河北工业大学考博英语真题,考博英语试题

河北工业大学2011年博士研究生入学考试英语试题

ENGLISH EXAMINATION FOR PH.D. CANDIDATES OF 2011
Part I. Vocabulary (15%, 1 point each)
Directions: Each of the following questions consists of an incomplete sentence followed by four words or pairs of words. Choose that word or pair of words that when substituted for the blank space or spaces, best completes the meaning of the sentence and mark the letter of your choice on your answer sheet.
1. An audience that laughs in all the wrong places can ______ even the most experienced actor.
A. disparage    B. allay
C. disconcert    D. upbraid
2. Their assurances of good faith were hollow; they ______ on the agreement almost at once.
A. conferred    B. expiated
C. obtruded    D. reneged
3. If we ______ our difference factions, then together we can gain the majority in the legislature.
A. amalgamate    B. manifest
C. alienate    D. deviate
4. The Eighteenth Amendment, often called the Prohibition Act, ______ the sale of alcoholic beverages.
A. prolonged    B. preempted
C. sanctioned    D. proscribed
5. The police received a(n) ______ call giving them valuable information, but the caller would not give his name out of fear of ______.
A. private... impunity    B. anonymous... reprisals
C. professional... dissension    D. enigmatic... refusal
6. A person who is ______ is slow to adapt to a new way of life.
A. nonchalant    B. intractable
C. rabid    D. insolent
7. Though they came from ______ social backgrounds, the newly married couple shared numerous interests and feelings.
A. desultory    B. obsolete
C. malleable    D. disparate
8. The ______ was a ______ of gastronomic delights.
A. internist... progeny    B. gourmet... connoisseur
C. scientist... facilitator    D. tyro... master
9. Mrs. Jenkins, upon hearing that her arm was broken, looked ______ at the doctor.
A. jovially    B. plaintively
C. fortuitously    D. opportunely
10. In view of the extenuating circumstances and the defendant's youth, the judge recommended ______.
A. conviction    B. a defense
C. a mistrial    D. leniency
11. The ______ was greatest when the pitcher paused before delivering the last strike.
A. game    B. crowd
C. sportsmanship    D. tension
12. Her ______ instincts led her to fund the construction of a hospital for the poor.
A. far-ranging    B. humanitarian
C. humble    D. popular
13. After years of ______ war, the Great Wall was constructed to ______ the Chinese people.
A. internecine... instigate    B. destructive... resurrect
C. unceasing... protect    D. amicable... unite
14. His remarks were so ______ that we could not decide which of the possible meanings was correct.
A. facetious    B. ambiguous
C. cogent    D. impalpable
15. In an attempt to ______ a strike, the two sides agreed to negotiate through the night.
A. arbitrate    B. herald
C. trigger    D. avert
Part II. Reading Comprehension (30%, 2 points each)
Directions: In this part, there are three passages, each followed by five questions. Please read the passages carefully, and choose from A, B, C, or D one that best answers each question. Please mark the letter of your choice on your answer sheet.
Passage One
The Great Famine, which occurred in Ireland between 1845-1848, affected the country so profoundly that today, more than 100 years later, it is still discussed both in Irish-American communities in the United States and in Ireland. The passage presents a timeline of the famine and some of the events leading up to it.
During the mid-1840s, from 1845-1848, the potato crop in Ireland failed, creating a famine that ravaged the population. This event, the Great Famine, was one of the most significant events in the 8000-year history of this island nation, and the effects of it continue to haunt the Irish, both those who still live in Ireland and those who live in the United States. The most immediate effect of the famine was the dramatic decline in the Irish population—either through death from starvation and disease or through emigration to other countries.
In Ireland, the potato had historically been the mainstay of the diet of a large proportion of the rural population. Highly nutritional, the potato was easy to plant and easy to harvest. If a family of six had one acre of land, it could grow a potato crop that would feed them for almost a year. However, dependence on one crop had its downside as well. Potatoes could not be stored for long, and farmers who had grown so accustomed to dealing with this one crop neglected to plant other crops as a hedge against possible failures.
Rapid population increases in the years preceding the Great Famine had created a country whose expanding population was often poverty-stricken. Expanding population, coupled with landowners' lack of responsibility toward tenant-farmers, led to a system where tenant-farmers frequently subdivided their land so that they could gain a bit of rent themselves. Consequently, the rural areas were dotted with small plots of land, most of which were used for potato farming. Prior to the famine, urban areas in Ireland were also experiencing economic distress because of a decline in Irish industry that resulted in unemployment and poverty in cities such as Dublin.
