D. pushing the private sector to take sole responsibility 39. If the government let TRIA expire, ____.
A. it should stop warning the public of terrorist attacks regularly
B. it will have to pay more money when large scale catastrophe occurs C. regulatory distortions of insurance markets will be reduced
D. private insurance companies will stop insuring terrorism attacks 40. The writer is ____ in developing the argument in this passage.
A. objective B. emotional C. disturbed D. indifferent
Passage Three
It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave. The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marveling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him would he but translate his visions into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom. Lucy had done so never.
She was no dazzling execultante; nor was she the passionate young lady, who performs so tragically on a summer?s evening with the window open. Passion was there, but it could not be easily labeled. And she was tragical only in the sense that she was great, for she loved to play on the side of Victory. Victory of what and over what—that is more than the words of daily life can tell us. But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy had decided that they should triumph.
A very wet afternoon at the Pension Bertolini permitted her to do the thing she really liked, and after lunch she opened-the little draped piano. A few people lingered round and praised her playing, but finding that she made no reply, dispersed to their rooms to write up their diaries or to sleep. She took no notice of Mr Emerson looking for his son, nor of Miss Bartlett looking for Miss Lavish, nor Miss Lavish looking for her book. Like every true performer, she was intoxicated by the mere feel of the notes.
Mr Beebe, sitting unnoticed in the window, pondered over this illogical element in Lucy Honeychurch, and recalled the occasion at Tunbridge Wells when he had discovered it. It was at one of those entertainments where the upper classes entertain the lower. The seats were filled with a respectful audience, and the Indies and gentlemen of this parish, under the auspices of their vicar, sang, or recited, or imitated the drawings of a champagne cork. Among the promised items was ?Miss Honeychurch. Piano. Beethoven?, and Mr Deebe was wondering whether it would be ?Adelaida?, or the march of ?The Ruins of Athens?, when his composure was disturbed by the opening bars of Opus Ⅲ. He was in suspense all through the introduction for not until the pace quickens does one know what the performer intends. With the roar of the opening theme he knew that things were going extraordinarily; in the chords that herald the conclusion he heard the hammer strokes of victory. He was glad that she only played the first movement, for he could have paid no attention to the winding intricacies of the measure of nine-sixteen. The audience clapped, no less respectful. It was Mr Bebee who started the stamping; it was all that one could do.
?Who is she?? he asked the vicar afterwards.
?Cousin of one of my parishioner. I do not consider her choice of a piece happy Beethoven is
so usually simple and direct in his appeal that it is sheer perversity to choose a thing like that, which, if anything disturbs.?
When he was introduced, Mr Beebe realized that Miss Honeychurch, disjoined from her music-stool, was only a young lady with a very pretty, pale, underdeveloped face. She loved going to concerts, she loved stopping with her cousin, she loved iced coffee and meringues. But before he left Tunbridge Wells he made a remark to the vicar, which he now made to Lucy herself when she closed the little piano and moved dreamily towards him.
?If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting—both for us and for her.?
41. In the first paragraph we are told that _________.
A. one needs to reject worldly pleasure to truly develop musical talent. B. music is sometimes regarded as a substitute for creation.
C. there is often a mismatch between great musical talent and ordinary life. D. it is amazing how great an effect music tends to have on our lives. 42. Lucy?s piano playing _________.
A. displayed a mixture of strong feelings. B. tended to be rather melodramatic.
C. failed to capture the tragic nature of some music D. was marred by some inaccuracies.
43. When she played at the Pension Bertolini, Lucy _________. A. wished she could play better. B. asked to be left alone. C. resented being interrupted. D. was engrossed in the music.
44. What did Mr. Beebe realize at the entertainment he remembers at Tunbridge Wells? A. That the vicar had vetted the contributions B. That Lucy had a special musical talent
C. That Lucy?s was the only performance of any value
D. That the audiences were duty-bound to show appreciation
45. What surprised Mr. Beebe when he heard Lucy at Tunbridge Wells? A. Lug?s choice of composer
B. The way the opening theme developed C. Lucy?s choice of piece
D. The fact that Lucy didn?t play more of the work
Passage Four
If you choose lobster from a menu, then wherever you are in the world, the odds are that your dinner may have come from Arichat in Nova Scotia. The lobster, trapped off the Canadian coast, would have been driven to Louisville, Kentucky, where, cocooned in gel packs and styrofoam, it went for a wild ride on the carousels of the UPS superhub, where 17,000 high-speed conveyor belts, carrying more than 8m packages a week, whisk your living lobster to a plane and on onto tables across the globe.
