【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障3系列】【3-12】

mahaofei001

速度
计时一
PARIS—The leaders of France and Germany,racing to shore up the euro, on Monday issued an ultimatum to the 27 EuropeanUnion governments, saying they must decide by week's end whether they willaccept greater central control over their national budgets—effectively cedingsome of their fiscal sovereignty.

Should some countries decide not toparticipate—the U.K., which opted out of euro membership, has shown littleenthusiasm so far—the 17 countries in the euro zone will forge ahead with amore integrated union by signing a new agreement outside EU treaties, theysaid.

"We will see whether it will be 17 or27," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a joint news conferencewith German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But we're going full steam ahead tore-establish confidence in the euro and the euro zone."

The euro crisis took on renewed urgencyMonday when Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in a surprise move putFrance, Germany and 13 other euro-zone nations on review for credit downgrades,highlighting rising concern about the currency bloc's prolonged inability tocome up with a decisive fix for its debt woes.

The French and German leaders also made acommitment to never again pressure private investors into agreeing to voluntarylosses on euro-denominated bonds—a central element of Greece's second bailoutthat is still being negotiated.

The commitment marked a shift on the partof Germany from earlier plans to enshrine private-sector participation in anyfuture bailout agreements.


"Greece is and will remain anexception," Ms. Merkel said.

The pledge isn't an ironclad guarantee forbond holders but means that Germany has recognized the damage its insistence onprivate-investor participation has done to investor confidence.
——281
计时二
"The message to investors from acrossthe world is that in Europe we pay back our debts," Mr. Sarkozy said.
More on Euro-Crisis in Video

Many observers and economists have dubbedthe next five days a "make-or-break" week for the euro. StephenFidler explains what to expect on Markets Hub.

After meeting for two hours, Mr. Sarkozyand Ms. Merkel said they will use an EU summit on Thursday and Friday topropose altering EU treaties in order to bolster fiscal discipline.

"We're open to changing the treatiesfor the 27, that would be the most logical way," Ms. Merkel said."But the euro is so important for us that we would also go the path of the17 euro-zone countries."

Bond market investors on Monday wereheartened by fresh budget and economic reforms offered by Italy over theweekend, as well as the signals that France and Germany are beginning a biggerpush for fiscal union in the euro zone. Prices for bonds from Italy, Spain,France, Portugal and Belgium rallied sharply.

European bond markets were largely closedby the time reports emerged about S&'s move, but U.S. markets slid ashopes for a comprehensive European solution this week gave way to concerns aboutpotential credit-rating downgrades in the euro zone. After opening with a jumpof 167 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up nearly all thoseadvances in the afternoon. The blue-chip index retraced some of those losses inthe final minutes to finish with a gain of 78.41 points, or 0.7%, at 12097.83.

Asian markets opened slightly down onTuesday morning, with Japan falling 0.6% and Australia falling 0.5%.

The move by S& reinforces the beliefthat Friday's summit will be a "make or break" moment for Europe.Follow our live coverage.
——297
计时三

The Franco-German proposal is aimed atremodeling the architecture of the euro zone and resolving a two-yearsovereign-debt crisis that has corroded investor confidence in the 12-year-oldcurrency and led three countries—Greece, Ireland and Portugal—to seek financialassistance. Under current rules, the 17 euro-zone nations share the samecurrency but have little oversight over each other's budget policies.

A key plank in the Franco-German plan is tointroduce more "automatic and immediate" sanctions on budget sinners.Such sanctions are already embedded in EU treaties but they haven't beenenforced because of national political resistance.

The proposal marks an important step in arecent strategy aimed at rebuilding confidence in the euro zone. Some policymakers hope this will be enough to persuade the European Central Bank to stepup intervention in government-bond markets to reverse recent selloffs and help bringdown borrowing costs.

The Thursday and Friday summit in Brusselscomes after a frantic succession of meetings over the past two years that haveoften buoyed investor hope only to later dash it.

If leaders at this summit succeed in makinga decision on fiscal integration, European countries then have to agree on thefine print. Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Merkel said they want those details to beagreed upon by March.

The pressure grew with S&'s unexpectedmove to put the bulk of the currency bloc on review for a credit-ratingsdowngrade.

