东北财经大学考博英语真题,考博英语试题

东北财经大学2007年招收攻读博士学位研究生入学考试英语试题

注：
1. 答案必须写在答题纸上，写在题签（试题）上不给分。
2. 答卷须用蓝、黑色笔（钢笔、签字笔、圆珠笔），红色笔、铅笔答题者不给分。
第一部分英语听力部分 (10%)
Listening Comprehension (20 minutes, 10 points)
（注：本部分在试卷中已标注为“略”，以下为听力试题A卷内容）
Section A
Directions: You are going to hear ten short conversations between two speakers. At the end of each conversation, you will hear a question about what was said. Listen carefully and decide which of the four choices is the best answer to the question you have heard. (5 points)
1.
A. Sunday.
B. Tuesday.
C. Wednesday.
D. Thursday.
2.
A. The wind has stopped, but it's still snowing.
B. The snow has stopped.
C. It's still snowing and the wind is blowing.
D. Both the snow and the wind have stopped.
3.
A. He wants to arrange dinner for several people.
B. He wants to buy some new books.
C. He wants to order some nightclothes.
D. He wants to buy a new table.
4.
A. Expertly.
B. Badly.
C. All right.
D. Very hard.
5.
A. He prefers taking a plane.
B. He prefers taking a bus.
C. He prefers traveling with the woman.
D. He prefers staying at home.
6.
A. 6:15.
B. 6:40.
C. 5:35.
D. 5:15.
7.
A. She needs more credits to graduate.
B. Two of the courses are fairly easy.
C. She is a challenging student.
D. She likes to bear a heavy load.
8.
A. Five thirty.
B. Seven o'clock.
C. Six o'clock.
D. Seven thirty.
9.
A. At a parking lot.
B. At a No-parking place.
C. At a driving class.
D. At a garage.
10.
A. There is only one point he does not understand.
B. It's no use explaining the questions to him.
C. The question will not be on the quiz.
D. He doesn't want any help.
Section B Compound Dictation
Directions: In this section you'll hear a passage three times. When it is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. Then listen to the passage for the second time, and fill in the blanks 1 to 8 with the exact words you've just heard. For blanks numbered 9 to 10, fill in the missing information. You can either use the exact words you've just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, check your answers when the passage is read for the third time. (5 points)
Suicide has been a cause of (1) ____________ in most societies for a long time. The (2) ____________ Greeks, for example, required people who wanted to kill themselves to get (3) ____________ from the senate. (4) ____________ this law is not without humor by today's (5) ____________, it certainly shows an awareness of the (6) ____________ in times gone by. In today's society, suicide is much more (7) ____________ than we want to admit. Why do people try to (8) ____________ their own lives?
The motives for suicide can be categorized into areas such as failure, wrath, the need for attention, stress, and so on. However, the qualities of a person who wants to take his own life change from person to person, making it difficult to depict the typical victim. (9) ________________________________________________ to their friends to disregard problems that should be viewed as serious.
In the United States, a network of centers has been created to attempt to prevent suicide. (10) ________________________________________________. The accomplishment of these centers, in as far as their effectiveness to reduce suicides concerned, are minimal. However, they have helped a lot of people with a wide variety of problems. So, in the somewhat amorphous area of man helping his fellow man, they are certainly a success.
第二部分英语笔试部分 (90%)
I. Vocabulary and Structure (10 minutes, 10 points)
Section A
Directions: There are 10 sentences in this section. Each sentence has a word or phrase underlined. There are four words or phrases beneath each sentence marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that would best keep the meaning of the original sentence.
1. It was clear that they abused their power and rode roughshod over the people.
A. hauled
B. misused
C. deceived
D. initiated
2. Once again, success in farming is accompanied by new worries, which brought about a disaster to the village.
A. assaulted
B. followed
C. approved
D. adapted
3. Structurally, the inside of early Christian churches was quite simple.
A. layout
B. design
C. interior
D. content
4. The organization provides information on health issue to the public at large.
A. at length
B. in general
C. in detail
D. in brief
5. The biggest computer company in Silicon Valley has laid off hundreds of people during the last few years.
A. declined
B. detached
C. dismissed
D. dispersed
6. History and accompanying prosperity muted memories of the Great Depression and made him a national hero.
A. transpire
B. upbraid
C. muffle
D. twist
7. This book is essential to anyone interested in space exploration.
A. dispensable
B. indisputable
C. indispensable
D. disputable
8. It is also believed that these steroids could be used to treat disorders such as acute anxiety and pre-menstrual syndrome.
