1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 104 及答案解析(总分：60.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：6，分数：60.00)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）_Music is a mystery. It is unique to the human race:
2、 no other species produces elaborate sound for no particular reason. It has been, and remains, part of every known civilization on Earth. Lengths of bone fashioned into flutes were in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages people“s attention more comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show t
3、hat when people listen to music, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active. Yet it serves no obvious adaptive purpose. Charles Darwin, in “The Descent of Man“, noted that “neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in
4、reference to his ordinary habits of life.“ Then, what is the point of music. Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist, has called music “auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties.“ If it vanished from our species, he sai
5、d, “the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged.“ Others have argued that, on the contrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; its absence would have a brutalizing effect. Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid music enthusiast, comes down
6、 somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in our auditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a language instinct, and could not rid ourselves of it. He goes through each component of music to explain how and why it works, using plentiful examples draw
7、n from a refreshingly wide range of different kinds of music, from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz. His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know much more about music than they think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before,
8、 by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune or harmony is not quite right and most adults can differentiate between kinds of music even if they have had no training. Music is completely sui generis , ft should not tell a non-musical story; the listener will decode it for h
9、imself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush of emotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement or exhilaration, a feeling of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears, without being able to tell why. Musical analysts have t
10、ried hard to find out how this happens, but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.（分数：10.00）(1).It can be inferred from the first paragraph that（分数：2.00）A.except mankind species produce sounds with specific purposes.B.the earliest flutes were made of bones 40,000 years ago.C
11、.people“s attention is more attentively attracted by music.D.people“s brains go inactive in an environment with no music.(2).To which of the following statements would Steven Pmker most probably agree?（分数：2.00）A.Music serves no facility for the formation of people“s habits.B.Music and exquisite dess
12、ert share great similarities.C.The absence of music brings little effect to human life.D.Music helps to erase the brutal characteristics in human.(3).According to Philip Ball“s research, which of the following is true?（分数：2.00）A.Human beings are born to be professional musicians.B.There exist no sha
13、rp differences among various types of music.C.People usually learn music by means of hearing around.D.Mankind posses a natural music instinct and can“t wipe it off.(4).The saying “sui generis“(line 1, Para, 5)is closest in meaning to（分数：2.00）A.unique.B.touching.C.overwhelming.D.mysterious.(5).Which
14、of the following would be the best title of the text?（分数：2.00）A.Sounds WonderfulThe Science of MusicB.Mission ImpossibleThe Mystery of MusicC.Touching AlwaysThe Power of MusicD.Anti-BrutalizationThe Effect of MusicAs people in rich countries know very well, eating too much food and burning too lew c
15、alories is why a substantial number of us are overweight or obese. Now, however, a remarkable change in perspective has come from the discovery that obesity actually provides people with temporary protection from the harmful effects of fat The insight has come from re-examining the common assumption
16、 that fatness itself drives the development of metabolic syndrome, which is what causes so much of the actual damage. The syndrome comes with a mixture of life-threatening effects, with cardiovascular disease(diseases relating to the heart and blood vessels)and type 2 diabetes being among the most s
17、erious. In fact, it now seems that body fat may be a barrier that stops-millions of Americans and fatty citizens elsewhere from going on to develop the syndrome. And the real damage is caused by the inflammatory effect of high levels of fat in the bloodstream. And ironically, it“s fat cells that pro
18、tect us from this by serving as toxic dumps, locking away the real villains of the modern diet. The problem is that this protection only lasts so long, until there is simply no more room inside the fat cells. That“s when they start to break down, leading to a toxic spill into the bloodstream. This s
19、ets off an inflammatory response that causes various kinds of damage to body tissues. In this way, every excess calorie takes people closer to metabolic syndrome. So what can we do to stop a superabundance of fat triggering the syndrome? Of course there“s no substitute for a healthy diet and exercis
20、e, but incitation to this effect seem to be of limited use. As with cigarettes and alcohol, a tax on caloriespricing foods by their energy contentis increasingly seen as another “lever“ to change behaviour by making obesity too costly. The new research may even suggest treatments to combat metabolic
21、 syndrome, such as antiinflammatory drugs. One promising candidate is salsalate, an arthritis drug related to aspirin, and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston is now considering large-scale trials. What might be more helpful, though, is simply a wider recognition that fatty and sugary foods are mor
22、e directly toxic than we had assumed. Ideally, people should be as well informed about the harmful effects of what they eat as, for example, pregnant women are about drinking and smoking. There is a consolationyou have your fat tissue to protect you when you consume that extra burger or sweetened so
