1987 年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
Section I: Structure and Vocabulary
In each question, decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete
the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Put your choice in the brackets on the
left. (10 points)
EXAMPLE:
I was caught ________ the rain yesterday.
[A] in
[B] by
[C] with
[D] at
ANSWER: [A]
1. The skyscraper stands out ________ the blue sky.
[A] in
[B] against
[C] under
[D] beneath
2. They have always been on good ________ with their next-door neighbors.
[A] friendship
[B] relations
[C] connection
[D] terms
3. Hello! Is that 21035? Please put me ________ to the manager.
[A] across
[B] up
[C] through
[D] over
4. Why do you look so ________? You never smile or look cheerful.
[A] miserable
[B] unfortunate
[C] sorry
[D] rude
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5. Eggs, though nourishing, have ________ of fat content.
[A] large number
[B] a large number
[C] the high amount
[D] a high amount
6. Jim always ________ his classmates in a debate.
[A] backs out
[B] backs away
[C] backs up
[D] backs down
7. Most of the people who ________ two world wars are strongly against arms
race.
[A] have lived out
[B] have lived through
[C] have lived on
[D] have lived off
8. There are many inconveniences that have to be ________ when you are
camping.
[A] put up
[B] put up with
[C] put off
[D] put away
9. Is it true that those old houses are being pulled down ________ new office
blocks?
[A] to accommodate
[B] to provide for
[C] to increase
[D] to make room for
10. Being in no great hurry, ________.
[A] we went the long route with scenery
[B] the long, scenic route was our preference
[C] we took the long scenic route
[D] our preference was taking the long, scenic route
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Section II: Reading Comprehension
Each of three passages below is followed by five questions. For each question there
are four answers, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each of
the question. Put your choice in the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)
Text 1
For centuries men dreamed of achieving vertical flight. In 400 A.D. Chinese
children played with a fan-like toy that spun upwards and fell back to earth as
rotation ceased. Leonardo da Vinci conceive the first mechanical apparatus, called a
“Helix,” which could carry man straight up, but was only a design and was never
tested.
The ancient-dream was finally realized in 1940 when a Russian engineer piloted
a strange looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly
and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground,
went sideways and backwards, and then settled back to earth. The vehicle was called
a helicopter.
Imaginations were fired. Men dreamed of going to work in their own personal
helicopters. People anticipate that vertical flight transports would carry millions of
passengers as do the airliners of today. Such fantastic expectations were not fulfilled.
The helicopter has now become an extremely useful machine. It excels in
military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other
aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as airborne offices, many metropolitan
areas use them in police work, construction and logging companies employ them in
various advantageous ways, engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and
oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations
accessible to crews and supplies. Any urgent mission to a hard-to-get-to place is a
likely task for a helicopter. Among their other multitude of used: deliver people
across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for
missing or wanted persons.
11. People expect that ________.
[A] the airliners of today would eventually be replaced by helicopters
[B] helicopters would someday be able to transport large number of people
from place to place as airliners are now doing
[C] the imaginations fired by the Russian engineer’s invention would become a
reality in the future
[D] their fantastic expectations about helicopters could be fulfilled by airliners
of today
12. Helicopters work with the aid of ________.
[A] a combination of rotating devices in front and on top
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[B] a rotating device topside
[C] one rotating fan in the center of the aircraft and others at each end
[D] a rotating fan underneath for lifting
13. What is said about the development of the helicopter?
[A] Helicopters have only been worked on by man since 1940.
[B] Chinese children were the first to achieve flight in helicopters.
[C] Helicopters were considered more dangerous than the early airplanes.
[D] Some people thought they would become widely used by average
individuals.
14. How has the use of helicopters developed?
[A] They have been widely used for various purposes.
[B] They are taking the place of high-flying jets.
[C] They are used for rescue work.
[D] They are now used exclusively for commercial projects.
15. Under what conditions are helicopters found to be absolutely essential?
[A] For overseas passenger transportation.
[B] For extremely high altitude flights.
[C] For high-speed transportation.
[D] For urgent mission to places inaccessible to other kinds of craft.
Text 2
In ancient Greece athletic festivals were very important and had strong religious
associations. The Olympian athletic festival held every four years in honor of Zeus,
king of the Olympian Gods, eventually lost its local character, became first a
national event and then, after the rules against foreign competitors had been
abolished, international. No one knows exactly how far back the Olympic Games go,
but some official records date from 776 B.C. The games took place in August on the
plain by Mount Olympus. Many thousands of spectators gathered from all parts of
Greece, but no married woman was admitted even as a spectator. Slaves, women and
dishonored persons were not allowed to compete. The exact sequence of events
uncertain, but events included boy’s gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, horse racing and
field events, though there were fewer sports involved than in the modern Olympic
Games.
On the last day of the Games, all the winners were honored by having a ring of
holy olive leaves placed on their heads. So great was the honor that the winner of the
foot race gave his name to the year of his victory. Although Olympic winners
received no prize money, they were, in fact, richly rewarded by their state authorities.
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How their results compared with modern standards, we unfortunately have no means
of telling.
