1、考研英语（阅读）-试卷 59 及答案解析(总分：70.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：7，分数：70.00)1.Section II Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_2.Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.（分数：10.00）_“It keeps you grounded, puts you in a situation that
2、 keeps you out of trouble, and puts you with a group that has the same mind-set,“ says Molly Skinner, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, appraising the nonathletic benefits she experienced while playing soccer in high school. According to one new study, suiting up for the h
3、igh school team does seem to givegirls a boost when it comes to getting a college diploma. The recent study, conducted by professors from Brigham Young University (BYU) and West Chester University of Pennsylvania (WCUP), found that women who played sports in high school were 73 percent more likely t
4、o earn a bachelor“s degree within six years of graduating from high school than those who did not. (The study did not look at male athletes.) Their analysis of data from 5,103 women collected as part of a U.S. Department of Education study found that even among girls who face statistical challenges
5、finishing college based on socioeconomic background, the athletes still had more than 40 percent higher college completion rates than nonathletes, regardless of whether they played at the college level. “In times when we worry about improving academic performance or outcomes, we wonder should we be
6、devoting time and money to extracurricular activities?“ asks BYU Prof. Mikaela Dufur, one of the study“s authors. “These are important arenas forin our casegirls to make connections with others and adults who help encourage them to succeed.“ At the collegiate level, though, the measure of women“s sp
7、orts remains as murky (unclear) as ever, thanks to the politics of Title DC Enacted in 1972, Title DC guarantees women equal opportunity in collegiate sports, but its critics contend that many schools reach that balance by cutting men“s teams rather than adding women“s.A July report on Title DC from
8、 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has done little to settle the debate. That study found increases in student participation in college athletics on both sides of the gender line, though the growth rate was higher for women“s teams and female athletes. Title DC critics say that the GAO repo
9、rt relies too heavily on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) data, which can obscure the number of men“s teams cut from particular schools as more colleges join the NCAA verall. While the political debate continues, female athletes themselves seem to be focusing on the finish line. “I th
10、ink that sports teaches you to persevere,“ says Virginia Tech-bound Rachel Plumb, who raced on her high school“s cross country team. “It teaches you to keep an eye on a goal.“（分数：10.00）(1).According to the first paragraph, _.（分数：2.00）A.Molly Skinner is playing soccer on the university teamB.playing
11、soccer contributed to Molly“s nonathletic lifeC.playing sports helps girls to enroll at universitiesD.playing sports grants girls extra credits at universities(2).Which of the following is true about the recent study by professors from BYU and WCUP?（分数：2.00）A.Women athletes are more likely to finish
12、 college than nonathletes.B.Female athletes have more chance to get diplomas than male athletes.C.Statistical challenges reduce the chance for female athletes to get degrees.D.Playing sports in high school matters more than playing at colleges.(3).BYU Prof. Mikaela Dufur found that extracurricular a
13、ctivities _.（分数：2.00）A.exert adverse effects to girls“ academic performanceB.can improve girls“ academic outcomes directlyC.bring people who are worth knowing to girlsD.may consume too much money and time of girls(4).It can be inferred from the text that _.（分数：2.00）A.Title IX realizes women“s equal
14、opportunity in collegiate sportsB.Title IX balances men“s and women“s sports in many schoolsC.Title IX isn“t successful in achieving its goal for women“s rightsD.GAO report proves the success of Title IX in college sports(5).We can conclude from the text that _.（分数：2.00）A.girls who played sports in
15、high schools are better college studentsB.girls with high school sports experience are mentally strongerC.athletic girls are more likely to get college degrees thanks to Title IXD.athletic girls always perform better at colleges than nonathletesIn the days before preschool academies were all but man
16、datory for kids under 5, I stayed home and got my early education from Mike Douglas. His TV talk show was one of my mother“s favorite programs, and because I looked up to my mother, it became one of my favorites too. Yet I quickly developed my own fascination with Douglas, who died lastweek. Maybe i
