2006年北京大学考博英语真题

2006年北京大学考博英语真题

Part One: Listening Comprehension There are 3 sections in this part.

In sections A and B you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then choose the

correct answer for each question. Mark your choices on your ANSWER SHEET. Section A: Conversations (5%)

Directions: In this section you will hear several conversations. Listen to the conversations

carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you

will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the conversation.

1. Which is NOT the purpose of Mr. Lewis’ visit?

A. To see friends. B. To give concerts.

C. To vacation. D. To give private lessons. 2. What kind of cello did Mr. Lewis use when he was eight?

A. A full-sized cello. B. A half-sized cello.

C. A two-thirds-sized cello. D. It is not mentioned. 3. What is true about Mr. Lewis’ cello? A. He always takes it with him. B. It was made by his uncle.

C. He borrowed it from his uncle. D. He got a seat free for his cello.

Questions 4 to 7 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the conversation.

4. What is the main purpose of the research?

A. To make preparations for a new publication. B. To learn how couples spend their weekends. C. To know how housework is shared.

D. To investigate what people do at the weekend. 5. What does the man do on Fridays? A. He goes to exercise classes. B. He goes sailing.

C. He goes to the cinema. D. He stays at home.

6. On which day does the couple always go out?

A. Friday. B. Saturday. C. Sunday. D. Any weekday. 7. Which personal detail does the man give?

A. Surname. B. First name. C. Address. D. Age.

Questions 8 to 10 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation,

you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the conversation.

8. What conclusion can we draw about Mike before he went to the camping school? A. He was eager to do the course. B. He had done outdoor activities. C. He enjoyed life in the open. D. He was reluctant and timid.

9. Mike participated in all the following activities EXCEPT _________. A. hiking. B. canoeing C. swimming D. camping

10. Which of the following words is most appropriate to describe Mike after the camping school?

A. Independent. B. Strong. C. Determined. D. Persistent.

Section B: Talks (50)

Directions: In this section, you will hear several talks. Listen to the talks carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following talk. At the end of the talk, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the talk.

11. What happened on January 27th, 1967?

A. Three men were injured during a fire. B. One man died during the fire accident. C. A fire started inside a spaceship. D. A spaceship was launched. 12. What happened in 1981?

A. The space program was suspended,

B. Five men were injured during an accident, C. The accident occurred before the rehearsal. D. No accident happened that year. 13. What does the talk say about accidents? A. Accidents are unavoidable.

B. Accidents can be avoided.

C. Human beings are always careless. D. There should be more precautions.

Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following talk. At the end of the talk, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the talk.

14. BBC’s weather forecast is a program.

A. seldom watched B. little known C. new D. popular

15. Weather observations come from all the following sources EXCEPT _________ A. computers B. satellites C. the ground D. radar 16. What does the talk say about BBC's forecasters? A. They read from script. B. They are professional.

C. They use a map for presentation. D. They care about their clothes.

17. What does the talk say about British television viewers? A. They remember what they saw on weather forecasts. B. They like talking about weather instead of watching. C. They pay more attention to the style of the presenters. D. They watch and remember what is necessary.

Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following talk. At the end of the talk, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions, Now listen to the talk.

18. Which is NOT showing an increase this year?

A. Number of tourists, B. Holiday travelers.

C. Shopping. D. Dining and entertaining. 19. What does the talk say about this year's business travelers? A. There are fewer business travelers. B. There are more business travelers.

C. The number remains the same as last year's. D. It is not mentioned in the talk.

20. Which is the largest single visitor expenditure? A. Hotel accommodation. B. Meals.

C. Shopping. D. Entertainment.

Section C: Spot Dictation (10%) Directions: in this section you are going to hear a report on the strong link between sleep and fatal accident. Some words are taken out and you are expected to fill

in the missing words as you listen. The report will be read TWICE and you will have one minute to check your work. Then put your answers on ANSWER SHEET (2). Now listen to the report.

Inadequate rest means a weaker (C1) system, laying the body open to a whole (C2) of illnesses. On the average a man needs seven hours of sleep a day and a woman seven and a (C3) hours. Six hours of (C4)_________sleep is better than ten hours of (C5)____________ and turning, however. People who sleep less than six hours a night are (C6)____________ for an early death.

