1、2013 年北京外国语大学英语专业（基础英语）真题试卷及答案解析(总分：64.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、短文改错(总题数：1，分数：20.00)While the number of Canadians who said French was their mother tongue rose to just over 7m out of the total 33m, and those claiming they could conduct a conversation in French was up to almost 10m in 2011 compared to the 2006
2、 census, both categories have declined slightly as a【M1】_proportion of the population, in Canada overall and in Quebec. Those are【M2】_able to have a conversation in both English and French in what is officially a bilingual country now number 5.8m, or 17.5% of the population, a slight rise. But a clo
3、ser look of those figures shows that it was mainly a result of【M3】_Quebeckers learning English rather the other way round. In a country【M4】_where multiculturalism is seen as a virtue, the language revelations in the census was mostly noted as a positive sign. The exception was Quebec, 【M5】_where the
4、 Parti Quebecois government, which supports the eventually【M6】_separation of the province with the rest of Canada, is preparing to【M7】_toughen its language laws with new legislation expecting this week.【M8】_The bill proposes to eliminate loopholes in the existing law used by【M9】_parents to send thei
5、r children to English-language schools, would bar students graduating from a French-language secondary school from attending an English-language college, and would extend a requirement that French would be used in the workplace to cover more businesses.【M10】_“ French is losing ground, “ said Pauline
6、 Marois, the Quebec premier. “We have to correct that situation. “ The battle continues.（分数：20.00）(1).【M1】（分数：2.00）_(2).【M2】（分数：2.00）_(3).【M3】（分数：2.00）_(4).【M4】（分数：2.00）_(5).【M5】（分数：2.00）_(6).【M6】（分数：2.00）_(7).【M7】（分数：2.00）_(8).【M8】（分数：2.00）_(9).【M9】（分数：2.00）_(10).【M10】（分数：2.00）_二、阅读理解(总题数：2，分数：20.0
7、0)Germany has gold reserves of just under 3, 400 tons, the second-largest reserves in the world after the United States. Much of that is in the safekeeping of central banks outside Germany, especially in the U. S. One would think that with such a valuable stash, worth around 133 billion($170 billion
8、), the German government would want to keep a close eye on its whereabouts. But now a bizarre dispute has broken out between different German institutions over how closely the reserves should be checked. Germany“s federal audit office, the Bundesrechnungshof, which monitors the government“s financia
9、l management, is unhappy with how the central bank, the Bundesbank, keeps tabs on its gold. According to media reports, the auditors are dissatisfied with the fact that gold reserves in Frankfurt are more closely monitored than those held abroad. In Germany, spot checks are carried out to make sure
10、that the gold bars are in the right place. But for the German gold that is stored on the Bundesbank“s behalf by the U. S. Federal Reserve in New York, the Bank of England in London and the Banque de France in Paris, the German central bank relies on the assurances of its foreign counterparts, that t
11、he gold is where it should be. The three foreign central banks give the Bundesbank annual statements confirming the size of the reserves, but the Germans do not usually carry out physical inspections of the bars. According to German media reports, the Bundesrechnungshof has now recommended in its co
12、nfidential annual audit of the Bundesbank for 2011 that Germany“s central bank check its foreign gold reserves with yearly spot checks. The Bundesbank has rejected the demand, arguing that central banks do not usually check each others“ reserves, and there are no doubts about the integrity and the r
13、eputation of these foreign depositories. Germany moved some of its gold reserves abroad during the Cold War to protect them from a possible Soviet attack. Some of the gold was moved back to Frankfurt after the collapse of communism. But the Bundesbank argues that it still makes sense to store some g
14、old in major financial centers so that it can be sold quickly if necessary. Although the Bundesbank does not provide exact details about the distribution, it has revealed that the largest share of Germany“s gold is held in New York, followed by Frankfurt, London and Paris. In times of uncertainty ab
15、out the future of Europe“s common currency, gold is a hot topic, and some Germans take a dim view of the fact that much of the country“s goldwhich theoretically belongs to the peopleis held abroad. Some members of parliament have even expressed doubts as to whether the foreign gold reserves really e
