1、2009年同济大学考博英语真题试卷及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 The University in Transformation , edited by Australian futurists Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley, presents some 20 highly varied outlooks on tomorrows universities by writers representing both Western and non-Western perspectives. Their essa
2、ys raise a broad range of issues, questioning nearly every key assumption we have about higher education today. The most widely discussed alternative to the traditional campus is the Internet University a voluntary community to scholars and teachers physically scattered throughout a country or aroun
3、d the world but all linked in cyberspace. A computerized university could have many advantages, such as easy scheduling, efficient delivery of lectures to thousands or even millions of students at once, and ready access for students everywhere to the resources of all the worlds great libraries. Yet
4、the Internet University poses dangers, too. For example, a line of franchised courseware, produced by a few superstar teachers, marketed under the brand name of a famous institution, and heavily advertised, might eventually come to dominate the global education market, warns sociology professor Pete
5、r Manicas of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Besides enforcing a rigidly standardized curriculum, such a “college education in a box“ could undersell the offerings of many traditional brick and mortar institutions, effectively driving them out of business and throwing thousands of career academic
6、s out of work, note Australian communications professors David Rooney and Greg Hearn. On the other hand, while global connectivity seems highly likely to play some significant role in future higher education, that does not mean greater uniformity in course content or other dangers will necessarily f
7、ollow. Counter-movements are also at work. Many in academia, including scholars contributing to this volume, are questioning the fundamental mission of university education. What if, for instance, instead of receiving primarily technical training and building their individual careers, university stu
8、dents and professors could focus their learning and research efforts on existing problems in their local communities and the world? Feminist scholar Ivana Milojevic dares to dream what a university might become “if we believed that child-care workers and teachers in early childhood education should
9、be one of the highest(rather than lowest)paid professionals?“ Co-editor Jennifer Gidley shows how tomorrows university faculty, instead of giving lectures and conducting independent research, may take on three new roles. Some would act as brokers, assembling customized degree-credit programmes for i
10、ndividual students by mixing and matching the best course offerings available from institutions all around the world. A second group, mentors, would function much like todays faculty advisers, but are likely to be working with many more students outside their own academic specialty. This would requi
11、re them to constantly be learning from their students as well as instructing them A third new role for faculty, and in Gidleys view the most challenging and rewarding of all, would be as meaning-makers: charismatic sages and practitioners leading groups of students colleagues in collaborative effort
12、s to find spiritual as well as rational and technological solutions to specific real-world problems. Moreover, there seems little reason to suppose that any one form of university must necessarily drive out all other options. Students may be “enrolled“ in courses offered at virtual campuses on the I
13、nternet, between or even during sessions at a real world problem focused institution. As co-editor Sohail Inayatullah points out in his introduction, no future is inevitable, and the very act of imagining and thinking through alternative possibilities can directly affect how thoughtfully, creatively
14、 and urgently even a dominant technology is adapted and applied. Even in academia, the future belongs to those who care enough to work their visions into practical, sustainable realities. 1 When the book reviewer discusses the Internet University, _. （ A） he is in favour of it （ B） his view is balan
15、ced （ C） he is slightly critical of it （ D） he is strongly critical of it 2 Which of the following is NOT seen as a potential danger of the Internet University? （ A） Internet-based courses may be less costly than traditional ones. （ B） Teachers m traditional institutions may lose their jobs. （ C） In
16、ternet-based courseware may lack variety in course content. （ D） The Internet University may produce teachers with a lot of publicity. 3 According to the review, what is the fundamental mission of traditional university education? （ A） Knowledge learning and career building. （ B） Learning how to sol
17、ve existing social problems. （ C） Researching into solutions to current world problems. （ D） Combining research efforts of teachers and students in learning. 4 Judging from the three new roles envisioned for tomorrows university faculty, university teachers_. （ A） are required to conduct more indepe
18、ndent research （ B） are required to offer more courses to their students （ C） are supposed to assume more demanding duties （ D） are supposed to supervise more students in their specialty 5 Which category of writing does the review belong to? （ A） Narration. （ B） Description. （ C） Persuasion. （ D） Ex
19、position. 5 Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in any other portion of the globe. Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every side. The columns crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which
20、 fierce snow-fed torrents foam under skies of brass. Amid these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose qualities seem to harmonize with their environment. Except at harvest time, when self-preservation requires a temporary truce, the Pa-than tribes are always engaged in private or pub
21、lic war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress made, it is true, only of sunbaked clay, but with battlements, turrets, loopholes, drawbridges, etc. Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud.
