二级笔译考试大纲样题
笔译综合能力
Section 1: Vocabulary and Grammar
This section consists of 3 parts. Read the directions for each
part before answering the questions. The time for this section is 25
minutes.
Part 1 Vocabulary Selection
In this part, there are 20 incomplete sentences. Below each
sentence, there are 4 choices respectively marked by letters A, B, C
and D. Choose the word or phrase which best completes each sentence.
There is only ONE right answer. Blacken the corresponding letter as
required on your Machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.
1. The streets of the Dual Springs neighborhood, a migrant-worker
hub in northern Beijing, are ______ . That's no surprise; more than
13,000 people have been quarantined in China's capital to halt the
insidious spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
A. deserted B. vacated C. unlived in D. removed
2. In many ______ a lack of direction prompted the Republican
Guard to call it a day.
A. occasions B. cases C. events D. days
3. They did considerable work to ______ the masses of the United
States with the elementary problems of Latin America.
A. allow B. acquaint C. notify D. propagate
4. My mother says a teaching machine has to be ______ to fit the
mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be
taught differently.
A. modified B. considered C. adjusted D. remanufactured
5. The big retailers are starting to think small, too.
Sainsbury's and Tesco have launched convenience-store chains, called
Local and Express, respectively—that have fast become ______ in
British towns.
A. ubiquitous B. established C. frequented D. known
6. The solidarity among the young, especially the 386 Generation,
is so strong that it's helping to ______ the country's deep-rooted
regional divide.
A. enhance B. dissolve C. weaken D. move
7. The Wright brothers continued their flying in France and
______ all who saw them.
A. saddened B. frightened C. astonished D. alarmed
8. We are well aware of the responsibilities that necessarily
______ to our office.
A. attach B. confronts C. given D. face
9. People say that what we are all ______ is a meaning for life,
but I don't think that's what we all look for.
A. seeing B. seeking C. watching D. looking
10. When Joe was left to live with those people, he found that
they were so ______ of life that he couldn't stay with them.
A. painful B. disdainful C. meaningful D. fruitful
11. When you make the sacrifice in marriage, the psychologists
say, you're sacrificing not to each other but to ______ in a
relationship.
A. unity B. utility C. fraternity D. reality
12. The constant changes in fashion, ______ with a view to higher
sales, made greater demands on women as a class.
A. predicted B. dictated C. stated D. related
13. It is easy to see why many little girls prefer to ______ with
the male role, but the girl who does find the male role more
attractive is faced with a dilemma.
A. beautify B. modify C. identify D. justify
14. If we can ______ any kind of killing in the name of religion,
the door is opened for all kinds of other justifications.
A. purify B. satisfy C. justify D. verify
15. I could easily perceive that his heart burnt to relieve his
starving kids, but he seemed ashamed to ______ his inability to me.
A. discover B. recover C. demonstrate D. impress
16. It is a dangerous thing nowadays if you do not ______ others
at arm's length, for they may hit you below the belt any time.
A. bake B. keep C. take D. make
17. I will never ______ the experiences of the four years at
Howard University, though there were unhappy encounters.
A. discharge B. recharge C. discard D. dispose
18. We should not ______ the West, nor should we praise it to the
skies and think great of everything that belongs to the West.
A. forgive B. forsake C. forlorn D. forage
19. Bill Gates is one of those who are said to be ______ , able
to rack huge profits at every turn.
A. on the ship B. on the plane C. on the gravy train D. on the
rocks
20. He aimed at finding some workable ______ with a man who was a
celebrity not only in the inward-reflecting world of Oxford but in
the larger world outside.
A. neighborhood B. workmanship C. relationship D. craftsmanship
Part 2 Vocabulary Replacement
This part consists of 15 sentences, in each sentence one word or
phrase is underlined. Below each sentence, there are 4 choices
respectively marked by letters A, B, C and D. Choose the word or
phrase that can replace the underlined part without causing any
grammatical error or changing the basic meaning of the sentence.
There is only ONE right answer. Blacken the corresponding letter as
required on your Machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET.
21. It wasn't long before Franks was a marked man. After he
served in Desert Storm, directing helicopter and ground units, the
Army's high command gave him the job of remaking the service for the
post-cold war world.
A. a person whose conduct is watched with suspicion or hostility
B. a man destined to succeed
C. a remarkable person
D. a notable person
22. The most notorious expression of that change was last year's
bootleg publication of "The Japan That Can Say No"—the book written
by fight-wing politician Shintaro Ishihara and Sony chairman Akio
Morita.
A. free publication B. pirate publication
C. lawful publication D. commercial publication
23. "No," Kojima said, "the point is, he spoke out, he stood up
to America. Japan is just getting tired of being pushed around."
A. he stood up and spoke to the American audience
B. he faced America boldly
C. he challenged America
D. he met the Americans' challenge proudly
24. Traffic with criminals is dangerous.
A. dealing with criminals B. tracking the criminals
C. fighting the criminals D. transporting criminals
25. Some—such as liquid oxygen—are so cold that they embrittle
many constructional materials and evaporate continuously if not
refrigerated.
A. weaken B. strengthen
C. reduce D. cause ... to become brittle
26. A "Backgrounder" permits newspapermen to publish information
given them though without attribution to the source.
