1、考博英语-80 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)In recent years, railroads have been combining with each other, merging into super systems, causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top four railroads accounted for under 70 p
2、ercent of the total ton-miles moved by rails. Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four railroads will control well over 90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers. Supporters of the new super systems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reducti
3、ons and better coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them
4、by the throat. The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such “captive“ shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for the business. Shippers who feel they are being ove
5、rcharged have the right to appeal to the federal government“s Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extreme cases. Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it r
6、educes everyone“s cost. If railroads charged all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of keeping up the line. It“s theory to which many economist
7、s subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail. “Do we really want railroads to be the arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace?“ asks Martin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents
8、 shipper. Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads cont
9、inue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the 1.02 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail“s net railway operating income in 1996 was just 427 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who
10、“s going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.（分数：20.00）(1).According to those who support mergers railway monopoly is unlikely because _.（分数：4.00）A.cost reduction is based on competitionB.services c
11、all for cross-trade coordinationC.outside competitors will continue to existD.shippers will have the railway by the throat(2).What is many captive shippers“ attitude towards the consolidation in the rail industry?（分数：4.00）A.Indifferent.B.Supportive.C.Indignant.D.Apprehensive.(3).It can be inferred f
12、rom Paragraph 3 that _.（分数：4.00）A.shippers will be charged less without a rival railroadB.there will soon be only one railroad company nationwideC.overcharged shippers are unlikely to appeal for rate reliefD.a government board ensures fair play in railway business(4).The word “arbiters“ (Line 6, Par
13、a. 4) most probably refers to those _.（分数：4.00）A.who work as coordinatorsB.who function as judgesC.who supervise transactionsD.who determine the price(5).According to the text, the cost increase in the rail industry is mainly caused by _.（分数：4.00）A.the continuing acquisitionB.the growing trafficC.th
14、e cheering Wall StreetD.the shrinking market三、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans“ life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, cataracts removed in a 3
15、0-minutes surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death, and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal;
16、 we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done fo
17、r us, even if it“s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physiciansfrustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patienttoo often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion o
18、n health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain agesay 83 or s
19、o. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way“, so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain
20、 dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O“Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can ma
21、nage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that pe
22、ople in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people“s lives.（分数：20.00）(1).What is implie
23、d in the first sentence?（分数：4.00）A.Americans are better prepared for death than other people.B.Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before.C.Americans are over-confident of their medical technology.D.Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy.(2).The author uses the example
24、 of cancer patients to show that _.（分数：4.00）A.medical resources are often wastedB.doctors are helpless against fatal diseasesC.some treatments are too aggressiveD.medical costs are becoming unaffordable(3).The author“s attitude toward Richard Lamm“s remark is one of _.（分数：4.00）A.strong disapprovalB.
25、reserved consentC.slight contemptD.enthusiastic support(4).In contrast to the U.S., Japan and Sweden are funding their medical care _.（分数：4.00）A.more flexiblyB.more extravagantlyC.more cautiouslyD.more reasonably(5).The text intends to express the idea that _.（分数：4.00）A.medicine will further prolong
26、 people“s livesB.life beyond a certain limit is not worth livingC.death should be accepted as a fact of lifeD.excessive demands increase the cost of health care四、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：20.00)If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and pr
27、oblems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of manage
28、rs, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses. Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses“ convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same v
29、iew of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a whi
30、te coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stamps over to a table by himself. “Who is that?“ the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that“s God,“ came the reply, “but sometimes he thinks he“s a doctor.“ If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a positi
31、on to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it“ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman“s notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn“t attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outside
32、r making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system. If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off-the-
33、cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it“s the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark. Look for the humor. It often comes f
34、rom the unexpecteda twist on a familiar quote “If at first you don“t succeed, give up“ or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggerations and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.（分数：20.00）(1).To makeinsta
35、ntaneouslv（分数：4.00）A.take advantage of different kinds of audienceB.make fun of the disorganized peopleC.address different problems to different peopleD.show sympathy for your listeners(2).The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are _.（分数：4.00）A.impolite to new arrivalsB.ver
36、y conscious of their godlike roleC.entitled to some privilegesD.very busy even during lunch hours(3).It can be inferred from the text that public services _.（分数：4.00）A.have benefited many peopleB.are the focus of public attentionC.are an inappropriate subject for humorD.have often been the laughing
37、stock(4).To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered _.（分数：4.00）A.in well-worded languageB.as awkwardly as possibleC.in exaggerated statementsD.as casually as possible(5).The best title for the text may be _.（分数：4.00）A.Use Humor EffectivelyB.Various Kinds of HumorC.Add Humor
38、to SpeechD.Different Humor Strategies五、Text 4(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in roboticsthe science of conferring various human ca
39、pabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction, they have begun to come close. As a result, the modem world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human lab
40、or. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro
41、-mechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimetre accuracyfar greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone. But if robots are to reach the next stage of laborsaving utility, they will have to op
42、erate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for themselvesgoals that pose a real challenge. “While we know how to tell a robot to handle a specific error,“ says Dave Lavery, manager of a robotics program at NASA, “we can“t yet give a robot enough “common sense“ to
43、reliably interact with a dynamic world.“ Indeed the quest for true artificial intelligence has produced very mixed results. Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by
44、the year 2010, researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries. What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain“s roughly one hundred billion nerve cells are much more talentedand human perception far more complicatedthan previously imagined
45、. They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel by a fraction of a-millimeter in a controlled factory environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the monkey at t
46、he side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can“t approach that kind of ability, and neuroscientists still don“t know quite how we do it.（分数：20.00）(1).Human ingenuity was initially demonstrated in _.（分数：4.00）A.the use of
47、machines to produce science fictionB.the wide use of machines in manufacturing industryC.the invention of tools for difficult and dangerous workD.the elite“s cunning tackling of dangerous and boring work(2).The word “gizmos“ (Line 1, Para. 2) most probably means _.（分数：4.00）A.programsB.expertsC.devic
48、esD.creatures(3).According to the text, what is beyond man“s ability now is to design a robot that can _.（分数：4.00）A.fulfill delicate tasks like performing brain surgeryB.interact with human beings verballyC.have a little common senseD.respond independently to a changing world(4).Besides reducing hum
49、an labor, robots can also _.（分数：4.00）A.make a few decisions for themselvesB.deal with some errors with human interventionC.improve factory environmentsD.cultivate human creativity(5).The author uses the example of a monkey to argue that robots are _.（分数：4.00）A.expected to copy human brain in internal structureB.able to perceive abnormalities immediatelyC.far less able than human brain in focusing on relevant informationD.best used in a controlled environment六、Text 5(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Could the bad old da