Some people (C7)__________________that they can get by with little sleep when necessary. But experts think these people are (C8) themselves.

Between sleep (C9) and fatal accidents there is an obvious (CI0)___________. People who get (C11) _____ sleep or poor quality sleep have a higher risk of (C12)____________ on the road. They are more likely to fall asleep at the (C13)______________ and kill people or get killed. Professional drivers and (C14) workers are most likely to take the (C15) .The performance at work also (CI6) _____________because of sleep deprivation

The pressures of work deprive people of sleep. To make it up, they try to (C17)___________ catnaps. But experts are a little (C18)_______________about the benefits of catnapping. They tell us that the catnap can never be a (C19)_____________for proper sleep. For victims of (C20) , catnapping in the day is the worst thing they can possibly do.

(This is the end of listening comprehension.)

Part Two: Structure and Written Expression (20%)

Directions: In each question decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Mark your choices on the ANSWER SHEET.

21. The nuclear family a self-contained, self-satisfying unit composed of father, mother and children.

A. refers to B. defines C. describes D. devotes to

22. Some polls show that roughly two-thirds of the general public believe that elderly Americans are _________by social isolation and loneliness.

A. reproached B. favored C. plagued D. reprehended 23. In addition to bettering group and individual performance, cooperation ________ the quality of interpersonal relationship.

A. ascends B. compels C. enhances D. prefers 24. In the past 50 years, there _________ a great increase in the amount of research _______ on the human brain.

A. was...did B. has been.., to be done

C. was.., doing D. has been...done 25. “I must have eaten something wrong. I feel like ________.”

“We told you not to eat at a restaurant. You'd better _________ at home when you are not in the shape.”

A. to throw up... to eat B. throwing up... eating C. to throw up.. eat D. throwing up.. eat

26. Parents have to show due concerns to their children's creativity and emotional output; otherwise what they think beneficial to the kids might probably __________ their enthusiasm and aspirations.

A. hold back B. hold to C. hold down D. hold over

27. According to psychoanalysis, a person's attention is attracted ________ by the intensity of different signals ________ by their context, significance, and information content.

A. not less than as B. as...just as C. so much...as D. not so much as 28. They moved to Portland in 1998 and lived in a big house, to the south.

A. the windows of which opened B. the windows of it opened C. its windows opened D. the windows of which opening 29. The lady who has ________ for a night in the dead of the winter later turned out to be a distant relation of his.

A. put him up B. put him out C. put him on D. put him in

30. Bystanders, , ________as they walked past lines of ambulances. A. bloody and covered with dust, looking dazed

B. bloodied and covered with dust, looked dazed C. bloody and covered with dust, looked dazed

D. bloodied and covered With dust, looking dazed 31. Hong Kong was not a target for terror attacks, the Government insisted yesterday, as the US ________ closed for an apparent security review.

A. Consulation B. Constitution C. Consulate D. Consular

32. American fans have selected Yao in a vote for the All-Star game _________ the legendary O’Neal, who _________ the “Great Wall” at the weekend as the Rockets beat the Los Angeles Lakers.

A. in head of, ran on B. in head of, ran into C. ahead of, ran onto D. ahead of, ran into

33. Professional archivists and librarians have the resources to duplicate materials in other formats and the expertise to retrieve materials trapped in __________ computers.

A. abstract B. obsolete C. obstinate D. obese

34. She always prints important documents and stores a backup set at her house. “I actually think there's something about the _________ of paper that feels more

comforting,” she said.

A. tangibility B. tangledness C. tangent D. tantalization

35. “They said what we always knew,” said an administration source, _________________.

A. he asked not to be named B. who asked not to be named C. who asked not be named D. who asked not named

36. In Germany, the industrial giants DaimlerChrysler and Siemens recently ________their unions into signing contracts that lengthen work hours without increasing pay.

A. muscled B. moved C. mushed D. muted

37. He argues that the policy has done little to ease joblessness, and has left the country ________.

A. energized B. enervated C. nerved D. enacted 38. The more people hear his demented rants, the more they see that he is a terrorist __________.

