2013年考研英语基础阶段测试卷十三

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　　Section Ⅰ
        　　Use of English
        　　Directions:
        　　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)
        　　Things in the henhouse changed practically overnight when McDonald's announced in 1999 that it would no longer buy eggs from producers who didn't meet its guidelines for care of chickens. Those guidelines included limiting the 1 of birds that could be kept in one 2 and prohibiting beak removal,3 trimming just the tips.
        　　Once McDonald's had 4 the way in issuing animal care guidelines for the company's suppliers, many other giants of the fast-food industry rapidly followed 5, including Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, A&W. and KFC. Now, the American Meat Institute has 6 welfare guidelines and audit 7 for cattle, pigs, and chickens. And the European Union, representing our foreign customers, is also 8 in with, among other things, legislation banning 9 use of crates to house pregnant sows, 10 in 2013.
        　　Questions about animal care 11 with the explosive growth in large-scale livestock farms, 12 spurred customers to complain about animals being treated as "factory parts". That spurred ARS and the livestock industry to take a proactive approach to addressing animal 13 issues, making sure that guidelines are based on facts 14 through scientific research. The goal is to share research findings with the retail food industry and others so that the livestock industry can improve its 15 guidelines.
        　　Ten years ago, to 16 these concerns, ARS started a research program on livestock behavior and stress. The scientists involved were tasked with finding out whether modern farming practices were 17 stressing animals. And if so, could scientific methods be developed to measure this stress so that 18 could be evaluated objectively rather than subjectively?
        　　A decade later, the 19 answer is "yes" to both questions. Many had expected the answer to be "no" on both counts, but science works independently 20 people's opinions.
        　　1. [A] amount [B] number [C] figure [D] sum
        　　2. [A] cage [B] cave [C] case [D] cart
        　　3. [A] but for [B] except for [C] aside from [D] away from
        　　4. [A] paved [B] changed [C] led [D] opened
        　　5. [A] suit [B] step [C] set [D] super
        　　6. [A] adapted [B] adopted [C] approved [D] accepted
        　　7. [A] booklets [B] pamphlets [C] brochures [D] checklists
        　　8. [A] measuring [B] weighing [C] considering [D] thinking
        　　9. [A] prolonged [B] proceeded [C] programmed [D] progressed
        　　10. [A] efficient [B] effective [C] effusive [D] elective
        　　11. [A] raised [B] rose [C] arose [D] posed
        　　12. [A] who [B] what [C] which [D] how
        　　13. [A] health [B] life [C] wealth [D] welfare
        　　14. [A] decided [B] determined [C] proved [D] tested
        　　15. [A] voluntary [B] revolutionary [C] preliminary [D]necessary
        　　16. [A] express [B] address [C] suppress [D] compress
        　　17. [A] unduly [B] unequally [C] unfortunately [D] unfavorably
        　　18. [A] performances [B] programs [C] problems [D] practices
        　　19. [A] sequential [B] initial [C] essential [D] financial
        　　20. [A] of [B] on [C] by [D] with

