2000年社科院博士生英语入学考试试题

2000年社科院博士生英语入学考试试题
PART l: VOCABULARY (15 POINTS}
Section A
1. Tine cultural life of a social group, qua social group, may be said to depend upon its cognitive level.
              A. perdition        B. perception        C. pertinence        D. permanent
2. The article insinuates that tine crime did not take place.
              A. states flatly                           B. argues convincingly
              C. positively denies                       D. suggests indirectly
3. Tile international committee, at its annual general meeting, finally waived the rule about the 12-month qualifying period.
   A. ratified         B. agreed in principle with       C. modified      D. dropped
4. The Bulletin, noted for its impartial advice, recommends in a recent issue that GPs and nurses learn a variety of skills transmittable to patients.
         A. influential            B. judicious         C. unprejudiced      D. medical
5. Sine is an amiable member of the committee.
         A. conventional        B. congenial           C. cogent          D. congenital
6. When a careful individual speaks or writes there are usually nuances of meaning that need to be recognized.
   A. slight annoyances   B. slight differences   C. slight preferences    D. slight shades
7. Civilians oversight of tire police means, among other things, that suspects will probably not be coerced into confessing.
          A. bribed                B. persuaded         C. deceived          D. forced
8. She told her niece she would leave her a small legacy.
          A. note                 B. article           C. gift               D. inheritance
9. Because his inattention was responsible for the accident, he was rebuked.
          A. criticized              B: punished       C. delayed            D. disturbed
10. The emperor, in establishing tine arelnblsh gpric in 968, revealed his interest in both religious and pastoral considerations.
          A. bucolic                  B. churchly           C. agricultural       D. rural
11. Among the requisites of polite society figures a basic politeness to everyone.
                A. demands           B. steps             C. awareness        D. doings
12. Quacks rely on the anguish of cancer sufferers, as well as their credulity, for their financial success,
   A. grimaces                B, wrath                C. irritation            D, torment
13. The debris from the crash was strewn over tile countryside for miles around.
     A. traps            B. remains             C. results               D. weapons
14. If the Minnesota Vikings continue to confound their critics, their entry into the play-offs will be assured,
     A. confusing        B. confuse by       C, confuse              D. confuse with
15. Older writers are frequently patronizing towards young writers.
     A. supportive                B. critical                C. kind         D. condescending
Section B.
16. Disruptive behavior at meetings governed by Robert's Rules of Order usually results in         .
       A. election       B. erection     C. ejaculation       D. ejection
17. In 1981. the two factors of conservation measures the world recession resulted in a         of the demand for oil.
        A. curbing        B. inverting            C. spread               D. scotching
18. The new budgetary constraints forbid the allocation of supplementary funds if it can be established that the original allotment had been         .
        A. dispelled      B. dissipated          C. dispatched         D. dispirited
19. When a room is supplied with an adequate amount of fresh air, people usually say it is         .
        A. well-modulated     B. well-simulated      C. well-ventilated       D. well-stimulated
20. You don't want a proctoscope if you hope to         an image: you want a telescope.
        A. displace           B. distort             C. replace             D. magnify
21. Among the components of contemporary construction figure steel, concrete, and glass.
        A. requited           B. integral             C. topical            D. ornamental
22. Zero or even negative growth, a soaring budgetary deficit, a         in inflation—the government report paints a dismal picture.
          A. surplus                B. survival            C. surge               D. survey
23. The eye tends to see distance as         . In painting, this is sometimes called "the vanishing point."
          A conforming            B. comforting         C. conniving           D. converging
24. Many an underdeveloped country, faced with crippling national debt, turns to         a greater harvest from its timber resources.
          A. extracting        B. extrapolating       C. excavating         D. exfoliating
25. The Court has been castigated for a steady         of minorit3 rights and women's rights.
          A. instigation         B. infringement       C. involvement      D. inquisition
26. He became a legend as an opera singer, not so much because of his voice range or emotive ability, but rather because of his fiery         .
