1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 100及答案解析(总分：70.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：7，分数：70.00)1.Section II Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_2.Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.（分数：10.00）_With Japan“s welfare system buckling under the deman
2、ds of an ageing society, the world“s oldest man apologized yesterday for his longevity. As Tomoji Tanabe, 111, received his certificate from Guinness World Records, the former engineer, who never touches alcohol, said that his feat of survival was nothing special. “I have been around too long,“ he j
3、oked, “I amsorry.“ Mr. Tanabe added his customary explanation of how he has managed to reach such a ripe old age: “Not drinking alcohol is the best formula for keeping myself healthy,“ he said. Other residents of his village attributed Mr. Tanabe“s long life to a diet that consists chiefly of vegeta
4、bles and very little fried food. His explanation fuels a continuing mystery about the ideal formula for longevityas each new holder of the title is crowned, each attributes his or her success to diets, lifestyles and habits that differ widely. Some have said that fresh air is the key, others have be
5、en heavy smokers. Some have taken vigorous exercise, others have sworn by periods of inactivity. The Mayor of Miyakonojo, the village where Mr. Tanabe lives with his family, presented the certificate to its famous resident after nearly five months of birthdate verification by the Guinness World Reco
6、rds team. Mr. Tanabe unofficially inherited the title when its previous record-holder, Emiliano Mer-cado del Toro, of Puerto Rico, died in January, aged 115.The crowning of Mr. Tanabe, who was born in the southern island of Kyushi in 1895, brings the desired “double trophy“ back to Japan. Yone Minag
7、awa, who lives in the same area, is 114 and holds the title of world“s oldest woman. Japan“s population of the centenarians is the largest in the world. Most of the 28,000 Japanese who have made it beyond 100 are women and the highest concentration of the very elderly is in the southern part. The ar
8、ea around Hiroshima and the island of Okinawa are especially rich in former “world“s oldest“ title holders. The number of centenarians has risen 160-fold since records began in the 1960s. Although Japan is proud of its record-breaking longevity, the success of Mr. Tanabe comes as the country is runn
9、ing short of ideas for how to solve its ageing crisis. With the fertility rate still at record lows, government and private sector efforts to stimulate the birthrate have met with little success. As the number of children decreases, the future welfare burden for working-age Japanese may become intol
10、erably large.（分数：10.00）(1).The word “buckling“ (Para, 1) most probably means _.（分数：2.00）A.shrinkingB.collapsingC.expandingD.diminishing(2).According to Mr. Tanabe, what contributes to his longevity?（分数：2.00）A.A specially designed diet.B.The fresh air in southern Japan.C.An alcohol-free diet.D.A myst
11、erious reason.(3).The statement “bring the desired “double trophy“ back to Japan“ (Para. 4) most probably implies that_.（分数：2.00）A.the world“s oldest woman is also JapaneseB.Mr. Tanabe is happy to have been crowned the world“s oldest manC.Japan feels proud to have the largest number of the centenari
12、ansD.once the world“s oldest man and woman were Japanese(4).It is suggested in the last paragraph that _.（分数：2.00）A.women live a longer life than men in JapanB.the ageing problem is quite alarming in JapanC.low birthrate has increased Japan“s welfare burdenD.measures to stimulate birthrate in Japan
13、are successful(5).Which of the following would be the best title for the text?（分数：2.00）A.Longevity and Welfare SystemB.The World“s Oldest ManC.Japan: An Ageing SocietyD.Physical Success, Welfare BurdenHow soon your performance will be rated may influence how well you do, according to a new study pub
14、lished in the journal Psychological Science. In the study, researchers Keri L. Kettle and Gerald Haubl from the University of Alberta set out to determine whether the timing of feedback influences performance. Because earlier feedback means a more proximate possibility of disappointment,the research
15、ers hypothesized that students told they would be learning their grade sooner would be more likely to perform well, compared with those who wouldn“t find out their grade until later. Of 501 students taking a particular course, 271 agreed to participate in the study. All students were assigned a four
16、 minute oral presentation, which they had to deliver in front of about 10 classmates. Their performance was ranked on a scale of 1-10 by classmates, and the average of those scores made up their grade for the assignment. Prior to giving their oral presentation, study participants were asked to predi
17、ct how well they would do, and were also told how soon they would learn their grade. The researchers found that study participants who“d been told they would be given their scores earlier performed far better than those told they“d receive their scores later. What“s more, despite the fact that, on a
18、verage, students who anticipated finding out how they“d done earlier significantly outperformed classmates who were given their scores later, they were more likely to predict low marks for themselves. In contrast, those who were told they wouldn“t learn their scores until later were more likely to p
19、redict very high markswhich they seldom actually went on to earn. As a control, the researchers also assessed the scores of the 230 students who had declined to participate in the study. While students with the earliest feedback scored in the 60th percentile on average, and those with the latest fee
20、dback scored in the 40th percentile on average, those not included in the study (and whose feedback time hadn“t been manipulated) consistently scored in the 50th percentile. The findings suggest that “mere anticipation of more rapid feedback improves performance,“ the authors conclude, and that, int
21、erestingly, proximity of feedback influences predicted performance and actual performance differently. As the authors sum up: “People do best precisely when their predictions about their own performance are least optimistic.“ The influence of feedback anticipation on performance has implications bey
22、ond the classroom as well, the researchers arguein the way that managers respond to employee work, for example, or maybe even how Mom and Dad size up how clean that room is. The findings, Kettle and Haubl conclude, “have important practical implications for all individuals who are responsible for me
23、ntoring and for evaluating the performance of others.“（分数：10.00）(1).According to Paragraph 1, researchers put forward such a hypothesis because _.（分数：2.00）A.feedback and performance are relatedB.the timing of feedback affects performanceC.feedback may cause disappointmentD.feedback evaluates one“s p
24、erformance(2).In paragraph 2, the author describes _（分数：2.00）A.the experiment designB.process of the experimentC.participants and their tasksD.evaluation of performance(3).Participants who are told they will be given their scores earlier_.（分数：2.00）A.underperform those who are told laterB.perform wor
