2017考研英语二完形填空真题
2017XDF英语二真题答案解析
2017考研英语二答案解析1-45（因为梅花卷顺序有所不一样仅供参考）后续补充其他版本完形填空（微信公众号：考研联盟）Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text。
Choose the best word（s）for each numbered blank and mark A，B，C or D on the ANSWER SHEET。
（10points）People have speculated for centuries about a future without work。
Today is no different，with academics，writers，and activists once again 1that technology be replacing human workers。
Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by2。
A few wealthy people will own all the capital，and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland。
A different and not mutually exclusive3holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort，one4by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives5，people will simply become lazy and depressed。
6，today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time。
2017年考研英语二真题(附答案解析)
2017年考研英语二Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different，with academics，writers，and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital，and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort，one 4 by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives 5 ，people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression，double the rate for 7 Americans. Also，some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality，mental-health problems，and addicting9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work，a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today，the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring，degrading，unhealthy，and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher，a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days，because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers，people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work，I often feel 18 ，” Danaher says，adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work，I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1. [A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring2. [A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3. [A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction4. [A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured5. [A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom6. [A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless7. [A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated8. [A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute9. [A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among10. [A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside11. [A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically12. [A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles13. [A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course14. [A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield15. [A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship16. [A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce17. [A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats18. [A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved19. [A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into20. [A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （40 points）Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run－up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in theplanning of such a fundamentally "grassroots", concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods－making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has_____.A．gained great popularityB．created many jobsC．strengthened community tiesD．become an official festival22. The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to_____. A．boost population growthB．promote sport participationC．improve the city's imageD．increase sport hours in schools23. Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it_____.A．aims at discovering talentsB．focuses on mass competitionC．does not emphasize elitismD．does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should_____. A．organize "grassroots" sports eventsB．supervise local sports associationsC．increase funds for sports clubsD．invest in public sports facilities25. The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____. A．tolerantB．criticalC．uncertainD．sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-overinto the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device －it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose y our child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it－particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______. A．simplify routine mattersB．absorb user attentionC．better interpersonal relationsD．increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices ______. A．takes away ba bies’ appetiteB．distracts children’s attentionC．slows down babies’ verbal developmentD．reduces mother-child communication28. Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.A．it is easy for children to get used to blank expressionsB．verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC．children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ moodD．parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______. A．protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB．teach their kids at least 30,000 words a yearC．ensure constant interaction with their childrenD．remain concerned about kid's use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.A．give their parents some free timeB．make their parents more creativeC．help them with their homeworkD．help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits－in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figurethings out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that_____. A．they think it academically misleadingB．they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC．it feels strange to do differently from othersD．it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____. A．keep students from being unrealisticB．lower risks in choosing careersC．ease freshmen’s financial burdensD．relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation”（Line 8, Para. 3）is closest in meaning to_____. A．adaptationB．applicationC．motivationD．competition34. A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.A．avoid academic failuresB．establish long-term goalsC．switch to another collegeD．decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be_____.A．In Favor of the Gap YearB．The ABCs of the Gap YearC．The Gap Year Comes BackD．The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep－that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?”“Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015they_____.A．exhausted unprecedented management effortsB．consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC．severely damaged the ecology of western statesD．caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to _____.A．raise more funds for fire-prone areasB．avoid the redirection of federal moneyC．find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD．guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that _____. A．public debates have not settled yetB．fire-fighting conditions are improvingC．other factors should not be overlookedD．a shift in the view of fire has taken place39. The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to _____. A．discover the fundamental makeup of natureB．explore the mechanism of the human systemsC．maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD．understand the interrelations of man and nature40. Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.A．do away withB．come to terms withC．pay a price forD．keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming [into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another majorhurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section III TranslationDirections:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)46.My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realised that I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream - I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!Section IV WritingPart A51 Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming ” instead.Do not write the address .(10 points)52. Directions:Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)参考答案1. C 空格之后的宾语从句部分“technology is replacing hu man workers.”结合选项，应该选择warning。
2017年考研英语二完形填空真题及答案【最新完整版】
2017年考研英语二完形填空真题及答案【最新完整版】Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text.Choose the best word(s)for each numbered blank and mark A,B,C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different,with academics,writers,and activists onceagain_____(1)that technology be replacing human workers.Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by_____(2)A few wealthy people will own all the capital,and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different and not mutually exclusive_____(3)holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort,one_____(4)by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives_____(5),people will simply become lazy and depressed._____(6),today's unemployed don't seem to be having a great time.One Gallup poll found that20percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression,double the rate for_____(7)Americans.Also,some research suggests that the_____(8)for rising rates of mortality,mental-health problems,andaddicting_____(9)poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage ofwell-paid jobs.Perhaps this is why many_____(10)the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn't_____(11)follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease.Such visions are based onthe_____(12)of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment.In the_____(13)of work,a society designed with other ends in mind could_____(14)strikingly different circumstanced for the future of labor and leisure.Today,the_____(15)of work may be a bit overblown.“Many jobs are boring,degrading,unhealthy,and a waste of human potential,”says John Danaher,a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days,because leisure time is relatively_____(16)for most workers,people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional_____(17)of their jobs.“When I come home from a hard day's work, I often feel_____(18),"Danaher says,adding,"In a world in which I don't have to work,I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself_____(19)a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for_____(20)matters.1.【题干】_____【选项】A.boastingB.denyingC.warningD.ensuring【答案】C2.【题干】_____【选项】A.inequalityB.instabilityC.unreliabilityD.uncertainty3.【题干】_____【选项】A.policyB.guidelineC.resolutionD.prediction 【答案】D4.【题干】_____【选项】A.characterizedB.dividedC.balancedD.measured【答案】A5.【题干】_____【选项】A.wisdomB.meaningD.freedom【答案】B6.【题干】_____【选项】A.InsteadB.IndeedC.ThusD.Nevertheless 【答案】B7.【题干】_____【选项】A.richB.urbanC.workingcated【答案】C8.【题干】_____【选项】A.explanationB.requirementpensationD.substitute 【答案】A9.【题干】_____【选项】A.underB.beyondC.alongsideD.among【答案】D10.【题干】_____【选项】A.leave behindB.make upC.worry aboutD.set aside【答案】C11.【题干】_____【选项】A.statisticallyB.occasionallyC.necessarilyD.economically 【答案】C12.【题干】_____【选项】A.chancesB.downsidesC.benefitsD.principles 【答案】B13.【题干】_____【选项】A.absenceB.heightC.face【答案】A14.【题干】_____【选项】A.disturbB.restoreC.excludeD.yield【答案】D15.【题干】_____【选项】A.modelB.practiceC.virtueD.hardship【答案】C16.【题干】_____【选项】A.trickyC.mysteriousD.scarce【答案】D17.【题干】_____【选项】A.demandsB.standardsC.qualitiesD.threats【答案】A18.【题干】_____【选项】A.ignoredB.tiredC.confusedD.starved【答案】B19.【题干】_____A.offB.againstC.behindD.into【答案】D20.【题干】_____【选项】A.technologicalB.professionalcationalD.interpersonal【答案】B2017年考研英语二阅读理解真题及答案【最新完整版】Section II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts.Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B,C or D.Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(40points)Text1Every Saturday morning,at9am,more than50,000runners set off to run5km around their local park.The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired400events in the UK and more abroad.Events are free,staffed by thousands of volunteers.Runners range from four years old to grandparents;their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13minutes48seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic"legacy"is failing.Ten years ago on Monday,it was announced that the Games of the30th Olympiad would be in London.Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter,healthier and produce more winners.It has not happened.The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise,by nearly 2million in the run-up to2012-but the general population was growing faster.Worse,the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate.The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved.Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London2012failed to"inspire a generation."The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial:Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody.There is as much joy over a puffed-outfirst-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders,by contrast,wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes.The dual aim was mixed up:The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed,there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally"grassroots",concept as community sports associations.If there is a role for government,it should really be getting involved in providing common goods-making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools.But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces,squeezingmoney from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy,worthy strategies,future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive.Or at least not make them worse.21.【题干】According to Paragraph1,Parkrun has_____.【选项】A.gained great popularityB.created many jobsC.strengthened community tiesD.become an official festival【答案】A22.【题干】The author believes that London's Olympic"legacy"has failed to_____.【选项】A.boost population growthB.promote sport participationC.improve the city's imageD.increase sport hours in schools【答案】B23.【题干】Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it_____.【选项】A.aims at discovering talentsB.focuses on mass competitionC.does not emphasize elitismD.does not attract first-timers【答案】C24.【题干】With regard to mass sport,the author holds that governments should_____.【选项】anize"grassroots"sports eventsB.supervise local sports associationsC.increase funds for sports clubsD.invest in public sports facilities【答案】D25.【题干】The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____.【选项】A.tolerantB.criticalC.uncertainD.sympathetic【答案】BText2With so much focus on children's use of screens,it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use."Tech is designed to really suck on you in,"says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play,"and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement.It makes it hard to disengage,and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine."Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise.She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started20percent fewer verbal and39percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation,she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family.Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents'faces to try to understand their world,and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device-it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children.Radesky cites the"still face experiment"devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the1970s.In it,a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback;The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother's attention."Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times,but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need,"says Radesky.On the other hand,Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids'use of screens are born out of an"oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting"with their children:"It's basedon a somewhat fantasized,very white,very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you're failing to expose your child to30,000words you are neglecting them."Tronick believes that just because a child isn't learning from the screen doesn't mean there's no value to it-particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower,do housework or simply have a break from their child.Parents,he says,can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way.This can make them feel happier,which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26.【题干】According to Jenny Radesky,digital products are designed to______.【选项】A.simplify routine mattersB.absorb user attentionC.better interpersonal relationsD.increase work efficiency【答案】B27.【题干】Radesky's food-testing exercise shows that mothers'use of devices______.【选项】A.takes away babies'appetiteB.distracts children's attentionC.slows down babies'verbal developmentD.reduces mother-child communication【答案】D28.【题干】Radesky's cites the"still face experiment"to show that _______.【选项】A.it is easy for children to get used to blank expressionsB.verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC.children are insensitive to changes in their parents'moodD.parents need to respond to children's emotional needs【答案】D29.【题干】The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.【选项】A.protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB.teach their kids at least30,000words a yearC.ensure constant interaction with their childrenD.remain concerned about kid's use of screens【答案】C30.【题干】According to Tronick,kid's use of screens may_______.【选项】A.give their parents some free timeB.make their parents more creativeC.help them with their homeworkD.help them become more attentive【答案】AText3Today,widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year.After all,if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year,doesn't it?And after going to school for12years,it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn't academic.But while this may be true,it's not a good enough reason to condemn gap years.There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated"race to the finish line,"whether that be toward graduate school,medical school or lucrative career.But despite common misconceptions,a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits-in fact,it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not.Rather than pulling students back,a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence,new responsibilities and environmental changes-all things that first-year students often struggle with the most.Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brandnew environment,making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests,then consider its financial impact on future academic choices.According to the National Center for Education Statistics,nearly 80percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising,considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications,but switching to another after taking college classes.It’s not necessarily a bad thing,but depending on the school,it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game.At Boston College,for example,you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department.Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31.【题干】One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that_____.【选项】A.they think it academically misleadingB.they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC.it feels strange to do differently from othersD.it seems worthless to take off-campus courses【答案】C32.【题干】Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____.【选项】A.keep students from being unrealisticB.lower risks in choosing careersC.ease freshmen's financial burdensD.relieve freshmen of pressures【答案】D33.【题干】The word"acclimation"(Line8,Para.3)is closest in meaning to_____.【选项】A.adaptationB.applicationC.motivationpetition【答案】A34.【题干】A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.【选项】A.avoid academic failuresB.establish long-term goalsC.switch to another collegeD.decide on the right major【答案】D35.【题干】The most suitable title for this text would be_____.【选项】A.In Favor of the Gap YearB.The ABCs of the Gap YearC.The Gap Year Comes BackD.The Gap Year:A Dilemma【答案】AText4Though often viewed as a problem for western states,the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars,says Professor Max Moritz,a specialist in fire ecology and management.In2015,the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its$5.5billion annual budget fighting fires-nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts20years ago.In effect,fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work-such as forest conservation,watershed and cultural resources management,and infrastructure upkeep-that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts.As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?"It's already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,"he says.We need to take a magnifying glass to that.Like,"Wait a minute,is this OK?""Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?"Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire,researchers say.For one thing,conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade,the focus has been on climate change-how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element,Moritz says,it shouldn't come at the expense of the rest of the equation."The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked,and the interactions go both ways,"he says.Failing to recognize that,he notes, leads to"an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be.Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited."At the same time,people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity,says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado.But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies,and practices that make it as safe as possible,she says."We've disconnected ourselves from living with fire,"Balch says."It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today."36.【题干】More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in2015they_____.【选项】A.exhausted unprecedented management effortsB.consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC.severely damaged the ecology of western statesD.caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure【答案】B37.【题干】Moritz calls for the use of"a magnifying glass"to_____.【选项】A.raise more funds for fire-prone areasB.avoid the redirection of federal moneyC.find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD.guarantee safer spending of public funds【答案】D38.【题干】While admitting that climate is a key element,Moritz notes that_____.【选项】A.public debates have not settled yetB.fire-fighting conditions are improvingC.other factors should not be overlookedD.a shift in the view of fire has taken place【答案】C39.【题干】The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to_____.【选项】A.discover the fundamental makeup of natureB.explore the mechanism of the human systemsC.maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD.understand the interrelations of man and nature【答案】D40.【题干】Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.【选项】A.do away withe to terms withC.pay a price forD.keep away from【答案】B2017年考研英语二新题型真题及答案【最新完整版】Part BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column.Thereare two extra choices in the right column.Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(10points)The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump."We don't make anything anymore,"he told Fox News,while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question,manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades,and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country,factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge:instead of having too many workers,they may end up with too few.Despite trade competition and outsourcing,American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place,other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners,it all adds up to stiff competition for workers-and upward pressure on wages."They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell,president of Wolverine Coil Spring,a family-owned firm, "They may be coming[into the workforce],but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing,"Mr.Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing,a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in1980,Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly200workers,five are retiring this year.Mr.Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of$13an hour that rises to$17after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant,young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors.It's his first week on the job.Asked about his choice of career,he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering."I love working with tools.I love creating."he says.But to win over these young workers,manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle:parents,who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression,telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials"remember their father and mother both were laid off.They blame it on the manufacturing recession,"says Birgit Klohs,chief executive of The Right Place,a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced:Employment in manufacturing has fallen from17million in1970to12million in2013.When the recovery began,worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades.Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill,"says Rob Spohr,a business professor at Montcalm Community College."There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill.It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing:a work/life balance.While their parents were content to work long hours,young people value flexibility."Overtime is not attractive to this generation.They really want to live their lives," she says.[A]says that he switched to electrical engineering because he loves working with tools。
2017年考研英语二真题及答案(完整版)
2017年考研英语二真题及答案(完整版)utomated labor。
but with a universal basic e provided by the government。
This would allow people to live comfortably without the need for work。
However。
critics argue that this would lead to a XXX.Another n of the future without work is one in which XXX taking care of menial tasks。
people would have more time to pursue their ns and interests。
This could lead to a society of artists。
thinkers。
and XXX.Regardless of the n。
XXX of work。
Jobs that were once considered secure and essential are now being automated。
and the trend is only expected to continue。
It is up to XXX are shared by all.In n。
the future without work is a complex and uncertain topic。
While it offers the potential for a more leisurely and fulfilling life。
it also poses challenges and risks。
It is up to us to shape this future and ensure that it is one that XXX.a better place。
2017年考研英语二真题及答案解析
2017年考研英语二Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different， with academics， writers， and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital，and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort， one 4 by purposelessness： Without jobs to give their lives 5 ， people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression， double the rate for 7Americans. Also， some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality， mental-health problems， and addicting9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.B ut it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work， a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today， the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring， degrading， unhealthy， and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher， a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days， because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers， people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work， I often feel 18 ，” Danaher says， adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work，I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough tothrow himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1. [A] boasting[B] denying[C] warning[D] ensuring2. [A] inequality[B] instability[C] unreliability[D] uncertainty3. [A] policy[B]guideline[C] resolution[D] prediction4. [A] characterized [B]divided[C]balanced[D]measured5. [A] wisdom[B] meaning[C] glory[D] freedom6. [A] Instead[B] Indeed[C] Thus[D] Nevertheless7. [A] rich[B] urban[C]working[D] educated8. [A] explanation[B] requirement[C] compensation[D] substitute9. [A] under[B] beyond[C] alongside[D] among10. [A] leave behind[B] make up[C] worry about[D] set aside11. [A] statistically[B] occasionally[C] necessarily[D] economically12. [A] chances[B] downsides[C] benefits[D] principles13. [A] absence[B] height[C] face[D] course14. [A] disturb[B] restore[C] exclude[D] yield15. [A] model[B] practice[C] virtue[D] hardship16. [A] tricky[B] lengthy[C] mysterious[D] scarce17. [A] demands[B] standards[C] qualities[D] threats18. [A] ignored[B] tired[C] confused[D] starved19. [A] off[B] against[C] behind[D] into20. [A] technological[B] professional[C] educational[D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （40 points）Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run－up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failedto "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally "grassroots", concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods－making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more toprovide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has_____.A．gained great popularityB．created many jobsC．strengthened community tiesD．become an official festival22. The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to_____.A．boost population growthB．promote sport participationC．improve the city's imageD．increase sport hours in schools23. Parkrun is different from Olympic games in thatit_____.A．aims at discovering talentsB．focuses on mass competitionC．does not emphasize elitismD．does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should_____.A．organize "grassroots" sports eventsB．supervise local sports associationsC．increase funds for sports clubsD．invest in public sports facilities25. The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____.A．tolerantB．criticalC．uncertainD．sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device－it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting ona blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressi ons of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean t here’s no value to it－particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______.A．simplify routine mattersB．absorb user attentionC．better interpersonal relationsD．increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices ______.A．