2014年硕士研究生入学考试参考答案（英语二）

说明：由于2014年试题为一题多卷，因此现场试卷中的选择题部分，不同考生有不同顺序。请在核对答案时注意题目和选项的具体内容。

Section I  Use of English

Directions：

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered black and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Thinner isn’t always better. A number of studies have _1_ that normal-weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases, compared to those who are overweight. And there are health conditions for which being overweight is actually _2_. For example, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thin women. _3_, among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an _4_ of good health.

Of even greater _5_is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define. It is often defined _6_ body mass index, or BMI. BMI _7_ body mass divided by the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered to be moral weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is considered obese. Obesity, _8_, can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese, and very severely obese. While such numerical standards seem _9_, they are not. Obesity is probably less a matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in fact extremely fit, _10_ others with a low BMI may be in poor _11_. For example, many collegiate and professional football players _12_ as obese, though their percentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high body fat but a _13_ BMI. Today we have a(n) _14_ to label obesity as a disgrace. The overweight are sometimes _15_ in the media with their faces covered. Stereotypes _16_ with obesity include laziness, lack of will power, and lower prospects for success. Teachers, employers, and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese. _17_ very young children tend to look down on the overweight, and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.

Negative attitudes towards obesity, _18_ in health concerns, have stimulated a number of anti-obesity _19_. My own hospital system has banned sugary drinks from its facilities. Many employers have instituted weight loss and fitness initiatives. Michelle Obama has launched a high–visibility campaign _20_ children obesity, even claiming that it represents our greatest national security threat.

1．（A）concluded       （B）ensured         （C）doubted       （D）denied

2．（A）dangerous       （B）protective      （C）sufficient      （D）troublesome

3．（A）Instead            （B）However       （C）Likewise      （D）Therefore

4．（A）objective         （B）indicator        （C）origin           （D）example

5．（A）impact             （B）relevance       （C）assistance    （D）concern

6．（A）in favor of       （B）in case of       （C）in term of    （D）in respects of

7．（A）equals              （B）determines    （C）measures      （D）modifies

8．（A）in turn             （B）in contrast     （C）in essence    （D）in part

9．（A）complicated    （B）conservative  （C）variable        （D）straightforward

10. （A）so                   （B）unless            （C）since            （D）while

11.（A）shape                （B）spirit              （C）balance        （D）taste

12.（A）start                  （B）qualify           （C）stay              （D）retire

13.（A） strange           （B）constant        （C）normal         （D）changeable

14.（A）option               （B）tendency       （C）opportunity （D）reason

15.（A）employed         （B）pictured         （C）imitated       （D）monitored

16.（A）compared         （B）combined      （C）settled         （D）associated

17.（A）Yet                   （B）Still               （C）Even            （D）Only

18.（A）despised           （B）ignored          （C）corrected     （D）grounded

19.（A）discussions       （B）businesses     （C）policies        （D）studies

20.（A）against              （B）for                 （C）without        （D）with

Section II   Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (40points)

Text 1

What would you do with $590m? This is now a question for Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. The blogosphere is full of advice for this lucky Powerball pensioner. But if she hopes her new-found lucre will yield lasting feelings of fulfilment, she could do worse than read “Happy Money” by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.

These two academics—she teaches psychology at the University of British Columbia; he lectures on marketing at Harvard Business School–use an array of behavioural research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and palatial homes on remote bluffs. Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly. What was once exciting and new becomes old-hat; remorse creeps in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms Dunn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time—as stories or memories—particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others.

This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most “happiness bang for your buck”. It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it). Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason McDonald’s restricts the availability of its popular McRib—a marketing gimmick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession.

Readers of “Happy Money” are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfilment, not hunger. Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors’ policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent. 

21．According to Dunn and Norton, which of the following is the most rewarding purchase?

[A] A rich meal    [B] A special tour      [C] a stylish car       [D] A big house 

22．The author’s attitude toward Americans’ watching TV is         .

[A] critical       [B] supportive         [C] sympathetic       [D] ambiguous

23．McRib is mentioned in Paragraph 3 to show that         .

[A] popularity usually comes after quality

[B] consumers are sometimes irrational

[C] marketing tricks are often effective

[D] rarity generally increases pleasure

24．According to the last paragraph, Happy Money         .

[A] may prove to be a worthwhile purchase

[B] has left much room for readers’ criticism

[C] has predicated a wider income gap in the US

[D] may give its readers a sense of achievement

25．This text mainly discusses how to         .