kyfour

        　　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
        　　Commuter trains are often stuffy and crowded, and they frequently fail to run on time. As if that were not bad enough, Tsuyoshi Hondou, a physicist at Tohoku University in Japan, published a paper in 2002 that gave commuters yet another reason to feel uncomfortable. Dr Hondou examined mobile phone usage in enclosed spaces such as railway carriages, buses and lifts, all of which are, in essence, metal boxes. His model predicted that a large number of passengers crowded together, all blathering, sending text messages, or browsing the web on their phones, could produce levels of electromagnetic radiation that exceed international safety standards. That is because the radio waves produced by each phone are reflected off the metal walls of the carriage, bus or lift. Enough radiation escapes to allow the phone to communicate with the network, but the rest bathes the inside of the carriage with bouncing microwaves.
        　　This sounds worrying. But maybe it isn't after all. In a paper published recently in Applied Physics Letters, Jaime Ferrer and Lucas Fernández Seivane from the University of Oviedo in Spain-along with colleagues from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Telefónica Móviles, a Spanish mobile operator-dispute Dr Hondou's findings. They conclude that the level of radiation is safe after all.
        　　The key addition to the new research is the effect of the passengers themselves. While each phone produces radiation that bounces around the car, the passengers absorb some of it, which has the effect of reducing the overall intensity, just as the presence of an audience changes the acoustics of a concert hall, making it less reverberant. Dr Hondou's model, in short, was valid only in the case of a single passenger sitting in an empty carriage with an active mobile phone on every seat.
        　　While Dr Hondou acknowledged this in his original paper, he did not specifically calculate the effect that leaving out the other passengers would have on the radiation level. As a result, say the authors of the new paper, he significantly overestimated the level of electromagnetic radiation. When one is sitting on a train, Dr Ferrer and his colleagues found, the most important sources of radiation are one's own phone, and those of one's immediate neighbours. The radiation from these sources far exceeds that from other phones or from waves bouncing around the carriage. And all these sources together produce a level of radiation within the bounds defined by the ICNIRP, the international body that regulates such matters.
        　　21. According to paragraph 1, the essential common characteristic of train carriages, buses, and lifts is that
        　　[A] they are all metal boxes.
        　　[B] they are often stuffy and overcrowded.
        　　[C] they all allow enough radiation to escape for mobile communications to take place.
        　　[D] people use their mobile phones in them.
        　　22. How could "levels of electromagnetic radiation that exceed international safety standards" be produced?
        　　[A] Mobile phones give off a lot of electromagnetic radiation.
        　　[B] Train carriages, buses, and lifts are not safe places to use mobile phones.
        　　[C] A lot of people could use their mobile phones in a confined space at the same time.
        　　[D] Blathering produces radio waves which bounce around the interior of these places.
        　　23. Why do the Spanish researchers dispute Dr. Hondou's theory?
        　　[A] Because they are funded by a mobile phone operator.
        　　[B] Because people absorb electromagnetic radiation.
        　　[C] Because electromagnetic radiation isn't dangerous at all.
        　　[D] Because Dr. Hondou assumed that every single person was using their mobile phone at exactly the same time.
        　　24. Dr. Hondou's research was not thorough enough because
        　　[A] he didn't have enough time to assess everything before his paper was published.
        　　[B] he didn't admit that the people in train carriages, buses, and lifts could influence the level of electromagnetic radiation.
        　　[C] he didn't investigate the effect of people on electromagnetic radiation levels.
        　　[D] Japan is a crowded country where people often use mobile phones, so he only looked at that specific situation.
        　　25. According to the Spanish researchers, which of the following statements is true?
        　　[A] The closer you are to a mobile phone, the greater your exposure to electromagnetic radiation.
        　　[B] The closer you are to a mobile phone that is being used to send and receive signals, the greater your exposure to electromagnetic radiation.
        　　[C] The amount of electromagnetic radiation reflected by metal is almost too small to be measured.
        　　[D] You shouldn't stand close to people who are using their mobile phones in train carriages, buses, and lifts.

