1、考博英语-79 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)Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a dis
2、advantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet. It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage
3、 that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoe Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K. Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B a
4、nd C respectively; and 26 of George Bush“s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush,
5、Chirac, Chretien and Koizumi). The world“s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world“s five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Alien, Ellison and Albrecht). Can this merely be
6、 coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the ret sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school, teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So shortsighted Zysman
7、 junior gets stuck in the back row, and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as
8、 less confidence in speaking publicly. The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot papers, lists of conference speake
9、rs and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough through them.（分数：20.00）(1).What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?（分数：4.00）A.A kind of overlooked inequality.B.A type of conspicuous bias.C.A type of personal
10、 prejudice.D.A kind of brand discrimination.(2).What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?（分数：4.00）A.In both East and West, names are essential to success.B.The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoe Zysman.C.Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies“ names.D.Some form of disc
11、rimination is too subtle to recognize.(3).The 4th paragraph suggests that _.（分数：4.00）A.questions are often put to the more intelligent studentsB.alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from classC.teachers should pay attention to all of their studentsD.students should be seated according
12、to their eyesight(4).What does the author mean by “most people are literally having a ZZZ“ (Line 2, Para.5)?（分数：4.00）A.They are getting impatient.B.They are noisily dozing off.C.They are feeling humiliated.D.They are busy with word puzzles.(5).Which of the following is true according to the text?（分数
13、：4.00）A.People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.B.VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.C.The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.D.Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.三、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)When it co
14、mes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn“t biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn“t cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she“d like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero bla
15、mes the softening economy. “I“m a good economic indicator,“ she says. “I provide a service that people can do without when they“re concerned about saving some dollars.“ So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard“s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Mar
16、cus. “I don“t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too,“ she says. Even before Alan Greenspan“s admission that America“s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for mon
17、ths as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year“s pace. But don“t sound any alarms just
18、yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy“s long-term prospects even as they do some modest belt-tightening. Consumers say they“re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. H
19、ome prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, “There“s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses,“ says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. “Instead of
20、20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three,“ says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job. Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates.
21、 Employers wouldn“t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan“s hot new Alain Ducasse restaur
22、ant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan “Continuing along this path,“ says writer Earl Shorris. “We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society.“ “Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,“ writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in
23、 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life , a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in U.S. politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Pract
24、icality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book. Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schoo
25、ls and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.“ Mark Twain“s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilizedgoing to school and learning to readso he can preserve his innate goodnes
26、s. Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes
27、, criticizes, and imagines. School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country“s educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectua
28、l promise“.（分数：20.00）(1).What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?（分数：4.00）A.The habit of thinking independently.B.Profound knowledge of the world.C.Practical abilities for future career.D.The confidence in intellectual pursuits.(2).We can learn from the text that American
29、s have a history of _.（分数：4.00）A.undervaluing intellectB.favoring intellectualismC.supporting school reformD.suppressing native intelligence(3).The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are _.（分数：4.00）A.identicalB.similarC.complementaryD.opposite(4).Emerson, according to the text, is probably _.
30、（分数：4.00）A.a pioneer of education reformB.an opponent of intellectualismC.a scholar in favor of intellectD.an advocate of regular schooling(5).What does the author think of intellect?（分数：4.00）A.It is second to intelligence.B.It evolves from common sense.C.It is to be pursued.D.It underlies power.五、T
31、ext 4(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in the World War and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the “great game“ of
32、espionagespying as a “profession“. These days the Net, which has already remade pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan“s vocation as well. The last revolution isn“t simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen“s e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going o
33、n for decades. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying. The spooks call it “open source intelligence“, and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995 the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the
34、most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open-Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world. Among the firms making the biggest splash in the new world is Straitford, Inc., a private intelligence-analysis firm based
35、in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying (covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at . Straiford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as
36、a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster“s dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. “As soon as that report runs, we“ll suddenly get 500 new internet sign-u
37、ps from Ukraine,“ says Friedman, a former political science professor. “And we“ll hear back from some of them.“ Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That“s where Straitford earns its keep. Friedman relies on a lean staff with
38、 twenty in Austin. Several of his staff members have military- intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firm“s outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford“s briefs don“t sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be
39、 wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.（分数：20.00）(1).The emergence of the Net has _.（分数：4.00）A.received support from fans like DonovanB.remolded the intelligence servicesC.restored many common pastimesD.revived spying as a profession(2).Donovan“s story is mentioned i
40、n the text to _.（分数：4.00）A.introduce the topic of online spyingB.show how he fought for the U.S.C.give an episode of the information warD.honor his unique services to the CIA(3).The phrase “making the biggest splash“ (Line 1, Para. 3) most probably means _.（分数：4.00）A.causing the biggest troubleB.exe
41、rting the greatest effortC.achieving the greatest successD.enjoying the widest popularity(4).It can be learned from Paragraph 4 that _.（分数：4.00）A.Straitford“s prediction about Ukraine has proved trueB.Straitford guarantees the truthfulness of its informationC.Straitford“s business is characterized b
42、y unpredictabilityD.Straitford is able to provide fairly reliable information(5).Straitford is most proud of its _.（分数：4.00）A.official statusB.nonconformist imageC.efficient staffD.military background六、Text 5(总题数：1，分数：20.00)To paraphrase 18th-century statesman Edmund Burke, “All that is needed for t
43、he triumph of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing.“ One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animals have rights ruling out their use in research. Scientists need to respond forcefully to animal rights advocates, whose arguments are confusing the pu
44、blic and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of the animal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on public funding, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, ma
45、ny are perplexed that anyone would deliberately harm an animal. For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was distributing a brochure that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animalsno meat, no far, no medicines. Ask
46、ed if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccines come from animal research. When assured that they do, she replied, “Then I would have to say yes.“ Asked what will happen when epidemics return, she said, “Don“t worry, scientists will find some way of using computers.“ Such well-meanin
47、g people just don“t understand. Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate, understandable wayin human terms, not in the language of molecular biology. We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a grandmother“s hip replacement, a father“s bypass
48、operation, a baby“s vaccinations, and even a pet“s shots. To those who are unaware that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and vaccines, animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst. Much can be done. Scientists could “adopt“ middle school
49、classes and present their own research. They should be quick to respond to letters to the editor, lest animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane care. Finally, because the ultimate stakeholders are patients, the health research community should actively recruit to its cause not only well-known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the value of
