英语考研真题及其解析.docx

1、英语考研真题及其解析2000年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题Part Close TestIf a farmer wishes to succeed, he must try to keep a wide gap between his consumption and his production. He must store a large quantity of grain 1 consuming all his grain immediately. He can continue to support himself and his family 2 he produces a su

2、rplus. He must use this surplus in three ways: as seed for sowing, as an insurance 3 the unpredictable effects of bad weather and as a commodity which he must sell in order to 4 old agricultural implements and obtain chemical fertilizers to 5 the soil. He may also need money to construct irrigation

3、6 and improve his farm in other ways. If no surplus is available, a farmer cannot be 7 . He must either sell some of his property or 8 extra funds in the form of loans. Naturally he will try to borrow money at a low 9 of interest, but loans of this kind are not 10 obtainable. 139 words1.A other than

4、 B as well as C instead of D more than2.A only if B much as C long before D ever since3.A for B against C of D towards4.A replace B purchase C supplement D dispose5.A enhance B mix C feed D raise6.A vessels B routes C paths D channels7.A self-confident B self-sufficient C self-satisfied Dself-restra

5、ined8.A search B save C offer D seek 9.A proportion B percentage C rate D ratio10.A genuinely B obviously C presumably D frequentlyPart Reading ComprehensionPassage 1A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the

6、 United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world s best; its workers the most skilled. (11)America and Americans were p

7、rosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at

8、a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith. (Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Koreas LG Ele

9、ctronics in July.) （12）Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. Americas machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be

10、the next casualty.All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into

11、 the causes of Americas industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. （14）Few Americans att

12、ribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. “American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted,” according to Richard Cavanaugh, executive dean of Harvard

13、s Kennedy School of Government. “It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,” says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on t

14、his period as “a golden age of business management in the United States.”429 words11. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because.Ait had made painstaking efforts towards this goal Bits domestic market was eight times larger than beforeCthe war had destroyed the economies of most p

15、otential competitorsDthe unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy12. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American.ATV industry had withdrawn to its domestic marketBsemiconductor industry had been taken over

16、by foreign enterprisesCmachine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actionsDauto industry had lost part of its domestic market13. What can be inferred from the passage?AIt is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pride.BIntense competition may contribute to economic progress.C The

17、 revival of the economy depends on international cooperateDA long history of success may pave the way for further development.14. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the.Aturning of the business cycle B restructuring of industryC improved bus

18、iness management D success in educationPassage 2（15）Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male m

19、ortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the c

20、hance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.There is another way to commit evolutionary

21、 suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. （16）Again, d

22、ifferences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of todayeveryone being the same in su

23、rvival and number of offspringmeans that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many plac

24、es in nature. But in the past 100, 000 yearseven the past 100 yearsour lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. （17）We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they “look at an organic being as a savage looks

25、 at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.”No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.406 words15. What used to be the danger in be

26、ing a man according to the first paragraph? A A lack of mates. B A fierce competition.C A lower survival rate. D A defective gene.16. What does the example of India illustrate?A Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.B Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.C

27、 The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.D India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.17. The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because.A life has been improved by technological advanceB the number of female babies has been decliningC our s

28、pecies has reached the highest stage of evolutionD the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing18. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?A Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.B Ways of Continuing Mans Evolution.C The Evolutionary Future of Nature.D Human Evolut

29、ion Going Nowhere.Passage 3（20）When a new movement in art attains a certain fashion, it is advisable to find out what its advocates are aiming at, for, however farfetched and unreasonable their principles may seem today, it is possible that in years to come they may be regarded as normal. With regar

30、d to Futurist poetry, however, the case is rather difficult, for whatever Futurist poetry may beeven admitting that the theory on which it is based may be rightit can hardly be classed as Literature.This, in brief, is what the Futurist says: for a century, past conditions of life have been condition

31、ally speeding up, till now we live in a world of noise and violence and speed. Consequently, our feelings, thoughts and emotions have undergone a corresponding change. （21）This speeding up of life, says the Futurist, requires a new form of expression. We must speed up our literature too, if we want to interpret modern stress. We must pour out a large stream of essential words, unhampered by stops, or qualifying adjectives, or finite verbs. Instead of describing sounds we must make up words that imitate them; we must use many sizes of type and different colored inks on the same page, a