2018年6月英語六級考試真題及答案4（第3套）

Section C

Directions:There are 2 passages in this section.Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements.For each of them there are four choices marked A),B),C)and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Economically speaking,are we better off than we were ten years ago?Twenty years ago?

In their thirst for evidence on this issue,commentators seized on the recent report by the Census Bureau,which found that average household income rose by 5.2%in 2015.Unfortunately,that conclusion puts too much weight on a useful,but flawed and incomplete,statistic.Among the more significant problems with the Census's measure are that:1)it excludes taxes,transfers,and compensation like employer-provided health insurance;and 2)it is based on surveys rather than data.Even if precisely measured,income data exclude important determinants of economic well-being,such as the hours of work needed to earn that income.

While thinking about the question,we came across a recently published article by Charles Jones and Peter Klenow,which proposes an interesting new measure of economic welfare.While by no means perfect,it is considerably more comprehensive than average income,taking into account not only growth in consumption per person but also changes in working time,life expectancy,and inequality.Moreover,it can be used to assess economic performance both across countries and over time.

The Jones-Klenow method can be illustrated by a cross-country example.Suppose we want to compare the economic welfare of citizens of the U.S.and France in 2005.

In 2005,as the authors observe:real consumption per person in France was only 60%as high as the U.S.,making it appear that Americans were economically much better off than the French on average.However,that comparison omits other relevant factors:leisure time,life expectancy,and economic inequality.The French take longer vacations and retire earlier,so typically work fewer hours;they enjoy a higher life expectancy,presumably reflecting advantages with respect to health care,diet,lifestyle,and the like;and income and consumption are somewhat more equally distributed there than in the U.S.Because of these differences,comparing France's consumption with the U.S.'s overstates the gap in economic welfare.

Similar calculations can be used to compare the U.S.and other countries.For example,this calculation puts economic welfare in the United Kingdom at 97%of U.S.levels,but estimates Mexican well-being at 22%.

The Jones-Klenow measure can also assess an economy's performance over time.According to this measure,as of the early-to-mid-2000s,the U.S.had the highest economic welfare of any large country.Since 2007,economic welfare in the U.S.has continued to improve.However,the pace of improvement has slowed markedly.

Methodologically,the lesson from the Jones-Klenow research is that economic welfare is multi-dimensional.Their approach is flexible enough that in principle other important quality-of-life changes could be incorporated-for example,decreases in total emissions of pollutants and declines in crime rates.

46．What does the author think of the 2015 report by the Census Bureau?

A．It is based on questionable statistics.

B．It reflects the economic changes.

C．It evidences the improved-welfare.

D．It provides much food for thought.

47．What does the author say about the Jones-Klenow method?

A．It is widely used to compare the economic growth across countries.

B．It revolutionizes the way of measuring ordinary people's livelihood.

C．It focuses on people's consumption rather than their average income.

D．It is a more comprehensive measure of people's economic well-being.

48．What do Jones and Klenow think of the comparison between France and the U.S.in terms of real consumption per person?

A．It reflected the existing big gap between the two economies.

B．It neglected many important indicators of people's welfare.

C．It covered up the differences between individual citizens.

D．It failed to count in their difference in natural resources.

49．What is an advantage of the Jones-Klenow method?

A．It can accurately pinpoint a country's current economic problems.

B．It can help to raise people's awareness of their economic well-being.

C．It can diagnose the causes of a country's slowing pace of economic improvement.

D．It can compare a country's economic conditions between different periods of time.

50．What can we infer from the passage about American people's economic well-being?

A．It is much better than that of their European counterparts.

B．It has been on the decline ever since the turn of the century.

C．It has not improved as much as reported by the Census Bureau.

D．It has not been accurately assessed and reported since mid-2000s.

【參考答案】

46-50：ADBDC

【參考翻譯】

從經(jīng)濟角度來說，我們比十年前富裕嗎？二十年前？

為了尋找證據(jù)，評論員們抓住了美國人口普查局（Census Bureau）最近的一份報告。該報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，2015年美庭平均收入增長了5.2%。不幸的是，這個結論過于強調一個有用但有缺陷且不完整的統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)。人口普查的措施存在的一個更嚴重的問題是:1）它不包括稅收、轉移支付以及雇主提供的醫(yī)療保險等補償；2）它是基于調查而不是數(shù)據(jù)。即使經(jīng)過精確測量，收入數(shù)據(jù)也排除了經(jīng)濟福祉的重要決定因素，比如賺取收入所需的工作時間。

在思考這個問題時，我們看到了查爾斯•瓊斯（Charles Jones）和彼得•克萊諾（Peter Klenow）最近發(fā)表的一篇文章，文章提出了一種有趣的經(jīng)濟福利新衡量標準。盡管并非完美無缺，但它比平均收入要全面得多，這不僅考慮到人均消費的增長，也考慮到工作時間、預期壽命和不平等的變化。此外，它還可以用于評估各個的經(jīng)濟表現(xiàn)和時間。

Jones-Klenow方法可以用一個跨國的例子來說明。假設我們要比較美國公民的經(jīng)濟福利和2005年的法國。

2005年，正如作者觀察到的:法國人均實際消費量僅為美國的60%美國人的平均經(jīng)濟狀況似乎比法國人好得多。然而，這種對比忽略了其他相關因素:休閑時間、預期壽命和經(jīng)濟不平等。法國人休假時間更長，退休時間更早，因此通常工作時間更少；他們的預期壽命更高，這大概反映了在醫(yī)療保健、飲食、生活方式等方面的優(yōu)勢由于這些差異，比較法國和美國的消費這夸大了經(jīng)濟福利方面的差距。

類似的計算可以用來比較美國和其他。例如，這項計算表明英國的經(jīng)濟福利占美國的97%但據(jù)估計，墨西哥人的幸福指數(shù)為22%。

瓊斯-克萊諾指數(shù)還可以評估一個經(jīng)濟體的長期表現(xiàn)。根據(jù)這一衡量標準，從2000年代初到2005年中期，美國的經(jīng)濟增速一直在放緩擁有任何一個大國中較高的經(jīng)濟福利。自2007年以來，美國的經(jīng)濟福利繼續(xù)改善。然而，改善的步伐明顯放緩。

從方法論上講，瓊斯-克萊諾研究的教訓是，經(jīng)濟福利是多維度的。他們的方法足夠靈活，原則上可以將其他重要的生活質量變化納入其中——例如，減少污染物總排放量和降低犯罪率。

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2018年6月英語六級考試真題及答案匯總（第3套）