2012空军工程大学考博英语试题2【不是故意分开，实在文字太多】

Ⅲ.Reading comprehension (2*20)

Text A
America’s most relentless examiner, the Educational Testing Service, has developed computer software, known as E-Rater, to evaluate essays on the Graduate Management Admission Test. Administered to 200,000 business school applicants each year, the GMAT includes two 30-minute essays that test takers type straight into a computer. In the past, those essays were graded on a six-point scale by two readers. This month, the computer will replace one of the readers with the proviso that a second reader will be consulted if the computer and human-reader scores differ by more then a point.
It’s one thing for a machine to determine whether a bubble has been correctly filled in, but can it read outside the lines, so to speak? Well, yes and no. E-Rater “learns” what constitutes good and bad answers from a sample of pregraded essays. Using that information, it breaks the essay down to its syntax, organization and contents. The software checks basics like subject-verb agreement and recognizes phrases and sentence structures that are likely to be found in high-scoring essays.
Of course, the machine cannot “get” a clever turn of phrase or an unusual analogy. “If I’m unique, I might not fall under the scoring instructions,” concedes Frederic McHale, a vice president at the GMAT Council. One the other hand, E-Rater is mercilessly objective and never tired halfway through a stack of essays. The upshot: a pretrial tests, E-Rater and a human reader were just as likely to agree as were two readers. “It’s not intended to judge a person’s creativity,” says Darrel Laham, co-developer of the Intelligent Essay Assessor, a computer-grading system similar to E-Rater. “It’s to give students a chance to construct a response instead of just pointing at a bubble.”
That won’t reassure traditionalists, who argue that writing simply can’t be reduced to rigid adjective plus subject plus verb formulations. “Writing is a human act, with aesthetic dimensions that computers can only begin to understand,” says David Schaafsman, a professor of English education at Teachers Colleges of Columbia University. The Kaplan course, a leader in test prep, has taken a more pragmatic approach: it has issued a list of strategies for “the age of the computerized essay.” One of its tips: use transitional phrases like “therefore”, and the computers just might think you’re Dickens.
51. E-Rater is described as __________.
A. a substitute for GMAT
B. America’s most relentless examiner
C. a machine to grade bubble-filling papers
D. a computer-grading system
52. In paragraph two, the expression “read outside the lines” refers to the ability to __________.
A. understand student essays
B. report scores
C. recognize a wrong bubble
D. judge a person’s creativity
53. Frederic McHale implies that if the test taker is unique, he would __________.
A. get a top grade
B. get an average grade
C. be at an advantage
D. be at a disadvantage
54. It seems that Professor Schaafsman agrees with __________.
A. traditionalists B. Darrell Laham
C. supporters of E-Rater D. the Kplan course designers
55. What is the implied meaning of “the computer just might think you’re Dickens”?
A. It thinks you are great at tests.
B. It thinks you are doing great.
C. It thinks your essay is with great wording.
D. It thinks your essay is written by Dickens himself.

Text B
At some time in your life you may have a strong desire to do something strange or terrible. However, chances are that you don’t act on your impulse, but let it pass instead. You know that to commit the action is wrong in some way and that other people will not accept your behavior.
　　Perhaps the most interesting thing about the phenomenon of taboo behavior is how it can change over the years within the same society, how certain behavior and attitudes once considered taboo can become perfectly acceptable and natural at another point in time. Topics such as death, for example, were once considered so upsetting and unpleasant that it was a taboo to even talk about them. Now with the publication of important books such as On Death and Dying and Learning to Say Goodbye, people have become more aware of the importance of expressing feelings about death and, as a result, are more willing to talk about this taboo subject.
　　One of the newest taboos in American society is the topic of fat. Unlike many other taboos, fat is topic that Americans talk about constantly. It’s not taboo to talk about fat; it’s taboo to be fat. The “in” look is thin, not fat. In the work world, most companies prefer youthful-looking, trim executives to sell their image as well as their products to the public. The thin look is associated with youth, vigor, and success. The fat person, on the other hand, is thought of as lazy and lacking in energy, self-discipline, and self-respect. In an image-conscious society like the U.S., thin is “in”, fat is “out”.
　　It’s not surprising, then, that millions of Americans have become obsessed with staying slim and “in shape”. The pursuit of a youthful physical appearance is not, however, the sole reason for America’s fascination with diet and exercise. Recent research has shown the critical importance of diet and exercise for personal health. As in most technologically developed nations, the life-style of North Americans has changed dramatically during the course of the last century. Modern machines do all the physical labor that people were once forced to do by hand. Cars and buses transport us quickly from point to point. As a result of inactivity and disuse, people’s bodies can easily become weak and vulnerable to disease. In an effort to avoid such a fate, millions of Americans are spending more of their time exercising.
56. From the passage we can infer taboo is__.
A. a strong desire to do something strange or terrible.
B. a crime committed on impulse.
C. behavior considered unacceptable in society’s eyes.
D. an unfavorable impression left on other people.
57. Based on the ideas presented in the passage we can conclude “being fat” __ in American society.
A. will always remain a taboo.
B. is not considered a taboo by most people.
C. has long been a taboo.
D. may no longer be a taboo some day.
58. The topic of fat is __ many other taboo subjects.
A. the same as
B. different from
C. more popular than
D. less often talked about than.
59. Apart from this new understanding of the correlation between health and exercise, the main reason the passage gives for why so many Americans are exercising regularly is__.
A. their changed life-style.
B. their eagerness to stay thin and youthful.
C. their appreciation of the importance of exercise.
D. the encouragement they have received from their companies.