A. who is pure and simple B. being pure and simple C. pure and simple D. as pure and simple

39. This expansion of rights has led to both a paralysis of the public service and to a rapid and terrible ________ in the character of the population.

A. determination B. deterioration C. desolation D. desperation

40._______ a declining birth rate, there will bean over-supply of 27;000 primary school places by 2010, _________ leaving 35 schools idle.

A. Coupled with, equals to B. Coupling with, equivalent to

C. Coupled with, equivalent to D. Coupling with, equals to

Part Three: Reading Comprehension .

I. Directions: Each of the following three passages is followed by some questions. For each question four answers are given. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question. Mark your choices: in the ANSWER SHEET. (10%)

Passage One

The Hero

My mother’s parents came from Hungary, but my grandfather could trace his origin to Germany and also he was educated in Germany, Although he was able to hold a conversation in nine languages, he was most comfortable in German: Every morning, before going to his office, he read the German language newspaper, which was American owned and published in New York.

My grandfather was the only one in his family to come to the United States with his wife and children. He still had relatives living in Europe. When the first world

war broke out, he lamented the fact that if my uncle, his only son had to go, it would be cousin fighting against cousin: In the early days of the war, my grandmother begged: him to stop taking the German newspaper and to take an English language :newspaper, instead. He scoffed at the idea, explaining that the fact it was in German did not make it a German newspaper, but only an American newspaper, printed in German. But my grandmother insisted, for fear that the neighbors may see him read it and think he was German. So, he finally gave up the German newspaper.

One day, the inevitable happened and my uncle Milton received notice to join the army. My grandparents were very upset, but my mother, his little sister, was excited. Now she could boast about her soldier brother going off to war. She was ten years old at the time, and my uncle, realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and her friends, went out and bought them all service pins, which meant that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted, When the day came for him to leave, his whole regiment, in their uniforms, left together from the same train station. There was a band playing and my mother and her friends came to see him off. Each one wore her service pin and waved a small American flag, cheering the boys, as they left.

The moment came and the soldiers, all very young, none of whom had had any training, but who had nevertheless all been issued uniforms, boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. The train groaned as if it knew the destiny to which it was taking its passengers, but it soon began to move. Still cheering and waving their flags, the band still playing, the train slowly departed the station.

It had gone about a thousand yards when it suddenly ground to a halt. The band stopped playing, the: crowd stopped cheering. Everyone gazed in wonder as the train slowly backed up and returned to the station. It seemed an eternity until the doors opened and the men started to file out. Someone shouted, “It’s the armistice. The war is over.” For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. The men lined up and formed into two lines. They walked down the steps and, with the band playing behind, paraded down the street, as returning heroes, to be welcomed home by the assembled crowd. The next day my uncle returned to his job, and my grandfather resumed reading the German newspaper, which he read until the day he died.

41. Where was the narrator's family when this story took place? A. In Germany. B. In Hungary.

C. In the United States. D. In New York 42. His grandfather ___________.

A. could not speak and read English well enough B. knew nine languages equally well

C. knew a number of languages, but felt more kin to German D. loved German best because it made him think of home

43. His grandmother did not want her husband to buy and read newspapers in German, because ________.

A. it was war time and Germans were their enemy

B. the neighbors would mistake them as pro-German

C. it was easier to get newspapers in English in America D. nobody else read newspapers in German during the war time

44. The narrator’s mother wanted her brother to go to fight in the war, because _________.

A. like everybody else at the war time, she was very patriotic B. she hated the war and the Germans very much

C. all her friends had relatives in War and she wanted to be like them D. she liked to have a brother she could think of as a hero

Passage Two

Waking Up from the American Dream

There has been much talk recently about the phenomenon of “WaI-Martization” of America, which refers to the attempt of America's giant Wal-Mart chain store company to keep its cost at rock-bottom levels. For years, many American companies have embraced Wal-Mart-like stratagems to control labor costs, such as hiring temps (temporary workers) and part-timers, fighting unions, dismantling internal career ladders and outsourcing to lower paying contractors at home and abroad.

