考研英语阅读真题.pdf
1996Passage 1Tight-lipped elders used to say,Its not what you want in this world,but what you get.Psychology teaches that you do get what you want if you know what you want and want the right things.You can make a mental blueprint of a desire as you would make a blueprint of a house,and eachof us is continually making these blueprints in the general routine of everyday living.If we intendto have friends to dinner,we plan the menu,make a shopping list,decide which food to cook first,and such planning is an essential for any type of meal to be served.Likewise,If you want to find a job,take a sheet of paper,and write a brief account of yourself.Inmaking a blueprint for a job,begin with yourself,for when you know exactly what you have tooffer,you can intelligently plan where to sell your services.This account of yourself is actuaLly a sketch of your working life and should include alucation,experience and references.Such an account is valuable.It can be referred to in filling out standardapplication blanks and is extremely helpful in personal interviews.While talking to you,yourcould-be employer is deciding whether your wares”and abilities must be displayed in an orderlyand reasonably connected manner.When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires,you have somethingtangible to sell.Then you are ready to hunt for a job.Get all the possible information about yourcould-be job.Make inquiries as to the details regarding the job and the firm.Keep your eyes andears open,and use your own judgement.Spend a certain amount of time each day seeking theemployment you wish for,and keep in mind:Securing a job is your job now.51.What do the elders mean when they say,Itrs not what yau want in this world,but whatyou get.?(A)Youll certainly get what you want.(B)It*s no use dreaming.(C)You should be dissatisfied with what you have.(D)Ifs essential to set a goal for yourself.52.A blueprint made before inviting a friend to dinner is used in this passage as.(A)an illustration of how to write an application for a job(B)an indication of how to secure a good job(C)a guideline fbr job description(D)a principle for job evaluation53.According to the passage,one must write an account of himself before starting to find a jobbecause _.(A)that is the first step to please the employer(B)that is the requirement of the employer(C)it enables him to know when to sell his services(D)it forces him to become clearly aware of himself54.When you have carefully prepared a blueprint of your abilities and desires,you have some-thing_.(A)definite to offer(B)imaginary to provide(C)practical to supply(D)desirable to presentPassage 2With the start of BBC World Service Television,millions of viewers in Asia and America can nowwatch the Corporations news coverage,as well as listen to it.And of course in Britain listenersand viewers can tune in to two BBC television channels,five BBC national radio services anddozens of local radio station.They are brought sport,comedy,drama,music,news and currentaffairs,education,religion,parliamentary coverage,children s pragrammes and films for anannual licence fee of 83 pounds per household.It is a remarkable record,stretching back over 70 years yet the BBC s future is now in doubt.TheCorporation will survive as a publicly-funded broadcasting organization,at least for the time being,but its role,its size and its programmes are now the subject of a nation-wide debate in Britain.The debate was launched by the Government,which invited anyone with an opinion of theBBC-including ordinary listeners and viewers-to say what was good or bad about the Corporation,and even whether they thought it was worth keeping.The reason for its inquiry is that the BBC*sroyal charter runs out in 1996 and it must decide whether to keep the organization as it is,or tomake changes.Defenders of the Corporation-of whom there are many-are fond of quoting the American sloganIf it aint broke,dont fix it.The BBC,ain,t broke1,they say,by which they mean it is notbroken(as distinct from the word broke,meaning having no money),so why bother to change it?Yet the BBC will have to change,because the broadcasting world around it is changing.Thecommercial TV channels-TV and Channel 4-were required by the Thatcher GovernmentsBroadcasting Act to become more commercial,competing with each other for advertisers,andcutting costs and jobs.But it is the anival of new satellite channels-funded partly by advertisingand partly by viewers*subscriptions-which will bring about the biggest changes in the long term.55.The world famous BBC now faces_ .(A)the problem of new coverage(B)an uncertain prospect(C)inquiries by the general public(D)shrinkage of audience56.In the passage,which of the following about the BBC is not mentioned as the key issue?(A)Extension of its TV service to Far East.(B)Programmes as the subject of a nation-wide debate.(C)Potentials for further international co-operations.(D)Its existence as a broadcasting organization.57.The BBCs nroyal charter1(Line 4,Paragraph 3)stands for_(A)the financial support from the roval family(B)the privileges granted by the Queen(C)a contract with the Queen(D)a unique relationship with the royal family58.The foremost reason why the BBC has to readjust itself is no other than(A)the emergence of commercial TV channels(B)the enforcement of Broadcasting Act by the government(C)the urgent necessity to reduce costs and jobs(D)the challenge of new satellite channelsPassage 3In the last half of the nineteenth century capital and labour were enlarging and perfecting theirrival organizations on modern lines.Many an old firm was replaced by a limited liability companywith a bureaucracy of salaried managers.The change met the technical requirements of the newage by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that socommonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after theenergetic founders.It was moreover a step away from individual initiative,towards collectivismand municipal and state-owned business.The railway companies,though still private businessmanaged for the benefit of shareholders,were very unlike old family business.At the same timethe great municipalities went into business to supply lighting,trams and other services to thetaxpayers.The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences.Such large,impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers andimportance of shareholders as a class,an element in national life representing irresponsiblewealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners;and almost equally detached fromthe responsible management of business.All through the nineteenth century,America,Africa,India,Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital,and British shareholderswere thus enriched by the world,s movement towards industrialisation.Towns like Bournemouthand Eastbourne sprang up to house fonable classes who had retired on their incomes,and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends andoccasionally attending a shareholders1 meeting to dictate their orders to the management.On theother hand shareholding1 meant leisure and freedom which was used by many ofthe later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilisation.The shareholders as such had no knowledge of the lives,thoughts or needs of the workmenemployed by the company in which he held shares,and his influence on the relations of capitaland labour was not good.The paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relationwith the men and their demands,but even he had seldom that familiar personal knowledge of theworkmen which the employer had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old familybusiness now passing away.Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmeninvolved rendered such personal relations impossible.Fortunately,however,the increasing powerand organization of the trade unions,at least in all skilled trades,enabLed the workmen to meet onequal terms the managers of the companies who employed them.The cruel discipline of the strikeand lockout taught the two parties to respect each others strength and understand the value of fairnegotiation.59.Its true of the old family finns that.(A)they were spoiled by the younger generations(B)they failed for lack of individual initiative(C)they lacked efficiency compared with modem companies(D)they could supply adequate services to the taxpayers60.The growth of limited liability companies resulted in.(A)the separation of capital from management(B)the ownership of capital by managers(C)the emergence of capital and labour as two classes(D)the participation of shareholders in municipal business61.According to the passage,all of the following are true except that.(A)the shareholders were unaware of the needs of the workers(B)the old firm owners hand a better understanding of their workers(C)the limited liability Qompanies were too large to run smoothly(D)the trade unions seemed to play a positive role62.The author is most critical of_.(A)family film owners(B)landowners(C)managers(D)shareholdersPassage 4What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such asthe telegraph,the steamboat and the weaving machine?Among the many shaping factors,I would single out the country s excellent elementary schools;a labor force that welcomed the new technology;the practice of giving premiums to inventors;and above all the American genius for nonverbal,spatiafthinking about things technological.Why mention the elementary schools?Because thanks to these schools our earlymechanics,especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states,were generally literate andat home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educationaladvantage.As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported,uWith a mindprepared by thorough school discipline,the American boy develops rapidly into the skilledworkman.A further stimulus to invention came from the premium system,which preceded our patentsystem and for years ran parallel with it.fhis approach,originated abroad,offered inventorsmedals,cash prizes and other incentives.In the United States,multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and atthe industrial fairs in major cities.Americans flocked to thess fairs to admire the new machinesand thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation,the American worker took readily tothat special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology.As Eugene Fergusonhas pointed out,A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguousverbal descriptions;they are dealt with in his mind by a visual,nonverbal process The designerand the inventor.are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do notexist.nThis nonverbal spatial thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing.Robert Fultononce wrote,The mechanic should sit down among levers,screws,wedges,wheels,etc.,like apoet among the letters of the alphabet,considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts,in whicha new arrangement transmits a new idea.When all these shaping forces-schools,open attitudes,the premium system,a genius for spatialthinking interacted with one another on the rich U.S.mainland,they produced that Americancharacteristic,emulation.Today that word implies mere imitation.But in earlier times it meant afriendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.63.According to the author,the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in alarge part due to一(A)elementaly schools(B)enthusiastic workers(C)the attractive premium system(D)a special way of thinking64.It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics一(A)benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge(B)shed light on disciplined school management(C)was brought about by privileged home training(D)owed a lot to the technological development65.A technologist can be compared to an artist because _(A)they are both winners of awards(B)they are both experts in spatial thinking(C)they both abandon verbal description(D)they both use various instruments66.The best title for this passage might be一(A)Inventive Mind(B)Effective Schooling(B)Ways of Thinking(D)Outpouring of InventionsPassage 5Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher 1 s pipelines.Afew have already appeared.The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and oftenunenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin andevolution of universe and life.Cosmology,geology,and biology have provided a consistent,unified,and constantly improving account of what happened.Scientific creationism,which isbeing pushed by some for equal time in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts ofevolution are eivel,is based on religion,not science.Virtually all scientists and the majority ofnonfundamentalist religious leaders have come to regard scientific1 creationism as bad scienceand bad religion.The first four chapters of Kitchers book give a very brief introduction to evolution.At appropriate places,he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers.In the lastthree chapters,he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating.He describes theirprogrammes and tactics,and,for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists,the extent of theirdeception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise.When their basic motivation isreligious,one might have expected more Christian behavior.Kitcher is a philosopher,and this may account,in part,for the clarity and effectiveness ofhis arguments.The non-specialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data andargument that support evolutionary theory.The final chapter on the creationists will be extremelyclear to all.On the dust jacket of this fine book,Stephen Jay Gould says:This book stands forreason itself.uAnd so it does-and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.67.Creationism1 1 in the passage refers to_(A)evolution in its true sense as to the origin of the universe(B)a notion of the creation of religion(C)the scientific explanation of the earth formation(D)the deceptive theory about the origin of the universe68.Kitchers book is intended to.(A)recommend the views of the evolutionists(B)expose the true features of creationists(C)curse bitterly at this opponents(D)launch a surprise attack on creationists69 From the passage we can infer that(A)reasoning has played a decisive role in the debate(B)creationists do not base their argument on reasonin
