Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
The ethical judgments of the Supreme Court justices have become an important issue recently. The court cannot _1_ its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law _2_ justices behave like politicians. Yet, in several instances, justices acted in ways that _3_ the court’s reputation for being independent and impartial.
Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, appeared at political events. That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court’s decisions will be _4_ as impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that the justices are not _5_by an ethics code. At the very least, the court should make itself _6_to the code of conduct that _7_to the rest of the federal judiciary.
This and other similar cases _8_the question of whether there is still a _9_between the court and politics.
The framers of the Constitution envisioned law _10_having authority apart from politics. They gave justices permanent positions _11_they would be free to _12_ those in power and have no need to _13_ political support. Our legal system was designed to set law apart from politics precisely because they are so closely
_14_.
Constitutional law is political because it results from choices rooted in fundamental social _15_ like liberty and property. When the court deals with social policy decisions, the law it _16_ is inescapably political-which is why decisions split along ideological lines are so easily _17_ as unjust.
The justices must _18_ doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves _19_ to the code of conduct. That would make rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, _20_, convincing as law.
1. [A]emphasize [B]maintain [C]modify [D] recognize
2. [A]when [B]lest [C]before [D] unless
3. [A]restored [B]weakened [C]established [D] eliminated
4. [A]challenged [B]compromised [C]suspected [D] accepted
5. [A]advanced [B]caught [C]bound [D]founded
6. [A]resistant [B]subject [C]immune [D]prone
7. [A]resorts [B]sticks [C]loads [D]applies
8. [A]evade [B]raise [C]deny [D]settle
9. [A]line [B]barrier [C]similarity [D]conflict
10. [A]by [B]as [C]though [D]towards
11. [A]so [B]since [C]provided [D]though
12. [A]serve [B]satisfy [C]upset [D]replace
13. [A]confirm [B]express [C]cultivate [D]offer
14. [A]guarded [B]followed [C]studied [D]tied
15. [A]concepts [B]theories [C]divisions [D]conceptions
16. [A]excludes [B]questions [C]shapes [D]controls
17. [A]dismissed [B]released [C]ranked [D]distorted
18. [A]suppress [B]exploit [C]address [D]ignore
19. [A]accessible [B]amiable [C]agreeable [D]accountable
20. [A]by all mesns [B]atall costs [C]in a word [D]as a result
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
Come on –Everybody’s doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half forcing, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good-drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new book Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the word.
Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, offers a host of example of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as LoveLife recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers.
The idea seems promising，and Rosenberg is a perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness of many pubic-health campaigns is spot-on: they fail to
mobilize peer pressure for healthy habits, and they demonstrate a seriously flawed understanding of psychology.” Dare to be different, please don’t smoke!” pleads one billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among teenagers-teenagers, who desire nothing more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure.
But on the general effectiveness of the social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive. Join the Club is filled with too much irrelevant detail and not enough exploration of the social and biological factors that make peer pressure so powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure as it’s presented here is that it doesn’t work very well for very long. Rage Against the Haze failed once state funding was cut. Evidence that the LoveLife program produces lasting changes is limited and mixed.
There’s no doubt that our peer groups exert enormous influence on our behavior. An emerging body of research shows that positive health habits-as well as negative ones-spread through networks of friends via social communication. This is a subtle form of peer pressure: we unconsciously imitate the behavior we see every day.
Far less certain, however, is how successfully experts and bureaucrats can select our peer groups and steer their activities in virtuous directions. It’s like the teacher who breaks up the troublemakers in the back row by pairing them with better-behaved classmates. The tactic never really works. And that’s the problem
with a social cure engineered from the outside: in the real world, as in school, we insist on choosing our own friends.
