单选题   At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they're bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants' impact on the economy and the reality?
    There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation's fears and insecurities. There's some truth to all these explanations, but they aren't quite sufficient.
    To get a better understanding of what's going on, consider the way immigration's impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants' low-cost labor are businesses and employers—meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers' savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9%between 1980-2000.
    Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the fiscal (财政的) burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when that fiscal burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants' access to certain benefits.
    The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affected—say, low-skilled workers, or California residents—the impact isn't all that dramatic. 'The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions, ' says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon, 'But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one. ' Too bad most people don't realize it.
单选题     What can we learn from the first paragraph?______
 
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】题干中the first paragraph提示答案定位在第一段。 从文章第一段第二句The American public overwhelmingly thinks they're bad。可以看出美国民众认为移民带来的是负面影响，后面紧接着的第三句话提到Yet the consensus among most economists is that...provides a small net boost说明大多数经济学家们认为移民是有促进作用的。这句话中的yet和boost 表述的是与前一句话相反的含义，前后形成对比，说明在关于移民影响的问题上，美国民众和大多数经济学家所持的观点是不同的，故选D。 [参考译文] 关于非法移民的争论，其核心部分存在着一个关键性的问题：移民对经济是好还是坏?美国民众普遍认为移民不利于经济。然而大多数经济学家一致认为，无论是合法移民还是非法移民都对经济起到了少许的正面促进作用。外来移民提供了廉价的劳动力，降低了从农产品到新居在内的所有商品的价格，让消费者的兜里多剩下了些钱。那为什么在对移民对经济的影响的认知和现实之间存在着如此之大的差异呢? 有许多为人熟知的理论。有些人认为由于新劳动力的涌入，人们感到焦虑和受到威胁。其他人强调非法移民对公共服务，如学校、医院和监狱带来的压力。还有些人强调种族的因素，认为外国人为国家增添了恐惧和不安全感。所有这些解释都有一定的道理，但是还不够充分。 为了更好地理解这一问题，我们来想一下人们是以哪种方式感受到外来移民的影响的。尽管它的总体影响可能是积极的，但是它的代价和利益分布并不均衡。加州大学伯克利分校的经济学家戴维·卡德指出，那些直接从移民提供的廉价劳动力中获利最多的是企业和雇主——如位于内布拉斯加州的肉类加工厂，或者位于加州的农产品企业。即便这些生产商节省的花费很可能转化为了杂货店里更低的价格，但是有多少消费者在结账的时候想到了这些呢?关于非法移民的不利因素，这些倒也同样是关注的焦点。当地低技能工人饱受外来劳动力带来的竞争之苦。根据哈佛大学的经济学家乔治·博尔哈斯所做的一项研究，1980年至2000年期间，外来移民使得美国高中辍学者的工资降低了9%。 然而，对于高技能、高学历的雇员来说，在那些移民人数较多且社会福利相对更好的州，他们的反对声音最为强烈。换句话说，他们最担心的是移民带来的财政负担。另一项发现印证了这一结论：当财政负担减轻时，他们反对的态度似乎也变得柔和了，这种情况曾发生于20世纪90年代的福利改革时期，那次改革限制了外来移民获取某些福利。 具有讽刺意味的是，对于所有这些过激的辩论而言，外来移民的真正影响是极小的。甚至对于那些受影响最为严重的群体——比如说低技能工人或加州居民——这种影响也没那么显著。俄勒冈大学的政治科学教授丹尼尔·蒂奇纳说：“不和谐的声音往往主宰了我们的认知，但是综合考虑所有那些因素且经济学家计算过数据之后，得出的结果是其影响是正面积极的，尽管影响不大。”糟糕的是大多数人没有意识到这一点。
单选题     In what way does the author think ordinary Americans benefit from immigration?______
 
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据题干信息词ordinary Americans benefit from immigration将答案锁定在第三段第四句。 文章第三段第四句中提到these producers' savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store，说明移民提供的廉价劳动力节约了生产成本，使得本国居民在杂货店里买东西时价格更低，故选B。
单选题     Why do native low-skilled workers suffer most from illegal immigration?______
 
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干信息词low-skilled workers suffer most将答案定位到第三段的倒数一、二句。 文章第三段倒数最后两句提到“当地低技能工人饱受外来劳动力带来的竞争之苦……1980年至2000年期间，外来移民使得美国高中辍学者的工资降低了9%”，由此可知，外来劳动力对当地低技能工人构成了竞争，导致低技能工人的工资降低，所以当地低技能工人很难找到薪水可观的工作，故选C。
单选题     What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the inflow of immigrants?______
 
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】根据题干信息词native high-skilled，better-educated employees将答案定位到第四段第二句。 第四段第二句提到“他们最担心的是移民带来的财政负担”，说明当地高技能、高学历的雇员最担心的是移民导致的财政预算吃紧。选项A“改变社会结构”，选项B“威胁他们的经济地位”，选项C “导致社会不稳定”，均与国家财政无关。故选D。
单选题     What is the irony about the debate over immigration?______
 
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据题干信息词irony about the debate over immigration将本题答案定位到末段首句。 文章最后一段首句提到“具有讽刺意味的是，对于所有这些过激的辩论而言，外来移民的真正影响是极小的”，也就是说外来移民带来的影响极小，人们却对此进行了激烈的辩论，说明人们对影响不大的事情过于小题大做了，故选C。make a fuss about意为“大惊小怪，小题大做”。