问题 阅读理解

You might say that one reason why Barack Obama is president of the US is that he knows how to give a good speech.

Since 2004, Obama has written and delivered thousands of speeches. These are usually praised for two reasons: he treats the audiences like intelligent(有智慧的) adults, and he is able to express complicated ideas in an easy, natural way.

Before becoming president, Obama was a lawyer, a college professor, and a successful writer---his two memories have become best-sellers.

What’s more, he has some secret weapons.

Teleprompter: Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his Teleprompter. The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he goes to speak.

Writing team: Obama has a team of people who write his speeches. The writers chat with Obama for hours about what he wants to say. They listen to recordings of past presidential speeches and seek advice from advisers. Obama usually edits(编辑)and rewrites the drafts(草稿)several times.

Tricks for lighthearted speeches:

Make fun of the guests: Obama starts his speech by gently teasing his guests. His opening lines draw the audience’s attention while giving them an opportunity to relax and laugh at themselves and each other.

Make fun of yourself: A good rule for speechmakers: If you’re going to make a joke about someone else, be sure to make one about yourself, too. Obama mocks(嘲弄) his own poor choices for filling the position of Commerce Secretary, saying, “No president in history has ever named three Commerce Secretaries this quickly.” In fact, his first two nominees(被提名人)for the position withdrew(撤出) their names for different reasons. In a process that had otherwise gone smoothly, the Obama Administration found it hard to deal with the problem of filling the Commerce seat.

小题1:Obama made the poetic and inspiring speech in 2004 as________.

A.president

B.a nominee for the presidency

C.a senator

D.a secretary小题2:What’s the meaning of the underlined word in paragraph 2?

A.Difficult to understand.

B.Easy to understand.

C.Different from others.

D.Interesting to say.小题3:From the passage, we know that Obama’s secret weapons are all these EXCEPT ____.

A.a writing team

B.a teleprompter

C.humor

D.motivation小题4:What’s the best title of the passage?

A.Secrets of Obama’s successful speeches.

B.Obama’s successful speeches.

C.Obama’s way of making speeches.

D.Problems of Obama’s speeches.

答案

小题1:C

小题2:A

小题3:D

小题4:A

题目分析:

【文章大意】本文是一篇说明文。文章讲述了奥巴马演讲成功的秘诀。

小题1:C考查推理判断及常识。2004年奥巴马还不是总统,他当时是个议员。故选C。

小题2:A考查猜测词义。根据文章第二段中的he is able to express complicated ideas in an easy, natural way.

可知,他能够用简单自然的方法表达复杂的思想,此处采用的是利用反义词法,猜测词义。选A。   

小题3:D考查细节理解。根据文章的内容可知,D没有提到,故选D。

小题4:A考查文章的标题。根据文章的整体内容可知,文章主要讲述了奥巴马演讲成功的秘诀。故选A。

填空题
单项选择题

"You are not here to tell me what to do. You are here to tell me why I have done what I have already decided to do," Montagu Norman, the Bank of England’s longest-serving governor (1920-1944), is reputed to have once told his economic adviser. Today, thankfully, central banks aim to be more transparent in their decision making, as well as more rational. But achieving either of these things is not always easy. With the most laudable of intentions, the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, may be about to take a step that could backfire.

Unlike the Fed, many other central banks have long declared explicit inflation targets and then set interest rates to try to meet these. Some economists have argued that the Fed should do the same. With Alan Greenspan, the Fed’s much-respected chairman, due to retire next year-after a mere 18 years in the job-some Fed officials want to adopt a target, presumably to maintain the central bank’s credibility in the scary new post-Greenspan era. The Fed discussed such a target at its February meeting, according to minutes published this week. This sounds encouraging. However, the Fed is considering the idea just when some other central banks are beginning to question whether strict inflation targeting really works.

At present centra1 banks focus almost exclusively on consumer-price indices. On this measure Mr. Greenspan can boast that inflation remains under control. But some central bankers now argue that the prices of assets, such as houses and shares, should also somehow be taken into account. A broad price index for America which includes house prices is currently running at 5.5%, its fastest pace since 1982. Inflation has simply taken a different form.

Should central banks also try to curb increases in such asset prices Mr. Greenspan continues to insist that monetary policy should not be used to prick asset-price bubbles. Identifying bubbles is difficult, except in retrospect, he says, and interest rates are a blunt weapon: an increase big enough to halt rising prices could trigger a recession. It is better, he says, to wait for a housing or stockmarket bubble to burst and then to cushion the economy by cutting interest rates-as he did in 2001-2002.

And yet the risk is not just that asset prices can go swiftly into reverse. As with traditional inflation, surging asset prices also distort price signals and so can cause a misallocation of resources-encouraging too little saving, for example, or too much investment in housing. Surging house prices may therefore argue for higher interest rates than conventional inflation would demand. In other words, strict inflation targeting-the fad of the 1990s-is too crude.

We can learn from the third paragraph that ()

A. increases in asset prices are interfered by the Federal Reserves

B. more emphasis should be placed on consumer-price indices

C. changes have taken place in the pattern of inflation

D. inflation have been brought under federal control