2014 年天津大学考博英语真题
Part I. Listening Comprehension (10 %)
Directions: In this section, you will hear 10 short conversations. At the end of
each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said.Both the
conversationandthequestionswillbespokenonlyonce.Aftereachquestionthere
willbeapause.Duringthepause,youmustreadthefourchoicesmarkedA),B),C)
and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter
on Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
1. A) He has proved to be a better reader than the woman.
B) He has difficulty understanding the book.
C) He cannot get access to the assigned book.
D) He cannot finish his assignment before the deadline.
2. A) She will drive the man to the supermarket.
B) The man should buy a car of his own.
C) The man needn't go shopping every week.
D) She can pick the man up at the grocery store.
Part IV Banked Cloze (10 %)
Directions: Fillintheblanksinthefollowingpassagebyselectingsuitablewords
from the Word Bank. You may not use any of the words more than once.
You have seen a friend succeed. No doubt you feel joy at this.You love your
friend,and maybe you even helped him accomplish his goal. ____1____, there is
another feeling, a dark feeling, within you. You begin to wish that it was you who
was enjoying success, and you begin to even dislike your friend. At first this
envious feeling starts off like a tiny seed. But then, like a seed, it grows. It
threatens to ____2____ you.
Of course you feel bad about your feelings, as they have become a(n) ____3____
to your friendship. Still, there doesn't seem to be anything that you can do. Facing
your friend invariably leads to more ____4____ between you. Avoiding him just seems
to ____5____ the gulf between you.
Instead of feeling ____6____ about your envy or hating your friend, you should
take a different ____7___. Use your friend's success as a challenge. He has succeeded.
This means that you can succeed as well. By thingking this way, you are ____8____
your feelings and redirecting them into a course of action that won't ruin your
friendship.
Remember that friendships can ____9_____ friendly competitiion. You cannot,
however, maintain your friendship if you ____10____ envy.
A) approach
B) goal
C) tension
D) harbor
E) remain
F) survive
G) harnessing
H) widen
I) overwhelm
J) overtake
K) establish
L) still
M) guilty
N) responsible
O) handicap
Part III. Reading Comprehension (40%)
Part A.
Directions: In this part there are three passages followed by questions or
unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D.
Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage:
(1)
A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US is how friendly,
courteous and helpful most Americans were to them. To be fair, this observation
is also frequently made of Canada and Canadians, and should best be considered North
American. There are, of course, exceptions. Small-minded officials, rude waiters,
and ill-mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation
made so frequently that it deserves comment. For a long period of time and in many
parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break in an otherwise dull existence.
Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the families who generally lived
distant from one another. Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion,
and brought news of the outside world. The harsh realities of the frontier also
shaped this tradition of hospitality.
Someone traveling alone, if hungry, injured, or ill, often had nowhere to turn
except to the nearest cabin or settlement. It was not a matter of choice for the
traveler or merely a charitable impulse on the part of the settlers. It reflected
the harshness of daily life: if you didn’t take in the stranger and take care of
him, there was no one else who would. And someday, remember, you might be in the
same situation. Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in
helping the weary traveler. Yet, the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is
still very strong in the US, especially in the smaller cities and towns away from
the busy tourist trails. "I was just traveling through, got talking with this
American, and pretty soon he invited me home for dinner—amazing." Such observations
reported by visitors to the US are not uncommon, but are not always understood
properly.
The casual friendliness of many Americans should be interpreted neither as
superficial nor as artificial, but as the result of a historically developed
cultural tradition. As is true of any developed society, in America a complex set
of
cultural
signals,
assumptions,
and
conventions
underlies
all
social
interrelationships. And, of course, speaking a language does not necessarily mean
that someone understands social and cultural patterns. Visitors who fail to
"translate" cultural meanings properly often draw wrong conclusions. For example,
when an American uses the word "friend", the cultural implications of the word may
be quite different from those it has in the visitor’s language and culture. It
takes more than a brief encounter on a bus to distinguish between courteous
convention and individual interest. Yet, being friendly is a virtue that many
Americans value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.
1、In the eyes of visitors from the outside world, ___________.
A. rude taxi drivers are rarely seen in the US
B) small-minded officials deserve a serious comment
C) Canadians are not so friendly as their neighbors
D. most Americans are ready to offer help
2、It could be inferred from the last paragraph that ___________.
A) culture exercises an influence over social interrelationship
B) courteous convention and individual interest are interrelated
C) various virtues manifest themselves exclusively among friends
D) social interrelationships equal the complex set of cultural conventions
3、Families in frontier settlements used to entertain strangers ___________.
A) to improve their hard life
B) in view of their long-distance travel
C) to add some flavor to their own daily life
D) out of a charitable impulse
4、The tradition of hospitality to strangers ___________.