Text C
A 1990 United Nations survey revealed that the more highly developed countries spend an average of 2to 3 percent of their annual budgets on crime control, while developing countries spend even more, an average of 9 to 14 percent. Increasing the size of the police force and providing it with better equipment takes priority in some localities. But results are mixed. Some Hungarian citizens complain: “There are never enough policemen to catch the criminals but always enough to catch traffic violators.”
Many governments have recently found it necessary to pass tougher crime laws. For example, since “kidnapping is on the rise across Latin America,” says Time magazine, the governments there have responded with laws that are “at once vigorous and ineffectual… Passing laws is one thing,” it admits, “applying them another.”
It is estimated that in Britain more than 100,000 neighborhood watch schemes, covering at least four million homes, existed in 1992. Similar programs were implemented in Australia in the mid-1980s. Their aim, says the Australian Institute of Criminology, is to reduce crime “by improving citizens’ awareness about public safety, by improving residents’ attitudes and behavior in reporting crime and suspicious events in the neighborhood and by reducing vulnerability to crime with the help of property identification and installation of effective security devices.”
Closed-circuit television is used in some places to link police stations with commercial premises. Video cameras are used by police, banks, and stores as a crime deterrent or as a tool for identifying lawbreakers.
In Nigeria the police have checkpoints on highways in efforts to apprehend robbers and carjackers. The government has set up a task force on trade malpractices to combat fraud. Police-community relations committees made up of community leaders inform the police of criminal activity and people of questionable character.
Visitors to the Philippines note that homes are generally not left unattended and that many people have watchdogs. Businessmen employ private security guards to protect their businesses. Anti-theft devices for cars sell well. People who can afford to do so withdraw to tightly secured subdivisions or condominiums.
The London newspaper the independent commented: “As confidence in the rule of law falls, citizens are organizing the defense of their own communities in increasing numbers.” And more and more people are arming themselves. In the United States, for example, it is estimated that every second household owns at least one gun.
Governments are constantly developing new methods of combating crime. But V. Vsevolodov, of the Academy of Home Affairs in Ukraine, points out that according to UN sources, so many gifted people are finding “unique methods of carrying on criminal activity” that “the training of law enforcement personnel” cannot keep up. Clever criminals funnel huge sums of money back into businesses and social services, merging with society and “gaining for themselves high positions in society.”

60. What is the main reason for citizens to take in hand the defense of themselves?
A. there are not enough policemen
B. they do not trust the rule of law
C. the police force is inefficient
D. security devices do not work
61. A neighborhood watch scheme will probably do all the following EXCEPT ___________
A. helping to install anti-theft devices
B. raising citizens’ consciousness of community safety
C. helping citizens to claim a lost property
D. encouraging citizens to report suspicious events
62. According to the author, the outlook for ending crime is _______________
A. rosy
B. unclear
C. hard to describe
D. bleak
63. According to the Time Magazine, the measures taken by governments in Latin America _____________.
A. will have much effect at once
B. focuses on increasing the size of the police force
C. are intended to catch more traffic violators
D. are seemingly strong but will have little effect

