2006年考研英语真题及解析 .pdf

1 12006 年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（一）试题Section I Use of EnglishDirections:Read the following text.Choose the best word(s)for each numbered blank and mark A,B,C or D onANSWER SHEET 1.(10 points)The homeless make up a growing percentage of Americas population.1,homelessness has reached suchproportions that local governments cant possibly 2.To help homeless people 3 independence,the federalgovernment must support job training programs,4 the minimum wage,and fund more low-cost housing.5 everyone agrees on the number of Americans who are homeless.Estimates 6 anywhere from 600,000 to 3million.7 the figure may vary,analysts do agree on another matter:that the number of the homeless is 8.One ofthe federal governments studies 9 that the number of the homeless will reach nearly 19 million by the end of thisdecade.Finding ways to 10this growing homeless population has become increasingly difficult.11 when homelessindividuals manage to find a 12 that will give them three meals a day and a place to sleep at night,a goodnumber still spend the bulk of each day 13 the street.Part of the problem is that many homeless adults areaddicted to alcohol or drugs.And a significant number of the homeless have serious mental disorders.Manyothers,14 not addicted or mentally ill,simply lack the everyday 15 skills needed to turn their lives 16.BostonGlobe reporter Chris Reidy notes that the situation will improve only when there are 17 programs that addressthe many needs of the homeless.18 Edward Zlotkowski,director of community service at Bentley College inMassachusetts,19 it,“There has to be 20 of programs.Whats needed is a package deal.”1.A IndeedB LikewiseC ThereforeD Furthermore2.A standB copeC approveD retain3.A inB forC withD toward4.A raiseB addC takeD keep5.A GenerallyB AlmostC HardlyD Not6.A coverB changeC rangeD differ7.A Now thatB AlthoughC ProvidedD Except that8.A inflatingB expandingC increasingD extending9.A predictsB displaysC provesD discovers10.A assistB trackC sustainD dismiss11.A HenceB ButC EvenD Only12.A lodgingB shelterC dwellingD house13.A searchingB strollingC crowdingD wandering14.A whenB onceC whileD whereas15.A lifeB existenceC survivalD maintenance16.A aroundB overC onD up2 217.A complexB comprehensiveCcomplementaryD compensating18.A SoB SinceC AsD Thus19.A putsB interpretsC assumesD makes20.A supervisionB manipulationC regulationD coordinationSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts.Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B,C,or D.Markyour answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.(40 points)Text 1In spite of“endless talk of difference,”American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people.Thereis“the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse,and the casualness and absence of deference”characteristic of popular culture.People are absorbed into“a culture of consumption”launched by the19th-century department stores that offered“vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere.Instead of intimateshops catering to a knowledgeable elite”these were stores“anyone could enter,regardless of class orbackground.This turned shopping into a public and democratic act.”The mass media,advertising and sports areother forces for homogenization.Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture,which may not bealtogether elevating but is hardly poisonous.Writing for the National Immigration Forum,Gregory Rodriguezreports that todays immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation.In 1998immigrants were 9.8 percent of the population;in 1900,13.6 percent.In the 10 years prior to 1990,3.1immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents;in the 10 years prior to 1890,9.2 for every 1,000.Now,considerthree indices of assimilationlanguage,home ownership and intermarriage.The 1990 Census revealed that“a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries oforigin spoke English well or very well after ten years of residence.”The children of immigrants tend to bebilingual and proficient in English.“By the third generation,the original language is lost in the majority ofimmigrant families.”Hence the description of America as a“graveyard”for languages.By 1996 foreign-bornimmigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent,higher than the 69.8 percentrate among native-born Americans.Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics“have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks.”Bythe third generation,one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics,and 41 percent ofAsian-American women are married to non-Asians.Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Garth Brooks,yet“some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United Statesremain somehow immune to the nations assimilative power.”3 3Are there divisive issues and pockets of seething anger in America?Indeed.It is big enough to have a bit ofeverything.But particularly when viewed against Americas turbulent past,todays social indices hardly suggesta dark and deteriorating social environment.21.The word“homogenizing”(Line 2,Paragraph 1)most probably means _.A identifyingB associatingC assimilatingD monopolizing22.According to the author,the department stores of the 19th century _.A played a role in the spread of popular cultureB became intimate shops for common consumersC satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable eliteD owed its emergence to the culture of consumption23.The text suggests that immigrants now in the U.S._.A are resistant to homogenizationB exert a great influence on American cultureC are hardly a threat to the common cultureD constitute the majority of the population24.Why are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks mentioned in Paragraph 5?A To prove their popularity around the world.B To reveal the publics fear of immigrants.C To give examples of successful immigrants.D To show the powerful influence of American culture.25.In the authors opinion,the absorption of immigrants into American society is _.A rewardingB successfulC fruitlessD harmfulText 2Stratford-on-Avon,as we all know,has only one industryWilliam Shakespearebut there are two distinctlyseparate and increasingly hostile branches.There is the Royal Shakespeare Company(RSC),which presentssuperb productions of the plays at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on the Avon.And there are the townsfolkwho largely live off the tourists who come,not to see the plays,but to look at Anne Hathaways Cottage,Shakespeares birthplace and the other sights.The worthy residents of Stratford doubt that the theatre adds a penny totheir revenue.They frankly dislike theRSCs actors,them with their long hair and beards and sandals and noisiness.Its all deliciously ironic when you4 4consider that Shakespeare,who earns their living,was himself an actor(with a beard)and did his share ofnoise-making.The tourist streams are not entirely separate.The sightseers who come by busand often take in Warwick Castleand Blenheim Palace on the sidedont usually see the plays,and some of them are even surprised to find atheatre in Stratford.However,the playgoers do manage a little sight-seeing along with their playgoing.It is theplaygoers,the RSC contends,who bring in much of the towns revenue because they spend the night(some ofthem four or five nights)pouring cash into the hotels and restaurants.The sightseers can take in everything andget out of town by nightfall.The townsfolk dont see it this way and the local council does not contribute directly to the subsidy of the RoyalShakespeare Company.Stratford cries poor traditionally.Nevertheless every hotel in town seems to be adding anew wing or cocktail lounge.Hilton is building its own hotel there,which you may be sure will be decoratedwith Hamlet Hamburger Bars,the Lear Lounge,the Banquo Banqueting Room,and so forth,and will be veryexpensive.Anyway,the townsfolk cant understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy.(The theatre hasbroken attendance records for three years in a row.Last year its 1,431 seats were 94 per cent occupied all yearlong and this year theyll do better.)The reason,of course,is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices havestayed low.It would be a shame to raise prices too much because it would drive away the young people who are Stratfordsmost attractive clientele.They come entirely for the plays,not the sights.They all seem to look alike(thoughthey come from all over)lean,pointed,dedicated faces,wearing jeans and sandals,eating their buns andbedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre to buy the 20 seats and 80 standing-room ticketsheld for the sleepers and sold to them when the box office opens at 10:30 a.m.26.From the first two paragraphs,we learn that _.A the townsfolk deny the RSCs contribution to the towns revenueB the actors of the RSC imitate Shakespeare on and off stageC the two branches of the RSC are not on good termsD the townsfolk earn little from tourism27.It can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that _.A the sightseers cannot visit the Castle and the Palace separatelyB the playgoers spend more money than the sightseersC the sightseers do more shopping than the playgoersD the playgoers go to no other places in town than the theater28.By saying“Stratford cries poor traditionally”(Line 2,Paragraph 4),the author implies that _.A Stratford cannot afford the expansion projectsB Stratford has long been in financial difficultiesC the town is not really short of moneyD the townsfolk used to be poorly paid29.According to the townsfolk,the RSC deserves no subsidy because _.5 5A ticket prices can be raised to cover the spendingB the company is financially ill-managedC the behavior of the actors is not socially acceptableD the theatre attendance is on the rise30.From the text we can conclude that the author _.A is supportive of both sidesB favors the townsfolks viewC takes a detached attitudeD is sympathetic to the RSCText 3When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world,something strange happened to the large animals:theysuddenly became extinct.Smaller species survived.The large,slow-growing animals were easy game,and werequickly hunted to extinction.Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.That the seas are being overfished has been known for years.Whatresearchers such as Ransom Myers and BorisWorm have shown is just how fast things are changing.They have looked at half a century of data from fisheriesaround the world.Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass(the amount of living biologicalmatter)of fish species in particular parts of the ocean,but rather changes in that biomass over time.According totheir latest paper published inNature,the biomass of large predators(animals that kill and eat other animals)in anew fishery is reduced on average by 80%within 15 years of the start of exploitation.In some long-fished areas,it has halved again since then.Dr.Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative.One reason for this is that fishing technology hasimproved.Todays vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar,which were not available 50 years ago.That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught,so the real difference between present andpast is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes.In the early days,too,longlines wouldhave been more saturated with fish.Some individuals would therefore not have been caught,since no baitedhooks would have been available to trap them,leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past.Furthermore,in the early days of longline fishing,a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked.That is nolonger a problem,because there are fewer sharks around now.Dr.Myers and Dr.Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline,which future management efforts musttake into account.They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists,that of the“shiftingbaseline”.The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the oceanbecause they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past.That matters because theorysuggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of atarget species is about 50%of its original levels.Most fisheries are well below that,which is a bad way to dobusiness.31.The extinction of large prehistoric animals is noted to suggest that _.6 6A large animals were vulnerable to the changing environmentB small species survived as large animals disappearedC large sea animals may face the same threat todayD slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones32.We can infer from Dr.Myers and Dr.Worms paper that _.A the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced by 90%B there are only half as many fisheries as there were 15 years agoC the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20%of the original amountD the number of large predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old33.By saying“these figures are conservative”(Line 1,paragraph 3),Dr.Worm means that _.A fishing technology has improved rapidlyB then catch-sizes are actually smaller than recordedC the marine biomass has suffered a greater lossD the data collected so far are out of date34.Dr.Myers and other researchers hold that _.A people should look for a baseline that can work for a longer timeB fisheries should keep their yields below 50%of the biomassC the ocean biomass should be restored to its original levelD people should adjust the fishing baseline to the changing situation35.The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries _.A management efficiencyB biomass levelC catch-size limitsD technological applicationText 4Many things make people think artists are weird.But the weirdest may be this:artists only job is to exploreemotions,and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.This wasnt always so.The earliest forms of art,like painting and music,are those best suited for expressing joy.But somewhere from the 19th century onward,more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless,phony or,worst of all,boring,as we went from Wordsworthsdaffodils to Baudelaires flowers of evil.You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen so much misery.But its not as if earlier times didnt know perpetual war,disaster and the massacre of innocents.The reason,infact,may be just the opposite:there is too much damn happiness in the world today.After all,what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness?Advertising.The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media,and with it,acommercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.7 7People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery.They worked until exhausted,lived with fewprotections and died young.In the West,before mass commun