Section Ⅰ Use of English Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET 1. As many people hit middle age, they often start to notice that their memory and mental clarity are not what they used to be. We suddenly can't remember 1 we put the keys just a moment ago, or an old acquaintance's name, or the name of an old band we used to love. As the brain 2 , we refer to these occurrences as "senior moments." 3 seemingly innocent, this loss of mental focus can potentially have a(n) 4 impact on our professional, social, and personal 5 . Neuroscientists, experts who study the nervous system, are increasingly showing that there's actually a lot that can be done. It 6 out that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental 7 can significantly improve our basic cognitive 8 . Thinking is essentially a 9 of making connections in the brain. To a certain extent, our ability to 10 in making the connections that drive intelligence is inherited. 11 , because these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and fluctuate 12 mental effort. Now, a new Web-based company has taken it a step 13 and developed the first "brain training program" designed to actually help people improve and regain their mental 14 . The Web-based program 15 . you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills. The program keeps 16 of your progress and provides detailed feedback 17 your performance and improvement. Most importantly, it 18 modifies and enhances the games you play to 19 on the strengths you are developing—much like a(n) 20 exercise routine requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use.
[解析] 本题是逻辑关系题。由前文可知,我们擅长做出连接、驱动智力的能力是遗传而来的,而根据下文“these connections are made through effort and practicemental effort”可知做出连接的能力是可以通过努力和练习提高或改变的,因此上下文之间有转折关系,however意为“然而”,符合文意。
12.
A.according to
B.regardless of
C.apart from
D.instead of
A B C D
A
[解析] 本题是短语辨析题。由前文“because these connections are made through effort and practice”可知,这些连接是通过努力和练习做出的,因此可推知,脑力上的努力是决定智力的条件,也就是说,根据脑力上的努力,智力能够提升或浮动,according to意为“根据”,符合文意。
13.
A.back
B.further
C.aside
D.around
A B C D
B
[解析] 本题是副词辨析题。由下文“developed the first 'brain training program'”可知,一家新的网络公司开发了第一个大脑训练程序,因此可知,网络公司将神经系统科学家和专家的想法发展到了新的阶段,further意为“进一步”,符合文意。
[解析] 本题是副词辨析题。此处继续介绍网络程序的运作方式,由前文“systematically improve your memory and attention skills”可知,网络程序系统地改善用户的记忆力和注意力,因此可推知,此处需要填上一个与systematically近似的副词,表达的意思为“它不断调整和升级你参与的游戏”,constantly意为“不断地”,符合文意。
19.
A.carry
B.put
C.build
D.take
A B C D
C
[解析] 本题是动词词义辨析题。由上文“it constantly modifies and enhances the games you play to”可知,该程序不断调整和升级用户参与的游戏,由下文“On the strengths you are developing”可知,调整和升级游戏是为了帮助用户累积不断发展起来的能力。build意为“建筑”,与build on构成动词短语,意为“扩建;累积;在现有基础上继续发展”。
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 the ANSWER SHEET 1.
Text 1 In order to "change lives for the better" and reduce "dependency" George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the "upfront work search" scheme. Only if the jobless arrive at the jobcentre with a CV, register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly. What could be more reasonable? More apparent reasonableness followed. There will now be a seven-day wait for the jobseeker's allowance. "Those first few days should be spent looking for work, not looking to sign on." he claimed. "We're doing these things because we know they help people stay off benefits and help those on benefits get into work faster." Help? Really? On first hearing, this was the socially concerned chancellor, trying to change lives for the better, complete with "reforms" to an obviously indulgent system that demands too little effort from the newly unemployed to find work, and subsidises laziness. What motivated him, we were to understand, was his zeal for "fundamental faimess"—protecting the taxpayer, controlling spending and ensuring that only the most deserving claimants received their benefits. Losing a job is hurting: you don't skip down to the jobcentre with a song in your heart, delighted at the prospect of doubling your income from the generous state. It is financially terrifying, psychologically embarrassing and you know that support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you are now excluded from the work environment that offers purpose and structure in your life. Worse, the crucial income to feed yourself and your family and pay the bills has disappeared. Ask anyone newly unemployed what they Want and the answer is always: a job. But in Osbomeland, your first instinct is to fall into dependency—permanent dependency if you can get it—supported by a state only too ready to indulge your falsehood. It is as though 20 years of ever-tougher reforms of the job search and benefit administration system never happened. The principle of British welfare is no longer that you can insure yourself against the risk of unemployment and receive unconditional payments if the disaster happens. Even the very phrase "jobseeker's allowance"—invented in 1996—is about redefining the unemployed as a "jobseeker" who had no mandatory right to a benefit he or she has earned through making national insurance contributions. Instead, the claimant receives a time-limited "allowance," conditional on actively seeking a job, no entitlement and no insurance, at £71.70 a week, one of the least generous in the EU.
