中国农业大学考博英语

English Entrance Examination for Doctoral CandidatesPart I Listening Comprehension (20 points)Section ADirections: In this section you will hear 10 short conversations. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Each conversation and question will bespoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, youmust read the four suggested answers. Then mark the corresponding letter on theAnswer Sheet with a single line through the center.Example. You will hear:You will read:A. 2 hours.B. 3 hours.C. 4 hours.D. 5 hours.From the conversation we know that the two are talking about some work they will start at 9 o'clock in the morning and have to finish at 2 in the afternoon. Therefore D "5 hours" is the correct answer. You should choose answer [D] on the Answer Sheet and mark it with a single line through the centre.1. A. Not talk to Bill any more.B. Tell Bill not to think negatively.C. Take Bill's remarks seriously.D. Pay little attention to what Bill says.2. A. Look for beverages in the lobby.B. Get some fresh air outside.C. Walk around the auditorium.D. Stay in their seats.3. A. They are both studying for M.A.B. They are both working.C. He is studying while she works.D. She is studying while he works.4. A. He feels sorry for those students.B. He considers the punishment excessive.C. He expresses no opinion about the action.D. He approves of the action.5. A. Satisfied with their price.B. Displeased with their quality.C. Pleased with modern mass-production techniques.D. Dissatisfied with their technological complexity.5. A. In his office.B. In his waiting room.C. In an airplane.D. In New York.7. A. The man is an exceptional student and will write the exam for the class.B. The student will probably not be able to complete the court.C. The student's request will be granted.D. Circumstances will not permit the student to take the make-up exam.8. A. He doubts David's reliability.B. He is willing to trust David.C. He has confided some of his doubts to David.D. He thinks David will benefit him from this experience.9. A. Ask the stewardess for change.B. Move to another part of the plane.C. Sit where there is a breeze.D. Extinguish his cigarette.10. A. The man doesn't have to take the GRE test.B. The man doesn't have to take the English test.C. The man can't go to the graduate school.D. The man's adviser canceled the GRE test.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear three short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.After you hear one question, you must choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked A ), B ), C) and D ).Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheetwith a single line through the center.Passage OneQuestions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard:10. A. Man's Lives.B. Man's Normal Period of Growth.C. Can the Aging Be Controlled?D. Can Man Live Longer in the Future?12. A. Most people cannot live more than 100 years.B. Most people are over 100 years old.C. Man can live six times longer than his normal period of growth.D. A person's period of growth may be 25 years.13. A. By describing the conditions necessary for a long life.B. By explaining the findings of an expert.C. By comparing man with other animals.D. By quoting popular medical opinion.Passage TwoQuestions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard:14. A. When the plane was up in the sky.B. Ten minutes after he was sitting on board.C. Just before he fastened his seat belt.D. While he was enjoying the beauty of the sky.15. A. The man enjoyed the beauty of the evening sky from his plane.B. The man had a time bomb hidden in his suitcase.C. The ticking noise of the alarm clock caused him a little trouble.D. The airline official and the police officer played a joke on him.16. A. An Interesting Day.B. Two Mistakes Made.C. A False Alarm.D. An Unlawful Arrest.Passage ThreeQuestions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.17. A. Some people buy things they do not want.B. Some people are afraid to stick to their rights.C. There are many superior around you.D. Some people do not think highly enough of themselves.18. A. Some people have a low self-image.B. There is always someone around who knows better.C. Salesman talk people into buying things they don't want.D. People do not share the common knowledge.19. A. To make people start to doubt themselves.B. To show people they have a right to be themselves.C. To help people to become a superior.D. To help people to learn to be aggressive.20. A. To take an AT course.B. To go to see a superior.C. To talk with Dr. Albert.D. To speak out for yourself.Part Two Vocabulary (25 points)Section ADirections: Choose the one word or phrase which you think closest in meaning to the underlined part of the sentence in its context and mark your choices on the ANSWERSHEET.21.A good manager must establish rapport with his or her subordinates.A. affectionB. acquaintanceC. faithD. loyalty22.Unhappy people often resort to violence as a means of venting their anger.A. intend forB. make use ofC. prefer toD. refer to23.If you know in advance that the exam is going be easy, you have no incentive to work hard.A. emotionB. motivationC. interestD. intention24.The oil company launched urgent studies of the Arctic environment.A. startedB. stressedC. stimulatedD. worked25.The retiring professor was exalted by his colleagues.A. criticizedB. honoredC. bestowedD. supervised26.Parents heartily endorsed the plan for a school playground.A. adoredB. admiredC. supportedD. denied27.Black