1、2014年湖北省考博英语真题试卷及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 I am writing this at home because last week my ergonomic(符合人体工程学的 )chair at the office fell apart, unable any longer to bear my weight. I am writing it on a computer that is propped on top of two thick books, because otherwise my neck would be cricke
2、d as I peered at the screen. At 1. 93m and weighing. . . well, Im not going to say what I weigh, but think second-row rugby union forward. . . I am not built for this world. We therefore welcome a new report from Professor Tim Hatton at the University of Essex, demonstrating that the average height
3、of men in Europe has increased by 4 inches in the past century and in the UK by a whopping 5 inches. A similar increase is likely to have occurred among women:but, because the study is based in part on military records, evidence is thinner on the ground. The problem, as Hatton observes, is that the
4、world hasnt kept pace with our increased height. I long ago abandoned buseslevering myself into a narrow seat was impossible. Air travel is also challenging. I was in the back row of an easyjet plane recently, which has even less space than an ordinary seat, and would have ended up with a severe bac
5、kache had it not been for some thoughtful passenger not turning up, allowing me to relocate to an aisle seat where the only danger is being hit by the trolley. Small cars are impossibleI have to drive with my head through the sunroof. West End theaters are hopelessly cramped. As before in cricket gr
6、ounds: I would under no circumstances pay 80 for a plastic bucket seat at a Test match, where I would be wedged uneasily between two loud, red-trousered merchant bankers sipping warm champagne. As for those appalling pine beds with footboards, usually found in absurdly small hotel rooms where I inva
7、riably get stuck in the toilet because the door wont open with me inside, they should be banned immediately. Our extra height generally means extra weight. US data show that baseball players are on average 3 inches taller and 2 stones heavier than they were a century agoand these are the superfit gu
8、ys. Other data suggest ordinary Americans have added 2. 54 cm and 12. 6 kg in the past 50 years alone. We are all giants nowor will be soon. As a representative of this new breed, I would say just one thing: beware garden furniture. It appears to be made for gnomes. I routinely remove pleasant-looki
9、ng but wholly impractical cane chairs, and once, while interviewing the actress Jenny Seagrove, snapped the strings of a hammock-type chair in her garden. It is not easy to get your interviewee to take you seriously after your I am writing this at home because last week my ergonomic(符合人体工程学的 )chair
10、at the office fell apart, unable any longer to bear my weight. I am writing it on a computer that is propped on top of two thick books, because otherwise my neck would be cricked as I peered at the screen. At 1. 93m and weighing. . . well, Im not going to say what I weigh, but think second-row rugby
11、 union forward. . . I am not built for this world. We therefore welcome a new report from Professor Tim Hatton at the University of Essex, demonstrating that the average height of men in Europe has increased by 4 inches in the past century and in the UK by a whopping 5 inches. A similar increase is
12、likely to have occurred among women:but, because the study is based in part on military records, evidence is thinner on the ground. The problem, as Hatton observes, is that the world hasnt kept pace with our increased height. I long ago abandoned buseslevering myself into a narrow seat was impossibl
13、e. Air travel is also challenging. I was in the back row of an easyjet plane recently, which has even less space than an ordinary seat, and would have ended up with a severe backache had it not been for some thoughtful passenger not turning up, allowing me to relocate to an aisle seat where the only
14、 danger is being hit by the trolley. Small cars are impossibleI have to drive with my head through the sunroof. West End theaters are hopelessly cramped. As before in cricket grounds: I would under no circumstances pay 80 for a plastic bucket seat at a Test match, where I would be wedged uneasily be
15、tween two loud, red-trousered merchant bankers sipping warm champagne. As for those appalling pine beds with footboards, usually found in absurdly small hotel rooms where I invariably get stuck in the toilet because the door wont open with me inside, they should be banned immediately. Our extra heig
16、ht generally means extra weight. US data show that baseball players are on average 3 inches taller and 2 stones heavier than they were a century agoand these are the superfit guys. Other data suggest ordinary Americans have added 2. 54 cm and 12. 6 kg in the past 50 years alone. We are all giants no
17、wor will be soon. As a representative of this new breed, I would say just one thing: beware garden furniture. It appears to be made for gnomes. I routinely remove pleasant-looking but wholly impractical cane chairs, and once, while interviewing the actress Jenny Seagrove, snapped the strings of a ha
