2008 年全国硕士研究生入学考试英语试题
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 on ANSWER SHEET 1 ． (10 points)
The idea that some groups of people may be more intelligent than others
is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. But Gregory
Cochran is 1 to say it anyway. He is that 2 bird,a scientist who works
independently 3 any institution. He helped popularize the idea that some
diseases not 4 thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections,
which aroused muchcontroversy when it was first suggested. 5 he, however,
might tremble at the 6 of what he is about to do. Together with another
two scientists, he is publishing a paper which not only 7 that one group
of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process
that has brought this about. The group in 8 are a particular people
originated from central Europe. The process is natural selection.
This group generally do well in IQ test, 9 12-15 points above the 10 value
of 100, and have contributed 11 to the intellectual and cultural life of
the West, as the 12 of their elites, including several world-renowned
scientists, 13 . They also suffer more often than most people froma number
of nasty genetic diseases, such as breast cancer. These facts, 14 , have
previously been thought unrelated. The former has been 15 to social
effects, such as a strong tradition of 16 education. The latter was seen
as a (an) 17 of genetic isolation. Dr. Cochran suggests that the
intelligence and diseases are intimately 18 . His argument is that the
unusual history of these people has 19 them to unique evolutionary
pressures that have resulted in this 20 state of affairs.
1. [A] selected [B] prepared [C] obliged [D] pleased
2. [A] unique [B] particular [C] special [D] rare
3. [A] of [B] with [C] in [D] against
4. [A] subsequently [B] presently [C] previously [D] lately
5. [A] Only [B] So [C] Even [D] Hence
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6. [A] thought [B] sight [C] cost [D] risk
7. [A] advises [B] suggests [C] protests [D] objects
8. [A] progress [B] fact [C] need [D] question
9. [A] attaining [B] scoring [C] reaching [D] calculating
10. [A] normal [B] common [C] mean [D] total
11. [A] unconsciously [B] disproportionately
[C] indefinitely [D] unaccountably
12. [A] missions [B] fortunes [C] interests [D] careers
13. [A] affirm [B] witness [C] observe [D] approve
14. [A] moreover [B] therefore [C] however [D] meanwhile
15. [A] given up [B] got over [C] carried on [D] put down
16. [A] assessing [B] supervising [C] administering [D] valuing
17. [A] development [B] origin [C] consequence [D] instrument
18. [A] linked [B] integrated [C] woven [D] combined
19. [A] limited [B] subjected [C] converted [D] directed
20. [A] paradoxical [B] incompatible [C] inevitable [D] continuous
Section II Reading Comprehension
PartA
Directions ：
Read the following four texts ． Answer the questions below each text by
choosing A, B ， C or D ． Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1 ． (40 points)
Text 1
While still catching up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear
to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. “women are
particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders
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in response to stress compared to men,” according to Dr. Yehuda chief
psychiatrist at New York’s veteran’s Administration hospital.
Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow
affect the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more
of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In
several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries
(the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became
equal to those of the males.
Adding to a woman’s increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased
“opportunities” for stress,“It’s not necessarily that women don’t
cope as well, It’s just that they have so much more to cope with,” says
Dr. Yehuda. “Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater
than men’s ,” she observes, “it’s just that they’re dealing with so
many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and
sooner.” Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. “ I
think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in
more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to
combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence.
The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be
in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family
members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that
comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating” Adeline
Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish
college. “I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in
so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead
and do better.” Later, her marriage ended and she became a single mother
“It’s the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the
rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt I lived from paycheck to
paycheck.” Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses
Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of
obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain, Alvarez’s
experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress
before it. threatens your health and your ability to function.
21. Which of the follow is true according to the first two paragraphs?
[A] Women are biologically more vulnerable to stress.
[B] Women are still suffering much stress caused by men
[C] Women are more experienced than men in coping with stress
[D] Men and women show different inclinations when faced with stress
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22. Dr. Yehuda’s research suggests that women.
[A] need extra doses of chemicals to handle stress.
[B] have limited capacity for tolerating stress.
[C] are more capable of avoiding stress.
[D] are exposed to more stress.
23. According to Paragraph4, the stress women confront tends to be.
[A] domestic and temporary.
[B] irregular and violent.
[C] durable and frequent.
[D] trivial and random.
24. The sentence “I lived from paycheck to paycheck,”(Line6. Para.
5)shows that
[A] Alvarez cared about nothing but making money.
[B] Alvarez’s salary barely covered her household expenses.
[C] Alvarez got paychecks from different jobs.
[D] Alvarez paid practically everything by check.
25. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
[A] Strain of Stress: No Way out.
[B] Responses to Stress: Gender Difference.
[C] Stress Analysis:What Chemicals Say.
[D] Gender Inequality:Women Under Stress.
Text 2
It used to be so straightforward. A team of researchers working together
in the laboratory would submit the results of their research to a journal.
A journal editor would then remove the authors’ names and affiliations
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from the paper and send it to their peers for review. Depending on the
comments received, the editor would accept the paper for publication or
decline it. Copyright rested with the journal publisher and researchers
seeking knowledge of the results would have to subscribe to the journal.
