1、考研英语-试卷 246及答案解析(总分：142.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Use of English(总题数：2，分数：80.00)1.Section I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D.（分数：40.00）_The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is becoming mature. A
2、man reaches the mature (1)_ of his reasoning powers and mental faculties (2)_ before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen. And then, too, in the case of woman, it is the only reason of a sortvery mean in its (3)_. That is why women remain children their whole life long; never seeing (4)_ but
3、 what is quite close to them, (5)_ fast to the present moment, taking appearance for (6)_, and preferring (7)_ to matters of the first importance. For it is (8)_ his reasoning faculty that man does not live in the present only, (9)_ the brute, but looks about him and considers the past and the futur
4、e; and this is the origin of (10)_, as well as that of care and anxiety which so many people (11)_ Both the advantages and the disadvantages, which this (12)_, are (13)_ in by the woman to a smaller extent because of her weaker power of reasoning. She may, in fact, be described as intellectually sho
5、rtsighted, (14)_, while she has an immediate understanding of what lies quite close to her, her field of (15)_ is narrow and does not reach to what is (16)_; so that things which are absent, or past, or to come, have much less effect upon women than upon men. This is the reason why women are incline
6、d to be (17)_ and sometimes carry their desire to a (18)_ that borders upon madness. In their hearts, women think it is men“s business to earn money and theirs to spend itif possible during their husband“s life, (19)_, at any rate, after his death. The very fact that their husband hands them (20)_ h
7、is earnings for purposes of housekeeping strengthens them in this belief.（分数：40.00）A.burdenB.driveC.stageD.moveA.barelyB.scarcelyC.rarelyD.hardlyA.dimensionsB.perspectivesC.indicesD.diametersA.somethingB.anythingC.everythingD.nothingA.fasteningB.stickingC.takingD.seeingA.fancyB.practiceC.realityD.il
8、lusionA.fragmentsB.triflesC.remainsD.substancesA.at the mercy ofB.with regard toC.in the interests ofD.by virtue ofA.aboveB.likeC.besideD.includingA.jealousyB.generosityC.identityD.prudenceA.advocateB.demonstrateC.exhibitD.revealA.concernsB.relatesC.involvesD.retainsA.sharedB.joinedC.boundD.hurriedA
9、.beforeB.becauseC.unlessD.untilA.sighB.visionC.reachD.glanceA.obscureB.invisibleC.remoteD.primitiveA.extravagantB.extremeC.credibleD.wretchedA.endB.limitC.spanD.lengthA.butB.forC.thoughD.whileA.downB.overC.inD.up二、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：10，分数：58.00)2.Section II Reading Comprehension_3.Part ADirect
10、ions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D._On a weekday night this January, thousands of flag-waving youths packed Olaya Street, Riyadh“s main shopping strip, to cheer a memorable Saudi victory in the GCC Cup football final. One car, rock musi
11、c blaring from its stereo, squealed to a stop, blocking an intersection. The passengers leapt out, clambered on to the roof and danced wildly in front of the honking crowd. Having paralyzed the traffic across half the city, they sped off before the police could catch them. Such public occasion was o
12、nce unthinkable in the rigid conformist kingdom, but now young people there and in other Gulf states are increasingly willing to challenge authority. That does not make them rebels: respect for elders, for religious duty and for maintaining family bonds remain pre-eminent values, and premarital sex
13、is generally out of the question. Yet demography is beginning to put pressure on ultra-conservative norms. After all, 60% of the Gulf“s native population is under the age of 25. With many more of its citizens in school than in the workforce, the region faces at least a generation of rocketing demand
14、 for employment. In every single GCC country the native workforce will double by 2020. In Saudi Arabia it will grow from 3.3m now to over 8m. The task of managing this surge would be daunting enough for any society, but is particularly forbidding in this region, for several reasons. The first is tha
15、t the Gulf suffers from a lopsided labor structure. This goes back to the 1970s, when ballooning oil incomes allowed governments to import millions of foreign workers and to dispense cozy jobs to the locals. The result is a two-tier workforce, with outsiders working mostly in the private sector and
16、natives monopolizing the state bureaucracy. Private firms are as productive as any. But within the government, claims one study, workers are worth only a quarter of what they get paid. Similarly, in the education sector, 30 years spent keeping pace with soaring student numbers has taken a heavy toll