18、mmock-type chair in her garden. It is not easy to get your interviewee to take you seriously after your vast bulk has been plunged suddenly on to their manicured lawn. 1 The best title of this passage might be_. （ A） Poor Quality of Chairs （ B） Trouble with Being Tall （ C） Embarrassment of Being Rej
19、ected （ D） Difficulties in Taking Planes and Buses 2 What is the tone of the writer when he is depicting his recent travel in an easyJet plane? （ A） Angry. （ B） Sarcastic. （ C） Humorous. （ D） Envious. 3 According to the context, the word “gnomes“(Para. 5)might be_. （ A） people of vast bulk （ B） peop
20、le of small sizes （ C） representatives of Americans （ D） representatives of baseball players 4 What happened to the writer while he was interviewing Jenny Seagrove? （ A） He suddenly fell down on the lawn. （ B） He pretended to be very serious. （ C） He made a fool of himself on purpose. （ D） He failed
21、 to finish his interview. 4 Graphene must surely be one of the most exciting developments in modern science. Indeed, the substance is so extraordinary that it sounds too good to be truea superflexible sheet of carbon, just a single atom thick, which is not only the thinnest and strongest material ye
22、t known but also conducts heat, light and electricity while being impassable to gas. We have two scientists at the University of Manchester to thank for graphene. What began with Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov playing around with Scotch tape and a block of carbon graphite turned into the discovery
23、of the so-called “miracle material“(and a joint Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010). Now, of course, the race is on to put graphene to use. Even the more sober predictions read like science fiction. From cheap desalination filters to solve the worlds creeping water crisis, to next-generation electronics
24、 with foldable touch-screens and ultra-speedy biodegradable processors, to superstrong but superlightweight cars and airplanes, if just a fraction of graphenes potential is fulfilled it will change the world. And that is without even considering either the biomedical or the military possibilities. N
25、or are researchers hanging back;in 2012 alone, some 10, 000 papers were published on the subject. Britain may be the birthplace of graphene, but we will still have to work hard to hang on to our global lead as scientists and entrepreneurs across the world dash for competitive advantage. The good new
26、s is that real efforts are being made to bridge the long-standing gap between university research and commercial products that so often leaves the UK lagging behind, for example, the US. The Government has given more than lE60m, and graphene research centers are under construction in both Manchester
27、 and Cambridge. But there are already signs of progress. Yesterday, Applied Graphene Materialsa spin-off from Durham Universitybecame the second manufacturer of the material to list successfully on the stock market this year. Both its founders ambitions and beliefs in them are wholly justified. Grap
28、henes potential is limited only by our imaginations. 5 The article is written mainly to_. （ A） urge Britons to hold the lead in graphene （ B） introduce the new material graphene to readers （ C） inform readers of the limitless potentials of graphene （ D） report the construction of UKs graphene resear
29、ch centers 6 Which is NOT a property of graphene according to the passage? （ A） It is the thinnest and strongest substance. （ B） It is a superb conductor of gas. （ C） It is one of the most stretchable materials. （ D） It is a special kind of carbon. 7 It can be inferred that the past graphene researc
30、h in the UK was_. （ A） put to dash for a competitive advantage （ B） far ahead of the US in marketing （ C） turned into a lot of science fiction （ D） isolated in university experiment labs 8 There are good reasons for investors to believe in the founders ambitions for graphene because_. （ A） human ima
31、ginations can go as far as they can （ B） there is no gap between research and products （ C） the stock market in the UK is successful （ D） the new material has huge room for profit 8 It has long been recognized that the immigrant generation often arrives in a new land as pioneers with dreams of makin
32、g a better life for themselves as well as for their children. The objectives of the first generation are relatively clear:get a job, earn money, learn a new language, if possible, offer an education to the children, and in general improve their lot in life. Family reunification is another powerful m
33、otive driving many new arrivals. Some new immigrants, perhaps more than the current anti-immigration lobby may realize, often wish eventually to return home to settle there once financial considerations allow it. The obvious difficulties that most immigrants face include language inadequacies, a gen