clouds, thunder and lightening show that a storm is imminent.A. impendingB. irremediableC. unavoidableD. irresistible28.Age had withered the lady’s complexion.A. destroyedB. twistedC. fleckedD. marked29.Since the two countries could not reconcile their differences, they decided to implementeconomic sanctions towards each other.A. resolveB. tackleC. matchD. split30.They are planning to embark on a new business undertaking.A. get upB. get onC. take part inD. get along withSection BDirections: Choose for each blank the word or phrase that can best complete the sentence.31.Many websites are _____ through search engines.A. availableB. accessibleC. achievableD. convenient32.The shopkeeper replaced the defective components, although it was not _____ for him to doso.A. authoritativeB. demandingC. obligatoryD. requisite33.Countless billions of _____ sea creatures and plants lived and sank to the sea bed.A. secondB. minuteC. hourD. day34.Your kindness in giving _____ to the consideration of the above request will be highlyappreciated.A. advantageB. importanceC. accommodationD. priority35.Some hope was _____ by the chairman that the financial position of the company wouldimprove during the next year.A. got overB. doubled upC. held out D caught on36.We expected him at eight but he finally _____ at midnight.A. came toB. turned outC. turned upD. came off37.Because the young girl had never been asked to do such a delicate work, she was completely_____ by the sudden confusion.A. compelledB. refrainedC. bewilderedD. constrained38.A good sense of rhythm is one of his natural _____ as a poet.A. endowmentsB. interestC. weaknessesD. accomplishments39.This portrait of him _____ him very much.A. likensB. exaggeratesC. displaysD. flatters40.The people _____ to be allowed to return to their island.A. participatedB. penetratedC. petitionedD. permeated41.He _____ never to come back until he had found her.A. pledgedB. perplexedC. persistedD. plighted42.The spring of last year witnessed the _____ of the strange weather.A. adaptationB. shiftC. vicissitudeD. kaleidoscope43.Since this product is out of stock, people rush for _____ buying.A. pantingB. ferventC. panicD. desperate44.The housewife _____ the sweet-smelling flowers into a garland.A. tiedB. intertwinedC. curvedD. twisted45.Each chess player will have five minutes to _____ his next move.A. makeB. haveC. takeD. ponderPart Three Reading Comprehension(25 points)Directions: In this section, there are four passages. Read the passages and questions carefully and make your choices that you think would best complete the statements or best answerthe questions by marking them on the ANSWER SHEET.2325Passage OneHistory Repeats? 1916 Election ParallelLooking back, the presidential election was something of a mess.Professor Terri Bimes teaches a course in the American Presidency at the University of California - Berkeley, "There was electoral confusion. For instance, in Los Angeles, there were more votes than ballots distributed. In New Hampshire, they switched the votes for the candidates."Professor Bimes is not talking about campaign 2000, but of the presidential election of 1916 between Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Republican challenger Charles Evans Hughes.There were allegations of election fraud, claims that ballots were tossed out because it appeared some voters had voted twice, and demands for a recount.The race had come down to California's 13 electoral votes and ultimately, to the relatively few votes of Northern California's rural communities like this one in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, an area now known as Wilsonia for very good reason.Professor Bill Issel of San Francisco State University says, "The surprise in California was of course shaped by Mother Nature's lack of cooperation, snow.""Hughes Probably Elected" says the SF Chronicle headline from the day after the election in 1916. With most of the state's ballots tallied, challenger Hughes held a slim lead over President Wilson. It was another day before horse drawn wagons battling snow and rough terrain could deliver their ballot boxes and ultimately the election to Wilson.Fred Vreeman of the Kings Canyon Park Service Co says, "So, the people in this area say, and have always said, since 1916, that they were the ones who swing the election for Wilson, and in his honor, they named this area Wilsonia."This year's election with its parallels to that of 1916, turns out to be very exciting for the students in Professor Bime's class on the American presidency.Professor Terri Bimes, "They're very charged. Lots of excitement. Lots of questions. It is a really, it's, it's, ahh, bad for the country, but, ahh, good for the course... Ha."46.One kind of election fraud might beA.less total votes than ballots.B.more total votes than ballots.C. a storm keeping voters away.D.ballots with pencil marks.47.The day after the election, the SF ChronicleA.gave the correct election results.B.told about the snow storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.C.gave the wrong election results.