1、2005年厦门大学考博英语真题试卷及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 Computerized design, advancfed materials and new technologies are being used to produce machines of a type never seen before. It looks as if it came straight from the set of Star Wars. It has four-wheel drive and rises above rocky surfaces. It lower
2、s and raises its nose when going up and down hills. And when it comes to a river, it turns amphibious: two hydrojets power it along by blasting water under its body. There is room for two passengers and a driver, who sit inside a glass bubble operating electronic, aircraft-type controls. A vehicle s
3、o daring on land and water needs windscreen wipers-but it doesnt have any. Water molecules are disintegrated on the screens surface by ultrasonic sensors. This unusual vehicle is the Racoon. It is an invention not of Hollywood but of Renault, a rather conservative French state-owned carmaker, better
4、 known for its family hatchbacks. Renault built the Racoon to explore new freedoms for designers and engineers created by advances in materials and manufacturing processes. Renault is thinking about startlingly different cars; other producers have radical new ideas for trains, boats and aeroplanes.
5、The first of the new freedoms is in design. Powerful computer-aided design (CAD) systems can replace with a click of a computer mouse hours of laborious work done on thousands of drawing boards. So new products, no matter how complicated, can be developed much faster. For the first time, Boeing will
6、 not have to build a giant replica of its new airliner, the 777, to make sure all the bits fit together. Its CAD sys- tem will take care of that. But Renault is taking CAD further. It claims the Racoon is the worlds first vehicle to be designed within the digitized world of virtual reality. Complex
7、programs were used to imitate the vehicle and the land that it was expected to cross. This allowed a team led by Patrick Le Qucment, Renaults industrial-design director, to “drive“ it long before a prototype existed. Renault is not alone in thinking that virtual reality will transform automotive de-
8、 sign. In Detroit, Ford is also investigating its potential. Jack Telnac, the firms bead of design, would like designers in different parts of the world to work more closely together, linked by computers. They would do more than style cares. Virtual reality will allow engineers to peer inside the wo
9、rking parts of a vehicle. Designers will watch bearings move, oil flow, gears mesh and hydraulics pump. As these techniques catch on, even stranger vehicles are likely to come along. Transforming these creations from virtual reality to actual reality will also become easier, especially with advances
10、 in materials. Firms that once bashed everything out of steel now find that new alloys of composite materials (which can be made from mixtures of plastic, resin, ceramics and metals, reinforced with fibers such as glass of carbon) are changing the rules of manufacturing. At the same time, old materi
11、als keep getting better, as their producers try to secure their place in the factory of the future. This competition is increasing the pace of development of all materials. With composites, it is possible to build many different parts into a single component. Fiat, Italys biggest car maker has worke
12、d out that it could reduce the number of components needed in one of its car bodies from 150 to 16 by using a composite shell rather than one made of steel. Aircraft and cars may increasingly be assembled as if they were plastic kits. 1 How does the Racoon cross water? （ A） It swims, （ B） It raises
13、its nose. （ C） It uses hydrojets. （ D） It uses its four-wheel drive. 2 What is Renault most famous for? （ A） Starlingly different cars. （ B） Fancily cars. （ C） Advances in design. （ D） Boat and train design. 3 Why will Boeing not need a replica of the 777? （ A） It can use computers to check the desi
14、gn. （ B） It already has enough experience with plans. （ C） It will not need to upgrade the replica of the previous model. （ D） It can make sure all the bits fit together. 4 How did Renault test drive the Racoon? （ A） Over rocky land. （ B） In actual reality. （ C） Over French country roads. （ D） In vi
15、rtual reality. 5 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an ingredient of composite? （ A） Plastic. （ B） Resin. （ C） Glass. （ D） Steel. 5 Would you stoop to pick up a found penny? If you believe in the value of money or the possibility of luck, you would. Unless, of course, youre a teenager. When
16、Nuveen Investments asked 1000 kids age 12 to 17 to name the sum they would bother to pick up, 58 percent said a dollar or more. “Some wont give pocket space to coins even if theyre already in hand,“ says Neale Godfrey author of Money Doesnt Grow on Trees. Many high schoolers throw away the changes.
