四川大学2013年博士英语真题

四川大学2013年博士英语真题

Part I: Reading Comprehension (30%)

Direction: 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 1

Over the past several decades, the U.S., Canada, and Europe have received a great deal of media and even research attention over unusual phenomena and unsolved mysteries. These include UFOs as well as sightings and encounters with “nonhuman creatures” such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Only recently has Latin America begun to receive some attention as well. Although the mysteries of the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca civilizations have been known for centuries, now the public is also becoming aware of unusual, paranormal phenomena in countries such as Peru.

The Nazca “lines” of Peru were discovered in the 1930s. These lines are deeply carved into a flat, stony plain, and form about 300 intricate pictures of animals such as birds, a m, and a lizard. Seen at ground level, the designs are a jumbled senseless mess. The images are so large that they can only be viewed at a height of 1,000 feel — meaning from an aircraft. Yet there were no aircraft in 300 B.C., when it is judged the designs were made. Nor were there then, or are there now, any nearby mountain ranges from which to view them. So how and why did the native people of Nazca create these marvelous designs? One answer appeared in 1969, when the German researcher and writer Erich von Daniken proposed that the lines were drawn by extraterrestrials as runways for their aircraft. The scientific community did not take long to scoff at and abandon von Daniken’s theory. Over the years several other theories have been put forth, but none has been accepted by the scientific community.

Today there is a new and heightened interest in the Nazca lines. It is direct result of the creation of the Internet. Currently there are over 60 sites dedicated to this mystery from Latin America’s past, and even respected scientists have joined the discussion through e-mail and chat rooms.

Will the Internet help explain these unsolved mysteries? Perhaps it is a step in the right direction.

1. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

A. Latin America has long received attention for unusual phenomena.

B. Public attention is now directed towards countries like Peru.

C. Public interest usually focuses on North America and Europe.

D. Some ancient civilizations have unsolved mysteries.

2. According to the passage, the Nazca lines were found ________.

3. We can infer from the passage that the higher the lines are seen, the ________ the images they present.

4. There has been increasing interest in the Nazca lines mainly because of ________.

A. the participation of scientists

B. the emergence of the Internet

C. the birth of new theories

D. the interest in the Internet

5. The author is ________ about the role of the Internet in solving mysteries.

Passage 2

Social circumstances in Early Modern England mostly served to repress women’s voices. Patriarchal culture and institutions constructed them as chaste, silent, obedient, and subordinate. At the beginning of 17^th century, the ideology of patriarchy, political absolutism, and gender hierarchy were reaffirmed powerfully by King James in The Trew Law of Free Monarchie and the Basilikon Doron; by that ideology the absolute power of God the supreme patriarch was seen to be imaged in the absolute monarch of the state and in the husband and father of a family. Accordingly, a woman’s subjection, first to her father and then to her husband, imaged the subjection of English people to their monarch, and of all Christians to God. Also, the period saw an outpouring of repressive or overtly misogynist sermons, tracts, and plays, detailing women’s physical and mental defects, spiritual evils, rebelliousness, shrewishness, and natural inferiority to men.

Yet some social and cultural conditions served to empower women. During the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) the culture was dominated by a powerful Queen, who provided an impressive female example though she left scant cultural space for other women. Elizabethan women writers began to produce original texts but were occupied chiefly with translation. In the 17^th century, however, various circumstances enabled women to write original texts in some numbers. For one thing, some counterweight to patriarchy was provided by female communities — mothers and daughters, extended kinship networks, close female friends, the separate court of Queen Anne (King James’ consort) and her often oppositional masques and political activities. For another, most of these women had a reasonably good education (modern languages, history, literature, religion, music, occasionally Latin) and some apparently found in romances and histories more expansive terms for imagining women’s lives. Also, representation of vigorous and rebellious female characters in literature and especially on the stage no doubt helped to undermine any monolithic social construct of women’s nature and role.