( No Hughes Probably Elected)D.told the story about Wilsonia.48.The surprise in the election of 1916 was caused byA.the smooth terrain.B.the double votes.C.the rural area.D.the weather. (snow)49.A few votes in the Presidential electionA.can change the outcome. (So very charged. Lots of excitement)B.are not really important.C.don't matter for the electoral votes.D.can be tossed out.50.The professor thought that the elections of 1916 and 2000A.were both interesting for the students.B.were parallel and thus not interesting.C.had too much fraud.D.were bad for the students to study.Passage TwoPulp FictionEvery second, 1 hectare of the world's rainforest is destroyed. That's equivalent to two football fields. An area the size of New York City is lost every day. In a year, that adds up to 31 million hectares -- more than the land area of Poland. This alarming rate of destruction has serious consequences for the environment; scientists estimate, for example, that 137 species of plant, insect or animal become extinct every day due to logging. In British Columbia, where, since 1990, thirteen rainforest valleys have been clear cut, 142 species of salmon have already become extinct, and the habitats of grizzly bears, wolves and many other creatures are threatened. Logging, however, provides jobs, profits, taxes for the government and cheap products of all kinds for consumers, so the government is reluctant to restrict or control it.Much of Canada's forestry production goes towards making pulp and paper. According to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Canada supplies 34% of the world's wood pulp and 49% of its newsprint paper. If these paper products could be produced in some other way, Canadian forests could be preserved. Recently, a possible alternative way of producing paper has been suggested by agriculturalists and environmentalists: a plant called hemp.Hemp has been cultivated by many cultures for thousands of years. It produces fibre which can be made into paper, fuel, oils, textiles, food, and rope. For many centuries, it was essential to the economies of many countries because it was used to make the ropes and cables used on sailing ships; colonial expansion and the establishment of a world-wide trading network would not havebeen possible without hemp. Nowadays, ships' cables are usually made from wire or synthetic fibres, but scientists are now suggesting that the cultivation of hemp should be revived for the production of paper and pulp. According to its proponents, four times as much paper can be produced from land using hemp rather than trees, and many environmentalists believe that the large-scale cultivation of hemp could reduce the pressure on Canada's forests.However, there is a problem: hemp is illegal in many countries of the world. This plant, so useful for fibre, rope, oil, fuel and textiles, is a species of cannabis, related to the plant from which marijuana is produced. In the late 1930s, a movement to ban the drug marijuana began to gather force, resulting in the eventual banning of the cultivation not only of the plant used to produce the drug, but also of the commercial fibre-producing hemp plant. Although both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp in large quantities on their own land, any American growing the plant today would soon find himself in prison -- despite the fact that marijuana cannot be produced from the hemp plant, since it contains almost no THC (the active ingredient in the drug).In recent years, two major movements for legalization have been gathering strength. One group of activists believes that all cannabis should be legal -- both the hemp plant and the marijuana plant -- and that the use of the drug marijuana should not be an offense. They argue that marijuana is not dangerous or addictive, and that it is used by large numbers of people who are not criminals but productive members of society. They also point out that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol or tobacco. The other legalization movement is concerned only with the hemp plant used to produce fibre; this group wants to make it legal to cultivate the plant and sell the fibre for paper and pulp production. This second group has had a major triumph recently: in 1997, Canada legalized the farming of hemp for fibre. For the first time since 1938, hundreds of farmers are planting this crop, and soon we can expect to see pulp and paper produced from this new source.51.How long does it take for 100 hectares of rainforest to be destroyed?A.less than two minutes (Every second, 1 hectare)B.about an hourC.two hoursD. a day52.Why was the plant hemp essential to world-wide trade in the past?A.Ships' ropes were made from it.B.Hemp was a very profitable export.C.Hemp was used as fuel for ships.D.Hemp was used as food for sailors.53.When was hemp production banned in Canada?A.1930B.1960C.1996D.1938 (For the first time since 1938,)54.Why was hemp banned?A.It is related to the marijuana plant.B.It can be used to produce marijuana.C.It was no longer a useful crop.D.It was destructive to the land.55."According to its proponents, four times as much paper can be produced from land usinghemp rather than trees." What does "proponents" of the previous sentence mean?A.people who are against something.B.people who support something.C.people in charge of something.D.people who are interested in something.Passage ThreeReal-Time TV Added to SPRINT MobilesNEW YORK (AP) -- Sprint Corp. is adding a television service for cell phones with real-time programs, albeit somewhat choppy, from cable networks.The new MobiTV service, available starting this week, will cost $9.99 per month in addition to the monthly fee of $15 that Sprint subscribers pay to use the Internet data connection on their mobile phones.Although the audio for MobiTV programs will play in a continuous stream, the cell phone screen will not display the equivalent of full-motion video like that seen on a real television. Instead, the video will play at a