清华大学2006年博士研究生入学考试英语试题
Part I Listening Comprehension (20%)（略）
Part II Vocabulary (10%)
Directions: There are 20 incomplete sentences or sentences with underlined words in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one that completes the sentence or is nearest in meaning with the underlined word and then mark the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.
21. Right now there is a sale of 19th-century European paintings and sculptures in the museum.
A. photographs
B. images
C. statues
D. stone paintings
22. The more intrusive advertisements become, the more they irritate web users.
A. annoy
B. dismay
C. surprise
D. startle
23. Both police officers and high officials here are susceptible to corruption.
A. sustainable
B. suspicious
C. skeptical
D. vulnerable
24. In the new shark repellent method, an insulated cable is buried on the bottom of the sea around a beach from which people swim.
A. frightening
B. resisting
C. protective
D. raising
25. His work shed provocative yet necessary light on an important way to slow the spread of this deadly virus.
A. provisional
B. seductive
C. insulting
D. disturbing
26. Before the construction of the railroad, it was prohibitively expensive to transport any goods across the mountains.
A. determinedly
B. incredibly
C. forbiddingly
D. amazingly
27. Scarcely does anyone want to become janitors, but to be appointed as a sanitary engineer is quite something else.
A. senior
B. military
C. clean
D. skilled
28. Nowadays, the prescribed roles of the man as“breadwinner”and the woman as housewife are changing.
A. original
B. prevalent
C. ascribed
D. settled
29. The new chemical will exterminate this kind of insects in this area.
A. eliminate
B. prosecute
C. quench
D. quit
30. He stepped gingerly into the ramshackle old house.
A. slowly
B. recklessly
C. cautiously
D. alertly
31. This is only a______agreement: nothing serious concluded yet by far.
A. tentative
B. local
C. decisive
D. kidding
32. Some workers in the nuclear power station were exposed to high levels of______.
A. radiation
B. cancer
C. microwaves
D. high temperature
33. A______refers to an animal that is born from its mother's body, not form an egg, and drinks its mother's milk as a baby.
A. mammoth
B. penguin
C. mosquito
D. mammal
34. I have to say this, but this coat you've just bought is made of______fur;it's not real mink.
A. coarse
B. genuine
C. slippery
D. counterfeit
35. It's amazing that two researchers working independently made the same discovery______.
A. spontaneously
B. simultaneously
C. collaboratively
D. conscientiously
36. The government can't expect the taxpayer to______this company out indefinitely.
A. support
B. bail
C. redeem
D. remove
37. These melodious folk songs are generally______to Smith, a very important musician of the century.
A. devoted
B. contributed
C. composed
D. ascribed
38. ______any one should think it strange, let me assure you that it is quite true.
A. In order that
B. Lest
C. If
D. Providing
39. ______my wife's consistent encouragement I wouldn't have accomplished my graduate study.
A. But for
B. But with
C. Except for
D. Except that
40. When cooperating with the American specialists in the States, I______myself of the opportunity to improve my English.
A. availed
B. allowed
C. deprived
D. indulged
Part III Reading Comprehension (40%)
Directions: There are 4 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 then mark the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. Questions 41 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Opinion polls are now beginning to show an unwilling general agreement that, whoever is to blame and whatever happens from now on, high unemployment is probably here to stay. This means we shall have to find ways of sharing the available employment widely.
But we need to go further. We must ask some fundamental questions about the future work. Should we continue to treat employment as the norm? Should we not rather encourage many other ways for self respecting? Should we not create conditions in which many of us can work for ourselves, rather than for an employer? Should we not aim to revive the household and the neighborhood, as well as the factory and the office as centers of production and work?
The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a discouraging thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows has not meant economic freedom.
Employment became widespread when the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people traveled longer distances to their places of employment until, eventually, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.
Meanwhile, employment put women at disadvantage. It became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife.
All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the impractical goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.
