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2013
年硕士研究生入学考试英语试题
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
are,
on
the
whole,
poor
at
considering
background
information
when
making
individual decisions.
At first glance this might seem like a strength
that
1
the ability to
make
judgments
which
are
unbiased
by
2
factors.
But
Dr.
Uri
Simonsohn
speculated
that an inability
to consider the big
3
was leading decision-makers to be
biased by the
daily samples of
information they were working with.
4
,
he theorised that a judge 5
of
appearing too soft
6
crime might be more likely
to send someone to prison
7
he
had already sentenced five or six other
defendants only to forced community service on
that
day.
To
8
this idea, he turned to the university-
admissions process. In theory, the
9
of an applicant should not depend on
the few others
10
randomly for interview during
the same day, but Dr Simonsohn
suspected the truth was
11 .
He
studied
the
results
of
9,323
MBA
interviews
12
by
31
admissions
interviewers
had
13
applicants
on
a
scale
of
one to
scale
14
numerous
factors into
consideration. The scores were
15
used in conjunction with an applicant’s
score on the Graduate Management
Admission Test, or GMAT, a standardised exam which
is
16
out of 800 points, to make
a decision on whether to accept him or her.
Dr
Simonsonh
found
if
the
score
of
the
previous
candidate
in
a
daily
series
of
interviewees was 0.75 points or more
higher than that of the one
17
that, then
the score for
the next applicant would
18
by an average of 0.075 points. This
might sound small, but to
19 the effects of such a decrease a
candidate would need 30 more GMAT points than
would
otherwise have been
20
.
1.[A] grants
[B] submits
2.[A] minor
[B]objective
3.[A] issue
[B] vision
4.[A]
For example
[
B]
On average
5.[A] fond
[B]fearful
[C]transmits
[C]crucial
[C]picture
[C] In principle
[C] capable
[D] delivers
[D] external
[D] moment
[D] Above all
[D]thoughtless
1
6.[A] in
[B] on
[C]to
[D]for
7.[A] if
[B]until
[C] though
[D] unless
8.[A] promote
[B]emphasize
[C] share
[D] test
9.[A] decision
[B] quality
[C]status
[D] success
10.[A] chosen
[B]studied
[C]found
[D]
identified
11.[A] exceptional
[
B] defensible
[C]replaceable
[D] otherwise
12.[A]
inspired
[B]expressed
[C]conducted
[D]
secured
13.[A] assigned
[B]rated
[C]matched
[D] arranged
14.[A] put
[B]got
[C]gave
[D]took
15.[A]instead
[B]then
[C]ever
[D] rather
16.[A]selected
[B]passed
[C]marked
[D]
introduced
17.[A]before
[B] after
[C]above
[D]
below
18.[A] jump
[B] float
[C]drop
[D]
fluctuate
19.[A]achieve
[B]undo
[C] maintain
[D]disregard
20.
[A] promising
[B] possible
[C]necessary
[D] helpful
Section II Reading
Comprehension
Part
A
Directions:
Read
the following four texts. Answer the questions
below each text by choosing
A, B, C
orD. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40
points)
Text 1
In the 2006
film version of
The Devil Wears
Prada
, Miranda Priestly, played by
Meryl
Streep,
scold
her
unattractive
assistant
for
imagining
that
h
igh
fashion
doesn’t
affect
her.
Priestly explains how
the deep blue color of the assistant’s sweater
descended over the years
from
fashion
shows
to
department
stores
and
to
the
bargain
bin
in
which
the
poor
girl
doubtless found her
garment.
This top-down
c
onception of the fashion business
couldn’t be more out of date or at odds
with feverish world described
in
Overdressed
, Elizabeth
Cline’s three
-year indictment
of “fast
fashion”. In the
last decades or so, advances in technology have
allowed mass
-market labels
such as Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo to react
to trends more quickly and anticipate demand more
precisely. Quicker turnarounds mean
less wasted inventory, more frequent releases, and
more
profit.
Those
labels
encourage
style-conscious
consumers
to
see
clothes
as
disposable
——
meant
to last only a wash or two, although they don’t
advertise that——
and to renew their
wardrobe
every
few
weeks.