Investors have speculated for months thatFrance was at risk of losing its prized triple-A credit rating, a key pillar ofthe euro zone's bailout fund, with many analysts anticipating an initial movefrom one of the main ratings agencies early next year. But the decision to alsoput the ratings of Germany and the top-ranked euro-zone countries on reviewfurther reinforces the notion that the crisis is contaminating the core of thecurrency bloc.
——310
计时四
S& said it decided to act ahead of theBrussels summit because the gathering "provides an opportunity for policymakers to break the pattern of what we consider to have been defensive andpiecemeal measures to date."

The decision is likely to fuel jittersabout the risks underlying the region's bailout fund, known as the EuropeanFinancial Stability Facility, whose own triple-A status stems from theguarantees provided by its triple-A graded members.

France and Germany issued a joint statementlate Monday taking note of S&'s decision, saying they were determined"to take all the necessary measures, in liaison with their partners andthe European institutions, to ensure the stability of the euro area."

Germany had initially indicated that itwould be reluctant to knit tighter fiscal straitjackets just for euro-zonecountries, for fear it could cause countries outside the euro, such as theU.K., to feel marginalized. But the worsening euro-zone crisis has made Berlinmore willing to contemplate a two-tier Europe.

Whichever route they take, European nationsface further challenges. Amending EU treaties could prove an uphill struggle,especially after the U.K. warned it would submit any proposal to relinquishmore powers to the EU to a popular referendum.

And should euro-zone countries decide topursue their own course toward deeper fiscal integration, they may still facedifficulties in securing popular support for what some political forces arebilling as a loss of sovereignty.

The political battle will be particularlyhard fought in France, where voters go to the polls in a presidential race inthe spring. Some of the candidates—including Socialist François Hollande andMarine Le Pen, from the far-right National Front—have accused Mr. Sarkozy ofgiving in to Germany and relinquishing sovereignty over national budgetprerogatives.

In a speech last week, Mr. Sarkozy saidFrance would risk descending into economic "recession or evendepression" if it entrenched itself in protectionism.

At the heart of the debate over sovereigntyis the issue of how to punish budget-rule busters.
——333

越障
A tropical cyclone is a storm systemcharacterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms thatproduce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when waterevaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting incondensation of water vapor contained in the moist air. They are fueled by adifferent heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easters,European windstorms, and polar lows. The characteristic that separates tropicalcyclones from other cyclonic systems is that at any height in the atmosphere,the center of a tropical cyclone will be warmer than its surroundings; a phenomenoncalled "warm core" storm systems.

The term "tropical" refers bothto the geographical origin of these systems, which usually form in tropicalregions of the globe, and to their formation in maritime tropical air masses.The term "cyclone" refers to such storms' cyclonic nature, withcounterclockwise wind flow in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise wind flowin the Southern Hemisphere. The opposite direction of the wind flow is a resultof the Coriolis force. Depending on its location and strength, a tropicalcyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane (/?h?r?ke?n/, /?h?r?k?n/), typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression,and simply cyclone.

While tropical cyclones can produceextremely powerful winds and torrential rain, they are also able to producehigh waves and damaging storm surge as well as spawning tornadoes. They developover large bodies of warm water, and lose their strength if they move over landdue to increased surface friction and loss of the warm ocean as an energysource. This is why coastal regions can receive significant damage from atropical cyclone, while inland regions are relatively safe from receivingstrong winds. Heavy rains, however, can produce significant flooding inland,and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 kilometres (25mi) from the coastline. Although their effects on human populations can bedevastating, tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions. They also carryheat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes,which makes them an important part of the global atmospheric circulationmechanism. As a result, tropical cyclones help to maintain equilibrium in theEarth's troposphere, and to maintain a relatively stable and warm temperatureworldwide.

Many tropical cyclones develop when theatmospheric conditions around a weak disturbance in the atmosphere arefavorable. The background environment is modulated by climatological cycles andpatterns such as the Madden-Julian oscillation, El Niño-Southern Oscillation,and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Others form when other types ofcyclones acquire tropical characteristics. Tropical systems are then moved bysteering winds in the troposphere; if the conditions remain favorable, thetropical disturbance intensifies, and can even develop an eye. On the other endof the spectrum, if the conditions around the system deteriorate or thetropical cyclone makes landfall, the system weakens and eventually dissipates.It is not possible to artificially induce the dissipation of these systems withcurrent technology.
All tropical cyclones are areas of lowatmospheric pressure in the Earth's atmosphere. The pressures recorded at thecenters of tropical cyclones are among the lowest that occur on Earth's surfaceat sea level.[1] Tropical cyclones are characterized and driven by the releaseof large amounts of latent heat of condensation, which occurs when moist air iscarried upwards and its water vapor condenses. This heat is distributedvertically around the center of the storm. Thus, at any given altitude (exceptclose to the surface, where water temperature dictates air temperature) theenvironment inside the cyclone is warmer than its outer surroundings.[2]
[edit] Eye and center

