1、2008年上海外国语大学英语专业（基础英语）真题试卷及答案与解析 一、完形填空 0 Fill in each of the blanks below with a word provided in the box. You may change the words into their proper forms if needed so that the words you put in will be grammatically and semantically appropriate. You can only use the words in the box ONCE. Write yo
2、ur answers on your Answer Sheet.All three winners of this years Nobel Prize for Medicine are eminent scientists, but Mario Capecchi is the one with the spiral-staircase story: the starving, homeless Italian street kid who found his way to America, to Harvard, to Utah, ever the refugee, before finall
3、y arriving at eternal glory and the Nobel Prize. Its in many ways a familiar tale, Oliver Twist meets Albert Einstein, the pilgrim who comes to the promised land expecting, as he says, “the roads to be paved in【 C1】 _.What I found actually was just opportunity.“ But his story also has enough nice se
4、rrated edges to【 C2】 _our theories about genes and genius and what really makes us who we are. You could say the visionary geneticist had a【 C3】 _genetic edge. Capecchis grandmother was a painter, his uncle a renowned physicist, and his mother Lucy Ramberg an expat American poet【 C4】 _in a chalet in
5、 the Italian Alps when Mario was born in 1937. She had fallen in with a group of bohemian writers who believed, her son says with just a【 C5】 _of bemusement, that “they could wipe out Fascism and Nazism with a pen.“ After the Gestapo came in 1941 to take her to Dachau, Mario【 C6】 _on the streets. He
6、 was 4 years old. All children have their own normal; they have not yet seen any worlds other than their own. Capecchis【 C7】 _was an uncontrolled experiment in resilience. “I never felt sorry for myself,“ he recalls. “Children are remarkably【 C8】 _. Put them in a situation, and they simply will do w
7、hatever it is they need to do.“ For his band of urchins, that meant a cunning methodical pursuit of food and shelter. They worked together like raptors, one child【 C9】 _the street vendors so another could steal the fruit. Capecchi finally landed in a【 C10】 _in Reggio Emilia, where he could starve mo
8、re systematically. The daily【 C11】 _was a piece of bread and some chicory coffee, and to keep the children from running off, “they【 C12】 _all of our clothes away.“ He lay on a bed with no sheets, no blankets, feverish with hunger. It was there he learned the art of【 C13】 _plotting as he imagined all
9、 the ways he might escape and the obstacles hed【 C14】 _to do so. In 1945, when American soldiers liberated Dachau, Lucy went hunting for her son. She scoured hospital records, searching for more than a year before she【 C15】_him down. It was on his 9th birthday, Oct. 6, 1946, that the mother he scarc
10、ely【 C16】 _arrived, a new Tyrolean outfit in hand, including the hat with the feather. She took him to Rome, where he had his first【 C17】 _in six years, and ultimately to the New World, where they settled in Quaker Commune outside Philadelphia. Creativity, Capecchi once said, comes from “the【 C18】 _
11、juxtaposition“ of life experiences. His old life and new one certainly rubbed each other raw. Some teachers wrote off the feral boy who had never set【 C19】 _in a school and spoke no English; but others gave him paints and told him to make murals to communicate. One day he was beating up the【 C20】 _t
12、hird-graders, since that was what he knew how to do. And soon he was beating up older kids on【 C21】 _of his peers. “That gave me a position,“ he says, “some social standing.“ Capecchi ultimately【 C22】_his way to Harvard, the center of the universe in the early days of molecular biology. But he felt【
13、 C23】 _by colleagues whose rivalries consumed them as much as their research. So he set off for the University of Utah, where the sight lines suited him better and collegiality was the【 C24】 _to success. He lives in a house high over a canyon, “I love looking across long distance,“ he says. “I think
14、 it sort of【 C25】 _up my mind.“ This vista is necessary for his work as well as his【 C26】_. Capecchi looks at science as a series of circles: the smallest circle is the one in which everyone is doing the【 C27】 _thing. As you move farther out “fewer people are willing to go there, but youre charting
15、new area.【 C28】 _too far. Step out of bounds, and youre in science fiction. So you have to be careful, But you want to be as close to the【 C29】 _as possible.“ When he first proposed manipulating mouse genes to help model disease, the NIH gatekeepers thought he was over the line, “Not【 C30】 _of pursu
16、it,“ they said of his grant proposals. Happily Capecchi ignored them. Now he triumphed in spite of his ordeals. 1 【 C1】 2 【 C2】 3 【 C3】 4 【 C4】 5 【 C5】 6 【 C6】 7 【 C7】 8 【 C8】 9 【 C9】 10 【 C10】 11 【 C11】 12 【 C12】 13 【 C13】 14 【 C14】 15 【 C15】 16 【 C16】 17 【 C17】 18 【 C18】 19 【 C19】 20 【 C20】 21 【 C
