1、考博英语-84 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)Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the
2、 fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn“t they fall out of the sky? The fact that the app
3、le fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets. How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because he was not trying to
4、 predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don“t have unpredictable things, you don“t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical
5、 journals, but history is filled with examples of it. In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the “scientific method“a substitute for imaginative thought. I“ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thin
6、ks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said “the data are still inconclusive.“ “We know that,“ the men from the budget office have said, “but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What do you think we might expect?“
7、The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate. What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and bus
8、iness management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonabl
9、e for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desir
10、able to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the “odd balls“ among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who “work well with the team“.（分数：20.00）(1).The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac N
11、ewton that _.（分数：5.00）A.inquiring minds are more important than scientific experimentsB.science advances when fruitful researches are conductedC.scientists seldom forget the essential nature of researchD.unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research(2).The author asserts that s
12、cientists _.（分数：5.00）A.shouldn“t replace “scientific method“ with imaginative thoughtB.shouldn“t neglect to speculate on unpredictable thingsC.should write more concise reports for technical journalsD.should be confident about their research findings(3).It seems that some young scientists _.（分数：5.00
13、）A.have a keen interest in predictionB.often speculate on the futureC.think highly of creative thinkingD.stick to “scientific method“(4).The author implies that the results of scientific research _.（分数：5.00）A.may not be as profitable as they are expectedB.can be measured in dollars and centsC.rely o
14、n conformity to a standard patternD.are mostly underestimated by management三、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind“s long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our
15、bidding so fascination. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good. The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn“t help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and p
16、eople striving to assert themselves. Egypt“s leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey“s bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam. But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the
17、fertile silt that floods leftall in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity. And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in th
18、e troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself. Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go ahead to the even more wr
19、ong headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed. Proper scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefit
20、s of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You
21、 don“t need a dam to be saved.（分数：20.00）(1).The third sentence of paragraph 1 implies that _.（分数：5.00）A.people would be happy if they shut their eyes to realityB.the blind could be happier than the sightedC.over-excited people tend to neglect vital thingsD.fascination makes people lose their eyesigh
22、t(2).In Paragraph 5, “the powerless“ probably refers to _.（分数：5.00）A.areas short of electricityB.dams without power stationsC.poor countries around IndiaD.common people in the Narmada Dam area(3).What is the myth concerning giant dams?（分数：5.00）A.They bring in more fertile soil.B.They help defend the
23、 country.C.They strengthen international ties.D.They have universal control of the waters.(4).What the author tries to suggest may best be interpreted as “_“.（分数：5.00）A.It“s no use crying over spilt milkB.More haste, less speedC.Look before you leapD.He who laughs last laughs best四、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：2
24、0.00)Well, no gain without pain, they say. But what about pain without gain? Everywhere you go in America, you hear tales of corporate revival. What is harder to establish is whether the productivity revolution that businessmen assume they are presiding over is for real. The official statistics are
25、mildly discouraging. They show that, if you lump manufacturing and services together, productivity has grown on average by 1.2% since 1987. That is somewhat faster than the average during the previous decade. And since 1991, productivity has increased by about 2% a year, which is more than twice the
26、 1978-1987 average. The trouble is that part of the recent acceleration is due to the usual rebound that occurs at this point in a business cycle, and so is not conclusive evidence of a revival in the underlying trend. There is, as Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary, says, a “disjunction“ between
27、the mass of business anecdote that points to a leap in productivity and the picture reflected by the statistics. Some of this can be easily explained. New ways of organizing the workplace all that reengineering and downsizingare only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which
28、is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training. Moreover, most of the changes that companies make are intended to keep them profitable, and this need not always mean increasing productivity: switching to n
29、ew markets or improving quality can matter just as much. Two other explanations are more speculative. First, some of the business restructuring of recent years may have been ineptly done. Second, even if it was well done, it may have spread much less widely than people suppose. Leonard Schlesinger,
30、a Harvard academic and former chief executive of Au Bong Pain, a rapidly growing chain of bakery cafes, says that much “reengineering“ has been crude. In many cases, he believes, the loss of revenue has been greater than the reductions in cost. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many com
31、panies have applied reengineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long term profitability. BBDO“s A1 Rosenshine is blunter. He dismisses a lot of the work of reengineering consultants as mere rubbish“the worst sort of ambulance cashing“.（分数：20.00）(1)
32、.According to the author, the American economic situation is _.（分数：5.00）A.not as good as it seemsB.at its turning pointC.much better than it seemsD.near to complete recovery(2).The official statistics on productivity growth _.（分数：5.00）A.exclude the usual rebound in a business cycleB.fall short of bu
33、sinessmen“s anticipationC.meet the expectation of business peopleD.fail to reflect the true state of economy(3).The author raises the question “what about pain without gain?“ because _.（分数：5.00）A.he questions the truth of “no gain without pain“B.he does not think the productivity revolution worksC.h
34、e wonders if the official statistics are misleadingD.he has conclusive evidence for the revival of businesses(4).Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?（分数：5.00）A.Radical reforms are essential for the increase of productivity.B.New ways of organizing workplaces may help to
35、 increase productivity.C.The reduction of costs is not a sure way to gain long term profitability.D.The consultants are a bunch of good for nothings.五、Text 4(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo“s 17th century trial for his rebel
36、ling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake“s harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century. Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to i
37、gnore its criticsbut no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked “antiscience“ in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R. Gross, a biologist at the University of Verginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon Haunted Worl
38、d, by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as “The Flight from Science and Reason,“ held in New York City in 1995, and “Science in the Age of (Mis) information,“ which assembled last June near Buffalo. Antiscience clearly means diffe
39、rent things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science“s objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview. A
40、survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research. Few would dispute that the
41、term applies to the Unbomber, those manifest, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay in U.S. News and The Demon Haunted World, by
42、Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as “The Flight from Science and Reason,“ held in New York City in 1995, and “Science in the Age of (Mis) information,“ which assembled last June near Buffalo. Antiscience clearly means different t
43、hings to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science“s objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview. A survey
44、 of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research. Few would dispute that the term a
45、pplies to the Unbomber, those manifest, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay in U.S. News & World Report last May seemed to sugg
46、est. The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of indu
47、strial growth. Indeed, some observers fear that the antiscience epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. “The term “antiscience“ can lump together too many, quite different things,“ notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti Science. “They have in commo
48、n only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened.“（分数：20.00）(1).The word “schism“ (Line 3, Para. 1) in the context probably means _.（分数：5.00）A.confrontationB.dissatisfactionC.separation D.contempt解析：解析 本题可参照文章的第 1段。从中可知，科学与文化的其他方面关系一向紧张；然后列举了伽利略的受审
49、和威廉布莱克对艾萨克牛顿的尖刻批评这两个例子来说明这一问题；最后一句话指出：在本世纪，如果说有什么不同的话，那就是，科学与人文科学之间的裂痕更加深了。据此可知，“schism”一词在上下文中的意思应该是“分裂”。C 项与文章的意思相符，因此 C项为正确答案。(2).Paragraphs 2 and 3 are written to _.（分数：5.00）A.discuss the cause of the decline of science“s powerB.show the author“s sympathy with scientistsC.explain the way in which science developsD.exemplify the division of science and the humanities 解析：解析 从文章第 1段的内容可知，自然科学与人文科学之间的裂痕甚至加深了；文章第 2、3 段对此作了具体说明：以前，科学界的势力非常强大，以致可以对批评者置之不理但现在不一样了；因为科研经费减少，科学家推出几本书来反击“反科学”的倾向；科学捍卫者还在集会上发表了他们的忧虑。据此可知，第 2段和第 3