A strong tropical cyclone will harbor anarea of sinking air at the center of circulation. If this area is strongenough, it can develop into a large "eye". Weather in the eye isnormally calm and free of clouds, although the sea may be extremely violent.[3]The eye is normally circular in shape, and is typically 30–65 km (20–40 miles)in diameter, though eyes as small as 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) and as large as 370kilometres (230 mi) have been observed.[4][5] Intense, mature tropical cyclonescan sometimes exhibit an outward curving of the eyewall's top, making itresemble an arena football stadium; this phenomenon is thus sometimes referredto as the stadium effect.[6] It is usually coldest in the center.

There are other features that eithersurround the eye, or cover it. The central dense overcast is the concentratedarea of strong thunderstorm activity near the center of a tropical cyclone;[7]in weaker tropical cyclones, the CDO may cover the center completely.[8] Theeyewall is a circle of strong thunderstorms that surrounds the eye; here iswhere the greatest wind speeds are found, where clouds reach the highest, andprecipitation is the heaviest. The heaviest wind damage occurs where a tropicalcyclone's eyewall passes over land.[3] Eyewall replacement cycles occurnaturally in intense tropical cyclones. When cyclones reach peak intensity theyusually have an eyewall and radius of maximum winds that contract to a verysmall size, around 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to 25 kilometres (16 mi). Outerrainbands can organize into an outer ring of thunderstorms that slowly movesinward and robs the inner eyewall of its needed moisture and angular momentum.When the inner eyewall weakens, the tropical cyclone weakens (in other words,the maximum sustained winds weaken and the central pressure rises.) The outereyewall replaces the inner one completely at the end of the cycle. The stormcan be of the same intensity as it was previously or even stronger after theeyewall replacement cycle finishes. The storm may strengthen again as it buildsa new outer ring for the next eyewall replacement.[9]

The Earth's rotation imparts anacceleration known as the Coriolis effect, Coriolis acceleration, orcolloquially, Coriolis force. This acceleration causes cyclonic systems to turntowards the poles in the absence of strong steering currents.[55] The polewardportion of a tropical cyclone contains easterly winds, and the Coriolis effectpulls them slightly more poleward. The westerly winds on the equatorwardportion of the cyclone pull slightly towards the equator, but, because theCoriolis effect weakens toward the equator, the net drag on the cyclone ispoleward. Thus, tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere usually turn north(before being blown east), and tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphereusually turn south (before being blown east) when no other effects counteractthe Coriolis effect.[21]

The Coriolis effect also initiates cyclonicrotation, but it is not the driving force that brings this rotation to highspeeds – that force is the heat of condensation.[19]

Passage 63 (63/63)
The fact that superior service can generatea competitive advantage for a company does not mean that every attempt atimproving service will create such an advantage. Investments in service, likethose in production and distribution, must be balanced against other types ofinvestments on the basis of direct, tangible benefitssuch as cost reduction and increased revenues. If a company is alreadyeffectively on a par with its competitors because it provides service thatavoids a damaging reputation and keeps customers from leaving at anunacceptable rate, then investment in higher service levels may be wasted,since service is a deciding factor for customers only in extreme situations.

This truth was not apparent to managers ofone regional bank, which failed to improve its competitive position despite itsinvestment in reducing the time a customer had to wait for a teller. The bankmanagers did not recognize the level of customer inertia in the consumerbanking industry that arises from the inconvenience of switching banks. Nor didthey analyze their service improvement to determine whether it would attractnew customers by producing a new standard of service that would excitecustomers or by proving difficult for competitors to copy. The only merit ofthe improvement was that it could easily be described to customers.

