2012年北京师范大学考博英语阅读理解真题
博大考神2012年职称英语理工类B级阅读理解真题及参考答案
博大考神2012年职称英语理工类B级阅读理解真题及参考答案收集：博大教育专家来源：/article-5494.html?page=2第2部分：阅读判断(第16~22题，每题1分，共7分)下面的短文后列出了7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断;如果该句提供的是正确信息，请选择A;如果该句提供的是错误信息，请选择B;如果该句的信息文中没有提及，请选择C。
【题型总体分析】阅读判断通过学习查读法解题技巧，可以得到5分左右。
查读法技巧是解决阅读判断，概括大意和完成句子，阅读理解等阅读题型的必备解题技巧。
我们在软件的技巧实战板块中对该技巧进行了分类详细的讲述，并且配置了大量的针对性练习来让考生"练手"，学练结合，保证充分掌握技巧，并且学会在考场上的灵活运用。
Eastern Quakes Can Trigger Big ShakesIn the first week of November 2011, people in central Oklahoma experienced more than two dozen earthquakes. The largest, a magnitude 5.6 quake, shook thousands of fans in a college football stadium, caused cracks in a few buildings and rattled the nerves of many people who had never felt a quake before. Oklahoma is not an area of the country famous for its quakes. If you watch the news on TV, you see reports about all sorts of natural disasters-hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and wildfires, to name a few. But the most dangerous type of natural disaster, and also the most unpredictable, is the earthquake.Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that several million earthquakes rattle the globe each year. That may sound scary, but people don't feel many of the tremors because they happen in remote and unpopulated regions. Many quakes happen under the ocean, and others have a very small magnitude, or shaking intensity.A magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck central Virginia the afternoon of August 23, 2011, was felt from central Georgia to southeastern Canada. In many urban areas, including Washington, D.C., and New York City (Wall Street shown)， people crowded the streets while engineers inspected buildings. Credit: Wikimedia/Alex Tabak Scientists know about small, remote quakes only because of very sensitive electronic devices called seismometers. These devices detect and measure the size of ground vibrations produced by earthquakes. Altogether, USGS researchers use seismometers to identify and locate about 20,000 earthquakes each year.Although earthquakes can happen anywhere in the world, really big quakes occur only in certain areas. The largest ones register a magnitude 8 or higher and happen, on average, only once each year. Such big ones typically occur along the edges of Earth's tectonic plates.Tectonic plates are huge pieces of Earth's crust, sometimes many kilometers thick. These plates cover our planet's surface like a jigsaw puzzle. Often, jagged edges of these plates temporarily lock together. When plates jostle and scrape past eachother earthquakes occur. On average, tectonic plates move very slowly - about the same speed as your fingernails grow.But sometimes earthquakes rumble through portions of the landscape far from a plate's edges. Although less expected, these "mid-plate" tremors can do substantial damage. Some of the biggest known examples rattled the eastern half of the United States two centuries ago. Today, scientists are still puzzling over why the quakes occurred and when similar ones might occur.题目分析：16.Oklahoma is an area often experiencing natural disasters.A. rightB. wrongC. not mention【分析】这道题使用的是查读法技巧。
2014年北京师范大学博士入学英语试题与答案详解
北京师范大学 2014 年 3 月考博英语真题与答案详解第一部分：试题Part I ：Reading ComprehensionDirections: There are six passages in this part. Each of the passages is followed by five questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSER SHEET.Passage 1Taken together, income, occupation, and education are good measures of people‟s social standing. Using a layered model of stratification, most sociologists describe the class system in the United States as divided into several classes: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class. Each class is defined by characteristics such as income, occupational prestige, and educational attainment. The different groups are arrayed along a continuum with those with the most money, education, and prestige at the top and those with the least at the bottom.In the United States, the upper class owns the major share of corporate and personal wealth; it includes those who have held wealth for generations as well as those who have recently become rich. Only a very small proportion of people actually constitute the upper class, but they control vast amounts of wealth and power in the United States. They exercise enormous control throughout society. Most of their wealth is inherited.Despite social myths to the contrary, the best predictor of future wealth is the family into which you are born. Each year, the business magazine Forbes publishes a list of the “Forbes 400”-the four hundred wealthiest families and individuals in the country. Of all the wealth represented on the Forbes 400 list, more than half is inherited. Those on the list who could be called “self-made” were not typically of modest origins; most inherited significant assets (Forbes, 1997; Sklar and Collins, 1997). Those in the upper class with newly acquired wealth are known as the nouveau niche. Although they may have vast amounts of money, they are often not acceptedinto “old rich” circles.The upper middle class includes those with high incomes and high social prestige. They tend to be well-educated professionals or business executives. Their earnings can be quite high indeed-successful business executives can earn millions of dollars a year. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people fall into this group because of the difficulty of drawing lines between the upper, upper middle, and middle class. Indeed, the upper middle class is often thought of as “middle class” because their lifestyle sets the standard to which many aspire, but this lifestyle is simply beyond the means of a majority of people in the United States.The middle class is hard to define; in part, being “middle class” is more than just economic position. By far the majority of Americans identity themselves as middle class even though they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources at their though they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources at their disposal. But the idea that the United States is an open-class system leads many to think that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because, in general, people tend not to want to recognize class distinctions in the United States. Thus, the middle class becomes the ubiquitous norm even though many who call themselves middle class have a tenuous hold on this class position.In the hierarchy of social class, the lower middle class includes workers in the skilled trades and low-income bureaucratic workers, many of whom may actually define themselves as middle class. Examples are blue-collar workers (those in skilled trades who do manual labor) and many service workers, such as secretaries, hairdressers, waitresses, police, and firefighters. Medium to low income, education, and occupational prestige define the lower middle class relative to the class groups above it. The term “lower” in this class designation refers to the relative position of the group in the stratification system, but it has a pejorative sound to many people, especially to people who are members of this class.The lower class is composed primarily of the displaced and poor. People in this class have little formal education and are often unemployed or working inminimum-wage jobs. Forty percent of the poor work; 1 0 percent work year-round and full time—a proportion that has generally increased over time. Recently, the concept of the underclass has been added to the lower class. The underclass includes those who have been left behind by contemporary economic developments. Rejected from the economic system, those in the underclass may become dependent on public assistance or illegal activities.1. Why does the author mention the "Forbes 400" in paragraph 3?A. To explain the meaning of the listing that appears every yearB. To cast doubt on the claim that family income predicts individual wealthC. To give examples of successful people who have modest family connectionsD. To support the statement that most wealthy people inherit their money2. The author states that business and professional people with educational advantages are most often members of the_____.A. lower middle classB. upper middle classC. nouveau richeD. upper class3. Why do most people identify themselves as middle class in the United States?A. They have about the same lifestyle as everyone else in the countryB. They don‟t really know how to define their status because it is unclearC. They prefer not to admit that there are class distinctions in the United StatesD. They identify themselves with the majority who have normal lifestyles4. What can be inferred about poor people in the United States?A. They are not able to find entry-level jobsB. They work in jobs that require little educationC. They are service workers and manual laborersD. They do not try to find employment5. According to paragraph 7, why has the underclass emerged?A. The new term was necessary because the lower class enjoyed a higher lifestyle than it had previously.B. The increase in crime has supported a new class of people who live by engaging in illegal activities.C. Changes in the economy have caused an entire class of people to survive by welfare or crime.D. Minimum-wage jobs no longer support a class of people at a standard level in the economic system.Passage 2“The word …protection‟ is no longer taboo”. This short sentence, uttered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last month, may have launched a new era in economic history. Why? For decades, Western leaders have believed that lowering trade barriers and tariffs was a natural good. Doing so, they reasoned, would lead to greater economic efficiency and productivity, which in turn would improve human welfare. Championing free trade thus became a moral, not just an economic, cause.These leaders, of course, weren‟t acting out of unself ishness. They knew their economics were the most competitive, so they‟d profit most from liberalization. And developing countries feared that their economics would be swamped by superior Western productivity. Today, however, the tables have turned-though few acknowledge it. The west continues to preach free trade, but practices it less and less. Asia, meanwhile, continues to plead for special protection but practices more and more free trade.That‟s why Sarkozy‟s word were so important: he finally inj ected some honesty into the trade debate. The truth is that large parts of the West are losing faith in free trade, though few leaders admit it. Some economists are more honest. Paul Krug man is one of the few willing to losers will be in the West. Economists in the developed world used to love quoting Joseph Schumpeter, who said that “creative destruction” was an essential part of capitalist growth. But they always assumed that destruction would happen over there. When Western workers began losing jobs, suddenly their leaders began to lose faith in their principles. Things have yet to reverse completely. But there‟s clearly a negative trend in Western theory and practice.A little hypocrisy is not in itself a serious problem. The real problem is that Western governments continue to insist that they retain control of the key globaleconomic and financial institutions while drifting away from global liberalization. Look at what‟s happening at the IMF (International Monetary Fund). The Europeans have demanded that they keep the post of managing director. But all too often, Western officials put their own interests above everyone else‟s when they dominate these global institutions.The time has therefore come for the Asians-who are clearly the new winners in today‟s global economy- to provide more intellectual leadership in supporting free trade, Sadly, they have yet to do so. Unless Asians speak out, however, there‟s a real danger that Adam Smith‟s principles, which have brought so much good to the world, could gradually die. And that would leave all of us worse off, in one way or another.6. It can be inferred that “protection” (Line1, Para.1) means ______.A. improving economic efficiencyB. ending the free-trade practiceC. lowering moral standardD. raising trade tariffs7. The Western leaders preach free trade because ______.A. it is beneficial to their economicsB. it is supported by developing countriesC. it makes them keep faith in their principlesD. it is advocated by Joseph Schumpeter and Adam Smith8. By “the tables have turned” (Line 3-4, Para.2) the author implies that ______.A. the Western leaders have turned self-centeredB. the Asian leaders have become advocates of free tradeC. the developed economics have turned less competitiveD. the developing economics have become more independent9. The Western economists used to like the idea of “creative destruction” because it ______.A. set a long-term rather than short-term goalB. was an essential part of capitalist developmentC. entailed a positive rather than negative mentalityD. was meant to be the destruction of developing economics10. The author uses “IMF” as an example to illustrate the point that ______.A. European leaders are reluctant to admit they are hypocriticalB. there is an inconsistency between Western theory and practiceC. global institutions are not being led by true globalization advocatesD. European countries‟ interests are being ignored by economic leadersPassage 3Growth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a process of budgeting, just as finances are budgeted. If all of one‟s money is spent on clothes, there may be none left to buy food or go to the movies. Similarly, a plant or animal cannot squander all its energy on growing a big body if none would be left over for reproduction, for this is the surest way to extinction.All organisms, therefore, allocate energy to growth, reproduction, maintenance, and storage. No choice is involved; this