kysix

       
        Text 2
        　　Last year a high profile panel of experts known as the Copenhagen Consensus ranked the world's most pressing environmental, health and social problems in a prioritized list. Assembled by the Danish Environmental Assessment Institute under its then director, Bjorn Lomborg, the panel used cost benefit analysis to evaluate where a limited amount of money would do the most good. It concluded that the highest priority should go to immediate concerns with relatively well understood cures, such as control of malaria. Long-term challenges such as climate change, where the path forward and even the scope of the threat remain unclear, ranked lower.
        　　Usually each of these problems is treated in isolation, as though humanity had the luxury of dealing with its problems one by one. The Copenhagen Consensus used stat-o-the-art techniques to try to bring a broader perspective. In so doing, however, it revealed how the state of the art fails to grapple with a simple fact: the future is uncertain. Attempts to predict it have a checkered history-from declarations that humans would never fly, to the doom-and-gloom economic and environmental forecasts of the 1970s, to claims that the "New Economy" would do away with economic ups and downs. Not surprisingly, those who make decisions tend to stay focused on the next fiscal quarter, the next year, the next election. Feeling unsure of their compass, they hug the familiar shore.
        　　This understandable response to an uncertain future means, however, that the nation's and the world's long term threats often get ignored altogether or are even made worse by shortsighted decisions. In everyday life, responsible people look out for the long term despite the needs of the here and now: we do homework, we save for retirement, we take out insurance. The same principles should surely apply to society as a whole. But how can leaders weigh the present against the future? How can they avoid being paralyzed by scientific uncertainty?
        　　In well-understood situations, science can reliably predict the implications of alternative policy choices. These predictions, combined with formal methods of decision analysis that use mathematical models and statistical methods to determine optimal courses of action, can specify the trade-offs that society must inevitably make. Corporate executives and elected officials may not always heed this advice, but they do so more often than a cynic might suppose. Analysis has done much to improve the quality of lawmaking, regulation and investment. National economic policy is one example. Concepts introduced by analysts in the 1930s and 1940s-unemployment rate, current account deficit and gross national product-are now commonplace. For the most part, governments have learned to avoid the radical boom-and-bust cycles that were common in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
        　　26. The Copenhagen Consensus didn't believe that allocating a limited amount of money to climate change was a good idea because
        　　[A] nothing can be done about it in the immediate future.
        　　[B] there are too many competing approaches to solving it.
        　　[C] it is not a pressing issue.
        　　[D] the money would be better spent on immediate concerns.
        　　27. Paragraph 2 intends to demonstrate that
        　　[A] technology cannot solve all our problems.
        　　[B] predictions are usually inaccurate.
        　　[C] solving problems one-by-one is ineffective.
        　　[D] thinking short-term is often reasonable.
        　　28. According to the text, how could scientific uncertainty paralyze decision-making by world leaders?
        　　[A] By presenting many different solutions to problems.
        　　[B] By presenting short-term solutions and long-term ones.
        　　[C] By presenting solutions to problems that are not well understood.
        　　[D] By presenting solutions that are too technical for decision-makers to comprehend.
        　　29. According to the text, how have governments learned to avoid boom-and-bust economic cycles?
        　　[A] By using mathematical and statistical models prepared by experts.
        　　[B] By observing historical economic patterns.
        　　[C] By improving the quality of lawmaking.
        　　[D] By discussing the implications and effects of various policies.
        　　30. What are the "trade-offs" mentioned in the final paragraph?
        　　[A] Difficult decisions.
        　　[B] Things which have benefits in some ways and costs in others.
        　　[C] Key, costly decisions.
        　　[D] Things that promote economic prosperity.

