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2024年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（一）试题
Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text.Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B,
C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)
There’s nothing more welcoming than a door opening for you. 1 the need
to be touched to open or close, automatic doors are essential in 2 disabled
access to buildings and helping provide general 3 to commercial buildings.
Self-sliding doors began to emerge as a commercial product in 1960 after being
invented six years 4 by Americans Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt. They 5
as a novelty feature, but as their use has grown, their 6 have extended within
our technologically advanced world. Particularly 7 in busy locations or during
times of emergency, the doors 8 crowd management by reducing the
obstacles put in peoples’ way.
9 making access both in and out of buildings easier for people, the
difference in the way many of these doors open helps reduce the total area 10 by
them. Automatic doors often open to the side, with the panels sliding across one another.
Replacing swing doors, these 1 1 smaller buildings to maximise the usable space
inside without having to 12 the way for a large, sticking-out door. There are
many different types of automatic door, with each 13 specific signals to tell
them when to open. 14 these methods differ, the main 15 remain
the same.
Each automatic door system 16 the light, sound, weight or movement in
their vicinity as a signal to open. Sensor types are chosen to 17 the different
environments they are needed in. 18 , a busy street might not 19 a
motion-sensored door, as it would constantly be opening for passers-by. A pressure-
sensitive mat would be more 2 0 to limit the surveyed area.
1.【A】Through 【B】Despite 【C】Besides 【D】Without
2.【A】revealing 【B】demanding 【C】improving 【D】tracing
3.【A】experience 【B】convenience 【C】guidance 【D】reference4.【A】previously 【B】temporarily 【C】successively 【D】eventually
5.【A】held on 【B】started out 【C】settled down 【D】went by
6.【A】relations 【B】volumes 【C】benefits 【D】sources
7.【A】useful 【B】simple 【C】flexible 【D】stable
8.【A】call for 【B】yield to 【C】insist on 【D】act as
9.【A】As well as 【B】In terms of 【C】Thanks to 【D】Rather than
10.【A】connected 【B】shared 【C】represented 【D】occupied
11.【A】allow 【B】expect 【C】require 【D】direct
12.【A】adopt 【B】lead 【C】clear 【D】change
13.【A】adapting to 【B】deriving from 【C】relying on 【D】pointing at
14.【A】Once 【B】Since 【C】Unless 【D】Although
15.【A】records 【B】positions 【C】principles 【D】reasons
16.【A】controls 【B】analyses 【C】produces 【D】mixes
17.【A】decorate 【B】compare 【C】protect 【D】complement
18.【A】In conclusion【B】By contrast 【C】For example 【D】Above all
19.【A】identify 【B】suit 【C】secure 【D】include
20.【A】appropriate 【B】obvious 【C】impressive 【D】delicate
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C
or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)
Text 1
Nearly 2,000 years ago, as the Romans began to pull out of Scotland, they left
behind a curious treasure: 10 tons of nails, nearly a million of the things. The nail hoard
was discovered in 1960 in a four-metre-deep pit covered by two metres of gravel.
Why had the Romans buried a million nails? The likely explanation is that the
withdrawal was rushed, and they didn’t want the local Caledonians getting their hands on
10 tons of weapon-grade iron. The Romans buried the nails so deep that they would not
be discovered for almost two millennia.
Later civilisations would value the skilled blacksmith’s labour in a nail even more
than the raw material. As Roma Agrawal explains in her new delightful book Nuts andBolts, early 17th-century Virginians would sometimes bum down their homes if they
were planning to relocate. This was an attempt to recover the valuable nails, which
could be reused after sifting the ashes. The idea that one might bum down an entire house
just to reclaim the nails underlines how scarce, costly and valuable the simple-
seeming technology was.
The price of nails fell by 90% between the late 1700s and mid-1900s, as economist
Daniel Sichel points out in a research paper. According to Sichel, although the falling
price of nails was driven partly by cheaper iron and cheaper energy, most of the credit
goes to nail manufacturers who simply found more efficient ways to turn steel into nails.
Nails themselves have changed over the years, but Sichel studied them because
they haven’t changed much. Roman lamps and Roman chariots are very different from
LED strips and sports cars, but Roman nails are still clearly nails. It would be absurd to
try to track the changing price of sports cars since 1695, but to ask the same question of
nails makes perfect sense.
