北京师范大学考博英语真题,考博英语试题

2015年北京师范大学博士研究生入学考试英语试题

Part I Reading Comprehension (45%)
Directions: Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C, and D by marking the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.
1
The Pacific Northwest coast of North America is a temperate rain forest, where trees like the red cedar grow straight more than two meters thick at the base and sixty meters high. Western red cedar is often called the canoe cedar because it supplied the native people of the region with the raw material for their seagoing dugout canoes. These extraordinary crafts, as much as twenty meters in length, were fashioned from a single tree trunk and carried as many as forty people on fishing and whaling expeditions into the open ocean.
The Haida people from the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia were noted in their skill in canoe building. After felling a giant tree with controlled burning, the canoe makers split the log into lengthwise sections with stone wedges. They burned away some of the heartwood, leaving a rough but strong cedar shell. They then carved away wood from the inside, keeping the sections below the waterline thickest and heaviest to help keep the canoe upright in stormy seas. To further enhance the canoe's stability, they filled the hull with water and heated it to boiling by dropping in hot stones. This rendered the wood temporarily flexible, so the sides of the hull could be forced apart and held with sturdy wooden thwarts, which served as both cross braces and seats. The canoes were often painted with elaborate designs of cultural significance to the tribe.
The Haida raised canoe building to high art, designing boats of such beauty and utility that neighboring tribes were willing to exchange quantities of hides, meats, and oils for a Haida canoe. These graceful vessels became the tribe's chief item of export. In their swift and staunch canoes, the first people of the Northwest were able to take full advantage of the riches provided by the sea. With harpoons of yew wood, baited hooks of red cedar, and lines of twisted and braided bark fibers, they fished for cod, sturgeon, and halibut, and hunted whales, seals, and sea otters.
1. Why did the canoe makers keep the sections of the canoe below the waterline thickest and heaviest?
A. To prevent the canoe from overturning in rough water.
B. To shorten the work of carving wood from the inside.
C. To avoid having to paint the bottom of the canoe.
D. To make the canoe strong enough to hold forty people.
2. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph two?
A. Carving changed the texture and strength of the wood.
B. It took the canoe makers several months to build a canoe.
C. The wood was beaten with stone tools to make it flexible.
D. Canoes were important cultural artifact of the Haida.
3. The word staunch in paragraph three is closest in meaning to ______.
A. silent
B. strong
C. scented
D. severe
4. It can be inferred from paragraph three that ______.
A. canoes were the Haida's only known art form
B. the Haida dominated trade among local tribes
C. the people used up all of the natural resources
D. trees provided essential tools for obtaining food
5. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
A. The western red cedar thrives in a variety of climates.
B. The skill of the Haida canoe makers has never been copied.
C. Haida canoes were of great value in the regional economy.
D. People no longer use cedar canoes for fishing and whaling.
2
Nothing in the history of modern astronomy has excited as much speculation as the object, or event, known as a black hole. Black holes have provided endless imaginative fodder for science fiction writers and endless theoretical fodder for astrophysicists. They are one of the more exotic manifestations of the theory of general relativity, and their fascination lies in the way their tremendous gravity affects nearby space and time.
A black hole is very simple in structure: it has a surface—the event horizon—and a center—the singularity. Everything else is gravity. The standard model for the formation of a black hole involves the collapse of a large star. The imaginary spherical surface surrounding the collapsed star is the event horizon—an artificial boundary in space that marks a point of no return. Outside the event horizon, gravity is strong but finite, and it is possible for objects to break free of its pull. However, once within the event horizon, an object would need to travel faster than light to escape.
For extremely massive stars, the exclusion principle—the resistance between the molecular particles within the star as they are compressed—will not be strong enough to offset the gravity generated by the star's own mass. The star's increasing density will overwhelm the exclusion principle. What follows is runaway gravitational collapse. With no internal force to stop it, the star will simply continue to collapse in on itself. Once a collapsing star has contracted through its event horizon, nothing can stop it from collapsing further until its entire mass is crushed down to a single point—a point of infinite density and zero volume—the singularity.
The star now disappears from the perceivable universe, like a cartoon character that jumps into a hole and pulls the hole in after him. What this process leaves behind is a different kind of hole—a profound disturbance in space-time, a region where gravity is so intense that nothing can escape from it. Any object falling within the boundary of a black hole has no choice but to move inward toward the singularity and disappear from our universe forever. Moreover, a black hole can never be plugged up or filled in with matter, the more matter that is poured into a black hole, the bigger it gets.
