[A] European football is characterized by all sorts of inequalities

[B] it is indeed of little value to maintain absolute competitive balance within a league

[C] the charm of sport itself is more important than competitive balance within a league

[D] there is no need for Europe to imitate the American model since the latter is commercially unsuccessful in practice





文章剖析


这篇文章讲述了在欧洲和美国的体育界市场起到的作用。第一段讲述欧洲的体育界发生了一些变化；第二段讲述体育和其他商业活动在合作方面的不同；第三段讲述平等主义者的意见；第四段讲述美国体育界减少不平等的措施；第五段讲述体育竞争要比平等更为重要；第六段讲述欧洲足球是不平衡的。





词汇注释


pastime n. 消遣，娱乐

ire n. 愤怒

quibble v. 诡辩





难句突破


① It is a curious irony that Europe, which often takes a dim view of market forces, lets them rip in sport, while America, usually the world's most enthusiastic exponent of commerce and its consequences for society, has all sorts of arrangements in place to mitigate its effects on the nation's favourite pastimes.

主体句式：It is a curious irony that Europe,... lets them rip..., while America,... has all sorts of...

结构分析：句中it为形式主语，真正的主语为that从句，而其中which引导的是定语从句，用来修饰Europe，while引导的是状语从句，在该状语从句中，usually the world's...是前面America的同位语。

句子译文：这是一个很有趣的讽刺：欧洲往往对于市场的力量不屑一顾，却在体育上任其发挥作用；而美国虽然是全世界对商业最热情的支持者，且美国社会本身就是商业发展的结果，但这个国家却采取了各种措施来减少其对本国最受欢迎的娱乐活动的影响。

② The collective selling of television rights, now the main source of income for football's elite, has usually been sanctioned by the European Commission's antitrust arm.

主体句式：The collective selling... has usually been...

结构分析：这是一个简单句，now the main source of...是主语的同位语。

句子译文：出售电视转播权的收入是足球精英们目前最主要的收入来源，集体出售电视转播权通常能获得欧洲委员会反托拉斯部门的批准。





题目分析


1. The word “mitigate” (Line 3, Paragraph 1) most probably means _____.

[A] moderate

[B] enforce

[C] release

[D] mediate

1. mitigate这个词（第一段第三行） 最有可能的意思是 _____。

[A] 减少

[B] 加强

[C] 释放

[D] 协调

答案：A　难度系数：☆

分析：猜词题。根据第一段：It is a curious irony that Europe, which often takes a dim view of market forces, lets them rip in sport, while America, usually the world's most enthusiastic exponent of commerce and its consequences for society, has all sorts of arrangements in place to mitigate its effects on the nation's favourite pastimes. 说明欧洲虽然不重视市场的力量，却在体育上让市场发挥作用，而美国正相反，那就是采取措施减少市场力量对体育的影响。因此，答案为A。

2. In the field of sport, a change or tendency is taking place gradually in Europe that _____.

[A] the government begins to make use of market forces to influence sport

[B] the government intends to sanction relevant football laws so that all clubs can share resources equally

[C] the factors of both cooperation and collision are getting better managed in the sport field

[D] it becomes widely expected that sport could be independent of the market forces

2. 在体育领域，欧洲一个正在逐渐发生的变化或者说趋势是 _____。

[A] 政府开始运用市场的力量来影响体育

[B] 政府计划批准相关的足球法规，以便所有的俱乐部都可以平等地分享资源

[C] 在体育领域，合作和冲突都得到了更好的管理

[D] 更多的人希望体育可以不受市场力量的影响

答案：D　难度系数：☆☆☆

分析：细节题。从第一段可以看出，最近美国模式在欧洲也赢得了支持者，美国模式就是市场力量不过多地干涉体育，那么选项D最为符合题意。选项A和B都与这个意思相违背。选项C的表述与题干所谈论的趋势无关。

3. Professional sport differs from other businesses in the following aspects except _____.

[A] it is exempted from the influence of antitrust authorities

[B] collusion in sport is not counted as a kind of trust

[C] joint marketing could defend sport from being influenced by antitrust laws

[D] the European Commission supports the coalition in sport

3. 职业体育和其他商业活动在下列除 _____ 之外的方面是不同的。

[A] 职业体育不受反托拉斯机构的影响

[B] 体育的联合不是一种托拉斯

[C] 联合的市场可以使体育免受反托拉斯法的影响

[D] 欧洲委员会支持体育的联合

答案：C　难度系数：☆☆☆

分析：细节题。根据第二段，职业体育不同于其他商业活动的地方主要在于，其联合是不会被当作托拉斯的。选项A、B和D的内容都可以在该段找到，但是选项C所说的关于法律方面的情况文中却没有提及，因此，答案为C。

