中国人民大学2004年英语专业考研基础英语试题

Directions: In this passage there are altogether 10 mistakes. Try to detect the mistakes and write out your corrected answers in the numbered brackets.
It used to be supposed that changes in the moral climate took decades to occur. Ideas filters down from whichever opinion makers were possessed of social influence; (  1  ) or they were imposed by those charged of social control who had the confidence or the capacity to determine public attitudes. (  2  ) The introduction of mass education initially made little change here, since the content of the education, and the surviving social deference of the recipients, secured a continuing measure of stability.
Moral ideas and moral practice are not, anyway, in a precise correlation: statistics of illegitimate births from preceding centuries, as moral declamation was universally adverse, indicate a gap between prescribed teaching and human practice. (  3  ) But moral change was slow and ordered; it took a very long time for that was conventionally acceptable to change   witness the stigma attached to divorce only 50 years ago. (  4  ) 
Now that has all changed. The reason is to be sought not so little in the collapse of institutional religion or in the moral incoherence of the western liberal intelligentsia   whose ideals have no discernible philosophical basis   so much as the means now available for the dissemination of ideas of all sorts. (  5  ) It is due to the power of television. Ideas and moral precept are abstract, the nightly presentation, in dramas and "analysis" of public events by selected experts, is not.  (   6   )
Both on the screen and in the classroom a version of unstructured Humanism would seem to prevail: moral virtue determined by whatever current educated opinion deems conducive to modern canons of politically correct ideas. (  7  ) Soaps are extremely effective means of conveying moral propaganda, modern morality plays which link day-to-day developments in particular lives-lives which are, like in the entertainments of the past, to be followed or avoided, according the assigned roles in the tension of good and evil.  (   8   )
The great difference from the past is that there is now so much entertainment which it is immediately available,   and that it falls  upon people  with no other source of moral exhortation.  (   9   ) The heroes are the tolerant, commonsense moralists who ostensibly respect all viewpoints and decry "old-fashioned" moralists with their outmoded restrictions. The demons are those practitioners of whatever, for the moment, attract public obliquity-paedophiles, drug users, racists or whatever. (   10   ) 
Passage 2
English literature has extracted and emphasized one very splendid thing; you never hear of it in patriotic speeches or in books about race or nationality, but it is the great contribution of the English temperament 1     the best life of the world. So far as it can be defined, it may be called the humane use of caricature. It consists in calling a man ugly as a compliment. If we wish to appreciate   2  we must remember the part   3   by satire and epigram in the largest part of human literature. Almost everywhere laughter has been used as a lash; if we were told about a man's wig or wooden leg, it was   4  by an enemy. Men reminded a man maliciously of his bodily weakness, especially if it was   5   with his worldly power.
  6  , for instance, the case of two of the greatest riders and conquerors among the children of men. Julius Caesar was bald, and he could not   7  it all with his laurels. It' was always morally as well as physically his unprotected spot. His enemies could say: "You have   __8__Gaul, but you are bald. You have faced Pompey in arms and Cicero in argument, but   9   all that you are bald. "And he felt it himself, I think, for he was a vain man; the head of Caesar was like the   10   of Achilles.

IV. Reading Comprehension (20 Points)

Directions: Give a brief answer to each of the questions listed at the end of the following passage.

My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists —I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility and sweet docility of manners, suppose to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone.
This is a rough sketch of my plan, and should I express my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experience and reflection will be felt by some of my readers. Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style; I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, nor in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart. I shall be employed about things, not word! And, anxious to render my sex more respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and conversation.
These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly from the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that turns away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge of false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe duties, which educate a rational and immortal being for a nobler field of action.
The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly, yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments: meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves—the only way women can rise in the world—by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act—they dress, they paint, and nickname God’s creatures. Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio!—Can they be expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
If then it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which takes place of ambition and those nobler passions that open and enlarge the soul: that the instruction which women have received has only tended, with the constitution of civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire—mere propagators of fools! —If it can be proved that in aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their understandings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and made ridiculous and useless when their short-lived bloom of beauty is over. I presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavoring to persuade them to become more masculine and respectable.
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear: there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude, for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodily strength, must render them, in some degree, dependent on men in the various relations of life; but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths with sensual reveries?
Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off those contemptible infantile airs that undermine esteem ever whilst they excite desire. Let men become more chaste and modest, and if women do not grow wiser in the same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker understandings. It seems scarcely necessary to say, that I now speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and, as nothing preponderates where there is a constant struggle for an equilibrium, without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.

