广西师范大学2015年非英语专业研究生学位英语考试试卷.doc

广西师范大学2015年非英语专业研究生学位英语考试试卷 Part I Reading Comprehension (共40分，每小题2分 )Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. At the end of each passage, five questions will be asked about it. You should read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide on the best choice. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. Passage One Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females. However, this number changes a great deal, and by the age of maturity, the number of young men is about the same as that of young women. And among 70-year old people, there are twice as many women as men. But this great universal truth is changing. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that for the first time there will be too many boys in those crucial years when boys are searching for a mate. What is even more troubling is that the survival of so many boys has removed a chance for natural selection to do its work. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the difference in weight is due to genes, a force of change has gone. There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of children. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have disappeared. For us, this means that people will no longer experience the physical changes that other living things do; our bodies are as perfect as they are ever going to be. Strangely, we have been able to make great advancements without physical change. In the past 100,000 yearseven the past 100 yearsour lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We managed to make such changes because of technology and social systems. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of the process of change; they look at living beings like a dog looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond their comprehension. No doubt we will be shocked at the ugliness of the 20th century way of life. But however amazed future people may be at how far from perfection we were, those future people will look just like us.1. According to the author, what was the danger a man had to face in the past?A. Lack of mates.B. Strong competition.C. Lower chance of living to maturity.D. Genes.2. The sentence There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide perhaps means _.A. there is another way to stop the society from making progressB. you can kill yourself by another meansC. there is another factor to prevent us from evolvingD. we have to find a way to do something3. Women except _ are having relatively small numbers of children.A. those who live to be very oldB. those who live in religious communitiesC. those who have the advantage of technologyD. those who live in poor countries4. The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because _.A. life has been improved by technological advancementB. the number of female babies has been decliningC. we have reached the highest stage of evolutionD. the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing5. What is this passage mainly about?A. The change in the numbers of boys and girls.B. Ways of continuing mans evolution.C. The evolution future of nature.D. Human evolution going nowhere.Passage TwoA little noticed change has been taking place in our time-world. The arrival of digital time has been changing the way we act and think. I believe that it has put us to a higher level of anxiety, with greater expectations of efficiency. The old, round, hand-moved time still kept a certain connection to the natural flow of things, to the roundness of the earth, and to the changes of light and seasons. Old, round time was outside ourselves, far enough removed from us so we could ignore it if we so chose. It is not so with digital time, which is a beat. It beats instead of turning. It makes a sound like the sound of the heart and thus places itself smoothly into the body. More and more, we mistake its regular beat for our own, thus mistaking the demands of the world for our wishes. Before wrist watches, time used to live in towers in the centers of towns. At that distance, it could be seen by everybody, but only if they so wished. It took an effort, an actual visit to time. But then something happened. Time began to live with us, and now it is beginning to live in us. I remember what it was like to be a child, absorbed in the endlessly changeable thing of time. For me there was only child time, divided meaninglessly and quite painfully by the orders of the parents into Bedtime, Wakeup Time, and School Time. But within each of those divisions, Eternity (永恒) still ruled. Later, of course, they managed to infect me with the anxious demands of clock time. Very soon, all that remained was the anxiety of that which was exact. The fast beats of the timepiece cut Eternity to pieces. Occasionally, I stop long enough to recall the times of childhood, but not often enough. Like everybody else, I am helpless before the new technologies. Time is a virus, and it is growing stronger.6. Digital time has changed how we act and think by _.A. allowing us to work with more efficiencyB. giving us more time to do what we likeC. causing us to be more anxiousD. having us expect more of others7. The author thinks that the old clocks _.A. are somehow linked with the seasonal changesB. stay closer to people than a digital watchC. are connected with humans handsD. work better than a wrist watch8. Before watches, clocks were located _.A. everywhere for everyone to seeB. wherever a person wishedC. on the wristD. in the center of town9. In the authors early childhood memory, _.A. time was a concrete thingB. time seemed to have no endC. he fought against his parents idea of timeD. he enjoyed the anxiety of precision (精确)10. The authors attitude towards time in the modern world is _.A. positiveB. unclearC. negativeD. in the middlePassage ThreeWhy is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a step back from the closeness of human interaction. With email and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine. As almost every imaginable contact between human beings becomes automatic by machine, the alienation quotient goes up. You cant even call a person to get the phone number of another person anywhere. Phone assistance is almost always fully automatic by machine. Pumping gas at the station? Why say good morning