1、考博英语-254 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Part Listening Com(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Part Reading Compr(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Passage 1(总题数：1，分数：4.00)When, in the age of automation, man searches for a worker to do the tedious, unpleasant jobs that are impossible to mechanize, he may very profitably consider the ape.I
2、f we tackled the problem of breeding for brains with as much as enthusiasm as we devote to breeding dogs of surrealistic shapes, we could eventually produce assorted models of useful primates, ranging in size from the gorilla down to the baboon, each adapted to a special kind of work. It is not putt
3、ing too much strain on the imagination to assume that geneticists could produce a super-ape, able to understand some scores of words, and capable of being trained for such jobs as picking fruit, cleaning up the litter in parks, shining shoes, collecting garbage, doing household chores, and even baby
4、-sitting (though I have known some babies I would not care to trust with a valuable ape).Apes could do many jobs, such as cleaning streets and the more repetitive types of agricultural work, without supervision, though they might need protection from those exceptional specimens of Homo sapiens who t
5、hink it amusing to tease or bully anything they consider lower on the evolutionary ladder. For other tasks, such as delivering papers and laboring on the docks, our man-ape would have to work under human overseers; and, incidentally, I would love to see the finale of the twenty-first century version
6、 of the Waterfront in which the honest but hairy hero will drum on his chest afterliterally taking the wicked labor leader apart.Once a supply of nonhuman workers becomes available, a whole range of low IQ jobs could be thankfully relinquished by mankind, to its great mental and physical advantage.
7、What is more, one of the problems which has plagued so many fictional Utopias would be avoided: There would be none of the deridingly subhuman Epsilons of Huxleys Brave New World to act as a permanent reproach to society, for there is a profound moral difference between breeding sub-men and super-ap
8、es, though the end products are much the same. The first would introduce a form of slavery, the second would be a biological triumph which could benefit both men and animals.（分数：4.00）(1).In the authors opinion, the idea that geneticists could produce a super-ape is _.（分数：1.00）A.irrationalB.plausible
9、C.biologically impossibleD.demonstrably true(2).The type of job an ape could do without supervision would be one which is _.（分数：1.00）A.repetitiveB.mechanizedC.unusualD.intricate(3).A problem that has plagued some fictional Utopias is _.（分数：1.00）A.creation of super-apesB.the necessity of breeding sup
10、er-humansC.the necessity of breeding subhumanD.the degradation of beasts(4).The author of this article is _.（分数：1.00）A.revealing his low opinion of mankindB.poking fun at geneticistsC.expressing his doubts about the possibility of breeding a super-apeD.presenting a reasonable theory in a humorous to
11、ne四、Passage 2(总题数：1，分数：4.00)As one works with color in a practical or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile changeable thing depending to a large extent on the relationship of the color to other colors seen simultaneously. It is not fixed in
12、its relation to the direct stimulus which creates it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give rise to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumination colors, usually (but not always) looking much the same in artificial light as in daylight. Both of these effe
13、cts seem to be due in large part to the mechanism of color adaptation mentioned earlier.When the eye is fixed on a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the sensitivity of the eye to color in and around the area viewed. This readjustment does not immediately affect the color seen but u
14、sually does affect the next area to which the gaze is shifted. The longer the time of viewing, the higher the intensity, and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be in terms of its persistence in the succeeding viewing situation. As indicated by the work of Wright and Shouted, it appears
15、 that, at least for a first approximation, full adaptation takes place over a very brief time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in relative darkness just previously. As the stimulus is allowed to act, however, the effect becomes more persistent in the sense that it tak
16、es the eye longer to regain its sensitivity to lower intensities. The net result is that, if the eye is so exposed and then the gaze is transferred to an area of lower intensity, the loss of sensitivity produced by the first area will still be present and appear as an “afterimage“ superimposed on th