          A. manners           B. disposition       C. attitude           D. approach
27. In America, moon-lighting is an attempt to         one’s income.
          A. dilute          B. affect               C. augment          D. offset
28. The reports coming from the site         that the hostages have been killed.
          A. allege          B. infer                C. evoke            D. promise
29 It is less to skill than to hard work that he         his continuing success.
      A. ascribes       B. subscribes          C. prescribes           D. describes
30. The lad was quite fortunate in finding a         to aid him financially in his studies.
      A. patroon         B. patron                C. platoon         D. poltroon

PART Ⅱ: GRAMMAR (15 POINTS)
Section A
1. As with any isolated and largely self-contained community the agricultural village was often
fierce loyalty among its inhabitants.
        A. the objection of        B. objective from     C. the object of       D. objective
2. From its customs and traditions the village         a strong sense of identity and morality, which, looking back, may easily be mourned in a more impersonal, amoral, and uncertain modem world.
        A. could draw in       B. could draw upon      C. would draw from       D. would draw in
3. What this galloping advance in analytical acuity means is that scientists can now isolate the tiniest amounts of harmful substances in foods which,        , have always been considered safe, or in some cases beneficial.
        A. from then             B. whence              C. hitherto             D. hence
4. Possibly because there are few bare patches of gavel on that continent,         because of an innately gregarious habit of mind, their rookeries number almost millions of individuals.
        A. though most possibly   B. probably       C. but more probably      D. most possibly
5. She observed quite unashamedly that though they had been married for 8 years, she knew nothing about          in the army.
       A. he served     B. him having served      C. him to serve      D. his having been served
6. The Mary Rose was a remarkable ship,         have rarely been seen.
        A. the likes of which      B. like which          C. which the likes    D. which of the likes
7.         can be seen by the results of the Study, the principle seems to require the active involvement of the patient in the modification of his condition.
          A. As            B. What             C. That            D. It
8. Test scores do not improve by magic. Improving 5our test scores, especially         it comes to   classroom tests, depends on doing the assignments.
          A. when          B. before            C. as             D. since
9. I would not take his claim to being an authority very seriously.         he knows about his area is either inaccurate or outdated.
     A. How much     B. That much         C. How little        D. What little
10. For the purposes of the study, it was at the beginning and at tire end of preschool and first grade that observations were made         the children.
     A. of             B. towards          C. on.              D. with
11. Half       , the number of participants registering for this year's marathon was disappointing
        A. of them for last year' s                         B. that of last year' s
        C. of those of last year                            D. those of last years
12. Attentiveness and involvement are prerequisites for there         successful communication,
         A. is                B. to be               C. will be             D. are
13. Who has the time to read or listen to an account of everything         currently, going oil in the world?
           A. that is           B. as is               C. there is             D. it is
14. After turning the whole room inside out, she eventually /bund tire magazine,         were either torn or dog-eared.
             A. many of whose pages              B. many of its pages
             C. many of which pages              D. whose many pages
15. Professor Li' s book will show you         can be used in other contexts.
             A. that you have observed           B. how what you have observed
             C. you have observed what         D. how that you have observed
Section B
16. Tornadoes--actually miniscule storms which paths are not usually, over a quarter mile in width---are nonetheless extremely violent.
17. Not only did various ancient civilizations cremate their dead, but they also cremated along with tire dead person every which object he might possibly use in the afterlife.
18. To say that Ferdinand Magellan, tire first European to discover the Philippines, did not actually circumnavigate the earth because he was killed before his famous voyage was completed.
19. Only in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in Great Britain did it begin to be likely that a resolution that women to be allowed to join a previously all-male organization would be carried.
20. Not had she lived virtually next door to the police station, the burglars would have escaped scot-free.
21. Cannibalism, or humans eating other humans, has, throughout the history, exerted both morbid fascination and extremes of repulsion.
