厦门大学2010年翻译硕士英语考研真题.doc

厦门大学2010年翻译硕士英语考研真题Part I. Grammar and VocabularyA. ProofreadingThe following paragraphs contain 10 errors. Each indicated line contains ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the paragraph and correct it in the following way:For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.For a missing word. mark the position of the missing word with a sign and write the word you believe to be missing in the blank provided at the end of the line.For an unnecessary word. cross the unnecessary word with a slash and put the word in the blank provided at the end of the line.Although cosmetic surgery (and non-surgically cosmetic (1)_procedures, such as Botox injections) sometimes produce negativeoutcomesmedia often highlights surgery disasters (2)_in the most part, the health risk for cosmetic procedures(3)_is low and patient satisfaction is high. Often, people who have beenhobbled by poor body image all of their life, walk away from (4)_cosmetic surgery in confidence and the motivation to lead(5)_healthier lives. In addition, reconstructive surgery for burning (6)_and accident victims or to those disfigured from disease restore (7)_self-esteem and well-being in the way that other therapy cannot. (8)_In my professional opinion, it is a time for members of the(9)_medical community to examine the benefits and results ofcosmetic surgery with prejudice and jealousy.(10)_B. Choose the word or phrase that can be used to replace the underlined part in each sentence1. Because noises modulate radiofrequency, radio stations use a band of frequencies to prevent interference with other stations.A. govern B. adapt C. temper D. renovate2. A fossil is a remnant of a once-living organism.A. bone B. solvent C. picture D. vestige3. When squashed the stem and leaves of the jewelweed exude a juice that will soothe some skin irritations.A. boiled B. aged C. crushed D. chopped4. The legislative filibuster is a parliamentary tactic designed to delay or prevent action by the majority.A. tradition B. rule C. observance D. maneuver5. Ocean waves can cut imposing cliffs along coastlines.A. immobile B. impermeable C. impressive D. imaginative6. Mergers may be effected to revive or rejuvenate failing businesses by the infusion of new management and personnel.A. inspection B. introduction C. evaluation D. concentration7. A fable is a didactic tale focused on a single character trail.A. an authentic B. a muddied C. an instructive D. an old-fashioned8. The compact dictionaries published in recent years are not as unwieldy as some of the older editions.A. complete B. tiresome C. reliable D. cumbersome9. Author Katherine Sherwood McDowell had a knack for converting almost every experience into marketable prose.A. an aptitude for B. an obsession withC. an alternative to D. a purpose for10. South Carolinas mineral resources are abundant, but not all of them can be lucratively mined.A. profitably B. safely C. easily D. extensively11. Ravaged by pollution and war, many famous monuments have become eroded and stained.A. discolored B. dismembered C. displaced D. distinctive12. Orioles are arboreal birds, and when they descend to the ground, it is mainly to gather nest materials.A. territorial B. tree-dwelling C. consummate D. grumpy13. Louisa May Alcotts novel Little Women, which recounts the experiences of the four March sisters during the American Civil war, is largely autobiographical.A. praises B. narrates C. exaggerates D. classifies14. Fertilizer applied to soil can replace depleted nutrients.A. organic B. acidic C. exhausted D. desirable15. Galena, the chief ore of lead, is a brittle mineral with a metallic luster.A. hazel B. dense C. breakable D. sparking16. In Hawaii, endemic birds, such as the omao and the apapane, dwell in the volcanic highlands and tropical rain forests.A. alluring B. aquatic C. graceful D. native17. Biologists have ascertained that specialized cells convert chemical energy into mechanical energy.A. determined B. argued C. hypothesized D. griped18. Pocahonta, a seventeenth century Powhatan Indian, went to the Jamestown colony as her fathers emissary.A. ward B. attendant C. messenger D. translator19. Neon light is utilized in airport beacons because it can permeate fog.A. pass through B. transmit C. suspend D. break up20. Alexander Woollcotts flamboyant personality combined sharpness of wit with sentimentality.A. devious B. humorous C. singular D. showyC. Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence1. The form and physiology of leaves vary according to the _ in which they develop: for example, leaves display a wider range of adaptations to different degrees of light and moisture.A. relationship B. sequence C. patterns D. environment2. Since most, if not all, learning occurs through _, relating one observation to another, it would be strange indeed if the study of other cultures did not also illuminate the study of our own.A. assumptions B. experiments C. comparisons D. repetitions3. He had expected gratitude for his disclosure, but instead he encountered _ bordering on hostility.A. patience B. discretion C. ineptitude D. indifference4. Although Simpson was ingenious at _ to appear innovative and spontaneous, beneath the ruse he remained uninspired and rigid in his approach to problem-solving.A. intending B. contriving C. forbearing D. declining5. Because modern scientists find the ancient Greek view of the cosmos outdated and irrelevant, they now perceive it as only of _ interest.A. historical B. intrinsic C. experimental D. superfluous6. In spite of the increasing _ of their opinions, the group knew they had to arrive at a consensus so that the award could be presented.A. impartiality B. judiciousness C. polarity D. consistency7. Ironically, the proper use of