1、考博英语-492 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 One(总题数：1，分数：10.00)As we have seen in earlier chapters, the American definition of success is largely one of acquiring wealth and a higher material standard of living. It is not surpri
2、sing, therefore, that Americans have valued education for its monetary value. The belief is widely spread in the United States that the more schooling people have, the more money they will earn when they leave school. The belief is strongest regarding the desirability of an undergraduate university
3、degree, or a professional degree such as medicine or law following the undergraduate degree. The money value of graduate degrees in “non-professional“ fields such as art, history, or philosophy is not as great.This belief in the monetary value of education is supported by statistics on income. Ben W
4、attenberg, a social scientist, estimated that in the course of a lifetime a man with a college degree in 1972 would earn about ￥380,000 more than a man with just a high school diploma. Perhaps this helps to explain survey findings which showed that Americans who wished they had led their lives diffe
5、rently in some way regretted most of all that they did not get more education.The regret is shared by those who have made it to the top and by those who have not. Journalist Richard Reeves quotes a black worker in a Ford automobile factory. When I was in the ninth grade, I was getting bad grades and
6、 messing around. My father came home in the kitchen one night with a pair of Ford work pants and he threw them in my face. “Put these on,“ he said, “because youre going to be wearing them the rest of your life if you dont get an education.“Douglas Fraser, the president of the United Auto Workers Uni
7、on, regretted not finishing high school so much that he occasionally lied about it. He told Richard Reeves about his pride in graduating from high school, but then a few minutes later he said, “I wasnt telling the truth about high school. I never finished. I quit in the twelfth grade to take a job.
8、Its funny after all these years, I still lie about it. Because the fact is, I still think it was a stupid thing to do. I should have finished my education.“ Even a man like Fraser, a nationally known and successful leader, was troubled by regrets that he did not climb higher on the educational ladde
9、r.（分数：10.00）(1).What is the main idea of this passage?（分数：2.00）A.Americans place a high value on education.B.Americans believe it is possible, though difficult, to be successful without an advanced degree.C.Americans believe that the more the education, the higher the salary.D.A basic American value
10、 is acquiring material wealt(2).Which of the following degrees would probably be most valued by Americans?（分数：2.00）A.A masters degree in literature.B.A masters degree in specialized fields.C.A masters degree in pure maths.D.A masters degree in anthropology.(3).The survey conducted by Ben suggested t
11、hat people regretted most _ having not got more education.（分数：2.00）A.who hoped to teachB.who were not content with their own way of livingC.who were proud of their social positionsD.who had quit high schools too early(4).When the factory worker in the third paragraph was a teenager, his father _ .（分
12、数：2.00）A.wanted him to start earning a livingB.wanted him to study harderC.wanted him to work with him at the Ford plantD.wanted him to stop wearing such messy clothes(5).Which of the following is TRUE about Douglas Fraser?（分数：2.00）A.He was proud to have finished high school.B.He became a successful
13、 leader thanks to his education.C.He wished he hadnt dropped out of school.D.He was a liar.四、Passage Two(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Regardless of the source or kind of light, the ability of light to form an image is dependent upon just one thing-a small hole or a lens to bring the rays to a focus. The principle
14、 of image formation was discovered in early Greek Times. Later it was realized that the eye itself has a lens and that an image is, in fact, formed on the retina, the rear inside surface of the eyeball. Some man inside a cave or a darkened room noticed that light entering through a small hole in the
15、 wall formed an image on the far wall. It was observed that if you enlarge the hole, the image blurred and disappeared. On the other hand, the smaller the hole, the sharper the image-down to a certain diameter after which making the hole smaller makes the image worse again.The function of a pinhole
16、is to screen out all light rays except those coming in a perfectly straight line from the object, thus improving the sharpness of the image. After passing through a point the rays again spread out a little bit, and the size of the image formed will depend upon how far back the wall, screen, or film
17、is from the pinhole.The full exploitation of this phenomenon had to wait for the development of the lens, which gathered in a much larger number of light rays and still brought them to form an image, just as the pinhole did, but with a difference: in a pinhole camera, the light rays form an image th
