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2009年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
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 ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Research on animal intelligence always makes me wonder just how smart humans are. the
fruit-fly experiments described in Carl Zimmer's piece in the Science Times on Tuesday. Fruit flies
who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly to live shorter lives. This suggests that
bulbs burn longer, that there is an in not being too terrifically bright.
Intelligence, it out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is
slow the starting line because it depends on learning — a gradual — instead of instinct. Plenty of
other species are able to learn, and one of the things they've apparently learned is when to .
Is there an adaptive value to intelligence? That's the question behind this new research. I
like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance at all the species we've left in the dust I.Q.-wise, it
implicitly asks what the real of our own intelligence might be. This is the mind of every animal
I've ever met.
Research on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would on
humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, , is running a small-scale study in operant
conditioning. we believe that animals ran the labs, they would test us to the limits of our
patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in
humans is really , not merely how much of it there is. , they would hope to study a question: Are
humans actually aware of the world they live in? the results are inconclusive.
1. [A] Suppose [B] Consider [C] Observe [D] Imagine
2. [A] tended [B] feared [C] happened [D] threatened
3. [A] thinner [B] stabler [C] lighter [D] dimmer
4. [A] tendency [B] advantage [C] inclination [D] priority
5. [A] insists on [B] sums up [C] turns out [D] puts forward
6. [A] off [B] behind [C] over [D] along
7. [A] incredible [B] spontaneous [C] inevitable [D] gradual
8. [A] fight [B] doubt [C] stop [D] think9. [A] invisible [B] limited [C] indefinite [D] different
10. [A] upward [B] forward [C] afterward [D] backward
11. [A] features [B] influences [C] results [D] costs
12. [A] outside [B] on [C] by [D] across
13. [A] deliver [B] carry [C] perform [D] apply
14. [A] by chance [B] in contrast [C] as usual [D] for instance
15. [A] if [B] unless [C] as [D] lest
16. [A] moderate [B] overcome [C] determine [D] reach
17. [A] at [B] for [C] after [D] with
18. [A] Above all [B] After all [C] However [D] Otherwise
19. [A] fundamental [B] comprehensive [C] equivalent [D] hostile
20. [A] By accident [B] In time [C] So far [D] Better still
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.
Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and
relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. "Not choice, but habit rules the
unreflecting herd," William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st
century, even the word "habit" carries a negative implication.
So it seems paradoxical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation.
But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create
parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new,
innovative tracks.
Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct
our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try—the
more we step outside our comfort zone—the more inherently creative we become, both in theworkplace and in our personal lives.
But don't bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the
hippocampus, they're there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves
create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.
"The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder," says Dawna Markova,
author of "The Open Mind" and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking
Partners. "But we are taught instead to 'decide,' just as our president calls himself 'the Decider.' "
She adds, however, that "to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational
thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities."
All of us work through problems in ways of which we're unaware, she says. Researchers in
the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four
primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. At the
end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those
modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.
The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning
that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. "This breaks the
major rule in the American belief system — that anyone can do anything," explains M. J. Ryan,
author of the 2006 book This Year I Will... and Ms. Markova's business partner. "That's a lie that
we have perpetuated, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you're good at and doing even
more of it creates excellence." This is where developing new habits comes in.
21. The Wordsworth’s view, “habits” is claimed by being ________.
A. casual B. familiar C. mechanical D. changeable
22. Brain researchers have discovered that the formation of new habits can be ________
A. predicted B. regulated C. traced D. guided
23. The word "ruts"( Line 1, Paragraph 4) is closest meaning to ________
A. tracks B. series C. characteristics D. connections
24. Dawna Markova would most probably agree that ________.
A. ideas are born of a relaxing mind
B. innovativeness could be taught
C. decisiveness derives from fantastic ideas
D. curiosity activates creative minds
25. Ryan's comments suggest that the practice of standardized testing ________
A, prevents new habits form being formed
B, no longer emphasizes commonnessC, maintains the inherent American thinking model
D, complies with the American belief system
Text 2
It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly)
wisdom – or at least confirm that he's the kid's dad. All he needs to do is shell our $30 for
paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore – and another $120 to get the results.