allocation comes as part of the genetic package from the parents. Maintenance for a given body design of an organism is relatively constant. Storage is important, but ultimately that energy will be used for maintenance, reproduction, or growth. Therefore the principal differences in energy allocation are likely to be between growth and reproduction.Almost all of an organism‟s energy can be diverted to reproduction, with very little allocated to building the body. Organ isms at this extreme are “opportunists.” At the other extreme are “competitors,” almost all of whose resources are invested in building a huge body, with a bare minimum allocated to reproduction.Dandelions are good examples of opportunists. Their seed heads raised just high enough above the ground to catch the wind, the plants are no bigger than they need be, their stems are hollow, and all the rigidity comes from their water content. Thus, a minimum investment has been made in the body that becomes a platform for seed dispersal. These very short-lived plants reproduce prolifically; that is to say they provide a constant rain of seed in the neighborhood of parent plants. A new plant will spring up wherever a seed falls on a suitable soil surface, but because they do notbuild big bodies, they cannot compete with other plants for space, water, or sunlight. These plants are termed opportunists because they rely on their seeds‟ falling into settings where competing plants have been removed by natural processes, such as along an eroding riverbank, on landslips, or where a tree falls and creates a gap in the forest canopy.Opportunists must constantly invade new areas to compensate for being displaced by more competitive species. Human landscapes of lawns, fields, or flowerbeds provide settings with bare soil and a lack of competitors that are perfect habitats for colonization by opportunists. Hence, many of the strongly opportunistic plants are the common weeds of fields and gardens.Because each individual is short-lived, the population of an opportunist species is likely to be adversely affected by drought, bad winters, or floods. If their population is tracked through time, it will be seen to be particularly unstable—soaring and plummeting in irregular cycles.The opposite of an opportunist is a competitor. These organisms tend to have big bodies, are long-lived, and spend relatively little effort each year on reproduction. An oak tree is a good example of a competitor. A massive oak claims its ground for 200 years or more, outcompeting all other would-be canopy trees by casting a dense shade and drawing up any free water in the soil. The leaves of an oak tree taste foul because they are rich in tannins, a chemical that renders them distasteful or indigestible to many organisms. The tannins are part of the defense mechanism that is essential to longevity. Although oaks produce thousands of acorns, the investment in a crop of acorns is small compared with the energy spent on building leaves, trunk, and roots. Once an oak tree becomes established, it is likely to survive minor cycles of drought and even fire. A population of oaks is likely to be relatively stable through time, and its survival is likely to depend more on its ability to withstand the pressures of competition or predation than on its ability to take advantage of chance events. It should be noted, however, that the pure opportunist or pure competitor is rare in nature, as most species fall between the extremes of a continuum, exhibiting a blendof some opportunistic and some competitive characteristics.11. The word squander in the passage is closest in meaning to____.A. extendB. transformC. activateD. waste12. According to the passage, the classification of organisms as “opportunists” o r “competitors” is determined by_____.A. how the genetic information of an organism is store and maintainedB. the way in which the organism invests its energy resourcesC. whether the climate to which the organism lives is mild or extremeD. the variety of natural resources the organism consumes in its environment13. All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 7 as contribution to the longevity of oak tree EXCEPT____.A. the capacity to create shadeB. leaves containing tanninC. the ability to withstand mild droughts and firesD. the large number of acorns the tree produces14. According to the passage, oak trees are considered competitors becauseA. they grow in areas free of opportunitiesB. they spend more energy on their leaves, trunks and roots than on their acornsC. their population tends to increase or decrease irregular cyclesD. unlike other organisms, they do not need much water or sunlight15. In paragraph 7, the author suggests that most species of organismsA. are primarily opportunistsB. are primarily competitorsC. begin as opportunists and evolved into competitorsD. have some characteristics of opportunists and some of competitorsPassage 4Many literary detectives have pored over a great puzzle concerning the writer Marcel Proust: what happened in 1909? How did Contre Saint-Beuve, an essay attacking the methods of the critic Saint Beuve, turn into the start of the novelRemembrance of Things Past? A recently published letter from Proust to the editor Vallette confirms that Fallois, the editor of the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve, made an essentially correct guess about the relationship of the essay to the novel. Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve‟s blindness to the real nature of great writing, found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments, and allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel.Draft passages in Proust‟s 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve, when Proust introduced several examples to show the powerful influence that involuntary memory exerts over the creative imagination. In effect, in trying to demonstrate that the imagination is more profound and less submissive to the intellect than Saint-Beuve assumed, Proust elicited vital memories of his own and, finding subtle connections between them, began to amass the material for Remembrance. By August, Proust was writing to Vallette, informing him of his intention to develop the material as a novel. Maurice Bardeche, in Marcel Proust, romancier, has shown the importance in the drafts of Remembrance of spontaneous and apparently random associations of Proust‟s su bconscious. As incidents and reflections occurred to Proust, he continually inserted new passages altering and expanding his narrative. But he found it difficult to control the drift of his inspiration. The very richness and complexity of the meaningful relationships that kept presenting and rearranging themselves on all levels, from abstract intelligence to profound dreamy feelings, made it difficult for Proust to set them out coherently. The beginning of control came when he saw how to connect the beginning and the end of his novel.Intrigued by Proust‟s claim that he had “begun and finished” Remembrance at the same time, Henri Bonnet discovered that parts of Remembrance‟s last book were actually started in 1909. Already in that year, Proust had drafted descriptions of his novel‟s characters in their old age that would appear in the final book of Remembrance, where the permanence of art is set against the ravages of time. Theletter to Vallette, drafts of the essay and novel, and Bonnet‟s researches estab lish in broad outline the process by which Proust generated his novel out of the ruins of his essay. But those of us who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb‟s newly published complete edition of Proust‟s correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greate r detail are disappointed. For until Proust was confident that he was at last in sight of a viable structure for Remembrance, he told few correspondents that he was producing anything more ambitious than Contre Saint-Beuve.16. The passage is primarily concerned with ______.A. the role of involuntary memory in Proust‟s writing.B. evidence concerning the genesis of Proust‟s novel Remembrance of Things Past.C. conflicting scholarly opinions about the value of studying the drafts of Remembrance of Things Past.D. Proust‟s correspondence and what it reveals about Remembrance of Things Past.17. It can be inferred from the passage that all of the following are literary detectives who havetried, by means of either scholarship or criticism, to help solve t he “great puzzle” mentioned in lines 1-2 EXCEPT ______.A. BardecheB. BonnetC. FalloisD. Vallette18. According to the passage, in drafts of Contre Saint Beuve Proust set out to show thatSaint-Beuve made which of the following mistakes as a critic?I. Saint-Beuve made no effort to study the development of a novel through its drafts and revisions.II. Saint-Beuve assigned too great a role in the creative process to a writer‟s conscious intellect.III. Saint-Beuve concentrated too much on plots and not enough on imagery and other elements ofstyle.A. II onlyB. III onlyC. I and II onlyD. I, II, and III19. Which of the following best states the author‟s attitude toward the information that scholarshave gathered about Proust‟s writi ng in 1909?A. The author is disappointed that no new documents have come to light since Fallois‟s speculations.B. The author is dissatisfied because there are too many gaps and inconsistencies in the drafts.C. The author is confident that Fallois‟s 1954 guess has been proved largely correct, but regrets that still more detailed documentation concerning Proust‟s transition from the essay to the novel has not emerged.D. The author is satisfied that Fallois‟s judgment was largely correct, but feels tha t Proust‟s early work in designing and writing the novel was probably far more deliberate than Fallois‟s description of the process would suggest.20. The author of the passage implies that which of the following would be the LEAST usefulsource of informat ion about Proust‟s transition from working on Contre Saint-Beuve to having a viable structure for Remembrance of Things Past?A. Fallois‟s comments in the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-BeuveB. Proust‟s 1909 notebooks, including the drafts of Remembrance of Things PastC. Proust‟s 1909 correspondence, excluding the letter to ValletteD. Bardeche‟s Marcel Proust, romancierPassage 5Why do some desert plants grow tall and thin like organ pipes? Why do most trees in the tropics keep their leaves year round? Why in the Arctic tundra are there no trees at all? After many years without convincing general answers, we now know much about what sets the fashion in plant design.Using terminology more characteristic of a thermal engineer than of a botanist, we can think of plants as mechanisms that must balance their heat budgets. A plant by day is staked out under the Sun with no way of sheltering itself. All day long it absorbs heat. If it did not lose as much heat as it gained, then eventually it would die: Plants get rid of their heat by warming the air around them, by evaporating water, and by radiating heat to the atmosphere and the cold, black reaches of space temperature is tolerable for the processes of life.Plants in the Arctic tundra lie close to the ground in the thin layer of still air that clings there. A foot or two above the ground are the winds of Arctic cold. Tundra plants absorb heat from the Sun and tend to warm up; they probably balance most of their heat budgets by radiating heat to space, but also by warming the still air hat is trapped among them. As long as Arctic plants are close to the ground, they can balance their heat budgets. But if they should stretch up as a tree does, they would lift their working parts, their leaves, into the streaming Arctic winds. Then it is likely that the plants could not absorb enough heat from the Sun to avoid being cooled below a critical temperature. Your heat budget does not balance if you stand tall in the Arctic.Such thinking also helps explain other characteristics of plant design. A desert plant faces the opposite problem from that of an Arctic plant the danger of overheating. It is short of water and so cannot cool itself by evaporation without dehydrating. The familiar sticklike shape of desert plants represents one of the solutions to this problem: the shape exposes the smallest possible surface to incoming solar radiation and provides the largest possible surface from which the plant can radiate heat. In tropical rain forests, by way of contrast, the scorching Sun is not a problem for plants because there is sufficient water.This working model allows us to connect the general characteristics of the forms of plants indifferent habitats with factors such as temperature, availability of water, and presence or absence of seasonal differences. Our Earth is covered with a patchwork quilt of meteorological conditions, and the patterns of this patchwork are faithfully reflected by the plants.21. The passage primarily focuses on which of the following characteristics of plants?A. Their ability to grow equally well in all environmentsB. Their effects on the Earth's atmosphereC. Their ability to store water for dry periodsD. Their ability to balance heat intake and output22. According to the passage, which of the following is most responsible for preventing trees from growing tall in the Arctic?A. The hard, frozen groundB. The small amount of available sunshineC. The cold, destructive windsD. The large amount of snow that falls each year23. The author suggests that the "sticklike shape of desert plants" lines 3-5(paragraph4)can be attributed to the______.A. inability of the plants to radiate heat to the air around themB. presence of irregular seasonal differences in the desertC. large surface area that the plants must expose to the SunD. extreme heat and aridity of the habitatPassage 6To conduct some forms of sleep research, we have to find