18、at is equally sharp regardless of the distance to the film. When a lens is used, there may be a choice of planes of focus determined by adjusting the lens-to-film distance. Each plane is located some distance behind and relatively parallel to the lens.Actual blown glass was developed early in Egypti
19、an times, and the first lens may have been the bottom of a wine bottle. However, the first deliberate grinding of lenses did not take place until the thirteenth century, and the art did not become established until the sixteenth century. A book on the grinding and polishing of lenses was issued by B
20、. Battista della Porta in 1589, but it was not until 1611 that Kepler compared a lens of glass to the lens in the eye and showed that rays from each point of an object were brought to a focus at each corresponding point of an image on the retina. Then, in 1619, Scheiner demonstrated the actual forma
21、tion of an inverted image on the retina.（分数：10.00）(1).A good title for this selection would be _ .（分数：2.00）A.Modern LensesB.The Modern CameraC.Lenses and Image FormationD.Development in Photography(2).A camera lens is preferable to a pinhole because it can _ .（分数：2.00）A.offer a choice of planes of f
22、ocusB.gather more light raysC.control the size of the image formed on the filmD.gather more light rays and bring them to a focus at a given plane(3).The principle of inverted image formation _ .（分数：2.00）A.was discovered by Battista della Porta in 1589B.was not understood until the first lens had bee
23、n manufacturedC.is independent of the presence or absence of a lens or pinholeD.was demonstrated by a human eye(4).The author compares the pinhole to a lens in order to show _ .（分数：2.00）A.the development of the lensB.that both operation on the same principleC.how the early camera operatedD.how primi
24、tive scientific thinking was, prior to the 16th century(5).The word “corresponding“ in the last paragraph means _ .（分数：2.00）A.keeping in touchB.in harmonyC.smallD.different五、Passage Three(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Attacking an increasingly popular Internet business practice, a consumer watchdog group Monday fi
25、led a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asserting that many online search engines are concealing the impact special fees have on search results by Internet users. Commercial Alert, a 3-year-old group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, asked the FTC to investigate whether eight of t
26、he Webs largest search engines are violating federal laws against deceptive advertising. The group said that the search engines are abandoning objective formulas to determine the order of their listed results and selling the top spots to the highest bidders without making adequate disclosures to Web
27、 surfers. The complaint touches a hot-button issue affecting tens of mil-lions of people who submit search queries each day. With more than 2 billion pages and more than 14 billion hyperlinks on the Web, search requests rank as the second most popular online activity after E-mail.The eight search en
28、gines named in Commercial Alerts complaint are: MSN, owned by Microsoft; Netscape, owned by AOL Time Warner; Directhit, owned by Ask Jeeves; HotBot and Lycos, both owned by Term Lycos; AhaVista, owned by CMGI; LookSmart, owned by LookSmart; and iWon, owned by a privately held company operating under
29、 the same name.“Portland, Ore-based Commercial Alert could have named more search engines in its complaint, but focused on the biggest sites that are auctioning off spots in their results,“ said Gary Ruskin, the groups executive director. “Search engines have be-come central in the quest for learnin
30、g and knowledge in our society. The ability to skew the results in favor of hucksters without telling consumers is a serious problem,“ Ruskin said. By late Monday afternoon, three of the search engines had responded to The Associated Press inquiries about the complaint. Two, LookSmart and AltaVista,
31、 denied the charges. Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla said MSN is delivering “compelling search results that people want.“ The FTC had no comment about the complaint Monday. The complaint takes aim at the new business plans embraced by more search engines as they try to cash in on their pivotal role a
32、s Web guides and reverse a steady stream of losses. To boost revenue, search engines in the past year have been accepting payments from businesses interested in receiving a higher ranking in certain categories or ensuring that their sites are reviewed more frequently.（分数：10.00）(1).The consumer group
33、 complained about _ .（分数：2.00）A.special fees that Internet users were chargedB.Federal Trade CommissionC.Commercial AlertD.online search engines(2)._ is the most popular activity online.（分数：2.00）A.Sending pages of informationB.Sending E-mailC.Surfing the netD.Selling the top spot(3).Which of the fol
