1、考研英语(二)2015 年真题及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Use of Eng(总题数：1，分数：10.00)In our contemporary culture, the prospect of communicating withor even looking ata stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they cling to their phones, even without a 1 on a subway. It
2、“s a sad realityour desire to avoid interacting with other human beingsbecause there“s 2 to be gained from talking to the stranger standing by you. But you wouldn“t know it, 3 into your phone. This universal protection sends the 4 : “Please don“t approach me.“ What is it that makes us feel we need t
3、o hide 5 our screens? One answer is fear, according to Jon Wortmann, an executive mental coach. We fear rejection, or that our innocent social advances will be 6 as “weird.“ We fear we“ll be 7 . We fear we“ll be disruptive. Strangers are inherently 8 to us, so we are more likely to feel 9 when commu
4、nicating with them compared with our friends and acquaintances. To avoid this uneasiness, we 10 to our phones. “Phones become our security blanket,“ Wortmann says. “They are our happy glasses that protect us from what we perceive is going to be more 11 .“ But once we rip off the band-aid, tuck our s
5、martphones in our pockets and look up, it doesn“t 12 so bad. In one 2011 experiment, behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder asked commuters to do the unthinkable: Start a 13 They had Chicago train commuters talk to their fellow 14 . “When Dr. Epley and Ms. Schroeder asked other p
6、eople in the same train station to 15 how they would feel after talking to a stranger, the commuters thought their 16 would be more pleasant if they sat on their own,“ The New York Times summarizes. Though the participants didn“t expect a positive experience, after they 17 with the experiment, “not
7、a single person reported having been embarrassed.“ 18 , these commutes were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those without communication, which makes absolute sense, 19 human beings thrive off of social connections. It“s that 20 : Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.（分数：10.00）A.t
8、icketB.permitC.signalD.recordA.nothingB.littleC.anotherD.muchA.beatenB.guidedC.pluggedD.broughtA.messageB.codeC.noticeD.signA.underB.beyondC.behindD.fromA.misinterpretedB.misappliedC.misadjustedD.mismatchedA.firedB.judgedC.replacedD.delayedA.unreasonableB.ungratefulC.unconventionalD.unfamiliarA.comf
9、ortableB.anxiousC.confidentD.angryA.attendB.pointC.takeD.turnA.dangerousB.mysteriousC.violentD.boringA.hurtB.resistC.bendD.decayA.lectureB.conversationC.debateD.negotiationA.traineesB.employeesC.researchersD.passengersA.revealB.chooseC.predictD.designA.voyageB.flightC.walkD.rideA.went throughB.did a
10、wayC.caught upD.put upA.In turnB.In particularC.In factD.In consequenceA.unlessB.sinceC.ifD.whereasA.funnyB.logicalC.simpleD.rare二、Section Reading Co(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Part A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：10.00)A new study suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed at
11、home than at work. Researchers measured people“s cortisol, which is a stress marker, while they were at work and while they were at home and found it higher at what is supposed to be a place of refuge. “Further contradicting conventional wisdom, we found that women as well as men have lower levels o
12、f stress at work than at home.“ writes one of the researchers, Sarah Damaske. In fact women even say they feel better at work, she notes, “It is men, not women, who report being happier at home than at work.“ Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with children and without, b
13、ut more so for nonparents. This is why people who work outside the home have better health. What the study doesn“t measure is whether people are still doing work when they“re at home, whether it is household work or work brought home from the office. For many men, the end of the workday is a time to
14、 kick back. For women who stay home, they never get to leave the office. And for women who work outside the home, they often are playing catch-up-with-household tasks. With the blurring of roles, and the fact that the home front lags well behind the workplace in making adjustments for working women,
15、 it“s not surprising that women are more stressed at home. But it“s not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what they“re supposed to be doing, working, making money, doing the tasks they have to do in order to draw an income. The bargain is very pure. Employee puts in hours of phys
16、ical or mental labor and employee draws out life-sustaining moola . On the home front, however, people have no such clarity. Rare is the household in which the division of labor is so clinically and methodically laid out. There are a lot of tasks to be done, there are inadequate rewards for most of
17、them. Your home colleaguesyour familyhave no clear rewards for their labor: they need to be talked into it, or if they“re teenagers, threatened with complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, they“re your family. You cannot fire your family. You never really get to go home from home. So it“s
18、not surprising that people are more stressed at home. Not only are the tasks apparently infinite, the co-workers are much harder to motivate.（分数：10.00）(1).According to Paragraph 1, most previous surveys found that home _.（分数：2.00）A.was an unrealistic place for relaxationB.generated more stress than
19、the workplaceC.was an ideal place for stress measurementD.offered greater relaxation than the workplace(2).According to Damaske, who are likely to be the happiest at home?（分数：2.00）A.Working mothersB.Childless husbandsC.Childless wivesD.Working fathers(3).The blurring of working women“s roles refers
20、to the fact that _.（分数：2.00）A.they are both bread winners and housewivesB.their home is also a place for kicking backC.there is often much housework left behindD.it is difficult for them to leave their office(4).The word “moola“(Line 4, Para. 4)most probably means _.（分数：2.00）A.energyB.skillsC.earnin
21、gsD.nutrition(5).The home front differs from the workplace in that _.（分数：2.00）A.home is hardly a cozier working environmentB.division of labor at home is seldom clear-cutC.household tasks are generally more motivatingD.family labor is often adequately rewarded五、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：10.00)For years, studi
22、es have found that first-generation college studentsthose who do not have a parent with a college degreelag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they s
23、ucceed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created “a paradox“ in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has “continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close“
24、 an achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science . But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, ne
