1、武汉大学考博英语模拟试卷 31及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 From 2007 to 2010, American households lost $11 trillion in real estate, savings, and stocks. More than half of all U. S. workers either lost their jobs or were forced to take cuts in hours or pay during the recession. The worst may be behind them now
2、, but the shocking losses of the past few years have reshaped nearly every facet of their liveshow they live, work, and spendeven the way they think about the future. For Cindy, the recession began when her husband was relocated to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, by his company, forcing the family to move i
3、n a hurry. The couple bought a new house but were unable to sell their two-bedroom home in Big Lake, Minnesota. With two mortgages(抵押借贷 )and two young children to care for, Cindy couldnt imagine how to stretch her husbands paycheck to keep her family fed. Then she stumbled upon an online community c
4、alled Blotanical, a forum for gardeners, many with an interest in sustainability. “The more I read and discussed these practices, the more I realized this would help not only our budget but also our health,“ she says. Cindy admits that before the recession, she was a city girl with no interest in gr
5、owing her own dinner. “I grew flowers mostlyI didnt think about plants that werent visually interesting. “ But to stretch her budget, she began putting in vegetables and fruiteverything from strawberry beds to apple treesand as her first seedlings grew, her spirits lifted. She no longer thinks of ga
6、rdening and making her own jams as just a money saver; theyre a genuine pleasure. “Its brought us closer together as a family, too,“ she says. Her kids voluntarily pitch in with(主动帮助 )the garden work, and the family cooks together instead of eating out. The food tastes betterits fresher and organica
7、nd the garden handily fulfills its original purpose; cost cutting. Now she spends about $200 to $300 a month on groceries, less than half of the $ 650 a month that she used to lay out. After discovering how resourceful she can be in tough times, Cindy is no longer easily discouraged. “It makes me fe
8、el proud to be able to say I made it myself,“ she says. “I feel accomplished, and Im more confident about attempting things Ive never done before. “ Now she avoids convenience stores and has begun learning to knit, quilt, and make her own soap. “I dont think I would have ever begun this journey if i
9、t werent for the recession,“ she says. “I have a feeling that from now on, it will affect my familys health and happiness for the better. “ 1 We learn from the first paragraph that the recession_. （ A） affected Americans in certain occupations （ B） is over with some of the losses recovered （ C） had
10、only brought huge losses in savings and stocks （ D） had great impact on Americans work and life 2 What made the familys financial situation even worse was that they_. （ A） didnt know anyone in Rhinelander （ B） couldnt sell their home in Big Lake （ C） had two children to raise （ D） moved to Rhineland
11、er in a hurry 3 Which of the following statements is CORRECT? （ A） Cindy had already had a keen interest in sustainability. （ B） Cindy had developed a hobby of gardening before the recession. （ C） Cindy had seen the benefits of gardening in a different way. （ D） Cindy had already planned to meet the
12、 gardeners. 4 What does Cindy think of the difficult times she has gone through? （ A） It gave the couple and their kids a tough lesson. （ B） It left a lasting psychological impact on the family. （ C） It would come again and affect the family. （ D） It gave her confidence and optimism. 4 The Hero My m
13、others parents came from Hungary, but my grandfather could trace his origin to Germany and also he was educated in Germany. Although he was able to hold a conversation in nine languages, he was most comfortable in German. Every morning, before going to his office, he read title German language newsp
14、aper, which was American owned and published in New York. My grandfather was the only one in his family to come to the United States with his wife and children. He still had relatives living in Europe. When the First World War broke out, he lamented the fact if my uncle, his only son had to go, it w
15、ould be cousin fighting against cousin. In the early days of the war, my grandmother begged him to stop taking the German newspaper and to take an English language newspaper, instead. He scoffed at the idea, explaining that the fact it was in German did not make it a German newspaper, but only an Am
16、erican newspaper printed in German. But my grandmother insisted, for fear that the neighbors may see him read it and think he was German. So, he finally gave up the German newspaper. One day, the inevitable happened and my uncle Milton received notice to join the army. My grandparents were very upse
17、t, but my mother, his little sister, was excited. Now she could boast about her soldier brother going off to war. She was ten years old at the time, and my uncle, realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and her friends, went out and bought them all service pins, which meant that they had
18、a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted. When the day came for him to leave, his whole regiment, in their uniforms, left together from the same train station. There was a band playing and my mother and her friends came to see him off. Each one wore her service pin and waved a
19、 small American flag, cheering the boys, as they left. The moment came and the soldiers, all very young, none of whom had any training, but who had nevertheless all been issued uniforms, boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. The train groaned as if it knew the destiny to which it
20、 was taking its passengers, but it soon began to move. Still cheering and waving their lags, the band still playing, the train slowly departed the station. It had gone about a thousand yards when it suddenly ground to a halt. The band stopped playing, the crowd stopped cheering. Everyone gazed in wo
21、nder as the train slowly backed up and returned to the station, it seemed an eternity until the doors opened and the men started to file out. Someone shouted, “Its the armistice. The war is over. “ For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. The men lin
22、ed up and formed into two lines. They walked down the steps and, with the band playing behind, paraded down the street, as returning heroes, to be welcomed home by the assembled crowd. The next day my uncle returned to his job, and my grandfather resumed reading the German newspaper, which he read u
23、ntil the day he died. 5 Where was the narrators family when this story took place? （ A） In Germany. （ B） In Hungary. （ C） In the United States. （ D） In New York. 6 His grandfather_. （ A） could not speak and read English well enough （ B） knew nine languages equally well （ C） knew a number of language
24、s, but felt more kin to German （ D） loved German best because it made him think of home 7 His grandmother did not want her husband to buy and read newspapers in German, because （ A） it was war time and Germans were their enemy （ B） the neighbors would mistake them as pro-German （ C） it was easier to
25、 get newspapers in English in America （ D） nobody else read newspapers in German during the war time 8 The narrators mother wanted her brother to go to fight in the war, because_. （ A） like everybody else at the war time, she was very patriotic （ B） she hated the war and the Germans very much （ C） a
26、ll her friends had relatives in war and she wanted to be like them （ D） she liked to have a brother she could think of as a hero 8 As one works with color in a practical or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile changeable thing depending to a
27、 large extent on the relationship of the color to other colors seen simultaneously. It is not fixed in its relation to the direct stimulus which creates it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give rise to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumination colors
28、, usually(but not always)looking much the same in artificial light as in daylight. Both of these effects seem to the due in large part to the mechanism of color adaptation mentioned earlier. When the eye is fixed on a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the sensitivity of the eye to
29、color in and around the area viewed. This readjustment does not immediately affect the color seen but usually does affect the next area to which the gaze is shifted, the longer the time of viewing, the higher the intensity, and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be in terms of its pers
30、istence in the succeeding viewing situation. As indicated by the work of Wright and Schouten, it appears that, at least for a first approximation, full adaptation takes place over a very brief time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in relative darkness just previously.
