1996 2004年历年考研英语真题集
1996 2004年历年考研英语真题集
1996 2004年历年考研英语真题集
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER
SHEET 1. (10 points)
Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile delinquency (crimes committed by young people) focus either
on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories 1 on the individual suggest that
children engage in criminal behavior 2 they were not sufficiently penalized for previous misdeeds or that they
have learned criminal behavior through 3 with others. Theories focusing on the role of society suggest that
children commit crimes in 4 to their failure to rise above their socioeconomic status, 5 as a rejection of
middle-class values.
Most theories of juvenile delinquency have focused on children from disadvantaged families, _ 6 the fact that
children from wealthy homes also commit crimes. The latter may commit crimes 7 lack of adequate parental
control. All theories, however, are tentative and are 8 to criticism.
Changes in the social structure may indirectly 9 juvenile crime rates. For example, changes in the
economy that 10 to fewer job opportunities for youth and rising unemployment 11 make gainful
employment increasingly difficult to obtain. The resulting discontent may in 12 lead more youths into
criminal behavior.
Families have also 13 changes these years. More families consist of one-parent households or two
working parents; 14 ,children are likely to have less supervision at home 15 was common in the
traditional family 16 . This lack of parental supervision is thought to be an influence on juvenile crime rates.
Other __17_ causes of offensive acts include frustration or failure in school, the increased __ 18 _ of drugs and
alcohol, and the growing 19 of child abuse and child neglect. All these conditions tend to increase the
probability of a child committing a criminal act, 20 a direct causal relationship has not yet been established.
Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the
Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site’s “personal search agent”. It’s an interactive
feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching
position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property and Washington, D.C.
Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. “I struck gold,” says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume
to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.
With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can he time-consuming and
inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for
Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: “Every time
you answer a question you eliminate a possibility,” says one expert.
For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept—what you think you want to do—then broaden it.
“None of these programs do that,” says another expert. “There’s no career counseling implicit in all of this.” Instead,
the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database; when you
get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again. “I would not rely on agents for finding everything that
is added to a database that might interest me,” says the author of a job-searching guide.
Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSite’s agent sends out messages to
those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs—those it considers the best
matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them—and
they do. “On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic,” says Seth Peets, vice
president of marketing for CareerSite.
Even those who aren’t hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close
watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when
negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. “You always keep
your eyes open,” he says. Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.
21. How did Redmon find his job?
[A] By searching openings in a job database. [B] By posting a matching position in a database.
[C] By using a special service of a database. [D] By E-mailing his resume to a database.
22. Which of the following can be a disadvantage of search agents?
[A] Lack of counseling. [B] Limited number of visits.
[C] Lower efficiency. [D] Fewer successful matches.
23. The expression “tip service” (Line 4, Paragraph 3) most probably means .
[A] advisory. [B] compensation.
[C] interaction. [D] reminder.
24. Why does CareerSite’s agent offer each job hunter only three job options?
[A] To focus on better job matches. [B] To attract more returning visits.
[C] To reserve space for more messages. [D] To increase the rate of success.
25. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] Personal search agents are indispensable to job-hunters.
[B] Some sites keep E-mailing job seekers to trace their demands.
[C] Personal search agents are also helpful to those already employed.
[D] Some agents stop sending information to people once they are employed.
Text 2
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one
insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to
discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers
thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoë
Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number
of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of
George Bush’s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the
second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically
advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi). The world’s three top central bankers
(Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese
characters. As are the world's five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).
Can this merely be coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically
disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school, teachers seat pupils
alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in
the back row, and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the
alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications,
because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the
time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot
papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose
interest as they plough through them.
26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality. [B] A type of conspicuous bias.
[C] A type of personal prejudice. [D] A kind of brand discrimination.
27. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of ZoëZysman.
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.
28. The 4th paragraph suggests that .
[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class
[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students
[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight
29. What does the author mean by “most people are literally having a ZZZ” (Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)?
[A] They are getting impatient. [B] They are noisily dozing off.
[C] They are feeling humiliated. [D] They are busy with word puzzles.
30. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.
[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.
[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.
Text 3
When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist
isn't cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but
last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. “I'm a good
economic indicator,” she says. “I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving
some dollars.” So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban
Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. “I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too,” she says.
Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had
already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for
months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are
off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not
panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects even as they do some
modest belt-tightening.
Consumers say they're not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty
good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, “there's a new gold rush happening in the $4
million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses,” says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San
Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. “Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only
get two or three," says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about
their ability to find and keep a job.
Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates.
Employers wouldn't mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by
stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an
upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan's hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For
that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.
31. By “Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet” (Line 1, Paragraph 1), the author means_____.
[A] Spero can hardly maintain her business. [B] Spero is too much engaged in her work.
[C] Spero has grown out of her bad habit. [D] Spero is not in a desperate situation.
32. How do the public feel about the current economic situation?
33. When mentioning “the $4 million to $10 million range”(Lines 3, Paragraph 3), the author is talking about
_______
[A] gold market. [B] real estate. [C] stock exchange. [D] venture investment.
34. Why can many people see “silver linings” to the economic slowdown?
[A] They would benefit in certain ways. [B] The stock market shows signs of recovery.
[C] Such a slowdown usually precedes a boom. [D] The purchasing power would be enhanced.
35. To which of the following is the author likely to agree?
[A] A new boom, on the horizon. [B] Tighten the belt, the single remedy.
[C] Caution all right, panic not. [D] The more ventures, the more chances.
Text 4
Americans today don't place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and
entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to
pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren't
difficult to find.
“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,” says education
writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance.” Ravitch's latest book. Left Back: A Century of Failed
School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a
counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to
exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others,
they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become
a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society.”
“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,” writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in
Anti-intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics,
religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have
driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been
considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning
put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and
come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.”Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn exemplified
American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read—so he can
preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect
is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and
adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes, and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the
grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with
children who show the least intellectual promise.”
Part B
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your
translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
The relation of language and mind has interested philosophers for many centuries. (41) The Greeks assumed that
the structure of language had some connection with the process of thought, which took root in Europe long before
people realized how diverse languages could be.
Only recently did linguists begin the serious study of languages that were very different from their own. Two
anthropologist-linguists, Franz Boas and Edward Sapir, were pioneers in describing many native languages of North
and South America during the first half of the twentieth century. (42) We are obliged to them because some of these
languages have since vanished, as the peoples who spoke them died out or became assimilated and lost their native
languages. Other linguists in the earlier part of this century, however, who were less eager to deal with bizarre data
from “exotic” language, were not always so grateful. (43) The newly described languages were often so strikingly
different from the well studied languages of Europe and Southeast Asia that some scholars even accused Boas and
Sapir of fabricating their data. Native American languages are indeed different, so much so in fact that Navajo could
be used by the US military as a code during World War II to send secret messages.
Sapir’s pupil, Benjamin Lee Whorf, continued the study of American Indian languages. (44) Being interested in
the relationship of language and thought, Whorf developed the idea that the structure of language determines the
structure of habitual thought in a society. He reasoned that because it is easier to formulate certain concepts and not
others in a given language, the speakers of that language think along one track and not along another. (45) Whorf
came to believe in a sort of linguistic determinism which, in its strongest form, states that language imprisons the
mind, and that the grammatical patterns in a language can produce far-reaching consequences for the culture of a
society. Later, this idea became to be known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, but this term is somewhat inappropriate.
Although both Sapir and Whorf emphasized the diversity of languages, Sapir himself never explicitly supported the
notion of linguistic determinism.
46. Directions:
Study the following drawing carefully and write an essay in which you should
1. describe the drawing,
2. interpret its meaning, and
3. support your view with examples.
You should write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2 (20 points)
2003 年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题
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
ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Teachers need to be aware of the emotional, intellectual, and physical changes that young adults experience. And
they also need to give serious 1 to how they can best 2 such changes. Growing bodies need movement
and 3 , but not just in ways that emphasize competition. 4 they are adjusting to their new bodies and a
whole host of new intellectual and emotional challenges, teenagers are especially self-conscious and need the 5
that comes from achieving success and knowing that their accomplishments are 6 by others. However, the
typical teenage lifestyle is already filled with so much competition that it would be 7 to plan activities in which
there are more winners than losers, 8 ,publishing newsletters with many student-written book reviews, 9
student artwork, and sponsoring book discussion clubs. A variety of small clubs can provide 10 opportunities
for leadership, as well as for practice in successful 11 dynamics. Making friends is extremely important to
teenagers, and many shy students need the 12 of some kind of organization with a supportive adult 13 visible
in the background.