kytwo

        　　Text 3
        　　Ingenious teenagers can find every manner of reason to take a pass on summer school: There's the two-week family vacation in the middle of the four-week session, not to mention the potential for a day job scooping ice cream-or the fear that they might bomb at cramming a semester's worth of work into a month. In the digital age, however, none is reason enough. The rapid spread of online learning at the secondary level-experts estimate that more than half of all school districts offer some virtual coursework, up from just 30 percent two years ago-is now creating "anywhere, anytime" flexibility for summer students, too.
        　　While the total numbers are still small, many hundreds of students around the country will be signing on in the next week or two for everything from U.S. history to human space exploration. In California, Graham Petersen, who just finished his junior year in Palo Alto, will study Algebra II through the online arm of Oregon's Salem Keizer school district while working as a teacher's assistant in a children's program. "This is no shortcut-it's the full course. But you can work at 11 o'clock at night," says Robert Currie, executive director of Michigan Virtual High School, whose courses, like most, are available nationally.
        　　Beyond convenience, there are instructional reasons to consider the virtual classroom. Those who have struggled in a course during the year often find that the online format makes it easier to master the content. "Most students finish with A's and B's, because teachers don't let them go through with D's," says Jan Bleek, principal of the Internet Academy, an arm of the Federal Way district near Seattle that is offering 45 summer courses at $180 each. "There's lots of revision, a lot of work that goes on in depth between teacher and student after work has been submitted." While grading policies vary, kids often are free to retake assessments or to work through several practice exams until they're ready to be tested. "I got a B-the highest grade in math I've ever, ever gotten since sixth grade," says Petersen, who took the first half of Salem Keizer's online Algebra II class this spring after failing the course first semester.
        　　Success depends largely on actually tackling the content, of course-and nobody (other than parents, perhaps) will be breathing down a student's neck. So it's important to be realistic about whether online study is a good fit with a teenager's learning style. "The No. 1 thing is, are you capable of working on your own?" says Kathy Armstrong, an English teacher at Harris County High in Hamilton, Ga., who is also an instructor for Virtual High School. Since material is presented as text rather than by lecture, being a proficient reader is a must.
        　　31. According to the first paragraph, the reason why teenagers used to have an excuse for not taking academic summer courses is that
        　　[A] they had more important things to do.
        　　[B] they had other distractions and obligations.
        　　[C] society wasn't as competitive.
        　　[D] they were better at making excuses.
        　　32. Why is Graham Peterson studying online?
        　　[A] Because he is not up to the required standard in algebra.
        　　[B] Because he likes working at night.
        　　[C] Because he likes studying at night.
        　　[D] Because he wants to study and work.
        　　33. It can be inferred from the text that students usually get A's and B's because
        　　[A] studying online is better and more convenient for them.
        　　[B] the teachers are not as strict and give higher scores than at regular schools.
        　　[C] most of the students studying online are smarter than average.
        　　[D] the teaching and assessment process continues even after students have submitted their initial work.
        　　34. According to the text, how is studying online different to conventional study methods?
        　　[A] It's suitable for anyone.
        　　[B] It requires some different study skills.
        　　[C] Grading policies vary.
        　　[D] Students can take more practice tests before taking the real exam.
        　　35. The best title of the text might be
        　　[A] Learning via the internet is easy.
        　　[B] Learning via the internet is relaxing.
        　　[C] Learning via the internet can be convenient and instructive.
        　　[D] Summer school is easier than before. 　

