-
2017
考研英语二真题和答案解析
2017
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）
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. (10 points)
People have speculated for centuries
about a future without work .Today is no
different, with academics, writers, and
activists once again
1
that technology be
replacing human
workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free
world will be
defined by
2
. A few wealthy people will own all
the capital, and the masses will
struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
A different and not mutually exclusive
3
holds that the future
will be a wasteland of
a different
sort, one
4
by
purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives
5
,
people
will simply
bec
ome lazy and
depressed.
6
, today’s
unemployed don’t seem
to be having a
gre
at time. One Gallup poll
found that 20 percent of Americans who
have been unemployed for at least a
year report having depression, double the rate
for
7
Americans. Also, some research suggests
that the
8
for rising
rates of
mortality, mental-health
problems, and addicting
9
poorly-educated middle-aged
people is
shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why
many
10
the agonizing
dullness of a jobless future.
But it doesn’t
11
follow from findings like these that a
world without work would
be filled with
unease. Such visions are based on the
12
of being unemployed in a
society built on the concept of
employment. In the
13
of
work, a society designed
with other
ends in mind could
14
strikingly different circumstanced for
the future
of labor and leisure. Today,
the
15
of work may be a
bit overblown. “Many jobs
are boring,
degrading,
unhealthy, and a waste of
human potential,” says John
Danaher, a
lecturer at the National University of Ireland in
Galway.
These days,
bec
ause leisure time is
relatively
16
for most
workers, people use their
free time to
counterbalance the intellectual and emotional
17
of their jobs. “When I
come home from a hard day’s work, I
often feel
18
,” Danaher
says, adding, “In a
world in which I
don’t have to work, I might feel rather
different”—
perhaps different
enough to throw himself
19
a hobby or a passion project with the
intensity usually
reserved for
20
matters.
1
．
[A] boasting
[B] denying
[C] warning
[D] ensuring
【答案】
[C] warning
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
2
．
[A] inequality
[B] instability
[C] unreliability
[D] uncertainty
【答案】
[A] inequality
3
．
[A] policy
[B]guideline
[C] resolution
[D] prediction
【答案】
[D] prediction
4
．
[A]
characterized
[B]divided
[C] balanced
[D]measured
【答案】
[A] characterized
5
．
[A] wisdom
[B]
meaning
[C] glory
[D] freedom
【答案】
[B] meaning
6
．
[A] Instead
[B] Indeed
[C] Thus
[D] Nevertheless
【答案】
[B] Indeed
7
．
[A] rich
[B] urban
[C]working
[D] educated
【答案】
[C] working
8
．
[A] explanation
[B] requirement
[C]
compen
sat
ion
[D] substitute
【答案】
[A] explanation
9
．
[A] under
[B] beyond
[C] alongside
[D] among
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
【答案】
[D] among
10
．
[A] leave
behind
[B] make up
[C] worry about
[D] set aside
【答案】
[C] worry about
11
．
[A]
statistically
[B] occasionally
[C] necessarily
[D]
economically
【答案】
[C] necessarily
12
．
[A] chances
[B] downsides
[C] benefits
[D] principles
【答案】
[B] downsides
13
．
[A] absence
[B] height
[C] face
[D] course
【答案】
[A] absence
14
．
[A] disturb
[B] restore
[C] exclude
[D] yield
【答案】
[D] yield
15
．
[A] model
[B] practice
[C] virtue
[D] hardship
【答案】
[C] virtue
16
．
[A] tricky
[B] lengthy
[C] mysterious
[D] scarce
【答案】
[D] scarce
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
17
．
[A] demands
[B] standards
[C] qualities
[D] threats
【答案】
[A] demands
18
．
[A] ignored
[B] tired
[C] confused
[D] starved
【答案】
[B] tired
19
．
[A] off
[B] against
[C] behind
[D] into
【答案】
[D] into
20
．
[A]
technological
[B]
professional
[C]
educational
[D]
interpersonal
【答案】
[B] professional
Section
II
Reading Comprehension
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
. (40 points)
Text
1
Every
Sat
urday morning, at 9 am,
more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around
their local park. The Parkrun
phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has
inspired 400 events in the UK and more
abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands
of volunteers. Runners range from four
years old to grandparents; their times range
from Andrew Baddeley’s world record 13
minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.