22. Some enthusiasts claim that the humble Hawaiian ukulele is the most versatility of all musical instruments.
23. It is to the skillful utilization of voice range, the chief emphasizing in speech- making, that success as an orator may be attributed.
24. It is the predetermined ability of the shell of a variety of marine animals to develop only within certain Emits that prevents themselves from growing past a specific size.
25. Absent any convinced link between the quantity or the so-called quality of the brain cells, one is able to state whatever one chooses.
26. Early missionaries discovered that their converts would backslide if left to their own devices, and would charge them with guilty of so doing upon their return.
27. When in childhood, Wagner seems to have had few interests apart from music, about which he exhibited an insatiable curiosity.
28. It is the general level of comfort of the average citizen that determines whether or not a country considers wars rendered uselessly as a means of settling a disagreement with a neighboring country.
29. The government’s new economic policies have as a goal the reducing down of the rate of inflation from its peak of three months ago.
30. In Victorian England, many a respective and very rich older man had, as a youth, been involved in at least foolish, if not downright criminal, acts.
PART Ⅲ: CLOZE
The rest of the afternoon passed slowly. I wasn't able to   1    on the brief I 2   submit for the sodomy case I was scheduled to 3      4 , and I was desperate to 5   unnecessary phone conversations. The only phone call 6   interest was from Mercer. He was pleased. "Katherine's Fryer’s 7 is the best 8 . She's really good on 9 characteristics. She's 10 about the 11 and shape of the mustache. I never had an illustrator as a victim 12 but it sure helps the sketch take on some 13 ."
      I knew exactly what he 14 . The 15 description started with witnesses saying they're 16 at doing this, and that the guy was average height, average weight, average- looking, 17 distinctive about his appearance, and so on. I had a folder full of 18 of wanted rapists who looked like everybody and 19 . Try and display one to a jury and claim a resemblance to the defendant on trial and it was more likely to look like three of the 20 . Not guilty.
1. a. conglomerate    b. concentrate           c. concentric        d. commiserate
2. a. must           b. ought to              c. had to           d. would
3. a. attempt         b. try                   c. write             d. analyze
4. a. three weeks ago b. three weeks before     c. after three weeks d. in three weeks
5. a. avert            b. abort                 c. avoid             d. annul
6. a. of              b. with                  c. responding        d. evincing
7. a. outgo          b. outcome              c. intake            d. input
8. a. still            b. to come              c. before           d. 3.'et
9. a. facial          b. face                  c. personal        d. personality
10. a. dubious        b. decided              c, fn'rn            d. strong
11. a. position        b. location              c. size            d. magnitude
12. a. ago            b. before                c. then           d. once
13. a. verisimilitude   b. exactitude            c. meaning         d. definition
14. a. described       b. inferred              c. defined         d. meant
15. a. average        b. median               c. typical          d. general
!6. a. lousy          b. representative         c. partial           d. lousy
17. a. anything       b. notlfing               c. something       d. everything
18. a. sketches        b. photos               c. paintings        d. etchings
19. a. somebody      b. else                  c. nobody         d. me
20. a. defendants      b. jurors                c. same           d. people
PART IV: READING COMPREHENSION (30 points)
Passage I
    Obviously, the per capita income of a country depends on many things, and any statistical test that does not take account of all important determinants is misspecified, and thus must be used only for descriptive and heuristic purposes. It is nonetheless interesting--and for many people surprising--to find that there is a positive and even a statistically significant relationship between these two variables: the greater the number of people per square kilometer the higher the per capita income.
     The law of diminishing returns is not invariably true: it would be absurd to suppose that a larger endowment of land ipso facto makes a country poorer. This consideration by itself would, of course, call for a negative sign on population density. Thus, it is interesting to ask what might account for the "wrong" sign and to think of what statistical tests should ultimately be done. Clearly there is a simultaneous two-way relationship between population density and per capita income: the level of per capita income affects population growth just as population, by increasing the labor force, affects per capita income.
