【考研类试卷】考研英语阅读理解B-(二)及答案解析.doc

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1、考研英语阅读理解 B-(二)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、BSection Readi(总题数：5，分数：100.00)Among certain parents, it is an article of faith not only that they should treat their sons and daughters alike, but also that they do. If Jack gets videos games, and joins the soccer team and the math club, so does Jane.U U 1

2、 /U /UIn one, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the “boys“ (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the “girls“ (actually boys) as happy and soci

3、ally engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. U U 2 /U /UIn another study, mothers estimated how steep a slope their 11-month-olds could crawl down. Moms of boys got it right to within one degree; morns of girls underestimated what their daughters could do by nine degrees, even though

4、 there are no differences in the motor skills of infant boys and girls. U U 3 /U /U. How we perceive children-sociable or remote, physically bold or quiet-shapes how we treat them and therefore what experiences we give them. Since life leaves footprints on the very structure and function of the brai

5、n, these various experiences produce sex differences in adult behavior and brains-the result not of innate and inborn nature but of nurture.Yet there are differences in adults brains, and here Eliot is at her most original and persuasive: explaining how they arise from tiny sex differences in infanc

6、y. For instance, baby boys are more irritable than girls. U U 4 /U /U. By 4 months of age, boys and girls differ in how much eye contact they make, and differences in sociability, emotional expressivity, and verbal ability-all of which depend on interactions with parents-grow throughout childhood.U

7、U 5 /U /UYou often see the claim that toy preferences-trucks or dolls-appear so early, they must be innate. But as Eliot points out, 6 and 12-month-olds of both sexes prefer dolls to trucks, according to a host of studies. Children settle into sex-based play preferences only around age 1, which is w

8、hen they grasp which sex they are, identify strongly with it, and conform to how they see other, usually older, boys or girls behaving. “Preschoolers are already aware of whats acceptable to their peers and whats not,“ writes Eliot. Those play preferences then snowball, producing brains with differe

9、nt talents.The belief in blue brains and pink brains has real-world consequences, which is why Eliot goes after them with such vigor (and rigor). It encourages parents to treat children in ways that make the claims come true, denying boys and girls their full potential. “Kids rise or fall according

10、to what we believe about them,“ she notes. And the belief fuels the drive for single-sex schools, which is based in part on the false claim that boy brains and girl brains process sensory information and think differently.A. That makes parents likely to interact less with their “nonsocial“ sons, whi

11、ch could cause the sexes developmental pathways to diverge.B. Lise Eliot, a neuroscientist at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, doesnt think these parents are lying, exactly. But she would like to bring some studies to their attention.C. Those differences also arise from gender c

12、onformity.D. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens.E. For instance, the idea that the band of fibers connecting the right and left brain is larger in women, supposedly suppor

13、ting their more “holistic“ thinking, is based on a single 1982 study of only 14 brains.F. But that prejudice may cause parents to unconsciously limit their daughters physical activity.G. Eliots inescapable conclusion: there is “little solid evidence of sex differences in childrens brains.“（分数：20.00）

14、填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_David Cameron, 40, the leader of Britains Conservative Party, just looks handsome. His appeal has propelled the Tories to a consistent lead in opinion polls for the first time since Tony Blairs 1997 victory. That has infused Britains Conservatives with a sensation

15、so unfamiliar, they barely recognize it: optimism. Surprised at this turn of fortune, some are already mythologizing the man behind it. U U 6 /U /UIndeed, Cameron and his wife Samantha-the daughter of a baronet-are among Londons most sought-after party guests.Actually, Cameron has more in common wit

16、h a certain British politician than he does with J.F.K. Whether nodding elegantly to recovering drug addicts at a health center north of Aberdeen or charming Scottish journalists on the train journey to Edinburgh, the person whom Cameron resembles more than any other is a young Blab. He has the same

17、 brow-furrowing desire not only to understand those with whom he is having conversation with, but to empathize with them; the same rootless accent that in Britain indicates an easy start in life. U U 7 /U /U.Yet the time might be ripe for Cameron. Every second week he makes a raid from what he calls

