中南大学2004级博士生英语考试试卷

English Test for Doctoral Candidates(Jan. 16, 2005)Part I Listening Comprehension (20%)Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear 5 short conversations. After each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and question will be read only once. Listen carefully and choose the best answer to each question. Then mark your answer on your Answer Sheet A.1. A. To be back Tuesday morning.B. To come and see him Wednesday.C. To call him on Thursday.D. To make an appointment for Thursday.2. A. Every day.B. Every day except Thursday.C. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.D. Monday, Tuesday and Friday.3. A. On a train.B. On a boat.C. On a plane.D. On a bus.4. A. It was sold out.B. It was too expensive.C. She didn’t like it.D. It was uninteresting.5. A. Go for a long walk with her friend.B. Rest and take care of herself.C. Stay at home and do her exercises.D. Catch up with her reading.Section BDirections:In this section, you will hear 2 short passages. The passage will be read only once. At the end of the passage, you will hear 5 questions about what was said. Listen carefully and choose the best answer to each question.Passage 16. A. Almost half their money.B. Almost all their money.C. Almost one-third of their money.D. Most of their money.7. A. Right after the food is ready.B. Right after the father makes the cross over the bread with a knife.C. Right after the mother distributes each member a piece of brad.D. Right after the father gives everyone a piece of bread.8. A. The famous French food.B. The French family meal.C. The French family reunion.D. The French gable manners.Passage 29. A. Means for winter traveling.B. Methods of fishing.C. How to hunt large animals.D. Political ways.10. A. Iron tools.B. Building canoes.C. Blazing trails.D. Planting crops.Section C Spot DictationDirections:In this part, you are going to hear a longer passage. The passage is printed below with some words and expressions missing. As you listen, fill in each of the blanks with the words and expressions you have heard.Our sleep time over the past century has been reduced by almost 20 percent.Generally, adults need to sleep one hour for every two hours awake, which means that most need about eight hours of sleep a night. Of course, some people need more and some less. Children and teenagers need an average of about ten hours.The brain keeps an exact (11) ______________ of how much sleep it is owed. My colleagues and I coined the term sleep debt because accumulated lost sleep is like a monetary debt: it must be paid back. If you get an hour less than a full night’s sleep, you carry an hour of sleep debt into the next day—and your (12) ______________ to fall asleep during the daytime becomes stronger.During the five-day workweek, if you get six hours of sleep each night instead of the eight you needed, you would build up a sleep debt of ten hours (five days times two hours). Because sleep debt accumulates in an additive (13) ______________, by day five your brain would tend toward sleep as strongly as if you’d stayed up all night. From this perspective, sleeping until noon on Saturday is not getting enough to pay back the ten lost hours as well as meet your nightly (14) ______________ of eight; you would have to sleep until about 5 p.m. to balance the sleep ledger.But for most people it is difficult to sleep that long because of the alerting mechanism of our (15) ______________ clock.Section D SummaryDirections:Listen to the passage and write a summary in no less than 50 words.Part II Reading Comprehension (20%)Directions:In this section, there are 4 short passages for you to read. Read each passage carefully, and then do the questions that follow. Choose the best answer A, B, C and D, and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet A.Passage 1However important we may consider school life to be, there is no denying the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the great influence of parents cannot be ignored or discounted by the teacher. They can become strong allies of the school personnel or they can consciously or unconsciously hinder and thwart curricular objectives.Administrators have been aware of the need to keep parents apprised (告知) of the newer methods used in schools. Many principals have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness program, manuscript writing and development mathematics.Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the supervisors, can also play an important role in enlightening parents. The informal tea and the many interviews carried on during the year, as well as new ways of reporting pupils’ progress, can significantly aid in achieving a harmonious interplay between school and home.To illustrate, suppose that a father has been drilling Junior in arithmetic process night after night. In a friendly interview, the teacher can help the parent sublimate his natural paternal interest into productive channels. He might be persuaded to let Junior participate in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a yardstick or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating mileage on a trip and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis.If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to assume that he will soon realize his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics, and at the same time, enjoying the work.Too often, however, teachers’ conferences with parents are devoted to petty accoun ts of children’s misdemeanors, complaints about laziness and poor work habits, and suggestion for penalties and rewards at home.16. The central idea conveyed in the above passage is that _______.A. home training is more important than school training because a child spendsso many hours with his parentsB. teachers can and should help parents to understand and further the objectiveof the schoolC. there are many ways in which the mathematics program