中南大学博士生综合英语考试试卷及答案

Examination Paper for Doctor Candidates of Non-English Majors (A)
December 25, 2011
Part I Listening Comprehension (15%)
Section A Short dialogues
Directions:In this section, you will hear several short conversations. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the question will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center (on Answer Sheet I).
1. A. He lost the calculator.
B. He doesn’t know where the calculator is.
C. He thinks he broke the calculator.
D. He doesn’t know the ans wer to the problem.
2. A. He lost it.
B. He used it last night.
C. He was the last to use it.
D. He finally brought it back.
3. A. The woman should buy some new trousers.
B. The woman should buy some clothes for larger size.
C. The woman should eat less.
D. The woman should do exercises.
4. A. At a theater.
B. At a booking office.
C. At a railway station.
D. At a restaurant.
5. A. The size of the room.
B. Long working hours.
C. The hot weather.
D. The fan in the room.
Section B Passages
Directions:In this section, you will hear several short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center (on Answer Sheet I).
Passage One
6. A. A dozen.
B. Two dozen.
C. A half dozen.
D. Five dozen.
7. A. They don’t stay fresh very long.
B. They smell nice.
C. They are too expensive.
D. They aren’t very pretty.
8. A. Oil and vinegar.
B. Sugar and white vinegar.
C. Sugar and oil.
D. Aspirin.
Passage Two
9. A. Miller was loved by her parents.
B. Miller was loved by her sisters.
C. Miller was loved by her brothers.
D. Miller enjoyed a happy life as a child.
10. A. Maths.
B. painting.
C. Both A and B.
D. Neither A nor B.
Section C Summary writing
Directions:In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read, you are required to write a summary of about 60 words on Answer Sheet II.
Part II Vocabulary and Structure (10%)
Directions: There are a number of incomplete sentences or sentences with underlined words or phrases in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the ONE answer that best completes the sentence or replace the underlined part of the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center (on Answer Sheet I).
11. There has been a decline _______ the number of people borrowing from public libraries.
A. on
B. in
C. with
D. at
12. The harder a student studies, _______.
A. the more his body gives off heat
B. his body gives off more heat
C. the more heat does his body gives off
D. the more heat his body gives off
13. When she heard the bad news, she _______completely.
A. broke away
B. broke down
C. broke out
D. broke through
14. The clerk muttered under his breath as he brought the _______ the tenth pair of shoes.
A. client
B. attorney
C. agent
D. consumer
15. Association refers to _______ the material we want to remember and _______ it to something we remember accurately.
A. taking … relating
B. take … relate
C. taking … relate
D. take … relating
16. They took _______ measures to prevent poisonous gases from escaping.
A. fruitful
B. beneficial
C. valid
D. effective
17. With the help of a metal detector, they discovered that wreckage lay _______ over a 2,000-square-feet area, often buried beneath sand and seaweed.
A. scattered
B. separated
C. dispersed
D. distributed
18. It was his wife’s encouragement that had _______ his through the bad times.
A. delivered
B. relieved
C. sent
D. brought
19. The distance from the Earth to the spacecraft is often determined very accurately
from the time _______ between two radio signals.
A. interaction
B. alternative
C. interference
D. interval
20. Finding himself trapped in the Death Valley, he had a sudden feeling of _______.
A. despair
B. desperate
C. frightened
D. dreadful
21. In a time of social reform, peop le’s state of mind tends to keep pace with the rapid changes of
society.
A. take step
B. match up
C. keep in touch
D. make progress
22. If decisions are delayed until the problems become worse, possibilities for effective actions will be severely reduced.
A. options
B. notions
D. occasions
23. You can add the fluid to the powder, or, vice versa, the powder to the fluid.
A. conventionally
B. convertibly
C. conversely
D. conversationally
24. She anxiously inspected the faces of the men leaving the train in the hope of find her husband.
A. approached
B. searched
C. scanned
D. recalled
25. In Britain, and on the Continent too, the Japanese are sometimes viewed as a threat to domestic industries.
A. looked like
B. varied with
C. thought for
D. supposed as
26. With an old screwdriver he rasped the mortar away from around one of the bricks in the end
wall.
A. scraped
B. brushed
C. pulled
D. ported
27. As early as 1647 Ohio made a decision that free tax-supported schools must be established in
every town having 50 household or more.
A. founded
B. found
C. formulated
D. funded
28. He said that he had never come across a painting which pleased him more.
A. seen about
B. viewed as
C. happened to
D. met with
29. My book is practically finished; I have only a few changes to make in the writing.
A. virtually
B. vertically
C. violently
D. visually
30. The teacher congratulated the student who won the prize in the speech contest.
A. consoled
B. comforted
D. consulted
Part III Cloze (10%)
Directions:There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter with a single line through the center (on Answer Sheet I).
Scientists searching for precious metals have turned to the ocean floor, where natural chimneys are spewing out a metal-enriched black dust containing particles of gold, silver and zinc.