41. What idea did the author derive from the recent opinion polls?
A. Available employment should be redistricted to a small percentage of the population.
B. New jobs must be created in order to rectify high unemployment figures.
C. Jobs available must be distributed among more people.
D. The present high unemployment figures are a fact of life.
42. The passage suggests that we should now re-examine our thinking about work and______.
A. be prepared to admit that being employed is not the only kind of work
B. create more factories in order to increase our productivity
C. set up smaller private enterprises so that we in turn can employ others
D. be prepared to fill in time by taking up housework
43. The passage tells us that the arrival of the industrial age meant that______.
A. universal employment guaranteed prosperity
B. economic freedom came within everyone's reach
C. patterns of work were fundamentally changed
D. to survive, everyone has to find a job
44. As a result of the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries______.
A. people were no longer legally entitled to own land
B. people were forced to look elsewhere for means of supporting themselves
C. people were not adequately compensated for the loss of their land
D. people were badly paid for the work they managed to find
45. It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A. the creation of jobs for all is impossible
B. we must make every effort to solve the problem of unemployment
C. people should start to support themselves by learning a practical skill
D. we should help people to get full-time jobs
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
Various innovations have been introduced as ways to break off our system which forces students through a series of identical classrooms in which teachers do most of the talking and students have little opportunity to respond. Among these innovations are team teaching and teacher aides, non-graded elementary and secondary schools, independent study, curricula focused on helping students discover things for themselves rather than on trying to tell them everything, and schools designed for maximum flexibility so that students can work alone, or in small groups, or take part in large—group instruction via diverse media. The aim of all these innovations is to adapt instruction more precisely to the needs of each individual student. Many people who have a strong dislike to organizing instruction scientifically and to bringing new technology into the schools and colleges fail to realize that the present system is in many respects mechanical and rigid. The vast differences in the ways students learn are disregarded when they are taught the same thing, in the same way, at the same time. There is no escaping the evidence that many students themselves feel little enthusiasm and even outright hostility for the present way schools and colleges are organized and instruction is handled. Many of them resent technology, but what they object to is usually technology used as a means for handling a large number of students. Or it is programming which merely reproduces conventional classroom responds and learns, reaching new plateaus from which to climb to higher levels of understanding. Technological media can store information until it is needed or wanted. They can distribute it over distances to reach the student where he happens to be. They can present the information to the student through various senses. They can give the student the opportunity to react to the material in many ways. In short, the student's opportunities for learning can be increased and enhanced by using a wide range of instructional technology. All the available resources for instruction, including the teachers, can work together to create conditions for maximum effective learning.
46. The author is mainly concerned with______.
A. providing the possibility for students to take the courses they want
B. making technology an active tool in the school
C. relieving the teacher from routine duties
D. meeting the needs of each student
47. It can be inferred from the article that a good educational system must______.
A. not depend on teachers
B. make use of varying methods of teaching
C. place a renewed emphasis on science
D. not organize their instruction
48. The author suggests that the basic role of the teacher in the educational system should be______.
A. as a lecturer
B. that of a technologist
C. as the source of knowledge
D. much more than that of classroom teaching
49. The negative reactions of students to technology are the result of______.
A. unknown factors
B. a general hostility toward education
C. its misuse
D. its newness in the schools
50. All of the following are mentioned as a capability of technological media EXCEPT their ability to______.
A. make it easier for students to obtain needed information
B. provide many ways of teaching the same thing
C. make learning easy and fun
D. provide students with enrollment exam
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Rubidium, potassium and carbon are three common elements used to date the history of Earth. The rates of radioactive decay of these elements are absolutely regular when averaged out over a period of time;nothing is known to change them. To be useful as clocks, the elements have to be fairly common in natural minerals, unstable but decay slowly over millions of years to form recognizable“daughter”products which are preserved minerals.
For example, an atom of radioactive rubidium decays to form an atom of strontium (another element) by converting a neutron in its nucleus to a proton and releasing an electron, generating energy in the process. The radiogenic daughter products of the decay—in this case strontium atoms—diffuse away and are lost above a very high temperature. So by measuring the exact proportions of rubidium and strontium atoms that are present in a mineral, researchers can work out how long it has been since the mineral cooled below that critical“blocking”temperature. The main problems with this dating method are the difficulty in finding minerals containing rubidium, the accuracy with which the proportions of rubidium and strontium are measured, and the fact that the method gives only the date when the mineral last cooled below the blocking temperature. Because the blocking temperature is very high, the method is used, mainly for recrystallized (igneous or metamorphic) rocks, not for sediments—rubidium-bearing minerals in sediments simply record the age of cooling of the rocks which were eroded to form the sediments, not the age of deposition of the sediments themselves.
