1、考博英语-316 及答案解析(总分：80.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Listening (总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section Reading Co(总题数：5，分数：20.00)1 When, in the age of automation, man searches for a worker to do the tedious, un pleasant jobs that are impossible to mechanize, he may very profitably consider the ape.If we tackled the proble
2、m of breeding for brains with as much as enthusiasm as we de vote to breeding dogs of surrealistic shapes, we could eventually produce assorted models of useful primates, ranging in size from the gorilla down to the baboon, each adapted to a special kind of work. It is not putting too much strain on
3、 the imagination to assume that ge neticists could produce a super-ape, able to understand some scores of words, and capable of being trained for such jobs as picking fruit, cleaning up the litter in parks, shining shoes, collecting garbage, doing household chores, and even baby-sitting though I hav
4、e known some babies I would not care to trust with a valuable ape).Apes could do many jobs, such as cleaning streets and the more repetitive types of ag ricultural work, without supervision, though they might need protection from those ex ceptional specimens of Homo sapiens who think it amusing to t
5、ease or bully anything they consider lower on the evolutionary ladder. For other tasks, such as delivering papers and laboring on the docks, our man-ape would have to work under human overseers; and, in cidentally, I would love to see the finale of the twenty-first century version of the Water front
6、 in which the honest but hairy hero will drum on his chest after-literally taking the wicked labor leader apart.Once a supply of nonhuman workers becomes available, a whole range of low IQ jobs could be thankfully relinquished by mankind, to its great mental and physical advan tage. What is more, on
7、e of the problems which has plagued so many fictional Utopias would be avoided. There would be none of the deridingly subhuman Epsilons of Huxleys Brave New World to act as a permanent reproach to society, for there is a profound moral difference between breeding sub-men and super-apes, though the e
8、nd products are much the same. The first would introduce a form of slavery, the second would be a biological tri umph which could benefit both men and animals.（分数：4.00）(1).In the authors opinion, the idea that geneticists could produce a super-ape is_.（分数：1.00）A.irrationalB.plausibleC.biologically i
9、mpossibleD.demonstrably true(2).The type of job an ape could do without supervision would be one which is_.（分数：1.00）A.repetitiveB.mechanizedC.unusualD.intricate(3).A problem that has plagued some fictional Utopias is_.（分数：1.00）A.creation of super-apesB.the necessity of breeding super-humansC.the nec
10、essity of breeding subhumanD.the degradation of beasts(4).The author of this article is_.（分数：1.00）A.revealing his low opinion of mankindB.poking fun at geneticistsC.expressing his doubts about the possibility of breeding a super-apeD.presenting a reasonable theory in a humorous tone2As one works wit
11、h color in a practical or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile changeable thing depending to a large extent on the relationship of the color to other colors seen simultaneously. It is not fixed in its relation to the direct stimulus which cr
12、eates it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give rise to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumi nation colors, usually (but not always) looking much the same in artificial light as in day light. Both of these effects seem to be due in iarge part to the me
13、chanism of color adapta tion mentioned earlier.When the eye is fixed on a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the sensitivity of the eye to color in and around the area viewed. This readjustment does not im mediately affect the color seen but usually does affect the next area to whic
14、h the gaze is shifted. The longer the time of viewing, the higher the intensity, and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be in terms of its persistence in the succeeding viewing situa tion. As indicated by the work of Wright and Shouted, it appears that, at least for a first approximati
15、on, full adaptation takes place over a very brief time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in relative darkness just previously. As the stimulus is allowed to act, however, the effect becomes more persistent in the sense that it takes the eye longer to regain its sensiti
16、vity to lower intensities. The net result is that, if the eye is so exposed and then the gaze is transferred to an area of lower intensity, the loss of sen sitivity produced by the first area will still be present and appear as an “afterimage“ super imposed on the second. The effect not only is pres
17、ent over the actual area causing the “lo cal adaptation“ but also spreads with decreasing strength to adjoining areas of the eye to produce “lateral adaptation. “ Also, because of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another, all of which are at similar brigh