Most important, perhaps, was the radical potential inherent in the Protestant insistence on every Christian’s immediate relationship with God and primary responsibility to follow his or her individual conscience. There is plenty of support in St Paul’s epistles and elsewhere in the Bible for patriarchy and a wife’s subjection to her husband, but some texts (notably Galatians 3:28) inscribe a very different politics, promoting women’s spiritual equality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ.” Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supreme patriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them in his stead.

There is also the gap or slippage between ideology and common experience. English women throughout the 17^th century exercised a good deal of actual power; as managers of estates in their husbands’ absences at court or on military and diplomatic missions; as members of guilds; as wives and mothers who sometimes dominated their men by sheer force of personality or outright defiance. Their power reached its apex during the English Civil War and Interregnum (1640-60) as the execution of the King and the attendant disruption of social hierarchies led many women to seize new roles — as preachers, as prophetesses, as deputies for exiled royalist husbands, as writers of religious and political tracts.

6. What is the best title for this passage?

A. Women’s Position in the 17^th Century.

B. Women’s Subjection to Patriarchy.

C. Social Circumstances in the 17^th Century.

D. Women’s Objection in the 17^th Century.

7. What did the Queen Elizabeth do for the women in culture?

A. She set an impressive female example to follow.

B. She dominated the culture.

C. She did little.

D. She allowed women to translate something.

8. Which of the following is not mentioned as a reason to enable women to original texts?

A. Female communities provided some counterweight to patriarchy.

B. Queen Anne’s political activities.

C. Most women had a good education.

D. Queen Elizabeth’s political activities.

9. What did the religion do for the women?

A. It did nothing.

B. It too asked women to be obedient except some texts.

C. It supported women.

D. It appealed to the God.

10. What does the word “apex” mean in the last paragraph?

Passage 3

I am afraid to sleep. I have been afraid to sleep for the last few weeks. I am so tired that, finally, I do sleep, but only for a few minutes. It is not a bad dream that wakes me; it is the reality I took with me into sleep. I try to think of something else.

Immediately the woman in the marketplace comes into my mind.

I was on my way to dinner last night when I saw her. She was selling skirts. She moved with the same ease and loveliness I often saw in the women of Laos. Her long black hair was as shiny as the black silk of the skirts she was selling. In her hair, she wore three silk ribbons, blue, green, and white. They reminded me of my childhood and how my girlfriends and I used to spend hours braiding ribbons into our hair.

I don’t know the word for “ribbons”, so I put my hand to my own hair and, with three fingers against my head; I looked at her ribbons and said “Beautiful.” She lowered her eyes and said nothing. I wasn’t sure if she understood me (I don’t speak Laotian very well).

I looked back down at the skirts. They had designs in them: squares and triangles and circles of pink and green silk. They were very pretty. I decided to buy one of those skirts, and I began to bargain with her over the price. It is the custom to bargain in Asia. In Laos bargaining is done in soft voices and easy moves with the sort of quiet peacefulness.

She smiled, more with her eyes than with her lips. She was pleased by the few words I was able to say in her language, although they were mostly numbers, and she saw that I understood something about the soft playfulness of bargaining. We shook our heads in disagreement over the price; then, immediately, we made another offer and then another shake of the head. She was so pleased that unexpectedly, she accepted the last offer I made. But it was too soon. The price was too low. She was being too generous and wouldn’t make enough money. I moved quickly and picked up two more skirts and paid for all three at the price set; that way I was able to pay her three times as much before she had a chance to lower the price for the larger purchase. She smiled openly then, and, for the first time in months, my spirit lifted. I almost felt happy.

The feeling stayed with me while she wrapped the skirts in a newspaper and handed them to me. When I left, though, the feeling left, too. It was as though it stayed behind in marketplace. I left tears in my throat. I wanted to cry. I didn’t, of course.

I have learned to defend myself against what is hard; without knowing, I have also learned to defend myself against what is soft and what should be easy.

