2009年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
Section I U of English
Rearch on animal intelligence always makes me wonder just how smart humans are. the fruit-fly experiments described in Carl Zimmer's piece in the Science Times on Tuesday. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly to live shorter lives. This suggests that bulbs burn longer, that there is an in not being too terrifically bright.
Intelligence, it out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow the starting line becau it depends on learning — a gradual — instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they've apparently learned is when to .
Is there an adaptive value to intelligence? That's the question behind this new rearch. I like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance at all the species we've left in the dust I.Q.-wi, it implicitly asks what the real of our own intelligence might be. This is the mind of every animal I've ever met.
Rearch on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, , is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. we believe that animals ran the labs, they would test us to the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really , not merely how much of it there is. , they would hope to study a question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in? the results are inconclusive.
1. [A] Suppo [B] Consider [C] Obrve [D] Imagine
2. [A] tended [B] feared [C] happened [D] threatened
3. [A] thinner [B] stabler [C] lighter [D] dimmer
4. [A] tendency [B] advantage [C] inclination [D] priority
5. [A] insists on [B] sums up [C] turns out [D] puts forward
6. [A] off [B] behind [C] over [D] along
7. [A] incredible [B] spontaneous [C] inevitable [D] gradual
8. [A] fight [B] doubt [C] stop [D] think
9. [A] invisible [B] limited [C] indefinite [D] different
10. [A] upward [B] forward [C] afterward [D] backward
11. [A] features [B] influences [C] results [D] costs
12. [A] outside [B] on [C] by [D] across
13. [A] deliver [B] carry [C] perform [D] apply
14. [A] by chance [B] in contrast [C] as usual [D] for instance
15. [A] if [B] unless [C] as [D] lest
16. [A] moderate [B] overcome [C] determine [D] reach
17. [A] at [B] for [C] after [D] with
18. [A] Above all [B] After all [C] However [D] Otherwi
19. [A] fundamental [B] comprehensive[C] equivalent [D] hostile
20. [A] By accident [B] In time [C] So far [D] Better still
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, tting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. "Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd," William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word "habit" carries a negative connotation.
So it ems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain rearchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.
But don't bother trying to kill off old habits; once tho ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they're there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourlves create parallel pathways that can bypass tho old roads.
"The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder," says Dawna Markova, author of "The Open Mind" and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. "But we are taught instead to 'decide,' just as our president calls himlf 'the Decider.' " She adds, however, that "to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities."
All of us work through problems in ways of which we're unaware, she says. Rearchers in the late 1960 covered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. At puberty, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, prerving only tho modes of thought that have emed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.
