2008年全国硕士研究生入学考试英语试题
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)
The idea that some groups of people may be more intelligent thanothers is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. ButGregory Cochran is 1 to say it anyway. He is that 2 bird, a scientistwho works independently 3 any institution. He helped popularize the ideathat some diseases not 4 thought to have a bacterial cause wereactually infections, which aroused much controversy when it was firstsuggested.
5 he, however, might tremble at the 6 of what he is about to do.Together with another two scientists, he is publishing a paper which notonly 7 that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others,but explains the process that has brought this about. The group in 8 area particular people originated from central Europe. The process isnatural selection.
This group generally do well in IQ test, 9 12-15 points above the10 value of 100, and have contributed 11 to the intellectual andcultural life of the West, as the 12 of their elites, including severalworld-renowned scientists,13 hey also suffer more often than most peoplefrom a number of nasty genetic diseases, such as breast cancer. Thesefacts, 14 ave previously been thought unrelated. The former has been 15social effects, such as a strong tradition of 16 ucation. The latter wasseen as a (an) 17 genetic isolation. Dr. Cochran suggests that theintelligence and diseases are intimately18 is argument is that theunusual history of these people has 19 em to unique evolutionarypressures that have resulted in this 20 ate of affairs.
1. selected prepared obliged pleased
2. unique particular special rare
3. of with in against
4. subsequently presently previously lately
5. Only So Even Hence
6. thought sight cost risk
7. advises suggests protests objects
8. progress fact need question
9. attaining scoring reaching calculating
10. normal common mean total
11. unconsciously disproportionately
indefinitely unaccountably
12. missions fortunes interests careers
13. affirm witness observe approve
14. moreover therefore however meanwhile
15. given up got over carried on put down
16. assessing supervising administering valuing
17. development origin consequence instrument
18. linked integrated woven combined
19. limited subjected converted directed
20. paradoxical incompatible inevitable continuous
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each textby choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40points)
Text 1
While still catching-up to men in some spheres of modern life,women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category."Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxietydisorders in response to stress compared to men," according to Dr.Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York's Veteran's AdministrationHospital.
Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormonessomehow affect the stress response, causing females under stress toproduce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the sameconditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats hadtheir ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemicalresponses became equal to those of the males.
Adding to a woman's increased dose of stress chemicals, are herincreased "opportunities" for stress. "It's not necessarily that womendon't cope as well. It's just that they have so much more to cope with,"says Dr. Yehuda. "Their capacity for tolerating stress may even begreater than men's," she observes, "it's just that they're dealing withso many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly andsooner."
Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. "I thinkthat the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more ofa chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combatstress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. Thekinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be indomestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members,and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comesfrom these longer relationships can be quite devastating."
Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but wasdetermined to finish college. "I struggled a lot to get the collegedegree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, togo to school, and get ahead and do better." Later, her marriage endedand she became a single mother. "It's the hardest thing to take care of ateenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay thedebt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck."
Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stressesAlvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot ofobligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez'sexperience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stressbefore it threatens your health and your ability to function.
21. Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?
Women are biologically more vulnerable to stress.
Women are still suffering much stress caused by men.
Women are more experienced than men in coping with stress.
Men and women show different inclinations when faced with stress.
22. Dr. Yehuda's research suggests that women
need extra doses of chemicals to handle stress.
have limited capacity for tolerating stress.
are more capable of avoiding stress.
are exposed to more stress.
23. According to Paragraph 4, the stress women confront tends to be
domestic and temporary.
irregular and violent.
durable and frequent.
trivial and random.
24. The sentence "I lived from paycheck to paycheck." (Line 6, Para. 5) shows that
Alvarez cared about nothing but making money.
Alvarez's salary barely covered her household expenses.
Alvarez got paychecks from different jobs.
Alvarez paid practically everything by check.
25. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
Strain of Stress: No Way Out?
Responses to Stress: Gender Difference
Stress Analysis: What Chemicals Say
Gender Inequality: Women Under Stress
Text 2
It used to be so straightforward. A team of researchers workingtogether in the laboratory would submit the results of their research toa journal. A journal editor would then remove the authors' names andaffiliations from the paper and send it to their peers for review.Depending on the comments received, the editor would accept the paperfor publication or decline it. Copyright rested with the journalpublisher, and researchers seeking knowledge of the results would haveto subscribe to the journal.