1. George Osborne's scheme was intended to ______.
A.provide the unemployed with easier access to benefits
B.encourage jobseekers' active engagement in job seeking
C.motivate the unemployed to report voluntarily
D.guarantee jobseekers' legitimate right to benefits
Text 2 All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession— with the possible exception of joumalism. But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America. During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation. The best lawyers made skyscrapers—full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools. But most law graduates never get a big-firm job. Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the tort system a costly nightmare. There are many reasons for this. One is the excessive costs of a legal education. There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states: a four-year undergraduate degree in some unrelated subject, then a three-year law degree at one of 200 law schools authorized by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam. This leaves today's average law-school graduate with $100,000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts. Law-school debt means that many cannot afford to go into government or non-profit work, and that they have to work fearsomely hard. Reforming the system would help both lawyers and their customers. Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them. One idea is to allow people to study law as an undergraduate degree. Another is to let students sit for the bar after only two years of law school. If the bar exam is truly a stem enough test for a would-be lawyer, those who can sit it earlier should be allowed to do so. Students who do not need the extra training could cut their debt mountain by a third. The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business. Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow. There is pressure for change from within the profession, but opponents of change among the regulators insist that keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically. In fact, allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers, by encouraging law firms to use technology and to employ professional managers to focus on improving firms' efficiency. After all, other countries, such as Australia and Britain, have started liberalizing their legal professions. America should follow.
1. A lot of students take up law as their profession due to ______.
3. Hindrance to the reform of the legal system originates from ______.
A.lawyers' and clients' strong resistance
B.the rigid bodies governing the profession
C.the stem exam for would-be lawyers
D.non-professionals' sharp criticism
A B C D
B
[解析] 本题是事实细节题。根据题干关键词“the reform of the legal system”定位到第二句“Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them.”选项B即为该句的同义替换。
4. The guild-like ownership structure is considered "restrictive" partly because it ______.
A.bans outsiders' involvement in the profession
B.keeps lawyers from holding law-firm shares
C.aggravates the ethical situation in the trade
D.prevents lawyers from gaining due profits
A B C D
A
[解析] 本题是因果细节题。根据题干中出现的“the guild-like ownership structure”,精确定位到第②句“Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow.”此外,在该段最后一句提到“keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically.”由此可知,非律师的外部人士被排除在行业之外。