      The argument offered here suggests that perhaps countries with better economic policies and institutions come to have higher per capita incomes than countries with inferior policies and institutions, and that these higher incomes bring about a higher population growth through more immigration and lower death rates. In this way, the effects of better institutions and policies in raising per capita income swamps the tendency of diminishing returns to labor to reduce it. This hypothesis may also explain why many empirical studies have not been able to show a negative association between the rate of population growth and increases in per capita income.
     One reason why the ratio of natural resources to population does not account for variations in per capita income is that most economic activity can now readily be separated from deposits of raw material and arable land. Over time, transportation technologies have certainly improved, and products that have a high value in relation to their weight, such as most services and manufactured goods like computers and airplanes, may have become more important. The Silicon Valley is not important for the manufacture of computers because of the deposits of silicon, and London and Zurich are not great banking centers because of fertile land. Even casual observation suggests that most modem manufacturing and service exports are not closely tied to natural resources. Western Europe does not now have a high ratio of natural resources to population, but it is very important in the export of manufactures and services. In a parallel way, the striking success of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, with relatively few natural resources per capita, cannot be explained by reliance thereon.
1. In paragraph 1, three words are in italics
         a. for reasons of English language style.
         b. because of personal reason of style.
         c. in order to highlight their importance.
         d. to help the reader avoid confusion.
2. The people who are surprised are so because they have assumed that
         a. there is a positive correlation between the two variables.
         b. the higher the per capita income the lower the population density.
         c. the greater the number of people the greater the per capita income.
         d. the relationship between the variables is statistically insignificant.
3. With which of the following statements would the author agree?
         a. One would not ordinarily suppose that a large country would be poor.
         b. A negative sign on population density may be a wrong sign.
         c. Per capita income depends on the size of the labor force.
         d. The author would agree with all of the above statements.
4. The word "here" in paragraph 3, line 1 means
         a. “supra."
         b. "at this very moment."
         c. "in this article."
         d. "in this country."
5. The population growth in countries with higher per capita income
        a. comes not from the birth rate of the citizens but rather from the influx of others.
        b. is a natural result because the citizens have more money for children.
        c. is only an artifact based on a declining birth rate.
        d. does not invalidate the population growth of poorer countries.
6.    Which of the following statements is true?
        a. None of the following statements is true.
        b. Silicon Valley has great deposits of silicon.
        c. London and Zurich have vast amounts of arable land.
        d. Western Europe has always depended on services.
Passage II
        The procedures followed by scholars studying literature are often unsatisfactory: the control over a cognitive project as a whole is often lost. The literary scholar seems to be collecting data-- which is a preliminary operation--without making use of them. Like a diligent ant gathering food it will never eat, the contemporary literary scholar seems intent upon writing footnotes of a book she will never try to read.
        I propose that at the outset of a research project it is necessary to render explicit the questions the scholar will to' to answer, what methods will be used and why and the reason why s/he thinks that it may be worthwhile answering such questions. More, the work of the people concerned with the study of literature seems casual. For instance, much research is devoted to one author, often on the occasion of an anniversary. Now there is no reason to think that our observations will be more valid, urgent, appropriate, useful, or interesting if the author of the texts we are concerned with was born or died or the texts were written fifty, one hundred, or two hundred years ago. This seems to be celebration and not research producing 'knowledge. It does not seem to make any sense to determine one's research program by looking at the calendar. The widespread habit of limiting the scope of a research project to a single author often leads to a confined understanding of the author and the texts, which, in turn, offers marginal results. The average literary scholar considers these results satisfactory. But for what purpose are they satisfactory?
