复旦大学2012年博士英语真题

复旦大学2012年博士英语真题

Part I: Vocabulary and Structure (15%)

Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C, D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on ANSWER SHEET I with a single line through the center.

1. It was very difficult to find the parts needed to do the job because of the ____ way the store was organized.

2. Mississippi also upholds the South’s well-deserved reputation for warm, hospitable people; balmy year-round weather; and truly ____cuisine.

3. If she is stupid, she’s ____ pleasant to look at.

4. The mother was ____ with grief when she heard that her child was dead.

5. In your teens, peer-group friendships may ____ from parents as the major influence on you.

6. Parents often faced the ____ between doing what they felt was good for the development of the child and what they could stand by way of undisciplined noise and destructiveness.

7. There have been demonstrations on the streets ____ the recent terrorist attack.

8. Thousands of Medicare patients with chronic medical conditions have been wrongly _____ access to necessary care.

9. It has been proposed by many linguists that human language _____, our biologically programmed ability to use language, is still not well defined and understood.

10. Western medicine, ____ science and practiced by people with academic internationally accepted medical degrees, is only one of many systems of healing.

11. When I asked if a black politician could win in France, however, he responded _____: “No, conditions are different here.”

12. The development of staff cohesion and a sense of team effort in the workplace can be effectively ____ by the use of humor.

13. In both America and Europe, it is ____ to tip the waiter or waitress anywhere from 10% to 20%.

14. Such an approach forces managers to communicate with one another and helps ____ rigid departmental boundaries.

15. As a teenager, I was ____ by a blind passion for a slim star I would never meet in my life.

16. His originality as a composer is ____ by the following group of songs.

17. They are going to London, but their _____ destination is Rome.

18. The poor old man was _____ with diabetes and without proper treatment he would lose his eyesight and become crippled very soon.

19. The bribe and the bridegroom were overwhelmed in happiness when their family offered to take them to Rome to _____ the marriage.

20. Join said that the richer countries of the world should make a _____ effort to help the poorer countries.

21. The problem is inherent and _____ in any democracy, but it has been more severe in ours during the past quarter-century because of the near universal denigration of government, politics and politicians.

22. As is known to all, _____ commodities will definitely do harm to our life sooner or later.

23. It would be _____ to think that this could solve all the area’s problems straight away.

24. It is surprising that such an innocent-looking man should have ____ such a crime.

25. Humans are ____, which enables them to make decisions even when they can’t justify why.

26. More than 100 ____ cats that used to roam the streets in a Chinese province have now been collected and organized into a tram to fight rodents that are destroying crops.

27. To say that his resignation was a shock would be an _____ — it caused panic.

28. Here the burden of his thought is that the philosopher, aiming at truth, must not ____ the seduction of trying to write beautifully.

29. I found the subject very difficult, and at one time thought I should have to give it up, but you directions are so clear and ____ that I have succeeded in getting a picture we all think pretty, though wanting in the tender grace of yours.

30. They both watched as the crime scene technicians took samples of various fibers and bagged them, dusted for fingerprints, took pictures and tried to ____ what could have happened.

Part II: Reading Comprehension (40%)

Directions: There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished sentences. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then mark the corresponding letter on ANSWER SHEET I with a single line through the center.

Passage 1

In 1896 a Georgia couple suing for damages in the accidental death of their two year old was told that since the child had made no real economic contribution to the family, there was no liability for damages. In contrast, less than a century later, in 1979, the parents of a three year old sued in New York for accidental-death damages and won an award of --50,000. The transformation in social values implicit in juxtaposing these two incidents is the subject of Viviana Zelizer's excellent book, Pricing the Priceless Child. During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the "useful" child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present-day notion of the "useless" child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to, its parents, is yet considered emotionally "priceless". Well established among segments of the middle and upper classes by the mid-1800's, this new view of childhood spread through-out society in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century as reformers introduced child-labor regulations and compulsory education laws predicated in part on the assumption that a child's emotional value made child labor taboo. For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were many and complex. The gradual erosion of children's productive value in a maturing industrial economy, the decline in birth and death rates, especially in child mortality, and the development of the companionate family (a family in which members were united by explicit bonds of love rather than duty) were all factors critical in changing the assessment of children's worth. Yet "expulsion of children from the 'cash nexus’ …”

Although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and family structures," Zelizer maintains, "was also part of a cultural process of 'sacralization' of children's lives." Protecting children from the crass business world became enormously important for late-nineteenth-century middle-class Americans, she suggests; this sacralization was a way of resisting what they perceived as the relentless corruption of human values by the marketplace.

