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2011 年全国硕士研究生招生考试

英语（二）

（科目代码：204）

Directions:

Section I Use ofEnglish

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10points)

The Internet affords anonymity to its users, a blessing to privacy and freedom of speech. But that very anonymity is also behind the explosion of cyber-crime that has1across the Web.

Can privacy be preserved2 bringing safety and security to a world that seems increasingly3?

Last month, Howard Schmidt, the nation’s cyber-czar, offered the federal government a4to make the Web a safer place – a “voluntary trusted identity” system that would be the high-tech5 of a physical key, a fingerprint and a photo ID card, all rolled 6one. The system might use asmart identity card, or a digital credential7 to a specific computer, and would authenticate users at a range of onlineservices.

The ideaisto8afederationofprivateonlineidentitysystems.Users could9 which system to join, and only registered userswhoseidentitieshave been authenticated could navigate those systems. Theapproach contrasts with one that would require an Internet driver’slicense10 by thegovernment.

Google and Microsoft are among companies that already have these “single sign-on” systems that make it possible for users to 11 just once but use many differentservices.

12,theapproach would createa “walled garden” in cyberspace, withsafe “neighborhoods” and bright “streetlights” to establish a senseof a13community.

Mr. Schmidt described it as a “voluntary ecosystem” in which “individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with 14 , trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure15which the transactionruns.”

Still, the administration’s plan has 16privacy rights activists. Some applaud the approach; others are concerned. It seems clear that such a scheme is an initiative push toward what would 17be a compulsory Internet “driver’s license”mentality.

The plan has also been greeted with 18by some computer security experts, who worry that the “voluntary ecosystem” envisioned by Mr. Schmidt would still leave much of the Internet19. They argue that all Internet users should be20to register and identify themselves, in the same way that driversmust be licensed to drive on public roads.

SectionII ReadingComprehension

Part A Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B,CorD.MarkyouranswersonANSWERSHEET1.(40points)

Text 1

Ruth Simmons joined Goldman Sachs’s board as an outside director in January 2000; a year later she became president of Brown University. For the restof the decade she apparently managed both roles without attracting much criticism. But by the end of 2009 Ms. Simmons was under fire for having sat on Goldman’s compensation committee; how could she have let those enormous bonus payouts pass unremarked? By February the next year Ms. Simmons had left the board. The positionwasjusttakinguptoomuchtime,shesaid.

Outside directors are supposed to serve as helpful, yet less biased, advisers on a firm’s board. Having made their wealth and their reputations elsewhere, they presumably have enough independence to disagree with the chief executive’s proposals. If the sky, and the share price is falling, outside directors should be abletogiveadvicebasedonhavingweatheredtheirowncrises.

The researchers from Ohio University used a database that covered morethan 10,000 firms and more than 64,000 different directors between 1989 and2004. Then they simply checked which directors stayed from one proxy statement to the next. The most likely reason for departing a board was age, so theresearchers concentrated on those “surprise” disappearances by directors underthe age of 70. They found that after a surprise departure, the probability that the company will subsequently have to restate earnings increases by nearly 20%. The likelihood of being named in a federal class-action lawsuit also increases, and the stock is likely to perform worse. The effect tended to be larger for larger firms. Although a correlation between them leaving and subsequent bad performance at the firm is suggestive, it does not mean that such directors are always jumping off a sinking ship. Often they “trade up,” leaving riskier, smaller firms for larger and more stablefirms.

But the researchers believe that outside directors have an easier time ofavoiding a blow to their reputations if they leave a firm before bad news breaks, even if a review of history shows they were on the board at the time any wrongdoing occurred. Firms who want to keep their outside directors through tough times may have to create incentives. Otherwise outside directors will follow the example of Ms. Simmons, once again very popular on campus.

21.According to Paragraph 1, Ms. Simmons wascriticizedfor.

[A]gaining excessive profits

[B]failing to fulfill herduty

[C]refusing to makecompromises

[D]leaving the board in toughtimes

22.We learn from Paragraph 2 that outside directors are supposedtobe.

[A]generousinvestors

[B]unbiasedexecutives

[C]share priceforecasters

[D]independent advisers

23.According to the researchers from Ohio University, after an outside director’s surprise departure, the firm islikelyto.

[A]become morestable

[B]report increasedearnings

[C]do less well in the stockmarket

[D]perform worse inlawsuits

24.It can be inferred from the last paragraph thatoutsidedirectors.

