单选题 A man walks into a conference room at the W hotel in downtown Austin. The setting, sleek and quiet, says business. The training shoes—red, puffy, and paired with a sports coat—add a wink: new business.
"There are crazy awesome start-ups happening in every nook and cranny in this country," says Scott Case, the boss of a non-profit start-up, which helps inexperienced entrepreneurs by smoothing their access to private-sector money and mentoring. The idea is that as these young companies grow, they will create jobs—new jobs, good jobs—and related economic activity that enriches the entire community. Some of the start-ups may even be "gazelles", companies that grow by leaps and bounds.
So people are keen to help. Obama announced a start-up initiative at the beginning of last year, and last month he renewed the call. Congress is considering a Start-up Act that could provide some regulatory exemptions. Regional economic development groups have taken up the idea of economic "gardening". The philosophy there is that regions should focus on core strengths and home-grown businesses, rather than squabbling with their neighbours in an effort to win a new car plant.
This is mostly sensible. Many of the proposals for start-ups are generally sound. And some start-ups do turn out to be gazelles.
Still, there is cause for caution. For one thing, there is some ambiguity over what sort of companies the policymakers are trying to promote. Mr. Obama talks about "start-ups and small businesses". Private-sector people, however, seem to have less interest in the latter. They would rather live in Silicon Valley than on Main Street. But high-tech concepts are not the only viable business ideas.
Another issue is that the effects of start-ups on employment may be modest. Perhaps as a result of the recession, the number of new companies that actually employ people is declining.
"What began as a small, two-person start-up working out of a pier in San Francisco has grown to a dozen employees," wrote Mike Krieger, the co-founder of America"s fastest-growing social mobile start-up. Even the bigger companies may not be labour-intensive. There is a danger that start-up jobs will be the next variant of "green jobs": worthwhile, but slightly overhyped .

单选题 People are keen to help start-ups most probably because ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词People are keen to help定位至第三段。开头的So表明原因在上面的段落中，第二段又出现了start-ups，因此到第二段寻找答案。B项是对原文信息的同义替换。结合全文以及常识可知，新创企业能创造大量工作机会，因此B项为最佳选项。A项是对第二段第一句的概括。C项偷换主语，原文表述是economic activity that enriches the entire community，D项以偏概全，原文只提到some of the start-ups跳跃式发展。

单选题 The idea of economic "gardening" requires regions ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词economic "gardening" ，regions定位至第三段。the idea of economic "gardening" 后出现了The philosophy there is that regions should focus on core strengths and home-grown businesses...这是对economic "gardening" 的解释，即关注自身的核心竞争力和土生土长的生意。A项“充分发挥自己的优势”是对此的概括，为正确答案。B项“努力赢取每个新项目”，C项“与邻居进行激烈的竞争”，与原文表述相反。D项“与邻居合作”属于过度推断。

单选题 Which of the following is NOT the difficulty start-ups may meet?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。此题需要结合细节信息进行推断，适合使用排除法。由第二段helps inexperienced entrepreneurs by smoothing their access to private-sector money可知A项正确。由第五段there is some ambiguity over what sort of companies the policymakers are trying to promote可知B项正确。由第六段Perhaps as a result of the recession, the number of new companies that actually employ people is declining可知C项正确。D项“新创企业创造的工作不像看起来那么有价值”，属于新创企业可能带来的结果，而不是遇到的困难，与题干不符，因此选D项。

单选题 Judging from the context, the word "overhyped" in the last paragraph means ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 含义题。根据题干overhyped，last paragraph定位至最后一段。结合上下文猜测生词含义。首先，but表明overhyped与worthwhile意义相反，因此不可能是profitable。其次，the next variant of "green jobs" ，且总体上是worthwhile(值得的)，因此不可能是polluted与adventurous。考生也可根据构词法选择答案。over-前缀表示more than usual，too much(太，过于)，state有“陈述”之意，那么overstated意为“言过其实的，夸张的”，带入文中符合文意，因此选C项。

单选题 The author"s attitude towards start-ups is ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 态度题。本题考查作者对新创企业的态度，需要结合全文选出答案。前三段作者指出新创企业快速发展的现象以及政府的支持，第四段开头This is mostly sensible表明作者对此是赞同的。第五段笔锋一转Still, there is cause for caution，接下来几段指出了新创企业存在的问题，最后一句There is a danger that...worthwhile, but slightly overhyped尤其表明了作者的忧虑。综合来看，作者既肯定了新创企业带来的好处以及政府的支持，又指出了其面临的问题，因此态度是objective(客观的)，答案选B项。