2016年四川大学翻译硕士英语真题试卷(题后含答案及解析)

2016年四川大学翻译硕士英语真题试卷 (题后含答案及解析)

题型有：1. Vocabulary 2. Reading Comprehension 3. Writing

Vocabulary

1． First editions of certain popular books cannot be obtained for love or money. A．at any place B．at any price C．in any language D．in any country

正确答案：B

解析：本题考查介词短语辨析。从字面理解画线短语for love or money可能表示“为了爱和钱”，引申义为“无论如何”。四个选项中，只有at any price(以任何代价)中的(price)与画线短语中的money含义相近，且在语义上也合理。句意为：某些流行书籍的首印版是无论如何也得不到的。

2． The firemen acted quickly because lives were at stake. A．in danger B．in despair

C．out of condition D．out of danger

正确答案：A

解析：本题考查介词短语辨析。根据句中的the firemen acted quickly判断，应是紧急状态，且原因状语从句中画线短语at stake的主语是lives(生命)，只有in danger(处于危险之中)符合上下文逻辑和语义。in despair意为“陷于绝望之中”，out of condition意为“健康不佳”，out of danger意为“脱离危险”均不符合语义。

3． A beautiful woman attended to me in that store yesterday. A．waited on B．talked to C．spoke to D．stayed with

正确答案：A

解析：本题考查动词短语辨析。根据句中的地点状语in that store判断，a beautiful woman应是店员，attend to意为“服侍”。wait on意为“服侍，招待”。talk to和speak to意思相近，意为“与……谈话”。stay with意为“和……待在一起”。句意为：昨天在那家商店里为我服务的是一位美丽的女服务员。

4． Below 600 feet ocean waters range from dimly lit to completely dark.

A．inadequately B．hardly C．faintly D．sufficiently

正确答案：C

解析：本题考查副词的词义辨析。根据地点状语below 600 feet判断，光线肯定会很昏暗。且后文中from…to…连接的两个形容词lit(照亮的，点着的)和dark(黑暗的；昏暗的；阴暗的)也表明光线由暗变黑。四个选项中只有faintly((声音、颜色、标记、感觉或特性)微弱的，暗淡的，虚弱的)与dimly((光线)昏暗的，暗淡的)意思相近，故为答案。inadequately意为“不足地”，hardly意为“几乎不”，sufficiently意为“充分地，足够地”均不符合上下文语义，故排除。

5． Many of novelist Carson McCullers’ characters are isolated, disappointed people.

A．solitary B．gloomy C．feeble D．frugal

正确答案：A 解析：本题考查形容词的词义辨析。根据novelist Carson McCullers’characters判断，本句描述的是卡森．麦卡勒斯的作品中的角色，画线词isolated的含义应与disappointed(失落的，失望的)意思相近。solitary意为“孤单的，孤零零的”，指因被遗忘或遗弃而产生的孤独感，也可指人的生性孤僻；gloomy意为“忧伤的，沮丧的，无望的”，指愁眉苦脸，令他人也感到扫兴；feeble意为“虚弱的，衰弱的，无力的”，指身体衰弱无力，精力几乎耗尽，含令人怜悯的意味；frugal意为“节俭的，俭省的”。综合分析，只有[A]项可以用于描述小说中的人物角色的性格。卡森．麦卡勒斯是20世纪美国最重要的作家之一，其作品多描写孤独的人们，孤独、孤立和疏离的主题始终贯穿在她的所有作品中。

6． When she was invited to the party, she readily accepted. A．willingly B．suddenly C．firmly D．quickly

正确答案：A

解析：本题考查副词的词义辨析。readily意为“乐意地，欣然地”。选项中，willingly意为“愿意地，乐意地”。suddenly意为“突然地；出乎意料地”。firmly意为“坚定地，坚决地”。quickly意为“迅速地；马上，立即”。

7． Nerve signals may travel through nerve or muscle fibers at speeds as high as two hundred miles per hour.

A．velocities B．impulses C．ratios D．atrocities

正确答案：A

解析：本题考查名词的词义辨析。句中speeds意为“速度”。四个选项中，velocity意为“速率，速度”。impulse意为“冲动；推动；脉冲”。ratio意为“比，比率”。atrocity意为“滔天的罪行，暴行”。句意为：神经信号能以高达每小时200英里的速度在神经或肌肉纤维中传递。

8． All living organisms, regardless of their unique identity, have certain biological, chemical, and physical characteristics in common.

A．as a result of B．considering C．on purpose D．whatever

正确答案：D 解析：本题考查介词短语辨析。句中的regardless of是常见的短语，意为“不论，不管，不顾”。as a result of意为“作为……的结果，由于”；considering意为“考虑到，鉴于”；pn purpose意为“故意，有意”；whatever意为“无论什么，不管什么”，与regardless of同义，故为答案。

9． Fluoride deters tooth decay by reducing the growth of bacteria that destroy tooth enamel.