17、t was the plain seta couple of chairs and little elseor maybe it was the sound of people talking about ideas and events rather than telling stories. Whatever it was, to my 4-year-old mind it was all terribly adult, like my mother“s morning coffee. It wasrelatively. The grown-up world I live in now i
18、s another matter. Thanks in part to the proliferation and polarization of talk shows in the last 20 years or sothe generation after Douglas and his big-tent gentility went off the airpublic conversations have become scary monsters indeed. Like other forms of entertainment, the programming of commerc
19、ial talk shows today has moved beyond niche to hermetic. The idea of a host booking guests as varied as Jerry Rubin, Malcolm X and Richard Nixonand treating them all with a certain deference, as Douglas didis unheard of. Equally amazing is to consider that Douglas was a moderate; though he didn“t al
20、ways share his guests“ views, he nonetheless insisted on everybody having his or her say. What he did, in other words, was more important than who he was. That was probably an easy dictate for an old-schooL modest guy such as Douglas to follow. And now? Oprah Winfrey is sincere enough, but her viewe
21、rship is a cult of personality, not of people or issues.like her contemporaries, Oprah chooses her guests and issues to suit her show, rather than allowing guests and issues to be the show. She prefers uplift and empowerment, which is more palatable than name-calling, the hallmark of Bill O“Reilly o
22、r Howard Stern. But spin is spin, and in her own way Oprah gets as tiresome as those guys. Ultimately, these shows fail to convey the fullness of the conversation, the sense that America is one placeor one hostwith many voices at equal volume. That doesn“t mean everybody“s right. But to have everybo
23、dy engaged and feeling a stake in the outcome of the discussion is priceless. Engagement is nothing less than national security: I felt that as a preschooler, watching Mike Douglas on TV, and I feel it now. The age of irony, they would say, fueled by information that moves at the speed of light, dem
24、ands a different approach.（分数：10.00）(1).It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that the author_.（分数：2.00）A.was influenced by his motherB.didn“t like preschool academiesC.enjoyed self-taught programsD.was smart in his childhood(2).The word “big-tent“ (Para. 2) is closest in meaning to _.（分数：2.00）A.sensi
25、bleB.tolerantC.imposingD.polite(3).According to Paragraph 3, Mike Douglas _.（分数：2.00）A.treated guests with great passionB.satisfied the guests“ requirementsC.highly valued different opinionsD.shared appealing experience of his own(4).Which of the following is true about Oprah Winfrey?（分数：2.00）A.She
26、is not straightforward with her audience.B.She prefers fashionable and exciting topics.C.She is not quite successful as a talk show host.D.She is less annoying than those who slander others.(5).The author would most probably agree that _.（分数：2.00）A.people in a conversation should always reach an agr
27、eementB.Mike Douglas has offered a world of information to the audienceC.it is of vital importance to have people engaged in the discussionD.Mike Douglas“ show marks the new age of mockeryPartly due to a historical development marked by worldwide colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, in the
28、course of this century humankind is likely to experience its most extreme cultural loss. As K David Harrison notes in When Languages Die, “The last speakers of probably half of the world“s languages are alive today.“ Their children or grandchildren are pressured to speak only thedominant language of
29、 their community or country. Under one estimate, more than 50% of the 6,900 or so languages identified nowadays are expected to become extinct in a matter of a few ecades. The precise criteria for what counts as a distinct language are controversialespecially those regarding closely related linguist
30、ic systems, which are often inaccurately referred to as dialects of the same language. The problem is complicated by the insufficiency of studies about the grammar of many of the world“s endangered languages. In addition, from a cognitive standpoint any two groups of individuals whose languages are
31、mutually intelligible may in fact have distinct mental grammars. As a cognitive system, a language shows dynamic properties that cannot exist independently of its speakers. This is the sense in which the Anatolian languages and Dalmatian are extinct. Therefore, language preservation depends on the m
32、aintenance of the native-speaking human groups. Unfortunately, the most accelerated loss of distinct languages takes place where economic development is rapid, worsening the breakdown of minority communities that speak different languages. In this perspective, a language often begins to die long bef
33、ore the passing of the last speaker: New generations may start using it only for limited purposes, increasingly shifting to the community“s dominant language. In this process, knowledge of the dying language erodes both at the individual level and at the community level. Linguistic diversity itself
