2014 年攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试试题288.pdf

第 1 页 共 10 页 电子科技大学电子科技大学 2014 年攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试试题年攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试试题 考试科目：考试科目：288 单独考试英语单独考试英语 注：所有答案必须写在答题纸上，写在试卷或草稿纸上均无效。注：所有答案必须写在答题纸上，写在试卷或草稿纸上均无效。 I. Reading Comprehension (40 points) Directions: Read the following four passages. Answer the questions below each one by choosing A) B) C) D) Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET 。 Passage 1 Nearly everyone in Britain would like to own their own home and, whether they do or not, they are prepared to put time and money into decorating and furnishing it or even making structural alterations to it. Because of the climate and because of the expense involved in going out for the evening, the British spend a lot of time at home and a large part of their social life takes place there. Young people tend to stay with their families longer these days as accommodation is expensive but, when they move away to a job or college, there are various options open to them. They can get lodgings with a landlady. This means that they rent a room in someones house and have breakfast with the family. They can also get a bed- sitting room, that is to say, one self- contained room in which they can cook, live and sleep. Alternatively, they can share a rented flat or house with a group of young people, perhaps the most popular option of all. When young people get married or have steady income, they often buy a house. They do this by taking out a mortgage with a building society or banks. They are the official owners and mortgage is a financial loan for anything up to 100% of the value of the house repayable over twenty to forty years. People can find it difficult to repay their mortgage, but at least they know that in the end the house will be theirs. If people cannot afford to buy their own house, they can rent property from a private landlord, as do 10% of the population, or from their local council. Council housing is very cheap to rent in comparison with any other type of accommodation and so a lot of people want to live in it. Waiting lists are long because there are just not enough council houses these days to meet the growing need. Unfortunately, homelessness is an increasingly serious problem all over Britain. It affects all ages: single people, couples with children, even old- age pensioners. In 1984, for example, 83,190 households, a term that covers families and single people, were officially listed as homeless. This is the tip of the iceberg. In one year, 170,190 households applied to be put on the list, but thousands were turned down although they were probably living in overcrowded conditions or in housing that badly needed repairing and improving. 1. Why do the British spend a lot of time at home? A) Because the expense for going out is huge. B) Because the climate is not very favorable, 第 2 页 共 10 页 C) Because they do not like going out. D) Both A) and B). 2. Young people have the choices in renting a room before they get married except that _. A) they can rent a flat or a house with others B) they can rent a room from a landlady and eat breakfast with the family C) they can rent a room where they can sleep, cook and meet their guest D) many of them afford to rent a very large flat or house alone 3. Why do people have to wait very long for the council house? A) Because the council houses ask for high rent and people have to save for them. B) Because people have to apply for mortgage for such a house. C) Because there are more people in need and fewer houses available. D) Because the council has to spend a long time deciding who should rent the house. 4. According to the passage, who meet with housing problem in Britain? A) Only young people. B) Only old people. C) People of different ages. D) Only couples with children. 5. The sentence “This is the tip of the iceberg” probably means _. A) this is only a small problem B) there are only a small number of homeless people C) this number is small D) there are actually more homeless people than officially listed Passage 2 Not too many decades ago it seemed “obvious” that both to the general public and to the sociologists that modern society has changed peoples natural relationships, loosened their responsibilities to kin and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years, a growing body of research has revealed that the “obvious” is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a small proportion of your neighbors than you do if you live in a smaller community. But for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else. Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small private social worlds. Indeed, the number and quality of meaningful relationships do not differ between more and less urban people. Small- town residents are more involved with kin than big- city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism may produce a different style of life, but the quality of life does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of small communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers. 第 3 页 共 10 页 These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living next door or keep an eye out for young trouble makers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a communitys population size and its social heterogeneity. For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behaviors, including gambling, drugs, etc. Large- city urbanites are, also more likely than their small- town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates and to be more tolerant to non- traditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so- called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size. 6. Which of the following best describes the organization of the first paragraph? A) Two contrasting views are presented. B) An argument and possible solutions are given. C) Research results concerning the quality of urban life are presented in order of time. D) A detailed description of the difference between urban and small- town life is given. 