18、 “the Westminster bubble“ to some farther-flung area of the kingdom, meeting as many people as possible. “Obviously,“ he says, “in politics, people want to have a look at you and understand who you are and what makes you tick.“Thats where the trouble begins. Its easy enough to locate Camerons heart;

19、 thats with his family. He and Samantha have three children under 5 and he says he spends most of his home life “knee-deep in nappies and crying children.“ U U 8 /U /UUnlike Blair and Brown, Cameron doesnt show a strong love for the U.S. And in a departure from his predecessors, Cameron rarely invok

20、es the name of the Conservatives biggest icon: Margaret Thatcher. “To me, Mrs. Thatcher-its all a long time in the past,“ says Cameron. “People are voting at the next election who were born after Mrs. Thatcher left office.“Many Conservatives of Camerons generation believe that their party needs to r

21、eclaim the middle ground so brilliantly colonized by Blair and distance itself from the fiercely ideological course it charted during the Thatcher era. “Were seen as the nasty party,“ says Barker, a member of Camerons campaign team. U U 9 /U /UHes also promoting a doctrine he calls “modem, compassio

22、nate Conservatism,“ which is “about helping those people who can get left behind.“ In a nod to a nation where opposing global warming has become a semi-religions duty, he claims to be more environmentally friendly than Labour. Camerons slogan in local elections last May was “Vote blue, go green.“Tha

23、t sort of talk has worried some of the party faithful, but Cameron wants his big ideas to appeal across party lines. “You have to do what Bill Clinton did and build a big tent,“ says Dale. But even Dale would like Cameron to signal to traditional Tories that “the old issues will be treated as seriou

24、sly as the new ones.“U U 10 /U /USo far, though, Cameron has avoided making many explicit policy statements, relying instead on warm and fuzzy ideas like a belief in “social responsibility“ that he says will empower business, individuals and local government.A. Gordon Brown, is troubled by a more le

25、aden style, a darker visage and a government that is losing popularity, largely because of the mess in Iraq.B. To change that image, Cameron has engaged in conspicuously un-Conservative-like behavior, traveling widely and posting a confessional blog at www.webcameron.org.uk.C. The wellsprings of his

26、 political conviction are harder to trace.D. But in Britains red-meat political and media landscape, such a warm and fuzzy style is rarely enough. Popular attitudes to politicians are still set by the tabloids.E. And like Blair a decade ago-when he was dumping his partys traditions to appeal to a wi

27、der constituency-Cameron inspires suspicion as well as excitement.F. Iain Dale, who writes a Conservative blog, speaks of Camerons “Kennedyesque glamour.“ He thinks that Cameron has a lot in common with J. F. Kennedy.G. That might mean an open repetition of the Tories traditional claim to be the par

28、ty of low taxation. Or-always a favorite with the right wing-blaming the European Union for Britains ills.（分数：20.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_A. The Responsibility of Companies to Reduce WasteB. Means Adopted to Reduce Household WasteC. The Drawbacks of Fly-tippingD. Producers Effort on Was

29、te ReductionE. Obstacles to the New ProgrammeF. The Role Consumers Play in Reducing WasteG. The Significance of Generating Less RubbishUntil recently most people in the waste industry had assumed that it was impossible to reduce the amount being produced and were concentrating on putting the stuff t

30、o better use. But lately that assumption has been challenged. For one thing, the pace at which the rich world churns out rubbish has been slowing.U U 11 /U /UReducing the amount of waste being produced makes a great deal of sense, provided it does not cost more, in either environmental or financial

31、terms, than disposing of it in the usual way. Governments hope it might help to trim both greenhouse-gas emissions and waste-management costs. But they are not sure how best to encourage it.U U 12 /U /USome are trying to persuade consumers to throw away less. The simplest method is to collect the ru

32、bbish less often. In areas of Britain where the dustmen come round only every other week, recycling rates are 10% higher than elsewhere. Another tactic is to make households pay by volume for the rubbish they generate, rather than through a flat fee or through local taxes. Many places in Europe, Ame

