考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇【經(jīng)濟(jì)類】

07年考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇unit12

Unit 12
 

Here’s the scary thing about the identity-theft ring that the feds cracked last week: there

was nothing any of its estimated 40,000 victims could have done to prevent it from happening.

This was an inside job, according to court documents. A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata

Communications, a software firm that helps banks access credit reports online, allegedly stole

passwords for those reports and sold them to a group of 20 thieves at $60 a pop. That allowed

the gang to cherry-pick consumers with good credit and apply for all kinds of accounts in

their names. Cost to the victims: $3 million and rising.

Even scarier is that this, the largest identity-theft bust to date, is just a drop in the bit

bucket. More than 700,000 Americans have their credit hijacked every year. It's one of crime's

biggest growth markets. A name, address and Social Security number--which can often be found

on the Web--is all anybody needs to apply for a bogus line of credit. Credit companies make

$1.3 trillion annually and lose less than 2% of that revenue to fraud, so there's little

financial incentive for them to make the application process more secure. As it stands now,

it's up to you to protect your identity.

The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take. Most credit thieves are

opportunists, not well-organized gangs. A lot of them go Dumpster diving for those millions of

"pre-approved" credit-card mailings that go out every day. Others steal wallets and return

them, taking only a Social Security number. Shredding your junk mail and leaving your Social

Security card at home can save a lot of agony later.

But the most effective way to keep your identity clean is to check your credit reports once or

twice a year. There are three major credit-report outfits: Equifax (at equifax.com), Trans-

Union (www.transunion.com) and Experian (experian.com). All allow you to order reports online,

which is a lot better than wading through voice-mail hell on their 800 lines. Of the three, I

found TransUnion's website to be the cheapest and most comprehensive--laying out state-by-

state prices, rights and tips for consumers in easy-to-read fashion.

If you're lucky enough to live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or

Vermont, you are entitled to one free report a year by law. Otherwise it's going to cost $8 to

$14 each time. Avoid services that offer to monitor your reports year-round for about $70;

that's $10 more than the going rate among thieves. If you think you're a victim of identity

theft, you can ask for fraud alerts to be put on file at each of the three credit-report

companies. You can also download a theft-report form at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, which, along

with a local police report, should help when irate creditors come knocking. Just don't expect

justice. That audacious help-desk worker was one of the fewer than 2% of identity thieves who

are ever caught.

注（1）：本文選自Time; 12/9/2002, p100, 3/4p, 1c；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象2004年真題Text 1；

1.       What is the trend of credit-theft crime?

[A]Tightly suppressed.

[B]More frightening.

[C]Rapidly increasing.

[D]loosely controlled.

2.       The expression “inside job”(Line 6, Paragraph 1) most probably means _________.

[A]a crime that is committed by a person working for the victim

[B]a crime that should be punished severely

[C]a crime that does great harm to the victim

[D]a crime that poses a great threat to the society

3.       The creditors can protect their identity in the following way except _________.

[A]destroying your junk mail

[B]leaving your Social Security card at home

[C]visiting the credit-report website regularly

[D]obtaining the free report from the government

4.       Why is it easy to have credit-theft?

[A]More people are using credit service.

[B]The application program is not safe enough.

[C]Creditors usually disclose their identity.

[D]Creditors are not careful about their identity.

5.       What is the best title of the text?

[A]The danger of credit-theft

[B]The loss of the creditors

[C]How to protect your good name

[D]Why the creditors lose their identity

答案：CADBC

篇章剖析

本文以最大的一起信用卡竊盜案為切入點(diǎn)，指出竊用信用卡是一種非常嚴(yán)重的犯罪現(xiàn)象，并介紹了如何進(jìn)行

一些防范措施。第一段介紹了最大的一起信用卡竊盜案；第二段指出這一犯罪現(xiàn)象的嚴(yán)重性：這是最大的成

長性犯罪市場之一，而且銀行方面的防護(hù)措施薄弱；第三段、四段和五段詳細(xì)介紹了一些防范措施。

詞匯注釋

identity-theft 個(gè)人身份信息被盜

fed n. [常作F-][美俚]聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局人員; 聯(lián)邦政府工作人員