7. According to the passage, it was a common belief that urban residents _. A) did not have the same interest with their neighbors B) could not develop long- standing relationships C) tended to be associated with bad behaviors D) usually had more friends 8. One of the consequences of urban life is that impersonal relationship among neighbors _. A) disrupt peoples natural relationships B) make them worry about crime C) cause them not to show concern for one another D) cause them to be suspicious of each other 9. It can be inferred from the passage that the bigger a community is _. A) the higher its quality of life B) the more similar its interests C) the more tolerant and open- minded it is D) the likelier it is to display psychological symptoms of stress 10. What is the passage mainly about? A) Similarities in the interpersonal relationships between urbanites and small- town dwellers. B) Advantages of living in big cities as compared with living in small towns. C) The positive role that urbanism plays in modern life. D) The strong feeling of alienation of city inhabitants. Passage 3 第 4 页 共 10 页 Banks began issuing plastic cards as another way of providing credit to their customers. The card gave banks a cost- efficient way of increasing volume of small consumer loans: a bank would have to handle only one application for a line of credit that could be used many times over and it could make profit from finance charges. Originally, Diners Club, Hilton Hotels and American Express offered their cards with a convenience rather than as extensions of credit. In exchange for not having to carry cash, their cardholders were charged an annual membership fee. The T&E cards were not so much credit as charge cards, or what American Express calls “pay as you go” cards. Also T&E cardholders could not make purchases in installments like bank cardholders, but were required to pay their bills in full each month. The cards have changed over the years, however. Today a T&E card can sometimes be used as “extended” or “deferred” payment plans. Diners Club members can choose to pay in installments for any goods or commodity the card can purchase, at 19.8 percent annual interest; at the same rate of interest, Carte Blanche cardholders can extend payment only for airline tickets. American Express also allows its regular cardholders to pay in installments but restricts this option to travel- related purchases (airline and cruise tickets, and tour packages). Its interest charges range from 18 to 21 percent, depending on the state in which the cardholders resides. American Express first extended credit when it came out with the Gold Card in 1966, issued through banks in which cardholders maintained lines of credit. And just as the travel and entertainment cards have taken on bank card qualities, so too have bank cards become more like T&E cards. Banks discovered that between 40 to 50 percent of their cardholders paid no finance charges because they did not use their plastic to buy credit. Rather, like T&E cardholders, they charged instead of paying cash, and then paid the whole balance on their statements each month. So most banks now do what the travel and entertainment companies have always done: charge annual fees for their cards. Bank card fees are lower, though, 12 dollars to 15 dollars, compared to 35 dollars to 45 dollars paid by T&E cardholders. 11. According to the passage, what motivates banks to issue credit cards? A) Making a profit from charges for consumer loans. B) Providing credit to customers. C) Making the bank services more efficient. D) Making loans available to customers. 12. Which of the following is NOT true of the cards originally issued by American Express? A) They can provide convenience to the cardholders. B) They can provide credit to the cardholders. C) The cardholders have to pay their bills in full each month. D) The cardholders have to be charged an annual membership fee. 第 5 页 共 10 页 13. Which of the following cards is able to extend the credit of purchasing any goods? A) The T&E card. B) The Diners Clubs cards. C) The American Express Gold Card. D) The Hilton Hotels card. 14. Which of the following is most likely to be the title of the passage preceding this one? A) One Way to Provide Card to Customers B) Banks and Credit Cards C) Plastic Cards as Credit Cards D) Credit Cards and Loans 15. What does the word maintained mean in this passage (in the last line of Paragraph 3)? A) kept B) claimed C) provided D) supported Passage 4 Three Yale University professors agreed in a panel discussion tonight that automobile was what one of them called “Public Health Enemy No. 1 in this country”. Besides polluting the air and congesting the cities, cars are involved in more than half of the disabling accidents, and they contribute to heart disease “because we dont walk anywhere anymore”, said Dr. H.W. Weinerman, professor of medicine and public health. Dr. Weinermans sharp indictment of the automobile came in a discussion of human environment on Yale Reports, a radio program broadcast by Station in Hartford Connecticut. The program opened a three part series of “Staying Alive” for the first time in human history the problem of mans survival has to do with his control of manmade hazards, Dr. Weinerman said, “Before this, the problem had been the control of natural hazards.” Relating many of the hazards to the automobile, Arthot W. Galst a professor of biology said that it was possible to make a kerosene- burning turbine that would “lessen smog by a very large fraction”. But he expressed doubt that Americans were willing to give up moving about the countryside at 90 miles an hour in a large vehicle. “America seems wedded to the motor car every family has to have at least two and one of them has to be convertible with 300 horsepower,” Professor Galston continued, “Is this the way of life that we choose because we cherish these values?” For Professor Paul B. Seare, part of the blame lies with “a society that regards profit supreme value, under the illusion that anything that is technically possible is therefore, ethically justified”. Professor Seare also called the countrys dependence on its modern automobiles “lousy economics” because of the large horsepower used simply “moving one individual to work”. But he conceded that Americans have painted themselves into a corner by allowing the national economy to become so reliant on the automobile industry. 第 6 页 共 10 页 According to Dr. Weinerman, automobiles, not factories, are responsible for two- thirds of the smog in American cities, and the smog presents the possibility of a whole new kind of epidemic, not due to one germ, but due to polluted environment. Within another five to ten years, it is possible to have epidemic lung cancer in a city like Los Angeles. “This is a new phenomenon in health concern”, he said. “The solution”, he continued, “is not to find a less dangerous fuel, but a different system of inner- city transportation. Because of the increasing use of cars, public transportation has been allowed to wither and degenerate, so that if you cant walk to where you want to go, you have to have a car in most cities”, he asserted. This in turn, Dr. Weinerman contended, is responsible for the “arteriosclerosis” of public roads, for the blight of inner city and for the middle class movement to the suburbs. 16. Automobiles are called No. 1 Public Health Enemy because of the following they have caused EXCEPT _. A) air pollution B) city congestion C) natural hazards D) heart disease 17. A kerosene- burning car seems to _. A) go faster than the gasoline- burning car B) go as fast as the gasoline- burning car C) be very popular among Americans D) go slowly and reduce smog 18. Professor Seare indicates that _. A) technology is not always ethically correct B) technology is always valuable C) profit in economy is always more important than technology development D) Americans are losing profit in the automobile industry 19. To solve the health problems caused by cars, _. A) a new transportation system in the city should be built B) ways of controlling smog should be found C) all people should walk to work D) a different fuel should be fo