4. Towards the pursuit for the equality within a league, the author's attitude is that _____.

[A] Europe should not be too eager to take more measures for the sake of increasing equality within a league

[B] it is unnecessary to mitigate the effects of competition and inequality

[C] it is somewhat intricate whether this is necessary or desirable to seek competitive balance

[D] too much stress on the equality within a league will reduce the sport prowess

4. 作者对于联赛中追求平等的看法是 _____。

[A] 欧洲不应当因为联赛中越来越平等而急于采取更多的措施

[B] 不必减少竞争和不平等的影响

[C] 寻求竞争的平衡是否必要还是一个复杂的问题

[D] 联赛中过于强调平等会减少体育的魅力

答案：B　难度系数：☆☆☆

分析：态度题。有关作者对于联赛中寻求平等的看法，第五段虽然提到，这是否必要还不是很清楚，但这只是总体的看法，并非作者的看法。从后面两段中可以看出作者赞成保持竞争。因此，选项B符合题意。选项A具有较强的迷惑性，该选项从推理上来说有可能是正确的，但是文章中却并没有明确地提及。

5. From the cases described in the last paragraph, it can be inferred that _____.

[A] European football is characterized by all sorts of inequalities

[B] it is indeed of little value to maintain absolute competitive balance within a league

[C] the charm of sport itself is more important than competitive balance within a league

[D] there is no need for Europe to imitate the American model since the latter is commercially unsuccessful in practice

5. 从最后一段描述的案例中可以推断出 _____。

[A] 欧洲足球的特点就是存在各种各样的不平等

[B] 在联赛内部保持绝对的竞争平衡几乎是没有价值的

[C] 体育本身的魅力要比联赛中的竞争平衡更加重要

[D] 欧洲不必模仿美国的模式，因为后者在商业实践上并不成功

答案：C　难度系数：☆☆☆☆

分析：推理题。最后一段中的几个案例都是联赛内部不平衡的例子，最后提到，这些都未能阻止足球在全世界流行。可以看出，选项C最为符合题意。选项D有较强的干扰性，最后一段说明的主要问题是，欧洲没有必要模仿美国的模式，但主要原因不是因为美国模式在商业上不成功，而是因为欧洲模式本身就非常成功。选项A说明的是一个事实，但不是作者写这篇文章的主要目的。选项B的表述在文章中也没有提及。





参考译文


这是一个很有趣的讽刺：欧洲往往对于市场的力量不屑一顾，却在体育上任其发挥作用；而美国虽然是全世界对商业最热情的支持者，且美国社会本身就是商业发展的结果，但这个国家却采取了各种措施来减少其对本国最受欢迎娱乐活动的影响。但是最近，美国模式在欧洲也赢得了支持。许多国家的体育部长认为，足球需要免受竞争法的限制，这样，政府机构不用冒被起诉的危险，就可以平衡俱乐部的资源。欧洲委员会于7月11日发表了体育战略报告，对这些呼吁置之不理，但是这种压力却不会消失。

职业体育与其他商业行为在一个重要方面是不同的，即作为对手的两个队需要对方来创造可出售的产品——比赛。在大多数的商业活动中，对手间的合作会招致反托拉斯机构的反感。但是在体育界，联合的因素是不可避免的。团队与个人之间的平衡是很难把握的，但是欧洲的联邦反托拉斯检察官们却处理得很好。出售电视转播权的收入是足球精英们目前最主要的收入来源，集体出售电视转播权通常能获得欧洲委员会反托拉斯部门的批准。联合市场是有正当理由的，因为体育比赛本身就是一种联合。

平等主义者认为，大量的金钱最后只是造就了广受支持的俱乐部。比如，英格兰超级联赛共同出售了其电视转播权，各俱乐部之间瓜分收益。但是每个俱乐部得到的份额一部分取决于电视转播其比赛的场数，还要看它在联赛中的最终排名，因此切尔西和曼彻斯特联队获得了较大的份额。现在的担忧就是，一些俱乐部持续把持着国家锦标赛，这样可能会赶走那些支持者。