John McPhee?s new book is about supply lines: how a lobster shares a conveyor belt with Bentley spare parts and jockey underwear. It is about boats, trains and trucks, but mostly it is about the people who drive, tend and love the machines. Don Ainsworth owns an 18-wheeler with
“a tractor of such dark sapphire that only bright sunlight could bring forth its colour.” To wash his truck Mr. Ainsworth uses only water that has either been de-ionised or has undergone reverse-osmosis; anything else leaves spots. “This is as close as a man will ever know”, he says, “what it feels like to be a truly gorgeous woman. People give us looks, going thumbs up.”
He carries chemicals all across North America where his enemies are ?gators, bears and four-wheelers. ?Gators are huge strips of shredded tyre littering the highways and just one of them “can rip off your fuel-crossover line”. A bear is a policeman, while a four-wheeler is any vehicle that has fewer than 18 wheels. They buzz around like gnats, seemingly unaware that a real vehicle, one with 18 wheels or more, cannot stop on a dime.
The Billy Joe Boling is a towboat which, perversely, pushes 15 barges up the Illinois River. The barges carry 30,000 tons of pig-iron, steel, coils, fertiliser and furnace coke. Lashed together with steel cables which are then tightened with cheater bars, the Billy Joe Boling shoves forward a metal raft that is longer than an aircraft carrier. Along the way, the captain copes with bridges, locks, currents, shoals, winter ice 18 inches thick and summer ladies flashing at him. “We brought 12,000 tons of coke up the Illinois River,” the skipper tells the author, “and now we?re pushing 14,000 tons of coke down the Illinois River. One day they?ll figure it out and put us out of a job.”
The bosses also want to put the drivers of the coal train out of a job. They dream of automated trains running endlessly along the 1,800 miles between the strip-mines of the Powder River Basin and Georgia?s Plant Scherer, the world?s largest coal-fired power station. A mile-and-half long train has 133 gondolas, each of which carries 115 tons of coal, and the whole trainload will keep Plant Scherer burning for just eight hours. This book will keep you much longer. It is Mr McPhee at his wise, wry best, writing in top gear which, as Mr Ainsworth will tell you, is the 18th: “the going home gear, the smoke hole”.
46. What is the relationship between lobsters and the subject matter of this essay? 47. People give Don Ainsworth looks, going thumbs up?
48. What does the author mean by “a real vehicle, one with 18 wheels or more, cannot stop on a dime”?
49. Why do the bosses want to put the drivers of the coal trains out of a job? 50. What does Mr. Ainsworth mean by “the 18th gear”?
PART III WRITING (1×30=30 POINTS)
Read the following quote and write an article of about 400 words long for a newspaper to argue for or against the author’s opinion.
We shall live to see the day, I trust, when no man shall build his house for posterity. He might just as reasonably order a durable suit of clothes ... so that his great-grandchildren should cut precisely the same figure in the world... I doubt whether even one public edifice ... should be built of such permanent materials... Better that they should crumble to ruin, once in twenty years or thereabouts, as a hint to the people to reform the institutions which they symbolize.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Should buildings be built to crumble to ruin every twenty years? Write an essay in response to this question.
参考答案及解析