25、xt-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and other students. The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at
26、 an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with four-year college degree. Most of the first-generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial need, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of
27、the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree. Their thesisthat a relatively modest intervention could have a big impactwas based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face mos
28、t college students. They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap. Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education, learn the “rules of the game,“ and take advantage of coll
29、ege resources,“ they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges don“t talk about the class advantages and disadvantages of different groups of students. “Because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students“ educational experiences, many first-gen
30、eration students lack of sight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students “like them“ can improve.“（分数：10.00）(1).Recruiting more first-generation students has _.（分数：2.00）A.reduced their dropout ratesB.narrowed the achievement gapC.missed its original purposeD.depressed college
31、students(2).The authors of the research article are optimistic because _.（分数：2.00）A.the problem is solvableB.their approach is costlessC.the recruiting rate has increasedD.their findings appeal to students(3).The study suggests that most first-generation students _.（分数：2.00）A.study at private univer
32、sitiesB.are from single-parent familiesC.are in need of financial supportD.have failed their college(4).The author of the paper believe that first-generation students _.（分数：2.00）A.are actually indifferent to the achievement gapB.can have a potential influence on other studentsC.may lack opportunitie
33、s to apply for research projectsD.are inexperienced in handling their issues at college(5).We may infer from the last paragraph that _.（分数：2.00）A.universities often reject the culture of the middle-classB.students are usually to blame for their lack of resourcesC.social class greatly helps enrich ed
34、ucational experiencesD.colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question六、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Even in traditional offices, “the lingua franca of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago,“ said Harvard Business School professor
35、Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. “If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey, mission, passion . There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn“t talk about energy ; we didn“t ta
36、lk about passion .“ Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very “team“-orientedand not by coincidence. “Let“s not forget sportsin male-dominated corporate America, it“s still a big deal. It“s not explicitly conscious; it“s the idea that I“m a coach, and you“re my team, and we
37、“re in this together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win.“ These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaningand, as Rakesh Khurana, another professor, points out, increase allegiance
38、 to the firm. “You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations, terms like vision, values, passion , and purpose,“ said Khurana. This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid inc
39、reasingly loud debates over work-life balance . The “mommy wars“ of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can“t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg“s Lean In , whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug, offline, life-hack, ba
40、ndwidth , and capacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if your work is your “passion,“ you“ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed. But this seems to be the irony of off
41、ice speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it, companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As a linguist once said, “You can get people to think it“s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it.“ In a workplace that“s fundamentally indifferent to your life and its
42、meaning, office speak can help you figure out how you relate to your workand how your work defines who you are.（分数：10.00）(1).According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become _.（分数：2.00）A.more emotionalB.more objectiveC.less energeticD.less strategic(2).“Team“-oriented corporate vocabulary is clo
43、sely related to _.（分数：2.00）A.historical incidentsB.gender differenceC.sports cultureD.athletic executives(3).Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to _.（分数：2.00）A.revive historical termsB.promote company imageC.foster corporate cooperationD.strengthen employee loyalty(4).It can b
44、e inferred that Lean In _.（分数：2.00）A.voices for working womenB.appeals to passionate workaholicsC.triggers debates among mommiesD.praises motivated employees(5).Which of the following statements is true about office speak?（分数：2.00）A.Managers admire it but avoid itB.Linguists believe it to be nonsens
45、eC.Companies find it to be fundamentalD.Regular people mock it but accept it七、Text 4(总题数：1，分数：10.00)Many people talked of the 288,000 new jobs the Labor Department reported for June, along with the drop in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, as good news. And they were right. For now it appears th
46、e economy is creating jobs at a decent pace. We still have a long way to go to get back to full employment, but at least we are now finally moving forward at a faster pace. However, there is another important part of the jobs picture that was largely overlooked. There was a big jump in the number of
47、 people who report voluntarily working part-time. This figure is now 830,000 (4.4 percent) above its year ago level. Before explaining the connection to the Obamacare, it is worth making an important distinction. Many people who work part-time jobs actually want full-time jobs. They take part-time w
48、ork because this is all they can get. An increase in involuntary part-time work is evidence of weakness in the labor market and it means that many people will be having a very hard time making ends meet. There was an increase in involuntary part-time in June, but the general direction has been down.
49、 Involuntary part-time employment is still far higher than before the recession, but it is down by 640,000(7.9 percent) from its year ago level. We know the difference between voluntary and involuntary part-time employment because people tell us. The survey used by the Labor Department asks people if they worked less than 35 hours in the reference week. If the answer is “yes,“ they are classified as working part-time. The survey then asks whether they worked less than 35 hours in that week because they wanted to