A．facilitates B．overwhelms C．inhibits D．loosens

正确答案：C 解析：本题考查动词的词义辨析。根据句中的tooth decay(蛀牙)和reducing the growth of bacteria(减少细菌生长)判断，画线词deters应表示“阻止”。四个选项中，inhibit意为“阻止，妨碍；抑制”。facilitate意为“使变得(更)容易，使便利”。overwhelm意为“(感情上)使受不了，使不知所措；征服，制服”。loosen意为“解开，放松；松弛”。

10． The drinking water is contaminated with impurities. A．blackened B．polluted C．darkened D．mixed

正确答案：B

解析：本题考查动词的词义辨析。根据句中的impurities(杂质)判断，应该表示饮用水被杂质污染了，contaminate意为“污染，弄脏”。四个选项中，pollute意为“污染，弄脏”。blacken意为“(使)变黑；抹黑；诬蔑，玷污”。darken意为“(使)变黑；(使)变深；(使)变暗”。mix意为“混淆，搞混”。

11． ______is to arrange them in groups or sequences according to a plan. A．Things classified B．In classifying things

C．As classification of things D．To classify things

正确答案：D

解析：本题考查非谓语动词做主语的用法。分析句子结构可知，只有动词不定式To classify things可以做主语，故为正确答案。句意为：将事物分类就是根据一定的计划把他们分组或排序。

12． Billie Holiday’s reputation as a great jazz-blues singer rests on her ability ______emotional depth to her songs.

A．be giving B．are given C．being given D．to give

正确答案：D

解析：本题考查ability的固定搭配。空前的ability与动词不定式连用后构成固定搭配，ability to do sth．意为“有做某事的能力”。

13． Before ______of synthetic dye, yarns were often colored by dyes obtained from natural vegetable and mineral matter.

A．introducing B．introduction C．the introduction D．introducing that

正确答案：C

解析：本题考查抽象名词与冠词的用法。根据空后的of判断，空格处应填名词，排除[A]项和[D]项。抽象名词前一般不加冠词，但是，当一个抽象名词不是用于一般概念，而是表示特定的内容，特别是当它有一限制性定语修饰时，常常需要加定冠词，故答案为[C]项。

14． ______, the constitution of the Cherokee Nation provided for a chief executive, a senate, and a house of representatives.

A．In 1827 they drafted

B．The draft in 1827 C．In 1827 was drafted D．Drafted in 1827

正确答案：D

解析：本题考查非谓语动词。分析句子结构可知，空后的句子成分完整，结合四个选项判断，本空所填内容应为状语，可用状语从句或分词短语，故主从句的主语是一致的。由于状语从句可以转换为分词短语，且分词短语通常置于句首，故此处分词短语作状语，表示时间。故选[D]项。本句可改写为When the constitution of the Cherokee Nation was drafted in 1827, it provided for a chief executive，a senate，and a house of representatives．

15． Native to the western United States, mariposa lilies have narrow ______like large blades of grass.

A．shape of leaves B．leaves shape them C．leaf shaped D．leaves shaped

正确答案：D

解析：本题考查非谓语动词。根据句子主语mariposa lilies(蝴蝶百合花)和四个选项中的leaf／leaves判断，句子描述的是叶子的形状。空后的blades of grass(草叶)提示，对比的是leaves与blades，而不是shape与blades，故排除[A]项。[B]项中的them提示，其前的shape为动词，依据题干已经有谓语(have)可排除[B]项。mariposa lilies(蝴蝶百合花)不可能只有一片叶子，故排除[C]项。[D]项leaves shaped为leaves which are shaped的省略，shaped like…作后置定语，符合语义。

16． Some laws formalize long accepted customs, while others impose norms ______previously mandated by the populace.

A．not B．are not

C．while do not D．and they do not

正确答案：A 解析：本题考查省略句的否定表达。逗号前后为并列句，主谓宾成分均完整，故排除带有动词的[B]项、[C]项和[D]项。______ previously mandated by the populace为省略了which are的定语从句，修饰norms。

17． ______of the seven continents were placed in the Pacific Ocean, there would still be room left for another continent the size of Asia.

A．Each B．If each

C．Were each D．Since each

正确答案：B

解析：本题考查虚拟语气。空格所在句已有谓语动词，故首先排除[C]项。根据句中的were placed和would still be判断，句子为虚拟语气。选项中，只有if可以用于虚拟语气。

18． Anthropology is a science ______anthropologists use a rigorous set of methods and techniques to document observations that can be checked by others.

A．in that B．that in C．that D．in

正确答案：A

解析：本题考查状语从句。分析句子结构可知，空格前后都是结构完整的句子，空格处显然缺少从句引导词，排除[B]项和[D]项。也排除that引导定语从句的可能性，如果空格处引导同位语从句，则应修饰先行词science，但语义不通，排除[C]项。此处in that(因为)引导原因状语从句。句意：人类学是一门科学，因为人类学家采用一整套强有力的方法和技术来记录观测结果，而这样记录下来的观测结果可供他人核查。

19． David always had a bedtime story at 7 o’clock______. A．flat B．sharp C．right D．just

正确答案：B

解析：本题考查副词的词义辨析。sharp用作副词时意为“(指时刻)整，准”，指时间的“整点”，故答案为[B]项。

20． The activities of the international marketing researcher are frequently much broader than______.