I make no apology for being obsessed by a particular feature of these objects: their
price. I am an economist, after all. After writing two books about the history of
inventions, one thing I’ve learnt is that while it is the enchantingly sophisticated
technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world.
The Gutenberg printing press transformed civilisation not by changing the nature of
writing but by changing its cost—and it would have achieved little without a parallel
collapse in the price of surfaces to write on, thanks to an often-overlooked technology
called paper. Solar panels had few niche uses until they became cheap; now they are
transforming the global energy system.21. The Romans buried the nails probably for the sake of
【A】saving them for future use.
【B】keeping them from rusting.
【C】letting them grow in value.
【D】hiding them from the locals.
22. The example of early 17th-century Virginians is used to
【A】highlight the thriftiness of early American colonists.
【B】illustrate the high status of blacksmiths in that period.
【C】contrast the attitudes of different civilisations towards nails.
【D】show the preciousness of nail-making technology at that time.
23. What played the major role in lowering the price of nails after the late 1700s?
【A】Increased productivity.
【B】Wider use of new energies.
【C】Fiercer market competition.
【D】Reduced cost of raw materials.
24. It can be learned from Paragraph 5 that nails
【A】have undergone many technological improvements.
【B】have remained basically the same since Roman times.
【C】are less studied than other everyday products.
【D】are one of the world’s most significant inventions.
25. Which of the following best summarises the last two paragraphs?
【A】Cheap technologies bring about revolutionary change.
【B】Technological innovation is integral to economic success.
【C】Technology defines people’s understanding of the world.
【D】Sophisticated technologies develop from small inventions.Text 2
Parenting tips obtained from hunter-gatherers in Africa may be the key to bringing
up more contented children, researchers have suggested. The idea is based on studies of
communities such as the Kung of Botswana, where each child is cared for by many
adults. Kung children as young as four will help to look after younger ones and
“baby-wearing”, in which infants are carried in slings, is considered the norm.
According to Dr Nikhil Chaudhary, an evolutionary anthropologist at Cambridge
University, these practices, known as alloparenting, could lead to less anxiety for children
and parents.
Dr Annie Swanepoel, a child psychiatrist, believes that there are ways to
incorporate them into western life. In Germany, one scheme has paired an old people’s
home with a nursery. The residents help to look after the children, an arrangement akin
to alloparenting. Another measure could be encouraging friendships between children
in different school years, to mirror the unsupervised mixed-age playgroups in
hunter-gatherer communities.
In a paper published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
researchers said that the western nuclear family was a recent invention which broke
with evolutionary history. This abrupt shift to an “intensive mothering narrative”,
which suggests that mothers should manage childcare alone, was likely to have been
harmful. “ Such narratives can lead to maternal exhaustion and have dangerous
consequences,” they wrote.
By contrast, in hunter-gatherer societies adults other than the parents can provide
almost half of a child’s care. One previous study looked at the Efé people of the
Democratic Republic of Congo. It found that infants had an average of 14 alloparents a
day by the time they were 18 weeks old, and were passed between caregivers eight times
an hour.
Chaudhary said that parents now have less childcare support from family and social
networks than during most of humans’ evolutionary history, but introducing additional
caregivers could reduce stress and maternal depression, which could have a “knock-on”
benefit to a child’s wellbeing. An infant born to a hunter-gatherer society could have
more than ten caregivers-this contrasts starkly to nursery settings in the UK where
regulations call for a ratio of one carer to four children aged two to three.
While hunter-gatherer children learnt from observation and imitation in mixed-age
playgroups, researchers said that western “instructive teaching”, where pupils are asked
to sit still, may contribute to conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Chaudhary said that Britain should explore the possibility that older siblings helping their
parents “might also enhance their own social development.”
26. According to the first two paragraphs, alloparenting refers to the practice of
【A】sharing childcare among community members.
【B】assigning babies to specific adult caregivers.【C】teaching parenting skills to older children.
【D】carrying infants around by their parents.
27. The scheme in Germany is mentioned to illustrate
【A】an attempt to facilitate intergenerational communication.
【B】an approach to integrating alloparenting into western society.
【C】the conventional parenting style in western culture.
【D】the differences between western and African ways of living.
28. According to Paragraph 4, the “intensive mothering narrative”
【A】alleviates parenting pressure.
【B】consolidates family relationships.