I get up, light a candle and want to look at the skirts. They are still in the newspaper that the woman wrapped them in. I remove the paper, and raise the skirts up to look at them again before I pack them. Something falls to floor. I reach down and feel something cool in my hand. I move close to the candlelight to see what I have. There are five long silk ribbons in my hand, all different colors. The woman in the marketplace! She has given these ribbons to me!

There is no defense against a generous spirit, and this time I cry, and very hard, as if I could make up for all the months that I didn’t cry.

11. Which of the following in NOT correct?

A. The writer was not used to bargaining.

B. People in Asia always bargain when buying things.

C. Bargaining in Laos was quiet and peaceful.

D. The writer was ready to bargain with the woman.

12. The writer assumed that the woman accepted the last offer mainly because woman ________.

A. thought that the last offer was reasonable

B. thought she could still make much money

C. was glad that the writer knew their way of bargaining

D. was tired of bargaining with the writer any more

13. Why did the writer finally decide to buy three skirts?

A. The skirts were cheap and pretty.

B. She liked the patterns on the skirts.

C. She wanted to do something as compensation.

D. She was fed up with further bargaining with the woman.

14. When did the writer left the marketplace, she wanted to cry, but did not because ________.

A. she had learned to stay cool and unfeeling

B. she was afraid of crying in public

C. she had learned to face difficulties bravely

D. she had to show in public that she was strong

15. Why did the writer cry eventually when she looked at the skirts again?

A. she suddenly felt very sad.

B. she liked the ribbons so much.

C. she was overcome by emotion.

D. she felt sorry for the woman.

Passage 4

When one looks back upon the fifteen hundred years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of significant truths. The history of our language has always been a history of constant change — at times a slow, almost imperceptible change, at other times a violent collision between two languages. Our language has always been a living growing organism, it has never been static. Another significant truth that emerges from such a study is that language at all times has been the possession not of one class or group but of many. At one extreme it has been the property of the common, ignorant folk, who have used it in the daily business of their living, much as they have used their animals or the kitchen pots and pans. At the other extreme it has been the treasure of those who have respected it as an instrument and a sign of civilization, and who have struggled by writing it down to give it some permanence, order, dignity, and if possible, a little beauty.

As we consider our changing language, we should note here two developments that are of special and immediate importance to us. One is that since the time of the Anglo-Saxons there has been an almost complete reversal of the different devices for showing the relationship of words in a sentence. Anglo-Saxon (old English) was a language of many inflections. Modern English has few infections. We must now depend largely on word order and function words to convey the meanings that the older language did by means of changes in the forms of words. Function words, you should understand, are words such as prepositions, conjunctions, and a few others that are used primarily to show relationships among other words. A few inflections, however, have survived. And when some word inflections come into conflict with word order, there may be trouble for the users of the language, as we shall see later when we turn our attention to such matters as WHO or WHOM and ME or I. The second fact we must consider is that as language itself changes, our attitudes toward language forms change also. The eighteenth century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write.

16. In contrast to the earlier linguists, modern linguists tend to ________.

A. attempt to continue the standardization of the language

B. evaluate language practices in terms of current speech rather than standards or proper patterns

C. be more concerned about the improvement of the language than its analysis or history

D. be more aware of the rules of the language usage

17. Choose the appropriate meaning for the word “inflection” used in paragraph 2.

A. changes in the forms of words.

B. changes in sentence structures.

C. changes in spelling rules.

D. words that have similar meanings.

18. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. It is generally believed that the year 1500 can be set as the beginning of the modern English language.

B. Some other languages had great influence on the English language at some stages of its development.

C. The English language has been and still in a state of relatively constant change.

D. Many classes or groups have contributed to the development of the English language.

19. The author of these paragraphs is probably a (an) ________.

20. Which of the following can be best used as the title of the passage?

A. The history of the English language.

B. Our changing attitude towards the English language.

C. Our changing language.

D. Some characteristics of modern English.

Passage 5

We know very little about pain and what we don’t know makes it hut all the more. Indeed, no form of illiteracy in the United States is so widespread or costly as ignorance about pain what it is, what causes it, how to deal with it without panic. Almost everyone can rattle off names of at least a dozen drugs that can deaden pain from every conceivable cause all the way from headaches to hemorrhoids.

