2015年考研英语（二）真题

海天考研

Section I Use of English
Directions：
Read the following text。Choose the best word（s）for each numbered blank and
markA,B,C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.（10 points）
In our contemporary culture, the prospect of communicating with -- or even looking at -- a
stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with
their phones, even without a 1 underground.
It's a sad reality -- our desire to avoid interacting with other human beings -- because there's 2 to
be gained from talking to the stranger standing by you. But you wouldn't know it, 3 into your
phone. This universal armor sends the 4 : "Please don't approach me."
What is it that makes us feel we need to hide 5 our screens?
One answer is fear, according to Jon Wortmann, executive mental coach. We fear rejection, or that
our innocent social advances will be 6 as "creepy,". We fear we'll be 7 . We fear we'll be disruptive.
Strangers are inherently 8 to us, so we are more likely to feel 9 when communicating with them
compared with our friends and acquaintances. To avoid this anxiety, we 10 to our phones. "Phones
become our security blanket," Wortmann says. "They are our happy glasses that protect us from
what we perceive is going to be more 11 ."
But once we rip off the bandaid, tuck our smartphones in our pockets and look up, it doesn't 12 so
bad. In one 2011 experiment, behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder asked
commuters to do the unthinkable: Start a 13 . They had Chicago train commuters talk to their
fellow 14 . "When Dr. Epley and Ms. Schroeder asked other people in the same train station to 15
how they would feel after talking to a stranger, the commuters thought their 16 would be more
pleasant if they sat on their own," the New York Times summarizes. Though the participants didn't
expect a positive experience, after they 17 with the experiment, "not a single person reported
having been snubbed."
18 , these commutes were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those sans communication,
which makes absolute sense, 19 human beings thrive off of social connections. It's that 20 :
Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.
            
            

kythree

1. [A] ticket [B] permit [C] signall [D] record
2. [A] nothing [B] link [C] another [D] much
3. [A] beaten [B] guided [C] plugged [D] brought
4. [A] message [B] cede [C] notice [D] sign
5. [A] under [B] beyond [C] behind [D] from
6. [A] misinterprete [B] misapplied [C] misadjusted [D] mismatched
7. [A] fired [B] judged [C] replaced [D] delayed
8. [A] unreasonable [B] ungreatful [C] unconventional [D] unfamiliar
9. [A] comfortable [B] anxious [C] confident [D] angry
10. [A] attend [B] point [C] take [D] turn
11. [A] dangerous [B] mysterious [C] violent [D] boring
12. [A] hurt [B] resist [C] bend [D] decay
13. [A] lecture [B] conversation [C] debate [D] negotiation
14. [A] trainees [B] employees [C] researchers [D] passengers
15. [A] reveal [B] choose [C] predictl [D] design
16. [A] voyage [B] flight [C] walk [D] ride
17. [A] went through [B] did away [C] caught up [D] put up
18. [A] In turn [B] In particular [C] In fact [D] In consequence
19. [A] unless [B] since [C] if [D] whereas
20. [A] funny [B] simple [C] logical [D] rare
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)
            
            

kythree

Text 1
A new study suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed at home that
at work. Researchers measured people’s cortisol, which is stress marker, while they were at work
and while they were at home and found it higher at what is supposed to be a place of refuge.
“Further contradicting conventional wisdom, we found that women as well as men have lower
levels of stress at work than at home,” writes one of the researchers, Sarah Damaske. In fact
women even say they feel better at work, she notes, “It is men, not women, who report being
happier at home than at work.” Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with
children and without, but more so for nonparents. This is why people who work outside the home
have better health.
What the study doesn’t measure is whether people are still doing work when they’re at home,
whether it is household work or work brought home from the office. For many men, the end of the
workday is a time to kick back. For women who stay home, they never get to leave the office. And
for women who work outside the home, they often are playing catch-up-with-household tasks.
With the blurring of roles, and the fact that the home front lags well behind the workplace in
making adjustments for working women, it’s not surprising that women are more stressed at home.
But it’s not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what they’re supposed to be
doing: working, making money, doing the tasks they have to do in order to draw an income. The
bargain is very pure: Employee puts in hours of physical or mental labor and employee draws out
life-sustaining moola.
On the home front, however, people have no such clarity. Rare is the household in which the
division of labor is so clinically and methodically laid out. There are a lot of tasks to be done,
there are inadequate rewards for most of them. Your home colleagues- your family- have no clear
rewards for their labor; they need to be talked into it, or if they’re teenagers, threatened with
complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, they’re your family. You cannot fire your family.
You never really get to go home from home.
So it’s not surprising that people are more stressed at home. Not only are the tasks apparently
infinite, the co- workers are much harder to motivate.
21. According to Paragraph 1, most previous surveys found that home_______
[A] was an unrealistic place for relaxation
[B] generated more stress than the workplace
[C] was an ideal place for stress measurement
[D] offered greater relaxation than the workplace
            
