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川大考博英语
2014
年真题
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I
．
Reading
Comprehension (30%; one mark each)
Directions:
Read the
following six passages. Answer the questions below
each passage
by choosing [A], [B], [C],
or [D]. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.
Passage One
In general, our society is becoming one
of giant enterprises directed by a
bureaucratic management in which man
becomes a small,well-oiled cog in the
machinery. The oiling is done with
higher wages, Nell-ventilated factories and piped
music,
and by psychologists and
“huma
n-
relations” experts;
yet all this oiling does not alter the
fact that man has become powerless,
that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue and
the
white-collar workers have become
economic puppets who dance to the tune of
automated
machines and bureaucratic
management.
The worker and employee are
anxious, not only because they might find
themselves
out of a job; they are
anxious also because they are unable to acquire
any real satisfaction
of interesting
life. They live and die without ever having
confronted the fundamental
realities of
human existence as emotionally and intellectually
independent and productive
human
beings.
Those higher up on the social
ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no
less
empty than those of their
subordinates. They are even more insecure in some
respects.
They are in a highly
competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind
is not a matter of
salary but even more
a matter of self-respect. When they apply for
their first job, they are
tested for
intelligence as well as for the right mixture of
submissiveness and
independence. From
the moment on they are tested again and again-by
the psychologists,
for whom testing is
a big business, and by their superiors, who judge
their behavior,
sociability, capacity
to get along, etc. This constant need to prove
that one is as good as
or better than
one’s fellow
-competitor creates
constant anxiety and stress, the very
causes of unhappiness and illness.
Am I suggesting that we should return
to the preindustrial mode of production or to
nineteenth-
century “free
enterprise” capitalism? Certainly not. Problems
the never solved
by returning to a
stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest
transforming our social
system form, a
bureaucratically managed industrialism in which
maxima, production and
consumption are
ends in themselves, into a humanist industrialism
in which man and full
development of
his potentialities-those of all love and of
reason-are the aims of social
arrangements. Production and
consumption should serve only as means to this end
and
should be prevented from ruling
man.
1. By “a
well
-
oiled cog in the
machinery” the author intends to deliver the idea
that man is
____.
[A] a necessary part of the society
though each individual’s function is
negligible
[B]
working in complete harmony with the rest of the
society
[C] an unimportant
part in comparison with the rest of the society
[D] a humble component of
the society, especially when working smoothly
2. The real cause of the anxiety of the
workers and employees is that ____.
[A] they are likely to lose their jobs
[B] they have no genuine
satisfaction or interest in life
[C] they are faced with the fundamental
realities of human existence
[D] they are deprived of their
individuality and independence
3. From
the passage we can conclude that real happiness of
life belongs to those ____.
[A] who are at the bottom of the
society
[B] who are higher
up in their social status
[C] who prove better than their fellow-
competitors
[D] who could
dip fir away from this competitive world
4. To solve the present social problems
the author puts forward a suggestion that we
should ____.
[A] resort to the production mode of
our ancestors
[B] offer
higher wages to the workers and employees
[C] enable man to fully
develop his potentialities
[D] take the fundamental realities for
granted
5. The author’s attitude
towards industrialism might best be summarized as
one of ____.
[A] approval
[B] dissatisfaction
[C] suspicion
[D] susceptibility
Passage Two
The
government-run command post in Tunis is staffed
around the clock by military
personnel,
meteorologists and civilians. On the wall are
maps, crisscrossed with brightly
colors
arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path
of the enemy.
What kind of invader
gives rise to such high-level monitoring? Not man,
not beast, but
the lowly desert
locust
（蝗虫）
. In recent moths,
billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors
have descended on Algeria, Libya,
Morocco and Tunisia, blackening the sky and eating
up crops and vegetation. The insect
invasion, the worst in 30 years, is already
creating
great destruction in the
Middle East and is now treating southern Europe.
The current
crisis began in late 1985
near the Red Sea. Unusually rainy weather
moistened the sands
of the Sudan,
making them ideal breeding grounds for the locust,
which lays its eggs in
the earth. The
insect onslaught threatens to create yet another
African famine. Each
locust can eat its
weight (not quite a tenth of an ounce) in
vegetation every 24 hours. A
good-size
swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100,000 tons
of grass, trees and crops in a
single
night.
All $$150 million may be needed
this year. The U.S. has provided two spraying
planes
and about 50,000 gal. of
pesticide. The European Community has donated $$3.8
million in
aid and the Soviet Union,
Canada, Japan and China have provided chemical-
spraying
aircraft to help wipe out the
pests. But relief efforts are hampered by the
relative mildness
of approved
pesticides, which quickly lose their deadly punch
and require frequent
replications. The
most effective locust killer Dieldrin has been
linked to cancer and is
banned by many
Western countries and some of the affected African
nations. More than 5
million acres have
been dusted with locust-killing chemicals; another
5 million will be
treated by the end of
June.