17、As one boy explained to her, “what am I going to do with it?“ The cavalier attitude is making some parents rethink the allowance tradition. The weekly stipend is meant to help kids learn about money, but some experts say too much cash-easily handed out in these flush times-and too few obligations ca
18、n lead to a fiscally irresponsible future. Many kids have a “lack of understanding (of) how hard it is to earn money,“ says Godfrey. “That is not OK.“ Allowances, done right, are a way to teach children to plan ahead and choose wisely, to balance saving spending investing, and even philanthropy. Doi
19、ng it right means deciding ahead of time how much to give and how often to give it. And it re- quires determining what the childs responsibilities will be. “About 50 percent of children between 12 and 18 get an allowance or cash from their parents,“ says a survey conducted in 1997 by Ohio State univ
20、ersity for the U. S Labor Department. The median amount they got was a $ 50 a week. Nationally speaking, about 10 million kids receive a total of around $ 1 billion every week. The problem with a parental open-wallet policy, says Godfrey: “If youre always given money, why would it have any value to
21、you?“ Earned money is spent more wisely, she says. “Youre teaching them that there is not an entitlement program in life. The way you get it is you earn it.“ Godfrey thinks an allowance should be chore-based, and she divides work into two categories: citizen-of-the-household chores .and work-for-pay
22、 chores. “The punishment for not doing your workfor-pay chores is you dont get paid.“ Other experts including Jayne Pearl, author of Kids and Money, believe that every family member is entitled to a small piece of the financial pie and that it shouldnt be tied to work. Doing so “complicates things u
23、nnecessarily and imbues allowance with power struggles and control is- sues,“ says Pearl. “I think of an allowance as learning capital.They have to have some money to practise with.“ “For many kids 3 is a good time to begin getting all allowance,“ experts say. This sounds early, but its then that ch
24、ildren start understanding the notion of exchanging coins for, say, candy. Deciding how much to give can be tough. “If the parents can afford it, I have them pay their age per week,“ says Godfrey. “A 3-year-old gets $3.“ Sound like a lot for a little person? Godfreys plan takes 10 percent off the to
25、p for charity. The remainder is divided into thirds and put into jars. The quick-cash jar “is for instant gratification“. This spend-as they choose money-means that candy bars, cards, and other impulse buys are no longer paid for by Mom and Dad, which causes kids to curb many impulses. The second ja
26、r is for medium-term savings, meant to be spent on medium-ticket luxuries like in-line skates or a CD player. The final jar is invested for the long term, such as for college. 6 Nuveen Investments found that _. （ A） many kids dont bother to pick up small coins （ B） few kids want one-dollar coins （ C
27、） some kids save coins （ D） no kids want to pick up coins 7 Godfrey feels that _. （ A） many kids appreciated the value of coins （ B） many kids know how hard it is to earn money （ C） many kids dont know the value of money （ D） many kids should be given more pocket money 8 The writer feels that allowa
28、nces _. （ A） should not be given to children （ B） should not be given to young children （ C） could help children learn many things （ D） spoil older children 9 Which of the following would Pearl probably agree? （ A） Children should not be given allowances. （ B） Children should receive allowances if t
29、hey help with housework. （ C） Children should be given allowances whether they help with housework. （ D） Children should be paid for satisfactorily performing school work. 10 According to Godfrey, if a child has a monthly allowance of $ 100, how much should he/she spend on “impulse buys“? （ A） $ 10
30、（ B） $ 30 （ C） $ 33.3 （ D） $ 50 10 Its been an extraordinarily bad week for Apple, the well-known American manufacturer of computers and software. In their quarterly report, the company announced a $ 45 million lose for the three months ending this September. At the same time, the economics magazine
31、 Business Week stated that Apple had one of the eight worst hoards of directors in the US. All the while, the firms chief executive, Steve Jobs, was drawing the highest salary in corporate America. News like that brings out the experts with their predictions of a collapse-and their “evidence“ is abu
32、ndant. Apple has allowed market share compared to most of its competitors. In 1996, when Gil Amelio was brought in as chief executive, Apples market share hovered at 7%: Today, its market share is below 3.5%. With Mike Spindler and Gil Amelio running the business the company was plagued by quality p
33、roblems. Its high specifications laptop, PowerBook 5300, was known as the “flaming book“ for its inclination to burst into flames. The company is notoriously had at forecasting. In 1999, it underestimated demand for its PowerPC-based desktops forcing buyers towards its competitors Dell and IBM. Then
34、 it overestimated demand in 2000 and 2001, which cast the company $ 1 billion. Surely Apple is about to slide into the footnotes of technology history? First, from a financial perspective, it wont with $ 4. 3 billion in cash and a loyal customer base. It would take almost unimaginable mismanagement.