Scientists 31 these hot springs are recreating the process which, billions of years ago, created 32 metal deposits now found on land.
The discovery is giving geologists a 33 into the earth’s early history and fuelling some new theories on origin of life.
It also has huge implications for 34 companies.
Geologists are just beginning to understand how these chimneys, 35 clusters of sulphur and minerals, are formed, and what makes them spew out the mineralized dust.
At present it is not commercially 36 for mining companies to operate beneath the sea, a lthough some scientists believe the “black smokers”, 37 known as active mineralizing systems, will be a major—and renewable—source of metals in the next decade.
38 the meantime, mining companies are using the ocean-floor research to locate similar deposits on land.
“The hottest thing in the mining research game right now is the39 within the past few years of mineral deposits currently forming—in front of our eyes—on the ocean floor,” said Dr. Joseph Fox, a Montreal (加拿大蒙特利尔) geologist.
Canada has mined some of the richest copper, zinc and gold 40 in the world. In the past year, mining companies have used knowledge about where mineral formations 41 on the ocean floor to find the deposits on land.
Geologists are excited because, 42 metal deposits on land, which are two or three billion years old, the undersea deposits keep 43 themselves.
“It’s really incredible to think that we have a renewable metal resource44 we’ve been taught to think of metal resources as non-renewable,” Fo x said.
The 30-foot-high (10-metre) chimneys or vents, 45 in 1979, are found along fractures in the ocean’s crust.
Scientists believe the deposits form when cold sea-water seeps into the fractures, leaving metals 46 it is drawn down.
As the water t ravels in the direction of the earth’s core, it47 up. Eventually, the hot water rises, carrying with it the hot metal sulphide 48 the ocean floor.
When the hot sulphide meets the cold sea water, a thick black smoke-like substance is formed, spewing out of vents in built-up deposits of 49 .
The particles in the smoke eventually 50 on the ocean floor, forming vast solid sheets of metal sulphide.
31. A. believe B. thought C. uncover D. found
32. A. smooth B. tiny C. vast D. rust
33. A. chance B. revision C. weapon D. glimpse
34. A. metal B. mining C. alloy D. global
35. A. made of B. consisting in C. resulted from D. dealing with
36. A. periodic B. reliable C. comparative D. feasible
37. A. formally B. chiefly C. economically D. occasionally
38. A. At B. On C. In D. For
39. A. invention B. discovery C. findings D. theory
40. A. samples B. deposits C. mines D. fractions
41. A. range B. suffer C. occur D. form
42. A. unlike B. like C. as D. except
43. A. to renew B. renewing C. having renewed D. to be renewed
44. A. before B. until C. because D. when
45. A. broken B. fixed C. discovered D. originated
46. A. since B. as C. for D. whereas
47. A. speeds B. goes C. gives D. heats
48. A. from B. on C. toward D. beyond
49. A. sulphide B. substance C. deposits D. element
50. A. rely B. move C. turn D. settle
Part IV Reading Comprehension (25%)
Directions:There are five passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center (on Answer Sheet I).
Passage One
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. None did the lapses appear to be entirely random.
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earnings and tried to fix a dog biscui t on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on he r earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme.” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly failures.”
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing —an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest. These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors
we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.
51. In this study Professor Smith asked the subjects _______.
A. to keep track of people who tend to forget things
B. to report their embarrassing lapses at random
C. to analyze their awkward experiences scientifically
D. to keep a record of what they did unintentionally
52. Professor Smith discovered that _______.
A. certain patterns can be indentified in the recorded incidents
B. many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
C. men tend to be more absent-minded than women
D. absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness
53. “Programme assembly failures (Sentence 6, Paragraph 2)” refers to the phenomenon that
people _______.
A. often fail to programme their routines beforehand
B. tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
C. unconsciously change the sequence of doing things
D. are likely to mess thing up if they are too tired
54. We learn from the third paragraph that _______.
A. absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day
B. women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods
C. women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness
D. men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations
55. It can be concluded from the passage that _______.
A. people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses
B. hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at
C. people should be careful when programming their actions
D. lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration
Passage Two
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
The two claws of the mature American lobster are decidedly different from each other. The crusher claw is short and stout; the cutter claw is long and slender. Such bilateral asymmetry, in which the right side of the body is, in all other respects, a mirror image of the left side, is not unlike handedness in humans. But where the majority of humans are right-handed, in lobsters the crusher claw appears with equal probability on either the right side or left side of the body.
Bilateral asymmetry of the claws comes about gradually. In the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development, the paired claws are symmetrical and cutter like. Asymmetry begins to appear in the juvenile sixth stage of development, and the paired claws farther diverge toward well-defined cutter and crusher claws during succeeding stages. An intriguing aspect of this development was discovered by Victor Emmer. He found that if one of the paired claws is removed during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw invariably becomes a crusher, while the regenerated claw becomes a stutter. Removal of a claw during a later juvenile stage or during adulthood, when asymmetry is present, does not alter the asymmetry; the intact and regenerated claws retain their original structures.。