No longer.The Internet-and pressure from funding agencies, who are
questioning why commercial publishers are making money from
government-funded research by restricting access to it—is making access
to scientific results a reality.The Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development ( OECD) has just issued a report describing
the far-reaching consequences of this.
The report, by John Houghton of Victoria University in Australia and
Graham Vickery of the OECD, makes heavy reading for publishers who have,
so far ,made handsome profits. But it goes further than that. It signals
a change in what has, until now, been a key element of scientific endeavor.
The value of knowledge and the return on the public investment in research
depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access. It is big
business. In America, the core scientific publishing market is estimated
at between $7 billion and $11 billion. The International Association of
Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says that there are more than
2,000 publishers worldwide specializing in these subject. They publish
more than1.2 million articles each year in some 16,000 journals.
This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% of scholarly
journals are now online Entirely new business models are emerging. three
main ones were identified by the report’s authors. There is the so-called
big deal, where institutional subscribers pay for access to a collection
of online journal titles through site-licensing agreements.There is
open-access publishing, typically supported by asking the author (or his
employer) to pay for the paper to be published. Finally, there are
open-access archives, where organizations such as universities or
international laboratories support institutional repositories.Other
models exist that are hybrids of thesethree. such as delayed open-access,
where journals allow only subscribers to read a paper for the first six
months, before making it freely available to everyone who wishes to see
it. All this could change the traditional form of the peer-review process,
at least for the publication of papers.
26. In the first paragraph, the author discusses
[A] the background information of journal editing.
[B] the publication routine of laboratory reports.
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[C] the relations of authors with journal publishers.
[D] the traditional process of journal publication.
27. Which of the following is true of the OECD report?
[A] It criticizes government-funded research.
[B] It introduces an effective means of publication.
[C] It upsets profit-making journal publishers.
[D] It benefits scientific research considerably.
28. According to the text, online publication is significant in that.
[A] it provides an easier access to scientific results.
[B] it brings huge profits to scientific researchers.
[C] it emphasizes the crucial role of scientific knowledge.
[D] it facilitates public investment in scientific research.
29. With the open-access publishing model, the author of a paper is
required to
[A] cover the cost of its publication.
[B] subscribe to the journal publishing it.
[C] allow other online journals to use it freely.
[D] complete the peer-review before submission.
30. Which of the following best summarizes the text ?
[A] The Internet is posing a threat to publishers
[B] A new mode of publication is emerging.
[C] Authors welcome the new channel for publication.
[D] Publication is rendered easier by online service.
Text 3
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In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of the only three players in
the National Basketball Association(NBA) listed at over seven feet. If
he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies
playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the
years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms
to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.
The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality.
Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two
inches taller now than 140 years ago, today’s people – especially those
born to families who have lived in the U.S. for many generations –
apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. And they aren’t likely
to get any taller. “In the general population today, at this genetic,
environmental level, we’ve pretty much gone as far as we can go,” says
anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright State University. In the
case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the
increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the
world.
Crowth,which rarely continues beyond the age of 20,demands calories and
nutrients-notably,protein-to feed expanding tissues At the start of the
20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way.
But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average,
increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern
known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, average height 5 ′ 9 ″ for men, 5 ′
4 ″ for women – hasn ’ t really changed since 1960.
Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height.
During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the
birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions
of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and
cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs.
“There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture
of the individual organism,” says anthropologist William Leonard of
Northwestern University.
Genetic maximums can change, but don’t expect this to happen soon. Chaire
C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick,
Mass., ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit
recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball,
the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you
need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of
equipment, Gordon says that by and large, “you could use today’s data
and feel fairly confident.”
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31. Wilt Chamberlain is cited as an example to
[A] illustrate the change of height of NBA players.
[B] show the popularity of NBA players in the U.S..
[C] compare different generations of NBA players.
[D] assess the achievements of famous NBA players.
32 Which of the following plays a key role in body growth according to
the text?
[A] Genetic modification.
[B] Natural environment.
[C] Living standards.
[D] Daily exercise.
33. On which of the following statements would the author most probably
agree?
[A] Non-Americans add to the average height of the nation
[B] Human height is conditioned by the upright posture.
[C] Americans are the tallest on average in the world.
[D] Larger babies tend to become taller in adulthood.
34. We learn from the last paragraph that in the near future
[A] the garment industry will reconsider the uniform size.
[B] the design of military uniforms will remain unchanged.
[C] genetic testing will be employed in selecting sportsmen.
[D] the existing data of human height will still be applicable.
35. The text intends to tell us that
[A] the change of human height follows a cyclic pattern.
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[B] human height is becoming even more predictable.
[C] Americans have reached their genetic growth limit.
[D] the genetic pattern of Americans has altered.
Text 4
In 1784 five years before he became president of the United State,George
Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant
nine teeth into his jaw-having extracted them from the mouths of his
slaves.
