1993年考研英语阅读真题及答案解析

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　　1993年考研英语阅读真题及答案解析

　　Section II Reading Comprehension

　　Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers marked [A], [B], [C], and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets. (30 points)

　　Text 1

　　Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the drastic experiment of Frederick II in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.

　　All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than lack of language here. What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.

　　Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again. A bird learns to sing and to fly rapidly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed.

　　Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words. At three he knows about 1,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar.

　　Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about mans brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a toy-bear with the sound pattern toy-bear. And even more incredible is the young brains ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyze, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.

　　But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the childs babbling (咿呀学语), grasping and smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the childs non-verbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.

　　31. The purpose of Frederick IIs experiment was ________.

　　[A] to prove that children are born with the ability to speak

　　[B] to discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech

　　[C] to find out what role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak

　　[D] to prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language

　　32. The reason some children are backward in speaking is most probably that ________.

　　[A] they are incapable of learning language rapidly

　　[B] they are exposed to too much language at once

　　[C] their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak

　　[D] their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them

　　33. What is exceptionally remarkable about a child is that ________.

　　[A] he is born with the capacity to speak

　　[B] he has a brain more complex than an animals

　　[C] he can produce his own sentences

　　[D] he owes his speech ability to good nursing

　　34. Which of the following can NOT be inferred from the passage?

　　[A] The faculty of speech is inborn in man.

　　[B] Encouragement is anything but essential to a child in language learning.

　　[C] The childs brain is highly selective.

　　[D] Most children learn their language in definite stages.

　　35. If a child starts to speak later than others, he will in future ________.

　　[A] have a high IQ

　　[B] be less intelligent

　　[C] be insensitive to verbal signals

　　[D] not necessarily be backward

　　Text 2

　　In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic (官僚主义的) management in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and human-relations experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue- and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.

　　The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.

　　Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the tight mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again -- by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than ones fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness.

　　Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production or to nineteenth-century free enterprise capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities -- those of love and of reason -- are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.

　　36. By a well-oiled cog in the machinery the author intends to render the idea that man is ________.

　　[A] a necessary part of the society though each individuals function is negligible

　　[B] working in complete harmony with the rest of the society

　　[C] an unimportant part in comparison with the rest of the society, though functioning smoothly

　　[D] a humble component of the society, especially when working smoothly

　　37. The real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees is that ________.

　　[A] they are likely to lose their jobs

　　[B] they have no genuine satisfaction or interest in life

　　[C] they are faced with the fundamental realities of human existence

　　[D] they are deprived of their individuality and independence

　　38. From the passage we can infer that real happiness of life belongs to those ________.

　　[A] who are at the bottom of the society

　　[B] who are higher up in their social status

　　[C] who prove better than their fellow-competitors

　　[D] who could keep far away from this competitive world

　　39. To solve the present social problems the author suggests that we should ________.

　　[A] resort to the production mode of our ancestors

　　[B] offer higher wages to the workers and employees

　　[C] enable man to fully develop his potentialities

　　[D] take the fundamental realities for granted

　　40. The authors attitude towards industrialism might best be summarized as one of ________.

　　[A] approval

　　[B] dissatisfaction

　　[C] suspicion

　　[D] tolerance

　　Text 3

　　When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: he can give the invention to the world by publishing it, keep the idea secret, or patent it.

　　A granted patent is the result of a bargain struck between an inventor and the state, by which the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly (垄断) and publishes full details of his invention to the public after that period terminates.

　　Only in the most exceptional circumstances is the lifespan of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events.

　　The longest extension ever granted was to Georges Valensi; his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuitry was extended until 1971 because for most of the patents normal life there was no colour TV to receive and thus no hope of reward for the invention.

　　Because a patent remains permanently public after it has terminated, the shelves of the library attached to the patent office contain details of literally millions of ideas that are free for anyone to use and, if older than half a century, sometimes even re-patent. Indeed, patent experts often advise anyone wishing to avoid the high cost of conducting a search through live patents that the one sure way of avoiding violation of any other inventors right is to plagiarize a dead patent. Likewise, because publication of an idea in any other form permanently invalidates further patents on that idea, it is traditionally safe to take ideas from other areas of print. Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security.

　　Anyone closely involved in patents and inventions soon learns that most new ideas are, in fact, as old as the hills. It is their reduction to commercial practice, either through necessity or dedication, or through the availability of new technology, that makes news and money. The basic patent for the theory of magnetic recording dates back to 1886. Many of the original ideas behind television originate from the late 19th and early 20th century. Even the Volkswagen rear engine car was anticipated by a 1904 patent for a cart with the horse at the rear.

　　41. The passage is mainly about ________.

　　[A] an approach to patents

　　[B] the application for patents

　　[C] the use of patents

　　[D] the access to patents

　　42. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

　　[A] When a patent becomes out of effect, it can be re-patented or extended if necessary.

　　[B] It is necessary for an inventor to apply for a patent before he makes his invention public.

　　[C] A patent holder must publicize the details of his invention when its legal period is over.

　　[D] One can get all the details of a patented invention from a library attached to the patent office.

　　43. George Valensis patent lasted until 1971 because ________.

　　[A] nobody would offer any reward for his patent prior to that time

　　[B] his patent could not be put to use for an unusually long time

　　[C] there were not enough TV stations to provide colour programmes

　　[D] the colour TV receiver was not available until that time

　　44. The word plagiarize (Line 8, Para. 5) most probably means ________.

　　[A] steal and use

　　[B] give reward to

　　[C] make public

　　[D] take and change

　　45. From the passage we learn that ________.

　　[A] an invention will not benefit the inventor unless it is reduced to commercial practice

　　[B] products are actually inventions which were made a long time ago

　　[C] it is much cheaper to buy an old patent than a new one

　　[D] patent experts often recommend patents to others by conducting a search through dead patents

　　Section II: Reading Comprehension (30 points)

31.[B]

32.[C]

33.[C]

34.[B]

35.[D]

36.[C]

37.[D]

38.[D]

39.[C]

40.[B]

41.[D]

42.[C]

43.[B]

44.[A]

45.[A]

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