No longer. The Internet - and pressure from funding agencies, whoare questioning why commercial publishers are making money fromgovernment-funded research by restricting access to it - is makingaccess to scientific results a reality. The Organization for EconomicCo-operation and Development (OECD) has just issued a report describingthe far-reaching consequences of this. The report, by John Houghton ofVictoria University in Australia and Graham Vickery of the OECD, makesheavy reading for publishers who have, so far, made handsome profits.But it goes further than that. It signals a change in what has, untilnow, been a key element of scientific endeavor.
The value of knowledge and the return on the public investment inresearch depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access. Itis big business. In America, the core scientific publishing market isestimated at between $7 billion and $11 billion. The InternationalAssociation of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says thatthere are more than 2,000 publishers worldwide specializing in thesesubjects. They publish more than 1.2 million articles each year in some16,000 journals.
This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% ofscholarly journals are now online. Entirely new business models areemerging; three main ones were identified by the report's authors. Thereis the so-called big deal, where institutional subscribers pay foraccess to a collection of online journal titles through site-licensingagreements. There is open-access publishing, typically supported byasking the author (or his employer) to pay for the paper to bepublished. Finally, there are open-access archives, where organizationssuch as universities or international laboratories support institutionalrepositories. Other models exist that are hybrids of these three, suchas delayed open-access, where journals allow only subscribers to read apaper for the first six months, before making it freely available toeveryone who wishes to see it. All this could change the traditionalform of the peer-review process, at least for the publication of papers.
26. In the first paragraph, the author discusses
the background information of journal editing.
the publication routine of laboratory reports.
the relations of authors with journal publishers.
the traditional process of journal publication.
27. Which of the following is true of the OECD report?
It criticizes government-funded research.
It introduces an effective means of publication.
It upsets profit-making journal publishers.
It benefits scientific research considerably.
28. According to the text, online publication is significant in that
it provides an easier access to scientific results.
it brings huge profits to scientific researchers.
it emphasizes the crucial role of scientific knowledge.
it facilitates public investment in scientific research.
29. With the open-access publishing model, the author of a paper is required to
cover the cost of its publication.
subscribe to the journal publishing it.
allow other online journals to use it freely.
complete the peer-review before submission.
30. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the text?
The Internet is posing a threat to publishers.
A new mode of publication is emerging.
Authors welcome the new channel for publication.
Publication is rendered easier by online service.
Text 3
In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of only three playersin the National Basketball Association (NBA) listed at over seven feet.If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. Thebodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically overthe years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust teamuniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.
The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognizedreality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typicallyabout two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today's people -especially those born to families who have lived in the U.S. for manygenerations - apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. Andthey aren't likely to get any taller. "In the general population today,at this genetic, environmental level, we've pretty much gone as far aswe can go," says anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright StateUniversity. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appearsto result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting playersfrom all over the world.
Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demandscalories and nutrients - notably, protein - to feed expanding tissues.At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhoodinfections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children andadolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and ahalf every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height.Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, averageheight - 5′9″ for men, 5′4″ for women - hasn't really changed since1960.
Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantialheight. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passingthrough the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been uprightfor millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle withbipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed byoversize limbs. "There are some real constraints that are set by thegenetic architecture of the individual organism," says anthropologistWilliam Leonard of Northwestern University.
Genetic maximums can change, but don't expect this to happen soon.Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center inNatick, Mass., ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstationsfit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those forbasketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for sometime. And if you need to predict human height in the near future todesign a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, "you coulduse today's data and feel fairly confident."
31. Wilt Chamberlain is cited as an example to
illustrate the change of height of NBA players.
show the popularity of NBA players in the U.S..
compare different generations of NBA players.
assess the achievements of famous NBA players.
32. Which of the following plays a key role in body growth according to the text?
Genetic modification.
Natural environment.
Living standards.
Daily exercise.
33. On which of the following statements would the author most probably agree?
Non-Americans add to the average height of the nation.
Human height is conditioned by the upright posture.
Americans are the tallest on average in the world.
Larger babies tend to become taller in adulthood.
34. We learn from the last paragraph that in the near future
the garment industry will reconsider the uniform size.
the design of military uniforms will remain unchanged.
genetic testing will be employed in selecting sportsmen.
the existing data of human height will still be applicable.
35. The text intends to tell us that
the change of human height follows a cyclic pattern.
human height is becoming even more predictable.
Americans have reached their genetic growth limit.
the genetic pattern of Americans has altered.
Text 4
In 1784, five years before he became president of the UnitedStates, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired adentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw - having extracted themfrom the mouths of his slaves.