That’s a far different image from the cherry-tree-chopping George most
people remember from their history books. But recently, many historians
have begun to focus on the roles slavery played in the lives of the founding
generation. They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence made available
in 1998, which almost certainly proved Thomas Jefferson had fathered at
least one child with his slave Sally Hemings. And only over the past 30
years have scholars examined history from the bottom up. Works of several
historians reveal the moral compromises made by the nation’s early
leaders and the fragile nature of the country’s infancy. More
significantly, they argue that many of the Founding Fathers knew slavery
was wrong – and yet most did little to fight it.
More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hampered by the
culture of their time. While Washington and Jefferson privately expressed
distaste for slavery, they also understood that it was part of the
political and economic bedrock of the country they helped to create. For
one thing, theSouth could not afford to part with its slaves .Owning slaves
was “like having a large bank account,”says Wiencek author of An
Imperfect God: George Washington, His slaves, and the Creation of America.
The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without
protection for the “peculiar institution,” including a clause that
counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purposes of congressional
representation.
And the statement’s political lives depended on slavery. The
three-fifths formula handed Jefferson his narrow victory in the
presidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the southern states
in the Electoral College. Once in office, Jefferson extended slavery with
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the new land was carved into 13 states,
including three slave states.
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Still, Jefferson freed Heming’s children – though not Hemings herself
or his approximately 150 other slaves. Washington, who had begun to
believe that all men were created equal after observing the bravery of
the black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, overcame the strong
opposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in his will.
Only a decade earlier, such an act would have required legislative
approval in Virginia.
36. George Washington’s dental surgery is mentioned to
[A] show the primitive medical practice in the past
[B] demonstrate the cruelty of slavery in his days
[C] stress the role of slaves in the U.S. history
[D] reveal some unknown aspect of his life
37. We may infer from the second paragraph that
[A] DNA technology has been widely applied to history research.
[B] in its early days the U.S. was confronted with delicate situations.
[C] historians deliberately made up some stories of Jefferson’s life.
[D] political compromises are easily found throughout the US history.
38. What do we learn about Thomas Jefferson?
[A] His political view changed his attitude towards slavery
[B] His status as a father made him free the child slaves
[C] His attitude towards slavery was complex
[D] His affair with a slave stained his prestige.
39. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] Some Founding Fathers benefit politically from slavery
[B] Slaves in the old days did not have the right to vote
[C] Slave owners usually had large savings accounts
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[D] Slavery was regarded as a peculiar institution
40. Washington’s decision to free slaves originated from his
[A] moral considerations
[B] military experience
[C] financial conditions
[D] political stand
Part B
Directions:
In the following text, some segments have been removed. For Questions
41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of
the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any
of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET1(10 points) The time for
sharpening pencils, arranging your desk, and doing almost anything else
instead of writing has ended. The first draft will appear on the page only
if you stop avoiding the inevitable and sit, stand up, or lie down write
(41)___________Be flexible. Your outline should smoothly conduct you from
one point to the next, but do not permit it to railroad you. If a relevant
and important idea occurs to you now, work it into the draft.
(42)___________Grammar, punctuation and spelling can wait until you
revise. Concentrate on what you are saying. Good writing most often occurs
when you are in hot pursuit of an idea rather than in a nervous search
for errors.
(43)___________Your pages will be easier to keep track of that way and,
if you have to clip a paragraph to place it elsewhere, you will not lose
any writing on the other side If you are working on a word processor, you
can take advantage of its capacity to make additions and deletions as well
as move entire paragraphs by making just a few simple keyboard commands.
Some software programs can also check spelling and certain grammatical
elements to your writing.(44)___________These printouts are also easier
to read than the screen when you work on revisions.
Once you have a first draft on paper, you can delete material that is
unrelated to your thesis and add material necessary to illustrate your
pointsand make your paper convincing. The student who wrote “The A&P as
a State of Mind” wisely dropped a paragraph that questioned whether Sammy
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displays chauvinistic attitudes toward women.(45)_________ Remember that
your initial draft is only that. You should go though the paper many
times-and then again-working to substantiate and clarify your ideas. You
may even end up with several entire versions of the paper. Rewrite. The
sentences within each paragraph should be related to a single topic.
Transitions should connect one paragraph to the next so that there are
no abrupt or confusing shifts. Awkward or wordy phrasing or unclear
sentences and paragraphs should be mercilessly poked and prodded into
shape.
[A] To make revising easier, leave wide margins and extra space between
lines so that you can
easily add words, sentences, and corrections. Write on only one side of
the paper.
[B] After you have clearly and adequately developed the body of your paper,
pay particular attentionto the introductory and concluding paragraphs.
it’s probably best to write the introduction last, after you know
precisely what you are introducing. Concluding paragraphs demand equal
attention because they leave the reader with a final impression.
[C] It’s worth remembering, however, that though a clean copy fresh off
a printer may look
terrific, it will read only as well as the thinking and writing that have
gone into it. Many writers
prudently store their data on disks and print their pages each time they
finish a draft to avoid
losing any material because of power failures or other problems.
[D] It makes no difference how you write, just so you do. Now that you
have developed a topic
into a tentative thesis, you can assemble your notes and begin to flesh
out whatever outline you
have made.
[E] Although this is an interesting issue, it has nothing to do with the
thesis, which explains how
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