1、考研英语模拟试卷 246及答案与解析 一、 Section I Use of English Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D. (10 points) 1 The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is becoming mature. A man reaches the mature (1)_ of his reasoning
2、powers and mental faculties (2)_ before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen. And then, too, in the case of woman, it is the only reason of a sort very mean in its (3)_. That is why women remain children their whole life long; never seeing (4)_ but what is quite close to them, (5)_ fast to t
3、he present moment, taking appearance for (6)_, and preferring (7)_ to matters of the first importance. For it is (8)_ his reasoning faculty that man does not live in the present only, (9)_ the brute, but looks about him and considers the past anti the future; and this is the origin of (10)_, as well
4、 as that of care and anxiety which so many people (11)_. Both the advantages and the disadvantages, which this (12)_, are (13)_ in by the woman to a smaller extent because of her weaker power of reasoning. She may, in fact, be described as intellectually shortsighted, (14)_, while she has an immedia
5、te understanding of what lies quite close to her, her field of (15)_ is narrow and does not reach to what is (16)_; so that things which are absent, or past, or to come, have much less effect upon women than upon men. This is the reason why women are inclined to be (17)_ and sometimes carry their de
6、sire to a (18)_ that borders upon madness. In their hearts, women think it is mens business to earn money and theirs to spend it if possible during their husbands life, (19)_, at any rate, after his death. The very fact that their husband hands them (20)_ his earnings for purposes of housekeeping st
7、rengthens them in this belief. （ A） burden （ B） drive （ C） stage （ D） move （ A） barely （ B） scarcely （ C） rarely （ D） hardly （ A） dimensions （ B） perspectives （ C） indices （ D） diameters （ A） something （ B） anything （ C） everything （ D） nothing （ A） fastening （ B） sticking （ C） taking （ D） seeing （
8、A） fancy （ B） practice （ C） reality （ D） illusion （ A） fragments （ B） trifles （ C） remains （ D） substances （ A） at the mercy of （ B） with regard to （ C） in the interests of （ D） by virtue of （ A） above （ B） like （ C） beside （ D） including （ A） jealousy （ B） generosity （ C） identity （ D） prudence （ A
9、） advocate （ B） demonstrate （ C） exhibit （ D） reveal （ A） concerns （ B） relates （ C） involves （ D） retains （ A） shared （ B） joined （ C） bound （ D） hurried （ A） before （ B） because （ C） unless （ D） until （ A） sigh （ B） vision （ C） reach （ D） glance （ A） obscure （ B） invisible （ C） remote （ D） primiti
10、ve （ A） extravagant （ B） extreme （ C） credible （ D） wretched （ A） end （ B） limit （ C） span （ D） length （ A） but （ B） for （ C） though （ D） while （ A） down （ B） over （ C） in （ D） up Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 poi
11、nts) 21 On a weekday night this January, thousands of flag-waving youths packed Olaya Street, Riyadhs main shopping strip, to cheer a memorable Saudi victory in the GCC Cup football final. One car, rock music blaring from its stereo, squealed to a stop, blocking an intersection. The passengers leapt
12、 out, clambered on to the roof and danced wildly in front of the honking crowd. Having paralyzed the traffic across half the city, they sped off before the police could catch them. Such public occasion was once unthinkable in the rigid conformist kingdom, but now young people there and in other Gulf
13、 states are increasingly willing to challenge authority. That does not make them rebels: respect for elders, for religious duty and for maintaining family bonds remain pre-eminent values, and premarital sex is generally out of the question. Yet demography is beginning to put pressure on ultra-conser
14、vative norms. After all, 60% of the Gulfs native population is under the age of 25. With many more of its citizens in school than in the workforce, the region faces at least a generation of rocketing demand for employment. In every single GCC country the native workforce will double by 2020. In Saud
15、i Arabia it will grow from 3.3m now to over 8m. The task of managing this surge would be daunting enough for any society, but is particularly forbidding in this region, for several reasons. The first is that the Gulf suffers from a lopsided labor structure. This goes back to the 1970s, when ballooni
16、ng oil incomes allowed governments to import millions of foreign workers and to dispense cozy jobs to the locals. The result is a two-tier workforce, with outsiders working mostly in the private sector and natives monopolizing the state bureaucracy. Private firms are as productive as any. But within
17、 the government, claims one study, workers are worth only a quarter of what they get paid. Similarly, in the education sector, 30 years spent keeping pace with soaring student numbers has taken a heavy toll on standards. The Saudi school system, for instance, today has to cope with 5m students, eigh
18、t times more than in 1970. And many Gulf countries adapted their curricula from Egyptian models that are now thoroughly discredited. They continue to favor rote learning of “facts“ intended to instill patriotism or religious values. Even worse, the system as a whole discourages intellectual curiosit
19、y. It channels students into acquiring prestige degrees rather than gaining marketable skills. Of the 120,000 graduates that Saudi universities produced between 1995 and 1999, only 10,000 had studied technical subjects such as architecture or engineering. They accounted for only 2% of the total numb
20、er of Saudis entering the job market. 21 The wild behavior of young people depicted in the first paragraph is intended to （ A） to spotlight their social problems. （ B） to introduce the change of Saudi youths. （ C） to criticize their conformist image. （ D） to appreciate rebels against social values.