After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years, the Games were
suspended by the Romans in 394 A.D. They continued for such a long time because
people believed in the philosophy behind the Olympics: the idea that a healthy body
produced a healthy mind, and that the spirit of competition in sports and games was
preferable to the competition that caused wars. It was over 1,500 years before
another such international athletic gathering took place in Athens in 1896.
Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country
provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living
accommodation, but competing courtiers pay their own athletes’ expenses.
The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount
Olympus by the sun’s rays. It is carried by a succession of runners to the stadium.
The torch symbolized the continuation of the ancient Greek athletic ideals, and it
burns throughout the Games until the closing ceremony. The well-known Olympic
flag, however, is a modern conception: the five interlocking rings symbolize the
uniting of all five continents participating in the Games.
16. In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games ________.
[A] were merely national athletic festivals
[B] were in the nature of a national event with a strong religious colour
[C] had rules which put foreign participants in a disadvantageous position
[D] were primarily national events with few foreign participants
17. In the early days of ancient Olympic Games ________.
[A] only male Greek athletes were allowed to participate in the games
[B] all Greeks, irrespective of sex, religion or social status, were allowed to take
part
[C] all Greeks, with the exception of women, were allowed to compete in
Games
[D] all male Greeks were qualified to compete in the Games
18. The order of athletic events at the ancient Olympics ________.
[A] has not definitely been established
[B] varied according to the number of foreign competitors
[C] was decided by Zeus, in whose honor the Games were held
[D] was considered unimportant
19. Modern athletes’ results cannot be compared with those of ancient runners
because ________.
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[A] the Greeks had no means of recording the results
[B] they are much better
[C] details such as the time were not recorded in the past
[D] they are much worse
20. Nowadays, the athletes’ expenses are paid for ________.
[A] out of the prize money of the winners
[B] out of the funds raised by the competing nations
[C] by the athletes themselves
[D] by contributions
Text 3
In science the meaning of the word “explain” suffers with civilization’s every
step in search of reality. Science cannot really explain electricity, magnetism, and
gravitation; their effects can be measured and predicted, but of their nature no more
is known to the modern scientist than to Thales who first looked into the nature of
the electrification of amber, a hard yellowish-brown gum. Most contemporary
physicists reject the notion that man can ever discover what these mysterious forces
“really” are. “Electricity,” Bertrand Russell says, “is not a thing, like St. Paul’s
Cathedral; it is a way in which things behave. When we have told how things behave
when they are electrified, and under what circumstances they are electrified, we have
told all there is to tell.” Until recently scientists would have disapproved of such an
idea. Aristotle, for example, whose natural science dominated Western thought for
two thousand years, believed that man could arrive at an understanding of reality by
reasoning from self-evident principles. He felt, for example, that it is a self-evident
principle that everything in the universe has its proper place, hence one can deduce
that objects fall to the ground because that’s where they belong, and smoke goes up
because that’s where it belongs. The goal of Aristotelian science was to explain why
things happen. Modern science was born when Galileo began trying to explain how
things happen and thus originated the method of controlled experiment which now
forms the basis of scientific investigation.
21. The aim of controlled scientific experiments is ________.
[A] to explain why things happen
[B] to explain how things happen
[C] to describe self-evident principles
[D] to support Aristotelian science
22. What principles most influenced scientific thought for two thousand years?
[A] the speculations of Thales
[B] the forces of electricity, magnetism, and gravity
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[C] Aristotle’s natural science
[D] Galileo’s discoveries
23. Bertrand Russell’s notion about electricity is ________.
[A] disapproved of by most modern scientists
[B] in agreement with Aristotle’s theory of self-evident principles
[C] in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward “how” things
happen
[D] in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward “why” things
happen
24. The passage says that until recently scientists disagreed with the idea ________.
[A] that there are mysterious forces in the universe
[B] that man cannot discover what forces “really” are
[C] that there are self-evident principles
[D] that we can discover why things behave as they do
25. Modern science came into being ________.
[A] when the method of controlled experiment was first introduced
[B] when Galileo succeeded in explaining how things happen
[C] when Aristotelian scientist tried to explain why things happen
[D] when scientists were able to acquire an understanding of reality of
reasoning
Section III: Structure and Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks with the words which best complete the sentence. Put your choices
in the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
EXAMPLE:
It was the largest experiment we have ever had, it ________ six hours.
[A] ended
[B] finished
[C] was
[D] lasted
ANSWER: [D]
26. As scheduled, the communications satellite went into ________ round the earth.
[A] circle
[B] orbit
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[C] path
[D] course
27. When I saw Jane, I stopped and smiled, but she ________ me and walked on.
[A] refused
[B] ignored
[C] denied
[D] missed
28. It was a good game, and at the end the ________ was Argentina 3, West
Germany 2.
[A] mark
[B] account
[C] record
[D] score
29. George took ________ of the fine weather to do a day’s work in his garden.
[A] chance
[B] interest
[C] advantage
[D] charge
30. Is there anyone who ________ the plans put forward by the committee?
[A] differs
[B] opposes
[C] disagrees
[D] refuses
31. All too ________ it was time to go back to school after the summer vacation.
[A] often
[B] quick
[C] fast
[D] soon
32. In an accident when two cars run into each other, they ________.
[A] hit
[B] knock
[C] strike