1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 138 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）_Birth, growth, decline, death: it is the usual cycl
2、e for people, companies and industries. But the story of violin-making in Cremona in northern Italy, which flourished under such master craftsmen as Andrea Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari from the mid-16th century to the early 18th, suggests that, for industries at least, there may b
3、e life after death. Violin-making in Cremona struggled through the 19th century in the hands of a few carpenters who turned out low-quality instruments. By the 1950s it had died out, says Gio Batta Morassi, a 73-year-old maestro liutaio (master violin-maker). Yet today, in workshops overlooking the
4、city“s cobbled streets, more than 100 craftsmen cut and plane maple and spruce to make string instrumentsmore than in any other European city. Cremona is once again the capital of hand-crafted instruments. A new school to train craftsmen in instrument-making opened in Cremona in 1938, though when Mr
5、. Morassi began his studies in 1950 there were just six students on the course, of whom only one other went on to make instruments. But this slight revival was sustained by a growing interest in Baroque music in northern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, says Hildegard Dodel, a German who studied at th
6、e school. It created new demand for instruments made in the traditional Cremonese style. Today Italians are a minority among the school“s 150 students; 30 are South Korean, 26 are Japanese, six are from China and three from Taiwan. Some will set up shop in the city: Ms Dodel worked for about ten yea
7、rs restoring and repairing instruments in Germany and the Netherlands before returning to open her own workshop in Cremona in 2003. Instrument-making is not an easy life. “I often thought of giving up,“ says Francesco Toto, who moved to Cremona 17 years ago and specializes in making cellos. Wood is
8、expensive, must be seasoned properly and is at risk from woodworm; the maple for a cello costs around 1,500, for example. Mr. Toto was able to raise his prices after winning a competition, but to maintain quality he makes just four instruments a year. Violin-makers can produce perhaps seven top-qual
9、ity instruments a year. (Cellos made by Cremona“s craftsmen typically cost 15,000-35,000, and violins 8,000-20,000.) Having come back from the dead, Cremona“s instrument-makers, like many others in Italian industries, hope that an emphasis on quality, tradition and craftsmanship will keep cheaper fo
10、reign rivals at bay.（分数：10.00）(1).The story of violin-making in Cremona implies the industry _.（分数：2.00）A.may undergo revival after a period of deathB.flourished because of the master craftsmenC.may follow the same life cycle as people and companiesD.may experience a longer life than other industrie
11、s(2).From Paragraph 2, we can learn that Cremona_.（分数：2.00）A.has more instrument workers than any other cityB.had many carpenters to make violins in the pastC.declined because of its carpenters“ poor handcraftsD.once was the capital of hand-crafted instruments(3).Hildegard Dodel believed that _.（分数：
12、2.00）A.the revival of instrument-making was slight and sustainableB.Baroque music stimulated the revival of the instrument-makingC.people in Europe were fond of traditional Cremonese styleD.Baroque music increased people“s interests in violins(4).Which of the following is true according to Paragraph
13、 4?（分数：2.00）A.Italians are less educated but more skilled even today.B.Many students in the training school come from Eastern countries.C.Italians are less interested in training courses traditionally.D.Traditional Cremonese style is not popular today.(5).Many Italian industries today _.（分数：2.00）A.h
14、ave come back from the deadB.are at risk because of the cheap foreign rivalsC.still focus on quality, tradition and craftsmanshipD.want to give up the difficult instrument-makingStarting this month, roughly one quarter of the world“s population will lose sleep and gain sunlight as they set their clo
15、cks ahead for daylight saving. People may think that with the time shift, they are conserving electricity otherwise spent on lighting. But recent studies have cast doubt on the energy argumentsome research has even found that it ultimately leads to greater power use. Benjamin Franklin is credited wi