5. In this text, the author mainly discusses ______.
A.flawed ownership of America's law firms and its causes
B.the factors that help make a successful lawyer in America
C.a problem in America's legal profession and solutions to it
D.the role of undergraduate studies in America's legal education
Text 3 The US $3-million Fundamental physics prize is indeed an interesting experiment, as Alexander Polyakov said when he accepted this year's award in March. And it is far from the only one of its type. As a News Feature article in Nature discusses, a string of lucrative awards for researchers have joined the Nobel Prizes in recent years. Many, like the Fundamental Physics Prize, are funded from the telephone-number-sized bank accounts of Internet entrepreneurs. These benefactors have succeeded in their chosen fields, they say, and they want to use their wealth to draw attention to those who have succeeded in science. What's not to like? Quite a lot, according to a handful of scientists quoted in the News Feature. You cannot buy class, as the old saying goes, and these upstart entrepreneurs cannot buy their prizes the prestige of the Nobels, The new awards are an exercise in self-promotion for those behind them, say scientists. They could distort the achievement-based system of peer-review-led research. They could cement the status quo of peer-reviewed research. They do not fund peer-reviewed research. They perpetuate the myth of the lone genius. The goals of the prize-givers seem as scattered as the criticism. Some want to shock, others to draw people into science, or to better reward those who have made their careers in research. As Nature has pointed out before, there are some legitimate concerns about how science prizes— both new and old—are distributed. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, launched this year, takes an unrepresentative view of what the life sciences include. But the Nobel Foundation's limit of three recipients per prize, each of whom must still be living, has long been outgrown by the collaborative nature of modem research—as will be demonstrated by the inevitable row over who is ignored when it comes to acknowledging the discovery of the Higgs boson. The Nobels were, of course, themselves set up by a very rich individual who had decided what he wanted to do with his own money. Time, rather than intention, has given them legitimacy. As much as some scientists may complain about the new awards, two things seem clear. First, most researchers would accept such a prize if they were offered one. Second, it is surely a good thing that the money and attention come to science rather than go elsewhere, It is fair to criticize and question the mechanism—that is the culture of research, after all—but it is the prize-givers' money to do with as they please. It is wise to take such gifts with gratitude and grace.
1. The Fundamental Physics Prize is seen as ______.
3. The discovery of the Higgs boson is a typical case which involves ______.
A.controversies over the recipients' status
B.the joint effort of modem researchers
C.legitimate concerns over the new prizes
D.the demonstration of research findings
A B C D
D
[解析] 本题是事实细节题。第四段第③句指出,“诺贝尔基金会对于每个奖项的三名得主的限制——每个人都必须在世——早已由于现代研究的合作特质显得不再适用,正如在认可希格斯玻色子的发现时关于谁被忽略的不可避免的争吵所显示的那样”,由此可知,希格斯玻色子是一个研究发现,D项中的“research findings”是“the discovery of me Higgs boson”的同义替换。
4. According to Paragraph 4,which of the following is true of the Nobels?
Text 4 "The Heart of the Matter," the just-released report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), deserves praise for affirming the importance of the humanities and social sciences to the prosperity and security of liberal democracy in America. Regrettably, however, the report's failure to address the true nature of the crisis facing liberal education may cause more harm than good. In 2010, leading congressional Democrats and Republicans sent letters to the AAAS asking that it identify actions that could be taken by "federal, state and local governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors and others" to "maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education." In response, the American Academy formed the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Among the commission's 51 members are top-tier-university presidents, scholars, lawyers, judges, and business executives, as well as prominent figures from diplomacy, filmmaking, music and journalism. The goals identified in the report are generally admirable. Because representative government presupposes an informed citizenry, the report supports full literacy; stresses the study of history and government, particularly American history and American government; and encourages the use of new digital technologies. To encourage innovation and competition, the report calls for increased investment in research, the crafting of coherent curricula that improve students' ability to solve problems and communicate effectively in the 21st century, increased funding for teachers and the encouragement of scholars to bring their learning to bear on the great challenges of the day. The report also advocates greater study of foreign languages, international affairs and the expansion of study abroad programs. Unfortunately, despite years in the making, "The Heart of the Matter" never gets to the heart of the matter: the illiberal nature of liberal education at our leading colleges and universities. The commission ignores that for several decades America's colleges and universities have produced graduates who don't know the content and character of liberal education and are thus deprived of its benefits. Sadly, the spirit of inquiry once at home on campus has been replaced by the use of the humanities and social sciences as vehicles for publicizing "progressive," or left-liberal propaganda. Today, professors routinely treat the progressive interpretation of history and progressive public policy as the proper subject of study while portraying conservative or classical liberal ideas—such as free markets and self-reliance—as falling outside the boundaries of routine, and sometimes legitimate, intellectual investigation. The AAAS displays great enthusiasm for liberal education. Yet its report may well set back reform by obscuring the depth and breadth of the challenge that Congress asked it to illuminate.
1. According to Paragraph 1, what is the author's attitude toward the AAAS's report?
A.Critical.
B.Appreciative.
C.Contemptuous.
D.Tolerant.