21. According to the first paragraph, peer pressure often emerges as
[A] a supplement to the social cure
[B] a stimulus to group dynamics
[C] an obstacle to school progress
[D] a cause of undesirable behaviors
22. Rosenberg holds that public advocates should
[A] recruit professional advertisers
[B] learn from advertisers’ experience
[C] stay away from commercial advertisers
[D] recognize the limitations of advertisements
23. In the author’s view, Rosenberg’s book fails to
[A] adequately probe social and biological factors
[B] effectively evade the flaws of the social cure
[C] illustrate the functions of state funding
[D]produce a long-lasting social effect
24. Paragraph 5shows that our imitation of behaviors
[A] is harmful to our networks of friends
[B] will mislead behavioral studies
[C] occurs without our realizing it
[D] can produce negative health habits
25. The author suggests in the last paragraph that the effect of peer pressure is
[A] harmful
[B] desirable
[C] profound
[D] questionable
Text 2
A deal is a deal-except, apparently ,when Entergy is involved. The company, a major energy supplier in New England, provoked justified outrage in Vermont last week when it announced it was reneging on a longstanding commitment to abide by the strict nuclear regulations.
Instead, the company has done precisely what it had long promised it would not challenge the constitutionality of Vermont’s rules in the federal court, as part of a desperate effort to keep its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running. It’s a stunning move.
The conflict has been surfacing since 2002, when the corporation bought Vermont’s only nuclear power plant, an aging reactor in Vernon. As a condition of receiving state approval for the sale, the company agreed to seek permission from state regulators to operate past 2012. In 2006, the state went a step further, requiring that any extension of the plant’s license be subject to Vermont legislature’s approval. Then, too, the company went along.
Either Entergy never really intended to live by those commitments, or it simply didn’t foresee what would happen next. A string of accidents, including the partial collapse of a cooling tower in 207 and the discovery of an underground pipe system leakage, raised serious questions about both Vermont Yankee’s safety and Entergy’s management– especially after the company made misleading statements about the pipe. Enraged by Entergy’s behavior, the Vermont Senate
voted 26 to 4 last year against allowing an extension.
Now the company is suddenly claiming that the 2002 agreement is invalid because of the 2006 legislation, and that only the federal government has regulatory power over nuclear issues. The legal issues in the case are obscure: whereas the Supreme Court has ruled that states do have some regulatory authority over nuclear power, legal scholars say that Vermont case will offer a precedent-setting test of how far those powers extend. Certainly, there are valid concerns about the patchwork regulations that could result if every state sets its own rules. But had Entergy kept its word, that debate would be beside the point.
The company seems to have concluded that its reputation in Vermont is already so damaged that it has noting left to lose by going to war with the state. But there should be consequences. Permission to run a nuclear plant is a poblic trust. Entergy runs 11 other reactors in the United States, including Pilgrim Nuclear station in Plymouth. Pledging to run Pilgrim safely, the company has applied for federal permission to keep it open for another 20 years. But as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviews the company’s application, it should keep it mind what promises from Entergy are worth.
26. The phrase “reneging on”(Line 3.para.1) is closest in meaning to
[A] condemning.
[B] reaffirming.
[C] dishonoring.
[D] securing.
27. By entering into the 2002 agreement, Entergy intended to
[A] obtain protection from Vermont regulators.
[B] seek favor from the federal legislature.
[C] acquire an extension of its business license .
[D] get permission to purchase a power plant.
28. According to Paragraph 4, Entergy seems to have problems with its
[A] managerial practices.
[B] technical innovativeness.
[C] financial goals.
[D] business vision
29. In the author’s view, the Vermont case will test
[A] Entergy’s capacity to fulfill all its promises.
[B] the mature of states’ patchwork regulations.
[C] the federal authority over nuclear issues .
[D] the limits of states’ power over nuclear issues.
30. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that
[A] Entergy’s business elsewhere might be affected.
[B] the authority of the NRC will be defied.
[C] Entergy will withdraw its Plymouth application.
[D] Vermont’s reputation might be damaged.
Part B
Directions:
In the following text, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET1.(10 points)
Think of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aeroplane window and realise that you are flying, higher than a bird. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or your cellphone in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.
The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. (41)
The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production, means of distribution, site of reception, and place of praise and critique. The computer is the 21st century's culture machine.
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. (42)I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.
