北京大学2000年考博英语试题

白鹤

  Part One: Structure & Written Expression

Direction: In each question decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Put the letter of your choice in the



ANSWER SHEET. (25%)



1. Thomas Wolfe portrayed people so that you came to know their yearnings, their impulses, and



their warts----this was effective _____.



A. motivation B. point of view C. characterization D. background



2. The appeal to the senses known as ______ is especially common in poetry.



A. imaginative B. imaginable C. ingenious D. imagery



3. If you've got a complaint, the best thing is to see the person concerned and _____ with him.



A. tell it B. have it out C. say it D. have it known



4. There have been several attempts to introduce gayer colours and styles in men's clothing , but



none of them____



A. ha caught on B. has caught him out, C. has caught up D. take roots



5.The retired engineer plunked down $ 50,000 in cash for a mid-size Mercedes as a present for his wife --a purchase ______ ,with money made in the stock market the week before.



A. paid off B. paid through C. paid cut D. paid for



6.He has courage all right, but in matters requiring judgment, he has often been found



sadly_____.



A. lack it B. absent C. in need of it D. wanting



7. Danis Hayes raised the essential paradox and asked how people could have fought so hard



against environmental degradation _____ themselves now on the verge of losing the war.



A. only found B. finding only C. only to find D, have only found



8.The once separate issue of environment and development are now ____ linked.



A. intangible B. indispensable C. inextricably D. incredibly



9.The need to see that justice is done ____ every decision made in the courts.



A. implants into B. imposes on C. impinges upon D. imprecates upon



10. Two thirds of the US basketball players are black, and the number would be greater__



the continuing practice of picking white bench warmers for the sake of balance.



A. was it not because of B. had it not been for



C. ware it not for D. would it not have been for



11. No one would have time to read or listen to an account of everything ____ going on in the world.



A. it is B. there is C. as is D. what is



12. If there is the need to compete in a crowd, to battle ______ the edge the surest strategy is to



develop the unexpected.



A. on B. for C. against D. with



13. Just as there are occupations that require college or even higher degrees _____.



occupations for which technical training is necessary .



A. so too there are B. so also there are



C. so there are too D. so too are there



14. It is a myth that the law permits the Food and Drug Administration to ignore requirements for



______ drugs while brand-name drugs still must meet these rigid tests.



A. specific B. generic



C. intricate D. acrid



15. The very biggest and most murderous wars during the industrial age were intra-industrial



-wars that ____ Second Wave nations like Germany and Britain against one another



A. pitted B. drove C. kept D. embarked



16.The private life of having each individual make his or her own choice of beliefs and interest



_______ without the overarching public world of the state, which sustains a structure of law appropriate to a self-determining association.



A. is not possible B. would not be possible



C. will not be possible D. cannot be possible



17.From Christianity and the barbarian kingdoms of the west emerged the medieval version of



politics_____ in ,turn evolved the politics of our modern world.



A. of which B. from which C. on which D. by which



18. The Portuguese give a great deal of credit to one man for having promoted sea travel, that man____ Prince Henry the navigator, who lived in the 15th century.



A. was B. was called D. calling D. being



19.Grant was one of a body of men who were self-reliant _______ , who cared hardly anything for the past but had a sharp eye for the future .



A. on themselves B on not making a fault



C. to a fault D. to remain ahead



20. Huntington and many of its competitors are working to make remedial instruction a commodity as____ and accessible as frozen yogurt .



a. ubiquitous B. rational C. necessary D. credible



21. The scheme for rebuilding the city center______, owing to the refusal f a Council to sanction the expenditure of the money it would have required.



A. fell down B. fell off C. fell out D. fell flat



22. If they think they are going to win over us by obstinately _____ and refusing to make the slightest concession. they are mistaken .



