests that fears of a spike in divorces may be overblown. Scotland, England's closest neighbor geographically and jurisdictionally, introduced no-fault divorce in 2006. In the next two years the divorce rate rose, perhaps as some previously made to wait hurried through their split. But then it continued to fall. If both parties want to break up, Mr. Lowe asks, why should it be in the stated interest to hold up the process? Sorting out the division of assets and arranging for the custody and future care of children are always the hardest aspects of ending any marriage. Eliminating questions of who is to blame for the split would allow those involved to focus on dealing with these.
【正确答案-参考解析】：参加考试可见Section 3 Cloze Test(In the following passage, there are 20 blanks representing words that are missing from the context.Below the passage，each blank has 4 choices marked by letters A, B, C and D respectively.There is only ONE right answer.Blacken the corresponding letter as required on your machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.)
1.How generous is an ape? This generosity may have been______(91) to the survival of our early ancestors______ (92) lived in small bands of hunter-gatherers. Dr. Krupenye and his colleagues tested the generosity of bonobos. The researchers designed an experiment that could provide strong evidence that bonobos could give things to each other simply______(93) generosity — rather than being pressured into doing so, or expecting some sort of immediate payback. For their experiment, the researchers______(94) advantage of the fact______(95) the Lola Ya Bonobo apes have learned to crack open palm nuts with rocks. ______(96) a rock, they have to gnaw on the nuts for a long time to get them out of their shell. The scientists put one bonobo in a cage with five nuts. In an adjacent cage, a______(97) bonobo — a stranger to the first one — had two rocks but no nuts. The cages were connected by a window. The bonobos were free to bring gifts to the window______(98) to each other 一 or to ignore their______(99). The researchers found that the bonobos with the nuts proved generous. In 18 percent of the trials, the bonobos with the nuts handed one through the window to their neighbor, a rate that showed their______(100) to give food to others. But the bonobos in the other cage almost______(101) returned the favor. They refused to pass one of their rocks through the window. In______(102) experiment, Dr. Krupenye experienced their______(103) of generosity firsthand.Each bonobo would sit in a cage, with a mesh wall______(104) in front of the door to the hallway. A colleague would______(105) a stick into the cage near the bonobo and leave. Then Dr. Krupenye would come to the doorway and beg for the stick. He would reach______(106) his arm, plaintively calling the bonobo's name. The bonobos almost never handed Dr. Krupenye the stick. In fact, sometimes they seemed to tease him. “They will put it through the mesh a little bit and then pull it back when Tm trying to reach for it，”said Dr. Krupenye. The work of Dr. Krupenye and others makes______(107) clear that humans aren't unique in their generosity. It's possible that our common ancestor with bonobos and chimpanzees was already prosocial, at least______(108) a limited extent. This versatility may have______(109) early in our lineage, producing traits that encouraged more sharing. It leads______(110) to have generous inclinations without any coaching.
【正确答案-参考解析】：参加考试可见