A．the domestic marketer has B．the domestic marketer does C．those of the domestic marketer

D．that which has the domestic marketer

正确答案：C

解析：本题考查省略的比较句。题干句为“主系表”结构，句中有比较级，比较的对象是国际市场研究者和国内市场研究者的活动(activities)。由于系动词是are，故首先排除与其不对应的[A]项和[B]项。[D]项语义及逻辑不清。此处用

those代替前面提到的activities，以避免重复，系动词are因与主句谓语动词相同而省略，故答案为[C]项。本题需注意比较结构中相互比较的必须属于同一种事物。句意为：国际市场研究者的活动范围常常较国内市场研究者广阔。

Reading Comprehension

Major companies are already in pursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placing enzymes in the automobile to monitor exhaust and send data on pollution to a microprocessor that will then adjust the engine. They speak of what the New York Times calls “metal-hungry microbes that might be used to mine valuable trace metals from ocean water.” They have already demanded and won the right to patent new life forms. Nervous critics, including many scientists, worry that there is corporate, national, international, and inter-scientific rivalry in the entire biotechnological field. They create images not of oil spills, but of “microbe spills” that could spread disease and destroy entire populations. The creation and accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes, however, is only one cause for alarm. Completely rational and respectable scientists are talking about possibilities that stagger the imagination. Should we breed people with cow-like stomachs so they can digest grass and hay, thereby relieving the food problem by modifying us to eat lower down on the food chain? Should we biologically alter workers to fit the job requirement, for example, creating pilots with faster reaction times or assembly-line workers designed to do our monotonous work for us? Should we attempt to eliminate “inferior” people and breed a “super-race”? (Hitler tried this, but without the genetic weaponry that may soon issue from our laboratories.) Should we produce soldiers to do our fighting? Should we use genetic forecasting to pre-eliminate “unfit” babies? Should we grow reserve organs for ourselves, each of us having, as it were, a “savings bank” full of spare kidney, livers, or hands? Wild as these notions may sound, everyone has its advocates (and opposers) in the scientific community as well as its striking commercial applications. As two critics of genetic engineering, Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard, state in their book Who Should Play God? “Broad scale genetic engineering will probably be introduced to America much the same way as assembly lines, automobiles, vaccines, computers and all the other technologies. As each new genetic advance becomes commercially practical, a new consumer need will be exploited and a market for the new technology will be created.”

21． According to the passage, the exhaust from a car engine could probably be checked by______.

A．using metal-hungry microbes B．making use of enzymes C．adjusting the engine D．patenting new life forms

正确答案：B

解析：事实细节题。文章第一段第二句提到，“他们想在汽车里放置酶来监测废气，把污染数据传到微处理器上，从而调节发动机。”由此可知，汽车发动机排出的尾气有可能通过酶来监测。

22． According to the passage, which of the following would worry the critics the most?

A．The unanticipated explosion of population. B．The creation of biological solar cells. C．The accidental spill of oil.

D．The unexpected release of destructive microbes.

正确答案：D

解析：事实细节题。文章第二段提到，包括很多科学家在内的评论家担心新生物学的应用会引起大范围的竞争(公司之间、国家之间的竞争等)，他们认为“微生物泄露”可能传播疾病，并威胁全人类，然而有毒微生物的制造和意外泄露只是引起恐慌的原因之一。由此可知，评论家们担心的是有毒微生物的意外泄露。本段中的“accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes”与[D]项中的“the unexpected release of destructive microbes”表达的意思相同。

23． Which of the following notions is NOT mentioned? A．Developing a “savings bank” of one’s organs. B．Breeding soldiers for a war.

C．Producing people with cow-like stomachs. D．Using genetic forecasting to cure diseases.

正确答案：D 解析：事实细节题。第三段第一句提到，我们应该繁殖出胃像牛一样的人吗?由此句可知文中有提到[C]项。本段倒数第三句提到，我们应该繁殖出能够替我们去战斗的士兵吗?由此句可排除[B]项。本段最后一句提到，我们应该增加储备器官，每个人都有一个多余的肾、肺或手的“储蓄银行”吗?由此可知，文中有提及发育出器官(kidney，livers，or hands)的“储蓄银行”，故可排除[A]项。本段倒数第二句提到，我们应该运用基因预测来提前淘汰不健康的婴儿吗?[D]项中的用基因预测来治愈疾病与此句内容不符。

24． According to the passage, Hitler attempted to______. A．change the pilots biologically to win the war B．develop genetic farming for food supply C．kill the people he thought of as inferior

D．encourage the development of genetic weapons for the war

正确答案：C

解析：推理判断题。第三段括号中提到“Hitler tried this”，故应将答案锁定在this指代的内容上。“this”指代的是上一句的内容，即我们应该消灭“劣等”人，培育“高级种族”吗?由此可知，希特勒曾经尝试过消灭“劣等”人。

25． What does Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard’s statement imply? A．The commercial applications of genetic engineering are inevitable. B．America will depend on other countries for biological progress.

C．Americans are proud of their computers, automobiles and genetic technologies.

D．The potential application of each new genetic advance should be controlled.

正确答案：A

解析：推理判断题。最后一段最后两句提到，杰里米．里夫金和特德．霍华德在书中说，大规模的基因工程将会像流水线、汽车、疫苗、电脑等科技一样引进美国；随着基因发展在商业上变得实用，这种技术将创造新的消费需求和新的市场。由此可推测，他们认为基因工程的商业化应用不可避免。