【C】results in the child-centered family.
【D】departs from the course of evolution.
29. According to Paragraph 6, what can we learn about the nurseries in the UK?
【A】They tend to fall short of official requirements.
【B】They have difficulty finding enough caregivers.
【C】They ought to improve their carer-to-child ratio.
【D】They should try to prevent parental depression.
30. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
【A】Instructive teaching: a dilemma for anxious parents
【B】For a happier family, learn from the hunter-gatherers
【C】Mixed-age playgroup, a better choice for lonely children
【D】Tracing the history of parenting: from Africa to EuropeText 3
A Polish digital artist who uses classical painting styles to create dreamy fantasy
landscapes, Greg Rutkowski has made illustrations for games such as Dungeons &
Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. And he’s become a sudden hit in the new world of
text-to-image AI generation.
His distinctive style is now one of the most commonly used prompts in the new
open-source AI art generator Stable Diffusion.The tool, along with other popular
image-generation AI models, allows anyone to create impressive images based on text
prompts. For example, type in “Wizard with sword and a glowing orb of magic fire
fights a fierce dragon Greg Rutkowski,” and the system will produce something that
looks not a million miles away from works in Rutkowski’s style.
But these open-source programs are built by scraping images from the internet, often
without permission and proper attribution to artists. As a result, they are raising tricky
questions about ethics and copyright. And artists like Rutkowski have had enough.
According to the website Lexica, which tracks over 10 million images and prompts
generated by Stable Diffusion, Rutkowski’s name has been used as a prompt around
93,000 times. Rutkowski was initially surprised but thought it might be a good way to
reach new audiences. Then he tried searching for his name to see if a piece he had
worked on had been published. The online search brought back work that had his name
attached to it but wasn’t his.
“It’s been just a month.What about in a year? I probably won’t be able to find my
work out there because the internet will be flooded with AI art,” Rutkowski says.
“That’s concerning.”
Other artists besides Rutkowski have been surprised by the apparent popularity of
their work in text-to-image generators—and some are now fighting back. Karla Ortiz, an
illustrator based in San Francisco who found her work in Stable Diffusion’s data set, has
been raising awareness about the issues around AI art and copyright.
Artists say they risk losing income as people start using AI-generated images based
on copyrighted material for commercial purposes. But it’s also a lot more personal, Ortiz
says, arguing that because art is so closely linked to a person, it could raise data
protection and privacy problems.
“There is a coalition growing within artist industries to figure out how to tackle or
mitigate this,” says Ortiz. The group is in its early days of mobilization, which could
involve pushing for new policies or regulation. One suggestion is that AI models could
be trained on images in the public domain, and AI companies could forge partnerships
with museums and artists, Ortiz says.31.What can be learned about Rutkowski from the first two paragraphs?
【A】He is enthusiastic about using AI models.
【B】He is popular with the users of an AI art generator.
【C】He attracts admiration from other illustrators.
【D】He specializes in classical painting digitalization.
32. The problem with open-source AI art generators is that they
【A】lack flexibility in responding to prompts.
【B】produce artworks in unpredictable styles.
【C】make unauthorized use of online images.
【D】collect user information without consent.
33. After searching online, Rutkowski found
【A】a unique way to reach audiences.
【B】a new method to identify AI images.
【C】Ai-generated work bearing his name.
【D】heated disputes regarding his copyright.
34. According to Ortiz, AI companies are advised to
【A】campaign for new policies or regulation.
【B】offer their services to public institutions.
【C】strengthen their relationships with AI users.
【D】adopt a different strategy for AI model training.
35. What is the text mainly about?
【A】Artists’ responses to AI art generation.
【B】Al’s expanded role in artistic creation.
【C】Privacy issues in the application of AI.
【D】Opposing views on AI development.Text 4
The miracle of the Chesapeake Bay lies not in its depths, but in the complexity of its
natural construction, the interaction of fresh and saline waters, and the mix of land and
water. The shallows provide homes for hundreds of species while storing floodwaters,
filtering pollutants from water, and protecting nearby communities from potentially
destructive storm surges.
All this was put at great risk late last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a
ruling in an Idaho case that provides the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
far less authority to regulate wetlands and waterways. Specifically, a 5-4 majority decided
that wetlands protected by the EPA under its Clean Water Act authority must have a
“continuous surface connection” to bodies of water. This narrowing of the regulatory
scope was a victory for builders, mining operators and other commercial interests often at
odds with environmental rules. And it carries “significant repercussions for water
quality and flood control throughout the United States,” as Justice Brett Kavanaugh
observed.