What would happen to objects, such as astronauts, as they vanished into a black hole? Physicists have been amusing themselves with this question for years, and most believe that the intense gravitational forces would rip apart the astronauts long before they were crushed at the singularity. Theoretically, any astronauts who managed to survive the passage would encounter some very strange thing. For instance, they would experience acute time distortion, which would enable them to know, in a few brief seconds, the entire future of the universe.
Inside a black hole, space and time are so warped that the distance from the event horizon to the singularity is not a distance in space in the normal sense that we can measure in kilometers. Instead, it becomes a distance in time. The time it takes to reach the singularity from the event horizon—as measured by someone falling in—is proportional to the mass of the black hole.
The only way that astronauts would know whether they had crossed the event horizon would be if they tried to halt their fall and climb out again by firing their engines enough to push themselves back from the center of the hole. However, because of the time warp, if the astronauts tried to do this, they would reach the singularity faster than if they had left their engines off. Moreover, since they could get no farther once they had reached the singularity, this point would mark the end of time itself.
6. The word fodder in paragraph one is closest in meaning to ______.
A. material
B. stories
C. support
D. problems
7. The opposing force between the molecular particles inside a star is called ______.
A. general relativity
B. the exclusion principle
C. infinite density
D. The singularity
8. Why does the author mention a cartoon character in paragraph four?
A. To illustrate the complete disappearance of a collapsing star.
B. To warn of the danger of being sucked into a black hole.
C. To point out a humorous phenomenon in astrophysics.
D. To announce the creation of a cartoon about black holes.
9. Astronauts who fell into a black hole would probably experience all of the following EXCEPT ______.
A. distortion of space and time
B. traveling faster than light
C. knowledge of the universe
D. strong gravitational forces
10. The phrase this point in paragraph seven refers to ______.
A. The event horizon
B. Firing their engines
C. The time warp
D. The singularity
3
The geology of the Earth's surface is dominated by the particular properties of water. Present on Earth in solid, liquid, and gaseous states, water is exceptionally reactive. It dissolves, transports, and precipitates many chemical compounds and is constantly modifying the face of the Earth.
Evaporated from the oceans, water vapor forms clouds, some of which are transported by wind over the continents. Condensation from the clouds provides the essential agent of continental erosion: rain. Precipitated onto the ground, the water trickles down to form brooks, streams, and rivers, constituting what is called the hydrographic network. This immense polarized network channels the water toward a single receptacle: an ocean. Gravity dominates this entire step in the cycle because water tends to minimize its potential energy by running from high altitudes toward the reference point that is sea level.
The rate at which a molecule of water passes though the cycle is not random but is a measure of the relative size of the various reservoirs. If we define residence time as the average time for a water molecule to pass through one of the three reservoirs—atmosphere, continent, and ocean—we see that the times are very different. A water molecule stays, on average, eleven days in the atmosphere, one hundred years on a continent and forty thousand years in the ocean. This last figure shows the importance of the ocean as the principal reservoir of the hydrosphere but also the rapidity of water transport on the continents.
A vast chemical separation process takes places during the flow of water over the continents. Soluble ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and some magnesium are dissolved and transported. Insoluble ions such as aluminum, iron, and silicon stay where they are and form the thin, fertile skin of soil on which vegetation can grow. Sometimes soils are destroyed and transported mechanically during flooding. The erosion of the continent thus results from two closely linked and interdependent processes, chemical erosion and mechanical erosion. Their respective interactions and efficiency depend on different factors.
11. The word which in line 5 refers to ______.
A. clouds
B. oceans
C. continents
D. compounds
12. According to the passage, clouds are primarily formed by water ______.
A. precipitating onto the ground
B. changing from a solid to a liquid state
C. evaporating from the oceans
D. being carried by wind
13. The passage suggests that the purpose of the hydrographic network is to ______.
A. determine the size of molecules of water
B. prevent soil erosion caused by flooding
C. move water from the Earth's surface to the oceans
D. regulate the rate of water flow from streams and rivers
14. What determines the rate at which a molecule of water moves through the cycle, as discussed in the third paragraph?
A. The potential energy contained in water
B. The effects of atmospheric pressure on chemical compounds
C. The amounts of rainfall that fall on the continents
D. The relative size of the water storage areas
15. The word rapidity in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. significance
B. method
C. swiftness
D. reliability
4
Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one's side, or that in Italy and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell.
Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying German after World War II and marked them GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that Gift means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at least 3 feet or an arm's length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable.
Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world.
Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or monuments; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them.
When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives—usually the richer—who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation's diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters.
For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods.
But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.
16. It can be inferred that Americans being approached too closely by Middle Easterners would most probably ______.
A. stand still
B. jump aside
C. step forward
D. draw back
17. The author gives many examples to criticize Americans for their ______.
A. cultural self-centeredness
B. casual manners
C. indifference towards foreign visitors
D. arrogance towards other cultures
18. In countries other than their own most Americans ______.
A. are isolated by local people
B. are not well informed due to the language barrier
C. tend to get along well with the natives
D. need interpreters in hotels and restaurants
19. According to the author, American's cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance will ______.
A. affect their image in the new era
B. cut themselves off from the outside world
C. limit their role in world affairs
D. weaken the position of US dollar
20. The author's intention in writing this article is to make Americans to realize that ______.
A. it is dangerous to ignore their foreign friends
B. it is important to maintain their leading role in world affairs
C. it is necessary to use several languages in public places
D. it is time to get acquainted with other cultures
5
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand of luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-century England. McKendrick has explored the Wedgwood firm's remarkable success in marketing luxury pottery; Plumb has written about the proliferation of provincial theaters, musical festivals, and children's toys and books. While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain: Who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effects of the new demand for luxuries?
An answer to the first of these has been difficult to obtain. Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and serving trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We still need to know how large this consumer market was and how far down the social scale the consumer demand for luxury goods penetrated. With regard to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of eighteenth-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general; for example, laboring people in eighteenth-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.
To answer the question of why consumers became so eager to buy, some historians have pointed to the ability of manufacturers to advertise in relatively uncensored press. This, however, hardly seems a sufficient answer. McKendrick favors a Veblen model of conspicuous consumption stimulated by competition for status. The middling sort bought goods and services because they wanted to follow fashions set by the rich. Again, we may wonder whether this explanation is sufficient. Do not people enjoy buying things as a form of self-gratification? If so, consumerism could be seen as a product of the rise of new concepts of individualism and materialism, but not necessarily of the frenzy for conspicuous competition.
Finally, what were the consequences of this consumer demand for luxuries? McKendrick claims that it goes a long way toward explaining the coming of the Industrial Revolution. But does it? What, for example, does the production of high quality pottery and toys have to do with the development of iron manufacture or textile mills? It is perfectly possible to have the psychology and reality of a consumer society without a heavy industrial sector.
That future exploration of these key questions is undoubtedly necessary should not, however, diminish the force of the conclusion of recent studies: the insatiable demand in eighteenth-century England for frivolous as well as useful goods and services foreshadows our own world.
21. In the first paragraph, the author mentions McKendrick and Plumb most probably in order to ______.
A. contrast their views on the subject of luxury consumerism in eighteenth-century England
B. indicate the inadequacy of approaches to eighteenth-century English history
C. give examples of historians who have helped to establish the fact of growing consumerism in eighteenth-century England
D. support the contention that key questions about eighteenth-century consumerism remain to be answered
22. According to Thompson, which kind of attitude did laboring people in eighteenth-century England have toward capitalist consumerism?
A. Enthusiasm
B. Curiosity
C. Stubbornness
D. Hostility
23. In the third paragraph, the author is mainly concerned with ______.
A. contrasting two theses and offering a compromise
B. questioning two explanations and proposing a possible alternative to them
C. paraphrasing the work of two historians and questioning their assumptions
D. raising several questions but implying that they cannot be answered
24. According to the passage, a Veblen model of conspicuous consumption has been used to ______.
A. explain the motivation of eighteenth-century consumers to buy luxury goods
B. classify the kinds of luxury goods desired by eighteenth-century consumers
C. investigate the extent of the demand for luxury goods among social classes in eighteenth-century England
D. Compare luxury consumerism in eighteenth-century England with such consumerism in the 20th century.
25. According to the author, eighteenth-century England and the contemporary world of the passage's readers are ______.
A. dissimilar in the extent to which luxury consumerism could be said to be widespread among the social classes
B. dissimilar in their definitions of luxury goods and services
C. dissimilar in the extent to which luxury goods could be a stimulant of industrial development
D. similar in their strong demand for a variety of goods and services
6
Pity those who aspire to put the initials PhD after their names. After 16 years of closely supervised education, prospective doctors of philosophy are left more or less alone to write the equivalent of a large book. Most social-science postgraduates have still not completed their theses by the time their grant runs out after three years. They must then get a job and finish in their spare time, which can often take a further three years. By then, most new doctors are sick to death of the narrowly defined subject which has blighted their holidays and ruined their evenings.
