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2014 年全国硕士研究生招生考试

英语（二）
（科目代码：204）

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 2014年全国硕士研究生入学统 一 考试英语（二）试题
Section I Use of English
Directions:

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark
A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (lO points)

Thinner isn't always better. A number of studies have 1 that normal-

weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases compared to those who
are overweight. And there are health conditions for which being overweight is
actually 2 . For example, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium
deficiency than thin women. 3 , among the elderly, being somewhat overweight
is often an 4 of good health.
Of even greater 5 is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to
define. It is often defined 6 body mass index, or BMI. BMI 7 body mass
divided by the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered
to be normal weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is considered
obese. Obesity, 8 , can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese, and
very severely obese.
While such numencal standards seem 9 , they are not. Obesity is
probably less a matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in
fact extremely fit, 10 others with a low BMI may be in poor 11 . For example,
many collegiate and professional football players 12 as obese, though their
percentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high
body fat but a 13 BMI.
Today we have a(n) 14 to label obesity as a disgrace. The overweight
are sometimes 15 in the media with their faces covered. Stereotypes 16
with obesity include laziness, lack of will power, and lower prospects for success.
Teachers, employers, and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases
against the obese. 17 very young children tend to look down on the
overweight, and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.
Negative attitudes toward obesity, 18 in health concerns, have
stimulated a number of anti-obesity 19 . My own hospital system has banned
sugary drinks from its facilities. Many employers have instituted weight loss and
fitness initiatives. Michelle Obama has launched a high-visibility campaign 20
childhood obesity, even claiming that it represents our greatest national security threat.

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 1. [A] denied [B] concluded [C] doubted [D] ensured
2. [A] protective [B] dangerous [C] sufficient [D] troublesome
3. [A] Instead [B] However [C] Likewise [D] Therefore
4. [A] indicator [B] obj ective [C] origin [D] example
5. [A] impact [B] relevance [C] assistance [D] concern
6. [A] in terms of [B] in case of [C] in favor of [D] in respects of
7. [A] measures [B] detern血es [C] equals [D] modifies
8. [A] in essence [B] in contrast [C] in turn [D] in part
9. [A] complicated [B] conservative [C] variable [D] straightforward
10. [A] so [B] while [C] since [D] unless
11. [A] shape [B] spirit [C] balance [D] taste
12. [A] start [B] qualify [C] retire [D] stay
13. [A] strange [B] changeable [C] normal [D] constant
14. [A] option [B] reason [C] opportunity [D] tendency
15. [A] employed [B] pictured [C] imitated [D] monitored
16. [A] compared [B] combined [C] settled [D] associated
17. [A] Even [B] Still [C] Yet [D] Only
18. [A] despised [B] corrected [C] ignored [D] grounded
19. [A] discussions [B] businesses [C] policies [D] studies
20. [A] for [B] against [C] with [D] without

Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A,
B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

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 Text 1

What would you do with $590m? This is now a question for Gloria MacKenzie,
an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in
Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. If she hopes her
new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfilment, she could do worse than
read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.
These two academics use an array of behavioral research to show that the
most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great
wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes. Yet satisfaction
with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly. What was once exciting
and new becomes old-hat; regret creeps in. It is far better to spend money on
experiences, say Ms Dunn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or
even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time
- as stories or memories - particularly if they involve feeling more connected to
others.
This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery
winners get the most "happiness bang for your buck." It seems most people would
be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with
friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average
American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it).
Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things
for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly.
This is apparently the reason McDonald's restricts the availability of its popular
McRib — a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of
obsession.
Readers of Happy Money are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfilment,
not hunger. Money may not quite buy happ iness, but people in wealthier countries
are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good
and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the
world, and scarcity e呻ances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not
everyone will agree with the authors' policy ideas, which range from mandating
more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most
p eop le will come away from this book believing it was money well sp ent.

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21. According to Dunn and Norton, which of the following is the most rewarding
purchase?
[A] A big house.
[B] A special tour.
[C] A stylish car.
[D] A rich meal.

22. The author's attitude toward Americans'watching TV is .

[A] critical
[B] supportive
[C] sympathetic
[D] ambiguous

23. McRib is mentioned in Paragraph 3 to show that .

[A] consumers are sometimes 1rrat10nal
[B] popularity usually comes after quality
[C] marketing tricks are often effective
[D] rarity generally increases pleasure

24. According to the last paragraph, Happy Money .

[A] has left much room for readers'criticism
[B] may prove to be a worthwhile purchase
[C] has predicted a wider income gap in the US
[D] may give its readers a sense of achievement

25. This text mainly discusses how to .

[A] balance feeling good and spending money
[B] spend large sums of money won in lotteries
[C] obtain lasting satisfaction from money spent
[D] become more reasonable in spending on luxuries

