北京大学2012年博士研究生入学考试英语试题
Part I Structure and Written Expression (15%)
Directions: For each question decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Mark your choices on the ANSWER SHEET.
1. A survey has found that three quarters of men quite enjoy their food shopping experience and are happy to______their way around the aisles searching out products.
A. drive
B. steer
C. navigate
D. voyage
2. We've seen a______trend of consumers saying they will spend more, from holiday shopping to 2012 travel plans, and spending plans for Feb. 14 are no exception.
A. consistent
B. persistent
C. insistent
D. resistant
3. Nearly a third of parents say they feel______into their homes but cannot afford to move to a bigger property, a report reveals today.
A. squealed
B. squeezed
C. squared
D. sneezed
4. Going through a tricky divorce would be enough to put anyone off marriage for life. But a new study shows that men are much more likely to______a stressful and complicated break-up than women.
A. get on
B. get off
C. get over
D. get in
5. Being born in the summer could give you a sunny disposition for life. And a winter birthday might cast a permanent shadow______your happiness, scientists believe.
A. through
B. cross
C. beneath
D. over
6. Couples blessed with strength and aggression______looks are better off having boys, as these characteristics are of more use to males.
A. other than
B. rather than
C. rather too
D. in spite of
7. Iran's morality police are______on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values.
A. putting down
B. breaking down
C. cracking down
D. looking down
8. Business and government managers often promote“clean desk”policies to avoid disorganized offices and messy desks,______boosting work efficiency and productivity.
A. for the purpose of
B. for good of
C. for purpose of
D. for the fun of
9. New research suggests gossip could actually lower______and help people overcome the frustration of seeing someone doing something wrong and getting away with it.
A. press
B. bless
C. cress
D. stress
10. Brides are increasingly shunning summer weddings and getting married during winter______to cut costs amid the economic gloom, figures suggest.
A. instead of
B. otherwise
C. instead
D. rather than
11. In the age of Google, our minds are adapting______we are experts at knowing where to find information even though we don't recall what it is.
A. so much
B. so that
C. such that
D. so what
12. ______2.6 million people starting diets on New Year's Day, research suggests that by the end of the week 92 percent of dieters gave up, shunning exercise and gorging on comfort food.
A. In spite
B. Although
C. While
D. Despite
13. Experiments suggest that season of birth dramatically affects the speed______the body clock ticks.
A. at which
B. for which
C. on which
D. in which
14. Scientists on Tuesday pushed the hands of the infamous “Doomsday Clock” forward one minute from last year, signaling their______pessimism about the efforts of world leaders to handle global threats.
A. increase
B. increased
C. increasedly
D. increasing
15. Retirees looking to stretch their pensions might consider spending their golden years in Ecuador, Panama or Mexico,______cost of living is low and the weather is warm, according to a new index.
A. which
B. when
C. where
D. whose
Part II Cloze Test (15%)
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and decide the best choice for each numbered blank. Mark your choices on the ANSWER SHEET.
The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan 16 the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice 17 the last decade, new research shows.
The discovery has stunned scientists, who 18 that around 50bn tons of melt water 19 each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made 20 by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps—Greenland and Antarctica—is much 21 than previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia 22 most of the discrepancy.
Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said:“The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia which is not 23 different from zero.”
The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused 24 in 2009 when a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mistakenly stated that they would disappear by 2035, instead of 2350. 25 , the scientist who led the new work is clear that while greater uncertainty has been discovered in Asia's highest mountains, the melting of ice caps and glaciers around the world 26 a serious concern.
“Our results and those of everyone else show we are losing a huge amount of water into the oceans every year,”said Prof John Wahr of the University of Colorado,“People should be just as worried about the melting of the world's ice as they were before.”
His team's study, published in the journal Nature, concludes that between 443-629bn tons of melt water overall are added to the world's oceans each year. This is 27 the sea level by about 1.5mm a year, the team reports, 28 the 2mm a year caused by expansion of the warming ocean.
The scientists are careful to point out that lower-altitude glaciers in the Asian mountain ranges—sometimes dubbed the“third pole”—are 29 melting. Satellite images and reports confirm this. But over the study period from 2003-10 enough ice was added to the peaks to 30 .