In 1845, the year the famine began, a good potato crop was expected, so it came as a great surprise when nearly half of the crop of the country failed because of a blight that had come from North America. This particular blight was unusual inasmuch as when the potato was dug from the ground, it appeared to be healthy; it was only after a day or two that the potato began to rot.
Despite the fact that only half the crop failed in 1845, starvation and disease plagued the entire country because many starving people, some of whom were infected with contagious diseases, roamed the countryside looking for food and spreading disease. Then, in 1846, the crop failed completely. In 1847, there was another partial failure, but because people had eaten their seed potatoes in 1846, the crop was much smaller in 1847. Then again in 1848, the crop failed completely.
As if the crop failures were not enough, other factors affected the seriousness of the situation. Various contagious diseases such as typhus, dysentery, and several different types of fever spread rapidly. Landlords evicted tenant-farmers, and the government did very little to provide relief. Nor did it help that the winter of 1846-1847 was one of the coldest on record.
When the famine was over in 1849, a cholera epidemic struck Ireland, so that by 1850 the country found its population reduced from 8.5 million to 6.5 million. One million people had died from disease and starvation, and one million had left Ireland for Britain, Europe, or North America.
The results of the Great Famine were profound. Farming in Ireland changed from a one-crop economy to an agricultural economy that included livestock and other crops, such as grains. The seeds of animosity toward Great Britain, which had not helped the Irish in their time of need, were sown. And a pattern of emigration was established that lasts until today.
16. According to the passage, the potato became a staple of the Irish diet for all of the following reasons EXCEPT
A. it was filled with nutrients.    B. it was easy to plant.
C. it was easy to harvest.    D. the soil was good for potatoes.
17. The passage implies that
A. dependence on one crop was sensible.    B. the potato was not the only crop in Ireland.
C. the Irish were a happy people.    D. dependence on one crop was dangerous.
18. According to the passage, rural life in the years before the Great Famine can best be described as
A. declining in population.    B. harsh.
C. decreasing in tenant-farmers.    D. expanding in farm size.
19. Disease plagued the Irish during the famine because
A. the potato was diseased.    B. immigrants brought disease.
C. starving Irish carried disease from place to place.    D. living conditions were not sanitary.
20. All of the following were results of the famine EXCEPT that the Irish
A. emigrated to new lands.    B. began to raised livestock.
C. became angered at the British.    D. became independent from Great Britain.
Passage Two
Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867) was a teacher and writer known for his popularization of myths and legends. In this excerpt from Bulfinch's Mythology, he tells the story behind the Trojan War.
Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, but on one occasion she did a very foolish thing; she entered into competition with Juno and Venus for the prize of beauty. It happened thus: At the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis all the gods were invited with the exception of Eris, or Discord. Enraged at her exclusion, the goddess threw a golden apple among the guests, with the inscription, "For the fairest." Thereupon Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed the apple. Jupiter, not willing to decide in so delicate a matter, sent the goddesses to Mount Ida, where the beautiful shepherd Paris was tending his flocks, and to him was committed the decision. The goddesses accordingly appeared before him. Juno promised him power and riches, Minerva glory and renown in war, and Venus the fairest of women for his wife, each attempting to bias his decision in her own favor. Paris decided in favor of Venus and gave her the golden apple, thus making the two other goddesses his enemies. Under the protection of Venus, Paris sailed to Greece, and was hospitably received by Menelaus, king of Sparta. Now Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was the very woman whom Venus had destined for Paris, the fairest of her sex. She had been sought as a bride by numerous suitors, and before her decision was made known, they all, at the suggestion of Ulysses, one of their number, took an oath that they would defend her from all injury and avenge her cause if necessary. She chose Menelaus, and was living with him happily when Paris became their guest. Paris, aided by Venus, persuaded her to elope with him, and carried her to Troy, whence arose the famous Trojan war, the theme of the greatest poems of antiquity, those of Homer and Virgil.
Menelaus called upon his brother chieftains of Greece to fulfill their pledge, and join him in his efforts to recover his wife. They generally came forward, but Ulysses, who had married Penelope, and was very happy in his wife and child, had no disposition to embark in such a troublesome affair. He therefore hung back and Palamedes was sent to urge him. When Palamedes arrived at Ithaca, Ulysses pretended to be mad. He yoked an ass and an ox together to the plough and began to sow salt. Palamedes, to try him, placed the infant Telemachus before the plough, whereupon the father turned the plough aside, showing plainly that he was no madman, and after that could no longer refuse to fulfill his promise. Being now himself gained from the undertaking, he lent his aid to bring in other reluctant chief, especially Achilles. This hero was the son of that Thetis at whose marriage the apple of Discord had been thrown among the goddesses. Thetis was herself one of the immortals, a sea-nymph, and knowing that her son was fated to perish before Troy if he went on the expedition, she endeavored to prevent his going. She sent him away to the court of King Lycomedes, and induced him to conceal himself in the disguise of a maiden among the daughters of the king. Ulysses, hearing he was there, went disguised as a merchant to the palace and offered for sale female ornaments, among which he had placed some arms. While the king's daughters were engrossed with the other contents of the merchant's pack, Achilles handled the weapons and thereby betrayed himself to the keen eye of Ulysses, who found no great difficulty in persuading him to disregard his mother's prudent counsels and join his countrymen in the war.
