【考研类试卷】考研英语阅读理解C节(英译汉)分类精讲文化教育类-(二)及答案解析.doc

1、考研英语阅读理解 C 节(英译汉)分类精讲文化教育类-(二)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Reading Co(总题数：5，分数：100.00)Where in the world is the largest number of different languages spoken? Most linguists would probably plump for New Guinea, an island that has 830 recognized tongues scattered around its isolated, jungle-co

2、vered valleys. But a place on the other side of the world runs it close. The five boroughs of New York City are reckoned to be home to speakers of around 800 languages. Many of them close to extinction.(1) New York is also home, of course, to a lot of academic linguists, and three of them have got t

3、ogether to create an organization called the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), which is ferreting out speakers of unusual tongues from the citys huddled immigrant masses. The ELA, which was set up last year by Daniel Kaufman, Juliette Blevins and Bob Holman, has worked in detail on 12 languages si

4、nce its inception. It has codified their grammars, their pronunciations and their word-formation patterns, as well as their songs and legends.Each volunteer speaker of a language of interest is first tested with what is known as a Swadesh list. This is a set of 207 high-frequency, slow-to-change wor

5、ds such as parts of the body, colors and basic verbs like eat, drink, sleep and kill. The Swadesh list is intended to ascertain an individuals fluency before he is taken on. Once he has been accepted, Dr Kauf-man and his colleagues start chipping away at the languages phonology (the sounds of which

6、it is composed) and its syntax (how its meaning is changed by the order of words and phrases). This sort of analysis is the bread and butter of linguistics.Every so often, though, the researchers come across a bit of jam. The Mahongwe word manono, for example, means “I like“ when spoken soft and fla

7、t, and “I dont like“ when the first syllable is a tad sharper in tone. Similarly, mhaza could be either “chest“ or “council house“. In both cases, the two words are nearly indistinguishable to an English speaker, but yield starkly different patterns when run through a spectrograph. (2) Manono is a p

8、articular linguistic oddity, since it uses only tone to differentiate an affirmative from a negativea phenomenon the ELA has since discovered applies to all verbs in Mahongwe.Such niceties are interesting to experts. But the ELA is attempting to understand more than just the nuts and bolts of langua

9、ges. It is collecting stories and other verbal material specific to the cultures of the participants. One volunteer, for example, wants to write a storybook for children in her language (Shughni), and also a recipe book. (3) That means creating a written form of the language, which the researchers d

10、o using what is known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. (4) Many of Dr. Kaufmans better finds, he says. have come from “hanging out at street corners with a clipboard on Roosevelt Avenue“a street in the borough of Queens that he describes as the “epicenter of the epicenter“ of linguistic New Y

11、ork. How long it will remain so is moot. The worlds languages which number about 6, 900 are reckoned to be dying out at the rate of one a fortnight. The reason is precisely the sort of cultural mixing that New York epitomizes. (5) The value of learning any particular language is increased by the num

12、ber of people who already speak it, while the value of a minority language is diminished as people abandon it. To those languages that hath, in other words, shall be given. From those that hath not, shall the last speakers soon be taken away?（分数：20.00）_(1) Material culture refers to the touchable, m

13、aterial “things“physical objects that can be seen, held, felt, usedthat a culture produces. Examining a cultures tools and technology can tell us about the groups history and way of life. Similarly, research into the material culture of music can help us to understand the music-culture. The most viv

14、id body of “things“ in it, of course, are musical instruments. (2) We cannot hear for ourselves the actual sound of any musical performance before the 1870s when the phonograph was invented, so we rely on instruments for important information about music-cultures in the remote past and their develop

15、ment. Here we have two kinds of evidence: instruments well preserved and instruments pictured in art. Through the study of instruments, as well as paintings, written documents, and so on, we can explore the movement of music from the Near East to China over a thousand years ago, or we can outline th

16、e spread of Near Eastern influence to Europe that resulted in the development of most of the instruments on the symphony orchestra.Sheet music or printed music, too, is material culture. Scholars once defined folk music-cultures as those in which people learn and sing music by ear rather than from p

17、rint, but research shows mutual influence among oral and written sources during the past few centuries in Europe, Britain and America. Printed versions limit variety because they tend to standardize any song, yet they stimulate people to create new and different songs. (3) Besides, the ability to re

18、ad music notation has a far-reaching effect on musicians and, when it becomes widespread, on the music-culture as a whole.Music is deep-rooted in the cultural background that fosters it. We now pay more and more attention to traditional or ethnic features in folk music and are willing to preserve th

19、e folk music as we do with many traditional cultural heritage. Musicians all over the world are busy with recording classic music in their country for the sake of their unique culture. (4) As always, peoples aspiration will always focus on their individuality rather than universal features that are

20、shared by all cultures alike.(5) One more important part of musics material culture should be singled out: the influence of the electronic mediaradio, record player, tape recorder, and television, with the future promising talking and singing computers and other developments. This is all part of the

21、 “information-revolution“, a twentieth century phenomenon as important as the industrial revolution in the nineteenth. These electronic media are not just limited to modem nations; they have affected music-cultures all over the globe.（分数：20.00）_Personality is to a large extent inherentA-type parents

