2019年考研《英语二》真题及答案14

2019年考研《英语二》真题及答案14

2019年考研《英语二》真题及答案汇总

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American farmers have been complaining of labor shortages for several years now.Given a multi-year decline in illegal immigration,and a similarly sustained pickup in the U.S.job market,the complaints are unlikely to stop without an overhaul of immigration rules for farm workers.

Efforts to create a more straightforward agricultural-workers visa that would enable foreign workers to stay longer in the U.S.and change jobs within the industry have so far failed in Congress.If this doesn’t change,American businesses,communities and consumers will be the losers.

Perhaps half of U.S.farm laborers are undocumented immigrants.As fewer such workers enter the U.S.,the characteristics of the agricultural workforce are changing.Today’s farm laborers,while still predominantly born in Mexico,are more likely to be settled,rather than migrating,and more likely to be married than single.They are also aging.At the start of this century,about one-third of crop workers were over the age of 35.Now,more than half are.And crop picking is hard on older bodies.One oft-debated cure for this labor shortage remains as implausible as it has been all along:Native U.S.workers won’t be returning to the farm.

Mechanization is not the answer either—not yet at least.Production of corn,cotton,rice,soybeans and wheat have been largely mechanized,but many high-value,labor-intensive crops,such as strawberries,need labor.Even dairy farms,where robots currently do only a small share of milking,have a long way to go before they are automated.

As a result,farms have grown increasingly reliant on temporary guest workers using the H-2A visa to fill the gaps in the agricultural workforce.Starting around 2012,requests for the visas rose sharply;from 2011 to 2016 the number of visas issued more than doubled.

The H-2A visa has no numerical cap,unlike the H-2B visa for nonagricultural work,which is limited to 66,000 annually.Even so,employers frequently complain that they aren’t allotted all the workers they need.The process is cumbersome,expensive and unreliable.One survey found that bureaucratic delays led H-2A workers to arrive on the job an average of 22 days late.And the shortage is compounded by federal immigration raids,which remove some workers and drive others underground.

In a 2012 survey，71 percent of tree-fruit growers and nearly 80 percent of raisin and berry growers said they were short of labor.Some western growers have responded by moving operations to Mexico.From 1998-2000,14.5 percent of the fruit Americans consumed was imported.Little more than a decade later,the share of imported fruit had increased to 25.8 percent.

In effect,the U.S.can import food or it can import the workers who pick it.

31.What problem should be addressed according to the first two paragraphs?

A.Discrimination against foreign workers in the U.S.

B.Biased laws in favor of some American businesses.

C.Flaws in U.S.immigration rules for farm workers.

D.Decline of job opportunities in U.S.agriculture.

32.One trouble with U.S.agricultural workforce is_______.

A.the rising number of illegal immigrants

B.the high mobility of crop workers

C.the lack of experienced laborers

D.the aging of immigrant farm workers

31—32参考答案及解析：

31、【答案】[C]Flaws in U.S.immigration rules for farm workers

【解析】根据题干提示词first two paragraphs可知本题依据文章前两段命制，为双段推理型题目。快速扫读可知前两段大意为：美国针对外来农民所定移民规则中存在一些问题，并指出如不及时解决美国商业，社会以及消费者都会受到影响。比对选项可直接判断正确选项为C项，其余选项均属无中生有，直接排除。

32、【答案】[D]the aging of immigrant farm workers

【解析】细节推理题。根据题干中的trouble,U.S.agricultural workforce以及段落序列定位到文中第三段第二句。定位段第三至七句都在论证第二句的内容，其中第三句论证的是劳动力的来源及其倾向，第四至七句论证的是劳动力在变老并指出picking crops is hard on older bodies.与选项D吻合。选项A中的rising及illegal属于无中生有，选项B中的high mobility与定位段中的farm labors are more likely to be settled rather than immigrating矛盾，选项C属无中生有。