通用考博英语历年真题.doc

历年真题2000年北京大学博士研究生入学考试英语试题Part Structure & Written ExpressionDirections: In each question decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Put the letter of your choice in the ANSWER SHEET. (25%)1Thomas Wolfe portrayed people so that you came to know their yearnings, their impulses, and their warts-this was effective_Amotivation Bpoint of view Ccharacterization Dbackground 2The appeal to the senses known as_is especially common in poetryAimaginative Bimaginable Cingenious Dimagery 3If youve got a complaint, the best thing is to see the person concerned and_with himAtell it Bhave it out Csay it Dhave it known 4There have been several attempts to introduce gayer colors and styles in mens clothing, but none of them_Ahas caught on Bhas caught him out Chas caught up Dtake roots 5The retired engineer plunked down 50,000 in cash for a mid-size Mercedes as a present for his wife_a purchase with money made in the stock market the week beforeApaid off Bpaid through Cpaid out Dpaid for 6He has courage all right, but in matters requiring judgment, he has often been found sadly_Alack it Babsent Cin need of it Dwanting 7Danis Hayes raised the essential paradox and asked how people could have fought so hard against environmental degradation_themselves now on the verge of losing the warAonly found Bfinding only Conly to find Dhave only found 8The once separate issue of environment and development are now_linkedAintangible Bindispensable Cinextricably Dincredibly 9The need to see that justice is done_every decision made in the courtsAimplants into Bimposes on Cimpinges upon Dimprecates upon 10Two thirds of the U. S. basketball players are black, and the number would be greater_the continuing practice of picking white bench warmers for the sake of balanceAwas it not because of Bhad it not been for Cwere it not for Dwould it not have been for 11No one would have time to read or listen to an account of everything_going on in the worldAit is Bthere is Cas is Dwhat is 12If there is the need to compete in a crowd, to battle_the edge the surest strategy is to develop the unexpectedAon Bfor Cagainst Dwith 13Just as there are occupations that require college or even higher degrees, _occupations for which technical training is necessaryAso too there are Bso also there are Cso there are too Dso too are there 14It is a myth that the law permits the Food and Drug Administration to ignore requirements for_drugs while brand-name drugs still must meet these rigid testsAspecific Bgeneric Cintricate Dacrid 15The very biggest and most murderous wars during the industrial age were intra-industrial wars that_Second Wave nations like Germany and Britain against one an otherApitted Bdrove Ckept Dembarked 16The private life of having each individual make his or her own choice of beliefs and interest_without the overarching public world of the state, which sustains a structure of law appropriate to a self-determining associationAis not possible Bwould not be possible Cwill not be possible Dcannot be possible 17From Christianity and the barbarian kingdoms of the west emerged the medieval version of politics_in tum evolved the politics of our modern worldAof which Bfrom which Con which Dby which 18The Portuguese give a great deal of credit to one man for having promoted sea travel that man_Prince Henry, the navigator, who lived in the 15th centuryAwas Bwas called Ccalling Dbeing 19Grant was one of a body of men who were self-reliant_, who cared hardly anything for the past but had a sharp eye for the futureAon themselves Bon not making a fault Cto a fault Dto remain ahead 20Huntington and many of its competitors are working to make remedial instruction a commodity as_and accessible as frozen yogurtAubiquitous Brational Cnecessary Dcredible 21The scheme for rebuilding the city center_owing to the refusal of a Council to sanction the expenditure of the money it would have requiredAfell down Bfell off Cfell out Dfell flat 22If they think they are going to win over us by obstinately_and refusing to make the slightest concession, they are mistakenAholding out Bholding to Cholding over Dholding up 23The possibility that the explosion was caused by sabotage cannot be_Abroken out Bcancelled out Cruled out Dwiped out 24The ex-president had been_in the country to refresh his mind before he passed awayAgiven to walking Bgiven a walk Cgiven for a walk Dgiving a walk 25He did not relish appealing amongst his friends and_of their criticism or censureArunning short Brunning out Crunning the gauntlet Drunning ahead Part Reading ComprehensionDirections: Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question four answers are given. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question. Put your choice in the ANSWER SHEET. (15%)Passage 1It was a normal day in the life of the American Red Cross in Greater New York. First, part of a building on West 140th Street, in Harlem, fell down. Beds tumbled through the air, people slid out of their apartments and onto the ground, three people died, and the Red Cross was there, helping shocked residents find temporary shelter, and food and clothing. Then it was back downtown for that evenings big fund-raiser, the Eleventh Annual Red Cross Award Dinner Dance, at the Pierre. “Thats why I have bad hair tonight,” said Christopher Peake, a Red Cross spokesman who had spent much of the day at the Harlem scene, in the drizzling rain. He was now in a tuxedo, and actually his hair didnt look so bad, framed by a centerpiece of tulips and jonquils, and perhaps improved by subdued lighting from eight crystal chandeliersDefinitely not having a bad-hair night was Elizabeth Dole, the wife of Senator Robert Dole and the president of the American Red Cross. President Dole has chestnut-colored Republican hair, which was softly coifed, and she was wearing a fitted burgundy velvet evening suit (“Someone made it for me! I love velvet.” she exclaimed, in her enthusiastic, Northern Carolina hostess voice) and sparkling drop earrings. Of course, she hadnt been standing in the rain in Harlem; she had just flown up on the three-oclock shuttle from Washington. Dole is extremely pretty, with round green eyes and a full mouth and a direct personality. She tilts her head attentively when she listens. She was the recipient of the evenings award; previous award winners have included Alice Tully, Princess Yasmin Asa Khan, and, most recently, Brooke Astor. Not exactly a sequence at the end of which you would expect to find Elizabeth Dole, but award givers are famous for having political instincts as well as philanthropic onesSurrounded by the deep-blue swags and golden draperies of the ballroom were more than thirty-five dinner tables set with groupings of candles and floral centerpieces and Royal Doulton china. American Express was there. So were Bristol-Myers Squibb; Coopers Lybrand; the New York Times Company; Union Bank of Switzerland; Chemical Bank; New York Life;. and Price Waterhouse. The actress Arlene Dahl, with her rather red hair and her bearded husband, presided over one table. Otherwise, it was a typical, faceless, captain-of-industry fund raiser (no models! no stars!), of which there seems to be at least one every night in New York City. It was not a society night, but still the evening raised four hundred and thirty thousand dollars26From what we read we can infer that “it was a normal day in the life of the American Red Cross in Greater New York” means its staff_Adeal with the fail of houses in the city every day Bare busy helping people who suffer from disasters every day Cwork during the day and to have banquet in the evening every day Dgo to Harlem, the poorest district of New York, every day and help people there 27The fund-raiser mentioned in the passage refers to_ARobert Dole BElizabeth Dole Cthe Eleventh Annual Red Cross Award Dinner Dance Dall the business companies attending the Dinner Dance 28Christopher Peakes hair didnt look so bad because_Ahe was wearing a handsome tuxedo Bhe was wearing tulips on his suit Che was seen among flowers Dhe was sitting near flowers and in very soft light 29Elizabeth Dole was_Athe president of the American Red Cross and acted at the Dinner as a North Carolina hostess Ba republican and wife of the president of the American Red Cross Cthe president of the American Red Cross and its main representative at the Annual Dinner Dance Dborn in North Carolina, became an air-hostess and later married Senator Robert Dole30The presence of an actress at the Dinner made the fund raising_Aless impersonal Ba typical fund-raising event Cless personal Dmore business-like Passage 2For laymen ethnology is probably the most interesting of the biological sciences for the very reason that it concerns animals in their normal activities and therefore, if we wish, we can assess the possible dangers and advantages in our own behavioral roots. Ethnology also is interesting methodologically because it combines in new ways very scrupulous field observations with experimentation in laboratoriesThe field workers have had some handicaps in winning respect for themselves. For a long time they were considered as little better than amateur animal-watchers certainly not scientists, since their facts were not gained by experimental procedures: they could not conform to the hard-and-fast rule that a problem set up and solved by one scientist must be tested by other scientists, under identical conditions and reaching identical results. Of course many situations in the lives of animals simply cannot be rehearsed and controlled in this way. The fall flocking of wild free birds cant be, or the homing of animals over long distances, or even details of spontaneous family relationships. Since these never can be reproduced in a laboratory, are they then not worth knowing about?The ethnologists who choose field work have got themselves out of this impasse by greatly refining the techniques of observing. At the start of a project all the animals to be studied are live-trapped, marked individually, and released. Motion pictures, often in color, provide permanent records of their subsequent activities. Recording of the animals voices by electrical sound equipment is considered essential, and the most meticulous notes are kept of all that occurs. With this material other biologists, far from the scene, later can verify the reports. Moreover, two field observers often go out together, checking each others observations right there in the fieldEthnology, the word, is derived from the Greek ethos, meaning the characteristic traits or features which distinguish any particular group of people or, in biology, a group of animals such as a