All animals download, but only a few upload. Beavers build dams and birds make nests. Yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then
turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods - paintings, sculpture and architecture - and superfluous experiences - music, literature, religion and philosophy. (43)
For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. (44)
Television is a one-way tap flowing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after he has turned it on.
(45)
What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of \"stickiness\" - creations and experiences to which others adhere.
[A] Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.
[B] Applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add
stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others.
[C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.
[D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading - between passive consumption and active creation - whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine.
[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players.
[F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world's media culture has been defined by a single medium - television - and television is defined by downloading.
[G]The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.
Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise. In some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton’s laws of motion and Darwinian evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory frame work.
(46)In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of everything—a single generative equation for all we see.It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail, nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal.
This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too. (47)Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification for it all humans share common origins it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings. Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world’s languages, music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. (48)To filter out what is unique from what is shared might enable us to understand how complex cultural behavior arose and what
guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.
That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the light of two previous attempts to find universality in language.
The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that humans are born with an innate language—acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.
(49)The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many language which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints
Gray and his colleagues have put them to the test by examining four family trees that between them represent more than 2,000 languages.(50)Chomsky’s grammar should show patterns of language change that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it. Whereas Greenbergian universality predicts strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations. Neither of these patterns is borne out by the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages are lire age-specific and not governed by universals
Section I: Use of English
1.B 2.A 3.B 4.D 5.C
6.B 7.D 8.B 9.A 10.B
11.A 12.C 13.C 14.D 16.C 17.A 18.C 19.D Section II: Reading Comprehension
Part A
21.D 22.B 23.A 24.C 26.C 27.D 28.A 29.D 31.A 32.B 33.B 34.D 35.C
36.C 37.D 38.B 39.C Part B
41. C 42.D 43. A 44.F 45.G
15.A
20.D
25.D
30.A
40.A
Part C
46. 物理学中的一个理论把这种归一的冲动发挥到了极致，它探寻一种万有理论——一个关于我们能看到的一切的生成方程式。
47. 在这里，达尔文主义似乎提供了有力的理由，因为如果全人类有共同的起源，那么假设文化差异也能够追溯到更有限的源头好像就是合理的了。
48. 把差异性和独特性从共性中过滤出来也许能让我们理解复杂的文化行为是如何产生的，是什么从进化或认知领域指导着它。
49. 约书亚格林伯格为寻找语言的共性而付出努力提出了第二种理论。他采用了一个更实用的共性理论，做法是辨认出众多语言的共有特征(尤其是按照词序排列)，这些特征被认为代表了由认知局限导致的偏差。
50. 乔姆斯基生成语法应该表明语言变化的模式，这些模式独立于族谱或贯穿其中的路径，然而格林伯格的共性理论预测词序关系的特殊类别之间(而不是其他)有着强烈的共存性。
