考研考研英语易错题（2015-10-22）

考研习题练习

考研考研英语易错题（2015-10-22）

第1题：Text 1

St. Paul didn’t like it. Moses warned his people against it. Hesiod declared it “ mischievious” and “ hard to get rid of it,” but Oscar Wilder said, “ Gossip is charming.”

“ History is merely gossip,” he wrote in one of his famous plays. “ But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”

In times past, under Jewish law, gossipmongers might be fined or flogged. The Puritans put them in stocks or ducking stools, but no punishment seemed to have the desired effect of preventing gossip, which has continued uninterrupted across the back fences of the centuries.

Today, however, the much-maligned human foible is being looked at in a different light. Psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, even evolutionary biologists are concluding that gossip may not be so bad after all.

Gossip is “ an intrinsically valuable activity,” philosophy professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev states in a book he has edited, entitled Good Gossip. For one thing, gossip helps us acquire information that we need to know that doesn’t come through ordinary channels, such as: “ What was the real reason so-and-so was fired from the office?” Gossip also is a form of social bonding, Dr. Ben-Ze’ev says. It is “ a kind of sharing” that also “ satisfies the tribal need---namely, the need to belong to and be accepted by a unique group.” What’s more, the professor notes, “ Gossip is enjoyable.”

Another gossip groupie, Dr. Ronald De Sousa, a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, describes gossip basically as a form of indiscretion and a “saintly virtue”, by which he means that the knowledge spread by gossip will usually end up being slightly beneficial. “ It seems likely that a world in which all information were universally available would be preferable to a world where immense power resides in the control of secrets,” he writes.

Still, everybody knows that gossip can have its ill effects, especially on the poor wretch being gossiped about. And people should refrain from certain kinds of gossip that might be harmful, even though the ducking stool is long out of fashion.

By the way, there is also an interesting strain of gossip called medical gossip, which in its best form, according to researchers Jerry M. Suls and Franklin Goodkin, can motivate people with symptoms of serious illness, but who are unaware of it, to seek medical help.

So go ahead and gossip. But remember, if ( as often is the case among gossipers) you should suddenly become one of the gossipees instead, it is best to employ the foolproof defense recommended by Plato, who may have learned the lesson from Socrates, who as you know was the victim of gossip spread that he was corrupting the youth of Athens: When men speak ill of thee, so live that nobody will believe them. Or, as Will Rogers said, “ Live so that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.” (500 words )
21. Persons’ remarks are mentioned at the beginning of the text to ____.
[ A ] show the general disapproval of gossip
[ B ] introduce the topic of gossip
[ C ] examine gossip from a historical perspective
[ D ] prove the real value of gossip
22. By “Gossip also is a form of social bonding” (Para. 5), Professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev means gossip ____.
[ A ] is a valuable source of social information
[ B ] produces a joy that most people in society need
[ C ] brings people the feel of being part of a group
[ D ] satisfies people’s need of being unusual
23. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
[ A ] everyone involved will not benefit from gossip
[ B ] philosophers may hold different attitudes toward gossip
[ C ] Dr. Ronald De Sousa regards gossips as perfectly advantageous
[ D ] people are generally not conscious of the value of medical gossip
24. We learn from the last paragraph that ____.
[ A ] gossipers will surely become gossipees someday
[ B ] Socrates was a typical example of a gossiper becoming a gossipee
[ C ] Plato escaped being a victim of gossip by no gossiping
[ D ] an easy way to confront gossip when subjected to it is to live as usual
25. The author’s attitude toward “ gossip” can be best described as ____.
[ A ] neutral [ B ] positive
[ C ] negative [ D ] indifferent