That's a far different image from the cherry-tree-chopping Georgemost people remember from their history books. But recently, manyhistorians have begun to focus on the roles slavery played in the livesof the founding generation. They have been spurred in part by DNAevidence made available in 1998, which almost certainly proved ThomasJefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings.And only over the past 30 years have scholars examined history from thebottom up. Works of several historians reveal the moral compromises madeby the nation's early leaders and the fragile nature of the country'sinfancy. More significantly, they argue that many of the FoundingFathers knew slavery was wrong - and yet most did little to fight it.
More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hamperedby the culture of their time. While Washington and Jefferson privatelyexpressed distaste for slavery, they also understood that it was part ofthe political and economic bedrock of the country they helped tocreate.
For one thing, the South could not afford to part with its slaves.Owning slaves was "like having a large bank account," says Wiencek,author of An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and theCreation of America. The southern states would not have signed theConstitution without protections for the "peculiar institution,"including a clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man forpurposes of congressional representation.
And the statesmen's political lives depended on slavery. Thethree-fifths formula handed Jefferson his narrow victory in thepresidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the southernstates in the Electoral College. Once in office, Jefferson extendedslavery with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the new land was carvedinto 13 states, including three slave states.
Still, Jefferson freed Hemings's children - though not Hemingsherself or his approximately 150 other slaves. Washington, who had begunto believe that all men were created equal after observing the braveryof the black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, overcame the strongopposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in hiswill. Only a decade earlier, such an act would have required legislativeapproval in Virginia.
36. George Washington's dental surgery is mentioned to
show the primitive medical practice in the past.
demonstrate the cruelty of slavery in his days.
stress the role of slaves in the U.S. history.
reveal some unknown aspect of his life.
37. We may infer from the second paragraph that
DNA technology has been widely applied to history research.
in its early days the U.S. was confronted with delicate situations.
historians deliberately made up some stories of Jefferson's life.
political compromises are easily found throughout the U.S. history.
38. What do we learn about Thomas Jefferson?
His political view changed his attitude towards slavery.
His status as a father made him free the child slaves.
His attitude towards slavery was complex.
His affair with a slave stained his prestige.
39. Which of the following is true according to the text?
Some Founding Fathers benefit politically from slavery.
Slaves in the old days did not have the right to vote.
Slave owners usually had large savings accounts.
Slavery was regarded as a peculiar institution.
40. Washington's decision to free slaves originated from his
moral considerations.
military experience.
financial conditions.
political stand.
Part B
Directions:
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. ForQuestions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fitinto each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which donot fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10points)
The time for sharpening pencils, arranging your desk, and doingalmost anything else instead of writing has ended. The first draft willappear on the page only if you stop avoiding the inevitable and sit,stand up, or lie down to write. (41)
Be flexible. Your outline should smoothly conduct you from onepoint to the next, but do not permit it to railroad you. If a relevantand important idea occurs to you now, work it into the draft. (42)Grammar, punctuation, and spelling can wait until you revise.Concentrate on what you are saying. Good writing most often occurs whenyou are in hot pursuit of an idea rather than in a nervous search forerrors.
(43) Your pages will be easier to keep track of that way, and, ifyou have to clip a paragraph to place it elsewhere, you will not loseany writing on the other side.
If you are working on a word processor, you can take advantage ofits capacity to make additions and deletions as well as move entireparagraphs by making just a few simple keyboard commands. Some softwareprograms can also check spelling and certain grammatical elements inyour writing. (44) These printouts are also easier to read than thescreen when you work on revisions.
Once you have a first draft on paper, you can delete material thatis unrelated to your thesis and add material necessary to illustrateyour points and make your paper convincing. The student who wrote "The A& P as a State of Mind" wisely dropped a paragraph that questionedwhether Sammy displays chauvinistic attitudes toward women. (45)
Remember that your initial draft is only that. You should gothrough the paper many times - and then again - working to substantiateand clarify your ideas. You may even end up with several entire versionsof the paper. Rewrite. The sentences within each paragraph should berelated to a single topic. Transitions should connect one paragraph tothe next so that there are no abrupt or confusing shifts. Awkward orwordy phrasing or unclear sentences and paragraphs should be mercilesslypoked and prodded into shape.
To make revising easier, leave wide margins and extra spacebetween lines so that you can easily add words, sentences, andcorrections. Write on only one side of the paper.