In the early 1950’s, historians who studied preindustrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began, for the first time in large numbers, to investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite: the kings, generals, judges, nobles, bishops, and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books. One difficulty, however, was that few of the remaining 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them chronicled by contemporaries. Faced with this situation, many historians based their investigations on the only records that seemed to exist: birth, marriage, and death records. As a result, much of the early work on the nonelite was aridly statistical in nature; reducing the vast majority of the population to a set of numbers was hardly more enlightening than ignoring them altogether. Historians still did not know what these people thought or felt. One way out of this dilemma was to turn to the records of legal courts, for here the voices of the nonelite can most often be heard, as witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants. These documents have acted as “a point of entry into the mental world of the poor.” Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups (these attitudes include, but are not confined to, attitudes toward crime and the law) and have revealed how the authorities administered justice. It has been societies that have had a developed police system and practiced Roman law, with its written depositions, whose court records have yielded the most data to historians. In Anglo-Saxon countries hardly any of these benefits obtain, but it has still been possible to glean information from the study of legal documents. The extraction of case histories is not, however, the only use to which court records may be put. Historians who study preindustrial Europe have used the records to establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify indictments that were issued over a given number of years. This use of the records does yield some information about the nonelite, but this information gives us little insight into the mental lives of the nonelite. We also know that the number of indictments in preindustrial Europe bears little relation to the number of actual criminal acts, and we strongly suspect that the relationship has varied widely over time. In addition,

aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime per thousand in one decade of the preindustrial period with rates in another decade. Given these inadequacies, it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred.

26． The author suggests that, before the early 1950’s, most historians who studied preindustrial Europe did which of the following?

A．Failed to make distinctions among members of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

B．Used investigatory methods that were almost exclusively statistical in nature. C．Inaccurately estimated the influence of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

D．Confined their work to a narrow range of the preindustrial European population.

正确答案：D

解析：事实细节题。文章第一段第一句提到，20世纪50年代早期，首次有大批研究前工业化时期的欧洲历史学家来调查前工业化时期的欧洲的大部分人口，而非那些少数政治与社会精英(这些精英仅占人口总数的百分之二到百分之三)。由此可知，在这之前，历史学家研究前工业化时期的欧洲人口时，总是把他们的工作局限于一个很小的范围(即占人口总数百分之二到百分之三的精英)。[D]项是对原文的概括。

27． According to the passage, the case histories extracted by historians have______.

A．scarcely illuminated the attitudes of the political and social elite B．indicated the manner in which those in power apportioned justice C．focused almost entirely on the thoughts and feelings of different social groups toward crime and the law

D．been considered the first kind of historical writing that utilized the records of legal courts

正确答案：B

解析：事实细节题。第二段第三句提到，一些历史学家，比如勒鲁瓦．拉迪里从这些文件中提取个人历史档案，这些个人历史档案阐明了不同社会群体的态度并展现了当权者是如何执行审判的。[B]项是对原文的同义转述。

28． It can be inferred from the passage that much of the early work by historians on the European nonelite of the preindustrial period might have been more illuminating if these historians had______.

A．used different methods of statistical analysis to investigate the nonelite B．been more successful in identifying the attitudes of civil authorities, especially those who administered justice, toward the nonelite

C．been able to draw on more accounts, written by contemporaries of the nonelite, that described what this nonelite thought

D．relied more heavily on the personal records left by members of the European political and social elite who lived during the period in question

正确答案：C

解析：推理判断题。题于是一个虚拟语气句式，表明题干描述的情况不是真实的。题干意为：由文章可推测，假如历史学家能够做到______，他们调查欧洲非精英人口所做的大部分早期工作将会更有启发性。第一段首先提到，历史学家在20世纪50年代早期首次开始大批调查非精英人口，然后指出主要的困难是几乎没有关于这97％的人口的思想的记录，所以导致对大多数人口的早期研究工作并没有什么启发性(enlightening)。由此可推测，如果历史学家能够利用当代人对于非精英人口思想的更多的记录，他们的早期工作将会更有启发性。

29． According to the passage, which of the following is true of indictments for crime in Europe in the preindustrial period?

A．They have, in terms of their numbers, remained relatively constant over time. B．They give the historian important information about the mental lives of those indicted.

C．They are not a particularly accurate indication of the extent of actual criminal activity.

D．Their importance to historians of the nonelite has been generally overestimated.

正确答案：C

解析：事实细节题。最后一段第二句提到，一些研究前工业化时期的欧洲的历史学家如何利用这些记录，而第三至五句在介绍其一些缺陷，比如并没有使我们深入了解他们的精神生活，这些起诉书并不是欧洲前工业化时期犯罪行为的真实反映等。由此可知，这些控告书并非是对当时现实犯罪行为程度的确切显示，故[C]项正确。

30． The passage would be most likely to appear as part of______.

A．a book review summarizing the achievements of historians of the European aristocracy

B．an essay describing trends in the practice of writing history

C．a textbook on the application of statistical methods- in the social sciences D．a report to the historical profession on the work of early-twentieth-century historians

正确答案：B

解析：文章主旨题。本题考查文章的出处。文章主要讲述历史学家对于前工业化时期的欧洲非精英人口的调查。[A]项提到研究欧洲贵族的成就，不合文意，故可排除；[C]项提到在社会科学中统计学方法的运用，文中并没有提及统计学方法，排除；[D]项提到20世纪早期历史学家的研究工作，文中提到的时间点是

