2014考研英语模拟测试题六
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)
Generally speaking, a British is widely regarded as a quiet, shy and conservative person who is 1 only
among those with whom he is acquainted. When a stranger is at present, he often seems nervous, even 2 .
You have to take a commuter train any morning or evening to 3 the truth of this.
Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or dozing in a corner; hardly anybody
talks, since to do so would be considered quite 4 .
5 , there is an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior which, once broken, makes the offender
immediately the object of 6 .
It has been known as a fact that a British has a 7 for the discussion of their weather and that, if given a
chance, he will talk about it 8 .
Some people argue that it is because the British weather seldom 9 forecast and hence becomes a
source of interest and 10 to everyone.
This may be so. 11 a British cannot have much 12 in the weathermen, who, after promising fine,
sunny weather for the following day, are often proved wrong 13 a cloud over the Atlantic brings rainy
weather to all districts! The man in the street seems to be as accurate --- or as inaccurate --- as the weathermen in
his 14 .
Foreigners may be surprised at the number of references 15 weather that the British 16 to each
other in the course of a single day. Very often conversational greetings are 17 by comments on the weather.
“Nice day, isn’t it?” “Beautiful!” may well be heard instead of “Good morning, how are you?” Although the
foreigner may consider this exaggerated and comic, it is 18 pointing out that it could be used to his
advantage. If he wants to start a conversation with a British but is at a loss to know 19 to begin, he could
do well to mention the state of the weather. It is a safe subject which will 20 an answer from even the most
reserved of the British.
1. relaxed frustrated amused exhausted
2. reserved urgent embarrassed anxious
3. experience witness watch undergo
4. impolite defensive deliberate offensive
5. Deliberately Apparently Frequently Consequently
6. compassion opposition criticism assault
7. emotion fancy likeliness judgment
8. at length to a great extent from his heart by all means
9. follows obeys defies supports
10. dedication suspicion contemplation speculation
11. Usually Generally Certainly Fundamentally
12. faith hope honor credit
13. since once when while
14. propositions predictions proposal prophecy
15. about on in to
16. take forecast make predict
17. started replaced conducted proposed
18. reasonable useful worthwhile meaningful
19. where how what which
20. stimulate constitute furnish provoke
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. (10 points)
Text 1
Often called the intellectual leader of the animal-rights movement, Regan “is the foremost philosopher in
this country in the field of the moral status of non-rational animals”, says Bob Bryan, former chairman of the
N.C. State Philosophy and Religion Department. Regan has lectured from Stockholm to Melbourne about the
importance of recognizing animals as part of the evolving field of ethics. His books, The Case for Animal Rights
and In Defense of Animal Rights, are widely acknowledged as having cemented the roots of the modern animal
rights movement in academia.
To be sure, vegetarianism dates back to Plato and Plutarch. And in America, the first cruelty busts happened
in the late 19th century in New York. But society viewed animals largely as properties, until Regan and a handful
of other philosophers pushed animal-rights issues into the academic mainstream. Indeed, this academic focus has
dramatically altered how Americans approach the ethics of husbandry, some observers say. Once-radical ideas
have been firmly woven into society.
Regan envisions a type of “bill of rights” for animals, including the abandonment of pet ownership,
elimination of a meat-based diet, and new standards for biomedical research on animals. Essentially, he wants to
establish a new kind of solidarity with animals, and stop animal husbandry altogether. “In addition to the visible
achievements and changes, there’s been what I might call an invisible revolution taking place, and that revolution
is the seriousness with which the issue of animal rights is taken in the academy and in higher education.” Regan
say.
But with Regan planning to retire in December, a growing number of farmer, doctors, and others are
questioning the sustainability of his ideas. Increasingly, Americans who feel their rights have become secondary
to animals’ rights are speaking out against a wave of arson attacks on farmers and pies thrown in the faces of
researchers. Radical groups, with sometimes-violent tactics, have been accused of scaring farmers away from
speaking up for traditional agrarian values. Indeed, tensions are only rising between animal-rights activists and
groups that have traditionally used the land with an eye toward animals’ overall welfare, not their “right” to be
happy or to live long lives.
The controversy around Regan is heightened by the fact that he’s no pacifist. He says he believes it’s OK to
break the law for a greater purpose. He calls it the “greater-evil doctrine”, the idea that there’s moral hierarchy to
crime. “I think that you can win in court, and that’s what I tell people,” Regan says. “I don’t believe that you
should run and hide.” The shift in the level of respect has been “seismic”, he says. “Contrary to what a lot of
people think, there really has been recognition that there are some things that human beings should not be
permitted to do to animals. Where the human heart has grown is in the recognition of what is to be prohibited.”
21. Which of the following best describes the tone of the text?
Objective and speculative. Persuasive but suspicious.
Analytical and impersonal. Resentful and defensive.