34、lowing is NOT a correct statement?（分数：2.00）A.There are too many pages or hyperlinks on the Internet, so people usually use search engine to find a certain site.B.More than 8 search engines are accused of selling their search engine spots by Commercial Alert.C.The headquarters of Commercial Alert is
35、in Portland Oregon.D.The search engines are Web guides.(4).All the following share one similarity EXCEPT _ .（分数：2.00）A.Term LycosB.CMGIC.AhaVistaD.Microsoft(5).The primary aim of some companies sponsoring the search engines is to _ .（分数：2.00）A.cash in on their important role as Web guidesB.boost the
36、ir avenueC.reverse a series of lossesD.have their sites visited by the internet users more六、Passage Four(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Marcia Seligson calls the wedding dress the “key metaphor“ in the elaborate effort to make the American wedding an “idealized departure from reality“, and notes that in the early 1
37、970s, at a time when love-ins, live-ins, and hippie weddings were throwing brickbats at tradition, 94 percent of American brides still chose to be married in white. The color has long been associated with weddings because of its supposed symbolic link to virginity. Commenting slyly on the tradition,
38、 Judith Martin (1982) observes that an engaged couple needs to decide “whether wearing a white wedding dress will be worth enduring the sneers of people who believe these must be accessorized by intact hymns“.Viewed historically, the link between white and virginity (or, as it is sometimes euphemize
39、d, purity) is not as absolute as is often supposed. Brides in ancient Rome married in white, but because the color signified joy; they were veiled in bright orange veil, or flammeum, that suggested the flames of passion. In the western Catholic tradition, too, white has always been the color of joy,
40、 and it remains the iconographical-ly correct hue for such jubilant occasions as Easter Sunday. Some traditional societies use white to denote the significance of various passage ceremonies, among them funerals as well as weddings. For example, among the Andaman Islanders, said A. R. Radcliffe-Brown
41、, white indicated simply a change of status; and the traditional Chinese white for funerals was a symbolic representation of hope.The “traditional“ white wedding dress, moreover, is a recent innovation. Barbarar Fober explains that its popularity may owe less to the mystique of virginity than to a c
42、urious twist of conspicuous display. “Most Victorian bribes,“ she says, “wore simply their best finery on their wedding day, and many wore traditional ethnic costumes.“ The white dress was an ostentatiously impractical innovation that became popular among the upper classes precisely because of its d
43、efects: “Victorian bribes“ from privileged backgrounds wore white to indicate that they were rich enough to wear a dress for one day only. And throughout the first years of this century, brides from somewhat less privileged backgrounds would trot out the white dress on special occasions through-out
44、the first year of their marriage. The custom of locking the treasure away after the wedding-so that, like a toasting glass, it could never be used for a lesser purpose-is less than a hundred years old.（分数：10.00）(1).According to the passage, wearing a white wedding dress has little to do with _ .（分数：
45、2.00）A.virginityB.purityC.hopeD.tradition(2).From historical point of view, the white color has been associated with all of the following EXCEPT _ .（分数：2.00）A.ceremonies of weddings and funeralsB.flames of passion in new couplesC.feelings of joyD.changes of social status(3).It can be inferred from t
46、he passage that white dress _ .（分数：2.00）A.enjoys general popularityB.represents modern styleC.means something that brings people joyD.symbolizes the aristocracy of Victorians(4).Nowadays, after the wedding white dress for brides from ordinary families _ .（分数：2.00）A.was worn throughout the first year
47、B.was never worn againC.was ware once in a whileD.was reserved for special purpose(5).The best title for the passage is _ .（分数：2.00）A.Tradition of White Wedding DressB.Origin of Wedding DressC.History of Wedding DressD.Appeal of White Dress七、Part Vocabulary(总题数：20，分数：10.00)1.Public works projects ha
48、ve not significantly _ the unemployment situation.（分数：0.50）A.facilitatedB.mollifiedC.softenedD.alleviated2.With her management skills and his marketing expertise, they make a _ combination.（分数：0.50）A.bleakB.finiteC.brutalD.formidable3.The country signed a/an _ contract with America with an aim to ma
49、ke good use of their natural resources and capital.（分数：0.50）A.residentialB.unusualC.influentialD.reciprocal4.The police stopped me the other day as I was driving home, because I was _ the speed limit.（分数：0.50）A.transcendingB.exceedingC.surpassingD.overtaking5.The wreckage of the exploded car _ the traffic.（分数：0.50）A.interferedB.interpretedC.disruptedD.corrupted6.Twins often show great _, but these twins are an exception.（分数：0.50）A.likelihoodB.resistanceC.resembl