takes away babies’ appetiteB．distracts children’s attentionC．slows down babies’ verbal developmentD．reduces mother-child communication28. Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.A．it is easy for children to get used to blank expressions B．verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC．children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ moodD．parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.A．protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB．teach their kids at least 30,000 words a yearC．ensure constant interaction with their childrenD．remain concerned about kid's use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.A．give their parents some free timeB．make their parents more creativeC．help them with their homeworkD．help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits －in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often strugglewith the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not takinga gap year is that_____.A．they think it academically misleadingB．they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC．it feels strange to do differently from othersD．it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____.A．keep students from being unrealisticB．lower risks in choosing careersC．ease freshmen’s financial burdensD．relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation”（Line 8, Para. 3） is closest in meaning to_____.A．adaptationB．applicationC．motivationD．competition34. A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.A．avoid academic failuresB．establish long-term goalsC．switch to another collegeD．decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be_____.A．In Favor of the Gap YearB．The ABCs of the Gap YearC．The Gap Year Comes BackD．The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep －that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?”“Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been onclimate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they_____.A．exhausted unprecedented management effortsB．consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC．severely damaged the ecology of western statesD．caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to _____.A．raise more funds for fire-prone areasB．avoid the redirection of federal moneyC．find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD．guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that _____.A．public debates have not settled yetB．fire-fighting conditions are improvingC．other factors should not be overlookedD．a shift in the view of fire has taken place39. The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to _____.A．discover the fundamental makeup of natureB．explore the mechanism of the human systemsC．maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD．understand the interrelations of man and nature40. Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.A．do away withB．come to terms withC．pay a price forD．keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the rightcolumn. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his ownmade-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming[into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their fatherand mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section III TranslationDirections:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)46. My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course.However, during that course I realised that I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream - I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!Section IV WritingPart A51 Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming ” instead.Do not write the address .(10 points)52. Directions:Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)参考答案1. C 空格之后的宾语从句部分“technology is replacing human workers.”结合选项，应该选择warning。
2017年考研英语二真题及答案解析
2017年考研英语⼆真题及答案解析2017年考研英语⼆Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different，with academics，writers，and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital，and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort，one 4 by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives 5 ，people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression，double the rate for 7 Americans. Also，some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality，mental-health problems，and addicting9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work，a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today，the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring，degrading，unhealthy，and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher，a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days，because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers，people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work，I often feel 18 ，” Danahersays，adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work，I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1. [A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring2. [A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3. [A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction4. [A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured5. [A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom6. [A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless7. [A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated8. [A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute9. [A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among10. [A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside11. [A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically12. [A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles13. [A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course14. [A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield15. [A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship16. [A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce17. [A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats18. [A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved19. [A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into20. [A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （40 points）Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run－up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally "grassroots", concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods－making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all theseactivities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21.According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has_____.A．gained great popularityB．created many jobsC．strengthened community tiesD．become an official festival22.The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to_____. A．boost population growthB．promote sport participationC．improve the city's imageD．increase sport hours in schools23.Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it_____.A．aims at discovering talentsB．focuses on mass competitionC．does not emphasize elitismD．does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should_____. A．organize "grassroots" sports events B．supervise local sports associationsC．increase funds for sports clubsD．invest in public sports facilities25.The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____. A．tolerantB．criticalC．uncertainD．sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbalinteractions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device －it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s a ttention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-cla ss ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it －particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26.According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______. A．simplify routine mattersB．absorb user attentionC．better interpersonal relationsD．increase work efficiency27.Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows tha t mothers’ use of devices ______. A．takes away babies’ appetite B．distracts children’s attentionC．slows down babies’ verbal developmentD．reduces mother-child communication28.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.A．it is easy for children to get used to blank expressionsB．verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC．children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ moodD．parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29.The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______. A．protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB．teach their kids at least 30,000 words a yearC．ensure constant interaction with their childrenD．remain concerned about kid's use of screens30.According to Tro nick, kid’s use of screens may_______.A．give their parents some free timeB．make their parents more creativeC．help them with their homeworkD．help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits－in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31.One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that_____. A．they think it academically misleading B．they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC．it feels strange to do differently from othersD．it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32.Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____. A．keep students from being unrealistic B．lower risks in choosing careersC．ease freshmen’s financial burdensD．relieve freshmen of pressures33.The word “acclimation”（Line 8, Para. 3）is closest in meaning to_____. A．adaptationB．applicationC．motivationD．competition34.A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.A．avoid academic failuresB．establish long-term goalsC．switch to another collegeD．decide on the right major35.The most suitable title for this text would be_____.A．In Favor of the Gap YearB．The ABCs of the Gap YearC．The Gap Year Comes BackD．The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep －that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?”“Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems an d the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36.More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015they_____.A．exhausted unprecedented management effortsB．consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC．severely damaged the ecology of western statesD．caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37.Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to _____.A．raise more funds for fire-prone areasB．avoid the redirection of federal moneyC．find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD．guarantee safer spending of public funds38.While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that _____. A．public debates have not settled yetB．fire-fighting conditions are improvingC．other factors should not be overlookedD．a shift in the view of fire has taken place39.The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to _____. A．discover the fundamental makeup of nature B．explore the mechanism of the human systemsC．maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD．understand the interrelations of man and nature40.Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.A．do away withB．come to terms withC．pay a price forD．keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming [into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says. But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for westernMichigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section III TranslationDirections:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)46.My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realised that I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream - I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!Section IV WritingPart A51 Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming ” instead.Do not write the address .(10 points)52. Directions:Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)参考答案1. C空格之后的宾语从句部分“technology is replacing human workers.”结合选项，应该选择warning。
2017考研英语二真题完形填空
2017考研英语二真题完形填空Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different, less paranoid, and not mutually exclusive prediction holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one characterized by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives meaning, people will simply become lazy and depressed. Indeed, today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for working Americans. Also, some research suggests that the explanation for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addiction among poorly-educated, middle-aged people is a shortage of well-paid jobs. Another study shows that people are often happier at work than in their free time. Perhaps this is why many worry about the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with malaise. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could yield strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today, the virtue of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a squandering of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway who has written about a world without work. “Global surveys find that the vast majority of people are unhappy at work.”These days, because leisure time is relatively scarce for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional demands of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel tired,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself into a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for professional matters.Having a job can provide a measure of financial stability, but in addition to stressing over how to cover life’s necessities, today’s jobless are frequently ma de to feel like social outcasts. “People who avoid work are viewed as parasites and leeches,” Danaher says.Perhaps as a result of this cultural attitude, for most people, self-esteem and identity are tied up intricately with their job, or lack of job.Plus, in many modern-day societies, unemployment can also be downright boring. American towns and cities aren’t really built for lots of free time: Public spaces tend to be small islands in seas of private property, and there aren’t many places without entr y fees where adults can meet new people or come up with ways to entertain one another.The roots of this boredom may run even deeper. Peter Gray, a professor of psychology at Boston College who studies the concept of play, thinks that if work disappeared tomorrow, people might be at a loss for things to do, growing bored and depressed because they have forgotten how to play. “We teach children a distinction between play and work,” Gray explains. “Work is something that you don’t want to do but you have to do.” He says this training, which starts in school, eventually “drills the play” out of many children, who grow up to be adults who are aimless when presented with free time.