Section III: Writing Part A (10 points)
51. 参考范文 Dear international students, I am the chairman of the Students’ Union. I’ve just received the emails from you and got the news that you would come to our university. Firstly, I’d like to show our warm welcome. On behalf of our university and all the students here, I really look forward to your coming. In
order to make all of you feel at home, here are some conductive suggestions. Firstly, you’d better take some warm clothes with you because it is winter in China now and it is very cold in Beijing. Secondly, I advise you to prepare some relevant knowledge about Chinese culture for better understanding in class. I really hope you’ll find these proposals useful. And I’m looking forward to your coming! Yours sincerely, Li Ming Part B (20 points)
52. 参考范文 How vivid the cartoon it is! What the profound cartoon reflects is a not uncommon social phenomenon, from which we can observe that in this cartoon stand two men and a bottle of milk. The 2 men show different perspectives toward the bottle of milk that is place on the ground. According to the information given in the above-mentioned cartoon, the gist of it is regarding how we should perceive the world around us. People tend to show different attitudes towards the issue. Then , what prove to be the underlying reasons for it? The following several reasons stated below can be taken to be responsible for it. First and foremost, that issue is largely having something to do with the current state of people’ mind, without any doubt, some people are born positively, and while some others are born negatively. What is more important is that the outlook and value embodied in society affects how we throw our insights into something we are deal with. As far as my personal thinking is concerned, when it comes to mentioning the issue concerning how to look at the world, what we should do is to observe it positively and confidently, especially when we are experiencing and encountering setbacks, only if we have the above-mentioned proposals adopted, can we be bound to live a life of happiness。
解析
2012年考研英语一真题总体分析
2012年的考研英语已经结束了，总体来讲，今年的试题维持了历年考题的特点，难度和去年相比持平。就各部分来说，第一部分完形填空与去年相比难度略有下降。阅读理解A部分相比去年来说，难度依旧，文章看似容易，但选项设置陷阱比较多，想得高分也不是件易事。B部分则是以7选5的形式出现；C部分翻译是今年最难的部分，文章难度比较大，但五个需要翻译的句子还是比较容易理解的，主要考查对从句结构的把握。小作文部分重考以往的题型，建议信写作难度不大。最后一部分大作文和往年一样是看图作文，主题容易把握。
第一部分：Use of English（完形填空）的文章节选自2011年6月30日New York Times（《纽约时报》）的一篇社论（Editorial），原文标题为\"Ethics, Politics and the Law\"（道德、政治和法律），讲的是有关政治和法律的话题。文章难度适中。对词汇量方面做了一个比较大的考查。
第二部分：Reading Comprehension（阅读理解）A部分Text 1选自2011年4月9日Time （《时代周刊》），原文标题为Herd Mentality（从众心理），作者为Annie Murphy Paul。
Text 2选自Boston.com 2011年4月24日的一篇社论（Editorial），原文标题为\"Vermont Yankee plant's owner must honor its own promises\"（佛蒙特洋基工厂的所有者必须履行自己的承诺）。叙述的是美国佛蒙特洋基核反应堆的事情。结合了日本地震的热点事件。
Text 3节选自2011年2月1日The Scientist （《科学家》）的一篇文章，原文标题为\"The Evolution of Credibility\"（诚信的演变），作者是Frederick Grinnell。是选自作者的一本书（书名：Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic）中的内容，是作者关于自己这本书的一些介绍和阐述。
Text 4节选自The Economist（《经济学人》）2011年3月17日的一篇文章：Enemies of progress（前进的敌人），副标题是\"The biggest barrier to public- sector reform are the unions\"，考试的文章较原文有所修改，以符合考研文章的难度及词汇要求。本文讲的是与美国公务员改革相关的问题。
四篇文章的题材主要是人文类、教育类、社科类、经济类，题型分布相对较平均，例证题、词汇题和态度题都有相应的分布，相比去年难度有所降低。
B部分新题型今年考的是7选5，这篇文章出自2011年7月5日的New Scientist（《新科学家》），原文标题是\"How computers can cure cultural diabetes\"（电脑如何能治愈文化糖尿病），作者是Peter Lunenfeld，讲的是自从人类发明电脑之后，人们分享和交互信息的问题。今年的新题型考查的是以前已考过的备选题型：选择填空题。七年已有四年考过7选5，在第八年再次回到7选5，难度适中。
C部分翻译难度比较大，节选自Nature（《自然》）2011年4月14日的一篇文章，原文标题是\"Universal truths\"（普遍真理），这篇文章理论性较强。文章里提到一些晦涩难懂的术语，比如达尔文主义、经验主义、乔姆斯基和格林伯格等人的理论，论述了有关普遍真理探索方面的内容。
2012考研英语的文章其选材依然保持了题材广泛，知识性强、句子结构复杂的特点，
对于备考2013年考研的同学来说具有很大的借鉴作用，建议2013年的考生广泛阅读外文报刊杂志，多读一些专业性强的学术性文章。
第三部分：Writing（写作）今年的难度适中。A部分小作文再次考了之前考过的题型：建议信，写作难度不大。\"校园生活\"是一个我们非常熟悉的话题。B部分大作文和往年一样是看图作文，是关于\"乐观与悲观\"的话题，主题容易把握，因跑题而丢分的可能性较
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