kysix

       
        Text 4
        　　The BBC, Britain's mammoth public-service broadcaster, has long been a cause for complaint among its competitors in television, radio and educational and magazine publishers. Newspapers, meanwhile, have been protected from it because they published in a different medium. That's no longer the case. The internet has brought the BBC and newspapers in direct competition-and the BBC looks like coming off best.
        　　The improbable success online of Britain's lumbering giant of a public-service broadcaster is largely down to John Birt, a former director-general who "got" the internet before any of the other big men of British media. He launched the corporation's online operations in 1998, saying that the BBC would be a trusted guide for people bewildered by the variety of online services. The BBC now has 525 sites. It spends ￡15m ($27m) a year on its news website and another
        　　￡51m on others ranging from society and culture to science, nature and entertainment. But behind the websites are the vast newsgathering and programme-making resources, including over 5,000 journalists, funded by its annual ￡2.8 billion public subsidy.
        　　For this year's Chelsea Flower Show, for instance, the BBC's gardening micro-site made it possible to zoom around each competing garden, watch an interview with the designer and click on "leaf hotspots" about individual plants. For this year's election, the news website offered a wealth of easy-to-use statistical detail on constituencies, voting patterns and polls. This week the BBC announced free downloads of several Beethoven symphonies performed by one of its five in-house orchestras. That particularly annoys newspapers, whose online sites sometimes offer free music downloads-but they have to pay the music industry for them.
        　　It is the success of the BBC's news website that most troubles newspapers. Its audience has increased from 1.6m unique weekly users in 2000 to 7.8m in 2005; and its content has a breadth and depth that newspapers struggle to match. Newspapers need to build up their online businesses because their offline businesses are flagging. Total newspaper readership has fallen by about 30% since 1990 and readers are getting older as young people increasingly get their news from other sources-principally the internet. In 1990, 38% of newspaper readers were under 35. By 2002, the figure had dropped to 31%. Just this week, Dominic Lawson, the editor of the Sunday Telegraph, was sacked for failing to stem its decline. Some papers are having some success in building audiences online-the Guardian, which has by far the most successful newspaper site, gets nearly half as many weekly users as the BBC-but the problem is turning them into money.
        　　36. What does "John Birt … 'got' the internet before any of the other big men of British media" mean?
        　　[A] John Birt was connected to the internet before his competitors.
        　　[B] John Birt launched the BBC website before his competitors launched theirs.
        　　[C] John Birt understood how the internet could be used by news media before his competitors did.
        　　[D] John Birt understood how the internet worked before his competitors did.
        　　37. Why does the text state that the BBC's success in the field of internet news was "improbable"?
        　　[A] Because the BBC is a large organisation.
        　　[B] Because the BBC is not a private company.
        　　[C] Because the BBC is not a successful media organisation.
        　　[D] Because the BBC doesn't make a profit.
        　　38. The author cites the examples in paragraph 3 in order to demonstrate that
        　　[A] the BBC's websites are innovative and comprehensive.
        　　[B] the BBC's websites are free and wide-ranging.
        　　[C] the BBC spends its money well.
        　　[D] the BBC uses modern technology.
        　　39. The BBC needn't to pay the music industry to provide classical music downloads for users of its websites because
        　　[A] the BBC is Britain's state-owned media organisation.
        　　[B] the BBC has a special copyright agreement with the big music industry companies.
        　　[C] the BBC produces classical music itself.
        　　[D] the BBC lets the music industry use its orchestras for free.
        　　40. According to the final paragraph, the main advantage that the BBC has over newspapers is that
        　　[A] more people use the BBC website.
        　　[B] the BBC doesn't need to make a profit.
        　　[C] the BBC has more competent managers.
        　　[D] young people are turning to the internet for news coverage.