“Sometimes people retire from their work, and they don’t know what to do,” Gra y says. “They’ve lost the ability to create their own activities.” It’s a problem that never seems to plague young children. “There are no three-year-olds that are going to be lazy and depressed because they don’t have a structured activity,” he says.But need it be this way? Work-free societies are more than just a thought experiment—they’ve existed throughout human history. Consider hunter-gatherers, who have no bosses, paychecks, or eight-hour workdays. Ten thousand years ago, all humans were hunter-gatherers, and some still are. Daniel Everett, an anthropologist at Bentley University, in Massachusetts, studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Pirah? for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun,” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”“It’s a pretty laid-back life most of the time,” Everett says. He described a typical day for the Pirah?: A man might get up, spend a few hours canoeing and fishing, have a barbecue, go for a swim, bring fish back to his family, and play until the evening. Such subsistence living is surely not without its own set of worries, but the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins argued in a 1968 essay that hunter-gathers belonged to “the original affluent society,” seeing as they only “worked” a few hours a day; Everett estimates that Pirah? adults on average work about 20 hours a week (not to mention without bosses peering over their shoulders). Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employed American with children works about nine hours a day.Does this leisurely life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything re motely like depression there,except people who are physically ill,” Everett says. “They have a blast. They play all the time.” While many may consider work a staple of human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of thou sands of years of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Pirah?, it’s quite a desirable state.”Gray likens these aspects of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the carefree adventures of many children in developed countries, who at some point in life are expected to put away childish things. But that hasn’t always been the case. According to Gary Cross’s 1990 book A Social History of Leisure Since 1600, free time in the U.S. looked quite different before the 18th and 19th centuries. Farmers—which was a fair way to describe a huge number of Americans at that time—mixed work and play in their daily lives. There were no managers or overseers, so they would switch fluidly between working, taking breaks, joining in neighborhood games, playing pranks, and spending time with family and friends. Not to mention festivals and other gatherings: France, for instance, had 84 holidays a year in 1700, and weather kept them from farming another 80 or so days a year.This all changed, writes Cross, during the Industrial Revolution, which replaced farms with factories and farmers with employees. Factory owners created a more rigidly scheduled environment that clearly divided work from play. Meanwhile, clocks—which were becoming widespread at that time—began to give life a quicker pace, and religious leaders, who traditionally endorsed most festivities, started associating leisure with sin and tried to replace rowdy festivals with sermons.As workers started moving into cities, families no longer spent their days together on the farm. Instead, men worked in factories, women stayed home or worked in factories, and children went to school, stayed home, or worked in factories too. During the workday, families became physically separated, which affected the way people entertained themselves: Adults stopped playing “childish” games and sports, and the streets were mostly wiped clean of fun, as middle- and upper-class families found working-class activities like cockfighting and dice games distasteful. Many such diversions were soon outlawed.With workers’ old outlets for play having disappeared in a haze of factory smoke, many of them turned to new, more urban ones. Bars became a refuge where tired workers drank and watched live shows with singing and dancing. If free time means beer and TV to a lot of Americans, this might be why.At times, developed societies have, for a privileged few, produced lifestyles that were nearly as play-filled as hunter-gatherers’. Throughout h istory, aristocrats who earned their income simply by owning land spent only a tiny portion of their time minding financial exigencies. According to Randolph Trumbach, a professor of history at Baruch College,18th-century English aristocrats spent their days visiting friends, eating elaborate meals, hosting salons, hunting, writing letters, fishing, and going to church. They also spent a good deal of time participating in politics, without pay. Their children would learn to dance, play instruments, speak foreign languages, and read Latin. Russian nobles frequently became intellectuals, writers, and artists. “As a 17th-century aristocrat said, ‘We sit down to eat and rise up to play, for what is a gentleman but his pleasure?’” Trumbach says.It’s unlikely that a world without work would be abundant enough to provide everyone with such lavish lifestyles. But Gray insists that injecting any amount of additional play into people’s lives would be a good thing, because, contrary to that 17th-century aristocrat, play is about more than pleasure. Through play, Gray says, children (as well as adults) learn how to strategize, create new mental connections, express their creativity, cooperate, overcome narcissism, and get along with other people. “Male mammals typical ly have difficulty living in close proximity to each other,” he says, and play’s harmony-promoting properties may explain why it came to be so central to hunter-gatherer societies. While most of today’s adults may have forgotten how to play, Gray doesn’t believe it’s an unrecoverable skill: It’s not uncommon, he says, for grandparents to re-learn the concept of play after spending time with their young grandchildren.When people ponder the nature of a world without work, they often transpose present-day assumptions about labor and leisure onto a future where they might no longer apply; if automation does end up rendering a good portion of human labor unnecessary, such a society might exist on completely different terms than societies do today.So what might a work-free U.S. look like? Gray has some ideas. School, for one thing, would be very different. “I think our system of schooling would completely fall by the wayside,” says Gray. “The primary purpose of the educational system is to teach people to wor k. I don’t think anybody would want to put our kids through what we put our kids through now.” Instead, Gray suggests that teachers could build lessons around what students are most curious about. Or, perhaps, formal schooling would disappear altogether.Trumbach, meanwhile, wonders if schooling would become more about teaching children to be leaders, rather than workers, through subjects like philosophy and rhetoric. He also thinks that people might participate in political and public life more, like aristocrats of yore. “If greater numbers of people were using their leisure to run the country, that would give people a sense of purpose,” says Trumbach.Social life might look a lot different too. Since the Industrial Revolution, mothers, fathers, and children have spent most of their waking hours apart. In a work-free world, people of different ages might come together again. “We would become much less isolated from each other,” Gray imagines, perhaps a little optimistically. “When a mom is having a baby, everybody in the neighborhood would want to help that mom.” Researchers havefound that having close relationships is the number-one predictor of happiness, and the social connections that a work-free world might enable could well displace the aimlessness that so many futurists predict.In general, without work, Gray thinks people would be more likely to pursue their passions, get involved in the arts, and visit friends. Perhaps leisure would cease to be about unwinding after a period of hard work, and would instead become a more colorful, varied thing. “We wouldn’t have to be as self-oriented as we think we have to be now,” he says. “I believe we would become more human.”新题型The surprising truth about American manufacturingThe decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. “We don’t make anything anymore,” he told Fox News last October, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.On Tuesday, in rust belt Pennsylvania, he doubled down, saying that he had "visited cities and towns across this country where a third or even half of manufacturing jobs have been wiped out in the last 20 years." The Pacific trade deal, he added, "would be the death blow for American manufacturing."Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.In reality, United States manufacturing output is at an all-time high, worth $2.2 trillion in 2015, up from $1.7 trillion in 2009. And while total employment has fallen by nearly a third since 1970, the jobs that remain are increasingly skilled.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: Instead of having too many workers, as they did during the Great Recession, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every year. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place. Other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay. And those industries don’t have the stigma of 40 years of recurring layoffs and downsizing.“We’ve never had so much attention from manufacturers. They’re calling and saying:‘Can we meet your students?’ They’re asking, ‘Why aren’t they looking at my job postings?' ”says Julie Parks, executive director of workforce training at Grand Rapids Community College in western Michigan.The region is a microcosm of the national challenge. Unemployment here is low (around 3 percent, compared with a statewide average of 5 percent). There aren’t many extra workers waiting for a job. And the need is high:1 in 5 people work in manufacturing, churning out auto parts, machinery, plastics, office furniture, and medical devices. Other industries, including agribusiness and life sciences, are vying for the same workers.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers – and upward pressure on wages. “They’re harder to find and they have job offers,” says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm. “They may be coming [into the workforce], but they’ve been plucked by oth er industries that are also doing as well as manufacturing,”Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture. He is also part of a public-private initiative to promote manufacturing to students that includes job fairs and sending a mobile demonstration vehicle to rural schools. One of their messages is that factories are no longer dark, dirty, and dangerous; computer-run systems are the norm and recruits can receive apprenticeships that include paid-for college classes.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keeps a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers. Five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he’s trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It’s his first week on the job; this is his first encounter with Roth, his boss. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering.“I love working with tools. I love creating,” he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the f actory. Millennials “remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession,” says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren’t misp laced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2015. The steepest declines came after 2001, when Chinagained entry to the World Trade Organization and ramped up exports of consumer goods to the US and other rich countries. In areas exposed to foreign trade, every additional $1,000 of imports per worker meant a $550 annual drop in household income per working-age adult, according to a 2013 study in the American Economic Review. And unemployment, Social Security, and other government benefits went up $60 per person.The 2008-09 recession was another blow. And advances in computing and robotics offer new ways for factory owners to increase productivity using fewer workers.When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Electricians, plumbers, and pipefitters are in in short supply across Michigan and elsewhere; vocational schools and union-run apprenticeships aren’t keeping pace with demand and older tradespeople are leaving the workforce. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels.“The gap is between the jobs that take no skills and those that require a lot of skill,” says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College an hour from Grand Rapids. “There’s enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places w here you don’t need to have much skill. It’s that gap in between, and that’s where the problem is.”Ms. Parks of Grand Rapids Community College points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. “Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives,” she says.Roth says he gets this distinction. At RoMan, workers can set their own hours on their shift, choosing to start earlier or end later, provided they get the job done. That the factory floor isn’t a standard assembly line – everything is custom-built for industrial clients –makes it easier to drop the punch-clocks.“People have lives outside,” Roth says. “It’s not always easy to schedule doctors’ appointments around a ‘punch-in at 7 and leave at 3:30’ schedule.”While factory owners like Roth like to stress the flexibility of manufacturing careers, one aspect is nonnegotiable: location. Millennials looking for a job that allow them to work from home are not likely to get a callback. "I'm not putting a machine tool in your garage," says Roth.。
2017考研英语二真题和答案解析
