2016考研(普硕版)暑前作业：英语第一周

　　2016考研(普硕版)暑前作业：英语第一周

　　第一周 社会生活类词汇

　　一、人文词汇

　　1. 政治法律

　　parliament 国会，议会 House of Commons 下议院

　　parliamentary debates 议会辩论 self-evident principle 不言自明的法则

　　verdict 陪审团的裁决 arbiter 仲裁者

　　validity 有效性，合法性 period terminate 截止日期

　　suspension 中止，悬而未决 in-house counsel 内部法律顾问

　　citizenry 公民，国民 basic right 基本权利

　　privilege 特权 higher up 上级，大人

　　bureaucratic 官僚主义的 self-governing 自治的，自我管理的

　　espionage 间谍活动 spymaster 间谍组织首脑

　　elitism 杰出人物统治论，精英论

　　CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) 美国中央情报局

　　2. 社会文化

　　civilization 文明，文明社会 democratic society 民主社会

　　agricultural society 农业社会 scio-economic 社会经济的

　　social status 社会地位 social ladder 社会等级

　　social inequality 社会不平等 underprivileged 穷困的，下层社会的

　　bottom line 底线 societal changes 社会变革

　　mediocrity 平庸，平庸之才 generalist 多面手，通才

　　futurist 未来主义者, 未来派艺术家 athlete 运动员

　　entertainer 演义人员 initiation ceremony 开幕典礼

　　spectator 观众 attendee 出席者

　　human relation 人际关系 parading procession 游行队伍

　　metropolitan 大都市的 uncivilized behavior 不文明行为

　　subsequent behavior 后天习性 traffic stream 交通流量

　　traffic jam 交通堵塞 traffic regulation 交通法规

　　charitable organization慈善组织 material benefit 医疗保险

　　euthanasia 安乐死 drug addict 嫉妒成瘾者

　　substance dependence 物质依赖 withdrawal symptom 断瘾症状

　　psychoactive 作用于精神的 deterioration 退化，堕落

　　a touch on the brakes 悬崖勒马 adolescence 青春期

　　house-proud 关心家事的 extended family 大家庭

　　parental permission 家长许可 mental conversation 心灵对话

　　intense perceptual distortion强烈知觉畸变anti-intellectualism 反理智主义

　　aggressive patriotism 扩张性爱国主义 advocate 提倡，鼓吹

　　Utopia 乌托邦 transcendentalist 先验论者

　　induction 归纳 deduction 演绎

　　humanity 人性，博爱 self-respect 自尊

　　soul searching 真诚的自我反省 self examination 自省

　　anthropological 人类学的 census 人口普查

　　demographer 人口统计学家 lifespan 寿命

　　aging population 老年人口 tourist trail 旅行线路

　　interior design 室内设计 piped music 管弦音乐

　　阅读—社会生活类文章

　　1995 Text 2

　　There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external result or product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a promotion, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language -- all these are examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts.

　　By contrast, the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since by definition it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way. The process is not the road itself, but rather the attitudes and feelings people have, their caution or courage, as they encounter new experiences and unexpected obstacles. In this process, the journey never really ends; there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept.

　　In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to confront the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first. How we see ourselves as we try a new way of beingis essential to our ability to grow. Do we perceive ourselves as quick and curious? If so, then we tend to take more chances and to be more open to unfamiliar experiences. Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of timidity can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and not to take a step until we know the ground is safe. Do we think we’re slow to adapt to change or that we’re not smart enough to cope with a new challenge? Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all.

　　These feelings of insecurity and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow. If we do not confront and overcome these internal fears and doubts, if we protect ourselves too much, then we cease to grow. We become trapped inside a shell of our own making.

　　55. A person is generally believed to achieve personal growth when ________.

　　[A] he has given up his smoking habit

　　[B] he has made great efforts in his work

　　[C] he is keen on leaning anything new

　　[D] he has tried to determine where he is on his journey

　　56. In the author’s eyes, one who views personal growth as a process would ________.

　　[A] succeed in climbing up the social ladder

　　[B] judge his ability to grow from his own achievements

　　[C] face difficulties and take up challenges

　　[D] aim high and reach his goal each time

　　57. When the author says “a new way of being” (Line 2~3, Para. 3) he is referring to ________.

　　[A] a new approach to experiencing the world

　　[B] a new way of taking risks

　　[C] a new method of perceiving ourselves

　　[D] a new system of adaptation to change

　　58. For personal growth, the author advocates all of the following EXCEPT ________.

　　[A] curiosity about more chances[B] promptness in self-adaptation

　　[C] open-mindedness to new experiences[D] avoidance of internal fears and doubts

　　1995 Text 5

　　That experiences influence subsequent behaviour is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Learning could not occur without the function popularly named memory. Constant practice has such an effect on memory as to lead to skillful performance on the piano, to recitation of a poem, and even to reading and understanding these words. So-called intelligent behaviour demands memory, remembering being a primary requirement for reasoning. The ability to solve any problem or even to recognize that a problem exists depends on memory. Typically, the decision to cross a street is based on remembering many earlier experiences.