While these tactics have the admirable outcome of holding down consumer prices, they’re costly in other ways. More than a quarter of the labor force, about 34 million workers, is trapped in low-wage, often dead-end jobs. Many middle-income and high-skilled employees face fewer opportunities, too, as companies shift work to subcontractors and temps agencies and move white-collar jobs to China and India.

The result has been an erosion of one of America's most cherished value: giving its people the ability to move up the economic ladder over their lifetimes. Historically, most Americans, even low-skilled ones, were able to find poorly paid janitorial or factory jobs, then gradually climbed into the middle class as they gained experience and moved up the wage curve. But the number of workers progressing upward began to slip in 1970s. Upward mobility diminished even more in the 1980s as globalization and technology slammed blue-collar wages.

Restoring American mobility is less a question of knowing what to do than of making it happen. Experts have decried schools' inadequacy for years, but fixing them is a long, arduous struggle. Similarly, there have been plenty of warnings about declining college access, but finding funds was difficult even in eras of large surpluses.

45. The American dream in this passage mainly refers to ________.

A. there are always possibilities offered to people to develop themselves in the society

B. Americans can always move up the pay ladder

C. American young people can have access to college, even they are poor D. the labor force is not trapped in 10w-wage and dead, end jobs 46. Wal-Mart strategy, according to this passage, is to ________. A. hire temps and part-timers to reduce its cost

B. outsource its contracts to lower price agencies at home and abroad

C. hold down its consumer price by controlling its labor costs D. dismantle the career ladder and stop people's mobility upward 47. Which of the following statements is NOTTRUE?

A. WaI-Martization has been successful in keeping costs at rock-bottom levels. B. Upward mobility for low-skilled workers has become impossible in the U.S.. C. More business opportunities are given to low-cost agencies in China and India.

D. Although people know how to restore American mobility, it's difficult to change the present situation.

Passage Three

Seniors and the City

Tens of thousands of retirees are pulling up stakes in suburban areas and fashioning their own retirement communities in the heart of the bustling city. They are looking for what most older people want: a home with no stairs and low crime rates. And they are willing to exchange regular weekly golf time for rich cultural offerings, young neighbors and plenty of good restaurants. Spying an opportunity, major real-estate developers have broken ground on urban sites they intended to market to suburban retirees. These seniors are already changing the face of big cities. One developer, Fran McCarthy asks: “Who ever thought that suburban flight would be round trip?”

The trickle of older folks returning to the city has grown into a steady stream. While some cities, especially those with few cultural offerings, have seen an exodus of seniors, urban planners say others have become retirees magnets. Between 1999 and 2000, the population of 64-to 75-year-olds in downtown Chicago rose 17 percent. Austin, New Orleans, and Los Angeles have seen double-digit increases as well. There may be hidden health benefits to city living. A study reveals that moving from suburbs to the city can ward off the byproduct of aging-,social isolation. In the next six years, downtowns are expected to grow even grayer. For affluent retirees, city life is an increasingly popular option.

48. Retired seniors are moving back into the city because__________.

A. they find there are too many, crimes in the suburbs

B. unlike the flats in the city, their country house have stairs to climb C. they are no longer :interested in playing' golf

D. in the city, they have more social and cultural life against loneliness 49. From the passage we can infer that __________.

A. the real-estate developers have broken their original contracts of construction with senior retirees

B. “a life in the downtown city is expensive; and most of those retirees who moved back into the city are very well-off

C. with more older people living in the city, the city will become gray and less beautiful

D. very soon the American suburban areas will-face their low population crisis 50. Fran McCarthy’s question means: nobody ever thought that __________.

A. people who moved out of the city decades ago now would move back

B. suburban dwellers when moving back into the city must take round trip C. suburban flight years ago would go in. circles D. senior people's moving back into the city would take place all over the United States

II. Directions: Read the following, passage carefully and then explain in your own English the exact meaning of the numbered and underlined parts, Put your answers on ANSWER SHEET (2). (15%) (51) Being angry increases the risk of injury, especially among men, new research says.

