[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷390及答案与解析.doc

1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 390 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 The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the

2、sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. “Hooray! At last!“ wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic.One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparati

3、vely little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilberts appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.“ As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and

4、Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise.For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fi

5、sher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes.Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the

6、time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. These recordings are cheap, available

7、everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than todays live performances; moreover, they can be “consumed“ at a time and place of the listeners choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical con

8、cert.One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert s own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into “a ma

9、rkedly different, more vibrant organization.“ But what will be the nature of that difference? Merely expanding the orchestras repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between Americas oldest orchestra and the new audience

10、it hopes to attract.1 We learn from Paragraph 1 that Gilberts appointment has（A）incurred criticism.（B） raised suspicion.（C） received acclaim.（D）aroused curiosity.2 Tommasini regards Gilbert as an artist who is（A）influential.（B） modest.（C） respectable.（D）talented.3 The author believes that the devote

11、d concertgoers（A）ignore the expenses of live performances.（B） reject most kinds of recorded performances.（C） exaggerate the variety of live performances.（D）overestimate the value of live performances.4 According to the text, which of the following is true of recordings?（A）They are often inferior to

12、live concerts in quality.（B） They are easily accessible to the general public.（C） They help improve the quality of music.（D）They have only covered masterpieces.5 Regarding Gilberts role in revitalizing the Philharmonic, the author feels（A）doubtful.（B） enthusiastic.（C） confident.（D）puzzled.5 It used

13、to be so straightforward. A team of researchers working together in the laboratory would submit the results of their research to a journal. A journal editor would then remove the authors names and affiliations from the paper and send it to their peers for review. Depending on the comments received,

14、the editor would accept the paper for publication or decline it. Copyright rested with the journal publisher, and researchers seeking knowledge of the results would have to subscribe to the journal.No longer. The Internetand pressure from funding agencies, who are questioning why commercial publishe

15、rs are making money from government-funded research by restricting access to itis making access to scientific results a reality. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just issued a report describing the far-reaching consequences of this. The report, by John Houghton o

16、f Victoria University in Australia and Graham Vickery of the OECD, makes heavy reading for publishers who have, so far, made handsome profits. But it goes further than that. It signals a change in what has, until now, been a key element of scientific endeavor.The value of knowledge and the return on

17、 the public investment in research depends, in part, upon wide distribution and ready access. It is big business. In America, the core scientific publishing market is estimated at between $7 billion and $11 billion. The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers says t

18、hat there are more than 2, 000 publishers worldwide specializing in these subjects. They publish more than 1.2 million articles each year in some 16, 000 journals.This is now changing. According to the OECD report, some 75% of scholarly journals are now online.Entirely new business models are emergi

19、ng; three main ones were identified by the reports authors. There is the so-called big deal, where institutional subscribers pay for access to a collection of online journal titles through site-licensing agreements. There is open-access publishing, typically supported by asking the author (or his em

20、ployer) to pay for the paper to be published. Finally, there are open-access archives, where organizations such as universities or international laboratories support institutional repositories. Other models exist that are hybrids of these three, such as delayed open-access, where journals allow only

21、 subscribers to read a paper for the first six months, before making it freely available to everyone who wishes to see it. All this could change the traditional form of the peer-review process, at least for the publication of papers.6 In the first paragraph, the author discusses（A）the background inf

22、ormation of journal editing.（B） the publication routine of laboratory reports.（C） the relations of authors with journal publishers.（D）the traditional process of journal publication.7 Which of the following is true of the OECD report?（A）It criticizes government-funded research.（B） It introduces an ef

23、fective means of publication.（C） It upsets profit-making journal publishers.（D）It benefits scientific research considerably.8 According to the text, online publication is significant in that（A）it provides an easier access to scientific results.（B） it brings huge profits to scientific researchers.（C）

24、 it emphasizes the crucial role of scientific knowledge.（D）it facilitates public investment in scientific research.9 With the open-access publishing model, the author of a paper is required to（A）cover the cost of its publication.（B） subscribe to the journal publishing it.（C） allow other online journ

25、als to use it freely.（D）complete the peer-review before submission.10 Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the text?（A）The Internet is posing a threat to publishers.（B） A new mode of publication is emerging.（C） Authors welcome the new channel for publication.（D）Publication is rend

26、ered easier by online service.10 In spite of “endless talk of difference“, American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is “the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference“ characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbe

27、d into “a culture of consumption“ launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered “vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite“ these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping in

28、to a public and democratic act.“ The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports th

29、at todays immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation. In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1, 000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1, 000. Now

30、, consider three indices of assimilationlanguage, home ownership and intermarriage.The 1990 Census revealed that “a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English well or very well after ten years of residence.“ The children of immigrants tend to be bil

31、ingual and proficient in English. “By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families.“ Hence the description of America as a “graveyard“ for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, hi

32、gher than the 69.8 percent rate among native-born Americans.Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics “have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks.“ By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are marrie

33、d to non-Asians.Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet “some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nations assimilative power.“Are there divisive i

34、ssues and pockets of seething anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against Americas turbulent past, todays social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment.11 The word “homogenizing“ ( Para. 1) most probably mea

35、ns（A）identifying.（B） associating.（C） assimilating.（D）monopolizing.12 According to the author, the department stores of the 19th century（A）played a role in the spread of popular culture.（B） became intimate shops for common consumers.（C） satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable elite.（D）owed its emergen

36、ce to the culture of consumption.13 The text suggests that immigrants now in the U.S.（A）are resistant to homogenization.（B） exert a great influence on American culture.（C） are hardly a threat to the common culture.（D）constitute the majority of the population.14 Why are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gart

37、h Brooks mentioned in Paragraph 5?（A）To prove their popularity around the world.（B） To reveal the publics fear of immigrants.（C） To give examples of successful immigrants.（D）To show the powerful influence of American culture. 15 In the authors opinion, the absorption of immigrants into American soci

38、ety is（A）rewarding.（B） successful.（C） fruitless.（D）harmful.15 Americans today dont place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education not to pursue knowledge for th

39、e sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools arent difficult to find.“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,“ says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance.“ Ravitchs latest book, Left Bac

40、k: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to

41、 exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society

42、.“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,“ writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Ho

43、fstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers t

44、hought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.“ Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism.

45、 Its hero avoids being civilizedgoing to school and learning to readso he can preserve his innate goodness.Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence

46、 seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our countrys educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim thei

47、r hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise.“ 16. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?16 What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?（A）The habit of thinking independently.（B） P

48、rofound knowledge of the world.（C） Practical abilities for future career.（D）The confidence in intellectual pursuits.17 We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of（A）undervaluing intellect.（B） favoring intellectualism.（C） supporting school reform.（D）suppressing native intelligence.18

49、The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are（A）identical.（B） similar.（C） complementary.（D）opposite.19 Emerson, according to the text, is probably（A）a pioneer of education reform.（B） an opponent of intellectualism.（C） a scholar in favor of intellect.（D）an advocate of regular schooling.20 What does the author think of intellect?（A）It is second to intelligence.（B） It evolves from common sense.（C） It is to be pursued.（D）It underlies power.考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 390 答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choos