【考研类试卷】考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷94及答案解析.doc

1、考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 94 及答案解析(总分：30.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：4，分数：30.00)Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollars worth of silver. That is because the coins were actually made of silver. But those days are gone. There is no silver

2、in todays coins. When the price of the precious metal rises above its face value as money, the metal will become more valuable in other uses. Silver coins are no longer in circulation because the silver in coins is worth much more than their face value. A silver firm could find that it is cheaper to

3、 obtain silver by melting down coins than by buying it on the commodity markets. Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals. Greshams Law, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, argues that “good money“ is driven out of circulation by “bad money“. Good money differs from bad money because it has hi

4、gher commodity value. Gresham lived in the 16th century in England where it was common for gold and silver coins to be debased. Governments did this by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver. The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less precious metal than t

5、he face value indicated. Because different mixings of coins had different amounts of gold and silver, even though they bore the same face value, some coins were worth more than others as commodities. People who dealt with gold and silver could easily see the difference between the “good“ and the “ba

6、d“ money. Gresham observed that coins with a higher content of gold and silver were kept rather than being used in exchange, or were melted down for their precious metal. In the mid-1960s when the U.S. issued new coins to replace silver coins, Greshams law went right in action.（分数：8.00）(1).Why was i

7、t possible for Americans to use a one-dollar bill for a dollars worth of silver?（分数：2.00）A.Because there was a lot of silver in the United States.B.Because money was the medium of payment.C.Because coins were made of silver.D.Because silver was considered worthless.(2).Todays coins in the United Sta

8、tes are made of_.（分数：2.00）A.some precious metalsB.silver and some precious metalsC.various expensive metalsD.some inexpensive metals(3).What is the difference between “good money“ and “bad money“?（分数：2.00）A.They are circulated in different markets.B.They are issued in different face values.C.They ar

9、e made of different amounts of gold and silver.D.They have different uses.(4).What was the purpose of the governments issuing new coins by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver in the 16th century?（分数：2.00）A.They wanted to reserve some gold and silver for themselves.B.There was neither enough g

10、old nor enough silver.C.New coins were easier to be made.D.They could make money.By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “ice-box“ had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States: The ice trade grew with the growth of c

11、ities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War(1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philad

12、elphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented. Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now

13、 suppose: In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of ice that performed the cooli

14、ng. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox. But as early as 180

15、3, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customer

16、s would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their prod

17、uce cool.（分数：8.00）(1).What is the main idea of this passage?（分数：2.00）A.The influence of ice on the diet.B.The transportation of goods to market.C.The development of refrigeration.D.Sources of the term “ice-box“.(2).According to the passage, when did the word “ice-box“ become part of the American lan

18、guage?（分数：2.00）A.In 1803.B.Around 1850.C.During the Civil War.D.Before 1880.(3).The word “rudimentary“ in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to_.（分数：2.00）A.basicB.sufficientC.necessaryD.undeveloped(4).The sentence “Thomas Moore, had been on the right track“.(Para. 3)indicates that_.（分数：2.00）A.Moores

19、farm was not far away from WashingtonB.Moores farm was on the right roadC.Moores design was completely successfulD.Moore was suitable for the jobToday, the computer has taken up appliance status in more than 42 percent of households across the United States. And these computers are increasingly biti

20、ng wired to the Internet. Online access was up more than 50 percent in just the past year. Now, more than one quarter of all U.S. households can surf in cyberspace. Mostly, this explosive growth has occurred democratically. The online penetration and computer ownership increases extend across all th

21、e demographic levels by race, geography, income, and education. We view these trends as favorable without the slightest question because we clearly see computer technology as empowering. In fact, personal growth and a prosperous U.S. economy are considered to be the long-range rewards of individual

22、and collective technological power. Now for the not-so-good news. The governments analysis spells out so-called digital divide. That is, the digital explosion is not booming at the same pace for everyone. Yes, it is true that we are all plugged in to a much greater degree than any of us have been in

23、 the past. But some of us are more plugged in than others and are getting plugged in far more rapidly. And this gap is widening even as the pace of the information age accelerates through society. Computer ownership and Internet access are highly classified along lines of wealth, race, education, an

24、d geography. The data indicates that computer ownership and online access are growing more rapidly among the most prosperous and well educated: essentially, wealthy white people with high school and college diplomas and who are part of stable, two-parent households. The highest income bracket househ

25、olds, those earning more than $ 75,000 annually, are 20 times as likely to have access to the Internet as households at the lowest income levels, under $10,000 annually. The computer-penetration rate at the high-income level is an amazing 76.56 percent, compared with 8 percent at the bottom end of t

26、he scale. Technology access differs widely by educational level. College graduates are 16 times as likely to be Internet surfers at home as are those with only elementary-school education. If you look at the differences between these groups in rural areas, the gap widens to a twenty-six-fold advanta

27、ge for the college-educated. From the time of the last study, the information-access gap grew by 29 percent between the highest and lowest income groups, and by 25 percent between the highest and lowest education levels. In the long run, participation in the information age may not be a zero sum gam

28、e, where if some groups win, others must lose. Eventually, as the technology matures we are likely to see penetration levels approach all groups equally. This was true for telephone access and television ownership, but eventually can be cold comfort in an era when tomorrow is rapidly different from