25、se than they predictC.are least optimistic at making predictionD.seldom earn the marks they predict(4).The significance of the findings lies in that _.（分数：2.00）A.mere anticipation of more rapid feedback improves performanceB.they can also be applied to evaluation of performance in daily lifeC.feedba
26、ck influences predicted and actual performance differentlyD.they can be used to improve students“ performance in classroom(5).The text intends to tell us _.（分数：2.00）A.the impact of feedback timing and performanceB.the relations between feedback and performanceC.the findings about feedback timing and
27、 performanceD.the effects of feedback timing on performanceAnecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years dwelling abroad. No
28、w a pair of psychologists has proved that there is indeed a link. As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, WilliamMaddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American busines
29、s students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity. Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (T
30、he solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.) They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so. A follow-up study with 72 Americans and 36 f
31、oreigners explored their creative negotiating skills. Pairs of students were asked to play the role of a seller of a petrol station who then needed to get a job and a buyer who would need to hire staff to run the business. The two were likely to reach a deadlock because the buyer had been told he co
32、uld not afford what the seller was told was his minimum price. Nevertheless, where both negotiators had lived abroad 70% struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petrol station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was
33、 able to reach a deal. To check that they had not merely discovered that creative people are more likely to choose to live abroad, Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky identified and measured personality traits, such as openness to new experiences, that are known to predict creativity. They then used statistic
34、al controls to filter out such factors. Even after that had been done, the statistical relationship between living abroad and creativity remained, indicating that it is something from the experience of living in foreign parts that helps foster creativity. Merely travelling abroad, however, was not e
35、nough. You do have to live there. Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself, make you Hemingway.（分数：10.00）(1).In the opening paragraph, famous names are cited to show the relationship between_.（分数：2.00）A.psychology and artB.artistic creation and life experienceC.creativity and l
36、iving abroadD.writing and painting(2).It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that _.（分数：2.00）A.William Maddux and Adam Galinsky have carefully designed the testB.the experience of living abroad can give people a creative edgeC.American business students are less creative than those oversea studentsD.on
37、e“s creativity is associated with the length one has spent abroad(3).The word “deadlock“ (Para. 3) most probably means _.（分数：2.00）A.a failure to reach agreementB.an intractable dilemmaC.an unacceptable offerD.a bitter quarrel(4).Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky adopted statistical controls to _.（分数：2.00）A.
38、filter out the interference factors such as personality traitsB.identify the statistical relationship between personality and creativityC.analyze the interaction between personality and creativityD.measure the influence of openness to new experiences on creativity(5).In the last sentence of Paragrap
39、h 5, the author means that_.（分数：2.00）A.there exist sharp differences between traveling and living abroadB.merely traveling abroad lends no help in cultivating one“s creativityC.only real experience of living abroad can help foster creativityD.the travelling part of living abroad avails to nothing ab
40、out one“s creativityOne of the least appreciated but most remarkable developments of the past 60 years is the extraordinary growth of American agriculture. Farming now accounts for about one tenth of the gross domestic product yet employs less than 1 percent of all workers. It has accomplished this
41、feat through exceptionally high growth in productivity, which has kept prices of food low and therebycontributed to rising standards of living. Furthermore, the exportable surplus has kept the trade deficit from reaching unsupportable levels. Agriculture not only has one of the highest rates of prod
42、uctivity growth of all industries, but this growth appears to have accelerated during the past two decades. Over the period 1948 to 2004, total farm production went up by 166 percent. The land used for farming dropped by one quarter over the 56-year period, and investment in heavy farm equipment and
43、 other capital expenditures decreased by 12 percent. Several developments drove these changes, beginning with the replacement of the remaining horses by tractors immediately after World War II and with the expanding use of fertilizers and pesticides. Later came the adoption of hybrid seeds, genetic
44、engineering of plants and improved livestock breeding.A key element was the U.S. Department of Agriculture“s (USDA) extension service. Operating through land-grant universities and other organizations, it educated farmers on biotechnology, pest management and conservation. For many years, critics ha
45、ve claimed that modern agriculture is not sustainable, one of the major assertions being that it encourages erosion, which will eventually wash away most of the topsoil Lost topsoil, the argument goes, is virtually irreplaceable because it takes up to 300 years for one inch of soil to form. But a de
46、tailed study of two large areas, the Southern Piedmont and the Northern Mississippi Valley Loess Hills, showed that based on 1982 data, soil loss has dropped sharply from the very high rates of the 1930s. The study attributed the decrease in soil erosion to the USDA, which urged farmers after World
47、War to adopt conservation practices such as strip cropping, whereby alternating rows are planted, and leaving plant residues in the fields year-round to inhibit water runoff. Despite being a robust contributor to the U.S. economy, modem agriculture is not without a dark side. Runoff of fertilizers,
48、antibiotics and hormones degrade the environment and can upset the local ecology. If not grown properly, genetically modified crops could spread their DNA to conventional species.（分数：10.00）(1).The growth of American agriculture has been mainly stimulated by _.（分数：2.00）A.the productivity growthB.low
49、prices of foodC.rising standards of livingD.the exportable surplus(2).The U.S. Department of Agriculture played an important role in agricultural developments by _.（分数：2.00）A.adopting hybrid seeds and genetic engineering of plantsB.advocating the wide use of fertilizers and pesticidesC.improving the environmental conservation of landsD.providing farmers