rate of one or two frames per second, as compared with more than 20 frames per second for real TV.The programs on most of the MobiTV channels will be identical to the actual programs playing at that hour on the corresponding cable channels, although with a lag of perhaps a minute due to the time it takes to process and transmit the content for a wireless device.The announcement brings at least one cellular carrier a step closer to transforming the over-hyped concept of next-generation wireless services to reality.Multimedia services such as Web browsing, music and video have been held up by limitations in the capabilities of both handsets and wireless networks. But ongoing improvements in the phones and network technology are now enabling richer content.Still, both Sprint and MobiTV provider Idetic Inc. were careful to not to set expectations for the new service too high."This isn't the kind of thing where you're going to watch a movie, but it is the kind of thing where the frame rate is fine" for viewing a program such as a newscast, said Paul Scanlan, a co-founder of Idetic. He also cautioned that normal limitations of mobile phone use will still apply."It's still cell phone technology, so just like you may get disconnected on a phone call, you could lose the program. If you don't have good reception for a phone call, you're not going to be able to get good reception (for MobiTV)."While wireless technology is expected to improve enough to provide full-motion streaming video as soon as next year, some handset makers are also trying to bring video to cell phones without the cellular network: Samsung is due to introduce a cell phone with a TV tuner inside that can pick up local television channels over the broadcast airwaves.Sprint and other wireless carriers are hoping enhanced features like MobiTV will fuel far greater usage of subscription data services, helping cover their hefty investment in wireless spectrum and network upgrades -- and eventually driving profits. At the end of September, about2.7 million of Sprint's 17.8 million cell phone customers also subscribed to the company's wireless online service, PCS Vision.MobiTV was developed and operated by Idetic Inc., a privately held technology company based in Berkeley, California.56.The style of this message is that ofA. market surveyB.news reportC. academic researchD. scientific paper57.The program on most of the MobiTV channels will be identical to the actual programs playingat that hour on the corresponding cable channels, but …A.it processes and transmits fasterB. it processes and transmits slowerC.it takes much more timeD. it takes much less time58.“It’s still cell phone technology” means:A.If you don’t have good reception for a phone call, you may get disconnected.B. If you have good connection for a phone call, you will be able to call.C.If you don’t have good reception for a MobilTV, you will still be connected.D.If you have good reception for a MobiTV, you will get connected.59.The word “fuel” in the first sentence of paragraph two from the bottom means:A. take in fuelB.provide fuelC.accelerate the workD.produce atomic power60.The present situation of the cell phone screen is thatA.it displays programs in a continuous streamB.it shows the full-motion video like that seen on televisionC.it exhibits the audio programsD.it reveals video at a rate of less framesPassage FourOur Way of Life Makes Us MiserableErich FrommMost Americans believe that our society of consumption –happy, fun-loving, jet-traveling people creates the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Contrary to this view, I believe that our present way of life leads to increasing anxiety, helplessness and, eventually, to the disintegration of our culture. I refuse to identify fun with pleasure, consumption with joy, busyness with happiness, or the faceless, buck-passing “organization man” with an independent individual.From this critical view our rates of alcoholism, suicide and divorce, as well as juvenile delinquency, gang rule, acts of violence and indifference to life, are characteristic symptoms of our “pathology of normalcy.” It may be argued that all these pathological phenomena exist because wehave not yet reached our aim, that of an affluent society. It is true, we are still far from being an affluent society. But the material progress made in the last decades allows us to hope that our system might eventually produce a materially affluent society. Yet will we be happier then? The example of Sweden, one of the most prosperous, democratic and peaceful European countries, is not very encouraging: Sweden, as is often pointed out, in spite of all its material security has among the highest alcoholism and suicide rates in Europe, while a much poorer country like Ireland ranks among the lowest in these respects. Could it be that our dream that material welfare per se leads to happiness is just a pipe dream?Certainly the humanist thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who are our ideological ancestors, thought that the goal of life was the full unfolding of a person’s potentialities; what mattered to them was the person who is much, not one who has much or uses much. For them economic production was a means to the unfolding of man, not an end. It seems that today the means have become ends, that not only “God is dead,’ as N ietzsche said in the nineteenth century, but also man is dead; that what is alive are the organizations, the machines, and that man has become their slave rather than being their master.Each