16. A. on
B. in
C. across
D. over
17. A. from
B. as
C. upon
D. over
18. A. believed
B. had believed
C. have believed
D. were believing
19. A. were being shedding
B. were shedding
C. were being shed
D. were shed
20. A. impossible
B. possible
C. unavailable
D. available
21. A. shorter
B. smaller
C. fewer
D. less
22. A. in charge of
B. responsible for
C. liable for
D. caused by
23. A. significantly
B. meaningfully
C. informatively
D. expressively
24. A. agreement
B. consensus
C. controversy
D. difference
25. A. Besides
B. Furthermore
C. Despite
D. However
26. A. resumes
B. remains
C. keeps
D. lasts
27. A. rising
B. arising
C. raising
D. rearing
28. A. including
B. adding up to
C. additionally
D. in addition to
29. A. definitely
B. necessarily
C. exactly
D. particularly
30. A. replace
B. refund
C. compensate
D. balance
Part III Reading Comprehension (20%)
Directions: Each of the following four passages is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each question or unfinished statement, four answers are given. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question. Mark your choices on the ANSWER SHEET.
Passage One
The United Nations Population Fund has picked October 31 as the day the world will be home to 7 billion people.
For better and worse, it's a milestone.
And there will be more milestones ahead. Fourteen years from now, there are expected to be 8 billion people on the planet. Most of the growth will occur in the world's poorer countries. Proportionally, Europe's population will decline, while Africa's will increase. At around the same time India will overtake China as the most populous nation on Earth.
The growing global population is just one side of the coin. A recent report from the World Health Organization signaled the seriousness of the human population explosion: more than 3 billion people—about half the world's population—are malnourished. Never before have so many, or such a large proportion, of the world's people been malnourished
And in a growing number of countries there is a seemingly unstoppable march toward sub-replacement fertility, whereby each new generation is less populous than the previous one, and population aging.
As a result of declining fertility and increasing longevity, the populations of more and more countries are aging rapidly. Between 2005 and 2050, a rise in the population aged 60 years or over will be visible, whereas the number of children (persons under age 15) will decline slightly.
Population aging represents, in one sense, a success story for mankind, but it also poses profound challenges to public institutions that must adapt to a changing age structure.
The latest national census in China shows the number of elderly people in the country has jumped to more than 13.3 percent of the population, an increase of nearly 3 percentage points on the percentage from the previous census in 2000. A quarter of the country's population will be over 65 by 2050, according to the National Population and Family Planning Commission.
The growing number of elderly is a challenge that the government needs to tackle, we can't rely on the ever-increasing population to support them or maintain the nation's economic growth. Better solutions are needed, such as raising retirement ages to reflect the greater longevity and working capability of today's older adults and making adjustments so pension programs are more accessible.
It was heartening to hear the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security spokesperson announced in Beijing on Tuesday that the government will take the retirement policy seriously and proactively.
Shanghai began testing a flexible retirement system last October. Eligible employees in the private sector are allowed to postpone retirement until the age of 65 for women. Public servants, however, will continue to retire under the present system age 60 for men and 55 for women.
31. According to the passage, India will______in 14 years.
A. be a poorer country
B. be the most populous country
C. decline in population
D. increase investment in Africa
32. What problem will result from the global population explosion?
A. Population aging.
B. Increasing longevity.
C. Declining fertility.
D. Expanding malnourishment.
33. Population aging represents the following EXCEPT______.
A. rapid economic development
B. challenge to public institutions
C. success story of mankind
D. changing age structure
34. Today's older adults enjoy______.
A. more working years
B. more accessible pension programs
C. greater longevity
D. greater government support
35. What is the author's attitude toward the spokesperson's announcement?
A. Angered.
B. Delighted.
C. Indifferent.
D. Disappointed.
Passage Two
The United Nations declared last Friday that Somalia's famine is over. But the official declaration means little to the millions of Somalis who are still hungry and waiting for their crops to grow.
Ken Menkhaus, professor of political science at Davidson College, said it was profoundly disappointing to be discussing another Somali famine, after he worked in the country during the 1991-92 one. Each famine, he said, has distinct characteristics, and this one unfolded in slow motion over the past couple of years. That's at least partly because the Somali diaspora sent money home that delayed the worst effects.
Menkhaus was among four experts on Somalia and famine who spoke at the Radcliffe Gym Monday evening, who gathered for the event, “Sound the Horn: Famine in the Horn of Africa.” Paul Farmer, Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, drew on his experience treating malnourished people in Haiti, where he has worked for decades, and said the human and social context of hunger need as much attention as the patients do. A malnourished child is typically an indication of poverty at home, and aid to families should be part of treating the child, he said. Similarly, broader agricultural interventions and fair trade policies are needed to boost local agricultural economies.
Though famine is often thought of as a natural disaster, Monday's speakers said that is a false impression. Though Somalia suffered through a severe drought, with today's instant communications, transport systems can move massive amounts of food. Given today's global food markets, famine is too often a failure of local government and international response.