18、tness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become uniform over the whole eye.（分数：4.00）(1).This selection is primarily concerned with_.（分数：1.00）A.the eyes adaptation to colorB.the properties of colored surfacesC.the color of colorsD.the effect of changes in color intensity(2).Whether a
19、 colored object would, on two viewings separated in time, appear to the viewer as similar or different in color would depend mostly on_.（分数：1.00）A.the color mechanism of the eye in use at the time of each viewingB.whether the object was seen in artificial or natural lightC.what kind of viewing had i
20、mmediately preceded each of the viewingsD.the individuals power of lateral adaptation(3).If a persons eye has been looking at an object in bright sunlight for some time, and then shifts to an object not well lit, we can expect_.（分数：1.00）A.a time lag in the focusing ability of the eyeB.some inability
21、 to see colors of the latter-named objects until loss of sensitivity has been regainedC.the immediate loss of the “afterimage“ of the first objectD.the adaptation in the central area of the eye but little adaptation in the lateral areas to the new intensity level(4).The present selection has apparen
22、tly been preceded by some explanation of_.（分数：1.00）A.some experiments with color pigmentsB.the nature of colorC.the color properties of various surfacesD.the mechanism of the eyes adaptation to color3 The Greeks lofty attitude toward scientific researchand the scientists contempt of utilitywas a lon
23、g time dying. For a millennium after Archimedes, this separation of me chanics from geometry inhibited fundamental technological progress and in some areas re pressed it altogether. But there was a still greater obstacle to change until the very end of the middle ages: the organization of society. T
24、he social system of fixed class relationships that prevailed through the Middle Ages (and in some areas much longer) itself hampered improvement. Under this system, the laboring masses, in exchange for the bare necessi ties of life, did all the productive work, while the privileged fewpriests, noble
25、s, and kings concerned themselves only with ownership and maintenance of their own posi tion. In the interest of their privileges they did achieve considerable progress in defense, in warmaking, in government, in trade, in the arts of leisure, and in the extraction of labor from their dependents, bu
26、t they had no familiarity with the process of production. On the other hand, the laborers, who were familiar with manufacturing techniques, had no in centive to improve or increase production to the advantage of their masters. Thus, with one class possessing the requisite knowledge and experience, b
27、ut lacking incentive and leis ure, and the other class lacking the knowledge and experience, there was no means by which technical progress could be achieved.The whole ancient world was built upon this relationshipa relationship as sterile as it was inhuman. The availability of slaves nullified the
28、need for more efficient machinery. In many of the commonplace fields of human endeavor, actual stagnation prevailed for thou sands of years. Not all the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome could de velop the windmill or contrive so simple an instrument as the wheelbarrowproducts of
29、the tenth and thirteenth centuries respectively.For about twenty-five centuries, two-thirds of the power of the horse was lost because he wasnt shod, and much of the strength of the ox was wasted because his harness wasnt modified to fit his shoulders. For more than five thousand years, sailors were
30、 confined to rivers and coasts by a primitive steering mechanism which required remarkably little altera tion (in the thirteenth century) to become a rudder.With any ingenuity at all, the ancient plough could have been put on wheels and the ploughshare shaped to bite and turn the sod instead of mere
31、ly scratching itbut the inge nuity wasnt forthcoming. And the villager of the Middle Ages, like the men who first had fire, had a smoke hole in the center of the straw and reed thatched roof of his one-room dwelling (which he shared with his animals), while the medieval charcoal burner (like his Sto
32、ne Age ancestor) made himself a hut of small branches.（分数：4.00）(1).Lack of technological progress in the ancient and medieval worlds was primarily due to the absence of_.（分数：1.00）A.natural resourcesB.inventive abilityC.peoples desire for the “better things of life“D.proper social organization(2).Dur
33、ing the Middle Ages, productivity of labor_.（分数：1.00）A.was a primary concern of societyB.was hampered by class relationshipsC.began to improve over levels reached by the GreeksD.was in a period of technical progress(3).We may infer that a change in class reiationships after the close of the Middle A
