《试卷》2012英语二考研英语真题.doc

2012年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语二试题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 on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)Millions of Americans and foreigners see G.I. Joe as a mindless war toy, the symbol of American military adventurism, but thats not how it used to be. To the men and women who 1 in World War and the people they liberated, the G.I. was the 2 man grown into hero, the poor farm kid torn away from his home, the guy who 3 all the burdens of battle, who slept in cold foxholes, who went without the 4 of food and shelter, who stuck it out and drove back the Nazi reign of murder. This was not a volunteer soldier, not someone well paid, 5 an average guy, up 6 the best trained, best equipped, fiercest, most brutal enemies seen in centuries.His name isnt much. G.I. is just a military abbreviation 7 Government Issue, and it was on all of the articles 8 to soldiers. And Joe? A common name for a guy who never 9 it to the top. Joe Blow, Joe Palooka, Joe Magrac. a working class name. The United States has 10 had a president or vice-president or secretary of state Joe.G.I. Joe had a 11 career fighting German, Japanese, and Korean troops. He appears as a character, or a 12 of American personalities, in the 1945 movie The Story of G.I. Joe, based on the last days of war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Some of the soldiers Pyle 13 portrayed themselves in the film. Pyle was famous for covering the 14 side of the war, writing about the dirt-snow-and-mud soldiers, not how many miles were 15 or what towns were captured or liberated. His reports 16 the “Willie” cartoons of famed Stars and Stripes artist Bill Maulden. Both men 17 the dirt and exhaustion of war, the 18 of civilization that the soldiers shared with each other and the civilians: coffee, tobacco, whiskey, shelter, sleep. 19 Egypt, France, and a dozen more countries, G.I. Joe was any American soldier, 20 the most important person in their lives.1.A served B performed C rebelled D betrayed2.A actual B common C special D normal3.A loaded B eased C removed D bore4.A necessities B facilities C commodities D properties5.A and B nor C but D hence6.A for B into C from D against7.A implying B meaning C symbolizing D claiming8.A handed out B turned over C brought back D passed down9.A pushed B got C made D managed10.A ever B never C either D neither11.A disguised B disturbed C disputed D distinguished12.A company B community C collection D colony13A employed B appointed C interviewed D questioned14.A human B military C political D ethical15.A ruined B commuted C patrolled D gained16.A paralleled B counteracted C duplicated D contradicted17.A neglected B emphasized C avoided D admired18.A stages B illusions C fragments D advances19.A With B To C Among D Beyond20.A on the contraryB by this means C from the outset D at that pointSection Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)Text 1Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a students academic grade.This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule.At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right.21. It is implied in Paragraph 1 that nowadays homework .A is receiving more criticismB is gaining more preferences C is no longer an educational ritual D is not required for advanced courses22. L.A. Unified has made the rule about homework mainly because poor students .A tend to have moderate expectations for their educationB have asked for a different educational standardC may have problems finishing their homeworkD have voiced their complaints about homework23. According to Paragraph 3, one problem with the policy is that it may .A result in students indifference to their report cards B undermine the authority of state testsC restrict teachers power in education D discourage students from doing homework 24. As mentioned in Paragraph 4, a key question unanswered about homework is whether .A it should be eliminatedB it counts much in schoolingC it places extra burdens on teachersD it is important for grades25. A suitable title for this text could be .A A Faulty Approach to HomeworkB A Welcomed Policy for Poor StudentsC Thorny Questions about HomeworkD Wrong Interpretations of an Educational Policy Text 2Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls lives and interests.Girls attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. Whats more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid-1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant childrens marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years.I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into childrens behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping stone” between infant wear and older kids clothes. It was only after “toddler” became a common shoppers term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differencesor invent them where they did not previously exist.26. By saying “it is.the rainbow” (Para.1), the author means pink .A cannot explain girls lack of imaginationB should not be associated with girls innocenceC should not be the sole representation of girlhoodD cannot influence girls lives and interests27. According to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours?A Colours are encoded in girls DNA.B Blue used to be regarded as the colour for girls.C White is preferred by babies.D Pink used to be a neutral colour in symbolising genders.28. The author suggests that our perception of childrens psychological development was much influenced by .A the observation of childrens nature B the marketing of products for childrenC researches into childrens behaviourD studies of childhood consumption29. We may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised to .A classify consumers into smaller groups B attach equal importance to different gendersC focus on infant wear and older kids clothesD create some common shoppers terms30. It can be concluded that girls attraction to pink seems to be .A fully understood by clothing manufacturersB clearly explained by their inborn tendencyC mainly imposed by profit-driven businessmenD well interpreted by psychological expertsText 3In 2010, a federal judge shook Americas biotech industry to its core. Companies had won patents for isolated DNA for decadesby 2005 some 20% of human genes were patented. But in March 2010 a judge ruled that genes were unpatentable. Executives were violently agitated. The Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), a trade group, assured members that this was just a “preliminary step” in a longer battle.On July 29th they were relieved, at least temporarily. A federal appeals court overturned the prior decision, ruling that Myriad Genetics could indeed hold patents to two genes that help forecast a womans risk of breast cancer. The chief executive of Myriad, a company in Utah, said the ruling was a blessing to firms and patients alike.But as companies continue their attempts at personalised medicine, the courts will remain rather busy. The Myriad case itself is probably not over. Critics make three main arguments against gene patents: a gene is a product of nature, so it may not be patented; gene patents suppress innovation rather than reward it; and patents monopolies restrict access to genetic tests such as Myriads. A growing number seem to agree. Last year a federal task-force urged reform for patents related to genetic tests. In October the Department of Justice filed a brief in the Myriad case, arguing that an isolated DNA molecule “is no less a product of nature. than are cotton fibres that have been separated from cotton seeds”.Despite the appeals courts decision, big questions remain unanswered. For example, it is unclear whether the sequencing of a whole genome violates the patents of individual genes within it. The case may yet reach the Supreme Court.As the industry advances, however, other suits may have an even greater impact. Companies are unlikely to file many more patents for human DNA moleculesmost are already patented or in the public domain. Firms are now studying how genes interact, looking for correlations that might be used to determine the causes of disease or predict a drugs efficacy. Companies are eager to win patents for “connecting the dots”, explains Hans Sauer, a lawyer for the BIO.Their success may be determined by a suit related to this issue, brought by the Mayo Clinic, which the Supreme Court will hear in its next term. The BIO recently held a convention which included sessions to coach lawyers on the shifting landscape for patents. Each meeting was packed.31. It can be learned from Paragraph 1 that the biotech companies would like .A genes to be patentable B the BIO to issue a warningC their executives to be activeD judges to rule out gene patenting32. Those who are against gene patents believe that .A genetic tests are not reliableB only man-made products are patentableC patents on genes depend much on innovationD courts should restrict access to genetic tests33. According to Hans Sauer, companies are eager to win patents for .A discovering gene interactionsB establishing disease correlations C drawing pictures of genesD identifying human DNA34. By saying “Each meeting was packed” (Para. 6), the author means that .A the supreme court was authoritativeB the BIO was a powerful organisationC gene patenting was a great concernD lawyers were keen to attend conventions35. Generally speaking, the authors attitude toward gene patenting is .A criticalB supportiveC scornfulD objectiveText 4The great recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. And ultimately, it is likely