More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without
prescriptions last years, according to Doug Fog, chief operating officer of Identigene, which
makes the over-the-counter kits. More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests Directly to the
public , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2,500.
Among the most popular: paternity and kinship testing , which adopted children can use to
find their biological relatives and families can use to track down kids put up for adoption. DNA
testing is also the latest rage among passionate genealogists—and supports businesses that offer to
search for a family's geographic roots .
Most tests require collecting cells by swabbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the
company for testing. All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA.
But some observers are skeptical, "There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people
claiming they are doing ancestry testing," says Trey Duster, a New York University sociologist. He
notes that each individual has many ancestors-numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries
back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited
through men in a father's line or mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down only from mothers.
This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for
example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four
generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.
Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections
to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don't rely on data collected
systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means
that a DNA database may have a lot of data from some regions and not others, so a person’s test
results may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer
programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review
or outside evaluation.
26. In paragraphs 1 and 2, the text shows PTK's ___________.
[A] easy availability
[B] flexibility in pricing
[C] successful promotion
[D] popularity with households
27. PTK is used to __________.
[A] locate one's birth place
[B] promote genetic research[C] identify parent-child kinship
[D] choose children for adoption
28. Skeptical observers believe that ancestry testing fails to__________.
[A] trace distant ancestors
[B] rebuild reliable bloodlines
[C] fully use genetic information
[D] achieve the claimed accuracy
29. In the last paragraph, a problem commercial genetic testing faces is __________.
[A] disorganized data collection
[B] overlapping database building
[C] excessive sample comparison
[D] lack of patent evaluation
30. An appropriate title for the text is most likely to be__________.
[A] Fors and Againsts of DNA testing
[B] DNA Testing and It's Problems
[C] DNA Testing Outside the Lab
[D] Lies Behind DNA Testing
Text 3
The relationship between formal education and economic growth in poor countries is widely
misunderstood by economists and politicians alike. Progress in both area is undoubtedly necessary
for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other societies; however, the
conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid
economic development in poor countries is wrong. We are fortunate that is it, because building
new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic
performance would require two or three generations. The findings of a research institution have
consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job to achieve radically
higher productivity and, as a result, radically higher standards of living.
Ironically, the first evidence for this idea appeared in the United States. Not long ago, with
the country entering a recessing and Japan at its pre-bubble peak. The U.S. workforce was derided
as poorly educated and one of the primary cause of the poor U.S. economic performance. Japan
was, and remains, the global leader in automotive-assembly productivity. Yet the research revealed
that the U.S. factories of Honda, Nissan, and Toyota achieved about 95 percent of the productivity
of their Japanese counterparts -- a result of the training that U.S. workers received on the job.
More recently, while examining housing construction, the researchers discovered that
illiterate, non-English- speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-
practice labor productivity standards despite the complexity of the building industry's work.
What is the real relationship between education and economic development? We have tosuspect that continuing economic growth promotes the development of education even when
governments don't force it. After all, that's how education got started. When our ancestors were
hunters and gatherers 10,000 years ago, they didn't have time to wonder much about anything
besides finding food. Only when humanity began to get its food in a more productive way was
there time for other things.
As education improved, humanity's productivity potential increased as well. When the
competitive environment pushed our ancestors to achieve that potential, they could in turn afford
more education. This increasingly high level of education is probably a necessary, but not a
sufficient, condition for the complex political systems required by advanced economic
performance. Thus poor countries might not be able to escape their poverty traps without political
changes that may be possible only with broader formal education. A lack of formal education,
however, doesn't constrain the ability of the developing world's workforce to substantially
improve productivity for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, constraints on improving
productivity explain why education isn't developing more quickly there than it is.