species. Ethnologists have the intention of studying “the whole sequence of acts which constitute an animals behavior.” In abridged dictionaries ethnology is sometimes defined simply as “the objective study of animal behavior,” and ethnologists do emphasize their wish to eliminate myths31In the first sentence, the word “laymen” means Apeople who stand aside Bpeople who are not trained as biologists Cpeople who are amateur biologists Dpeople who love animals 32According to the passage, ethnology is Aa new branch of biology Ban old Greek science Ca pseudo-science Da science for amateurs 33“The field workers have handicaps in winning respect for themselves.” This sentence means Aethnologists when working in the field are handicapped Bethnologists have problems in winning recognition as scientists Cethnologists are looked down upon when they work in the field Dethnologists meet with lots of difficulties when doing field work 34According to the explanation of the scientific rule of experiment in the passage, “hard-and-fast”means experiment procedures Aare difficult and quick to follow Bmust be carried out in a strict and quick way Cmust be followed strictly to avoid false and loose results Dhard and unreasonable for scientists to observe 35The meaning of the underlined words in “the details of spontaneous family relationships” can be expressed as Anatural family relationships Bquickly occurring family relationships Canimals acting like a natural family Danimal family behavior that cannot be preplanned or controlled Passage 3The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by Victor Hugo in a famous chapter of “NotreDame de Paris”. It was a cathedral. On all parts of the giant building, statuary and stone representations of every kind, combined with huge windows of stained glass, told the stories of the Bible and the saints, displayed the intricacies of Christian theology, adverted to the existence of highly unpleasant demonic winged creatures, referred diplomatically to the majesties of political power, and, in addition, by means of bells in bell towers, told time for the benefit of all of Paris and much of France. It was an awesome engine of communicationThen came the transition to something still more awesome. The new technology of mass communication was portable, could sit on your table, and was easily replicable, and yet, paradoxically, contained more information, more systematically presented, than even the largest of cathedrals. It was the printed book. Though it provided no bells and could not tell time, the over-all superiority of the new invention was unmistakableIn the last ten or twenty years, we have been undergoing a more or less equivalent shift-this time to a new life as a computer-using population. The gain in portability, capability, ease, orderliness, accuracy, reliability, and information-storage over anything achievable by pen scribbling, typewriting, and cabinet filing is recognized by all. The progress for civilization is undeniable and, plainly, irreversible. Yet, just as the books triumph over the cathedral divided people into two groups, one of which prospered, while the other lapsed into gloom, the computers triumph has also divided the human raceYou have only to bring a computer into a room to see that some people begin at once to buzz with curiosity and excitement, sit down to conduct experiments, oh and ah at the boxes and beeps, and master the use of the computer or a new program as quickly as athletes playing a delightful new game. But how difficult it is-how grim and frightful for the other people, the defeated class, whose temperament does not naturally respond to computers. The machine whirrs and glows before them and their faces twitch. They may be splendidly educated, as measured by book-reading, yet their instincts are all wrong, and no amount of manual-studying and mouse-clicking will make them right. Computers require a sharply different set of aptitudes, and, if the aptitudes are missing, little can be done, and misery is guaranteedIs the computer industry aware that computers have divided mankind into two new, previously unknown classes, the computer personalities and the non-computer personalities? Yes, the industry knows this. Vast sums have been expended in order to adapt the computer to the limitations of noncomputer personalities. Apples Macintosh, with its zooming animations and pull-down menus and little pictures of file folders and watch faces and trash cans, pointed the way. Such seductions have soothed the apprehensions of a certain number of the computer-averse. This spring, the computer industrys efforts are reaching a culmination of sons. Microsoft, Bill Gates giant corporation, is to bring out a program package called Microsoft Bob, designed by Mr. Gates wife, Melinda French, and intended to render computer technology available even to people who are openly terrified of computers. Bobs principle is to take the several tasks of operating a computer, rename them in a folksy style, and assign to them the images of an ideal room in an ideal home, with furniture and bookshelves, and with chummy cartoon helpers (“Friends of Bob”) to guide the computer user over the rough spots, and, in that way, simulate an atmosphere that feels nothing like computers36According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?AIt is bec