            

kysix

22. According to Damaske, who are likely to be the happiest at home?
[A] Working mothers
[B] Childless husbands
[C] Childless wives
[D] Working fathers
23. The blurring of working women’s roles refers to the fact thay_______
[A] they are both bread winners and housewives
[B] their home is also a place for kicking back
[C] there is often much housework left behind
[D] it is difficult for them to leave their office
24. The word “moola”(Line 4, Para 4) most probably means_______
[A] energy
[B] skills
[C] earnings
[D] nutrition
25. The home front differs from the workplace in that_______
[A] home is hardly a cozier working environment
[B] division of labor at home is seldom clear-cut
[C] household tasks are generally more motivating
[D] family labor is often adequately rewarded
Text2
For years, studies have found that first-generation college students- those who do not have a
parent with a college degree- lag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their
grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to
advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed
for decades to recruit more of them. This has created “a paradox” in that recruiting firstgeneration
students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has
“continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close” ab achievement gap based on social class,
according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological
Science.
            
            

kytwo

But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem,
suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63
percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and
other students.
The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study
involving 147 students ( who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First
generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the
first-generation students(59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for
undergraduates with financial need, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students wit at
least one parent with a four-year degree.
Their thesis- that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact- was based on the view
that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge
about how to deal with the issues that face most college students. They cite past research by
several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.
Many first- generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education,
learn the ‘rules of the game,’ and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this
becomes more of a problem when collages don’t talk about the class advantage and disadvantages
of different groups of students. Because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how
social class can affect students ’educational experience, many first-generation students lack sight
about why they are struggling and do not understand how students’ like them can improve.
26. Recruiting more first- generation students has_______
[A] reduced their dropout rates
[B] narrowed the achievement gao
[C] missed its original purpose
[D] depressed college students
27. The author of the research article are optimistic because_______
[A] the problem is solvable
[B] their approach is costless
[C] the recruiting rate has increased
[D] their finding appeal to students
            
            

kyone

28. The study suggests that most first- generation students______
[A] study at private universities
[B] are from single-parent families
[C] are in need of financial support
[D] have failed their collage
29. The author of the paper believe that first-generation students_______
[A] are actually indifferent to the achievement gap
[B] can have a potential influence on other students
[C] may lack opportunities to apply for research projects
[D] are inexperienced in handling their issues at college
30. We may infer from the last paragraph that_______
[A] universities often reject the culture of the middle-class
[B] students are usually to blame for their lack of resources
[C] social class greatly helps enrich educational experiences
[D]colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question
Text3
Even in traditional offices, “the lingua franca of corporate America has gotten much more
emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago,” said Harvard Business School
professor Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. “If you and I parachuted back to
Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey,
mission, passion. There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn’t talk
about energy; we didn’t talk about passion.”
Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very “team”-oriented—and not by
coincidence. “Let’s not forget sports—in male-dominated corporate America, it’s still a big deal.
It’s not explicitly conscious; it’s the idea that I’m a coach, and you’re my team, and we’re in this
together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of
themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win.”
These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning—and, as Khurana points out, increase
allegiance to the firm. “You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be
associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations: Terms like vision, values,
passion, and purpose,” said Khurana.
            
            

kyfour

This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud
debates over work-life balance. The “mommy wars” of the 1990s are still going on today,
prompting arguments about why women still can’t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg’s
Lean In, whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug, offline, life-hack,
bandwidth, and capacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if
your work is your “passion,” you’ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means
going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed.
But this seems to be the irony of office speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it,
companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As Nunberg said, “You can get
people to think it’s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it.” In a workplace that’s
fundamentally indifferent to your life and its meaning, office speak can help you figure out how
you relate to your work—and how your work defines who you are.
31. According to Nancy Koehn,office language has become_____
[A] more emotional
[B] more objective
[C] less energetic
[D] less strategic
32. “team”-oriented corporate vocabulary is closely related to_______
[A] historical incidents
[B] gender difference
[C] sports culture
[D] athletic executives
33.Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to______
[A] revive historical terms
[B] promote company image
[C] foster corporate cooperation
[D] strengthen employee loyalty
            
