2013年12月三套长篇阅读.doc

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1、 . . . . The rise of the sharing economyLast night 40 000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250 000 rooms in 30 000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hos

2、ts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it-2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new sharing economy, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly

3、 from each other, co-ordinate via the internet.A) You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast (家庭旅店),owning a timeshare (分时度假房）or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever and therefore poss

4、ible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more tr

5、ouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters； smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing

6、.Whats mine is yours, for a feeB) Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc (临时的）taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for item

7、s that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access

8、 trumps （胜过）ownership.C) Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $ 26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid (电网

9、）.And it is not just individuals; the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.D) Such collaborative (合作的）consumption is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from un

10、derused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $ 9 300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $ 250 a month； some make more than $ 1 000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they wo

11、uld if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.E) For soc

12、iable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons (低脾气的人）who imagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and

13、 ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends (or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user

14、 had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works.Peering into the futureF) The shying economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successful purchase

15、from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay. Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated by professional “power sellers (many of whom start

16、ed out as ordinary eBay users). The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise. Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.G) Existing rental businesses are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in a sharin

17、g rival. So do GM and Daimler, two carmakers, in future, companies may develop hybrid （混合的）models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles，equipment or office space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have o

18、ften changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more.H) The main worry is regulatory uncertainty. Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb

19、listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy competitio

20、n. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and- breakfasts are more than adequate.I) The sharing economy is the latest example of the internets value to consumers. This emerging model

21、 is now big and disruptive (颠覆性的）enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。46. Sharing items such as cars does good to the environment.47. Airbnbs success clearly illustrates the eme

22、rgence of a huge sharing economy.48. The major concern about the sharing economy is how the government regulates it.49. The most frequently shared items are those expensive to buy but not fully used.50. The sharing economy has a promising future.51. Online sharing will change the way business is don

23、e in transportation, travel, rentals, etc.52. Airbnb is a website that enables owners and renters to complete transactions online.53. The sharing economy is likely to go the way of online shopping.54. One advantage of sharing is that owners earn money from renting out items not made full use of.55.

24、Sharing appeals to the sociable in that they can meet new people.Is College a Worthy Investment?A) Why are we spending so much money on college? And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing s

25、o much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe its time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious (大不敬的）：is all this investment in college education really worth it?B) The answer, I fear, is no. For an increasing number of kids the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will l

26、eave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.C) For my entire adult life, a good education has been the most important thing for middle-class households. My parents spent more educating my sister and me than they spent on their house, and theyre not the only ones. and, of course

27、, for an increasing number of families, most of the cost of their house is actually the cost of living in a good school district. Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning the value of happiness, or fun.D) The average price of all goods and services has risen about 50

28、 percent. But the price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is the education that todays students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice as smart? Have they become somehow massively more expensive to educate?E) Perhaps a bit. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics

29、 professor, says, .I look at the data, and I see college costs rising faster than inflation up to the mid-1980s by 1 percent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation. What has happened? The federal government has started dropping money out of airplanes. Aid has increased, s

30、ubsidized （补贴的）loans have become available, and the universities have gotten the money. Economist Bryan Caplan, who is writing a book about education, agrees： Its a giant waste of resources that will continue as long as the subsidies continue.F) Promotional literature for colleges and student loans

31、often speaks of debt as an investment in yourself. But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off the loans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that do not require a degree, and the amount of student- loan debt carried by households has increased more than

32、five times since 1999. These graduates were told that a diploma was all they needed to succeed, but it wont even get them out of the spare bedroom at Mom and Dads. For many, the most visible result of their four years is the loan payments, which now average hundreds of dollars a month on loan balanc

33、es in the tens of thousands.G) Its true about the moneysort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people who have only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, the wage premium (高出的部分）for an outstanding school seems to be even higher. But thats not true of ever

34、y student. Its very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature and come out no more employable than you were before you went in. Conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make almost four times the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.H) James Heckman, the

35、 Nobel Prize-winning economist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individuals with different backgrounds and levels of ability. Even with these high prices, youre still finding a high return for individuals who are bright and motivated, he says. On the other hand, if youre not

36、 college ready, then the answer is no, its not worth it. Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today, but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and more of the potential return. For borderline students, tuition (学费）rise can push th

37、ose returns into negative territory.I) Everyone seems to agree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest in higher educationand that employers need to rethink the increasing use of college degrees as crude screening tools for jobs that dont really require college skills. E

38、mployers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to fill jobs are just adding that requirement, says Vedder. In fact, a college degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bar-tender.J) We have started to see some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many students to

39、 cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives any balance after 25 years. But of course, that doesnt control the cost of education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduates to choose lower-paying careers, which reduces the financial return to education still

40、further. Youre subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth, says Heckman. You may think thats a good thing, or you may not. Either way it will be expensive for the government.K) What might be a lot cheaper is putting more kids to work. Caplan notes that work also builds valuable skil

41、ls一probably more valuable for kids who dont naturally love sitting in a classroom. Heckman agrees wholeheartedly： *People are different, and those abilities can be shaped. Thats what weve learned, and public policy should recognize that.L) Heckman would like to see more apprenticeship-style (学徒式）pro

42、grams, where kids can learn in the workplacelearn not just specific job skills, but the kind of soft skills， like getting to work on time and getting along with a team, that are crucial for career success. Its about having mentors (指导者) and having workplace-based education,” he says. Time and again

43、Ive seen examples of this kind of program working.M) Ah, but how do we get there from here? With better public policy, hopefully, but also by making better individual decisions. Historically markets have been able to handle these things,” says Vedder, and I think eventually markets will handle this

44、one. If it doesnt improve soon, people are going to wake up and ask, Why am I going to college?注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。46. Caplan suggests that kids who dont love school go to work.47. An increasing number of families spend more money on houses in a good school district.48. Subsidized loans to college stu

45、dents are a huge waste of money, according to one economist.49. More and more kids find they fare worse with a college diploma.50. For those who are not prepared for higher education, going to college is not worth it.51. Over the years the cost of a college education has increased almost by 100%.52.

46、 A law passed recently allows many students to pay no more than one tenth of their income for their college loans.53. Middle-class Americans have highly valued a good education.54. More kids should be encouraged to participate in programs where they can learn not only job skills but also social skil

47、ls.55. Over fifty percent of recent college graduates remain unemployed or unable to find a suitable job.A Mess on the Ladder of SuccessA) Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and see

48、k their fortune elsewhere. For the first 300 or so years of European settlement, the story was about moving outward： getting immigrants to the continent and then to the frontier to clear the prairies (大草原），drain the wetlands and build new cities.B) By the end of the 19th century, as the frontier van

49、ished, the US had a mild panic attack. What would this energetic, enterprising country be without new lands to conquer? Some people, such as Teddy Roosevelt, decided to keep on conquering (Cuba, the Philippines, etc.), but eventually, in industrialization, the US found a new narrative of economic mob