1、中国科学院硕士英语-9 及答案解析(总分：75.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Part Reading Compr(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Passage One(总题数：1，分数：6.00)Culture is transmitted largely by language and by the necessity for people in close contact to co-operate. The more extensive the communications network, the greater the exc
2、hange of ideas and beliefs and the more alike people become-in toleration of diversity if nothing else. Members of a culture or a nation are generally in closer contact with one another than with members of other cultures or nations. They become more like each other and more unlike others. In this w
3、ay, there develops “national character“, which is the statistical tendency for a group of people to share values and follow similar behavior patterns. Frequently, the members of one culture will interpret the “national characteristics“ of another group in terms of their own values. For example, the
4、inhabitants of a South Pacific island may be considered “lazy“ by citizens of some industrialized nations. On the other hand, it may be that the islanders place a great value on social relationships but little value on “productivity“, and crops grow with little attention. The negative connotation of
5、 the label “lazy“ is thus unjustified from the point of view of the island culture. Stereotypes, such as “lazy“, “inscrutable“, and “dishonest“ give people the security of labels with which to react to others in a superficial way, but they are damaging to real understanding among members of differen
6、t cultures. People react more to labels than to reality. A black American Peace Corps volunteer, for instance, is considered and called a white man by black Africans. The “we-they“ distinction applies to whatever characteristic the “wes“ have and the “theys“ do not have- and the characteristics attr
7、ibuted to the “theys“ are usually ones with a negative value. The distinction becomes most obvious in times of conflict. For this reason, it is often suggested the only thing that might join all men together on this planet would be an invasion from outer space. “We“, the earthlings, would then fight
8、 “them“, the outsiders. Given the great diversities- real and imagined- among people of the world, is there any foundation for hope that someday all men might join together to form a single and legitimate world government? The outcome will probably depend on the political evolution of mankind.（分数：6.
9、00）(1).What makes people more tolerant of diversity between different groups?（分数：1.00）A.Extensive communications.B.Language development.C.Close cooperation.D.Direct interactions.(2).“National character“ is built among people who_（分数：1.00）A.like each otherB.share their valuesC.speak the same language
10、D.think in the same way(3).To some industrialized nations, the mentioned South Pacific islanders are_（分数：1.00）A.well-organizedB.inefficientC.carefreeD.idle(4).With stereotypes, people tend to_（分数：1.00）A.react to each other on a regular basisB.describe other cultures with labelsC.take their own cultu
11、re as the best of allD.see different cultures in different ways(5).What is true about the black American Peace Corps volunteer?（分数：1.00）A.He was wronged by his fellow African Americans.B.He was considered against by the whites.C.He was discriminated against by the whites.D.He was excluded from the b
12、lack Africans.(6).It is possible to form a single and legitimate world government only when_（分数：1.00）A.people of different nations hold similar political viewsB.human beings as a whole have one common enemyC.people are willing to abandon their “national character“D.human beings are able to contact b
13、eings in outer space四、Passage Two(总题数：1，分数：6.00)In Second Nature, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Gerald Edelman argues that the brain and mind are unified, but he has little patience with the claim that the brain is a computer. Fortunately for the general reader, his explanations of brain functi
14、on are accessible, reinforced by concrete examples and metaphors. Edelman suggests that thanks to the recent development of instruments capable of measuring brain structure within millimeters and brain activity within milliseconds, perceptions, thoughts, memories, willed acts, and other mind matters
15、 traditionally considered private and impenetrable to scientific scrutiny now can be correlated with brain activity. The author describes three unifying insights that correlate mind matters with brain activity. First, even distant neurons will establish meaningful connections (circuits) if their pat
16、terns are synchronized. Second, experience can either strengthen or weaken synapses (neuronal connections). Finally, there is reentry, the continued signaling from one brain region to another and back again along massively parallel nerve fibers. Edelman concedes that neurological explanations for co