17、e second. The effect not only is present over the actual area causing the “local adaptation“ but also spreads with decreasing strength to adjoining areas of the eye to produce “lateral adaptation.“ Also, because of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another
18、, all of which are at similar brightness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become uniform over the whole eye.（分数：4.00）(1).This selection is primarily concerned with _.（分数：1.00）A.the eyes adaptation to colorB.the properties of colored surfacesC.the color of colorsD.the effect of cha
19、nges in color intensity(2).Whether a colored object would, on two viewings separated in time, appear to the viewer as similar or different in color would depend mostly on _.（分数：1.00）A.the color mechanism of the eye in use at the time of each viewingB.whether the object was seen in artificial or natu
20、ral lightC.what kind of viewing had immediately preceded each of the viewingsD.the individuals power of lateral adaptation(3).If a persons eye has been looking at an object in bright sunlight for some time, and then shifts to an object not well lit, we can expect _.（分数：1.00）A.a time lag in the focus
21、ing ability of the eyeB.some inability to see colors of the latter-named objects until loss of sensitivity has been regained.C.the immediate loss of the “afterimage“ of the first objectD.the adaptation in the central area of the eye but little adaptation in the lateral areas to the new intensity lev
22、el.(4).The present selection has apparently been preceded by some explanation of _.（分数：1.00）A.some experiments with color pigmentsB.the nature of colorC.the color properties of various surfacesD.the mechanism of the eyes adaptation to color五、Passage 3(总题数：1，分数：4.00)The Greeks lofty attitude toward s
23、cientific researchand the scientists contempt of utilitywas a long time dying. For a millennium after Archimedes, this separation of mechanics from geometry inhibited fundamental technological progress and in some areas repressed it altogether. But there was a still greater obstacle to change until
24、the very end of the middle ages: the organization of society. The social system of fixed class relationships that prevailed through the Middle Ages (and in some areas much longer) itself hampered improvement. Under this system, the laboring masses, in exchange for the bare necessities of life, did a
25、ll the productive work, while the privileged fewpriests, nobles, and kingsconcerned themselves only with ownership and maintenance of their own position. In the interest of their privileges they did achieve considerable progress in defense, in warmaking, in government, in trader in the arts of leisu
26、re, and in the extraction of labor from their dependents, but they had no familiarity with the process of production. On the other hand, the laborers, who were familiar with manufacturing techniques, had no incentive to improve or increase production to the advantage of their masters. Thus, with one
27、 class possessing the requisite knowledge and experience, but lacking incentive and leisure, and the other class lacking the knowledge and experience, there was no means by which technical progress could be achieved.The whole ancient world was built upon this relationshipa relationship as sterile as
28、 it was inhuman. The availability of slaves nullified the need for more efficient machinery. In many of the conmonplace fields of human endeavor, actual stagnation prevailed for thousands of years. Not all the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome could develop the windmill or contriv
29、e so simple an instrument as the wheelbarrowproducts of the tenth and thirteenth centuries respectively.For about twenty-five centuries, two-thirds of the power of the horse was lost because he wasnt shod, and much of the strength of the ox was wasted because his harness wasnt modified to fit his sh
30、oulders. For more than five thousand years, sailors were confined to rivers and coasts by a primitive steering mechanism which required remarkably little alteration (in the thirteenth century) to become a rudder.With any ingenuity at all, the ancient plough could have been put on wheels and the plou
31、ghshare shaped to bite and turn the sod instead of merely scratching itbut the ingenuity wasnt forthcoming. And the villager of the Middle Ages, like the men who first had fire, had a smoke hole in the center of the straw and reed thatched roof of his one-room dwelling (which he shared with his anim
32、als), while the medieval charcoal burner (like his Stone Age ancestor) made himself a hut of small branches.（分数：4.00）(1).Lack of technological progress in the ancient and medieval worlds was primarily due to the absence of _.（分数：1.00）A.natural resourcesB.inventive abilityC.peoples desire for the “be
33、tter things of life“D.proper social organization(2).During the Middle Ages, productivity of labor _.（分数：1.00）A.was a primary concern of societyB.was hampered by class relationshipsC.began to improve over levels reached by the GreeksD.was in a period of technical progress(3).We may infer that a chang