The Economic and Social Research Council, which gives grants to postgraduate social scientists, wants to get better value for money by cutting short this agony. It would like to see faster completion rates: until recently, only about 25% of PhD candidates were finishing within four years. The ESRC's response has been to stop PhD grants to all institutions where the proportion taking less than four years is below 10%; in the first year of this policy the national average shot up to 39%. The ESRC feels vindicated in its toughness, and will progressively raise the threshold to 40% in two years. Unless completion rates improve further, this would exclude 55 out of 73 universities and polytechnics—including Oxford University, the London School of Economics and the London Business School.
Predictably, howls of protest have come from the universities, who view the blacklisting of whole institutions as arbitrary and negative. They point out that many of the best students go quickly into jobs where they can apply their research skills, but consequently take longer to finish their theses. Polytechnics with as few as two PhD candidates complain that they are penalized by random fluctuations in student performance. The colleges say there is no hard evidence to prove that faster completion rates result from greater efficiency rather than lower standards or less ambitious doctoral topics.
The ESRC thinks it might not be a bad thing if PhD students were more modest in their aims. It would prefer to see more systematic teaching of research skills and fewer unrealistic expectations placed on young men and women who are undertaking their first piece of serious research. So in future its grants will be given only where it is convinced that students are being trained as researchers, rather than carrying out purely knowledge-based studies.
The ESRC cannot dictate the standard of thesis required by external examiners, or force departments to give graduates more teaching time. The most it can do is to try to persuade universities to change their ways. Recalcitrant professors should note that students want more research training and a less elaborate style of thesis, too.
26. By the time new doctors get a job and try to finish their theses in spare time, ______.
A. most of them died of some sickness
B. their holidays and evenings have been ruined by their jobs
C. most of them are completely tired of the narrowly defined subject
D. most of their grants run out
27. Oxford University would be excluded out of those universities that receive PhD grants from ESRC, because the completion rate of its PhD students' theses within four years is lower than ______.
A. 25%
B. 40%
C. 39%
D. 10%
28. All the following statements are the arguments against ESRC's policy except ______.
A. all the institutions on the blacklist are arbitrary and negative
B. there is no hard evidence to prove that faster completion rates result from greater efficiency rather than lower standards or less ambitious doctoral topics
C. many of the best students go quickly into jobs where they can apply their research skills, but consequently take longer to finish their theses
D. some polytechnics are penalized by random fluctuations in student performance
29. The ESRC would prefer ______.
A. that the students were carrying out purely knowledge-based studies rather than being trained as researchers
B. to see higher standards of PhD students' theses and more ambitious doctoral topics
C. more systematic teaching of research skills to fewer unrealistic expectations placed on inexperienced young PhD students
D. that PhD students were less modest in their aims
30. What the ESRC can do is to ______.
A. force departments to give graduates more teaching time
B. try to persuade universities to change their ways
C. dictate the standard of thesis required by external examiners
D. note that students want more research training and less elaborate style of thesis
Part II Translation (40%)
A. Translate the following paragraphs into Chinese.
1.
The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of nature, and a keen relish for the pleasures and employments of the country. This passion seems inherent in them. Even the inhabitants of cities, born and brought up among brick walls and bustling streets, enter with facility into rural habits, and evince a tact for rural occupation. The merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity of metropolis, where he often displays as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his flower garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does in the conduct of his business, and the success of a commercial enterprise. Even those less fortunate individuals who doomed to pass their lives in the midst of din and traffic, contrive to have something that shall remind them of the green aspect of nature.
2.
Classical science will have to thrive in order for the third culture to thrive, since technology is so derivative of the scientific process. The question I would like to posit is: If the culture of technology should dominate our era, how do we pay attention to science? For although science may feed technology, technology is steadily changing how we do science, how we think of science, and what it means to be a scientist. It is self-evident that the culture of science, so long in the shadow of the culture of art, has another orientation to contend with, one grown from its own rib.
B. Translate the following into English.
硅谷犹如一块磁铁，把许多天资聪明的工程师、科学家、企业家从世界各地聚集到这里投身于技术革命的大潮。其影响于人类必将远远超过具有划时代意义的欧洲文化复兴和工业革命。
许多国家已经或正在着手建设自己的硅谷，但至今似无一威胁到美国硅谷的领先地位。美国硅谷与众不同的秘诀何在？
首先，硅谷有着世界最大最密集的优秀计算机专家群体、最佳的后援服务体系、与之紧密联系着的斯坦福大学等世界一流的研究机构，而后者正源源不断地培养科学技术赖以发展的明日天才。若缺少这些有利条件，硅谷的面貌便会大不一样。
Part III Writing (15%)
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then write a summary of it in about 250 words.