After you have clearly and adequately developed the body ofyour paper, pay particular attention to the introductory and concludingparagraphs. It's probably best to write the introduction last, after youknow precisely what you are introducing. Concluding paragraphs demandequal attention because they leave the reader with a final impression.
It's worth remembering, however, that though a clean copy freshoff a printer may look terrific, it will read only as well as thethinking and writing that have gone into it. Many writers prudentlystore their data on disks and print their pages each time they finish adraft to avoid losing any material because of power failures or otherproblems.
It makes no difference how you write, just so you do. Now thatyou have developed a topic into a tentative thesis, you can assembleyour notes and begin to flesh out whatever outline you have made.
Although this is an interesting issue, it has nothing to dowith the thesis, which explains how the setting influences Sammy'sdecision to quit his job. Instead of including that paragraph, she addedone that described Lengel's crabbed response to the girls so that shecould lead up to the A & P "policy" he enforces.
In the final paragraph about the significance of the setting in"A & P," the student brings together the reasons Sammy quit his jobby referring to his refusal to accept Lengel's store policies.
By using the first draft as a means of thinking about what youwant to say, you will very likely discover more than your notesoriginally suggested. Plenty of good writers don't use outlines at allbut discover ordering principles as they write. Do not attempt tocompose a perfectly correct draft the first time around.
Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlinedsegments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly onANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
In his autobiography, Darwin himself speaks of his intellectualpowers with extraordinary modesty. He points out that he alwaysexperienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely,but (46) he believes that this very difficulty may have had thecompensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently aboutevery sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning andin his own observations. He disclaimed the possession of any greatquickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished Huxley. (47) Heasserted, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstracttrain of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain thathe never could have succeeded with mathematics. His memory, too, hedescribed as extensive, but hazy. So poor in one sense was it that henever could remember for more than a few days a single date or a line ofpoetry. (48) On the other hand, he did not accept as well founded thecharge made by some of his critics that, while he was a good observer,he had no power of reasoning. This, he thought, could not be true,because the "Origin of Species" is one long argument from the beginningto the end, and has convinced many able men. No one, he submits, couldhave written it without possessing some power of reasoning. He waswilling to assert that "I have a fair share of invention, and of commonsense or judgment, such as every fairly successful lawyer or doctor musthave, but not, I believe, in any higher degree." (49) He adds humblythat perhaps he was "superior to the common run of men in noticingthings which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully."
Writing in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion thatin two or three respects his mind had changed during the precedingtwenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry ofmany kinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had givenhim considerable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, hesaid: "Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. Ihave also almost lost my taste for pictures or music." (50) Darwin wasconvinced that the loss of these tastes was not only a loss ofhappiness, but might possibly be injurious to the intellect, and moreprobably to the moral character.
Section III Writing
Part A
51. Directions:
You have just come back from Canada and found a music CD in yourluggage that you forgot to return to Bob, your landlord there. Write hima letter to
1) make an apology, and
2) suggest a solution.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead.
Do not write the address. (10 points)
Part B
52. Directions:
Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should
1) describe the drawing briefly,
2) explain its intended meaning, and then
3) give your comments.
You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
真题答案
Section I: Use of English (10 points)
1. B2. D3. A4. C5. C
6. A7. B8. D9. B10. C
11. B12. D13. A14. C15. D
16. D17. C18. A19. B20. A
Section II: Reading Comprehension (60 points)
Part A (40 points)
21. A22. D23. C24. B25. D
26. D27. C28. A29. A30. B
31. A32. C33. B34. D35. C
36. D37. B38. C39. A40. B
Part B (10 points)
41. D42. G43. A44. C45. E
Part C (10 points)
46.他认为或许正因为（语言表达上的）这种困难，他不得不对自己要说的每句话都经过长时间的认真思考，从而能发现自己在推理和观察中的错误，结果这反而成为他的优点。
47.他还坚持认为自己进行长时间纯抽象思维的能力十分有限，由此他也认定自己在数学方面根本不可能有大的作为。
48.另一方面，某些人批评他虽然善于观察，却不具备推理能力，而他认为这种说法也是缺乏根据的。
49.他又自谦的说，或许自己“在注意到容易被忽略的事物，并对其加以仔细观察方面优于常人”。
50.达尔文确信，没有了这些爱好不只是少了乐趣，而且可能会有损于一个人的思维能力，更有可能导致一个人道德品质的下降。
Section III: Writing (30 points)
Part A (10 points)
51.参考范文
（略）
Part B (20 points)
52.参考范文
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