考研英語閱讀理解命題思路透析和真題揭秘(37)

　　2007年Text 4

　　It never rains but it pours. Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles, and improved their feeble corporation governance, a new problem threatens to earn them -- especially in America -- the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite: data insecurity. Left, until now, to odd, low-level IT staff to put right, and seen as a concern only of data-rich industries such as banking, telecoms and air travel, information protection is now high on the boss's agenda in businesses of every variety.

　　Several massive leakages of customer and employee data this year - from organizations as diverse as Time Warner, the American defense contractor Science Applications International Corp and even the University of California, Berkeley -- have left managers hurriedly peering into their intricate IT systems and business processes in search of potential vulnerabilities.

　　"Data is becoming an asset which needs to be guarded as much as any other asset," says Haim Mendelson of Stanford University's business school. "The ability to guard customer data is the key to market value, which the board is responsible for on behalf of shareholders". Indeed, just as there is the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), perhaps it is time for GASP, Generally Accepted Security Practices, suggested Eli Noam of New York's Columbia Business School. "Setting the proper investment level for security, redundancy, and recovery is a management issue, not a technical one," he says.

　　The mystery is that this should come as a surprise to any boss. Surely it should be obvious to the dimmest executive that trust, that most valuable of economic assets, is easily destroyed and hugely expensive to restore -- and that few things are more likely to destroy trust than a company letting sensitive personal data get into the wrong hands.

　　The current state of affairs may have been encouraged -- though not justified -- by the lack of legal penalty (in America, but not Europe) for data leakage. Until California recently passed a law, American firms did not have to tell anyone, even the victim, when data went astray. That may change fast: lots of proposed data-security legislation is now doing the rounds in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the theft of information about some 40 million credit-card accounts in America, disclosed on June 17th, overshadowed a hugely important decision a day earlier by America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that puts corporate America on notice that regulators will act if firms fail to provide adequate data security.

　　36. The statement "It never rains but it pours" is used to introduce

　　[A] the fierce business competition.

　　[B] the feeble boss-board relations.

　　[C] the threat from news reports.

　　[D] the severity of data leakage.

　　[答案] D

　　[解題思路]

　　一般文章開頭的諺語都是用來引出文章的主要話題的。文章第一段的第二句話就進一步指出了問題所在"Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles, and improved their feeble corporation governance, a new problem threatens to earn them -- especially in America -- the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite: data insecurity"( 就在老板和董事會最終解決了令人頭疼的財務問題和違紀問題、改善了缺乏效率的公司管理之后，又一個新問題(尤其是在美國)將成為令高層們頭疼的頭條新聞：數(shù)據(jù)的不安全性)，即數(shù)據(jù)的不安全問題，第二段第一句話"Several massive leakages of customer and employee data this year"(今年，幾起客戶和員工數(shù)據(jù)的重大泄密事件)則進一步作了說明，可見正確答案是D選項。這句諺語的意思是"雨不下則已，下則傾盆"。

　　[題目譯文]

　　"It never rains but it pours"這句話用來介紹

　　[A] 激烈的商業(yè)競爭

　　[B] 脆弱的老板-董事關系

　　[C] 新報道的威脅

　　[D] 數(shù)據(jù)泄漏的嚴峻性

　　37. According to Paragraph 2, some organizations check their systems to find out

　　[A] whether there is any weak point.

　　[B] what sort of data has been stolen.

　　[C] who is responsible for the leakage.

　　[D] how the potential spies can be located.

　　[答案] A

　　[解題思路]

　　本題對應于文章第二段第二個破折號之后的內(nèi)容"have left managers hurriedly peering into their intricate IT systems and business processes in search of potential vulnerabilities"( 使得管理人員們匆忙去檢查其復雜的數(shù)據(jù)系統(tǒng)和商業(yè)流程，以便尋找潛在的弱點)，原文的potential vulnerabilities對應于A選項的weak point，因此是正確答案。B和C選項都與原文無關，D選項中的spies在文章中沒有涉及。

　　[題目譯文]

　　根據(jù)文章第二段，一些組織檢查的它們的系統(tǒng)是為了發(fā)現(xiàn)

　　[A] 是否存在弱點

　　[B] 哪種數(shù)據(jù)被盜

　　[C] 誰應該為泄漏負責

　　[D] 如何定位可能的間諜

　　38. In bringing up the concept of GASP the author is making the point that

　　[A] shareholders' interests should be properly attended to.

　　[B] information protection should be given due attention.

　　[C] businesses should enhance their level of accounting security.

　　[D] the market value of customer data should be emphasized.

　　[答案] B

　　[解題思路]

　　本題對應于文章第三段的第三句話"Indeed, just as there is the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), perhaps it is time for GASP, Generally Accepted Security Practices"( 事實上，正如存在公認會計原則一樣，現(xiàn)在或許應該是建立公認安全措施的時候了)，可見GASP這個概念主要是用來提醒人們應該對信息保護給與更多關注，因此B為正確選項。C選項顯然是與GAAP這個概念混淆了，是錯誤答案。A和D選項對應于該段第二句話"The ability to guard customer data is the key to market value, which the board is responsible for on behalf of shareholders"( 保護客戶數(shù)據(jù)的能力是市值的關鍵因素，這是董事會應該為股東利益而承擔的責任)，但兩個選項都與原文的表述有出入。

　　[題目譯文]

　　作者引入GASP這個概念是為了說明

　　[A] 股東的利益應該得到適當?shù)年P注

　　[B] 信息保護應該得到應有的重視

　　[C] 商業(yè)界應該改進他們的會計安全水準

　　[D] 客戶數(shù)據(jù)的市場價值應該得到強調(diào)

　　39. According to Paragraph 4, what puzzles the author is that some bosses fail to

　　[A] see the link between trust and data protection.

　　[B] perceive the sensitivity of personal data.

　　[C] realize the high cost of data restoration.

　　[D] appreciate the economic value of trust

　　[答案] A

　　[解題思路]

　　本題對應于文章第四段，其中破折號后面的內(nèi)容指出"and that few things are more likely to destroy trust than a company letting sensitive personal data get into the wrong hands"( 很少有什么比一個公司讓敏感的個人數(shù)據(jù)落入不法人員之手更可能破壞公司的誠信了)，這里強調(diào)了數(shù)據(jù)保護和公司信譽之間的密切關系，而很多老板們正是忽視了這層關系，因此正確答案為A。而B、C、D選項都只提到了data protection和trust中的一點，不具有概括性，因而是錯誤答案。

　　[題目譯文]

　　根據(jù)文章第四段，讓作者感到意外的是一些老板們沒有

　　[A] 看到誠信與數(shù)據(jù)保護之間的關系

　　[B] 看到個人數(shù)據(jù)的敏感性

　　[C] 意識到數(shù)據(jù)恢復的高成本

　　[D] 認識到誠信的經(jīng)濟價值