考研英语真题及答案.doc

英语考研真题

1986—2010（附答案）

1986年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
On Wednesday afternoons Annie took the bus into town to shop in the market. For an hour or __16__ she would walk up and down between the stalls looking at everything, buying here and there, and __17__ a sharp lookout for the bargains that were sometimes to be had. And then, with all the things she needed __18__ she would leave the market for the streets of the town to spend another hour __19__ she liked best: looking in furniture shop windows.
One Wednesday she found a new shop full of the most delightful things, with a notice inviting anyone to walk in and look __20__ without feeling they had to buy something. Annie hesitated for a moment before stepping through the doorway where, almost at once, she stopped __21__ before a green armchair. There was a card on the chair which said: “This fine chair is yours __22__ less than a pound a week,” and very small at the bottom, “Cash price eighty-nine pounds fifty.” A pound a week... __23__, she could almost pay that out of her housekeeping money and never miss it! A voice at her shoulder made her __24__. “Can I help you, Madam?” She looked round at the assistant who had come softly to her __25__.
“Oh, well, no,” she said. “I was just looking.” “We’ve chairs of all kinds in the showroom. If you’ll just come up, you will find something to suit you.”
Annie, worried at the thought of being persuaded to buy something she didn’t need, left the shop hurriedly.
16. [A] so [B] more [C] else [D] another
17. [A] taking[B] making[C] fixing[D] keeping
18. [A] buy[B] bought[C] buying[D] to have bought
19. [A] in a way[B] by the way[C] in the way[D] on the way
20. [A] behind[B] round[C] back[D] on
21. [A] doubted[B] wondered[C] puzzled[D] delighted
22. [A] at[B] for[C] with[D] in
23. [A] Why[B] When[C] How[D] What
24. [A] jump[B] leap[C] laugh[D] wonder
25. [A] place[B] back[C] side[D] front
Text 1
There are a great many careers in which the increasing emphasis is on specialization. You find these careers in engineering, in production, in statistical work, and in teaching. But there is an increasing demand for people who are able to take in great area at a glance, people who perhaps do not know too much about any one field. There is, in other words, a demand for people who are capable of seeing the forest rather than the trees, of making general judgments. We can call these people “generalists.” And these “generalists” are particularly needed for positions in administration, where it is their job to see that other people do the work, where they have to plan for other people, to organize other people’s work, to begin it and judge it.
The specialist understands one field; his concern is with technique and tools. He is a “trained” man; and his educational background is properly technical or professional. The generalist -- and especially the administrator -- deals with people; his concern is with leadership, with planning, and with direction giving. He is an “educated” man; and the humanities are his strongest foundation. Very rarely is a specialist capable of being an administrator. And very rarely is a good generalist also a good specialist in particular field. Any organization needs both kinds of people, though different organizations need them in different proportions. It is your task to find out, during your training period, into which of the two kinds of jobs you fit, and to plan your career accordingly.
Your first job may turn out to be the right job for you -- but this is pure accident. Certainly you should not change jobs constantly or people will become suspicious of your ability to hold any job. At the same time you must not look upon the first job as the final job; it is primarily a training job, an opportunity to understand yourself and your fitness for being an employee.
26. There is an increasing demand for ________.
[A] all round people in their own fields
[B] people whose job is to organize other people’s work
[C] generalists whose educational background is either technical or professional
[D] specialists whose chief concern is to provide administrative guidance to others
27. The specialist is ________.
[A] a man whose job is to train other people
[B] a man who has been trained in more than one fields
[C] a man who can see the forest rather than the trees
[D] a man whose concern is mainly with technical or professional matters
28. The administrator is ________.
[A] a “trained” man who is more a specialist than a generalist
[B] a man who sees the trees as well as the forest
[C] a man who is very strong in the humanities
[D] a man who is an “educated” specialist
29. During your training period, it is important ________.
[A] to try to be a generalist
[B] to choose a profitable job
[C] to find an organization which fits you
[D] to decide whether you are fit to be a specialist or a generalist
30. A man’s first job ________.
[A] is never the right job for him
[B] should not be regarded as his final job
[C] should not be changed or people will become suspicious of his ability to hold any job
[D] is primarily an opportunity to fit himself for his final job
Test 2
At the bottom of the world lies a mighty continent still wrapped in the Ice Age and, until recent times, unknown to man. It is a great land mass with mountain ranges whose extent and elevation are still uncertain. Much of the continent is a complete blank on our maps. Man has explored, on foot, less than one per cent of its area. Antarctica differs fundamentally from the Arctic regions. The Arctic is an ocean, covered with drifting packed ice and hemmed in by the land masses of Europe, Asia, and North America. The Antarctic is a continent almost as large as Europe and Australia combined, centered roughly on the South Pole and surrounded by the most unobstructed water areas of the world -- the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
The continental ice sheet is more than two miles high in its centre, thus, the air over the Antarctic is far more refrigerated than it is over the Arctic regions. This cold air current from the land is so forceful that it makes the nearby seas the stormiest in the world and renders unlivable those regions whose counterparts at the opposite end of the globe are inhabited. Thus, more than a million persons live within 2,000 miles of the North Pole in an area that includes most of Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia -- a region rich in forest and mining industries. Apart from a handful of weather stations, within the same distance of the South Pole there is not a single tree, industry, or settlement.
31. The best title for this selection would be ________.
[A] Iceland[B] Land of Opportunity[C] The Unknown Continent[D] Utopia at Last
32. At the time this article was written, our knowledge of Antarctica was ________.
[A] very limited[B] vast[C] fairly rich[D] nonexistent
33. Antarctica is bordered by the ________
.[A] Pacific Ocean[B] Indian Ocean
[C] Atlantic Ocean[D] All three
34. The Antarctic is made uninhabitable primarily by ________.
[A] cold air[B] calm seas[C] ice[D] lack of knowledge about the continent
35. According to this article ________.
[A] 2,000 people live on the Antarctic Continent
[B] a million people live within 2,000 miles of the South Pole
[C] weather conditions within a 2,000 mile radius of the South Pole make settlements impractical
[D] only a handful of natives inhabit Antarctica