A. holding out B, holding to C. holding over D. holding up



23. Tine possibility that the explosion was caused by sabotage cannot be _____



A. broken out B. cancelled out C. ruled out D, wiped out



24. The ex-president had been ____ in the country to refresh his mind before he passed away.



A. given to walking B. given a walk C. given for a walk D. giving a walk



25. He did not relish appealing amongst his friends and____ of their criticism or censure.



A. running short B. running out C. running the gauntlet D. running ahead






Part Tw Reading Comprehension



I. Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question four answers



are given . Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question. Put your



choice in the ANSWER SKEET. (15%)






Passage One



It was a normal day in the life of the American Red Cross in Greater New York. First, part of a building on West 140th Street, in Harlem, fell down. Beds tumbled through the air people slid out of their apartments and onto the ground, three people died, and the Red Cross was there, helping shocked residents find temporary shelter, and food and clothing .Then it was back



downtown for that evening's big Fend-raiser, the Eleventh Annual Red Cross Award Dinner Dance, at the Pierre. "That's why I have bad hair tonight," said Christopher Peake , a Red Cross



Spokesman who had spent much of the day at the Harlem scene, in the drizzling rain. He was now



in a tuxedo, and actually his hair didn't look so bad, framed by a centerpiece of tulips and jonquils,



and perhaps improved by subdued lighting from eight crystal chandeliers.



Definitely not having a bad-Mir night was Elizabeth Dole, the wife of Senator Robert Dole and the president of the American Red Cross. President Dole has chestnut, colored Republican hair, which was softly coifed, and she was wearing a fitted burgundy velvet evening suit ("Someone made it for me! I love velvet!" she exclaimed, in her enthusiastic, Northern Carolina hostess voice) and sparkling drop earrings. Of course, she hadn't been standing in the rain in Harlem; she had just flown up on the three-o'clock shuttle from Washington. Dole is extremely pretty, with round green eyes and a full mouth and a direct personality. She tilts her head attentively when she listens. She was the recipient of the evening's award; previous award winners have included Alice Tully, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan,... and most recently, Brooke Astor. Not exactly a sequence at the end of which you would expect to find Elizabeth Dole, but award givers are famous for having political instincts as well as philanthropic ones.



Surrounded by the deep-blue swags and golden draperies of the ballroom were more than



thirty-five dinner tables set with groupings of candles and floral centerpieces and Royal Doulton china. American Express was them. So were Bristol-Myers Squibb; Coopers & Lybrand; the New York Times Company; Union Bank of Switzerland; Chemical Bank; New York Life; ...and Price Waterhouse. The actress Arlene Dahl, with her rather red hair and her bearded husband, presided over one table. Otherwise, it was a typical ,faceless , captain-of-industry fund raiser (no models! no stars ! ), of which there seems to be at least one every night in New York City . It was not a society night, but still the evening raised four hundred and thirty thousand dollars.






26. From what we read we can infer that "it was a normal day in the life of the American Red



Cross in Greater New York" means its staff____



A. deal with the fall of houses in the city every day



B. are busy helping people who suffer from disasters every day



C. work during the day and to have banquet in the evening every day



D. go to Harlem , the poorest district of New York every day and help people there



27. The fund-raiser mentioned in the passage refers to ___



A. Robert Dole B. Elizabeth Dole



C. the Eleventh Annual Red Cross Award Dinner Dance



D. all the business companies attending the Dinner Dance



28.Christopher Peake's hair didn't look so, bad because____



A. he was wearing a handsome tuxedo



B. he was wearing tulips on his suit



C. he was seen among flowers



D. he was sitting near flowers and in very, soft light



29.Elizabeth Dole was____



A. the president of the American Red Cross and acted at the Dinner as a North Carolina hostess



B. a republican and wife of the president of the American Red Cross



C. the president of the American Red Cross and its main representative at the Annual Dinner Dance



D. born in North Carolina, became an air-hostess and later married Senator Robert Dole.



30.The presence of an actress an the Dinner made the fund raising ____ .



A. less impersonal B. a typical fund-raising event



C, less personal D, more business-like

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Passage Two

For laymen ethnology is probably the most interesting of the biological sciences for the very reason that it concerns animals in their normal activities and therefore, if we wish, we can assess the possible dangers and advantages in our own behavioral roots. Ethnology also is interesting methodologically because it combines in new ways very scrupulous field observations with experimentation in laboratories .



