2016年全国硕士研究生招生考试

研考 英语二 试卷条形码

英语二

(科目代码: 204)

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Directions:

Section I Use of English

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B,

C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Happy people work differently. They’re more productive, more creative, and willing

to take greater risks. And new research suggests that happiness might influence 1

firms work, too.

Companies located in places with happier people invest more, according to a recent

research paper. 2 firms in happy places spend more on R&D ( research and

development ). That’s because happiness is linked to the kind of longer-term thinking 3

for making investments for the future.

The researchers wanted to know if the 4 and inclination for risk-taking that

come with happiness would 5 the way companies invested. So they compared U.S.

cities’ average happiness 6 by Gallup polling with the investment activity of

publicly traded firms in those areas.

7 enough, firms’ investment and R&D intensity were correlated with the

happiness of the area in which they were 8 . But is it really happiness that’s linked to

investment, or could something else about happier cities

9

why firms there spend

more on R&D? To find out, the researchers controlled for various

10

that might

make firms more likely to invest — like size, industry, and sales — and for indicators

that a place was 11

to live in, like growth in wages or population. The link between

happiness and investment generally

12 even after accounting for these things.

The correlation between happiness and investment was particularly strong for

younger firms, which the authors 13 to “less codified decision making process” and

the possible presence of “younger and less 14 managers who are more likely to be

influenced by sentiment.” The relationship was 15 stronger in places where

happiness was spread more 16 . Firms seem to invest more in places where most

people are relatively happy, rather than in places with happinessinequality.

17 this doesn’t prove that happiness causes firms to invest more or to take a

longer-term view, the authors believe it at least 18 at that possibility. It’s not hard to

imagine that local culture and sentiment would help

19 how executives think about

英语(二)真题 -1-(共 13 页)

the future. “It surely seems plausible that happy people would be more forward-thinking

and creative and

20

R&D more than the average,” said one researcher.

1. [A]. why

[B]. where

[C]. how

[D]. when

2. [A]. In return

[B]. In particular

[C]. In contrast

[D]. In conclusion

3. [A]. sufficient

[B]. famous

[C]. perfect

[D]. necessary

4. [A]. individualism

[B]. modernism

[C]. optimism

[D]. realism

5. [A]. echo

[B]. miss

[C]. spoil

[D]. change

6. [A]. imagined

[B]. measured

[C]. invented

[D]. assumed

7. [A]. Sure

[B]. Odd

[C]. Unfortunate

[D]. Often

8. [A]. advertised

[B]. divided

[C]. overtaxed

[D]. headquartered

9. [A]. explain

[B]. overstate

[C]. summarize

[D]. emphasize

10. [A]. stages

[B]. factors

[C]. levels

[D]. methods

11. [A]. desirable

[B]. sociable

[C]. reputable

[D]. reliable

12. [A]. resumed

[B]. held

[C]. emerged

[D]. broke

13. [A]. attribute

[B]. assign

[C]. transfer

[D]. compare

14. [A]. serious

[B]. civilized

[C]. ambitious

[D]. experienced

15. [A]. thus

[B]. instead

[C]. also

[D]. never

16. [A]. rapidly

[B]. regularly

[C]. directly

[D]. equally

17. [A]. After

[B]. Until

[C]. While

[D]. Since

18. [A]. arrives

[B]. jumps

[C]. hints

[D]. strikes

19. [A]. shape

[B]. rediscover

[C]. simplify

[D]. share

20. [A]. pray for

[B]. lean towards

[C]. give away

[D]. send out

Part A

Directions:

Section II Reading Comprehension

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, Cor

D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

英语(二)真题 -2-(共 13 页)

Text 1

It’s true that high-school coding classes aren’t essential for learning computer

science in college. Students without experience can catch up after a few introductory

courses, said Tom Cortina, the assistant dean at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer

Science.

However, Cortina said, early exposure is beneficial. When younger kids learn

computer science, they learn that it’s not just a confusing, endless string of letters and

numbers — but a tool to build apps, or create artwork, or test hypotheses. It’s not as hard

for them to transform their thought processes as it is for older students. Breaking down

problems into bite-sized chunks and using code to solve them becomes normal. Giving

more children this training could increase the number of people interested in the field and

help fill the jobs gap, Cortina said.

Students also benefit from learning something about coding before they get to

college, where introductory computer-science classes are packed to the brim, which can

drive the less-experienced or — determined students away.

The Flatiron School, where people pay to learn programming, started as one of the

many coding bootcamps that’s become popular for adults looking for a career change.

The high-schoolers get the same curriculum, but “we try to gear lessons toward things

they’re interested in,” said Victoria Friedman, an instructor. For instance, one of the apps

the students are developing suggests movies based on your mood.

