武汉大学考博英语真题2006年

武汉大学真题2006年 (总分100, 考试时间90分钟)

Part Ⅰ Reading Comprehension

Directions: There are 5 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets.

Tides are created mainly by the pull of the moon on the earth. The moon's pull causes water in the oceans to be a little deeper at a point closest to the moon and also at a point farthest from the moon, on the opposite side of the earth. These two tidal \"waves\" follow the apparent movement of the moon around the earth strike nearly every coastline at intervals of about twelve hours and twenty-five minutes. After reaching a high point, the water level goes down gradually for a little more than six hours and then begins to rise toward a new high point. Hence, most coastlines have two tides a day, and the tides occur fifty minutes later each day. Differences in the coastline and in channels in the ocean bottom may change the time that the tidal wave reaches different points along the same coastline. The difference in water level between high and low tide varies from day to day according to the relative positions of the sun and the moon because the sun also exerts a pull on the earth, although it is only about half as strong as the pull of the moon. When the sun and the moon are pulling along the same line, the tides rise higher, and when they pull at right angles to one another, the tide is lower. The formation of the coastline and variations in the weather are additional factors which can affect the height of tides. Some sections of the coast are shaped in such a way as to cause much higher tides than are experienced in other areas. A strong wind blowing toward the shore may also cause tides to be higher.

1. Which of the following may be concluded from the information presented in the passage? A Some coastlines do not have two tides each day. B Tides usually rise to the same level day after day. C Tides are not affected by the shape of a coastline.

D The sun has as much effect on tides as does the moon.

2. The time that high tide occurs at a particular place is affected by all of the following EXCEPT ______. A tone position of the moon B the direction of the wind C channels in the sea bottom D variations in the coastline

3. Which of the following is an accurate statement about the pull of the sun on the earth? A It determines the time of high tide. B It is about twice the pull of the moon. C It determines the time of low tide. D It is about half the pull of the moon.

4. If the pull of the sun equaled the pull of the moon, tides would ______. A sometimes be higher than they are now B be the same height they are now C no longer be affected by the wind

D be of equal height all the time

George Mason must rank with John Adams and James Madison as one of the three Founding Fathers who left their personal

imprint on the fundamental law of the United States. He was the principal author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which because of its early formation greatly influenced other state constitutions framed during the Revolution and, through them, the Federal Bill of Rights of 1791.

Yet Mason was essentially a private person with very little inclination for public office or the ordinary operation of politics beyond the country level. His appearances in the Virginia colonial and state legislatures were relatively brief, and not until 1787 did he consent to represent his state at a continental or national congress or convention. Polities was never more than a means for Mason. He was at all times a man of public spirit, but politics was never a way of life, never for long his central concern. It took a revolution to pry him away from home and family at Gunston Hall, mobilize his skill and energy for constitutional construction, and transform him, in one brief moment of brilliant leadership, into a statesman whose work would endure to influence the lives and fortunes of those \"millions yet unborn\" of whom he and his generation of Americans spoke so frequently and thought so constantly.

5. The author ascribes importance to the Virginia Declaration of Rights primarily because ______. A Mason was its principal author

B it was later adopted as the Federal Bill of Rights

C through wide circulation it influenced the writing of other state constitutions during the Revolution D through other state constitutions it eventually influenced the writing of the Federal Bill of Rights

6. The passage indicates that, for Mason, political activities were ______. A undertaken only when absolutely necessary B a fundamental and lifelong preoccupation

C something he successfully avoided throughout his life

D something to which he always wished to devote more time and attention

7. The author indicates that Mason's brilliant leadership ability ______. A was exercised throughout his life

B has been recognized only by the generations that followed him C was less important historically than his brilliance as a lawyer D emerged powerfully, but for a brief time only

8. The author seems to be especially impressed by the fact that ______.

A Mason, a responsible citizen, resisted for so long the obligation to represent his state in politics B Mason, having so little political inclination, turned out to be such an influential statesman C Mason was willing to leave home and family for public service

D Mason could be a devoted family man and a statesman at the same time

People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy--one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons, and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serius problems of intellectual adjustment.

Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped--or, as the case might be bumped into- concepts that adults take for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from short stout glass into a tall thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the

pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers--the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threenes that applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table--is itself far from innate.

9. What does the passage mainly discuss? A Trends in teaching mathematics to children. B The use of mathematics in child psychology.

C The development of mathematical ability in children.

D The fundamental concepts of mathematics that children must learn.