        Often the research strategies and methods of the literary scholar are repetitive. A new operation that is analogous to previous ones is often considered worthwhile: it is on these premises that many texts concerning literature are produced and accepted. I propose instead that in a concrete project that tries to produce knowledge, any statement needs verification. But there is a point where it is unnecessary to repeat the same operation on new data, because the result has already been established: rather than additional confirmation of what is already known, it is the exploration of what is still un}mown that deserves priority. Contemporary literary research seems to be based on habits that originated in the past and that bear little resemblance to research projects as they are intended now in other fields. If out main aim were the proposal of some objects as cultural models, then it would be useful to our purpose to try to attract our society's attention toward these objects and the persons who produced them. It would be reasonable to perform our actions on the occasion of anniversaries, because we would not be doing research, but celebration and propaganda. Celebration aims at confirming certitudes and strengthening bonds of solidarity among The participants. It does not produce knowledge, but it confirms what is already known. Legitimating by means of the power of words has been for many centuries the main job of the man of letters.
7. In the view of the writer, scholars studying literature need to
     a. research more diligently.
     b. establish a clear purpose before commencing research.
     c. decrease the number of footnotes.
     d. avoid writing special works to celebrate anniversaries.
8. The writer of this article is critical of modem literary research because
     a. it uses too many analogies.
     b. it is not concrete writing.
     c. it relies on established methods that have not changed much.,
     d. it is too subjective.
9. According to the writer, writing about an author on their anniversary
    a. is useful because it creates stronger ties with the author.
    b. is useful because it strengthens the cultural information.
    c. is useful because it is celebration and celebration confirms certitudes.
    d. is not useful since it does not add much to the pool of established information.
10. In paragraph 3, sentence 2, the words "to previous ones" refers to
    a. previous authors written about by others.
    b. earlier scholars who wrote comparative literary works.
    c. earlier methods for research.
    d. repeats of research.
11. This article
    a. criticizes the limited approach taken by many literary scholars in their research.
    b. criticizes the approach taken to footnotes in literary research.
    c. supports the idea that literary scholars must remain a cohesive group.
    d. maintains that more careful personal data needs to be collected about authors.
12. In the writer's opinion
    a. repetition over a period of time can provide proof.
    b. evidence in research is critical.
    c. celebratory research does not require proof.
    d. research concerning an author from antiquity does not require evidence.
Passage Ⅲ
    After a run of several thousand years, it is entirely fining that 2000 will be marked as the year the tide tuned against taxation. Clay tablets recall the taxes of Hammurabi in the Babylon of 2000BC, but the practice is certainly older. People in power have always tried to divert some of the proceeds of economic activity in their own direction. Lords took feudal dues from their vassals; landowners took toils from merchants; gangsters took protection money from small businesses; governments took taxes from their citizens. Despite the different names, the principle has remained constant: those who do not produce take resources from those who do, and spend it on altogether different things.
    The tide is turning because of the convergence of several factors. In the first place, taxes are becoming harder to collect. Capital is more mobile than ever, and inclined to fly from places that tax to places that do not. Governments do not move their boundaries and jurisdictions as rapidly as companies can change locations. Attempts to establish trans-national tax powers are almost certainly doomed by international competition to attract economic activity. Many businesses will choose to stay out of reach.
    The global economy and the Internet mean that purchases can now cross frontiers. People buy books, clothes, and cars from abroad} and any finance minister who likes to tax these items find his tax base diminishing. It is not only capital and goods which are harder to pin down. Even wages are crossing frontiers. The rise of the service sector means that many income-generating activities can take place across frontiers, causing yet more headaches for over-stretched public treasuries. Furthermore, the pace of electronic, hard-to-trace activity is accelerating.
    No less important has been the rise of political resistance. The past quarter-century has been marked by a movement led in Britain and America itself in California's famous tax-cutting referendum Proposition 13, but saw its fullest expression in the Thatcher and Reagan tax cuts of the 1980's. Britain's Tories entered office in 1979 with the top rate of income tax at 98%, and left office 18 years later with a top rate of 40%. Indeed, their Labor opponents became electable only after a firm prom/se not to raise it again. The plain fact is that electorates these days will not stand for it. They recognize, correctly, that governments spend their money less carefully and less efficiently than they can spend it themselves.