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 Text2

An article in Scientific American has pointed out that empirical research says
that, actually, you think you're more beautiful than you are. We have a deep­
seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of
self-enhancing strategies to achieve this. Social psychologists have amassed oceans
of research into what they call the "above average effect", or "illusory superiority",
and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in
leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others - all obviously
statistical impossibilities.
We rose-tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations.
We become defensive when criticised, and apply negative stereotypes to others to
boost our own esteem. We stalk around thinking we're hot stuff.
Psychologist and behavioural scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into
self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather than have people simply rate their
beauty compared with others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of
themselves from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more
and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological
process, occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious
deliberation". If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flattering image — which most
did — they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.
Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any
evidence that those who self-e呻anced the most (that is, the participants who
thought the most positively doctored pictures were real) were doing so to make up
for profound insecurities. In fact, those who thought that the images higher up the
attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other
markers for having higher self-esteem. "I don't think the findings that we have are
any evidence of personal delusion," says Epley. "It's a reflection simply of people
generally thinking well of themselves." If you are depressed, you won't be self­
enhancing.
Knowing the results of Epley's study, it makes sense that many people hate
photographs of themselves viscerally — on one level, they don't even recognise the
person in the picture as themselves. Facebook, therefore, is a self-enhancer's paradise,
where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit,
style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles. It's not that people's profiles are dishonest, says
Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison University, "but they portray an idealised
version of themselves."

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26. According to the first paragraph, social psychologists have found that .
[A] our self-ratings are unrealistically high
[B] illusory superiority is a baseless effect
[C] our need for leadership is unnatural
[D] self-enhancing strategies are ineffective

27. Visual recognition is believed to be people's .

[A] rapid matching
[B] conscious choice
[C] intuitive response
[D] automatic self-defence

28. Epley found that people with higher self-esteem tended to .

[A] underestimate their msecuntles
[B] ber1eve m their attractiveness
[C] cover up their depressions
[D] oversimplify their illusions

29. The word "viscerally" (Line 2, Para.5) is closest in meaning to .

[A] instinctively
[B] occasionally
[C] particularly
[D] aggressively

30. It can be inferred that Facebook is a self-enhancer's paradise because people

can
[A] present their dishonest profiles
[B] define their traditional lifestyles
[C] share their intellectual pursuits
[D] withhold their unflattering sides

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 Text3

The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution,
but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and
fragile recoveries. And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply
experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle. Certain jobs have gone away
for good, outmoded by machines. Since technology has such an insatiable appetite
for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy
in ways we cannot immediately foresee.
When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology,
jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become
threatened. This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the
book Race Against the Machine, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who
both hail from MIT's Center for Digital Business.
This is a powerful argument, and a scary one. And yet, John Hagel, author of
The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the
reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.
Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to be "tightly scripted"
and "highly standardized" ones that leave no room for "individual initiative or
creativity". In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much
better at than human beings. That is how we have put a giant target sign on the
backs of American workers, Hagel says.
It's time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still
relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says. In our rapidly changing
economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative
and exercise their imagination "to respond to unexpected events". That is not
something machines are good at. They are designed to perform very predictable
activities.
As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in
their book. We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine.
In other words, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment
human labor rather than replace it. So then the problem is not really about technology,
but rather, "how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?"

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31. According to the first paragraph, economic downturns would .
[A] ease the competition of man vs. machine
[B] highlight machines' threat to humanjobs
[C] provoke a painful technological revolution
[D] outmode our current economic structure

32. The authors of Race Against the Machine argue that .

[A] technology is diminishing man's job opportunities
[B] automation is accelerating technological development
[C] certain jobs will remain intact after automation
[D] man will finally win the race against machine

33. Hagel argues that jobs in the U.S. are often .

[A] performed by innovative minds
[B] scripted with an individual style
[C] standardized without a clear target
[D] designed against human creativity

34. According to the last paragraph, Brynjolfsson and McAfee discussed .

[A] the predictability of machine behavior in practice
[B] the formula for how work is conducted efficiently
[C] the ways machines replace human labor in modem times
[D] the necessity of human involvement in the workplace

35. Which of the following could be the most appropriate title for the text?
[A] How to Innovate Our Work Practices?
[B] Machines Will Replace Human Labor
[C] Can We Win the Race Against Machines?
[D] Economic Downturns Stimulate Innovat10ns

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 Text4

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy

the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom
mentioned.
Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We
have not been good at con皿unicating the real value that housing can contribute to
economic growth. Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard
to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects, so it is
inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significant
reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.
Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase
all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.
The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government
to help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some
steps to address our urgent housing need.
There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities
minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local
authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60,000
extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted,
increasing GDP by 0.6%.
Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment,
which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund
new developments from revenues.
But it is not just down to the government. While these measures would be
welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing £ 4.5bn
programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015, is
unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced
that it will retain a large part of the coalition's spending plans if it returns to power.
The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era
of large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.
While the government's commitment to long-term funding may have changed,
the very pressing need for more affordable housing is real and is not going away.