In stressing the cultural determinants of a child's worth. Zelizer takes issue with practitioners of the new "sociological economics," who have analyzed such traditionally sociological topics as crime, marriage, education, and health solely in terms of their economic determinants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forces in the form of individual "preferences", these sociologists tend to view all human behavior as directed primarily by the principle of maximizing economic gain. Zelizer is highly critical of this approach, and emphasizes instead the opposite phenomenon: the power of social values to transform price. As children became more valuable in emotional terms, she argues, their "exchange" or "surrender" value on the market, that is, the conversion of their intangible worth into cash terms, became much greater.

31. It can be inferred from the passage that accidental-death damage awards in America during the nineteenth century tended to be based principally on the ________.

A. earnings of the person at time of death

B. wealth of the party causing the death

C. degree of culpability of the party causing the death

D. amount of money that had been spent on the person killed

32. It can be inferred from the passage that in the early 1800's children were generally regarded by their families as individuals who ________.

A. needed enormous amounts of security and affection

B. required constant supervision while working

C. were important to the economic well-being of a family

D. were financial burdens assumed for the good of society

33. Which of the following alternative explanations of the change in the cash value of children would be most likely to be put forward by sociological economists as they are described in the passage?

A. The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because parents began to increase their emotional investment in the upbringing of their children.

B. The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because their expected earning over the course of a lifetime increased greatly.

C. The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because the spread of humanitarian ideals resulted in a wholesale reappraisal of the worth of an individual.

D. The cash value of children rose during the nineteenth century because compulsory education laws reduced the supply, and thus raised the costs, of available child labor.

34. The primary purpose of the passage is to ________.

A. review the literature in a new academic subfield

B. present the central thesis of a recent book

C. contrast two approaches to analyzing historical change

D. refute a traditional explanation of a social phenomenon

35. Zelizer refers to all of the following as important influences in changing the assessment of children's worth except changes in ________.

A. the mortality rate

B. the nature of industry

C. the nature of the family

D. attitudes toward reform movements

Passage 2

A stout old lady was walking with her basket down the middle of a street in Petrograd to the great confusion of the traffic and with no small peril to herself. It was pointed out to her that the pavement was the place for pedestrians, but she replied: “I'm going to walk where I like. We've got liberty now.” It did not occur to the dear old lady that if liberty entitled the pedestrian to walk down the middle of the road, then the end of such liberty would be universal chaos. Everybody would be getting in everybody else's way and nobody would get anywhere. Individual liberty would have become social anarchy. There is a danger of the world getting liberty-drunk in these days like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well to remind ourselves of what the rule of the road means. It means that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman, say, at Piccadilly Circus steps into the middle of the road and puts out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny, but of liberty. You may not think so. You may, being in a hurry, and seeing your car pulled up by this insolence of office, feel that your liberty has been outraged. How dare this fellow interfere with your free use of the public highway? Then, if you are a reasonable person, you will reflect that if he did not interfere with you, he would interfere with no one, and the result would be that Piccadilly Circus would be a maelstrom that you would never cross at all. You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your liberty a reality. Liberty is not a personal affair only, but a social contract. It is an accommodation of interests. It matters which do not touch anybody else's liberty, of course, I may be as free as I like. If I choose to down the road in a dressing-gown who shall say me nay? You have liberty to laugh at me, but I have liberty to be indifferent to you. And if I have a fancy for dyeing my hair, or waxing my moustache (which heaven forbid), or wearing an overcoat and sandals, or going to bed late or getting up early, shall follow my fancy and ask no man's permission. I shall not inquire of you whether I may eat mustard with my mutton. And you will not ask me whether you may follow this religion or that, whether you may prefer Ella Wheeler Wilcox to Wordsworth, or champagne to shandy. In all these and a thousand other details you and I please ourselves and ask no one's leave. We have a whole kingdom in which we rule alone, can do what we choose, be wise or ridiculous, harsh or easy, conventional or odd. But directly we step out of that kingdom, our personal liberty of action becomes qualified by other people's liberty. I might like to practice on the trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If I went on to the top of Everest to do it, I could please myself, but if I do it in my bedroom my family will object, and if I do it out in the streets the neighbors will remind me that my liberty to blow the trombone must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet. There are a lot of people in the world, and I have to accommodate my liberty to their liberties. We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than of our own. A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct. It is in the small matters of conduct, in the observance of the rule of the road, that we pass judgment upon ourselves, and declare that we are civilized or uncivilized. The great moments of heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little habits of commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life and sweeten or make bitter the journey.

