2013年考研《英语》考前预测试卷(二)

Part B

52. Directions:

Write an essay based on the following table on the production of TV sets in a factory.

You should write about 160 -200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET II. (20 points)

Part A

51. Directions:

Your are asked to write a recommendation for a student. Please give your suggestions and express your opinions clearly a bout 100 words on ANSWER SHEET II. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. (10 points)

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Part C

Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET II. ( 10 points)

Do animals have rights.'? This is how the question is usually put. It sounds like a useful, ground clearing way to start. 46)Actually, it isn't, because it assumes that there is an agreed account of human rights, which is something the world does not have.

On one view of rights, to be sure, it necessarily follows that animals have none. 47)Some philosophers argue that rights exist only within a social contract, as part of an exchange of duties and entitlements. Therefore, animals cannot have rights. The idea of punishing a tiger that kills somebody is absurd, for exactly the same reason, so is the idea that tigers have rights. However, this is only one account, and by no means an uncontested one. It denies rights not only to animals but also to some people—4or instance to infants, the mentally incapable and future generations.

In addition, it is unclear what force a contract can have for people who never consented to it, how do you reply to somebody who says "I don' t like this contract" ?

The point is this: without agreement on the rights of people, arguing about the rights of animals is fruitless. 48 )It leads the discussion to extremes at the outset: it invites you to think that animals should be treated either with the consider- ation humans extend to other humans, or with no consideration at all. This is a false choice. Better to start with another, more fundamental, question: is the way we treat animals a moral issue at all?

Many deny it. 49)Arguing from the view that humans are different from animals in every relevant respect, extremists of this kind think that animals lie outside the area of moral choice.

Any regard for the suffering of animals is seen as a mistake—a sentimental displacement of feeling that should properly be directed to other humans.

This view which holds that torturing a monkey is morally equivalent to chopping wood, may seem bravely "logical". In fact it is simply shallow: the confused center is right to reject it. The most elementary form. of moral reasoning—the ethical equivalent of learning to crawl—is to weigh others' interests against one's own. This in turn requires sympathy and imagination: without there is no capacity for moral thought. To see an animal in pain is enough, for most, to engage sympathy. 50)When that happens, it is not a mistake: it is mankind' s instinct for moral reasoning in action, an instinct that should be encouraged rather than laughed at.

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40. What is the tone of this passage?

39. We may safely conclude that ______.

38. According to the anti -railway group, all the followings are true but ______.

37. According to those who welcomed the railway, the railway itself should include all the following except that ______.

34. This passage implies that ______.

Text 4

Those who welcomed the railway saw it as more than a rapid and comfortable means of passing. They actually saw it as a factor in world peace. They did not foresee that the railway would be just one more means for the rapid movement of aggressive armies. None of them foresaw that the more we are together—the more chances there are of war. Any boy or girl who is one of a large family knows that.

Whenever any new invention is put forward, those for it and those against it can always find medical men to approve or condemn. The anti-railway group produced doctors who said that tunnels would be most dangerous to public health: they would produce colds, catarrhs(黏膜炎) and consumptions. The deafening noise and the glare of the engine fire, would have a bad effect on the nerves. Further, being moved through the air at a high speed would do grave injury to delicate lungs. In those with high blood pressure, the movement of the train might produce apoplexy. The sudden plunging of a train into the darkness of a tannel, and the equally sudden rush into full daylight, would cause great damage to eyesight. But the pro-railway group was of course able to produce equally famous medical men to say just the opposite. They said that the speed and swing of the train would equalize the circulation, promote digestion, tranquilize the nerves, and ensure good sleep.

The actual rolling-stock was anything but comfortable. If it was a test of endurance to sit for four hours outside a coach in rain, or inside in dirty air, the railway offered little more in the way of comfort. Certainly the first-class carriages had cushioned seats; but the second - class had only narrow bare boards, while the third - class had nothing at all; no seats and no roof; they were just open trucks. So that third - class passengers gained nothing from the few mode except speed. In the matter of comfort, indeed they lost; they did, on the coaches, have a seat, but now they had to stand all the way, which gave opportunities to the comic press. This kind of thing: "A man was seen yesterday buying a third - class ticket for the new London and Birmingham Railway. The state of his mind is being enquired into".