In these activities, it is important to remember that the young teens have 14 attention spans. A variety of
activities should be organized 15 participants can remain active as long as they want and then go on to 16
else without feeling guilty and without letting the other participants 17 . This does not mean that adults must
accept irresponsibility. 18 they can help students acquire a sense of commitment by 19 for roles that are
within their 20 and their attention spans and by having clearly stated rules.
Text 2
th
To paraphrase 18 -century statesman Edmund Burke, “all that is needed for the triumph of a misguided cause is
that good people do nothing.” One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that
animals have rights ruling out their use in research. Scientists need to respond forcefully to animal rights advocates,
whose arguments are confusing the public and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of
the animal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on public funding, and few people
understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, many
are perplexed that anyone would deliberately harm an animal.
For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was distributing a
brochure that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animals—no meat, no fur, no
medicines. Asked if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccines come from animal research. When
assured that they do, she replied, “Then I would have to say yes.” Asked what will happen when epidemics return,
she said, “Don’t worry, scientists will find some way of using computers.” Such well-meaning people just don’t
understand.
Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate, understandable way—in human
terms, not in the language of molecular biology. We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a
grandmother’s hip replacement, a father’s bypass operation, a baby’s vaccinations, and even a pet’s shots. To those
who are unaware that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and
vaccines, animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst.
Much can be done. Scientists could “adopt” middle school classes and present their own research. They should
be quick to respond to letters to the editor, lest animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive
appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane
care. Finally, because the ultimate stakeholders are patients, the health research community should actively recruit to
its cause not only well-known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the
value of animal research, but all who receive medical treatment. If good people do nothing, there is a real possibility
that an uninformed citizenry will extinguish the precious embers of medical progress.
26. The author begins his article with Edmund Burke’s words to .
[A] call on scientists to take some actions [B] criticize the misguided cause of animal rights
[C] warn of the doom of biomedical research [D] show the triumph of the animal rights movement
27. Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is .
[A] cruel but natural [B] inhuman and unacceptable
[C] inevitable but vicious [D] pointless and wasteful
28. The example of the grandmotherly woman is used to show the public’s .
[A] discontent with animal research [B] ignorance about medical science
[C] indifference to epidemics [D] anxiety about animal rights
29. The author believes that, in face of the challenge from animal rights advocates, scientists should .
[A] communicate more with the public [B] employ hi-tech means in research
[C] feel no shame for their cause [D] strive to develop new cures
30. From the text we learn that Stephen Cooper is .
[A] a well-known humanist [B] a medical practitioner
[C] an enthusiast in animal rights [D] a supporter of animal research
Text 3
In recent years, railroads have been combining with each other, merging into supersystems, causing heightened
concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top four railroads accounted for under 70 percent of the total
ton-miles moved by rails. Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four railroads will control well over
90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers.
Supporters of the new supersystems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reductions and better
coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many
shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain,
trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them by the throat.
The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company.
Railroads typically charge such“captive”shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is
competing for the business. Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appeal to the federal
government's Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will
work only in truly extreme cases.
Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it reduces
everyone's cost. If railroads charged all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of
switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of
keeping up the line. It's theory to which many economists subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the
position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail.“Do we really want railroads to be the
arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace?”asks Martin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently
represents shipper.
Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry
as a whole, despite its brightening fortuning fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must
invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall
Street cheering them on. Consider the $10.2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year.
Conrail's net railway operating income in 1996 was just $427 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the
transaction. Who's going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern
and CSX increase their grip on the market.
31. According to those who support mergers, railway monopoly is unlikely because .
[A] cost reduction is based on competition. [B] services call for cross-trade coordination.
[C] outside competitors will continue to exist. [D] shippers will have the railway by the throat.
32. What is many captive shippers' attitude towards the consolidation in the rail industry?
[A] Indifferent. [B] Supportive. [C] Indignant. [D] Apprehensive.
33. It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that .
[A] shippers will be charged less without a rival railroad.
[B] there will soon be only one railroad company nationwide.
[C] overcharged shippers are unlikely to appeal for rate relief.
[D] a government board ensures fair play in railway business.
34. The word “arbiters”(line 7,paragraph 4)most probably refers to those .
[A] who work as coordinators. [B] who function as judges.
[C] who supervise transactions. [D] who determine the price.
35. According to the text, the cost increase in the rail industry is mainly caused by .
[A] the continuing acquisition. [B] the growing traffic.
[C] the cheering Wall Street. [D] the shrinking market.
Text 4
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder.
Americans’ life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression
controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality
of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure
death—and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all
understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by
third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s
useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians—frustrated by their inability to cure the
disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient—too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically
justified.
In 1950, the US spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this
trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite
resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former
Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out
of the way”, so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain
dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his
80s.These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come
naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and
dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend
far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the
quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives.
36. What is implied in the first sentence?
[A] Americans are better prepared for death than other people.
[B] Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.
[C] Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.
[D] Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.
37. The author uses the example of caner patients to show that .
[A] medical resources are often wasted
[B] doctors are helpless against fatal diseases
[C] some treatments are too aggressive
[D] medical costs are becoming unaffordable
38. The author’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’s remark is one of.
[A] strong disapproval [B] reserved consent
[C] slight contempt [D] enthusiastic support
39. In contras to the US, Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care.
[A] more flexibly [B] more extravagantly
[C] more cautiously [D] more reasonably
40. The text intends to express the idea that.
[A]medicine will further prolong people’s lives
[B]life beyond a certain limit is not worth living
[C] death should be accepted as a fact of life
[D] excessive demands increase the cost of health care
Part B
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation
should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Human beings in all times and places think about their world and wonder at their place in it. Humans are
thoughtful and creative, possessed of insatiable curiosity.(41)Furthermore, humans have the ability to modify the
environment in which they live, thus subjecting all other life forms to their own peculiar ideas and fancies. Therefore,
it is important to study humans in all their richness and diversity in a calm and systematic manner, with the hope that
the knowledge resulting from such studies can lead humans to a more harmonious way of living with themselves and
with all other life forms on this planet Earth.
“Anthropology” derives from the Greek words anthropos “human” and logos “the study of.” By its very name,
anthropology encompasses the study of all humankind.
Anthropology is one of the social sciences.(42)Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry which seeks
to study humans and their endeavors in the same reasoned, orderly, systematic, and dispassioned manner that natural
scientists use for the study of natural phenomena.
Social science disciplines include geography, economics, political, science, psychology, and sociology. Each of
these social sciences has a subfield or specialization which lies particularly close to anthropology.
All the social sciences focus upon the study of humanity. Anthropology is a field-study oriented discipline which
makes extensive use of the comparative method in analysis.(43)The emphasis on data gathered first-hand, combined
with a cross-cultural perspective brought to the analysis of cultures past and present, makes this study a unique and
distinctly important social science.
Anthropological analyses rest heavily upon the concept of culture. Sir Edward Tylor’s formulation of the
concept of culture was one of the great intellectual achievements of 19th century science.(44)Tylor defined culture as
“…that complex whole which includes belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired
by man as a member of society.” This insight, so profound in its simplicity, opened up an entirely new way of
perceiving and understanding human life. Implicit within Tylor’s definition is the concept that culture is learned.
shared, and patterned behavior.
(45)Thus, the anthropological concept of “culture,” like the concept of “set” in mathematics, is an abstract
concept which makes possible immense amounts of concrete research and understanding.
46. Directions:
Study the following set of drawings carefully and write an essay entitled in which you should
1)describe the set of drawings, interpret its meaning, and
2)point out its implications in our life.
You should write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
2002 年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题
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
ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the diffusion of printing
in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened 1 . As was discussed before, it was not 2 the 19th
century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic_ 3 _ ,following in the wake of the pamphlet and
the book and in the 4 of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution 5
up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading 6 through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion
th
pictures 7 the 20 century world of the motor car and the air plane. Not everyone sees that Process in 8 . It
is important to do so.
It is generally recognized, 9 , that the introduction of the computer in the early 20th century, 10 by
the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process, 11 its impact on the
media was not immediately 12 . As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they
became “personal” too, as well as 13 , with display becoming sharper and storage 14 increasing. They
were thought of, like people, 15 generations, with the distance between generations much 16 .
It was within the computer age that the term “information society” began to be widely used to describe the 17
within which we now live. The communications revolution has 18 both work and leisure and how we think and
feel both about place and time, but there have been 19 view about its economic, political, social and cultural
implications. “Benefits” have been weighed 20 “harmful” outcomes. And generalizations have proved
difficult.