a way to track sleepiness over the day. Some people might believe that measuring sleepiness is a fairly trivial task. Couldn‟t you, for instance, simply count the number of times a person yawns during any given hour or so?In most people‟s minds, yawning--that slow, exaggerated mouth opening with the long, deep inhalation of air, followed by a briefer exhalation--is the most obvious sign of sleepiness. It is a common behavior shared by many animals, including our pet dogs and cats but also crocodiles, snakes, birds, and even some fish. It is certainly true that sleepy people tend to yawn more than wide-awake people. It is also true that people who say they are bored by what is happening at the moment will tend to yawn more frequently. However, whether yawning is a sign that you are getting ready for sleep or that you are successfully fighting off sleep is not known. Simply stretching your body, as you might do if you have been siring in the same position for a long period of time, will often trigger a yawn.Unfortunately, yawns don‟t just indicate sleepiness. In some animals, yawning is a sign of stress. When a dog trainer sees a dog yawning in a dog obedience class, it is usually a sign that the animal is under a good deal of pressure. Perhaps the handler is pushing too hard or moving too fast for the dog to feel in control of the situation. A moment or two of play and then turning to another activity is usually enough to banish yawning for quite a while.Yawning can also be a sign of stress in humans. Once, when observing airborne troops about to take their first parachute jump, I noticed that several of the soldiers were sitting in the plane and yawning. It was l0 A.M., just after a coffee break, and I doubted that they were tired；I knew for a fact that they were far too nervous to be bored. When I asked about this, the officer in charge laughed and said it was really quite a common behavior, especially on the first jump.There is also a social aspect to yawning. Psychologists have placed actors in crowded rooms and auditoriums and had them deliberately yawn. Within moments, there is usually an increase in yawning by everyone else in the room. Similarly, people who watch films or videos of others yawning are more likely to yawn. Even just reading about yawning tends to stimulate people to yawn.The truth of the matter is that we rea lly don‟t know what purpose yawning serves. Scientists originally thought that the purpose of yawning was to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood or to release some accumulated carbon dioxide. We now know that this is not true, since increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air seems not to make people more likely to yawn but to make them breathe faster to try to bring in more oxygen. On the other hand, breathing 100 percent pure oxygen does not seem to reduce the likelihood of yawning.Since yawning seems to be associated with a lot more than the need for sleep, we obviously have to find some other measure of sleepiness. Some researchers have simply tried to ask people how sleepy they feel at any time using some sort of self-rating scale. There are, however, problems with getting people to make these types of judgments. Sometimes people simply lie to the researchers when asked about how sleepy they are. This occurs because in many areas of society admitting that one is fatigued and sleepy is considered a mark of weakness or lack of ambition and drive. In other instances, people may admit they need four cups of coffee to make it through the morning, but it may never occur to them that this might be due to the fact that they are so sleepy that they need stimulation from caffeine to be able to do their required tasks. For these reasons, many researchers have developed an。
北京师范大学2014年考博英语真题及详解【圣才出品】
北京师范大学2014年考博英语真题及详解Part I Reading Comprehension(45%)Directions:Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from the four choices marked A,B,C,and D by marking thecorresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line throughthe center.1Taken together,income,occupation,and education are good measures of people’s social ing a layered model of stratification,most sociologists describe the class system in the United States as divided into several classes:upper, upper middle,middle,lower middle,and lower class.Each class is defined by characteristics such as income,occupational prestige,and educational attainment. The different groups are arrayed along a continuum with those with the most money,education,and prestige at the top and those with the least at the bottom.In the United States,the upper class owns the major share of corporate and personal wealth;it includes those who have held wealth for generations as well as those who have recently become rich.Only a very small proportion of people actually constitute the upper class,but they control vast amounts of wealth and power in the United States.They exercise enormous control throughout society. Most of their wealth is inherited.Despite social myths to the contrary,the best predictor of future wealth is thefamily into which you are born.Each year,the business magazine Forbes publishes a list of the“Forbes400”—the four hundred wealthiest families and individuals in the country.Of all the wealth represented on the Forbes400list,more than half is inherited.Those on the list who could be called“self-made”were not typically of modest origins;most inherited significant assets(Forbes,1997;Sklar and Collins, 1997).Those in the upper class with newly acquired wealth are known as the nouveau niche.Although they may have vast amounts of money,they are often not accepted into“old rich”circles.The upper middle class includes those with high incomes and high social prestige.They tend to be well-educated professionals or business executives.Their earnings can be quite high indeed—successful business executives can earn millions of dollars a year.It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people fall into this group because of the difficulty of drawing lines between the upper,upper middle,and middle class.Indeed,the upper middle class is often thought of as “middle class”because their lifestyle sets the standard to which many aspire,but this lifestyle is simply beyond the means of a majority of people in the United States.The middle class is hard to define;in part,being“middle class”is more than just economic position.By far the majority of Americans identify themselves as middle class even though they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources at their disposal.But the idea that the United States is an open-class system leads many to think that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because,in general,peopletend not to want to recognize class distinctions in the United States.Thus,the middle class becomes the ubiquitous norm even though many who call themselves middle class have a tenuous hold on this class position.In the hierarchy of social class,the lower middle class includes workers in the skilled trades and low-income bureaucratic workers,many of whom may actually define themselves as middle class.Examples are blue-collar workers(those in skilled trades who do manual labor)and many service workers,such as secretaries, hairdressers,waitresses,police,and firefighters.Medium to low income,education, and occupational prestige define the lower middle class relative to the class groups above it.The term“lower”in this class designation refers to the relative position of the group in the stratification system,but it has a pejorative sound to many people,especially to people who are members of this class.The lower class is composed primarily of the displaced and poor.People in this class have little formal education and are often unemployed or working in minimum-wage jobs.Forty percent of the poor work;ten percent work year-round and full time—a proportion that has generally increased over time.Recently,the concept of the underclass has been added to the lower class.The underclass includes those who have been left behind by contemporary economic developments.Rejected from the economic system,those in the underclass may become dependent on public assistance or illegal activities.1.Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage?A.Although it is not generally accepted,your family provides the best prediction of your future wealth.B.You can achieve great future wealth in spite of the family in which you may have been born.C.It is not true that your family will restrict the acquisition of your future wealthand level of social status.D.Social myths are contrary to the facts about the future wealth and social status of your family.2.Why does the author mention the“Forbes400”in paragraph3?A.To explain the meaning of the listing that appears every year.B.To support the statement that most wealthy people inherit their money.C.To cast doubt on the claim that family income predicts individual wealth.D.To give examples of successful people who have modest family connections.3.According to paragraph5,why do most people identify themselves as middle class in the United States?A.They have about the same lifestyle as everyone else in the country.B.They don’t really know how to define their status because it is unclear.C.They prefer not to admit that there are class distinctions in the United States.D.They identify themselves with the majorities who have normal lifestyles.4.What can be inferred about poor people in the United States?A.They are not able to find entry-level jobs.B.They do not try to find employment.C.They are service workers and manual laborers.D.They work in jobs that require little education.5.According to paragraph7,why has the underclass emerged?A.The new term was necessary because the lower class enjoyed a higher lifestylethan it had previously.B.The increase in crime has supported a new class of people who live byengaging in illegal activities.C.Changes in the economy have caused an entire class of people to survive bywelfare or crime.D.Minimum-wage jobs no longer support a class of people at a standard level inthe economic system.【答案与解析】1.A语义判断题。
首都师范大学2012年考博英语真题分析 华慧考博独家解读
一、试卷题型情况2012年首都师范大学考博英语试题总分为100分；难度整体适中，其中翻译题偏难；题目来源主要为大学英语六级考试试题。
题型及分值如下：1. Vocabulary（词汇题）1)分值：总分15分，共30题。
2)题型：以词义辨析题为主，个别词组辨析题，常考近义词和形似词。
3)难度：适中4)题目来源：主要来源于大学英语六级考试、大学英语四级考试、英语专业四级考试、在职英语考试。
时间主要以2006年至2 012年之间的试题为主。
a)大学英语六级试题——40%（12题）b)英语专业四级试题——17%（5题）c)大学英语四级考试——13%（4题）d)在职英语考试——10%（3题）e)其它题目分别出自于同类学校考博试题，大学英语三级试题，考研试题及无明显来源试题。
因此，CET6为出题主要来源。
5）推荐复习资料《华慧考博英语10000词汇详解》2. Reading Comprehension（阅读理解题）1)分值：总分40分，共5篇阅读文章；每篇阅读4道选择题，共20题。
2)题型：5篇文章都为议论文；其中3篇以社会生活为主要内容，1篇以科普知识为主要内容，1篇以科技知识为主要内容。
选择题以细节理解题和推理判断题为主，另两道主旨题，一道猜词题。
3)难度：适中，与大学英语六级考试难度相当。
4)文章来源：英语专业四级考试（1篇）、大学英语六级考试（真题1篇及模拟试题2篇）、研究生考试（1篇）。
因此，CET6为出题文章主要来源。
5)推荐资料：华慧考博《考博英语阅读理解220篇》3. Cloze Test (完形填空)1)分值：总分10分，共10题2)难度：适中，来源于TEM8模拟考试文章，但文章整体简化，所以降低了难度。
3)文章来源：英语专业八级阅读理解文章4)推荐资料：华慧考博《华慧考博英语完形专项训练》4. Translation (翻译题)1)分值：总分20分。
其中A部分为英译中，总分10分；B部分为中译英，翻译一篇文章，总分10分。
北京师范大学考博英语阅读真题精解
北京师范大学考博英语阅读真题精解“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,”says cloning expertMark Westhusin from the cramped confines of his lab at Texas A&MUniversity.“It’s a stupid endeavor.”That’s an interestingchoice of adjective,coming from a man who has spent millions ofdollars trying to clone a13year old dog named Missy.So far,he and his team have not succeeded,though they have cloned two calvesand expect to clone a cat soon.They just might succeed in cloning Missylater this year—or perhaps not for another five years.It seems thereproductive system of man’s best friend is one of the mysteries ofmodern science.Westhusin’s experience with cloning animals leaves him vexed byall this talk of human cloning.In three years of work on the Geng duoyuan xiao wan zheng kao bo ying yu zhen ti ji qi jie xi qing lian xiquan guo mian fei zi xun dian hua:si ling ling liu liu ba liu jiuqi ba,huo jia zi xun qq:qi qi er liu qi ba wu san qi Miss yplicityproject,using hundreds upon hundreds of canine eggs,the A&M teamhas produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy’s DNA.Nonehave survived the transfer to a surrogate mother.The wastage of eggsand the many spontaneously aborted fetuses may be acceptable whenyou’re dealing with cats or bulls,he argues,but not withhumans.“Cloning is incredibly inefficient,and also dangerous,”hesays.Even so,dog cloning is a commercial opportunity,with a niceresearch payoff.Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in1997, Westhusin’s phone at A&M College of Veterinary Medicine has been ringing busily.Cost is no obstacle for customers like Missy’s mysterious owner,who wishes to remain unknown to protect his privacy.He’s plopped down$3.7million so far to fund the research because he wants a twin to carry on Missy’s fine qualities after she dies.But he knows her clone may not have her temperament.In a statement of purpose,Missy’s owners and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clone differs from Missy.”The fate of the dog samples will depend on Westhusin’s work.He knows that even if he gets a dog viably pregnant,the offspring,should they survive,will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals:abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems.“Why would you ever want to clone humans,”Westhusin asks,“when we’re not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”21.Which of the following best represents Mr.Westhusin’s attitude toward cloning?[A]Animal cloning is a stupid attempt.[B]Human cloning is not yet close to getting it worked out.[C]Cloning is too inefficient and should be stopped.[D]Animals cloning yes,and human cloning at least not now.22.The Missyplicity project does not seem very successful probably because.[A]there isn’t enough fund to support the research[B]cloning dogs is more complicated than cloning cats and bulls[C]Mr.Westhusin is too busy taking care of the business[D]the owner is asking for an exact copy of his pet23.When Mr.Westhusin says“...cloning is dangerous,”he implies that.[A]lab technicians may be affected by chemicals[B]cats and dogs in the lab may die of diseases[C]experiments may waste lots of lives[D]cloned animals could outlive the natural ones24.We can infer from the third paragraph that.[A]rich people are more interested in cloning humans than animals[B]cloning of animal pets is becoming a prosperous industry[C]there is no distinction between a cloned and a natural dog[D]Missy’s master pays a lot in a hope to revive the dog25.We may conclude from the text that.[A]human cloning will not succeed unless the technique is more efficient[B]scientists are optimistic about cloning technique[C]many people are against the idea of human cloning[D]cloned animals are more favored by owners even if they are weaker21.【答案】D【解析】观点态度题。
