2018考研英语（一)真题.pdf

1 12018 年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语(一)真题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 on theANSWER SHEET.(10 points)Trust is a tricky business.On the one hand,its a necessary condition 1 many worthwhile things:child care,friendships,etc.On the other hand,putting your 2,in the wrong place often carries a high 3.4,why do we trust at all?Well,because it feels good.5 people place their trust in an individual or an institution,their brains release oxytocin,a hormone that 6 pleasurable feelings and triggers the herding instruct that promptshumans to 7 with one another.Scientists have found that exposure 8 this hormone puts us in a trusting 9:In a Swissstudy,researchers sprayed oxytocin into the noses of half the subjects;those subjects were ready to lend significantlyhigher amounts of money to strangers than were their 10 who inhaled something else.11 for us,we also have a sixth sense for dishonesty that may 12 us.A Canadian study found that children asyoung as 14 months can differentiate 13 a credible person and a dishonest one.Sixty toddlers were each 14 to anadult tester holding a plastic container.The tester would ask,“Whats in here?”before looking into the container,smiling,and exclaiming,“Wow!”Each subject was then invited to look 15.Half of them found a toy;the other half16 the container was empty-and realized the tester had 17 them.Among the children who had not been tricked,the majority were 18 to cooperate with the tester in learning anew skill,demonstrating that they trusted his leadership.19,only five of the 30 children paired with the“20”testerparticipated in a follow-up activity.1.A onB likeC forD from2.A faithB concernC attentionD interest3.A benefitB debtC hopeD price4.A ThereforeB ThenC InsteadD Again5.AUntilB UnlessC AlthoughD When6.A selectsB producesC appliesD maintains7.A consultB competeC connectD compare8.A atB byCofDto9.A contextB moodC periodD circle10.A counterparts B substitutesC colleaguesDsupporters11.A FunnyB LuckyC OddD Ironic12.A monitorB protectC surpriseD delight13.A betweenB withinC towardD over14.A transferredB addedC introducedD entrusted15.A outB backC aroundD inside16.A discoveredB provedC insistedD.remembered17.A betrayedBwrongedC fooledD mocked18.A forcedB willingC hesitantD entitled19.A In contrastBAs a resultC On the wholeD For instance20.A inflexibleB incapableC unreliableD unsuitableSection II Reading ComprehensionPartADirections:Read the following four texts.Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B,C or D.Mark youranswers on the ANSWER SHEET.(40 points)Text 1Among the annoying challenges facing the middle class is one that will probably go unmentioned in the next2 2presidential campaign:What happens when the robots come for their jobs?Dont dismiss that possibility entirely.About half of U.S.jobs are at high risk of being automated,according to aUniversity of Oxford study,with the middle class disproportionately squeezed.Lower-income jobs like gardening orday care dont appeal to robots.But many middle-class occupations-trucking,financial advice,software engineering have aroused their interest,or soon will.The rich own the robots,so they will be fine.This isnt to be alarmist.Optimists point out that technological upheaval has benefited workers in the past.TheIndustrial Revolution didnt go so well for Luddites whose jobs were displaced by mechanized looms,but iteventually raised living standards and created more jobs than it destroyed.Likewise,automation should eventuallyboost productivity,stimulate demand by driving down prices,and free workers from hard,boring work.But in themedium term,middle-class workers may need a lot of help adjusting.The first step,as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in The Second Machine Age,should berethinking education and job training.Curriculums from grammar school to college-should evolve to focus less onmemorizing facts and more on creativity and complex communication.Vocational schools should do a better job offostering problem-solving skills and helping students work alongside robots.Online education can supplement thetraditional kind.It could make extra training and instruction affordable.Professionals trying to acquire new skills willbe able to do so without going into debt.The challenge of coping with automation underlines the need for the U.S.to revive its fading business dynamism:Starting new companies must be made easier.In previous eras of drastic technological change,entrepreneurssmoothed the transition by dreaming up ways to combine labor and machines.The best uses of 3D printers andvirtual reality havent been invented yet.The U.S.needs the new companies that will invent them.Finally,because automation threatens to widen the gap between capital income and labor income,taxes and thesafety net will have to be rethought.Taxes on low-wage labor need to be cut,and wage subsidies such as the earnedincome tax credit should be expanded:This would boost incomes,encourage work,reward companies for jobcreation,and reduce inequality.Technology will improve society in ways big and small over the next few years,yet this will be little comfort tothose who find their lives and careers upended by automation.Destroying the machines that are coming for our jobswould be nuts.But policies to help workers adapt will be indispensable.21.Who will be most threatened by automation?A Leading politicians.BLow-wage laborers.CRobot owners.DMiddle-class workers.22.Which of the following best represent the authors view?A Worries about automation are in fact groundless.BOptimists opinions on new tech find little support.CIssues arising from automation need to be tackledDNegative consequences of new tech can be avoided23.Education in the age of automation should put more emphasis onA creative potential.Bjob-hunting skills.Cindividual needs.Dcooperative spirit.24.The author suggests that tax policies be aimed atAencouraging the development of automation.Bincreasing the return on capital investment.Ceasing the hostility between rich and poor.Dpreventing the income gap from widening.25.In this text,the author presents a problem withA opposing views on it.Bpossible solutions to it.Cits alarming impacts.Dits major variations.3 3Text 2A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of PresidentTrumps use of Twitter.The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White House to be filtered throughother source,Not a presidents social media platform.Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines.Yet as distrust has risen toward all media,peoplemay be starting to beef up their media literacy skills.Such a trend is badly needed.During the 2016 presidentialcampaign,nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter users in the politically critical state of Michigan was fakenews,according to the University of Oxford.And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44 percent ofFacebook users rarely or never trust news from the media giant.Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at separating fact from fiction incyberspace.A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages 14and24 found they use“distributed trust”to verify stories.They cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectivesespeciallythose that are open about any bias.