The students in the Flatiron class probably won’t drop out of high school and build

the next Facebook. Programming languages have a quick turnover, so the “Ruby on Rails”

language they learned may not even be relevant by the time they enter the job market. But

the skills they learn — how to think logically through a problem and organize the results

— apply to any coding language, said Deborah Seehorn, an education consultant for the

state of North Carolina.

Indeed, the Flatiron students might not go into IT at all. But creating a future army of

coders is not the sole purpose of the classes. These kids are going to be surrounded by

computers — in their pockets, in their offices, in their homes — for the rest of their lives.

The younger they learn how computers think, how to coax the machine into producing

what they want — the earlier they learn that they have the power to do that — the better.

英语(二)真题 -3-(共 13 页)

21. Cortina holds that early exposure to computer science makes it easier to

.

A. complete future job training

B. remodel the way of thinking

C. formulate logical hypotheses

D. perfect artwork production

22. In delivering lessons for high-schoolers, Flatiron has considered their

.

A. experience

B. academic backgrounds

C. career prospects

D. interest

23. Deborah Seehorn believes that the skills learned at Flatiron will

.

A. help students learn other computer languages

B. have to be upgraded when new technologies come

C. need improving when students look for jobs

D. enable students to make big quick money

24. According to the last paragraph, Flatiron students are expected to

.

A. compete with a future army of programmers

B. stay longer in the information technology industry

C. become better prepared for the digitalized world

D. bring forth innovative computer technologies

25. The word “coax” (Line 4, Para. 6) is closest in meaning to

.

A. challenge

B. persuade

C. frighten

D. misguide

Text 2

Biologists estimate that as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens—a kind of bird

living on stretching grasslands—once lent red to the often grey landscape of the

midwestern and southwestern United States. But just some 22,000 birds remain today,

occupying about 16% of the species’ historic range.

英语(二)真题 -4-(共 13 页)

The crash was a major reason the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided

to formally list the bird as threatened. “The lesser prairie chicken is in a desperate

situation,” said USFWS Director Daniel Ashe. Some environmentalists, however, were

disappointed. They had pushed the agency to designate the bird as “endangered”, a status

that gives federal officials greater regulatory power to crack down on threats. But Ashe

and others argued that the “threatened” tag gave the federal government flexibility to try

out new, potentially less confrontational conservation approaches. In particular, they

called for forging closer collaborations with western state governments, which are often

uneasy with federal action, and with the private landowners who control an estimated

95% of the prairie chicken’s habitat.

Under the plan, for example, the agency said it would not prosecute landowners or

businesses that unintentionally kill, harm, or disturb the bird, as long as they had signed a

range-wide management plan to restore prairie chicken habitat. Negotiated by USFWS

and the states, the plan requires individuals and businesses that damage habitat as part of

their operations to pay into a fund to replace every acre destroyed with 2 new acres of

suitable habitat. The fund will also be used to compensate landowners who set aside

habitat. USFWS also set an interim goal of restoring prairie chicken populations to an

annual average of 67,000 birds over the next 10 years. And it gives the Western

Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), a coalition of state agencies, the

job of monitoring progress. Overall, the idea is to let “states remain in the driver’s seat for

managing the species,” Ashe said.

Not everyone buys the win-win rhetoric. Some Congress members are trying to

block the plan, and at least a dozen industry groups, four states, and three environmental

groups are challenging it in federal court. Not surprisingly, industry groups and states

generally argue it goes too far; environmentalists say it doesn’t go far enough. “The

federal government is giving responsibility for managing the bird to the same industries

that are pushing it to extinction,” says biologist Jay Lininger.

26. The major reason for listing the lesser prairie chicken as threatened is

.

A. its drastically decreased population

B. the underestimate of the grassland acreage

C. a desperate appeal from some biologists

英语(二)真题 -5-(共 13 页)

D. the insistence of private landowners

27. The “threatened” tag disappointed some environmentalists in that it

.

A. was a give-in to governmental pressure

B. would involve fewer agencies in action

C. granted less federal regulatory power

D. went against conservation policies

28. It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that unintentional harm-doers will not be

prosecuted if they

.

A. agree to pay a sum for compensation

B. volunteer to set up an equally big habitat

C. offer to support the WAFWA monitoring job

D. promise to raise funds for USFWS operations

29. According to Ashe, the leading role in managing the speciesis

.

A. the federal government

B. the wildlife agencies

C. the landowners

D. the states

30. Jay Lininger would most likely support

.

A. industry groups

B. the win-win rhetoric

C. environmental groups

D. the plan under challenge

Text 3

That everyone’s too busy these days is a cliché. But one specific complaint is made

especially mournfully: There’s never any time to read.