By
offering
on-trend
items
at
dirt-
cheap
prices,
Cline
argues,
these brands have
hijacked fashion cycles, shaking an industry long
accustomed to a seasonal
pace.
2
The victims of
this revolution, of course, are not limited to
designers. For H&M to offer
a $$5.95
knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plus stores around
the world, it must rely on low-wage,
overseas
labor,
order
in
volumes
that
strain
natural
resources,
and
use
massive
amounts
of
harmful chemicals.
Overdressed
is
the fashion world’s answer to
consumer
-activist bestsellers like
Michael
Pollan’s
The
Omnivore’s Dilemma
.
“Mass
-produced clothing, like fast
food, fills a hunger and
need, yet is
non-
durable, and wasteful,” Cline
argues
. Americans, she finds, buy
roughly 20
billion garments a
year
——
about 64 items per
person
——
and no matter how
much they give
away, this excess leads
to waste.
Towards the end
of
Overdressed
, Cline
introduced her ideal, a Brooklyn woman named
Sarah Kate Beaumont, who since 2008 has
made all of her own
clothes
——
and beautifully.
But as Cline is the first to note, it
took Beaumont decades to perfect her craft; her
example
can’t be knocked
off.
Though several fast-
fashion companies have made efforts to curb their
impact on labor
and the
environment
——
including H&M,
with its green Conscious Collection
Line
——
Cline
believes
lastingchange
can
only
be
effected
by
the
customer.
She
exhibits
the
idealism
common to many
advocates of sustainability, be it in food or in
energy. Vanity is a constant;
people
will only start shopping more sustainably when
they can’t afford
not to.
21. Priestly criticizes her assistant
for her
[A]
poor bargaining skill.
[B] insensitivity to fashion.
[C] obsession
with high fashion.
[D]lack of
imagination.
22. According to Cline,
mass-market labels urge consumers to
[A] combat unnecessary
waste.
[B] shut
out the feverish fashion world.
[C] resist the influence of
advertisements.
[D] shop for their
garments more frequently.
23. The word
“indictment” (Line 3, Para.2) is closest in
meaning to
[A] accusation.
[B] enthusiasm.
[C] indifference.
[D] tolerance.
24. Which of the following can be
inferred from the last paragraph?
[A] Vanity has more often
been found in idealists.
[B] The fast-fashion industry ignores
sustainability.
3
[C] People are
more interested in unaffordable garments.
[D] Pricing is
vital to environment-friendly purchasing.
25. What is the subject of the text?
[A] Satire on
an extravagant lifestyle.
[B] Challenge to a high-fashion myth.
[C] Criticism
of the fast-fashion industry.
[D] Exposure of a mass-
market secret.
Text 2
An old saying has it that half of all
advertising budgets are
wasted
—
the trouble is, no
one knows which half. In the internet
age, at least in theory, this fraction can be much
reduced.
By watching what people search
for, click on and say online, companies can aim
“behavioural”
ads at those most likely
to buy.
In
the
past
couple
of
weeks
a
quarrel
has
illustrated
the
value
to
advertisers
of
such
fine-grained
information: Should advertisers assume that people
are happy to be tracked and
sent
behavioural ads? Or should they have explicit
permission?
In December 2010
A
merica’s Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) proposed adding a “do
not track”
(DNT) option to internet browsers, so that users
could tell advertisers that they did
not want to be followed. Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari
both offer DNT;
Google’
s
Chrome is due to do so this year. In February the
FTC and the Digital Advertising
Alliance (DAA) agreed that the industry
would get cracking on responding to DNT requests.
On May 31st Microsoft set off the row.
It said that Internet Explorer 10, the version due
to appear with windows 8, would have
DNT as a default.
Advertisers are
horrified. Human nature being what it is, most
people stick with default
settings. Few
switch DNT on now, but if tracking is off it will
stay off. Bob Liodice, the chief
executive of the Association of
National Advertisers, says consumers will be worse
off if the
industry cannot collect
information about their preferences. People will
not get fewer ads, he
says. “They’ll
get less meaningful, less targeted
ads.”
It is not yet clear
how advertisers will respond. Getting a DNT signal
does not oblige
anyone
to
stop
tracking,
although
some
companies
have
promised
to
do
so.