The field workers have had some handicaps in winning respect for themselves. For a long



time they were considered as little better than amateur animal-watchers-- certainly not scientists since their facts were not gained by experimental procedures: they could not conform to the hard-and-fast rule that a problem set up and solved by one scientist must be tested by other scientists, under identical conditions and reaching identical results . Of course many situations in the lives of animals simply cannot be rehearsed and controlled in this way. The fall flocking of wild free birds can't be, or the homing of animals over long distances, or even details of spontaneous family relationships. Since these never can be reproduced in a laboratory, are they then not worth knowing about.



The ethnologists who choose field work have got themselves out of this impasse by greatly refining the techniques of observing. At the start of a project all the animals to be studied are live-trapped, marked individually and released. Motion pictures, often in color, provide permanent records of their subsequent activities . Recording of the animals' voices by electrical



sound equipment is considered essential , and the most meticulous notes are kept of all that occur. With this material other biologists, far from the scene, later can verify the reports. Moreover, two field observers often go out together, checking each other's observations right there in the field.



Ethnology , the word ,is derived from the Greek ethos, meaning the characteristic traits or features which distinguish a group -- any particular group of people or, in biology, a group of animals such as a species. Ethnologists have the intention of studying "the whole sequence of acts which constitute an animal's behavior." In abridged dictionaries ethnology is sometimes defined simply as "the objective study of animal behavior," and ethnologists do emphasize their wish to eliminate myths .



31. In the first sentence, the word "laymen" means_______



A. people who sand aside B. people who are not trained as biologists



C. people who are amateur biologists D. people who love animals



32. According to the passage ,ethnology is________



A. a new branch of biology B. an old Greek science



C. a pseudo-science D. a science for amateurs



33."The field workers have handicaps in winning respect for themselves." This sentence means ______.



A. ethnologists when working in the field are handicapped



B. ethnologists have problems in winning recognition as scientists



C. ethnologists are looked down upon when they work in the field



D. ethnologists meet with lots of difficulties when doing field work



34. According to the explanation of the scientific rule of experiment in the passage,



"hard-and-fast" means experiment procedures _____.



A. are difficult and quick to follow



B. must be carried out in a strict and quick way



C. must be followed strictly to avoid false and loose results



D. hard and unreasonable for scientists to observe



35. The meaning of the underlined words in "the details of spontaneous family relationships " can be expressed as____



A. natural family relationships



B. quickly occurring family relationships



C. animals acting like a natural family



D. animal family behavior that cannot be preplanned or controlled






Passage Three



The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by Victor Hugo in a famous chapter of "Notre-Dame de Paris" It was a cathedral. On all parts of the giant building, statuary and stone representations of



every kind, combined with huge windows of stained glass, told the stories of the Bible and the



saints, displayed the intricacies of Christian theology, adverted to the existence of highly unpleasant demonic winged creatures, referred diplomatically to the majesties of political power,



and, in addition, by means of bells in bell towers, told time for the benefit of all of Paris and much



of France. It was an awesome engine of communication.



Then came the transition to something still more awesome. The new technology of mass



communication was potable, could sit on your table, and was easily replicable, and yet, paradoxically, contained more information, more systematically presented, than even the largest of



cathedrals. It was the printed book. Though it provided no bells and could not tell time, the



over-all superiority of the new invention was unmistakable.



In the last ten or twenty years, we have been undergoing a more or less equivalent shift -- this time to a new life as a computer-using population. The gain in portability, capability, ease,



orderliness, accuracy, reliability, and information-storage over anything achievable by pen scribbling, typewriting, and cabinet filing is recognized by all. The progress for civilization is undeniable and, plain]y, irreversible. Yet, just as the book's triumph over the, cathedral divided people into two groups, one of which prospered, while the other lapsed into gloom, the computer's triumph has also divided the human race.



You have only to bring a computer into a room to see that some people begin at once to buzz with curiosity and excitement, sit down to conduct experiments, ooh and ah at the boxes and beeps, and master the use of the computer or a new program as quickly as athletes playing a delightful new game. But how difficult it is - how grim and frightful! -- for the other people, the defeated class, whose temperament does not naturally respond to computers. The machine whirrs and glows before them and their faces twitch. They may be splendidly educated , as measured by book-reading, yet their instincts are all wrong, and no amount of manual-studying and mouse-clicking will make them right. Computers require a sharply different set of aptitudes, and, if the aptitudes are missing, little can be done, and misery is guaranteed.