【分析题】：

第2题：Survey results indicate that smoking and alcohol and marijuana use increased among residents of Manhattan during the 5～8 weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center which took place on September 11, 2001. Almost onethird of the nearly 1,000 persons interviewed reported an increased use of alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes following the September 11th attacks. The largest increase was in alcohol use. About onefourth of the respondents said they were drinking more alcohol in the weeks after September 11; about 10% reported an increase in smoking, and 3.2% said they had increased their use of marijuana.
The investigators found survey participants by randomly dialing New York City phone numbers and screened potential respondents for Manhattan residents living in areas close to the World Trade Center. Interviews were conducted with 988 individuals between October 16 and November 15, 2001. Participants were asked about their cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and marijuana use habits before and after September 11. During the week prior to September 11, 2001, 22.6% of the participants reported smoking cigarettes, 59.1% drinking alcohol, and 4.4% using marijuana. After September 11th, 23.4% reported smoking cigarettes, 64.4% drinking alcohol, and 5.7% smoking marijuana. Among those who smoked, almost 10% reported smoking at least an extra pack of cigarettes a week and among those who drank alcohol, more than 20% reported imbibing at least one extra drink a day.
The researchers found that people who reported an increase in substance abuse were more likely to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and from depression. People who reported an increase in cigarette smoking or marijuana use were also more likely to have both PTSD and depression, while those who reported an increase in alcohol use were more likely to have depression only. Persons who were living closer to the World Trade Center were more likely to increase their cigarette smoking, but other factors such as being displaced from home, losing possessions during the attacks, or being involved in the rescue efforts were not consistently associated with increased substance use. Symptoms of panic attack were associated with an increase in the use of all substances.
Increase in substance abuse did not differ significantly between men and women or among racial or ethnic groups. Demographic factors such as age, marital status, and income seemed to play a more critical role in determining if the events of September 11th led to an increase in substance use.
26. The survey results suggest that the largest increase in substance use was .
A alcoholB marijuanaC cigarettesD cocaine
27. The survey participants were .
A randomly selected United States citizens
B randomly selected New York City citizens
C randomly selected Manhattan residents who live close to the World Trade Center
D randomly selected American citizens who witnessed the terrorist attack
28. The author is trying to show that .
A use of substances may vary from time to time
B abuse of certain substances is harmful for health
C the attack of september 11th has left incurable harm to peoples mental health
D terrorist attack increase anxiety and sense of insecurity among residents
29. What can be said about substance abuse after September 11?
A People who reported an increase in alcohol use were more likely to have PTSD.
B People who were living closer to World Trade Center were most likely to increase cigarette smoking.
C Displacement from home and involvement in rescue efforts were consistently associated with increased substance use.
D Symptoms of panic attach were unrelated with increased use of substances.
30. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A Demographic information such as gender, race and marital status was not collected.
B Gender and race do not have much effect on the amount of substance abuse.
C Age and marital status do not make any difference on substance abuse.
D Income is a better predictor of substance abuse than age.

【分析题】：

第3题：Text 4

Perhaps only a small boy training to be a wizard at the Hogwarts school of magic could cast a spell so powerful as to create the biggest book launch ever. Wherever in the world the clock strikes midnight on June 20th, his followers will flock to get their paws on one of more than 10m copies of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Bookshops will open in the middle of the night and delivery firms are drafting in extra staff and bigger trucks. Related toys, games, DVDs and other merchandise will be everywhere. There will be no escaping Pottermania.

Yet Mr Potter's world is a curious one, in which things are often not what they appear. While an excitable media (hereby including The Economist, happy to support such a fine example of globalisation) is helping to hype the launch of J.K. Rowling's fifth novel, about the most adventurous thing that the publishers (Scholastic in America and Britain's Bloomsbury in English elsewhere) have organised is a reading by Ms Rowling in London's Royal Albert Hall, to be broadcast as a live webcast.

Hollywood, which owns everything else to do with Harry Potter, says it is doing even less. Incredible as it may seem, the guardians of the brand say that, to protect the Potter franchise, they are trying to maintain a low profile. Well, relatively low.

Ms Rowling signed a contract in 1998 with Warner Brothers, part of AOL Time Warner, giving the studio exclusive film, licensing and merchandising rights in return for what now appears to have been a steal: some $500,000. Warner licenses other firms to produce goods using Harry Potter characters or images, from which Ms Rowling gets a big enough cut that she is now wealthier than the queen—if you believe Britain's Sunday Times rich list. The process is self-generating: each book sets the stage for a film, which boosts book sales, which lifts sales of Potter products.

Globally, the first four Harry Potter books have sold some 200m copies in 55 languages; the two movies have grossed over $1.8 billion at the box office.

This is a stunning success by any measure, especially as Ms Rowling has long demanded that Harry Potter should not be over-commercialised. In line with her wishes, Warner says it is being extraordinarily careful, at least by Hollywood standards, about what it licenses and to whom. It imposed tough conditions on Coca-Cola, insisting that no Harry Potter images should appear on cans, and is now in the process of making its licensing programme even more restrictive. Coke may soon be considered too mass market to carry the brand at all.

The deal with Warner ties much of the merchandising to the films alone. There are no officially sanctioned products relating to “Order of the Phoenix”; nor yet for “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, the film of the third book, which is due out in June 2004. Warner agrees that Ms Rowling's creation is a different sort of commercial property, one with long-term potential that could be damaged by a typical Hollywood marketing blitz, says Diane Nelson, the studio's global brand manager for Harry Potter. It is vital, she adds, that with more to come, readers of the books are not alienated. “The evidence from our market research is that enthusiasm for the property by fans is not waning.”