2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）Section I Use of EnglishDirections:Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work .Today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again 1 that technology be replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one 4 by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives 5 , people will simply bec ome lazy and depressed. 6 , today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a gre at time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the ratefor 7 Americans. Also, some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addicting 9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstanced for the future of labor and leisure. Today, the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a waste of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days, bec ause leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel 18 ,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1．[A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring【答案】[C] warning2．[A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty 【答案】[A] inequality3．[A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction【答案】[D] prediction4．[A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured【答案】[A] characterized5．[A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom【答案】[B] meaning6．[A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless 【答案】[B] Indeed7．[A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated【答案】[C] working8．[A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compen sat ion [D] substitute 【答案】[A] explanation9．[A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among【答案】[D] among10．[A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside 【答案】[C] worry about11．[A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically【答案】[C] necessarily12．[A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles 【答案】[B] downsides13．[A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course【答案】[A] absence14．[A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield【答案】[D] yield15．[A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship 【答案】[C] virtue16．[A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce 【答案】[D] scarce17．[A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats 【答案】[A] demands18．[A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved 【答案】[B] tired19．[A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into【答案】[D] into20．[A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonal【答案】[B] professionalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text 1Every Sat urday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley’s world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour. Parkrun is succeeding where London’s Olympic “legacy” is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the gre at legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter,healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run—up to 2012—but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections c ontinue as to why London 2012 failed to “inspire a generation.” The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally “grassroots”, concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods—making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling gre en spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has .[A] gained great popularity[B] created many jobs[C] strengthened community ties[D] bec ome an official festival【答案】[A] gained great popularity22. The author believes that London’s Olympic“legacy” has failed to .[A] boost population growth[B] promote sport participation[C] improve the city’s image[D] increase sport hours in schools【答案】[B] promote sport participation23. Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it .[A] aims at discovering talents[B] focuses on mass competition[C] does not emphasize elitism[D] does not attract first-timers【答案】[C] does not emphasize elitism24. With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should .[A] organize “grassroots” sports events[B] supervise local sports associations[C] increase funds for sports clubs[D] invest in public sports facilities【答案】[D] invest in public sports facilities25. The author’s attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is.[A] tolerant[B] critical[C] uncertain[D] sympathetic【答案】[B] criticalText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it’s easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, “and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine. ”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones bec ame a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device—it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. “Parents don’t have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need,” says Radesky.On the other hand, Troni ck himself is concerned that the worries about kids’ use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-cla ss ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just bec ause a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it—particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26.According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______.[A] simplify routine matters[B] absorb user attention[C] better interpersonal relations[D] increase work efficiency【答案】[B] absorb user attention27.Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices ______.[A] takes away babies’ appetite[B] distracts children’s attention[C] slows down babies’ verbal development[D] reduces mother-child communication【答案】[D] reduces mother-child communication28.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.[A] it is easy for children to get used to blank expressions[B] verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchange[C] children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ mood[D] parents need to respond to children’s emotional needs【答案】[D] parents need to respond to children’s emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.[A] protect kids from exposure to wild fantasies[B] teach their kids at least 30,000 words a year[C] ensure constant interaction with their children[D] remain concerned about kid’s use of s creens【答案】[C] ensure constant interaction with their children30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.[A] give their parents some free time[B] make their parents more creative[C] help them with their homework[D] help them bec ome more attentive【答案】[A] give their parents some free timeText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn’t it? A nd after going to school for 12 years, it doesn’t feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There’s always a constant fear of falling behind everyone el se on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits—in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes—all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you’re not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that .[A] they think it academically misleading[B] they have a lot of fun to expect in college[C] it feels strange to do differently from others[D] it seems worthless to take off-campus courses【答案】[C] it feels strange to do differently from others32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps .[A] keep students from being unrealistic[B] lower risks in choosing careers[C] ease freshmen’s financial burdens[D] relieve freshmen of pressures【答案】[D] relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation” (Line 8, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to .[A] adaptation[B] application[C] motivation[D] competition【答案】[A] adaptation34. A gap year may save money for students by helping them .[A] avoid academic failures[B] establish long-term goals[C] switch to another college[D] decide on the right major【答案】[D] decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be .[A] In Favor of the Gap Year[B] The ABCs of the Gap Year[C] The Gap Year Comes Back[D] The Gap Year: A Dilemma【答案】[A] In Favor of the Gap YearText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern bec ause of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires—nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency’s other work—such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep—that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says.” We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?” “Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conver sat ions about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change—how the warming of the Earth from gre enhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human sys tems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways,” he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to “an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is bec omes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire’s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015they .[A] exhausted unprecedented management efforts[B] consumed a record-high percentage of budget[C] severely damaged the ecology of western states[D] caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure【答案】[B] consumed a record-high percentage of budget37. Moritz calls for the use of “a magnifying glass” to.[A] raise more funds for fire-prone areas[B] avoid the redirection of federal money[C] find wildfire-free parts of the landscape[D] guarantee safer spending of public funds【答案】[D] guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that .[A] public debates have not settled yet[B] fire-fighting conditions are improving[C] other factors should not be overlooked[D] a shift in the view of fire has taken place【答案】[C] other factors should not be overlooked39. The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to .[A] discover the fundamental makeup of nature[B] explore the mechanism of the human systems[C] maximize the role of landscape in human life[D] understand the interrelations of man and nature【答案】[D] understand the interrelations of man and nature40. Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should .[A] do away with[B] come to terms with[C] pay a price for[D] keep away from【答案】[B] come to terms withPart BDirections:Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. “We don’t make anything anymore,” he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers—and upward pressure on wages. “They’re harder to find and they have job offers,” says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, “They may be coming [into the workforce], but they’ve been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing,” Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he’s trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It’s his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. “I love working with tools. I love creating.” he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Gre at Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials “remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession,” says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren’t misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortagesfirst appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels.“The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill,” says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. “There’re enou gh people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don’t need to have much skill. It’s that gap in between, and that’s where the problem is. ”Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. “Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives,” she says.【答案】41 [E] says that for factory owners, workers are harder to find bec ause of stiff competition.42 [A] says that he switched to electrical engineering because he loves working with tools.43 [G] says that the manufacturing recession is to blame for the lay-off the young people’s parents.44 [B] points out that there are enough people to fill the jobs that don’t need much skill45 [F] points out that a work/life balance can attract young people into manufacturingSection III Translation46.Directions:Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realized I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, bec ause writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be honest, I said it , because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream—I knew that no one could imagine me in the fashion industry at all! So I decided to look for some fashion-related courses that included writing. This is when I noticed the course “Fashion Media & Promotion.”【参考译文】我一直梦想着能找到一个结合时尚与出版的工作。
2017年考研英语二真题
Section I Use of EnglishPeople have speculated for centuries about a future withou t work. Today is no different， with academics， writers， and a ctivists once again 1 that technology is replacing human work ers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defi ned by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital， and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort， one 4 by purposeless ness： Without jobs to give their lives 5 ， people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression， double the rate for 7 Americ ans. Also， some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality， mental-health problems， and addicting 9 poor ly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. P erhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of emplo yment. In the 13 of work， a society designed with other end s in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the f uture of labor and leisure. Today， the 15 of work may be a b it overblown. “Many jobs are boring， degrading， unhealthy ， and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher， a le cturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days， because leisure time is relatively 16 for most wor kers， people use their free time to counterbalance the intellect ual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work， I often feel 18 ，” Danaher says， adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work， I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a p assion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matte rs.1第1题 .1A boastingB denyingC warningD ensuring【来源】2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）真题第1题【答案】C【考点】真题【全站数据】本题共被作答5846次，正确率为40.49%, 易错项为D 【解析】动词辨析。
2017年考研英语二真题及答案解析
2017年考研英语二真题及答案解析2017年考研英语二真题Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different，with academics，writers，and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital，and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort，one 4 by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives 5 ，people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression，double the rate for 7 Americans. Also，some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality，mental-health problems，and addicting9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work，a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today，the 15 of work may be a bitoverblown. “Many jobs are boring，degrading，unhealthy，and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher，a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days，because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers，people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home fr om a hard day’s work，I often feel 18 ，” Danaher says，adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work，I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1. [A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring2. [A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3. [A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction4. [A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured5. [A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom6. [A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless7. [A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated8. [A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute9. [A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among10. [A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside11. [A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically12. [A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles13. [A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course14. [A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield15. [A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship16. [A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce17. [A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats18. [A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved19. [A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into20. [A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （40 points）Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run－up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children.Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally "grassroots", concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods－making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has_____.A．gained great popularityB．created many jobsC．strengthened community tiesD．become an official festival22. The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to_____.A．boost population growthB．promote sport participationC．improve the city's imageD．increase sport hours in schools23.Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it_____.A．aims at discovering talentsB．focuses on mass competitionC．