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2011
年研究生入学考试英语二真题
Section I
Use
of English
Directions
：
Read
the following text. Choose the best word(s) for
each numbered black and mark
A, B, C or
D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
—
a boon to
privacy and freedom of speech. But
that
very anonymity is also behind the explosion of
cybercrime that has
1
across the Web.
Can privacy be preserved
2
bringing a
semblance of safety and security to a world that
seems increasingly
3
?
Last month, Howard
Schmidt
, the nation’s cyberczar,
offered the Obama government a
4
to
make
the
Web
a
safer
place
—
a
“voluntary
identify”
system
that
would
be
the
high-tech
5
of
a
physical
key,
fingerprint
and
a
photo
ID
card,
all
rolled
6
one.
The
system might use a smart
identity card, or a digital credential
7
to a specific
computer, and
would authenticate users
at a range of online services.
The idea
is to
8
a federation of private online
identify systems. Users could
9
which
system
to
join,
and
only
registered
users
whose
identities
have
been
authenticated
could
navigate those systems. The approach
contrasts with one that would require an Internet
driver’s
license
10
by the
government.
Google
and
Microsoft
are
among
companies
that
already
have
sign-
on”
systems
t
hat
make it
possible for users to
11
just once but
use many different services.
12
,
the approach would create a “walled garden” in
safe “neighborhoods” and bright
“streetlights” to establish a sense
of
13
community.
Mr.
Schmidt
described
it
as
a
“voluntary
ecosystem”
in
which
individuals
and
organizations
can
complete
online
transactions
with
14
,trusting
the
identities
of
the
infrastructure that the
transaction runs
15
.'
Still,
the
administration’s
plan
has
16
privacy
rights
activists.
Some
applaud
the
approach;
others
are
concerned.
It
seems
clear
that
such
an
initiative
push
toward
what
would
17
be a license” mentality.
The
plan
has
also
been
greeted
with
18
by
some
experts,
who
worry
that
the
“voluntary
ecosystem”
would
still
leav
e
much
of
the
Internet
19
.They
argue
that
should
be
20
to
register
and
identify
themselves,
in
drivers
must
be
licensed
to
drive
on
public
roads.
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s
ed
on
vain
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stly
cism
able
d
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er
t
on
effect
ized
t
ointed
ntally
nce
able
ted
d
buted
in
return
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ted
onally
erence
able
d
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e
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in
contrast
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ce
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iasm
ble
Section II
Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read
the following four texts. Answer the questions
after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark
your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
(40points)
Text
1
Ruth Simmons joined Goldman Sachs’s
board as an outside director in January 2000: a
year
later
she
became
president
of
Brown
University.
For
the
rest
of
the
decade
she
apparently
managed both
roles without attracting much eroticism. But by
the end of 2009 Ms. Simmons was
under
fire for having sat on Goldman’s compensation
committee; how could she have let those
enormous bonus payouts pass unremarked?
By February the next year Ms. Simmons had left the
board. The position was just taking up
too much time, she said.
Outside
directors are supposed to serve as helpful, yet
less biased, advisers on a firm’s board.
Having
made
their
wealth
and
their
reputations
elsewhere,
they
presumably
have
enough
independence to disagree with
t
he chief executive’s proposals. If the
sky, and the share price is
falling,
outside
directors
should
be
able
to
give
advice
based
on
having
weathered
their
own
crises.
The researchers from Ohio University
used a database hat covered more than 10,000 firms
and
more
than
64,000
different
directors
between
1989
and
2004.
Then
they
simply
checked
which
directors
stayed
from
one
proxy
statement
to
the
next.
The
most
likely
reason
for
departing a board was age, so the
researchers concentrated on those
“surprise”
disappearances
by
directors under the age of 70. They fount that
after a surprise departure, the probability that
the company will subsequently have to
restate earnings increased by nearly 20%. The
likelihood
of being named in a federal
class-action lawsuit also increases, and the stock
is likely to perform
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worse.
The
effect
tended
to
be
larger
for
larger
firms.
Although
a
correlation
between
them
leaving and subsequent
bad performance at the firm is suggestive, it does
not mean that such
directors
are
alw
ays
jumping
off
a
sinking
ship.