    One of the greatest uses of tax money is to provide pensions. And here a revolution—as important and pervasive as privatization--is sweeping the world. Fully-funded personal pension plans, based on individual savings, are sweeping away the poorly funded public pensions promised by governments. The latter take taxes from the young to support the old. The former invest savings from tile young 1o support themselves when old.
13. The main idea of this text is that
       a. taxation is changing and will continue to change.
       b. ways of collecting tax have changed.
       c. pensions are increasingly being paid out of taxpayer' s money.
       d. public money is being misspent in most western countries.
14. Taxes are more difficult to collect because
       a. it is almost impossible to tax transnational companies.
       b. of the increase in buying goods through the Internet.
       c. some burgeoning areas of employment have activities that are not easily taxed.
       d. all of the above.
15. The biggest change in taxation
       a. is in provident accounts.
       b. is privatization of companies.
       c. is in individual pension plans which are replacing government pensions.
       d. is the increased tax on personal investment.
16. From this article it is evident that
       a. small business will continue to be heavily taxed.
       b. in England, personal income tax will rise to a top rate of 40.%.
       c. many large companies can still avoid paying high taxes.
       d. globalization is making tax-collection easier.
17. According to this article, the people who have many problems relating to tax are
       a. the old.
       b. the young.
       c. the banks.
       d. the finance ministers of various countries.
18. Trans-national companies
       a. do not have to pay tax.
       b. are often encouraged by a country to pay less tax.
       c. are finding it difficult to pay taxes because of the significant increases.
       d. all of the above.
Passage IV
    Handwriting analysis (graphology) circumvents the law by trying to determine an employee's traits (e.g., stability) according to some handwriting group stereotype to which he or she belongs. (Indeed, some graphologists have so little respect for the law and so much confidence in their stereotyping that they have proposed using the technique in lieu of court proceedings to identify and prosecute criminals!) The analysis works by comparing the speed, size, slant, form, pressure, layout, and continuity of an individual's handwriting with various patterns and typologies, and assimilating this person's script into these types. As a result the individual judged ceases to be an individual and becomes little more than a composite of traits. This end result differs little from judgments based on race, sex, religion, etc.
    Granted, no individual is totally unique. Any evaluation of character, or for that matter, skills, turns, in some measure, on employing generic ideas about virtue, vice, and technical competence. Still, there is a human individuality which manifests itself in our imagination and in the innovative 'arguments we choose to advance. Standardized handwriting analysis is far less respectful of individuality in this latter sense than other modes of screening. Individuals who are asked to write a personal essay describing their qualifications in their own terms; and who are given an opportunity in an interview to describe their motivations in seeking a particular job retain far more of what makes them distinctive. This more personalized format gives the individual an opportunity to express unusual or provocative opinions the employer may not have previously considered. Upon reflection, the employer may think these comments so pertinent that s/he awards the job to this candidate. Handwriting analysis, though, is ostensibly purely formal. It does not provide the candidate with any opportunity to distinguish himself or herself in this substantive fashion. At best, graphology will yield some vague assessment such as "the candidate is highly creative.
    It is worth remembering what the driving force is behind graph logical testing. Handwriting analysis, like automated telephone screening, is increasingly being used early in the hiring process because it purports to deliver' salient, accurate information cheaply. Yet precisely because these techniques are standardized, the data has reduced value. Judgments about the precise relevance of some perceived character traits to a job are rarely straightforward. Good interviewers learn through training and through interaction itself to qualify previous judgments. Perhaps the candidate who fails to make eye contact has a guilty conscience (as it is standardly assumed). On the other hand, perhaps the candidate is a recent immigrant from a country where direct eye contact is considered rude. Alternate interpretations sometimes suggest themselves in a face-to-face encounter with individuals who are fully present in their living, acting, and speaking personhood. Handwriting analysis, done at a distance by an expert who has never even met the candidate, will not stimulate the evaluator's imagination in the way the in-person interview or personal essay might. On the contrary, the cheapness of the technique stems from its elimination of the important human activity of hypothesizing about the case at hand.