[A]balance feeling good and spending money

[B] spend large sums of money won in lotteries  

[C] obtain lasting satisfaction from money spent

[D] become more reasonable in spending on luxuries

Text 2

An article in Scientific American has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you're more beautiful than you are. We have a deep-seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing (to use the psychological terminology) strategies to achieve this. Social psychologists have amassed oceans of research into what they call the "above average effect", or "illusory superiority", and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving (across the ages and genders) and 85% at getting on well with others – all obviously statistical impossibilities.

We rose-tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations. We become defensive when criticized, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem. We strut around thinking we're hot stuff.

Psychologist and behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather than have people simply rate their beauty compared with others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of themselves from a lineup including versions that had been morphed to appear more and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological process, occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation". If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flattering image – which most did – they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.

Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that those who self-enhanced the most (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored pictures were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact, those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other markers for having higher self-esteem. "I don't think the findings that we have are any evidence of personal delusion," says Epley. "It's a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves."If you are depressed, you won't be self-enhancing.

Knowing the results of Epley's study, it makes sense that many people hate photographs of themselves so viscerally – on one level, they don't even recognize the person in the picture as themselves. Facebook, therefore, is a self-enhancer's paradise, where people can share only the flukiest of flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles. It's not that people's profiles are dishonest, says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison University, "but they portray an idealized version of themselves". (People are much more likely to out-and-out lie on dating websites, to an audience of strangers.

26．According to the first paragraph, social psychologists have found that         .

[A] our self-ratings are unrealistically high

[B] illusory superiority is a baseless effect

[C] self-enhancing strategies are ineffective

[D] our need for leadership is unnatural

27．Visual recognition is believed to be people’s         .

[A] rapid matching            [B] intuitive response   

[C] automatic self-defense      [D] conscious choice  

28．Epley found that people with higher self-esteem tended to         .

[A] underestimate their insecurities

[B] cover up their depressions  

[C] believe in their attractiveness

[D] oversimplify their illusions

29．The word “viscerally” (Line 2, Paragraph 5) is closest in meaning to         .

[A] occasionally    [B] instinctively    [C] particularly     [D] aggressively

30．It can be inferred Face book is a self-enhancers paradise because people can         .

[A] present their dishonest profiles  

[B] withhold their unflattering sides  

[C] define their traditional lifestyles

[D] share their intellectual pursuits

Text 3

The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution, but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries. And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle. Certain jobs have gone away for good, outmoded by machines. Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we can't immediately foresee.    

When there is exponential improvement in the price and performance of technology, jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened. This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee , who both hail from MIT's Center for Digital Business.

This is a powerful argument, and a scary one. And yet, John Hagel, author of The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.  

Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to  be "tightly scripted" and "highly standardized" ones that leave no room for "individual initiative or creativity." In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings. That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers, Hagel says.  

It's time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says . In our rapidly changing economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can  take initiative and exercise their imagination "to respond to unexpected events." That's not something

machines are good at. They are designed to perform very predictable activities.    

    As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book. We need to reframe  race against the machine as race with the machine . In other words, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it. So then the problem is not really about technology, but rather, "how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?"

31．According to the first paragraph, economic downturns would         .

[A]ease the competition of man vs. machine

[B]highlight machines’ threat to human jobs

[C]provoke a painful technological revolution

[D]outmode our current economic structure

32．The authors of Race Against the Machine argue that         .

[A]technology is diminishing man’s job opportunities

[B]automation is accelerating technological development

[C]certain jobs will remain intact after automation

[D]man will finally win the race against machine

33．Hagel argues that jobs in the U.S. are often         .

[A]performed by innovative minds

[B]scripted with an individual style

[C]standardized without a clear target

[D]designed against human creativity

34．According to the last paragraph, Brynjolfsson and McAfee discussed         .

[A]the predictability of machine behavior in practice

[B]the formula for how work is conducted efficiently

[C]the ways machines replace human labor in modern times

[D]the necessity of human involvement in the workplace

35．Which of the following could be the most appropriate title for the text?

[A]How to Innovate Our Work Practices

[B]Machines will Replace Human Labor

[C]Can We Win the Race Against Machines

[D]Economic Downturns Stimulate Innovations

Text 4

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.

Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth. Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to jostle for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects, so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged. This government does not want to see a return to large-scale provision of council housing, so it is naturally wary of measures that will lead us down that route.

Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes. The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.

There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. The cap, introduced in 2012 as part of the Housing Revenue Account reform, has been a major issue for the sector. Evidence shows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%. Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.

