考博阅读理解

1、Text1The most noticeable trend among today's media companies is vertical integration (垂直统一管理) , an attempt(尝试) to control several related aspects(方面) of the media business at once, each part helping the other. Besides publishing magazines and books, Time Warner, for example, owns Home Box Office

2、 ( HBO), Warner movie studios (摄影棚), various cable TV systems throughout the USA, and CNN as well. The Japanese company Matsushita Owns MCA. Records and Universal Studios and manufactures broadcast production equipment. To describe the financial status ( 财务状态 ) of todays media is also to talk about

3、acquisitions(获得). The media are buying and selling each other in unprecedented(空前的) numbers and forming media groups to position themselves in the market place to maintain and increase their profits(利润). In 1986, the first time a broadcast network had been sold, two networks were sold that yearABC a

4、nd NBC. Media acquisitions have skyrocketed(猛增) since 1980 for two reasons. The first is that most big corporations today are publicly traded companies, which means that their stock is traded on one of the nations stock exchanges (股票交易). This makes acquisitions relatively easy. A media company that

5、wants to buy a publicly owned company can buy that company's stock when the stock becomes available(有用的). The open availabilities of stock in these companies means that anybody with enough money can invest in the American media Indus tries, which is exactly how Rupert Murdoch joined the media bu

6、siness.The second reason for the increase in media alliances(联合) is that beginning in 1980, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gradually deregulated (解除管制) the broadcast media. Before 1980, for example, the FCC allowed one company to own only five TV stations, five AM radio stations, and fi

7、ve FM radio stations; companies also were required to hold onto a station for three years before the station could be sold. The post-1980 FCC eliminated the three-year rule and raised the number of broadcast holdings allowed for one owner. This trend (倾向；趋势) of media acquisitions is continuing throu

8、ghout the 1990s,as changing technology expands the market for media products.1. Which of the following is true of the media?A. They used to sell and buy each other in great numbers.B. They are trading each other in greater numbers today.C. They used to be controlled by two networksABC and NBC.D. The

9、y have stopped the trend of acquisitions in the 1990s.2. According to the passage, what makes acquisitions easier?A. The changing technology employed by the media.B. The media's increasing profits in the marketplace.C. The ever tougher regulations of the FCC on the media since 1980.D. The availa

10、bilities of the media's stocks on stock exchanges.3. What is the FCCs new policy regarding media alliances?B. It doesn't allow companies to sell their stocks publiclyC. It permits one company to own more media businesses at the same time.D. It has eliminated all post 1980 companies.4. The is

11、sue of media ownership is important because _.A. it affects the amount of money the stockholders will makeB. it decides whether we can have different aspects of the mediaC. it concerns the channels through which to express opinionsD. it means that more and more people will hold onto only a few stati

12、ons.Text2Several analogies have been used to explain human memory, the construct used to account for the way experiences at one point in time influence behavior at a later point in time. Plato (425-348BC), for example, suggested memory was analogous to the impression of messages on wax writing table

13、ts. For Plato, writing on the tablet represented learning something new, the tablet itself was the memory store, and reading the tablets later was analogous to trying to recall the stored information. Like the writing on a wax surface, with the passing of time, memories became less clear. Unfortunat

14、ely, Platos analogy misses an important characteristic of memory, namely that it is selective. By way of contrast, one always has access to the information on the tablet, unless all or part of it is destroyed.Another analogy is of memory and a hologram. A hologram is a device which stores a three di

15、mensional record of a scene using photography with a laser light. Even if part of the holographic plate is missing, it is possible to reconstruct the image with the parts of the plate that remain. Experiences or knowledge can also be recalled using incomplete memories. Other analogies involve artifi

16、cial methods of storing information, too. The comparison of the mind to a computer is attractive because it emphasizes the ability of human memory to recall information quickly, but the same objections stated above with regard to Platos hypothesis apply here.Gregg (1975) has compared memory to the f

17、unctioning of a tape recorder. The latter records sound waves, coded as magnetic patterns on tape, and store them over time. The information recorded can be decoded, without destroying the tape, for later use. Gregg points out, however,that the analogy is too simple. Human memory is far more sophist

18、icated than the workings of a tape recorder. It does not simply record passing events passively, for instance; unlike the machine, it is dynamic, capable of selecting which information it will store, and of arranging the storage system in more than just a simple linear fashion.Blakemore (1977) has n

19、oted that the discovery of DNA, the molecule that carries genetic information, has provided scientists with another source of analogy to describe memory. This analogy proposes that each experience results in the synthesis of specific chemical molecules in the brain and the formation of new molecules