29、today and unrecognizable compared with yesterday.（分数：8.00）(1).How many U.S. households have linked to Internet today?（分数：2.00）A.More than 25 percent.B.By 29 percent.C.More than 42 percent.D.More than 50 percent.(2).According to the text, the computer used by the high-income level is_that by the lowe

30、st income levels.（分数：2.00）A.8 percent more thanB.76.56 percent more thanC.nearly 10 times as many asD.about 20 times as many as(3).According to the author, which of the following prevents people from gaining access to the Internet?（分数：2.00）A.Income level.B.Poor education and low-income level.C.Parti

31、cipation in the information age.D.Telephone access and television ownership.(4).Judging from the context, what does “digital divide“(Para. 3)probably mean?（分数：2.00）A.The governments analysis.B.The divide between the poor and the rich.C.The pace of the information age.D.The gap between peoples access

32、 to the computer.Just over a year ago, I foolishly locked up my bicycle outside my office, but forgot to remove the pannier. When I returned the pannier had been stolen. Inside it were about ten of the little red notebooks I take everywhere for jotting down ideas for articles, short stories, TV show

33、s and the like. When I lost my notebooks, I was devastated; all the ideas Id had over the past two years were contained within their pages. I could remember only a few of them, but had the impression that those I couldnt recall were truly brilliant. Those little books were crammed with the plots of

34、award-winning novels and scripts for radio comedy shows that were only two-thirds as bad as the ones on at the moment. Thats not all, though. In my reminiscence, my lost notebooks contained sketches for many innovative and incredible machines. In one book there was a design for a device that could t

35、urn sea water into apple cider; in another, plan for an automatic dog; in a third, sketches for a pair of waterproof shoes with television screens built into the toes. Now all of these plans are lost to humanity. I found my notebooks again. It turns out they werent in the bike pannier at all, but in

36、 a bag in my spare room, where I found six months after supposedly losing them. And when I flipped through their pages, ready to run to the patent office in the morning, I discovered they were completely full of rubbish. Discovering the notebooks really shook me up. I had firmly come to believe they

37、 were brimming with brilliant, inventive stuffand yet clearly they werent. I had deluded myself. After surveying my nonsense, I found that this halo effect always attaches itself to things that seem irretrievably lost. Dont we all have a sneaking feeling that the weather was sunnier, TV shows funnie

38、r and cake-shop buns bunnier in the not-very-distant pasty. All this would not matter much except that it is a powerful element in reactionary thought, this belief in a better yesterday. After all, racism often stems from a delusion that things have deteriorated since “they“ came. What a boon to soc

39、iety it would be if people could visit the past and see that it wasnt the paradise they imagine but simply the present with different hats. Sadly, time travel is impossible. Until now, that is. Because Ive suddenly remembered I left a leather jacket in an Indonesian restaurant a couples of years ago

40、, and Im absolutely certain that in the inside pocket there was a sketch Id made.（分数：6.00）(1).By “only two-thirds as bad as the ones on at the moment“ the author means_.（分数：2.00）A.better thanB.as bad asC.worse thanD.as good as(2).As soon as the author read the lost notebooks, he_.（分数：2.00）A.reported

41、 the factB.found it valuelessC.registered the inventionsD.was very excited(3).Which of the following would the author most probably agree with?（分数：2.00）A.Yesterday is better.B.Yesterday is no better than today.C.Self-delusion sometimes is necessary.D.Things today have deteriorated.考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 94

42、答案解析(总分：30.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：4，分数：30.00)Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollars worth of silver. That is because the coins were actually made of silver. But those days are gone. There is no silver in todays coins. Wh

43、en the price of the precious metal rises above its face value as money, the metal will become more valuable in other uses. Silver coins are no longer in circulation because the silver in coins is worth much more than their face value. A silver firm could find that it is cheaper to obtain silver by m

44、elting down coins than by buying it on the commodity markets. Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals. Greshams Law, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, argues that “good money“ is driven out of circulation by “bad money“. Good money differs from bad money because it has higher commodity valu

45、e. Gresham lived in the 16th century in England where it was common for gold and silver coins to be debased. Governments did this by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver. The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less precious metal than the face value indic

46、ated. Because different mixings of coins had different amounts of gold and silver, even though they bore the same face value, some coins were worth more than others as commodities. People who dealt with gold and silver could easily see the difference between the “good“ and the “bad“ money. Gresham o

47、bserved that coins with a higher content of gold and silver were kept rather than being used in exchange, or were melted down for their precious metal. In the mid-1960s when the U.S. issued new coins to replace silver coins, Greshams law went right in action.（分数：8.00）(1).Why was it possible for Amer

48、icans to use a one-dollar bill for a dollars worth of silver?（分数：2.00）A.Because there was a lot of silver in the United States.B.Because money was the medium of payment.C.Because coins were made of silver. D.Because silver was considered worthless.解析：解析：本题可参照文章第 1 段的 it was common to change a one-do

49、llar bill for a dollars worth of silver。从中可知，以前用 1 美金钞票兑换价值 1 美元的银币是很平常的事情，紧接着作者给出了原因银币在当时的确是由银制作的。因此 C 项是正确答案。(2).Todays coins in the United States are made of_.（分数：2.00）A.some precious metalsB.silver and some precious metalsC.various expensive metalsD.some inexpensive metals 解析：解析：本题的依据是文章第 1 段最后一句话 Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals。因此 D 项为正确答案。(3).What is the difference between “good money“ and “bad money“?（分数：2.00）A.They are circulated in different markets.B.They are issued in different face values.C.Th