[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷215及答案与解析.doc

1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 215 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 “It keeps you grounded, puts you in a situation that keeps you out of trouble, and puts you with a group that has the same mind-set,“ says Molly Skinner

2、, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, appraising the nonathletic benefits she experienced while playing soccer in high school. According to one new study, suiting up for the high school team does seem to givegirls a boost when it comes to getting a college diploma.The recent

3、 study, conducted by professors from Brigham Young University (BYU) and West Chester University of Pennsylvania (WCUP), found that women who played sports in high school were 73 percent more likely to earn a bachelors degree within six years of graduating from high school than those who did not. (Th

4、e study did not look at male athletes.) Their analysis of data from 5,103 women collected as part of a U.S. Department of Education study found that even among girls who face statistical challenges finishing college based on socioeconomic background, the athletes still had more than 40 percent highe

5、r college completion rates than nonathletes, regardless of whether they played at the college level.“In times when we worry about improving academic performance or outcomes, we wonder should we be devoting time and money to extracurricular activities?“ asks BYU Prof. Mikaela Dufur, one of the studys

6、 authors. “These are important arenas forin our casegirls to make connections with others and adults who help encourage them to succeed.“At the collegiate level, though, the measure of womens sports remains as murky (unclear) as ever, thanks to the politics of Title DC Enacted in 1972, Title DC guar

7、antees women equal opportunity in collegiate sports, but its critics contend that many schools reach that balance by cutting mens teams rather than adding womens.A July report on Title DC from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has done little to settle the debate. That study found increases

8、 in student participation in college athletics on both sides of the gender line, though the growth rate was higher for womens teams and female athletes.Title DC critics say that the GAO report relies too heavily on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) data, which can obscure the number of

9、 mens teams cut from particular schools as more colleges join the NCAA verall.While the political debate continues, female athletes themselves seem to be focusing on the finish line. “I think that sports teaches you to persevere,“ says Virginia Tech-bound Rachel Plumb, who raced on her high schools

10、cross country team. “It teaches you to keep an eye on a goal.“1 According to the first paragraph, _.（A）Molly Skinner is playing soccer on the university team（B） playing soccer contributed to Mollys nonathletic life（C） playing sports helps girls to enroll at universities（D）playing sports grants girls

11、 extra credits at universities2 Which of the following is true about the recent study by professors from BYU and WCUP?（A）Women athletes are more likely to finish college than nonathletes.（B） Female athletes have more chance to get diplomas than male athletes.（C） Statistical challenges reduce the cha

12、nce for female athletes to get degrees.（D）Playing sports in high school matters more than playing at colleges.3 BYU Prof. Mikaela Dufur found that extracurricular activities _.（A）exert adverse effects to girls academic performance（B） can improve girls academic outcomes directly（C） bring people who a

13、re worth knowing to girls（D）may consume too much money and time of girls4 It can be inferred from the text that _.（A）Title IX realizes womens equal opportunity in collegiate sports（B） Title IX balances mens and womens sports in many schools（C） Title IX isnt successful in achieving its goal for women

14、s rights（D）GAO report proves the success of Title IX in college sports5 We can conclude from the text that _.（A）girls who played sports in high schools are better college students（B） girls with high school sports experience are mentally stronger（C） athletic girls are more likely to get college degre

15、es thanks to Title IX（D）athletic girls always perform better at colleges than nonathletes5 In the days before preschool academies were all but mandatory for kids under 5, I stayed home and got my early education from Mike Douglas. His TV talk show was one of my mothers favorite programs, and because

16、 I looked up to my mother, it became one of my favorites too.Yet I quickly developed my own fascination with Douglas, who died lastweek. Maybe it was the plain seta couple of chairs and little elseor maybe it was the sound of people talking about ideas and events rather than telling stories. Whateve

17、r it was, to my 4-year-old mind it was all terribly adult, like my mothers morning coffee. It wasrelatively. The grown-up world I live in now is another matter. Thanks in part to the proliferation and polarization of talk shows in the last 20 years or sothe generation after Douglas and his big-tent