[A]may stay for the attractive offers from thefirm

[B]have often had records of wrongdoings in thefirm

[C]are accustomed to stress-free work in thefirm

[D]will decline incentives from thefirm

25.The author’s attitude toward the role of outsidedirectorsis.

[A]permissive

[B]positive

[C]scornful

[D]critical

Text 2

Whatever happened to the death of newspapers? A year ago the end seemed near. The recession threatened to remove the advertising and readers that had not already fled to the internet. Newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle were chronicling their own doom. America’s Federal Trade Commission launched a round of talks about how to save newspapers. Should they become charitable corporations? Should the state subsidize them? It will hold another meeting soon. But the discussions now seem out ofdate.

In much of the world there is little sign of crisis. German and Brazilian papers have shrugged off the recession. Even American newspapers, which inhabit the most troubled corner of the global industry, have not only survived but often returned to profit. Not the 20% profit margins that were routine a few years ago, but profit all thesame.

It has not been much fun. Many papers stayed afloat by pushing journalists overboard. The American Society of News Editors reckons that 13,500 newsroom jobs have gone since 2007. Readers are paying more for slimmer products. Some papers even had the nerve to refuse delivery to distantsuburbs. Yet these desperate measures have proved the right ones and, sadly for many journalists, they can be pushedfurther.

Newspapers are becoming more balanced businesses, with a healthier mix of revenues from readers and advertisers. American papers have long been highly unusual in their reliance on ads. Fully 87% of their revenues came from advertising in 2008, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). In Japan the proportion is 35%. Not surprisingly, Japanese newspapers are much morestable.

The whirlwind that swept through newsrooms harmed everybody, but much of the damage has been concentrated in areas where newspapers are leastdistinctive. Car and film reviewers have gone. So have science and general business reporters. Foreign bureaus have been savagely cut off. Newspapers areless complete as a result. But completeness is no longer a virtue in the newspaper business.

26.By saying “Newspapers like ... their own doom” (Lines3-4, Para.1), the author indicatesthatnewspapers.

[A]neglected the sign ofcrisis

[B]failed to get statesubsidies

[C]were not charitablecorporations

[D]were in a desperatesituation

27.Some newspapers refused delivery to distant suburbsprobablybecause.

[A]readers threatened to payless

[B]newspapers wanted to reducecosts

[C]journalists reported little about theseareas

[D]subscribers complained about slimmerproducts

28.Compared with their American counterparts, Japanese newspapers are much more stablebecausethey.

[A]have more sources ofrevenue

[B]have more balancednewsrooms

[C]are less dependent onadvertising

[D]are less affected byreadership

29.What can be inferred from the last paragraph about the current newspaper business?

[A]Distinctiveness is an essential feature ofnewspapers.

[B]Completeness is to blame for the failure ofnewspaper.

[C]Foreign bureaus play a crucial role in the newspaperbusiness.

[D]Readers have lost their interest in car and filmreviews.

30.The most appropriate title for this textwouldbe.

[A]American Newspapers: Struggling forSurvival

[B]American Newspapers: Gone with theWind

[C]American Newspapers: A ThrivingBusiness

[D]American Newspapers: A HopelessStory

Text 3

We tend to think of the decades immediately following World War II as a time of prosperity and growth, with soldiers returning home by the millions, goingofftocollegeontheG.I.Billandliningupatthemarriagebureaus.

But when it came to their houses, it was a time of common sense and a belief that less could truly be more. During the Depression and the war, Americans had learned to live with less, and that restraint, in combination with the postwar confidence in the future, made small, efficient housing positivelystylish.

Economic condition was only a stimulus for the trend toward efficient living. The phrase “less is more” was actually first popularized by a German, thearchitect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who like other people associated with the Bauhaus, a school of design, emigrated to the United States before World War II and took up posts at American architecture schools. These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture, but none more sothanMies.

Mies’s signature phrase means that less decoration, properly organized, hasmore impact than a lot. Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance. Like other modern architects, he employed metal, glass and laminated wood –materials that we take for granted today but that in the 1940s symbolized thefuture. Mies’s sophisticated presentation masked the fact that the spaces hedesigned were small and efficient, rather than big and often empty.