北京师范大学考博英语翻译试题及其解析
北京师范大学考博英语翻译试题及其解析Investigators of monkey’s social behavior have always been struckby monkeys’aggressive potential and the consequent need for socialcontrol of their aggressive behavior.Studies directed at describingaggressive behavior and the situations that elicit it,as well as thesocial mechanisms that control it,were therefore among the firstinvestigations of monkeys’social behavior.Investigators initially believed that monkeys would compete forany resource in the environment:hungry monkeys would fight over food,thirsty monkeys would fight over water,and,in general,at time morethan one monkey in a group sought the same incentive simultaneously,a dispute would result and would be resolved through some form ofaggression.However,the motivating force of competition for Geng duoyuan xiao wan zheng kao bo ying yu zhen ti ji qi jie xi qing lian xiquan guo mian fei zi xun dian hua:si ling ling liu liu ba liu jiuqi ba,huo jia zi xun qq:qi qi er liu qi ba wu san qi incentives beganto be doubted when experiments like Southwick’s on the reduction ofspace or the withholding of food failed to produce more than temporaryincreases in intragroup aggression.Indeed,food deprivation not onlyfailed to increase aggression but in some cases actually resulted indecreased frequencies of aggression.Studies of animals in the wild under conditions of extreme fooddeprivation likewise revealed that starving monkeys devoted almostall available energy to foraging,with little energy remaining foraggressive interaction.Furthermore,accumulating evidence fromlater studies of a variety of primate groups,for example,the study conducted by Bernstein,indicates that one of the most potent stimuli for eliciting aggression is the introduction of an intruder into an organized group.Such introductions result in far more serious aggression than that produced in any other types of experiments contrived to produce competition.These studies of intruders suggest that adult members of the same species introduced to one another for the first time show considerable hostility because,in the absence of a social order,one must be established to control interanimal relationships.When a single new animal is introduced into an existing social organization,the newcomer meets even more serious aggression.Whereas in the first case aggression establishes a social order,in the second case resident animals mob the intruder,thereby initially excluding the new animal from the existing social unit.The simultaneous introduction of several animals lessens the effect,if only because the group divides its attention among the multiple targets.If,however,the several animals introduced a group constitute their own social unit,each group may fight the opposing group as a unit;but,again,no individual is subjected to mass attack,and the very cohesion of the groups precludes prolonged individual combat.The submission of the defeated group,rather than unleashing unchecked aggression on the part of the victorious group,reduces both the intensity and frequency of further attack.Monkey groups therefore seem to be organized primarily tomaintain their established social order rather than to engage in hostilities per se.1.The author of the text is primarily concerned with[A]advancing a new methodology for changing a monkey’s social behavior.[B]comparing the methods of several research studies on aggression among monkeys.[C]explaining the reasons for researcher’s interest in monkey’s social behavior.[D]discussing the development of investigators’theories about aggression among monkeys.2.Which of the following best summarizes the findings reported in the text about the effects of food deprivation on monkeys’behavior?[A]Food deprivation has no effect on aggression among monkeys.[B]Food deprivation increases aggression among monkeys because one of the most potent stimuli for eliciting aggression is the competition for incentives.[C]Food deprivation may increase long-term aggression among monkeys in a laboratory setting,but it produces only temporary increase among monkeys in the wild.[D]Food deprivation may temporarily increase aggression among monkeys,but it also leads to a decrease in conflict.3.The text suggests that investigators of monkeys’socialbehavior have been especially interested in aggressive behavior among monkeys because[A]aggression is the most common social behavior among monkeys.[B]successful competition for incentives determines the social order in a monkey group.[C]situation that elicit aggressive behavior can be studied in a laboratory.[D]most monkeys are potentially aggressive,yet they live in social units that could not function without control of their aggressive impulses.4.The text supplies information to answer which of the following questions?[A]How does the reduction of space affect intragroup aggression among monkeys in an experimental setting?[B]Do family units within a monkey social group compete with other family units for food?[C]What are the mechanisms by which the social order of an established group of monkeys controls aggression within that group?[D]How do monkeys engaged in aggression with other monkeys signal submission?5.Which of the following best describes the organization of the second paragraph?[A]A hypothesis is explained and counter evidence is described.[B]A theory is advanced and specific evidence supporting it iscited.[C]Field observations are described and a conclusion about their significance is drawn.[D]Two theories are explained and evidence supporting each of them is detailed.[答案与考点解析]1.【答案】D【考点解析】本题是一道中心主旨题。
北京大学2012年考博英语真题及详解【圣才出品】
北京大学2012年考博英语真题及详解Part One:Listening Comprehension(略)Part Two:Structure and Written Expression(15%)Directions:For each question decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked.Mark your choices on the ANSWER SHEET.11.A survey has found that three quarters of men quite enjoy their food shoppingexperience and are happy to_____their way around the aisles searching out products.A.driveB.steerC.navigateD.voyage【答案】C【解析】句意：一项调查发现，四分之三的男性相当享受自己购买食物的过程，而且喜欢在超市过道来回穿梭搜寻产品。
navigate绕过；导航。
steer引导；驾驶。
voyage远航；旅行。
12.We’ve seen a_____trend of consumers saying they will spend more,fromholiday shopping to2012travel plans,and spending plans for Feb14are no exception.A.consistentB.persistentC.insistentD.resistant【答案】A【解析】句意：我们已经看到，无论是假日购物还是2012年旅游计划，消费者一致倾向于消费更多，并且2月14日的消费计划也不例外。
2012年北师大考博英语
北京师范大学2012年3月考博英语真题Part I: Listening Comprehension略Part II: Reading ComprehensionDirections: There are six passages in this part. Each of the passages is followed by five questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSER SHEET.Passage OneIn 1900 the United States had only three cities with more than a million residents-New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. By 1930, it had ten giant metropolises. The newer ones experienced remarkable growth, which reflected basic changes in the economy.Line The population of Los Angeles (114,000 in 1900) rose spectacularly in the early decades of the twentieth century, increasing a dramatic 1,400 percent from 1900 to 1930. A number of circumstances contributed to the meteoric rise of Los Angeles. The agricultural potential of the area was enormous if water for irrigation could be found, and the city founders had the vision and dating to obtain it by constructing a 225-mile aqueduct, completed in 1913, to tap the water of the Owens River. The city had a superb natural harbor, as well as excellent rail connections. The climate made it possible to shoot motion pictures year-round; hence Hollywood. Hollywood not only supplied jobs; it disseminated an image of the good life in Southern California on screens all across the nation. The most important single industry powering the growth of Los Angeles, however, was directly linked to the automobile. The demand for petroleum to fuel gasoline engines led to the opening of the Southern California oil fields, and made Los Angeles North America's greatest refining center.Los Angeles was a product of the auto age in another sense as well: its distinctive spatial organization depended on widespread private ownership of automobiles. Los Angeles was a decentralized metropolis, sprawling across the desert landscape over an area of 400 square miles. It was a city without a real center. The downtown business district did not grow apace with the city as a whole, and the rapid transit system designed to link the center with outlying areas withered away from disuse. Approximately 800,000 cars were registered in Los Angeles County in 1930, one per 2.7 residents. Some visitors from the east coast were dismayed at the endless urban sprawl and dismissed Los Angeles as a mere collection of suburbs in search of a city. But the freedom and mobility of a city built on wheels attracted floods of migrants to thecity.21. What is the passage mainly about?A. The growth of cities in the United States in the early 1900'sB. The development of the Southern California oil fieldsC. Factors contributing to the growth of Los AngelesD. Industry and city planning in Los Angeles22. The author characterizes the growth of new large cities in the United States after 1900 as resulting primarily fromA. new economic conditionsB. images of cities shown in moviesC. new agricultural techniquesD. a large migrant population23. The word "meteoric" in line 6 is closest in meaning toA. rapidB. famousC. controversialD. methodical24. According to the passage, the most important factor in the development of agriculture around Los Angeles was theA. influx of "new residents to agricultural areas near the cityB. construction of an aqueductC. expansion of transportation facilitiesD. development of new connections to the city's natural harbor25. The visitors from the east coast mentioned in the passage thought that Los AngelesA. was not accurately portrayed by Hollywood imagesB. lacked good suburban areas in which to liveC. had an excessively large populationD. was not really a single cityPassage TwoImagine eating everything delicious you want with none of the fat. That would be great, wouldn't it?New “fake fat” prod ucts appeared on store shelves in the United States recently, but not everyone is happy about it. Makers of the products, which contain a compound called olestra, say food manufacturers can now eliminate fat from certain foods, Critics, however, say that the new compound can rob the body of essential vitamins and nutrients and can also cause unpleasant side effects in some people. So it is up to consumers to decide whether the newfat-free products taste good enough to keep eating.Chemists discovered olestra in the late 1960s, when they were searching for a fat that could be digested by infants more easily. Instead of finding the desired fat, the researchers created a fat that can‟t be digested at all.Normally, special chemicals in the intestines “grab” mo lecules of regular fat and break them down so they can be used by the body. A molecule of regular fat is made up of three molecules of substances called fatty acids.The fatty acids are absorbed by the intestines and bring with them the essential vitamins A, D, E and K. When fat molecules are present in the intestines with any of those vitamins, the vitamins attach to the molecules and are carried into the bloodstream.Olestra, which is made from six to eight molecules of fatty acids, is too large for the intestines to absorb. It just slides through the intestines without being broken down. Manufacturers say it‟s that ability to slide unchanged through the intestines that makes olestra so valuable as a fat substitute. It provides consumers with the taste of regular fat without any bad effects on the body. But critics say olestra can prevent vitamins A, D, E, and K from being absorbed. It can also prevent the absorption of carotenoids, compounds that may reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.Manufacturers are adding vitamins A, D, E and K as well as carotenoids to their products now. Even so, some nutritionists are still concerned that people might eat unlimited amounts of food made with the fat substitute without worrying about how many calories they are consuming.26. We learn from the passage that olestra is a substance that _________ .A. contains plenty of nutrientsB. renders foods calorie-free while retaining their vitaminsC. makes foods easily digestibleD. makes foods fat-free while keeping them delicious27. The result of the search for an easily digestible fat turned out to be _______ .A. commercially uselessB. just as anticipatedC. somewhat controversialD. quite unexpected28. Olestra is different from ordinary fats in that _______ ?A. it passes through the intestines without being absorbedB. it facilitates the absorption of vitamins by the bodyC. it helps reduce the incidence of heart diseaseD. it prevents excessive intake of vitamins29. What is a possible effect of olestra according to some critics?A. It may impair the digestive system.B. It may affect the overall fat intake.C. It may increase the risk