17、nsciousness and other aspects of mind are not currently available, but he is confident that they will be soon. Meanwhile, he is comfortably hazarding a guess: “All of our mental life, is based on the structure and dynamics of our brain,“ Despite this optimism about the explanatory powers of neurosci
18、ence, Edelman acknowledges the pitfalls in attempting to explain all aspects of the mind in neurological terms. Indeed, culture-not biology-is the primary determinant of the brain“s evolution, and has been since the emergence of language, he notes. However, I was surprised to learn that he considers
19、 Sigmund Freud “the key expositor of the effects of unconscious processes on behavior“. Such a comment ignores how slightly Freud“s conception of the unconscious, with its emphasis on sexuality and aggression, resembles the cognitive unconscious studied by neuroscientists. Still, Second Nature is we
20、ll worth reading. It serves as a bridge between the traditionally separate camps of “hard“ science and the humanities. Readers without at least some familiarity with brain science will likely find the going difficult at certain points. Nonetheless, Edelman has achieved his goal of producing a provoc
21、ative exploration of“how we come to know the world and ourselves“.（分数：6.00）(1).Gerald Edelman would probably support the idea that_（分数：1.00）A.the brain co-functions with the mindB.the brain works like a computerC.the brain has an accessible functionD.the brain sends signals to the mind(2).It was pre
22、viously considered that perceptions and other mind matters could hardly be_（分数：1.00）A.treated as a significant issueB.studied with scientific methodsC.separated from brain activityD.handled with surgical instruments(3).Edelman firmly believes that_（分数：1.00）A.mind matters will eventually be explained
23、 from a neurological perspectiveB.experience will have an ill effect on neuronal connectionsC.distant neurons will help synchronize their firing patternD.brain signals will repeatedly go from one brain region to another(4).According to Edelman, to provide a thorough explanation of the human mind, ne
24、uroscience will be_（分数：1.00）A.reliableB.responsibleC.impracticalD.insufficient(5).The author disagrees with the idea that the neuroscience-based cognitive unconscious can be_（分数：1.00）A.studied irrelevantly to sexual behaviorB.affected by the language acquisitionC.clearly explained by Freud“s theoryD
25、.examined under cultural backgrounds(6).According to the author, Second Nature is a good book because_（分数：1.00）A.it appeals to the reader to study bioscienceB.it sets reader probing into human cognitionC.it interests the reader in spiritual activitiesD.it presents the advancement of natural science五
26、、Passage Three(总题数：1，分数：6.00)If gender conflicts continue at their current rate, my partner gloomily observed, men may fade into extinction and women will manage fine without them. What with test-tube babies, cloning, a falling birth-rate, and have-it-all career women prevailing like never before, i
27、t seems as if old-fashioned, instinct-driven sexual selection was totally out of fashion. But a study from four British universities suggests it is alive and well, and busy shaping the next generation. In spite of emancipation, the feminist movement, gender equality, and consistent efforts to avoid
28、gender-stereotyping, men still prefer to marry women who are not too brainy. In the study a high IQ hampered a woman“s chance of getting married, with a 40 percent drop in marital prospects for every 16-point rise. The opposite was true for their male class-mates. Top-earning men were 8 per cent mor
29、e likely to be married than their low-earning peers. How interesting that we automatically assume that men are put off by cleverness in women. Perhaps the brainy women did not wan to get married. Possibly they could not find men clever enough to satisfy them. But these interpretations hardly merit m
30、ore than a passing thought because this study simply reinforces what we know to be broadly true: that most women do want a committed partner and that most stable marriages occur in a power relation, with the man being the center. We usually think of competitiveness as a male activity, and so it is m
31、ainly, which is all the more reason for it causing stress in a marriage. Our ancestry certainly included a long phase when the males competed for the alpha role, in which the top male took all the advantages and most of the group matings. Most men nurse secret dreams of being “benign“ dictators. No
32、man likes his wife to earn more than he does. We see how fragile are the marriages of those in which the female has the whip hand in the shape of fame, success, and wealth. In contrast, marriages where the female status is obviously inferior, including arranged marriages, there is a greater stabilit
33、y. Women have to accept that coming into our own and achieving the full potential of our (seemingly superior) capacity to use education will undoubtedly make us more inaccessible as partners. More choosy, and therefore less successful.（分数：6.00）(1).“Test-tube babies“ and other thing are mentioned in