　　Practice (or review) tends to build and maintain memory for a task or for any learned material. Over a period of no practice what has been learned tends to be forgotten; and the adaptive consequences may not seem obvious. Yet, dramatic instances of sudden forgetting can be seen to be adaptive. In this sense, the ability to forget can be interpreted to have survived through a process of natural selection in animals. Indeed, when one’s memory of an emotionally painful experience lead to serious anxiety, forgetting may produce relief. Nevertheless, an evolutionary interpretation might make it difficult to understand how the commonly gradual process of forgetting survived natural selection.

　　In thinking about the evolution of memory together with all its possible aspects, it is helpful to consider what would happen if memories failed to fade. Forgetting clearly aids orientation in time, since old memories weaken and the new tend to stand out, providing clues for inferring duration. Without forgetting, adaptive ability would suffer, for example, learned behaviour that might have been correct a decade ago may no longer be. Cases are recorded of people who (by ordinary standards) forgot so little that their everyday activities were full of confusion. This forgetting seems to serve that survival of the individual and the species.

　　Another line of thought assumes a memory storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting. In this view, continual adjustments are made between learning or memory storage (input) and forgetting (output). Indeed, there is evidence that the rate at which individuals forget is directly related to how much they have learned. Such data offers gross support of contemporary models of memory that assume an input-output balance.

　　67. From the evolutionary point of view, ________.

　　[A] forgetting for lack of practice tends to be obviously inadaptive

　　[B] if a person gets very forgetful all of a sudden he must be very adaptive

　　[C] the gradual process of forgetting is an indication of an individual’s adaptability

　　[D] sudden forgetting may bring about adaptive consequences

　　68. According to the passage, if a person never forgot, ________.

　　[A] he would survive best[B] he would have a lot of trouble

　　[C] his ability to learn would be enhanced[D] the evolution of memory would stop

　　69. From the last paragraph we know that ________.

　　[A] forgetfulness is a response to learning

　　[B] the memory storage system is an exactly balanced input-output system

　　[C] memory is a compensation for forgetting

　　[D] the capacity of a memory storage system is limited because forgetting occurs

　　70. In this article, the author tries to interpret the function of ________.

　　[A] remembering[B] forgetting[C] adapting[D] experiencing

　　1996 Text 4

　　What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph , the steamboat and the weaving machine?

　　Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country ' s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors ; and above all the American genius for nonverbal , "spatial"thinking about things technological .

　　Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics ,especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.

　　Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, "With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman. "

　　A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach,originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.

　　In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.

　　Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out , "A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process . . . The designer and the inventor . . . are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist. "

　　This nonverbal "spatial" thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc. ,like a poet among the letters of the alphabet , considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea. "

　　When all these shaping forces--schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking--interacted with one another on the rich U. S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic , emulation . Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.

　　63. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to__

　　[A] elementary schools[B] enthusiastic workers

　　[C] the attractive premium system [D] a special way of thinking

　　64 . It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics__

　　[A] benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge[B] shed light on disciplined school management

　　[C] was brought about by privileged home training[D] owed a lot to the technological development

　　65 . A technologist can be compared to an artist because __

　　[A] they are both winners of awards[B] they are both experts in spatial thinking

　　[C] they both abandon verbal description[D] they both use various instruments

　　66. The best title for this passage might be__

　　[A] Inventive Mind[B] Effective Schooling[C] Ways of Thinking [D] Outpouring of Inventions

　　1997 Text 1

　　It was 3: 45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia’s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: “We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”

　　The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia—where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part—other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.

　　Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death—probably by a deadly injection or pill—to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a “cooling off” period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. “I’m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I’d go, because I’ve watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks, ” he says.

　　11. From the second paragraph we learn that.

　　[A] the objection to euthanasia is slow to come in other countries

　　[B] physicians and citizens share the same view on euthanasia

　　[C] changing technology is chiefly responsible for the hasty passage of the law

　　[D] it takes time to realize the significance of the law’s passage

　　12. When the author says that observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling, he means.

　　[A] observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the future of euthanasia

　　[B] similar bills are likely to be passed in the US, Canada and other countries

　　[C] observers are waiting to see the result of the game of dominoes

　　[D] the effect-taking process of the passed bill may finally come to a stop

　　13. When Lloyd Nickson dies, he will.

　　[A] face his death with calm characteristic of euthanasia

　　[B] experience the suffering of a lung cancer patient

　　[C] have an intense fear of terrible suffering

　　[D] undergo a cooling off period of seven days

　　14. The author’s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of.

　　[A] opposition [B] suspicion

　　[C] approval [D] indifference

　　第一周 1. ACAD 2.DBAB 3.DABA 4.DBAC