1、考研英语(二)分类真题 7 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、Part A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：20.00)The usual distinctions between “basic research,“ “applied research,“ and “development,“ used for many years in the formal government statistics kept by the National Science Fo
2、undation are, unfortunately, insufficient for discussions of policy for government investment in technical activities. Indeed, definitions are the source of much of the confusion over the appropriate role for government in the national scientific and technical enterprise. One cannot distinguish in a
3、ny meaningful way “basic“ from “applied research“ by observing what a scientist is doing. “Applied research“ should not be used to mean “purposeful and demonstrably useful basic research,“ and one should be wary of the use of the term in government statistics. In corporate research laboratories, suc
4、h as the T.J. Watson Research Laboratories of IBM, all of the work is referred to simply as “research.“ There is no need to attempt a distinction between “basic“ and “applied“ research. All of the company“s research investments are motivated by corporate interests. All of the research has a purpose.
5、 All of it is conducted under highly creative conditions. None of it is so “pure“ that there are no expectations of value from the research investment. We should reserve the words “applied research“ for those narrowly defined tasks in which limited time and resources are devoted to a specific proble
6、m for an identified user who gets all the benefit and should pay all the costs. To make this view of applied research clear in this discussion, I use the words “problem-solving research“ instead. Narrow problem-solving and development are activities initiated by someone who wishes to apply research
7、methods purposefully to exploit an identified opportunity or solve a problem. They involve the application of technical resources to achieve an identified goal for a specified beneficiary, usually the investor in the work. It is a reasonable assumption that those who engage in such activities expect
8、 to benefit from them, and to benefit by a sufficient margin over the cost to accommodate the technical risk that is ever-present in research. The investor in problem-solving may be a government agency, but is more likely to be a private firm. In most cases that firm would be expected to be able to
9、appropriate sufficient benefits to need no government subsidy to take those risks. Public investment in the creation of new technology (technological development, whether by research or as a product of problem-solving) is a critical link between societal goals and the scientific research that is pur
10、sued by virtue of society“s commitment to those goals. Thus the desire for technology is an importantperhaps the most importantsource of demand for science.（分数：20.00）(1).The distinction between basic and applied researches is thought by the author to be _（分数：4.00）A.theoretically unjustifiableB.obscu
11、re and misleadingC.scientific but insufficientD.meaningful though confusing(2).A disturbing result of the definitions of nature of research is that _（分数：4.00）A.the role of government in funding research activities is poorly definedB.scientists are not sure whether what they are doing is meaningfulC.
12、the goals of both basic and applied researches are not rationally setD.research in corporate settings is not purposeful or demonstrably useful(3).It is implied in the second paragraph that basic research is characterized by _（分数：4.00）A.less creativityB.higher motivationC.lack of immediate valueD.ins
13、ufficient investment(4).The “applied research“ as the author understands it is best defined in terms of _（分数：4.00）A.the goal it serves and the problem it solvesB.the party that sponsors and benefits from itC.the cost and risks involved in such researchD.both A and B(5).The passage is mainly concerne
14、d with defining the role of _（分数：4.00）A.applied research in the creation of new technologyB.basic research in the creation of new technologyC.private firms in refunding problem-solving researchD.government in the creation of new technology四、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)The employment situation in the Unite
15、d States is much worse than even the dismal numbers from last week“s jobless report would indicate. The nation is facing a full blown employment crisis and policy makers are not responding with anything like the sense of urgency that is needed. Government workers were walking the plank from coast to
16、 coast. About 143,000 temporary Census workers were let go, and another 48,000 government employees at the budget-strapped state and local levels lost their jobs. But the worst news, with the most worrying long-term implications, was that the reason the unemployment rate was not higher was because 1
17、81,000 workers left the labor force. With many of them beaten down by the worst jobs situation since the Great Depression, they just stopped looking for work. And given the Alice-in-Wonderland way in which we compile our official jobless statistics, they are no longer counted as unemployed. Charles