Is the computer industry aware that computers have divided mankind into two new, previously unknown classes, the computer personalities and the non-computer personalities? Yes, the industry knows this. Vast sums have been expended in order to adapt the computer to the limitations of non-computer personalities . Apple's Macintosh, with its zooming animations and



pull-down menus and little pictures of file folders and watch faces and trash cans, pointed the way. Such seductions have soothed the apprehensions of a certain number of the computer-averse. This spring, the computer industry's. efforts are reaching a culmination of sorts .Microsoft Bill Gates' giant corporation , is to bring out a program package called Microsoft Bob, desired by Mr. Gates' wife, Melinda French, and intended to render computer technology available even to people who are openly terrified of computers. Bob's principle is to take the several tasks of operating a computer, rename them in a folksy style, and assign to them the images of an ideal room in an ideal home, with furniture and bookshelves, and with chummy cartoon helpers ("Friend, of Bob") to guide the computer user over the rough spots, and, in that way, simulate an atmosphere that feels nothing like computers .






36. According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?



A. It is because the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris had many bell-towers and could tell



time to people that the writer regards it as an engine of mass communication.



B. From cathedrals to books to computers the technology of communication has become



more convenient, reliable and fast



C. Every time when a new communication means triumphed over the old, it divided



mankind into two groups.