21、22 The basic problem of people pressure facing the Saudi authority lies in （ A） expanding workforce. （ B） exploding population. （ C） practical intelligence. （ D） intellectual curiosity. 23 The word “lopsided“ (Paragraph 4) most probably means （ A） Detrimental. （ B） Unappealing. （ C） Harmonious. （ D）
22、 Unbalanced. 24 According to the author, the Saudi education system is characterized by its excessive emphasis on （ A） technical creativity. （ B） intellectual cognition. （ C） conservative values. （ D） nonconformist images. 25 What is the section following this text most likely to deal with? （ A） The
23、 lower proportion of local youths in the workforce. （ B） More restrictions placed on the private firms in Saudi. （ C） Another reason for the difficulty in managing people pressure. （ D） The commitment to motivating youth participation in the task. 26 Can this be the right time to invest in luxury go
24、ods? Miuccia Prada was obviously biting her nails. The granddaughter of the founder of the Italian fashion group has just opened spectacular new stores in quick succession in New York and London. With its magic mirrors, silver displays and computer-controlled changing rooms, Pradas two-month-old sho
25、p in Manhattan cost a staggering $40m, sits just a mile from Ground Zero, and sells practically nothing. The luxury-goods business has been in despair in hasty succession against a background of a weakening global economy, an enduring slump in Japanese spending, and the September 11th terrorist atta
26、cks. The Japanese, who used to buy a third of the worlds luxury goods, cut their foreign travel in half after the attacks and tightened their Louis Vuitton purse-strings. At the same time, wealthy Americans stopped flying, which has a dramatic effect on the luxury-goods purveyors of London, Paris an
27、d Rome. At home too, Americans attitudes to luxury changed, at least temporarily. “Conspicuous abstention“ replaced greedy consumerism among the fast-growing, younger breed of newly rich. The decline in job security, the lower bonuses in financial services, and the stock market bust that wiped out m
28、uch of the paper wealth generated in the late 1990s, bred a new frugality. Sales of expensive jewelry, watches and handbagsthe products that make the juiciest profits for the big luxury-goods groups dropped sharply. The impact has been most striking among the handful of large, quoted luxury-goods co
29、mpanies. Frances Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the industry leader, issued four profits warnings after September 11th and ended up reporting a 20% decline in operating profit for 2001, after having repeatedly promised its investors double-digit growth; and Italys Gucci Group, the third largest
30、, announced this week that second-half profits dropped by 33%. Meanwhile, privately held Prada had to postpone its stock market flotation and was forced to sell a recently acquired stake in Fendi, a prestigious Italian bag maker, in order to reduce its debts. Luxury is an unusual business. A luxury
31、brand cannot be extended indefinitely: if it becomes too common, it is devalued, as Pierre Cardin and Ralph Lauren proved by sticking their labels on everything from T-shirts to paint. Equally, a brand name can be undermined if it is not advertised consistently, or if it is displayed and sold poorly
32、. Sagra Maceira de Rosen, a luxury-goods analyst at J.P. Morgan, argues that, “Luxury companies are primarily retailers. In retailing, the most important thing is execution, and execution is all about management. You may have the best designed product, but if you dont get it into the right kind of s
33、hop at the right time, you will fail“. 26 By “Miuccia Prada was obviously biting her nails“ (Paragraph 1), the author means （ A） Prada is in a desperate situation. （ B） Prada had her shop well-furnished. （ C） Prada is always in her bad habit. （ D） Prada spent much on her new shop. 27 Which of the fo
34、llowing can best describe the consumption of luxury goods in the present situation? （ A） Outrage. （ B） Lavishness. （ C） Restraint. （ D） Indulgence. 28 It can inferred from the text that （ A） Excessive advertisement resulted in the failure of Pradas investment. （ B） Luxury companies must give thought
35、 to the impact of terrorist attacks. （ C） Execution is nothing but an auxiliary part of business management. （ D） Outsiders always hold some misconceptions of luxury-goods business. 29 When mentioning “double-digit growth“ (Paragraph 4), the author is talking about （ A） estimated assets of new store
