2012 年全国硕士研究生入学考试英语试题National Entrance Test of English for MA/MS

Candidates (NETEM)

Section Use of EnglishⅠ

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 became an important issue

recently. The court cannot_____ its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law______

justices behave like politicians. Yet, in several instances, justices acted in ways

that_____ the court’s reputation for being independent and impartial。　　Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr., for example, appeared at political

events. That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court’s decisions will be____

as impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that the justices are not _____ by an

ethics code. At the very least, the court should make itself_______ to the code of

conduct that ______to the rest of the federal judiciary。　 　 This and other cases ______the question of whether there is still a _____

between the court and politics。　　The framers of the Constitution envisioned law____ having authority apart from

politics. They gave justices permanent positions ____ they would be free to ____those

in power and have no need to_____ political support. Our legal system was designed

to set law apart from politics precisely because they are so closely _____。　 　 Constitutional law is political because it results from choices rooted in

fundamental social ______like liberty and property. When the court deals with social

policy decisions, the law it _____is inescapably political — which is why decisions

split along ideological lines are so easily _____ as unjust。　 　 The justices must _____doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making

themselves _____to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to

be seen as separate from politics and, _____, convincing as law。1 A emphasize B maintain C modify D recognize

2 A when B best C before D unless

3 A rendered 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 leads 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 through 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 convenience

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 means B at all costs C in a word D as a result

Section Reading ComprehensionⅡ

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 SHEET1. (40 points)

Text 2

　　Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour,

yet it is pervasive in our young girls’ lives. It is not that pink intrinsically bad, but it is

a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also

repeatedly and firmly fused girls’ identity to appearance. Then it presents that

connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as

evidence of innocence. Looking around, despaired at the singular lack of imagination

about girls’ lives and interests。　　Girls' attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA,

but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it's not.

Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before

domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only

way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What's more, both boys and girls wore

what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were

introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version

of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin

Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid-

1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children's

marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem innately

attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical

years。　　 I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of

what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological

development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed

after years of research into children's behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to

Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing

gimmick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s。　　Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales,

they should create a "third stepping stone" between infant wear and older kids'

clothes. It was only after "toddler" became common shoppers' term that it evolved

into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier

categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to

segment a market is to magnify gender differences – or invent them where they did

not previously exist。26 By saying "it is ... The rainbow"(line 3, Para 1) ， the author means pink

_______。　　A should not be the sole representation of girlhood

　　B should not be associated with girls' innocence

　　C cannot explain girls' lack of imagination

　　D cannot influence girls' lives and interests

27 According to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours?

　　A Colors are encoded in girls' DNA

　　B Blue used to be regarded as the color for girls

　　C Pink used to be a neutral color in symbolizing genders

　　D White is preferred by babies

28 The author suggests that our perception of children's psychological devotement

was much influenced by ________。　　[A] the marketing of products for children

　　[B] the observation of children's nature

　　[C] researches into children's behavior

　　[D] studies of childhood consumption

29. We may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised ________。　　A focuses on infant wear and older kids' clothes

　　B attach equal importance to different genders

　　C classify consumers into smaller groups

　　D create some common shoppers' terms

30. it can be concluded that girl's attraction to pink seems to be _____。　　A clearly explained by their inborn tendency

　　B fully understood by clothing manufacturers

　　C mainly imposed by profit-driven businessmen

　　D well interpreted by psychological experts

Part B

Directions: For questions 41-45, choose the most suitable paragraphs from the list A-

G and fill them into the numbered boxes to form a coherent text. Paragraph E has

been correctly placed. There is one paragraph which does not fit in with the text. Mark

your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. ( 10 points)

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 at least the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized

the scientific enterprise. In some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science:

without it, there is no underlying order and pattern, merely as many explanations as

there are things in the world. Newton's laws of motion, the oxygen theory of

combustion and Darwinian evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a

single explicatory framework.

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 proliferation of

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.

Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification, for if 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 to be forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world's languages,

music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal

features. To filter out what is contingent and unique from what is shared might enable

us to understand how complex cultural behaviour 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 (M.Dunn et al.Nature

doi:10.1038/nature09923; 2011) supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the

University of Auckland, New Zealand, 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 postulated that

humans are born with an innate

language-acquisition capacity — a brain module or modules specialized for language

— 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. Languages would diversify through changes to the 'parameter settings' of

the generative rules.

The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality,

identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many languages, which are

considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints. Chomsky's and

Greenberg's are not the only theories on the table for how languages evolve, but they

make the strongest predictions about universals. Gray and his colleagues have put

them to the test using phylogenetic methods to examine four family trees that between

them represent more than 2,000 languages. A generative 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 (and not others). Neither of these

patterns is borne out by the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages

are lineage-specific and not governed by universals.

This does not mean that cognitive constraints are irrelevant, or that there are no other

universals dictated by communication efficiency. It is surely inevitable that cognition

sets limits on, say, word length. But such 'universals' seem likely to be relatively

trivial features of languages, just as may be the case for putative universals in music

and other aspects of culture.

The conclusion? We should perhaps learn the lesson of Darwinism: a 'universal'

mechanism of adaptation says little in itself about how a particular feature got to be

the way it is, or about how it works. This truth has dawned on physicists too:

universal equations are all very well, but the world actually consists of particular

solutions, and these are generally the result of contingent history. One size does not

always fit all.

Section WritingⅢ

Part A

51. Directions:

You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.

Do not sign your own name at the end of the notice. Use "Postgraduates' Association"

instead. ( 10 points)

Part B

52. Directions: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In

your essay, you should

1）describe the picture briefly,

2）explain its intended meaning, and

3）give your comments。You should write neatly on answer sheet 2.