Questions:
1. Why does the author urge women to reject their conventional image of weakness?
2. How does the author relate diction and style to the cause of women's rights?
3. With what details does the author convey her view on marriage?
4. According to the author, how does the education on of women both reflect and foster the concept of their frivolity and weakness?

英文写作 Writing (20 Points)

You are required to write ,in English, an article of a minimum of 500 words with the following topic:
The Importance of Intercultural Communication in Today’s World.

英汉互译

 
1. Translate the following passage into English (30%)
愚蠢的男人和愚蠢的女人结婚是一种幸福智慧的男人和聪明的女人在一起是一种格调。当两种情形不幸交叉，生活就被贬低为日子。
音乐的本质都是忧伤而缠绵悱恻的，一如艳阳下溪水带不走逆行的云彩，而落叶却兀自随溪水而去。
佳人本是天上云，晴朗明月下，秋色正浓时，一任寥落的雁声划过而不侧目。于是，那个叫司马相如的男人尾随着卓文君，回到两千年前的那个晚上，借着巴山的那个夜月，一个吹箫，一个鼓瑟，把平常的生活过的异常精致和婉约。
而与此相隔八百年后的一个正午，在大唐的深宫中，杨玉环躺在黄帝的臂弯里倦怠地听着乐师精妙的演奏，昏昏欲睡。当马蹄声自遥远的南方飞速传来时，她打了一个哈欠，问身边的男人，这是不是送荔枝的驿卒到了。男人说是。女人心满意足的看着男人笑了笑，于是飞快地坐起鲜艳欲滴的身体，明亮的眼光越过被汗水和尘土包裹的驿卒，贪婪地吸吮充满性感的南方红果。此时，音乐是一种尴尬的背景，黄帝是一种可有可无的陪衬。
失去了灵魂的曲子，只能是一个又一个散落的音符。或许，你仍然没有找到属于自己的音乐，也没有找到聆听自己心声的佳人。

2. Translate the following passage into Chinese.(30%)
The laptop computer is a small, portable computer that's light and small enough to hold on your lap. It is smaller than a luggage but larger than a notebook computer. A laptop usually weighs between 8 and 14 pounds, and when folded shut is about the size of a small briefcase. Laptops can be plugged in or run on batteries, although the batteries must be recharged every few hours. Laptop computers use a thin light weight display screen called a flat-panel display, rather than the cathode ray tube technology of larger personal computers. Laptop displays vary widely in quality. Typically, their display screens show fewer lines than displays on larger computers and can be difficult to read in bright light. Laptops are self-contained units, having their own CPUs, memory, and disk drives. While more expensive than a desktop computer with equivalent computing power, a laptop can be ideal for the on-the-go user who needs a second, portable computer. Laptops aren't always a suitable replacement for desktop computer, since they can't be expanded or modified easily should your computing needs change. Also, the display is inferior to standard video graphics array (VGA) displays, although active matrix displays compete well except for size.

I. 1. A 2. A 3. B 4. B 5. A 6. A 7. C 8. D 9.D 10. A

 II. 1. filters 改成 filtering 2. charged of改为in charge of 3. as 改成 though 4. that 改为what 5. 去掉so much 6. precept 改成precepts 7. version 改为revision 8. according 后面加to 9. 去掉which后面的it 10. with 改成for.

III. Passage 1

1. tide 2. around 3. focus 4. causes 5. communicate 6. otherwise 7. from 8. led 9. throwing 10. activities

Passage 2

1. to 2. it 3. played 4. owned 5. incompatible/conflicting 6. Consider 7. deny 8. defeated 9. for 10. heels

IV

1. Because if women keep their conventional image of weakness, they can never grow up mentally as well as physically and can never become independent. In order to obtain true self-esteem and happiness and to avoid being the subject of pity and being looked down upon by men, women should reject various symptoms of weakness.