A. enmity
B. symptom
C. adversity
D. plaintiff
9. If that desk is at least 100 years old, it is an authentic antique and valuable.
A. real
B. ancient
C. eminent
D. obsolete
10. Her best-known paintings are those in which she magnified flowers or animal skulls to fill the picture.
A. dissected
B. duplicated
C. glorified
D. enlarged
Section B
Directions: In this section there are 10 incomplete sentences. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence.
11. "Better late than never" is a ______ that is very familiar to most English speakers.
A. platitude
B. platitude
C. plenty
D. plenary
12. Scarcely had the boat reached the open water ______ it encountered high winds and heavy seas.
A. than
B. as
C. when
D. since
13. Electrical resistance is a common property of all materials, ______.
A. only differs in degree
B. only in degree it differs
C. differing only in degree
D. and differing in degree only
14. Hardly anything ______ more than the happiness of seeing someone using his device for treatment.
A. please him
B. does please him
C. does him please
D. pleases him
15. The tree, the branches ______ are almost bare, is a very old one.
A. of which
B. in which
C. for which
D. with which
16. The car in front ______ suddenly at the traffic light.
A. pulled in
B. pulled into
C. pulled up
D. pulled through
17. The unruly crowd became even more ______ when the negotiator tried to quiet them.
A. boisterous
B. bombastic
C. hoorish
D. bloated
18. In most cases politicians are ______ as they seldom tell the truth.
A. credible
B. incredulous
C. credulous
D. incredible
19. We don't think it is a good habit for Tom to ______ in affairs that are of no concern to him.
A. impart
B. ponder
C. abound
D. meddle
20. To get my travelers' cheques I had to ______ a special cheque to the bank for the total amount.
A. make for
B. make off
C. make out
D. make over
II. Reading Comprehension (35 minutes, 30 points)
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.
Text 1
An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on behalf of students' career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction—which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put computers in the classroom.
An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, justified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law. It is not simply to raise everyone's job prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. Rather, we have a certain conception of the American citizen, a character who is incomplete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and happiness are affected by things outside of himself. But this was not always the case; before it was legally required for all children to attend school until a certain age, it was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature to pursue this kind of education. With optimism characteristic of all industrialized countries, we came to accept that everyone is fit to be educated. Computer-education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. Banking on the confusion between educational and vocational reasons for bringing computers into schools, computer advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their educational achievement.
There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student. Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. It is, however, presumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many businessmen, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations.
But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not. Of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If one wanted to become a computer engineer, that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills take—at the very longest—a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.
21. The author thinks the present rush to put computers in the classroom is ______.
A. far-reaching
B. dubiously oriented
C. self-contradictory
D. radically reformatory
22. The belief that education is indispensable to all children ______.
A. is indicative of a pessimism in disguise
B. came into being along with the arrival of computers
C. is deeply rooted in the minds of computer-education advocates
D. originated from the optimistic attitude of industrialized countries
23. It could be inferred from the passage that in the author's country the European model of professional training is ______.
A. dependent upon the starting age of candidates
B. worth trying in various social sections
C. of little practical value
D. attractive to every kind of professional
24. According to the author, basic computer skills should be ______.
A. included as an auxiliary course in school
B. highlighted in acquisition of professional qualifications
C. mastered through a life-long course
D. equally emphasized by any school, vocational or otherwise
25. The word "presumptuous" in the third paragraph means ______.
A. self-assured
B. confident
C. insolent
D. arrogant
Text 2
Extraordinary creative activity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation, highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle of organization. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though valid for the sciences. Differences between highly creative art and highly creative science arise in part from a difference in their goal. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. Such phenomena as a brilliant diamond or a nesting bird are relegated to the role of data, serving as the means for formulating or testing a new theory. The goal of highly creative art is different: the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare's Hamlet is not a tract about the behavior of indecisive princes or the uses of political power, nor is Picasso's painting Guernica primarily a propositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, rather than transcend that form.