21. Bulfinch describes Jupiter as unwilling to "decide in so delicate a matter," implying that
A. Jupiter is usually heavy-handed.    B. any decision is bound to offend someone.
C. Jupiter is overly sensitive.    D. the problems are so obscure that no one can judge them.
22. The underlined word "disposition" in the second paragraph is used to mean
A. inclination.    B. Nature
C. Integrity    D. Habitation
23. The sowing of salt is used by Bulfinch to show
A. Ulysses's attempt to be found insane.    B. the difficulty of cultivating in rocky soil
C. how the tears of the gods created the sea.    D. the god's punishment of those who disobey them.
24. Why does Ulysses display arms among the ornaments?
A. As a declaration of war    B. To mislead the daughters of the king
C. To test Achilles into revealing himself    D. Because he wants to start an alteration.
25. A reasonable title for this narrative might be
A. "Disputes and Deceit"    B. "The Apple of Discord Leads to War"
C. "Achilles and Ulysses"    D. "The Pettiness of the Gods"
Passage Three
This passage is adapted from William Dean Howells' The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). In this excerpt, the protagonist, a newly rich self-made business man, is about to be interviewed by a newspaper reporter.
When Bartley Hubbard went to interview Silas Lapham for the "Solid Men of Boston" series, which he undertook to finish up in The Events, after he replaced the originator of the project on that newspaper, Lapham received him in his private office by previous appointment.
"Walk right in!" he called out to the journalist, whom he caught sight of through the door of the counting room.
He did not rise from the desk at which he was writing, but he gave Bartley his left hand for welcome, and he rolled his large head in the direction of a vacant chair. "Sit down! I'll be with you in just half a minute."
"Take your time," said Bartley, with the ease he instantly felt. "I'm in no hurry." He took a note-book from his pocket, laid it on his knee, and began to sharpen a pencil.
"There!" Lapham pounded with his great hairy fist on the envelope he had been addressing. "William!" he called out, and he handed the letter to a boy who came to get it. "I want that to go right away. Well, sir," he continued, wheeling round in his leather-cushioned swivel chair, and facing Bartley, seated so near that their knees almost touched, "so you want my life, death, and Christian sufferings, do you, young man?"
"That's what I'm after," said Bartley. "Your money or your life."
"I guess you wouldn't want my life without the money," said Lapham, as if he were willing to prolong these moments of preparation.
"Take 'em both," Bartley suggested. "Don't want your money without your life, if you come to that. But you're just one million times more interesting to the public than if you hadn't a dollar; and you know that as well as I do, Mr. Lapham. There's no use beating around the bush."
"No," said Lapham, somewhat absently. He put out his huge foot and pushed the ground-glass door shut between his little den and the book-keepers, in their larger den outside.
"In personal appearance," wrote Bartley in the sketch for which he now studied his subject, while he waited patiently for him to continue, "Silas Lapham is a fine type of the successful American. He has a square, bold chin, only partially concealed by the short reddish-grey beard, growing to the edges of his firmly closing lips. His nose is short and straight; his forehead good, but broad rather than high; his eyes blue, and with a light in them that is kindly or sharp according to his mood. He is of medium height, and fills an average arm-chair with a solid bulk, which on the day of our interview was unpretentiously clad in a business suit of blue serge. His head droops somewhat from a short neck, which does not trouble itself to rise far from a pair of massive shoulders."
"I don't know as I know just where you want me to begin," said Lapham.
"Might begin with your birth; that's where most of us begin," replied Bartley.
A gleam of humorous appreciation shot into Lapham's blue eyes.
"I didn't know whether you wanted me to go quite so far back as that," he said. "But there's no disgrace in having been born, and I was born in the State of Vermont, pretty well up under the Canada line—so well up, in fact I came very near being an adoptive citizen; for I was bound to be an American of some sort, from the word Go! That was about—well, let me see!—pretty near sixty years ago; this is '75, and that was '20. Well, say I'm fifty-five years old; and I've lived 'em, too; not an hour of waste time about me, anywhere! I was born on a farm, and—"
"Worked in the fields summers and went to school winters: regulation thing?" Bartley cut in.