“Many young people assume a great deal of personal responsibility for educatingthemselves and actively seeking out opposing viewpoints,”the survey concluded.Such active research can have another effect.A 2014 survey conducted in Australia,Britain,and the UnitedStates by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young peoples reliance on social media led to greaterpolitical engagement.Social media allows users to experience news events more intimately and immediately while also permittingthem to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests.This forces users to be more conscious of their rolein passing along information.A survey by Barna research group found the top reason given by Americans for the fakenews phenomenon is“reader error,”more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting.About a third saythe problem of fake news lies in“misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news”via social media.In other words,the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue.“This indicates there is a real personalresponsibility in counteracting this problem,”says Roxanne Stone,editor in chief at Barna Group.So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president,they reveal a mental discipline in thinkingskills and in their choices on when to share on social media.26.According to the Paragraphs 1 and 2,many young Americans cast doubts onA the justification of the news-filtering practice.B peoples preference for social media platforms.C the administrations ability to handle information.D social media was a reliable source of news.27.The phrase“beer up”(Line 2,Para.2)is closest in meaning toA sharpenB defineC boastD share28.According to the knight foundation survey,young peopleA tend to voice their opinions in cyberspace.B verify news by referring to diverse resources.C have s strong sense of responsibility.D like to exchange views on“distributed trust”29.The Barna survey found that a main cause for the fake news problem isA readers outdated values.B journalistsbiased reportingC readersmisinterpretationD journalistsmade-up stories.30.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?A ARise in Critical Skills for Sharing News OnlineB ACounteraction Against the Over-tweeting TrendC The Accumulation of Mutual Trust on Social Media.D The Platforms for Projection of Personal Interests.4 4Text 3Any fair-minded assessment of the dangers of the deal between Britains National Health Service(NHS)andDeepMind must start by acknowledging that both sides mean well.DeepMind is one of the leading artificialintelligence(AI)companies in the world.The potential of this work applied to healthcare is very great,but it couldalso lead to further concentration of power in the tech giants.It Is against that background that the informationcommissioner,Elizabeth Denham,has issued her damning verdict against the Royal Free hospital trust under theNHS,which handed over to DeepMind the records of 1.6 million patients In 2015 on the basis of a vague agreementwhich took far too little account of the patients rights and their expectations of privacy.DeepMind has almost apologized.The NHS trust has mended its ways.Further arrangements-and there may bemany-between the NHS and DeepMind will be carefully scrutinised to ensure that all necessary permissions havebeen asked of patients and all unnecessary data has been cleaned.There are lessons about informed patient consent tolearn.But privacy is not the only angle in this case and not even the most important.Ms Denham chose to concentratethe blame on the NHS trust,since under existing law it“controlled”the data and DeepMind merely“processed it.But this distinction misses the point that it is processing and aggregation,not the mere possession of bits,that givesthe data value.The great question is who should benefit from the analysis of all the data that our lives now generate.Privacylaw builds on the concept of damage to an individual from identifiable knowledge about them.That misses the waythe surveillance economy works.The data of an individual there gains its value only when it is compared with thedata of countless millions more.The use of privacy law to curb the tech giants in this instance feels slightly maladapted.This practice does notaddress the real worry.It is not enough to say that the algorithms DeepMind develops will benefit patients and savelives.What matters is that they will belong to a private monopoly which developed them using public resources.Ifsoftware promises to save lives on the scale that dugs now can,big data may be expected to behave as a big pharmhas done.We are still at the beginning of this revolution and small choices now may turn out to have giganticconsequences later.A long struggle will be needed to avoid a future of digital feudalism.Ms Denhams report is awelcome start.31.Wha is true of the agreement between the NHS and DeepMind?A It caused conflicts among tech giants.B It failed to pay due attention to patients rights.C It fell short of the latters expectationsD It put both sides into a dangerous situation.32.The NHS trust responded to Denhams verdict withA empty promises.B tough resistance.C necessary adjustments.D sincere apologies.33.The author argues in Paragraph 2 thatA privacy protection must be secured at all costs.B leaking patients data is worse than selling it.C making profits from patients data is illegal.D the value of data comes from the processing of it34.According to the last paragraph,the real worry arising from this deal isA the vicious rivalry among big pharmas.B the ineffective enforcement of privacy law.C the uncontrolled use of new software.D the monopoly of big data by tech giants.35.The authors attitude toward the application ofAI to healthcare isA ambiguous.B cautious.C appreciative.D contemptuous.5 5Text 4The U.S.Postal Service(USPS)continues to bleed red ink.It reported a net loss of$5.6 billion for fiscal 2016,the 10th straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue.Meanwhile,it has more than$120 billion in unfundedliabilities,mostly for employee health and retirement costs.There are many bankruptcies.Fundamentally,the USPSis in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butterproduct,first-class mail,and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations tothe new realityAnd interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on theUSPSs ultimate overseer-Congress-insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service,aspects of the statusquo they depend on get protected.This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years,leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.Now comes word that everyone involved-Democrats,Republicans,the Postal Service,the unions and thesystems heaviest usershas finally agreed on a plan to fix the system.Legislation is moving through the House thatwould save USPS an estimated$28.6 billion over five years,which could help pay for new vehicles,among othersurvival measures.Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shiftingpostal retirees into Medicare.The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retireehealth care,thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its union.If it clears the House,this measure would still have to get through the Senate where someone is bound to pointout t