31. The author holds in paragraph 1 that the important of education in poor countries
___________.
[A] is subject groundless doubts
[B] has fallen victim of bias
[C] is conventional downgraded
[D] has been overestimated
32. It is stated in Paragraph 1 that construction of a new education system __________.
[A] challenges economists and politicians
[B] takes efforts of generations
[C] demands priority from the government
[D] requires sufficient labor force
33. A major difference between the Japanese and U.S workforces is that __________.
[A] the Japanese workforce is better disciplined
[B] the Japanese workforce is more productive
[C] the U.S workforce has a better education
[D] the U.S workforce is more organize
34. The author quotes the example of our ancestors to show that education emerged
__________.
[A] when people had enough time
[B] prior to better ways of finding food
[C] when people on longer went hung
[D] as a result of pressure on government35. According to the last paragraph , development of education __________.
[A] results directly from competitive environments
[B] does not depend on economic performance
[C] follows improved productivity
[D] cannot afford political changes
Text 4
The most thoroughly studied intellectuals in the history of the New World are the ministers
and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England. According to the standard history of
American philosophy, nowhere else in colonial America was "So much importance attached to
intellectual pursuits. " According to many books and articles, New England's leaders established
the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding, dominant Puritan tradition in American
intellectual life.
To take this approach to the New Englanders normally means to start with the Puritans'
theological innovations and their distinctive ideas about the church-important subjects that we
may not neglect. But in keeping with our examination of southern intellectual life, we may
consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture, adjusting to New World
circumstances. The New England colonies were the scenes of important episodes in the pursuit of
widely understood ideals of civility and virtuosity.
The early settlers of Massachusetts Bay included men of impressive education and influence
in England. Besides the ninety or so learned ministers who came to Massachusetts church in the
decade after 1629,There were political leaders like John Winthrop, an educated gentleman, lawyer,
and official of the Crown before he journeyed to Boston. There men wrote and published
extensively, reaching both New World and Old World audiences, and giving New England an
atmosphere of intellectual earnestness.
We should not forget , however, that most New Englanders were less well educated. While
few craftsmen or farmers, let alone dependents and servants, left literary compositions to be
analyzed, it is obvious that their views were less fully intellectualized. Their thinking often had a
traditional superstitions quality. A tailor named John Dane, who emigrated in the late 1630s, left
an account of his reasons for leaving England that is filled with signs. Sexual confusion, economic
frustrations , and religious hope—all came together in a decisive moment when he opened the
Bible, told his father the first line he saw would settle his fate, and read the magical words: "come
out from among them, touch no unclean thing , and I will be your God and you shall be my
people." One wonders what Dane thought of the careful sermons explaining the Bible that he
heard in puritan churches.
Meanwhile, many settlers had slighter religious commitments than Dane's, as one clergyman
learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New world
for religion . "Our main end was to catch fish. "
36. The author notes that in the seventeenth-century New England___________.
[A] Puritan tradition dominated political life.[B] intellectual interests were encouraged.
[C] Politics benefited much from intellectual endeavors.
[D] intellectual pursuits enjoyed a liberal environment.
37. It is suggested in paragraph 2 that New Englanders__________.
[A] experienced a comparatively peaceful early history.
[B] brought with them the culture of the Old World
[C] paid little attention to southern intellectual life
[D] were obsessed with religious innovations
38. The early ministers and political leaders in Massachusetts Bay__________.
[A] were famous in the New World for their writings
[B] gained increasing importance in religious affairs
[C] abandoned high positions before coming to the New World
[D] created a new intellectual atmosphere in New England
39. The story of John Dane shows that less well-educated New Englanders were often
__________.
[A] influenced by superstitions
[B] troubled with religious beliefs
[C] puzzled by church sermons
[D] frustrated with family earnings
40. The text suggests that early settlers in New England__________.
[A] were mostly engaged in political activities
[B] were motivated by an illusory prospect
[C] came from different backgrounds.
[D] left few formal records for later reference
Part B
Directions:
Directions: In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions (41-45),
choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are
two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET
1. (10 points)
Coinciding with the groundbreaking theory of biological evolution proposed by Britishnaturalist Charles Darwin in the 1860s, British social philosopher Herbert Spencer put forward his
own theory of biological and cultural evolution. Spencer argued that all worldly phenomena,
including human societies, changed over time, advancing toward perfection. 41.____________.