在美国，棒球、篮球、曲棍球以及橄榄球联赛都试图通过收入和球员共享协议——如“草稿”（棒球甚至有免受反托拉斯法限制的特别权利）——以减少竞争和不平等的影响。但这是否必要或值得还不很清楚。在联赛之间增加平等的措施减少了竞争，因此恐怕也减少了促使运动员不断完善自身的恐惧。

体育不仅仅意味着观看实力不相上下的队伍争夺第一。Michael Jordan每次退役都会终结芝加哥公牛队的霸主地位，美国职业篮球因此已经失去了其原有的魅力。自从Tiger Woods出现后，高尔夫运动变得流行起来，这个例子和Jordan的例子说明，体育的魅力对于体育迷来说，要比严格的竞争性平衡重要得多。

欧洲足球从来都不平衡。1889年，第一个职业联盟锦标赛的冠军就是普雷斯顿队的表演赛，它在共有22场比赛的赛季中没有输掉一场（它在1890年也取得了胜利，尽管自此后再没赢过）。葡萄牙、希腊、荷兰和苏格兰的锦标赛也经常是两三个俱乐部独占鳌头。大国的联赛的开放程度也差不多。曼联自从英超联赛于1992年成立以来，赢得了15次联赛中的9次冠军。这些都未能阻止足球在全球的流行，作为一种出口的产业，它要比美国同等地位的体育项目做得更好。





TEXT FOUR


Infertility is normally seen as a private matter. If a couple are infertile and wish they were not, that is sad. But there is understandable resistance in many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal with this sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds. Such funds are scarce, and infertility is not a life-threatening condition.

However, two papers presented to the “State of the ART” conference held earlier this month in Lyon argue that in Europe, at least, there may be a public interest in promoting ARTs after all. The low fertility rate in many of that continent's more developed countries means their populations are aging and shrinking. If governments want to change this, ARTs—most significantly invitro fertilisation (IVF)—could offer at least part of a way to do so.

As the conference heard, IVF does seem to be keeping up the numbers in at least one country. Tina Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark has just finished a study of more than 700,000 Danish women. She found that young women in Denmark have a significantly lower natural conception rate than in past decades. That is partly, but not entirely, because they are having their children later in life. The rest of the cause is unknown, though reduced sperm quality in men may be a factor. Whatever the cause, she also found that the effect has been almost completely compensated for by an increasing use of ARTs. Denmark's native population is more or less stable, but some 3.9% of babies born there in 2003 were the result of IVF. The comparable figure for another northern European country, Britain, was 1.5%.

Without IVF, then, the number of Danes would be shrinking fast. That it is not may have something to do with the fact that in Denmark the taxpayer will cover up to six cycles of IVF treatment. In Britain, by contrast, couples are supposed to be entitled to three cycles. In practice, many of the local trusts that dish the money out do not pay for any cycles at all. Jonathan Grant, the head of the Cambridge branch of the Rand Corporation (an American think-tank), believes this is shortsighted. His paper showed that if Britain supported IVF at the Danish level then its birth rate would probably increase by about 10,000 a year.

The cost of offering six cycles to couples (and doing so in practice, rather than just in theory) would be an extra ￡250m-430m a year. That is not trivial, but Dr. Grant reckons it is cheaper than other ways of boosting the birth rate. Some countries, for example, have tried to bribe women into having more children by increasing child benefits. According to his calculations, raising such benefits costs between ￡50,000 and ￡100,000 a year for each additional birth procured. Ten thousand extra births each year would thus cost between ￡500m and ￡1 billion.

There are, of course, some disadvantages to promoting IVF. In particular, women who use it tend to be older than those who conceive naturally, and that can lead to congenital problems in their children. But if the countries of Europe do wish to keep their populations up, making IVF more widely available might be a good way of doing so.

1. According to the text, the public's opinion on the infertility treatments is that _____.

[A] the treatments should be paid for out of public funds

[B] the treatments are not so compulsory as they consume the limited public funds

[C] the treatments are not necessarily only paid for out of public funds

[D] the public is not obliged to pay for such treatments of no urgent nature

2. According to the study conducted by Tina Jensen, which one of the following statements is TRUE?

[A] ARTs have reversed the tendency of population decreasing in Denmark.

[B] Danes' problem of low natural conception has been completely counterbalanced by the widely use of ARTs.

[C] The population of Denmark is not decreasing after the adoption of ARTs.

[D] IVF has played an essential role in Denmark in terms of keeping up the number of population.