A. a person who remains behind the scene
B. a person providing the background knowledge
C. a press conference
D. a news agency
27. Is it possible that the entire tale is but a garbled account
of that voyage and Biarni another name for Leif?
A. detailed B. plausible C. distorted D. eye-witness
28. Isolated cases of disaffection—or harbingers of a mass
cross-border movement that threatens Europe's economic stability? The
question is pressing.
A. sign B. forerunner C. messenger D. vanguard
29. The man we met this morning grows many kinds of plants in his
garden, most of which are flowers including succulents and cacti.
A. rises B. raises C. plants D. plows
30. The scientist contested the assumption of previous scientists
that the fate of human beings could not be predicated.
A. respected B. supposed C. suspected D. assumed
31. One's knowledge of the world, according to humanists, is
largely derived by observation, experience and their analysis of the
things they observe and experience.
A. come from B. determined C. resulted in D. resulted from
32. In the last 10 years we have all witnessed an impressive
growth in our knowledge about the environments.
A. imperative B. observable C. sustainable D. expressive
33. In our culture and in our eyes success all too often means
simply outdoing other people by virtue of achievement judged by some
single scale—income or honors—and coming out at "the top".
A. outfitting B. outbidding C. outraging D. outshining
34. Social taboos remained strong. Gambling was virtually
prohibited except on the racecourses, and drinking of alcohol was
discouraged by the closing of hotels at six o'clock and by the
shortage of bottle beer.
A. factually B. eventually C. consequently D. significantly
35. Everyone must be responsible for their own behavior, and most
of the young people today are interested, as far as I can perceive,
in taking their knocks, just as adults must take theirs.
A. taking their jobs
B. sharing their ideas
C. assuming their responsibilities
D. shaking off their responsibilities
Part 3 Error Correction
This part consists of 15 sentences, in each sentence there is an
underlined part that indicates a grammatical error. Below each
sentence, there are 4 choices respectively marked by letters A, B, C
and D. Choose the word or phrase that can replace the underlined part
so that the error is corrected. There is only ONE right answer.
Blacken the corresponding letter as required on your Machine-scoring
ANSWER SHEET.
36. A survey asked British mums who work outside the home what
they would most like for Mother's Day. And what did they reply?
"Flowers? Chocolates? Dinner in Paris?" No, what 72% wanted was this:
a little bit of time for mother.
A. to myself B. to morn C. for morn D. by myself
37. Of course, nobody ever thought the prime minister's job shall
be easy.
A. would B. could C. will D. should
38. Downing Street is fighting fiercely for something it hopes it
shall control: its reputation. "[The BBC] is now saying, 'Nobody ever
said the prime minister told a lie,' but that's exactly what they're
saying," Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications, told
Newsweek. "That's pretty heavy."
A. could B. would C. can D. will
39. The made-in-America idea of the global brand has built a name
that people will buy on faith, and the pioneer was Coca-Cola.
A. is building B. is to build C. was to build D. was building
40. For the least. American roots are no longer an easy selling
point. Through much of the postwar period, US brands could play off
this cachet; Levi's ad campaigns used wholesome themes of boy-meetsgirl in a heartland American setting until the early 1990s.
A. At least B. At the least C. At most D. At the most
41. For me and my other classmates, trying to fathom what
happened to our old school friend, we may never know if we really
would grow up with a future terrorist.
A. grow up B. are growing up C. grew up D. shall grow up
42. When I was an editor, I always preferred to apologise
promptly, what the merits of the case, rather than face the expense
and, importantly, the time consuming complexities and debilitating
worry of litigation, libel being one of the least satisfactory
branches of the law.
A. whichever, more importantly B. whatever, more important
C. whichever, more important D. whatever, more importantly
43. One morning my patience was growing thin during Mark talked
once too often, and then I made a novice-teacher's mistake.
A. when B. as C. while D. whenever
44. One of the key features of CBI is the use of authentic
"input"—in other words, "real" reading but listening material:
magazine and newspaper articles, poems, short stories, brochures,
excerpts from textbooks written for native speakers of English, radio
interviews, lectures, and advertisements.
A. and B. or C. and/or D. nil
45. In each person's life there are three stages. When one was
young, people said, "He will do something." As he grew older and did
nothing, they said, "He could do something if he found himself." When
he was white-haired, people said of him, "He might do something if he
could try anything."
A. He should have done something if he has tried something
B. He would have done something if he should have tried anything
C. He might do something if he would try something.
D. He might have done something if he had tried anything
46. China not only will endeavor to curb its population growth,
but will also upgrade the education of its citizens.
A. will not only ... but also will B. will not only ... but also
will
C. will not only ... but also D. not only ... but will also
47. Of course, the notion suspects that while people work 50
weeks a year, their output is greater than they work 46 or 47 weeks.
A. predicts ... even if B. assumes ... if
C. assumes ... when D. predicts ... when
48. If they will not be able to reach agreement before the
conference, they shall lose a good opportunity of involving
themselves to do the project.
A. will be unable ... to involving B. are unable ... to involve
C. are not be able ... to involve D. will be able ... to
involving
49. I was standing behind him and I did see Sandra handing the
letter to Joe.
A. hand B. has handed C. handed D. was handing
50. The President was talking to all the department heads while a
group of unexpected important clients had arrived for a talk with him.