Text D
It has been known for many decades that the appearance of sunspots is roughly periodic, with an average cycle of eleven years. Moreover, the incidence of solar flares and the flux of solar cosmic rays, ultraviolet radiation, and X-radiation all vary directly with the sunspot cycle. But after more than a century of investigation, the relation of these and other phenomena, known collectively as the solar-activity cycle, to terrestrial weather and climate remains unclear. For example, the sunspot cycle and the allied magnetic-polarity cycle have been linked to periodicities discerned in records of such variables as rainfall, temperature, and winds. Invariably, however, the relation is weak, and commonly of dubious statistical significance.
Effects of solar variability over longer terms have also been sought. The absence of recorded sunspot activity in the notes kept by European observers in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries has led some scholars to postulate a brief cessation of sunspot activity at that time (a period called the Maunder minimum). The Maunder minimum has been linked to a span of unusual cold in Europe extending from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. The reality of the Maunder minimum has yet to be established, however, especially since the records that Chinese naked-eye observers of solar activity made at that time appear to contradict it. Scientists have also sought evidence of long-term solar periodicities by examining indirect climatological data, such as fossil records of the thickness of ancient tree rings. These studies, however, failed to link unequivocally terrestrial climate and the solar-activity cycle, or even to confirm the cycle’s past existence.
If consistent and reliable geological or archaeological evidence tracing the solar-activity cycle in the distant past could be found, it might also resolve an important issue in solar physics: how to model solar activity. Currently, there are two models of solar activity. The first supposes that the Sun’s internal motions (caused by rotation and convection) interact with its large-scale magnetic field to produce a dynamo, a device in which mechanical energy is converted into the energy of a magnetic field. In short, the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field is taken to be self-sustaining, so that the solar-activity cycle it drives would be maintained with little overall change for perhaps billions of years. The alternative explanation supposes that the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field is a remnant of the field the Sun acquired when it formed, and is not sustained against decay. In this model, the solar mechanism dependent on the Sun’s magnetic field runs down more quickly. Thus, the characteristics of the solar-activity cycle could be expected to change over a long period of time. Modern solar observations span too short a time to reveal whether present cyclical solar activity is a long-lived feature of the Sun, or merely a transient phenomenon.

64. The author focuses primarily on ______________ .
A. two competing scientific models concerning the sun’s magnetic field
B. an overview of some recent scientific developments in solar physics
C. the reasons why a problem in solar physics has not yet been solved
D. the difficulties involved in linking terrestrial climate with solar activity
65. According to the passage, for which of the following reasons are the late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Chinese records important?
A. They contradict the theory of the Maunder minimum
B. They suggest that the Maunder minimum cannot be related to climate
C. They verify the existence of a span of unusual cold worldwide during the Maunder minimum
D. They show that the European observations are of dubious statistical significance
66. On which of the following assumptions is based the belief that tree-ring thicknesses show links between solar periodicity and terrestrial climate?
A. Solar-activity cycle existed in its present form during the period in question
B. Average tree-ring thickness varies from species to species
C. Tree-ring thickness varies with changes in terrestrial climate
D. Both terrestrial climate and solar-activity cycle randomly affect tree-ring thickness

