江西师范大学学位英语.doc

English Examination for Master Students
Part one：Listening comprehension（15%）
Section A：Compound Dictation (10points)
In this part, you will hear a passage three times. Listen carefully and fill in the missing words. For the first time, listen carefully and try your best to understand. For the second time, write down what you hear on the tape. For the third time, check your answer. (10 points)
Thank you. Chances are if you've surfed the web you've used the search engines Google and Yahoo. But, here is something you might not know. Behind every search is a fierce battle for advertising dollars and so far, Google is winning the war. More now from CNBC's Carl Quintanilla:
It's become a research ritual, find something, anything you are interested in and google it. Enough of the habit for millions of web users that other Internet icons are now getting hurt. This week, Yahoo, one of the web's (1)________ poster children, said competition from Google is affecting its ability to make money. And experts like David Vise, co-author of a new book on Google, say the company is the (2)________ breakthrough in media since the printing (3)________.
“It's very rare, that ur, we have a, something happen in our（4）________ and we know at that very moment that it’s history. You go anywhere in the world today and people are (5)________.”
Google and Yahoo make money from those ads you see every time you do a search. The industry has estimated to hit 12 billion dollars by the year (6)_____ But so far no other sites can catch Google or its high-flying stock, which approached 500 dollars a share recently, making celebrities out of the two Stanford University dropouts, who (7)________ Google just eight years ago.
“We are on a quest to build a better search engine.” But some say the enthusiasm is overdone that Google is not invincible, noting its stock fell this week when other tech companies（8）_______ _______ _______.
“It's gonna be interesting to see whether Google will blow the doors off. They were, as estimated, like it did last quarter, or whether it too is going to disappoint investors like (9)_______ _______ _______.”
Both Google and Yahoo are now branching into other areas like cell phones, letting users conduct searches (10)________ ________________________. Which means the battle of the Internet titans is far from over, and being fought with every click you make.
For Today, Carl Quintanilla, NBC News, New York.
Section B：Note taking (5 points)
In this part, you will hear a passage twice. After the first time, there will be a pause of 30 seconds. Please try your best to write down the main idea and 4 details of the passage. Then listen again and check your answer.
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 Part Two：Reading comprehension（20%）
In this part, you will read two passages. The first passage is followed by 5 questions. You are required to choose the best answer to each question according to the passage. For the second passage, you are required to answer each question with no more than 12 words.
Passage one
In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of only three players in the National Basketball Association （NBA） listed at over seven feet. If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.
The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today’s people- especially those born to families who have lived in the U.S. for many generations —— apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s And they aren’t likely to get any taller. In the general population today, at this genetic, environmental level, we’ve pretty much gone as far as we can go, says anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright State University. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the world.
Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demands calories and nutrients —— notably, protein ——to feed expanding tissues. At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average height —— 5′9〞for men, 5′4〞for women —— hasn’t really changed since 1960.
Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the individual organism, says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University.
Genetic maximums can change, but don’t expect this to happen soon. Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass, ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, you could use today’s data and feel fairly confident. (441w)
Questions:
　　16. Wilt Chamberlain is cited as an example to
　　[A] illustrate the change of height of NBA players.
　　[B] show the popularity of NBA players in the U.S..
　　[C] compare different generations of NBA players.
　　[D] assess the achievements of famous NBA players.
　　17. Which of the following plays a key role in body growth according to the text？
　　[A] Genetic modification.
　　[B] Natural environment.
　　[C] Living standards.
　　[D] Daily exercise.
　　18. On which of the following statements would the author most probably agree？
　　[A] Non-Americans add to the average height of the nation.
　　[B] Human height is conditioned by the upright posture.
　　[C] Americans are the tallest on average in the world.
　　[D] Larger babies tend to become taller in adulthood.
　　19. We learn from the last paragraph that in the near future
　　[A] the garment industry will reconsider the uniform size.
　　[B] the design of military uniforms will remain unchanged.
　　[C] genetic testing will be employed in selecting sportsmen.
　　[D] the existing data of human height will still be applicable.
　　20. The text intends to tell us that
　　[A] the change of human height follows a cyclic pattern.
　　[B] human height is becoming even more predictable.
　　[C] Americans have reached their genetic growth limit.
　　[D] the genetic pattern of Americans has altered.
Passage Two (10’)
With most of Wal-Mart's workers earning less than $19,000 a year, a number of community groups and lawmakers have recently teamed up with labor unions in mounting an intensive campaign aimed at prodding Wal-Mart into paying its 1.3 million employees higher wages.
A new group of Wal-Mart critics ran a full-page advertisement on April 20 contending that the company's low pay had forced tens of thousands of its workers to resort to food stamps and Medicaid, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. On April 26, as part of a campaign called "Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart," five members of Congress joined women's advocates and labor leaders to assail the company for not paying its female employees more.
And in a book to be published this fall, a group of scholars will argue that Wal-Mart Stores, having replaced General Motors as the nation's largest company, has an obligation to treat its employees better.
Among workers at Wal-Mart's 3,700 stores across the United States, the debate is also heating up.