It would be interesting to discover how many young people go to university without any clear idea of what they are going to do afterwards. (71) If one considers the enormous variety of courses offered, it is not hard to see how difficult it is for a student to select the course most suited to his interests and abilities. (72) If a student goes to university to acquire a broader perspective of life, to enlarge his ideas and to learn to think for himself, he will undoubtedly benefit. (73) Schools often have too restricting an atmosphere, with its time tables and disciplines, to allow him much time for independent assessment of the work he is asked to do. (74) Most students would, I believe, profit by a year of such exploration of different academic studies, especially those “all rounders” with no particular interest. They should have longer time to decide in what subject they want to take their degrees, so that in later life, they do not look back and say, “I should like to have been an archaeologist. If I hadn’t taken a degree in Modern Languages, I shouldn’t have ended up as an interpreter, but it’s too late now. I couldn’t go back and begin all over again.”
(75) There is, of course, another side to the question of how to make the best use of one’s time at university. (76) This is the case of the student who excels in a particular branch of learning. (77) He is immediately accepted by the University of his choice, and spends his three or four years becoming a specialist, emerging with a first-class Honour Degree and very little knowledge of what the rest of the world is all about. (78) It therefore becomes more and more important that, if students are not to waste their opportunities, there will have to be much more detailed information about courses and more advice. Only in this way can we be sure that we are not to have, on the one hand, a band of specialists ignorant of anything outside of their own subject, and on the other hand, an ever increasing number of graduates qualified in subjects for which there is little or no demand in the working world.

1987年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题
Text 1
For centuries men dreamed of achieving vertical flight. In 400 A.D. Chinese children played with a fan-like toy that spun upwards and fell back to earth as rotation ceased. Leonardo da Vinci conceive the first mechanical apparatus, called a “Helix,” which could carry man straight up, but was only a design and was never tested.
The ancient-dream was finally realized in 1940 when a Russian engineer piloted a strange looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground, went sideways and backwards, and then settled back to earth. The vehicle was called a helicopter.
Imaginations were fired. Men dreamed of going to work in their own personal helicopters. People anticipate that vertical flight transports would carry millions of passengers as do the airliners of today. Such fantastic expectations were not fulfilled.
The helicopter has now become an extremely useful machine. It excels in military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as airborne offices, many metropolitan areas use them in police work, construction and logging companies employ them in various advantageous ways, engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations accessible to crews and supplies. Any urgent mission to a hard-to-get-to place is a likely task for a helicopter. Among their other multitude of used: deliver people across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for missing or wanted persons.
11. People expect that ________.
[A] the airliners of today would eventually be replaced by helicopters
[B] helicopters would someday be able to transport large number of people from place to place as airliners are now doing
[C] the imaginations fired by the Russian engineer’s invention would become a reality in the future
[D] their fantastic expectations about helicopters could be fulfilled by airliners of today
12. Helicopters work with the aid of ________.
[A] a combination of rotating devices in front and on top
[B] a rotating device topside
[C] one rotating fan in the center of the aircraft and others at each end
[D] a rotating fan underneath for lifting
13. What is said about the development of the helicopter?
[A] Helicopters have only been worked on by man since 1940.
[B] Chinese children were the first to achieve flight in helicopters.
[C] Helicopters were considered more dangerous than the early airplanes.
[D] Some people thought they would become widely used by average individuals.
14. How has the use of helicopters developed?
[A] They have been widely used for various purposes.
[B] They are taking the place of high-flying jets.
[C] They are used for rescue work.
[D] They are now used exclusively for commercial projects.
15. Under what conditions are helicopters found to be absolutely essential?
[A] For overseas passenger transportation.
[B] For extremely high altitude flights.
[C] For high-speed transportation.
[D] For urgent mission to places inaccessible to other kinds of craft.
Text 2
In ancient Greece athletic festivals were very important and had strong religious associations. The Olympian athletic festival held every four years in honor of Zeus, king of the Olympian Gods, eventually lost its local character, became first a national event and then, after the rules against foreign competitors had been abolished, international. No one knows exactly how far back the Olympic Games go, but some official records date from 776 B.C. The games took place in August on the plain by Mount Olympus. Many thousands of spectators gathered from all parts of Greece, but no married woman was admitted even as a spectator. Slaves, women and dishonored persons were not allowed to compete. The exact sequence of events uncertain, but events included boy’s gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, horse racing and field events, though there were fewer sports involved than in the modern Olympic Games.
On the last day of the Games, all the winners were honored by having a ring of holy olive leaves placed on their heads. So great was the honor that the winner of the foot race gave his name to the year of his victory. Although Olympic winners received no prize money, they were, in fact, richly rewarded by their state authorities. How their results compared with modern standards, we unfortunately have no means of telling.
After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years, the Games were suspended by the Romans in 394 A.D. They continued for such a long time because people believed in the philosophy behind the Olympics: the idea that a healthy body produced a healthy mind, and that the spirit of competition in sports and games was preferable to the competition that caused wars. It was over 1,500 years before another such international athletic gathering took place in Athens in 1896.
Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living accommodation, but competing courtiers pay their own athletes’ expenses.
The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount Olympus by the sun’s rays. It is carried