If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences
and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or
that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are
addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the
disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment
on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention, of a story which works well because the audience all
shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful
accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until,
waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head
of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh,
that’s God,” came the reply, “but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor.”
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and
problems which are common to all of you and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible
canteen food or the chairman’s notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn’t attempt to cut in with
humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will
be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual
and apparently off-the-cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it’s the delivery
which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may
help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote “If at first you don’t
succeed, give up” or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatement. Look at your talk
and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.
21. To make your humor work, you should .
[A] take advantage of different kinds of audience [B] make fun of the disorganized people
[C] address different problems to different people [D] show sympathy for your listeners
22. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are .
[A] impolite to new arrivals [B] very conscious of their godlike role
[C] entitled to some privileges [D] very busy even during lunch hours
23. It can be inferred from the text that public services .
[A] have benefited many people [B] are the focus of public attention
[C] are an inappropriate subject for humor [D] have often been the laughing stock
24. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered .
[A] in well-worded language [B] as awkwardly as possible
[C] in exaggerated statements [D] as casually as possible
25. The best title for the text may be .
[A] Use Humor Effectively [B] Various Kinds of Humor
[C] Add Humor to Speech [D] Different Humor Strategies
Text 2
Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is
dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of
conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of
science fiction, they have begun to come close.
As a result, the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice
but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly
arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction.
Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics
and micro-mechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with
submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility, they will have to operate with less human
supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselves—goals that pose a real challenge. “While we
know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error," says Dave Lavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, “we
can't yet give a robot enough ‘common sense’ to reliably interact with a dynamic world.”
Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial
optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy
the action of the human brain by the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not
centuries.
What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain's roughly one hundred billion nerve
cells are much more talented—and human perception far more complicated—than previously imagined. They have
built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory
environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent
that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious
face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can't approach that kind of ability, and
neuroscientists still don’t know quite how we do it.
26. Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in .
[A] the use of machines to produce science fiction.
[B] the wide use of machines in manufacturing industry.
[C] the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous work.
[D] the elite’s cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work.
27. The word “gizmos” (line 1, paragraph 2) most probably means
[B] [C] [D] creatures
28. According to the text, what is beyond man's ability now is to design a robot that can .
[A] fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgery.
[C] far less able than human brain in focusing on relevant information.
[D] best used in a controlled environment.
Text 3
Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the
price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil
prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979-1980, when they also almost
tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the
headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic
growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most
countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In
Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a
more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price.
Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensive industries have
reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production.
For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD
estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in
1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25-0.5% of GDP. That is less than
one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies—to which
heavy industry has shifted—have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed.
One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not
occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of
the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist’s commodity price index is broadly
unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 by almost 30%.
31. The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is_______
[B] reduction in supply.
[D] Iraq’s suspension of exports.
32. It can be inferred from the text that the retail price of petrol will go up dramatically if______.
[A] price of crude rises. [B] commodity prices rise.
[C] consumption rises. [D] oil taxes rise.
33.
[A]heavy industry becomes more energy-intensive.
[B]income loss mainly results from fluctuating crude oil prices.
[C]manufacturing industry has been seriously squeezed.
[D]oil price changes have no significant impact on GDP.
Text 4
The Supreme Court’s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine
seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.
Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported
the medical principle of “double effect”, a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects—a
good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill
patients’pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who “until
now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient medication to control their pain if
that might hasten death”.
George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor
prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the
drug to hasten death. “It’s like surgery,” he says. “We don’t call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn’t
intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you’re a physician, you can risk your patient’s suicide
as long as you don’t intend their suicide.”
On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled
in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.
Just three weeks before the Court’s ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS)
released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment
of pain and the aggressive use of “ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the
period of dying” as the twin problems of end-of-life care.
The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain
management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for
assessing and treating pain at the end of life.
Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into
better care. “Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and
predictably suffering”, to the extent that it constitutes “systematic patient abuse”. He says medical licensing boards
“must make it clear...that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in
license suspension”.
Directions:
For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D].
Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in
the brackets with a pencil. (10 points)
The government is to ban payments to witnesses by newspapers seeking to buy up people involved in prominent
cases 1 the trial of Rosemary West.
In a significant 2 of legal controls over the press, Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, will introduce a 3
bill that will propose making payments to witnesses 4 and will strictly control the amount of 5 that can
be given to a case 6 a trial begins.
In a letter to Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the House of Commons media select committee, Lord Irvine said he
7 with a committee report this year which said that self regulation did not 8 sufficient control.
9 of the letter came two days after Lord Irvine caused a 10 of media protest when he said the 11
of privacy controls contained in European legislation would be left to judges 12 to Parliament.
The Lord Chancellor said introduction of the Human Rights Bill, which 13 the European Convention on
Human Rights legally 14 in Britain, laid down that everybody was 15 to privacy and that public figures
could go to court to protect themselves and their families.
“Press freedoms will be in safe hands 16 our British judges,” he said.
Witness payments became an 17 after West was sentenced to 10 life sentences in 1995. Up to 19
witnesses were 18 to have received payments for telling their stories to newspapers. Concerns were raised
19 witnesses might be encouraged exaggerate their stories in court to 20 guilty verdicts.
Passage 1
Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge.
By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units,one man could continue to handle the information and use it as
the basis for further research. But specialisation was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting
the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to
any rule. Nevertheless, the word “amateur” does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated
into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialisation in the
nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for
amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a
mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United
Kingdom.
A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing
emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper.
Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in
the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and
reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old
way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that
has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by nationa l journals in the nineteenth century
and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development,
separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar
process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific
societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a
different way.
Although the process of professionalisation and specialisation was already well under way in British geology
during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally,
however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
21. The growth of specialisation in the 19th century might be more clearly seen in sciences such as _______.
[AJ sociology and chemistry [B] physics and psychology
[C] sociology and psychology [D] physics and chemistry
22. We can infer from the passage that _______.
[A] there is little distinction between specialisation and professionalisation
[B] amateurs can compete with professionals in some areas of science
[C] professionals tend to welcome amateurs into the scientific community
[D] amateurs have national academic societies but no local ones
23. The author writes of the development of geology to demonstrate ______.
[A] the process of specialisation and professionalisation
[B] the hardship of amateurs in scientific study
[C] the change of policies in scientific publications
[D] the discrimination of professionals against amateurs
24. The direct reason for specialisation is _______.
[A] the development in communication [B] the growth of professionalisation
[C] the expansion of scientific knowledge [D] the splitting up of academic societies
Passage 2
A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide-the division of the world into the info
(information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming
danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the
digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.
There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more
commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more
potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread
Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will he netted together. As a
result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news
because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we’ve ever had.
Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we
have. But it has enormous potential.
To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial
prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their
sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure(the basic structural foundations of a society)in the United
States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is why
America’s Second Wave infrastructure-including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign
investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain’s former colony. They
financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same
thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping
you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you’re going to be.
That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does
mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full
advantage of the Internet.
Passage 3
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper
Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the
journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and
grammar mistakes, combined with lots of headscratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really
want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard
templates (patterns) into which they plug each day’s events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the
newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusions news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers which helps explain why the
“standard templates”of the newsroom seem alien many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to
reporters in five middle size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these
communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods,
have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they’re less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put
down roots in community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the
conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy or poor
reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that
keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a
credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never
seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it
did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who
differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
Passage 4
The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps
from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these
countries are looking at this process and worrying: "Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an
uncontrollable anti-competitive force?"
There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for
less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International
affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign
investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost
70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role
of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.
I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the
globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and
enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these are beneficial,
not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the
merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago
in the U.S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom,
hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the
price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing-witness Daimler and Chrysler,
Renault and Nissan-but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned
against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last
resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another
when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role
of “defending competition” on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U S. vs. Microsoft case ?
Passage 5
When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new
international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon
my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by
claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family”.
Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term
“downshifting”has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate
advocate of the philosophy of “having it all”, preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the pages of She
magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.
I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after
a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life”, and making the alternative move into
“downshifting” brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me
to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines,
the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time”.
In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend.
Downshifting-also known in America as “voluntary simplicity” has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be
termed anticonsumerism. There are a number of bestselling downshifting self-help books for people who want to
simplify their lives; there are newsletter's, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of
Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support
groups for those who want to achieve the mid- '90s equivalent of dropping out.
While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline——after the mass redundancies caused
by downsizing in the late’80s——and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class
downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.