34、ges produced greater productivity because_.（分数：1.00）A.freemen had incentive to produce moreB.masters had greater incentive to work their workers harderC.slaves never starved, no matter what they producedD.productivity could go in only one direction(4).In supporting his contentions about the ancient
35、world, the author relies mainly on illustrations drawn from_.（分数：1.00）A.examples of the separation of mechanics and geometryB.case studies of lack of social communication between classesC.technologyD.his concern with the plight of the laboring classes4The evolution of sex ratios has produced, in mos
36、t plants and animals with separate sexes, approximately equal numbers of males and females. Why should this be so? Two main kinds of answers have been offered. One is couched in terms of advantage to popula tion. It is argued that the sex ratio will evolve so as to maximize the number of meetings be
37、 tween individuals of the opposite sex. This is essentially a “group selection“ argu- ment. The other, and in my view correct, type of answer was first put forward by Fisher in 1930. This “genetic“ argument starts from the assumption that genes can influence the relative numbers of male and female o
38、ffspring produced by an individual carrying the genes. That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an indi vidual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted. Suppose that the popula tion consisted mostly of females, then an individual who produced sons onl
39、y would have more grandchildren. In contrast, if the population consisted mostly of males, it would pay to have daughters. If, however, the population consisted of equal numbers of males and females, sons and daughters would be equally valuable. Thus a one-to-one sex ratio is the only stable ratio;
40、it is an “evolutionarily stable strategy. “ Although Fisher wrote before the mathematical theory of games had been developed, his theory incorporates the essen tial feature of a game that the best strategy to adopt depends on what others are doing.Since Fishers time, it has been realized that genes
41、can sometimes influence the chro mosome or gamete in which they find themselves so that the gamete will be more likely to participate in fertilization. If such a gene occurs on a sex-determining (X or Y) chromo some, then highly aberrant sex ratios can occur. But more immediately relevant to game th
42、eory are the sex ratios in certain parasitic wasp species that have a large excess of fe males. In these species, fertilized eggs develop into females and unfertilized eggs into males. A female stores sperm and can determine the sex of each egg she lays by fertilizing it or leaving it unfertilized.
43、By Fishers argument, it should still pay a female to produce equal numbers of sons and daughters. Hamilton, noting that the eggs develop within their host-the larva of another insect-and that the newly emerged adult wasps mate immedi ately and disperse, offered a remarkably cogent analysis. Since on
44、ly one female usually eggs in a given larva, it would pay her to produce one male only, because this one could fertilize all his sisters on emergence. Like Fisher, Hamilton looked for an evolutionarily stable strategy, but he went a step further in recognizing that he was looking for a strate gy.（分数
45、：4.00）(1).The author suggests that the work of Fisher and Hamilton was similar in that both scientists_.（分数：1.00）A.conducted their research at approximately the same timeB.sought to manipulate the sex ratios of some of the animals they studiedC.sought an explanation of why certain sex ratios exist a
46、nd remain stableD.studied reproduction in the same animal species(2).It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers Fishers work to be_.（分数：1.00）A.definitive and thoroughB.inaccurate but popular, compared with Hamiltons workC.accurate, but trivial compared with Hamiltons workD.admirab
47、le, but not as up-to-date as Hamiltons work(3).According to the passage, successful game strategy depends on_.（分数：1.00）A.the ability to adjust ones behavior in light of the behavior of othersB.the degree of stability one can create in ones immediate environmentC.the accuracy with which one can predi
48、ct future eventsD.the success one achieves in conserving and storing ones resources(4).It can be inferred from the passage that the mathematical theory of games has been_.（分数：1.00）A.developed by scientists with an interest in geneticsB.useful in explaining some biological phenomenaC.adopted by Hamil
49、ton in his researchD.based on animal studies conducted prior to 19305Surprisingly enough, modern historians have rarely interested themselves in the history of the American South in the period before the South began to become self-con sciously and distinctively “Southern“ the decades after 1815. Consequently, the cuhural history of Britains North American empire in the seventeenth and eighteech centuries has been written almost as if the Southern colonies had never existed. The A
