1、考博英语-74 及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollar“s worth of silver. That is because the coins were actually made of silver. But those days are gone. Ther
2、e is no silver in today“s coins. When the price of the precious metal rises above its face value as money, the metal will become more valuable in other uses. Silver coins are no longer in circulation because the silver in coins is worth much more than their face value. A silver firm could find that
3、it is cheaper to obtain silver by melting down coins than by buying it on the commodity markets. Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals. Gresham“s Law, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, argues that “good money“ is driven out of circulation by “bad money“. Good money differs from bad money
4、because it has higher commodity value. Gresham lived in the 16th century in England where it was common for gold and silver coins to be debased. Governments did this by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver. The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less prec
5、ious metal than the face value indicated. Because different mixings of coins had different amounts of gold and silver, even though they bore the same face value, some coins were worth more than others as commodities. People who dealt with gold and silver could easily see the difference between the “
6、good“ and the “bad“ money. Gresham observed that coins with a higher content of gold and silver were kept rather than being used in exchange, or were melted down for their precious metal. In the mid-1960s when the U.S. issued new coins to replace silver coins, Gresham“s law went right in action.（分数：
7、20.00）(1).Why was it possible for Americans to use a one-dollar bill for a dollar“s worth of silver?（分数：5.00）A.Because there was a lot of silver in the United States.B.Because money was the medium of payment.C.Because coins were made of silver.D.Because silver was considered worthless.(2).Today“s co
8、ins in the United States are made of _.（分数：5.00）A.some precious metalsB.silver and some precious metalsC.various expensive metalsD.some inexpensive metals(3).What is the difference between “good money“ and “bad money“?（分数：5.00）A.They are circulated in different markets.B.They are issued in different
9、 face values.C.They are made of different amounts of gold and silver.D.They have different uses.(4).What was the purpose of the governments issuing new coins by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver in the 16th century?（分数：5.00）A.They wanted to reserve some gold and silver for themselves.B.Ther
10、e was neither enough gold nor enough silver.C.New coins were easier to be made.D.They could make money.三、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “ice-box“ had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United S
11、tates: The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even bef
12、ore 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modem refrigerator, had been invented. Making an ef
13、ficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose: In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it w
14、as the melting of ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation neede
15、d for an efficient icebox. But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transpor
16、t his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel
17、to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.（分数：20.00）(1).What is the main idea of this passage?（分数：5.00）A.The influence of ice on the diet.B.The transportation of goods to market.C.The development of refrigeration.D.Sources of the term “ice-box“.(2).According to the passage, when did the
18、 word “ice-box“ become part of the American language?（分数：5.00）A.In 1803.B.Around 1850.C.During the Civil War.D.Before 1880.(3).The word “rudimentary“ in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _.（分数：5.00）A.basicB.sufficientC.necessaryD.undeveloped(4).The sentence “Thomas Moore, had been on the fight tr
19、ack“. (Para. 3) indicates that _.（分数：5.00）A.Moore“s farm was not far away from WashingtonB.Moore“s farm was on the right roadC.Moore“s design was completely successfulD.Moore was suitable for the job四、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Today, the computer has taken up appliance status in more than 42 percent of
20、households across the United States. And these computers are increasingly biting wired to the Internet. Online access was up more than 50 percent in just the past year. Now, more than one quarter of all U.S. households can surf in cyberspace. Mostly, this explosive growth has occurred democratically
21、. The online penetration and computer ownership increases extend across all the demographic levelsby race, geography, income, and education. We view these trends as favorable without the slightest question because we clearly see computer technology as empowering. In fact, personal growth and a prosp
22、erous U.S. economy are considered to be the long-range rewards of individual and collective technological power. Now for the not-so-good news. The government“s analysis spells out so-called digital divide. That is, the digital explosion is not booming at the same pace for everyone. Yes, it is true t
23、hat we are all plugged in to a much greater degree than any of us have been in the past. But some of us are more plugged in than others and are getting plugged in far more rapidly. And this gap is widening even as the pace of the information age accelerates through society. Computer ownership and In
24、ternet access are highly classified along lines of wealth, race, education, and geography. The data indicates that computer ownership and online access are growing more rapidly among the most prosperous and well educated: essentially, wealthy white people with high school and college diplomas and wh
25、o are part of stable, two-parent households. The highest income bracket households, those earning more than $75,000 annually, are 20 times as likely to have access to the Internet as households at the lowest income levels, under $10,000 annually. The computer-penetration rate at the high-income leve
26、l is an amazing 76.56 percent, compared with 8 percent at the bottom end of the scale. Technology access differs widely by educational level. College graduates are 16 times as likely to be Internet surfers at home as are those with only elementary-school education. If you look at the differences bet
27、ween these groups in rural areas, the gap widens to a twenty-six-fold advantage for the college-educated. From the time of the last study, the information-access gap grew by 29 percent between the highest and lowest income groups, and by 25 percent between the highest and lowest education levels. In