This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle of organization in the history of an artistic field; the composer Monteverdi, who created music of the highest aesthetic value, comes to mind. More generally, however, whether or not a composition establishes a new principle in the history of music has no bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (费加罗的婚礼) is surely among the master-pieces of music even though its modest innovations are confined to extending existing means. It has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention. But a close study of his composition reveals that Beethoven overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incomparable strategist who exploited limits of the rules, forms, and conventions that he inherited from predecessors such as Haydn and Mozart, Handel and Bach, in strikingly original ways.
26. According to the author, distinctions between those engaged in the creative arts and in natural sciences can in part be explained by ______.
A. the different objectives of those involved in their respective pursuits
B. the different methods they employ in the collection of data to support their theories
C. the different ways in which they attempt to extend accepted conventional forms
D. the different principles of organization that they utilize in order to create new works
27. Why does the author suggest that the work of Beethoven was highly creative?
A. Because he sought to become the only composer of his time to challenge accepted musical conventions.
B. Because he adopted a new principle of organization in his work by utilizing innovative strategies.
C. Because he creatively manipulated the accepted rules and forms governing musical composition.
D. Because he synthesized a transition between the older stylistic convention and the newer musical form.
28. The passage implies that an original contribution in science is one that ______.
A. is often quoted in the work of other scientists
B. is careful not to make a value judgment about the use of data
C. is applauded by all distinguished experimentalists
D. generates a novel and well-founded generalization
29. Which of the following would most likely follow the final sentence of the passage?
A. In the similar manner, several modern composers successfully established musical conventions.
B. Similarly, the succeeding generation of composers manipulated accepted musical forms.
C. In contrast to Beethoven, however, even great modern composers like Bela Bartok did not attempt to alter accepted musical conventions.
D. Musicologists are continuing to study the compositional styles of composers in order to determine whether their contributions have been innovative.
Text 3
Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece in American policy analysis. At a time when the Congress and the Administration are considering ways to reform welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and the income tax, elected officials are still unwilling to confront the serious problems of our Social Security system. Eventually, however, its deteriorating financial condition will force major reforms. Whether those reforms are good or bad, whether they deal with the basic economic problems of the system or merely protect the solvency of existing institutional arrangements will depend in part on whether we, as economists, provide the appropriate intellectual framework for analyzing reform alternatives.
Major policy changes that affect the public at large can only happen in our democracy, when there is widespread public support for the new direction of policy. In the field of economics, the views of the media, of other private-sector opinion leaders, and of politicians and their advisers, depend very much on their perception of what economists believe feasible and correct. Fundamental policy reforms in a complex area like social security also require the development of technical expertise, both in and out of government, about the options for change and their likely consequences. Fortunately, an expanding group of economists is now thinking and writing about social security reform. My remarks today greatly benefit from what they have written and from my conversations with many of them.
I began to do my research on the effects of Social Security reform nearly 25 years ago (Feldstein, 1974, 1975).
A central concept in my analysis of Social Security has been the notion of "Social Security wealth," which I defined as the present actuarial value of the Social Security benefits to which the current adult population will be entitled at age 65 (or are already entitled to if they are older than 65) minus the present actuarial value of the Social Security taxes that they will pay before reaching that age. Social Security wealth has now grown to about $11 trillion or more than 1.5 times GDP. Since this is equivalent to more than $50,000 for every adult in the country, the value of Social Security wealth substantially exceeds all other assets for the vast majority of American households. In the aggregate, Social Security wealth exceeds three-fourths of all private financial wealth, as conventionally measured.
Social Security wealth is of course not real wealth but only a claim on current and future taxpayers. Instead of labeling this key magnitude "Social Security wealth," I could have called it the nation's "Social Security liability." Like ordinary government debt, Social Security wealth has the power to crowd out private capital accumulation, and Social Security wealth will continue to grow as long as our current system remains unchanged, displacing an ever larger stock of capital.
The $11 trillion Social Security liability is three times as large as the official national debt. Although I certainly welcome the current political efforts to shrink future budget deficits, it is worth noting that, even if the traditional deficit is eliminated in the year 2002, so that the national debt is then no longer increasing, the national debt in the form of the Social Security liability is likely to increase that year by about $300 billion.