20世纪50年代早期，故也可排除。

On Cloning a Human Being It is now theoretically possible to recreate an identical creature from any animal or plant, from the DNA contained in the nucleus of any somatic cell. A single plant root-tip cell can be teased and seduced into conceiving a perfect copy of the whole plant; a frog’s intestinal epithelial cell possesses the complete instructions needed for a new, same frog. If the technology were further advanced, you could do this with a human being, and there are now startled predictions all over the place that this will in fact be done, someday, in order to provide a version of immortality for carefully selected, especially valuable people. The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behavior control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry, and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers. Cloning is the most dismaying of prospects, mandating as it does the elimination of sex with only a metaphoric elimination of death as compensation. It is almost no comfort to know that one’s cloned, identical surrogate lives on, especially when the living will very likely involve edging one’s real, now aging self off to side, sooner or later. It is hard to imagine anything like filial affection or respect for a single, unmated nucleus; harder still to think of one’s new, self-generated self as anything but an absolute, desolate orphan. Not to mention the complex interpersonal relationship involved in raising one’s self from infancy, teaching the language, enforcing discipline, instilling good manners, and the like. How would you feel if you became an incorrigible juvenile delinquent by proxy, at the age of fifty-five? The public questions are obvious. Who is to be selected, and on what qualifications? How to handle the risks of misused technology, such as self-determined cloning by the rich and powerful but socially objectionable, or the cloning by governments of dumb, docile masses for the world’s work? What will be the effect on all the uncloned rest of us human sameness? After all, we’ve accustomed ourselves through hundreds of millennia to the continual exhilaration of uniqueness; each of us is totally different, in a fundamental sense, from all the other four billion. Selfness is an essential fact of life. The thought of human non-selfness, precise sameness, is terrifying, when you think about it. Well, don’t think about it, because it isn’t a probable possibility, not even as a long shot for the distant future, in my opinion. I agree that you might clone some people who would look amazingly like their parental cell donors, but the odds are that they’d be almost as different as you or me, and certainly more different than any of today’s identical twins. The time required for the experiment is only one of the problems, but a formidable one. Suppose you wanted to clone a prominent, spectacularly successful diplomat, to look after the Middle East problems of the distant future. You’d have to catch him and persuade him, probably not very hard to do, and extirpate a cell. But then you’d have to wait for him to grow up through embryonic life and then for at least forty years more, and you’d have to be sure all observers remained patient and unmeddlesome through his unpromising, ambiguous childhood and adolescence. Moreover, you’d have to be sure of recreating his environment, perhaps down to the last detail. “Environment” is a word which really means people, so you’d have to do a lot more

cloning than just the diplomat himself. This is a very important part of the cloning problem, largely overlooked in our excitement about the cloned individual himself. You don’t have to agree all the way with B. F. Skinner to acknowledge that the environment does make a difference, and when you examine what we really mean by the word “environment” it comes down to other human beings. We use euphemisms and jargon for this, like “social forces,” “cultural influences,” even Skinner’s “verbal community,” but what is meant is the dense crowd of nearby people who talk to, listen to, smile or frown at, give to, withhold from, nudge, push, caress, or flail out at the individual. No matter what the genome says, these people have a lot to do with shaping a character. Indeed, if all you had was the genome, and no people around, you’d grow a sort of vertebrate plant, nothing more. So, to start with, you will undoubtedly need to clone the parents. No question about this. This means the diplomat is out, even in theory, since you couldn’t have gotten cells from both his parents at the time when he was himself just recognizable as an early social treasure. You’d have to limit the list of clones to people already certified as sufficiently valuable for the effort, with both parents still alive. The parents would need cloning and, for consistency, their parents as well. I suppose you’d also need the usual informed-consent forms, filled out and signed, not easy to get if I know parents, even harder for grandparents. But this is only the beginning. It is the whole family that really influences the way a person turns out, not just the parents, according to current psychiatric thinking. Clone the family. Then what? The way each member of the family develops has already been determined by the environment set around him, and this environment is more people, people outside the family, schoolmates, acquaintances, lovers, enemies, car-pool partners, even, in special circumstances, peculiar strangers across the aisle on the subway. Find them, and clone them. But there is no end to the protocol. Each of the outer contacts has his own surrounding family, and his and their outer contacts. Clone them all. To do the thing properly, with any hope of ending up with a genuine duplicate of a single person, you really have no choice. You must clone the world, no less. We are not ready for an experiment of this size, nor, I should think, are we willing. For one thing, it would mean replacing today’s world by an entirely identical world to follow immediately, and this means no new, natural, spontaneous, random, chancy children. No children at all, except for the manufactured doubles of those now on the scene. Plus all those identical adults, including all of today’s politicians, all seen double. It is too much to contemplate. Moreover, when the whole experiment is finally finished, fifty years or so from now, how could you get a responsible scientific reading on the outcome? Somewhere in there would be the original clonee, probably lost and overworked, now well into middle age, but everyone around him would be precise duplicates of today’s everyone. It would be today’s same world, filled to overflowing with duplicates of today’s people and their same, duplicated problems, probably all resentful at having had to go through our whole thing all over, sore enough at the clonee to make endless trouble for him, if they found him. And obviously, if the whole thing were done precisely right, they would still be casting about for ways to solve the problem of universal dissatisfaction, and sooner or later they’d surely begin to look around at

each other, wondering who should be cloned for his special value to society, to get us out of all this. And so it would go, in regular cycles, perhaps forever. I once lived through a period where I wondered what Hell could be like, and I stretched my imagination to try to think of a perpetual sort of damnation. I have to confess, I never thought of anything like this. I have an alternative suggestion, if you’re looking for a way out. Set cloning aside, and don’t try it. Instead, go in the other direction. Look for ways to get mutations more quickly, new variety, different songs. Fiddle around, if you must fiddle, but never with ways to keep things the same, no matter who, not even yourself. Heaven, somewhere ahead, has got to be a change.