28、 the long run, participation in the information age may not be a zero sum game, where if some groups win, others must lose. Eventually, as the technology matures we are likely to see penetration levels approach all groups equally. This was true for telephone access and television ownership, but even
29、tually can be cold comfort in an era when tomorrow is rapidly different from today and unrecognizable compared with yesterday.（分数：20.00）(1).How many U.S. households have linked to Internet today?（分数：5.00）A.More than 25 percent.B.By 29 percent.C.More than 42 percent.D.More than 50 percent.(2).Accordi
30、ng to the text, the computer used by the high-income level is _ that by the lowest income levels.（分数：5.00）A.8 percent more thanB.76.56 percent more thanC.nearly 10 times as many asD.about 20 times as many as(3).According to the author, which of the following prevents people from gaining access to th
31、e Internet?（分数：5.00）A.Income level.B.Poor education and low-income level.C.Participation in the information age.D.Telephone access and television ownership.(4).Judging from the context, what does “digital divide“ (Para. 3) probably mean?（分数：5.00）A.The government“s analysis.B.The divide between the p
32、oor and the rich.C.The pace of the information age.D.The gap between people“s access to the computer.五、Text 4(总题数：1，分数：15.00)Just over a year ago, I foolishly locked up my bicycle outside my office, but forgot to remove the pannier. When I returned the pannier had been stolen. Inside it were about t
33、en of the little red notebooks I take everywhere for jotting down ideas for articles, short stories, TV shows and the like. When I lost my notebooks, I was devastated; all the ideas I“d had over the past two years were contained within their pages. I could remember only a few of them, but had the im
34、pression that those I couldn“t recall were truly brilliant. Those little books were crammed with the plots of award-winning novels and scripts for radio comedy shows that were only two-thirds as bad as the ones on at the moment. That“s not all, though. In my reminiscence, my lost notebooks contained
35、 sketches for many innovative and incredible machines. In one book there was a design for a device that could turn sea water into apple cider; in another, plan for an automatic dog; in a third, sketches for a pair of waterproof shoes with television screens built into the toes. Now all of these plan
36、s are lost to humanity. I found my notebooks again. It turns out they weren“t in the bike pannier at all, but in a bag in my spare room, where I found six months after supposedly losing them. And when I flipped through their pages, ready to run to the patent office in the morning, I discovered they
37、were completely full of rubbish. Discovering the notebooks really shook me up. I had firmly come to believe they were brimming with brilliant, inventive stuffand yet clearly they weren“t. I had deluded myself. After surveying my nonsense, I found that this halo effect always attaches itself to thing
38、s that seem irretrievably lost. Don“t we all have a sneaking feeling that the weather was sunnier, TV shows funnier and cake-shop buns bunnier in the not-very-distant pasty. All this would not matter much except that it is a powerful element in reactionary thought, this belief in a better yesterday.
39、 After all, racism often stems from a delusion that things have deteriorated since “they“ came. What a boon to society it would be if people could visit the past and see that it wasn“t the paradise they imagine but simply the present with different hats. Sadly, time travel is impossible. Until now,
40、that is. Because I“ve suddenly remembered I left a leather jacket in an Indonesian restaurant a couples of years ago, and I“m absolutely certain that in the inside pocket there was a sketch I“d made.（分数：15.00）(1).By “only two-thirds as bad as the ones on at the moment“ the author means _.（分数：5.00）A.
41、better thanB.as bad asC.worse thanD.as good as(2).As soon as the author read the lost notebooks, he _.（分数：5.00）A.reported the factB.found it valuelessC.registered the inventionsD.was very excited(3).Which of the following would the author most probably agree with?（分数：5.00）A.Yesterday is better.B.Yes
42、terday is no better than today.C.Self-delusion sometimes is necessary.D.Things today have deteriorated.六、Text 5(总题数：1，分数：25.00)To us it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But actually the umbrella was not invented as protection against rain. Its first use was
43、 as a shade against the sun. Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese, way back in the eleventh century B.C. We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade. And there was a strang
44、e thing connected with its use: it became a symbol of honor and authority. In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by royalty or by those in high offices. In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. And the umbrella was in common use in
45、ancient Greece. But it is believed that the first persons in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against rain were the ancient Romans. During the Middle Ages, the use of the umbrella practically disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it was conside
46、red a symbol of power and authority. By 1680, the umbrella appeared in France and later on in England. By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used against rain throughout most of Europe. Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weigh
47、t. It wasn“t until the twentieth century that women“s umbrellas began to be made in a whole variety of colors.（分数：25.00）(1).The first use of umbrella was as _.（分数：5.00）A.protection against rainB.a shade against the sunC.a symbol of powerD.a symbol of honor(2)._ were the people who first used umbrell
48、as.（分数：5.00）A.ChineseB.RomansC.GreeksD.Egyptians(3).The umbrella was used only by royalty or by those in high offices _.（分数：5.00）A.in Europe in the 18th centuryB.in ancient Egypt and BabylonC.in the Far East in ancient timesD.during the Middle Ages(4).According to the passage, which of the following
49、 is not true?（分数：5.00）A.Women enjoy using umbrellas with varied kinds of colors nowadays.B.The inventor of the umbrella is unknown.C.Once ordinary people had no right to use umbrellas.D.Umbrellas were popular and cheap in ancient times.(5).Which of the following is the best title of the passage?（分数：5.00）A.When Was the Umbrella Invented?B.The History of UmbrellaC.Umbrella-A Symbol of HonorD.Who Used Umbrella First?考博英语-74 答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Less than 40 years ago in the United Sta