ring n. 團(tuán)伙；一幫

inside job  n. (Slang) 監(jiān)守自盜

pop adv. 每張地；每個(gè)地

bust [bQst] n. 逮捕；告破；突然搜查

a drop in the bucket 冰山一角，滄海一粟

hijack vt. 劫持，(像攔路搶劫似的)偷竊；詐騙，欺詐

credit n. 信用；(銀行)存款

bogus [5bEJ^Es] adj. 假的；偽造的，如：a bogus certificate 偽造的證件

line of credit 信用限額，信貸限額

fraud [frC:d] n. 欺騙, 欺詐行為，詭計(jì)；騙子；假貨

as it stands 按照現(xiàn)在情況, 事實(shí)是這樣

Dumpster n. (鄧普斯特爾商標(biāo))垃圾罐

go out過時(shí)，不流行

shred vt., vi. (shredded) 撕碎, 切碎, 破碎

irate [aI5reIt] adj. 發(fā)怒的；生氣的

knock vt. 批評；找岔子

audacious [C:5deIFEs] adj.大膽的, 鹵莽的, 蠻橫無理的；大膽創(chuàng)新的

難句突破

A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, a software firm that helps banks access

credit reports online, allegedly stole passwords for those reports and sold them to a group of

20 thieves at $60 a pop.

主體句式：a worker stole … and sold …

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句是一個(gè)簡單句。在這個(gè)句子中，“l(fā)owly”用做形容詞，意思是“.地位低的, 卑賤的”；“

a software firm that helps banks access credit reports online”是“Teledata Communications”的

同位語，其中that引導(dǎo)定語從句來修飾a software firm，access的詞性是動(dòng)詞，意思是“接近，進(jìn)入獲得

接觸（數(shù)據(jù)或程序）的途徑”；“allegedly”的意思是“依其申述”；“a pop”的意思是“每張地；每個(gè)

地”。

句子譯文：據(jù)說，一家?guī)椭�銀行在線訪問客戶信譽(yù)報(bào)告的軟件公司——遠(yuǎn)程數(shù)據(jù)通信公司——的一個(gè)低級

help-desk服務(wù)系統(tǒng)工作人員盜取了這些報(bào)告的密碼，以每個(gè)60美元的價(jià)格賣給一個(gè)由20個(gè)小偷組成的團(tuán)伙

。

題目分析

1.答案為C，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。句子“Even scarier is that this, the largest identity-theft bust to

date,

is just a drop in the bit bucket.”的意思是“甚至更令人震驚的是, 迄今為止最大的個(gè)人信息竊盜案

的告破僅僅是冰山之一角�！�；“It's one of crime's biggest growth markets.”的意思是“這是最大

的成長性犯罪市場之一。”從這兩句話我們可做出正確的選擇。

2.答案為A，屬猜詞題。原文對應(yīng)信息是“A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, a

software firm that helps banks access credit reports online, allegedly stole passwords for

those reports and sold them to a group of 20 thieves at $60 a pop.”。這句話對“inside job”做

出了解釋。

3.答案為D ，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。選項(xiàng)D是某些債權(quán)人應(yīng)享有的權(quán)利，而不是一種防范措施。

4．答案為B，屬推理判斷題。原文對應(yīng)信息是：“A name, address and Social Security number--which

can often be found on the Web--is all anybody needs to apply for a bogus line of credit.

Credit companies make $1.3 trillion annually and lose less than 2% of that revenue to fraud,

so there's little financial incentive for them to make the application process more secure.”