There is far less knowledge about the fact that about 90 percent of pain is self-limiting, that it is not always an indication of poor health, and that, most frequently, it is the result of tension, stress, worry, idleness, boredom, frustration, suppressed rage, insufficient sleep, overeating, poorly balanced diet, smoking, excessive drinking, inadequate exercise, stale air, or any of the other abuses encountered by the human body in modern society.

The most ignored fact of all about pain is that the best way to eliminate it is to eliminate the abuse. Instead, many people reach almost instinctively for the painkillers — aspirins, barbiturates, codeines, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and dozens of other analgesics or desensitizing drugs.

Most doctors are profoundly troubled over the extent to which the medical profession today is taking on the trappings of a pain-killing industry. Their offices are overloaded with people who are morbidly but mistakenly convinced that something dreadful is about to happen to them. It is all too evident that the campaign to get people to run for a doctor at the first sign of pain has boomeranged. Physicians find it difficult to give adequate attention to patients genuinely in need of expert diagnosis and treatment because their time is soaked up by people who have nothing wrong with them except a temporary indisposition or a psychogenic ache.

Patients tend to feel indignant, and insulted if the physician tells them he can find no organic cause for the pain. They tend to interpret the term “psychogenic” to mean that they are complaining of nonexistent symptoms. They need to be educated about the fact that many cases of pain have no underlying physical cause but are the result, as mentioned earlier, of tension, stress, or hostile factors in the general environment. Sometimes a pain may be a manifestation of “conversion hysteria”, the name given by Jean Charcot to physical symptoms that have their origins in emotional disturbances.

Obviously, it is folly for an individual to ignore symptoms that could be a warning of a potentially serious illness. Some people are so terrified of getting bad news from a doctor that they allow their malaise to worsen, sometimes past the point of no return. Total neglect is not the answer to hypochondria. They only answer has to be increased education about the way the human body works, so that more people will be able to steer an intelligent course between promiscuous pill popping and irresponsible disregard of genuine symptoms.

Of all forms of pain, none is more important for the individual to understand than the “threshold” variety. Almost everyone has a telltale ache that is triggered whenever tension or fatigue reaches a certain point, it can take the form of a migraine type headache or a squeezing pain deep in the abdomen or cramps or even pain in the joints. The individual who has learned how to make the correlation between such threshold pains and their cause doesn’t panic when they occur, he or she does something about relieving the stress and tension.

If the pain persists despite the absence of apparent symptoms, the individual will telephone the doctor.

21. What does the sentence “It is all too evident…” (Paragraph 4) mean?

A. It is obviously true that people should consult a doctor as soon as they feel pain.

B. It is useless to ask people to seek advice from doctors the minute they feel painful.

C. The suggestion that people go to see a doctor immediately if they feel pain has some bad effect.

D. The campaign against pain will be lost if people don’t go to see a doctor when they feel pain.

22. A hypochondria is someone who ________.

A. ignores doctor’s advice and warnings

B. is afraid of going to see doctors

C. always complain about having symptoms that don’t actually exist

D. always telltales pain-killers

23. It can be concluded from the passage that ________.

A. most cares of pain are caused by hysteria

B. if a pain isn’t organic, it’s very likely to be psychogenic

C. pain-killing industry won’t be encouraged in the future

D. doctors seldom prescribe pain-killers to patients

24. They author wrote this article to______.

A. explain how pain-killers work

B. call for understanding between doctors and patients

C. illustrate the harm of taking too much pain-killers

D. teach the right attitude to pain

25. What does the word “telltale” (Paragraph 7) mean?

Passage 6

Aldous Huxley was a most unfortunate man. When he died in 1963 he must have expired in the confident belief that the event would be given wide coverage in the press the next day. After all, his career had not been without distinction. Where he made his big mistake was in dying on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As a result Huxley got about three column inches at the bottom of page 27. 

