2018年6月英语六级考试真题及答案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.

【参考答案】

46-50：ADBDC

【参考翻译】

从经济角度来说，我们比十年前富裕吗？二十年前？

为了寻找证据，评论员们抓住了美国人口普查局（Census Bureau）最近的一份报告。该报告发现，2015年美庭平均收入增长了5.2%。不幸的是，这个结论过于强调一个有用但有缺陷且不完整的统计数据。人口普查的措施存在的一个更严重的问题是:1）它不包括税收、转移支付以及雇主提供的医疗保险等补偿；2）它是基于调查而不是数据。即使经过精确测量，收入数据也排除了经济福祉的重要决定因素，比如赚取收入所需的工作时间。

在思考这个问题时，我们看到了查尔斯•琼斯（Charles Jones）和彼得•克莱诺（Peter Klenow）最近发表的一篇文章，文章提出了一种有趣的经济福利新衡量标准。尽管并非完美无缺，但它比平均收入要全面得多，这不仅考虑到人均消费的增长，也考虑到工作时间、预期寿命和不平等的变化。此外，它还可以用于评估各个的经济表现和时间。

Jones-Klenow方法可以用一个跨国的例子来说明。假设我们要比较美国公民的经济福利和2005年的法国。

2005年，正如作者观察到的:法国人均实际消费量仅为美国的60%美国人的平均经济状况似乎比法国人好得多。然而，这种对比忽略了其他相关因素:休闲时间、预期寿命和经济不平等。法国人休假时间更长，退休时间更早，因此通常工作时间更少；他们的预期寿命更高，这大概反映了在医疗保健、饮食、生活方式等方面的优势由于这些差异，比较法国和美国的消费这夸大了经济福利方面的差距。

类似的计算可以用来比较美国和其他。例如，这项计算表明英国的经济福利占美国的97%但据估计，墨西哥人的幸福指数为22%。

琼斯-克莱诺指数还可以评估一个经济体的长期表现。根据这一衡量标准，从2000年代初到2005年中期，美国的经济增速一直在放缓拥有任何一个大国中较高的经济福利。自2007年以来，美国的经济福利继续改善。然而，改善的步伐明显放缓。

从方法论上讲，琼斯-克莱诺研究的教训是，经济福利是多维度的。他们的方法足够灵活，原则上可以将其他重要的生活质量变化纳入其中——例如，减少污染物总排放量和降低犯罪率。

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2018年6月英语六级考试真题及答案汇总（第3套）