Potassium decays to form (a gas) which is sometimes lost from its host mineral by escaping through pores. Although potassium-argon dating is therefore rather unreliable, it can sometimes be useful in dating, sedimentary rocks because potassium is common in some minerals which form in sediments at low temperatures. Assuming no argon has escaped, the potassium-argon date records the age of the sediments themselves.
Carbon dating is mainly used in archaeology. Most carbon atoms (carbon-12) are stable and do not change over time. However, cosmic radiation bombarding the upper atmospheres constantly interacting with nitrogen in the atmosphere to create an unstable form of carbon, carbon-14.
51. What is the common feature of rubidium, potassium and carbon?
A. They can be made into clocks.
B. They are rich in content.
C. Their decay is slow but regular.
D. The products of their decay are the same.
52. What aspect of rubidium decay is useful for dating?
A. The atom produced by the decay is above a certain point of temperature.
B. The atom produced by the decay is easy to be detected at a cool temperature.
C. The decay produced a neutron and an electron.
D. The decay is sensitive to the changes in temperature.
53. What is the limitation of the rubidium method?
A. Rubidium is everywhere in the rock.
B. Strontium atoms are hard to detect at the normal temperature.
C. It cannot date sediments.
D. It is time-consuming.
54. Which of the following is the major factor that affects the accuracy of potassium dating?
A. The number of the mineral pores.
B. The number of missing argon atoms.
C. External temperature.
D. Mineral temperature.
55. The underlined word“cosmic”in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to______.
A. radioactive
B. organic
C. terrestrial
D. universal
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
In Plato's Utopia, there are three classes: the common people, the soldiers, and the guardians chosen by the legislator. The main problem, as Plato perceives, is to insure that the guardians shall carry out the purpose of the legislator. For this purpose the first thing he proposes is education.
Education is divided into two parts, music and gymnastics. Each has a wider meaning than at present: “music” means everything that is in the province of the muses, and “gymnastics”means everything concerned with physical training fitness.“Music”is almost as wide as what is now called“culture”, and“gymnastics”is somewhat wider than what“athletics”mean in the modern sense.
Culture is to be devoted to making men gentlemen, in the sense which, largely owing to Plato is familiar in England. The Athens of his day was, in one respect, analogous to England in the nineteenth century: there was in each an aristocracy enjoying wealth and social prestige, but having no monopoly of political power; and in each the aristocracy had to secure as much power as it could by means of impressive behavior. In Plato's Utopia, however, the aristocracy rules unchecked.
Gravity, decorum and courage seem to be the qualities mainly to be cultivated in education. There is to be a rigid censorship from very early years over the literature to which the young have access and the music they are allowed to hear mothers and nurses are to tell their children only authorized stories. Also, there is a censorship of music. The Lydian and Ionian harmonies are to be forbidden, the first because it expresses sorrow, the second because it is relaxed. Only the Dorian (for courage) and the Phrygian (for temperance) are to be allowed. Permissible rhythms must be simple, and such as are expressive of a courageous and harmonious life.
As for gymnastics, the training of the body is to be very austere. No one is to eat fish, or meat cooked other than roasted, and there must be no sauces or candies. People brought up on his regimen, he says, will have no need of doctors. Gymnastics applies to the training of mind as well. Up to a certain age, the young are to see no ugliness or vice. But at a suitable moment, they must be exposed to“enchantments”, both in the shape of terrors that must not terrify, and of bad pleasures that must not seduce the will. Only after they have withstood these tests will they be judged fit to be guardians.