16、xist. Philipp Missfelder, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union(CDU), wanted to see the gold for himself and traveled to New York in person to inspect the holdings, according to the newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. Peter Gauweiler, a Bundestag member with the Christian Social Union
17、(CSU), is also skeptical about the foreign gold reserves. In recent years he has attempted to gain more information about Germany“s gold through parliamentary questions. Last year, he had an economics professor prepare an expert report on the subject, which concluded that the Bundesbank was not fulf
18、illing its inventory regulations by failing to physically inspect the gold. Gauweiler doubts that the Bundesbank would have immediate access to all its gold if necessary, suggesting that part of the gold may have even been lent outa claim that the Bundesbank rejects. Some Germans even want to bring
19、the gold reserves back to Germany. An initiative called “ Gold Action“ is campaigning under the slogan: “Repatriate Our Gold!“ Its petition has been signed by prominent industrialist Hans-Olaf Henkel and Frank Schaffler, a parliamentarian with the business-friendly Free Democrats. The initiative all
20、eges that there is an “acute“ danger that the German gold could be expropriated as a result of the financial and debt crisis. They argue that the German government could soon be forced to sell gold to cover the costs of the crisis. But the Bundesbank wants to leave the gold where it is. Observers po
21、int out that apart from the high cost of transporting the gold back to Frankfurt, the symbolic effect of Germany repatriating its gold reserves might unsettle the nervous financial markets, who could see it as a sign of an impending collapse of the euro.（分数：10.00）(1).The German Bundesbank makes sure
22、 of its gold reserves stored in the U.S. by_.（分数：2.00）A.carrying out spot checks of the gold barsB.requesting annual statements from foreign depositoriesC.travelling to New York to inspect the holdingsD.conducting confidential annual audit of the depositories(2).Germany stores a large share of its g
23、old reserves abroad because_.（分数：2.00）A.the Bundesbank wants to safeguard the gold against the SovietsB.the foreign banks have suspicious integrity and reputationC.the gold can be traded instantly when there is a need to do soD.the assurances of its foreign counterparts are so far reliable(3).The Bu
24、ndestag member Gauweiler suggests that_.（分数：2.00）A.the gold may be just figures and non-existent in realityB.the government could soon sell the gold to tackle debt crisisC.the gold may have been already used for other purposesD.to repatriate the gold is the central bank“s inventory regulation(4).Wha
25、t will be the biggest impact of transporting the gold back to Germany?（分数：2.00）A.Prosperity of Frankfurt.B.Burden of transport costs.C.Chaos of federal audits.D.Panic in financial markets.(5).What is the central idea of this passage?（分数：2.00）A.Germany does checks on its gold reserves in foreign bank
26、s.B.Germans worry about the safety of their gold reserves abroad.C.Germany“s gold reserves stored in the U. S. are not safe.D.The Bundesbank failed to fulfill its inventory duties on gold.In the late 1960s, a television producer named Joan Gantz Cooney set out to start an epidemic. Her target was th
27、ree-, four-, and five-year-olds. Her agent of infection was television, and the “virus“ she wanted to spread was literacy. The show would last an hour and run five days a week, and the hope was that if that hour was contagious enough it could serve as an educational Tipping Point; giving children fr
28、om disadvantaged homes a leg up once they began elementary school, spreading prolearning values from watchers to nonwatchers, infecting children and their parents, and lingering long enough to have an impact well after the children stopped watching the show. Cooney probably wouldn“t have used these
29、concepts or described her goals in precisely this way. But what she wanted to do, in essence, was create a learning epidemic to counter the prevailing epidemics of poverty and illiteracy. She called her idea Sesame Street. By any measure, this was an audacious idea. Television is a great way to reac
30、h lots of people, very easily and cheaply. It entertains and dazzles. But it isn“t a particularly educational medium. Gerald Lesser, a Harvard University psychologist who joined with Cooney in founding Sesame Street, says that when he was first asked to join the project, back in the late 1960s, he w
31、as skeptical. “I had always been very much into fitting how you teach to what you know about the child, “ he says. “You try to find the kid“s strengths, so you can play to them. You try to understand the kid“s weaknesses, so you can avoid them. Then you try and teach that individual kid“s profile .