A. when ... were arriving B. as ... had arrived
C. when ... arriving D. when ... arrived
Section 2: Reading Comprehension
In this section you will find after each of the passages a number
of questions or unfinished statements about the passage, each with 4
(A, B, C and D) choices to complete the statement. You must choose
the one which you think fits best. Blacken the corresponding letter
as required on your Machine-scoring ANSWER SHEET. The time for this
section is 70 minutes.
Questions 51-55 are based on the following passage.
To Err is Human
by Lewis Thomas
Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a
computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to
have jumped from $ 379 into the millions, appeals for charitable
contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding
names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills,
utility companies write that they're turning everything off, that
sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and
complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the
same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment
is being made in your account."
These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents.
Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine.
If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of
fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the
wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible.
I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of
computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain,
vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good
computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess,
and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse.
They can do anything we can do, and more besides.
It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness,
and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one
of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing
listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are
the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the
look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to
concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and
dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of
something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in
every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been
constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled,
and rich in possibilities.
51. The title of the writing "To Err is Human" implies that
______.
A. making mistakes is confined only to human beings
B. every human being cannot avoid making mistakes
C. all human beings are always making mistakes
D. every human being is born to make bad mistakes
52. The first paragraph implies that ______.
A. computer errors are so obvious that one can hardly prevent it
from happening
B. the computer is so capable of making errors that none of them
is avoidable
C. computers make such errors as miscalculation and inaccurate
reporting
D. Computers can't think so their errors are natural and
unavoidable
53. The author uses his hypothesis that "computers represents an
extension of the human brain" in order to indicate that ______.
A. human beings are not infallible, nor are computers
B. computers are bound to make as many errors as human beings
C. errors made by computers can be avoided the same as human
mistakes can be avoided
D. computers axe made by human beings and so are their errors
54. The rhetoric the author employed in writing the third
paragraph, especially the sentence "A good computer can think clearly
and quickly enough to beat you at chess..." is usually referred to in
writing as ______.
A. climax B. personification C. hyperbole D. onomatopoeia
55. The author compared the faint and distant sound of the
computer to the sound of thinking and regarded it as the product of
______.
A. dreaming and thinking B. some property of errors
C. consciousness D. possibilities
Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage.
The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American
by Jeff Smith
Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been
used by many groups—those who already lived here and those who have
come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an
interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent.
The influence that the English had upon our national eating
habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they
ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if
there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to
burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most
often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat
and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the
Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as
Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner
table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English
were a tough lot.
Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation
of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a
special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but
they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through
your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in
this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to
America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become
the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has
never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to
the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors
easily.
The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are
more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than
there are in England. But is their food English? Thanks be to God, it
is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then
the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish,
and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all
smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in
this country.
56. Which of the following statements is nearly identical in
meaning with the sentence "they ate until you would expect them to
burst" in the second paragraph?
A. You bet they would never stop to eat till they are full.
B. What you can expect is that they would not stop eating unless
there was no more food.
C. The only thing you would expect is that they wouldn't stop
eating till they had had enough of the food.
D. The only thing is that they wouldn't stop eating till they
felt sick.
57. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. English people had bad table manners.
B. American food was exclusively unique in its flavors and
varieties.
C. American diet contained a lot of fat, salt and liquor.
D. Europeans were not at all accustomed to the American way of
eating.
58. The author's attitude towards the American food is that
______.
A. American food is better than foods from other countries
B. American food is superior to European foods
C. the European food had helped enrich the flavors and varieties
of the American foods
D. people from other countries could still identify from the
American food that was unique to their countries
59. Immigrant groups, when they got settled down in the United
States, still have had their own sense of self-identity because
______.
A. their foods are easily identified among all the foods
Americans eat
B. their foods stand out in sharp contrast to foods of other
countries
C. they know pretty well what elements of the American food are
of their own countries' origin
D. they know pretty well how their foods contribute to American
cuisine
60. Which of the following statements is true?
A. People from other cultures or nations start to lose their
self-identity once they get settled down in America.
B. The "melting pot" is supposed to melt all the foods but in
reality it doesn't.
C. The special sense of self-identity of people from other
countries can't maintain once they become Americans.
D. The "melting pot" finds it capable of melting all the food
traditions into the American tradition.
Questions 61-64 are based on the following passage.
"It's like being bitten to death by ducks." That's how one mother
described her constant squabbles with her eleven-year-old daughter.
And she's hardly alone in the experience. The arguments almost always
involve mundane matters—taking out the garbage, coming home on time,
cleaning up the bedroom. But despite its banality, this relentless
bickering takes its adolescents—particularly mothers—report lower
levels of life satisfaction, less marital happiness, and more general
distress than parents of younger children. Is this continual arguing
necessary?
For the past two years, my students and I have been examining the
day-to-day relation-ships of parents and young teenagers to learn how
and why family ties change during the transition from childhood into
adolescence. Repeatedly, I am struck by the fact that, despite
considerable love between most teens and their parents, they can't
help sparring. Even in the closest of families, parents and teenagers
squabble and bicker surprisingly often—so often, in fact, that we
hear impassioned recountings of these arguments in virtually every
discussion we have with parents or teenagers. One of the most
frequently heard phrases on our interview tapes is, "We usually get
along but..."