of cancer.D. It may spoil the consumers‟ appetite.30. Why are nutritionists concerned about adding vitamins to olestra?A. It may lead to the over-consumption of vitamins.B. People may be induced to eat more than is necessary.C. The function of the intestines may be weakened.D. It may trigger a new wave of fake food production.Passage ThreeA “scientific” view of language was dominant among philosop hers and linguists who affected to develop a scientific analysis of human thought and behavior in the early part of this century. Under the force of this view, it was perhaps inevitable that the art of rhetoric should pass from the status of being regarded as of questionable worth (because although it might be both a source of pleasure and a means to urge people to right action, it might also be a means to distort truth and a source of misguided action) to the status of being wholly condemned. If people are regarded only as machines guided by logic, as they were by these “scientific” thinkers, rhetoric is likely to be held in low regard; for the most obvious truth about rhetoric is that it speaks to the whole person. It presents its arguments first to the person as a rational being, because persuasive discourse, if honestly conceived, always has a basis in reasoning. Logical argument is the plot, as it were, of any speech or essay that is respectfully intended to persuade people. Yet it is a characterizing feature of rhetoric that it goes beyond this and appeals to the parts of our nature that are involved in feeling, desiring, acting, and suffering. It recalls relevant instances of the emotional reactions of people to circumstances—real or fictional—that are similar to our own circumstances. Such is the purpose of both historical accounts and fables in persuasive discourse： they indicate literally or symbolically how people may react emotionally, with hope or fear, to particular circumstances. A speech attempting to persuade people can achieve little unless it takes into account the aspect of their being related to such hopes and fears.Rhetoric, then, is addressed to human beings living at particular times and in particularplaces. From the point of view of rhetoric, we are not merely logical thinking machines, creatures abstracted from time and space. The study of rhetoric should therefore be considered the most humanistic of the humanities, since rhetoric is not directed only to our rational selves. It takes into account what the “scientific” view leaves out. If it is a weakness to harbor feelings, then rhetoric may be thought of as dealing in weakness. But those who reject the idea of rhetoric because they believe it deals in lies and who at the same time hope to move people to action, must either be liars themselves or be very naive;pure logic has never been a motivating force unless it has been subordinated to human purposes, feelings, and desires, and thereby ceased to be pure logic.31. According to the passage, to reject rhetoric and still hope to persuade people isA. an aim of most speakers and writers.B. an indication either of dishonesty or of credulity.C. a way of displaying distrust of the audience…s motives.D. a characteristic of most humanistic discourse.32. It can be inferred from the passage that in the late nineteenth century rhetoric was regarded asA. the only necessary element of persuasive discourse.B. a dubious art in at least two ways.C. an outmoded and tedious amplification of logic.D. an open offense to the rational mind.33. The passage suggests that a speech that attempts to persuade people to act is likely to fail if it does NOTA. distort the truth a little to make it more acceptable to the audience.B. appeal to the self-interest as well as the humanitarianism of the audience.C. address listeners… emotions as well as their intellects.D. concede the logic of other points of view.34. Which of the following persuasive devices is NOT used in the passage？A. A sample of an actual speech delivered by an oratorB. The contrast of different points of viewC. The repetition of key ideas and expressionsD. An analogy that seeks to explain logical argument35. Which of the following best states the author…s mai n point about logical argument？A. It is a sterile, abstract discipline, of little use in real life.B. It is an essential element of persuasive discourse, but only one such element.C. It is an important means of persuading people to act against their desires.D. It is the lowest order of discourse because it is the least imaginative.Passage FourExtraordinary creative activity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation, highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle of organization. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though it may be valid for the sciences. Differences between highly creative art and highly creative science arise in part from differences in their goals. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. Such phenomena as a brilliant diamond or a nesting bird are relegated to the role of data, serving as the means for formulating or testing a new theory. The goal of highly creative art is very different: the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare's Hamlet is not a tract about the behavior of indecisive princes or the uses of political power, nor is Picasso's painting Guernica primarily a propositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle of organization in the history of an artistic field: the composer Monteverdi, who created music of the highest aesthetic value, comes to mind. More generally, however, whether or not a composition establishes a new principle in the history of music has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is surely among the masterpieces of music even though its modest innovations are confined to extending existing means. It has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention. But a close study of his compositions reveals that Beethoven overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, hewas an incomparable strategist who exploited limits--the rules, forms, and conventions that he inherited from predecessors such as Haydn and Mozart, Handel and Bach--in strikingly original ways.36.The author considers a new theory that coherently relates diverse phenomena to one another to be theA. basis for reaffirming a well-established scientific formulation.B. byproduct of an aesthetic experience.C. tool used by a scientist to discover a new particular.D. result of highly creative scientific activity.37.The passage supplies information for answering all of the following questions EXCEPT:A. Has unusual creative activity been characterized as revolutionary?B. Did Beethoven work within a musical tradition that also included Handel and Bach?C. Is Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro an example of a creative work that transcended limits?D. Who besides Monteverdi wrote music that the author would consider to embody new principles of organization and to be of high aesthetic value?38.The author regards the idea that all highly creative artistic activity transcends limits with---A. deep skepticismB. strong indignationC. marked indifferenceD. moderate amusement39. The author implies that an innovative scientific contribution is one thatA. is cited with high frequency in the publications of other scientistsB. is accepted immediately by the scientific community.C. does not relegate particulars to the role of data.D. introduces a new valid generalization.40. Which of the following statements would most logically conclude the last paragraph of the passage?A. Unlike Beethoven, however, even the greatest of modern composers, such as Stravinsky, did not transcend existing musical forms.B. In similar fashion, existing musical forms were even further exploited by the next generation of great European composers.C. Thus, many of the great composers displayed the same combination of talents exhibited by Monteverdi.D. By contrast, the view that creativity in the arts exploits but does not transcend limits is supported in the field of literature.Passage FiveCultural norms so completely surround people, so permeate thought and action, that we never recognize the assumptions on which their lives and their sanity rest. As one observer put it, if birds were suddenly endowed with scientific curiosity they might examine many things, but the sky itself would be overlooked as a suitable subject; if fish were to become curious about the world, it would never occur to them to begin by investigating water. For birds and fish would take the sky and sea for granted, unaware of their profound influence because they comprise the medium for every fact. Human beings, in a similarly way, occupy a symbolic universe governed by codes that are unconsciously acquired and automatically employed. So much so that they rarely notice that the ways they interpret and talk about events are distinctively different from the ways people conduct their affairs in other cultures.As long as people remain blind to the sources of their meanings, they are imprisoned within them. These cultural frames of reference are no less confining simply because they cannot be seen or touched. Whether it is an individual neurosis that keeps an individual out of contact with his neighbors, or a collective neurosis that separates neighbors of different cultures, both are forms of blindness that limit what can be experienced and what can be learned from others.It would seem that everywhere people would desire to break out of the boundaries of their own experiential worlds. Their ability to react sensitively to a wider spectrum of events and peoples requires an overcoming of such cultural parochialism. But, in fact, few attain this broader vision. Some, of course, have little opportunity for wider cultural experience, though this condition should change as the movement of people accelerates. Others do not try to widen their experience because they prefer the old and familiar, seek from their affairs only further confirmation of the correctness of their own values. Still others recoil from such experiences because they feel it dangerous to probe too deeply into the personal or cultural unconscious. Exposure may reveal how tenuous and arbitrary many cultural norms are; such exposure might force people to acquire new bases for interpreting events. And even for the many who do seek actively to enlarge the variety of human beings with whom they are capable of communicating there are still difficulties.Cultural myopia persists not merely because of inertia and habit, but chiefly because it is so difficult to overcome. One acquires a personality and a culture in childhood, long before he is capable of comprehending either of them. To survive, each person masters the perceptualorientations, cognitive biases, and communicative habits of his own culture. But once mastered, objective assessment of these same processes is awkward since the same mechanisms that are being evaluated must be used in making the evaluations.41. The examples of birds and fish are used to ________ .A. show that they, too, have their respective culturesB. explain humans occupy a symbolic universe as birds and fish occupy the sky and the seaC. illustrate that human beings are unaware of the cultural codes governing themD. demonstrate the similarity between man, birds, and fish in their ways of thinking42. The term "parochialism" (Line 3, Para. 3) most possibly means __________ .A. open-mindednessB. provincialismC. superiorityD. discrimination43. It can be inferred from the last two paragraphs that _________ .A. everyone would like to widen their cultural scope if they canB. the obst acles to overcoming cultural parochialism lie mainly in people‟s habit of thinkingC. provided one‟s brought up in a culture, he may be with bias in making cultural evaluationsD. childhood is an important stage in comprehending culture44. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?A. Individual and collective neurosis might prevent communications with others.B. People in different cultures may be governed by the same cultural norms.C. People‟s visions will be enlarged if only th ey knew that cultural differences exist.D. If cultural norms are something tangible, they won‟t be so confining.45. The passage might be entitled “________.