On May 30, representatives of
Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania
will
meet in Algiers to discuss tactics
to wipe out the ravenous swarms. The move is an
important step, but whatever plan is
devised, the locust plague promised to get worse
before the insects can be brought under
control.
6. The main idea of the first
sentence in the passage is that ____.
[A] the command post is stationed with
people all the time.
[B]
the command post is crowded with people all the
time.
[C] there are clocks
around the command post.
[D] the clock in the command post is
taken care of by the staff.
7. The
favorable breeding ground for the locust is ____.
[A] rich soil.
[B] wet land
[C] spaces covered crops and vegetation
[D] the Red Sea
8. People are alert at the threat of
the locust because ____.
[A] the insects are likely to create
another African famine.
[B] the insects may blacken the sky.
[C] the number of the
insects increases drastically.
[D] the insects are gathering and
moving in great speed.
9. Which of the
following is true?
[A]
Once the pesticides are used, locust will die
immediately.
[B] Relief
efforts are proved most fruitful due to the
effectiveness of certain pesticides.
[C] Dieldrin, the most effective locust
killer, has been widely accepted in many
countries.
[D] Over 10
million acres of affected area will have been
treated with locust-killing
chemicals
by the end of June.
10. The purpose for
affected nations to meet in Algiers on May 30 is
____.
[A] to devise
antilocust plans.
[B] to
wipe out the swarms in two years.
[C] to call out for additional
financial aid from other nations.
[D] to bring the insects under control
before the plague gets worse.
Passage Three
The
London 2012 sustainability watchdog embroiled in a
row over the
sports ship
of
the Olympic Stadium by Dow Chemical is
to push the International Olympic Committee to
appoint an “ethics champion” for future
Games.
The Commission for a
Sustainable London 2012 has been bruised by
criticism over
Dow’s sponsorship of the
wrap that will surround the Olympic stadium,
particularly since
commissioner
Meredith Alexander last month resigned in protest.
Campaigners believe that Dow has
ongoing liabilities relating to the 1984 Bhopal
disaster that resulted in the deaths of
an estimated 20,000 people and the serious injury
of
tens of thousands more. Dow, which
bought the owner of the plant in 2001, insists
that all
liabilities have been settled
in full.
Commission chairman Shaun
McCarthy said that its tight sustainability remit
did not
extend to acting as moral
guardian of the Olympic movement but that it would
press for
such a role to be created
when evaluating sponsors for future Games.
In addition to sponsoring the 7m pounds
wrap that will surround the Olympic Stadium,
Dow has a separate 100m dollars
sponsorship deal with the IOC that was signed in
2010.
But McCarthy also defended
t
he commission’s role in evaluating the
Dow deal, after
Amnesty International
wrote to London 2012 chairman Lord Coe to raise
the issue.
“What has been lost in all
of this story is that a really excellent,
sustainable product
has been procured,
we looked at
Locog’s examination of Dow
Chemical’s current
corporate
responsibility policies and, again, Dow achieved
that highest score in that
evaluation.
We verified that.” said McCarthy.
“As far as the history is concerned and
issues around Bhopal, there is no dou
bt
Bhopal was a terrible disaster and
snore injustice was done to the victims. Who is
responsible for that injustice is a
matter for the courts and a matter for others. We
have a
specific remit and terms of
reference that we operate under and we have
operated
diligently under those
terms.”
The commission will
on Thursday release its annual review. It finds
that “good press”
has been made to
wands many of Locog’s sustainability target, but
that “major challenges”
remain.
In particular, the commission found
that there was no coherent strategy to achieve a
20% reduction in carbon emissions after
an earlier scheme to use renewable energy feel
through when a wind turbine on the site
proved impractical.
“We had
conversations with Locog over a year ago about
this
and said they had to
demonstrate how they were going to
achieve at least 20% carbon reductions through
energy conservation if they’re not
going to do it through renewable energy,” said
McCarthy.
“There are some good
initiatives, but quite frankly they
just
haven’t done
it.”
11. Why
was Dow’s sponsorship criticized according to the
passage?
[A]
The products are not sustainable.
[B] It was related to Bhopal disaster.
[C] It bribed the London
Olympic committee.
[D] It
can’t reduce 20% of the carbon
e
mission.
12. What is
Paragraph 4 mainly about?