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36. The author believes that the housing sector .
[A] has attracted much attention
[B] involves certain political factors
[C] shoulders too much responsibility
[D] has lost its real value in economy

37. It can be learned that affordable housing has .

[A] increased its home supply
[B] offered spending opportunities
[C] suffered government biases
[D] disappointed the government

38. According to Paragraph 5, George Osborne may .

[A] allow greater government debt for housing
[B] stop local authorities from building homes
[C] prepare to reduce housing stock debt
[D] release a lifted GDP growth forecast

39. It can be mferred that a stable rental environment would

[A] lower the costs of registered providers
[B] lessen the impact of government interference
[C] contribute to funding new developments
[D] relieve the ministers of responsibilities

40. The author believes that after 2015, the government may .
[A] implement more policies to support housing
[B] review the need for large-scale public grants
[C] renew the affordable housing grants programme
[D] stop generous funding to the housing sector

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PartB
Directions:
Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column
to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices
in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEERT. (10 points)

Emerging in the late Sixties and reaching a peak in the Seventies, Land Art
was one of a range of new forms, including Body Art, Performance Art, Action
Art and Installation Art, which pushed art beyond the traditional confines of the
studio and gallery. Rather than portraying landscape, land artists used the physical
substance of the land itself as their medium.
The British land art, typified by Richard Long's piece, was not only more
domestically scaled, but a lot quirkier than its American counterpart. Indeed,
while you might assume that an exhibition of Land Art would consist only of
records of works rather than the works themselves, Long's photograph of his work
is the work. Since his "action" is in the past, the photograph is its sole embodiment.
That might seem rather an obscure point, but it sets the tone for an exhibition
that contains a lot of black-and-white photographs and relatively few natural objects.
Long is Britain's best-known Land Artist and his Stone Circle, a perfect ring
of purplish rocks from Portishead beach laid out on the gallery floor, represents
the elegant, rarefied side of the form. The Boyle Family, on the other hand, stand
for its dirty, urban aspect. Comprising artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills and their
children, they recreated random sections of the British landscape on gallery walls.
Their Olaf Street Study, a square of brick-strewn waste ground, is one of the few
works here to embrace the commonplaceness that characterises most of our
experience of the landscape most of the time.
Parks feature, particularly in the earlier works, such as John Hilliard's very
funny Across the Park, in which a long-haired stroller is variously smiled at by a
pretty girl and unwittingly assaulted in a sequence of images that tum out to be
different parts of the same photograph.
Generally however British land artists preferred to get away from towns,
gravitating towards landscapes that are traditionally considered beautiful such as
the Lake District or the Wiltshire Downs. While it probably wasn't apparent at the
time, much of this work is permeated by a spirit of romantic escapism that the
likes of Wordsworth would have readily understood. Derek Jarman's yellow-tinted
film Towards Avebury, a collection of long, mostly still shots of the Wiltshire
landscape, evokes a tradition of English landscape painting stretching from Samuel
Palmer to Paul Nash.
In the case of Hamish Fulton, you can't help feeling that the Scottish artist
has simply found a way of making his love of walking pay. A typical work, such as

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Seven Days, consists of a single beautiful black-and-white photograph taken on an
epic walk, with the mileage and number of days taken listed beneath. British Land
Art as shown in this well selected, but relatively modestly scaled exhibition wasn't
about imposing on the landscape, more a kind of landscape-orientated light
conceptual art created passing through. It had its origins in the great outdoors, but
the results were as gallery-bound as the paintings of Turner and Constable.

[A] originates from a long walk that the artist

took.
41. Stone Circle [B] illustrates a kind of landscape-orientated
light conceptual art.
42. Olaf Street Study [C] reminds people of the English landscape
painting tradition.
43. Across the Park [D] represents the elegance of the British land
art.
44.Towards Avebury [E] depicts the ordinary side of the British
land art.
45. Seven Days [F] embodies a romantic escape into the
Scottish outdoors.
[G] contains images from different parts of the
same photograph.

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 Section III Translation

46. Directions:

Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on the ANSWER
SHEET.(15 points)

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass
that's perpetually half full. But that's exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that
positive psychologists wouldn't recommend. "Healthy optimism means being in
touch with reality," says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben­
Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not
those who believe everything happens for the best.
Ben-Shahar uses three optimistic exercises. When he feels down — say, after
giving a bad lecture — he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds
himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective
than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons
for the future about what works and what doesn't. Finally, there is perspective,
which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really
doesn't matter.

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 Section IV Writing

Part A
47. Directions:
Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a
local student. Write him an email to
1) tell him about your living habits, and
2) ask for advice about living there.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write your address. (10 points)

PartB
48. Directions:
Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, you should
1) interpret the chart, and
2) give your comments.
You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)

图 城镇 人 口 乡 村人
1 000
I
834 807
I
00
666 674
� 600

过 400
:mt- I 300
、
200

1 990年 2 000年 201 0年

20 年 间 中 国 城镇人 口 与 乡 村人 口 变化 图

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