【考研类试卷】在职艺术硕士（MFA）全国联考英文阅读理解-试卷7及答案解析.doc

1、在职艺术硕士（MFA）全国联考英文阅读理解-试卷 7 及答案解析(总分：40.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、英文阅读理解题(总题数：4，分数：40.00)Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are uniquea speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and

2、 understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy： whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet Univ

3、ersity in Washington, D.C., the world“s only liberal arts university for deaf people. When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher. Stoko

4、e had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the “hand talk“ his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf

5、 people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as “substandard“. Stokoe“s idea was academic heresy(异端邪说). It is 37 years later. Stokoenow devoting his time to writing and editing books and jou

6、rnals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf cultureis having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language

7、 must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,“ Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuffit“s brain stuff. “ (340 words)（分数：10.00）(1).The study of sign language is thought to be_.（分数：2.00

8、）A.a new way to look at the learning of languageB.a challenge to traditional views on the nature of languageC.an approach to simplifying the grammatical structure of a languageD.an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language(2).The present growing interest in sign language was s

9、timulated by_.（分数：2.00）A.a famous scholar in the study of the human brainB.a leading specialist in the study of liberal artsC.an English teacher in a university for the deafD.some senior experts in American Sign Language(3).According to Stokoe, sign language is_.（分数：2.00）A.a substandard languageB.a

10、genuine languageC.an artificial languageD.an international language(4).Most educators objected to Stokoe“s idea because they thought_.（分数：2.00）A.sign language was not extensively used even by deaf peopleB.sign language was too artificial to be widely acceptedC.a language should be easy to use and un

11、derstandD.a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds(5).Stokoe“s argument is based on his belief that_.（分数：2.00）A.sign language is as efficient as any other languageB.sign language is derived from natural languageC.language is a system of meaningful codesD.language is a product of the

12、brainReebok executives do not like to hear their stylish athletic shoes called “footwear for yuppies (雅皮士，少壮高薪职业人士)“. They contend that Reebok shoes appeal to diverse market segments, especially now that the company offers basketball and children“s shoes for the under-18 set and walking shoes for ol

13、der customers not interested in aerobics (健身操) or running. The executives also point out that through recent acquisitions they have added hiking boots, dress and casual shoes, and high-performance athletic footwear to their product lines, all of which should attract new and varied groups of customer

14、s. Still, despite its emphasis on new markets, Reebok plans few changes in the upmarket (高档消费人群的) retailing network that helped push sales to $ 1 billion annually, ahead of all other sports shoe marketers. Reebok shoes, which are priced from $27 to $85, will continue to be sold only in better specia

15、lty, sporting goods, and department stores, in accordance with the company“s view that consumers judge the quality of the brand by the quality of its distribution. In the past few years, the Massachusetts-based company has imposed limits on the number of its distributors (and the number of shoes sup

16、plied to stores) , partly out of necessity. At times the unexpected demand for Reebok“s exceeded supply, and the company could barely keep up with orders from the dealers it already had. These fulfillment problems seem to be distribution now, but the company is still selective about its distributors

17、. At present, Reebok shoes are available in about five thousand retail stores in the United States. Reebok has already anticipated that walking shoes will be the next fitness-related craze, replacing aerobics shoes the same way its brightly colored, soft leather exercise footwear replaced convention

18、al running shoes. Through product diversification and careful market research, Reebok hopes to avoid the distribution problems Nike came across several years ago, when Nike misjudged the strength of the aerobics shoe craze and was forced to unload huge inventories of running shoes through discount s

19、tores. (355 words)（分数：10.00）(1).One reason why Reebok“s managerial personnel don“t like their shoes to be called “footwear for yuppies“ is that_.（分数：2.00）A.they believe that their shoes are popular with people of different age groupsB.new production lines have been added to produce inexpensive shoes

20、C.yuppies usually evokes a negative imageD.the term makes people think of prohibitive prices(2).Reebok“s view that “consumers judge the quality of the brand by the quality of its distribution“ (Lines 56, Para. 2) implies that_.（分数：2.00）A.the quality of a brand is measured by the service quality of t

21、he store selling itB.the quality of a product determines the quality of its distributorsC.the popularity of a brand is determined by the stores that sell itD.consumers believe that first-rate products are only sold by high-quality stores(3).Reebok once had to limit the number of its distributors bec

22、ause_.（分数：2.00）A.its supply of products fell short of demandB.too many distributors would cut into its profitsC.the reduction of distributors could increase its share of the marketD.it wanted to enhance consumer confidence in its products(4).Although the Reebok Company has solved the problem of fulf

23、illing its orders, it（分数：2.00）A.does not want to further expand its retailing networkB.still limits the number of shoes supplied to storesC.is still particular about who sells its productsD.still carefully chooses the manufacturers of its products(5).What lesson has Reebok learned from Nike“s distri

24、bution problems?（分数：2.00）A.A company should not sell its high quality shoes in discount stores.B.A company should not limit its distribution network.C.A company should do follow-up surveys of its products.D.A company should correctly evaluate the impact of a new craze on the market.Cars account for