18、McMillion, the president and chief economist of MBG Information Services in Washington, is an expert on employment and has been looking closely for years at the issue of labor force participation. “Over the past three months,“ he said, “1,155,000 unemployed people dropped out of the active labor for
19、ce and were not counted as unemployed. Even ignoring population growth, if these unemployed had not dropped out of the labor force, simple arithmetic shows that the official unemployment rate would have risen from 9.9 percent in April to 10.2 percent in July, rather thanas it hasfallen to 9.5 percen
20、t.“ Because of normal growth in the working-age population, the labor force increases by roughly 150,000 to 200,000 people per month. If those folks were factored in, said Mr. McMillion, “unemployment now would be even higher than 10.2 percent.“ We are not even beginning to cope with this crisis, wh
21、ich began long before the onset of the so-called Great Recession. The economy is showing absolutely no sign of countering the nation“s shocking jobs deficit. They may be thinking about this in Washington, but they sure aren“t doing much about it. The politicians“ approach to the jobs crisis has been
22、 like passing out umbrellas in a hurricane. Millions are suffering and the entire economy is being undermined, and what are they doing? They“re appropriating more and more money for warfare while frantically talking about balancing the budget. We“re not heading toward the danger zone. We“re there. T
23、he U.S. will not remain a stable society if this great employment crisis is not addressed directlyand soon. You cannot allow joblessness on this scale to aggravate. It“s wrong, and the adverse effect will be as destructive and intolerable as it is inevitable.（分数：20.00）(1).The government“s response t
24、o the employment situation is _（分数：4.00）A.slow and ineffectiveB.urgent and preciseC.temporary and destructiveD.determined and decisive(2).The official unemployment data are described as _（分数：4.00）A.frighteningly inaccurateB.inadequately collectedC.precise and encouragingD.intentionally distorted(3).
25、Taking population growth into consideration, the jobless rate would _（分数：4.00）A.be seriously distortedB.hit a historically high recordC.be lower than the official jobless report saysD.be higher than the official statistics indicate(4).The government leaders are more concerned with _（分数：4.00）A.the de
26、plorable unemployment situationB.the economic damage brought on by the hurricaneC.an overall treatment of the ailments of the economyD.the imbalance of the nation“s budget(5).The author concludes the discussion by _（分数：4.00）A.criticizing the government“s inability to redress the economyB.re-emphasiz
27、ing the role of the government in tackling unemploymentC.calling for a direct and immediate solution to the employment crisisD.demonstrating the destructive effect of the high unemployment rates五、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：20.00)When it comes to keeping your brain healthyand working at its bestdoctors have lon
28、g advised patients to “use it or lose it.“ The idea is to keep the intellectual highways humming; if circuits aren“t used, they tend to deteriorate and eventually wither away, leading to dementia, and in some cases, Alzheimer“s. But new research provides a twist on this familiar adviceit turns out t
29、hat some people benefit more from using it than others. Psychiatrists led by Guy Potter at Duke University conducted a study of more than 1,000 male twins, most of whom were World War veterans. Potter collected 50-year-old data on the vets“ IQ scores when they joined the Army, and then compared them
30、 to cognitive test scores the men generated after they retired from various jobs. He found that those who scored in the bottom quartile of the IQ scale when they were in their 20s, and then took on mentally challenging jobs, had the greatest gains on the cognitive tests in their 70s. “Being in a mor
31、e complex job later in life helped them to develop skills they might not have had, or pushed them in ways so they were able to overcome their intellectual limitations,“ says Potter. That means that those with the lowest cognitive abilities are most likely to lose it if they don“t use it, and also mo
32、st likely to protect themselves from dementia and other cognitive problems by keeping their brain circuits active. Not surprisingly, the jobs that proved most beneficial to these folks include the higher degree professions such as law, medicine and journalism, but any career that required multi-task
33、ing, organizing and managerial skill also boosted cognitive abilities later in life. Even being self-employed can qualify, since it requires considerable managerial and organizational skills. While on the face of it, Potter“s study reinforces previous studies“ findings about the importance of keepin