society creates its own type of personality by its way of bringing up children in the family, by its system of education, by its effective values (that is, those values that are rewarded rather than only preached). Every society creates the type of “social character” which is needed for its proper functioning. It forms men who want to do what they have to do. What kind of men does our large-scale, bureaucratized industrialism need?It needs men who cooperate smoothly in large groups, who want to consume more and more, and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated it needs men who feel free and independent, yet who are willing to be commanded, to do what is expected, to fit into the social machine without friction, men who can be guided without force, led without leaders, prompted without an aim except the aim to be on the move, to function, to go ahead.Modern industrialism has succeeded in producing this kind of man. He is the “alienate” man. He is alienated in the sense that his actions and his own forces have become estranged from him; they stand above him and against him, and rule him rather than being ruled by him. His life forces have been transformed into things and institutions, and these things and institutions have become idols. They are something apart from him, which he worships and to which he submits. Alienated man bows down before the works of his own hands. He experiences himself not as the active bearer of his own forces and riches but as an impoverished “thing’, dependent on other things outside of himself. He is the prisoner of the very economic and political circumstances which he has created.Since our economic organization is based on continuous and ever-increasing consumption (think of the threat to our economy if people did not buy a new car until their old one was really obsolete), contemporary industrial man is encouraged to be consumption-crazy. Without any real enjoyment, he “takes in” drink, food, cigarettes, sights, lectures, books, movies, television any new kind of gadget. The world has become one great maternal breast, and man has become the eternal suckling, forever expectant, forever disappointed.In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucracy in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, fringe benefits, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and “human relations’ experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless,that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job (and with installment payments due); they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually productive, authentic and independent human beings.Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not only a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-esteem. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again —by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc., their own and that of their wives. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one’s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, they very causes of unhappiness and psychosomatic illness.The “organization man’ may be well fed, well a mused and well oiled, yet he lacks a sense of identity because none of his feelings or his thoughts originates within himself; none is authentic. He has no convictions, either in politics, religion, philosophy or in love. He is attracted by the “latest model” in thought, art and style, and lives under the illusion that the thoughts and feelings which he has acquired by listening to the media of mass communication are his own.He has a nostalgic longing for a life of individualism, initiative and justice, a longing that he satisfies by looking at Westerns. But these values have disappeared from real life in the world of giant corporations, giant state and military bureaucracies and giant labor unions. He, the individual, feels so small before these giants that he sees only one way to escape the sense of utter insignificance: He identifies himself with the giants and idolizes them as the true representatives of his own human powers, those of which he has dispossessed himself. His effort to escape his anxiety takes other forms as well. His pleasure in a well-filled freezer may be one unconscious way of reassuring himself. His passion for consumption—from television to sex—is still another symptom, a mechanism which psychiatrists often find in anxious patients who go on an eating or buying spree to evade their problems.The man whose life is centered around producing, selling and consuming commodities transforms himself into a commodity. He becomes increasingly attracted to that which is man-made and mechanical, rather than to that which is natural and organic. Many men today are more interested in sports cars than in women; or they experience women as a car which one can cause to race by pushing the right button. Altogether they expect happiness is a matter of finding the right button, not the result of a productive, rich life, a life which requires making an effort and taking risks. In their search for the button, some go to the psychoanalyst, some go to church and some read “self-help” books. But while it is impossible to find the button for happiness, the majority are satisfied with pushing the buttons of cameras radios, television sets, and watching science fiction becoming reality.One of the strangest aspects of this mechanical approach to life is the widespread lack of concern about the danger of total destruction by nuclear weapons; a possibility people are。