A B C D
A
[解析] 本题是细节态度题。由第一段第②句可知,“然而,令人遗憾的是,报告并没有解决当前通识教育所面临的危机的真正本质,这可能会导致弊大于利。”根据“Regrettably”.“however”,“cause more harm than good”作者对于该报告的态度是批判的。本段中并没有表明赞赏、轻蔑或者宽容的态度,所以B、C、D项均属于错误推测。
2. Influential figures in the Congress required that the AAAS report on how to ______.
A.retain people's interest in liberal education
B.define the government's role in education
C.keep a leading position in liberal education
D.safeguard individuals' rights to education
A B C D
C
[解析] 本题是事实细节题。根据第二段第①句“在2010年,占议会大多数席位的民主党和共和党给美国文理科学院写信要求它制定出可以由‘联邦、州和地方政府、大学、基金会、教育家、个人捐助者等’采取的行动,以‘保持国家在人文和社会科学领域提供的奖学金和教育的优异地位’”可知议会要求美国文理科学院的报告解决在通识教育中保持领先地位的问题,keep a leading position是maintain national excellence的同义替换。
3. According to Paragraph 3, the report suggests ______.
Part B Directions: The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent text by choosing from the list A~G and filling them into the numbered boxes. Paragraphs A and E have been correctly placed Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET 1. A. Some archaeological sites have always been easily observable—for example, the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt; and the megaliths of Stonehenge in southern England. But these sites are exceptions to the norm. Most archaeological sites have been located by means of careful searching, while many others have been discovered by accident. Olduvai Gorge, an early hominid site in Tanzania, was found by a butterfly hunter who literally fell into its deep valley in 1911. Thousands of Aztec artifacts came to light during the digging of the Mexico City subway in the 1970s. B. In another case, American archaeologists Rene Million and George Cowgill spent years systematically mapping the entire city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico near what is now Mexico City. At its peak around AD 600, this city was one of the largest human settlements in the world. The researchers mapped not only the city's vast and ornate ceremonial areas, but also hundreds of simpler apartment complexes where common people lived. C. How do archaeologists know where to find what they are looking for when there is nothing visible on the surface of the ground? Typically, they survey and sample (make test excavations on) large areas of terrain to determine where excavation will yield useful information. Surveys and test samples have also become important for understanding the larger landscapes that contain archaeological sites. D. Surveys can cover a single large settlement or entire landscapes. In one case, many researchers working around the ancient Maya city of Copan, Honduras, have located hundreds of small rural villages and individual dwellings by using aerial photographs and by making surveys on foot. The resulting settlement maps show how the distribution and density of the rural population around the city changed dramatically between AD 500 and 850, when Copan collapsed. E. To find their sites, archaeologists today rely heavily on systematic survey methods and a variety of high-technology tools and techniques. Airborne technologies, such as different types of radar and photographic equipment carried by airplanes or spacecraft, allow archaeologists to learn about what lies beneath the ground without digging. Aerial surveys locate general areas of interest or larger buried features, such as ancient buildings or fields. F. Most archaeological sites, however, are discovered by archaeologists who have set out to look for them. Such searches can take years. British archaeologist Howard Carter knew that the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun existed from information found in other sites. Carter sifted through rubble in the Valley of the Kings for seven years before he located the tomb in 1922. In the late 1800s British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evan combed antique dealers' stores in Athens, Greece. He was searching for tiny engraved seals attributed to the ancient Mycenaean culture that dominated Greece from the 1400s to 1200s BC. Evans's interpretations of these engravings eventually led him to find the Minoan palace at Knossos (Knossós) on the island of Crete, in 1900. G. Ground surveys allow archaeologists to pinpoint the places where digs will be successful. Most ground surveys involve a lot of walking, looking for surface clues such as small fragments of pottery. They often include a certain amount of digging to test for buried materials at selected points across a landscape. Archaeologists also may locate buried remains by using such technologies as ground radar, magnetic-field recording, and metal detectors. Archaeologists commonly use computers to map sites and the landscapes around sites. Two and three-dimensional maps are helpful tools in planning excavations, illustrating how sites look, and presenting the results of archaeological research. order:
[解析] 本题是顺接关系题。该空格位于全文第七段。空格之前的D段已经介绍了考古测量可以包括单一的定居点或者完整的地域风貌,并举例说明考古学家如伺通过测绘单一定居点的方式完成考古发现,B项中的in another case正是空格之前D段中in one case的顺接关键词,同时该段也举例介绍了另外一种测量方式,即通过测绘完整的地域风貌完成考古发现。
