单选题 One reason why shareholder activism has been increasing is that regulators have encouraged it, especially on pay. For a decade Britain has required firms to give shareholders a non-binding annual vote on executive pay. The colossal Dodd-Frank act of 2010 gave shareholders in American companies a "say on pay", too.
Now comes two new moves. On March 3rd the Swiss voted to oblige firms to hold a binding annual vote on director's pay: in the small print, the referendum also banned golden handshakes and severance packages for board members, and bonuses that encourage the buying or selling of firms. Then on March 5th E.U. finance ministers (with only Britain objecting) agreed to cap bankers' bonuses to 100% of their basic salary, or 200% if shareholders vote for it.
If the Swiss had merely given shareholders an annual vote on pay, it would have been a good thing; but the accompanying bans are not. There are times when a golden handshake to a talented manager can be in shareholders' interests: far better to let the owners vote on it than restrict the firm from trying it.
The E.U.'s proposal has less still to recommend it. The rationale for it is that banking bonuses have encouraged risk taking, because they reward bankers hugely for bets that come off and punish them only slightly for those that don't. But banks have come a long way since the crisis, by deferring bonuses and making them partly payable in their own debt and equity. Blunt laws could undermine such progress. And bonus caps will either hold pay down, thus sending clever people elsewhere, or push up salaries, thus making pay less responsive to performance. Enpowering shareholders is a good idea; requiring them to channel populist fury is not.

单选题 The Dodd-Frank act of 2010 gave shareholders in American companies ______.

A.a right to decide their own interests
B.a right to appoint new executives
C.a right to vote on executive pay
D.a right to increase the salary

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。根据Dodd-Frank act of 2010定位到首段尾句：The colossal Dodd-Frank act of 2010 gave shareholders in American companies a "say on pay", too.根据对比我们知道答案是a “say on pay”，而这个短语什么意思比较难理解，通过too一词，我们知道它等于上文give后面的内容，即a non-binding annual vote on executive pay，而这个句子和选项C最接近，故C为答案，其余选项内容均未提及。

单选题 The word "cap" (Para. 2) probably means ______.

A.restrict
B.encourage
C.improve
D.approve

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 选项与原文对比。语义题。上一句出现...banned golden handshakes and severance packages...and bonuses...，其中golden handshakes和severance packages我们可能看不懂，但由于中间的and一词让我们知道它们和bonuses是同义词，故上文提到对于bonuses是banned(禁止)的，而选项中与禁止最接近的是A．restrict(限制)，故猜测cap的意思是“限制”，即A为答案。

单选题 On March 5th E.U. finance ministers agreed to ______.

A.give bankers cap as bonus
B.limit bankers' revenues
C.limit bankers' basic salaries
D.give bankers a right to vote

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。根据题干定位到第二段尾句：Then on March 5th E.U. finance ministers (with only Britain objecting) agreed to cap bankers' bonuses...，其中cap bankers' bonuses是原文内容，与D选项明显关系不大，故可以排除D。而A．give bankers cap as bonus显然是曲解原文意思。故答案在B、C之间。而两项区别在于revenues“收入”和basic salaries“基本工资”，原文说的是cap bankers' bonuses(限制银行人员的奖金)，而奖金是收入的一部分，和基本工资关系较小，故选择B。

单选题 It would be good for Swiss to ______.

A.ban shareholders' annual vote on pay
B.give managers a right to vote on their pay
C.give talented managers golden handshake
D.give shareholders a vote on pay without the bans

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。原文第三段第一句：If the Swiss had merely given shareholders an annual vote on pay, it would have been a good thing; but the accompanying bans are not.可见答案是give shareholders an annual vote on pay，即D项的前部分；而accompanying bans are not=D项后半部分的without the bans，其中without=not。故确定D为答案。

单选题 We know from the last paragraph that a bonus cap may achieve all except ______.

A.making talents quit
B.cutting down the salary
C.requiring shareholders to cause populist fury
D.making salary less responsive to performance

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。选项与原文对比。根据bonus cap定位到最后一段倒数第二句：And bonus caps will either hold pay down, thus sending clever people elsewhere, or push up salaries, thus making pay less responsive to performance.其中hold pay down=B；sending clever people elsewhere=A；making talents quit；making pay less responsive to performance=D，这是原词复现，故本句没提到的只有C。