22、The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes all have their accounts to settle with one another. Nothing is ever forgotten, and very few debts are left unpaid. For the purposes of social life, in addition to the convention about harvest-time, a most elaborate code of honour has been established an
23、d is on the whole faithfully observed. A man who knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass unarmed from one end of the frontier to another. The slightest technical slip would, however, be fatal. The life of the Pathan is thus full of interest; and his valleys, nourished alike by endless sunshin
24、e and abundant water, are fertile enough to yield with little labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population. Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts; the rifle and the British Government. The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the second, an unmiti
25、gated nuisance. The convenience of the rifle was nowhere more appreciated than in the Indian highlands. A weapon which would kill with accuracy at fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or clan which could acquire it. One could actually remain in ones own house an
26、d fire at ones neighbour nearly a mile away. One could lie in wait on some high crag, and at hitherto unheard of ranges hit a horseman far below. Even villages could fire at each other without the trouble of going far from home. Fabulous prices were therefore offered for these glorious products of s
27、cience. Rifle-thieves scoured all India to reinforce the efforts of the honest smuggler. A steady flow of the coveted weapons spread its genial influence throughout the frontier, and the respect which the Pathan tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced. The action of the
28、British Government on the other hand was entirely unsatisfactory. The great organizing, advancing, absorbing power to the southward seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport. If the Pathan made forays into the plains, not only were they driven back(which after all was no more than fair
29、), but a whole series of subsequent interferences took place, followed at intervals by expeditions which toiled laboriously through the valleys, scolding the tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done. No one would have minded these expeditions if they had simply come, had a fig
30、ht and then gone away again. In many cases this was their practice under what was called the “butcher and bolt policy“ to which the Government of India long adhered. But towards the end of the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads through many of the valleys, and in particular the g
31、reat road to Chitral. They sought to ensure the safety of these roads by threats, by forts and by subsidies. There was no objection to the last method so far as it went. But the whole of this tendency to road-making was regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste. All along the road people were e
32、xpected to keep quiet, not to shoot one another, and above all not to shoot at travellers along the road. It was too much to ask, and a whole series of quarrels took their origin from this source. 6 The word debts in “very few debts are left unpaid“ in the first paragraph means_. （ A） loans （ B） acc
33、ounts （ C） killings （ D） bargains 7 Which of the following is NOT one of the geographical facts about the Indian frontier? （ A） Melting snows. （ B） Large population. （ C） Steep hillsides. （ D） Fertile valleys. 8 According to the passage, the Pathans welcomed_. （ A） the introduction of the rifle （ B）
34、 the spread of British rule （ C） the extension of luxuries （ D） the spread of trade 9 Building roads by the British_. （ A） put an end to a whole series of quarrels （ B） prevented the Pathans from carrying on feuds （ C） lessened the subsidies paid to the Pathans （ D） gave the Pathans a much quieter l
35、ife 10 A suitable title for the passage would be_. （ A） Campaigning on the Indian Frontier （ B） Why the Pathans Resented the British Rule （ C） The Popularity of Rifles among the Pathans （ D） The Pathans at War 10 Ever since its discovery, Pluto has never really fitted in. After the pale and glowing
36、giant Neptune, it is little more than a cosmic dust mite, swept through the farthest reaches of the solar system on a planet wildly tilted relative to the rest of the planets. It is smaller than Neptunes largest moon, and the arc of its orbit is so oval that it occasionally crosses its massive blue
37、neighbors path. For years, it has been seen as our solar systems oddest planet Yesterday, however, scientists released perhaps the most convincing evidence yet that Pluto, in fact, is not a planet at all. For the first time, astronomers have peered into a belt of rocks beyond Pluto unknown until 10
38、years ago and found a world that rivals Pluto in size. The scientists posit that larger rocks must be out there, perhaps even larger than Pluto, meaning Pluto is more likely the king of this distant realm of space detritus than the tiniest of the nine planets. When discovered in 1930, “Pluto at that
39、 point was the only thing(that far)out there, so there was nothing else to call it but a planet,“ says Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Now it just doesnt fit. “ In one sense, the question of Plutos planetary status is arcane, the province of pocket-p
40、rotected scientists and sun-deprived pen pushers determined to decide some official designation for a ball of dust and ice 3 billion miles away. Yet it is also unquestionably something more. From science fair dioramas to government funding, planets hold a special place in the public imagination, and
41、 how Pluto is eventually seen by kids and Congress alike could shape what future generations learn about this mysterious outpost on the edge of the solar system. The debate has split the astronomical community for decades. Even before the distant band of rocks known as the Kuiper Belt was found, Plu
42、tos unusual behavior made it suspicious. Elsewhere, the solar system fit into near families; the rocky inner planets, the asteroid belt, the huge and gaseous outer planets. Pluto, though, was peculiar. With the discovery of the Kuiper Belt countless bits of rock and ice left unused when the wheel of
43、 the solar system first formed Pluto suddenly seemed to have cousins. Yet until yesterday, it held to its planetary distinction because it was far larger than anything located there. The rub now is Quaoar(pronounced KWAH-oar), 1 billion miles beyond Pluto and roughly half as large. Named after the c
44、reation force of the tribe that originally inhabited the Los Angeles basin, Quaoar forecasts problems for the erstwhile ninth planet, says discoverer Dr. Brown: “The case is going to get a lot harder to defend the day somebody finds something larger than Pluto,“ To some, the problem is not with Plut
45、o, but the definition of “planet. “ In short, there is none. To the Greeks, who coined the term, it meant “wanderer,“ describing the way that the planets moved across the night sky differently from the stars behind them. Today, with our more nuanced understanding of the universe, the word no longer
46、has much scientific meaning. New Yorks Hayden Planetarium caused a commotion two years ago by supposedly demoting Pluto, lumping it with the Kuiper Belt objects in its huge mobile of the solar system. In reality, however, the planetarium was making a much broader statement, says Nell Degrasse Tyson,
47、 an astrophysicist there. The textbooks of the future should focus more on families of like objects than “planets. “ The discovery of Quaoar strengthens this idea: “Everyone needs to rethink the structure of our solar system,“ he says. “Weve just stopped counting planets. “ Still, many are loath to
48、part with the planet Pluto. They note that Pluto, in fact, is distinct from many Kuiper Belt objects. It has a thin atmosphere, for one. It reflects a great deal of light, while most Kuiper Belt objects are very dark. And unlike all but a handful of known Kuiper Belt objects, it has a moon. “Maybe P
49、luto, then, should be representative of a new class of planets,“ says Mark Sykes, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Its the first example, and we are just beginning to find this category. “ 11 Which of the following is true according to the passage? （ A） Rocks larger than Pluto have been found in the Kuiper Belt. （ B） The Kuiper Belt did not exist when Pluto was first discovered. （ C） The astronomers are divided with regard to the status of Pluto. （ D） There is almost no difference between Pluto and other Kuiper