In Maryland, the good news is that there are many state laws in place that provide
wetlands protections. But that’s a very shortsighted view, particularly when it comes to
the Chesapeake Bay. The reality is that water, and the pollutants that so often come with
it, don’t respect state boundaries. The Chesapeake draws from a 64,000-square-mile
watershed that extends into Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, the
District of Columbia and Delaware. Will those jurisdictions extend the same protections
now denied under Sackett v. EPA? Perhaps some, but all? That seems unlikely.
It is too easy, and misleading, to see such court rulings as merely standing up for
the rights of land owners when the consequences can be so dire for their neighbors. And
it’s a reminder that the EPA’s involvement in the Chesapeake Bay Program has long
been crucial as the means to transcend the influence of deep-pocketed special interests
in neighboring states. Pennsylvania farmers, to use one telling example, aren’t thinking
about next year’s blue crab harvest in Maryland when they decide whether to spread
animal waste on their fields, yet the runoff into nearby creeks can have enormous
impact downstream.
And so we would call on state lawmakers from Richmond to Albany to consider
reviewing their own wetlands protections and see for themselves the enormous stakes
involved. We can offer them a visit to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in
Dorchester County where bald eagles fly over tidal marshes so shallow you could not
paddle a boat across them but teaming with aquatic life. It’s worth the scenic drive.36. The Chesapeake Bay is described in Paragraph 1 as
【A】a valuable natural environment.
【B】a controversial conservation area.
【C】a place with commercial potential.
【D】a headache for nearby communities.
37. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Idaho case
【A】reinforces water pollution control.
【B】 weakens the EPA’s regulatory power.
【C】will end conflicts among local residents.
【D】may face opposition from mining operators.
38. How does the author feel about future of the Chesapeake Bay?
【A】Worried.
【B】Puzzled.
【C】Relieved.
【D】Encouraged.
39. What can be inferred about the EPA’s involvement in the Chesapeake Bay Program?
【A】It has restored the balance among neighboring jurisdictions.
【B】It has triggered a radical reform in commercial fisheries.
【C】It has set a fine example of respecting state authorities.
【D】It has ensured the coordination of protection efforts.
40. The author holds that the state lawmakers should
【A】be cautious about the influence of landowners.
【B】attach due importance to wetlands protections.
【C】recognize the need to expand wildlife refuges.
【D】improve the wellbeing of endangered species.Part B
Directions:
Read the following comments on a report about American museums returning artifacts to
their countries of origin and a list of statements summarizing the comments. Choose the
best statement from the list A-G for each numbered name (41-45). There are two extra
choices which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(10
points)
(41) Hannah
Simply, there are people in Nigeria who cannot travel to the Smithsonian Institution
to see that part of their history and culture represented by the Benin Bronzes. These
should be available to them as part of their cultural heritage and history and as a source of
national pride. There is no good reason that these artifacts should be beyond the ordinary
reach of the educational objectives or inspiration of the generations to which they were
left. They serve no purpose in a museum in the United States or elsewhere except as
curious objects. They cannot be compared to works of art produced for sale which can be
passed from hand to hand and place to place by purchase.
(42) Buck
We know very exact reproductions of artwork can be and are regularly produced.
Perhaps museums and governments might explore some role for the use of nearly exact
reproductions as a means of resolving issues relating to returning works of art and
antiquities. The context of any exhibit is more important to me than whether the object
being displayed is 2000 years old or 2 months old. In many cases the experts have a hard
time agreeing on what is the real object and what is a forgery. Again, the story an exhibit
is trying to tell is what matters. The monetary value of the objects on display is a distant
second place in importance.
(43) Sara
When visiting the Baltimore Museum of Art, I came across a magnificent 15th-
century Chinese sculpture. It inspired me to learn more about the culture that it
represented. Artifacts in museums have the power to inspire, and perhaps spark that need
to learn and understand the nature of their creators. Having said that, I do feel that
whatever artifacts find their way to public museums should, in fact, be sanctioned as
having been obtained on loan, legally purchased, or obtained by treaty. Stealing artifactsfrom other peoples’ cultures is obscene; it robs not only the physical objects, but the
dignity and spirit of their creators.