In the same way the death of Victor Farris has gone widely unnoticed because he foolishly shuffled off this mortal coil at the same time as Mr. Konstantin Cherenkov. Now, as you all know, Victor Farris was the chap who invented the paper clip, the paper milk carton too. And paper clips and milk cartons will be in use long after everyone has forgotten the name of the comrade who came between Andropov and whatever this new bloke is called.

The same goes for the inventor of the supermarket trolley who died in Switzerland a few months ago. Fell off his trolley, so to speak. For all I know, he may be a household name in his own canton and they are putting up a statue of home wheeling his trolley, and are going to commemorate him on one of those ever-so-tasteful Swiss postage stamps we used to collect when we were younger and wiser, but I doubt if his name will be remembered outside the borders of his small country. Personally I forgot it within minutes of reading of his decease.  　

Not that it matters. Somehow it is hard to imagine things like paper clips and supermarket trolleys having had a named inventor. It’s like discovering that at a particular moment of history a particular person invented the spoon, or the chair, or socks. One assumes that these everyday objects just happened, or evolved through natural selection.

It isn’t necessarily so. I read only the other day that Richard II invented the handkerchief. Almost everything else was invented either by Leonardo da Vinci (scissors, bicycles, helicopters, and probably spoons, socks and the Rubik cube as well) or by Benjamin Franklin (lightning-conductor, rocking-chair, bifocals) or else by Joseph Stalin (television).

It’s quite possible that Leonardo or Benjamin Franklin or Stalin also invented the supermarket trolley. Certainly it has been invented more than once. Hardly was Herr Edelweiss (or whatever the Swiss chap was called) in his grave than news came of the death of Sylvan N. Goodman at the age of 86. Sylvan also invented the supermarket trolley or, as the Los Angeles Times report calls it, the shopping cart.

Be that as it may, Herr Edelweiss or Sylvan Goodman, or both, did a grand job and made supermarket shopping far less hellish than it would otherwise be. The next step will be to get the trolleys out of the shops and into the streets. You could put an engine in the front and call it a car. Or give it big wheels and a canopy and call it a pram. The possibilities are endless.

26. It can be inferred from the passage that Herr Edelweiss ________.

A. was remembered by the people all over world   　　

B. made a lot of money from his invention     　　

C. was not very famous     　　

D. was a business partner of Sylvan Goodman  

27. The author writes this article in order to illustrate that ________.

A. the names of the people who invented the most useful things are usually forgotten      　　

B. everyday objects are invented and evolve through natural selection      　　

C. many everyday objects are invented more than once      　　

D. many famous people have passed away without being noticed

28. Who probably invented spoons?     　　

29. By stating that Leonardo da Vinci invented helicopters, the author means ________.

A. he really did it      　　

B. he is a military scientist        　　

C. he painted in one of his masterpieces a helicopters     　　

D. people turn to ascribe inventions to him but they are wrong    

30. What can be inferred about Aldous Huxley?     　　

A. His death was not reported by the press.      　　

B. He was a famous inventor.    

C. He made a very big mistake in his late years.   　　

D. He died on the same day as John F. Kennedy.  

Part II: Vocabulary (10％)

31. ____ the sight of the police officers, the men ran off.

32. ____ the wall, we decided that we should need three tins of paint.

33. ____ the whole, early American city planning was excellent.

34. ____ we are having these days!

35. ____, a man who expresses himself effectively is sure to succeed more rapidly than a man whose command of language is poor.

36. ____, he does not love her.