[A] Commission’s role
[B] Commission’s
achievements
[C] Commission’s complaints
[D] Commission’s
defense
13. Which of the
following words can best replace the underlined
word “row” (Para. 1)?
[A] line
[B] argument
[C] boating
[D] course
14. What is one
of the challenges of the sustainability target
mentioned in the passage?
[A] Ethic champion of the games.
[B] Reduction in carbon
emissions.
[C] The wind
turbine proved to be impractical.
[D] Renewable energy is not available.
15. Which of the following can best
summarize the passage?
[A]
Commission defends its own role in evaluating
controversial.
[B]
Dow’s way to the 2012 London Olympic
Games.
[C]
Campaign against Dow’s sponsorship.
[D] IOC’s review on the
controversy.
Passage Four
As
Facebook dominates the news with its initial
public offering, activists are seizing
the moment to pressure the company to
add some estrogen and ethnicity to its white-male
board.
A women’s rights
group called Ultraviolet, which has been running
an online petition
that claims to have
attracted more than 50,000 signatures, is
escalating its push, posting a
new
YouTube
video called “Do Women Have a
Future at Facebook?”. The video shows
photos of successful women such as
Hillary Clinton getting their heads cropped off
the
replaced with the smiling face of
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“Facebook has grown off the
backs
of women, who make up the
majority of its users
and are
responsible for the majority of sharing and fan
activity on the site,” the group says
in a blurb accompanying the video. An
all-
male board, the group says, is “not
just wrong,
it’s bad for
business”.
A related campaign, called
Face It, criticizes the lack of ethnic
diversity on the
seven-
member board. “seven white men:
That’s ridiculous,” the group
says on
its homepage, along side headshots of the men. The
campaign, which lists
dozens of human-
rights groups and corporate executives as
supporters, also has its own
YouTube
video. Called “Face it, Facebook”, the video cites
a recent Zuckerberg letter to
investors
that says:“Facebook was not originally created to
be a company. It was built to
accomplish a social
mission-
to make the world more open and
connected.”
That message is
at odds with the pale-faced board, activists say.
Susan Stautberg,
co-chairwoman of Women
Corporate Directors, an organization for female
corporate
board members, says
Zuckerberg’s thinking is flawed. “If you’re trying
to expand a
company globally, then you
want someone on the board who has built a global
brand,”
she says. “Most of these guys
on Facebook’s board all have the same
skills
-
they’re mostly
from Silicon Valley and Washington. You
want someone who has worked in China and
India and rising markets. You want
someone who has marketed to women. When you’re
putting together a board, you don’t
want your best friends, you want the best
people.”
Having zero female
directors does not appear to be a good business
plan, research
shows. Companies with
women on the board perform substantially better
than companies
with all-mall boards,
according to a 2011 study of Fortune 500 companies
conducted by
the research group
Catalyst. The study showed that over the course of
four to five years,
companies with
three or more female board members, on average,
outperformed
companies with no female
board members by 84 percent when it came to return
on sales
and by 60 percent when it came
to return on invested capital.
Facebook
may secretly be on the lookout for a female board
member, according to a
recent Bloomberg
report. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg said
Facebook had
enlisted the corporate-
recruitment firm Spencer Stuart to help seek some
diversity.
Spencer Stuary says it does
not comment on clients due to confidentiality
agreements.
16. Which of
the following descriptions is CORRECT about the
Ultraviolet Group?
[A] It
is a non-government organization.
[B] It is appealing for “more female
roles in big corporations like Facebook”
through the Internet.
[C] It has the support of many female
celebrities such as Hillary Clinton.
[D] It is getting more and more support
from the society.
17. Which of the
following descriptions is INCORRECT about
the campaign “Face It”?
[A] It pointed out the
irrational composition of Facebook’s board of
directors.
[B]
The campaign has plenty of human-rights
supporters.
[C] It
indicated the original objective of Zuckerberg’s
establishment of Facebook.
[D] It is constantly using other media
devices to support Facebook.
18. The
underlined phrase “at odds with” in the fourth
paragraph has the closest meaning
of
____.
[A] against all odds
[B] supported by
[C] disagree with
[D] waifs and strays
19.
According to Susan Stauberg, a well-performed
business should _____.
[A]
have a complex system of management.
[B] possess the most market globally.
[C] have your best and
close friends as your board members.
[D] have a diverse board member in
which everyone has his/her own specialties
and can contribute different skills
into the corporation.
20. What will
probably happen to Facebook?
[A] The corporation will turn to
Spencer Stuart for recruiting more female board
members.
[B]
The corporation will dominate the news because its
worldwide popularity.
[C]
The corporation will gradually lose its users
because it does not have female
board
members.
[D] None of the
above.