D. Computer industry has been trying hard to make people accept computers.



37. The printed book is more progressive than the cathedral as a communication means, because



A. it could sit on your table and did no longer tell time



B. it was more reliable and did not tell the stories of saints and demons



C. it was small, yet contained more information



D. it did not flatter religious and political power



38. The word "awesome" in the passage means_______



A. frightening B. causing fear and respect



C. amazingly new D. awful

白鹤

39. People who feel miserable with computers are those____    A.  who love reading books and writing with a pen or a typewriter    B.  who possess the wrong aptitudes of disliking and fearing new  things    C.  who have not been trained to use computers    D.  who are born  with a temperament that does not respond to computers 40. Melinda French designed Microsoft Bob which was to ease the misery of computer ,user by  _________    A.  making users feel that they are not dealing with  machines    B.  making the program more convenient and cartoon-like    C.  adding home pictures to the program design    D.  renaming the computer tasks in a folksy style II. Read the following passage carefully and then paraphrase the numbered and underlined parts. ("Paraphrase" means to explain the meaning in your own English.) (15%)    Charm is the ultimate weapon, the supreme seduction, against which there are  few defenses. If you've got it, you need almost nothing else, neither money, looks, nor pedigree. (41)It is a gift only given to give away. and the more used the more there is. It is also a climate , of behavior set  for perpetual summer and controlled by taste and tact.    Real charm is dynamic, an enveloping spell which mysteriously enslaves the senses. It is aninner light, fed on reservoirs of benevolence which well up like a thermal spring .It is unconscious, often nothing but the wish to please, and cannot be turned on and off at will.    (42) You recognize charm by the feeling you get in its presence. You know who has it. Butcan you get it. too? Probably you can't, because it's a quickness of spirit an originality of touchyou have to be born with. Or it's something that grows naturally out of another quality, like thesimple desire to make people happy. Certainly, charm is not a question of learning tricks likewrinkling your nose, or having a laugh in your voice, or gaily tossing your hair out of  yourdancing eyes.  (43) Such signs, to the nervous, are ominous warnings which may well send himstreaking for cover. On the other hand. there is an antenna, a built-in awareness of others, which  most people have , and which care can nourish.    But in a study of charm , what else does one took for? Apart from the ability to listen -- rarest of all human virtues and most difficult to sustain without vagueness --- apart  from warmth , sensitivity, and the power to please, what else is there visible?  (44) A generosity. I suppose. which makes no demands, a transaction which strikes no bargains, which doesn't hold itself back till you've filled up a test-card making it clear that you're worth the trouble. Charm can't withhold, but spends itself willingly on young and old alike, on the poor, the ugly, the dim, the boring, on the test fat man in the comer.  (45) It reveals itself also in a sense of ease, in casual but perfect manners, and often in a physical grace which spring less from  an accident of youth than from a confident serenity of mind. Any person with this is more than just a popular fellow, be is also a social healer. Part Three: Cloze TestFill in each numbered blank in the following passage: with ONE suitable word to complete thepassage. Put your answers in the ANSWER SHEET. (l0%)   One way of improving one's writing is to get into the habit of keeping a record of your observations, of storing (46) __ in a notebook or journal. You should make notes on your experiences and on your (47) _____ of everyday life so that they are preserved. It is sad (48) ___to be able to retrieve a lost idea that seemed brilliant when it fleshed across your  (49) ___, or a forgotten fact that you need to make a point in an argument or to illustrate a conclusion.   The journal habit has still (50) ___ value. Just (51)_____you need to record observations--the material for writing--you need to practice  purling thoughts on paper. Learning to write is more like learning to ski (52) ____it is studying  calculus or anthropology  .Practice helps you discover ways to improve. Writing down ideas for your own use forces you to examine them. Putting thoughts on paper for someone else to read (53)______ you to evaluate not(54)____ the content -- what you say -- but also the expression---(55) _____  you say it. Many writers have benefited from this habit. Part Four: ProofreadingDirections:  This part consists of a short passage. In this passage, there are altogether 20 mistakes, one in each underlined sentence or part of a sentence. You may have to change a word, add a word or just delete a word. If you change a word, cross it out with a slash (\) and write the correct word. If you add a word,  write the missing word between the words (in bracket) immediately before and  after it. If you delete a word, cross it out with a slash 6). Put your answers in the  ANSWER SHEET  .  (20 %) Examples : eg. 1 (56) The meeting begun 2 hours ago, Correction in the ANSWER SHEET:  (56) began eg.2  (57) Scarcely they settled themselves in their seats in the theatre when the curtain went up Correction in the ANSWER SHEET:  (57) (Scarcely) and (they) eg.3  (58) Never will  I not do it again Correction in the ANSWER SHEET: (58) not  (56) "Humanism" has used to mean too many things to be a very satisfactory term, (57)Nevertheless and in the lack or a better word.  (58) I shall use it explain for the complex of attitudes which this discussion has undertaken to defend. (59) In this sense a humanist is anyone who reiects the attempt to describe or account of manwholly on the basis of physics, chemistry, and animal behavior. (60) He is anyone who believesthat will  reason, and purpose  are real and significant than value and justice are aspects of a reality called good and evil and rests upon some foundation other than custom:  (61) that conscjousness is so far from a mere epiphenomenon that it is the most tremendous of actualities  (62) that the unmeasure may be  significant or to sum it all up. (63) that these human realities which sometimes seem to exist only in human mind are the perceptions of the mind .(64) He is in other words, anyone who says that there are more things in heaven and earth that those dreamed of in the positivist philosophy. (65) Originally to be sure, the term humanist meant simply anyone who thought the study ofancient literature his chief concern. Obviously it means, as I use it, very much more. (66) But there remains nevertheless a certain connection between the aboriginal meaning and that I am attempting to give it, (67) because those whom I describe as humanists usually recognize that literature and the arts have been pretty consistently "on its side" and (68) because it is often toliterature that they turn to renew their faith  in the whole class of truths  which the modern world has so consistently tended to dismiss as the mere figments of a wishful thinking  imagination.(69) Insofar as this modern world gives less and less attention to its literary past. insofar as it dismisses that past as something outgrow and (70) to be discarded as much as the imperfect technology contemporary with it has been discarded.  (71) just to that extent it facilitate thesurrender of humanism to technology . (72) The literature is to be found, directly expressed or.(73) more often, indirectly implied, the most effective correction to the views now most prevalentamong the thinking and unthinking.(74) The great imaginative writers present a picture of human nature and of human life whichcarries convjction and thus giving the lie to all attempts to reduce man to a mechanism. Novels and poems ,and dramas are so persistently concemed with the values which relativism rejects that one might even define  literature as the attempt to pass value judgments upon representations of human life.  (75) More often than not those of its imaginative persons who fail to achieve power and wealth are more successful that those who do not - by standards which the  imaginative writer persuades us to accept as valid. Part Five: WritingWrite a short composition of about 250 to 300 words on the topic given below:  (15%)Topic:  What is the most urgent issue facing the world people in the 21 century?     State your reasons.