As psychologist Anne Petersen notes, the subject of parentadolescent conflict has generated considerable controversy among
researchers and clinicians. Until about twenty years ago, our views
of such conflict were shaped by psychoanalytic clinicians and
theorists, who argued that spite and revenge, passive aggressiveness
and rebelliousness toward parents are all normal, even healthy,
aspects of adolescence. But studies conducted during the 1970s on
samples of average teenagers and their parents (rather than those who
spent Wednesday afternoons on analysts' couches) challenged the view
that family storm and stress was inevitable or pervasive. These
surveys consistently showed that three-fourths of all teenagers and
parents, here and abroad, feel quite close to each other and report
getting along very well. Family relations appeared far more pacific
than professionals and the public had believed.
61. According to the passage, parents and teenagers are always at
loggerheads with each other over ______.
A. the careless attitude of teenagers toward their parents' work
pressure
B. who should take the lion's share of the housework
C. the finger-pointing attitude of the parents toward their
children
D. disagreements on each other's behavioral patterns
62. The parents-children relationship changes from the relative
positive to the relative negative when ______.
A. the children reach 7 or 8 years of age
B. the children reach 13 or 14 years of age
C. the parents begin to have too many household responsibilities
D. the parents begin to feel there is too much burden in the
house
63. Studies conducted during the 1970s on parents-children
relationship indicated that ______.
A. adolescence did not cause as much trouble as clinicians and
theorists had stated
B. children's aggressiveness and rebelliousness were growing
C. children-parents relationship was declining
D. teenagers became even more abhorrent of their parents
64. The author's own discoveries from the day-to-day
relationships of parents and young teenagers indicate that ______.
A. storm and stress between the parents and the teenagers are
normal
B. storm and conflicts are unavoidable
C. parents can never avoid the conflicts unless they love their
children
D. parents' strictness lead to their children's disapproval of
them
Questions 65-71 are based on the following passage.
Questions of education are frequently discussed as if they bore
no relation to the social system in which and for which the education
is carried on. This is one of the commonest reasons for the
unsatisfactoriness of the answers. It is only within a particular
social system that a system of education has any meaning. If
education today seems to deteriorate, if it seems to become more and
more chaotic and meaningless, it is primarily because we have no
settled and satisfactory arrangement of society, and because we have
both vague and diverse opinions about the kind of society we want.
Education is a subject which cannot be discussed in a void: our
questions raise other questions, social, economic, financial,
political. And the bearings are on more ultimate problems even than
these: to know what we want in education we must know what we want in
general, we must derive our theory of education from our philosophy
of life. The problem turns out to be a religious problem.
One might almost speak of a "crisis" of education. There are
particular problems for each country, for each civilization, just as
there are particular problems for each parent; but there is also a
general problem for the whole of the civilized world, and for the
uncivilized so far as it is being taught by its civilized superiors;
a problem which may be as acute in Japan, in China or in India as in
Britain or Europe or America. The progress (I do not mean extension)
of education for several centuries has been from one aspect a drift,
from another aspect a push; for it has tended to be dominated by the
idea of "getting on". The individual wants more education, not as an
aid to acquisition of wisdom but in order to get on; the nation wants
more in order to get the better of other nations, the class wants to
get the better of other classes, or at least to hold its own against
them. Education is associated therefore with technical efficiency on
the one hand, and with rising in society on the other. Education
becomes something to which everybody has a "right", even irrespective
of his capacity; and when everyone gets it—by that time, of course,
in a diluted and adulterated form—then we naturally discover that
education is no longer an infallible means of getting on, and people
turn to another fallacy: that of "education for leisure" —without
having revised their notions of "leisure". As soon as this precious
motive of snobbery evaporates, the zest has gone out of education;
for it is not going to mean more money, or more power over others, or
a better social position, or at least a steady and respectable job,
few people are going to take the trouble to acquire education. For
deteriorate it as you may, education is still going to demand a good
deal of drudgery. And the majority of people are incapable of
enjoying leisure—that is, unemployment plus an income and a status
responsibility—in any but pretty simple form—such as balls
propelled by hand, by foot, and by engines or tools of various types;
in playing cards; or in watching dogs, horses or other men engage in
feats of speed and skill.
65. The commonest discussion on education usually ends with our
dissatisfaction of the .answers because ______.
A. the discussions are seemingly facts-related
B. people usually discuss the issue on too narrow a base
C. the discussions are usually sidetracked by irrelevant issues
D. the discussions are of little value educationally and socially
66. The author suggests that the discussion of the problem of
education, if one wishes it to be fruitful, must ______.
A. not deviate from social evils that play a role in education
B. combine the issues of education with the issues of social
problems
C. consider the purpose of educating the citizens
D. consider the whole of the social system which education serves
67. According to the passage, our education is seemingly going
down hill and becoming a messy business because ______.
A. our society is not properly governed
B. we can't perfect our society in terms of its organization
C. our society lacks a common goal and a well-knitted system
D. the arrangement of our society is not education-oriented
68. Satisfactory answers to educational issues cannot be found
unless ______.
A. the philosophy of life is seriously researched into
B. we bring into consideration the political and economic
significance
C. the financial and economic issue are considered
D. we can inclusively consider the general goal of education
69. The "crisis" of education for the whole world, whatever the
nations or countries, according to the author, results from ______.
A. the misconception of the genuine role of education
B. the lack of a common goal in the education system
C. the lack of well-knitted social structures
D. the incompetence of educators and society governors
70. According to the author, the target of education should
enable people to ______.