16、th conceiving the idea of daylight saving in 1784 to conserve candles, but the U.S. did not institute it until World War I as a way to preserve resources for the war effort. The first comprehensive study of its effectiveness occurred during the oil crisis of the 1970s, when the U.S. Department of Tr
17、ansportation found that daylight saving trimmed national electricity usage by roughly 1 percent compared with standard time. Scant research had been done since, during which time U.S. electricity usage patterns have changed as air conditioning and household electronics have become more pervasive, ob
18、serves economist Matthew Kotchen of the University of California, Santa Barbara. But lately, changes to daylight saving policies on state and federal levels have presented investigators new chances to explore the before-and-after impacts of the clock shift. In 2006 Indiana instituted daylight saving
19、 statewide for the first time. Examining electricity usage and billing since the statewide change, Kotchen and his colleague Laura Grant unexpectedly found that daylight time led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity use, costing the state an extra $9 million. Although daylight time
20、 reduces demand for household lighting, the researchers suggest that it increased demand for cooling on summer evenings and heating in early spring and late fall mornings. Not all recent analyses suggest that daylight saving is counterproductive. Instead of studying the impact daylight saving change
21、s had on just one state, senior analyst Jeff Dowd and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy investigated what effect it might have on national energy consumption, looking at 67 electric utilities across the country. In their report to Congress, they conclude that the four-week extension of
22、 daylight time saved about 0.5 percent of the nation“s electricity per day, or 1.3 trillion watt-hours in total. That amount could power 100,000 households for a year. The study did not just look at residential electricity use but commercial use as well, Dowd says. The disparities between regional a
23、nd national results could reflect climate differences between states. “The effect we saw could be even worse in Florida, where air conditioning is used heavily,“ Kotchen suggests.（分数：10.00）(1).According to the first two paragraphs, daylight saving _.（分数：2.00）A.means to set the clock ahead worldwideB
24、.was proposed to save materials for war effortC.leads to sleeplessness of millions of peopleD.trimmed electricity usage during the oil crisis of the 1970s(2).The study of the effectiveness of daylight saving _.（分数：2.00）A.was started by the U.S. Department of TransportationB.was initiated by Benjamin
25、 Franklin in 1784 to save electricityC.was rarely done as the electricity usage patterns changedD.needs to be done to help the government change its policies(3).What effect did daylight saving have on the energy consumption of Indiana?（分数：2.00）A.It saved 1.3 trillion watt-hours in four weeks.B.It re
26、duced demand for household lighting only in spring.C.It resulted in an extra $9 million cost on electricity.D.It reduced demand for cooling and heating all year around.(4).Jeff Dowd would most probably agree that _.（分数：2.00）A.daylight saving has negative effects on energy savingB.the four-week exten
27、sion of daylight time saves much electricityC.focusing on the effect of daylight saving on one state is enoughD.a comprehensive study of daylight time nationwide is unnecessary(5).The text intends to tell us that _.（分数：2.00）A.daylight saving actually contributes to nationwide electricity conservatio
28、nB.as states differ in climate, different daylight saving policies are necessaryC.whether daylight saving can save energy or not still needs further studyD.study of effectiveness of daylight saving policies should be conducted regularlyIt may not be obvious, but hearing two languages regularly durin
29、g pregnancy puts infants on the road to bilingualism by birth. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, infants born to bilingual mothers exhibit different language preferences than infants bom to mothers speaking only one language.
