华中师范大学2007年考博英语真题(共9页).doc

精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上2007年试题Part Reading Comprehension (40%) Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and then write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage:Nothing better illustrates the boradening of the concern about pollution from a local affair to a global one than air pollution. Local air pollution is improving in some cities in industrial countries, but it is worsening in others, principally in developing countries, and is hardly solved anywhere. Meanwhile, global use of fossil fuels and emissions of traditional pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides that result from it contiune to climb. Acid rain, ozone, and other consequences of these pollutants are affecting plant and animal life-killing forest and fish, damaging crops, changing the species composition of ecosystem-over vast areas of the globe.Depletion of the stratosphere's ozone layer is a matter of such concern that an international treaty has been negotiated to reduce emissions of chlorofluorcarbons, but the latest measurements indicate the current protocol is already inadequate. And probably most serious of all, the buildup of infrared-trapping “greenhouse” gases in the atmosphere contiunes.This buildup is largerly a conscquence of the use of fossil fuels and CFCs, deforestation, and various agricultural activities, and it now threatens societies with far-reaching climate change.While the regional impacts of global warming are uncertain and difficult to predict, rainfall and monsoon patterns could shift, upsetting agricultural activities worldwide. The sea level could rise, flooding coastal areas. Ocean currents could shift, altering the climate of many areas and disrupting fisheries.The ranges of plant and animal species could change regionally, endangering protected areas and many species whose habitats are now few and confined. Record heat waves and other weather anomalies could harm susceptible people, crops, and forests.These interrelated atmospheric issues probably constitute the most serious pollution threat in history. I say "interrelated" because these atmospheric issues are linked in ways that scientists are still discovering, and the scientists are far ahead of our policymakers. First, they are linked in time. The view is still common today that, initially, we should address local air pollution, then we should turn attention to regional issues of greenhouse gases. But the failures of our clean air efforts make urban air quality an issue for today, forcing a 1970's issue from the past into the present. Simultaneously, the realizations that Greenhouse gases other than CO2 double the urgency of the problem, and that societies may have already committed the planet to a 1 to 2.5C global average warming-these realizations are forcing what was thought to be a "21st century issue" into the present.These atmospheric issues are also linked in vast chemical reactor that is the atmosphere, where pollutants react with each other, other substances,and solar energy in an extremely complex set of circular interactions.Touch one problem, you may touch them all.Third, they are linked in their effects on people and on the biota. What are the consequences of multiple stresses-a variety of pollutants, heat waves and climate changes, increased ultraviolet radiation-when realized together? Who knows? We are all still learning.In short, the time to address all these atmosphere problem-local, regional, global-is now. The way to address all problem in together. And, in the long run, the key to these problems is energy.1._ will lead to air pollution. A) The falling of acid rain B) The decrease of ozone C) The burning of fossil fuels D) The increase of nitrogen dioxide2.Which of the following can be affected by the buildup of the "greenhouse" gases? A) The shift of monsoon patterns B) The rise of sea level C) The regional change of the biota. D) All of the above.3. As it can be inferred from the passage, scientists _the commonly accepted view that different atmospheric issues should be dealt with at different times. A) are in favor of B) are studying C) stand against D) remain indifferent to4. According to the author, the key to an improvement of air pollution lies in _ A) prohibiting the use of automobiles B) finding new forms of energy, which will not result in pollution C) planting more trees D) forbidding the use of chlorofluorocarbons5. What does the passage tell us, essentially? A) All the interrelated atmospheric issues should be dealt with together now. B) While local air pollution is improving in some cities in the world, it is deteriorating in other C) All the weather anomalies caused by global warming could be harmful to people and biota. D) The earth's atmosphere is like a huge chemical reactor, Where all its ingredients interact.Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage:Satellite images of the earth make grim viewing. Six million hectares, an ares almost the size of Ireland, turns to desert every year. Ten million hectares,an areas about as big as Kenturky, of tropical forest is cut down each year. Each year, too, soil erosion, often caused by deforestation, diminishes the world's stock of agricultural land by 20m hectares, an ares about half the size of Japan.Environmental pressure groups have long argued that these problems are as pressing as say, third-world debt. They maintain that international development banks,the World Bank included, have neglected them in pushing ahead with agricultural, power, transport and other programs.In consequence, these projects have often had an economically-damaging impact on the countries that are supposed to benefit.The tide, for the moment, is running with the greens. Mr.Barber Conable, the World Bank's president,want to see the Bank doing more for the environment. The Bank says it has the equivalent of 150 of its 3,000 staff working full-time on environmental work. But it lacks environmental department, and the links between its small environmental office-which has no economists-and its policy makers are weak.Though overstaffed, the Bank does not have the experts it needs to vet and monitor for their environmental effects the 250 or more new projects it approves each year. Next month's meeting of the development committee is likely to recommend the appointment of more environmental specialists-a change that could be fitted into a reorganization that Mr. Conable want to see completed within the next few months. Once the World Bank has given a lead, other multilateral organizations,such as the Asian Development Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank,can be expected to follow.6. The writer cites a few examples in the first paragraph to make the point that- A) environmentalists should try to persuade banks to stop funding development programs. B) recipient countries should understand the economic value of environment-protecting projects. C) the World Bank is doing harm to those poor funding-recipient countries. D) humanity is confronted with serious environmental