18、gentility went off the airpublic conversations have become scary monsters indeed.Like other forms of entertainment, the programming of commercial talk shows today has moved beyond niche to hermetic. The idea of a host booking guests as varied as Jerry Rubin, Malcolm X and Richard Nixonand treating t

19、hem all with a certain deference, as Douglas didis unheard of. Equally amazing is to consider that Douglas was a moderate; though he didnt always share his guests views, he nonetheless insisted on everybody having his or her say.What he did, in other words, was more important than who he was. That w

20、as probably an easy dictate for an old-schooL modest guy such as Douglas to follow. And now? Oprah Winfrey is sincere enough, but her viewership is a cult of personality, not of people or issues.like her contemporaries, Oprah chooses her guests and issues to suit her show, rather than allowing guest

21、s and issues to be the show. She prefers uplift and empowerment, which is more palatable than name-calling, the hallmark of Bill OReilly or Howard Stern. But spin is spin, and in her own way Oprah gets as tiresome as those guys. Ultimately, these shows fail to convey the fullness of the conversation

22、, the sense that America is one placeor one hostwith many voices at equal volume.That doesnt mean everybodys right. But to have everybody engaged and feeling a stake in the outcome of the discussion is priceless. Engagement is nothing less than national security: I felt that as a preschooler, watchi

23、ng Mike Douglas on TV, and I feel it now. The age of irony, they would say, fueled by information that moves at the speed of light, demands a different approach.6 It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that the author_.（A）was influenced by his mother（B） didnt like preschool academies（C） enjoyed self-ta

24、ught programs（D）was smart in his childhood7 The word “big-tent“ (Para. 2) is closest in meaning to _.（A）sensible（B） tolerant（C） imposing（D）polite8 According to Paragraph 3, Mike Douglas _.（A）treated guests with great passion（B） satisfied the guests requirements（C） highly valued different opinions（D）

25、shared appealing experience of his own9 Which of the following is true about Oprah Winfrey?（A）She is not straightforward with her audience.（B） She prefers fashionable and exciting topics.（C） She is not quite successful as a talk show host.（D）She is less annoying than those who slander others.10 The

26、author would most probably agree that _.（A）people in a conversation should always reach an agreement（B） Mike Douglas has offered a world of information to the audience（C） it is of vital importance to have people engaged in the discussion（D）Mike Douglas show marks the new age of mockery10 Partly due

27、to a historical development marked by worldwide colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, in the course of this century humankind is likely to experience its most extreme cultural loss. As K David Harrison notes in When Languages Die, “The last speakers of probably half of the worlds languages a

28、re alive today.“ Their children or grandchildren are pressured to speak only thedominant language of their community or country. Under one estimate, more than 50% of the 6,900 or so languages identified nowadays are expected to become extinct in a matter of a few ecades.The precise criteria for what

29、 counts as a distinct language are controversialespecially those regarding closely related linguistic systems, which are often inaccurately referred to as dialects of the same language. The problem is complicated by the insufficiency of studies about the grammar of many of the worlds endangered lang

30、uages. In addition, from a cognitive standpoint any two groups of individuals whose languages are mutually intelligible may in fact have distinct mental grammars.As a cognitive system, a language shows dynamic properties that cannot exist independently of its speakers. This is the sense in which the

31、 Anatolian languages and Dalmatian are extinct. Therefore, language preservation depends on the maintenance of the native-speaking human groups. Unfortunately, the most accelerated loss of distinct languages takes place where economic development is rapid, worsening the breakdown of minority communi

32、ties that speak different languages. In this perspective, a language often begins to die long before the passing of the last speaker: New generations may start using it only for limited purposes, increasingly shifting to the communitys dominant language. In this process, knowledge of the dying langu

33、age erodes both at the individual level and at the community level.Linguistic diversity itself may be the worst loss at stake, because it may be the most promising and precise source of evidence for the range of variation allowed in the organization of the human cognitive system. For instance, Harri