34、g brain circuits active, it is the first to tie it to the subjects“ baseline intellectual ability. In other studies, researchers could never be sure, for instance, that people who remained intellectually active and therefore suffered fewer cases of dementia, didn“t have some sort of brain reserve, o
35、r start out with a higher level of cognitive ability that served as a buffer during their declining years. Since Potter could use the IQ scores from early in life as a baseline, he showed that regardless of how much intellectual ability a person starts out with, a mentally demanding job can keep his
36、 brain healthy well into retirement. In fact, the gains for people who have high IQs are relatively small, leading Potter to speculate that having a complex job, “may make up for a lack of advantage early in life, whether they be socioeconomic or otherwise.“ he says. So depending on what you do for
37、a living, that daily grind may actually be the ultimate brain booster.（分数：20.00）(1).The new research made by Guy Potter _（分数：4.00）A.has thrown the traditional wisdom into serious doubtB.does nothing more than confirming previous studiesC.shows that some gain more by keeping their brains activeD.disc
38、overs that most people with high IQ live longer(2).Which of the following contributes the least to the growth in intellectual ability?（分数：4.00）A.Jobs that require cognitive skillsB.Work that demands problem-solving skillsC.Jobs that are intellectually demandingD.Work that requires strenuous exertion
39、(3).Potter“s research is unique in that _（分数：4.00）A.its conclusion is based on measuring intelligence gain across yearsB.it proves all kinds of jobs can shield people from old-age diseasesC.it offers a new way of measuring intelligence and intellectual abilityD.it discovers that people actually have
40、 higher intelligence than they think(4).Which of the following group of people have the greatest intelligence gain?（分数：4.00）A.Those who have the highest IQ to start out withB.Mentally active people who start out with average IQsC.Those who work their way up to a high socioeconomic statusD.Those who
41、serve in the army or are in managerial positions(5).We can conclude from the passage that _（分数：4.00）A.having a high IQ can be a disadvantage to a personB.a high IQ does not guarantee that a person becomes successfulC.taking up mentally challenging jobs will pay off in the endD.whatever you do will b
42、oost your brain if you work hard六、Text 4(总题数：1，分数：20.00)If past is prologue, then it ought to be possible to draw some modest conclusions about the future from the wealth of data about America“s present. Wilt the rate continue to fall? Will single-person households actually submerge the traditional
43、family? All projections, of course, must be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Nonetheless, the urge to make sense of what lies ahead is inescapable. After the 1980 census, the Census Bureau decided for the first time to venture some forecasts of its own for the decades to come. Working from
44、what America already knows about itself, the bureau“s experts and other demographers offer an irresistible, if clouded, crystal ball among their visions. According to the census projections, female life expectancy will increase from 78.3 years in 1981 to 81.3 in the year 2005. The life expectancy of
45、 American men will grow from 70.7 for babies born in 1981 to 73.3 years in 2005. And by the year 2050, women will have a life expectancy of 83.6 years and men of at least 75.1. Annual population growth will slow to almost nothing by 2050. In fact, the Census Bureau predicts that the rate of natural
46、increase will be negative after 2035; only continuing immigration will keep it growing after that. The total population will be 268 million in 2000 and 309 millionan all-time highin 2050. After that, it will start to decline. The American population will grow steadily older. From 11.4 percent in 198
47、1, the proportion of the population that is 65 and over will grow to 13.1 percent in 2000 and 21.7 percent in 2050. The percentage of the population that lives beyond the age of 85 will more than quintuple over the same period. Meanwhile the median age30.3 in 1981will rise to 36.3 by 2000 and 41.6 5
48、0 years later. When it comes to the quality of life, more predictors are fairly cautious. John Hopkins sociologist Andrew Cherlin observes that “as we enter the 1980s, the pace of change appears to have slowed.“ For the next few decades, he predicts, there may be only modest swings in the marriage,
49、birth and divorce ratesgiving society time to adjust to the new patterns that have formed in recent years. “We are in a plateau in our family patterns that will likely last for a while,“ Cherlin maintains. Crime expert Alfred Blumstein, who foresees a drop in crime over the coming decade, predicts that the Northeast and Midwest, with stable but aging populations, will see the falloff first; for the South and Southwest, with their large proportions of younger people, the improvement will come less quickly.（分数：20.00）