32、Television has no potential, no power to do that. “ Good teaching is interactive. It engages the child individually. It uses all the senses. It responds to the child. But a television is just a talking box. In experiments, children who are asked to read a passage and are then tested on it will invar
33、iably score higher than children asked to watch a video of the same subject matter. Educational experts describe television as “low involvement. “ Television is like a strain of the common cold that can spread like lightning through a population, but only causes a few sniffles and is gone in a day.
34、But Cooney and Lesser and a third partnerLloyd Morrisett of the Markle Foundation in New Yorkset out to try anyway. They enlisted some of the top creative minds of the period. They borrowed techniques from television commercials to teach children about numbers. They used the live animation of Saturd
35、ay morning cartoons to teach lessons about learning the alphabet. They brought in celebrities to sing and dance and star in comedy sketches that taught children about the virtues of cooperation or about their own emotions. Sesame Street aimed higher and tried harder than any other children“s show ha
36、d, and the extraordinary thing was that it worked. Virtually every time the show“s educational value has been testedand Sesame Street has been subject to more academic scrutiny than any television show in historyit has been proved to increase the reading and learning skills of its viewers. There are
37、 few educators and child psychologists who don“t believe that the show managed to spread its infectious message well beyond the homes of those who watched the show regularly. The creators of Sesame Street accomplished something extraordinary, and the story of how they did that is a marvelous illustr
38、ation of a rule of the Tipping Point, the Stickiness Factor. They discovered that by making small but critical adjustments in how they presented ideas to preschoolers, they could overcome television“s weakness as a teaching tool and make what they had to say memorable. Sesame Street succeeded becaus
39、e it learned how to make television sticky.（分数：10.00）(1).Why does the author use “virus“ and “epidemic“ to describe the Sesame Street?（分数：2.00）A.It is considered as a disease.B.It has medical implications.C.It hopes to spread like the flu.D.It infects educational health.(2).The term “educational Tip
40、ping Point“ in Paragraph 1 probably means _.（分数：2.00）A.crucial point in mental growthB.yardstick of literacyC.stimulus to learningD.point where change begins(3).What is the purpose the Sesame Street project hopes to achieve?（分数：2.00）A.Change the life of underprivileged children.B.Give poor children
41、an equal start.C.Eliminate poverty and illiteracy.D.Help disadvantaged homes acquire education.(4).Gerald Lesser was skeptical about Sesame Street, because_.（分数：2.00）A.the show was more recreational than educationalB.television was not an interactive or engaging mediumC.there was no involvement amon
42、g the audienceD.non-watchers scored higher in the tests than watchers(5).Which of the following did Cooney and her partners exclude from the production of the show?（分数：2.00）A.Recruiting celebrities as guest stars.B.Employing techniques of TV commercials.C.Enlivening the teaching with cartoons.D.Invo
43、lving parents for interactive purposes.三、判断题(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Read the following passage carefully and then decide whether the statements which follow are true(T)or false(F). Most serious scientists spend a good part of their waking hours amid papers and preprints, equations and equipment, conducting
44、experiments, talking about graphs and data, arguing about ideas and theories, teaching, and writing grant proposals. But if they browse in bookstores or glance in the book review sections of journals, they cannot fail to find a fascinating phenomenon in the scientific landscape; books proclaiming th
45、e extrarational implications of science are proliferating. Religion and mysticism are inching their way back into the arena of science whence(some thought)they had been gradually weeded out during the past two centuries. Right from the days of Kepler and Galileo, scientists have generally had a reli
46、gious side to them: After all, except when they encounter faiths of a different shade, religions normally have only civilizing effects on the human heart. Isaac Newton believed in a personal God, explicitly calling himself His servant. Leonard Euler was deeply religious, and so were Augustin Cauchy and Michael Faraday. One author has written a 100-page volume filled with quotations from eminent scientists expressing their religious convictions. No reflecting scientist can be immune to the awe and majesty of the physical wo