A. gain an upper hand over other people
B. acquire knowledge that may quench their thirst
C. get leisure and choice rather than knowledge
D. get wisdom rather than other elements
71. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. Education is closely connected with the social demands.
B. Education deprives people of the political rights.
C. Education has many problems to be solved.
D. People get education because they want to take advantage of
other people.
Questions 72-79 are based on the following passage.
Ask most people to list what makes them like someone on first
meeting and they'll tell you personality, intelligence, sense of
humor. But they're probably deceiving themselves. The characteristic
that impresses people the most, when meeting anyone from a job
applicant to a blind date, is appearance. And unfair and
unenlightened as it may seem, attractive people are frequently
preferred over their less attractive peers.
Research begun in the early 1970s has shown that not only do good
looks influence such things as choice of friends, lovers, and mates,
but that they can also affect school grades, selection for jobs, and
even the outcome of a trial. Psychologist Ellen Berscheid of the
University of Minnesota and psychologist Elaine Walster, then at the
University of Wisconsin, were among the first researchers to deal
with the topic of attractiveness. Their seminal 1974 paper on the
subject showed that the more attractive a person, the more desirable
characteristics others will attribute to him or her. Attractive
people are viewed as being happier, more sensitive, more interesting,
warmer, more poised, more sociable, and as having better character
than their less attractive counterparts. Psychologist Karen Dion of
the University of Toronto has dubbed this stereotypical view as:
"What is beautiful is good".
Our current work at old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia,
with colleagues and students, focuses on the role that appearance
plays in judgments made about people. Our studies have been done in a
variety of settings: basic research laboratories, beauty and
cosmetics industry labs, plastic and reconstructive surgery practices,
psychiatric hospitals, and psychotherapeutic consulting rooms.
One topic that has led to many avenues of research is how
attractiveness influences sex-typing—the tendency of people to
attribute certain stereotypical qualities to each sex. Besides being
perceived as sensitive, kind, interesting, and generally happy,
attractive people tend to fit easily into sexual stereotypes,
according to a study done by Barry Gillen, a social psychologist in
our department.
Gillen speculated that attractive people possess two types of
"goodness", one related to and the other unrelated to their sex. To
test this hypothesis he showed a group of students photographs of
both men and women of high, moderate, and low attractiveness, as
determined by the previous rankings of students according to a sevenpoint scale (contrary to popular belief, researchers usually don't
use the Bo Derek scale of 10). The judges were asked to rate the
subjects according to the masculinity, femininity, and social
desirability scales of the Bern Sex Role Inventory. Gillen's study
found that attractive women were perceived as being more feminine,
and that attractive men were viewed as being more masculine than
their less attractive counterparts. This suggests a second stereotype:
"What is beautiful is sex-typed."
One implication of Gillen's work that we wanted to test was
whether good looks are a disadvantage for some people, especially
women, in work situations that conflict with sexual stereotypes. By
the late 1970s, there was already a sizable body of literature
documenting the problems women face because of sex-role stereotypes.
We speculated that attractive women might be at a real disadvantage
when they aspire to occupations in which stereotypically masculine
traits—such as being strong, independent, and decisive—are thought
to be required for success.
To test that possibility we did a study with Gillen and Steve
Burns, a student in our department, in which professional personnel
consultants were hired to rate a "job applicant's" suitability for
six positions. We matched the positions for the skill required, the
prestige offered, and the degree of supervisory independence allowed.
Two jobs were stereotypically masculine (automobile salesperson, and
wholesale hardware shipping and receiving clerk), two feminine
(telephone operator and office receptionist) and two were sex-neutral
(motel desk clerk and photographic darkroom assistant).
Each of the seventy-two personnel consultants who participated
received a resume package for an individual that contained the
typical kinds of information that a job applicant might submit:
academic standing, a list of hobbies and interests, specific skills
and recommendations from teachers and counselors. All of the resumes
were identical with the exception of the name ("John" vs. "Janet"
Williams) and the inclusion of a photograph of the applicant.
Photographs showed either an extremely attractive applicant or an
unattractive one, previously judged on an attractiveness scale.
72. The author suggests that when most people instantly take to
another person, it is usually the person's ______.
A. appearance that hinders his/her inclination
B. intelligence that triggers his/her interest
C. appearance that touches off his/her inclination
D. sweet personality and sense of humor that arouses his/her
interest
73. It's obvious that the author strongly believes that ______.
A. good-looking people face unexpected encounters
B. attractive people gain more advantages than unattractive ones
C. unattractive people find it hard to be expressive
D. good-looking people can get the better of other people
74. Karen Dion is one of those researchers who deem that ______.
A. the most beautiful thing in the world is one's attractive
appearance
B. all beautiful things are good things
C. attractive appearance is traditionally devalued
D. it's an old-fashioned view to value attractive appearance
75. The author in Paragraph 3 lists a variety of settings of
their research in order to ______.
A. show that they are concerned with the issue under discussion
B. convince readers of all the effort they have put into the
research
C. convince readers of the validity of their research result
D. demonstrate they have spent more time than other researchers
76. Gillen assumes that people's perception of one's
attractiveness is sex-related, and is not sex-related, but the test
result of his hypothesis indicated that ______.
