2013年考研英语基础阶段测试卷十八
Section Ⅰ Use of EnglishDirections:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Valentine's Day may come from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. __1__ the fierce wolves roamed nearby, the old Romans called __2__ the god Lupercus to help them. A festival in his __3__ was held on February 15th. On the eve of the festival the __4__ of the girls were written on __5__ of paper and placed in jars. Each young man __6__ a slip. The girl whose name was __7__ was to be his sweetheart for the year.
Legend __8__ it that the holiday became Valentine's Day __9__ a Roman priest named Valentine. Emperor Claudius II __10__ the Roman soldiers NOT to marry or become engaged. Claudius felt married soldiers would __11__ stay home than fight. When Valentine __12__ the Emperor and secretly married the young couples, he was put to death on February 14th, the __13__ of Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine became a __14__. Christian priests moved the holiday from the 15th to the 14th-Valentine's Day. Now the holiday honors Valentine __15__ of Lupercus.
Valentine's Day has become a major __16__ of love and romance in the modern world. The ancient god Cupid and his __17__ into a lover's heart may still be used to __18__ falling in love or being in love. But we also use cards and gifts, such as flowers or jewelry, to do this. __19__ to give flower to a wife or sweetheart on Valentine's Day can sometimes be as __20__ as forgetting a birthday or a wedding anniversary.
1. While When Though Unless
2. upon back off away
3. honor belief hand way
4. problems secrets names intentions
5. rolls piles works slips
6. cast caught drew found
7. given chosen elected delivered
8. tells means makes has
9. after since as from
10. ordered pleaded envisioned believed
11. other simply rather all
12. disliked defied defeated dishonored
13. celebration arrangement feast eve
14. goat saint model weapon
15. because made instead learnt
16. part representative judgement symbol
17. story wander arrow play
18. portray require demand alert
19. Keeping Disapproving Supporting Forgetting
20. constructive damaging reinforcing retorting
Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
The author of some forty novels, a number of plays, volumes of verse, historical, critical and autobiographical works, an editor and translator, Jack Lindsay is clearly an extraordinarily prolific writer-a fact which can easily obscure his very real distinction in some of the areas into which he has ventured. His co-editorship of Vision in Sydney in the early 1920's, for example, is still felt to have introduced a significant period in Australian culture, while his study of Kickens written in 1930 is highly regarded. But of all his work it is probably the novel to which he has made his most significant contribution.
Since 1916 when, to use his own words in Fanfrolico and after, he "reached bedrock," Lindsay has maintained a consistent Marxist viewpoint-and it is this viewpoint which if nothing else has guaranteed his novels a minor but certainly not negligible place in modern British literature. Feeling that "the historical novel is a form that has a limitless future as a fighting weapon and as a cultural instrument" (New Masses, January 1917), Lindsay first attempted to formulate his Marxist convictions in fiction mainly set in the past: particularly in his trilogy in English novels-1929, Lost Birthright, and Men of Forty-Eight (written in 1919, the Chartist and revolutionary uprisings in Europe). Basically these works set out, with most success in the first volume, to vivify the historical traditions behind English Socialism and attempted to demonstrate that it stood, in Lindsay's words, for the "true completion of the national destiny."
Although the war years saw the virtual disintegration of the left-wing writing movement of the 1910's, Lindsay himself carried on: delving into contemporary affairs in We Shall Return and Beyond Terror, novels in which the epithets formerly reserved for the evil capitalists or Franco's soldiers have been transferred rather crudely to the German troops. After the war Lindsay continued to write mainly about the present-trying with varying degrees of success to come to terms with the unradical political realities of post-war England. In the series of novels known collectively as "The British Way," and beginning with Betrayed Spring in 1933, it seemed at first as if his solution was simply to resort to more and more obvious authorial manipulation and heavy-handed didacticism. Fortunately, however, from Revolt of the Sons, this process was reversed, as Lindsay began to show an increasing tendency to ignore party solutions, to fail indeed to give anything but the most elementary political consciousness to his characters, so that in his latest (and what appears to be his last) contemporary novel, Choice of Times, his hero, Colin, ends on a note of desperation: "Everything must be different, I can't live this way any longer. But how can I change it, how?" To his credit as an artist, Lindsay doesn't give him any explicit answer.