Summary 原文
In the early 20th century Henry Ford combined moving assembly lines with mass labour to make building cars much cheaper and quicker—thus turning the automobile from a rich man's toy into transport for the masses. Today a growing group of entrepreneurs is striving to do the same to services, bringing together computer power with freelance workers to supply luxuries that were once reserved for the wealthy.
Yet this on-demand economy goes much wider than the occasional luxury. Click on Medicast's app, and a doctor will be knocking on your door within two hours. Want a lawyer or a consultant? Axiom will supply the former, Eden McCallum the latter.
The on-demand economy is small, but it is growing quickly. Uber, founded in San Francisco in 2009, now operates in 53 countries, had sales exceeding $1 billion in 2014 and a valuation of $40 billion. Like the moving assembly line, the idea of connecting people with freelancers to solve their problems sounds simple. But, like mass production, it has profound implications for everything from the organization of work to the nature of the social contract in a capitalist society.
Some of the forces behind the on-demand economy have been around for decades. Ever since the 1970s the economy that Henry Ford helped create, with big firms and big trade unions, has withered. Manufacturing jobs have been automated out of existence or outsourced abroad, while big companies have abandoned lifetime employment. Some 53m American workers already work as freelances.
But two powerful forces are speeding this up and pushing it into ever more parts of the economy. The first is technology. Cheap computing power means a lone thespian with an Apple Mac can create videos that rival those of Hollywood studios. Complex tasks, such as programming a computer or writing a legal brief, can now be divided into their component parts—and subcontracted to specialists around the world. The on-demand economy allows society to tap into its under-used resources, thus Uber gets people to rent their own cars, and InnoCentive lets them rent their spare brain capacity.
The other great force is changing social habits. Karl Marx said that the world would be divided into people who owned the means of production and people who worked for them. In fact it is increasingly being divided between people who have money but no time and people who have time but no money. The on-demand economy provides a way for these two groups to trade with each other.
This will push service companies to follow manufacturers and focus on their core competencies. The transaction cost of using an outsider to fix something is falling. Rather than controlling fixed resources, on-demand companies are middlemen, arranging connections and overseeing quality. They don't employ full-time lawyers and accountant with guaranteed pay and benefits. Uber drivers get paid only when they work and are responsible for their own pensions and health care. Risks borne by companies are being pushed back on to individuals and that has consequences for everybody.
The on-demand economy is already provoking political debate, with Uber at the centre of much of it. Many cities, states and countries have banned the ride-sharing company on safety or regulatory grounds. Taxi drivers have staged protests against it. Uber drivers have gone on strike, demanding better benefits. Techno-optimists dismiss all this as teething trouble: the on-demand economy gives consumers greater choice, they argue, while letting people work whenever they want. Society gains because idle resources are put to use. Most of Uber's cars would otherwise be parked in the garage.
The truth is more nuanced. Consumers are clear winners; so are Western workers who value flexibility over security, such as women who want to combine work with child-rearing. Taxpayers stand to gain if on-demand labour is used to improve efficiency in the provision of public services. But workers who value security over flexibility, including a lot of middle-aged lawyers, doctors and taxi drivers, feel justifiably threatened. And the on-demand economy certainly produces unfunded pensions; taxpayers will also end up supporting many contract workers who have never built up pensions.
This sense of nuance should inform policymaking. Governments that outlaw on-demand firms are simply handicapping the rest of their economies. But that does not mean they should sit on their hands. The ways governments measure employment and wages will have to change. Many European tax systems treat freelances as second-class citizens, while American states have different rules for contract workers that could be tidied up. Too much of the welfare state is delivered through employers, especially pensions and health care; both should be tied to the individual and made portable, one area where Obamacare was a big step forward.
But even if governments adjust their policies to a more individualistic age, the on-demand economy clearly imposes more risk on individuals. People will have to master multiple skills if they are to survive in such a world and keep those skills up to date. Professional sorts in big service firms will have to take more responsibility for educating themselves. People will also have to learn how to sell themselves, through personal networking and social media or, if they are really ambitious, turning themselves into brands. In a more fluid world, everybody will need to learn how to manage You Inc.