A. sex plays a major role in people's perception of one's
attractiveness
B. sex does not influence people' s perception of one's
attractiveness
C. both sex and other elements play a role in one's perception of
attractiveness
D. elements other than sex play a role in people's perception of
attractiveness
77. The implication of Gillen's work is to find out ______.
A. whether one's attractiveness influences people's judgement of
their success
B. how one's attractiveness has an impact on people' s judgement
of their success
C. in what way one's attractiveness affects people's judgement of
their chances to find better jobs
D. whether one's attractiveness does have more advantages in
gaining people's approval than unattractiveness
78. The result of the author's attempt to co-study the
possibilities with Gillen ______.
A. did not show that attractiveness has advantages
B. indicated that more attractive people get more chances to be
hired for jobs
C. gave no indication whether attractiveness influences one's
chances to be hired for jobs
D. did demonstrate that more attractive people have more chances
to succeed
79. What does "typical kinds of information" that a job applicant
might submit mean?
A. It means the information most job applicants would usually
include in their resume.
B. It refers to the information that a job applicant must submit
to the personnel manager for his reference.
C. It stands for all the information required of a job applicant.
D. It means the kinds of information that may influence the
personnel manager's decision.
Question: 80-83 are based on the following passage.
The Future of Warfare
The latest revolution in warfare is based on the application of
information technology to weapons. It involves gathering huge amounts
of data; processing them so that relevant information is displayed on
a screen; and then destroying targets, at much greater distance and
with much greater accuracy than was previously possible. These
changes favor attacks rather than defense: large, easy-to-hit
objects—whether military bases, ship, tanks or concentration of
troops—are increasingly vulnerable to weapons such as cruise
missiles steered by satellite beams.
All this is bad news for America's potential foes. Russia, a once
and perhaps future rival, has neither the money nor the know-how to
imitate the latest American advances. Other countries with more cash
to spare aspire to master enough of the new technology to challenge
American power locally. China, for instance, is plainly flexing its
muscles in Asia. Iran wants to develop cruise missiles to allow it to
keep other countries' ships away from the Gulf. But the American's
mastery of the new warfare will make it increasingly foolish to make
them on a high-intensity shooting war, as Saddam Hussein did. So if
anyone wants to have a go at Uncle Sam, he will probably do so by
other methods, such as ballistic missiles, biological weapons or
terrorism.
The revolution also has implications for America's friends. By
increasing American might, it may encourage the country's
unilateralist element to think it can win wars without having to work
with troublesome partners. In any event, working with allies will
probably become more bothersome: their low-tech armies may be
incapable of plugging into American information networks. Moreover,
given the increasing vulnerability of military bases to missile
attack, America may wish to withdraw its soldiers from Europe and
Asia. When necessary, I will be able to strike its enemies with longrange weapons and more intervention forces.
80. According to the passage, the advantage of using information
technology in warfare lies in ______.
A. the longer distance the weapons can shoot
B. the speed of winning a war
C. the longer distance and more accuracy of the shooting
D. the accurate calculation of the military data used in wars
81. Large and observable targets such as military bases and ships
are ______.
A. more prone to be struck by modem weapons
B. more easily found by enemies who want to attack them
C. equipped with more power against missile attack
D. stronger in counter-attacking cruise missiles
82. According to the author, the trouble for the technological
advances of America is that ______.
A. their enemies can quickly imitate their weapons
B. their allies are unable to produce the same kind of weapons
C. many other countries are not financially capable of producing
weapons that are in line with American weapons
D. their enemies may come up with other dangerous weapons
83. The trouble, according to the passage, for American to
increase its military power is that ______.
A. its allies may not be able to follow the American way of
attacking other countries
B. America may lose its allies for one reason or another
C. America has to withdraw their armies from Asia and other areas
D. America's rivals can use the same kind of weapons to attack
America
Questions 84-90 are based on the following passage.
Imagine a society in which cash no longer exists. Instead "cash"
is electronic, as in bankcard systems. Currency and coin are
abandoned. The immediate benefits would be profound and fundamental.
Theft of cash would become impossible. Bank robberies and cashregister robberies would simply cease to occur. Attacks on
shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and cashiers would all end. Purse
snatchings would become a thing of the past. Urban streets would
become safer. Retail shops in once-dangerous areas could operate in
safety. Security costs and insurance rates would fall. Property
values would rise. Neighborhoods would improve.
Drug traffickers and their clients, burglars and receivers of
stolen property, arsonists for hire, and bribe-takers would no longer
have the advantage of using untraceable currency. Electronic "money"
would leave incriminating wails of data, resulting in more arrests
and convictions. These prosecutions, in turn, would inhibit further
crimes.
The impact of the monetary change on underground economies would
be nearly as dramatic as the effect on crime. In the United States,
the underground economy is estimated at between 10% and 28% of the
gross national product. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) researches
suggest that almost all hidden labor is paid in currency.
In a society devoid of physical money, a change from cash to
recorded electronic money would be accompanied by a flow of
previously unpaid income-tax revenues running in the tens of billions
of dollars. As a result, income-tax rates could be lowered and the
national debt reduced.
Cash has been the root of much social and economic evil. The
emergence of electronic funds-transfer technology makes it possible
to change the nature of money and to divorce it from evil. Eighty
percent of Americans regularly use credit cards. The development of a
federal system to handle the country' s 300 billion annual cash
transactions in the United States electronically is within reach.