For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the’80s, downshifting in the mid-'90s
is not so much a search for the mythical good life——growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into
one——as a personal recognition of your limitations.
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation
should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
In less than 30 years’ time the Star Trek holodeck will be a reality. Direct links between the brain’s nervous
system and a computer will also create full sensory virtual environments, allowing virtual vacations like those in the
film Total Recall.
41)There will be television chat shows hosted by robots, and cars with pollution monitors that will disable them
when they offend. 42)Children will play with dolls equipped with personality chips, computers with in-built
personalities will be regarded as workmates rather than tools, relaxation will be in front of smell television, and
digital age will have arrived.
According to BT’s futurologist, Ian Pearson, these are among the developments scheduled for the first few
decades of the new millennium(a period of 1,000 years), when supercomputers will dramatically accelerate progress
in all areas of life.
43)Pearson has pieced together the work of hundreds of researchers around the world to produce a unique
millennium technology calendar that gives the latest dates when we can expect hundreds of key breakthroughs and
discoveries to take place. Some of the biggest developments will be in medicine, including an extended life
expectancy and dozens of artificial organs coming into use between now and 2040.
Pearson also predicts a breakthrough in computer-human links. “By linking directly to our nervous system,
computers could pick up what we feel and, hopefully, simulate feeling too so that we can start to develop full sensory
environments, rather like the holidays in Total Recall or the Star Trek holodeck, ” he says. 44)But that, Pearson
points out, is only the start of man-machine integration: “It will be the beginning of the long process of integration
that will ultimately lead to a fully electronic human before the end of the next century.”
Through his research, Pearson is able to put dates to most of the breakthroughs that can be predicted. However,
there are still no forecasts for when faster-than-light travel will be available, or when human cloning will be perfected,
or when time travel will be possible. But he does expect social problems as a result of technological advances. A
boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will, for example, cause problems in 2010, while the arrival of synthetic
lifelike robots will mean people may not be able to distinguish between their human friends and the droids.
45)And home appliances will also become so smart that controlling and operating them will result in the breakout of
a new psychological disorder—kitchen rage.
Section V Writing
46. Directions:
Among all the worthy feelings of mankind, love is probably the noblest, but everyone has his/her own
understanding of it.
There has been a discussion recently on the issue in a newspaper. Write an essay to the newspaper to
1)show your understanding of the symbolic meaning of the picture below.
2)give a specific example, and
3)give your suggestion as to the best way to show love.
2000 年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
Part ⅠClose Test
Directions:
For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and
[D]. Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding
letter in the brackets with a pencil. (10 points)
①If a farmer wishes to succeed, he must try to keep a wide gap between his consumption and his production.
②He must store a large quantity of grain 1 consuming all his grain immediately. ③He can continue to support
himself and his family 2 he produces a surplus. ④He must use this surplus in three ways: as seed for sowing, as
an insurance 3 the unpredictable effects of bad weather and as a commodity which he must sell in order to 4
old agricultural implements and obtain chemical fertilizers to 5 the soil. ⑤He may also need money to construct
irrigation 6 and improve his farm in other ways. ⑥If no surplus is available, a farmer cannot be 7 . ⑦He must
either sell some of his property or 8 extra funds in the form of loans. ⑧Naturally he will try to borrow money at a
low 9 of interest, but loans of this kind are not 10 obtainable. [139 words]
1.[A] other than [B] as well as [C] instead of [D] more than
2.[A] only if [B] much as [C] long before [D] ever since
3.[A] for [B] against [C] of [D] towards
4.[A] replace [B] purchase [C] supplement [D] dispose
5.[A] enhance [B] mix [C] feed [D] raise
6.[A] vessels [B] routes [C] paths [D] channels
7.[A] self-confident [B] self-sufficient [C] self-satisfied [D]self-restrained
8.[A] search [B] save [C] offer [D] seek
9.[A] proportion [B] percentage [C] rate [D] ratio
10.[A] genuinely [B] obviously [C] presumably [D] frequently
Part ⅡReading Comprehension
Directions:
Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers
marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the
questions. Then mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the
brackets with a pencil. (40 points)
Passage 1
①A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a
driving force. ②When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it
had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. ③Its
scientists were the worlds best; its workers the most skilled. ④(11)America and Americans were prosperous beyond
the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
①It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. ②Just as inevitably,
the retreat from predominance proved painful. ③By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over
their fading industrial competitiveness. ④Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk
or vanished in the face of foreign competition. ⑤By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith.
( )
⑥(Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea’s LG Electronics in July.) ⑦ 12 Foreign-made cars and
textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. -tool industry was on the ropes. ⑧For a while
it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new
computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
①All of this caused a crisis of confidence. ②Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. ③They began to
believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as
well. ④The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America’s industrial decline. ⑤Their
sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
①How things have changed! ②In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while
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Japan has been struggling. ③ Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or
the turning of the business cycle. ④Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. ⑤“American industry has changed its
structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted,” according to Richard Cavanaugh, executive dean of
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. ⑥“It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses
are improving their productivity,” says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. ⑦And
William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as “a golden age
of business management in the United States.”[429 words]
11. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because.
[A] it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal
[B] its domestic market was eight times larger than before
[C] the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors
[D] the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy
12. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the
American.
[A] TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market
[B] semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises
[C] machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions
[D] auto industry had lost part of its domestic market
13. What can be inferred from the passage?
[A] It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pride.
[B] Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.
[C] The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation.
[D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.
14. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the.
[A] turning of the business cycle [B] restructuring of industry
[C] improved business management [D] success in education
Passage 2
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① Being a man has always been dangerous. ②There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this
ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men.
③But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. ④Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do.
⑤This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for
a mate. ⑥More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. ⑦Fifty years ago, the chance of a
heavy meant almost
certain death. ⑧Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of
evolution has gone.
①There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. ②Few people are as
fertile as in the past. ③Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. ④Nowadays the
number of births, like the age of death, has become average. ⑤Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring.
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⑥ Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have
diminished. ⑦India shows what is happening.
for the remaining tribal peoples. ⑧The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number
of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the
tribes.
For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. ②Strangely, it has involved little
physical change. ③No other species fills so many places in nature. ④But in the past 100, 000 years—even the past
( )
100 years—our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. ⑤ 17 We did not evolve, because machines and
society did it for us. ⑥Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they “look at an organic being as
a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.”⑦No doubt we will remember a 20th
century way of life bey
far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.[406 words]
15. What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?
[A] A lack of mates. [B] A fierce competition.
[C] A lower survival rate. [D] A defective gene.
16. What does the example of India illustrate?
[A] Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.
[B] Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.
[C] The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.
[D] India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.
17. The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because.
[A] life has been improved by technological advance
[B] the number of female babies has been declining
[C] our species has reached the highest stage of evolution
[D] the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing
18. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
[A] Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.
[B] Ways of Continuing Man’s Evolution.
[C] The Evolutionary Future of Nature.
[D] Human Evolution Going Nowhere.
Passage 3
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① When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are
aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to
come they may be regarded as normal. ②With regard to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for
whatever Futurist poetry may be—even admitting that the theory on which it is based may be right—it can hardly be
classed as Literature.
①This, in brief, is what the Futurist says: for a century, past conditions of life have been conditionally speeding
up, till now we live in a world of noise and violence and speed. ②Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions
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have undergone a corresponding change. ③ This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of
expression. ④We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modern stress. ⑤We must pour out a large
stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs. ⑥Instead of describing
sounds we must make up words that imitate them; we must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the
same page, and shorten or lengthen words at will.
①Certainly their descriptions of battles are confused. ②But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory
notes that a certain line describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge off which they both
fall into the river —and then to find that the line consists of the noise of their falling and the weights of the officers:
“Pluff! Pluff! A hundred and eighty-five kilograms.”
( )
① 22 This, though it fulfills the laws and requirements of Futurist poetry, can hardly be classed as Literature.
②All the same, no thinking man can refuse to accept their first proposition: that a great change in our emotional life
calls for a change of expression. ③The whole question is really this: have we essentially changed?[334 words]
19. This passage is mainly.
[A] a survey of new approaches to art [B] a review of Futurist poetry
[C] about merits of the Futurist movement [D] about laws and requirements of literature
20. When a novel literary idea appears, people should try to.
[A] determine its purposes [B] ignore its flaws
[C] follow the new fashions [D] accept the principles
21. Futurists claim that we must.
[A] increase the production of literature [B] use poetry to relieve modern stress
[C] develop new modes of expression [D] avoid using adjectives and verbs
22. The author believes that Futurist poetry is.
[A] based on reasonable principles
[B] new and acceptable to ordinary people
[C] indicative of a basic change in human nature
[D] more of a transient phenomenon than literature
Passage 4
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① Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the
envy of the United States and Europe. ②But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional
work-moral values. ③Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for
being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’t know where they should go
next.
