1、会计硕士专业学位联考英语(二)-19 (1)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：5，分数：100.00)In The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are (2004), Dr. Kevin Leman notes that 21 of the first 23 Americans in space were first-born males or only children. More than half of United States presidents hav
2、e been first-borns or first-born boys. It“s a pretty significant finding historically, because families used to be bigger than they are today. In addition to being high achievers, older children also generally have higher IQs (智商) than younger ones. Researchers have noted that the more kids a family
3、 has, the lower each child“s individual IQ tends to be. They give a few reasons for this. Parents only have so much time, attention, and money. The more kids they have, the more these things are divided. First-borns initially get the entire parental-time pie. What“s more, the ratio of grown-ups to k
4、ids decreases with each new baby. So the younger ones are surrounded by more children“s language on average than the older kids. Some researchers think parental attention is the key to personality birth-order differences. In his book Born to Rebel , psychologist Frank Sulloway says competition for M
5、om and Dad“s attention is the thing that really shapes our personalities and, in fact has shaped history. He argues that we adapt our personalities as part of our strategy to seek favor from Mom and Dad. Younger siblings (兄弟姐妹) tend to become rebels. Sulloway studied political activists and found th
6、at later-born activists were more radical than their first-born peers. The conclusion of his book is that sibling competition for parental attention can affect society as a whole in times of revolution. Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, and Fidel Castro were all younger siblings, for example. As compelli
7、ng as this all is, it“s also something we should probably take with caution, there are other things that happen to us in life besides the addition of siblings to our families. A parent can die; a hurricane can leave us homeless; we can catch a life-threatening disease. Any one of these things will p
8、robably have more of an effect on our personalities than the presence of siblings. A 2002 study bore this out. After interviewing 535 undergraduates, researchers concluded that personality differences related to birth order were “folklore“, although IQ and achievement differences were widely support
9、ed by research.（分数：20.00）(1).What is implied by “the younger ones are surrounded by more children“s language on average than the older kids“ (Para. 3)?（分数：4.00）A.Younger children need parental rather than siblings“ attention.B.Younger children need siblings“ rather than parental attention.C.Younger
10、children feel uncomfortable with more siblings.D.Younger children have less chance to talk with their parents.(2).Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel , suggests that younger siblings _.（分数：4.00）A.try hard to get attention from their parentsB.are less likely to shape historyC.are winners in getting par
11、ental attentionD.seldom adapt their personalities(3).Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor shaping personality?（分数：4.00）A.Death of a parent.B.Children“s language.C.A natural disaster.D.A fatal disease.(4).What is the meaning of “folklore“ in the last paragraph?（分数：4.00）A.Traditional cu
12、stoms and beliefs.B.Verified hypotheses.C.Widely held unsupported notions.D.Tales of sayings preserved orally.(5).Which of the following statements is proposed by researchers?（分数：4.00）A.Later-borns do not compete for attention.B.First-horns tend to become rebels.C.Later-borns are prone to diseases.D
13、.First-borns achieve more than younger ones.The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U. S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higherat about a million. Many pub
14、lic school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious pers
15、pective in the curriculum to a herd like approach to teaching children. Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softenin
16、g a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation. Says John Marshall, an education official, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers.“ The idea is, “Let“s give the kids access to public school so they“ll see it“s not so ter
17、rible as they“ve been told, and they“ll want to come back.“ Perhaps, but don“t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to educationwhether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child“s interests and
18、natural paceis best. “The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,“ says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center for Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time. Professor Van Galen break
19、s home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learnboth intellectually and emotionallyt
20、hat the family is the most important institution in society.“ Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy (异端邪说), but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,“ Van Galen writes. “These parents are highly independent and strive to “take responsibility“ for t
21、heir own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.“（分数：20.00）(1).According to the passage, home schoolers are _.（分数：4.00）A.those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their childrenB.those who educate their children at home instead of sending
22、them to schoolC.those who advocate combining public education with home schoolingD.those who don“t go to school but are educated at home by their parents(2).Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because _.（分数：4.00）A.there isn“t much they can go to change the present situation
23、B.they want to show their tolerance for different teaching systemsC.home schooling provides a new variety of education for childrenD.public schools have so many problems that they cannot offer proper education for all children(3).Home-school advocates are of the opinion that _.（分数：4.00）A.things in p
24、ublic schools are not so bad as has often been saidB.their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schoolsC.home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give inD.their increased cooperation with public school will bring about the improvement of public educat
25、ion(4).Most home schoolers“ opposition to public education stems from their _.（分数：4.00）A.respect for the interests of individualsB.worry about the inefficiency of public schoolsC.concern with the cost involvedD.devotion to religion(5).Which of the following statements is correct according to the pas
26、sage?（分数：4.00）A.There are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country.B.The hardlines between public schools and home schoolers are softening and they have moved to cooperation.C.Home schoolers strongly believe that their way of education is best.D.According to John Marshall, home schoo
27、lers want their children to learn that family is the most important institution in society.There is something profoundly disturbing about the national craze to blame the oil companies for higher gasoline prices. It“s not disturbing that people are upset about having to pay hugely more for gasoline a
28、nd oil products. It“s not disturbing that they are looking for someone to blame. The disturbing part is that we as a nation and as a government are blaming entities that have absolutely nothing or next to nothing to do with causing the high oil prices. It is as if we just arbitrarily decided that al
29、l left-handed people were to blame for the oil prices. That“s how crazy it is. Oil companies do not set oil prices. Oil prices are set on gigantic world markets by young millionaire hedge fund traders, by university endowments speculating in commodities, by foreign importers seeking new sources of o
30、il for their economy, by us Americans needing cars to make us feel big and tough. The American oil companies pay these high prices by and large, add in the costs of refining and transporting, tack on the taxes we need to build our roads, and then sell us our gasoline. We in turn suck it down our thr
31、oats and zoom around in our big huge cars as if gasoline were still $ 1.50 a gallon. Yes, some of the oil the oil companies sell is in fields they bought years ago and paid a lot less per barrel for than today“s prices. When the price of oil skyrockets , the oil companies make money, lots of money.