What makes the problem thornier is that the usual time-management techniques

don’t seem sufficient. The web’s full of articles offering tips on making time to read:

“Give up TV” or “Carry a book with you at all times”. But in my experience, using such

methods to free up the odd 30 minutes doesn’t work. Sit down to read and the flywheel of

work-related thoughts keeps spinning— or else you’re so exhausted that a challenging

英语(二)真题 -6-(共 13 页)

book’s the last thing you need. The modern mind, Tim Parks, a novelist and critic, writes,

“is overwhelmingly inclined toward communication … It is not simply that one is

interrupted; it is that one is actually inclined to interruption.” Deep reading requires not

just time, but a special kind of time which can’t be obtained merely by becoming more

efficient.

In fact, “becoming more efficient” is part of the problem. Thinking of time as a

resource to be maximised means you approach it instrumentally, judging any given

moment as well spent only in so far as it advances progress toward some goal. Immersive

reading, by contrast, depends on being willing to risk inefficiency, goallessness, even

time-wasting. Try to slot it as a to-do list item and you’ll manage only goal-focused

reading-useful, sometimes, but not the most fulfilling kind. “The future comes at us like

empty bottles along an unstoppable and nearly infinite conveyor belt,” writes Gary Eberle

in his book Sacred Time, and “we feel a pressure to fill these different-sized bottles (days,

hours, minutes) as they pass, for if they get by without being filled, we will have wasted

them.” No mind-set could be worse for losing yourself in a book.

So what does work? Perhaps surprisingly, scheduling regular times for reading.

You’d think this might fuel the efficiency mind-set, but in fact, Eberle notes, such

ritualistic behaviour helps us “step outside time’s flow” into “soul time”. You could limit

distractions by reading only physical books, or on single-purpose e-readers. “Carry a

book with you at all times” can actually work, too — providing you dip in often enough,

so that reading becomes the default state from which you temporarily surface to take care

of business, before dropping back down. On a really good day, it no longer feels as if

you’re “making time to read”, but just reading, and making time for everything else.

31. The usual time-management techniques don’t work because

.

A. what they can offer does not ease the modern mind

B. what challenging books demand is repetitive reading

C. what people often forget is carrying a book with them

D. what deep reading requires cannot be guaranteed

32. The “empty bottles” metaphor illustrates that people feel a pressure to

.

A. update their to-do lists

B. make passing time fulfilling

英语(二)真题 -7-(共 13 页)

C. carry their plans through

D. pursue carefree reading

33. Eberle would agree that scheduling regular times for reading helps

.

A. encourage the efficiency mind-set

B. develop online reading habits

C. promote ritualistic reading

D. achieve immersive reading

34. “Carry a book with you at all times” can work if

.

A. reading becomes your primary business of the day

B. all the daily business has been promptly dealt with

C. you are able to drop back to business after reading

D. time can be evenly split for reading and business

35. The best title for this text could be

.

.

A. How to Enjoy Easy Reading

B. How to Find Time to Read

C. How to Set Reading Goals

D. How to Read Extensively

Text 4

Against a backdrop of drastic changes in economy and population structure,

youngest Americans are drawing a new 21st-century road map to success, a latest poll has

found.

Across generational lines, Americans continue to prize many of the same traditional

milestones of a successful life, including getting married, having children, owning a home,

and retiring in their sixties. But while young and old mostly agree on what constitutes the

finish line of a fulfilling life, they offer strikingly different paths for reaching it.

Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely than older adults

to prioritize personal fulfillment in their work, to believe they will advance their careers

most by regularly changing jobs, to favor communities with more public services and a

faster pace of life, to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting

英语(二)真题 -8-(共 13 页)

married or having children, and to maintain that children are best served by two parents

working outside the home, the survey found.

From career to community and family, these contrasts suggest that in the aftermath

of the searing Great Recession, those just starting out in life are defining priorities and

expectations that will increasingly spread through virtually all aspects of American life,

from consumer preferences to housing patterns to politics.

Young and old converge on one key point: Overwhelming majorities of both groups

said they believe it is harder for young people today to get started in life than it was for

earlier generations. While younger people are somewhat more optimistic than their elders

about the prospects for those starting out today, big majorities in both groups believe

those “just getting started in life” face a tougher climb than earlier generations in reaching

such signpost achievements as securing a good-paying job, starting a family, managing

debt, and finding affordable housing.

Pete Schneider considers the climb tougher today. Schneider, a 27-yaear-old auto

technician from the Chicago suburbs, says he struggled to find a job after graduating from

college. Even now that he is working steadily, he said, “I can’t afford to pay my monthly

mortgage payments on my own, so I have to rent rooms out to people to make that

happen.” Looking back, he is struck that his parents could provide a comfortable life for

their children even though neither had completed college when he was young. “I still

grew up in an upper middle-class home with parents who didn’t have college degrees,”

Schneider said, “I don’t think people are capable of that anymore.”