17、 on standards. The Saudi school system, for instance, today has to cope with 5m students, eight times more than in 1970. And many Gulf countries adapted their curricula from Egyptian models that are now thoroughly discredited. They continue to favor rote learning of “facts“ intended to instill patri
18、otism or religious values. Even worse, the system as a whole discourages intellectual curiosity. It channels students into acquiring prestige degrees rather than gaining marketable skills. Of the 120,000 graduates that Saudi universities produced between 1995 and 1999, only 10,000 had studied techni
19、cal subjects such as architecture or engineering. They accounted for only 2% of the total number of Saudis entering the job market.（分数：10.00）(1).The wild behavior of young people depicted in the first paragraph is intended to _.（分数：2.00）A.to spotlight their social problems.B.to introduce the change
20、of Saudi youths.C.to criticize their conformist image.D.to appreciate rebels against social values.(2).The basic problem of people pressure facing the Saudi authority lies in _.（分数：2.00）A.expanding workforce.B.exploding population.C.practical intelligence.D.intellectual curiosity.(3).The word “lopsi
21、ded“ (Paragraph 4) most probably means _.（分数：2.00）A.Detrimental.B.Unappealing.C.Harmonious.D.Unbalanced.(4).According to the author, the Saudi education system is characterized by its excessive emphasis on _.（分数：2.00）A.technical creativity.B.intellectual cognition.C.conservative values.D.nonconformi
22、st images.(5).What is the section following this text most likely to deal with?（分数：2.00）A.The lower proportion of local youths in the workforce.B.More restrictions placed on the private firms in Saudi.C.Another reason for the difficulty in managing people pressure.D.The commitment to motivating yout
23、h participation in the task.Can this be the right time to invest in luxury goods? Miuccia Prada was obviously biting her nails. The granddaughter of the founder of the Italian fashion group has just opened spectacular new stores in quick succession in New York and London. With its magic mirrors, sil
24、ver displays and computer-controlled changing rooms, Prada“s two-month-old shop in Manhattan cost a staggering $40m, sits just a mile from Ground Zero, and sells practically nothing. The luxury-goods business has been in despair in hasty succession against a background of a weakening global economy,
25、 an enduring slump in Japanese spending, and the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Japanese, who used to buy a third of the world“s luxury goods, cut their foreign travel in half after the attacks and tightened their Louis Vuitton purse-strings. At the same time, wealthy Americans stopped flying
26、, which has a dramatic effect on the luxury-goods purveyors of London, Paris and Rome. At home too, Americans“ attitudes to luxury changed, at least temporarily. “Conspicuous abstention“ replaced greedy consumerism among the fast-growing, younger breed of newly rich. The decline in job security, the
27、 lower bonuses in financial services, and the stock market bust that wiped out much of the paper wealth generated in the late 1990s, bred a new frugality. Sales of expensive jewelry, watches and handbagsthe products that make the juiciest profits for the big luxury-goods groupsdropped sharply. The i
28、mpact has been most striking among the handful of large, quoted luxury-goods companies. France“s Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the industry leader, issued four profits warnings after September 11th and ended up reporting a 20% decline in operating profit for 2001, after having repeatedly promi
29、sed its investors double-digit growth; and Italy“s Gucci Group, the third largest, announced this week that second-half profits dropped by 33%. Meanwhile, privately held Prada had to postpone its stock market flotation and was forced to sell a recently acquired stake in Fendi, a prestigious Italian
30、bag maker, in order to reduce its debts. Luxury is an unusual business. A luxury brand cannot be extended indefinitely: if it becomes too common, it is devalued, as Pierre Cardin and Ralph Lauren proved by sticking their labels on everything from T-shirts to paint. Equally, a brand name can be under
31、mined if it is not advertised consistently, or if it is displayed and sold poorly. Sagra Maceira de Rosen, a luxury-goods analyst at J.P. Morgan, argues that, “Luxury companies are primarily retailers. In retailing, the most important thing is execution, and execution is all about management. You ma
32、y have the best designed product, but if you don“t get it into the right kind of shop at the right time, you will fail“.（分数：10.00）(1).By “Miuccia Prada was obviously biting her nails“ (Paragraph 1), the author means _.（分数：2.00）A.Prada is in a desperate situation.B.Prada had her shop well-furnished.C