1.      Theprimary purpose of the passage is to 【   】
(A) contrast possible outcomes of a type ofbusiness investment
(B) suggest more careful evaluation of atype of business investment
(C) illustrate various ways in which a typeof business investment could fail to enhance revenues
(D) trace the general problems of a companyto a certain type of business investment
(E) criticize the way in which managerstend to analyze the costs and benefits of business investments
2.      Accordingto the passage, investments in service are comparable to investments inproduction and distribution in terms of the 【   】
(A) tangibility of the benefits that theytend to confer
(B) increased revenues that they ultimatelyproduce
(C) basis on which they need to be weighed
(D) insufficient analysis that managersdevote to them
(E) degree of competitive advantage thatthey are likely to provide
3.      Thepassage suggests which of the following about service provided by the regionalbank prior to its investment in enhancing that service? 【   】
(A) It enabled the bank to retain customersat an acceptable rate.
(B) It threatened to weaken the bank’scompetitive position with respect to other regional banks.
(C) It had already been improved afterhaving caused damage to the bank’s reputation in the past.
(D) It was slightly superior to that of thebank’s regional competitors.
(E) It needed to be improved to attainparity with the service provided by competing banks.
4.      Thepassage suggests that bank managers failed to consider whether or not the serviceimprovement mentioned in line 19 【   】
(A) was too complicated to be easilydescribed to prospective customers
(B) made a measurable change in theexperiences of customers in the bank’s offices
(C) could be sustained if the number ofcustomers increased significantly
(D) was an innovation that competing bankscould have imitated
(E) was adequate to bring the bank’sgeneral level of service to a level that was comparable with that of itscompetitors
5.      Thediscussion of the regional bank (line 13-24) serves which of the followingfunctions within the passage as a whole? 【   】
(A) It describes an exceptional case inwhich investment in service actually failed to produce a competitive advantage.
(B) It illustrates the pitfalls of choosingto invest in service at a time when investment is needed more urgently inanother area.
(C) It demonstrates the kind of analysisthat managers apply when they choose one kind of service investment overanother.
(D) It supports the argument thatinvestments in certain aspects of service are more advantageous thaninvestments in other aspects of service.
(E) It provides an example of the pointabout investment in service made in the first paragraph.
6.      Theauthor uses the word “only” in line 23 most likely in order to 【   】
(A) highlight the oddity of the serviceimprovement
(B) emphasize the relatively low value ofthe investment in service improvement
(C) distinguish the primary attribute ofthe service improvement from secondary attributes
(D) single out a certain merit of theservice improvement from other merits
(E) point out the limited duration of theactual service improvement

1.      B       2.      C       3.      A       4.      D      5.      E   6.      B      
The fact that superior service can generatea competitive advantage for a company does not mean that every attempt atimproving service will create such an advantage. Investments in service, likethose in production and distribution, must be balanced against other types ofinvestments on the basis of direct, tangible benefits such as cost reductionand increased revenues. （第二题定位）If acompany is already effectively on a par with its competitors because itprovides service that avoids a damaging reputation and keeps customers fromleaving at an unacceptable rate,（第三题定位） theninvestment in higher service levels may be wasted, since service is a decidingfactor for customers only in extreme situations.

This truth was not apparent to managers ofone regional bank, which failed to improve its competitive position despite itsinvestment in reducing the time a customer had to wait for a teller. The bankmanagers did not recognize the level of customer inertia in the consumerbanking industry that arises from the inconvenience of switching banks.（第三题定位） Nor did they analyze their service improvement to determine whetherit would attract new customers by producing a new standard of service thatwould excite customers or by proving difficult for competitors to copy.（第四题定位） The only merit of the improvement was that it could easily bedescribed to customers.

63篇阅读基本都发全了，相信跟着阅读小分队练习的同学会从中学到很多的。
不敢说我提供的解析一定正确，但它一定是原创的，是我个人做题的经验。相信balapupu姐也是一样的。还是那句话，对我们的解析如果有不同意见贴下留言，我们可以讨论下。最后感谢下CD和阅读小分队，没有你们当中的同学在我一战失利后的鼓励和支持我很难一直坚持做这件到现在，更不会有斗志继续复习。闲话不多说了，我们看文章。

一篇经管类的文章，看完第一句，我们知道作者是在对一个理论提出不同看法了。所以大家要清楚这是篇对旧理论阐述新观点的文章。接下来我们看到了，investment in service，好了，这就是这篇文章要讨论的内容了——服务上投资。然后继续看到must balance against所以这是作者对investmentin service的看法了。然后是if巴拉巴拉的一堆，我们可以看成是对上述观点的一种补充。强调这种投资何时有用。