Text E
The first time I saw Stephen Leacock at close quarters he came swinging into a classroom in Moyse Hall, the serenely ugly old Arts Building of McGill University in Montreal. The room was packed with undergraduates like me who had come with huge curiosity to listen to their first lecture on political science by a man whose humorous writing had rocked the English-speaking world with laughter, but who was a campus character for very different reasons.
Leacock enjoyed a reputation for eccentricity and for an impish individualism that expressed itself in blunt speech on every subject. Naturally we looked him carefully.
What we saw was a shock of graying hair crowning a rugged face that wore a friendly smile, emphasized by crinkles of mirth about the eyes. I remember thinking, “He could use a haircut.” His necktie had slipped its moorings, and his tweedy suit looked slept-in. Across his vest his watch chain had come apart in the middle and had been put together with a safety pin. The effect was of a man who gave no thought to his appearance. But his manner was far too buoyant to suggest the absent-minded professor.
His apparel was topped by one of those loose, black gowns professors wore in those days. Leacock’s had been acquired about the time he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1903. Even though the garment was showing signs of wear in 1914, it was still one of the essential properties of his play-acting. At least a dozen times during every lecture it would slip off his shoulders and seize him by the crook of his elbows. Without pause in the flow of talk and motion——he was a walking lecturer——a great shrug of the shoulders would hoist the gown part way into place.
Leacock was tremendously proud of his Chicago Ph. D., but it was inescapably in character that he must spoof it. “The meaning of this degree,” he quipped in a lecture, “is that the recipient has been examined for the last time in his life and pronounced full. After this, no new ideas can be imparted to him.” In similar vein, after returning from a holiday abroad he told his class, “I was sitting quietly in my cabin when a steward knocked and, after making sure I am called Doctor, asked if I would come and look at the stewardess’s knee. I was off like a shot, but another fellow got there ahead of me. He was a Doctor of Divinity.”
What came through to me, even in the first lecture, was Leacock’s warmth and humanness. I knew I was listening to a man who loved young people and was determined to give them as much wisdom as he could. His teaching methods were unconventional. He couldn’t resist the temptation to explore bypaths. In discussing the days of Queen Victoria, he mentioned Disraeli, and this set him off to talk about the man rather than the Prime Minister——his way of living, his quick mind, his dilettantism, his great love affair with his wife. The digression lifted the great statesman into a framework of his own and, when Leacock returned to the main line of his subject, the listener understood, in a way no textbook could inform him, how such a man could bring off the coup which gave Britain control of the Suez Canal and made the Empire impregnable for decades to come.
67. Stephen Leacock could be described as all the following EXCEPT _____________.
A. careless about his appearance
B. witty and eloquent
C. an inspiring professor
D. an absent-minded person
68. Leacock’s account of being summoned to look at a stewardess’s knee _________________.
A. tells us that he was always ready to help others
B. indicates that he was an incompetent doctor
C. reveals that he was very proud of his degree
D. shows that he could playful sometimes
69. Speaking of Disraeli, a conventional professor would probably have ______________.
A. focused on his accomplishments as a statesman
B. talked about his family life
C. explored the little-known aspects of the person
D. looked at him from a fresh perspective
70. Which of the following statements about Disraeli is NOT true?
A. Disraeli once served as Prime Minister in the days of Queen Victoria.
B. Disraeli was the biggest shareholder of the Suez Canal Company
C. Disraeli contributed to making the British Empire the most powerful country
D. Disraeli was instrumental in Britain’s successful control of the Suez Canal

Ⅳ.Translation (15’)
Chinese-to- English translation. (8’)
澳门在地理位置上靠近港、台地区及东南亚各国。气候温暖湿润，岛上山冈起伏、草木茂盛，又拥有天然海水和沙滩。这些优越的自然条件加上大量名胜古迹和博彩业的存在，使得澳门的旅游博彩业快速地发展起来，自20世纪50年代以来逐渐成为澳门的四大经济支柱之一。据统计，来澳旅游的人数在1965年突破百万大关后，扶摇直上，1995年达到800万，是其居民数的20倍！进入90年代以来，由于占第一位的出口加工工业遇到结构调整等压力而出现萎缩，旅游博彩业的重要性便越发突出，现已占到其财政收入的一半以上。
然而，据当地报刊报道，澳门的旅游业过于依赖博彩业的带动，人们过去并没有重视澳门独特的历史文化遗产在发展旅游业中所能起到的作用，澳葡当局对文化建设基本上也是持放任态度的。
English -to- Chinese translation. (7’)
The next revolution of technology isn’t for the hackers and geeks. It’s more like to rise up in the rinse cycle of Internet dishwashers, to heat up in connected coffee makers, to accelerate in the Web-surfing family sedan and to stare back at you from your biometric bathroom mirror. Some call it the Post-PC movement. Your home, for instance, will probably have one ore more items directly hot-wired to the Internet: a set-top television box or a game console. Your automatic coffee maker will have access to your online schedule, so if you’re out of town it’ll withhold the brew. Like virtually every other major appliance in your home, its Internet connection will be used to contact the manufacturer if something goes wrong.

Ⅴ.Writing. (15’)
A higher degree, bachelor, master or above, is regarded by some as a sure means of achieving success. How far do you agree or disagree with the view? Write a passage of about 150 words.
Is A Higher Degree a Sure Way To Success?
In the first part, you should present your theme, and in the second part you should support it with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriacy.

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