But it is not just down to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing £4.5bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to  expire in 2015, is unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition's spending plans if it returns to power. The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era of large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.

36．The author believes that the housing sector         .

[A]has attracted much attention

[B]has lost its real value in economy

[C]shoulders too much responsibility

[D]involves certain political factors

37．It can be learned that affordable housing has         .

[A]suffered government biases

[B]increased its home supply

[C]offered spending opportunities

[D]disappointed the government

38．According to Paragraph 5, George Osborne may         .

[A]prepare to reduce housing stock debt

[B]release a lifted GDP growth forecast

[C]allow greater government debt for housing

[D]stop local authorities from building homes

39．It can be inferred that a stab le rental environment would         .

[A]lower the costs of registered providers

[B]relieve the minister of responsibilities

[C]contribute to funding new developments

[D]lessen the impact of government interference

40．The author believes that after 2015, the government may         .

[A]implement more policies to support housing

[B]stop generous funding to the housing sector

[C]renew the affordable housing grants programme

[D]review the need for large-scale public grants

Part B

Directions:

Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Emerging in the late Sixties and reaching a peak in the Seventies, Land Art was one of a range of new forms, including Body Art, Performance Art, Action Art and Installation Art, which pushed art beyond the traditional confines of the studio and gallery. Rather than portraying landscape, land artists used the physical substance of land itself as their medium.

The British land artist, typified by Richard Long’s piece, was not only more domestically scaled, but a lot quirkier than its American counterpart. Indeed, while you might assume that an exhibition of Land Art would consist only of records of works rather than the works themselves, Long’s photograph of his work is the work. Since his “action” is in the past the photograph is its sole embodiment.

That might seem rather an obscure point, but it sets the tone for an exhibition that contains a lot of black-and-white photographs and relatively few natural objects. Long is Britain’s best-known Land Artist and his Stone Circle, a perfect ring of purplish rocks from Portishead beach laid out on the gallery floor, represents the elegant, rarefied side of the form. The Boyle Family, on the other hand, stands for its dirty, urban aspect. Comprising artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills and their children, they recreated random sections of the British landscape on gallery walls. Their Olaf Street Study, a square of brick-strewn waste ground, is one of the few works here to embrace the mundanity that characterizes most of our experience of the landscape most of the time.

Parks feature, particularly in the earlier works, such as John Hilliard’s very funny Across the Park, in which a long-haired stroller is variously smiled at by a pretty girl and unwittingly assaulted in a sequence of images that turn out to be different parts of the same photograph.

Generally however British land artists preferred to get away from towns, gravitating towards landscapes that are traditionally considered beautiful such as the Lake District or the Wiltshire Downs. While it probably wasn’t apparent at the time, much of this work is permeated by a spirit of romantic escapism that the likes of Wordsworth would have readily understood. Derek Jarman’s yellow-tinted film Towards Avebury, a collection of long, mostly still shots of the Wiltshire landscape, evokes a tradition of English landscape pain ting stretching from Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash.

In the case of Hamish Fulton, you can’t help feeling that the Scottish artist has simply found a way of making his love of walking pay. A typical work, such as Seven Days, consists of a single beautiful black-and-white photograph taken on an epic walk, with the mileage and number of days taken listed beneath. British Land Art as shown in this well selected, but relatively modestly scaled exhibition wasn’t about imposing on the landscape, more a kind of landscape- orientated light conceptual art created passing through. It had its origins in the great outdoors, but the results were as gallery-bound as the paintings of Turner and Constable.

 

 

 

46．Direction：

In this section there is a text in English. Translate it into Chinese, write your translation on ANSWER SHEET. (15points)

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality”, says Tal Ben–Shahar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben–Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

    In his own life, Ben–Shahar uses three optimistic exercises, which he calls PRP. When he feels down – say, after giving a bad lecture – he grants himself permission (P) to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction (R). He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective (P), which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

Section IV  Writing

Part A

47．Directions:

Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a local student, write him an email to

1) tell him about your living habits, and

2) ask for advice about living there.

You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Part B

48．Directions:

Write an essay based on the following chart. In your essay, you should

1) interpret the chart, and

2) give your comments.

You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)

 

 

参考答案

完形填空

ABCBD

CAADD

ABCBB

DCDCA

阅读理解A

BADAC

ABCBB

BADBC

DACCB

阅读理解B

DEGCA

翻译的参考译文及写作的范文请见后面翻译和写作的总结