Parkrun is succeeding where London’s
Olympic “legacy” is failing. Ten years ago on
Monday, it was announced that the Games
of the 30
th
Olympiad would
be in London.
Planning documents
pledged that the
gre
at
legacy of the Games would be to level a
nation of sport lovers away from their
couches. The population would be fitter,
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
healthier and produce more winners. It
has not happened. The number of adults doing
weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2
million in the run
—
up to
2012
—
but the general
population was growing faster. Worse,
the numbers are now falling at an accelerating
rate. The opposition claims primary
school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a
week have nearly halved. Obesity has
risen among adults and children. Official
retrospections continue as to why
London 2012 failed to “inspire a generation.” The
success of Parkrun offers answers.
Parkun is not a race but a time trial:
Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos
welcomes anybody. There is as much joy
over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped
over the line as there is about top
talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast,
wanted to get more people doing sports
and to produce more elite athletes. The dual
aim was mixed up: The stress on success
over taking part was intimidating for
newcomers.
Indeed, there is
something a little absurd in the state getting
involved in the planning
of such a
fundamentally “grassroots”, concept as community
sports associations. If
there is a role
for government, it should really be getting
involved in providing
common
goods
—
making sure there is
space for playing fields and the money to pave
tennis and netball courts, and
encouraging the provision of all these activities
in
schools. But successive governments
have presided over selling
gre
en spaces,
squeezing money from local authorities
and declining attention on sport in education.
Instead of wordy, worthy strategies,
future governments need to do more to provide
the conditions for sport to thrive. Or
at least not make them worse.
21.
According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has
.
[A] gained great
popularity
[B] created many jobs
[C] strengthened community ties
[D]
bec
ome an
official festival
【答案】
[A]
gained great popularity
22. The author
believes that London’s Olympic“legacy” has failed
to
.
[A]
boost population growth
[B] promote
sport participation
[C] improve the
city’s image
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
[D] increase sport hours in schools
【答案】
[B] promote sport
participation
23. Parkrun is different
from Olympic games in that it
.
[A] aims at discovering talents
[B] focuses on mass competition
[C] does not emphasize elitism
[D] does not attract first-timers
【答案】
[C] does not emphasize
elitism
24. With regard to mass sport,
the author holds that governments should
.
[A] organize “grassroots”
sports events
[B] supervise
local sports associations
[C] increase
funds for sports clubs
[D] invest in
public sports facilities
【答案】
[D] invest in public
sports facilities
25. The author’s
attitude to what UK governments have done for
sports is
.
[A] tolerant
[B] critical
[C] uncertain
[D]
sympathetic
【答案】
[B] critical
Text 2
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
With so much focus on children’s use of
screens, it’s easy for parents to forget about
their own screen use. “Tech is designed
to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky
in her study of digital play, “and
digital product
s are there to promote
maximal
engagement. It makes it hard to
disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into
the
family routine. ”
Radesky has studied the use of mobile
phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving
mother-child pairs a food-testing
exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices
during the exercise started 20 percent
fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal
interactions with their children.
During a separate observation, she saw that phones
bec
ame a source of tension
in the family. Parents would be looking at their
emails
while the children would be
making excited bids for their attention.
Infants are wired to look at parents’
faces to try to understand their world, and if
those
faces are blank and
unresponsive
—
as they often
are when absorbed in a
device
—
it
can be
extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky
cites the “still face
experiment”
devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick
in the 1970s. In it, a
mother is asked
to interact with her child in a normal way before
putting on a blank
expression and not
giving them any visual social feedback; The child
becomes
increasingly distressed as she
tries to capture her mother’s attention. “Parents
don’t
have to be exquisitely parents at
all times, but there needs to be a balance and
parents
need to be responsive and
sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal
expressions of an
emotional need,” says
Radesky.