33、.Prada is always in her bad habit.D.Prada spent much on her new shop.(2).Which of the following can best describe the consumption of luxury goods in the present situation?（分数：2.00）A.Outrage.B.Lavishness.C.Restraint.D.Indulgence.(3).It can inferred from the text that _.（分数：2.00）A.Excessive advertisem
34、ent resulted in the failure of Prada“s investment.B.Luxury companies must give thought to the impact of terrorist attacks.C.Execution is nothing but an auxiliary part of business management.D.Outsiders always hold some misconceptions of luxury-goods business.(4).When mentioning “double-digit growth“
35、 (Paragraph 4), the author is talking about _.（分数：2.00）A.estimated assets of new stores.B.operating profits in luxury business.C.paper wealth in stock market.D.funding raised from new acquisitions.(5).To which of the following is the author likely to agree?（分数：2.00）A.Opening new stores, on the horiz
36、on.B.More ventures bring more rewards.C.Tight the belt, the single remedy.D.Not every business yields benefits.At some point during their education, biology students are told about a conversation in a pub that took place over 50 years ago. J.B.S. Haldane, a British geneticist, was asked whether he w
37、ould lay down his life for his country. After doing a quick calculation on the back of a napkin, he said he would do so for two brothers or eight cousins. In other words, he would die to protect the equivalent of his genetic contribution to the next generation. The theory of kin selectionthe idea th
38、at animals can pass on their genes by helping their close relativesis biology“s explanation for seemingly altruistic acts. An individual carrying genes that promote altruism might be expected to die younger than one with “selfish“ genes, and thus to have a reduced contribution to the next generation
39、“s genetic pool. But if the same individual acts altruistically to protect its relatives, genes for altruistic behavior might nevertheless propagate. Acts of apparent altruism to non-relatives can also be explained away, in what has become a cottage industry within biology. An animal might care for
40、the offspring of another that it is unrelated to because it hopes to obtain the same benefits for itself later on (a phenomenon known as reciprocal altruism). The hunter who generously shares his spoils with others may be doing so in order to signal his superior status to females, and ultimately boo
41、st his breeding success. These apparently selfless acts are therefore disguised acts of self interest. All of these examples fit economists“ arguments that Homo sapiens is also Homo economicusmaximizing something that economists call utility, and biologists fitness. But there is a residuum of human
42、activity that defies such explanations: people contribute to charities for the homeless, return lost wallets, do voluntary work and tip waiters in restaurants to which they do not plan to return. Both economic rationalism and natural selection offer few explanations for such random acts of kindness.
43、 Nor can they easily explain the opposite: spiteful behavior, when someone harms his own interest in order to damage that of another. But people are now trying to find answers. When a new phenomenon is recognized by science, a name always helps. In a paper in Human Nature, Dr. Fehr and his colleague
44、s argue for a behavioral propensity they call “strong reciprocity“. This name is intended to distinguish it from reciprocal altruism. According to Dr. Fehr, a person is a strong reciprocator if he is willing to sacrifice resources to be kind to those who are being kind, and to punish those who are b
45、eing unkind. Significantly, strong reciprocators will behave this way even if doing so provides no prospect of material rewards in the future.（分数：10.00）(1).The story of J.B.S. Haldane is mentioned in the text _.（分数：2.00）A.to honor his unusual altruistic acts.B.to show how he contributed to his offsp
46、ring.C.to introduce the topic of human altruism.D.to give an episode of his calculation abilities.(2).According the theory of kin selection, humans tend to act altruistically _.（分数：2.00）A.for the sake of desired reproduction.B.out of self-interest.C.on the request of natural selection.D.because of k
47、ind nature.(3).As pointed out in the text, “reciprocal altruism theory“ and “strong reciprocity theory“ are _.（分数：2.00）A.complementary.B.contradictory.C.superficial.D.over-simplified.(4).The write mentioned the case of “the hunter who shares his spoils with others“(Para. 3) to demonstrate _.（分数：2.00
48、）A.innate human hostility.B.his privileged status.C.apparent altruism.D.his sacrifice resources.(5).It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 that _.（分数：2.00）A.Human behavior is confined to the exclusive concern of psychologists.B.Economists“ utility is only the explanations for random acts of kindness.C.Altruism is developed during the long process of human evolution.D.Biologists can help economists explain some human behavior deviations.In a science-fiction movie called “Species“, a my
