2012考研英语基础阶段测试题及参考答案—2
Section III Reading Comprehension
Directions: Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets. （40 points）
Text 1
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn't help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt's leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey's bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left-all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don't need a dam to be saved.
31.The third sentence of paragraph 1 implies that ________.
[A] people would be happy if they shut their eyes to reality
[B] the blind could be happier than the sighted
[C] over-excited people tend to neglect vital things（C）
[D] fascination makes people lose their eyesight
32.In paragraph 5, “the powerless” probably refers to ________.
[A] areas short of electricity
[B] dams without power stations
[C] poor countries around India（D）
[D] common people in the Narmada Dam area
33.What is the myth concerning giant dams?
[A] They bring in more fertile soil.
[B] They help defend the country.
[C] They strengthen international ties.（D）
[D] They have universal control of the waters.
34.What the author tries to suggest may best be interpreted as ________.
[A] “It's no use crying over spilt milk”
[B] “More haste, less speed”
[C] “Look before you leap”（C）
[D] “He who laughs last laughs best”
Text 2
Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real.
The official statistics are mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the 1978-1987 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a “disjunction” between the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics.
Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace-all that re-engineering and downsizing-are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to new markets or improving quality can matter just as much.
Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose.
Leonard Schlesinger, a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much “re-engineering” has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re-engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability. BBDO's Al Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of re-engineering consultants as mere rubbish-“the worst sort of ambulance cashing.”
35.According to the author, the American economic situation is ________.
[A] not as good as it seems
[B] at its turning point
[C] much better than it seems（A）
[D] near to complete recovery
36.The official statistics on productivity growth ________.
[A] exclude the usual rebound in a business cycle
[B] fall short of businessmen's anticipation
[C] meet the expectation of business people（B）
[D] fail to reflect the true state of economy
37.The author raises the question “what about pain without gain?” because ________.
[A] he questions the truth of “no gain without pain”
[B] he does not think the productivity revolution works
[C] he wonders if the official statistics are misleading（B）
[D] he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses
38.Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
[A] Radical reforms are essential for the increase of productivity.
[B] New ways of organizing workplaces may help to increase productivity.
[C] The reduction of costs is not a sure way to gain long term profitability.（A）
[D] The consultants are a bunch of good-for-nothings.
Text 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo's 17th-century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake's harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics-but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked “anti-science” in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Virginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as “The Flight from Science and Reason,” held in New York City in 1995, and “Science in the Age of （Mis） information,” which assembled last June near Buffalo.
Anti-science clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science's objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the anti-science tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pre-technological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are anti-science, as an essay in US News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the anti-science epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. “The term 'anti-science' can lump together too many, quite different things,” notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti-Science. “They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened.”
39.The word “schism” （Line 3, Paragraph 1） in the context probably means ________.
[A] confrontation
[B] dissatisfaction
[C] separation（C）
[D] contempt
40.Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to ________.
[A] discuss the cause of the decline of science's power
[B] show the author's sympathy with scientists
[C] explain the way in which science develops（D）
[D] exemplify the division of science and the humanities
41.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
[A] Environmentalists were blamed for anti-science in an essay.
[B] Politicians are not subject to the labeling of anti-science.
[C] The “more enlightened” tend to tag others as anti-science.（A）
[D] Tagging environmentalists as “anti-science” is justifiable.
42.The author's attitude toward the issue of “science vs. anti-science” is ________.
[A] impartial
[B] subjective
[C] biased（A）
[D] puzzling
Text 4
Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.
This development-and its strong implications for US politics and economy in years ahead-has enthroned the South as America's most densely populated region for the first time in the history of the nation's head counting.
Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people-numerically the third largest growth ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records except for the Depression years.
Americans have been migrating south and west in larger number since World War II, and the pattern still prevails.
Three sun-belt states-Florida, Texas and California-together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980 than a decade earlier. Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 8th and San Antonio from 15th to 10th -with Cleveland and Washington. D. C. dropping out of the top 10.
Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement out of the snow belt, census officials say, Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too-and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday's “baby boom” generation reached its child bearing years.
Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west as joined by a related but newer phenomenon: More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too. Some instances-
lRegionally, the Rocky Mountain states reported the most rapid growth rate-37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast area with only 5 percent of the US population.
lAmong states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively. Except for Florida and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western states with 7.5 million people-about 9 per square mile.
The flight from overcrowdedness affects the migration from snow belt to more bearable climates.
Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West. There, California added 3.7 million to its population in the 1970s, more than any other state.
In that decade, however, large numbers also migrated from California, mostly to other parts of the West. Often they chose-and still are choosing-somewhat colder climates such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska in order to escape smog, crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State.
As a result, California's growth rate dropped during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent-little more than two thirds the 1960s' growth figure and considerably below that of other Western states.
43.Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s ________.
[A] enjoyed the lowest net growth of population in history
[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population
[C] underwent an unparalleled period of population growth（B）
[D] brought to a standstill its pattern of migration since World War II
44.The census distinguished itself from previous studies on population movement in that ________.
[A] it stresses the climatic influence on population distribution
[B] it highlights the contribution of continuous waves of immigrants
[C] it reveals the Americans' new pursuit of spacious living（C）
[D] it elaborates the delayed effects of yesterday's “baby boom”
45.We can see from the available statistics that ________.
[A] California was once the most thinly populated area in the whole US
[B] the top 10 states in growth rate of population were all located in the West
[C] cities with better climates benefited unanimously from migration（D）
[D] Arizona ranked second of all states in its growth rate of population
46.The word “demographers” （Line 1, Paragraph 8） most probably means ________.
[A] people in favor of the trend of democracy
[B] advocates of migration between states
[C] scientists engaged in the study of population（C）
[D] conservatives clinging to old patterns of life
2012考研英语基础阶段测试题及参考答案—2的延伸阅读——复习英语要讲究技巧
一，重视单词。
从第一天开始复习到考试的前一天，考试大纲词汇就应不离手，因为这是一切的基础。考试大纲是命题专家出题的依据、基础，所以考生一定要重视。背单词时，可以总结同义词、一词多义以及包含“高级”短语的句子，然后跟同桌的研友们对话，或者“厚颜无耻”地主动向他们“炫耀”，同时也坚持参加英语辩论活动，把自己最新积累的词句一一“亮”出，这样考生会感觉记得特别牢固。
二，日积月累。
作为一门语言，充满了繁琐与细节的，想一口吃成大胖子是不太现实的，必须耐心地积累“量变”以求“质变”。学习英语的时间安排也是有规律可循的，如果你一天安排3个小时学英语，那么与其一鼓作气学3个小时倒不如改成上下午各1.5小时。持续学习、及时复习才能收到较为理想的效果。可以参照着名的“艾宾浩斯遗忘曲线”来合理安排时间，最大限度地降低遗忘率，以获得较好的学习效果。
三，研读真题。
历年考研英语全真试题是了解考研水平的最快途径，也是熟悉命题规律的唯一途径。所以要在老师的指导下分阶段复习考研英语真题。找一个安静的环境，先用一周的时间做一套真题，做完后，对自己的错题先看一下怎么错的，错在哪里，能不能解决。剩下的时间要分析题型，也就是看这些题目是属于细节题、推理题，还是主旨大意题……当复习完十年的真题，建议考生放20天左右的时间，重新再做真题，分析自己的做题思路，考前一个月适当做些高质量的模拟题练练手。另外，希望考生真题至少看三遍。第一遍先做，做完之后归纳总结错题的原因。第二遍主要精读文章解决单词句子翻译。第三遍前两遍的内容都要看。
四，增加课外阅读。
课外阅读在考研英语复习中占有重要地位，对提高成绩有很大作用，建议大家订一份《英语世界》杂志，阅读上面的文章，也会有不少收获。如果有条件，看看自己学校图书馆是否有这本书，有的话坚持看，肯定会有收获的！
希望以上的介绍对2013的考研同学有所帮助，另外，大家在学习英语学习方法时，要从自身实际出发，选择真正适合自己的复习方法。 |