20、. These synthesized molecules represent memories. This description of memory would provide both the physical substrata (the synthesized molecule) and the nature of the code (the specific shape of the molecule).However attractive a given analogy may appear, it is important to recognize the limited fu

21、nction of analogies in science in general. As used in science, they are generally substitutes for understanding, models that guide research, not genuine explanations of phenomena. They are useful if they provoke investigations designed to establish differences between the things compared, dangerous

22、if they promote complacent acceptance as the same, two things which are really different.11. One definition of human memory given by the author is that _.A. experiences may influence behavior at one time but not at otherB. experiences account for later behaviorC. mental construct may account for the

23、 way experiences influence later behaviorD. memory is constructed in the way that accounts for experiences12. The hologram analogy is better than Platos since _.A. it is a three dimensional recordB. it uses the modern technology of photographyC. it includes the known capacity of memory for recoverin

24、g missing informationD. it has a large capacity of storing information than Platos wax writing tablets13. The author thinks the analogy with a computer is_.A. an improvement for the wax tablet and hologram examplesB. as objectionable as Platos, though attractiveC. inappropriate, if applied to Platos

25、 hypothesisD. an exact illustration of the characteristics of human memory14. One limitation of the tape recorder analogy is that_.A. the machine is only capable of storing information linearlyB. memories are too numerable to be recordedC. the machine is only good for recording sounds but not for re

26、cording graphsD. the tape-recorder records passing events only but the brain predicts the future as well15. The author sees analogies as _-.A. the end product of scientific researchB. substitutes for investigation and understandingC. inspirations guiding further research into unknown areasD. models

27、provoking investigation into differences between the compared thingsText3“Museum”is a slippery word. It first meant (in Greek) anything consecrated to the Muses:a hill,a shrine,a garden,a festival or even a textbook.Both Platos Academy and Aristotles Lyceum had a mouseion,a muses shrine.Although the

28、 Greeks already collected detached works of art,many templesnotably that of Hera at Olympia (before which the Olympic flame is still lit)had collections of objects,some of which were works of art by well?known masters,while paintings and sculptures in the Alexandrian Museum were incidental to its ma

29、in purpose. The Romans also collected and exhibited art from disbanded temples,as well as mineral specimens,exotic plants,animals; and they plundered sculptures and paintings (mostly Greek) for exhibition.Meanwhile,the Greek word had slipped into Latin by transliteration (though not to signify pictu

30、re galleries,which were called pinacothecae) and museum still more or less meant“Muses- shrine”. The inspirational collections of precious and semi-precious objects were kept in larger churches and monasterieswhich focused on the gold-enshrined,bejewelled relics of saints and martyrs.Princes,and lat

31、er merchants,had similar collections,which became the deposits of natural curiosities:large lumps of amber or coral,irregular pearls,unicorn horns,ostrich eggs,fossil bones and so on.They also included coins and gemsoften antique engraved onesas well as,increasingly,paintings and sculptures.As they

32、multiplied and expanded,to supplement them,the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined. At the same time,visitors could admire the very grandest paintings and sculptures in the churches,palaces and castles; they were not“collected”either,but“site-specific”,and were considered an integral part

33、both of the fabric of the buildings and of the way of life which went on inside themand most of the buildings were public ones.However,during the revival of antiquity in the fifteenth century,fragments of antique sculpture were given higher status than the work of any contemporary,so that displays o

34、f antiquities would inspire artists to imitation,or even better,to emulation; and so could be considered Muses- shrines in the former sense.The Medici garden near San Marco in Florence,the Belvedere and the Capitol in Rome were the most famous of such early“inspirational”collections.Soon they multip

35、lied,and,gradually,exemplary “modern”works were also added to such galleries. In the seventeenth century,scientific and prestige collecting became so widespread that three or four collectors independently published directories to museums all over the known world.But it was the age of revolutions and

36、 industry which produced the next sharp shift in the way the institution was perceived:the fury against royal and church monuments prompted antiquarians to shelter them in asylum-galleries,of which the Musee des Monuments Francais was the most famous.Then,in the first half of the nineteenth century,

37、museum funding took off,allied to the rise of new wealth:London acquired the National Gallery and the British Museum,the Louvre was organized,the Museum-Insel was begun in Berlin,and the Munich galleries were built.In Vienna,the huge Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museums took over much of the imperial treasure.Meanwhile,the decline of craftsmanship (and of public taste with it) inspired the creation of “improving”collections.The Vic