31． Explain in your own terms what the author means in the following passages:a) The thought of human non-selfness, precise sameness, is terrifying, when you think about it.b) “Environment” is a word which really means people, so you’d have to do a lot more cloning than just the diplomat himself.

正确答案：a)The cloning of humans will make humans have no specific characters，and it is horrible to be precisely the same．b)Environment exercises a great influence on people，so you’d have to clone the whole world instead of the diplomat himself．

解析：事实细节题。第四段后半部分提到，我们每个人都与世界上其他人不同，自我是生命的基本事实。而克隆人类会打破这种自我，这是很恐怖的事情。第八段提到创造相同环境是克隆中非常重要的一部分，接下来举例说明，最后指出，没有周围环境，克隆出的就只是一个空架子。因此，环境很重要。

32． What reasons does Thomas give that cloning a human being is not probable?

正确答案：(1)It will take a very long time to do the experiment．(2)It is hard to recreate the clonee’s environment．(3)It is difficult to get a responsible scientific reading on the outcome．(4)There is the problem of universal satisfaction to solve．

解析：事实细节题。第六段开头提到“The time required for the experiment is only one of the problems”，由此可知，时间是一个问题；第七段开头提到“Moreover，you’d have to be sure of recreating his environment”，接下来的几段主要说明创造相同的环境是个很严重的问题；倒数第四段开头提到“Moreover，…how could you get a responsible scientific reading on the outcome”；倒数第三段提到“And obviously…they would still be casting about for ways to solve the problem of universal dissatisfaction”。做这道题时要注意文中关联词语的运用。

The Test This story was first published in The New Yorker on 15 June 1940. On the afternoon Marian took her second driving test, Mrs. Ericson went with her. “It’s probably better to have someone a little older with you,” Mrs. Ericson said as Marian slipped into the driver’s seat beside her. “Perhaps last time your Cousin Bill made you nervous, talking too much on the way.” “Yes, Ma’am,”

Marian said in her soft unaccented voice. “They probably do like it better if a white person shows up with you.” “Oh, I don’t think it’s that,” Mrs. Ericson began, and subsided after a glance at the girl’s set profile. Marian drove the car slowly through the shady suburban streets. It was one of the first hot days of June, and when they reached the boulevard they found it crowded with cars headed for the beaches. “Do you want me to drive?” Mrs. Ericson asked. “I’ll be glad to if you’re feeling jumpy.” Marian shook her head. Mrs. Ericson watched her dark, competent hands and wondered for the thousandth time how the house had ever managed to get along without her, or how she had lived through those earlier years when her household had been presided over by a series of slatternly white girls who had considered housework demeaning and the care of children an added insult.” You drive beautifully, Marian,” she said. “Now, don’t think of the last time. Anybody would slide on a steep hill on a wet day like that. “It takes four mistakes to flunk you,” Marian said. “I don’t remember doing all the things the inspector marked down on my blank. “People say that they only want you to slip them a little something,” Mrs. Ericson said doubtfully. “No,” Marian said. “That would only make it worse, Mrs. Ericson. I know. The car turned right, at a traffic signal, into a side road and slid up to the curb at the rear of a short line of parked cars. The inspectors had not arrived yet. “You have the papers?” Mrs. Ericson asked. Marian took them out of her bag: her learner’s permit; the car registration, and her birth certificate. They settled down to the dreary business of waiting. “It will be marvelous to have someone dependable to drive the children to school every day,” Mrs. Ericson said. Marian looked up from the list of driving requirements she had been studying. “ It’ll make things simpler at the house, won’t it?” she said. “Oh, Marian,” Mrs. Ericson exclaimed, “ if I could only pay you half of what you’re worth!” “Now, Mrs. Ericson,” Marian said firmly. They looked at each other and smiled with affection. Two cars with official insignia on their doors stopped across the street. The inspectors leaped out, very brisk and military in their neat uniforms. Marian’s hands tightened on the wheel. “There’s the one who flunked me last time,” she whispered, pointing to a stocky, self-important man who had begun to shout directions at the driver at the head of the line. “Oh, Mrs. Ericson. “Now, Marian,” Mrs. Ericson said. They smiled at each other again, rather weakly. The inspector who finally reached their car was not the stocky one but a genial, middle-aged man who grinned broadly as he thumbed over their papers. Mrs. Ericson started to get out of the car. “Don’t you want to come along?” the inspector asked. “Mandy and I don’t mind company.” Mrs. Ericson was bewildered for a moment. “No,” she said, and stepped to the curb. “I might make Marian self-conscious. She’s a fine driver, Inspector. “ “Sure thing,” the inspector said, winking at Mrs. Ericson. He slid into the seat beside Marian. “Turn right at the corner, Mandy-Lou.” From the curb, Mrs. Ericson watched the car move smoothly up the street. The inspector made notations in a small black book. “Age?” he inquired presently, as they drove along. “Twenty-seven. “ He looked at Marian out of the corner of his eye. “Old enough to have quite a flock of pickaninnies, eh?” Marian did not answer. “Left at this corner,” the inspector said, “ and park between that truck and the green Buick.” The two cars were very