            

kyfive

34.It can be inferred that Lean In________
[A] voices for working women
[B] appeals to passionate workaholics
[C] triggers dcbates among mommies
[D] praises motivated employees
35.Which of the following statements is true about office speak?
[A] Managers admire it but avoid it
[B] Linguists believe it to be nonsense
[C] Companies find it to be fundamental
[D] Regular people mock it but accept it
Text 4
Many people talked of the 288,000 new jobs the Labor Department reported for June, along with
the drop in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, as good news. And they were right. For now it
appears the economy is creating jobs at a decent pace. We still have a long way to go to get back
to full employment, but at least we are now finally moving forward at a faster pace.
However, there is another important part of the jobs picture that was largely overlooked. There
was a big jump in the number of people who report voluntarily working part-time. This figure is
now 830,000(4.4 percent) above its year ago level.
Before explaining the connection to the Obamacare, it is worth making an important distinction.
Many people who work part-time jobs actually want full-time jobs. They take part-time work
because this is all they can get. An increase in involuntary part-time in June, but the general
direction has been down. Involuntary part-time employment is still far higher than before the
recession, but it is down by 640,000(7.9 percent) from its year ago level.
We know the difference between voluntary and involuntary part-time employment because people
tell us. The survey used by the Labor Department asks people if they worked less than 35 hours in
the reference week. If the answer is “yes,” they are classified as working part-time. They survey
then asks whether they worked less than 35 hours in that week because they wanted to work less
than full time or because they had no choice. They are only classified as voluntary part-time
workers if they tell the survey taker they chose to work less than 35 hours a week.
The issue of voluntary part-time relates to Obamacare because one of the main purposes was to
allow people to get insurance outside of employment. For many people, especially those with
serious health conditions of family members with serious health conditions, before Obamacare the
only way to get insurance was through a job that provided health insurance.
However, Obamacare has allowed more than 12 million people to either get insurance through
Medicaid or the exchanges. These are people who may previously have felt the need to get a
full-time job that provided insurance in order to cover themselves and their families. With
Obamacare there is no longer a link between employment and insurance.
            
            

kytwo

36. Which part of the jobs picture was neglected?
A. The prospect of a thriving job market.
B. The increase of voluntary part-time jobs.
C. The possibility of full employment.
D. The acceleration of job creation.
37. Many people work part-time because they
A. prefer part-time jobs to full-time jobs
B. feel that is enough to make ends meet
C. cannot get their hands on full-time jobs
D. haven’t seen the weakness of the market
38. Involuntary part-time employment in the US
A. is harder to acquire than one year ago
B. shows a general tendency of decline
C. satisfies the real need of the jobless
D. is lower than before the recession
39. It can be learned that with Obamacare, __________.
A. it is no longer easy for part-timers to get insurance
B. employment is no longer a precondition to get insurance
C. it is still challenging to get insurance for family members
D. full-time employment is still essential for insurance.
40. The text mainly discusses____________.
A. employment in the US
B. part-timer classification
C. insurance through Medicaid
D. Obamacare’s trouble
            
            

kytwo

Part B
Directions：Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing the most suitable
subheading from the list A-G for each numbered paragraph (41-45).There are two extra
subheadings which you do not need to use. Make your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10
points)
[A]You are not alone
[B]Experience helps you grow
[C]Pave your own unique path
[D]Most of your fears are unreal
[E]Think about the present moment
[F]Don’t fear responsibility for your life
[G]There are many things to be grateful for
Some Old Truths to Help You Overcome Tough Times
Unfortunately, life is not a bed of roses. We are going through life facing sad experiences.
Moreover, we are grieving various kinds of loss: a friendship, romantic relationship or a
house .Hard times may hold you down at what usually seems like the most inopportune time, but
you should remember that they won’t last forever.
When our time of mourning is over, we press forward, stronger with a greater understanding
and respect for life. Furthermore, these losses make us mature and eventually move us toward
future opportunities for growth and happiness. I want to share these old truths I’ve learned along
the way.
41._______________________________
Fear is both useful and harmful. This normal human reaction is used to protect us by
signaling danger and preparing us to deal with it. Unfortunately, people create inner barriers with a
help of exaggerating fears. My favorite actor Will Smith once said, “Fear is not real. It is a product
of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice.” I do
completely agree that fears are just the product of our luxuriant imagination.