美国拉开阶级战争大选 - FT速读测试

速读测试：美国拉开阶级战争大选

本文作者为英国《金融时报》专栏作家爱德华·卢斯（Edward Luce）

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
zeitgeist	时代思潮
recrimination	反责，反控
durable	持久的，耐用的
resentful	厌恶的

常见问题

阅读FT对你有什么好处？

对于全球的商业精英来说，阅读英国《金融时报》是每天必须进行的修炼。《金融时报》的文章以分析见长，逻辑严密，特别适合准备GRE和GMAT的考生。培生集团推出的PTE考试的阅读题，就是利用了FT的文章来做阅读理解。

阅读速度多快才够用？

在信息爆炸的今天，能够迅速地阅读和理解大量资料，已成为所有人必不可少的技能。对于准备参加各种英语测试的考生来讲，阅读速度可能是决定成绩的关键。要想在GRE和GMAT的考试中拿到高分，你的阅读速度至少要达到每分钟200字。

如何迫使自己提高阅读速度?

我们有一个自动滚屏的工具来帮助你提高速度。点击该按钮后，屏幕就开始滚动，迫使你改掉向回看的习惯，加快速度。默认为每分钟140字（朗读速度）。随着你的技能提升，你可以挑战更高的速度，直到达到1000。

小字速度：+ -

阅读以下文章

<b>America’s unlikely class-war candidates</b>

Class consciousness has always been un-American. Yet there are points, such as during the 1930s, when politics brings it out into the open. If today’s auguries prove durable, 2012 may well be remembered as a “class warfare” election. Indeed, it is hard to see how that will be avoided.

The US is going to the polls in a zero-sum economy where the wealthiest take almost all of whatever paltry growth is being generated. The election is set to break all records, with a group of 30 or so billionaires spending more on the polls than the rest of America combined.

In seeking to brand Mitt Romney as a ruthless elitist, Barack Obama has no better ally than Mr Romney, who insists on hanging out with the likes of Donald Trump. In accusing Mr Obama of class warfare, Mr Romney has an occasional ally in the president.

Voters agree with Mr Obama that the rich should pay more in taxes. But they do not list this as a priority. They would prefer to hear about how growth will be returned to normal – a path that Mr Obama is having a very hard time articulating. Nobody dares admit that this may be about as normal as it gets.

The two candidates thus often feature as their own worst enemies in an election where the zeitgeist will offer far more in recrimination than hope. It is a very long way from 2008. The fact that neither candidate is credible when playing the populist will only deepen the apathy each is trying to overcome in his party base.

Here are three reasons why both will fail and why we should therefore expect a close election with a low turnout. The US’s biggest class divisions are not between the parties but within them. Both candidates represent their party’s elite wing.

In 2008, Mr Obama offended the dwindling number of blue-collar white Democrats when he said they clung to guns and religion. Even after she had clearly lost the presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton continued to hoover up that portion of the Democratic vote. Likewise, it was hard to find a Democrat with a PhD who did not support Mr Obama. Since then the president’s blue-collar problem has only grown worse.

Mr Romney’s story is similar. As recently as the Illinois primary in late March, when it was clear to all that Mr Romney would take the nomination, former senator Rick Santorum took the bulk of the blue-collar Republican vote. More than 90 per cent of those who voted in the Republican primaries were white. The lower their income, the likelier they were to reject the former governor of Massachusetts. Mr Santorum tapped into the resentful white vote by calling Mr Obama a snob for having said all Americans should attend college.

Which brings us to the second key class division: Mr Obama represents the educated elite while Mr Romney comes from its moneyed counterpart. Both will do their best to pretend that they are something else. It is hard to imagine Mr Obama going hunting in Ohio, as John Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts, did in 2004. But we will hear a great deal more about the assassination of Osama bin Laden. And there will doubtless be beer-swigging photo ops in hardscrabble bowling alleys.

Mr Romney, meanwhile, will be playing down his gilded origins and refusing at all points to admit that he speaks French (what is it with politicians from Massachusetts?). He too will seek out moments of sportiness with a Budweiser.

The more the voters see and hear of each candidate, the more apathy there will be. According to a Gallup poll last week, the highest ratio of “undecideds” in the US is in Iowa, which also happens to be the state that has been most exposed to the candidates.

Finally, both will be spending as much time as they can with the very wealthy. Last Friday alone, Mr Obama attended six fundraisers – three in Minnesota and three in his home state of Illinois. Altogether he has now attended more than 200 in the past 12 months – a comfortable record for any sitting president at this stage in an election. The likes of George Clooney, who last week hosted a $15m event for the president, will become very familiar. By November they will be finishing each other’s sentences.

If he is wise and lucky, Mr Romney will by then have ensured that Mr Trump stops interrupting his. In any case, the Republican nominee is already friends with the likes of Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas gaming billionaire, and the Koch brothers.
And so we head into a class warfare election in which the little guy gets to play the starring role in a movie funded by billionaires.