34、eral unfamiliarity with the customs and expectations of the new country(what anthropologists refer to as “cultural discontinuities“), limited economic opportunities, poor housing conditions, discrimination, xenophobia, and what psychologists term the “stresses of acculturation“. Despite these obstac
35、les, in many cases, immigrants experience their lot as being better than it was in their country of origin. Because of a perception of relative material improvement, many immigrants may fail to internalize the anti-immigrant negative attitudes of the host country toward them, maintaining their count
36、ry of origin as a point of reference. In addition, recent immigrants commonly view and experience their current lot not in terms of the ideals and expectations of the majority society but rather in terms of the ideals and expectations of the “old culture“. This is part of an interesting orientation
37、that has been termed “the immigrants dual frame of reference“. The Suarez-Orozcos have noticed immigrants are constantly comparing and contrasting their current lot in the host society against their experiences, opportunities, and expectations in the country of origin. During the earliest phases of
38、immigration, the new arrivals may come to realize the new country as a land of unlimited opportunities, concentrating on the negative aspects of life in the land left behind. The second generation, in contrast, cannot compare their own current experiences to previous experiences of relative deprivat
39、ion. Instead, their standard of assessment may be the host cultures affluent ideals(often represented in television and films)which they are likely to find themselves lacking. From the second generations perspective, their lot in life has decidedly not improved. Researchers have suggested that socio
40、-cultural and socio-economic factors, as well as overcrowded and poorly staffed schools, seem to lead to many accultural immigrant students eventually to develop ambivalent attitudes toward schools and the value of education. In addition, we argue, ongoing discrimination and disparagement specially
41、targeted to “unwanted“ new immigrants is particularly destructive. Last, when learning and success in an institution of the dominant culturethat is, the schoolcome to be experienced as an act of ethnic betrayal, signifying a wish to “be white“, learning may become a problem to some ethnic and immigr
42、ant minority students. As a consequence, a high drop-out rate continues to be a severe problem in some communities of minority immigrant children. 9 It can be inferred that the attitude of some new immigrants towards their motherland is mainly_. （ A） detesting （ B） worried （ C） nostalgic （ D） noncha
43、lant 10 The term “the immigrants dual frame of reference, “(Para. 4)refers to_. （ A） immigrants different standards of examining their life experiences （ B） immigrants rosy expectations of life and their sad memory of the past life （ C） the dilemmas of both the first and the second generations of im
44、migrants （ D） the contrast between the immigrants material success and their pursuit of ideals 11 What can be known about the second generation of immigrants? （ A） They have their lot in life totally destroyed. （ B） They maintain their identity like their parents. （ C） Theyd like to choose TV hosts
45、as their models. （ D） They think of themselves as materially poor. 12 What does the word “ disparagement“(Para. 5)show by the natives to immigrant students? （ A） Ambiguity. （ B） Contempt. （ C） Ignorance. （ D） Hostility. 12 Leaks from Edward Snowden, a systems administrator turned whistleblower at th
46、e National Security Agency(NSA), Americas signals-intelligence agency, have confirmed that the Internet is insecure, and that modern spy agencies canand do, on an industrial scaletap virtually any form of online communication. But perhaps the most acute embarrassment so far has been caused by the re
47、velation that the NSA may have been listening to phone calls made by the leaders of Americas allies, most notably those of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. But how exactly is it done? A mobile phone is essentially a telephone with a radio attached. Anyone can listen in on the radio waves travel
48、ling between a handset and the base station to which it is connected. To prevent casual eavesdropping, phones often(although not always)use encryption, which disarranges the data so that only the intended recipient can make sense of it. But not all encryption is created equal. The encryption used in
49、 second-generation(2G)phonesa technology that dates back to 1991is weak, and readily cracked by modern computers. The 3G standard includes stronger disarranging, although it is still not perfect. 4G, the newest standard, currently being used around the world, likewise offers more competent encryptionalthough documents leaked by Edward Snowden suggest that the spies are pressuring manufacturers to put secret “back doors“ into their products. But getting involved in cryptography isnt always necessary. Spy ag