34、son discusses many strategies for manipulating quantities across languages, often endangered ones. The rapid loss of linguistic diversity substantially hinders comparative investigation about the multiple ways in which a single cognitive domain can be organized.Linguists are well aware that their ef

35、forts alone cannot prevent this loss. Community involvement, especially with government support, has proven essential in slowing or even reversing language loss in different cases (e.g., Basque and Irish). Crucially, endangered languages must be acquired by new generations of speakers. Here the biol

36、ogical metaphor adopted by Harrison applies appropriatelydocumentation of dead languages is akin to a fossil record, providing only partial clues about complex cognitive systems.11 According to the first paragraph, language loss _.（A）is caused partly by colonialism, urbanization and globalization（B）

37、 is the most extreme cultural loss people experiences（C） is expected to occur in a few centuries（D）occurs in less than half of the worlds 6,900 languages12 One of the difficulties in differentiating one language from another is that _.（A）one language may have many dialects（B） grammar study on some l

38、anguages is not enough（C） they are dialects of the same languages（D）grammars reflected by languages are different13 The start of language dying is indicated by_.（A）the disappearance of its last speakers（B） the fact that new generations stop using it（C） the official ban on speaking it（D）its new gener

39、ations decreased use of it14 Measures that can be taken to prevent language loss include _.（A）turning endangered languages into dominant languages（B） protecting minority groups by slowing economic growth（C） relying on the joint efforts of linguists and government（D）conducting comparative investigati

40、on across languages15 We can infer from the metaphor in the last paragraph that_.（A）dead languages are similar to fossils in biological sense（B） documentation is not enough for us to understand dead languages（C） fossil records give a complete picture of ancient lives（D）dead languages can remain aliv

41、e if they are documented properly15 Alison Preston of the University of Texas at Austins Center for Learning and Memory explains:A short-term memorys conversion to a long-term memory requires changes within the brain that protect the memory from interference from competing stimuli or disruption from

42、 injury or disease. This time-dependent process of stabilization, whereby our experiences achieve a permanent record in ourmemory, is referred to as “consolidation“.Memory consolidation can occur at many organizational levels in the brain. The cellular and molecular portions of memory consolidation

43、typically take place within the first minutes or hours of learning and result in changes to neurons (nerve cells) or sets of neurons. Systems-level consolidation, involving the reorganization of brain networks that handle the processing of individual memories can then happen on a much slower time fr

44、ame of days or even years.The consolidation process that affects declarative memories-recollections of general facts and specific eventsrelies on the function of some specific structures in the brain. At the cellular level, memory is expressed as changes to the structure and function of neurons. For

45、 example, new synapsesthe connections between neurons through which they exchange informationcan form to allow for communication between new networks of neurons. Alternatively, existing synapses can be strengthened to allow for increased sensitivity in the communication between two neurons.Consolida

46、ting such synaptic changes requires the synthesis of new RNA and proteins in the structures, which transform temporary alterations in synaptic transmission into persistent modifications of synaptic architecture. With time, the brain systems also change. Initially, the specific structure works in con

47、cert with sensory-processing regions distributed in the neo-cortex (the outermost layer of the brain) to form the new memories. Within the neo-cortex, representations of the elements that constitute an event in our life are distributed across multiple brain regions according to their content.When a

48、memory is first formed, the specific structure rapidly combines this distributed information into a single memory, thus acting as an index of representations in the sensory-processing regions. As time passes, cellular and molecular changes allow for the strengthening of direct connections among the

49、neocortical regions, enabling access to the memory independent of the structure. Thus, while damage to the structure from injury or particular disorder hampers the ability to form new declarative memories, such a disruption may not impair memories for facts and events that have already been consolidated. Thus, an amnesiac with hippocampal damage would not be able to learn the names of current presidential candidates but would be able to recall the identity of our 16th president.16 The c