close together, but Marian squeezed in between them without too much maneuvering. “Driven before, Mandy-Lou?” the inspector asked. “Yes, sir. I had a license for three years in Pennsylvania. “ “Why do you want to drive a car?” “My employer needs me to take her children to and from school. “ “Sure you don’t really want to sneak out nights to meet some young blood?” the inspector asked. He laughed as Marian shook her head. “Let’s see you take a left at the corner and then turn around in the middle of the next block,” the inspector said. He began to whistle “Swanee River.” “Make you homesick?” he asked. Marian put out her hand, swung around neatly in the street, and headed back in the direction from which they had come. “No,” she said. “ I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The inspector feigned astonishment. “You-all ain’t Southern?” he said. “Well, dog my cats if I didn’t think you-all came from down yondah. “ “No sir,” Marian said. “Turn onto Main Street here and let’s see how you-all does in heavier traffic.” They followed a line of cars along Main Street for several blocks until they came in sight of a concrete bridge which arched high over the railroad tracks. “Read that sign at the end of the bridge,” the inspector said. ‘‘ ‘ Proceed with caution. Dangerous in slippery weather,’ “ Marian said. “You-all sho can read fine,” the inspector exclaimed. “Where d’you learn to do that, Mandy?” “I got my college degree last year,” Marian said. Her voice was not quite steady. As the car crept up the slope of the bridge the inspector burst out laughing. He laughed so hard he could scarcely give his next direction. “ Stop here,” he said, wiping his eyes, “ then start ‘er up again. Mandy got her degree, did she? Dog my cats!” Marian pulled up beside the curb. She put the car in neutral, pulled on the emergency, waited a moment , and then put the car into gear again. Her face was set. As she released the brake her foot slipped off the clutch pedal and the engine stalled. “Now, Mistress Mandy,” the inspector said, “ remember your degree. “ “Damn you!” Marian cried. She started the car with a jerk. The inspector lost his joviality in an instant. “Return to the starting place, please,” he said, and made four very black crosses at random in the squares on Marian’s application blank. Mrs. Ericson was waiting at the curb where they had left her. As Marian stopped the car, the inspector jumped out and brushed past her, his face purple. “What happened?” Mrs. Ericson asked, looking after him with alarm. Marian stared down at the wheel and her lip trembled. “Oh, Marian, again?” Mrs. Ericson said. Marian nodded. “In a sort of different way,” she said, and slid over to the right-hand side of the car.

33． How would you describe the sort of feelings that Marian and Mrs. Ericson have toward each other? On what points, if any, do they disagree?

正确答案：They like each other．Marian thinks it is racial prejudice that makes her fail．But Mrs．Ericson disagrees．

解析：事实细节题。从全篇中出现埃里克森夫人对玛丽安的称赞以及文中的：They looked at each other and smiled with affection．表明她们应该是彼此喜爱的。文章第三段提到，玛丽安认为，他们希望埃里克森夫人旁边坐的是个白人。下一

段埃里克森夫人则反驳了她的观点。所以在这一点上，他们没有达成一致。

34． In your own words, explain what the inspector is saying to Marian in his remarks about pickaninnies and “some young blood”. What is he insinuating (implying in a negative way) about her in making these suggestions?

正确答案：“Pickaninnies”is an offensive word for small black children．The inspector said in a rude way that Marian is old enough to have some children．He was flirting with Marian by saying“meet some young blood”．The inspector discriminates her，for she is black．

解析：事实细节题。“pickaninny”指黑人小孩，本身含有歧视、冒犯之意。“meet some young blood”有调戏的含义。这位督察员身上有浓重的种族歧视色彩，对黑人女孩很不礼貌。

35． The title of “The Test” suggests a theme that goes beyond the obvious aspect of the driving test itself. What is the theme of the story? How did the author manage to reveal this theme.

正确答案：Racial prejudice．The author manage to reveal this theme by the dialogue through conversations．

解析：文章主旨题。从督察员与玛丽安的对话中，我们可以看到督察员的种族歧视观念，这种观念一直贯穿文章的始终。

Writing

36． Write an argumentative essay of no less than 400 words in response to the article below. In your writing, you should discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed in the article and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the article’s opinion might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. Be sure to give your article a title. ‘Why I Hate School But Love Education’ Viral Video Points To Stupid In America And All The Wrong Questions By Emmeline Zhao English rapper-poet Suli Breaks is out with a video that’s taking the Internet by storm, and young people are loving it. “Why I Hate School But Love Education” has received nearly half a million views since it was posted to YouTube on Sunday. The young, educated artist takes a strong stance on schooling, urging the world’s youth to “understand your motives and reassess your aims. “Let’s look at the statistics,” Suli Breaks says, pointing to moguls worth billions of dollars as examples of those who succeeded without graduating from an institution of higher learning: the late Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Jackson. (We won’t harp too much on the fact that he misspells both Zuckerberg and Jackson’s names.) Suli Breaks has a point — school might not be for everyone, but an education is crucial, and students should assess whether they’re really in school to learn. But the arguments he uses to make it