‟‟A. How to Overcome Cultural MyopiaB. Behavioral Patterns and Cultural BackgroundC. Harms of Cultural MyopiaD. Cultural Myopia-A Deep-rooted Collective NeurosisPassage SixWhen you leave a job with a traditional pension, don't assume you've lost the chance to collect it. You're entitled to whatever benefit you've earned——and you might even be entitledt o take it now. “A lot of people forget they have it, or they think that by waiting until they're 65, they'll have a bigger benefit,” says Wayne Bogosian, president of the PFE Group, which provides corporate pre-retirement education.Your former employers should send you a certificate that says how much your pension is worth. If it's less than $ 5,000, or if the company offers a lump-sum payout, it will generally close your account and cash you out. It may not seem like much, but $5,000 invested over 20 years at eight percent interest is $23,000. If your pension is worth more than $ 5,000, or your company doesn't offer the lump-sum option, find out how much money you're eligible for at the plan's normal retirement age, the earlier age at which you can collect the pension, the more severe penalty for collecting it early. You'll probably still come out ahead by taking the money now and investing it.What if you left a job years ago, and you're realizing you may have unwittingly left behind a pension? Get help from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It has an online search tool that has helped locate $47 million in lost benefits for more than 12,000 workers.If you have a traditional pension, retiring early costs more than you might expect. Most people assume you take a proportional cut for leaving before your plan's normal retirement age. For example, you might think that if you need to accrue 30 years of service and you leave three years early, you'd get a pension 90 percent of the full amount.But that's not how it works. Instead, you take an actuarial reduction, determined by the employer but often around five percent a year, for each year you leave early. So retiring three years early could leave you with only 85 percent of the total amount.When you retire early with a defined-contribution plan, the problem is you start spending investments on which you could be earning interest. If you retire when you're 55, for example, and start using the traditional pension then, by age 65 you'll have only about half of what you would have had if you'd kept working until 65.46. When one leaves a job with a traditional pension, .A. he tends to forget that he has the pensionB. he has no right to ask for the pensionC. he'll have a bigger benefit than if he waits until the age of 65D. he has a specified worth of pension47. If one leaves early before his plan's normal retirement age, .A. he'll take 90 percent of the total amount of his pensionB. he'll have half of his pension paymentsC. he'll have his pension payment reduced by 5% a yearD. he'll have only 85 percent of his full pension48. If one retires early with a defined-contribution plan, he is expected toA. earn less interest.B. be better off than with a traditional pension.C. start investment immediately.D. get less Social Security benefits.49. Which of the following can be used as the subtitle for the last three paragraphs?A. Your Payout Is Not Guaranteed.B. The Retirement Dilemma.C. Leave Early, Lose Big.D. Take the Pension with You.50. Which of the following is NOT true?A. If one leaves 3 years early on a 30-year-service basis, he won't get a pension worth27/30ths.B. It pays to get an early retirement if one understands how retirement pension plan works.C. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation helps the retiree to recover last benefits.D. If one keeps his expenses within his retirement framework, he won't be severely affected.Part III. Translation and WritingPart A TranslationTranslate the following into Chinese:Blacks have traditionally been poorly educated -- look at the crisis in urban public schools -- and deprived of the sorts of opportunities that create the vision necessary for technological ambition. Black folkways in America, those unspoken, largely unconscious patterns of thought and belief about what is possible that guide aspiration and behavior, thus do not encompass physics and calculus. Becoming an engineer -- unlike becoming a doctor or a lawyer or an insurance salesman -- has not been seen as a way up in the segregated black community. These folkways developed in response to very real historical conditions, to the limited and at best ambivalent interactions between blacks and technology in this country. Folkways, the "consciousness of the race," change at a slower pace than societal conditions do -- and so a working strategy can turn into a crippling blindness and self-limitation.Translate the following into English:“失落之城”马丘比丘坐落在秘鲁热带山地森林，直到1911年才被美国探险家海勒姆-宾厄姆发现。
北京师范大学2011年考博英语真题
The subjects of the following studies are taken from the history of the Renaissance, and touch what I think the chief points in that complex, many-sided movement.I have explained in the first of them what I understand by the word, giving it a much wider scope than was intended by those who originally used it to denote that revival of classical antiquity in the fifteenth century which was only one of many results of a general excitement and enlightening of the human mind, but of which the great aim and achievements of what, as Christian art, is often falsely opposed to the Renaissance, were another result. This outbreak of the human spirit may be traced far into the middle age itself, with its motives already clearly pronounced, the care for physical beauty, the worship of the body, the breaking down of those limits which the religious system of the middle age imposed on the heart and the imagination.I have taken as an example of this movement, this earlier Renaissance within the middle age itself, and as an expression of its qualities, two little compositions in early FrenchSummary原题，google出来的too，一个百科全书里的词条：computer-assisted instruction (CAI), a program of instructional material presented by means of a computer or computer systems.The use of computers in education started in the 1960s. With the advent of convenient microcomputers in the 1970s, computer use in schools has become widespread from primary education through the university level and even in some preschool programs. Instructional computers are basically used in one of two ways: either they provide a straightforward presentation of data or they fill a tutorial role in which the student is tested on comprehension.If the computer has a tutorial program, the student is asked a question by the computer; the student types in an answer and then gets an immediate response to the answer. If the answer is correct, the student is routed to more challenging problems; if the answer is incorrect, various computer messages will indicate the flaw in procedure, and the program will bypass more complicated questions until the student shows mastery in that area.There are many advantages to using computers in educational instruction. They provide one-to-one interaction with a student, as well as an instantaneous response to the answers elicited, and allow students to proceed at their own pace. Computers are particularly useful in subjects that require drill, freeing teacher time from some classroom tasks so that a teacher can devote more time to individual students. A computer program can be used diagnostically, and, once a student's problem has been identified, it can then focus on the problem area. Finally, because of the privacy and individual attention afforded by a computer, some students are relieved of the embarrassmentof giving an incorrect answer publicly or of going more slowly through lessons than other classmates.There are drawbacks to the implementation of computers in instruction, however. They are generally costly systems to purchase, maintain, and update. There are also fears, whether justified or not, that the use of computers in education decreases the amount of human interaction.One of the more difficult aspects of instructional computers is the availability and development of software, or computer programs. Courseware can be bought as a fully developed package from a software company, but the program provided this way may not suit the particular needs of the individual class or curriculum. A courseware template may be purchased, which provides a general format for tests and drill instruction, with the individual particulars to be inserted by the individual school system or teacher. The disadvantage to this system is that instruction tends to be boring and repetitive, with tests and questions following the same pattern for every course. Software can be developed in-house, that is, a school, course, or teacher could provide the courseware exactly tailored to its own needs, but this is expensive, time-consuming, and may require more programming expertise than is available.-----------------------------楼上的真厉害，你也google一下汉译英吧。
2014年北京师范大学考博英语真题试卷.doc
2014年北京师范大学考博英语真题试卷(总分：66.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：6，分数：60.00)Taken together, income, occupation, and education are good measures of people's social standing. Using a layered model of stratification, most sociologists describe the class system in the United States as divided into several classes: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class. Each class is defined by characteristics such as income, occupational prestige, and educational attainment. The different groups are arrayed along a continuum with those with the most money, education, and prestige at the top and those with the least at the bottom. In the United States, the upper class owns the major share of corporate and personal wealth; it includes those who have held wealth for generations as well as those who have recently become rich. Only a very small proportion of people actually constitute the upper class, but they control vast amounts of wealth and power in the United States. They exercise enormous control throughout society. Most of their wealth is inherited. Despite social myths to me contrary, the best predictor of future wealth is the family into which you are born. Each year, the business magazine Forbes publishes a list of the "Forbes 400" — the four hundred wealthiest families and individuals in the country. Of all the wealth represented on the Forbes 400 list, more than half is inherited. Those on the list who could be called " self-made" were not typically of modest origins; most inherited significant assets(Forbes, 1997; Sklar and Collins, 1997). Those in the upper class with newly acquired wealth are known as the nouveau niche. Although they may have vast amounts of money, they are often not accepted into "old rich" circles. The upper middle class includes those with high incomes and high social prestige. They tend to be well-educated professionals or business executives. Their earnings can be quite high indeed—successful business executives can earn millions of dollars a year. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people fall into this group because of the difficulty of drawing lines between the upper, upper middle, and middle class. Indeed, the upper middle class is often thought of as "middle class" because their lifestyle sets the standard to which many aspire, but this lifestyle is simply beyond the means of a majority of people in the United States. The middle class is hard to define; in part, being "middle class" is more than just economic position. By far the majority of Americans identity themselves as middle class even though they vary widely in lifestyle and in resources at their disposal. But the idea that the United States is an open-class system leads many to think that the majority have a middle-class lifestyle because, in general, people tend not to want to recognize class distinctions in the United States. Thus, the middle class becomes the ubiquitous norm even though many who call themselves middle class have a tenuous hold on this class position. In the hierarchy of social class, the lower middle class includes workers in the skilled trades and low-income bureaucratic workers, many of whom may actually define themselves as middle class. Examples are blue-collar workers(those in skilled trades who do manual labor)and many service workers, such as secretaries, hairdressers, waitresses, police, and firefighters. Medium to low income, education, and occupational prestige define the lower middle class relative to the class groups above it. The term " lower" in this class designation refers to the relative position of the group in the stratification system, but it has a pejorative sound to many people, especially to people who are members of this class. The lower class is composed primarily of the displaced and poor. People in this class have little formal education and are often unemployed or working in minimum-wage jobs. Forty percent of the poor work; 10 percent work year-round and full time—a proportion that has generally increased over time. Recently, the concept of the underclass has been added to the lower class. The underclass includes those who have been left behind by contemporary economicdevelopments. Rejected from the economic system, those in the underclass may become dependent on public assistance or illegal activities.（分数：10.00）(1).Why does the author mention the "Forbes 400" in Paragraph 3?（分数：2.00）A.To explain the meaning of the listing that appears every year.B.To cast doubt on the claim that family income predicts individual wealth.C.To give examples of successful people who have modest family connections.D.To support the statement that most wealthy people inherit their money.(2).The author states that business and professional people with educational advantages are most often members of the______.（分数：2.00）A.lower middle classB.upper middle classC.nouveau richeD.upper class(3).Why do most people identify themselves as middle class in the United States?（分数：2.00）A.They have about the same lifestyle as everyone else in the country.B.They don't really know how to define their status because it is unclear.C.They prefer not to admit that there are class distinctions in the United States.D.They identify themselves with the majority who have normal lifestyles.(4).What can be inferred about poor people in the United States?（分数：2.00）A.They are not able to find entry-level jobs.B.They work in jobs that require little education.C.They are service workers and manual laborers.D.They do not try to find employment.(5).According to Paragraph 7, why has the underclass emerged?