1、考研英语 258 及答案解析(总分：36.00，做题时间：180 分钟)一、Section Use of (总题数：1，分数：1.00)The human nose is an underrated tool. Humans are often thought to be insensitive smellers compared with animals, -|_|- this is largely because, -|_|- animals, we stand upright. This means that our noses are -|_|- to perceiving those
2、 smells which float through the air, -|_|- the majority of smells which stick to surfaces. In fact, -|_|- , we are extremely sensitive to smells, -|_|- we do not generally realize it. Our noses are capable of -|_|- human smells even these are -|_|-to far below one part in one million. Strangely, som
3、e people find that they can smell one type of flower but not another, -|_|- others are sensitive to the smells of both flowers. This may be because some people do not have the genes necessary to generate -|_|- smell receptors in the nose. These receptors are the cells which sense smells and send -|_
4、|- to the brain. However, it has been found that even people insensitive to a certain smell -|_|- can suddenly become sensitive to it -|_|- to it often enough. The explanation for insensitivity to smell seems to be that the brain finds it -|_|- to keep all smell receptors working all the time but ca
5、n -|_|- new receptors if necessary. This may -|_|- explain why we are not usually sensitive to our own smellswe simply do not need to be. We are not -|_|- of the usual smell of our own house, but we -|_|- new smells we visit someone else s. The brain finds it best to keep smell receptors -|_|- for u
6、nfamiliar and emergency signals -|_|- the smell of smoke, which might indicate the danger of fire. The human nose is an underrated tool. Humans are often thought to be insensitive smellers compared with animals, -|_|- this is largely because, -|_|- animals, we stand upright. This means that our nose
7、s are -|_|- to perceiving those smells which float through the air, -|_|- the majority of smells which stick to surfaces. In fact, -|_|- , we are extremely sensitive to smells, -|_|- we do not generally realize it. Our noses are capable of -|_|- human smells even these are -|_|-to far below one part
8、 in one million. Strangely, some people find that they can smell one type of flower but not another, -|_|- others are sensitive to the smells of both flowers. This may be because some people do not have the genes necessary to generate -|_|- smell receptors in the nose. These receptors are the cells
9、which sense smells and send -|_|- to the brain. However, it has been found that even people insensitive to a certain smell -|_|- can suddenly become sensitive to it -|_|- to it often enough. The explanation for insensitivity to smell seems to be that the brain finds it -|_|- to keep all smell recept
10、ors working all the time but can -|_|- new receptors if necessary. This may -|_|- explain why we are not usually sensitive to our own smellswe simply do not need to be. We are not -|_|- of the usual smell of our own house, but we -|_|- new smells we visit someone else s. The brain finds it best to k
11、eep smell receptors -|_|- for unfamiliar and emergency signals -|_|- the smell of smoke, which might indicate the danger of fire. （分数：1.00）A.althoughB.asC.butD.while二、Section Writing(总题数：1，分数：1.00)2. 1 ) describe the drawing, 2 ) interpret its meaning, and 3 ) support your view with examples. You sh
12、ould write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)1 ) describe the drawing, 2 ) interpret its meaning, and 3 ) support your view with examples. You should write about 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)* （分数：1.00）_三、Section Reading(总题数：4，分数：4.00)Scientific tradition demands
13、 that scientific papers follow the formal progression :method first, results second, conclusion third. The rules permit no hint that, as often happens, the method was really made up as the scientist went along, or that accidental results determined the method, or that the scientist reached certain c
14、onclusions before the results were all in, or that he started out with certain conclusions, or that he started doing a different experiment. Much scientific writing not only misrepresents the workings of science but also does a disservice to scientists themselves. By writing reports that make scient
15、ific investigations sound as unvarying and predictable as the sunrise, scientists tend to spread the curious notion that science is infallible. That many of them are unconscious of the effect they create does not alter the image in the popular mind. We hear time and again of the superiority of the “
16、scientific method“. In fact, the word “unscientific“ has almost become a synonym for “untrue“. Yet the final evaluation of any set of data is an individual, subjective judgment; and all human judgment is liable to error. Thoughtful scientists realize all this; but you wouldnt gather so from reading
17、most scientific literature. A self-important, stiff and unnatural style too often seizes the pen of the experimenter the moment he starts putting words on paper. Editors of scientific publications are not without their reasons for the current style of scientific writing. Their journals arent rich. P
18、aper and printing are expensive. Therefore, it is helpful to condense articles as much as possible. Under pressure of tradition, the condensation process removes the human elements first. And few scientific writers rebel against the tradition. Even courageous men do not go out of their way to public
19、ize their deviations from accepted procedures. Then ,too, there is an apparent objectivity and humbleness attached to the third person, passive voice writing technique adopted in the preparation of most scientific papers. So, bit by bit, the true face of science becomes hidden behind what seems to t
20、he outsider to be a self-satisfied all-knowing mask. Is it any wonder that in the popular literature the scientist often appears as a hybrid superman-spoiled child? No small contribution to modern culture could be the simple introduction, into the earliest stage of our public-school science courses,
