Question

閱讀理解 　　Thanks to depressed markets, investment(投資)banks are reducing many of their highly－paid traders．When markets recover, the banks might be willing to replace them with rather cheaper talent．One alternative has been around for a while but has yet to catch on：autonomous trading agents－computers programmed to act like the human version without such troublesome costs as holidays, lunch breaks．Program trading has been done before; some blamed the 1987 stock market crash on computers instructed with simple decision－making rules．But robots can be smarter than that． 　　Dave Cliff, a researcher at Hewlett－Packard Laboratories in Bristol, England, has been creating trading robots for seven years．His simulation(模擬)experiments have suggested that a redesign of some markets could lead to greater efficiency．Last year, a research group at IBM showed that Mr Cliff's artificial traders could unchangeably beat the human variety, in various kinds of market．Nearly all take the shape of an auction(拍賣)．One well-known type is the English auction, familiar to customers of the salesrooms of Christie's and Sotheby's where sellers keep silent on their offer price, and buyers increase their bids by stages until only one remains． 　　At the other extreme is the Dutch auction, familiar to traders in the Netherlands as well as to bidders for American Treasury bonds．Here, buyers remain silent, and a seller reduces his price until it is accepted．Most markets for shares are a mixture of these two types：buyers and sellers can announce their bid or offer prices at any time, and deals are constantly being closed, a so-called “continuous double auction”． 　　Mr Cliff's new idea was to apply his evolutionary computer programs to market places themselves．Why not, he thought, try and see what types of auction would let traders converge(趨于達成一致)most quickly towards a balance price? The results were surprising．In his models, auctions that let buyers and sellers bid at any time like most of today's financial exchanges were less efficient than ones that required relatively more bids from either buyers or sellers．These “evolved(演變的)auctions” also withstood(經(jīng)得起)big market shocks, such as crashes and panics, better than today's real-world versions． 　　Bank of America has been investigating these new auctions, along with robotic traders, for possible use in electronic exchanges．The hope is that today's financial auctions and online market places might work better by becoming more like their English and Dutch forebears． (1) The passage is mainly ________． [　　] A． a review of two kinds of auctions B． an introduction of trading robots C． a survey of the trading market D． about trading alternatives (2) Which of the following is true according to the passage? [　　] A． David's robot traders have now been used in real-world markets． B． Robot traders can change like creatures． C． There is room for improvement in efficiency in trading markets． D． The English auction is the most popular trading form． (3) We can infer from the passage that ________． [　　] A． existing auctions can not withstand market shocks B． the Dutch auction is better than the continuous double auction C． it's hard for traders to reach an equilibrium price D． the best type of auction takes place when the number of the buyers is equal to that of sellers (4) The passage was written in a(an)________ tune． [　　] A． worried B． objective C． hesitant D． optimistic

Answer 1

答案：1．B;2．C;3．B;4．D;
解析：

(1)	考查主旨大意。文章首先介紹了市場低迷，需要有新的舉措，接著引出了自動化貿(mào)易機器人這個話題，然后對其研究進行了詳細的敘述，最后展望了其美好前景，所以此項是文章的中心內(nèi)容。
(2)	考查細節(jié)理解。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段后半部分中的“…today's financial exchanges were less efficient…”可知如今的貿(mào)易市場在效率方面還有提高的空間。文章介紹了英國和荷蘭兩種著名的拍賣方式，因此最后一項不全面。
(3)	考查推理判斷。根據(jù)最后一段最后一句可推斷此項正確，另外，第三段最后的so-called表示“所謂的”，是貶義詞，也是做題線索。倒數(shù)第二段最后一句提到這些演變的拍賣方式也能經(jīng)得起大的市場沖擊，由此可知現(xiàn)存的拍賣能夠經(jīng)得起市場沖擊，所以A項錯誤；尋求價格的平衡點是買賣雙方之間的事情，而不是trader的行為，所以C項不正確；最后一項在文中沒有信息支持。
(4)	解析：考查推理判斷。歷經(jīng)多年苦心研制自動化貿(mào)易機器人，并得到權(quán)威部門和銀行的肯定，再結(jié)合最后一段最后一句可推斷此項正確。 　　文章大意：如何讓買賣雙方盡快在價格方面趨于一致是一位研究人員多年來不斷思考的一個問題，為此，他一直在研制貿(mào)易機器人，并得到權(quán)威部門的認(rèn)可。