17、21】 22 【 C22】 23 【 C23】 24 【 C24】 25 【 C25】 26 【 C26】 27 【 C27】 28 【 C28】 29 【 C29】 30 【 C30】 二、短文改错 30 In his 1988 best seller A Brief history of Time, Stephen Hawking made readers wonder: if the universe is expanding, where is it expanding to? Now Hawking has teamed up his daughter, Lucy【 M1】 _ Ha
18、wking, to write Georges Secret Key to the Universe, the first in a trilogy of novels directed at the fertile minds of children. In an interview on e-mail, Hawking explains:【 M2】 _ “The aim of the book is to encourage childrens sense of wonder at the universe. We want them to look up outward.【 M3】 _
19、Only then will they be able to make the right decisions to safeguard the future of the human race.“ Georges Secret Key to the Universe, aimed 9-to 11-year-olds,【 M4】 _ tells the story of a young boy, George, and a cheery astrophysicist, Eric, who talking computer opens a portal to the known【 M5】 _ u
20、niverse. The duo don spacesuits and use the portal to search for planets to which humanity can escape the irreversible【 M6】 _ warming of the earth. Along the way, George and the reader learn from the basics of astrophysics and astronomy through【 M7】 _ illustrations and captioned photographs. “You do
21、nt need actual secret key to explore the universe,“ George ultimately【 M8】 _ discovers. “Theres one that everyone can use. Its called physics.“ The Hawkings portray the universe as harmony and【 M9】 _ largely benign. But our present know ledge of the universe suggests that it is , in fact, a desolate
22、 and often violent expanse place in【 M10】 _ which humankind plays an inconsequential role. 31 【 M1】 32 【 M2】 33 【 M3】 34 【 M4】 35 【 M5】 36 【 M6】 37 【 M7】 38 【 M8】 39 【 M9】 40 【 M10】 三、阅读理解 40 This dictionary is for people who want to use modern English. It offers accurate and detailed information on
23、 the way modern English is used in all kinds of communication. It is a useful guide to writing and speaking English as well as an aid to reading and understanding. This dictionary looks rather like most others if you dont look too closely. Actually it is quite new and different. The techniques used
24、to compile it are new and use advanced computer technology. For the user, the kind of information is different, the quality of information is different, and the presentation of the information is different. For the first time, a dictionary has been compiled by the thorough examination of a represent
25、ative group of English text, spoken and written, running to many millions of words. This means that in addition to all the tools of the conventional dictionary makers wide reading and experience of English, other dictionaries and of course eyes and ears this dictionary is based on hard, measurable e
26、vidence. No major uses are missed, and the number of times a use occurs has a strong influence on the way the entries are organized. Equally, the large group of texts, called the corpus, gives us reasonable grounds for omitting many uses and word-forms that do not occur in it. It is difficult for a
27、conventional dictionary, in the absence of evidence, to decide what to leave out, and a lot of quite misleading information is thus preserved in the tradition of lexicography. This dictionary makes a break with such traditions. We have gone back to basics and collected many millions of words, and pu
28、t them into a very large computer. The dictionary team has had daily access to about 20 million words, with many more in specialized stores. The words came from books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, leaflets, conversation, radio and television broadcasts. The sources are gratefully acknowledged o
29、n page xxii. The aim was to provide a fair representation of contemporary English. No set of texts, however large, can be fully relied on; all the time the information from the texts has been analysed and appraised by a team of lexicographers, whose professional knowledge has also been used wherever
30、 there is only a small amount of evidence of the usage of a word or phrase. The quality of information in this dictionary is different from others. With our textural evidence it is possible to be precise about the shape of phrases and the extent of their variation; the relative importance of differe
31、nt senses of a word; and the typical environment in which a word or phrase is used. Even when statements like this are already familiar, they are made with a different kind of authority in this book. 41 According to the passage, this dictionary differs from most others, except in_. （ A） the quality
32、of printing （ B） the quality of information （ C） the use of advanced technology （ D） the use of measurable evidence 42 This dictionary differs from a traditional one in that the compilers_. （ A） collect relevant data （ B） count word frequencies （ C） read as widely as possible （ D） refer to existing
33、dictionaries 43 This dictionary does not claim to include_. （ A） all the existing words （ B） frequently used words （ C） modern usage of words （ D） a wide coverage of words 44 Which of the following is omitted in this dictionary? （ A） The different form of phrases. （ B） The context in which a word is