56. What is the main topic of the passage?
A. Three social classes in Utopia.
B. How to make the society in harmony.
C. Plato's philosophy.
D. Education pattern in Utopia.
57. According to the passage, which of the following is closest in meaning to the concept“music”in Plato's philosophy?
A. Muses.
B. Culture.
C. Manners.
D. Literature.
58. What is the major difference between the aristocracy in the old Athens and the gentlemen in Utopia?
A. The former had to fight to obtain political power.
B. The former were more respected by the public.
C. The latter enjoyed much more political power.
D. The latter was regarded as the king of the country.
59. Why is fish eating forbidden in Utopia?
A. To secure the balance of nature.
B. To exercise people's perseverance.
C. For a strong volition.
D. For excellent health condition.
60. We can infer from the passage that the music“Lydian”sounds______.
A. sad
B. bold
C. relaxed
D. simple
Part IV Cloze (10%)
Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEEET.
Consumers and producers obviously make decisions that mold the economy, but there is a third major 61 to consider the role of government. Government has a powerful 62 on the economy in at least four ways:
Direct Services. The postal system, for example, is a federal system 63 the entire nation, as is the large and complex establishment. Conversely, the construction and 64 of most highways the 65 of the individual states, and the public educational systems, despite a large funding role by the federal government, are primarily 66 for by country or city governments. Police and fire protection and sanitation 67 are also the responsibilities of local government.
Regulation and Control. The government regulates and controls. Private 68 in many ways, for the 69 of assuring that business serves the best 70 of the people as a whole. Regulation is necessary in areas where private enterprise is granted a 71 , such as in telephone or electric service. Public policy permits such companies to make a reasonable 72 , but limits their ability to raise prices 73 , since the public depends on their services. Often control is 74 to protect the public, as for example, when the Food and Drug administration bans harmful drugs, or requires standards of 75 in food. In other industries, government sets guidelines to ensure fair competition without using direct control.
Stabilization and Growth. Branches of government, including Congress and such entities as the Federal Reserve Board attempt to control the extremes of boom and bust, of inflation and depression, by 76 tax rates, the money supply, and the use of credit. They can also 77 the economy through changes in the amount of public spending by the government itself.
Direct Assistance. The government provides many kinds of help to 78 and individuals. For example, tariffs 79 certain products to remain relatively free of foreign competition;imports are sometimes taxed so that American products are able to 80 better with certain foreign goods. In quite a different area, government supports individuals who cannot adequately care for themselves, by making grants to working parents with dependent children, by providing medical care for the aged and the indigent, and through social welfare system.
61. A. economy
B. horror
C. magnifier
D. element
62. A. elevation
B. emotion
C. effect
D. election
63. A. dripping
B. serving
C. diverging
D. clamping
64. A. clearance
B. combustion
C. commence
D. maintenance
65. A. commonplace
B. responsibility
C. conductivity
D. consequence
66. A. consoled
B. compacted
C. paid
D. bracketed
67. A. services
B. boycotts
C. budgets
D. charters
68. A. banquet
B. boom
C. arena
D. enterprise
69. A. assertion
B. purpose
C. asset
D. assumption
70. A. admiration
B. interests
C. adoption
D. accuracy
71. A. monopoly
B. acceptance
C. abolition
D. morality
72. A. proximity
B. blend
C. breast
D. profit
73. A. fairly
B. unfairly
C. friendly
D. unnecessarily
74. A. exercised
B. broadened
C. bankrupted
D. exemplified
75. A. faculty
B. quantity
C. quality
D. fragment
76. A. applauding
B. assessing
C. ascending
D. adjusting
77. A. affect
B. accommodate
C. adhere
D. affirm
78. A. beverage
B. businesses
C. bondage
D. botany
79. A. perplex
B. permit
C. perturb
D. plunder
80. A. compensate
B. confront
C. console
D. compete
Part V Writing (20%)
Directions: In this part, you are asked to write a composition on the title of “Qualities of Top Research Workers”with no less than 200 English words. Your composition should be based on the following outline given in Chinese. Put your composition on the ANSWER SHEET.
1. 优秀的科研工作者需要具备什么素质？
2. 举例说明这种素质的重要性。
3. 如何培养这种素质？