第二段，举了一个例子。来说明有人误用了此类投资。说了些他这么做的失败之处。大家稍微记下这个内容我们就可以看题了。

第一题，主旨题。相信大家可以很快锁定AB两个选项的吧。尤其很多人想选A,在这里我想说的是contrast这个词见到了就可以把它所在选项排除掉。因为完全意义上的驳论文gmat里出现的不多。具体在这个题上看，A反对一种特定投资的各种可能结果，全文不是反对的可能结果，而是重新对这种特定投资的重新认识，所以选B。

第二题，罪恶的题目啊。我无奈的选错了。刚想明白，给大家说说这题为什么不选A吧。因为A中说的是tangibility of the benefits.而文中说的是the basis of direct, tangible benefits邪恶了吧！重心改变了。原文中的意思是直接的好处，强调的是好处。而A说得成了好处的真实性。中心词变化了，丫丫的，让我联想到了一个苦逼的语法题，汗死了。面壁中……

第三题，感觉这个题的定位不是太好找，我找了两处，联系起来看的。题中问的是在投资服务之前的投资有啥特点。而作者又是再说服务投资是无用的。所以必然之前的服务是有效。

第四题，定位对了就好做了。Copy 和imitate是一个意思。

第五题，作用题。没困难吧？按解析走一遍文章讨论自然就知道选啥了。

第六题，还是作用题，只不过这次是单独一个词的作用。你会发现only这个词在这里表示了一种特殊情况，巴拉巴拉的后面就是那种特殊情况。可这种特殊情况一般遇不到，所以这项投资自然用处就不大了。

最后，给大家说一件事，gmat文章变态之处在于你看懂了文章也不一定做对题，就像这篇文章，没人会看不懂的，可是题目能做全对有多少？稍微一个不留神就掉坑里了。所以越碰见这种文章比较容易的阅读，越要小心。以为对文章理解的难度全部转移到了对题目的理解上去了。这个最悲剧了。看懂文章做不对题抓狂的有木有！话又说回来，文章都看懂了，题目稍加小心自然就会提高的！大家共勉。

xeyyxzty

1'25''1'33''
1'24''
1'39''

5'48''
热带气旋~产生原因
还有解释tropical(2点）、 cyclone的原因
不同地区的不同名称tornadoes, typhoons, and so on
heat core现象（好像是这个名吧）
南北半球气旋旋转方向不同
虽然tropical cyclones 的现象会造成海啸、会给人类社会带来损失,but it also contributes to the global circulation of heat
eyewall~风眼内总是很平静，气压低~当内外气压相等时气旋大概就结束了
忘了好多~~~

fox0923

1‘07“
1‘06"
1'18"
1'30"

mahaofei001

这只可爱的小狐狸头像……见一次愉悦一次

zz42050524

1'29
1'31
1'44
1'48
今天好困啊，看阅读都犯困

apple09031104

1‘56
1’52
2‘20
1’53

187167055

复出~

maxiv

1    00:02:19.60    21.0%    00:02:19.60    21.0%    2011-12-7 15:20:19    
2    00:04:40.88    42.2%    00:02:21.28    21.2%    2011-12-7 15:22:41    
3    00:07:37.97    68.8%    00:02:57.09    26.6%    2011-12-7 15:25:38    
4    00:11:06.05    100.0%    00:03:28.08    31.2%    2011-12-7 15:29:06

zz42050524

2011/12/7
1. The basic introduction of tropical cyclone and how the tropical cyclone froms.
2. Tropical means tropical areas and cyclone means thunder storm.
3. Tropical cyclone can bring extreme heavy rain and also storms. It deeply influent coast lines and the coast areas but little effects on islands.
4.The details about how tropical cyclone forms.
5All tropical cyclones are low atmosphere pressure in the Earth’s atmosphere.
6 The introduction of the eye and centre and the effects of the consequence.
我努力的练习糊糊的方法，可惜看的慢的时候才能记住，看快一点就完蛋了。

balapupu

我肿么算的我是最后一篇捏。吗啡说的很有道理，看来我们的攻克就到次结束了，我们分析的生涯也结束了，或许没有多少人跟着做吧。。。但是分析的过程真的让我们学到很多，希望大家都能够自己通过自己的分析得到体会和进步。各位加油！(^_^)
1'14
2.1'14'
3.1'18'
4.1'39