2004 年广东外语外贸大学外国语言学英语写作与翻译考研 真题 Task 1: Summary Writing (40%) Directions: Read carefully the following passage and summarize its contents in 150－200 words. Note that you must not copy complete sentences directly from the original. Failure to do so would incur deduction of your scores. Passage Plato - who may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to "real" people and everyday events - knew what intellectual experiences make for tree humanity. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts or so-called rational teachings. Even Aristotle, master of pure reason, said, "The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth." Modem thinkers who have studied myths and fairy tales from a philosophical or psychological viewpoint arrive at the same conclusion, regardless of their original persuasion. Mircea Eliade, for one, describes these stories as "models ~for human behavior [that],,:by that very fact, give .meaning and value to life." Drawing on anthropological parallels, he and others suggest that myths and fairy tales were derived from, or give symbolic expression to, initiation rites or rites of passage - such as metaphoric death of an old, inadequate self in order to be reborn on a higher plane of existence. He feels that this is why these tales meet a strongly felt need and are carders of such deep meaning. Other investigators with a depth-psychological orientation emphasize the similarities between the fantastic events in myths and fairy tales and those in adult dreams and daydreams - the fulfillment of wishes, the winning out over all competitors, the destruction of enemies - and conclude that one attraction of this literature is its expression of that which is normally prevented from coming to awareness. There are, of course, very significant differences between fairy tales and dreams. For example, in dreams more often than not the wish fulfillment is disguised, while in fairy tales much of it is openly expressed. To a considerable degree, dreams are the result of inner pressures which have found no relief, of problems which beset a person to which he knows no solution and to which the dream finds none. The fairy tale does the opposite: it projects the relief of all pressures and not only offers ways to solve problems but promises that a "happy" solution will be found. 

We cannot control what goes on in our dreams. Although our inner censorship influences what we may dream, such control occurs on an unconscious level. The fairy tale, on the other hand, is very much the result of common conscious and unconscious content having been shaped by the conscious mind, not of one particular person, but the consensus of many in regard to what they view as universal human problems, and what they accept as desirable solutions. If all these elements were not present in a fairy tale, it would not be retold by generation after generation. Only if a fairy tale met the conscious and unconscious requirements of many people was it repeatedly retold, listened to with great interest. No dream of a person could arouse such persistent interest unless it was worked into a myth, as was the story of the pharaoh's dream as interpreted by Joseph in the Bible. Great thinkers like Plato and Aristotle shared the same idea that myth should enjoy a superior status in education. Even modern thinkers to certain extend agree with that idea as they reached a conclusion that myth partly reflected and satisfied the inner desires of human beings. Those fantastic events in myths resemble likeliness to our dreams or daydreams. Still differences exist. Such as dream reflects social pressure we faced, but it offers no solution. On the contrary, myth goes the opposite way. Unlike dreams, Myths are the symbolic projections of a people’s hope, values, fears and aspirations. And any myth is classic. Task 2: Essay Writing (60%) Directions: In recent years China has witnessed a drastic increase in the annual enrollment of university students. While some hail it as an achievement of historical significance that marks the beginning of popularizing China's education of higher learning, others dismiss it as nothing but an educational "great leap forward" that will do more harm than good to the quality of college education in China. Write an essay of 500 - 600 words unequivocally expressing your stand on this issue. Whatever position you take,, make sure to justify your decision. Give a title to your essay. In China a saying goes like this: It takes ten years for a tree to grow to its full height, but a hundred for qualified personnel to mature. From this sentence we can infer the high status of education in our country. In recent years China has witnessed a drastic increase in the annual enrollment of university students. The existence of this phenomenon should be due to the following reasons. First, the number of college students only takes a small share in the whole population. As time requires, we need more educated citizens to take part in the construction of China. The current college students are far from enough. Second, compared with other powers, like Britain and America, China has much less college students. This situation doesn’t fit China’s image as a big power. As a result, a drastic increase in the annual enrollment of university students emerged as the time requires. Around the issue of enrollment increase, people’s reactions are different. They can roughly be 

categorized into two groups: advocators and opponents. Some stress the significance of this move, while others emphasize their worry about the qualification of college education. Both sides have their reasons. While in my opinion, the increase of enrollment is inevitable, but we can’t be hasty in doing it. First of all, as I mentioned above, the increase of enrollment is the requirement of China ’ s development. We need more workers, more engineers, more businessmen, etc. And the increase would offer what we need in a comparatively short time. The advantage of it cannot be neglected. On the other hand, so many students rushed into university would directly cause the inadequacy of hardware as well as software of the university. For example, in English department, a class used to have less than twenty students. But now a small classroom is jammed with more than 40 people. And this means more students have to share limited resources. The quality of education might be largely influenced. So from this point, people’s worry is not groundless. In addition, to accommodate so many freshmen, university has to invest much more money in reforming the current dorms and build new ones. University would then charge students more tuition. This directly adds more burden on their families. Then how to solve this problem? I personally think we should limit the increase of enrollment to minimize the negative effects. Rome is not built in one day. It ’s a long and hard process to develop education. So we should fulfill the aim step by step. Thus we can build a win-win situation.