34、e in class relationships after the close of the Middle Ages produced greater productivity because _.（分数：1.00）A.freemen had incentive to produce moreB.masters had greater incentive to work their workers harderC.slaves never starved, no matter what they producedD.productivity could go in only one dire
35、ction(4).In supporting his contentions about the ancient world, the author relies mainly on illustrations drawn from _.（分数：1.00）A.examples of the separation of mechanics and geometryB.case studies of lack of social communication between classesC.technologyD.his concern with the plight of the laborin
36、g classes六、Passage 4(总题数：1，分数：4.00)The evolution of sex ratios has produced, in most plants and animals with separate sexes, approximately equal numbers of males and females. Why should this be so? Two main kinds of answers have been offered. One is couched in terms of advantage to population. It is
37、 argued that the sex ratio will evolve so as to maximize the number of meetings between individuals of the opposite sex. This is essentially a “group selection“ argument. The other, and in my view correct, type of answer was first put forward by Fisher in 1930. This “genetic“ argument starts from th
38、e assumption that genes can influence the relative numbers of male and female offspring produced by an individual carrying the genes. That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted. Suppose that the pop
39、ulation consisted mostly of females, then an individual who produced sons only would have more grandchildren. In contrast, if the population consisted mostly of males, it would pay to have daughters. If, however, the population consisted of equal numbers of males and females, sons and daughters woul
40、d be equally valuable. Thus a one-to-one sex ratio is the only stable ratio; it is an “evolutionarily stable strategy.“ Although Fisher wrote before the mathematical theory of games had been developed, his theory incorporates the essential feature of a game that the best strategy to adopt depends on
41、 what others are doing.Since Fishers time, it has been realized that genes can sometimes influence the chromosome or gamete in which they find themselves so that the gamete will be more likely to participate in fertilization. If such a gene occurs on a sex-determining (X or Y) chromosome, then highl
42、y aberrant sex ratios can occur. But more immediately relevant to game theory are the sex ratios in certain parasitic wasp species that have a large excess of females. In these species, fertilized eggs develop into females and unfertilized eggs into males. A female stores sperm and can determine the
43、 sex of each egg she lays by fertilizing it or leaving it unfertilized. By Fishers argument, it should still pay a female to produce equal numbers of sons and daughters. Hamilton, noting that the eggs develop within their hostthe larva of another insectand that the newly emerged adult wasps mate imm
44、ediately and disperse, offered a remarkably cogent analysis. Since only one female usually eggs in a given larva, it would pay her to produce one male only, because this one could fertilize all his sisters on emergence. Like Fisher, Hamilton looked for an evolutionarily stable strategy, but he went
45、a step further in recognizing that he was looking for a strategy.（分数：4.00）(1).The author suggests that the work of Fisher and Hamilton was similar in that both scientists _.（分数：1.00）A.conducted their research at approximately the same timeB.sought to manipulate the sex ratios of some of the animals
46、they studiedC.sought an explanation of why certain sex ratios exist and remain stableD.studied reproduction in the same animal species(2).It can be inferred from the passage that the author considers Fishers work to be _.（分数：1.00）A.definitive and thoroughB.inaccurate but popular, compared with Hamil
47、tons workC.accurate, but trivial compared with Hamiltons workD.admirable, but not as up-to-date as Hamiltons work(3).According to the passage, successful game strategy depends on _.（分数：1.00）A.the ability to adjust ones behavior in light of the behavior of othersB.the degree of stability one can crea
48、te m ones immediate environmentC.the accuracy with which one can predict future eventsD.the success one achieves in conserving and storing ones resources(4).It can be inferred from the passage that the mathematical theory of games has been _.（分数：1.00）A.developed by scientists with an interest in gen
49、eticsB.useful in explaining some biological phenomenaC.adopted by Hamilton in his researchD.based on animal studies conducted prior to 1930七、Passage 5(总题数：1，分数：4.00)Surprisingly enough, modern historians have rarely interested themselves in the history of the American South in the period before the South began to become self-consciously and distinctively “Southern“ the decades after 1815. Consequently, the cultural history of Britains North American empire in the seventeenth and
