华中师范大学08年考博真题

华中师范大学08年考博真题
2008年华中师范大学博士研究生
入学考试英语试题（A卷）
（注意：答案必须写在答题纸上，写在试卷上无效）
Part I Reading Comprehension (40%)
Directions: In this part there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with
four suggested answers marked A, B, C, and D.
Choose the one you think is the best answer,
and then write your answer on the Answer
Sheet.
Passage One
In America’s fiercely adversarial legal system, a good lawyer is essential. Ask O.J Simpson. In a landmark case 35 years ago, Gideon v. Wainwright, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants must be provided with a lawyer at state expense because there could be no fair trial in a serious criminal case without one.“This seems to us to be an obvious truth,”wrote Justice Hugo Black in his opinion. At the time, the decision was hailed as a triumph for justice, an
example of America’s commitment to the ideal of equality before the law.
This is the image most Americans still have of their criminal-justice system---the fairest in the world, in which any defendant, no matter how, gets a smart lawyer who, too often, manages to get the culprit off on a technicality. Nothing could be further from the truth. About 80% of people accused of a felony have to depend on a publicly-provided lawyer; but over the past two decades the eagerness of politicians to look harsh on crime, their
reluctance to pay for public defenders, and a series of Supreme Court judgments restricting the grounds for appeal have made a mockery of Gideon. Today many indigent defendants, including those facing long terms of imprisonment or even death, are treated to a “meet’em and plead’em”defense --- a brief consultation in which a harried or incompetent lawyer encourages them to plead guilty on if that fail, struggle through a short trial in which the defense is massively outgunned by a more experienced, better-paid and better-prepared prosecutor.
“We have a wealth-based system of justice,”says Stephen Bright, the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “For the wealthy, it’s gold-plated. For the average
poor person, it’s like being herded to the slaughter-house. In many places the adversarial system barely exists for the poor.”
Many lawyers, of course, have made heroic efforts for particular defendants for little or no pay, but the charity of lawyers can be relied on to handle only a tiny fraction of cases. As spending on police, prosecutorsand prisons has steadily climbed in the past decade, increasing the number of people charged and imprisoned, spending on indigent defense has not kept pace overwhelming an already hard-pressed system.
1. It can be inferred from the passage that O.J Simpson was probably______.
A. a person who was found not guilty because he hired a very good lawyer.
B. a person who won his case because he was provided with a lawyer at state expense.
C. a person who was denied a lawyer and thus lost his case in the court.
D. a brilliant lawyer who won numerous cases for the average
poor people.
2. What is the author’s view of America’s adversarial
legal system?
A. It is the embodiment of the ideal of equality before the law.
B. It is the fairest criminal-justice system in the world.
C. As it is, it benefits the rich but works against the poor.
D. It is unfair by nature and should be overhauled.
3. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Lawyers who provide defense for the poor often work heroically for little or no pay at all.
B. As crime rate increases, American politicians have become more tolerant towards crime than before.
C. In America, if a person refuses to accept the judgment of a lower court, he can always appeal to the Supreme Court.
D. Government-provided lawyers tend to go through the formalities of defense and prove to be no match for the prosecutors.
4. What is the author’s specific purpose in writing this passage?
A. To appeal for more public spending on court defense for the poor.
B. To criticize America’s fiercely adversarial legal system.
C. To draw attention to the injustice of the American legal
system.
D. To make a suggestion on how to mend the criminal-justice system.
Passage Two
The media can impact current events. As a graduate student at Berkeley in the 1960s, I remember experiencing the events
related to t he People’s Park that were occurring on campus. Some of these events were given national media coverage in the press and on TV. I found it interesting to compare my impressions of that was going on with perceptions obtained from the news media. I could begin to see events of that time feed on news coverage. This also provided me with some healthy insights into the distinctions between these realities.
Electronic media are having a greater impact on the people’s lives every day. People gather more and more o f their impressions from representations. Television and telephone communications are linking people to a global village, or what one writer calls the electronic city. Consider the information that television brings into your home every day. Consider also the contract you have with others simply by
using telephone. These media extend your consciousness and your contact. For example, the video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake focused on “live action”such as the fires or the rescue efforts. This gave the viewer the impression of total disaster. Television coverage of the Iraqi War also developed any immediacy. CNN reported events as they happened. This coverage was distributed worldwide. Although most people were far away from these events, they developed some perception of these realities.
In 1992, many people watched in horror as riots broke out on a sad Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, seemingly fed by video coverage from helicopters. This event was triggered by the verdict in the Rodney King beating. We are now in an age where the public can have access to information that enables it to make its own judgment, and most people, who had seen the video of this beating, could not understand how the jury was able to
acquit the policemen involved. Media coverage of events as they occur also provides powerful feedback that influences events. This can have harmful results, as it seemed on that Wednesday night in Los Angeles. By Friday night the public got to see Rodney King on television pleading, “Can we all get along?” By Saturday, television seemed to provide
positive feedback as the Los Angeles riot turned out into a rally for peace. The television showed thousands of people marching with banners and cleaning tools. Because of that, many more people turned out to join the peaceful event they saw unfolding on television. The real healing, of course, will take much longer, but electronic media will continue to be a part of that process.
5. The best title for the passage is_____.
A. The 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
B. The Impact of Media on Current Events.
C. The 1989 San Francisco Earthquake and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
D. How Media Cover Events.
6. All the following statements are true EXCEPT that____.
A. electronic media can extend one’s contact with the world.
B. those living far away from a certain event can also have some perception of realities by watching television.
C. all the events occurring on the university campus at Berkeley were given national media coverage.
D. video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake
gave the viewers the impression of total disaster.
7. The 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out because______.
A. the jury acquitted the policemen who had beaten Rodney King.
B. people can make their own judgments.
C. video coverage from helicopters had made people angry.
D. video coverage had provided powerful feedback.
8. It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A. media coverage of events as they occur can have either good or bad results.
B. most people who had seen the video of the Rodney King beating agree with the verdict of the jury.
C. the 1992 Los Angeles riots lasted a whole week.
D. Rodney King seemed very angry when he appeared on television on Friday.
Passage Three
No one knows for sure when or where the first cow went mad, but the first recorded case occurred in December 1984 when a dairy cow on a farm in West Sussex began to act strange. That cow, identified only as No.133in a British。