2015考研英语阅读及答案资料.docVIP

Section II Reading Comprehension Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points) Text 1 King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted kings dont abdicate, they die in their sleep. But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, dies the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the uniting is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles? The Spanish case previous arguments both for and against monarchy when public opinion is particularly. Polarized, as it was following the end of the France regime, monarchs can rise above mere politics and embody a spirit of national unity. It is this apparent transcendence of politics that explains monarchs continuing popularity as heads of states. And so, the Middle East expected, Europe is the most monarch-infested region is the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican city and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respect public figure. Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside, symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history梐nd sometimes the way they behave today-embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomas Piketty and other ecumenists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states. The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Prince and princess have day-jobs and ri