On the other hand,
Tronick himself is concerned that the worries
about kids’ use of
sc
reens
are born out of an “oppressive ideology that
demands that parents should
always be
interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a
somewhat fantasized, very
white, very
upper-middle-
class ideology that says
if you’re failing to expose your
child
t
o 30,000 words you are neglecting
them.” Tronick believes that just
bec
ause a
child
isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean
there’s no value to it—
particularly if
it gives parents time to have a shower,
do housework or simply have a break from
their child. Parents, he says, can get
a lot out of using their devices to speak to a
friend
or get some work out of the way.
This can make them feel happier, which lets then
be
more available to their child the
rest of the time.
ing to Jenny Radesky,
digital products are designed to ______.
[A] simplify routine matters
[B] absorb user attention
[C] better interpersonal relations
[D] increase work efficiency
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
【答案】
[B] absorb user
attention
y’s food
-testing
e
xercise shows that mothers’ use of
devices ______.
[A] takes
away babies’ appetite
[B]
distracts children’s attention
[C] slows down babies’ verbal
development
[D] reduces
mother-child communication
【答案】
[D] reduces mother-child
communication
y’s cites the “still face
experiment” to show that _______.
[A] it is easy for children to get used
to blank expressions
[B] verbal
expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchange
[C] children are insensitive to changes
in their parents’ mood
[D]
parents
need to respond to children’s
emotional needs
【答案】
[D] parents need to
respond to children’s emotional needs
29. The oppressive ideology mentioned
by Tronick requires parents to_______.
[A] protect kids from exposure to wild
fantasies
[B] teach their kids at least
30,000 words a year
[C] ensure constant
interaction with their children
[D]
remain concerned about kid’s use of
screens
【答案】
[C]
ensure constant interaction with their children
30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of
screens may_______.
[A] give
their parents some free time
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
[B] make their parents more creative
[C] help them with their homework
[D] help them
bec
ome more attentive
【答案】
[A] give their parents
some free time
Text 3
Today, widespread social pressure to
immediately go to college in conjunction with
increasingly high expectations in a
fast-moving world often causes students to
completely overlook the possibility of
taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you
know is going to college in the fall,
it s
eems silly to stay back a year,
doesn’t it? And
after going to school
for 12 years, it doesn’t feel natural to spend a
year doing
something that isn’t
academic.
But while this may
be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn
gap years.
There’s always
a
constant fear of falling behind everyone else on
the socially
perpetuated “race to the
finish line,” whether that be toward graduate
school, medical
school or lucrative
career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap
year does not
hinder the success of
academic pursuits
—
in fact,
it probably enhances it.
Studies from
the United States and Australia show that students
who take a gap year
are generally
better prepared for and perform better in college
than those who do not.
Rather than
pulling students back, a gap year pushes them
ahead by preparing them
for
independence, new responsibilities and
environmental changes
—
all
things that
first-year students often
struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can
lessen the
blow when it comes to
adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand
new
environment, making it easier to
focus on academics and activities rather than
acclimation blunders.
If
you’re not convinced of the inherent value in
taking a year off to explore interests,
then consider its financial impact on
future academic choices. According to the
National Center for Education
Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students
end up
changing their majors at least
once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic
mandatory high school curriculum leaves
students with a poor understanding of
themselves listing one major on their
college applications, but switching to another
after taking college classes. It’s not
necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the
school, it can be costly to make up
credits after switching too late in the game. At
Boston College, for example, you would
have to complete an extra year were you to
switch to the nursing school from
another department. Taking a gap year to figure
things out initially can help prevent
stress and save money later on.
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
31. One of the reasons for high-school
graduates not taking a gap year is that
.