30、Psychological scientists Krista Byers-Heinlein and Janet F. Werker from the University of British Columbia along with Tracey Burns of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in France wanted to investigate language preference and discrirnination in newborns. Two groups of newborns
31、 were tested in these experiments: English monolinguals (whose mothers spoke only English during pregnancy) and Tagalog-English bilinguals (whose mothers spoke both Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, and English regularly during pregnancy). The researchers employed a method known as “hig
32、h-amplitude sucking-preference procedure“ to study the infants“ language preferences.This method capitalizes on the newborns“ sucking reflexincreased sucking indicates interest in a stimulus. In the first experiment, infants heard 10 minutes of speech, with every minute alternating between English a
33、nd Tagalog. Results showed that English monolingual infants were more interested in English than Tagalogthey exhibited increased sucking behavior when they heard English than when they heard Tagalog being spoken. However, bilingual infants had an equal preference for both English and Tagalog. These
34、results suggest that prenatal bilingual exposure may affect infants“ language preferences, preparing bilingual infants to listen to and learn about both of their native languages. To learn two languages, bilingual newborns must also be able to keep their languages apart. To test if bilingual infants
35、 are able to discriminate between their two languages, infants listened to sentences being spoken in one of the languages until they lost interest. Then, they either heard sentences in the other language or heard sentences in the same language, but spoken by a different person. Infants exhibited inc
36、reased sucking when they heard the other language being spoken. Their sucking did not increase if they heard additional sentences in the same language. These results suggest that bilingual infants, along with monolingual infants, are able to discriminate between the two languages, providing a mechan
37、ism from the first moments of life that helps ensure bilingual infants do not confuse their two languages. The researchers observe that, “Monolingual newborns“ preference for their single native language directs listening attention to that language“ and that, “Bilingual newborns“ interest in both la
38、nguages helps ensure attention to, and hence further learning about, each of their languages.“ Discrimination of the two languages helps prevent confusion. The results of these studies demonstrate that the roots of bilingualism run deeper than previously imagined, extending even to the prenatal peri
39、od.（分数：10.00）(1).The purpose of the experiments in Paragraph 2 is to find out _.（分数：2.00）A.infants“ sucking reactions to language stimulusB.language likings and discerning ability of infantsC.children“s ability to alternate between two languagesD.infants“ sucking preference between different languag
40、es(2).In the “high-amplitude sucking-preference procedure“, stronger language preference is shown by_.（分数：2.00）A.more sucking behaviorsB.greater speech attentivenessC.more exposure to that languageD.longer sucking time(3).According to Paragraph 3, language learning of an infant _.（分数：2.00）A.begins b
41、efore it comes into the worldB.is decided by its mother“s language preferenceC.is influenced by its lingual environment before birthD.depends on its language preference before birth(4).Which of the following is true of bilingual newborns?（分数：2.00）A.They have a preference between the two languages.B.
42、They only notice a new language.C.They have more advantage than monolingual newborns.D.They can distinguish between the two languages.(5).Bilingual newborns“ interest in both languages is helpful because it enables them to _.（分数：2.00）A.focus on and better study both languagesB.keep the two languages
43、 apartC.obtain longer listening attentionD.find out the roots of bilingualismFew men who find themselves cast as heroes early in life continue to command universal esteem till the end. Sir Edmund Hillary was one. To be the first to reach the top of the world“s highest mountain ensured international
44、celebrity and a place in history, but the modesty of a slightly awkward New Zealand beekeeper never departed him. Nor was mountaineering, or indeed beekeeping, his only accomplishment. Two views are often expressed about his life. One is that conquering Everest was everything. No one would play down
45、 the role of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who reached the peak with him, possibly even before him; their partnership was like that of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. But it was Sir Edmund who first struggled his way up a crack in the 12-metre (40-foot) rockface that had to be overcome after the south
46、summit if the real one was to be achieved, and below which only oblivion awaited. News of the British-led expedition“s triumph on May 29th 1953 reached the world through a report in the London Times four days later. The Times, a sponsor of the expedition, had used an elaborate code to trick any riva
47、ls monitoring the radio waves. Its scoop was indeed a coup: June 2nd was the day of Queen Elizabeth“s coronation, at which her majesty was crowned. Sir Edmund was a man of action. After Everest came more expeditions in Nepal, a race to the South Pole and further adventures in the Antarctic, the Hima
48、layas and India But for some onlookers neither these nor even the Everest expedition was especially remarkable: fitness and physical courage are all very well, they argued, but the world“s highest peak was simply waiting to be scaled, and a steady traffic nowadays makes its way to the top unnoticed,
49、 except for the litter it leaves. Both the indifferent and the awe-struck, however, agree that Sir Edmund“s other life was wholly admirable, and he himself said he was prouder of it than of anything else. This was his tireless work for the Sherpas, of whom he had become so fond. Through his efforts, and those of Tenzing, hospitals, clinics, bridges, runways and