22. The ultimate unification resulted from .
the strong support from President Truman
a concession made by each side of the disputes
the passage of a new bill in the Congress
a consensus reached by all services
23. One of the important disputes between the Navy and the Air Force was over .
the competition for fiscal budget
the procurement of the latest weapons
the leadership of the Army
the principle of civilian dominance of the Army
24. It can be inferred from the text that Forrestal’s appointment as Secretary of Defense was expected
to .
outrage advocates of the Army air forces
result in decreased levels of defense spending
win the Congressional approval of the unification plan
appease members of the Navy
25. Although the unification was not entirely successful, it has the unexpected result of .
ensuring civilian control of the military
augmenting United States military capability
stopping interference from the other branches
clarifying the objectives of each service
Text 2
The National Security Act of 1947 created a military establishment headed by a single Secretary of Defense.
The legislation has been a year-and-a-half in the making-beginning when President Truman first recommended
that the armed services be recognized into a single department. During that period the President’s concept of a
unified armed service was torn apart and put back together several times, the final measure to emerge from
Congress being a compromise. Most of the opposition to the bill came from the Navy and its numerous civilian
spokesmen, including secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. In support of unification (and a separate air force
that was part of the unification package) were the Army air forces, the Army, and, more importantly, the
President of the United States.
Passage of the bill did not bring and end to the bitter interservice disputes. Rather than unify, the act served
only to federate the military services. It neither halted the rapid demobilization of the armed forces that allowed
World War II nor brought to the new national military establishment the loyalties of officers steeped in the
traditions of the separate services. At a time when the balance of power in Europe and Asia was rapidly shifting,
the services lacked any precise statement of United States foreign policy from the National Security Council on
which to base future programs. The services bickered unceasingly over their respective roles and missions,
already complicated by the Soviet nuclear capability that for the first time made the United States susceptible to
devastating attack. Not even the appointment of Forrestal as First Secretary of Defense allayed the suspicion of
naval officers and their supporters that the role of the U.S. Navy was threatened with permanent eclipse. Before
the war of words died down, Forrestal himself was driven to resignation and then suicide.
By 1948, the United States military establishment was forced to make do with a budget approximately 10
percent of what it had been at its wartime peak. Meanwhile, the cost of weapons procurement was rising
geometrically as the nation came to put more and more reliance on the atomic bomb and its delivery systems.
These two factors inevitably made adversaries of the Navy and the Air Force as the battle between advocates of
the B-36 and the super carrier so simply demonstrates. Given several fiscal restraints on the one hand, and on the
other the nation’s increasing reliance on strategic nuclear deterrence, the conflict between these two services over
roles and missions was essentially a contest over slices of an ever-diminishing pie.
Yet if in the end neither service was the obvious victor, the principle of civilian dominance over the military
clearly was. If there had even been any danger that the United States military establishment might exploit, to the
detriment of civilian control. The goodwill it enjoyed as a result of its victories in World War II, that danger
disappeared in the interservice animosities engendered by the battle over unification.
26. Regan is called the intellectual leader of the animal-rights movement because .
he is a philosopher in the field of animal rights protection
he helps to make animal rights movement an academic subject
he has written many books on how to protect animal rights
he proves that animal societies have their moral standards as human societies do
27. All of the following are mentioned as Regan’s concepts of animal rights movement except .
animals have some basic rights like people
people should reassess their relationship to animals
animals should not be taken to be properties to people
the way morality is taught in the academic circle should be changed
28. What is the “invisible revolution” mentioned in the third paragraph?
Academia begins to take animal rights movement seriously.
Violence should sometimes be used to protect animal rights.
An attempt has been made to stop animal husbandry altogether.
The bill of rights for animal has been written into the law.
29. We learn from the passage that Regan .
is a professor at the University of Melbourne
consents to the employment of violence in animal protection
is a vegetarian who is fairly familiar with Plato’s philosophy
is the first man who is fully convinced that animals have rights
30. Regan obviously believes that the prospect of animal rights movement is .
gloomy bright
uncertain doomed
Text 3
Last year, America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, thought it would be a good
idea to organize a robot race across the Nevada desert. The idea of the Grand Challenge, as DARPA dubbed it,
was for autonomous robot vehicles to steer a 227 km (142-mile) course and claim a $ 1 m jackpot. This would be
a first step towards DARPA’s ultimate goal of being able to build unmanned self-driving military vehicles and
thus keep American troops out of harm’s way on the battlefield.
This year’s crop of 23 entrants were offered an even greater incentive- a $ 2 m prize for the winner. That,
plus the intervening 18 months, seems to have done the trick. This time, five vehicles finished the 211 km course.
The winner, a modified Volkswagen Touareg dubbed Stanley by its markers, a team from Stanford University,
did it in a mere six hours and 54 minutes.
Stanley was, of course, specially hardened by its designers for the rough terrain of the Nevada desert. The
clever bit, however, was the vehicle’s brain. This was designed and built by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (SAIL).
Stanley’s brain consists of six top-of-the-range Pentium chips wired collaboratively together. It is
programmed with special software that is able to learn from its mistakes. This software mastered the tricks of
collision-avoidance in a series of desert test runs conducted before the race started.