19. The main purpose of this article is
         a. to criticize the practice of asking would-be employees to do non-interview tasks.
         b. to criticize current practices by employers in screening future employees.
         c. to argue against the analysis of handwriting for the purposes of obtaining a job.
         d. to argue against employers who stereotype employees.
20. According to this article, handwriting analysis is used by some companies because
      a. it is cheap.
      b. it is preferable and cheaper than telephone screening.
      c. it maintains that it can provide accurate information about a candidate's noticeable characteristics at a cheap price.
      d. it is useful in a multicultural society/situation, where the candidate might be from another culture.
21. The expression "in this latter sense" in paragraph 2 refers to
     a. human individuality as revealed in humans' capacity to ttfink and argue creatively.
     b. technical competence.
     c. human individuality shown in general skills.
     d. individuality shown through respect.
22. The writer believes that handwriting analysis is cheap because
     a. it delivers accurate information.
     b. it helps to avoid listening to candidates explaining their own ideas about a situation.
     c. it deals in facts only, not imagination or ideas.
     d. it uses standardized categories.
23. The writer values
     a. people's individuality.
     b. good, experienced interviewers.
     c. non-discriminatory practices.
     d. all of the above.
24. Based on the article we may say that the writer believes that
     a. evaluation of a person is problematic.
     b. people are generally easily categorized.
     c. employers cannot measure abilities.
     d. a candidate's qualifications should be sufficient to get a job.
Passage V
   At some time around 2300BC, give or take a century or two; a large number of the major civilizations of the world collapsed, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Anatolia, and Greece, as well as in Afghanistan and China. All of them--the first urban civilizations--fell into ruin at more or less the same time. A thousand years later, around 1200BC, many of the civilizations of the same regions again collapsed at about the same time.
   The reasons for these widespread and apparently simultaneous disasters--which coincided with changes to cultures and societies elsewhere, such as in Britain--have long been a fascinating mystery. Traditional explanations included warfare, famine, and more recently 'systems collapse,' but the apparent absence of direct archaeological or written evidence for causes, as opposed to effects, has led many archaeologists and historians into a resigned assumption that no definite explanation can be found.
   Over the past 15 years, however, a new type of 'natural disaster' has been proffered which is beginning to be regarded by many scholars as the most probable single explanation for widespread and simultaneous cultural collapse. The new theory has been advanced largely by astronomers and remains largely un~own by archaeologists (notable exceptions include Professor Baillie of Belfast and Dr. Euan Mackie in Glasgow). The theory postulates that the disasters were caused by the impact of comets or other types of cosmic debris on the Earth.
    French archaeologist Claude Schaeffer, in 1948, published his analysis and compared the destruction layers of more than 40 archaeological sites. He was the first scholar to detect that all of the sites had been totally destroyed several times in the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age, apparently simultaneously. Since the damage did not show signs of military or other human involvement, and, in any case, was too excessive, he argued that repeated seismic activity might have been responsible.
    Schaeffer was not taken seriously in 1948, but since then natural scientists have found widespread and unambiguous evidence for abrupt climate change, sudden sea level changes, catastrophic inundations, and seismic activity at several periods since the last Ice Age—particularly around 2300BC. Areas such as the Sahara, which were once farmed, became deserts. Tree rings show disastrous conditions at c. 2350BC. In Mesopotamia the land appears to have been inundated, devastated, or totally burned.
    Scholars who, following Schaeffer, favor earthquakes as the principal cause of civilization collapse, argue that the world can expect earthquakes every 1,000-2,000 years, leading to abandonment of sites; while scholars who prefer climate change as the principal cause argue that severe droughts caused agriculture to fail and that societies inexorably fell apart as a result.
     The question remained what caused the climate change or the earthquakes. By the late 1970% British astronomers Clube and Napier of Oxford University had begun to investigate cometary impact as the ultimate cause. In 1980, the Nobel prize-winning chemist Luis Alvarez and his colleagues published their paper arguing that a cosmic impact had caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. He showed that large amounts of iridium found in geological layers from the time of the dinosaurs had a cosmic origin.
