2023年英语考博真题.docx

四川大学2023年博士硕士入学考试英语试题I.Reading Comprehension (30%; one mark each):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 OneOver 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 monkey, and a lizard. Seen at ground level, the designs area jumbled senseless mess. The images are so large that they can only be viewed at a height of 1,000 feet- 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 yon Daniken proposed that the lines were drawn by extraterrestrials as runways for their aircraft. The scientific community did not take long to scoffat and abandon yon Danikens 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 a direct result of the creation of the Internet. Currently there are over 60 sites dedicated to this mystery from Latin Americas 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?ALatin America has long received attention for unusual phenomena.BPublic attention is now directed towards countries like Peru.CPublic interest usually focuses on North America and EuropeDSome ancient civilizations have unsolved mysteries.2.According to the passage, the Nasa lines were foundAin mountainsB in stonesC on animalsD on a plain3.We can infer from the passage that the higher the lines are seen, the the images they present.Asmaller Blarger C clearerDbrighter4.There has been increasing interest in the Nazca lines mainly because of .Athe participation of scientistsBthe emergence of the InternetCthe birth of new theoriesDthe interest in the Internet5.The author is about the role of the Internet in solving mysteries.AcautiousBpessimisticC uncertainDoptimisticPassage TwoSocial circumstances in Early Modem England mostly served to repress womens voices. Patriarchal culture and institutions constructed them as chaste, silent, obedient, and subordinate. At the beginning of 17th century, the ideology of patriarchy, political absolutism, and gender hierarchy were reaffirmed powerfully by King James in The. Trew Law of Free Monarchic 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 womans 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 womens 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 17th 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 Jamess Consort) and her often oppositional masques and political activities. For another, most of these women had a reasonably good education (modem, languages, history, literature, religion, music, occasionally Latin) and some apparently found in romances and histories more expansive terms for imagining womens 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 womens nature and role.Most important, perhaps, was the radical potential inherent in the Protestant insistence on every Christians immediate relationship with God and primary responsibility to follow his or her individual conscience. There is plenty of support in St Pauls epistles and elsewhere in the Bible for patriarchy and a wifes subjection to her husband, but some texts (notably Galatians 3:28) inscribe a very different politics, promoting womens 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 17th 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?AWomens Position in the 17th Century.BWomens Subjection to Patriarchy.CSocial Circumstances in the 17th Century.DWomens Objection in the 17th Century.7.What did the Queen Elizabeth do-for the women in culture?AShe set an impressive female example to follow.BShe dominated the culture.CShe did little.DShe allowed Women to translate something.8.Which of the following is Not mentioned as a reason to enable women to original texts?AFemale communities provided some counterweight to patriarchy.BQueen Annes political activities.CMost women had a good education.DQueen Elizabeths political activities.9.What did the religion do for the women?AIt did nothing.BIt too asked women to be obedient except some texts.CIt supported women.DIt appealed to the God.10.What does the word apex mean in the last paragraph?Athe lowest point B the end C ultimate D summitPassage ThreeI 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 dont 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 wasnt sure if she understood me (I dont 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 wouldnt 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 lire& 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 didnt, of course.I have learned to defend myself against what is hard; without knowing it, 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 didnt cry.11.Which of the following in NOT correct?AThe writer was not used to bargaining.BPeople in Asia always bargain when buying things.CBargaining in Laos was quiet and peaceful.DThe writer was ready to bargain with the woman.12. The writer assumed that the woman accepted the last offer mainly because woman .Athought that the last offer was reasonableBthought she could still make much moneyCwas glad that the writer knew their way of bargainingDwas fired of bargaining with the writer any more 13.Why did the writer finally decide to buy three skirts?AThe skirts were cheap and pretty.BShe liked the patterns on the skirts.CShe wanted to do Something as compensation.DShe 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 .Ashe had learned to stay cool and unfeelingBshe was afraid of crying in publicCshe had learned to face difficulties bravelyDshe had to show in public that she was strong15.Why did the writer cry eventually when she looked at the skirts again?Ashe suddenly felt very sad.Bshe liked the ribbons so much.Cshe was overcome by emotion.DShe felt sorry for the woman.Passage FourWhen 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. Modem English has few .inflections. 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 maters 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 .Aattempt to continue the standardization of the languageBevaluate language practices in terms of current speech rather than standards or proper patternsCbe more concerned about the improvement of the