21、 of a natural style of writing about laboratory experiments as they really happen. This is something that could be done immediately with the opening of classes this fall. It requires no preparation except a psychological acknowledgment of the obvious fact that the present form of reporting experimen
22、ts is a mental tie whose very appearance is calculated to repel the imaginative young minds science so badly needs. （分数：1.00）(1).The traditional demands on writing scientific papers（分数：0.20）A.require well worked-out methods in experiment.B.ask for elimination of any accidental outcomes.C.refuse inco
23、nformity of conclusions with results.D.conflict with actual conditions as often as not.(2).Most scientific papers turn out to be（分数：0.20）A.deterioration of the workings of science.B.degeneration of service to scientists.C.rigid formats of all scientific reports.D.belief in the full correctness of sc
24、ience.(3).The author strongly appeals（分数：0.20）A.to brave scientists to break with accepted writing procedures.B.for immediate changes in current form of reporting experiments.C.to young scientists to use their imaginations to activate science.D.for bringing the natural scientific writing into school
25、 education.(4).The author points out that thoughtful scientists（分数：0.20）A.realize the universal truth “to err is human“.B.have confidence in the precision of their work.C.are unaware of the effect of their writings.D.tend to be seized with subjective wishes.(5).A traditional scientific writing may b
26、egin:（分数：0.20）A.“I was just fooling around one day when it occurred to me that.“B.“In view of recent evidence for.theory, it seemed advisable to.“C.“For no good reason at all I hit on a way to solve the puzzle that.“D.“No one can imagine how we were surprised at what happened.“Being a man has always
27、 been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-old there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls
28、do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight.
29、 A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone. There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile a
30、s in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take ad
31、vantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today-everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring-means that natural selection has lost 80% of i
32、ts power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes. For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 years-even the past 100 years-our liv
33、es have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they“ look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension. “No doubt we will
34、 remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us. （分数：1.00）(1).What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?（分数：0.25）A.A lack of mates.B.A fi
35、erce competition.C.A lower survival rate.D.A defective gene.(2).What does the example of India illustrate?（分数：0.25）A.Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.B.Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.C.The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the
36、tribes.D.India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.(3).The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because_.（分数：0.25）A.life has been improved by technological advanceB.the number of female babies has been decliningC.our species has reached the highest stage of evolutionD.
37、the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing(4).Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?（分数：0.25）A.Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.B.Ways of Continuing Mans Evolution.C.The Evolutionary Future of Nature.D.Human Evolution Going Nowhere.What accounts for the gr
38、eat outburst of major inventions in early Americabreakthroughs such as the telegraph ,the steamboat and the weaving machine? Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the countrys excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology ;the practice of giving premiums t
39、o inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal,“ spatial“ thinking about things technological. Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanic, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithm
40、etic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry. Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported,“ With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline ,the American boy deve
41、lops rapidly into the skilled workman.“ A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium“ system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives. In the United States, multitudes
42、of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance. Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, th
43、e American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, “A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal proc
44、ess. The designer and the inventor. are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist.“ This nonverbal “spatial“ thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote,“ The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, e
45、tc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.“ When all these shaping forcesschools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinkinginteracted with one another on the rich U. S
46、. mainland, they produced that American characteristic, emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence. （分数：1.00）(1).According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a
47、 large part due to_.（分数：0.25）A.elementary schoolsB.enthusiastic workersC.the attractive premium systemD.a special way of thinking(2).It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics_.（分数：0.25）A.benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledgeB.shed light on disciplined school managementC.was brought about by privileged home trainingD.owed a lot to the technological development(3).A