figurative language must be based on the denotative meaning of the words, because it is the failure to recognize this _ meaning that leads to mixed metaphors and their attendant incongruity.A. esoteric B. literal C. allusive D. symbolic8. Although any destruction of vitamins caused by food irradiation could be _ the use of diet supplements, there may be no protection from carcinogens that some fear might be introduced into foods by the process.A. counterbalanced by B. attributed toC. augmented with D. stimulated by9. Data concerning the effects on a small population of high concentrations of a potentially hazardous chemical are frequently used to _ the effects on a large population of lower amounts of the same chemical.A. verify B. redress C. predict D. realize10. Early critics of Emily Dickinsons poetry mistook for simplemindedness the surface of artlessness that in fact she constructed with such _.A. astonishment B. vexation C. allusion D. cunning11. After a slow sales start early in the year, mobile homes have been gaining favor as _ to increasingly expensive conventional housing.A. a reaction B. an addition C. an introduction D. an alternative12. Although adolescent maturational and developmental states occur in an orderly sequence, their timing _ with regard to onset and duration.A. lasts B. varies C. falters D. accelerates13. Psychology has slowly evolved into an _ scientific discipline that now functions autonomously with the same privileges and responsibilities as other sciences.A. independent B. unusual C. outmoded D. uncontrolled14. Noting the murder victims flaccid musculature and pear-like figure, she deduced that the unfortunate fellow had earned his living in some _ occupation.A. treacherous B. ill-paying C. illegitimate D. sedentary15. The discovery that, friction excluded, all bodies fall at the same rate is so simple to state and to grasp that there is a tendency to _ its significance.A. underrate B. reassess C. praise D. eliminate16. The painting was larger than it appeared to be, for hanging in a darkened recess of the chapel, it was _ by the perspective.A. improved B. diminished C. embellished D. jeopardized17. Because folk art is neither completely rejected nor accepted as an art form by art historians, their final evaluations of it necessarily remain _.A. arbitrary B. estimable C. equivocal D. orthodox18. Although economists have traditionally considered the district to be solely an agricultural one, the _ of the inhabitants occupations makes such a classification obsolete.A. productivity B. diversity C. predictability D. profitability19. Although specific concerns may determine the intent of a research project, its results are often _.A. unanticipated B. beneficial C. spectacular D. specialized20. The notion that a parasite can alter the behavior of a host organism is not mere fiction; indeed, the phenomenon is not even _.A. observable B. real C. comprehended D. rarePart II. Reading ComprehensionRead each of the following passages. Choose the most appropriate from the four choices to complete the sentence or answer the question. Answer the question or write a summary as is required.Passage ANotation gave western music a means of written record, but at first only for a kind of music, chant, that was believed to have originated half a millennium and more in the pastto be effectively, ageless. Early medieval chants sprang from the whole time of eternal sameness, which they so readily convey, and similarly there was no measure of the time within themthe rhythm. Then measure came. And with it came the first identifiable composers and precisely datable works.Where chant was of a piece with other musical traditions in being self-sufficient melody, working within a modal system, belonging to no creator (but to God) and designed for worship, the new music of the twentieth century opened a distinctively western path. The measuring of time was the beginning not only of rhythmic notationknown, far beyond Europe, to the Indian theorist Sarngadeva in the first half of the thirteenth centurybut also of music involving coordination among singers carrying different melodies, of polyphony. This, too, was by no means confined to the wedge of land between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic : the gamelan music of Bali, a tradition independent of Europe, is comparable with early western polyphony in its snperposition of different time streams, fast and slow, while the music of many sub-Saharan African peoples often piles up dissimilar rhythmic layers in ways foreign to Europe outside certain special repertories (fourteenth-century song and some music since 1950). But, from the twelfth century to the fifteenth, polyphony in the west gradually moved away from the repetitive structures that were retained on Bali or in central Africa as Europeans discovered how harmony could result in continuous flow.The source, as of so much in western culture, was a misunderstanding of classical Greek knowledge, again acquired through Boethius. He had nothing to say about harmony in the sense of chords, but he conveyed a Geek satisfaction in the primacy of the octave and the fifth, which medieval musicians took as models of consonance (the euphonious combining notes). Just as essential were dissonant combinations, lacking euphony, for these would intensify the need for consonance. A dissonance placed immediately before a final consonance would produce a firmly conclusive endinga cadence, such as became an essential of western musiC. Extending back from the cadence, the forces of harmony, marshaled through relationships between each chord and the next, could amplify the directional sense already present in the melodythe sense of movement towards a resting point on the last note. Thus time measured