Question

阅读理解 　　Thanks to depressed markets, investment(投资)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(模拟)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(拍卖)．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(趋于达成一致)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(演变的)auctions” also withstood(经得起)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。文章首先介绍了市场低迷，需要有新的举措，接着引出了自动化贸易机器人这个话题，然后对其研究进行了详细的叙述，最后展望了其美好前景，所以此项是文章的中心内容。
(2)	考查细节理解。根据倒数第二段后半部分中的“…today's financial exchanges were less efficient…”可知如今的贸易市场在效率方面还有提高的空间。文章介绍了英国和荷兰两种著名的拍卖方式，因此最后一项不全面。
(3)	考查推理判断。根据最后一段最后一句可推断此项正确，另外，第三段最后的so-called表示“所谓的”，是贬义词，也是做题线索。倒数第二段最后一句提到这些演变的拍卖方式也能经得起大的市场冲击，由此可知现存的拍卖能够经得起市场冲击，所以A项错误；寻求价格的平衡点是买卖双方之间的事情，而不是trader的行为，所以C项不正确；最后一项在文中没有信息支持。
(4)	解析：考查推理判断。历经多年苦心研制自动化贸易机器人，并得到权威部门和银行的肯定，再结合最后一段最后一句可推断此项正确。 　　文章大意：如何让买卖双方尽快在价格方面趋于一致是一位研究人员多年来不断思考的一个问题，为此，他一直在研制贸易机器人，并得到权威部门的认可。