（分数：2.00）A.The new term was necessary because the lower class enjoyed a higher lifestyle than it had previously.B.The increase in crime has supported a new class of people who live by engaging in illegal activities.C.Changes in the economy have caused an entire class of people to survive by welfare or crime.D.Minimum-wage jobs no longer support a class of people at a standard level in the economic system."The word 'protection' is no longer taboo". This short sentence, uttered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last month, may have launched a new era in economic history. Why? For decades, Western leaders have believed that lowering trade barriers and tariffs was a natural good. Doing so, they reasoned, would lead to greater economic efficiency and productivity, which in turn would improve human welfare. Championing free trade thus became a moral, not just an economic, cause. These leaders, of course, weren't acting out of unselfishness. They knew their economics were the most competitive, so they'd profit most from liberalization. And developing countries feared that their economics would be swamped by superior Western productivity. Today, however, the tables have turned—though few acknowledge it. The west continues to preach free trade, but practices it less and less. Asia, meanwhile, continues to plead for special protection but practices more and more free trade. That's why Sarkozy's word was so important: he finally injected some honesty into the trade debate. The truth is that large parts of the West are losing faith in free trade, though few leaders admit it. Some economists are more honest. Paul Krugman is one of the few willing to acknowledge that protectionist arguments are returning. In the short run, there will be winners and losers will be in the West. Economists in the developed world used to love quoting Joseph Schumpeter, who said that "creative destruction" was an essential part of capitalist growth. But they always assumed that destruction would happen over there. When Western workers began losing jobs, suddenly their leaders began to lose faith in their principles. Things have yet to reversecompletely. But there's clearly a negative trend in Western theory and practice. A little hypocrisy is not in itself a serious problem. The real problem is that Western governments continue to insist that they retain control of the key global economic and financial institutions while drifting away from global liberalization. Look at what's happening at the IMF(International Monetary Fund). The Europeans have demanded that they keep the post of managing director. But all too often, Western officials put their own interests above everyone else's when they dominate these global institutions. The time has therefore come for the Asians—who are clearly the new winners in today's global economy—to provide more intellectual leadership in supporting free trade. Sadly, they have yet to do so. Unless Asians speak out, however, there's a real danger that Adam Smith's principles, which have brought so much good to the world, could gradually die. And that would leave all of us worse off, in one way or another.（分数：10.00）(1).It can be inferred that "protection"(Line 1, Para. 1)means______.（分数：2.00）A.improving economic efficiencyB.ending the free-trade practiceC.lowering moral standardD.raising trade tariffs(2).The Western leaders preach free trade because______.（分数：2.00）A.it is beneficial to their economicsB.it is supported by developing countriesC.it makes them keep faith in their principlesD.it is advocated by Joseph Schumpeter and Adam Smith(3).By "the tables have turned"(Line 3-4, Para. 2)the author implies that______.（分数：2.00）A.the Western leaders have turned self-centeredB.the Asian leaders have become advocates of free tradeC.the developed economics have turned less competitiveD.the developing economics have become more independent(4).The Western economists used to like the idea of "creative destruction" because it______.（分数：2.00）A.set a long-term rather than short-term goalB.was an essential part of capitalist developmentC.entailed a positive rather than negative mentalityD.was meant to be the destruction of developing economics(5).The author uses "IMF" as an example to illustrate the point that______.（分数：2.00）A.European leaders are reluctant to admit they are hypocriticalB.there is an inconsistency between Western theory and practiceC.global institutions are not being led by true globalization advocatesD.European countries' interests are being ignored by economic leadersGrowth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a process of budgeting, just as finances are budgeted. If all of one's money is spent on clothes, mere may be none left to buy food or go to the movies. Similarly, a plant or animal cannot squander all its energy on growing a big body if none would be left over for reproduction, for this is the surest way to extinction. All organisms, therefore, allocate energy to growth, reproduction, maintenance, and storage. No choice is involved; this allocation comes as part of the genetic package from the parents. Maintenance for a given body design of an organism is relatively constant. Storage is important, but ultimately that energy will be used for maintenance, reproduction, or growth. Therefore the principal differences in energy allocation are likely to be between growth and reproduction. Almost all of an organism's energy can be diverted to reproduction, with very little allocated to building the body. Organisms at this extreme are " opportunists." At the other extreme are "competitors", almost all of whoseresources are invested in building a huge body, with a bare minimum allocated to reproduction. Dandelions are good examples of opportunists. Their seed heads raised just high enough above the ground to catch the wind, the plants are no bigger than they need be, their stems are hollow, and all the rigidity comes from their water content. Thus, a minimum investment has been made in the body that becomes a platform for seed dispersal. These very short-lived plants reproduce prolifically; that is to say they provide a constant rain of seed in the neighborhood of parent plants. A new plant will spring up wherever a seed falls on a suitable soil surface, but because they do not build big bodies, they cannot compete with other plants for space, water, or sunlight. These plants are termed opportunists because they rely on their seeds' falling into settings where competing plants have been removed by natural processes, such as along an eroding riverbank, on landslips, or where a tree falls and creates a gap in the forest canopy. Opportunists must constantly invade new areas to compensate for being displaced by more competitive species. Human landscapes of lawns, fields, or flowerbeds provide settings with bare soil and a lack of competitors that are perfect habitats for colonization by opportunists. Hence, many of the strongly opportunistic plants are the common weeds of fields and gardens. Because each individual is short-lived, the population of an opportunist species is likely to be adversely affected by drought, bad winters, or floods. If their population is tracked through time, it will be seen to be particularly unstable—soaring and plummeting in irregular cycles. The opposite of an opportunist is a competitor. These organisms tend to have big bodies, are long-lived, and spend relatively little effort each year on reproduction. An oak tree is a good example of a competitor.A massive oak claims its ground for 200 years or more, outcompeting all other would-be canopy trees by casting a dense shade and drawing up any free water in the soil. The leaves of an oak tree taste foul because they are rich in tannins, a chemical that renders them distasteful or indigestible to many organisms. The tannins are part of the defense mechanism that is essential to longevity. Although oaks produce thousands of acoms, the investment in a crop of acorns is small compared with the energy spent on building leaves, trunk, and roots. Once an oak tree becomes established, it is likely to survive minor cycles of drought and even fire. A population of oaks is likely to be relatively stable through time, and its survival is likely to depend more on its ability to withstand the pressures of competition or predation than on its ability to take advantage of chance events. It should be noted, however, that the pure opportunist or pure competitor is rare in nature, as most species fall between the extremes of a continuum, exhibitinga blend of some opportunistic and some competitive characteristics.（分数：10.00）(1).The word "squander" in the passage is closest in meaning to______.（分数：2.00）A.extendB.transformC.activateD.waste(2).According to the passage, the classification of organisms as "opportunists" or "competitors" is determined by______.（分数：2.00）A.how the genetic information of an organism is stored and maintainedB.the way in which the organism invests its energy resourcesC.whether the climate in which the organism lives is mild or extremeD.the variety of natural resources the organism consumes in its environment(3).All of the following are mentioned in Paragraph 7 as contribution to the longevity of oak trees EXCEPT______.（分数：2.00）A.the capacity to create shadeB.leaves containing tanninC.the ability to withstand mild droughts and firesD.the large number of acorns the tree produces(4).According to the passage, oak trees are considered as competitors because______.（分数：2.00）A.they grow in the areas free of opportunitiesB.they spend more energy on their leaves, trunks and roots than on their acornsC.their population tends to increase or decrease irregular cyclesD.unlike other organisms, they do not need much water or sunlight(5).In Paragraph 7, the author suggests that most species of organisms______.（分数：2.00）A.are primarily opportunistsB.are primarily competitorsC.began as opportunists and evolved into competitorsD.have some characteristics of opportunists and some of competitorsMany literary detectives have pored over a great puzzle concerning the writer Marcel Proust: what happened in 1909? How did Contre Saint-Beuve, an essay attacking the methods of the critic Saint Beuve, turn into the start of the novel Remembrance of Things Past? A recently published letter from Proust to the editor Vallette confirms that Fallois, the editor of the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve, made an essentially correct guess about the relationship of the essay to the novel. Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve's blindness to the real nature of great writing, found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments, and allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel. Draft passages in Proust's 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve, when Proust introduced several examples to show the powerful influence that involuntary memory exerts over the creative imagination. In effect, in trying to demonstrate that the imagination is more profound and less submissive to the intellect than Saint-Beuve assumed, Proust elicited vital memories of his own and, finding subtle connections between them, began to amass the material for Remembrance. By August, Proust was writing to Vallette, informing him of his intention to develop the material as a novel. Maurice Bardeche, in Marcel Proust, Romancier, has shown the importance in the drafts of Remembrance of spontaneous and apparently random associations of Proust's subconscious. As incidents and reflections occurred to Proust, he continually inserted new passages altering and expanding his narrative. But he found it difficult to control the drift of his inspiration. The very richness and complexity of the meaningful relationships that kept presenting and rearranging themselves on all levels, from abstract intelligence to profound dreamy feelings, made it difficult for Proust to set them out coherently. The beginning of control came when he saw how to connect the beginning and the end of his novel. Intrigued by Proust's claim that he had "begun and finished" Remembrance at the same time, Henri Bonnet discovered that parts of Remembrance's last book were actually started in 1909. Already in that year, Proust had drafted descriptions of his novel's characters in their old age that would appear in the final book of Remembrance, where the permanence of art is set against the ravages of time. The letter to Vallette, drafts of the essay and novel, and Bonnet's researches establish in broad outline the process by which Proust generated his novel out of the ruins of his essay. But those of us who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb's newly published complete edition of Proust's correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greater detail are disappointed. For until Proust was confident that he was at last in sight of a viable structure for Remembrance, he told few correspondents that he was producing anything more ambitious than Contre Saint-Beuve.（分数：10.00）(1).The passage is primarily concerned with______.（分数：2.00）A.the role of involuntary memory in Proust's writingB.evidence concerning the genesis of Proust's novel Remembrance of Things PastC.conflicting scholarly opinions about the value of studying the drafts of Remembrance of Things PastD.Proust's correspondence and what it reveals about Remembrance of Things Past(2).It can be inferred from the passage that all of the following are literary detectives who have tried, by means of either scholarship or criticism, to help solve the "great puzzle" mentioned in Lines 1-2 EXCEPT______.（分数：2.00）A.BardecheB.BonnetC.FalloisD.Vallette(3).According to the passage, in drafts of Contre Saint-Beuve Proust set out to show that Saint-Beuve made which of the following mistakes as a critic? I . Saint-Beuve made no effort to study the development of a novel through its drafts and revisions. II. Saint-Beuve assigned too great a role in the creative process to a writer's conscious intellect. III. Saint-Beuve concentrated too much on plots and not enough on imagery and other elements of style.（分数：2.00）A.II onlyB.I onlyC.I and II onlyD.I , II , and I(4).Which of the following best states the author's attitude toward the information that scholars have gathered about Proust's writing in 1909?（分数：2.00）A.The author is disappointed that no new documents have come to light since Fallois's speculations.B.The author is dissatisfied because there are too many gaps and inconsistencies in the drafts.C.The author is confident that Fallois's 1954 guess has been proved largely correct, but regrets that still more detailed documentation concerning Proust's transition from the essay to the novel has not emerged.D.The author is satisfied that Fallois's judgment was largely correct, but feels that Proust's early work in designing and writing the novel was probably far more deliberate than Fallois's description of the process would suggest.