A) tends to be superficial and artificial
B) is generally well kept up in the united States
C) is always understood properly
D) has something to do with the busy tourist trails
5、What’s the author’s attitudes toward the American’s friendliness?
A) Favorable.
B) Unfavorable.
C) Indifferent.
D) Neutral.
Part B
Directions: In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For
Questions1-5,choosethemostsuitableonefromthelistA-Htofitintoeachof
the numbered gaps. There are three extra choices, which you do not need to use.
Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10%)
From her vantage point she watched the main doors swing open and the first
arrivals pour in. Those who had been at the head of the line paused momentarily
on entry, looked around curiously, then quickly moved forward as others behind
pressed in. Within moments the central public area of the big branch bank was filled
with a chattering, noisy crowd. The building, relatively quiet less than a minute
earlier, had become a Babel. Edwina saw a tall heavyset black man wave some dollar
bills and declare loudly, "I want to put my money in the bank".
1.
It seemed as if the report about everyone having come to open an account had
been accurate after all.
Edwina could see the big man leaning back expansively, still holding his dollar
bills. His voice cut across the noise of other conversations and she heard him
proclaim, "I'm in no hurry. There's something I'd like you to explain."
Two other desks were quickly manned by other clerks. With equal speed, long
wide lines of people formed in front of them.
Normally, three members of staff were ample to handle new account business,
but obviously were inadequate now. Edwina could see Tottenhoe on the far side of
the bank and called him on the intercom. She instructed, "Use more desks for new
account and take all the staff you can spare to man them."
2.
Tottenhoe grumbled in reply, "You realize we can't possibly process all these
people today, and however many we do will tie us up completely."
"I' ve an idea," Edwina said, "that's what someone has in mind. Just hurry
the processing all you can."
3.
First, an application form called for details of residence, employment, social
security, and family matters. A specimen signature was obtained. Then proof of
identity was needed. After that, the new accounts clerk would take all documents
to an officer of the bank for approval and initialing. Finally, a savings passbook
was made out or a temporary checkbook issued.
Therefore the most new accounts that any bank employee could open in an hour
were five, so the three clerks presently working might handle a total of ninety
in one business day, if they kept going at top speed, which was unlikely.
4.
Still the noise within the bank increased. It had become an uproar.
A further problem was that the growing mass of arrivals in the central public
area of the bank was preventing access to tellers' counters by other customers.
Edwina could see a few of them outside, regarding the milling scene with
consternation. While she watched, several gave up and walked away.
Inside the bank some of the newcomers were engaging tellers in conversation
and the tellers, having nothing else to do because of the melee, chatted back. Two
assistant managers had gone to the central floor area and were trying to regulate
the flood of people so as to clear some space at counters. They were having small
success.
5.
She decided it was time for her own intervention.
Edwina left the platform and a railed-off staff area and, with difficulty, made
her way through the milling crowd to the main front door.
A. Yet she knew however much they hurried it would still take ten to fifteen
minutes to open any single new account. It always did.
The paperwork required that time.
B. But still no hostility was evident. Everyone in the now jam-packed bank
who was spoken to by members of the staff answered politely and with a smile. It
seemed, Edwina thought, as if all who were here had been briefed to be on best
behavior.
C. It's an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such
as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted
in the database.
D. Even leaning close to the intercom, it was hard to hear above the noise.
E. Even tripling ate present complement of clerks would permit very few more
than two hundred and fifty accounts (o be opened in a day, yet already, in the first
few minutes of business, the bank was crammed with at least four hundred people,
with still more flooding in, and the line outside, which Edwina rose to check,
appeared as long as ever.
F. Obviously someone had alerted the press in advance, which explained the
presence of the TV camera crew outside. Edwina wondered who had done it.
G. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work
or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a
raise.
H. A security guard directed him, "Over there for new accounts." The guard
pointed to a desk where a clerk - a young girl - sat waiting. She appeared nervous.
The big man walked toward her, smiled reassuringly, and sat down. Immediately a
press of others moved into a ragged line behind him, waiting for their turn.
Part IV Translation (20%)
Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined
segmentsintoChinese.YourtranslationshouldbewrittencarefullyontheANSWER
SHEET.
In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts rather like a one-way mirror — the glass
in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun’s rays to enter but prevents the
heat from escaping.
According to a weather experts prediction, the atmosphere will be 3℃ warmer
in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present
rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt,
thus raising sea level several metres and severely flooding coastal cities. Also,
the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate
of the northern hemisphere, possibly resulting in an alteration of earth’s chief
food-growing zones.
In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated
on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet.
But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may
be affected by only a few degrees of warming: in other words, by a warming on the
scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of
fuels.
Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already
disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This
fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth.
However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where