黑龙江大学考博英语真题,考博英语试题

黑龙江大学2011年博士研究生入学考试英语试题

Part I Reading Comprehension (50 points)
Directions: There are 5 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
On the last shopping day before Christmas, stores across the United States were busy but not jam-packed as shoppers scrambled for last-minute gifts, even though some refused to admit it. At Boston’s Copley Mall, a small crowd gathered outside the main entrance of luxury department store Neiman Marcus, but no one waiting for the store to open would admit to being a last-minute shopper. "I’m really here to use a gift certificate and get something for myself and maybe someone else with what’s left over," said Matt Doran, who lives in Boston and had been waiting since 8:30 a.m. for the store’s 10 a.m. opening. Ilya Polykoff, who moved to Boston from Russia, said he was waiting "because I had the day off and I wanted to get some perfume." But he insisted that he was really shopping early because for him Christmas comes in January. The Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated on Jan. 7.
"There are lots of men out there today," said Karen McDonald, a spokeswoman for mall operator Taubman Centers, after returning from the Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, Michigan. There is panic out there but people seem to be in good spirits, she said, adding that most shopping traffic peaked around midday. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, December 24 was the sixth busiest holiday shopping day in 1997, while 44 percent of holiday sales were recorded in the December 15 to December 24 period. Ed Nally, manager of the Swatch Store known mostly for its brightly colored plastic watches, described the atmosphere as festive rather than crazed. He did say, however, that Dec. 21 was the turning point date, after which shoppers started. "The closer to Christmas, the crazier they get," Nally said. "They become more agitated, less patient." He said red-hot items this year were phones, beepers and the new digital swatch watch that costs $70 and came onto the market a week before Christmas.
1. The best title for this passage is ______.
[A] Last-Minute Christmas Shoppers Fill U.S. Stores
[B] Digital Watches Are the Red hot Items This Year
[C] The Excuse of the Last-Minute Shoppers
[D] Christmas, the Best Shopping Season
2. From the passage we can infer that people would not admit to be a last-minute shopper because ______.
[A] they wanted to use a gift certificate
[B] Christmas would be celebrated on Jan. 7th
[C] they did not want gifts recipients to know that they bought them gifts on the last day
[D] they bought gifts during the shopping season lasting from December 15th to December 24th
3. Which of the following statement is true?
[A] Most customers came to the mall early in the morning
[B] Shop assistants were most busy at noon
[C] There were more shoppers in the mall from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
[D] Less people went shopping around midday
4. Which of the following statement is NOT true?
[A] More people went shopping on Dec. 20th than on Dec. 22nd according to Ed Nally
[B] On Dec. 24th, people were crowded outside Boston’s Copley Mall, but they were happy
[C] Dec. 24th was the sixth busiest holiday shopping day in 1997
[D] One can buy brightly colored plastic watches in Swatch Store
5. The word "festive" in paragraph 2 cannot be understood as ______.
[A] cheery
[B] fetish
[C] joyous
[D] merry
Passage Two
A few years ago, Ann and Walter Taylor thought it might be time to move out of their New York City apartment to the suburbs. They had one young son and another child on the way. But after months of looking, they became discouraged and decided to buy an old townhouse right in the middle of Brooklyn, which is a part of New York City. To their delight, they discovered that they weren’t the only young couple to have made such a decision. In fact, the entire area in Brooklyn had been settled by young families. And as a result, the neighborhood, which had been declining for years, was now being restored.
Brooklyn isn’t the only city in the United States to experience this kind of renewal. So are Philadelphia and St. Louis. And Charleston, South Carolina, has so successfully rebuilt its old central area that it now ranks as one of America’s most charming cities. The restoration of the old port city of Savannah, Georgia, is also living proof that downtown areas do not need to die. But encouraging as these developments may be, they are among the few bright spots in a mass of difficulties that today’s cities face. Indeed, their woes are so many that it is fair to ask whether or not the inner city, the core of most urban areas will manage to survive at all.
In the 1940s, urban Americans began a mass move to the suburbs in search of fresh air, elbowroom, and privacy. Suburbs began to sprawl out across the countryside. Since most of those making the move were middle-class, they took with them the tax money the cities needed to maintain the neighborhoods in which they had lived. The people left in the cities were often those who were too old or too poor to move. Thus, many cities began to fall into disrepair. Crime began to soar, and public transportation was neglected. (In the past sixty years San Francisco is the only city in the United States to have completed a new mass transit system.) Meanwhile, housing construction costs continued to rise higher and higher. Middle-class housing was allowed to decay, and little new housing was constructed.
Eventually, many downtown areas existed for business only. During the day they would be filled with people working in offices, and at night they would be deserted. Given these circumstances, some business executives began asking, "Why bother with going downtown at all? Why not move the offices to the suburbs so that we can live and work in the same area?" Gradually, some of the larger companies began moving out of the cities, with the result that urban centers declined even further and the suburbs expanded still more. This movement of businesses to the suburbs is not confined to the United States. Businesses have also been moving to the suburbs in Stockholm, Sweden, in Bonn, Germany, and in Brussels, Belgium, as well.
