单选题 I can tap my smartphone and a cab will arrive almost immediately. Another tap will tell me the latest news, value my share portfolio or give me route directions to my next meeting. As a result, I do not need to stand on a street corner vainly trying to hail a taxi to the theatre, lose myself in London streets. The changes that have occurred in the past decade have, from an economic perspective, increased at virtually no cost the efficiency of household production.
The data framework within which economic analysis is conducted is largely the product of the second world war. In the 1930s American economist Simon Kuznets began to elaborate a system of national accounts. That work was given impetus when the war led governments to take control of important sectors of economic activity. It was soon realized that this required far better data than had previously existed, which in turn raised the challenge of how best to structure such information.
Household production—women"s work as homemakers—did not have much of a look-in; that was not the front line against fascism. The joke about the man who reduced national income by marrying his housekeeper, so that a market transaction became part of household production, was once a mandatory part of every introductory course on national income accounting but has succumbed to political correctness.
Technological advance has always enhanced household as well as business efficiency. Our domestic productivity has benefited from washing machines, vacuum cleaners and central heating, and before that from electric light and automobiles. But at least these things were partially accounted for: from an economic perspective a car is a faster and cheaper horse. Statisticians in principle incorporated these improvements in the efficiency of consumer goods into their measurement of productivity, though in practice they did not try very hard.
But the technological advances of the past decade seem to have increased the efficiency of households, rather than the efficiency of businesses, to an unusual extent. An ereader in the pocket replaces a roomful of books, and all the world"s music is streamed to my computer. We look at aggregate statistics and worry about the slowdown in growth and productivity. But the evidence of our eyes seems to tell a different story.

单选题 It can be implied from the first paragraph that ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。根据题干关键词the first paragraph定位至第一段。根据第一段的最后一句The changes that have occurred in the past decade have, from an economic perspective, increased at virtually no cost the efficiency of household production。此句意为“从经济学视角看，这些发生在过去十年的变化，几乎在没有任何成本的情况下提高了家庭生产的效率。”可知D项“从经济角度来说，这些变化提高了家庭生产率”，符合题意，为正确答案。A项“一种新型的智能手机被创造”，B项“新型智能手机改变了人们的生活”和C项“在过去的十年产生了许多变化”都是对第一段表面文字的描述。而首段之所以描述智能手机对人们生活产生的影响均是为了说明最后一句：这些变化对家庭生产率的影响。故前三项均不正确。

单选题 Creating the system of national accounts was given impetus when ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词system of national accounts和impetus定位至第二段第二、三句：In the 1930s American economist Simon Kuznets began to elaborate a system of national accounts. That work was given impetus when the war led governments to take control of important sectors of economic activity. 此句意为“20世纪30年代，美国经济学家西蒙·库兹涅茨开始创建国民核算体系。当战争导致政府控制经济活动的重要领域时，这项工作被赋予了动力。”故A项“政府在战争中控制了经济活动的重要领域”符合题意，为正确答案。B项“人们意识到这项研究需要更好的数据”，C项“它带来了该如何最好地构建此类信息的挑战”和D项“它需要比以前更多的数据”均是对其他无关信息的描述，故排除。做对此题的关键在于正确定位。

单选题 The phrase "succumbed to" is closest in meaning to ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 含义题。根据题干关键词succumbed to定位到第三段最后一句：The joke...was once a mandatory part of every introductory course on national income accounting but has succumbed to political correctness. 此句意为“这个笑话曾经是国民收入核算入门课程的必修部分，但已经屈从于‘政治正确’的时代潮流。”很明显，succumbed to在此处意为“屈服，顺从”，故B项符合题意，为正确答案。A项“转向，朝向”，C项“放弃”和D项“分发，散发”均不符合题意，故排除。

单选题 Which of the following is NOT true according to Paragraph 4?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词NOT true和Paragraph 4定位到第四段。根据第一段的前两句可知A项“技术进步提高了企业效率”和B项“我们的家庭生产率受益于技术进步”符合文意，故排除。根据最后一句：Statisticians in principle incorporated these improvements in the efficiency of consumer goods into their measurement of produclivity, though in practice they did not try very hard. 此句意为“统计人员原则上将这些消费品效率的提升纳入了他们对生产率的衡量，尽管在实践中他们并未很努力地这样做。”可知C项“统计人员在实践中与在原则上一样努力”不符合文意，故为正确答案。D项“原则上，统计人员在衡量生产率时，应该考虑消费品效率的提升”符合题意，故排除。

单选题 According to the last paragraph, the author believes ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词last paragraph定位至最后一段。根据最后两句：We look at aggregate statistics and worry about the slowdown in growth and productivity. But the evidence of our eves seems to tell a different story. 此句意为“我们盯着统计总额，担心增长和生产率放缓。但我们的耳闻目睹似乎讲述了一个不同的故事。”可知作者认为未来前景是美好的，我们不必担心生产率会放缓。故C项“我们不需要担心增长和生产率放缓”符合题意，为正确答案。同时排除D项。A项“技术进步对人们生活有不同寻常的影响”和B项“技术进步对实体店带来了威胁”是对最后一段前两句的过度推断，故排除。