American social scientist Lewis Henry Morgan introduced another theory of cultural
evolution in the late 1800s. Morgan, along with Tylor, was one of the founders of modern
anthropology. In his work, he attempted to show how all aspects of culture changed together in the
evolution of societies.42._____________.
In the early 1900s in North America, German-born American anthropologist Franz Boas
developed a new theory of culture known as historical particularism. Historical particularism,
which emphasized the uniqueness of all cultures, gave new direction to anthropology.
43._____________.
Boas felt that the culture of any society must be understood as the result of a unique history
and not as one of many cultures belonging to a broader evolutionary stage or type of culture.
44._______________.
Historical particularism became a dominant approach to the study of culture in American
anthropology, largely through the influence of many students of Boas. But a number of
anthropologists in the early 1900s also rejected the particularist theory of culture in favor of
diffusionism. Some attributed virtually every important cultural achievement to the inventions of a
few, especially gifted peoples that, according to diffusionists, then spread to other cultures.
45.________________.
Also in the early 1900s, French sociologist Émile Durkheim developed a theory of culture
that would greatly influence anthropology. Durkheim proposed that religious beliefs functioned to
reinforce social solidarity. An interest in the relationship between the function of society and
culture—known as functionalism—became a major theme in European, and especially British,
anthropology.
[A] Other anthropologists believed that cultural innovations, such as inventions, had a single
origin and passed from society to society. This theory was known as diffusionism.
[B] In order to study particular cultures as completely as possible, Boas became skilled in
linguistics, the study of languages, and in physical anthropology, the study of human biology
and anatomy.
[C] He argued that human evolution was characterized by a struggle he called the "survival of
the fittest," in which weaker races and societies must eventually be replaced by stronger,
more advanced races and societies.
[D] They also focused on important rituals that appeared to preserve a people's social structure,
such as initiation ceremonies that formally signify children's entrance into adulthood.
[E] Thus, in his view, diverse aspects of culture, such as the structure of families, forms of
marriage, categories of kinship, ownership of property, forms of government, technology,
and systems of food production, all changed as societies evolved.
[F] Supporters of the theory viewed as a collection of integrated parts that work together to keep
a society functioning.
[G] For example, British anthropologists Grafton Elliot Smith and W. J. Perry incorrectlysuggested, on the basis of inadequate information, that farming, pottery making, and
metallurgy all originated in ancient Egypt and diffused throughout the world. In fact, all of
these cultural developments occurred separately at different times in many parts of the
world.
Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your
translation should be written carefully on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
There is a marked difference between the education which everyone gets from living with
others, and the deliberate educating of the young. In the former case the education is incidental; it
is natural and important, but it is not the express reason of the association. (46) It may be said that
the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving
experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive. Religious associations began, for
example, in the desire to secure the favor of overruling powers and to ward off evil influences;
family life in the desire to gratify appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, for the
most part, because of enslavement to others, etc. (47) Only gradually was the by-product of the
institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in
the conduct of the institution. Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain values of
industriousness and thrift, the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human
association under which the world's work is carried on receives little attention as compared with
physical output.
But in dealing with the young, the fact of association itself as an immediate human fact,
gains in importance. (48) While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts
upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults. The need of training is too
evident; the pressure to accomplish a change in their attitude and habits is too urgent to leave these
consequences wholly out of account. (49) Since our chief business with them is to enable them to
share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or no we are forming the powers
which will secure this ability. If humanity has made some headway in realizing that the ultimate
value of every institution is its distinctively human effect we may well believe that this lesson has
been learned largely through dealings with the young.
(50) We are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have
been so far considering, a more formal kind of education -- that of direct tuition or schooling. In
undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching and training. These groups mainly
rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon the same sort of association which
keeps the adults loyal to their group.
Section Ⅲ WritingPart A
51. Directions:
Restrictions on the use of plastic bags have not been so successful in some regions. "White
pollution "is still going on. Write a letter to the editor(s) of your local newspaper to
give your opinions briefly and
make two or three suggestions
You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use
"Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.
Part B
52. Directions:
In your essay, you should
1) describe the drawing briefly,
2) explain its intended meaning, and then
3) give your comments.
You should write neatly on ANSHWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