“In today's 21st-century world, just about everything about famine is man-made. We're no longer in a world of man against nature,”said Robert Paarlberg, adjunct professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Ethiopia, which was also affected by the recent drought, fared much better this time because of reforms implemented after the 2001 one. Likewise, Paarlberg said, northern and central Somalia regions that fall outside of the influence of the Al-Shabaab militia, also fared better. There were several man-made features of this famine, which affected more than 10 million people and killed between 50,000 and 100,000, half of them children under age 5.
The largest man-made feature was the role of the Al-Shabaab militia that rules the region and that kept food aid from reaching those in need. But the international community isn't blameless. As early as November 2010, an international famine early warning system was predicting the failure of rains in the region, but the international community didn't respond fully until an official famine was declared in July 2011. On top of that, U.S. anti-terrorism laws cut off food aid because Al-Shabaab, listed as a terrorist group, was taking some of it.
Though the United Nations has declared the famine over, that was based on statistical measures, such as the number of people dying each day and the number of children who are malnourished. Though the official famine may be over, both U.N. officials and Monday's speakers said the crisis continues for the people of Somalia. Almost a third of the population remains dependent on humanitarian assistance, crops growing from recent rains will take months to reach maturity, and herds of cows, goats, and other animals were greatly reduced during the crisis.
Michael Delaney, director of humanitarian response for Oxfam America, warned that the world will have another chance to get its response right, because the warning signs are pointing to an impending famine in Africa's Sahel, the arid, continent-spanning transition zone just below the Sahara Desert.
36. The current Somali famine is different from the 1991-92 one in that______.
A. it received less international aid
B. worst effects came more slowly
C. it caught more attention from the world
D. it lasted longer despite help from the UN
37. In treating the malnourished patients, attention should be paid to the following EXCEPT______.
A. making fair trade policies
B. aiding the patients' families
C. ignoring the indication of poverty
D. exercising agricultural interventions
38. What is implied by“We're no longer in a world of man against nature?”
A. Natural disaster alone cannot explain famines.
B. We live in a world of many man-made matters.
C. The world is made up of conflicting social forces.
D. Human beings fight with one another for better life.
39. Regarding the current famine in Somalia, who's to blame most?
A. The United States.
B. The Al-Shabaab militia.
C. The United Nations FAO.
D. The international community.
40. What problem still remains from the current Somali famine?
A. The number of malnourished children remains unknown.
B. Half of the population remains dependent on humanitarian assistance.
C. Crops growing from recent rains were reaped before reaching maturity.
D. Herds of cows, goats and other animals were greatly reduced during the famine.
Passage Three
Both versions of the myth—the West as a place of escape from society and the West as a stage on which the moral conflicts confronting society could be played out—figured prominently in the histories and essays of young Theodore Roosevelt, the paintings and sculptures of artist Frederic Remington, and the short stories and novels of writer Owen Wister. These three young members of the eastern establishment spent much time in the West in the 1880s, and each was intensely affected by the adventure. All three had felt thwarted by the constraints and enervating influence of the genteel urban world in which they had grown up, and each went West to experience the physical challenges and moral simplicities extolled in the dime novels. When Roosevelt arrived in 1884 at the ranch he had purchased in the Dakota Badlands, he at once bought a leather scout's uniform, complete with fringed sleeves and leggings.
Each man also found in the West precisely what he was looking for. The frontier that Roosevelt glorified in such books as The Winning of the West (four volumes, 1889-1896), and that the prolific Remington portrayed in his work, was a stark physical and moral environment that stripped away all social artifice and tested an individual's true ability and character. Drawing on a popular version of English scientist Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory, which characterized life as a struggle in which only the fittest and best survived, Roosevelt and Remington exalted the disappearing frontier as the last outpost of an honest and true social order.
This version of the frontier myth reached its apogee in Own Wister's enormously popular novels The Virginian (1902), later reincarnated as a 1929 Gary Cooper movie and a 1960s television series. In Wister's tale the elemental physical and social environment of the Great Plains produces individuals like his unnamed cowboy hero,“the Virginian,”an honest, strong, and compassionate man, quick to help the weak and fight the wicked. The Virginian is one of nature's aristocrats — ill-educated and unsophisticated but upright steady, and deeply moral. The Virginian sums up his own moral code in describing his view of God's justice: “He plays a square game with us.” For Wister, as for Roosevelt and Remington, the cowboy was the Christian knight on the Plains, indifferent to material gain as he upheld virtue, pursued justice, and attacked evil.