36、s. （ B） operating profits in luxury business. （ C） paper wealth in stock market. （ D） funding raised from new acquisitions. 30 To which of the following is the author likely to agree? （ A） Opening new stores, on the horizon. （ B） More ventures bring more rewards. （ C） Tight the belt, the single reme
37、dy. （ D） Not every business yields benefits. 31 At some point during their education, biology students are told about a conversation in a pub that took place over 50 years ago. J.B.S. Haldane, a British geneticist, was asked whether he would lay down his life for his country. After doing a quick cal
38、culation on the back of a napkin, he said he would do so for two brothers or eight cousins. In other words, he would die to protect the equivalent of his genetic contribution to the next generation. The theory of kin selection the idea that animals can pass on their genes by helping their close rela
39、tives is biologys explanation for seemingly altruistic acts. An individual carrying genes that promote altruism might be expected to die younger than one with “selfish“ genes, and thus to have a reduced contribution to the next generations genetic pool. But if the same individual acts altruistically
40、 to protect its relatives, genes for altruistic behavior might nevertheless propagate. Acts of apparent altruism to non-relatives can also be explained away, in what has become a cottage industry within biology. An animal might care for the offspring of another that it is unrelated to because it hop
41、es to obtain the same benefits for itself later on (a phenomenon known as reciprocal altruism). The hunter who generously shares his spoils with others may be doing so in order to signal his superior status to females, and ultimately boost his breeding success. These apparently selfless acts are the
42、refore disguised acts of selfinterest. All of these examples fit economists arguments that Homo sapiens is also Homo economicus maximizing something that economists call utility, and biologists fitness. But there is a residuum of human activity that defies such explanations: people contribute to cha
43、rities for the homeless, return lost wallets, do voluntary work and tip waiters in restaurants to which they do not plan to return. Both economic rationalism and natural selection offer few explanations for such random acts of kindness. Nor can they easily explain the opposite: spiteful behavior, wh
44、en someone harms his own interest in order to damage that of another. But people are now trying to find answers. When a new phenomenon is recognized by science, a name always helps. In a paper in Human Nature, Dr. Fehr and his colleagues argue for a behavioral propensity they call “strong reciprocit
45、y“. This name is intended to distinguish it from reciprocal altruism. According to Dr. Fehr, a person is a strong reciprocator if he is willing to sacrifice resources to be kind to those who are being kind, and to punish those who are being unkind. Significantly, strong reciprocators will behave thi
46、s way even if doing so provides no prospect of material rewards in the future. 31 The story of J.B.S. Haldane is mentioned in the text （ A） to honor his unusual altruistic acts. （ B） to show how he contributed to his offspring. （ C） to introduce the topic of human altruism. （ D） to give an episode o
47、f his calculation abilities. 32 According the theory of kin selection, humans tend to act altruistically （ A） for the sake of desired reproduction. （ B） out of self-interest. （ C） on the request of natural selection. （ D） because of kind nature. 33 As pointed out in the text, “reciprocal altruism th
48、eory“ and “strong reciprocity theory“ are （ A） complementary. （ B） contradictory. （ C） superficial. （ D） over-simplified. 34 The write mentioned the case of “the hunter who shares his spoils with others“(Para. 3) to demonstrate （ A） innate human hostility. （ B） his privileged status. （ C） apparent a
49、ltruism. （ D） his sacrifice resources. 35 It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 that （ A） Human behavior is confined to the exclusive concern of psychologists. （ B） Economists utility is only the explanations for random acts of kindness. （ C） Altruism is developed during the long process of human evolution. （ D） Biologists can help economists explain some human behavior deviations. 36 In a science-fiction movie called “Species“, a mysterious signal from outer space turns out to descri