to the worker when you can use your credit card at the pump and save yourself the bother of human contact? Placing money at the bank? Why talk to a clerk who might live in the neighborhood when you can just put your credit card into the ATM? Pretty soon you wont have the hard task of making eye contact at the grocery store. Some grocery chains are using a self-scanner so you can check yourself out, avoiding those annoying clerks who look at you and ask how you are doing.11. The effect of increased communication technology is _.A. the retreat of human closenessB. the lack of care for neighborsC. the saving of more free timeD. the advance of our contacts12. If his mom has a question, he will _.A. find new ways to reach herB. send her an email messageC. try to get her a voice machineD. answer through voice mail13. Judging from the context, the word alienation (Line 2, Paragraph 2) means _.A. relationshipB. closenessC. strangenessD. stress14. ATMs in banks have changed life by _.A. making it more difficult to want human contactB. making it faster to receive money from banksC. making it easier to obtain bank credit cardsD. making it unnecessary to talk with bank clerks15. The writers attitude toward advances in communications technology may be described as _.A. unconcernedB. criticalC. positiveD. uninterestedPassage FourDramatic changes in higher education are giving more people than ever the chance of studying for a degree. But they may find many difficulties when it comes to new graduates job prospects. According to a report from the Institute of Manpower Studies, the output of graduates in Britain has almost doubled in the past five years and seems set to rise by a further 57 per cent by 2005. At the same time, economic recession has cut the number of graduate jobs such that one in seven (14 per cent) of 2002 university graduates in England, Scotland and Wales failed to find work within six months of graduating. So is it surprising that many graduates have turned to post-graduate studies as an escape route? In the 10 years to 2001, the number of students on masters courses grew by 97 per cent. But while such courses in mathematics and computer sciences rose by 149 per cent, science courses increased by only 31 per cent. The growth in the number of science students has not been evenly spread out, and in some subjects numbers are actually falling. What is disturbing, says Richard Pearson, the director of the Institute of Manpower Studies, is that the output of physics graduates will go down by 6 per cent and mathematicians by 4 per cent by 1995. Students are now more attracted to business studies and combined non-technical degree courses than to single honors degrees in science and technology. The day when there are no physics teachers to be found may yet return.16. Whats the main focus of the above passage?A. There are more chances for students to get degrees.B. The students job future remains bleak.C. Many students turn to postgraduate studies.D. More graduates meet with less job offers.17. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?A. Graduates in Britain have almost doubled in the past five years and will rise to 57 per cent by 2005.B. One out of seven graduates from universities in England, Scotland and Wales was jobless within six months after graduation.C. From 1991 to 2001, the number of students on masters degree courses rose by 97 per cent.D. Mathematics and computer courses grew by 149 per cent and science courses by only 31 per cent.18. What concerned Richard Pearson, the director of the Institute of Manpower Studies?A. Hes worried about the lack of combined non-technical degree courses.B. Hes worried about the job prospects of science students.C. Hes concerned about the uneven spread of science students.D. Hes concerned about the drop in the number of technical courses.19. Whats the overall tendency when it comes to course preference among students?A. They tend to choose business courses.B. They prefer mathematics to physics.C. They are more attracted to science courses.D. They prefer courses with better job prospects.20. Whats the possible solution of the problem in question?A. Increase students social responsibilities.B. Assist students in their career choices.C. Develop their interest in physics teaching.D. Encourage their passion for science research.Part II Cloze (共10 分，每小题0. 5分)Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter with a single line through the centre.As she walked round the huge department store, Edith _21 how difficult it was to choose a suitable Christmas present for her father. She _22 that he were as easy to please as her mother, who was _23 delighted with perfume. _24 shopping at this time of the year was a most disagreeable experience: people _25 your toes, pushed you with their elbows and almost knocked you _26 in their _27 to get to a bargain _28 of you.Partly to have a rest, Edith paused in front of a(n) _29 where some attractive ties were on display. “They are real silk,” the assistant _30 her, trying to persuade her. “_31 double the price.” But Edith knew from her past experience that her _32 of ties hardly ever pleased her father.She moved on reluctantly and then _33 by chance, stopped where a small crowd of men had gathered round a counter. She found some good quality pipes on _34 and the prices were very reasonable. Edith did not _35 for long; _36 her father only smoked a cigar occasionally, she knew that this was a present which was _37 to please him.When she got home, with her small but _38 present concealed in her handbag, he parents were already _39 table having supper. Her mother was in an especially cheerful _40 . “Your father has at last decided to stop smoking.” She informed her daughter.21. A. reflectedB. wonderedC. forgotD. reminded22. A. hopedB. thoughtC. realizedD. wished23. A. hardlyB. seldomC. occasionallyD. always24. A. SomehowB. BesidesC. FortunatelyD. Beside25. A. steppedB. walkedC. hitD. kicked26. A. awayB. aroundC. overD. behind27. A. worryB. wayC. hasteD. anxiety28. A. insteadB. aheadC. frontD. away29. A. shopB. entranceC. counterD. elevator30. A. advisedB. cheatedC. influencedD. assured31. A. WorthB. CostC. ValueD. Reduce32. A. purchaseB. selectionC. choiceD. decision33. A. quiteB. rightC. ratherD. also34. A. timeB. saleC. dealD. board35. A. restB. stopC. hesitateD. p