32、But this is how corporations are supposed to work: when prices for things they already own go up, they make money. They“re not charities and we wouldn“t be able to drive for long if they were. And the money the companies make goes to the shareholders, which is basically everyone in the nation with a
33、 pension plan, and most of the rest goes to find new oil for us to guzzle down in our 500-horsepower chariots of the future. Where“s the harm? There“s no price fixing. There“s no stealing. There are just a lot of traders getting very rich driving up the price of oil and a lot of legitimate forces ma
34、king buyers willing to pay it. You may not like it and I certainly hate paying four bucks a gallon at my local station in Malibu. But blaming the oil companies is pure scapegoat (找替罪羊). Immense worldwide forces are at work. Immense markets are at work. The oil companies are corks in the ocean compar
35、ed with those forces.（分数：20.00）(1).What is the author“s opinion about the higher gasoline prices?（分数：4.00）A.Nobody should be blamed for the oil prices.B.People shouldn“t only blame the oil companies for the higher oil prices.C.All left-handed people were to blame for the oil prices.D.It is quite acc
36、eptable that the gasoline prices are rising so quickly.(2).According to the passage, oil prices are set by _.（分数：4.00）A.oil companies worldwideB.young millionaire hedge fund tradersC.car users themselves in AmericaD.various factors on gigantic world markets(3).The underlined word “skyrocket“ in Para
37、graph 4 means _.（分数：4.00）A.a kind of fireworkB.to fly like a rocketC.to rise rapidly or suddenlyD.to drop sharply or suddenly(4).According to the author, where does the money that the oil companies make go?（分数：4.00）A.The oil companies.B.The word-wide oil traders.C.The charity organization.D.Everyone
38、 in the nation with a pension plan.(5).The proper title for this passage should be _.（分数：4.00）A.Oil Prices Keep RisingB.Stop the ScapegoatingC.The Crazy Oil PricesD.Who Set Oil PricesI start my day here at five o“clock. I get up and prepare all the children“s clothes. If there are shoes to shine, I
39、do it in the morning. About seven o“clock I bathe the children. I leave the baby with the baby sitter and I go to work at the settlement house. I work until twelve o“clock. Sometimes I“ll work longer if I have to go to welfare and get a check for somebody. When I get back, I try to make hot food for
40、 the kids to eat. In the afternoon it“s pretty well on my own. I scrub and clean and cook and do whatever I have to do. Welfare makes you feel like you“re nothing. Like you“re laying back and not doing anything and it“s falling in your lap. But you must understand, mothers, too, work. My house is cl
41、ean. I“ve been scrubbing since this morning. You could check my clothes, all washed and ironed. I“m home and I“m working. I am a working mother. Some men work eight hours a day. There are mothers that work eleven, twelve hours a day. We get up at night, a baby vomits, you have to be calling the doct
42、or, and you have to be changing the baby. When do you get a break, really? You don“t. This is an all-around job, day and night. Why do they say it“s charity? We“re working for our money. I am working for this check. It is not charity. We are giving some kind of home to these children. I“m so busy al
43、l day I don“t have time to daydream. I pray a lot: I pray to God to give me strength. If He should take a child away from me, to have the strength to accept it. It“s His kid. He just borrowed him to me. It“s living off welfare and feeling that you“re taking something for nothing the way people have
44、said. You get to think maybe you are. You get to think, why am I so stupid? Why can“t I work? Why do I have to live this way? You feel degraded. The other day I was at the hospital and I went to pay my bill. This nurse came and gave me the green card. Green card is for welfare. She went right in fro
45、nt of me and gave it to the cashier. She said, “I wish I could stay home and let the money fall in my lap.“ I felt rotten. I was just burning inside. You hear this all the way around you. The doctor doesn“t even look at you. People are ashamed to show that green card. This nurse, to her way of think
46、ing, she represents the working people. The ones with the green card, we represent the lazy no-goods.（分数：20.00）(1).It can be inferred from the passage that the author is a _.（分数：4.00）A.worker for an orphanageB.worker for a charity organizationC.babysitterD.housewife(2).In this passage, “a green card
47、“ is _.（分数：4.00）A.a medical care cardB.a card people use to pay fees at the hospitalC.a card people get in hospital and stores to have discountD.a card hospital issues according to the government policy to help needy people(3).According to the author, why are some people ashamed to use the green car
48、d?（分数：4.00）A.Because they are shy.B.Because people look down upon those who live on welfare.C.Because government has to pay their medical bills.D.Because they are lazy no-goods.(4).The author“s attitude towards the public is _.（分数：4.00）A.sympathyB.consolableC.indifferentD.dissatisfied(5).The main id
49、ea of this passage is that _.（分数：4.00）A.people living on welfare also deserve respectB.the mother role calls for a lot of effortC.the government“s welfare policy is not reasonableD.the society should provide more support for mothers who have many children“The world“s environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss.“ If that were an examination topic, most students would tear it apart, offering a long list of complaints, from local smog (烟雾) to global climate change, from the felling (砍伐) of forests to the extinction of species. The