Last week Mr Obama played host to his predecessor George W. Bush for the unveiling of his portrait. Mr Obama could take a lesson from Bush junior about how to play the populist game. Mr Bush convinced Americans he was a regular guy with whom they could have a beer. If the US economy continues to stall, this election will be narrow and such judgments could make all the difference.

选择正确答案

Which of the following is correct according to the passage?

正确！
根据文意，选项A中“让富人缴纳更多的税款已列入优先考虑的事”是错误的。文中只说选民同意，并未说明要优先考虑。故选项A 错误。选项C中说到“在1920年一些关于阶级的政策被透明化”，而正确的应该是在1930s。故C错误。B选项中在文中有原句“They would prefer to hear about how growth will be returned to normal.”，意思是：选民更希望听到经济如何恢复到从前正常的水平。

It was listed as a priority that the rich should pay more in taxes.
The voters prefer to hear about how the economic get back up to before.
The politics brought class out into the tranparent in the 1920s.
None of them is correct.

选择正确答案

Who did hold the majority of the blue-collar Republican vote?

Good!
"former senator Rick Santorum took the bulk of the blue-collar Republican vote"。故而应该是A，里克·桑托勒姆拥有大多数的蓝领共和党选票。

Rick Santorum
Hillary Clinton
Mitt Romney
Barack Obama

选择正确答案

Which of the following is incorrect on "class divisions"?

Good!
"More than 90 per cent of those who voted in the Republican primaries were white."超过90%的白领投票给共和党人，而不是蓝领。故D错误。

The US's biggest class divisions are not between the parties but within them.
Obama represents the class of educated elite
Mr Romney represents the class of capitalist.
More than 90 persent of the blue-collars voted for the Republican.

选择正确答案

According to the article,what did Obama do last week?

Good!
选项A在倒数第四段，选项B在倒数第一段。

Obama attended six fundraisers to seek funding support.
Obama played host to his predecessor George Bush for the unveiling of his portrait.
A and B.
None of them is correct.

放松与总结

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<<后退

开始>>

您的正确率太低，在目前这个阶段，对你来说最重要的是提高英文水平和金融专业水平，而不是速度。请您点击后退仔细查看您答错的题目，并和原文对照。对原文中所有不懂的句子和知识点，也请一一查明。建议您：
1. 在进行下一次训练的时候，将滚屏速度保持在100以下。
2. 您可以找一些有声读物，如《经济学人》的audio edition，帮助你提高英文水平。

看得出你是非常认真来进行这次训练的，如果你坚持的话，你会获得非常大的提高。目前你的阅读速度偏低，可能是因为英文不是你的母语。不过，请不要放慢阅读速度。研究表明，阅读速度越快的人，其理解的正确率反而越高。因此，您可以同时提高您的阅读速度和理解能力。给你一点建议：
1. 一定要改掉默念的习惯
2. 不要一个词一个词的看，要学会把一个语义群当作一个整体来看。比如“an emergency $180bn injection of dollar”这个语义群，你要学会把他当作一个整体来看。
3. 看DVD的时候，切换到英文字幕。

用正常语速来朗读一篇文章，平均速度是每分钟140词。这说明你的阅读速度比朗读还要慢。建议您：1. 每一段的第一句话往往是最重要的。
2. “速读”最忌讳的就是“读”，不要一边看一边默念。
3. 在下一个训练中将滚屏速度设为140，迫使自己不能回头去看已经读过的部分。

您的阅读速度已经超过了正常语速，说明你已经开始有些速读的感觉了。美国大学生的最低阅读速度为每分钟250词，加把劲你就可以赶上了。建议您：
1. 养成习惯，读过的部分不要回头去看，这样会影响速读。
2. 加强“扫描”的训练，让自己的眼睛能“一目一行”。

您的阅读速度已经达到了美国大学生的水平，可喜可贺。不过作为金融从业人员，每天需要阅读数不清的中英文研究报告、公司年报、报刊杂志等，您还需要向每分钟350字进军。建议您：
1. 加强“扫描”的训练，让自己的眼睛能“一目两行”。
2. 对中英文的数字，尤其是大数字(million, billion)的转换进行总结和练习。

厉害，您的阅读速度已经超过了美国大学生的水平。不过，要成为巴菲特那样的金融专家，您需要锻炼出“一目十行”的火眼金睛。建议您在每次的训练中注意三个要点：
1. 您已经学会了将文章分成语义群，而非词来阅读，现在，你需要扩大每一个语义群中的词数。
2. 加快阅读每个语义群的速度。
3. 看过的内容尽量不要回看。

这就是传说中的“一目十行”吗？难以置信！

世界纪录才每分钟416,250字，居然被你破了！无语...

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