36. One cross-generation mark of a successful life is

.

A. trying out different lifestyles

B. having a family with children

C. working beyond retirement age

D. setting up a profitable business

37. It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that young people tend to

.

A. favor a slower life pace

B. hold an occupation longer

C. attach importance to pre-marital finance

D. give priority to childcare outside the home

英语(二)真题 -9-(共 13 页)

38. The priorities and expectations defined by the young will

.

A. become increasingly clear

B. focus on materialistic issues

C. depend largely on political preferences

D. reach almost all aspects of American life

39. Both young and old agree that

.

A. good-paying jobs are less available

B. the old made more life achievements

C. housing loans today are easy to obtain

D. getting established is harder for the young

40. Which of the following is true about Schneider?

A. He found a dream job after graduating from college.

B. His parents believe working steadily is a must for success.

C. His parents’ good life has little to do with a college degree.

D. He thinks his job as a technician quite challenging.

Part B

Directions:

Read the following text and answer the questions by choossing the most suitable

subheading from the list A—G for each of the numbered paragraphs (41—45). There are

two extra subheadings which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the

ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

[A]. Be silly

[B]. Have fun

[C]. Express your emotions

[D]. Don’t overthink it

[E]. Be easily pleased

[F]. Notice things

[G]. Ask for help

Act Your Shoe Size, Not Your Age

英语(二)真题 -10-(共 13 页)

As adults, it seems that we are constantly pursuing happiness, often with mixed

results. Yet children appear to have it down to an art—and for the most part they don’t

need self-help books or therapy. Instead, they look after their wellbeing instinctively, and

usually more effectively than we do as grownups. Perhaps it's time to learn a few lessons

from them.

41.

What does a child do when he’s sad? He cries. When he’s angry? He shouts. Scared?

Probably a bit of both. As we grow up, we learn to control our emotions so they are

manageable and don’t dictate our behaviours, which is in many ways a good thing. But

too often we take this process too far and end up suppressing emotions, especially

negative ones. That’s about as effective as brushing dirt under a carpet and can even make

us ill. What we need to do is find a way to acknowledge and express what we feel

appropriately, and then—again like children—move on.

42.

A couple of Christmases ago, my youngest stepdaughter, who was nine years old at

the time, got a Superman T-shirt for Christmas. It cost less than a fiver but she was

overjoyed, and couldn’t stop talking about it. Too often we believe that a new job, bigger

house or better car will be the magic silver bullet that will allow us to finally be content,

but the reality is these things have very little lasting impact on our happiness levels.

Instead, being grateful for small things every day is a much better way to improve

wellbeing.

43.

Have you ever noticed how much children laugh? If we adults could indulge in a bit

of silliness and giggling, we would reduce the stress hormones in our bodies, increase

good hormones like endorphins, improve blood flow to our hearts and even have a greater

chance of fighting off infection. All of which would, of course, have a positive effect on

our happiness levels.

44.

The problem with being a grownup is that there’s an awful lot of serious stuff to deal

with—work, mortgage payments, figuring out what to cook for dinner. But as adults we

also have the luxury of being able to control our own diaries and it’s important that we

英语(二)真题 -11-(共 13 页)

schedule in time to enjoy the things we love. Those things might be social, sporting,

creative or completely random (dancing around the living room, anyone?) —it doesn’t

matter, so long as they’re enjoyable, and not likely to have negative side effects, such as

drinking too much alcohol or going on a wild spending spree if you’re on a tight budget.

45.

Having said all of the above, it’s important to add that we shouldn’t try too hard to

be happy. Scientists tell us this can backfire and actually have a negative impact on our

wellbeing. As the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu is reported to have said: “Happiness

is the absence of striving for happiness.” And in that, once more, we need to look to the

example of our children, to whom happiness is not a goal but a natural byproduct of the

way they live.

46. Directions:

Section III Translation

Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation on the ANSWER

SHEET. (15 points)

The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as

possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store,

the more stuff you’ll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you’ll buy. And

supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food

Marketing Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens

of

thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a

state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so

much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of

shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin

shopping emotionally—which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff

in our cart that we never intended buying.

Part A

47. Directions:

Section Ⅳ Writing

英语(二)真题 -12-(共 13 页)

Suppose you won a translation contest and your friend, Jack, wrote an email to

congratulate you and ask for advice on translation. Write him a replay to

1) thank him, and

2) give your advice.

You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Do not sign your own name. Use “Li Ming” instead.

Do not write the address. (10 points)

Part B

48. Directions:

Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, you should

1) interpret the chart, and

2) give your comments.

You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET.(15points)

英语(二)真题 -13-(共 13 页)