2014考研英语模拟测试题六

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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)
　　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. [A] relaxed [B] frustrated [C] amused [D] exhausted
　　2. [A] reserved [B] urgent [C] embarrassed [D] anxious
　　3. [A] experience [B] witness [C] watch [D] undergo
　　4. [A] impolite [B] defensive [C] deliberate [D] offensive
　　5. [A] Deliberately [B] Apparently [C] Frequently [D] Consequently
　　6. [A] compassion [B] opposition [C] criticism [D] assault
　　7. [A] emotion [B] fancy [C] likeliness [D] judgment
　　8. [A] at length [B] to a great extent [C] from his heart [D] by all means
　　9. [A] follows [B] obeys [C] defies [D] supports
　　10. [A] dedication [B] suspicion [C] contemplation [D] speculation
　　11. [A] Usually [B] Generally [C] Certainly [D] Fundamentally
　　12. [A] faith [B] hope [C] honor [D] credit
　　13. [A] since [B] once [C] when [D] while
　　14. [A] propositions [B] predictions [C] proposal [D] prophecy
　　15. [A] about [B] on [C] in [D] to
　　16. [A] take [B] forecast [C] make [D] predict
　　17. [A] started [B] replaced [C] conducted [D] proposed
　　18. [A] reasonable [B] useful [C] worthwhile [D] meaningful
　　19. [A] where [B] how [C] what [D] which
　　20. [A] stimulate [B] constitute [C] furnish [D] 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?
　　[A] Objective and speculative. [B] Persuasive but suspicious.
　　[C] Analytical and impersonal. [D] Resentful and defensive.

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　　22. The ultimate unification resulted from .
　　[A] the strong support from President Truman
　　[B] a concession made by each side of the disputes
　　[C] the passage of a new bill in the Congress
　　[D] a consensus reached by all services
　　23. One of the important disputes between the Navy and the Air Force was over .
　　[A] the competition for fiscal budget
　　[B] the procurement of the latest weapons
　　[C] the leadership of the Army
　　[D] 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 .
　　[A] outrage advocates of the Army air forces
　　[B] result in decreased levels of defense spending
　　[C] win the Congressional approval of the unification plan
　　[D] appease members of the Navy
　　25. Although the unification was not entirely successful, it has the unexpected result of .
　　[A] ensuring civilian control of the military
　　[B] augmenting United States military capability
　　[C] stopping interference from the other branches
　　[D] 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 .
　　[A] he is a philosopher in the field of animal rights protection
　　[B] he helps to make animal rights movement an academic subject
　　[C] he has written many books on how to protect animal rights
　　[D] 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 .
　　[A] animals have some basic rights like people
　　[B] people should reassess their relationship to animals
　　[C] animals should not be taken to be properties to people
　　[D] the way morality is taught in the academic circle should be changed
　　28. What is the “invisible revolution” mentioned in the third paragraph?
　　[A] Academia begins to take animal rights movement seriously.
　　[B] Violence should sometimes be used to protect animal rights.
　　[C] An attempt has been made to stop animal husbandry altogether.
　　[D] The bill of rights for animal has been written into the law.
　　29. We learn from the passage that Regan .
　　[A] is a professor at the University of Melbourne
　　[B] consents to the employment of violence in animal protection
　　[C] is a vegetarian who is fairly familiar with Plato’s philosophy
　　[D] is the first man who is fully convinced that animals have rights
　　30. Regan obviously believes that the prospect of animal rights movement is .
　　[A] gloomy [B] bright
　　[C] uncertain [D] 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
　　[A] adventure through the Nevada desert.
　　[B] develop unpiloted vehicles for military use.
　　[C] win a $1 m jackpot.
　　[D] keep American troops unharmed.
　　更多考研英语模拟测试题及答案，请点击：2014考研英语模拟测试题及答案汇总
　　

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　　[G] 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:

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　　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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　　更多考研英语模拟测试题及答案，请点击：2014考研英语模拟测试题及答案汇总