| 考博易错题（2019/9/28） |
| 第1题： TheAffluent Society is a modem classic because it helped define a new moment in the human condition. For most of history," hunger, sickness, and cold" threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. "Poverty was found everywhere in that worlD、Obviously it is not of ours. "After World War Il, the dread of another GreatDepression gave way to an economic boom. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18. 2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4. 5 percent. To Galbraith, materialism had gone mad and would breed discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or neeD、Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unfulfilling. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people instinctively-and wrongly-labeled government only as "a necessary evil". It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behinD、Well, there are many undeserving rich--overpaid chief executives, for instance.But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, inflation-adjusted average family income rose 14. 3 percent, to $ 43,200. People feel, "squeezed" because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants--for bigger homes, more health care, more education, faster Internet connections. The other great frustration is that it has not eliminated insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living.As corporate layoffs increased, that part has erodeD、More workers fear they’ve be- come "the disposableAmerican" ,as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name. Because so much previous suffering and social-conflict stemmed from poverty ,the arrival of widespread affluence suggested utopian(乌托邦式的)possibilities. Up to a point, affluence succeeds. There is much less physical misery than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, affluence also creates new complaints and contradictions. Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens.But the quest for growth lets loose new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order.Affluence liberates the individual ,promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-fulfillment.But the promise is so extravagant that it predestines many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown and obesity (肥胖症). Statistical indicators of happiness have not risen with incomes. Should we be surprised Not really. We’ve simply reaffirmed an old truth: the pursuit of affluence does not always end with happiness. |
| 第2题：Thirty-two people watched Kitty Genovese being killed right beneath their windows. She was their neighbor. Yet none of the 32 helped her. Not one even called the police. Was this in gunman cruelty Was it lack of feeling about one’s fellow man "Not so," say scientists JohnBarley andBib Fatane. These men went beyond the headlines to probe the reasons why people didn’t act. They found that a person has to go through two steps before he can help. First he has to notice that is an emergency. Suppose you see a middle-aged man fall to the side-walk, is he having a heart attack Is he in a coma from diabetes Or is he about to sleep off a drunk Is the smoke coming into the room from a leak in the air conditioning Is it "steam pipes", Or is it really smoke from a fire It’s not always easy to tell if you are faced with a real emergency. Second, and more important, the person faced with an emergency must feel personally responsible. He must feel that he must help, or the person won’t get the help he needs. The researchers found that a lot depends on how many people are arounD、They had college students in to be "testeD、" Some came alone. Some came with one or two others.And some came in large groups. The receptionist started them off on the "tests." Then she went into the next room.A、curtain divided the "testing room" and the room into which she went. Soon the students heard a scream, the noise of file cabinets falling and cry for help.All of this had been pre-recorded on a tape-recorder. Eight out of ten of the students taking the test alone acted to help. Of the students in pairs, only two out of the ten helpeD、Of the students in group, none helpeD、 In other words, in a group,Americans often fail to act. They feel that others will act. They, themselves, needn’t. They do not feel any direct responsibility. Are people bothered by situation where people are in trouble Yes, scientists found that the people were emotional, they sweated, they had trembling hands. They felt that other person’s trouble.But they did not act. They were in a group. Their actions were shaped by the actions of those they were with. The main reason why people fail to act when they stay together is that ______.A．they are afraid of emergencies B．they are reluctant to get themselves involved C．others will act if they themselves hesitate D．they do not have any direct responsibility for those who need help |
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| 第3题：{{B}}Passage 4{{/B}} The primary reason forBotticelli’s unpopularity is not difficult to understand: most observers, up until the mid-nineteenth century, did not consider him to be noteworthy, because his work, for the most part, did not Seem to these observers to exhibit the traditional characteristics of fifteenth-century Florentine art. For example,Botticelli rarely employed the technique of strict perspective and, unlike Michelangelo, never used chiaroscuro. Another reason forBotticelli’s unpopularity may have been that his attitude toward the style of classical art was very different from that of his contemporaries.Although he was thoroughly exposed to classical art, he showed little interest in borrowing from the classical style. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a painter of large-scale classical subjects adopted a style that was only slightly similar to that of classical art. In any case, when viewers began to examine more closely the relationship ofBotticelli’s work to the tradition of fifteenth-century Florentine art, his reputation began to grow.Analyses and assessments ofBotticelli made between 1850 and 1870 by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, as well as by the’ writer Pater (although he, unfortunately, based his assessment on an incorrect analysis ofBotticelli’s personality), inspired a new appreciation ofBotticelli throughout theEnglish-speaking worlD、YetBotticelli’s work, especially the Sistine frescoes, did not generate worldwide attention until it was finally subjected to a comprehensive and scrupulous analysis by Home in 1908. Home rightly demonstrated that the frescoes shared important features with paintings by other fifteenth-century Florentines-features such as skillful representation of anatomical proportions, and of the human figure in motion. However, Home argued thatBotticelli did not treat these qualities as ends in themselves-rather, that he emphasized clear depletion of a story, a unique achievement and one that made the traditional Florentine qualities less central.Because of Home’s emphasis crucial to any study of art, the twentieth century has come to appreciateBotticelli’s achievements. |