Needless to say, the western myth in all its forms was far removed from the actual reality of the West. Critics delighted in pointing out that no one scene in The Virginian actually showed the hard physical labor of the cattle range. The idealized version of the West also glossed over the darker underside of frontier expansion—the brutalities of Indian warfare, the forced removal of the Indians to reservations, the racist discrimination against Mexican-Americans and blacks, the risks and perils of commercial agriculture and cattle growing, and the boom-and-bust mentality rooted in the selfish exploitation of natural resources.
41. Which of the following is probably the main reason for the author to mention Theodore Roosevelt, Fredric Remington and Owen Wister?
A. They glorified the frontier life.
B. They were constrained by the genteel urban world.
C. They spent much time in the West.
D. They were famous members of the eastern establishment.
42. Which of the following statements best describes The Virginian?
A. It is the best Western movie ever made in Hollywood.
B. It is a popular novel written by Own Wister and Theodore Roosevelt.
C. It gives an accurate depiction of the frontier experience.
D. It is one of the most successful books about the West.
43. According to the passage, which of the following statements regarding the myth of the West is NOT true?
A. In one idealized view, the West was a place one can escape from society and its pressures.
B. In one version of the myth, western frontiersman was depicted as a figure deeply immersed in society and its concerns.
C. Some writers portrayed the western wilderness as a simple and innocent society.
D. The extreme hardship of the frontier life is one powerful theme of the legendary West.
44. The author's primary purpose in writing the passage is______.
A. to perpetuate the myth about the West
B. to introduce the famous writers and painters of the West
C. to distinguish the myth of the West and the actual reality
D. to present the brutalities of Indian warfare
45. What is probably the reason for people to make up a legendary West？
A. They like to make up stories.
B. They believed what they portrayed were the actual reality.
C. They clung to the myth of the West as an uncomplicated, untainted Eden of social simplicity and moral clarity in an era of unsettling social transformation.
D. They wanted to make profit by luring people to the West.
Passage Four
The belief that the mind plays an important role in physical illness goes back to the earliest days of medicine. From the time of the ancient Greeks to the beginning of the 20th century, it was generally accepted by both physician and patient that the mind can affect the course of illness, and it seemed natural to apply this concept in medical treatments of disease. After the discovery of antibiotics, a new assumption arose that treatment of infectious or inflammatory disease requires only the elimination of the foreign organism or agent that triggers the illness. In the rush to discover new antibiotics and drugs that cure specific infections and diseases, the fact that the body's own responses can influence susceptibility to disease and its course was largely ignored by medical researchers.
It is ironic that research into infectious and inflammatory disease first led 20th-century medicine to reject the idea that the mind influences physical illness, and now research in the same field—including the work of our laboratory and of our collaborators at the National Institutes of Health—is proving the contrary. New molecular and pharmacological tools have made it possible for us to identify the intricate network that exists between the immune system and the brain, a network that allows the two systems to signal each other continuously and rapidly. Chemicals produced by immune cells signal the brain, and the brain in turn sends chemical signals to restrain the immune system. These same chemical signals also affect behavior and the response to stress. Disruption of this communication network in any way, whether inherited or through drugs, toxic substances or surgery, exacerbates the diseases that these systems guard against: infectious, inflammatory, autoimmune and associated mood disorders.
The clinical significance of these findings is likely to prove. They hold the promise of extending the range of therapeutic treatments available for various disorders, as drugs previously known to work primarily for nervous system problems are shown to be effective against immune maladies, and vice versa. They also help to substantiate the popularly held impression (still discounted in some medical circles) that our state of mind can influence how well we resist or recover from infectious or inflammatory diseases.
The brain's stress response system is activated in threatening situations. The immune system responds automatically to pathogens and foreign molecules. These two response systems are the body's principal means for maintaining an internal steady state called homeostasis. A substantial proportion of human cellular machinery is dedicated to maintaining it.
When homeostasis is disturbed or threatened, a repertoire of molecular, cellular and behavioral responses comes into play. These responses attempt to counteract the disturbing forces in order to reestablish a steady state. They can be specific to the foreign invader or a particular stress, or they can be generalized and nonspecific when the threat to homeostasis exceeds a certain threshold. The adaptive responses may themselves turn into stressors capable of producing disease. We are just beginning to understand the many ways in which the brain and the immune system are interdependent, how they help to regulate and counterregulate each other and how they themselves can malfunction and produce disease.