A national electronic-money system would operate as debit-card
system. Each individual's "money" would be held in his money-system
account. A transaction would effect an instant transfer of "money"
from his account to that of another account holder.
The principal differences between a national electronic-money
system and commercial bank-card systems would be: the money system
would be federally operated; payment would constitute "legal tender";
system-account holders would be able to receive as well as pay out
funds by use of their accounts; and funds would be transferable
between private-account holders as well as between merchants and
private-account holders.
Only cash would be supplanted by electronic money. The use of
checks, drafts, money orders, traveler's checks, cashier's checks, as
well as letters of credit, acceptances, and other financial
instruments would remain in regular use. Credit card and automaticteller-machine systems (ATMs) would not necessarily change, although
you could no longer obtain cash at ATMs.
84. To abandon the use of cash, according to the author, can in
many ways help people ______.
A. avoid many problems that upset the society
B. get rid of petty theft and property robbery
C. remove all the trouble that bewilders them
D. get a better living environment
85. Electronic "money" refers to ______.
A. money that denies direct transactions
B. the bank paper and coins
C. money issued by the electronic industry
D. money that is hard to obtain
86. "Hidden labor" in this passage refers to labor that is paid
in ______.
A. electronic money
B. money that is hard to count
C. after-tax money
D. money that is untaxed
87. Which of the following pairs of terms is identical in meaning?
A. Electronic money and coin.
B. Coin and paper money.
C. Electronic money and funds-transfer.
D. Physical money and electronic money.
88. According to the author, we must change ______.
A. the forms of the money in order to catch thieves and robbers
B. the nature of money in order to root out the cause of evils
C. the availability of money so that evils can be stopped
D. the use of money so that income-tax can be reduced
89. The greatest disadvantage of using cash is that it ______.
A. encourages people to steal
B. makes money readily available for people in need of it
C. enables people to engage in many kinds of illegal activities
D. discourages people from paying tax
90. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. When the electronic money is used, the state will be able to
collect more tax.
B. All monetary systems should aim at making cash unobtainable.
C. When cash is unobtainable, the rate of crimes can be reduced.
D. A national commercial bank-card system should also be
abolished.
Questions 91-95 are based on the following passage.
It is amazing how many people still say, "I never dream", for it
is now decades since it was established that everyone has over a
thousand dreams a year, however few of these nocturnal productions
are remembered on waking. Even the most confined "non-dreamers" will
remember dreams if woken up systematically during the Rapid Eye
Movement (REM) periods. These are periods of light sleep during which
the eyeballs move rapidly back and forth under the closed lids and
the brain becomes highly activated, which happens three or four times
every night of normal sleep.
It is a very interesting question why some people remember dreams
regularly—perhaps several a night on occasion—while others remember
hardly any at all under normal conditions. In considering this, it is
important to bear in mind that the dream tends to be an elusive
phenomenon for all of us. We normally never recall a dream unless we
awaken directly from it, and even then it has a tendency to fade
quickly into oblivion.
Given this general elusiveness of dreams, the basic factor that
seems to determine whether a person remembers them or not is the same
as that which determines all other memory, namely degree of interest.
Dream researchers have made a broad classification of people into
"recallers" —those who remember at least one dream a month—and
"non-recallers", who remember fewer than this. Tests have shown that
cool, analytical people with a very rational approach to their
feelings tend to recall fewer dreams than those whose attitude to
life is open and flexible. Engineers generally recall fewer dreams
than artists. It is not surprising to discover that in western
society, women normally recall more dreams than men, since women are
traditionally allowed an instinctive, feeling approach to life.
In modern urban-industrial culture, feeling and dreams tend to be
treated as frivolities which must be firmly subordinated to the
realities of life. We pay lip-service to the inner life of
imagination as it expresses itself in the arts, but in practice
relegate music, poetry, drama and painting to the level of spare-time
activities, valued mainly for the extent to which they refresh us for
a return to work. We discourage our children from paying much
attention to anything that might detract from the serious business of
studying for exams or making a living in the "real" world of industry
and commerce.
91. Many people are unaware that they dream because ______.
A. their dreams fade very quickly
B. they do not recall their dreams
C. they sleep too heavily
D. they wake up frequently
92. During REM periods, people ______.
A. dream less
B. wake up more easily
C. remember their dreams more clearly
D. experience discomfort
93. People who remember their dreams do so because they ______.
A. find the content relevant
B. are awakened suddenly
C. have retentive memories
D. are regular dreamer
94. Those who recall their dreams tend to be ______.
A. practical
B. unrealistic
C. disorganized
D. imaginative
95. The writer believes that, in western society, dreams are
considered to be ______.
A. shameful
B. beneficial
C. unimportant
D. artistic
Questions 96-100 are based on the following passage.
In most aspects of medieval life, the closed corporation
prevailed. But compared to modern life, the medieval urban family was
a very open unit: for it included, as part of the normal household,
not only relatives by blood but a group of industrial workers as well
as domestics whose relation was that of secondary members of family.
This held for all classes, for young men from the upper classes got
their knowledge of the world by serving as waiting men in a noble
family: what they observed and overheard at mealtime was part of
their education. Apprentices lived as members of the master
craftsman's family. If marriage was perhaps deferred longer for men
than today, the advantages of home life were not entirely lacking,
even for the bachelor.
The workshop was a family; likewise the merchant's counting house.