Unable
to
tell
whether
someone
really
objects
to
behavioural
ads
or
whether
they
are
sticking
with
4
Microsoft’s
def
ault, some may ignore a DNT signal
and press on anyway.
Also unclear is
why Microsoft has gone it alone. After all, it has
an ad business too,
which it says will
comply with DNT requests, though it is still
working out how. If it is trying
to
upset Google, which relies almost wholly on
advertising, it has chosen an indirect method:
There
is
no
guarantee
that
DNT
by
default
will
become
the
norm.
DNT
does
not
seem
an
obviously huge selling point for
windows 8
—
though the firm
has compared some of its other
products
favourably
with
Google’s
on
that
count
before.
Brendon
Lynch,
Microsoft’s
chief
privacy officer, blogged: “We believe
consumers should have more control.” Could it
really
be that simple?
26.
It is suggested in P
aragraph 1 that
“behavioural” ads help advertisers to
[A] ease competition among themselves.
[B] lower their operational costs.
[C] avoid complaints from consumers.
[D] provide better online services.
27. “The industry” (Line 6, Para.3)
refers to
[A] online
advertisers.
[B] e-commerce conductors.
[C] digital information analysis.
[D] internet browser developers.
28. Bob Liodice holds that setting DNT
as a default.
[A] may cut the number of
junk ads.
[B] fails to affect the ad
industry.
[C] will not benefit
consumers.
[D] goes against human
nature.
29. Which of the following is
true according to Paragraph 6?
[A] DNT
may not serve its intended purpose.
[B]
Advertisers are willing to implement DNT.
[C] DNT is losing its popularity among
consumers.
[D] Advertisers are obliged
to offer behavioural ads.
30. The
author's attitude towards what Brendon Lynch said
in his blog is one of
5
[A] indulgence.
[B] understanding.
[C]
appreciation.
[D] skepticism.
Text 3
Up until
a few decades ago, our visions of the future were
largely
—
though by no means
uniformly
—
glowingly positive. Science and technology would
cure all the ills of humanity,
leading
to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all.
Now
utopia
has
grown
unfashionable,
as
we
have
gained
a
deeper
appreciation
of
the
range of threats facing
us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu to
climate change. You might
even be
tempted to assume that humanity has little future
to look forward to.
But
such
gloominess
is
misplaced.
The
fossil
record
shows
that
many
species
have
endured for millions of
years
—
so why
shouldn
’
t we? Take a broader
look at our species
’
place in the universe, and it becomes
clear that we have an excellent chance of
surviving for
tens,
if
not
hundreds,
of
thousands
of
years.
Look
up
Homo
sapiens
in
the
“Red
List”
of
threatened species of the
International Union for the Conversation of Nature
(IUCN), and you
will
read:
“Listed
as
Least
Concern
as
the
species
is
very
widely
distributed,
adaptable,
currently
increasing, and there are no major threats
resulting in an overall population
decline.”
So what does our
deep future hold? A growing number of researchers
and organisations
are now thinking
seriously about that question. For example, the
Long Now Foundation has as
its flagship
project a mechanical clock that is designed to
still be marking time thousands of
years hence.
Perhaps
willfully, it may be easier to think about such
lengthy timescales than about the
more
immediate
future.
The
potential
evolution
of
today
’
s
technology,
and
its
social
consequences, is dazzlingly
complicated, and it
’
s
perhaps best left to science fiction writers
and futurologists to explore the many
possibilities we can envisage.
That
’
s one reason why we
have launched
Arc
, a new publication dedicated to the
near future.
But take a longer view and
there is a surprising amount that we can say with
considerable
assurance. As so often,
the past holds the key to the future: we have now
identified enough of
the
long-term
patterns
shaping
the
history
of
the
planet,
and
our
species,
to
make
evidence-based forecasts about the
situations in which our descendants will find
themselves.
This long perspective makes
the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more
likely to be a
passing fad. To be sure,
the future is not all rosy. But we are now
knowledgeable enough to
reduce many of
the risks that threatened the existence of earlier
humans, and to improve the
lot of those
to come.
31. Our vision of the future
used to be inspired by
[A]
our desire for lives of fulfillment.
[B] our faith in science and
technology.
[C] our awareness of
potential risks.
6