考研英语-试卷63
(总分142,考试时间90分钟)
1. U of English
Section I U of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choo the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D.
What would happen if consumers decided to simplify their lives and spend less on material goods and rvices? This (1)_____ is taking on" a certain urgency as rates of economic growth continue to decelerate throughout the industrialized world, and (2)_____ millions of consumers appear to be (3)_____ for more frugal lifestyle. The Stanford Rearch Institute, which has done some of the most extensive work on the frugality phenomenon, (4)_____ that nearly five million American adults number" (5)_____ to and act on some but not all" of its basic tenets. The frugality phenomenon first achieved prominence as a middle-class (6)_____ of high consumption lifestyle in the industrial world during the 50"s and 60"s. In th
e Silent Revolution, Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michingan"s Institute of Social Rearch examined this (7)_____ in the United States and 10 Western European nations. He concluded that a change has taken place "from an (8)_____ emphasis on material well-being and physical curity (9)_____ greater emphasis on the quality of life", that is, "a (10)_____ from materialism to postmaterialism". Inglehart calls the 60s the "fat year". Among their more visible trappings were the ragged blue jeans favored by the affluent young. Most of them (11)_____ from materialism; however, this was (12)_____ Comfortably fixed Americans were going (13)_____, (14)_____ making things last longer, sharing things with others, learning to do things for themlves and so on. But (15)_____ economically significant, it was hardly (16)_____ in a US Gross National Product climbing vigorously toward the $2 thousand billion mark (17)_____, as the frugality phenomenon matured—growing out of the soaring 80s and into the somber 90s—it emed to undergo a (18)_____ transformation. American consumers continued to lo (19)_____ in materialism and were being joined by new converts who were (20)_____ frugality becau of the darkening economic skies they saw ahead.
1.
A. question B. problem
sdoC. issue D. dilemma
2.
A. though B. as
C. much as D. ever since
3.
sucker punch
A. answering B. making
horizontallyankaraC. opting D. planning
reluctant4.
A. predicts B. discovers
C. demonstrates D. estimates
5.
A. amount B. attend
C. lead D. adhere
6.
A. rejection B. denial
C. retention D. defiance
7.
A. adventure B. maturity
C. experience D. existence
8.
A. overwhelming B. imaginary
C. trivial D. apparent
9.
A. about B. toward
C. with D. for
10.
A. relief B. variation
C. range D. shift
11.
A. suffer B. differ
C. diverge D. retreat
12.
A. sound B. subtle
C. superficial D. obscure
do not touch13.
A. without B. off
C. about D. with
14.
A. in general B. in effect
C. for example D. in a n
15.
magicjackA. when B. whereas
C. while D. once
16.
A. decisive B. discernible
lackofC. incredible D. negligible
17.
A. Indeed B. Moreover
C. Therefore D. However
18.
A. elementary B. fundamental
C. comprehensive D. primary
19.
A. faith B. doubt
C. patience D. interest
20.
A. accommodating B. discarding
C. embracing D. prenting
2. Reading Comprehension
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.
What our society suffers from most today is the abnce of connsus about what it and life in it ought to be; such connsus cannot be gained from society"s prent stage, or fr
om fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the prent is too clo and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A connsus in the prent hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer"s epics informed tho who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies. Most societies derive connsus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are bad on all of the. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, becau it prevents us from achieving connsus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by lf-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himlf of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpo in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress becau national morale has declined, and we h
ave lost an earlier n of national vision and purpo. Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just becau ours is a society bad on individual diversity, it needs connsus about some dominating ideas more than societies bad on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have connsus, it must be bad on a myth—a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpo. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purpolessness—in short, **bat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.
1. This text is mainly intended to ______.
A. explore certain ways of making for a connsus.
tripB. spotlight the role of myths in binding a community.
C. interpret the meaning and purpo of modern life.
D. rever the decline of social standards and values.
2. From the text we learn that Christopher Lash is most probably ______.
A. a reform advocate.
B. a social psychologist.
C. a reputed poet.
D. a historical specialist.
3. Americans may find themlves in a society characterized by ______.
A. extreme stress.
B. worry and suffering.
C. shared beliefs.
D. void and isolation.
4. Homer"s epics is mentioned in Paragraph 1 in order to ______.
A. exemplify the contributions made by ancient poets.
B. show an ideal concept of what life ought to be.
C. illustrate the role of shared myths in society.杭州英语口语培训哪家好
D. make known myths of what a society ought to be.
5. The author concludes that only shared myths can help Americans ______.
A. to bring about the uniformity of their culture.
B. to regain their connsus about a common experience.
C. to perceive the effects of connsus about society.
D. to stay away from negative feelings in their life.
In the next century we"ll be able to alter our DNA radically, encoding our visions and vanities while concocting new life-forms. When Dr. Frankenstein made his monster, he wrestled with the moral issue of whether he should allow it to reproduce, "Had I the right, for my own benefit, to inflict the cur upon everlasting generations?" Will such questions require us to develop new moral philosophies? Probably not. Instead, we"ll reach again for a time-tested moral concept, one sometimes called the Golden Rule and which Kant, the millennium"s most prudent moralist, conjured up into a categorical imperative: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; treat each person as an individual rather than as a means to some end. Under this moral precept we should recoil at human cloning, becau it inevitably entails using humans as means to other humans" ends and valuing them as copies of others we loved or as collections of body parts, not as individuals in their own right. We should also draw a line, however fuzzy, that would pe
rmit using genetic engineering to cure dias and disabilities but not to change the personal attributes that make someone an individual (IQ, physical appearance, gender and xuality). The biotech age will also give us more reason to guard our personal privacy. Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, got it wrong: rather than centralizing power in the hands of the state, DNA technology has empowered individuals and families. But the state will have an important role, making sure that no one, including **panies, can look at our genetic data without our permission or u it to discriminate against us. Then we can get ready for the breakthroughs that **e at the end of the next century and the technology is comparable to mapping our genes: plotting the 10 billion or more neurons of our brain. With that information we might someday be able to create artificial intelligences that think and experience consciousness in ways that are indistinguishable from a human brain. Eventually we might be able to replicate our own minds in a "dry-ware" machine, so that we could live on without the "wet-ware" of a biological brain and body. The 20th century"s revolution in infotechnology will thereby merge with the 21st century"s revolution in biotechnology. But this is science fiction. Let"s turn the page now and get back to real science.