Looking further into the future, the aggregate Social Security liability will grow as the population expands, as it becomes relatively older, and as income rises. Government actuaries predict that, under existing law, the tax rate required to pay each year's Social Security benefit will rise over the next 50 years from the present level of slightly less than 12 percent to more than 18 percent, and perhaps to as much as 23 percent.
30. The deteriorating financial condition referred to was caused by ______.
A. a poor economic approach to the Social Security retirement program
B. the reform of welfare in the Social Security retirement program
C. major policy changes in the Social Security retirement program
D. government debt in the Social Security retirement program
31. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the word "alternatives" refers to ______.
A. courses
B. thoughts
C. people
D. occasions
32. According to the author, major policy changes can only happen in ______.
A. social security wealth in the United States
B. democratic countries
C. a country where and when opinion upholds change
D. all of the above
33. In paragraph three, the name and the dates between parentheses ______.
A. are a question of personal style
B. represent vital new information
C. identify the author
D. refer to a different author
34. The definition of Social Security wealth ______.
A. applies to the benefits payable before age 65
B. does not apply to benefits after age 65
C. includes the present actuarial value paid before age 65
D. was formulated two and a half decades ago
35. Rather than wealth, this key magnitude may be construed as a liability because ______.
A. it has now grown to $11 trillion
B. it is equivalent to more than $50,000 for every adult in the country
C. it grows steadily through the accumulation of private capital
D. it is a debt to be paid
Text 4
The widespread adoption of the Internet and the Web makes it possible to administer questionnaire surveys electronically, potentially achieving much greater cost-effectiveness and permitting the integration of data from many sources. At the same time, there are significant technical challenges that must be met, especially in the areas of logistics and sampling. Recognizing the need for innovation in this and related areas, the NSF Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program, in collaboration with a consortium of federal statistical agencies represented by the Interagency Council of Statistical Policy and the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, has held a special competition on survey research methods. Included among the topic areas in the competition announcement is "secure and easy-to-use methods of collecting survey data via the Web."
Today's leading social scientific surveys are very expensive interview studies of national samples. For example, the GSS administers a 90-minute face-to-face interview to 1,500 American adults at a cost of about $500 per interview. However, the respondents are not a true random sample because cost considerations with respect to the interviewer's travel require that respondents be recruited in a limited number of geographic clusters, and there is no list of residents from which a random sample could be drawn. The small number of geographic areas surveyed limits scientists' ability to link GSS data to other geographically based data such as the U.S. census. Because of the high cost and many research communities that seek time in the GSS, it is impossible to include more than a handful of questions on any particular topic. This prevents the GSS from employing much of the best methodology of measurement scale construction, which requires inclusion of a large number of items. Surveys like the GSS will be needed in future decades to chart the changing social, economic, and political conditions of the American public. But many types of social science will advance more rapidly through surveys administered over the web.
Web-based surveys can reach very large numbers of respondents at low cost. They will be geographically dispersed so that their data can be linked to the census, to local economic information, and to data from other web-based surveys. It might not be possible to hold the interviewees' interest for the full 90-minute questionnaire of the GSS, but shorter duration surveys administered to very large numbers of respondents in the aggregate can include far more items, thereby permitting much finer measurement of scientifically interesting variables. The high cost of major national surveys generally has restricted the topic studied to those that especially require highly representative samples such as family structure and economic status in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and voting behavior in the American National Election Study, data from both of which are now freely available over the web. A vast array of other scientific research areas, therefore, have languished for many years without the large-scale survey data that would permit knowledge to progress.
36. According to the passage, which is Not True of Surveys via the Web?
A. They reduce the cost in data collection.
B. They are secure and easy-to-use in collecting data.
C. They provide more convincing conclusions on the matter surveyed.
D. They face fierce competitions from the traditional survey methods.
37. The second paragraph is mainly about ______.
A. the differences between the Web-based and traditional surveys
B. the advantages of the Web-based surveys
C. the weaknesses of the traditional surveys
D. the cost involved in conducting traditional surveys
38. What makes traditional surveys unscientific according to the second paragraph?
A. The sampling is not made strictly randomly.
B. The interview has to be conducted face-to-face.
C. Improper questions are often included in a survey.
D. Selection of respondents is often a matter of personal decision.
39. The author firmly believes that Web-based surveys will ______.
A. enhance the economic status of a nation
B. promote the progress of social sciences
C. change social, economic and political conditions of the public
D. hold the interviewees' interest longer than traditional surveys
40. It is implied in the last sentence that ______.
A. many scientific areas stop making breakthroughs for lack of effective data collection
B. scientific research still makes progress without large-scale survey data
C. the progress of knowledge depends on achievements made by all areas of science together
D. scientific research has made little progress before the widespread adoption of the Internet
III. Use of English (15 minutes, 10 points)
Directions: Read the following passage. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank.