36. The author might have stated his “rule of the road” as ________.

A. do not walk in the middle of the road

B. follow the orders of policemen

C. do not behave inconsiderately in public

D. do what you like in private

37. The author’s attitude to the old lady in paragraph one is ________.

A. condescending

B. intolerant

C. objective

D. supportive

38. A situation analogous to the “insolence of office” described in paragraph 2 would be ________.

A. a teacher correcting grammar errors

B. an editor shortening the text of an article

C. a tax inspector demanding to see someone’s accounts

D. an army office giving orders to a soldier

39. The author assumes that he may be as free as he likes in ________.

A. all matters of dress and food

B. any situation which does not interfere with the liberty of others

C. anything that is not against the law

D. his own home

40. In the sentence “We are all liable....” the author is ________.

A. pointing out a general weakness

B. emphasizing his main point

C. countering a general misconception

D. suggesting a remedy

Passage 3

The name of Florence Nightingale lives in the memory of the world by virtue of the heroic adventure of the Crimea. Had she died -as she nearly did -upon her return to England, her reputation would hardly have been different; her legend would have come down to us almost as we know it today — that gentle vision of female virtue which first took shape before the adoring eyes of the sick soldiers at Scutari. Yet, as a matter of fact, she lived for more than half a century after the Crimean War; and during the greater part of that long period all the energy and all the devotion of her extraordinary nature were working at their highest pitch. What she accomplished in those years of unknown labor could, indeed, hardly have been more glorious than her Crimean triumphs; but it was certainly more important. The true history was far stranger even than the myth. In Miss Nightingale's own eyes the adventure of the Crimea was a mere incident — scarcely more than a useful stepping-stone in her career. It was the fulcrum with which she hoped to move the world; but it was only the fulcrum. For more than a generation she was to sit in secret, working her lever: and her real life began at the very moment when, in popular imagination, it had ended. She arrived in England in a shattered state of health. The hardships and the ceaseless efforts of the last two years had undermined her nervous system; her heart was affected; she suffered constantly from fainting-fits and terrible attacks of utter physical prostration. The doctors declared that one thing alone would save her — a complete and prolonged rest. But that was also the one thing with which she would have nothing to do. She had never been in the habit of resting; why should she begin now? Now, when her opportunity had come at last; now, when the iron was hot, and it was time to strike? No; she had work to do; and, come what might, she would do it. The doctors protested in vain; in vain her family lamented and entreated, in vain her friends pointed out to her the madness of such a course. Madness? Mad — possessed — perhaps she was. A frenzy had seized upon her. As she lay upon her sofa, gasping, she devoured blue-books, dictated letters, and, in the intervals of her palpitations, cracked jokes. For months at a stretch she never left her bed. But she would not rest. At this rate, the doctors assured her, even if she did not die, she would become an invalid for life. She could not help that; there was work to be done; and, as for rest, very likely she might rest ... when she had done it. Wherever she went, to London or in the country, in the hills of Derbyshire, or among the rhododendrons at Embley, she was haunted by a ghost. It was the specter of Scutari — the hideous vision of the organization of a military hospital. She would lay that phantom, or she would perish. The whole system of the Army Medical Department, the education of the Medical Officer, the regulations of hospital procedure ... rest? How could she rest while these things were as they were, while, if the like necessity were to arise again, the like results would follow? And, even in peace and at home, what was the sanitary condition of the Army? The mortality in the barracks, was, she found, nearly double the mortality in civil life. “You might as well take 1,100 men every year out upon Salisbury Plain and shoot them,” she said. After inspecting the hospitals at Chatham, she smiled grimly. “Yes, this is one more symptom of the system which, in the Crimea, put to death 16,000 men.” Scutari had given her knowledge; and it had given her power too: her enormous reputation was at her back — an incalculable force. Other work, other duties, might lie before her; but the most urgent, the most obvious, of all was to look to the health of the Army.