does not emphasize elitismD．does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should_____.A．organize "grassroots" sports eventsB．supervise local sports associationsC．increase funds for sports clubsD．invest in public sports facilities25. The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____.A．tolerantB．criticalC．uncertainD．sympatheticText 2With so mu ch focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-ov er into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbalinteractions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device－it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly di stressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensit ive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotiona l need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should alwa ys be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewha t fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it－particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of thetime.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______.A．simplify routine mattersB．absorb user attentionC．better interpersonal relationsD．increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices ______.A．takes away babies’ appetiteB．distracts children’s attentionC．slows down babies’ verbal developmentD．reduces mother-child communication28.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.A．it is easy for children to get used to blank expressionsB．verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC．children are insensitive to cha nges in their parents’ moodD．parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.A．protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB．teach their kids at least 30,000 words a yearC．ensure constant interaction with their childrenD．remain concerned about kid's use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.A．give their parents some free timeB．make their parents more creativeC．help them with their homeworkD．help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. Ther e's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits－in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center forEducation Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school cur riculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not takinga gap year is that_____.A．they think it academically misleadingB．they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC．it feels strange to do differently from othersD．it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____.A．keep students from being unrealisticB．lower risks in choosing careersC．ease freshmen’s financial burdensD．relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation”（Line 8, Para. 3）is closest in meaning to_____.A．adaptationB．applicationC．motivationD．competition34.A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.A．avoid academic failuresB．establish long-term goalsC．switch to another collegeD．decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be_____.A．In Favor of the Gap YearB．The ABCs of the Gap YearC．The Gap Year Comes BackD．The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep－that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnify ing glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?”“Dowe want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key eleme nt, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they_____.A．exhausted unprecedented management effortsB．consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC．severely damaged the ecology of western statesD．caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to _____.A．raise more funds for fire-prone areasB．avoid the redirection of federal moneyC．find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD．guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that _____.A．public debates have not settled yetB．fire-fighting conditions are improvingC．other factors should not be overlookedD．a shift in the view of fire has taken place39.The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to _____.A．discover the fundamental makeup of natureB．explore the mechanism of the human systemsC．maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD．understand the interrelations of man and nature40.Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.A．do away withB．come to terms withC．pay a price forD．keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain,particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, andfurther trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming [into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young JasonStenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section III TranslationDirections:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)46. My DreamMy dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realised that I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream - I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!Section IV WritingPart A51 Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming ” instead.Do not write the address .(10 points)52. Directions:Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)2017英语二真题解析试题精析[答案][C] warning考点：上下文语义理解解析：空格之后的宾语从句部分“technology is replacing human workers.”结合选项，应该选择warning。
2017年考研英语二真题
2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试管理类专业学位联考英语试题Section I Use of EnglishDirections:Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark [A], [B], [C] or [D] on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work. Today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 : A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one4 by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives5 , people will simply become lazy and depressed.6 , today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for7 Americans. Also, some research suggests that the8 for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addiction9 poorly-educated, middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today, -the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a waste of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days, because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work,I often feel 18 ,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1.[A] boasting[B] denying[C] warning[D] ensuring2.[A] inequality[B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3.[A] policy [B]guideline[C] resolution[D] prediction4.[A] characterized [B]divided[C] balanced [D]measured5.[A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory[D] freedom6.[A] Instead[B] Indeed [C] Thus[D]Nevertheless7.[A]rich[B]urban [C]working[D] educated8.[A] explanation[B] requirement [C] compensation[D] substitute9.[A] under [B] beyond[C] alongside [D] among10.[A] leave behind[B] make up[C] worry about[D] set aside11.[A] statistically[B] occasionally [C] necessarily[D] economically12.[A] chances[B] downsides[C] benefits[D] principles13.[A] absence [B] height [C] face[D] course14.[A] disturb [B] restore[C] exclude [D] yield15.[A] model[B] practice[C] virtue [D] hardship16.[A] tricky [B] lengthy[C] mysterious[D] scarce17.[A] demands [B] standards[C] qualities [D] threats18.[A] ignored[B] tired[C] confused[D] starved19.[A] off[B] against[C] behind[D] into20.[A] technological[B] professional [C] educational[D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5 km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to lever a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run-up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sport and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally "grassroots" concept as community sports associations. If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods－making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has .[A] gained great popularity[B] created many jobs[C] strengthened community ties[D] become an official festival22. The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to .[A] boost population growth[B] promote sport participation[C] improve the city's image[D] increase sport hours in schools23.Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it .[A] aims at discovering talents[B] focuses on mass competition[C] does not emphasize elitism[D] does not attract first-timers24. With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should .[A] organize "grassroots" sports events[B] supervise local sports associations[C] increase funds for sports clubs[D] invest in public sports facilities25.The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is .[A] tolerant[B] critical[C] uncertain[D] sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, and “digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who used devices during the exercise started 20 per cent fewer verbal and 39 per cent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device－it can be extremely disconcerting for the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; the child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely present at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children. “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it－particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets them be more available to their child the rest of the time.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to .[A] simplify routine matters[B] absorb user attention[C] better interpersonal relations[D] increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices .[A] takes away babies’ appetite[B] distracts children’s attention[C] slows down babies’ verbal development[D] reduces mother-child communication28. Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that .[A] it is easy for children to get used to blank expressions[B] verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchange[C] children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ mood[D] parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to .[A] protect kids from exposure to wild fantasies[B] teach their kids at least 30,000 words a year[C] ensure constant interaction with their children[D] remain concerned about kid's use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may .[A] give their parents some free time[B] make their parents more creative[C] help them with their homework[D] help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits－in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of the vast academic possibilities that await them in college. Many students find themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that .[A] they think it academically misleading[B] they have a lot of fun to expect in college[C] it feels strange to do differently from others[D] it seems worthless to take off-campus course32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps .[A] keep students from being unrealistic[B] lower risks in choosing careers[C] ease freshmen’s financial burdens[D] relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation”（Line 7, Para. 3）is closest in meaning to .[A] adaptation[B] application[C] motivation[D] competition34. A gap year may save money for students by helping them .[A] avoid academic failures[B] establish long-term goals[C] switch to another college[D] decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be .[A] In Favor of the Gap Year[B] The ABCs of the Gap Year[C] The Gap Year Comes Back[D] The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep－that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, ‘Wait a minute, is this OK?’ ‘Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?’ ”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they .[A] exhausted unprecedented management efforts[B] consumed a record-high percentage of budget[C] severely damaged the ecology of western states[D] caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to .[A] raise more funds for fire-prone areas[B] avoid the redirection of federal money[C] find wildfire-free parts of the landscape[D] guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that .[A] public debates have not settled yet[B] fire-fighting conditions are improving[C] other factors should not be overlooked[D] a shift in the view of fire has taken place39. The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to .[A] discover the fundamental makeup of nature[B] explore the mechanism of the human systems[C] maximize the role of landscape in human life[D] understand the interrelations of man and nature40. Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should .[A] do away with[B] come to terms with[C] pay a price for[D] keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: Instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every year. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place. Other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming [into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing as well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keeps a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers. Five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2015. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take no skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community College points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section Ⅲ Translation46. Directions：Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realized I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university Itold everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favorite activities. But, to be honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream——I knew that no one, apart from myself, could imagine me in the fashion industry at all! So I decided to look for some fashion-related courses that included writing. This is when I noticed the course "Fashion Media & Promotion."Section IV WritingPart A47. Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming” instead.Do not write your address. (10 points)Part B48. Directions:Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)试题答案Section I Use of English1. C2. A3. D4. A5. B6. B7. C8. A9. D 10. C 11. C 12. B 13. A 14. D 15. C 16. D 17. A 18. B 19. D 20. BSection II Reading ComprehensionPart A21. A22. B23. C24. D25. B 26. B 27. D28. D 29. C 30. A 31. C 32. D33. A 34. D 35. A 36. B 37. D38. C 39. D 40. BPart B41. E 42. A 43. G44. B45. FSection Ⅲ Translation略Section IV WritingPart A略Part B略。
2017年考研《英语二》完形填空答案(文都版)
2017年考研《英语二》完形填空答案(文都版)考试采取“一题多卷”模式，试题答案顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对。