have their flaws — evocative of this crisis of “stupid in America” (a phrase borrowed from a 2006 ABC investigation) that in the end, is only perpetuated by a whirlpool of communities — and the media — asking all the wrong questions a-bout education. The “statistics” he points to in fact show, time and time again, that degree-holders have more opportunities and earn more than non-degree holders over a lifetime. The top dogs he cites as examples are exceptions to the rule, and have generally had some level of formal schooling. While both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are Harvard University dropouts, their companies are products of their time spent in school. And Oprah Winfrey, as a matter of fact, graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in speech and drama. Jobs, it’s also important to note, credited his school teachers for his success. “Redefine how you view education, understand its true meaning,” Suli Breaks says. “Education is not just about regurgitating facts from a book on someone else’s opinion on a subject to pass an exam. Look at it. Picasso was educated in creating art. Shakespeare was educated in the art of all that was written. Colonel Harland Sanders was educated in the art of creating Kentucky fried chicken. “ While he’s right that education does not equate to rote memorization, the examples given are all of specialists in a field — and all come from a time when industries and individual careers were more stable. Nowadays, a handful of sectors struggle to fill more than 3 million open positions, according to CBS News. Despite the more than 20 million people who are unemployed in the United States, companies can’t find workers to fill positions in areas like science, technology, engineering and math ( STEM) and manufacturing, due to a lack of skilled workers. And without general schooling across practices, moving from one field to another can be difficult. Jamie Pacheco was a commercial painter until the downturn in construction forced him out of a job. For Pacheco to get a job in another field he needed more official schooling, CBS News reports. In an effort to give youth an opportunity both to learn and to be prepared for the workforce, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer has proposed two high school pathways — one tailored to STEM subjects and another for career and technical education (CTE) . “The local workforce does not have the skills needed to fill these jobs,” Schumer said during a conference call with reporters last month. “A high school graduate with proper training could easily fill these positions.” Suli Breaks is indisputably correct when he says, “There’s more than one way in this world to be an educated man.” But there are alternatives to stepping away from proper schooling because it’s too rigid or too expensive, as he suggests. The question is not whether education is “still worth” the cost, but how to reform education (via campus culture, course curriculum, learning standards, etc. ) so that it is still worth it on a practical level — and how to make formal education more affordable and accessible to all. Over the years, American students have fallen behind foreign peers on performance in core subjects, and are failing to catch up. Young adults who excel academically and intellectually come from countries where education is deeply embedded in society and culture. For those countries, schooling and education is a given, an “underlying moral purpose” that would never be questioned. While we foster that very inquisition in America by cultivating a backwards debate, instead of creating our own culture of

education, our foreign competitors are gaining the global advantage. Studies have shown that students say they don’t learn anything in the first two years of college — pointing to a broader concern within U. S. higher education that universities are being run more like corporations than educational institutions. When students treat college as a stepping stone to a job, colleges treat them as consumers who attend for a degree and then move on. The numbers speak for themselves: 34 percent of young Americans don’t believe that education matters for their future, and 40 percent of those “too cool” for school are unemployed, while another 33 percent are in “interim” positions, according to a recent report by McKinsey, a consulting firm. Of American young adults with bachelor’s degrees, 7 percent were unemployed in October, compared with 20 percent of high school graduates with no college experience, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One Tumblr user, identified on his blog as 19-year-old Michael Gallagher, has written a lengthy but insightful response to Suli Breaks’s video. The McMaster University student writes:I have always believed that the best people will rise to the top regardless of what stands in their way. What I mean by this is just because certain people were successful without university does in my mind not prove any point. All it proves is the extraordinary amounts of talent, luck, and hard work these people possess. It’s unfortunate because most people aren’t special. They aren’t going to be the next billionaire, and yet somehow I don’t see that as a bad thing. But why not tell people not to avoid “wasting money” on an education but focusing on the real issue at hand? The whole problem with this video is that it works under the assumption that people know what they want to do with their lives and are instead wasting money in College/University. Isn’t it possible that some people go to College or University

because it is a safe way to not only increase their employability but to find themselves? (http: //www. huffingtonpost. com/emmeline-zhao/why-i-hate-school-but-love-education_b_2246253. html ? utm_hp_ref = education-reform)

正确答案： Be Ordinary, Be Awesome After reading this article, I find myself completely agree with the author, as her response to the video is exactly the same as mine. The rapper-poet takes Steve Jobs and other business celebrities as examples, which might give people some encouragement but could make no sense at all. The reason is quite simple. Not everyone can be as successful as Jobs. Otherwise, such celebrities won’t be so special. I can imagine why the video goes viral, because people fail to satisfy themselves. In other words, they are dissatisfied with mediocrity and insignificance. But what I want to say is that there is nothing wrong in being ordinary. As far as I’m concerned, being ordinary is not a repudiation of the whole “American dream” ideology, which tells people that you have the potential, that everything is possible, and that you can make your dream come true if you work hard enough. For most people, the best thing they can do is to become special only to those close to them, but definitely not to the world. Some may consider it a failure. I don’t think so, because perhaps the world needs ordinary people more than extraordinary ones. People go to an ordinary school, get an ordinary job and live an ordinary life.

What’s bad about that? Yet it’s criticized by Suli Breaks, who suggested that people should abandon traditional education and find their own way to the top of society. Well, for the few lucky and talented ones who would pick it, his words might sound quite good. But for the rest of us who cannot be as extraordinary as Jobs, we are going to lose so much that we may not be able to remedy at all. Just as Ms Zhao pointed out, less school education is still connected with higher unemployment rate, and the country actually needs more people with proper school education. I’m happy to see that there are people, such as the blogger at the end of the article, who managed to keep a clear mind and actually knew what they should do. Being ordinary is not a failure, nor is it a shame. It just means you are like the most of people who live on Earth. Also, being ordinary doesn’t prevent you from being happy. You may not be able to achieve what Jobs has achieved, but there is more than one way to be awesome and enjoy life.