①The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market
have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in
climbing Japan’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. ②In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5
percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the
United States. ③In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their
counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed.
①While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking
( )
and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. ② 25 “Those things that do not show up in the test
scores—personality, ability, courage or humanity—are completely ignored,” says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s education committee. ③“Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop
out and run wild.” ④Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on
teachers. ⑤Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral
education. ⑥Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that
liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II had weakened the “Japanese
morality of respect for parents.”
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① But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. ②“In Japan,” says educator Yoko Muro, “it’s never
a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.” ③With economic
growth has come centralization; fully 76 percent of Japan’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and
the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two-generation households. ④Urban Japanese have
long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and
family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. ⑤In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still
well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly
one-quarter.[447 words]
23. In the Westerners’ eyes, the postwar Japan was.
[A] under aimless development [B] a positive example
[C] a rival to the West [D] on the decline
24. According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society?
[A] Women’s participation in social activities is limited.
[B] More workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.
[C] Excessive emphasis has been placed on the basics.
[D] The life-style has been influenced by Western values.
25. Which of the following is true according to the author?
[A] Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder.
[B] Japanese education is characterized by mechanical learning as well as creativity.
[C] More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity.
[D] Dropping out leads to frustration against test taking.
26. The change in Japanese life-style is revealed in the fact that.
[A] the young are less tolerant of discomforts in life
[B] the divorce rate in Japan exceeds that in the U.S.
[C] the Japanese endure more than ever before
[D] the Japanese appreciate their present life
Passage 5
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① If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s
destiny—must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. ②If the tradition of ambition is to have
vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired,
( )
the educated not least among them. ③ 28 In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given
up on ambition as an ideal. ④What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition—if not always
their own then that of their parents and grandparents. ⑤There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing
the barn door after the horses have escaped—with the educated themselves riding on them.
①Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. ②Summer homes,
European travel, BMWs—the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less
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in demand today than a decade or two years ago.③ What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their
dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. ④Instead, we
are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American
materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star
restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in
private schools. ⑤For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at
all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”
①The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and
unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. ②As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse,
a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United
States. ③This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but
only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. ④Consequences follow from this, of course, some of
which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. ⑤Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry
critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in
life. [431 words]
27. It is generally believed that ambition may be well regarded if.
[A] its returns well compensate for the sacrifices [B] it is rewarded with money, fame and power
[C] its goals are spiritual rather than material [D] it is shared by the rich and the famous
28. The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is.
[A] customary of the educated to discard ambition in words
[B] too late to check ambition once it has been let out
[C] dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal
[D] impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition
29. Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because.
[A] they think of it as immoral
[B] their pursuits are not fame or wealth
[C] ambition is not closely related to material benefits
[D] they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
30. From the last paragraph the conclusion can be drawn that ambition should be maintained.
[A] secretly and vigorously [B] openly and enthusiastically
[C] easily and momentarily [D] verbally and spiritually
Part ⅢEnglish-Chinese Translation
Directions:
Read the following passage carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your
translation must be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
Governments throughout the world act on the assumption that the welfare of their people depends largely on the
economic strength and wealth of the community. 31)Under modern conditions, this requires varying measures of
centralized control and hence the help of specialized scientists such as economists and operational research experts.
32)Furthermore, it is obvious that the strength of a country’s economy is directly bound up with the efficiency of its
agriculture and industry, and that this in turn rests upon the efforts of scientists and technologists of all kinds. It also
means that governments are increasingly compelled to interfere in these sectors in order to step up production and
ensure that it is utilized to the best advantage. For example, they may encourage research in various ways, including
the setting up of their own research centers; they may alter the structure of education, or interfere in order to reduce
the wastage of natural resources or tap resources hitherto unexploited; or they may cooperate directly in the growing
number of international projects related to science, economics and industry. In any case, all such interventions are
heavily dependent on scientific advice and also scientific and technological manpower of all kinds.
33)Owing to the remarkable development in mass-communications, people everywhere are feeling new wants
and are being exposed to new customs and ideas, while governments are often forced to introduce still further
innovations for the reasons given above. At the same time, the normal rate of social change throughout the world is
taking place at a vastly accelerated speed compared with the past. For example, 34)in the early industrialized
countries of Europe the process of industrialization—with all the far-reaching changes in social patterns that
followed—was spread over nearly a century, whereas nowadays a developing nation may undergo the same process
in a decade or so. All this has the effect of building up unusual pressures and tensions within the community and
consequently presents serious problems for the governments concerned. 35)Additional social stresses may also occur
because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements—themselves made
relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport. As a result of all these factors, governments are becoming
increasingly dependent on biologists and social scientists for planning the appropriate programs and putting them into
effect. [390 words]
Section ⅣWriting(15 points)
36.Directions:
A. Study the following two pictures carefully and write an essay of at least 150 words.
B. Your essay must be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2.
C. Your essay should meet the requirements below:
1)Describe the pictures.
2)Deduce the purpose of the painter of the pictures.
3)Suggest counter-measures.
1999 年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题
Passage 1
It’s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove
and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful
lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began
holding more companies liable for their customers’ misfortunes.
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every
possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might —
surprise!—fall off. The label on a child’s Batman cape cautions that the toy “does not enable user to fly”.
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary—the dangers of drug interactions, for example—and many
are required by state or federal regulations, it isn’t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from
liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to
side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn’t have changed anything. In May,
Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who
was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. “We’re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets
aren’t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries, ” says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not
the helmet, was the reason for the athlete’s injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute —a group of judges,
lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight—issued new guidelines for tort law stating
that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones.
“Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities, ” says a law professor at Cornell Law School who
helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products
might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
Passage 2
In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market.
More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and
services with one another. Such business to business sales make sense because business people typically know
what product they’re looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. “Businesses
need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier,” says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester
Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business
partners who are given access to the company’s private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until
recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to “pull” customers into sites. In the past year,
however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to “push” information directly out to
consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses
a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers’ computer monitors.
Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company’s Web site.
Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers
about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web
users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific
request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and
television fades. That’s a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The
examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon .com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of
products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of
computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People
looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
15. We learn from the beginning of the passage that Web business.
[A] has been striving to expand its market
[B] intended to follow a fanciful fashion
[C] tried but in vain to control the market
[D] has been booming for one year or so
16. Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that.
[A] the technology is popular with many Web users
[B] businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions
[C] there is a radical change in strategy
[D] it is accessible limitedly to established partners
17. In the view of Net purists, .
[A] there should be no marketing messages in online culture
[B] money making should be given priority to on the Web
[C] the Web should be able to function as the television set
[D] there should be no online commercial information without requests
18. We learn from the last paragraph that.
[A] pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce
[B] interactivity, hospitality and security are important to online customers
[C] leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago
[D] setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power
Passage 3
An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students’ career
prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very
few writers on the subject have explored this distinction—indeed, contradiction—which goes to the heart of what is
wrong with the campaign to put computers in the classroom.
An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, justified for reasons
radically different from why education is universally required by law. It is not simply to raise everyone’s job
prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. Rather, we have a certain conception
of the American citizen, a character who is incomplete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and
happiness are affected by things outside of himself. But this was not always the case; before it was legally required
for all children to attend school until a certain age, it was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature
to pursue this kind of education. With optimism characteristic of all industrialized countries, we came to accept that
everyone is fit to be educated. Computer education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that
betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. Banking on the confusion between educational and vocational reasons for
bringing computers into schools, computered advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their
educational achievement.
There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student. Many European
schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped
for the professions they want to join. It is, however, presumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so
many scientists, so many businessmen, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number
of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and
involves so many international corporations.
But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well developed skills, all
other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not. Of course, the basics of using any
computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If
one wanted to become a computer engineer, that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills
take—at the very longest—a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to
the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that
no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.
19. The author thinks the present rush to put computers in the classroom is.
[A] far reaching [B] dubiously oriented
[C] self contradictory [D] radically reformatory
20. The belief that education is indispensable to all children.
[A] is indicative of a pessimism in disguise
[B] came into being along with the arrival of computers
[C] is deeply rooted in the minds of computer ed advocates
[D] originated from the optimistic attitude of industrialized countries
21. It could be inferred from the passage that in the author’s country the European model of professional training
is.