37. A drunk man walked in, ____ in appearance.

38. A good many houses ____ knocked down by the earthquake.

39. A good teacher must know how to ____ his ideas.

40. A large part of human activity, particularly in relation to the environment, is ____ conditions or events.

41. Due to personality _____, the two colleagues never got on well in work.

42. During the summer vacation, kids are often seen hanging _____ in the streets.

43. There were 150 ____ at the international conference this summer.

44. School started on a ____ cold day in February.

45. In the face of unexpected difficulties, he demonstrated a talent for quick, ____ action.

46. The team has been working overtime on the research project ____.

47. Because of the economic crisis, industrial output in the region remained ____.

48. The police had difficulty in ____ the fans from rushing on to the stage to take photos with the singer.

49. Joan is in the dorm, putting the final ____ to her speech.

50. His _____ in gambling has eventually brought about his ruin.

Part III: Cloze (10％)

There are many superstitions in Britain, but one of the most [51] ____ held is that it is unlucky to walk under a ladder even if it means [52] ____ the pavement into a busy street! [53] ____ you must pass under a ladder you can [54] ____ bad luck by crossing your fingers and [55] ____ them crossed until you have seen a dog. [56] ____, you may lick your finger and [57] ____ a cross on the toe of your shoe, and not look again at the shoe until the [58] ____ has dried.

Another common [59] ____ is that it is unlucky to open an umbrella in the house-it will either bring [60] ____ to the person who opened it or to the whole [61] ____. Anyone opening an umbrella in fine weather is [62] ____, as it inevitably brings rain!

The number 13 is said to be unlucky for some, and when the 13^th day of the month [63] ____ on a Friday, anyone wishing to avoid a bad event had better stay [64] ____, the worst misfortune that can happen to a person is caused by breaking a mirror, [65] ____ it brings seven years of bad luck! The superstition is supposed to 66 in ancient times, when mirrors were considered to be tools of the gods.

Black cats are generally considered lucky in Britain, even though they are [67] ____ witchcraft…. It is [68] ____ lucky if a black cat crosses your path-although in America the exact opposite belief prevails.

Finally, a commonly held superstition is that of touching wood [69] ____ luck. This measure is most often taken if you think you have said something that is tempting fate, such as "my car has never [70] ____, touch wood?"

Part IV: Translation (30％)

Part A (20％)

Translate the following passage into Chinese:

The crux of the problem is: young people, being at the start of their own career and having to exert themselves to the utmost all the time, are always under the greatest stress and severest strain. The middle-aged people, on the other hand, having accomplished whatever they have, may relieve themselves of their load, and start to enjoy a quiet and leisurely life unburdened with any ambitions and away from the storms of life. Consequently, middle-aged persons quickly lapse into indolence. Most famous works that appeared in the past centuries, including the present, were written by authors around 30. Works with any creativeness seldom came from the pen of Chinese authors over 40, except autobiographies and notes by way of annotation. But for writers abroad, age does not seem to affect their energy or imagination at all. Some literary celebrities did not start their career until after 40.

Because of various reasons, the life span of us Chinese used to be very short. Hence the old saying “man’s life from old has rarely reached seventy.” Therefore the middle-age period was much earlier, and men of letters very early in their lives became “old” and conservative psychologically. 

Part B (10％)

Translate the following sentences into English:

71、新学派的一位领袖人物坚持说：“简而言之，我们所谓的科学革命，主要是指一系列器具的改进、发明和使用，而这些改进、发明和使用使科学发展无所不及。”

72、自由和尊严是传统理论定义的自主人所拥有的，是要求一个人对自己的行为负责，并因其业绩而给予肯定的必不可少的前提。

73、很显然，我们已然摒弃了“父母之命、媒妁之言”的婚姻方式及为使女孩们守身如玉而将她们深锁闺中的农业习俗。

74、现在我们被迫从那种以人们之间相互猜忌和敌视为标志的关系跃进到一个人们之间必须相互尊重和理解的世界。

75、同样地，语言之所以有价值是因为人们承认它是思维的符号，是人与人之间传输思想的媒介。

Part V: Writing (20％)

Directions: Write a composition in the title “On Aging Society” based on the following given outline. Your composition should be about 150 English words. Please write your composition on the ANSWER SHEET.