But it may well be that this movement to the suburbs has reached its peak. Some people may be tired of spending long hours commuting, and they may have begun to miss the advantages of culture and companionship provided by city life. Perhaps the decision made by the Taylors is a sign that people will return to the cities and begin to restore them. It begins to look as if suburban sprawl may not have been the answer to man’s need to create an ideal environment in which to live and work.
6. The author of the passage suggests that ______.
[A] moving to suburbs is not the answer to an ideal environment
[B] cities are likely to be replaced by the suburbs
[C] downtown areas are too crowded to live
[D] American people move lot in history
7. The word "elbowroom" in Paragraph 3 most probably means ______.
[A] private space
[B] room to move freely
[C] peaceful places
[D] confined room
8. Which of the following statements is true?
[A] There are just old and poor people left in the cities
[B] The movement to the suburbs begins to decline
[C] Downtown areas must die in the future
[D] Suburbs are sure to replace cities
9. Why have businesses been moving to suburbs?
[A] Because the environment is pleasant in the suburbs
[B] Because the suburbs have developed rapidly
[C] Because rich people have moved to suburbs
[D] Because many people work in cities and live in suburbs
10. Many cities began to fall into disrepair in the 1940s because ______.
[A] housing construction costs continued to rise
[B] housing was allowed to decay
[C] many people moved out of the cities
[D] only old and poor people were left in the cities
Passage Three
The radical transformation of the Soviet society had a profound impact on women’s lives. Marxists had traditionally believed that both capitalism and the middle-class husbands exploited women. The Russian Revolution of 1917 immediately proclaimed complete equality of rights for women. In the 1920s divorce and abortion were made easily available, and women were urged to work outside the home and liberate themselves sexually. After Stalin came to power, social and familial liberation was played down, and the most lasting changes for women involved work and education.
These changes were truly revolutionary. Young women were constantly told that they had to be equal to men, that they could and should do everything men could do. Peasant women in Russia had long experienced the equality of backbreaking physical labor in the countryside, and they continued to enjoy that equality on collective farms. With the advent of the five-year-plans, millions of women also began to toil in factories and in heavy construction, building dams, roads and steel mills in summer heat and winter frost. Most of the opportunities open to men through education were also open to women. Determined women pursued their studies and entered the ranks of the better-paid specialists in industry and science. Medicine practically became a woman’s profession. By 1950, 75 percent of doctors in the Soviet Union were women.
Thus Stalinist society gave woman great opportunities but demanded great sacrifices as well. The vast majority of women simply had to work outside the home. Wages were so low that it was almost impossible for a family or couple to live only on the husband’s earnings. Moreover, the full-time working woman had a heavy burden of household tasks in her off hours, for most Soviet men in the 1930s still considered the home and the children the woman’s responsibility. Men continued to monopolize the best jobs. Finally, rapid change and economic hardship led to many broken families, creating further physical, emotional, and mental strains for women. In any event, the often-neglected human resource of women was mobilized in Stalinist society.
11. The main idea of this passage is that women in Stalinist society ______.
[A] had economic opportunities that had never been available before
[B] had difficulty balancing their work and family responsibilities
[C] had new opportunities but also many hardships
[D] moved quickly into the highest levels of government
12. In the last paragraph, "monopolize" probably means ______.
[A] hold
[B] earn
[C] leave
[D] pay
13. The author’s main purpose in writing this passage is to ______.
[A] compare different systems of government
[B] tell stories about women in Soviet Union
[C] amuse the reader
[D] provide information
14. The author’s tone in this passage can best be described as ______.
[A] disapproving
[B] emotional
[C] objective
[D] sympathetic
15. We can conclude that the economic and social status of women in Stalinist society ______.
[A] had been improved
[B] was worse than before
[C] had not changed much
[D] was better than that in capitalistic countries
Passage Four
The General Electric Company, often criticized for the complexity of its structure and the resulting opacity of its numbers, said yesterday that it would break GE Capital, by far its largest business, into four businesses. The reorganization effectively eliminates the job of Denis J. Nayden, 48, the chairman of GE Capital. Each of the new units will have its own chief, who will report directly to Jeffrey R. Immelt, GE’s chairman. "The reason for doing this is simple. I want more direct contact with the financial services teams," Mr. Immelt said.
The new businesses are GE Commercial Finance, GE Insurance, GE Consumer Finance and GE Equipment Management. Some support functions within GE Capital, including risk management and treasury, will now report to Dennis Dammerman, 57, a GE vice chairman who preceded Mr. Nayden as GE Capital’s chief. Mr. Nayden will remain at GE as an adviser for now, but is expected to leave shortly to start a financial services firm.
Mr. Dammerman insisted that the reorganization had nothing to do with the increasing clamor from investors, regulators and the news media for greater transparency in accounting and for chief executives to take more responsibility for businesses: Analysts seem to believe him. "This is just what it appears to be, a managerial reorganization which gives leaders more direct access to the office of the chairman," said Martin A. Sankey, a GE analyst.
The executives leading the new units will also sit on GE’s corporate executive council, a committee made up of the company’s top 25 executives, which meets periodically and discusses various strategic and management issues.