46. The passage supplies information to suggest that______.
A. it has always been the belief of both physician and patient that one's state of mind can affect physical disease
B. the popular belief that stress exacerbates inflammatory illness has always been discredited by the doctors
C. the discovery of antibiotics sheds light on people's understanding of the mind-body interaction in doctors
D. there is a new understanding of the communication between the brain and immune system
47. Which of the following best states the mind-body interaction in disease?
A. The brain and immune systems send signals to each other.
B. The immune and central nervous systems are organized in very different ways to affect the course of illness.
C. Disruption of the communication of the brain and immune system can cure certain diseases.
D. The immune system and the brain share a lot of hormones to facilitate their communication.
48. Which of the following statements about clinical significance of the new findings can be best supported by the passage?
A. The responsivity to stress is genetically determined.
B. The treatment of immune maladies can be consciously controlled.
C. Psychoactive drugs may in some cases be used to treat inflammatory diseases.
D. Social interactions can lessen psychological stress and alter immune responses.
49. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
A. Taking the cure at a mountain sanatorium doesn't work for the treatment for many chronic diseases.
B. The relaxing effects of hot-springs spa can help restore the communication between the brain and immune system.
C. The disruption of the brain's stress response reduces the body's response.
D. Depression is also associated with inflammatory disease.
50. According to the passage, in order to maintain an internal steady state called homeostasis,______.
A. sometimes the stress response needs to go to the extreme
B. the stress response has to bar the foreign pathogens from the body
C. both the stress and immune responses need to be regulated
D. the immune system promotes physiological and behavioral changes
Part IV Proofreading (15%)
Directions: In the following passage, there are altogether 15 mistakes, ONE in each numbered and underlined part. You may have to change a word, add a word, or just delete a word. If you change a word, cross it out and write the correct word beside it. If you add a word, write the missing word between the words (in brackets) immediately before and after it. If you delete a word, just cross it out. Put your answers on ANSWER SHEET (2).
Examples:
e.g. (51) The meeting begun 2 hours ago.
Correction out on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (51)
began
e.g. (52) Scarcely they settled themselves in their seats in the theatre when the curtain went up.
Correction out on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (52) (Scarcely ) had (they)
e.g. (53) Never will I not do it again.
Correction put on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (53)
(51) Apple's iPad may be latest and greatest tech gadget, but oddly enough, it also represents a return to model that most tech companies long ago abandoned—vertical integration.
Apple has designed its own processor, called A4, to power the iPad. (52) That is a big deal so until now Apple has used chips made by others, like Intel and Samsung. (53) In addition, the processor, Apple also makes its own operating-system software for the iPad.
(54) Moreover, the only way to get applications for an iPad will be to buy it from Apple. The same goes for content. (55) To get movies, TV shows, books, music—or everything, really—you will not have to buy them from Apple's online store, and the iPad itself will be sold only by Apple stores. (56) From top to bottom this is a closing device, completely controlled by Apple.
Is that a good thing? (57) Vertical integration was the norm back in the 1970s with minicomputer manufacturers like Digital Equipment Corp, and Data General, and late on with workstation makers like Sun Microsystems. (58) But pretty much everyone decided long ago that vertical integration was a workable model. Why make your own processors and operating system when you can buy chips from Intel and Windows from Microsoft? (59) It was ironic which on the same day that Apple was announcing the iPad, Sun was holding an event to announce the completion of its being taken over by Oracle—ironic because Sun's pricy vertical-integration model was a big reason for the company's decline.
(60) Why is Apple defying the conventional wise and going vertical? For one thing, its CEO, Steve Jobs, is a control freak and hates relying on others. (61) Also, Jobs has been around long enough to know the advantages of a vertical integrated company. (62) If the A4 is as good a processor as people seem to think, Apple's iPad will have a big performance advantage than all the other tablet computers that are about to hit the market.
And what of Apple's risky bet on vertical integration? (63) Won't the highly cost of going it alone put Apple at a disadvantage compared to makers that buy chips and software from others? (64) Won't those other guys be able to charge more than Apple? The answer is, probably, yes, but again, most people, myself included, are happy to pay more for what Apple makes. (65) My take is that Apple's bet on vertical integration, that seems against the tide, is actually a stroke of genius.
Part V Writing (15%)
Directions: Read the following paragraph and then write a response paper of about 250 to 300 English words. Write it neatly on ANSWER SHEET (2).
A lot of people today are animal rights advocates. Some of them are very passionate and even quite radical about the issue. But others argue that“human rights”will always take priority. In fact, in many places even the most basic human rights are not adequately protected. So why animal rights? What do you think? And why?