22、 usually bring about A-type offspring. (1) But the environment must also have a profound effect, since if competition is important to the parents, it is likely to become a major factor in the lives of their children.One place where children soak up A characteristics is school, which is, by its very

23、nature, a highly competitive institution. Too many schools adopt the win at all costs moral standard and measure their success by sporting achievements. (2) The current passion for making children compete against their classmates or against the clock produces a two-layer system, in which competitive

24、 A-types seem in some way better than their B-type fellows. Being too keen to win can have dangerous consequences: remember that Pheidippides, the first marathon runner, dropped dead seconds after saying: Rejoice, we conquer!By far the worst form of competition in schools is the disproportionate emp

25、hasis on examinations. It is a rare school that allows pupils to concentrate on those things they do well. (3) The merits of competition by examination are somewhat questionable, but competition in the certain knowledge of failure is positively harmful.Obviously, it is neither practical nor desirabl

26、e that all A youngsters change into Bs. (4) The world needs types, and schools have an important duty to try to fit a childs personality to his possible future employment. It is top management.If the preoccupation of schools with academic work was lessened, more time might be spent teaching children

27、 surer values. (5) Perhaps selection for the caring professions, especially medicine, could be made less by good grades in chemistry and more by such considerations as sensitivity and sympathy. It is surely a mistake to choose our doctors exclusively from A-type stock. Bs are important and should be

28、 encouraged.（分数：20.00）_The inclusion of all children and youth is part of a general integrative trend that has accelerated since World War II. It relates to some newer developments as well. Concern for the earths endangered environment has become central, emphasizing in both intellectual and social

29、life the need for cooperation rather than competition, the importance of understanding interrelationships of the ecosystem, and the idea that ecology can be used as an organizing concept. In a different vein, the rapid development of microelectronics, particularly the use of computers for multiple f

30、unctions in education, goes for beyond possibilities of earlier technological advances. (1) Although technology is thought of by some as antagonistic to humanistic concerns, others argue that it makes communication and comprehension available to a wider population and encourages “system thinking“, b

31、oth ultimately integrative effects.The polarization of opinion on technologys effects and most other important issues is a problem in educational policy determination. (2) In addition to the difficulties of governing increasingly large and diverse education systems, as well as those of meeting the n

32、ever-ending demands of expanding education, the chronic lack of consensus makes the system unable to respond satisfactorily to public criticism and unable to plan for substantive long-range development.(3) The political and administrative responses so far have been to attend to short-run efficiency

33、by improving management techniques and to adopt polar responses to accommodate polar criticisms. Thus, community and community schools have been emphasized along with central control and standardization, and institutional alternatives have been opened, while the structure of main institutions has be

34、come more articulated. For example, the focus of attention has been placed on the transition stages, which earlier were virtually ignored: from home to school from primary to secondary to upper secondary, from school to work. Tertiary institutions have been reconceived as part of a unified level; te

35、sting has become more sophisticated and credentials have become more differentiated either by certificate or by transcript.Alternative teaching strategies have been encouraged in theory, but basic, curriculum uniformity has effectively restricted the practice of new methods. General education is sti

36、ll mainly abstract, and subject matter, though internally more dynamic, still rests on language, mathematics, and science. There has been an increasing reliance on the construction of subject matter to guide the method of teaching. (4) Teachers are entrusted with a greater variety of tasks, but they

37、 are less trusted with knowledge, leading political authorities to call for upgrading of teacher training, teacher in service training, and regular assessment of teacher performance. (5) Recent reform efforts have been focused on integrating general and vocational education and on encouraging lifelo

38、ng or recurrent education to meet changing individual and social needs. Thus, not only has the number of students and institutions increased, as a result of inclusion policies, but the scope of education has also expanded. This tremendous growth, however, has raised new questions about the proper fu

39、nctions of the school and the effectiveness for life, work, or intellectual advancement of present programs and means of instruction.（分数：20.00）_As a part of the service industry, ecotourism promotes what Alan During, in his important book How Much is Enough!, calls the “shift from material to non-ma

40、terial ends“. (1) This shift is the only viable way in which human demands made on the environment will not overrun the carrying capacity of the planet. Ecotourism is in fundamental opposition to consumption as a means to fulfillment; rather, the sense of place, the excitement of experience, and the

41、 opportunity of learning become the overriding products “sold“ to ecotourists. (2) These ecotourism “products“ are based upon preserving and protecting the original cultures and environments, not upon transforming them into some Disney-land-like fantasy-world.Increasingly, a conservation ethic and a

42、 viable process of development have emerged from the ecotourism movement, or perhaps vice versa. The ecotourism ethic has been defined by the Ecotourism Society to mean: “responsible travel that conserves the natural environs and sustains the well-being of local people. (3) Ecotourism offers travele

43、rs the means to assist personally and locally in the conservation of threatened environments and to support communities directly that are seeking viable economic alternatives to end cycles of poverty and environmental destruction.“ This non-profit organization is working to raise public support for implementing ecotourism principles and practices around the world.(4) The concerted effort by policy makers, businesses, recreation managers and organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International to make ecotourism a mainstream practice is promising. We i