PART I GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY
1.A 句意：她极不愿意谈论她的个人经历，因为她不爱出风头。disinclination不愿，厌恶。
have a disinclination to do sth不愿做某事。dissolution溶解，结束。dissidence不一致，异议。dissension意见分歧。
2. D 句意：用眼睛看远距离的东西时，它们会合为一点，在绘画中我们称之为“消失点”
converge会聚，集中。conform符合。comfort安慰。contriving设计。
3. B 句意：这个男人进了监狱，但这两个男孩只受到警告，逃脱了惩罚。take off模仿。get
off（做坏事后）逃脱惩罚。keep off远离。set off出发。
4. B 句意：尽管她的首次成功因为她父亲也是一位著名演员而受到了阻碍，但之后评论家
还是称她为一个靠自己实力成功的明星。impede阻碍，妨碍。enhance提高，提升。refute反驳，驳斥。supersede代替，取代。
5.D rather than表示“而不是”，此处句意为“应该提高利率而不是降低利率。”
6. D frivolous轻薄的;轻浮妄动的。effervescent奋发的，愉快的。vicissitude名词，变迁兴
衰。ephemeral短暂的，瞬息的。
7.B 句意：很少有人会不辞辛劳地研究我们所珍视的信念，实际上，我们甚至自然而言地
反感此举。repugnance to sth厌恶，强烈反感某事物。aptitude for有天资，有天赋。ignorance of无知。reaction to对…做出反应。
8.B 句意：如果你坐待最佳时机的来临，你可能永远也无法开始你的计划。optimum最佳
的，最适宜的。definitive明确的，决定性的。implacable不缓和的，不安静的。righteous正当的，正义的。
9.B 句意：通过后半生的阅读，我获得了对他性情的一些可能性解释。temperament性情，
禀性。temptation诱惑，诱惑物。temperance节制，克制。
10.D ghost是个抽象名词，此处不可数，前面不应该加冠词，应排除B、C项；此处也不
是强调某个物体，such后不需要加冠词，也排除A项。
11.A like sb. to do sth.是一种固定搭配，指相对是暂时性的喜好，此处指我被那样夸奖了，
我不喜欢。
12.C “没有收到回复”这一事件发生在决定发急电之前，其动词（这里是一个动词的完成
式）的-ing形式作主语表主动，对这个主语的否定只能置于其前加not。 13.A 句意：战时，为了国家利益，常常牺牲个人的基本权利。disregard漠视，忽视。infringe
破坏，违反，侵害。suspend在一段时期内取消特权或职位。stamp根除，破坏。 14.B receiver接受者，接收器。receipt收据。recipients收件人。payee收款人。
15.A 句意：很多过去认为是人类灾难的疾病现在可以容易地用抗生素治愈。scourge灾害；
鞭子。blight虫害。torture拷问，刑讯。thorn刺。
16.B as…as结构表“与某人一样?”时，名词与形容词排序应遵照“as +形容词/副词+名
词+as”结构。 17.D 句意：愤世嫉俗者认为，那些对赞扬毫不理会的人这么做是为了再次获得称赞。shrug
off不予理会。bask in坐着或躺着取暖。give out分发，散发。gloat over沾沾自喜，得意洋洋。
18. D 此处现在分词做状语，对前文所述内容做出解释，相当于which means. 19.D 句意：很显然，主席对吉姆的发言感到生气，盯着看了他一会儿。put out使某人不安，
得罪某人。put sb down羞辱或怠慢某人。put across使被接受。put away放好，收拾好。
20.A 句意：地方当局意识到预先为老人提供住房的必要性。provision指“供应，供应品”，
短语make provision of意为“为?做好准备，为?预先采取措施”。preparation虽然也有准备之意，但make preparation for后面常加事件，为某事做准备，如party, exam,
wedding等。C、D两项与句意不符。
21.C be engrossed in全神贯注于。tarnish失去光泽，损害（名誉等）。revamp更新，翻新。
bequeath遗赠，遗留。
22.B impromptu speech即席讲话。promptitude敏捷，迅速。prorate比例分配，分派。natant
漂浮的。
23.A 表达“通过某种途径、方式”，应用介词by。
24.B introspective自省的，反省的。retrospective回顾的，追溯的。perspective观点，看法。
prospective预期的。
25.C 句意：日本政府的美元购买使得商人们因为害怕其他政府的干预而急切想放开美元。
let go of放开。let out释放，放出，泄漏。let off允许离去。
26.A 句意：最高法院关于医生协助病人自杀问题的决定，涉及到医生是否该为病人减轻痛
苦的重要议题。implication牵连，涉及。complication复杂，趋于复杂。
27.C 句意：无论选择何处作为产品销售地，美国商业都是强有力的竞争者，因为它们在竞
争性强的环境下获得了最优性。wherever引导地点状语从句。 28.C dominate统治，支配。pervade（气味、感情等）弥漫，充满。diffuse扩散，传播。intervene
干涉。
29.D make for sth.潮?移动，冲向。make off匆匆离开，逃走，不及物动词词组。make from
由?制造。
30.D 句意：公众对基础科学的慷慨投资将会为国家健康、财富和安全带来可观利益。lead
to导致某种结果。result from由?导致，因?产生。settle down定居，平静下来。lie in睡懒觉，待产。
PART II READING COMPREHENSION
Passage One
31.B 第一段以Roman languages和Indo-European family为例说明，通过考察同语系不同语
言的共同特点，可构建a hypothetical family tree，以此追溯这些语言的共同起源。 32.B 关于语言演化，Schmidt提出a “wave” model，认为语言存在同化趋势，即：异化不
是语言变化的唯一趋势。
33.C 根据结尾句convergence methods have not generally found favor among linguists可知，
同化理论并未得到语言学家的支持。
34.B 最后一段结尾表明，linguistic replacement是解释the origins of the Indo-European
languages的关键之一。因此，linguistic replacement的重要性不容忽视。但其他三种模式initial colonization，divergence和linguistic convergence同样很重要。
35.D 文章以indo-European languages的起源为例，围绕语言演化的趋势，对四种模式
divergence，linguistic convergence，initial colonization和linguistic replacement展开讨论。
Passage Two
36.C 根据第二段可知，TRIA是政府实施的一项灾难袭击后provide a government back-stop
for the insurance industry措施，由政府财政支持保险业，而不是“向高危地区房地产提供保险”，选项C正确。从第二段可知，With modifications, TRIA should be extended，而不是保持现状来延期，选项B不正确。
37.A 第四段解释了private sector对独立承担恐怖袭击保险犹豫不决的原因：恐怖袭击的时
间和程度都不能够预测，这making a mockery of insurers? underwriting models，选项A正确。
38.D 倒数第二段谈及TRIA延期应注意的问题，指出“如果同意延期，政府干预也减少，