。

5．答案為C，屬主旨大意題。文章開頭指出竊用信用卡是一種非常嚴(yán)重的犯罪現(xiàn)象，接著介紹了如何進(jìn)行一

些防范措施。所以選項(xiàng)C是正確答案。

參考譯文

下面是有關(guān)上周已被聯(lián)邦特工粉碎的盜竊團(tuán)伙偷盜個(gè)人信息的令人驚慌的事例：估計(jì)受害人 有4萬人之眾，

而他們中間的任何人根本無法采取任何防范措施來阻止這種盜竊行為的發(fā)生。據(jù)法院檔案記載，這是一種監(jiān)

守自盜行為。據(jù)說，一家?guī)椭�銀行在線訪問客戶信譽(yù)報(bào)告的軟件公司——遠(yuǎn)程數(shù)據(jù)通信公司——的一個(gè)低級

help-desk服務(wù)系統(tǒng)工作人員盜取了這些報(bào)告的密碼，以每個(gè)60美元的價(jià)格賣給一個(gè)由20個(gè)小偷組成的團(tuán)伙

。這樣，該盜竊團(tuán)伙就從那些消費(fèi)者的名單中精心挑選出信用好的人，然后以他們的名義申請各種賬戶。受

害人付出的代價(jià)：3百萬美元，而此數(shù)仍在繼續(xù)攀升。

甚至更令人震驚的是, 迄今為止最大的個(gè)人信息竊盜案的告破僅僅是冰山之一角。每年有70多萬美國人的銀

行存款被瘋狂盜取。這是最大的成長性犯罪市場之一。一個(gè)名字、一個(gè)地址和一個(gè)社會(huì)保險(xiǎn)號——這些東西

在網(wǎng)上很容易找到——是想申請假信貸限額的任何人所需的全部東西。信貸公司每年賺1.3萬億，其中2%的

收入被騙子詐取，因此，幾乎沒有任何金錢的刺激來促使他們把申請過程做得更安全一些。按現(xiàn)在情況看，

保護(hù)自己的信用安全完全是你自己的事。

好消息是，有許多可采取的步驟供你選擇。多數(shù)信用卡竊賊是投機(jī)取巧者, 而非組織嚴(yán)密的團(tuán)伙。他們當(dāng)中

的許多人常去翻垃圾桶，去尋找數(shù)百萬件事先批準(zhǔn)、且已過時(shí)的信用卡郵件，而其它人則去偷錢包。到手后

他們只留下社會(huì)保險(xiǎn)號，把錢包返還給失主。粉碎垃圾郵件、把社會(huì)保險(xiǎn)卡留在家里可減少你許多事后后悔

莫及的痛苦。

但保護(hù)你的信用卡不被盜取的最有效的方法是檢查你的信用報(bào)告，每年一至兩次。有三個(gè)主要的信用報(bào)告查

詢網(wǎng)址：Equifax (equifax.com)，Trans-Union (www.transunion.com)和 Experian (experian.com)。你

可在這些網(wǎng)址上在線訂購信用報(bào)告, 這比通過他們提供的800條專線進(jìn)行令人痛苦的語音郵件煉獄式查詢好

得多。在這三個(gè)網(wǎng)站中，我發(fā)現(xiàn)TransUnion的網(wǎng)站收費(fèi)最低，且內(nèi)容包羅萬象——以一種便于閱讀的方式為

消費(fèi)者列出了各項(xiàng)價(jià)格、權(quán)利和提示。

如果你有幸住在科羅拉多州、佐治亞州、馬里蘭州、麻薩諸塞州、新澤西州或佛蒙特州，那么，依照法律，

你就有權(quán)每年享受一次免費(fèi)報(bào)告，否則，這樣的報(bào)告每次就要花去你8 到14 美元。要盡量避免使用要價(jià)70

美元的全年信用報(bào)告監(jiān)控服務(wù)；這筆費(fèi)用比竊賊之間目前實(shí)行的價(jià)碼還要高10美元。如果你認(rèn)為你是信用卡

被盜案的受害人，你就可要求將欺詐警報(bào)在這三家信用報(bào)告公司存檔待查。你也可從

www.consumer.gov/idtheft網(wǎng)站上下載一種竊盜報(bào)告表格。這張表格與地方警察局的報(bào)告一起，在怒氣沖沖

的債權(quán)人來找碴兒時(shí)，能派得上用場。別指望有什么公正。那位膽大妄為的help-desk服務(wù)系統(tǒng)工作人員就

是不到個(gè)人信用信息竊賊2%的很少幾個(gè)伸手被捉的盜賊之一。

二：資料下載

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