Directions：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future withoutwork .Today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again 1 that technology be replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one 4 by purposelessness：Without jobs to give their lives 5 , people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6,today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for 7 Americans. Also, some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addicting 9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstanced for the future of labor and leisure. Today, the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a waste of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days, because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance theintellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel 18 ,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1.[A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring[答案][C] warning2.[A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty[答案][A] inequality3.[A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction[答案][D] prediction4.[A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured[答案][A] characterized5.[A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom[答案][B] meaning6.[A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless[答案][B] Indeed7.[A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated[答案][C] working8. [A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute[答案][A] explanation9.[A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among[答案][D] among10.[A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside[答案][C] worry about11.[A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically[答案][C] necessarily12.[A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles[答案][B] downsides13.[A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course[答案][A] absence14.[A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield[答案][D] yield15.[A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship[答案][C] virtue16.[A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce[答案][D] scarce17.[A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats[答案][A] demands18.[A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved[答案][B] tired19.[A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into[答案][D] into20.[A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonal[答案][B] professional。
2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语二真题及答案详解
2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语二真题及答案详解2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）Section I Use of EnglishDirections:Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different,with academics,writers,and activists once again 1 that technology be replacing human workers.Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort,one 4 by purposelessness:Without jobs to give their lives 5 , people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6, today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for 7 Americans. Also, some research suggests that the8forrising rates of mortality,mental-health problems,and addicting 9poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work,a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstanced for the future of labor and leisure.Today, the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a waste of human potential,”says John Danaher,a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days,because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers,people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day’s work,I often feel 18 ,”Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1．[A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring2．[A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3．[A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction4．[A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured5．[A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom6．[A] Instead [B] Indeed [C] Thus [D] Nevertheless7．[A] rich [B] urban [C]working [D] educated8．[A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute9．[A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among10．[A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside11．[A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically12．[A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles13．[A] absence [B] height [C] face [D] course14．[A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield15．[A] model [B] practice [C] virtue [D] hardship16．[A] tricky [B] lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce17．[A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats18．[A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved19．[A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into20．[A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonal Section II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen f riends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley’s world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London’s Olympic “legacy”is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches.The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners.It has not happened.The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise,by nearly 2 million in the run—up to 2012—but the general population was growing faster.Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved.Obesity has risen among adults and children.Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to “inspire a generation.”The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up:The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally”grassroots”,concept as community sports associations.If there is a role for government,it should really be getting involved in providing common goods—making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21.According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has .[A] gained great popularity[B] created many jobs [C] strengthened community ties[D] become an official festival22.The author believes that London’s Olympic“legacy”has failed to.[A] boost population growth [C] improve the city’s image[B] promote sport participation[D] increase sport hours in schools23. Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it .[A] aims at discovering talents[B] focuses on mass competition [C] does not emphasize elitism[D] does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governmentsshould.[A] organize “grassroots”sports events[B] supervise local sports associations [C] increase funds for sports clubs[D] invest in public sports facilities25. The author’s attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is .[A] tolerant[B] critical[C] uncertain[D] sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it’s easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,”says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, “and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine. “Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device—it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the”still face experiment”devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. “Parents don’t have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need,”says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids’use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting”with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, veryupper-middle-classideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.”Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it—particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower,do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way.This can make them feel happier,which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______.[A] simplify routine matters[B] absorb user attention [C] better interpersonal relations[D] increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’use of devices ______.[A] takes away babies’appetite[C] slows down babies’verbal development[B] distracts children’s attention[D] reduces mother-child communication28.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment”to show that _______.[A] it is easy for children to get used to blank expressions[B] verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchange[C] children are insensitive to changes in their parents’mood[D] parents need to respond to children’s emotional needs29.The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.[A] protect kids from exposure to wild fantasies[B] teach their kids at least 30,000 words a year[C] ensure constant interaction with their children[D] remain concerned about kid’s use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.[A] give their parents some free time[B] make their parents more creative [C] help them with their homework[D] help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction withincreasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn’t it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn’t feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years.There’s always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,”whether that be toward graduate school,medical school or lucrative career.But despite common misconceptions,a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits—in fact,it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes—all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you’re not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31.One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that .[A] they think it academically misleading[B] they have a lot of fun to expect in college[C] it feels strange to do differently from others[D] it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32.Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps .[A] keep students from being unrealistic[C] ease freshmen’s financial burdens[B] lower risks in choosing careers[D] relieve freshmen of pressures33.The word”acclimation”(Line 8, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to .[A] adaptation[B] application[C] motivation[D] competition34. A gap year may save money for students by helping them.[A] avoid academic failures[B] establish long-term goals [C] switch to another college[D] decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be .[A] In Favor of the Gap Year[B] The ABCs of the Gap Year [C] The Gap Year Comes Back[D] The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015,the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires—nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago.In effect,fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency’s other work—such as forest conservation,watershed and cultural resources management,and infrastructure upkeep—that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?”It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,”he says.”We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?””Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change—how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.”The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways,”he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to “an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire’s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.”We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,”Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36.More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they .[A] exhausted unprecedented management efforts[B] consumed a record-high percentage of budget[C] severely damaged the ecology of western states[D] caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of “a magnifying glass”to .[A] raise more funds for fire-prone areas[C] find wildfire-free parts of the landscape[B] avoid the redirection of federal money[D] guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that .[A] public debates have not settled yet[C] other factors should not be overlooked[B] fire-fighting conditions are improving[D] a shift in the view of fire has taken place39. The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to .[A] discover the fundamental makeup of nature[B] explore the mechanism of the human systems[C] maximize the role of landscape in human life[D] understand the interrelations of man and nature40. Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should .[A] do away with[B] come to terms with[C] pay a price for[D] keep away fromPart BDirections:Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. “We don’t make anything anymore,”he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing.But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers—and upward pressure on wages. “They’re harder to find and they have job offers,”says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, “They may be coming [into the workforce], but they’ve been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing,”Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years. At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he’s trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It’s his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. “I love working with tools. I love creating.”he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials “remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession,”says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place,a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren’t misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels.”The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill,”says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. “There’re enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don’t need to have much skill. It’s that gap in between, and that’s where the problem is. ”Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. “Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives,”she says.41. Jay Deuwell42.Jason Stenquist43. Birgit Klohs44. Rob Spohr45.Julie Parks[A] says that he switched to electrical engineering because he loves working with tools.[B] points out that there are enough people to fill the jobs that don't need much skill.[C] points out that the US doesn't manufacture anything anymore.[D] believes that it is important to keep a close eye on the age of his workers.[E] says that for factory owners, workers are harder to find because of stiff competition.[F] points out that a work/life balance can attract young people into manufacturing.[G] says that the manufacturing recession is to blame for the lay-off the young people's parents.Section III Translation46.Directions:Translate the following text into Chinese. Write your translation neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing. Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realized I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities. But, to be honest, I said it , because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream—I knew that no one could imagine me in the fashion industry at all! So I decided to look for some fashion-related courses that included writing. This is when I noticed the course “Fashion Media & Promotion.”Section IV WritingPart A47.Directions：Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1) accept the invitation, and2) introduce the key points of your presentationYou should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.Don’t use your own name, use “LiMing”instead.Don’t write your address. (10 points)48. Directions：Write an essay based on the following chart.In your write，you should1）interpret the chart，and2）Give your comments.You should write about 150 words neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. （15 points）2017年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语答案详解（二）Section I Use of English1.【答案】[C] warning【解析】此处是考察词义辨析，文章第一段首句提到“People have speculated for centuries about a future without work .”其意思是“人们几个世纪以来一直在思索没有工作的未来。
【考研】2017年考研英语二真题及答案解析