35、 It is true that Apple has lost any operating system battle with its unstoppable rival Microsoft. However the internet has meant that outside of games, the operating system is less and less an issue as now the same information can be viewed and similar software can be transferred across a wide vairi
36、ety of platforms. Second, it isnt just how many customers you have that counts. It is also how well connected they are. My informal survey of the group tells me that Apple attracts journalists, consultants and those for whom having the latest technology is not just desirable but an obsession. In fac
37、t, for those who care about which is the best operating system, its not Microsoft Window. Its Apples late operating system, OS X. This is already the favorite choice for graphics applications: the one that powers most large websites and the internet in general. More important, there is also a growin
38、g trend among software developers who have opted for Appels portables rushing Mac OSX. Californian journalist Jon Udell reckons that Apple may be about to break into the highly profitable markets of small companies and homes. Many large enterprises have started to investigate a variety of systems as
39、 a desktop replacement to Windows. Some, like the Scottish police, have taken the plunge and opted for one of those alternatives. And that was before the arrival of the most consumer-friendly operating system of them all. Apples OSX now being on trial by the Dutch civil service. Should the software
40、break into the enormous American market, large profits are sure to follow. That isnt to say that Apple hardware is going to surge into corporations and leave Microsoft a long way behind. Far from it, the Microsoft share of market will hold fast. But it means that Apples value proposition is increasi
41、ngly attractive to customers, whether large or small. Apple still excels at developing new markets, just as it did with publishing and video editing. With OSX, groundbreaking developments are commonplace. Currently, the best web-based news service is Net News Wire Lite, available only to Apple users
42、. Delivering news more quickly and fully than anyone else is the key race being run in an emerging market that will continue to grow according to worldwide surveys of online habits. Things are more different for Apple now than in 1997, when surfing the web on an Apple normally ended in a system cras
43、h. Apple is also at the forefront of digital media: this year, its digital music player the iPod will have had a 15% share of the market. This and similar products are merely the first step. Big rewards are expected to follow us to Apples highly user-friendly software for working with writable CDs a
44、nd DVDs. 11 Which of the following statement is not mentioned in the passage? （ A） At one period, Apples chief executive had better pay than any other business- man in the States. （ B） Apples products have occasionally caught fire during use. （ C） Apple has at times manufactured either too many or t
45、oo few products. （ D） Apple cannot continue to compete for much longer. 12 Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the passage? （ A） Nowadays, the operating system you choose is not really important in the case of games. （ B） Apples OSX is first in the market when it comes to graphics
46、application. （ C） People who work as software developers are not interested in using Apple products. （ D） Large groups are not going to experiment with Apple products. 13 What effect does the writer predict that Apple hardware will have on the sales of Microsoft? （ A） It will have little effect on M
47、icrosoft corporate sales. （ B） It will give Microsoft a greater market share. （ C） It will mean that Microsoft customers have cheaper hardwares. （ D） It will produce a surge in Microsoft sales. 14 The writer claims that at the present time, Apple _. （ A） makes the best multimedia software （ B） is ch
48、anging its marke6.ng strategy （ C） is making few truly original developments （ D） continues to find new areas in which to do business 15 The Net News Wire Lite programme is _. （ A） an exemple of successful Interntet software for Apple （ B） responsible for a change in Internet use by Apple owners （ C
49、） the fastest Apple news programme available on the Internet （ D） a program developed to overcome system crashes 15 Are you a compulsive spender, or do you hold on to your money as long as possible? Are you a bargain hunter? Would you rather use charge accounts than pay cash7 Your answers to these questions will reflect your personality. According to paychologists, our individual money habits not only show our beliefs and values, but can also stem from past problems. Experts in psychology believe that for many people, mo