Part C Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET 2. Music means different things to different people and sometimes even different things to the same person at different moments of his life. It might be poetic, philosophical, sensual, or mathematical, but in any case it must, in my view, have something to do with the soul of the human being. Hence it is metaphysical; but the means of expression is purely and exclusively physical: sound. I believe it is precisely this permanent coexistence of metaphysical message through physical means that is the strength of music. It is also the reason why when we try to describe music with words, all we can do is articulate our reactions to it, and not grasp music itself. Beethoven's importance in music has been principally defined by the revolutionary nature of his compositions. He freed music from hitherto prevailing conventions of harmony and structure. Sometimes I feel in his late works a will to break all signs of continuity. The music is abrupt and seemingly disconnected, as in the last piano sonata. In musical expression, he did not feel restrained by the weight of convention. By all accounts he was a freethinking person, and a courageous one, and I find courage an essential quality for the understanding, let alone the performance, of his works. This courageous attitude in fact becomes a requirement for the performers of Beethoven's music. His compositions demand the performer to show courage, for example in the use of dynamics. Beethoven's habit of increasing the volume with an intense crescendo and then abruptly following it with a sudden soft passage was only rarely used by composers before him. Beethoven was a deeply political man in the broadest sense of the word. He was not interested in daily politics, but concerned with questions of moral behavior and the larger questions of right and wrong affecting the entire society. Especially significant was his view of freedom, which, for him, was associated with the rights and responsibilities of the individual: he advocated freedom of thought and of personal expression. Beethoven's music tends to move from chaos to order as if order were an imperative of human existence. For him, order does not result from forgetting or ignoring the disorders that plague our existence; order is a necessary development, an improvement that may lead to the Greek ideal of spiritual elevation. It is not by chance that the Funeral March is not the last movement of the Eroica Symphony, but the second, so that suffering does not have the last word. One could interpret much of the work of Beethoven by saying that suffering is inevitable but the courage to fight it renders life worth living.
1. Directions: Write a letter of about 100 words to the president of your university, suggesting how to improve students' physical condition. You should include the details you think necessary. You should write neatly on the ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.
Dear Mr. President, I am a student from the School of Law. I am writing this letter to suggest a few ideas for the improvement of our students' physical condition. First, I suggest giving PE classes to students in Grade Three and Four in addition to Grade One and Two. Second, improving our gym would be a good way to encourage students to participate in more sports such as swimming, badminton and basketball. Moreover, opening the dining hall earlier would ensure that students can enjoy nutritious breakfast and thus making higher academic achievements. We are looking forward to witnessing changes for better physical conditions and better performance at studies. Thank you very much!
Yours sincerely, Li Ming
Part B
1. Directions: Write an essay of 160~200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should 1) describe the drawing briefly, 2) interpret its intended meaning, and 3) give your comments. You should write neatly on the ANSWER SHEET 2.
As is shown in the left part of the drawing, thirty years ago, the young mother was in the prime of her life and held the hand of her lovely daughter. By contrast, the right part of the picture displays the current situation when thirty years has passed, the little daughter has grown up and become a graceful lady, supporting her mother with her hand. The caption reads "Accompanying". We have all been given our precious life by our parents. They nurture us and take care of every need of us. They create everything for us. Without them, never could we have the opportunity to experiencing the wonderful life we are having now. In turn, taking good care of children is also a responsibility that we must undertake, because the youngsters represent the future of us and it is they who will carry forward what we have not accomplished. With aging population and urbanization, a large number of seniors and juniors are neglected by the middle-aged and suffer from loneliness. In my perspective, we should honor the aged and love juniors, both materially and spiritually. Only in this way can we enjoy harmonious families and a prosperous society.