25、half the oil consumed in the U.S., about half the urban pollution and one fourth the greenhouse (温室) gases. They take a similar toll (损耗) of resources in other industrial nations and in the cities of the developing world. As vehicle use continues to increase in the coming decade, the U.S. and other

26、countries will have to deal with these issues or else face unacceptable economic, health-related and political costs. It is unlikely that oil prices will remain at their current low level or that other nations will accept a large and growing U.S. contribution to global climatic change. Policymakers,

27、 and industry have four options: reduce vehicle use, increase the efficiency and reduce the emissions of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, switch to less harmful fuels, or find less polluting driving systems. The last of thesein particular the introduction of vehicles powered by electricityis

28、ultimately the only sustainable option. The other alternatives are attractive in theory but in practice are either impractical or offer only marginal improvements. For example, reduced vehicle use could solve traffic problems and a host of social and environmental problems, but evidence from around

29、the world suggests that it is very difficult to make people give up their cars to any significant extent. In the U.S., mass-transit ridership and carpooling (合伙用车) have declined since World War II. Even in western Europe, with fuel prices averaging more than $ 1 a liter (about $ 4 a gallon) and with

30、 easily accessible mass transit and dense populations, cars still account for 80 percent of all passenger travel. Improved energy efficiency is also appealing, but alternative fuel economy has barely made any progress in 10 years. Alternative fuels such as natural gas, burned in internal-combustion

31、engines, could be introduced at relatively low cost, but they would lead to only marginal reductions in pollution and greenhouse emissions (especially because oil companies are already spending billions of dollars every year to develop less polluting types of gasoline). (337 words)（分数：10.00）(1).From

32、 the passage we know that the increased use of cars will_.（分数：2.00）A.consume half of the oil produced in the worldB.have serious consequences for the well-being of all nationsC.widen the gap between the developed and developing countriesD.impose an intolerable economic burden on residents of large c

33、ities(2).The U.S. has to deal with the problems arising from vehicle use because_.（分数：2.00）A.most Americans are reluctant to switch to public transportation systemsB.the present level of oil prices is considered unacceptableC.other countries will protest its increasing greenhouse emissionsD.it shoul

34、d take a lead in conserving natural resources(3).Which of the following is the best solution to the problems mentioned in the passage?（分数：2.00）A.The designing of highly efficient car engines.B.A reduction of vehicle use in cities.C.The development of electric cars.D.The use of less polluting fuels.(

35、4).Which of the following is practical but only makes a marginal contribution to solving the problem of greenhouse emissions?（分数：2.00）A.The use of fuels other than gasoline.B.Improved energy efficiency.C.The introduction of less polluting driving systems.D.Reducing car use by carpooling.(5).Which of

36、 the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?（分数：2.00）A.The decline of public transportation accounts for increased car use in western Europe.B.Cars are popular in western Europe even though fuel prices are fairly high.C.The reduction of vehicle use is the only sustainable option in de

37、nsely populated western Europe.D.Western European oil companies cannot sustain the cost of developing new-type fuels.In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our

38、 housework. But as useful as computers are, they“re nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for humanlike behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most ele

39、mentary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid. A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logi

40、cal, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which nature came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digi

41、tal computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field. Imitating the brain“s neural (神经的) network is a hu

42、ge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. “People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors,“ he explains, “but it“s not simply a clever network of switches.

43、 There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves. “ Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain“s capabilities stem from the pattern-recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build an artificially intellig

44、ent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills. Right now, the notion that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Co

45、nrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town. (384 words)（分数：10.00）(1).The author says that the powerful computers of today_.（分数：2.00）A.are capable of reliably recognizing; the shape of an objectB.are close to exhibiting humanlike behaviorC.are not very different in their

46、 performance from those of the 1950sD.still cannot communicate with people in a human language(2).The new trend in artificial intelligence research stems from_.（分数：2.00）A.the shift of the focus of study onto the recognition of the shapes of objectsB.the belief that human intelligence cannot be dupli

47、cated with logical, step-by-step programsC.the aspirations of scientists to duplicate the intelligence of a ten-month-old childD.the efforts made by scientists in the study of the similarities between transistors and brain cells(3).Conrad and his group of AI researchers have been making enormous eff

48、orts to（分数：2.00）A.find a roundabout way to design powerful computersB.build a computer using a clever network of switchesC.find out how intelligence developed in natureD.separate the highest and most abstract levels of thought(4).What“s the author“s opinion about the new AI movement?（分数：2.00）A.It ha

49、s created a sensation among artificial intelligence researchers but will soon die out.B.It“s breakthrough in duplicating human thought processes.C.It“s more like a peculiar game rather than a real scientific effort.D.It may prove to be in the right direction though nobody is sure of its future prospects.(5).Which of the following is closest in meaning to the phrase “the only game in town“ (Line 4, Para. 4)?（分数：2.00）A.The only approach to building an artificially intelligent computer.B.The only way for them to win a prize in art