[A] they think it
academically misleading
[B] they have a
lot of fun to expect in college
[C] it
feels strange to do differently from others
[D] it seems worthless to take off-
campus courses
【答案】
[C] it
feels strange to do differently from others
32. Studies from the US and Australia
imply that taking a gap year helps
[A]
keep students from being unrealistic
[B] lower risks in choosing careers
[C] ease freshmen’s financial
burdens
[D] relieve freshmen
of pressures
【答案】
[D] relieve
freshmen of pressures
33. The word
“acclimation” (Line 8, Para. 3) is closest in
meaning to
.
[A]
adaptation
[B] application
[C] motivation
[D]
competition
【答案】
[A]
adaptation
34. A gap year may save
money for students by helping them
.
[A] avoid academic failures
[B] establish long-term goals
[C] switch to another college
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
[D] decide on the right major
【答案】
[D] decide on the right
major
35. The most suitable title for
this text would be
.
[A] In Favor of the Gap Year
[B] The ABCs of the Gap Year
[C] The Gap Year Comes Back
[D] The Gap Year: A Dilemma
【答案】
[A] In Favor of the Gap
Year
Text 4
Though often viewed as a problem for
western states, the growing frequency of
wildfires is a national concern
bec
ause of its impact on
federal tax dollars, says
Professor Max
Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and
management.
In 2015, the US Forest
Service for the first time spent more than half of
its $$5.5
billion annual budget fighting
fires
—
nearly double the
percentage it spent on such
efforts 20
years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today
are going towards the
agency’s other
work—
such as forest conservation,
watershed and cultural resources
management, and infrastructure
upkeep
—
that affect the lives
of all Americans.
Another nationwide
concern is whether public funds from other
agencies are going
into construction in
fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often
are federal
dollars building homes that
are likely to be lost to a wildfire?
“It’s already a huge problem from a
public expenditure perspective for the whole
country,” he says.” We need to take a
magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute,
is this OK?” “Do we want instead to
redirect those funds to concentrate on
lower
-
hazard parts of the
landscape?”
Such a view
would require a corresponding shift in the way US
society today views
fire, researchers
say.
For one thing,
conver
sat
ions about
wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past
decade, the focus has been on climate
change
—
how the warming of
the Earth from
gre
enhouse
gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
While climate is a key element, Moritz
says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the
rest of the equation.
“The
human systems and the landscapes we live on are
linked, and the interacti
ons go
both ways,” he says. Failing to
recognize that, he notes, leads to “an overly
simplified
view of what the solutions
might be. Our perception of the problem and of
what the
solution is
bec
omes very
limited.”
At the same time,
people continue to treat fire as an event that
needs to be wholly
controlled and
unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor
Balch at the University
of Colorado.
But acknowledging fire’s inevitable presence in
human life is an attitud
e
crucial to developing the laws,
policies, and practices that make it as safe as
possible,
she says.
“We’ve
disconnected ourselves from living with fire,”
Balch says. “It is really
important to
understand and try and tease out what is the human
connection with fire
today.”
36. More frequent wildfires have become
a national concern because in 2015
they
.
[A] exhausted
unprecedented management efforts
[B]
consumed a record-high percentage of budget
[C] severely damaged the ecology of
western states
[D] caused a huge rise
of infrastructure expenditure
【答案】
[B] consumed a record-
high percentage of budget
37. Moritz
calls for the use of “a magnifying glass”
to
.
[A]
raise more funds for fire-prone areas
[B] avoid the redirection of federal
money
[C] find wildfire-free parts of
the landscape
[D] guarantee safer
spending of public funds
【答案】
[D] guarantee safer
spending of public funds
38. While
admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz
notes that
.
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
[A] public debates have not settled yet
[B] fire-fighting conditions are
improving
[C] other factors should not
be overlooked
[D] a shift in the view
of fire has taken place
【答案】
[C] other factors should
not be overlooked
39. The overly
simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of
failing to
.
[A]
discover the fundamental makeup of nature
[B] explore the mechanism of the human
systems
[C] maximize the role of
landscape in human life
[D] understand
the interrelations of man and nature
【答案】
[D] understand the
interrelations of man and nature
40.
Professor Balch points out that fire is something
man should
.