Like all brains, Stanley’s has a range of sensory inputs to process. A global positioning system (GPS)
receiver tells it where on the Earth’s surface it is. Television cameras, radar and four laser-based distance
monitors tell it what its surroundings are like. By comparing its GPS location with its pre-programmed
destination (announced only a few hours before the race began), it knew which may it wanted to go. And, by
studying its surroundings, it could work out what looked like the safest route that was also in approximately the
right direction.
Although Stanley carried off the laurels, the other four finishers did respectably. Sandstorm managed a time
just ten minutes behind the winner while her sister vehicle highlander came in ten minutes after that. Gray Bot
and Terra Max, the other two course-completers, came in at seven hours 30 minutes and 12 hours 51 minutes,
respectively.
So smart, autonomous vehicles can, indeed, find their way across several hundred kilometers of desert. To
question is, what next? DARPA’s answer, of course, will be to go down the military route. But this sort of
technology has obvious civilian applications as well, as Sebastian Thrun, the head of both SAIL and the Stanford
racing team, is keen to emphasize.
Dr Thrun thinks that it could lead to self-driving road vehicles within 30 years and – more immediately – to
greatly improved collision—avoidance systems. Whether the freeways of California will prove as easy to
navigate as the gulches of Nevada, though, remains to be seen.
31. The purpose of holding a robot race is to
adventure through the Nevada desert.
develop unpiloted vehicles for military use.
win a $1 m jackpot.
keep American troops unharmed.
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Privacy implications remain a big obstacle. The fear is that companies or governments could use the tags
as a means of monitoring. Proponents counter that RFID tags transmit for only a few meters, and the data can be
deactivated once a product leaves the store. Nevertheless, CASPLAN and other watchdog groups have won
concessions from retailers. Wal-Mart and Benetton will only use the tags on pallets, not on individual items, and
Metro has gotten rid of RFID-enabled loyalty cards.
Order:
Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your
translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
46. The American sociologist Talcott Parsons believed that the two most important functions of the modern
family are the primary socialization of children and the stabilization of adult personalities through marriage and
the raising of children. His own concern was particularly with the middle-class American family, but these
important aspects of family life are also applicable much more widely. In the present context it is worthwhile to
look especially at primary socialization.
47. Primary socialization refers training of children during their earliest years, where as secondary
socialization refers to later influences on the development of the child’s personality and learning activities, such
as his involvement with teachers and with other children at school. Primary socialization is in most societies
carried out essentially within the family as part of child rearing. In the modern family, parents take responsibility
for raising and teaching their children such basic things as language and correct behavior. Toilet training,
teaching children how to eat correctly, and encouraging children to get along with others are all aspects of child
rearing. However, it is not only these more mundane aspects of behavior that children learn. Children are also
implicitly encouraged to develop the values of the parents and of the society in which they live. In American
society, which was Parson’s main concern, these values include independence, motivation for achievement, and
competition. In other societies, different values, such as cooperation and egalitarianism, may be stressed. 48. Yet
the principle behind primary socialization in different societies is the same: the development of social values
must be achieved in an environment of love and security, as is found in the ideal family anywhere in the world.
However, few families are ideal. Studies of the families of emotionally disturbed children have shown that
unsatisfactory relationship between husbands and wives can have detrimental effects on children.
Sometimes a child is used as a scapegoat. The parents blame or even physically abuse the child in order to
cover up their own difficulties. 49. In such a case, the child often fails to develop the values the parents wish to
instill in him, developing instead antisocial habits leading to deviant behavior in later life. Indeed, the cycle may
be repeated if such a person in time marries, has a family of his own, and treats his children in the same way.
Nonetheless, there is no reason to suppose that all children of unsatisfactory marriages are treated in such a way
or fail to overcome the difficulties they have as children.
50. Some social scientists have even suggested that the isolated nuclear family, as it exists in Western
industrialized societies, is to blame for the social ills found in those societies. They claim that in the past more
support was offered from the wider kin network and from the community as a whole—as is still the case in
less-developed parts of the world. The British psychiatrists R.D. Laing and David Cooper suggested that the
modern family is dysfunctional in that, by its very nature, it forces upon children an undue emphasis on
obedience to authority. These negative viewpoints aside, most experts as well as most parents agree that the
primary socialization process in the modern family offers benefits both to child and to the parents.
Section III Writing
Part A
Directions:
You are required to write a letter to the post office in your university or in the nearby neighborhood to tell
them that you haven’t received a parcel which your friend send you for your birthday. In the letter you should
cover the following information:
1) explain your situation,
2) tell them what are there in the parcel, and
3) tell them what you want them to do about it.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter.
Use “Li Ming” instead. (10 points)
Part B
Directions:
Study the following cartoon carefully and write an essay in which you should
1) describe the set of drawings, interpret its meaning, and
2) point out dangers from air pollution.
You should write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
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