10. It con be inferred from the passage that children onrmally learn simple counting ______. A soon after they learn to talk

B by looking at the clock

C when they begin to be mathematically mature D after they reach the second grade in school

11. The author implies that most small children believe that the quantity of water changes when it is transferred to a container of a different ______. A color B quality C weight D shape

12. With which of the following statements would the author be LEAST likely to agree? A Children naturally and easily learn mathematics. B Children learn to add before they learn to subtract.

C Most people follow the same pattern of mathematical development.

D Mathematical development is subtle and gradual.

If a new charter of the rights of people (in the First World, or North, or whatever you like to call the part where people to not on the whole starve) were to be drawn up, there is no doubt that the right to be a tourist, to go to a Spanish beach or to visit places endorsed as being of cultural or scenic interest, would be prominent among its clauses. The mythology of tourism is that of the idyll--of outdoor pleasures, eating, drinking and love-making with neither hangover nor remorse. But whereas the ancient poets knew that idylls were an art form, modern tourists are persuaded to believe that they can be bought for the price of a plane ticket and a hotel room. So it is not surprising that so many tourists look bewildered, dazed, even at times despondent.

They are exchanging the comforts of home, where a particular way of living has been laboriously and lovingly created, for the uncertainty of existence in a foreign place, the soullessness of hotels, the wear and tear of constant travel. To be translated suddenly into an unfamiliar environment is an alienating experience, if not an unpleasant trauma.

Another reason why tourists in reality do not look as happy as the smiliing figures in the brochures is that the activities open to them, far from liberating, are both limited and unbalanced. Lying on a beach and visiting museums may be fine in their different ways, but to do either continuously for days on end must constitute a kind of hell.

The strongest arguments against tourism, however, are based on the damage it does to the countries which are toured against rather than those which tour. The most striking examples are in the \"Third World\". Cultures which have survived centuries of armed assault have not been able to resist this more insidious form of colonization: the dollar is mightier than the sword. Physical environment and culture may suffer, but the apologists for tourism argue that great economic benefits are produced. This is not the case. At least in Third World countries, most of the foreign money brought in goes straight out again, via the

foreign-owned companies which exploit tourism. The jobs created by tourism are for the most part menial and low-paid. In the long term, above all, the effect of reliance on tourism must be to reduce a country to a servile, parasitical condition, selling its past and its image to richer, more dynamic people who are in control of their destiny, and in the end, that of the country they are visiting.

13. The first sentence indicates that ______.

A people have a universal claim to holidays abroad

B tourists turn a blind eye to the poverty in the countries they visit C holidays overseas are considered essential by people in Western societies D People seem to appreciate the right to a holiday more than any other right

14. According to the writer, tourists look \"bewildered, dazed, even at times despondent\" because they ______. A do not realize that holiday pleasures are so costly B abandon themseles to all kinds of excesses C confuse their dreams with reality D hardly prepare for their holidays

15. The writer concludes that tourism in the Third World ______. A produces only limited economic benefits B amounts to a present-day form of colonialism C is developed at the expense of other industries D will bring prosperity to it only in the distant future

16. The essential argument in this article is that ______.

A tourism makes people unhappy and ruins whole cultures B tourist agencies should do more to promote tourism at home

C tourists are exploited by both travel organizations and tourist countries D the tourist industry is not yet able to meet the demands of today's tourists

It happened in the late fall of 1939 when, after a Nazi submarine had penetrated the British sea defense around the Firth of Forth and damaged a British cruiser, Reston and a colleague contrived to get the news past British censorship. They cabled a series of seemingly harmless sentences to The Times's editors in New York, having first sent a message instructing the editors to regard only the last word of each sentence. Thus they were able to convey enough words to spell out the story. The fact that the news of the submarine attack was printed in New York before it had appeared in the British press sparked a big controversy that led to an investigation by Scotland Yard and British Military Intelligence. But it took the investigators eight weeks to decipher The Times's reporters' code, an embarrassingly slow bit of detective work, and when it was finally solved the incident had given the story very prominent play, later expressed dismay that the reporters had risked so much for so little. And the incident left Reston deeply distressed. It was so out of character for him to have. become involved in such a thing. The tactics were questionable and, though the United States was not yet in the war, Britain was already established as America's close ally and breaking British censorship seemed both an irresponsible and unpatriotic thing to do.