Often
they
“trade
up.”
Leaving
riskier,
smaller
firms for larger and more stable firms.
But the researchers believe that
outside directors have an easier time of avoiding
a blow to
their reputations if they
leave a firm before bad news breaks, even if a
review of history shows
they
were
on
the
board
at
the
time
any
wrongdoing
occurred.
Firms
who
want
to
keep
their
outside directors through tough times
may have to create incentives. Otherwise outside
directors
will follow the example of
Ms. Simmons, once again very popular on campus.
21. According to Paragraph 1, Ms.
Simmons was criticized for
.
[A]gaining excessive
profits
[B]failing to fulfill her duty
[C]refusing to make compromises
[D]leaving the board in tough times
22. We learn from Paragraph 2 that
outside directors are supposed to be
.
[A]generous investors
[B]unbiased executives
[C]share price forecasters
[D]independent advisers
23.
According
to
the
researchers
from
Ohio
University
after
an
outside
director’s
surprise
departure, the firm is likely to
.
[A]become more stable
[B]report increased earnings
[C]do less well in the stock market
[D]perform
worse in lawsuits
24. It can be
inferred from the last paragraph that outside
directors
.
[A]may
stay for the attractive offers from the firm
[B]have often had records
of wrongdoings in
the firm
[C]are accustomed to stress-free work
in the firm
[D]will decline incentives from the
firm
25. The author’s
attitude
toward the role of outside
directors is
.
[A]permissive
[B]positive
[C]scornful
[D]critical
Text
2
Whatever
happened
to
the
death
of
newspaper?
A
year
ago
the
end
seemed
near.
The
recession
threatened
to
remove
the
advertising
and
readers
that
had
not
already
fled
to
the
internet.
Newspapers
like
the
San
Francisco
Chronicle
were
chronicling
their
own
doom.
America’s Federal Trade commission
launched a round of talks about how to save
newspapers.
Should
they
become
charitable
corporations?
Should
the
state
subsidize
them
?
It
will
hold
another meeting soon. But the
discussions now seem out of date.
In much of the world there is the sign
of crisis. German and Brazilian papers have
shrugged
off
the
recession.
Even
American
newspapers,
which
inhabit
the
most
troubled
come
of
the
global industry, have not only survived
but often returned to profit. Not the 20% profit
margins
that were routine a few years
ago, but profit all the same.
It has
not been much fun. Many papers stayed afloat by
pushing journalists overboard. The
American
Society
of
News
Editors
reckons
that
13,500
newsroom
jobs
have
gone
since
2007.
Readers
are
paying
more
for
slimmer
products.
Some
papers
even
had
the
nerve
to
refuse
delivery to distant suburbs. Yet these
desperate measures have proved the right ones and,
sadly
for many journalists, they can be
pushed further.
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Newspapers are becoming more balanced
businesses, with a healthier mix of revenues from
readers and advertisers. American
papers have long been highly unusual in their
reliance on ads.
Fully
87%
of
their
revenues
came
from
advertising
in
2008,
according
to
the
Organization
for
Economic Cooperation & Development
(OECD). In Japan the proportion is 35%. Not
surprisingly,
Japanese newspapers are
much more stable.
The
whirlwind that swept through newsrooms harmed
everybody, but much of the damage
has
been
concentrated
in
areas
where
newspaper
are
least
distinctive.
Car
and
film
reviewers
have gone. So have
science and general business reporters. Foreign
bureaus have been savagely
cut off.
Newspapers are less complete as a result. But
completeness is no longer a virtue in the
newspaper business.
26. By
saying “Newspapers like … their own doom” (Lines
3
-4, Para. 1), the author indicates
that
newspaper
.
[A]neglected the sign of crisis
[B]failed to get state subsidies
[C]were not charitable corporations
[D]were in a desperate situation
27. Some newspapers refused delivery to
distant suburbs probably because
.
[A]readers threatened to
pay less
[B]newspapers wanted to reduce
costs
[C]journalists reported little
about these areas
[D]subscribers
complained about slimmer products
28.