can be implementedat homeD. parents have a responsibility to help students in doing homework17. The author directly discussed the fact that _______.A. parents drill their children too much in arithmeticB. principals have explained the new art programs to parentsC. a father can have his son help him construct articles at homeD. a parent’s misguided efforts can be properly directed18. It can reasonably be inferred that the author _______.A. is satisfied with present relationships between home and schoolB. feels that schools are woefully lacking in guidance personnelC. believes that the traditional program in mathematics is slightly better thandevelopmental programD. feels that the parent-teacher interviews can be made much more constructivethan they are at present19. The author implies that _______.A. participation in interesting activities relating to a subject improves one’sachievements in that areaB. school principals do more than their share in interpreting the curriculum tothe parentsC. only a small part of the school day should be set apart for drilling inarithmeticD. teachers should occasionally make home visit to parents20. We may infer that the writer of the article does not favor _______.A. a father’s helping his son with the latter’s studiesB. written communications to the parent from the teacherC. having the parent observe lessons which the children are being taughtD. principal-parent conferences rather than teacher-parent conferences Passage 2E-business requires instantaneous decision-making and KM (knowledge management) has a tremendous role to play in achieving this as well as quality feedback. Real-time business without proper knowledge and feedback information quickly turns into real-time unsupervised and valueless chaos. Lack of adequate knowledge flow and coherent real-time views of a situation inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. The infamous Barings Bank operated a real-time futures business without real-time checks and balances, and did not ensure adequate quality of knowledge flows from the trading floor to controllers and managers. It was too-much-too-fast coupled with too-little-quality-feedback and insufficient understanding. There was too little real-time knowledge at hand and it turned out a spectacular disaster.The missing link was KM. No serious e-business effort should be undertaken without considering, planning and implementing a strong KM infrastructure. Real-time knowledge must flow from those who have it to those who must be able to make the right move at the right time. And there is no time to spare. E-businesses must be equipped with interactive workflow tools and real-time business intelligences feedback in a clear and understandable format. People involved must have access to all underlying documents at all times at a snap of their fingers. Otherwise they will guess rather than make informed decisions. Or words, in fear of making a huge mistake, people will make no decisions at all.Take a home loan application process for example. You would most likely apply to a number of banks at the same time. They would obviously complete on pricing,but the bank that can make your credit assessment first and most effectively, process the documentation and inform you on the progress every step of the way will get your business. The rest may be stuck with less demanding, more risk-prone customers. This may affect their overall profitability, and ability to complete on price and service in the future. It could put them out of business altogether. So is there a link between e-business and KM? I surely think so.21. According to the passage, in doing e-business, you must _______.A. make quick decisionsB. learn many disciplinesC. work hardD. know how to promote yourself22. As the author puts it, being short of _______ will lead to failure in e-business.A. support from the governmentB. sufficient knowledge flow and accurate views of the situationC. qualified managersD. loan from the bank23. Barings Bank went bankrupt because _______.A. it involved itself in the futures businessB. its manager was not an expertC. it failed to smooth the knowledge flow and the feedback processesD. of its slow decision-making process24. Some managers do not make decisions because _______.A. they are not provided with sufficient informationB. they are slow in thinkingC. they are very democraticD. they have limited rights in the company25. When you apply for a home loan, you tend to choose a band with _______.A. offers the lowest interestB. if located quite near to your houseC. will keep you informed of the on-goings in the processD. is big and famousPassage 3When it comes to leisure activities, Americans aren’t quite the funseekers they’ve been supposed to be. For one out of five, weekends and vacations are consumed by such drudgeries as housecleaning, yardworking, and cooking; only one-third of them enjoy the luxury of relaxing in the sun, going camping, playing sports, or simply relaxing.Americans were asked how they occupy themselves on days they are not at work. According to the poll, older people, the rich, and the well-educated are most apt to spend their spare time doing the things they “want to do” rather than those they “have to”.Overall, high-salaried respondents were more active than those with lower incomes—they reported watching less television and were ore likely to engage insocial and cultural activities. Furthermore, those with college degrees were about twice as likely as those with no more than a high school education to spend time playing sports (42 percent compared to 23 percent).On the subject of vacations, the study found that college graduates were more likely than those with only high school degrees to have vacation plans (80 percent versus 60 percent). Of those who did intend to take some time off, 46 percent planned a sightseeing vacation (34 percent in the United States, 12 percent abroad), 34 percent expected to