2012年考研英语（一）真题试卷

Write an essay of 160—200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should

1) describe the drawing briefly.

2) explain its intended meaning, and

3) give you comments.

You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)

Some internationals students are coming to your university. Write them an email in the name of the Students' Union to

1) extend your welcome, and

2) provide some suggestions for their campus life here.

You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)

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Part C

Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. (10 points)

Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise, in some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton's laws of motion and Darwinian evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory frame. work.

  (46)In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of everything—a single generative equation for all we see.It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail, nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal.

  This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too. (47)Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification, for if all humans share common origins, it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings.Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world's languages, music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. (48)To filter out what is unique from what is shared might enable us to understand how complex cultural behavior. arose and what guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.

  That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the light of two previous attempts to find universality in language.

The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that humans are born with an innate language—acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.

  (49)The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality, identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many language which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints.

  Gray and his colleagues have put them to the test by examining four family trees that between them represent more than 2,000 languages. (50)Chomsky's grammar should show patterns of language change that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it, whereas Greenbergian universality predicts strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations.Neither of these patterns is borne out by the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages are lire age-specific and not governed by universals.

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Part B

Think of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aeroplane window and realize that you are flying, higher than a bird. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or your cellphone in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.

  The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. (41)______.

  The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production, means of distribution, site of reception, and place of praise and critique. The computer s the 21st century's culture machine.

  But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. (42) ______.I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.

  All animals download, but only a few upload. Beavers build dams and birds make nests. Yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans arc unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods- paintings, sculpture and architecture—and superfluous experiences-—music, literature, religion and philosophy. (43) ______

  For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people arc still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. (44)______.

  Television is a one-way tap flowing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after he has turned it on. (45)______.

  What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of "stickiness" creations and experiences to which others adhere.

[A] Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.

[B] Applications like tumblr. com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others.

[C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.

[D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading—between passive consumption and active creation -whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine.

[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players.

[F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world's media culture has been defined by a single medium television- -and television is defined by downloading.

[G] The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.

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The example of the unions in Wisconsin shows that unions______.

John Donahue's attitude towards the public-sector system is one of______,

Which of the following is true of Paragraph 2?

It can be learned from Paragraph 4 that the income in the state sector is______.

It can be learned from the first paragraph that______.

Which of the following would be the best title of the test?

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi would most likely agree that______.

Paragraph 3 shows that a discovery claim becomes credible after it______.

It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that credibility process requires______

It can be inferred from the last paragraph that______.

According to the first paragraph, the process of discovery is characterized by its______.

According to Paragraph 4, Entergy seems to have problems with its______.

By entering into the 2002 agreement, Entergy intended to______.

In the author's view, the Vermont case will test______.

The author suggests in the last paragraph that the effect of peer pressure is______.

The phrase "reneging on" (Line 2, Para. 1) is closest in meaning to______.

In the author's view, Rosenberg's book fails to______.

Paragraph 5 shows that our imitation of behaviors______.

Rosenberg holds that public advocates should______.

Come on—Everybody's doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half forcing, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good- -drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new book Join the Club , Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the word.

  Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, offers a host of example of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as LoveLife recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers.

  The idea seems promising, and Rosenberg is a perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness of many public-health campaigns is spot-on: they fail to mobilize peer pressure for healthy habits, and they demonstrate a seriously flawed understanding of psychology. "Dare to be different, please don't smoke!" pleads one billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among teenagers—teenagers, who desire nothing more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure.

  But on the general effectiveness of the social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive. Join the Club is filled with too much irrelevant detail and not enough exploration of the social and biological factors that make peer pressure so powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure as it's presented here is that it doesn't work very well for very long. Rage Against the Haze failed once state funding was cut. Evidence that the LoveLife program produces lasting changes is limited and mixed.

  There's no doubt that our peer groups exert enormous influence on our behavior. An emerging body of re-search shows that positive health habits—as well as negative ones—spread through networks of friends via social communication. This is a subtle form. of peer pressure: we unconsciously imitate the behavior. we see every day.

  Far less certain, however, is how successfully experts and bureaucrats can select our peer groups and steer their activities in virtuous directions. It's like the teacher who breaks up the troublemakers in the back row by pairing them with better-behaved classmates. The tactic never really works. And that's the problem with a social cure engineered from the outside: in the real world, as in school, we insist on choosing our own friends.

According to the first paragraph, peer pressure often emerges as______.

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