2. Traditional feminine diction and style are symbols of men's condescending attitude toward women. Those womanly phrases are employed to make women's dependence on men less obvious and more acceptable. However, in the author’s opinion, a person's inner virtues and his/her character as a human being is much more important than the so-called elegance on the surface. Women's writing as well as their daily talks should put emphasis on the content and usefulness instead of style. Thus they can express themselves as freely and effectively as men.

3. The author believes that due to women's traditional education, which weakens their mental as well as bodily strength and from which they gain few real accomplishments, the only way for them to rise in the world is to get married. Such a desire makes women act like animals or children but not human beings in its real sense. Thus they only pursue pleasures but are unable to shoulder the responsibilities of running a family or taking care of their own babies, and they will lose their position in a family or marriage and become completely useless as soon as they outlive their youthfulness aw beautifulness.

4. Traditionally, women spend the first years of their lives obtaining few achievements as human beings. Instead, they are trained to behave like mere animals or children according to the so-called notions of beauty and their physical and mental abilities are underdeveloped. Therefore, they can establish themselves and pursue pleasures only through marriage. In other words, their education rendered them frivolous and weak. Their present behavior, the result of their education, demonstrates excessive fondness for pleasure and a lack of ambition and noble pursuit. Thus, their conduct and their education also reflect the concept of their frivolity and weakness.

V.

1. It is a blessing that foolish men get married with foolish women. It is exquisite that intelligent men stay with wise women. If unfortunately, they are mismatched, then life is diminished to days.

The essence of all music is melancholy and sentimental just like the feeling when you see the stream, flowing under the bright son, cannot take any clouds going upstream away with it while the fallen leaves flow away with the stream by themselves without hesitation.

Beautiful women are the clouds that do not even throw a glance at the wild geese making few cries in the sky in the bright and clear moonlight of deep autumn. Then the man named Sima Xiangru followed the beautiful woman Zhuo Wenjun back to that night two thousand years ago. By the moon on the Bashan Mountain, one of them was playing the xiao, a vertical bamboo flute; the other was playing the se, a stringed plucked instrument. They lived their everyday life in such a refined and graceful way.

However, at the noon about eight hundred years later, in the seclusion of the palace of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Yuhuan was lying languidly in the emperor's arms, listening to the excellent performance of the musicians, dozing off. Upon hearing the rapid clatters of horses' hoofs coming from the distant south, yawning, she asked the man to tell her whether the post house runners delivering litchis were coming. The man replied yes. Looking at the men, the woman smiled contentedly, and then lifted her delicate and charming body and sat up immediately. Her bright eyes, looking over the sweat-drenched and dust-covered post house runner, were sucking greedily at the sensuous red fruit from the south. At that time, music was an awkward background and the emperor also serves as a dispensable foil to her.

Music without the soul can only be scattered music notes one after another. Perhaps you haven't yet found your own music or the beauty that cares to listen to you making your inner voice heard.

2.膝上型计算机是一种小型便携式计算机，重量轻，机型小，可以放在膝上使用。其形状比行李箱小，但比笔记本电脑大，重量一般在8-14磅左右，折叠起来和小号公文包差不多大小。可以插电源也可以使用电池运行，电池每隔几小时就必须充电。这类计算机不像较大型的个人电脑那样采用阴极射线管技术，而是采用一种名叫名叫平板显示器的薄型轻质显示屏。膝上型计算机显示器质量良莠不齐。一般而言，其显示器显示的行数比较个人大型计算机少，且在强光下很难看清。膝上型电脑机型虽小然而五脏俱全，拥有自己的中央处理器，内存和光驱。尽管膝上型计算机比功能相当的台式机贵很多，然而对于经常到处奔波而另外需要一台便携式计算机的人来说这种计算机还是很理想的选择。如果用户使用计算机处理信息的需要发生变化，膝上型计算机很难相应地扩大容量或做出其他调整，因此有使用这类计算机来取代台式机也不太合适。而且，虽然膝上型计算机的活性矩阵显示器除了屏幕大小以外可以与影像列阵显示器相媲美，但是总的来说，膝上型计算机的显示器不如标准的影像列阵显示器好。