became time decisively having a goal, and music could emulate the progress in every human soul towards eternity.Music mirrored, too, how time generally was being told. Guidos staff notation came roughly when water clocks were reintroduced from Byzantium and Islam, enabling monks to know when a service was due from the level reached by water slowly filling a vessel. Thus reading, whether of a chantbook or a water gauge, substituted for memory and intuition. Exact synchrony between music and time was lost a little when clockwork mechanisms appeared in the mid-thirteenth century, half a century later than the gear-driven music produced at Notre Dame in Paris. However, the perfection of hour-chiming with hour-chiming capabilities, in the astronomical clock made by Richard Wallingford for St. Albans Abbey (1327-36), strikingly coincided with the perfection of rhythmic notation that spread from Paris and gave music its own machinery of time lengths.Choose the most appropriate from the four choices to answer the question or complete the sentence.1. Which of the following is the most appropriate title for this passage?A. The Development of RhythmB. Time Measured.C. Notation and TimeD. Music and Civilization2. It can be inferred from the passage that before notation appeared _.A. music was always renewed and could last only as long as memoryB. music presented people with three times at once: the now in which they heard it, the then in which it was made, and the further then of when the piece was composedC. polyphony had already been developed to such a degree that different melodies carried by different singers could form a coordinated harmonyD. music mostly was not improvised and was not dated with precision3. The author would most likely consider Western musicand the music of non-Western cultures as _.A. respectively revolutionary and conservativeB. equal but distinctC. both homogeneous and heterogeneousD. illustrative of advancement and backwardness4. The passage states that _.A. music and civilization complement each other and contradict each otherB. rhythmic notation appeared because human beings could tell time in a new wayC. notation appeared when musical works were no longer anonymous and non-datableD. the appearance of rhythmic notation manifests a new stage of human beings quantitative method of thoughtWrite a summary.5. Summarize the passage in 4 or 5 sentences.Passage BFrench toys: One could not find a better illustration of the fact that the adult Frenchman sees the child as another self. All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world; they are all reduced copies of human objects, as if in the eyes of the public the child was, all told, nothing but a smaller man, a homunculus to whom must be supplied objects of his own size.Invented forms are very rare : a few sets of blocks, which appeal to the spirit of do-it-yourself, are the only ones which offer dynamic forms. As for the others, French toys always mean something, and this something is always entirely socialized, constituted by the myths or the techniques of modern adult life: the army, broadcasting, the post office, medicine (miniature instrument-cases, operating theaters for dolls), school, hair styling (driers for permanent-waving), the air force (parachutists), transport (trains, Citroens, Vedettes, Vespas, petrol stations), science (Martian toys).The fact that French toys literally prefigure the world of adult functions obviously cannot but prepare the child to accept them all, by constituting for him, even before he can think about it, the alibi of a Nature which has at all times created soldiers, postmen, and Vespas. Toys here reveal the list of all the things the adult does not find unusual: war, bureaucracy, ugliness, Martians, etC. It is not so much, in fact, the imitation which is the sign of an abdication, as its literalness: French toys are like a Jivaro head, in which one recognizes, shrunken to the size of an apple, the wrinkles and hair of an adult. There exist, for instance, dolls which urinate; they have an esophagus, one gives them a bottle, they wet their nappies; soon, no doubt, milk will turn to water in their stomachs. This is meant to prepare the little girl for the causality of housekeeping, to condition her to her future role as mother. However, faced with this world of faithful and complicated objects, the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as creator; he does not invent the world, he uses it: There are, prepared for him, actions without adventure, without wonder, without joy. He is turned into a little stay-at-home householder who does not even have to invent the mainsprings of adult causality; they are supplied to him ready-made: He has only to help himself, he is never allowed to discover anything from start to finish. The merest set of blocks, provided it is not too refined, implies a very different learning of the world : Then, the child does not in any way create meaningful objects, it matters little to him whether they have an adult name; the actions he performs are not those of a user hut those of a demiurge. He creates forms which walk, which roll, he creates life, not property: Objects no, act by themselves, they are no longer an inert and complicated material in the palm of his hand. But such toys are rather rare : French toys are usually based on imitation, they are meant to produce children who are users, not creators.The bourgeois status of toys can be recognized not only in their forms, which are all functional, but also in their substances. Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature. Many are now molded from complicated mixtures; the plastic material of which they are made has an appearance at once gross and hygienic, it destroys all the ple