[A] dependent upon the starting age of candidates
[B] worth trying in various social sections
[C] of little practical value
[D] attractive to every kind of professional
22. According to the author, basic computer skills should be.
[A] included as an auxiliary course in school
[B] highlighted in acquisition of professional qualifications
[C] mastered through a life long course
[D] equally emphasized by any school, vocational or otherwise
Passage 4
When a Scottish research team startled the world by revealing 3 months ago that it had cloned an adult sheep,
President Clinton moved swiftly. Declaring that he was opposed to using this unusual animal husbandry technique to
clone humans, he ordered that federal funds not be used for such an experiment—although no one had proposed to do
so—and asked an independent panel of experts chaired by Princeton President Harold Shapiro to report back to the
White House in 90 days with recommendations for a national policy on human cloning. That group—the National
Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC)—has been working feverishly to put its wisdom on paper, and at a meeting
on 17 May, members agreed on a near final draft of their recommendations.
NBAC will ask that Clinton’s 90 day ban on federal funds for human cloning be extended indefinitely, and
possibly that it be made law. But NBAC members are planning to word the recommendation narrowly to avoid new
restrictions on research that involves the cloning of human DNA or cells—routine in molecular biology. The panel
has not yet reached agreement on a crucial question, however, whether to recommend legislation that would make it a
crime for private funding to be used for human cloning.
In a draft preface to the recommendations, discussed at the 17 May meeting, Shapiro suggested that the panel
had found a broad consensus that it would be “morally unacceptable to attempt to create a human child by adult
nuclear cloning.” Shapiro explained during the meeting that the moral doubt stems mainly from fears about the risk to
the health of the child. The panel then informally accepted several general conclusions, although some details have
not been settled.
NBAC plans to call for a continued ban on federal government funding for any attempt to clone body cell nuclei
to create a child. Because current federal law already forbids the use of federal funds to create embryos (the earliest
stage of human offspring before birth) for research or to knowingly endanger an embryo’s life, NBAC will remain
silent on embryo research.
NBAC members also indicated that they would appeal to privately funded researchers and clinics not to try to
clone humans by body cell nuclear transfer. But they were divided on whether to go further by calling for a federal
law that would impose a complete ban on human cloning. Shapiro and most members favored an appeal for such
legislation, but in a phone interview, he said this issue was still “up in the air”.
Passage 5
Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the
men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples
had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had
been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn’t
they fall out of the sky? The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the
question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets.
How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because
he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable.
Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’t have unpredictable things, you don’t have
research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is
filled with examples of it.
In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the
“scientific method” a substitute for imaginative thought. I’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has
been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned,
looked at the graphs, and said, “the data are still inconclusive.” “We know that,” the men from the budget office have
said, “but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What do you think we might expect?” The scientist has been
shocked at having even been asked to speculate.
What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put
forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and
business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as
the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce
results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know
exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye
on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern
are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for
discriminating against the “odd balls” among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who “work well with
the team”.
27. The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that.
[A] inquiring minds are more important than scientific experiments
[B] science advances when fruitful researches are conducted
[C] scientists seldom forget the essential nature of research
[D] unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research
28. The author asserts that scientists.
[A] shouldn’t replace “scientific method” with imaginative thought
[B] shouldn’t neglect to speculate on unpredictable things
[C] should write more concise reports for technical journals
[D] should be confident about their research findings
29. It seems that some young scientists.
[A] have a keen interest in prediction
[B] often speculate on the future
[C] think highly of creative thinking
[D] stick to “scientific method”
30. The author implies that the results of scientific research.
[A] may not be as profitable as they are expected
[B] can be measured in dollars and cents
[C] rely on conformity to a standard pattern
[D] are mostly underestimated by management
36. Directions:
A. Study the following graphs carefully and write an essay in at less than 150 words.
B. Your essay must be written clearly on the ANSWER SHEET 2.
C. Your essay should cover three points:
a. effect of the country’s growing human population on its wildlife,
b. possible reasons for the effect,
c. your suggestion for wildlife protection
1998 年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题
Directions:
For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C], and [D].
Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in
the brackets with a pencil. (10 points)
Until recent l y most historians spoke very critically of the Industrial Revolution. They1that in the long run
industrialization greatly raised the standard of living for the 2 man. But they insisted that its 3 results during
the period from 1750 to 1850 were widespread poverty and misery for the 4 of the English population. 5
contrast, they saw in the preceding hundred years from 1650 to 1750, when England was still a 6 agricultural
country, a period of great abundance and prosperity.
This view, 7 , is generally thought to be wrong. Specialists 8 history and economics, have 9 two
things: that the period from 1650 to 1750 was 10 by great poverty, and that industrialization certainly did not
worsen and may have actually improved the conditions for the majority of the populace.
1. [A] admitted [B] believed [C] claimed [D] predicted
2. [A] plain [B] average [C] mean [D] normal
3. [A] momentary [B] prompt [C] instant [D] immediate
4. [A] bulk [B] host [C] gross [D] magnitude
5. [A] On [B] With [C] For [D] By
6. [A] broadly [B] thoroughly [C] generally [D] completely
7. [A] however [B] meanwhile [C] therefore [D] moreover
8. [A] at [B] in [C] about [D] for
9. [A] manifested [B] approved [C] shown [D] speculated
10. [A] noted [B] impressed [C] labeled [D] marked
Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
Directions:
Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers marked
[A], [B], [C] and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then
mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets. (40
points)
Text 1
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind’s long
suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating.
But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn’t help that building a big, powerful dam has
become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt’s leadership in the Arab
world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey’s bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but
deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left -- all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of
silt that it barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and
Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge
complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the
Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam.
And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and
environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to
resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster
dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world
learned the lessons of Aswan. You don’t need a dam to be saved.
11. The third sentence of Paragraph 1 implies that ________.
[A] people would be happy if they shut their eyes to reality [B] the blind could be happier than the sighted
[C] over-excited people tend to neglect vital things [D] fascination makes people lose their eyesight
12. In Paragraph 5, “the powerless” probably refers to ________.
[A] areas short of electricity [B] dams without power stations
[C] poor countries around India [D] common people in the Narmada Dam area
13. What is the myth concerning giant dams?
[A] They bring in more fertile soil. [B] They help defend the country.
[C] They strengthen international ties. [D] They have universal control of the waters.
14. What the author tries to suggest may best be interpreted as ________.
[A] “It’s no use crying over spilt milk” [B] “More haste, less speed”
[C] “Look before you leap” [D] “He who laughs last laughs best”
Text 2
Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you
hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen
assume they are presiding over is for real.
The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together,
productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous
decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978-87
average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a
business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the
treasury secretary, says, a “disjunction” between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity
and the picture reflected by the statistics.
Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace -- all that re-engineering and
downsizing -- are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other
factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and
training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not
always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.
Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have
been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.
Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain
of bakery cafes, says that much “re-engineering” has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has
been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied
re-engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long-term
profitability. BBDO’s Al Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re-engineering consultants as mere
rubbish -- “the worst sort of ambulance chasing.”
15.According to the author, the American economic situation is ________.
[A] not as good as it seems [B] at its turning point
[C] much better than it seems [D] near to complete recovery
16. The official statistics on productivity growth ________.
[A] exclude the usual rebound in a business cycle [B] fall short of businessmen’s anticipation
[C] meet the expectation of business people [D] fail to reflect the true state of economy
17. The author raises the question “what about pain without gain?” because ________.
[A] he questions the truth of “no gain without pain”
[B] he does not think the productivity revolution works
[C] he wonders if the official statistics are misleading
[D] he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses
18. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
[A] Radical reforms are essential for the increase of productivity.
[B] New ways of organizing workplaces may help to increase productivity.
[C] The reduction of costs is not a sure way to gain long-term profitability.
[D] The consultants are a bunch of good-for-nothings.
Text 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo’s 17th-century trial
for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake’s harsh remarks against the mechanistic
worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this
century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics -- but no longer.
As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked “anti-science” in several books, notably Higher
Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at
Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as “The Flight from Science and Reason,”
held in New York City in 1995, and “Science in the Age of (Mis) information,” which assembled last June near
Buffalo.
Anti-science clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with
sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science’s objectivity. Sagan is more concerned
with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the anti-science tag has been attached to many other groups as well,
from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who
advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science
and longs for return to a pre-technological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about
uncontrolled industrial growth are anti-science, as an essay in US News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of
Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global
warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the anti-science epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. “The term
‘anti-science’ can lump together too many, quite different things,” notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald
Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science. “They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or
threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened.”