The researchers gathered data on more than 2,400 accident victims at three Missouri hospitals. They interviewed each subject to determine the patient's emotional state just before the injury and 24 hours earlier, gathering data on whether the patients felt irritable, angry or hostile, and to what degree. Then they compared the results with a control group of uninjured people.

(52) Despite widespread belief in “road rage,” anger did not correlate with injuries from traffic accidents.

(53) Not surprisingly, anger was strongly associated with injuries inflicted deliberately. But other injuries - those neither intentionally inflicted nor from falls or traffic accidents – also showed strong associations with anger. (54) The correlations were significantly weaker for women than for-men, but there were no differences by race. The authors acknowledge that their data depend on self-reports, which are not always reliable.

(55) Why anger correlates with injury is not known. “I can speculate that the anger may have prompted some behavior that led to the injury, or may have simply distracted the person, leading indirectly to the injury,” said the study’s lead author.

Part Four: Cloze Test (10%)

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then fill in each numbered blank with ONE suitable word to complete the passage. Put your answers on ANSWER SHEET (2).

Last year French drivers killed (56) ______ than 5,000 people on the roads for the first time in decades~ Credit goes largely (57) ______ the 1,000 automated radar cameras planted on the nation's highways since 2003, which experts reckon (58) _______ 3,000 lives last year. Success, of course breeds success: the government plans to install 500 (59) _______ radar devices this year.

So it goes with surveillance these days. Europeans used to Io0k at the security cameras posted in British cities, subways and buses (60) _______ the seeds of an Orwellian world that was largely unacceptable in Continental Europe. But last year's London bombing, in which video cameras (61) _______ a key role in identifying the perpetrators, have helped spur a sea change, A month (62) the London attacks, half of Germans supported EU-wide plans to require Internet providers and telecoms

to store all e-mail, Internet and phone data for “anti-terror” (63)_________. In a British poll, 73 percent of respondents said they were (64) ________to give up some civil liberty to improve (65) _________.

Part Five: Proofreading (10%)

Directions: In the following passage, there are altogether 10 mistakes, ONE in each numbered and underlined part. You may have to change a word, add a word, or just delete a word. If you change a word, cross it with a slash (/) and write the correct word beside it. If you add a word, write the missing word between the words (in brackets) immediately before and after it. If you delete a word, cross it out with a slash (/). Put your answers on ANSWER SHEET (2). Examples:

eg. 1 (66) The meeting begun 2 hours ago.

Correction put on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (66) begtm began eg. 2 (67) Scarcely they settled themselves in, their seats in the theatre when the curtain went up.

Correction put on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (67) (Scarcely) had (they)

eg. 3 (68) Never will I not do it again.

Correction put on the ANSWER SHEET (2): (68) not (66) Application files are piled highly this month in colleges across the country. (67) Admissions officers are poring essays and recommendation letters, scouring transcripts and standardized test scores.

(68) But anything is missing from many applications: a class ranking, once a major component in admissions decisions.

In the cat-and-mouse maneuvering over admission to prestigious colleges and universities, (69) thousands of high schools have simply stopped providing that information, concluding it could harm the chances of their very better, but not best, students.

(70) Canny college officials, in turn, have found a tactical way to response. (71) Usinp, broad data that high schools often provide, like a distribution of grade averages for entire senior class, they essentially recreate an applicant's class rank.

(72) The process has left them exasperating.

(73) “If we’re looking at your son or daughter and you want us to know that they are among the best in their school, with a rank we don’t necessarily know that,” said Jim Bock, dean of admissions and financial aid at Swarthmore College. (74) Admissions directors say strategy can backfire. When high schools do not provide enough general information to recreate the class rank calculation, (75) many admissions directors say they have little choice and to do something virtually no one wants them to do: give more weight to scores on the SAT and other standardized exams.

Part Six: Writing (15%)

Directions: Write a short composition of about 250 to 300 words on the topic given

below.

Write it neatly on ANSWER SHEET (2).

Recently, a newspaper carried an article entitled: “We Should No Longer Force Gong Li and Zhang Yimou to Take Part in National Politics”. The article argued that some artists and film stars are unwilling or unqualified to represent the people in the People's Congress or the People's Political Consultative Conference, and they should not be forced, to do so. What do you think?