17. The episode recounted in the passage took place ______. A just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War B bofore Britain entered the Second World War

C before the United States entered the Second World War D while the United States was in the Second World War

18. It was clear that British censorship rules had been broken because the story was ______. A first published in New York

B published nowhere but in The Times C uncomplimentary to the Bristish

D much fuller in its Times version than elsewhere

19. According to the author, the British did little about the story's publication mainly because ______. A everyone responsible had apologized for what had happened

B it took the authorities too long to figure out how the censors had been outwitted C Scotland Yard and British Military Intelligence disagreed about who was at fault D they were afraid to admit that the censors had been so easily fooled

20. The passage indicates that eventually everyone involved came to regard the publication of the story in The Times as a ______.

A regrettable error

B cheap journalistic trick

C brilliant journalistic maneuver

D proper exercise of the freedom of the press Part Ⅱ English-Chinese Translation

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then translate the underlined sentences into Chinese and write your translation on the ANSWER SHEET.

Tsunamis are impulsively generated sea waves by a disturbance to or near the ocean.

21. Earthquakes, submarine volcanic explosions, landslides and the detonation of nuclear devices near the sea can give rise to such destructive sea waves. By far the most destructive tsunamis are generated from large shallow-focus earthquakes with an epicenter or fault line near or in the ocean. Vertical displacements of the earth's crust along the rupture resulting from the ocean. Vertical displacements of the earth's crust along the rupture resulting from such earthquakes can generate destructive tsunami waves which can travel across an ocean spreading destruction across their path. Similar displacements of the ocean floor can also be produced by volcanic eruptions and submarine avalanches or landslides. However, these sources are considered as point sources and, although the tsunami waves generated can be very destructive locally, the energy of the waves is rapidly dissipated as they travel across the ocean.

To forecast tsunamis and determine terminal run-up and destructiveness, one must be able to evaluate the parameters of the tsunami source mechanism in real time, often, from inadequate date. 22. Tsunami source mechanism analysis is difficult given the time constraints of a warning situation. It will suffice to say that forecasting the run-up and potential destructiveness of a tsunami at a distant shore will depend greatly on determining the seismic parameters of the source location such as magnitude of the earthquake, its depth, its orientation, the length of the fault line, the size of the crustal displacements, and depth of the water. 23. Refraction(折射) and diffraction(衍射) processes will affect the energy and height of the tsunami waves as they travel across the ocean. These effects must also be determined. Finally, terminal height, run-up, and inundation of the tsunami at a point of impact will depend upon the energy forcusing effect, the travel path of the waves, the coastal configuration, and the offshore bathymetry, only to name a few.

Tsunami run-up is the vertical distance between the maximum height reached by the water on shore and the mean-sea-level surface. 24. Contrary to meteorological predictions, tsunami run-up, the final product of earthquake and tsunami investigations is not possible to forecast with a great degree of accuracy. The reason for this inadequacy is that the Tsunami Warning System works in a real time frame of short duration, often with inadequate date and information. Problems of communication and lack of sufficient station density, often complicate the process. Forecasting tsunamis requires adequate understanding of the

phenomenon, good and expeditious collection of earthquake and sea level date, and accruate and expeditious assessment and interpretation of this data.

Part Ⅲ Chinese-English Translation

Directions: Translate the following short paragraphs into English and write your translation on the ANSWER SHEET.

1. 语言学无疑是学术领域争论最热门的话题。它淫浸着诗人、神学者、哲学家、语言学家、心理学家、生物学家和神经学家的血液，融入了文法家的方方面面。

目前以“语言学家”之名从事的大多数工作纯粹是描述性的；语言学家试图不通过价值判断或尝试绘制出未来语言发展的方向就来澄清语言的本质。但是，有许多专业人土和业余爱好者也在制定语言规则，他们规定出专门标准让大家遵守。而规定语法学家(prescriptivists)可能是想勾画出他们猜想什么是所谓的“错误的用法”，描写语言学家(descriptivists)却试图找到这种用法的根源；他们可能仅仅把它描述为“特殊的”，或者可能想找到规定语法学家不喜欢的规律性。规定语法学家之所以不喜欢这些规律，要么是因为它太新，要么是因为它源自一种他们不认可的方言。20世纪下半叶，规定性语法的传统受到越来越激烈的批评，这可以从他们反对的调子越来越微弱得到证明，但规定性语法的传统还远远没有消亡。

Part Ⅳ Writing

Directions: You should spend about 30 minutes on this part. Present a written argument or case to an educated reader without specialist knowledge of the following topic.

1. Now many people enjoy emails and other people prefer face-to-face conversations. The title of your composition is \"Which Is Better, a Talk or an Email?\".

You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience to support your opinion. Write at least 200 words.