34、Paragraph 1 to indicate_（分数：1.00）A.the development of medical technologyB.the radical change of our lifestyleC.the decreasing birth rate of human societyD.the independence of the female gender(2).Conventional sexual selection_（分数：1.00）A.gets out-of-dateB.seems prevalentC.becomes extinctD.remains act
35、ive(3).The statistics in Paragraph 2 illustrate that_（分数：1.00）A.women“s IQ and their marital probability are in direct proportionB.men“s IQ and their marital probability are in inverse proportionC.man prefer to marry women who are less intelligentD.women prefer to marry men who are very intelligent(
36、4).What might be the meaning of“whip hand“ in Paragraph 4?（分数：1.00）A.controlB.desireC.intelligenceD.commitment(5).How is marriage related to power, according to the study?（分数：1.00）A.Married men and women all seek power over each other.B.A powerful husband is the key to the successful marriage.C.A st
37、able marriage depends on the powerfulness of the wife.D.Rich men tend to hold absolute power over their wives.(6).What might be the title of this passage?（分数：1.00）A.Why Brainy Women Stay Single?B.Single Women“s Self-reliance.C.Road to a Successful Marriage.D.Stereotypes About Marriage.六、Passage Four
38、(总题数：1，分数：6.00)Our trouble lies in a simple confusion, one to which economists have been prone since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Growth and ecology operate by different rules. Economists tend to assume that every problem of scarcity can be solved by substitution, by replacing tuna wi
39、th tilapia, without factoring in the long-term environmental implications of either. But whereas economies might expand, ecosystems do not. They change-pine gives way to oak, coyotes arrive in New England-and they reproduce themselves, but they do not increase in extent or abundance year after year.
40、 Most economists think of scarcity as a labor problem. Imagining that only energy and technology place limits on production. To harvest more wood, build a better chain saw; to pump more oil, drill more wells; to get more food, invent pest-resistant plants. That logic thrived on new frontiers and mor
41、e intensive production, and it held off the prophets of scarcity- from Thomas Robert Malthus to Paul Ehrlich- whose predictions of famine and shortage have not come to pass. The Agricultural Revolution that began in seventeenth-centur) England radically increased the amount of food that could be gro
42、wn on an acre of land, and the same happened in the 1960s and 1970s when fertilizer and hybridized seeds arrived in India and Mexico. But the picture looks entirely different when we change the scale. Industrial society is roughly 250 years old: make the last ten thousand years equal to twenty-four
43、hours, and we have been producing consumer goods and CO 2 for only the last thirty-six minutes. Do the same for the past 1 million years of human evolution, and every thing from the steam engine to the search engine fits into the past twenty-one seconds. If we are not careful, hunting and gathering
44、will look like a far more successful strategy of survival than economic growth. The latter has changed sc much about the earth and human societies in so little time that it makes more sense to be cautious than triumphant. Although food scarcity, when it occurs, is a localized problem, other kinds of
45、 scarcity are already here. Groundwater is alarmingly low in regions all over the world, but the most immediate threat to growth is surely petroleum.（分数：6.00）(1).Economists are prone to_（分数：1.00）A.emphasize the differences between economic growth and scarcityB.ignore the human creative and productiv
46、e powerC.see ecology from an economic perspectiveD.use different approaches to economy and ecology(2).What does the author think of ecosystems?（分数：1.00）A.They may deteriorate.B.They may benefit from economy.C.They are associated with productivity.D.They are closely related to technology.(3).What doe
47、s the passage say about the predictions made by Thomas Robert Malthus and Paul Ehrlich?（分数：1.00）A.They proved to be useful.B.They have not come true.C.They proved to be accurate.D.They have not drawn enough attention.(4).What happened in the 1960s and 1970s?（分数：1.00）A.Food production increased in In
48、dia.B.Fertilizer began to be used in England.C.Hybridized plants were grown in the US.D.Land expansion occurred in Mexico.(5).The purpose of mentioning the search engine is to show_（分数：1.00）A.the economic impact of information technologyB.the high speed of modem machinesC.popular interest in the Int
49、ernetD.technological progress(6).The last sentence of the second paragraph implies that_（分数：1.00）A.economic growth has reduced the biodiversity worldwideB.economic growth has changed the ecosystem rapidlyC.people should be proud of their position in natureD.people and nature should coexist in harmony七、Passage Five(总题数：1，分数：6.00)The European Union revealed on January 23rd how it plans to save the world. A mammoth climate-change plan spells out in detail how much pain each of its 27 members will have to beat