31、 As the stimulus is allowed to act, however, the effect, becomes more persistent in the sense that it takes the eye longer to regain its sensitivity to lower intensities. The net result is that, if the eye is so exposed and then the gaze is transferred to an area of lower intensity, the loss of sens
32、itivity produced by the first area will still be present and appear as an “afterimage“ super imposed on the second. The effect not only is present over the actual area causing the “local adaptation“ , but also spreads with decreasing strength to adjoining areas of the eye to produce “ lateral adapta
33、tion“. Also, because of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another, all of which are at similar brightness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become uniform over the whole eye. 9 This selection is concerned primarily with_. （ A） the eyes ad
34、aptation to color （ B） the properties of colored surfaces （ C） the effect of changes in color intensity （ D） experiments on colored objects 10 Whether a colored object would, on two viewings separated in time, appear to the viewer as similar or different in color would depend mostly on_. （ A） the co
35、lor mechanism of the eye in use at the time of each viewing （ B） what kind of viewing had immediately preceded each of the viewings （ C） the properties of the surface being viewed （ D） whether the object was seen in artificial or natural light 11 If a persons eye has been looking at an object in bri
36、ght sunlight for some time, and then shifts to an object not well lit such as a lawn or shrub in shadow we can expect_. （ A） a time lag in the focusing ability of the eye （ B） the immediate loss of the “afterimage“ of the first object （ C） some inability to see colors of the latter-named objects unt
37、il loss of sensitivity has been regained （ D） adaptation in the central area of the eye but little adaptation in the lateral areas to the new intensity level 12 The present selection has apparently been preceded by some explanation of_. （ A） some experiments with color pigments （ B） the nature of co
38、lor （ C） the color properties of various surfaces （ D） the mechanism of eyes adaptation to color 12 In the opinion of many Americans and Europeans, we only began to really explore our world in the sixteenth century. According to them, the sailors of the ancient world did not explore distant parts of
39、 the world; they did not have the necessary knowledge or skills for long sea journeys. However, the people who have this opinion are forgetting two important facts of history. First, sometimes early scientists have an idea which is correct, but scientists in later centuries do not believe it. For ex
40、ample, about 270 B. C. , a Greek scientist had an idea which we all believe today. The earth moves around the sun. But for the following 1, 600 years scientists did not believe this. In their opinion, the sun clearly moved around the earth. They discovered the truth again only in the fifteenth centu
41、ry! The second fact of history that many people forget is this: Ancient does not mean primitive. For example, the ancient Egyptians knew a great deal about the stars; they used this knowledge to find their way across the oceans. Two thousand years ago a Greek scientist who lived in Egypt calculated
42、the distance around the earth. The results of his calculations were close to the real distance we know today! So the ancients had a great deal of scientific knowledge. They also had skills which equaled the skills of today. For example, 1,300 years ago and before, fishermen in Ireland built their bo
43、ats of wood and leather. Today some fishermen in Ireland still make boats of the same design. They use tools and materials which are not very different from the tools and materials which their ancestors used. Why? The ancient design of the boats was good, and with skillful sailors, these boats can s
44、ail in all kinds of weather. Clearly long before the sixteenth century, people had the skill, the knowledge and the equipment which were necessary for long journeys by sea. The world did not have to wait until the sixteenth century for its first explorers! 13 Which of the following statements is con
45、sistent with the passage? （ A） According to the writer, we only began to really explore the world in the sixteenth century. （ B） In the history of science, people sometimes have to discover a fact a second time. （ C） The ancient Egyptians had very little knowledge about the stars. （ D） The writer ag
46、rees with many Americans and Europeans except for the two facts mentioned in the passage. 14 Why does the writer use the example of the Greek scientist who calculated the distance around the world? （ A） He wants to show the primitive knowledge of ancient scientists. （ B） He wants to give an example
47、of something which later scientists did not believe. （ C） He wants to give an example of scientific knowledge which was available to early explorers. （ D） He wants to show that science has not been developing significantly. 15 According to the writer, why do Irish fishermen still use boats like the
48、boats which their ancestors used 1,000 years ago? （ A） Boats made of wood or leather are light and fast. （ B） The necessary materials are easily available. （ C） They dont have the money for expensive boats. （ D） The design of the boats is very good. 16 “People from the ancient world sailed around Af
49、rica. They even reached America. “ In your opinion, how would the writer of the passage feel about these ideas? （ A） He has used this as an important fact to praise ancient civilization. （ B） He does not believe them. （ C） In his opinion, ancient explorers did not have the skills necessary for long journeys. （ D） In his opinion, they are possible. 16 The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others has been the focus of