(5).The author of the passage implies that which of the following would be the LEAST useful source of information about Proust's transition from working on Contre Saint-Beuve to having a viable structure for Remembrance of Things Past?（分数：2.00）A.Fallois's comments in the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve.B.Proust's 1909 notebooks, including the drafts of Remembrance of Things Past.C.Proust's 1909 correspondence, excluding the letter to Vallette.D.Bardeche's Marcel Proust, Romancier.Why do some desert plants grow tall and thin like organ pipes? Why do most trees in the tropics keep their leaves year round? Why in the Arctic tundra are there no trees at all? After many years without convincing general answers, we now know much about what sets the fashion in plant design. Using terminology more characteristic of a thermal engineer than of a botanist, we can think of plants as mechanisms that must balance their heat budgets. A plant by day is staked out under the Sun with no way of sheltering itself. All day long it absorbs heat. If it did not lose as much heat as it gained, then eventually it would die. Plants get rid of their heat by warming the air around them, by evaporating water, and by radiating heat to the atmosphere and the cold, black reaches of space temperature is tolerable for the processes of life. Plants in the Arctic tundra lie close to the ground in the thin layer of still air that clings there. A foot or two above the ground are the winds of Arctic cold. Tundra plants absorb heat from the Sun and tend to warm up; they probably balance most of their heat budgets by radiating heat to space, but also by warming the still air hat is trapped among them. As long as Arctic plants are close to theground, they can balance their heat budgets. But if they should stretch up as a tree does, they would lift their working parts, their leaves, into the streaming Arctic winds. Then it is likely that the plants could not absorb enough heat from the Sun to avoid being cooled below a critical temperature. Your heat budget does not balance if you stand tall in the Arctic. Such thinking also helps explain other characteristics of plant design. A desert plant faces the opposite problem from that of an Arctic plant the danger of overheating. It is short of water and so cannot cool itself by evaporation without dehydrating. The familiar sticklike shape of desert plants represents one of the solutions to this problem: the shape exposes the smallest possible surface to incoming solar radiation and provides the largest possible surface from which the plant can radiate heat. In tropical rain forests, by way of contrast, the scorching sun is not a problem for plants because there is sufficient water. This working model allows us to connect the general characteristics of the forms of plants indifferent habitats with factors such as temperature, availability of water, and presence or absence of seasonal differences. Our Earth is covered with a patchwork quilt of meteorological conditions, and the patterns of this patchwork are faithfully reflected by the plants.（分数：10.00）(1).Which of the following characteristics of plants does the passage primarily focus on?（分数：2.00）A.Their ability to grow equally well in all environments.B.Their effects on the Earth's atmosphere.C.Their ability to store water for dry periods.D.Their ability to balance heat intake and output.(2).According to the passage, which of the following is most responsible for preventing trees from growing tall in the Arctic?（分数：2.00）A.The hard, frozen ground.B.The small amount of available sunshine.C.The cold, destructive winds.D.The large amount of snow that falls each year.(3).The author suggests that the "sticklike shape of desert plants" in Lines 3-5(Paragraph 4)can be attributed to the______.（分数：2.00）A.inability of the plants to radiate heat to the air around themB.presence of irregular seasonal differences in the desertrge surface area that the plants must expose to the SunD.extreme heat and aridity of the habitat(4).All of the following are mentioned in the passage as contribution to the plants' balancing their heat EXCEPT______.（分数：2.00）A.radiating heat to the atmosphereB.warming the air around themC.absorbing heat from the sunD.evaporating water(5).Which is the TRUE statement about the different plants?（分数：2.00）A.Arctic plants expose the smallest possible surface to incoming solar radiation.B.Tropical plants are usually not affected by the strong sunshine.C.Desert plants grow densely close to the ground.D.Plants in different regions show no relations to the seasons.To conduct some forms of sleep research, we have to find a way to track sleepiness over the day. Some people might believe that measuring sleepiness is a fairly trivial task. Couldn't you, for instance, simply count the number of times a person yawns during any given hour or so? In most people's minds, yawning—that slow, exaggerated mouth opening with the long, deep inhalation of air, followed by a briefer exhalation—is the most obvious sign of sleepiness. It is a commonbehavior shared by many animals, including our pet dogs and cats but also crocodiles, snakes, birds, and even some fishes. It is certainly true that sleepy people tend to yawn more than wide-awake people. It is also true that people who say they are bored by what is happening at the moment will tend to yawn more frequently. However, whether yawning is a sign that you are getting ready for sleep or that you are successfully fighting off sleep is not known. Simply stretching your body, as you might do if you have been siring in the same position for a long period of time, will often trigger a yawn. Unfortunately, yawns don't just indicate sleepiness. In some animals, yawning is a sign of stress. When a dog trainer sees a dog yawning in a dog obedience class, it is usually a sign that the animal is under a good deal of pressure. Perhaps the handler is pushing too hard or moving too fast for the dog to feel in control of the situation. A moment or two of play and then turning to another activity is usually enough to banish yawning for quite a while. Yawning can also be a sign of stress in humans. Once, when observing airborne troops about to take their first parachute jump, I noticed that several of the soldiers were sitting in the plane and yawning. It was 10 A. M. , just after a coffee break, and I doubted that they were tired; I knew for a fact that they were far too nervous to be bored. When I asked about this, the officer in charge laughed and said it was really quite a common behavior, especially on the first jump. There is also a social aspect to yawning. Psychologists have placed actors in crowded rooms and auditoriums and had them deliberately yawn. Within moments, there is usually an increase in yawning by everyone else in the room. Similarly, people who watch films or videos of others yawning are more likely to yawn. Even just reading about yawning tends to stimulate people to yawn. The truth of the matter is that we really don't know what purpose yawning serves. Scientists originally thought that the purpose of yawning was to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood or to release some accumulated carbon dioxide. We now know that this is not true, since increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air seems not to make people more likely to yawn but to make them breathe faster to try to bring in more oxygen. On the other hand, breathing 100 percent pure oxygen does not seem to reduce the likelihood of yawning. Since yawning seems to be associated with a lot more than the need for sleep, we obviously have to find some odier measure of sleepiness. Some researchers have simply tried to ask people how sleepy they feel at any time using some sort of self-rating scale. There are, however, problems with getting people to make these types of judgments. Sometimes people simply lie to the researchers when asked about how sleepy they are. This occurs because in many areas of society admitting that one is fatigued and sleepy is considered a mark of weakness or lack of ambition and drive. In odier instances, people may admit they need four cups of coffee to make it through the morning, but it may never occur to them that this might be due to the fact that they are so sleepy that they need stimulation from caffeine to be able to do their required tasks. For these reasons, many researchers have developed an alternate method to determine how sleepy a person is. It is based upon a simple definition of sleep need: The greater your sleep need, or the sleepier you are, the faster you will fall asleep if given the opportunity to do so.（分数：10.00）(1).The question in lines 3-4(Paragraph 1)is based on which of the following assumptions?（分数：2.00）A.Direct observation is the only reliable metiiod of conducting sleep research.B.People will yawn most frequently in the moments before they fall asleep.C.There is a direct correlation between yawning and sleepiness.D.Yawning is a behavior over which individuals exert little conscious control.(2).The author uses which of the following in the fourth paragraph?（分数：2.00）A.Understatement.B.Anecdote.C.Analogy.D.Metaphor.。
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2012年北京师范大学考博英语阅读理解真题TEXT ONEAs Americas digest the news of another gun atrocity,a mall shooting in Nebraska on December5th,they cannot be blamed for thinking that guns are in too ready supply.But an article in the latest Economic Journa suggests that the demand for illegal guns,at least, is not met as easily as people might fear.Sudhir Venkatesh,now of Columbia University, has talked to132gang-members,77prostitutes,116gun-owning youths,23gun-dealers and numerous other denizens of Chicago's Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighbourhoods. He did not find many satisfied customers.（PS:The way to contact yumingkaobo TEL:si ling ling-liu liu ba-liu jiu qi ba QQ:s i jiu san san qi yi liu er liu）Chicago has unusually tough restrictions on legal handguns.Even so the black market is surprisingly“thin”,attracting relatively few buyers and sellers.The authors reckon that the48,000residents of the two neighbourhoods buy perhaps1,400guns a year,compared with at least200,000cocaine purchases.Underground brokers sell guns for$150-350,a mark-up of perhaps200%over the legal price.They also demand a fee of$30-50for orchestrating the deal.Even then,30-40%of the transactions fall through because the seller cannot secure a gun,gets cold feet or cannot agree on a location for the deal.Buyers also find it hard to verify the quality of the merchandise.They often know little about the weapons they covet.“Tony”,who owns a.38calibre handgun,learnt how to use his weapon by fiddling with it.He even put a stone in it.“Did it fire?”Mr Venkatesh asked.“I'm not sure.I think it did,”Tony said.Fortunately for Tony and his peers,their rivals and the victims of crime cannot tell if their guns work any better than they can.Often,showing the“bulge”is enough to gain the respect of rival gangs.In robberies brandishing the weapon will usually do.Storekeepers do not wait for proof that it works.Markets can overcome thinness,the paper says;they can also overcome illegality.But they cannot overcome both.A thin market must rely on advertising or a centralised exchange: eBay,for example,has dedicated pages matching sellers of imitation pearl pins or Annette Funicello bears to the few,scattered buyers that can be found.But such solutions are too cumbersome and conspicuous for an underground market.The drugs market,by contrast,slips through the law's fingers because of the natural density of drug transactions.Dealers canalways find customers on their doorstep,and buyers can reassure themselves about suppliers through repeated custom.There are no fixed and formal institutions that the police could easily throttle.Indeed,the authors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because the drug market is so plump.Gang-leaders are wary of gun-dealing because the extra police scrutiny that guns attract would jeopardise their earnings from coke and dope.Even Chicago's gang-leaders have to worry about the effect of crime on commerce.Some of the gun transactins are unsuccessful mainly because_____[A]it is not profitable as the underground price of gun far exceeds legal price.[B]Chicago has surprisingly tough restrictions on the ownership and business of guns.[C]the dealers are unable to guarantee whether the deal is really going to happen or not.[D]it is hard to testify the quality of the guns in actual situations.pared with the gun market,the drug market can be“fat”mainly because_____[A]it hardly attracts the police’s attention due to the flexibility of the business.[B]the drug dealings are taking place in higher frequency.[C]there are no fixed and formal spots for drug dealing.[D]drug is affordable to a larger number of people.3.The word“cumbersome”(Line4,Paragraph5)most probably means_____[A]transparent.[B]troubling.[C]horrible.[D]stupid.4.The reason why the authors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because the drug market is so plump is_____[A]that the drug transaction is more prefitable thatn gun-dealing.[B]that the police are more dedicated to the gun-dealing than to the drug-dealing.[C]that the gang-leaders are suppressing the gun-dealing in order to maintain their profit from drug[D]that the gang-leaders are worried about the effect of crime on commerce.5.Towards the future of gun-dealing,the author’s attitude is_____[A]pessimistic.[B]optimistic.[C]desperate.[D]sorrowful.文章剖析：这篇文章主要介绍了目前美国枪支黑市的情况。
第一段通过美国人将枪杀案多的原因归于枪支比较容易获得这个观点引出Sudhir经调查后的驳论;第二段讲述强制黑市交易量情况;第三段、第四段讲述买枪支人员的情况;第五段、第六段比较了枪支和毒品交易，得出目前枪支交易惨淡的另一方面原因。