The apartments in the elegant towers Mies built on Chicago’s Lake ShoreDrive, for example, were smaller – two-bedroom units under 1,000 square feet – than those in their older neighbors along the city’s Gold Coast. But they were popular because of their airy glass walls, the views they afforded and the elegance of the buildings’ details and proportions, the architectural equivalent of the abstract art so popular at thetime.

The trend toward “less” was not entirely foreign. In the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright started building more modest and efficient houses – usually around 1,200 square feet – than the spreading two-story ones he had designed in the 1890s and the early 20thcentury.

The “Case Study Houses” commissioned from talented modern architects by California Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1962 were yet another homegrown influence on the “less is more” trend. Aesthetic effect came from the landscape, new materials and forthright detailing. In his Case Study House, Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanical revolution would impact everyday life – few American families acquired helicopters, though most eventually got clothes dryers – but his belief that self-sufficiency was both desirable and inevitable was widely shared.

31.The postwar American housing style largely reflectedtheAmericans’.

[A]prosperity andgrowth

[B]efficiency andpracticality

[C]restraint andconfidence

[D]pride andfaithfulness

32.Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 3 about theBauhaus?

[A]It was founded by Ludwig Mies van derRohe.

[B]Its designing concept was affected by World WarII.

[C]Most American architects used to be associated withit.

[D]It had a great influence upon Americanarchitecture.

33.Mies held that elegance ofarchitecturaldesign.

[A]was related to largespace

[B]was identified withemptiness

[C]was not reliant on abundantdecoration

[D]was not associated withefficiency

34.What is true about the apartments Mies built on Chicago’s Lake ShoreDrive?

[A]They ignored details andproportions.

[B]They were built with materials popular at thattime.

[C]They were more spacious than neighboringbuildings.

[D]They shared some characteristics of abstractart.

35.What can we learn about the design of the “Case StudyHouses”?

[A]Mechanical devices were widelyused.

[B]Natural scenes were taken intoconsideration.

[C]Details were sacrificed for the overalleffect.

[D]Eco-friendly materials wereemployed.

Text 4

Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facinga“Bermudatriangle”ofdebt,populationdeclineandlowergrowth.

As well as those chronic problems, the EU faces an acute crisis in itseconomic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone’s economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix ofdevaluation.

Yet the debate about how to save Europe’s single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone’s dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise.

Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrowing, spending and competitiveness, backed by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country’s voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour Frenchinterference.

A “southern” camp headed by France wants something different: “European economic government” within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the Franch government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonisation: e.g., curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labourcosts.

It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world’s largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempttobluntthesharpestedgesofglobalisation,andmakecapitalismbenign.

36.The EU is faced with so manyproblemsthat .

[A]it has more or less lost faith inmarkets

[B]even its supporters begin to feelconcerned

[C]some of its member countries plan to abandoneuro

[D]it intends to deny the possibility ofdevaluation

37.The debate over the EU’s single currency is stuck because the dominant powers_____.

[A]are competing for the leadingposition

[B]are busy handling their owncrises

[C]fail to reach an agreement onharmonisation

[D]disagree on the steps towardsdisintegration

38.To solve the euro problem, Germanyproposedthat .

[A]EU funds for poor regions beincreased

[B]stricter regulations beimposed

[C]only core members be involved in economicco-ordination

[D]voting rights of the EU members beguaranteed

39.The French proposal of handling the crisisimpliesthat.

[A]poor countries are more likely to getfunds

[B]strict monetary policy will be applied to poorcountries

[C]loans will be readily available to richcountries

[D]rich countries will basically controlEurobonds

40.Regarding the future of the EU, the author seemstofeel.

[A]pessimistic

[B]desperate

[C]conceited

[D]hopeful

Part B Directions:

Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the leftcolumn. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10points)

Leading doctors today weigh in on the debate over the government’s role in promoting public health by demanding that ministers impose “fat taxes” onunhealthy food and introduce cigarette-style warnings to children about thedangers of a poordiet.

The demands follow comments made last week by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, who insisted the government could not force people to make healthychoicesandpromisedtofreebusinessesfrompublichealthregulations.

But senior medical figures want to stop fast-food outlets opening near schools, restrict advertising of products high in fat, salt or sugar, and limit sponsorship of sports events by fast-food producers such asMcDonald’s.

They argue that government action is necessary to curb Britain’s addiction to unhealthy food and help halt spiraling rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said that the consumption of unhealthy food should be seen to be just as damaging as somking or excessivedrinking.