2017年考研英语二真题Section I Use of EnglishDirections：Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.Today is no different，with academics， writers， and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2 . A few wealthy people will own all the capital， and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland..A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort， one 4 by purposelessness： Without jobs to give their lives 5 ， people will simply become lazy and depressed. 6 today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression， double the rate for 7 Americans. Also， some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality， mental-health problems， and addicting9 poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the 13 of work， a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today， the 15 of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring， degrading，unhealthy， and a waste of human potential，” says John Danaher， a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.These days， because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers， people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard da y’s work， I often feel 18 ，” Danaher says， adding，“In a world in which I don’t have to work，I might feel rather different”—perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.1. [A] boasting [B] denying [C] warning [D] ensuring2. [A] inequality [B] instability [C] unreliability [D] uncertainty3. [A] policy [B]guideline [C] resolution [D] prediction4. [A] characterized [B]divided [C] balanced [D]measured5. [A] wisdom [B] meaning [C] glory [D] freedom6. [A] Instead [B] Indeed [C]Thus [D] Nevertheless7. [A] rich [B]urban [C]working [D] educated8. [A] explanation [B] requirement [C] compensation [D] substitute9. [A] under [B] beyond [C] alongside [D] among10. [A] leave behind [B] make up [C] worry about [D] set aside11. [A] statistically [B] occasionally [C] necessarily [D] economically12. [A] chances [B] downsides [C] benefits [D] principles13. [A] absence [B]height [C] face [D] course14. [A] disturb [B] restore [C] exclude [D] yield15. [A] model [B]practice [C] virtue [D] hardship16. [A] tricky [B]lengthy [C] mysterious [D] scarce17. [A] demands [B] standards [C] qualities [D] threats18. [A] ignored [B] tired [C] confused [D] starved19. [A] off [B] against [C] behind [D] into20. [A] technological [B] professional [C] educational [D] interpersonalSection II Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections：Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （40 points）Text 1Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley's world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.Parkrun is succeeding where London's Olympic "legacy" is failing. Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London. Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to level a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run－up to 2012－but the general population was growing faster. Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to "inspire a generation." The success of Parkrun offers answers.Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock. The ethos welcomes anybody. There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining. The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sports and to produce more elite athletes. The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally "grassroots", concept as community sports associations. If thereis a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods －making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools. But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education. Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive. Or at least not make them worse.21. According to Paragraph1, Parkrun has_____.A．gained great popularityB．created many jobsC．strengthened community tiesD．become an official festival22. The author believes that London's Olympic "legacy" has failed to_____.A．boost population growthB．promote sport participationC．improve the city's imageD．increase sport hours in schools23.Parkrun is different from Olympic games in that it_____.A．aims at discovering talentsB．focuses on mass competitionC．does not emphasize elitismD．does not attract first-timers24.With regard to mass sport, the author holds that governments should_____. A．organize "grassroots" sports eventsB．supervise local sports associationsC．increase funds for sports clubsD．invest in public sports facilities25. The author's attitude to what UK governments have done for sports is_____. A．tolerantB．criticalC．uncertainD．sympatheticText 2With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who sued devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device－it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Rade sky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitiveto a child’s verbal or nonve rbal expressions of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen d oesn’t mean there’s no value to it－particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.26. According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to ______.A．simplify routine mattersB．absorb user attentionC．better interpersonal relationsD．increase work efficiency27. Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices ______. A．takes away babies’ appetiteB．distracts children’s attentionC．slows down babies’ verbal developmentD．reduces mother-child communication28.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that _______.A．it is easy for children to get used to blank expressionsB．verbal expressions are unnecessary for emotional exchangeC．children are insensitive to changes in their parents’ moodD．parents need to respond to children's emotional needs29. The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to_______.A．protect kids from exposure to wild fantasiesB．teach their kids at least 30,000 words a yearC．ensure constant interaction with their childrenD．remain concerned about kid's use of screens30. According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may_______.A．give their parents some free timeB．make their parents more creativeC．help them with their homeworkD．help them become more attentiveText 3Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn't it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn't feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There's always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits－in fact, it probably enhances it.Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes－all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.If you're not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.31. One of the reasons for high-school graduates not taking a gap year is that_____. A．they think it academically misleadingB．they have a lot of fun to expect in collegeC．it feels strange to do differently from othersD．it seems worthless to take off-campus courses32. Studies from the US and Australia imply that taking a gap year helps_____.A．keep students from being unrealisticB．lower risks in choosing careersC．ease freshmen’s financial burdensD．relieve freshmen of pressures33. The word “acclimation”（Line 8, Para. 3） is closest in meaning to_____. A．adaptationB．applicationC．motivationD．competition34.A gap year may save money for students by helping them_____.A．avoid academic failuresB．establish long-term goalsC．switch to another collegeD．decide on the right major35. The most suitable title for this text would be_____.A．In Favor of the Gap YearB．The ABCs of the Gap YearC．The Gap Year Comes BackD．The Gap Year: A DilemmaText 4Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 yearsago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency's other work－such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep－that affect the lives of all Americans.Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK?”“Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.While climate is a key element, Morit z says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways," he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire's inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says. “We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”36. More frequent wildfires have become a national concern because in 2015 they_____. A．exhausted unprecedented management effortsB．consumed a record-high percentage of budgetC．severely damaged the ecology of western statesD．caused a huge rise of infrastructure expenditure37. Moritz calls for the use of "a magnifying glass" to _____.A．raise more funds for fire-prone areasB．avoid the redirection of federal moneyC．find wildfire-free parts of the landscapeD．guarantee safer spending of public funds38. While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that _____.A．public debates have not settled yetB．fire-fighting conditions are improvingC．other factors should not be overlookedD．a shift in the view of fire has taken place39.The overly simplified view Moritz mentions is a result of failing to _____. A．discover the fundamental makeup of natureB．explore the mechanism of the human systemsC．maximize the role of landscape in human lifeD．understand the interrelations of man and nature40.Professor Balch points out that fire is something man should _____.A．do away withB．come to terms withC．pay a price forD．keep away fromPart BDirections：Read the following text and match each of the numbered items in the left column to its corresponding information in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. （10 points）The decline in American manufacturing is a common refrain, particularly from Donald Trump. "We don't make anything anymore," he told Fox News, while defending his own made-in-Mexico clothing line.Without question, manufacturing has taken a significant hit during recent decades, and further trade deals raise questions about whether new shocks could hit manufacturing. But there is also a different way to look at the data.Across the country, factory owners are now grappling with a new challenge: instead of having too many workers, they may end up with too few. Despite trade competition and outsourcing, American manufacturing still needs to replace tens of thousands of retiring boomers every years. Millennials may not be that interested in taking their place, other industries are recruiting them with similar or better pay.For factory owners, it all adds up to stiff competition for workers－and upward pressure on wages. "They're harder to find and they have job offers," says Jay Dunwell, president of Wolverine Coil Spring, a family-owned firm, "They may be coming [into the workforce], but they've been plucked by other industries that are also doing an well as manufacturing," Mr. Dunwell has begun bringing high school juniors to the factory so they can get exposed to its culture.At RoMan Manufacturing, a maker of electrical transformers and welding equipment that his father cofounded in 1980, Robert Roth keep a close eye on the age of his nearly 200 workers, five are retiring this year. Mr. Roth has three community-college students enrolled in a work-placement program, with a starting wage of $13 an hour that rises to $17 after two years.At a worktable inside the transformer plant, young Jason Stenquist looks flustered by the copper coils he's trying to assemble and the arrival of two visitors. It's his first week on the job. Asked about his choice of career, he says at high school he considered medical school before switching to electrical engineering. "I love working with tools. I love creating." he says.But to win over these young workers, manufacturers have to clear another major hurdle: parents, who lived through the worst US economic downturn since the Great Depression, telling them to avoid the factory. Millennials "remember their father and mother both were laid off. They blame it on the manufacturing recession," says Birgit Klohs, chief executive of The Right Place, a business development agency for western Michigan.These concerns aren't misplaced: Employment in manufacturing has fallen from 17 million in 1970 to 12 million in 2013. When the recovery began, worker shortages first appeared in the high-skilled trades. Now shortages are appearing at the mid-skill levels."The gap is between the jobs that take to skills and those that require a lot of skill," says Rob Spohr, a business professor at Montcalm Community College. "There're enough people to fill the jobs at McDonalds and other places where you don't need to have much skill. It's that gap in between, and that's where the problem is."Julie Parks of Grand Rapids Community points to another key to luring Millennials into manufacturing: a work/life balance. While their parents were content to work long hours, young people value flexibility. "Overtime is not attractive to this generation. They really want to live their lives," she says.Section III TranslationDirections:Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)46. My DreamMy dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing.Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinkingthat I would move on to a fashion design course. However, during that course I realisedthat I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities inthe future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me. Before applying for universityI told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one ofmy favourite activities. But, to be absolutely honest, I said it, because I thought thatfashion and me together was just a dream - I knew that no one, apart from myself, couldimagine me in the fashion industry at all!Section IV WritingPart A51 Directions:Suppose you are invited by Professor Williams to give a presentation about Chinese culture to a group of international students. Write a reply to1）Accept the invitation, and2）Introduce the key points of your presentation.You should write neatly on the ANWSER SHEET.Do not sign you own name at the end of the letter, use “Li Ming ” instead.Do not write the address .(10 points)52. Directions:Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)You should1) interpret the chart, and2) give your comments.You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)2017英语二真题解析试题精析[答案][C] warning考点：上下文语义理解解析：空格之后的宾语从句部分“technology is replacing human workers.”结合选项，应该选择warning。
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2017考研英语二完形填空真题
Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?
Fears of civilization-wide idleness are based too much on the downsides of being unemployed in a society premised on the concept of employment.
A 1567 painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicts a mythical land of plenty, where people grow idle in the absence of work. Wikimedia
Ilana E. Strauss
Jun 28, 2016
People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
A different, less paranoid, and not mutually exclusive prediction holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one characterized by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives meaning, people will simply become lazy
and depressed. Indeed, today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for working Americans. Also, some research suggests that the explanation for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addiction among poorly-educated, middle-aged people is a shortage of well-paid jobs. Another study shows that people are often happier at work than in their free time. Perhaps this is why many worry about the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with malaise. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In tthe absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could yield strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure. Today, the virtue of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a squandering of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway who has written about a world without work. “Globa l surveys find that the vast majority of people are unhappy at work.”。