34、 used. （ C） The full scope of meaning of a word. （ D） The order of importance of meanings of a word. 45 In the passage the author mainly emphasizes the difference in data_. （ A） collecting （ B） presenting （ C） preserving （ D） processing 46 The whole passage is_the dictionary. （ A） a users guide to （
35、 B） an introduction to （ C） a research essay on （ D） an advertisement for 46 When Americans think of college these days, the first word that often comes to mind is “debt“. And from “debt“ its just a short hop to other unpleasant words, like “payola“, “kickback“, and “bribery“. At least, thats how it
36、s been since this spring, when news broke that student-loan companies had been using unsavory and possibly illegal tactics to get preferential treatment from university financial-aid-officers. At some universities, officers were given stock options in companies whose loans they recommended to incomi
37、ng students, while at others lenders offered millions of dollars in perks to schools that would stop doing business with competitors. In response, the Senate passed a bill toughening rules against “inducements“ from lenders to administrators. All well and good, but it leaves untouched a more fundame
38、ntal scandal: the huge profits that lenders make from student loans are being earned on the governments dime. For decades, student-loan companies have one of the cushiest businesses in America. We want collage students to be able to finance their education a reasonable rates. But banks are understan
39、dably leery of lending to people with no collateral and uncertain future earnings. So we provide incentives to lend. The federal government, for instance, guarantees the so-called Stafford loans that college students get if a student defaults, the government will pay off almost the entire loan. On t
40、op of that, the government hands out billions of dollars in subsidies to lenders every year, all but insuring them a steady profit. In effect, lenders get a guaranteed return with very little risk. This convoluted process is good at making student-loan companies rich-Sallie Mac, the biggest issuer o
41、f student loans, earned $ 1.3 billion last year, with a return on equity that dwarf most other companies. But its not very good at getting government money to students cheaply and efficiently. President Bushs 2007 budget show, for instance, that its four times as expensive for the government to subs
42、idize and guarantee private loans as for it to issue those loans itself. In other words, the current system is not just corrupt. Its also inefficient. So whats to be done? At it happens, theres evidence in the history of student aid itself, which stretches back to the G. I. Bill, when the government
43、 committed itself to paying for the college education of returning veterans. An overwhelming success, the bill involved no middlemen: the government paid tuition fees directly to colleges. Talking of the government running anything, of course, makes people anxious, but the truth is that the governme
44、nt is already running the student-loan market. The problem is that up to now its been run in the interests of student-loan companies. Maybe its time to start running it in the interests of students. 47 What is the authors revelation about student-loan companies? （ A） They bribe university financial-
45、aid officers. （ B） They make profits on the governments money. （ C） They try to “induce“ administrators for benefits. （ D） They use unlawful methods to get preferential treatment. 48 What will happen if a student does not pay back his loan to the lender? （ A） The lender will lose the money. （ B） The
46、 government will pay the lender. （ C） The university will have to intervene. （ D） The student will have uncertain future earnings. 49 What does “it“(para. 3, line 5)refer to? （ A） the U. S. government. （ B） the current loan system. （ C） the private loan company. （ D） President Bushs 2007 budget. 50
47、The author seems to think it is better for the government_. （ A） to pass a new bill like the G. I. Bill （ B） to run the student-loan market itself （ C） to pay tuition fees directly to colleges （ D） to reduce the subsidies for private lenders 51 What is the passage mainly about? （ A） Problems in stud
48、ent loans （ B） Misuse of government subsidies （ C） Bribery of student-loan companies （ D） Corruption of university financial-aid officers 51 It can be argued that the best known baby boomer of all is the computer itself. But it would be unfair to say that the computer has transformed the lives of bo
49、omers(those born in the years following World War II)and leave it at that. The boomers themselves can take credit for shaping the course of this technology if not the entire direction of the digital revolution. In the 1950s, computers were like. the 1950s. They were giant monochrome machines tended by people wearing white shirts