The role of government in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, (41) ________ governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidize the exploitation and (42) ________ of natural resources. A whole (43) ________ of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and (often) (44) ________ no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold (45) ________: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to (46) ________ the vested interest that subsidies create.
No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the planet's land area, not (47) ________ Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 per cent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases in (48) ________ from land already in (49) ________, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a (50) ________ in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 1970s and 1980s.
All these activities may have (51) ________ environmental impact. For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single (52) ________ of deforestation; chemical fertilizers and pesticides may (53) ________ water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods (54) ________ exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and the use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the (55) ________ of old varieties of food plants which (56) ________ some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, (57) ________ the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate (58) ________ to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently (59) ________ a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is (60) ________ much faster than in America.
41. A. however    B. therefore    C. but    D. hence
42. A. conjunction    B. compensation    C. consumption    D. constitution
43. A. area    B. range    C. scope    D. field
44. A. take    B. hold    C. lose    D. make
45. A. profit    B. bonus    C. benefit    D. prize
46. A. confront    B. confine    C. conform    D. confuse
47. A. thinking    B. considering    C. thinking    D. counting
48. A. outputs    B. supplies    C. yields    D. outcomes
49. A. revolution    B. civilization    C. reservation    D. cultivation
50. A. doubling    B. reducing    C. dismissing    D. repeating
51. A. destroying    B. damaging    C. injuring    D. ruining
52. A. excuse    B. justification    C. cause    D. ground
53. A. purify    B. simplify    C. dirty    D. contaminate
54. A. come to    B. bring to    C. tend to    D. stand to
55. A. disappearance    B. discovery    C. disposition    D. disturbance
56. A. must have been provided    B. might have provided    C. must have provided    D. might have been provided
57. A. when    B. while    C. which    D. where
58. A. probable    B. capable    C. likely    D. hopeful
59. A. set up    B. embark upon    C. build up    D. make up
60. A. vanishing    B. staying    C. appearing    D. dissolving
IV. Translation (50 minutes, 20 points)
Section A (10 points)
Direction: In the following there is an English passage. Translate it into Chinese.
The rules of admission into the world economy not only reflect little awareness of developing priorities, they are often completely unrelated to sensible economic principles. For instance, timely open-economy dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, agriculture, textile, and trade-related intellectual property rights all lack any economic rationale beyond the mercantilist interest of a narrow set of powerful groups in advanced industrial countries. Bilateral and regional trade agreements are typically far worse, as they impose even tighter prerequisites on developing countries in return for crumbs of enhanced "market access." For example, the African Growth and Opportunity Act signed by U.S. President Clinton in May 2000 provides increased access to the U.S. market only if African apparel manufacturers use U.S.-produced fabric and yarns. This restriction severely limits the potential economic spillover in African countries.
Section B (10 points)
Directions: The following is a passage in Chinese. Translate it into English. Please pay attention to the coherence in the translation.
美元的贬值使得许多外国投资者购买美国股票更加划算。这就引发了来自美国以外的投资者的抢购，特别是日本投资者的抢购。另外，如果贸易状况有所好转，美国公司的竞争力最终将会更加强大。因此，许多投资者购买以出口为导向的美国公司的股票，以期在明年获得更大的利润。但这只是当前的一种时髦理念。如果今后几个季度里美国公司的整体收益令人失望的话，那么，这种狂热的购买行为就会消失。
V. Writing (50 minutes, 20 points)
There are a lot of choices you have to make in your life and some events or changes that have occurred because of them. In the following you are requested to write a composition about one of the choices you have made. Describe how your life changed because of the choice and then describe how it might have been or might be if you have done things differently. Your essay should be about 400 words. The suggested title is A Turning Point in My Life.
In the first part of your writing you should state clearly your main idea, and in the second part you should support the main idea with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.