23、da. But now you know the perils of pushing your friendly fat cells beyond their natural limits.（分数：10.00）(1).It“s implied in the first paragraph that the reasons for obesity include overeating and（分数：2.00）A.lacking exercise.B.absorbing fats.C.keeping unhealthy diets.D.burning calories.(2).From Parag
24、raph 2 we know that the real villain of actual damages is（分数：2.00）A.fat cells.B.metabolic syndrome.C.cardiovascular disease.D.bloodstream fats.(3).The protective function of fat cells stop working once（分数：2.00）A.their capacity reaches a limit.B.toxin spills into the bloodstream.C.an inflammatory res
25、ponse appears.D.metabolic syndrome is developed.(4).The author indicates in the text that obesity can be restricted by（分数：2.00）A.putting fat“s protective function to full use.B.unifying people“s diet and exercise habits.C.raising the prices of cigarettes and alcohol.D.manipulating food prices by the
26、ir calorie content.(5).To combat metabolic syndrome, the author“s suggestion is to（分数：2.00）A.develop more anti-inflammatory drugs.B.ask people to keep away from fatty food.C.strengthen the awareness of the harms of fatty food.D.protect pregnant women from tobacco and wine.The technology revolution m
27、ay be coming to poor countries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich ones. And just as the Internet encouraged an entrepreneurial philosophy, and with it the creation of a few too many dotcom firms, Africa“s surge in mobile-phone use may unleash the same sort of business
28、 energy, but tailored to local needs. One such initiative is about to begin. TradeNet, a software company based in Accra, Ghana, will unveil a simple sort of eBay for agricultural products across a dozen countries in West Africa. It lets buyers and sellers indicate what they are after and their cont
29、act information, which is sent to all relevant subscribers as an SMS text message in one of four languages. Interested parties can then reach others directly to do a deal. Listing offers is free, as is receiving the texts. TradeNet plans to earn revenue by putting advertisements in the messages, tho
30、ugh it hopes the service will become so useful that recipients will eventually want to pay. For the moment, though, the company is busy signing up users and swallowing the cost of sending the messages. Mobile-phone use in sub-Saharan Africa is soaring. Whereas only 10% of the population had network
31、coverage in 1999, today more than 60% have it, a figure expected to exceed 85% in the coming year, according to the GSM Association, an industry trade group. This provides the infrastructure for businesses like TradeNet to function. TradeNet is the brainchild of Mark Davies, a British dotcom tycoon
32、who gave up the rat race and went to Africa in 2000. In 2005, he started the prototype for TradeNet using around $600,000 of his own money and about $200,000 from aid agencies. An early set of trials last year generated a surplus of trades, such as a sale of organic fertilizer between a person in Ye
33、men and another in Nigeria. A number of other mobile-phone market-places taking shape also started as aid projects. For example, Trade at Hand, a project funded by the UN“s International Trade Centre in Geneva, provides daily price information for fruit and vegetable exports in Burkina Faso and Mali
34、, with plans to add more countries. And Manobi, a telecoms firm based in Senegal, providing real-time agricultural and fish prices to fee-paying subscribers, is also backed by aid money. But TradeNet“s approach is unique so far because it collects valuable economic datanames, locations, business int
35、erests and telephone numbersand then sells them to advertisers. The price of economic development may be junk mail by mobile phone.（分数：10.00）(1).The word “unleash“(Line 4, Paragraph 1)is closest in meaning to（分数：2.00）A.generate.B.intensify.C.create.D.loosen.(2).Which of the following about TradeNet
36、is true?（分数：2.00）A.TradeNet is to agricultural products what eBay is to manufactured products.B.The ultimate goal of TradeNet is to let its users pay for the services.C.Users“ payment for TradeNet“s services forms TradeNet“s revenue.D.TradeNet is possible due to high network coverage and cell-phone
37、availability.(3).What do we learn about Mark Davies?（分数：2.00）A.His dotcom firm had dominated the British market.B.He was the person who benefited most from the African market.C.He had been tired of the fierce competition among British dotcom firms.D.He created and founded the firm TradeNet all by hi
38、mself.(4).What can we infer from the last paragraph of the text?（分数：2.00）A.With the UN“s support, Trade at Hand is bound to spread to the whole African continentB.Aid projects played an important role in fostering mobile-phone market-places in AfricaC.TradeNet is the most successful one of all the m
39、obile-phone market-places in Africa.D.The junk mail by mobile phone will ruin the economic development in Africa.(5).What is the author“s attitude towards mobile-phone market-places?（分数：2.00）A.Objective.B.Ambiguous.C.Optimistic.D.Skeptical.How soon your performance will be rated may influence how we
40、ll you do, according to a new study published 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 pos
41、sibility of disappointment, the researchers 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
42、study. All students were assigned a four 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,
43、 study participants were asked to predict 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. W
44、hat“s more, despite the fact that, on average, 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 s
45、cores until later were more likely to predict 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
46、 average, and those with the latest feedback 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,
47、“ the authors conclude, and that, interestingly, 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 anticipatio
48、n on performance has implications beyond 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 i
49、ndividuals who are responsible for mentoring 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 related.B.the timing of feedback affects performance.C.feedback may cause disappointment.D.feedback evaluates one“s performance.(2).In paragraph 2, the author describes（分数：2.00）A.the experime