Frances Browning, for example, once earned $15 a hour, but now at Wal-Mart, where she is a cashier in Roswell, Ga., she is paid $9.43. She says she is happy to have the job.
"I was unemployed for two and a half years before I found my job at Wal-Mart," Ms. Browning, 57, said. "Like everybody else I'd love to make a lot more, but I have to be realistic."
But Jason Mrkwa, 27, a high school graduate who stocks frozen food at a Wal-Mart in Independence, Kan., maintains that he is underpaid. "I make $8.53, even though every one of my evaluations has been above standard," Mr. Mrkwa said. "You can't really live on this."
Labor groups and their allies are focusing on Wal-Mart because they say that the campaign will not just benefit its workers but also reduce the existing pressure on unionized competitors to reduce their own wages and benefits.
"Wal-Mart should pay people at a minimum enough to go above the U.S. poverty line," said Andrew Grossman, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, the coalition of community, environmental and labor groups running the series of ads criticizing Wal-Mart. "A company this big and this wealthy has the ability to pay higher wages."
H. Lee Scott Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, vigorously defends his company, arguing that wages are primarily determined by market forces and that Wal-Mart pays more than most retailers and provides better opportunities for advancement. "If people tell you that Wal-Mart is leading the so-called 'race to the bottom' in terms of job quality or pay, they're not only wrong, they're dead wrong," he said to journalists at a company-sponsored conference here in April, the first time Wal-Mart has gone out of its way to invite a number of reporters to its headquarters to hear its views. "We are instead creating a better workplace with more opportunity and more benefits than have been available in retail." Mr. Scott contends that the critics, including competitors, are defenders of an outdated status quo, intent on upholding a retailing system full of inefficiency and inflated prices. He said that if Wal-Mart were as greedy as its detractors say, it would never have attracted 8,000 job applicants for 525 places at a new store in Glendale, Ariz., or 3,000 applicants for 300 jobs in outlying Los Angeles.
Michael T. Duke, chief of the company's stores division, said, "Wal-Mart is a very good place to work for our associates, and every day we make it even better."
Mr. Mrkwa, the food stocker, does not see it that way. With pay that brings him about $20,000 a year, he said he could not afford a decent apartment or a vehicle better than his 1991 Dodge Dakota. "I don't see why Wal-Mart can't pay more," Mr. Mrkwa said. "Unfortunately, in the market we live in there just aren't many jobs available."
Wal-Mart says its full-time workers average $9.68 an hour, and with many of them working 35 hours a week, their annual pay comes to around $17,600. That is below the $19,157 poverty line for a family of four, but above the $15,219 line for a family of three.
Wal-Mart critics often note that corporations like Ford and G.M. led a race to the top, providing high wages and generous benefits that other companies emulated. They ask why Wal-Mart, with some $10 billion in profit on about $288 billion in revenue last year, cannot act similarly.
"Henry Ford made sure he paid his workers enough so that they could afford to buy his cars," said William McDonough, executive vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. "Wal-Mart is doing the polar opposite of Henry Ford. Wal-Mart brags about how its low prices help poor Americans, but its low wages are helping increase the number of Americans in poverty."
Mr. Scott argues that retailers, with narrow profit margins, face a different competitive situation and cannot afford to be as generous to their workers as automakers and other capital-intensive companies.
"Some well-meaning critics," he said, "believe that Wal-Mart, because of our size, should play the role that General Motors played after World War II, and that is to establish the post-world-war middle class that the country is so proud of. The facts are that retailing doesn't perform that role in the economy as G.M. does or did. Retailing doesn't perform that role in any country in the world."
Many of those assailing Wal-Mart argue that the company can, and should, pay its workers at least $2 more an hour and add $1 or $2 an hour beyond that to improve its health benefits. A Harvard Business School study found that Wal-Mart paid $3,500 a year for each employee for health care, while the typical American corporation paid $5,600. （961w）
Questions:
21. What is the main idea of the passage you have just read?
22. A campaign called "Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart," blamed Wal-Mart for________.
23. What other companies are also mentioned when talking about Wal-Mart in the passage?
24. The tone of this passage can be described as________.
25. The word “assailing” might mean________.
Part Three：Translation（20%）
In this part, you are required to translate 1 short passages from English into Chinese (10 points) and 1 passages from Chinese into English.(10points)
Passage 1
26. What do New York City and Las Vegas have in common? According to a recent survey, they're both among the hippest places in the world. In fact, the Big Apple and Sin City are the two coolest cities in the US, tied for the No. 1 spot in annual measure of America's Coolest Cities. New York has topped the list of coolest cities for three years running --- it's sharing the top spot for the very first time. The fact that it attracts 47 million visitors annually shows that Americans regard the metro highly. New York isn't only the country's largest city; it's the one with the most restaurants, museums, sports venues, bars and theaters. Few could deny that it generates buzz around the globe. (126W)
Passage 2
27. 大学文凭一直是找到一份好工作的敲门砖，但几十年来最严重的经济衰退却击碎了众多美国高校应届毕业生的梦想。今年美国的应届大学毕业生数量预计将160万，近年来这一数字呈稳步增长趋势。很多应届毕业生在离开学校之际希望可以独立谋生，并且希望能够偿还平均2.25万美元的助学贷款。很多毕业生打算直接读研，在等待经济危机结束的同时给自己充电，这在一定程度上造成申请硕士学位的人数大幅上升。(182W)
Part Four: Writing（25%）
1. Practical Writing (10’)
Directions: You are going to write a WANTED advertisement. The following requirement given in Chinese is for your reference.（no less than 80 words）
邀请函须涵盖下列主要信息：
1   江西师大外语学院特邀请罗杰博士出席2011年6月26日（星期日）早八点在院会议室召开的学术年会并作演讲
2  告诉罗杰博士江西师大外语学院对20世纪的英国文学颇感兴趣
3  我们将随后把有关细节通知罗杰博士，请他尽快予以答复，以便做出安排

Section B (15’)
Directions: In this part, you are required to write a composition based on the title Advantages and Disadvantages of Cell Phones and the outline given below. It should be no less than 150 word