36. When the author says “there will be no escaping Pottermania”, he implies that ____.
[A] Harry Potter’s appeal for the readers is simply irresistible
[B] it is somewhat irrational to be so crazy about the magic boy
[C] craze about Harry Potter will not be over in the near future
[D] Hogwarts school of magic will be the biggest attraction world over
37. Ms Rowling’s reading in London's Royal Albert Hall is mentioned to show ____.
[A] publishers are really adventurous in managing the Potter’s business
[B] businesses involved with Potter are moving along in an unusual way
[C] the media are promoting Pottermania more actively than Hollywood
[D] businesses are actually more credible than media in Potter’s world
38. The author believes that ____.
[A] Britain's Sunday Times rich list is not very convincing as it sounds
[B] Time Warner’s management of licenses is a bit over-commercialised
[C] other firms may produce goods using Harry Potter images at will
[D] what Ms Rowling got in return for her offering to Warner is a real bargain
39. Paragraph 5 intends mainly to show Warner’s ____.
[A] determination to promote Potter
[B] consistence in conducting business
[C] high regard for Ms Rowling’s request
[D] careful restrictions on licensing to Coco-Cola
40. It can be concluded from the last paragraph that ____.
[A] products of Potter films have brought enormous profits to Warner
[B] current Hollywood’s marketing of Potter may damage its potential
[C] readers could get tired of Ms Rowling’s writings sooner or later
[D] Warner will maintain the same strategy with Potter in future

【分析题】：

第4题：
For all his vaunted talents, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has never had much of a reputation as an economic forecaster. In fact, he shies away from making the precise-to-the-decimal-point predictions that many other economists thrive on. Instead, he owes his success as a monetary policymaker to his ability to sniff out threats to the economy and manipulate interest rates to dampen the dangers he perceives.

Now, those instincts are being put to the test. Many Fed watchers—and some policymakers inside the central bank itself—are beginning to wonder whether Greenspan has lost his touch. Despite rising risks to the economy from a swooning stock market and soaring oil prices that could hamper growth, the Greenspan-led Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) opted to leave interest rates unchanged on Sept.24. But in a rare dissent, two of the Fed’s 12 policymakers broke ranks and voted for a cut in rates—Dallas Fed President Robert D. McTeer Jr. and central bank Governor Edward M.Gramlich.

The move by McTeer, the Fed’s self-styled “Lonesome Dove”, was no surprise. But Gramlich’s was. This was the first time that the monetary moderate had voted against the chairman since joining the Fed’s board in 1997. And it was the first public dissent by a governor since 1995.

Despite the split vote, it’s too soon to count the maestro of monetary policy out. Greenspan had good reasons for not cutting interest rates now. And by acknowledging in the statement issued after the meeting that the economy does indeed face risks, Greenspan left the door wide open to a rate reduction in the future. Indeed, former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley thinks chances are good that the central bank might even cut rates before its next scheduled meeting on Nov.6, the day after congressional elections.

So why didn’t the traditionally risk-averse Greenspan cut rates now as insurance against the dangers dogging growth? For one thing, he still thinks the economy is in recovery mode. Consumer demand remains buoyant and has even been turbocharged recently by a new wave of mortgage refinancing. Economists reckon that homeowners will extract some $100 billion in cash from their houses in the second half of this year. And despite all the corporate gloom, business spending has shown signs of picking up, though not anywhere near as strongly as the Fed would like.

Does that mean that further rate cuts are off the table? Hardly. Watch for Greenspan to try to time any rate reductions to when they’ll have the most psychological pop on business and investor confidence. That’s surely no easy feat, but it’s one that Greenspan has shown himself capable of more than once in the past. Don’t be surprised if he surprises everyone again.
21. Alan Greenspan owes his reputation much to .
A. his successful predictions of economy
B. his timely handling of interest rates
C. his unusual economic policies
D. his unique sense of dangers

22. It can be inferred from the passage that .
A. instincts most often misguide the monetary policies
B. Greenspan has lost his control of the central bank
C. consensus is often the case among Fed’s policymakers
D. Greenspan wouldnt tolerate such a dissent

23. Gramley’s remarks are mentioned to indicate that .
A. Greenspan didnt rule out the possibility of a future rate reduction
B. Greenspan’s monetary policy may turn out to be a failure
C. Greenspan’s refusal to cut rates now was justified
D. Greenspan will definitely cut the rates before Nov.6

24. From the fifth paragraph, we can learn that .
A. economy is now well on its way to recovery
B. economists are uncertain about consumer demand
C. corporate performance is generally not encouraging
D. businesses have been investing the way the Fed hoped

25. The author seems to regard Greenspan’s manipulation of interest rates with .
A. disapproval B. doubt C. approval D. admiration