"Regulation thing," said Lapham, accepting this irreverent version of his history somewhat dryly.
"Parents poor, of course," suggested the journalist. "Any barefoot business? Early deprivation of any kind, that would encourage the youthful reader to go and do likewise? Orphan myself, you know," said Bartley, with a smile of cynical good-comradery.
Lapham looked at him silently, and then said with quiet self-respect, "I guess if you see these things as a joke, my life won't interest you."
"Oh yes, it will," returned Bartley, unabashed. "You'll see; it'll come out all right." And in fact it did so, in the interview which Bartley printed.
"Mr. Lapham," he wrote, "passed rapidly over the story of his early life, its poverty and its hardships, sweetened, however, by the recollections of a devoted mother, and a father who, if somewhat her inferior in education, was no less ambitious for the advancement of his children. They were quiet, unpretentious people, religious, after the fashion of that time, and of sterling morality, and they taught their children the simple virtues of the Old Testament and Poor Richard's Almanac."
Bartley could not deny himself this gibe; but he trusted to Lapham's unliterary habit of mind for his security in making it, and most other people would consider it sincere reporter's rhetoric.
26. The narrator includes the fact that Lapham met Bartley "in his private office by previous appointment" to suggest that Lapham:
A. managed to squeeze Barley into a busy schedule of appointments.    B. has hired an office staff to attend to the details of the business.
C. wishes to enhance his image and status.    D. knows that Bartley plans to ask him personal questions.
27. Lapham's reaction to Bartley's arrival in his office can best be described as:
A. antagonistic; he takes an instant dislike to Bartley.    B. casual; he wants to appear an easygoing fellow and laid back.
C. cordial; he treats Bartley like a welcome guest.    D. indifferent; he has more pressing matters to attend to.
28. Bartley informs Lapham that he is an orphan himself for all the following reasons EXCEPT:
A. to insinuate that Lapham's deprivations were not unique.    B. to win Lapham's sympathy.
C. to establish rapport with Lapham.    D. to lighten up the conversation.
29. According to Bartley's sketch of Lapham, Silas credits his parents with:
A. bestowing on him an honest and open personality.    B. motivating him to succeed in life.
C. exposing him to the Old Testament and Poor Richard's Almanac.    D. toughening him up for a career as a businessman.
30. Throughout the passage, Bartley's attitude toward Lapham can best be described as one of:
A. cynicism.    B. resentment.
C. contempt.    D. ingratitude.
Part III. Cloze (20%, 1 point each)
Directions: Please read the following passage and decide which word or phrase from the four marked as A, B, C and D can best fit in the blanks in the passage. Mark the letter of your choice on your answer sheet.
First, let's consider what a nuclear reactor is: a __31__, glowing red-hot coal. That's a __32__ way of describing it, anyway. Nuclear reactors, just like fossil fuel-burning power plants, make electricity by __33__ water so it turns into steam and __34__ a turbine, which powers a generator.
To use another __35__, the nuclear fission which __36__ this heat is a bit like the chaos you'd get if you toppled a giant pyramid of __37__ tomatoes. First, one can would fall, and then it would bounce off several more cans, __38__ those over, and then they'd all bounce downhill, creating an ever-expanding chain reaction. And each time a can hit another can, it would produce a spark of heat.
In Japan, this chain reaction stopped at the time of the earthquake, when the reactors shut down as a safety __39__. But nuclear fission produces such __40__ amounts of heat that it takes a long time for the reactor core to cool. Plus, the fissile __41__ keeps giving off what's called "decay heat" as it continues to __42__ radiation. Right after shutdown, a nuclear reactor is still producing large amounts of heat, so you've got a pretty big job keeping the whole thing cool.
Normally that's done by circulating water around the core. But in Japan, the earthquake knocked out all means of moving this __43__. Once that happens, the water can turn to steam, laced with hydrogen and other explosive elements. This __44__ pressure in the containment building. That's what caused the building explosions we've seen so far.
Japanese nuclear officials are __45__ pumping sea water into the reactor buildings to try and __46__ things off. But the pressure from the steam and __47__ heat makes that much more difficult to do than it sounds. It appears that nuclear fuel rods, which contain the fissile stuff, have been __48__ to air for some unknown period of time in several of the reactors. At that point, without cooling water surrounding them, the rods (which are zirconium, in case you were wondering) start to blister and buckle.
As they __49__, the rods release radioactive fuel byproducts that normally they'd be able to contain. The open spaces between them – through which water normally would be able to flow – get blocked up, making it even harder for them to __50__ heat. They melt. Hence the term – "meltdown."