visit friends or relatives, 22 percent headed for the beach or lake, and 12 percent intended to relax at home.People who are divorced, widowed, or separated, the survey concluded, are the least likely of any group to take a vacation—and the least likely to attach any important to it.26. The passage is mainly about _______.A. different ways of spending one’s leisure timeB. active entertainment and passive entertainmentC. factors that affect people’s attitudes towards vacationD. how Americans spend their holidays27. According to a recent study, how many Americans spend the weekends doinghousework?A. One fifth of them.B. Four fifths of them.C. One third of them.D. Two thirds of them.28. According to the passage, the most popular type of vacation in the United Statesis _______.A. relaxing in the sunB. visiting friends or relativesC. playing sportsD. visiting interesting places29. Who are the least likely to take a vacation?A. Businesswomen.B. Factor workers.C. Separated couples.D. Elderly people.30. Which of the following if NOT mentioned as a factor that influences the waypeople spend their holidays?A. Family income.B. Social position.C. Age.D. Educational background.Passage 4If national health insurance would not cure the problems of the American health-care system, what, then, is responsible for them? Suspicion falls heavily onhospitals, which make up the largest component of the system. In 1988 hospitals accounted for 39 percent of all expenditures—more than doctors, nursing homes, drugs, and home health care combined.Although US hospitals provide outstanding research and frequently excellent care, they also exhibit the classic attributes of inefficient organizaions; increasing costs and decreasing use. The average cost of a hospital stay in 1987—$3,850—was more than double the 1980 cost. A careful government analysis published in 1987 revealed the inflation of hospital costs, over and above general price inflation, as a major factor in their growth, even after allowances were made for increase in the population and in intensity of care. While the rate of increase for hospital costs was 27 percent greater than that of all medical care and 163 percent greater than that for all other goods and services, demand for hospital services fell by 34 percent. But hospitals seemed obvious of the decline: during this period the number of hospital beds shrank only by about three percent, and the number of full-time employees grew by more than 240,000.After yet another unexpectedly high hospital-cost increase last year, one puzzled government analyst asked, “Where’s the money going?” Much of the increase in hospital costs—amounting to $180 billion from 1965 to 1987—went to duplicating medical technology available in nearby hospitals and maintaining excess beds. Modern healthcare, a leading journal in the field, recently noted that “anecdotes of [hospitals] unnecessary spen ding on technology abound.” Medical technology is very expensive. An operating room outfitted to perform open-heart surgery costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. From 1982 to 1989 the number of hospitals with open-heart-surgery facilities grew by 33 percent, and the most rapid growth occurred among smaller and moderate-sized hospitals. This growth was worrisome for reasons of both costs and quality. Underused technology almost inevitably decreases quality of care. In medicine, as in everything else, practice makes perfect. For example, most of the hospitals with the lowest mortality rates for coronary-bypass surgery perform at least fifty to a hundred such procedures annually, and in some cases many more; the majority of those with the highest mortality rates perform fewer than fifty a year.31. According to the passage, the American health-care system _______.A. is working smoothlyB. is the best system in the worldC. is not working efficientlyD. is on the point of collapse32. In 1980, the average cost of a hospital stay was _______.A. $3,850B. less than $1,925C. $1,925D. more than $1,92533. When demand for hospital services fell, hospitals _______.A. took effective measures to reduce their expendituresB. were fully aware of the situation and took some measures accordinglyC. reduced the number of hospital beds sharplyD. continued to take on more full-time medical workers34. According to the passage, hospital costs went up greatly mainly because_______.A. hospitals spent a lot of money unnecessarily on medical technologyB. hospitals bought too much expensive operating equipmentC. hospitals employed too many unskilled medical workersD. hospitals were under poor management35. It is implied in the last paragraph that if a hospital uses its medical technology tothe full, _______.A. it will decrease its quality of treatmentB. it will certainly push up its expendituresC. it will have a high mortality rate from surgeryD. it will maintain its good quality of carePart III Translation (20%)Section A Put the following into Chinese:When the war began on January 18th, the authorities believed that the multi-national force was irresistible and that the war would be short and swift. But now, the situation seems quite the reverse; the war is likely to take at least several months before it blows itself out.No matter how long the war lasts, it is undeniably a great tragedy. The region is now bristling with bombers, warships and soldiers. Saddam Hussein has already begun to make random bombing attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia. He has even brazenly threatened to use missiles charged with biological or chemical warheads.Whether or not the Gulf War is a just war is a hotly debated question. Although most people agree with the deployment of soldiers in the region, a considerable number of people do not want Britain to get involved.Section B Put the following abstract into English:摘要：本文从英文标题、作者署名与工作单位、英文摘要、英文关键词等四个方面阐述了科技论文英文摘要的写作特点、模式及摘要写作中应避免出现的一些问题，同时强调对摘要写作的客观性、学术性和语体风格等问题给予足够的重视。