kyone

        　　Part B
        　　Directions:
        　　In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41——45, choose the most suitable one from the list A——G to fit into each of numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
        　　From Southeast Asia to the Black Sea, fishing nets have become deathtraps for thousands of whales, dolphins and porpoises-species whose survival will be threatened unless fishing methods change.
        　　The World Wildlife Fund, a U.S. based environmental group, lists species threatened by accidental catch, and recommends low cost steps to reduce their entanglement in fishing gear.
        　　(41).
        　　Dolphins in the Philippines, India and Thailand are urgent priorities.
        　　Threatened populations include Irrawaddy dolphins in Malampyaya Sound off the Philippines' Palawan Island, about 220 miles south of Manila. Only 77 remain. Dolphins also face the threat of traders who sell them to aquariums, especially in Asia.
        　　(42) .
        　　The WWF report said up to 3,000 Spinner dolphins may be caught each year in gillnets, which stretch from the sea floor to the surface and are hard for dolphins to see or detect with their sonar.
        　　(43).
        　　Dolphins are also under threat in Indonesia, Myanmar, India's Chilka Lake and Thailand's Songkhla Lake.
        　　Fishing gear kills thousands of porpoises each year in the Black Sea. Atlantic humpback dolphins face the same fate off the coasts of Ghana and Togo in Africa, as do Franciscana dolphins in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Indo-Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins often die in nets off the south coast of Zanzibar.
        　　(44) .
        　　U.S. fisheries in 1993——2003 introduced changes that reduced by a third the number of dolphins accidentally killed by fishing, or bycatch. But few other countries have followed that example and in much of the rest of the world, progress on bycatch mitigation has been slow to nonexistent.
        　　(45).
        　　Slight modifications in fishing gear can mean the difference between life and death for dolphins.
        　　[A] In the Pacific Ocean, bottlenose dolphins are found from northern Japan and California to Australia and Chile. They are also found offshore in the eastern tropical Pacific as far west as the Hawaiian islands. Off the California coast bottlenose dolphins have been observed as far north as Monterey, particularly during years of unusual warmth.
        　　[B] Researchers estimate that fishing gear kills about 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises a year in the world's oceans.
        　　[C] If the mammals are trapped underwater in nets and can't get to the surface to breathe, they drown.
        　　[D] According to IWC reports, in the 2003/2004 season, Japan killed, under "special permit," 443 minke whales in the Antarctic, and in the North Pacific, 151 minkes, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales, and 10 sperm whales. Japanese media have reported that Japan plans to expand its annual whale hunt to take two new species-humpback whales and fin whales-as well as nearly doubling its planned catch of minke whales. Both humpback and fin whales are on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species.
        　　[E] Other threatened populations include Spinner and Fraser's dolphins in the Philippines' Sulu Sea.
        　　[F] Most of the animals are threatened by the widespread use of one type of fishing gear-gillnets.
        　　[G] These accidental deaths can be significantly reduced, often with very simple, low-cost solutions.

kythree

        　　Part C
        　　Directions:
        　　Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
        　　Hollywood and the music industry can file piracy lawsuits against technology companies caught encouraging customers to steal music and movies over the Internet. (46) The justices, aiming to curtail what they called a "staggering" volume of piracy online, largely set aside concerns that new lawsuits would inhibit technology companies from developing the next iPod or other high-tech gadgets or services. The unanimous ruling is expected to have little immediate impact on consumers, though critics said it could lead companies to include digital locks to discourage illegal behavior.
        　　The justices left in place legal protections for companies that merely learn customers might be using products for illegal purposes. (47)Copying digital files such as movies, music or software programs "threatens copyright holders as never before" because it's so easy and popular, especially among young people. Entertainment companies maintain that online thieves trade 2.6 billion songs, movies and other digital files each month.
        　　(48) The ruling represents a significant victory for Hollywood and record labels, which have resorted to suing individually the thousands of computer users caught sharing music and movies online. In a tweak at entertainment companies and a demonstration of legal purposes for file-sharing computer users circulated the court's published opinion over Internet file-sharing services. Government-produced documents generally are not protected by copyright.
        　　(49)Grokster Ltd. and Streamcast Networks Inc., developers of leading Internet-file-sharing software, can be sued because they deliberately encouraged customers to download copyrighted files illegally so they could build a larger audience and sell more advertising. Writing for the court.
        　　(50)But the court also said a technology company couldn't be sued if it merely learns its customers are using its products for illegal purposes. That balancing test, the court said, is necessary so that it "does nothing to compromise legitimate commerce or discourage innovation having a lawful promise." The court said it wanted to protect an inventor who must predict how consumers months or years in the future might use new technology.
        　　Section Ⅲ Writing
        　　Part A
        　　51. Directions:
        　　Your professor has given you a grade on a paper that is much lower than what you were expecting. Write a letter of approximately 100 words including the following:
        　　1) your name, and class and the information about your paper;
        　　2) a request for the professor to provide you with an explanation; and
        　　3) a possible resolution.
        　　Write your letter on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter; use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address. (10 points)
        　　Part B
        　　52. Directions:
        　　Write an essay ranging from 160-200 words based on the picture provided. Your essay should:
        　　1) show your understanding of the symbolic meaning of the picture;
        　　2) state whether you agree or disagree with the idea; and
        　　3) give an example which illustrates your opinion.