     Alvarez's paper stimulated further research by Clube and Napier, Professor Mark Bailey, Duncan Steel and Sir Fred Hoyle. All now support the theory of cometary impact and what is now known as the British School of Coherent Catastrophism.
25. The collapse of civilizations has remained a fascinating mystery because
      a. it occurred simultaneously.
      b. it occurred at a time similar to noticeable cultural and social changes
      c. there are no written records.
      d. all of the above.
26. The basis of the more recent disaster theory involves
      a. comets.
      b. comets or material from comets.
      c. earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions.
      d. climate change.
27. The scholar(s) who made the most influential breakthrough in the possible solution to the mystery was/were
      a. Clube and Napier.
      b. Luis Alvarez.
      c. Claude Schaeffer.
      d. Baillie and Mackie.
28. The key to solving the mystery to date has been
      a. matching climate change data to dates of apparent historical catastrophes.
      b. looking at evidence found in the layers of the earth.
      c. analyzing tree rings.
      d. analyzing seismic activity in history.
29. The statement in parenthesis in paragraph 3 means Baillie and Mackie
      a. are astronomers.
      b. do not believe what the astronomers say.
      c. have published theories and work which are relatively unknown by archaeologists.
      d. hold a different view to many other archaeologists.
30. Schaeffer's research showed that
      a. the destruction at the sites had been severe.
      b. the sites had not been destroyed by war.
      c. there was no evidence of humans causing the disasters.
      d. all of the above.

PART V: TRANSLATION (30 points)
Section A: Translate into good Chinese the underlined sentences only. (15%)
    We have known for a long time that the organization of any particular society is influenced by the definition of the sexes and the distinctions drawn between them. [1.]But we, have realized only recently that the identity of each sex is not so easy to pin down, and that definitions evolve in accordance with the different types of culture, known to us, scientific discoveries, and ideological revolutions. Our nature is not considered immutable, either socially or biologically. As we approach the end of the century, the substantial progress made in biology and genetics is radically changing the roles, responsibilities, and specific characteristics attributed to each sex; and yet, scarcely twenty years ago, these were thought to be "beyond dispute."
    We can safely say, with a few m/nor exceptions, that the definition, of the sexes and their respective functions remained unchanged in the West from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the 1960s. [2.] The role distinction, raised in some cases to the status of uncompromising dualism on a strongly hierarchical model, lasted throughout this period, appealing for its justification to nature, religion, and customs alleged to have existed since the dawn of time. The woman bore children and took care of the home. The man set out to conquer the world aim was responsible for the survival of his family, by satisfying their needs in peacetime and by going to war when necessary. [3.] The entire world order rested on the divergence of the sexes. Any overlapping or confusion between the roles was seen as a threat to the time-honored order of things. It was felt to he against nature, a deviation from the norm.
    [4.] The down of the third millennium is coinciding with an extraordinary reversal, in the power structure. [5.] Not only will the patriarchal system be dead and buried in most of the industrialized west but we shall see the birth of a new imbalance in the relations between the sexes. this time exclusively to women's advantage.
Section B：Translate into good English．(15％)
1．继续扩大国内需求，是当前应对亚洲金融危机和国际市场变化的正确选择，也是我国经济发展的基本立足点和长期战略方针。
2．中国务民族相互依存的政治，经济，文化联系，使其在长期的历史发展中有着共同的命运和共同的利益，产生了强固的亲合力，凝聚力。
3．当前正在进行以课程教材改革为核心的教育改革，改革的中心目标是变应试教育为素质教育。
4．中国的事情能不能办好，社会主义和改革开放能不能坚持，经济能不能快一点发尽起来，国家能不能长治久安，从一定意义上说，关键在人．
5.为了保证人们的起码的生活条件使公民富裕起来，中国唯一正确的选择就是努力发展经济，调整人口增长以适应国家社会和经济的发展。

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