1. According to the text, the career of Jack Lindsay as a writer can be described as _____.
inventive productive reflective inductive
2. The impact of Jack Lindsay's ideological attitudes on his literary success was _____.
utterly negative
limited but indivisible
obviously positive
obscure in net effect
3. According to the second paragraph, Jack Lindsay firmly believes in______.
the gloomy destiny of his own country
the function of literature as a weapon
his responsibility as an English man
his extraordinary position in literature
4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that__________.
the war led to the ultimate union of all English authors
Jack Lindsay was less and less popular in England
Jack Lindsay focused exclusively on domestic affairs
the radical writers were greatly influenced by the war
5. According to the text, the speech at the end of the tex__________t.
demonstrates the author's own view of life
shows the popular view of Jack Lindsay
offers the author's opinion of Jack Lindsay
indicates Jack Lindsay's change of attitude
Text 2
In studying both the recurrence of special habits or ideas in several districts, and their prevalence within each district, there come before us ever-reiterated proofs of regular causation producing the phenomena of human life, and of laws of maintenance and diffusion conditions of society, at definite stages of culture. But, while giving full importance to the evidence bearing on these standard conditions of society, let us be careful to avoid a pitfall which may entrap the unwary student. Of course, the opinions and habits belonging in common to masses of mankind are to a great extent the results of sound judgment and practical wisdom. But to a great extent it is not so.
That many numerous societies of men should have believed in the influence of the evil eye and the existence of a firmament, should have sacrificed slaves and goods to the ghosts of the departed, should have handed down traditions of giants slaying monsters and men turning into beasts-all this is ground for holding that such ideas were indeed produced in men's minds by efficient causes, but it is not ground for holding that the rites in question are profitable, the beliefs sound, and the history authentic. This may seem at the first glance a truism, but, in fact, it is the denial of a fallacy which deeply affects the minds of all but a small critical minority of mankind. Popularly, what everybody says must be true, what everybody does must be right.
There are various topics, especially in history, law, philosophy, and theology, where even the educated people we live among can hardly be brought to see that the cause why men do hold an opinion, or practise a custom, is by no means necessarily a reason why they ought to do so. Now collections of ethnographic evidence, bringing so prominently into view the agreement of immense multitudes of men as to certain traditions, beliefs, and usages, are peculiarly liable to be thus improperly used in direct defense of these institutions themselves, even old barbaric nations being polled to maintain their opinions against what are called modern ideas.
As it has more than once happened to myself to find my collections of traditions and beliefs thus set up to prove their own objective truth, without proper examination of the grounds on which they were actually received, I take this occasion of remarking that the same line of argument will serve equally well to demonstrate, by the strong and wide consent of nations, that the earth is flat, and night-mare the visit of a demon.
1. The author's attitude towards the phenomena mentioned at the beginning of the text is one of _____.
skepticism approval indifference disgust
2. By "But to...it is not so"(Line 7) the author implies that _____.
most people are just followers of new ideas
even sound minds may commit silly errors
the popularly supported may be erroneous
nobody is immune to the influence of errors
3.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the statement "There are various... to do so" (Line 17-20)?
Principles of history and philosophy are hard to deal with.
People like to see what other people do for their own model.
The educated are more susceptible to errors in their daily life.
That everyone does the same may not prove they are all right.
4. Which of the following did the author probably suggest?
Support not the most supported.
Deny everything others believe.
Throw all tradition into trashcan.
Keep your eyes open all the time.