[A] do
away with
[B] come to terms with
[C] pay a price for
[D] keep
away from
【答案】
[B] come to
terms with
Part B
Directions:
Read
the following text and match each of the numbered
items in the left column to
its
corresponding information in the right column.
There are two extra choices in the
right column. Mark your answers on the
ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
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The decline in American manufacturing
is a common refrain, particularly from
Donald
Trump. “We don’t make
anything anymore,” he told Fox News, while
defending his own made-in-Mexico
clothing line.
Without question,
manufacturing has taken a significant hit during
recent decades,
and further trade deals
raise questions about whether new shocks could hit
manufacturing.
But there is
also a different way to look at the data.
Across the country, factory owners are
now grappling with a new challenge: instead
of having too many workers, they may
end up with too few. Despite trade competition
and outsourcing, American manufacturing
still needs to replace tens of thousands of
retiring boomers every years.
Millennials may not be that interested in taking
their
place, other industries are
recruiting them with similar or better pay.
For factory owners, it all adds up to
stiff competition for
workers
—
and upward
pressure on wages. “They’re harder to
find and they have job offers,” says Jay
Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil
Spring, a family-
owned firm, “They may
be
coming [into the workforce], but
they
’ve been plucked by other
industries that are
also doing an well
as manufacturing,” Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing
high school
juniors to the factory so
they can get exposed to its culture.
At
RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical
transformers and welding equipment
that
his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a
close eye on the age of his
nearly 200
workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has
three community-college
students
enrolled in a work-placement program, with a
starting wage of $$13 an hour
that rises
to $$17 after two years.
At a worktable
inside the transformer plant, young Jason
Stenquist looks flustered by
the copper
coils he’s trying to assemble and the arrival of
two visitors. It’s his first
week on
the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says
at high school he
considered medical
school before switching to electrical engineering.
“I love working
with tools. I love
creating.” he says.
But to
win over these young workers, manufacturers have
to clear another major
hurdle: parents,
who lived through the worst US economic downturn
since the
Gre
at
Depression, telling them to avoid the
factory. Millennials “remember their father and
mother both were laid off. They blame
it on the manufactu
ring recession,”
says Birgit
Klohs, chief executive of
The Right Place, a business development agency for
western
Michigan.
These
concerns aren’t misplaced: Employment in
manufacturing has fallen from 17
million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013.
When the recovery began, worker shortages
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考研英语二真题和答案解析
first appeared in the high-skilled
trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-
skill
levels.
“The gap is
between the jobs that take to skills and those
that require a lot of skill,”
says Rob
Spohr, a business professor at Mo
ntcalm
Community College. “There’re
enough
people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other
places where you don’t need to
have
much skill. It’s that gap in between, and that’s
where the problem is. ”
Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community
points to another key to luring Millennials
into manufacturing: a work/life
balance. While their parents were content to work
long hours, young people value
flexibility. “Overtime is not attractive to this
generation. They really want to live
their lives,” she says.
41. Jay
Deuwell
42. Jason
Stenquist
43. Birgit
Klohs
[A] says that he switched to electrical
engineering
bec
ause he loves
working with tools.
[B]
points out that there are enough people to fill
the jobs that don’t
need much skill.
[C] points out that the US doesn’t
manufacture anything anymore.
[D] believes that it is important to
keep a close eye on the age of his
workers.
[E] says that for
factory owners, workers are harder to find because
44. Rob Spohr
of stiff
competition.
[F] points out that a
work/life balance can attract young people into
Parks
manufacturing.
[G] says that the manufacturing
recession is to blame for the lay-off
the young people’s parents.
【答案】
41 [E] says
that for factory owners, workers are harder to
find
bec
ause of stiff
competition.
42 [A] says
that he switched to electrical engineering because
he loves working with
tools.
43 [G] says that the manufacturing
recession is to blame for the lay-off the young
people’s parents.
44 [B] points out that there are enough
people to fill the jobs that don’t need much
skill
45 [F] points out that
a work/life balance can attract young people into
manufacturing
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