problem.7. Environmentalists argue that international development bank have failed to - A) install any environmental specialists in their offices. B) reduce their offices to make them more efficient. C) consider environmental effects when funding projects. D) monitor the few projects they approve each year.8.When the writer says that "The tide, for the moment, is running with the greens." he means- A) Environmentalists' views have now been seriously taken into account B) Mr. Conble has reorganized their environmental office C) Environmentalists now have a greater say in the reorganization of the Bank D) Mr.Conable's plan to give more development aid is as welcome as ever before9. While of the following statement Mr.Conable is best supported by paras.3-4 A) He will persuade other banks into funding environment-protecting projects. B) He has made some efforts to streamline the office in the Bank. C) He will create an environmental department to replace the existing office. D) He is clearly aware of the importance of environmental scientists.10. The best title for this passage is - A) Environmental Issue Reconsidered B) Me.Conable Takes the Lead C) Environmental Pressure Groups Win D) A Greener Hue for Development Aid.Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage:Hardly a week goes by without a new study of the nation's schools. The lastest such report, by the Carngie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, may be the most thoughtful and specific of the lot. It was produced over a period of thirty months by a team of twenty-three educators and trained observers who spent 2,000 hours examining fifteen representative high schools. Carnegie President Ernest Boyer, former U.S. Commissioner of Education, collected their journals and wrote the final account,being published by Harper & Row. Says Boyer, "This report on the American high school begins with the conviction that the time for renewing education has arrived. If we do not seize this special moment, we will fail the coming generation and nation."The report ticks off a crisp, twelve-point "agenda for action" with four main priorities. First, all students should master oral and written English and should be tested before they enter high school to make sure they are proficient in the subject.Next, all students should to take a core curriculum. In addition to strengthening traditional courses in literature, history, mathematics, and science, schools should require classes in a foreign language, the arts, civics, non-Western culture, health, and technology. Then, the lot of the nation's beleaguered teachers should be improved, not only by higher pay and greater recognition but by allowing them to concentrate on professional tasks.Finally, students should be trained to be responsible citizens by being required to spend at least 30 hours a year doing volunteer work on community projects.The Carnegie Foundation also calls for federal funds and participation in setting up a network of residential math and science academies for gifted students and establishing a National teacher Service that would provide scholarships for top students who want to become teachers themselves. The U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel Bell has praised the Carnegie report for it "breadth and creativity".11. The report on the schools was put together by- A) 23 trained observers in 30 months of work B)38 observers taking 30 months of work C) 30 observers spending 15months D) 23 observers in 2,000 hours12. The study was done because Carnegie Foundation's president believed- A) that not enough reports had been made B)that re-evaluation of education is always a good idea C) that the time change the trend of American education has arrived D) that not enough people know about our high school curriculum13.The final report was written by - A) the current U.S.Secretary of Education B)the president of Carnegie Foundation C) Harper and Row D)the National teacher Service 14.In its main points the Carnegie report stressed as the most important- A) that each state must have a science and math academy B) that each student must work every summer on volunteer school projects C) that each student must master a foreign language D) that each student must master oral and written English 15. The Secretary of Education of the U.S. government has praised the study for- A) including courses in civics B) its narrowness of creativity C) its extent and originality D) not being too long Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:Everyone who's ever been there describes it as being " way out in the desert," but it's really only 15 minutes past the last traffic light in Tucson. Drive by grazing cattle scattered across the sparse Arizona pasture, top a bill and there it is: a set of gleaming white buildings that looks for all the world like a refugee from a science fiction movie. This is Biosphere 2-surely one of the most intriguing enterprises around. It's nothing less than an attempt to build a closed, sustainable environment in which man-made "natural systems" are so well balanced that human beings can live in it indefinitely. It is supposed to be a miniature Earth in every way, an intent reflected in its name-Earth is reckoned to be Biosphere! The project was designed as a prototype of our future home for a time when we establish colonies in outer space. It is also a tool for demonstrating how much we know, and don't know, about the workings of Biosphere 1. Biosphere 2 looks like a huge greenhouse perched on a two-story concrete bunker. The upper level. Contains five miniature ecosystems. I lidden within the lower levels are machines that keep the whole system going. When the project is in operation, the only thing that enters from the outside (in principle,at least) is energy: sunlight and electricity.From a purely scientific view, Biosphere 2 is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. Scientists are just beginning to understand some of the mechanisms that drive Earth's interdependent systems. But,given our profound ignorance of this subject, can we really expect to reproduce the biosphere on the scale of a few acres?16. The word "refugee" in the first paragraph tells us that the building looks- A) like disheveled people B) in need of maintenance C) suitable, given their purpose D) incongruous in the Arizona desert17.Biosphere 2 is A) a difficult endeavor B) isolated and remote C) spherical in shape D) totally self-reliant18.As an "enterprise," Biosphere 2 hopes to- A) make a lot of money B) develop more ecosystems C) create an earth-like habitation D) discover new sources of power19.The underlined phrase perched on in the second paragraph means - A) on the verge of B) on the edge of C) by the side of D) at the top of 20. The author of the passage is _ about the project's feasibility. A) excited B) skeptical C) confident D) nonchalant Part Vocabulary (10%) Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A), B), C)andD) . Choose the ONE that best completes the sentence. Then write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.21.