The members ate together at the same table, worked in the same rooms,
slept in the same or common hall, converted at night into dormitories,
joined in the family prayers, participated in the common amusements.
The intimate unity of domesticity and labour dictated the major
arrangement within the medieval dwelling-house itself. Houses were
usually built in continuous rows around the perimeter of their
gardens. Freestanding houses, unduly exposed to the elements,
wasteful of the land on each side, harder to heat, were relatively
scarce: even farmhouses would be part of a solid block that included
the stables, barns and granaries. The materials for the houses came
out of the local soil, and they varied with the region. Houses in the
continuous row forming the closed perimeter of a block, with guarded
access on the ground floor, served as a domestic wall: a genuine
protection against felonious entry in troubled times.
The earliest houses would have small window openings, with
shutters to keep out the weather; then later, permanent windows of
oiled cloth, paper and eventually glass. In the fifteenth century,
glass, hitherto so costly it was used only for public buildings,
became more frequent, at first only in the upper part of the window.
A typical sixteenth-century window would have been divided into three
panels: the uppermost panel, fixed, would be of diamond-parted glass;
the next two panels would have shutters that opened inwards; thus the
amount of exposure to sunlight and air could be controlled, yet on
inclement days, both sets of shutters could be closed, without
altogether shutting out our light. On any consideration of hygiene
and ventilation this type of window was superior to the all-glass
window that succeeded it, since glass excludes the bactericidal
ultra-violet rays.
96. The urban family unit described in the passage ______.
A. consisted of people related by blood
B. was made up of workers, servants and family members
C. excluded domestics and craftsmen
D. was composed of members of the same social class
97. How did young noblemen receive their education?
A. They were taught in their own homes.
B. They received training in practical skills.
C. They were sent to other households.
D. They were educated with other young men.
98. According to the writer, why were there few free-standing
houses?
A. Building land Was expensive.
B. Such houses were costly to construct.
C. Such houses suffered the effects of bad weather.
D. There was no room left for a garden.
99. Where could you have expected to find glass used in the
fourteenth century?
A. In small windows in private houses.
B. In buildings designed for public use.
C. Forming one part of a window protection.
D. Behind protective shutters.
100. In the writer's opinion, all-glass windows were not an
improvement because they were less ______.
A. healthy
B. attractive
C. economical
D. hard-wearing
Section 3: Cloze Test
In the following passage, there are 25 blanks representing words
that are missing from the context. You are to put back in each of the
blanks with the missing word. Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.
The time for this section is 25 minutes.
Social Responsibility in Science and Art
Compared with the immediate practical responsibility of the
scientist, the (1) of the artist must seem puny. The decision which
faces (2) is not one of practical action: of course he will try to
throw this (3) into the scale, and that weight, if he is a writer or
(4) a painter of genius, may have its effect. For the novelist—in
our society the only artist who has a mass audience and at the same
time effective economic control of the means of addressing (5) —the
hope of some decisive influence is a reasonable (6) . For him, since
he takes of all artists (7) is probably the largest portion of his
culture as material, there is no (8) escape from the necessity for
treating the content of his work seriously than (9) is for the social
psychologist he is coming so closely to resemble. The dichotomy which
people have tried to establish between artistic proficiency and (10)
content is becoming unbearable to almost all sensitive minds. I doubt
if it has ever been real— we might have admired Shelley as (11) if
he had been indifferent to such things as war and tyranny, though I
doubt it; certainly (12) he been indifferent we should never have
been led by (13) .
There is no Hippocratic oath in literature, and I am not
attempting to draw (14) up. As far as I am concerned, the artist is a
human being writ large and his (15) are the ethics of any human being.
Perhaps I can best illustrate (16) seems to me the new (17) of those
duties of assertion and refusal from one writer, and I do not (18) it
is without significance that this (19) projects the whole situation
of choice into a scientific parable, the (20) of a pestilence: a (21)
many human (22) are called to fight against, called not by any
supernatural (23) but by the simple fact that the fight against a
plague is (24) like a biological human (25) .
参考答案
Section 1
Part 1
1. A 2. B 3. B 4. C 5. A 6. B 7. C 8. A 9. B 10. B
11. A 12. B 13. C 14. C 15. A 16. B 17. C 18. B 19. C 20. C
Part 2
21. B 22. B 23. B 24. A 25. D 26. C 27. C 28. A 29. B 30. C
31. B 32. B 33. D 34. A 35. C
Part 3
36. A 37. A 38. C 39. B 40. B 41. C 42. D 43. A 44. C 45. D
46. C 47. B 48. B 49. A 50. D
Section 2
51. B 52. A 53. A 54. B 55. C 56. D 57. B 58. D 59. C 60. B
61. D 62. B 63. A 64. B 65. B 66. D 67. C 68. A 69. A 70. D
71. B 72. C 73. B 74. B 75. C 76. A 77. D 78. C 79. D 80. C
81. A 82. D 83. B 84. A 85. A 86. D 87. C 88. B 89. C 90. D
91. B 92. B 93. A 94. D 95. C 96. B 97. C 98. C 99. B 100. A
Section 3
1. responsibility 2. him 3. weight 4. even 5. it
6. one 7. what 8. more 9. there 10. artistic
11. much 12. had 13. him 14. one 15. ethics
16. what 17. consciousness 8. think 19. writer 20. parable
21. pestilence 22. beings 23. obligation 24. something 25.
obligation