34、may be the worst loss at stake, because it may be the most promising and precise source of evidence for the range of variation allowed in the organization of the human cognitive system. For instance, Harrison discusses many strategies for manipulating quantities across languages, often endangered on
35、es. The rapid loss of linguistic diversity substantially hinders comparative investigation about the multiple ways in which a single cognitive domain can be organized. Linguists are well aware that their efforts alone cannot prevent this loss. Community involvement, especially with government suppor
36、t, has proven essential in slowing or even reversing language loss in different cases (e.g., Basque and Irish). Crucially, endangered languages must be acquired by new generations of speakers. Here the biological metaphor adopted by Harrison applies appropriatelydocumentation of dead languages is ak
37、in to a fossil record, providing only partial clues about complex cognitive systems.（分数：10.00）(1).According to the first paragraph, language loss _.（分数：2.00）A.is caused partly by colonialism, urbanization and globalizationB.is the most extreme cultural loss people experiencesC.is expected to occur i
38、n a few centuriesD.occurs in less than half of the world“s 6,900 languages(2).One of the difficulties in differentiating one language from another is that _.（分数：2.00）A.one language may have many dialectsB.grammar study on some languages is not enoughC.they are dialects of the same languagesD.grammar
39、s reflected by languages are different(3).The start of language dying is indicated by_.（分数：2.00）A.the disappearance of its last speakersB.the fact that new generations stop using itC.the official ban on speaking itD.its new generations“ decreased use of it(4).Measures that can be taken to prevent la
40、nguage loss include _.（分数：2.00）A.turning endangered languages into dominant languagesB.protecting minority groups by slowing economic growthC.relying on the joint efforts of linguists and governmentD.conducting comparative investigation across languages(5).We can infer from the metaphor in the last
41、paragraph that_.（分数：2.00）A.dead languages are similar to fossils in biological senseB.documentation is not enough for us to understand dead languagesC.fossil records give a complete picture of ancient livesD.dead languages can remain alive if they are documented properlyAlison Preston of the Univers
42、ity of Texas at Austin“s Center for Learning and Memory explains:A short-term memory“s conversion to a long-term memory requires changes within the brain that protect the memory from interference from competing stimuli or disruption from injury or disease. This time-dependent process of stabilizatio
43、n, whereby our experiences achieve a permanent record in ourmemory, is referred to as “consolidation“. Memory consolidation can occur at many organizational levels in the brain. The cellular and molecular portions of memory consolidation typically take place within the first minutes or hours of lear
44、ning and result in changes to neurons (nerve cells) or sets of neurons. Systems-level consolidation, involving the reorganization of brain networks that handle the processing of individual memories can then happen on a much slower time frame of days or even years. The consolidation process that affe
45、cts declarative memories-recollections of general facts and specific eventsrelies on the function of some specific structures in the brain. At the cellular level, memory is expressed as changes to the structure and function of neurons. For example, new synapsesthe connections between neurons through
46、 which they exchange informationcan form to allow for communication between new networks of neurons. Alternatively, existing synapses can be strengthened to allow for increased sensitivity in the communication between two neurons.Consolidating such synaptic changes requires the synthesis of new RNA
47、and proteins in the structures, which transform temporary alterations in synaptic transmission into persistent modifications of synaptic architecture. With time, the brain systems also change. Initially, the specific structure works in concert with sensory-processing regions distributed in the neo-c
48、ortex (the outermost layer of the brain) to form the new memories. Within the neo-cortex, representations of the elements that constitute an event in our life are distributed across multiple brain regions according to their content. When a memory is first formed, the specific structure rapidly combi
49、nes this distributed information into a single memory, thus acting as an index of representations in the sensory-processing regions. As time passes, cellular and molecular changes allow for the strengthening of direct connections among the neocortical regions, enabling access to the memory independent of the structure. Thus, while damage to the structu