GE Capital, the company’s largest unit, provided $55 billion of GE’s $124 billion in revenue last year and $5.6 billion of its $19.7 billion in pretax profits. The rest of GE had been divided into 11 other businesses, many of them — lighting and appliances are examples — much smaller than the new GE Capital units, yet each run by someone who reports directly to the chairman. Mr. Dammerman said that Mr. Immelt began talking about breaking GE Capital into more manageable pieces as soon as he took over as chief executive last September. "Jeff didn’t like the extra layer between him and the GE Capital businesses."
GE has tried to make GE Capital less mysterious to the outside world. Although GE Capital was officially one unit, it had begun to report quarterly results in live product-related segments — a number that will be reduced to four with the new organization. And analysts say GE Capital’s management has been more accessible than it was in past years, and that Mr. Immelt and other GE corporate executives have been willing to discuss GE Capital in more depth.
16. After the reorganization, GE will have altogether ______.
[A] six businesses
[B] sixteen businesses
[C] four businesses
[D] fifteen businesses
17. Which of the following statements is NOT true of Dennis Dammerman?
[A] He is now a GE’s vice chairman
[B] He is expected to leave GE to start a new financial services firm
[C] He was once the chairman of GE Capital
[D] He regards the reorganization of GE as an initiative of its own
18. All the following statements are False of Denis Nayden EXCEPT that ______.
[A] the reorganization makes him lose his position as a chairman
[B] he will remain for some time at GE as an analyst
[C] he is currently GE’s chairman
[D] he is expected to start a new GE financial firm in the near future
19. The reorganization will enable GE’s chief executive to ______.
[A] quiet down the unrest in the world
[B] work in a more friendly business environment
[C] have more direct contact with GE’s financial services teams
[D] appear less mysterious to the outside world
20. The General Electric Capital ______.
[A] is divided into five product-related segments now
[B] provided more than 1/3 of GE’s revenue last year
[C] is going to be broken into more businesses
[D] now has smaller units than all other businesses in GE
Passage Five
At some time in your life, you may have a strong desire to do something strange or terrible. However, chances are that you don’t act on your impulse, but let it pass instead. You know that to commit the action is wrong in some way and that other people will not accept your behavior.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the phenomenon of taboo behavior is how it can change over the years within the same society, how certain behavior and attitude once considered taboo can become perfectly acceptable and natural at another point in time. Topics such as death, for example, were once considered so upsetting and unpleasant that it was a taboo to even talk about them. Now with the publication of important books such as On Death and Dying and Learning to Say Goodbye, people have become more aware of the importance of expressing feelings about death and, as a result, are more willing to talk about this taboo subject.
One of the newest taboos in American society is the topic of fat. Unlike many other taboos, fat is a topic that Americans talk about constantly. It’s not taboo to talk about fat; it’s taboo to be fat. The "in" look is thin, not fat. In the work world, most companies prefer youthful-looking, trim executives to sell their image as well as their products to the public. The thin look is associated with youth, vigor, and success. The fat person, on the other hand, is thought of as lazy and lacking in energy, self-discipline, and self-respect. In an image-conscious society like the U.S., thin is "in", fat is "out".
It’s not surprising, then, that millions of Americans have been obsessed with staying slim and "in shape". The pursuit of a youthful physical appearance is not, however, the sole reason for Americans’ fascination with diet and exercise. Recent research has shown the critical importance of diet and exercise for personal health. As in most technologically developed nations, the life style of North Americans has changed dramatically during the course of the last century. Modern machines do all the physical labor that people were once forced to do by hand. Cars and buses transport us quickly from point to point. As a result of inactivity and disuse, people’s bodies can easily become weak and vulnerable to disease. In an effort to avoid such a fate, millions of Americans are spending more of their time exercising.
21. From the passage we can infer taboo is ______.
[A] a strong desire to do something strange or terrible
[B] a crime committed on impulse
[C] behavior considered unacceptable in society’s eyes
[D] an unfavorable impression left on other people
22. Based on the ideas presented in the passage we can conclude "being fat" ______ in American society.
[A] will always remain a taboo
[B] is not considered as a taboo by most people
[C] has long been a taboo
[D] may no longer be a taboo some day
23. The topic of fat is ______ many other taboo subjects.
[A] the same as
[B] different from
[C] more popular than
[D] less often talked about than
24. What does "thin is in, and fat is out" mean?
[A] Thin is "inside", and fat is "outside"
[B] Thin is "diligent", and fat is "lazy"
[C] Thin is "youthful", and fat is "spiritless"
[D] Thin is "fashionable", and fat is "unfashionable"
25. Apart from this new understanding of the correlation between health and exercise, the main reason the passage gives for why so many Americans are exercising regularly is ______.
[A] their changed life style
[B] their eagerness to stay thin and youthful
[C] their appreciation of the importance of exercise
[D] the encouragement they have received from their companies
Part II Translate the following into Chinese (30 points)
Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behaviors. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as nature vs. nurture.
Those who support the nature side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological and genetic factors. That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme, this theory maintains that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts.
Part III Writing (20 points)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed to write a composition on the topic: Precious Water. You should write at least 160-180 words.