3. From the paper of Dr. Grant, it can be inferred that _____.

[A] the cost of offering six cycles of IVF to couples is not high at all

[B] IVF treatment is an economical way of solving population shrinking

[C] Britain does not promote adopting IVF to boost the birth rate

[D] encouraging women to bear more babies by bonus is not so efficient to solve the problem of population shrinking

4. The word “congenital” (Line 2, Paragraph 6) most probably means _____.

[A] innate

[B] instinctive

[C] cerebral

[D] acquired

5. According to the passage, the author's attitude towards promoting invitro fertilization can be said to be _____.

[A] supportive

[B] opposing

[C] ambiguous

[D] objective





文章剖析


这篇文章介绍了辅助生育技术是否应当由公众基金支付这一问题。第一段讲述了目前公众对该问题的看法；第二段讲述“辅助生育技术现状”会议发布了两个报告，赞成政府支持“辅助生育技术”；第三段和第四段讲述丹麦实施这种措施的效果；第五段讲述辅助生育技术要比其他方法成本低；第六段讲述体外授精的一些缺点。





难句突破


① But there is understandable resistance in many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal with this sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds.

主体句式：But there is understandable resistance... to the idea that...

结构分析：这是一个复合句，that引导的是idea的同位语从句；在该同位语从句中，过去分词结构known as...作treatments的定语。

句子译文：但是许多国家反对使用公众基金来治疗不育（辅助生育技术），这是合情合理的。

② However, two papers presented to the “State of the ART” conference held earlier this month in Lyon argue that in Europe, at least, there may be a public interest in promoting ARTs after all.

主体句式：However, two papers... argue that...

结构分析：这是一个复合句，分词结构held earlier...修饰前面的two papers；that引导的是宾语从句。

句子译文：但是，本月初在里昂举行的“辅助生育技术现状”会议上发布了两个报告，认为至少是在欧洲，公众可能有兴趣促进辅助生育技术的发展。





题目分析


1. According to the text, the public's opinion on the infertility treatments is that _____.

[A] the treatments should be paid for out of public funds

[B] the treatments are not so compulsory as they consume the limited public funds

[C] the treatments are not necessarily only paid for out of public funds

[D] the public is not obliged to pay for such treatments of no urgent nature

1. 根据这篇文章，公众对于治疗不育的看法是 _____。

[A] 治疗的费用应该由公众基金来支付

[B] 治疗并不是义务的，因为其消耗了有限的公众基金

[C] 治疗并不一定只由公众基金来付费

[D] 公众没有义务为这种不具有紧急性质的治疗支付费用

答案：B　难度系数：☆☆☆

分析：细节题。根据文章第一段：But there is understandable resistance in many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal with this sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds. Such funds are scarce, and infertility is not a life-threatening condition. 可见，许多国家反对用公众基金来支付治疗不育的费用。选项A的表述显然不符合题意。而选项C的表述不如选项B确切。选项D的表述过于绝对，不能反映公众总体意见。因此，选项B最为符合。

2. According to the study conducted by Tina Jensen, which one of the following statements is TRUE?

[A] ARTs have reversed the tendency of population decreasing in Denmark.

[B] Danes' problem of low natural conception has been completely counterbalanced by the widely use of ARTs.

[C] The population of Denmark is not decreasing after the adoption of ARTs.

[D] IVF has played an essential role in Denmark in terms of keeping up the number of population.

2. 根据Tina Jensen的研究，下列哪个陈述是正确的？

[A] 辅助生育技术扭转了丹麦人口减少的趋势。

[B] 丹麦人自然受孕率低的问题已经完全被体外受精的广泛使用抵消了。

[C] 丹麦人口在使用了辅助生育技术后就没有再减少了。

[D] 体外受精为帮助丹麦维持人口数量起到了重要的作用。

答案：D　难度系数：☆☆☆☆

分析：根据第四段，没有体外受精技术，丹麦人口就会减少得更快，那么可以看出，现在丹麦人口仍在减少，但是速度放缓。因此，选项A和C是错误的。选项D，第三段提到了丹麦人口是稳定的。因此，答案为D。选项B有一定的干扰性，文章第三段指出：Whatever the cause, she also found that the effect has been almost completely compensated for by an increasing use of ARTs. 与该选项的意思接近，但是文章中用了一个almost，与completely在意思上有出入。

3. From the paper of Dr. Grant, it can be inferred that _____.

[A] the cost of offering six cycles of IVF to couples is not high at all

[B] IVF treatment is an economical way of solving population shrinking