Compared
with
their
American
counterparts,
Japanese
newspapers
are
much
more
stable
because they
.
[A]have more sources of revenue
[B]have more balanced
newsrooms
[C]are less dependent on
advertising
[D]are less
affected by readership
29. What can be
inferred from the last paragraph about the current
newspaper business?
[A]Distinctiveness
is an essential feature of newspapers.
[B]Completeness is to blame for the
failure of newspaper.
[C]Foreign
bureaus play a crucial role in the newspaper
business.
[D]Readers have lost their
interest in car and film reviews.
30.
The most appropriate title for this text would be
.
[A]American Newspapers:
Struggling for Survival
[B]American
Newspapers: Gone with the Wind
[C]American Newspapers: A Thriving
Business
[D]American Newspapers: A
Hopeless Story
Text
3
We tend to think of the decades
immediately following World War II as a time of
prosperity
and growth, with soldiers
returning home by the millions, going off to
college on the G. I. Bill and
lining up
at the marriage bureaus.
But when it came to their houses, it
was a time of common sense and a belief that less
could
truly be more. During the
Depression and the war, Americans had learned to
live with less, and
that
restraint,
in
combination
with
the
postwar
confidence
in
the
future,
made
small,
efficient
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housing positively stylish.
Economic
condition
was
only
a
stimulus
for
the
trend
toward
efficient
living.
The
phrase
“less
is more” was actually first popularized by a
German, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
who like other people associated with
the Bauhaus, a school of design, emigrated to the
United
States before World War II
and
took
up
posts
at
American
architecture
schools.
These
designers
came
to
exert
enormous influence on the course of
American architecture, but none more so that Mies.
Mies’s
signature
phrase
means
that
less
decoration,
properly
orga
nized,
has
more
impact
that
a lot. Elegance, he believed, did not derive from
abundance. Like other modern architects,
he employed metal, glass and laminated
wood-materials that we take for granted today buy
that
in the 1940s symbolized the
future. Mies’s
sophisticated
presentation masked the fact that the
spaces he designed were small and
efficient, rather than big and often empty.
The apartments in the
elegant towers Mies built on Chicago’s Lake Shore
Drive, for example,
were
smaller-two-bedroom
units
under
1,000
square
feet-than
those
in
their
older
neighbors
along
the
city’s
Gold
Coast.
But
they
were
popular
because
of
their
airy
glass
walls,
the
views
they
afforded
and
the
elegance
of
the
buildings’
details
and
proportions,
the
architectural
equivalent of the abstract art so
popular at the time.
The
trend
toward “less”
was
not
entirely
foreign.
In
the
1930s
Frank
Lloyd
Wright
started
building more modest and efficient
houses-usually around 1,200 square feet-than the
spreading
two-story ones he had
designed in the 1890s and the early 20th century.
The “Case Study Houses” commissioned
from talented modern architects by California Arts
& Architecture magazine between 1945
and 1962 were yet another homegrown influence on
the
“less
is
more”
trend.
Aesthetic
effect
came
from
the
landscape,
new
materials
and
forthright
detailing.
In
his
Case
Study
House,
Ralph
everyday
life
-
few
American
families
acquired
helicopters,
though
most
eventually
got
clothes
dryers
-
but
his
belief
that
self-sufficiency was
both desirable and inevitable was
widely shared.
31. The
postwar American housing style largely reflected
the Americans’
.
[A]prosperity and growth
[B]efficiency and practicality
[C]restraint and confidence
[D]pride and faithfulness
32. Which of the following can be
inferred from Paragraph 3 about Bauhaus?
[A]It was founded by Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe.
[B]Its designing concept was
affected by World War II.
[C]Most
American architects used to be associated with it.
[D]It had a great influence upon
American architecture.
33. Mies held
that elegance of architectural design
.
[A]was related to large
space
[B]was identified with emptiness
[C]was not reliant on abundant
decoration
[D]was not associated with
efficiency
34. What is true about the
apartment
s Mies building Chicago’s Lake
Shore Drive?
[A]They ignored
details and proportions.
[B]They were
built with materials popular at that time.
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