“Thirty years ago, it would have been inconceivable to have imagined a ban on smoking in the workplace or in pubs, and yet that is what we have now. Are we willing to be just as courageous in respect of obesity? I would suggest that we shouldbe,”saidtheleaderoftheUK’schildren’sdoctors.

Lansley has alarmed health campaigners by suggesting he wants industry rather than government to take the lead. He said that manufacturers of crisps and candies could play a central role in the Change4Life campaign, the centrepiece of government efforts to boost healthy eating and fitness. He has also criticised the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s high-profile attempt to improve school lunches in England as an example of how “lecturing” people was not the best way to change theirbehaviour.

Stephenson suggested potential restrictions could include banning TV advertisements for foods high in fat, salt or sugar before 9 pm and limiting them on billboards or in cinemas. “If we were really bold, we might even begin to think of high-calorie fast food in the same way as cigarettes – by setting strict limits on advertising,productplacementandsponsorshipofsportsevents,”hesaid.

Such a move could affect firms such as McDonald’s, which sponsors the youth coaching scheme run by the Football Association. Fast-food chains should also stop offering “inducements” such as toys, cute animals and mobile phone credit to lure young customers, Stephensonsaid.

Professor Dinesh Bhugra, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “If children are taught about the impact that food has on their growth, and thatsomethingscanharm,atleastinformationisavailableupfront.”

He also urged councils to impose “fast-food-free zones” around schools and hospitals – areas within which takeaways cannot open.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We need to create a new vision for public health where all of society works together to get healthy and live longer. This includes creating a new ‘responsibility deal’ with business, built on social responsibility, not state regulation. Later this year, we will publish a white paper setting out exactly howwe will achieve this.”

The food industry will be alarmed that such senior doctors back such radical moves, especially the call to use some of the tough tactics that have been deployed against smoking over the lastdecade.

Section III Translation

46.Directions:

In this section there is a text in English. Translate it into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

Who would have thought that, globally, the IT industry produces about the same volume of greenhouse gases as the world’s airlines do – roughly 2 percent of all CO₂emissions?

Many everyday tasks take a surprising toll on the environment. A Googlesearch can leak between 0.2 and 7.0 grams of CO2, depending on how many attempts are needed to get the “right” answer. To deliver results to its usersquickly, then, Google has to maintain vast data centres around the world, packedwith powerful computers. While producing large quantities of CO2, thesecomputers emit a great deal of heat, so the centres need to be well air-conditioned, which uses even more energy.

However, Google and other big tech providers monitor their efficiency closely and make improvements. Monitoring is the first step on the road to reduction,butthereismuchmoretobedone,andnotjustbybigcompanies.

SectionIV Writing

Part A

47.Directions:

Suppose your cousin Li Ming has just been admitted to a university. Write him/her a letter to

1)congratulate him/her,and

2)givehim/hersuggestionsonhowtogetpreparedforuniversitylife. You shouldwriteabout100wordsonANSWERSHEET2.

Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use “Zhang Wei” instead.

Do not write the address. (10 points)

Part B

48.Directions:

Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, you should

1)interpret the chartand

2)give your comments.

You should write at least 150 words.

Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

2011年考研英语二真题答案

Section Ⅰ Use ofEnglish

1.A 2.C 3.B 4.D 5.D 6.B 7.A 8.C 9.C 10.B

11.D 12.B 13.A 14.C 15.A 16.A 17.D 18.A 19.C 20.D

SectionⅡReading Comprehension

Part A

Part B

41.E42.D43.C44.B45.G

Part C

46.

谁会想到信息技术行业产生的温室气体总量会与航空业不相上下，约占全球二氧化碳排放量的2%?

信息技术行业的许多日常工作对环境造成了意想不到的危害。每用谷歌搜索一次就会释放出0.2克至7.0克的二氧化碳，释放量的多少取决于使用者需要搜索多少次才能得到“正确”答案。为了把搜索结果迅速传输给用户，谷歌不得不在全世界范围内建立大型数据中心，并配备大功率计算机。除了排放大量二氧化碳，这些计算机还释放许多热量，因此数据中心还需要良好的空调环境，而这又会消耗更多的能量。

不过，谷歌和其他大型技术供应商已在密切监控其数据中心的工作效率并做出改进。监控只是减排的第一步，需要做的还有很多，而且这不单单是大公司的事情。

Section III Writing

47、48 见解析

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