19.The word “schism” (Line 4, Paragraph 1) in the context probably means ________.
[A] confrontation [B] dissatisfaction [C] separation [D] contempt
20. Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to ________.
[A] discuss the cause of the decline of science’s power [B] show the author’s sympathy with scientists
[C] explain the way in which science develops [D] exemplify the division of science and the
humanities
21. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[A] Environmentalists were blamed for anti-science in an essay.
[B] Politicians are not subject to the labeling of anti-science.
[C] The “more enlightened” tend to tag others as anti-science.
[D] Tagging environmentalists as “anti-science” is justifiable.
22. The author’s attitude toward the issue of “science vs. anti-science” is ________.
[A] impartial [B] subjective [C] biased [D] puzzling
Text 4
Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as
population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.
This development -- and its strong implications for US politics and economy in years ahead -- has enthroned the
South as America’s most densely populated region for the first time in the history of the nation’s head counting.
Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people -- numerically the third-largest growth
ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records
except for the Depression years.
Americans have been migrating south and west in larger numbers since World War II, and the pattern still
prevails.
Three sun-belt states -- Florida, Texas and California -- together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980 than
a decade earlier. Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 8th and San Antonio from 15th to 10th -- with
Cleveland and Washington. D. C., dropping out of the top 10.
Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement out of the snow belt, census officials say. Nonstop waves of
immigrants played a role, too -- and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday’s “baby boom” generation reached its
child bearing years.
Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west as joined by a related but newer phenomenon:
More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too.
Some instances—
■Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states reported the most rapid growth rate -- 37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast
area with only 5 percent of the US population.
■Among states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively. Except for Florida
and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western states with 7.5 million people -- about 9 per square
mile.
The flight from overcrowdedness affects the migration from snow belt to more bearable climates.
Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West.
There, California added 3.7 million to its population in the 1970s, more than any other state.
In that decade, however, large numbers also migrated from California, mostly to other parts of the West. Often
they chose -- and still are choosing -- somewhat colder climates such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska in order to escape
smog, crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State.
As a result, California’s growth rate dropped during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent -- little more than two thirds the
1960s’ growth figure and considerably below that of other Western states.
23.Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s
________.
[A] enjoyed the lowest net growth of population in history
[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population
[C] underwent an unparalleled period of population growth
[D] brought to a standstill its pattern of migration since World War II
24. The census distinguished itself from previous studies on population movement in that ________.
[A] it stresses the climatic influence on population distribution
[B] it highlights the contribution of continuous waves of immigrants
[C] it reveals the Americans’ new pursuit of spacious living
[D] it elaborates the delayed effects of yesterday’s “baby boom”
25. We can see from the available statistics that ________.
[A] California was once the most thinly populated area in the whole US
[B] the top 10 states in growth rate of population were all located in the West
[C] cities with better climates benefited unanimously from migration
[D] Arizona ranked second of all states in its growth rate of population
26. The word “demographers” (Line 1, Paragraph 8) most probably means ________.
[A] people in favor of the trend of democracy [B] advocates of migration between states
[C] scientists engaged in the study of population [D] conservatives clinging to old patterns of life
Text 5
Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as
hot spots. Unlike most of the world’s volcanoes, they are not always found at the boundaries of the great drifting
plates that make up the earth’s surface; on the contrary, many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate. Most of the
hot spots move only slowly, and in some cases the movement of the plates past them has left trails of dead volcanoes.
The hot spots and their volcanic trails are milestones that mark the passage of the plates.
That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute. Africa and South America, for example, are moving away
from each other as new material is injected into the sea floor between them. The complementary coastlines and
certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined.
The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of one plate
with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth’s interior. It is not possible to
determine whether both continents are moving in opposite directions or whether one continent is stationary and the
other is drifting away from it. Hot spots, anchored in the deeper layers of the earth, provide the measuring
instruments needed to resolve the question. From an analysis of the hot-spot population it appears that the African
plate is stationary and that it has not moved during the past 30 million years.
The significance of hot spots is not confined to their role as a frame of reference. It now appears that they also
have an important influence on the geophysical processes that propel the plates across the globe. When a continental
plate come to rest over a hot spot, the material rising from deeper layers creates a broad dome. As the dome grows, it
develops deep fissures (cracks); in at least a few cases the continent may break entirely along some of these fissures,
so that the hot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus just as earlier theories have explained the mobility of
the continents, so hot spots may explain their mutability (inconstancy).
27.The author believes that ________.
[A] the motion of the plates corresponds to that of the earth’s interior
[B] the geological theory about drifting plates has been proved to be true
[C] the hot spots and the plates move slowly in opposite directions
[D] the movement of hot spots proves the continents are moving apart
28. That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that ________.
[A] the two continents are still moving in opposite directions
[B] they have been found to share certain geological features
[C] the African plate has been stable for 30 million years
[D] over 100 hot spots are scattered all around the globe
29. The hot spot theory may prove useful in explaining ________.
[A] the structure of the African plates [B] the revival of dead volcanoes
[C] the mobility of the continents [D] the formation of new oceans
30. The passage is mainly about ________.
[A] the features of volcanic activities
[B] the importance of the theory about drifting plates
[C] the significance of hot spots in geophysical studies
[D] the process of the formation of volcanoes
Section IV English-Chinese Translation
Directions:
Read the following passage carefully and then translate the underlined sentences into Chinese. Your
translation must be written clearly on the ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
They were, by far, the largest and most distant objects that scientists had ever detected: a strip of enormous
cosmic clouds some 15 billion light-years from earth. 31) But even more important, it was the farthest that scientists
had been able to look into the past, for what they were seeing were the patterns and structures that existed 15 billion
years ago. That was just about the moment that the universe was born. What the researchers found was at once both
amazing and expected: the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Cosmic Background Explorer
satellite -- Cobe -- had discovered landmark evidence that the universe did in fact begin with the primeval explosion
that has become known as the Big Bang (the theory that the universe originated in an explosion from a single mass of
energy).
32) The existence of the giant clouds was virtually required for the Big Bang, first put forward in the 1920s, to
maintain its reign as the dominant explanation of the cosmos. According to the theory, the universe burst into being as
a submicroscopic, unimaginably dense knot of pure energy that flew outward in all directions, emitting radiation as it
went, condensing into particles and then into atoms of gas. Over billions of years, the gas was compressed by gravity
into galaxies, stars, plants and eventually, even humans.
Cobe is designed to see just the biggest structures, but astronomers would like to see much smaller hot spots as
well, the seeds of local objects like clusters and superclusters of galaxies. They shouldn’t have long to wait. 33)
Astrophysicists working with ground-based detectors at the South Pole and balloon-borne instruments are closing in
on such structures, and may report their findings soon.
34) If the small hot spots look as expected, that will be a triumph for yet another scientific idea, a refinement of
the Big Bang called the inflationary universe theory. Inflation says that very early on, the universe expanded in size
by more than a trillion trillion trillion trillion fold in much less than a second, propelled by a sort of antigravity. 35)
Odd though it sounds, cosmic inflation is a scientifically plausible consequence of some respected ideas in
elementary particle physics, and many astrophysicists have been convinced for the better part of a decade that it is
true.
31. ________
32. ________
33. ________
34. ________
35. ________
Section V Writing
Directions:
[A] Study the following cartoon carefully and write an essay in no less than 150 words.
[B] Your essay must be written clearly on the ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)
[C] Your essay should meet the requirements below:
1. Write out the messages conveyed by the cartoon.
2. Give your commentsn.
注:图片上的文字是:
本母鸡承诺:
①本鸡下蛋不见棱不见角
②保证有蛋皮,蛋黄和蛋清
1997 年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题
Part ⅠCloze Test
Directions:
For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D].
Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in
the brackets. (10 points)
Manpower Inc., with 560 000 workers, is the world’s largest temporary employment agency. Every morning, its
people 1 into the offices and factories of America, seeking a day’s work for a day’s pay.
One day at a time. 2 industrial giants like General Motors and IBM struggle to survive 3 reducing the number
of employees, Manpower, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is booming.
4 its economy continues to recover, the US is increasingly becoming a nation of part- timers and temporary
workers. This “ 5 ” work force is the most important 6 in American business today, and it is 7 changing
the relationship between people and their jobs. The phenomenon provides a way for companies to remain globally
competitive 8 avoiding market cycles and the growing burdens 9 by employment rules, health care costs
and pension plans. For workers it can mean an end to the security, benefits and sense of 10 that came from
being a loyal employee.