41. According to the author, the work done during the last fifty years of Florence Nightingale's life was, when compared with her work in the Crimea, all of the following except ________.

A. less dramatic

B. less demanding

C. less well-known to the public

D. more important

42. Paragraph two paints a picture of a woman who is ________.

A. mentally shattered

B. stubborn and querulous

C. physically weak but mentally indomitable

D. purposeful yet tiresome

43. The primary purpose of paragraph 3 is to ________.

A. account for conditions in the army

B. show the need for hospital reform

C. explain Miss Nightingale's main concerns

D. argue that peace time conditions were worse than wartime conditions

44. The author's attitude to his material is ________.

A. disinterested reporting of biographical details

B. over-inflation of a reputation

C. debunking a myth

D. interpretation as well as narration

45. In her statement Miss Nightingale intended to ________.

A. criticize the conditions in hospitals

B. highlight the unhealthy conditions under which ordinary soldiers were living

C. prove that conditions in the barracks were as bad as those in a military hospital

D. ridicule the dangers of army life

Passage 4

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies. Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected. As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

46. Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?

A. What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering?

B. Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty?

C. Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures?

D. How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities?

47. The author uses “labor market problems” in lines 1-2 to refer to which of the following?

A. The overall causes of poverty

B. Deficiencies in the training of the work force

C. Trade relationships among producers of goods

D. Shortages of jobs providing adequate income

48. Which of the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author?

A. Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.

B. A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.

C. New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.

D. Consideration should be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.

49. The author states that the mitigating effect of social programs involving income transfers on the income level of low-income people is often not felt by ________.

A. the employed poor

B. dependent children in single-earner families

C. workers who become disabled

D. retired workers

50. According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to over predict the amount of economic hardship is the ________.

A. recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers

B. possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker

C. fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor

D. establishment of a system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics

Paper Two

Part III: Cloze (10%)

Directions: Fill in each of the following blanks with ONE word to complete the meaning of the passage. Write your answer on Answer Sheet II.

As children we start [51] _____ a natural curiosity about everything around us, and during the maturation process this curiosity can be stimulated, buffered or severely attenuated by our environment and experience. The future success of research in science and engineering depends [52] _____ our society recognizing the crucial role played by stimulation of mental processes early in life. Pattern recognition, analytical thinking and similar abilities need to be stimulated from birth onward. To destroy this natural curiosity or to attenuate the joy of discovery is the greatest disservice we do [53] _____ to the developing person. For those who reach maturity with their natural curiosity intact and enhanced by education, the joy of discovery is a strong driver of success. But why are so [54] _____ of our capable students pursuing the level of education required for a successful research career? Is it [55] _____ we have dampened their curiosity? Have we failed to let them experience the joy of discovery? Is it because too many of us currently involved [56] _____ the research enterprise have become disenchanted with our circumstances and therefore paint a bleak future for potential scientists and engineers? Perhaps entirely different factors are [57] _____ play in the decision to not become scientists and engineers. We have too frequently portrayed science and engineering as professions that are all-encompassing. We have portrayed research as a profession that requires long and grueling hours in the laboratory to achieve success. We have [58] _____ to promote the excitement and exhilaration of discovery. We have not promoted the fact that it is not only very common [59] _____ very reasonable to have a successful research career and an exciting and normal personal life.

Part IV: Translation (20%)

Directions: Put the following passage into English. Write your English version on ANSWER SHEET II.

由小学到中学，所修习的无非是一些普通的基本知识。就是大学四年，所授课业也还是相当粗浅的学识。世人常称大学为“最高学府”，这名称易滋误解，好象过此以上即无学问可言。大学的研究所才是初步研究学问的所在，在这里做学问也只能算是粗涉藩篱，注重的是研究学问的方法与实习。学无止境，一生的时间都嫌太短，所以古人皓首穷经，头发白了还是在继续研究，不过在这样的研究中确是有浓厚的趣味。

Part V: Writing (15%)

任选一题，不少于300字。

Steve Jobs名言：

1. Stay hungry, stay foolish

2. We live to change the world.