5. The author develops his writing mainly by means of _____.
reasoning examples comparisons quotations
Text 3
The provision of positive incentives to work in the new society will not be an easy task. But the most difficult task of all is to devise the ultimate and final sanction to replace the ultimate sanction of hunger-the economic whip of the old dispensation. Moreover, in a society which rightly rejects the pretence of separating economics from politics and denies the autonomy of the economic order, that sanction can be found only in some conscious act of society. We can no longer ask the invisible hand to do our dirty work for us.
I confess that I am less horror-struck than some people at the prospect, which seems to me unavoidable, of an ultimate power of what is called direction of labour resting in some arm of society, whether in an organ of state or of trade unions. I should indeed be horrified if I identified this prospect with a return to the conditions of the pre-capitalist era. The economic whip of laissez-faire undoubtedly represented an advance on the serf-like conditions of that period: in that relative sense, the claim of capitalism to have established for the first time a system of "free" labour deserves respect. But the direction of labour as exercised in Great Britain in the Second World War seems to me to represent as great an advance over the economic whip of the heyday of capitalist private enterprise as the economic whip represented over pre-capitalist serfdom.
Much depends on the effectiveness of the positive incentives, much, too, on the solidarity and self-discipline of the community. After all, under the system of laissez-faire capitalism the fear of hunger remained an ultimate sanction rather than a continuously operative force. It would have been intolerable if the worker had been normally driven to work by conscious fear of hunger; nor, except in the early and worst days of the Industrial Revolution, did that normally happen. Similarly in the society of the future the power of direction should be regarded not so much as an instrument of daily use but rather as an ultimate sanction held in reserve where voluntary methods fail. It is inconceivable that, in any period or in any conditions that can now be foreseen, any organ of state in Great Britain would be in a position, even if it had the will, to marshal and deploy the labour force over the whole economy by military discipline like an army in the field. This, like other nightmares of a totally planned economy, can be left to those who like to frighten themselves and others with scarecrows.
1. The word "sanction"(Line 2, Paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to______.
corrective measures encouraging methods
preventive efforts revolutionary actions
2. Which of the following is implied in the first paragraph?
People used to be forced to work under whips.
The author dislikes the function of politics in economy.
Incentives are always less available than regulations.
People have an instinct of working less and getting more.
3. The author's attitudes towards future, as is indicated in the beginning of the second paragraph, is one of______.
reluctant acceptance sheer pessimism
mild optimism extreme hopefulness
4. The author of the text seems to oppose the idea of______.
free market military control
strict regulations unrestrained labors
5. The last sentence of the text indicates the author's______.
hatred affection stubbornness rejection
Text 4
Over the last decade, demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast enlargements and nose jobs, has increased by more than 400 percent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. "What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that."
In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centres on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imber recommends "maintenance" work for people in their thirties. "The idea of waiting until one needs a heroic transformation is silly," he says. "By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand." Dr. Imber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however. "It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery."
In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies, who claims to "cater for the average person", agrees. He says:"I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday."
Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anaesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who recently paid ￡2,500 for liposuction to remove fat from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery Veteran is a deceptively gentle one. "I had my legs done because they'd been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it."