35. As used in the fifth sentence of the fourth paragraph, the word "essentially" means ______.

32. The New Madrid fault is______.

33. We may conclude from the passage that ______.

29. This passage implies that ______.

Text 3

Everyone has heard of the San Andreas fault, which constantly threatens California and the West Coast with earth- quakes. But how many people know about the equally serious New Madrid fault in Missouri.'?

Between December of 1811 and February of 1812, three major earthquakes occurred, all centered around the town of New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Property damage was severe.

Buildings in the area were almost dest oyed. Whole forests fell at once, and huge cracks opened in the ground, allowing smell of sulfur to filter upward.

The Mississippi River itself completely changed character, developing sudden rapids and whirlpools. Several times it changed its course, and once, according to some observers, it actually appeared to run backwards. Few people were killed in the New Madrid earthquakes, probably simply because few people lived in the area in 1811; but the severity of the earth- quakes are shown by the fact that the shock waves rang bells in church towers in Charleston, South Carolina, on the coast. Buildings shook in New York City, and clocks were stopped in Washington D.C. Scientists now know that America's two major faults are essentially different. The San Andreas is a horizontal boundary between two major land masses that are slowly moving in opposite directions. California earthquakes result when the movement of these two masses suddenly lurches forward.

The New Madrid fault, on the other hand, is a vertical fault; at some point, possibly hundreds of millions of years ago, rock was pushed up toward the surface, probably by volcanoes under the surface. Suddenly, the volcanoes cooled and the rock collapsed, leaving huge cracks. Even now', the rock continues to settle downwards, and sudden sinking motions trigger earthquakes in the region. The fault itself, a large crack in this layer of rock, with dozens of other cracks that split off from it, extends from northeast Arkansas through Missouri and into southern Illinois.

Scientists who have studied the New Madrid fault say there have been numerous smaller quakes in the area since 1811; these smaller quakes indicate that larger ones are probably coming, but rite scientists say they have no method of predicting when a large earthquake will occur.

31. This passage is mainly about ______.

30. As used in the third sentence of the second paragraph, the word "utter" means ______.

28. We can infer from the passage that______.

27. According to the passage, "special cases" refers to cases where ______.

Text 2

You' re busy filling out the application form. for a position you really need; let' s assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree.

Isn't it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form. that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University? More and more people are turning to utter deception like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well - known university. Registrars at most well - known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week.

Personnel officers do check up on degrees listed on application forms, then, if it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them "impostors"; another refers to them as "special cases" one well -known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by "no such people."

To avoid outright lies, some job -seekers claim that they "attended" or "were associated with" a college or university. After carefully checking, a personnel officer may discover that "attending" means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that "being associated with" a college means that the job seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century—that' s when they began keeping records, anyhow.

If you don' t want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony diploma. One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from "Smoot State University." The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the "University of Purdue." As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.

26. The main idea of this passage is that ______.

25. As used in the second sentence of the third paragraph, the word "unique" means ______.

24. The passage suggests that______.

22. Mac and Dick managed all of the following businesses except ______.

23. We may infer from this passage that ______.

20.

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below em text by choosing A,B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET I . ( 40 points)

Text 1

In 1939 two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernadino, California. They care fully chose a busy comer for their location. They had run their own business for years, first a theater, then a barbecue(烤肉 )restaurant, then another drive -in. But in their new operation, they offered a new, shortened menu: French fries, hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection they added one new concept: quick service, no waiters or waitresses, and no tips.

Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents. Cheese was another four cents. Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity, for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food, and they insisted on their cooks' sticking to their routine. Their new drive -in became incredibly popular, particularly for lunch. People drove up by the hundreds during the busy noontime. The serf - service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened. They were content with this modest success until they met Ray Kroc.

Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954, when he was selling milkshake -mixing machines. He quickly saw the unique appeal of the brothers fast food restaurants and bought the right to franchise (特许经营other copies of their restaurants. The agreement struck included the right to duplicate the menu. The equipment, even their red and white buildings with the golden arches.

Today McDonald' s is really a household name. Its names for its sandwiches have come to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray Kroc watched people rush up to order fifteen - cent hamburgers. In 1976, McDonald' s had over $1 billion in total sales. Its first twenty - two years is one of the most incredible success stories in modem American business history.

21. This passage mainly talks about ______.

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