33、rica and Asia have adopted “pay-as-you-throw“ schemes. About a quarter of Americans live in communities with such programmes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reckons that they reduce the volume of rubbish by 14-27% and increase recycling (which usually remains free) by 32-59%.U U 13 /U /UHo

34、wever, there are drawbacks. Fly-tipping-the illegal dumping of waste-tends to rise slightly as people try to avoid paying. And householders generally grumble a lot if they have to pay extra to have their rubbish collected. In addition, most local authorities have simply decided against the idea. Whe

35、n the British government offered them money to experiment with pay-as-you-throw schemes earlier this year, no one signed up.U U 14 /U /UBusinesses are generally seen as a sorer target than consumers. It can be argued that manufacturers bear some responsibility for the amount of waste rich countries

36、produce. They often have an incentive to reduce waste anyway, since most already pay for disposal by volume. There is even a name for the steady reduction in materials used to make the same goods: “lightweighting“. It is not only electronic gadgets that have become smaller and 5ghter over the years

37、even as their performance has improved but many other things too, from cars to plastic bags.U U 15 /U /UIn theory, consumers could steer firms towards waste reduction by buying products that are easy to recycle. To some extent this is happening. Tescos Alasdair. James says British consumers rank the

38、 environment as their third priority after price and convenience. Further, if governments oblige manufacturers to include the cost of disposal in their prices, firms will pass those costs on to consumers, who will have an incentive to buy the products that are the easiest to dispose of.Many governme

39、nts are currently trying to give greenery an extra push with compulsory wastereduction schemes. Thirty-six states in America, for example, charge for the disposal of tyres. The states spend the money on clean-up programmes or pay others to run such programmes. Many of the tyres are blended into road

40、 surfaces or burned in cement kilns. Several other states have “advance recovery fees“ for computer monitors and televisions. All this should provide a spur to the waste industry and speed the adoption of new technology.（分数：20.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_A. For one thing, many young “veget

41、arians“ continue to eat the white meat of defenseless chickens (25% in the current study) as well as the flesh of those adorable animals known as fish (46%), even when they are butchered and served up raw as sushi. And in a recent study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers found that the

42、 most common reason teens gave for vegetarianism was to lose weight or keep from gaining it. Adolescent vegetarians are far more likely than other teens to diet or to use extreme and unhealthy measures to control their weight, studies suggest. The reverse is also true: teens with eating disorders ar

43、e more likely to practice vegetarianism than any other age group.B. But approximately 20% of the vegetarians turned out to be binge (excessive eating and drinking) eaters, compared with only 5% of those who had always eaten meat. Similarly, 25% of current vegetarians, ages 15 to 18, and 20% of forme

44、r vegetarians in the same age group said they had engaged in extreme weight-control measures such as taking diet pills or laxatives and forcing themselves to vomit. Only 1 in 10 teens who had never been vegetarian reported similar behavior.C. Being a teenager means experimenting with foolish things

45、like dyeing your hair purple or candy flipping or going door-to-door for a political party. Parents tend to overlook seemingly mild, earnest teen pursuits, but a new study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggests that another common teen fad, vegetarianism, isnt always healthy. I

46、nstead, it seems that a significant number of kids experiment with a vegetarian diet as a way to mask an eating disorder.D. In another research venture by Robinson-OBrien called Project EAT-II: Eating Among Teens, the researchers surveyed 2,516 yoking Minnesotans, ages 15 to 23. Of the respondents,

47、108 (or 4.3%) described themselves as currently vegetarian, another 268 (10.8%) said they were former vegetarians and the rest were lifelong meat eaters. The researchers found that in one sense, the vegetarians were healthier: they tended to consume less than 30% of their calories as fat, while non-

48、vegetarians got more than 30% of their calories from fat. Not surprisingly, the vegetarians were also less likely to be overweight.E. The study, led by nutritionist Ramona Robinson-OBrien, found that while adolescent and young adult vegetarians were less likely than meat eaters to be overweight and more likely to eat a relatively healthful diet, they were also