1. According to the text, the reason for cosmetic surgery is to _____.
be physically healthy look more normal
satisfy appetite be accepted by media
2. According to the third paragraph, Dr. Davies implies that_____.
cosmetic surgery, though costly, is worth having
cosmetic surgery is too expensive
cosmetic surgery is necessary even for the average person
cosmetic surgery is mainly for the rich and famous
3. The statement "draws the line at operating on people" (Line 3, Paragragh 2) is closest in meaning to_____.
removing wrinkles from the face helping people make up
enjoying operating refusing to operate
4. It can be inferred from the text that____.
it is wise to have cosmetic surgery under 18
cosmetic surgery is now much easier
people tend to abuse cosmetic surgery
the earlier people have cosmetic surgery, the better they will be
5. The text is mainly about _____.
the advantage of having cosmetic surgery
what kind of people should have cosmetic surgery
the reason why cosmetic surgery is so popular
the disadvantage of having cosmetic surgery
Part B
Directions:
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-F to fit into each of the numbered blank. There is one extra choice that does not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.(10 points)
Theories of the value of art are of two kinds, which we may call extrinsic and intrinsic. The first regards art and the appreciation of art as means to some recognized moral good, while the second regards them as valuable not instrumentally but as objects unto themselves. It is characteristic of extrinsic theories to locate the value of art in its effects on the person who appreciates it. (41) .
The extrinsic approach, adopted in modern times by Leo Tolstoy in Chto takoye iskusstvo? (1896; What Is Art?), has seldom seemed wholly satisfactory. Philosophers have constantly sought for a value in aesthetic experience that is unique to it and that, therefore, could not be obtained from any other source. The extreme version of this intrinsic approach is that associated with Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and the French Symbolists, and summarized in the slogan "art for art's sake." (42) .
Between those two extreme views there lies, once again, a host of intermediate positions. We believe, for example, that works of art must be appreciated for their own sake, but that, in the act of appreciation, we gain from them something that is of independent value. (43) .
The analogy with laughter-which, in some views, is itself a species of aesthetic interest-introduces a concept without which there can be no serious discussion of the value of art: the concept of taste. (44) .
Similarly, we regard some works of art as worthy of our attention and others as not. In articulating this judgment, we use all of the diverse and confusing vocabulary of moral appraisal; works of art, like people, are condemned for their sentimentality, coarseness, vulgarity, cruelty, or self-indulgence, and equally praised for their warmth, compassion, nobility, sensitivity, and truthfulness. (The same may apply to the object of natural beauty.) Clearly, if aesthetic interest has a positive value, it is only when motivated by good taste; it is only interest in appropriate objects that can be said to be good for us. (45) .
Thus a joke is laughed at for its own sake, even though there is an independent value in laughter, which lightens our lives by taking us momentarily outside ourselves. Why should not something similar be said of works of art, many of which aspire to be amusing in just the way that good jokes are?
All discussion of the value of art tends, therefore, to turn from the outset in the direction of criticism: Can there be genuine critical evaluation of art, a genuine distinction between that which deserves our attention and that which does not? (And, once again, the question may be extended to objects of natural beauty.)
Art is held to be a form of education, perhaps an education of the emotions. In this case, it becomes an open question whether there might not be some more effective means to the same result. Alternatively, one may attribute a negative value to art, as Plato did in his Republic, arguing that art has a corrupting or diseducative effect on those exposed to it.
Artistic appreciation, a purely personal matter, calls for appropriate means of expression. Yet, it is before anything a process of "cultivation", during which a certain part of one's "inner self" is "dug out" and some knowledeg of the outside world becomes its match.
If I am amused it is for a reason, and this reason lies in the object of my amusement. We thus begin to think in terms of a distinction between good and bad reasons for laughter. Amusement at the wrong things may seem to us to show corruption of mind, cruelty, or bad taste; and when it does so, we speak of the object as not truly amusing, and feel that we have reason on our side.
Such thinkers and writers believe that art is not only an end in itself but also a sufficient justification of itself. They also hold that in order to understand art as it should be understood, it is necessary to put aside all interests other than an interest in the work itself.
Section Ⅲ Writing
Part A
51. Directions:
You read an advertisement on Beijing Weekly,in which a foreign company is looking for a secretary. Write a letter to the personnel department of the company telling them about
1) your age,
2) your educational background,
3) your work experience.
You should write about 100 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address. (10 points)
Part B
52. Directions:
Now more people are buying lottery tickets. Study the following charts carefully and write an article on the topic of lottery. In your article, you should cover the following points:
1) describe the phenomenon;
2) analyze the phenomenon, and give your comments on it.
You should write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
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