31. A. small    B. easy    C. difficult    D. giant
32. A. simplistic    B. human    C. philosophical    D. religious
33. A. putting up    B. staying up    C. making up    D. heating up
34. A. breaks    B. takes    C. drives    D. deteriorates
35. A. mythology    B. methodology    C. analogy    D. sociology
36. A. creates    B. steals    C. recruits    D. rebuilds
37. A. broken    B. canned    C. prepared    D. used
38. A. taking    B. knowing    C. kicking    D. knocking
39. A. response    B. reduction    C. reincarnation    D. restate
40. A. trivial    B. enormous    C. ridiculous    D. enabling
41. A. mechanic    B. material    C. metaphysic    D. metonymy
42. A. swallow    B. absorb    C. emit    D. infuse
43. A. cure    B. coexistence    C. coolant    D. coauthor
44. A. enables    B. increases    C. intakes    D. installs
45. A. despondently    B. discouragingly    C. disparagingly    D. desperately
46. A. burn    B. cool    C. take    D. set
47. A. continuing    B. continued    C. being continuing    D. being continued
48. A. exposed    B. exponent    C. exodus    D. excluded
49. A. upgrade    B. decrease    C. deform    D. upload
50. A. produce    B. disclose    C. disown    D. dissipate
Part IV. Proofreading and Error Correction (10%, 1 point each)
Directions: Please correct the errors in the following passage. The passage contains ten errors, one in each indicated line. In each case, only one word is involved. Please write your answers on your answer sheet.
Corrections should be done as the following example:
When ∧ art museum wants new exhibit, it never buys things in finished form and hangs them on the wall. When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must often build it.
1. When ∧ art 加上 an    2. never buys things 去掉 never    3. wants an exhibition 改成 exhibit
These readings are indebted to the deconstructive methods of reading that flourishing in Romantic studies in the 1970s and 1980s. The status of deconstruction as mode of literary criticism have ebbed in recent years; deconstructive criticism has, on one side, been denounced for its supposed deviation from a properly Derridean orthodoxy, and, from another, marginalized by the simplistic story of an institution history, in which deconstruction
reigned for a brief period in literary studies but has now been superseded by the New Historicism. In the field of Romanticism, the latter narrative has been given an unfortunate impetus by Jerome McGann's critique deconstruction as the culmination of a "text-only" criticism that should be superseded by a properly historical criticism. McGann's antideconstructive polemics have obscured the degree which deconstruction helped to inaugurate the present age of interdisciplinarity in literature departments in North America. Once Derrida began to argue that the prestige of philosophy as a master discipline depending upon a sleight of hand, through which philosophical texts concealed their essentially tropic natures, literary critics quickly realized that the same mode of deconstructive reading could be being applied to any discipline -- such as history or autobiography -- that claimed to offer a transparent referentiality.
Literary criticism is itself one of the disciplines in which legitimacy resting heavily on its claims to a referential relation between its own words and the primary texts upon which it comments; thus the ways which various critical paradigms have inscribed the cultural significance of these highly canonized poems tell a good deal about our recent critical history. I have taken the dominant critical paradigms of the present to be the New Criticism, whose continued viability in the American academy has no stronger proof than Helen Vendler's book on Keats's odes. The point of the discussion of the critical histories of these poems and the theoretical contexts of those histories is not to score points against individual critics, but to illustrate, as clearly and as fundamentally as possible, why these poems have played such a significant role in our modern cultural history, and how they continue to be more than we thought we had bargained for.
（标注题号：51—60 分布于上述段落各行，原题以右侧横线标注）
Part V. Translation (25%)
Section A (15%). Directions: Please translate the following passage into Chinese and write your answer on your answer sheet.
With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike. In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. The oldest Egyptian or Hindu philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision. No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. That time which we really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present, nor future.
Section B (10%). Directions: Please translate the following passage into English and write your answer on your answer sheet.
是起点也是终点，是终点也是起点；是欢聚也是离散，是出发也是归宿。从来没有一个地方，能汇集如许人的流动量，从来没有一个地方，能拥有如许悲欢离合。从清晨到白昼，从黄昏到晚上，从黑夜到黎明，数不清的脚印，带着来自各地的泥土。重重叠叠，密密麻麻踩上去；有红色的土来自山间，有褐色的土来自田野，有黑色的土来自城市，有白色的土来自海滨。聚拢又散失，堆积又泻落，没有一粒种子能在土里长根，如同没有一双脚步会在这里驻留；缘因——这只是流动的浮土，这仅是过往的月台。