(44) Victor
Ancient art that is displayed in foreign countries by all means should be returned to
the original country. The foreign countries have no right to hold back returning the items.
I would ask that the foreign nations and the original country discuss the terms of transfer.
Yes, there is the risk that the original country will not have as good security as do the
foreign countries. But look at what happened to Boston’s Gardner Museum theft in 1990,
including the loss of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, and other masterpieces. Nothing is
absolutely safe, nowhere. And now Climate Change agitators are attacking publicly
displayed works in European museums.
(45) Julia
To those of you in the comments section who are having strong feelings about
artifacts being removed from cities in the US and Britain and returned to their countries
of origin, I would ask you to consider: why do you think Americans have more of a
right to easily access the Benin Bronzes than the people of Nigeria? Why are people who
live within a day’s drive of London entitled to go and see the Elgin Marbles whenever
they want, but the people of Athens aren’t? What intrinsic factors make the West a
suitable home for these artifacts but preclude them from being preserved and displayed by
their countries of origin? If your conclusion is that the West is better able to preserve
these artifacts, think about why you’re assuming that to be true.
【A】It is clear that the countries of origin have never been compensated for the stolen
artifacts.
【B】It is a flawed line of reasoning to argue against returning artifacts to their countries
of origin.
【C】Museum visitors can still learn as much from artifacts’ copies after the originals are
returned.
【D】Reproductions, even if perfectly made, cannot take the place of the authentic objects.
【E】The real value of artifacts can only be recognized in their countries of origin rather
than anywhere else.
【F】Ways to get artifacts from other countries must be decent and lawful.
【G】Concern over security is no excuse for refusing to return artifacts to their countries
of origin.
Part C
Directions:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into
Chinese.Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
“Elephants never forget”—or so they say—and that piece of folklore seems to have
some foundation.
The African savanna elephant, also known as the African bush elephant, is distributed
across 37 African countries. They move between a variety of habitats, including forests,
grasslands, woodlands, wetlands and agricultural land. (46) They sometimes travel more
than sixty miles to find f o od or water, and are very good at working out where other
elephants are — even when they are out of sight . Using tracking devices, researchers have
shown that they have “remarkable spatial acuity.” When finding their way to waterholes,
they headed off in exactly the right direction, on one occasion from a distance of roughly
thirty miles. What is more, they almost always seem to choose the nearest waterhole.
(47) The researchers are convinced that the elephants always know precisely where they
are in relation to all the resources they need, and can therefore take shortcuts, as well as
f o llowing f a miliar routes .
Although the cues used by African elephants for long-distance navigation are not yet
understood, smell may well play a part.
Elephants are very choosy eaters, but until recently little was known about how they
selected their food. (48) One possibility was that they merely used their eyes and tried
out the plants they f o und, but that would probably result in a lot of wasted time and
energy, not least because their eyesight is actually not very good.
(49) The volatile chemicals produced by plants can be carried a long way, and they
are very characteristic: Each plant or tree has its own particular odor signature. What is
more, they can be detected even when they are not actually visible. New research
suggests that smell is a crucial factor in guiding elephants—and probably other
herbivores—to the best food resources.
The researchers first established what kinds of plant the elephants preferred either
to eat or avoid when foraging freely.They then set up a “food station” experiment, in
which they gave the elephants a series of choices based only on smell. (50) The
experiment showed that elephants may well use smell to identi f y patches of trees that are
good to eat, and secondly to assess the quality of the trees within each patch. Free-
ranging elephants presumably also use this information to locate their preferred food.
Their well-developed hippocampal structures may enable elephants, like rats andpeople, to construct cognitive maps.
Section III Writing
Part A
51. Directions:
Read the following email from an international student and write a reply.
Dear Li Ming,
I’ve got a class assignment to make an oral report on an ancient Chinese scientist,
but I’m not sure how to prepare for it. Can you give me some advice? Thank you for
your help.
Yours,
Paul
Write your answer in about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name in your email; use “Li Ming” instead.(10 points)
Part B
52. Directions:
Write an essay based on the picture and the chart below.In your essay, you should
1) describe the picture and the chart briefly,
2) interpret the implied meaning, and
3) give your comments.
Write your answer in 160-200 words on the ANSWER SHEET.(20 points)