| 第4题：Hurricanes are violent storms that cause millions of dollars in property damage and take many lives. They can be extremely dangerous, and too often people underestimate their fury. Hurricanes normally originate as a small area of thunderstorms over theAtlantic Ocean west of theCape Verde Islands duringAugust or September. For several days the area of the storm increases and the air pressure falls slowly.A、center of low pressure forms, and winds begin to whirl around it. It is blown westward, increasing in size and strength. Hurricane hunters then fly out to the storm in order to determine its size and intensity and to track its direction. They drop instruments for recording temperature, air pressure, and humidity (湿度), into the storm. They also look at the size of waves on the ocean, the clouds, and the eye of the storm. The eye is a region of relative calm and clear skies in the center of the hurricane. People often lose their lives by leaving shelter when the eye has arrived, only to be caught in tremendous winds again when the eye has passeD、 Once the forecasters have determined that it is likely the hurricane will reach shore, they issue a hurricane watch for a large, general area that may be in the path of the storm. Later, when the probable point of landfall is clearer, they will issue a hurricane warning for a somewhat more limited areA、People in these areas are wise to stock up on nonperishable foods, flash light and radio batteries, candles, and other items they may need if electricity and water are not available after the storm. They should also try to hurricane-proof their houses by bringing in light-weight furniture and other items from outside and covering windows. People living in low- lying areas are wise to evacuate their houses because of the storm surge, which is a large rush of water that may come ashore with the storm. Hurricanes generally lose power slowly while traveling over land, but many move out to sea, gather up force again, and return to lanD、As they move toward the north, they generally lose their identity as hurricanes. The eye of the hurricane is ______. A、the powerful center of the stormB、the part that determines its direction C、the relatively calm center of the storm D、the center of low pressure |
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| 第5题：Is Wal-Mart going wobbly Over the past couple of weeks,America’s largest company--linchpin of the low-wage, no-benefit economy that is increasingly the norm inAmerica--has announced some surprising reversals of course. In a series of speeches and interviews, chief executive H. Lee Scott unveiled four initiatives that he clearly hopes will polish the company’s increasingly tarnished image. Wal-Mart, he said, will shift to more environmentally responsible practices--demanding better packaging of its products. It will offer more affordable health insurance to its employees, cutting the monthly premium in some cases to just ＄11. It will monitor the environmental and health and safety practices of its foreign suppliers.And it will lobby for a higher federal minimum wage. Scott’s timing is anything but accidental. The sweatshop conditions in which thou-sands of employees of Wal-Mart’s suppliers routinely work, and the depressive effect that Wal-Mart has on working-class living standards here in the United States, are receiving increasing scrutiny--enough to impede the company’s growth. Wal-Mart’s at-tempts to open stores in the major cities of the Northeast and WestCoast have been largely checked by a coalition of fearful and irate unions, smaller retailers, churches and liberal activists. Wal-Mart’s stock is down 13 percent this year.And worse is still to come. So the leopard realized it was time to change its spots-up to a point. Only 44 percent of Wal-Mart’s nearly 1. 3 million U.S. employees are covered under its health insurance plan. Now the company says it will make its insurance more affordable. Of all Scott’s commitments, the one that does merit belief is his out-of-the-blue declaration of support for a higher minimum wage. For Wal-Mart is bumping up against a serious problem at least partly of its own making:Because it pitches its products to a disproportionately low-income client, its revenue rises and falls with the fortunes of the lower end of theAmerican working class.And those fortunes these days are anything but bright. The coming crunch in heating oil prices, the decimation ofAmerican manufacturing, the steady decline of median family incomes over the past several years, the failure to raise the federal minimum wage since 1997--all these are combining to limit the ability of Wal-Mart shoppers to buy as much as they used to. Wal-Mart, could, of course, raise its workers’ wages, but Scott has dismissed that out of hanD、So now it’s the feds’ responsibility to rescue Wal-Mart from the consequences of the low-wage, low-consumption economy that Wal-Mart, with such fanatical devotion, has createD、For, in Wal-Mart’sAmerica, it’s not clear that even Wal-Mart can thrive. Which of the following is true of the initiatives that Wal-Mart will take A、It will package its products with more expensive material. B．It will offer another $11 to its employees monthly. C．It will highly increase its lobbyists’ minimum wage. D．It will monitor its foreign suppliers’ procedure in production. |
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