1997-2012考研历年英语试题(14)

1997-2012考研历年英语试题,部分答案有意删去,以便平时练习

1997-2012年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题答案

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[B] mix [C] feed [D] raise

46. [A] vessels [B] routes [C] paths [D] channels

47. [A] self-confident [B] self-sufficient [C] self-satisfied [D] self-restrained 48. [A] search [B] save [C] offer [D] seek

49. [A] proportion [B] percentage [C] rate [D] ratio

50. [A] genuinely [B] obviously [C] presumably [D] frequently

Section III: Reading Comprehension Directions:

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 ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (40 points) Text 1

A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world‘s best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.

It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker lefby South Korea‘s LG in cars sweeping into the machine-tool ropes. For a while it the making of America had invented of the going to be the next casualty.

All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America‘s industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.

How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. ―American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted,‖ according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard‘s Kennedy School of Government. ―It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity,‖ says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as ―a golden age of business management in the United States.‖

51. The U.S. achieved its predominance after World War II because ________. [A] it had made painstaking efforts towards this goal

[B] its domestic market was eight times larger than before

[C] the war had destroyed the economies of most potential competitors

[D] the unparalleled size of its workforce had given an impetus to its economy

52. The loss of U.S. predominance in the world economy in the 1980s is manifested in the fact that the American ________. [A] TV industry had withdrawn to its domestic market

[B] semiconductor industry had been taken over by foreign enterprises [C] machine-tool industry had collapsed after suicidal actions [D] auto industry had lost part of its domestic market 53. What can be inferred from the passage?

[A] It is human nature to shift between self-doubt and blind pried. [B] Intense competition may contribute to economic progress.

[C] The revival of the economy depends on international cooperation. [D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.

54. The author seems to believe the revival of the U.S. economy in the 1990s can be attributed to the ________. [A] turning of the business cycle [B] restructuring of industry

[C] improved business management [D] success in education Text 2

Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.

There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great ci …… 此处隐藏：8276字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……