1.[A] swarm [B] stride [C] separate [D] slip
2.[A] For [B] Because [C] As [D] Since
3.[A] from [B] in [C] on [D] by
4.[A] Even though [B] Now that [C] If only [D] Provided that
5.[A] durable [B] disposable [C] available [D] transferable
6.[A] approach [B] flow [C] fashion [D] trend
7.[A] instantly [B] reversely [C] fundamentally [D] sufficiently
8.[A] but [B] while [C] and [D] whereas
9.[A] imposed [B] restricted [C] illustrated [D] confined
10.[A] excitement [B] conviction [C] enthusiasm [D] importance
Directions:
For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Choose
the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets.
(10 points)
Vitamins are organic compounds necessary in small amounts in the diet for the normal growth and maintenance
of life of animals, including man.
They do not provide energy, 1 do they construct or build any part of the body. They are needed for 2
foods into energy and body maintenance. There are thirteen or more of them, and if 3 is missing a deficiency
disease becomes 4 .
Vitamins are similar because they are made of the same elements—usually carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 5
nitrogen. They are different 6 their elements are arranged differently, and each vitamin 7 one or more
specific functions in the body.
8 enough vitamins is essential to life, although the body has no nutritional use for 9 vitamins. Many
people, 10 , believe in being on the “safe side” and thus take
will usually meet all the body’s vitamin needs.
Directions:
Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each questions there are four answers marked [A],
[B], [C] and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then mark
your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (40 points)
Passage 1
ders used to say, “It’s not what you want in this world, but what you get.”
Psychology teaches that you do get what you want if you know what you want and want the right things.
You can make a mental blueprint of a desire as you would make a blueprint of a house, and each of us is
continually making these blueprints in the general routine of everyday living. If we intend to have friends to dinner,
we plan the menu, make a shopping list, decide which food to cook first, and such planning is an essential for any
type of meal to be served.
Likewise, if you want to find a job, take a sheet of paper, and write a brief account of yourself. In making a
blueprint for a job, begin with yourself, for when you know exactly what you have to offer, you can intelligently plan
where to sell your services.
This account of yourself is actually a sketch of your working life and should include education, experience and
references. Such an account is valuable. It can be referred to in filling out standard application blanks and is
extremely helpful in personal interviews. While talking to you, your could be employer is deciding whether your
education, your experience, and other qualifications will pay him to employ you and your “wares” and abilities must
be displayed in an orderly and reasonably connected manner.
When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires, you have something tangible to sell.
Then you are ready to hunt for a job. Get all the possible information about your could be job. Make inquiries as to
the details regarding the job and the firm. Keep your eyes and ears open, and use your own judgment. Spend a certain
amount of time each day seeking the employment you wish for, and keep in mind: Securing a job is your job now.
11. What do the elders mean when they say, “It’s not what you want in this world, but what you get.”?
[A] You’ll certainly get what you want.
[B] It’s no use dreaming.
[C] You should be dissatisfied with what you have.
[D] It’s essential to set a goal for yourself.
12. A blueprint made before inviting a friend to dinner is used in this passage as .
[A] an illustration of how to write an application for a job
[B] an indication of how to secure a good job
[C] a guideline for job description
[D] a principle for job evaluation
13. According to the passage, one must write an account of himself before starting to find a job because .
[A] that is the first step to please the employer
[B] that is the requirement of the employer
[C] it enables him to know when to sell his services
[D] it forces him to become clearly aware of himself
14. When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires, you have something .
[A] definite to offer [B] imaginary to provide
[C] practical to supply [D] desirable to present
Passage 2
With the start of BBC World Service Television, millions of viewers in Asia and America can now watch the
Corporation’s news coverage, as well as listen to it.
And of course in Britain listeners and viewers can tune in to two BBC television channels, five BBC national
radio services and dozens of local radio stations. They are brought sport, comedy, drama, music, news and current
affairs, education, religion, parliamentary coverage, children’s programmes and films for an annual licence fee of
£83 per household.
It is a remarkable record, stretching back over 70 years — yet the BBC’s future is now in doubt. The
s
The debate was launched by the Government, which invited anyone with an opinion of the BBC — including
ordinary listeners and viewers — to say what was good or bad about the Corporation, and even whether they thought
it was worth keeping. The reason for its inquiry is that the BBC’s royal charter runs out in 1996 and it must decide
whether to keep the organization as it is, or to make changes.
Defenders of the Corporation — of whom there are many — are fond of quoting the American slogan “If it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it.” The BBC “ain’t broke”, they say, by which they mean it is not broken (as distinct from the word
‘broke’, meaning having no money), so why bother to change it?
Yet the BBC will have to change, because the broadcasting world around it is changing. The commercial TV
channels —— ITV and Channel 4 —— were required by the Thatcher Government’s Broadcasting Act to become
more commercial, competing with each other for advertisers, and cutting costs and jobs. But it is the arrival of new
satellite channels — funded partly by advertising and partly by viewers’subscriptions — which will bring about the
biggest changes in the long term.
Passage 3
In the last half of the nineteenth century “capital” and “labour” were enlarging and perfecting their rival
organizations on modern lines. Many an old firm was replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of
salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional
element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second
and third generation after the energetic founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards
collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed
for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. At the same time the great municipalities went
into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers.
The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large,
impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a
class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the
landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. All through the nineteenth
century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British
shareholders were thus enriched by the world’s movement towards industrialization. Towns like Bournemouth and
Eastbourne sprang up to house large “comfortable” classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation
to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders’ meeting to
dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand “shareholding” meant leisure and freedom which was used
by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilization.
The “shareholders” as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of the workmen employed by the
company in which he held shares, and his influence on the relations of capital and labor was not good. The paid
manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the men and their demands, but even he had seldom
that familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employer had often had under the more patriarchal
system of the old family business now passing away. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen
involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of
the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the
companies who employed them. The cruel discipline of the strike and lockout taught the two parties to respect each
other’s strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.
Passage 4
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America— breakthroughs such as the telegraph,
the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force
that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius
for nonverbal, “spatial” thinking about things technological.
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the
New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of
geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a
member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline,
the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”
A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium” system, which preceded our patent system and for
years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other
incentives.
In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial
fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the
beneficence of technological advance.
Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special
kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, “A technologist
thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a
visual, nonverbal process … The designer and the inventor … are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds
devices that as yet do not exist.”
This nonverbal “spatial” thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, “The
mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc, like a poet among the letters of the alphabet,
considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.”
When all these shaping forces—schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking
—interacted with one another on the rich U.S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic emulation.
Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and
excellence.
23. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due
to .
[A] elementary schools [B] enthusiastic workers
[C] the attractive premium system [D] a special way of thinking
24. It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics .
[A] benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge.
[B] shed light on disciplined school management.
[C] was brought about by privileged home training.
[D] owed a lot to the technological development.
25. A technologist can be compared to an artist because .
[A] they are both winners of awards. [B] they are both experts in spatial thinking.
[C] they both abandon verbal description [D] they both use various instruments
26. The best title for this passage might be .
[A] Inventive Mind [B] Effective Schooling
[C] Ways of Thinking [D] Outpouring of Inventions
Passage 5
Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher’s pipelines. A few have
already appeared. The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there
are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology, geology, and
biology have provided a consistent, unified, and constantly improving account of what happened. “Scientific”
creationism, which is being pushed by some for “equal time” in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of
evolution are given, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of nonfundamentalist
religious leaders have come to regard “scientific” creationism as bad science and bad religion.
The first four chapters of Kitcher’s book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he
introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves
and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with
the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their
basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior.
Kitcher is a philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of his arguments. The
non-specialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory.
The final chapters on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay
Gould says: “This book stands for reason itself.” And so it does - and all would be well were reason the only judge in
the creationism/evolution debate.
27. “Creationism” in the passage refers to .
[A] evolution in its true sense as to the origin of the universe
[B] a notion of the creation of religion
[C] the scientific explanation of the earth formation
[D] the deceptive theory about the origin of the universe
28. Kitcher’s book is intended to .
[A] recommend the views of the evolutionists [B] expose the true features of creationists
[C] curse bitterly at his opponents [D] launch a surprise attack on creationists
29. From the passage we can infer that .
[A] reasoning has played a decisive role in the debate
[B] creationists do not base their argument on reasoning
[C] evolutionary theory is too difficult for non-specialists
[D] creationism is supported by scientific findings
30. This passage appears to be a digest of .
[A] a book review [B] a scientific paper
[C] a magazine feature [D] a newspaper editorial
Outline:
1. Importance of good health.
2. Ways to keep fit.
3. My own practices.