【分析题】：

第10题：Aremote Patagonian town that’s just beginning to prosper by guiding tourists through the virgin forests nearby is being shaken by the realization that it’s sitting on a gold mine. Literally. 41)___________________________________________________________________
Esquel’s plight is winning attention from international conservation and environmental groups such as Greenpeace. 42)__________________________
About 3.2 million acres already are under contract for mineral exploration in poor and sparsely settled Chubut Province, where Esquel is, near the southern tip of South America. 43)______________________________________
Meridian’s project, about 5 miles outside Esquel at a higher elevation, is about 20 miles from a national park that preserves rate trees known as alerces, a southern relative of California’s giant sequoia. Some of them have been growing serenely in the temperate rain forest for more than 3,000 years.
The greatest fear is that cyanide, which is used to leach gold from ore, will drain downhill and poison Esquel’s and possibly the park’s water supplies. The mine will use 180 tons of the deadly chemical each month. Although many townspeople and some geologists disagree, the company says any excess cyanide would drain away from Esquel.
“We won’t allow them to tear things up and leave us with the toxic aftermath,” said Felix Aguilar, 28, as he piloted a boatload of tourists through a lake in the Alerces National Park.“We take care of things here, so that the entire world can hear and see nature in its pure state. The world must help us prevent this.”
44)__________________________________________________________________________
A young English botanist named Charles Darwin, the author of the theory of evolution, was the first European to see alerces, with trunks that had a circumference of 130 feet. He gave the tree its generic name, Fitzroya cupressoides, for the captain of his ship, Robert Fitzroy.
Argentina, pressed by the United States, Canada, the World Bank and other global lenders, rewrote its mining laws in the 1990s to encourage foreign investment.45)________________________________________
Argentina took in more than＄1 billion over the past decade by granting exploration contracts for precious metals to more than 70 foreign and domestic companies. If the country were to turn away a major investor, the message to its mining sector would be chilling.
［A］Whether Meridian Gold Corp. gets its openpit gold mine outside Esquel could determine the fate of mining in Patagonia, a pristine region spanning southern Argentina and Chile.
［B］Forest ecologist Paul Alaback, a University of Montana professor who studies the alerces, said Argentine authorities could gain from Alaska’s successful naturebased tourism.
［C］More than 3,000 worried Esquel residents recently took to the streets in protests aimed at assuring that their neat community of 28,000 becomes a ecotourism center, not a goldrush town.
［D］American Douglas Tomkins, the founder of the Esprit clothing line and a prominent global conservationist, has bought more than 800,000 wilderness acres in Chile to preserve alerces and protect what’s left of the temperate rain forest. Ted Turner, the communications magnate, also has bought land in Argentine Patagonia with an eye to conservation.
［E］Residents also complain that Argentina hasn’t given naturebased tourism a chance.
［F］Mining companies received incentives such as 30 years without new taxes and dutyfree imports of earthmoving equipment.
［G］In Argentina, the town has become a national symbol in the debate over exploitation vs. preservation of the country’s vast natural resources.

【分析题】：

第11题：Most worthwhile careers require some kind of specialized training. Ideally, therefore, the choice of an 1 should be made even before the choice of a curriculum in high school. Actually, 2 , most people make several job choices during their working lives, 3 because of economic and industrial changes and partly to improve 4 position. The “one perfect job” does not exist. Young people should 5 enter into a broad flexible training program that will 6 them for a field of work rather than for a single 7 .

Unfortunately many young people have to make career plans 8 benefit of help from a competent vocational counselor or psychologist. Knowing 9 about the occupational world, or themselves for that matter, they choose their lifework on a hit-or-miss 10 . Some drift from job to job. Others 11 to work in which they are unhappy and for which they are not fitted.
One common mistake is choosing an occupation for 12 real or imagined prestige. Too many high-school students—or their parents for them—choose the professional field, 13 both the relatively small proportion of workers in the professions and the extremely high educational and personal 14 . The imagined or real prestige of a profession or a “whitecollar” job is 15 good reason for choosing it as life’s work. 16 , these occupations are not always well paid. Since a large proportion of jobs are in mechanical and manual work, the 17 of young people should give serious 18 to these fields.
Before making an occupational choice, a person should have a general idea of what he wants 19 life and how hard he is willing to work to get it. Some people desire social prestige, others intellectual satisfaction. Some want security, others are willing to take 20 for financial gain. Each occupational choice has its demands as well as its rewards.

1. A. identification B. entertainment C. accommodation D. occupation

2. A. however B. therefore C. though D. thereby

3. A. entirely B. mainly C. partly D. his

4. A. its B. his C. our D. their

5. A. since B. therefore C. furthermore D. forever

6. A. make B. fit C. take D. leave

7. A. job B. way C. means D. company

8. A. to B. for C. without D. with

9. A. little B. few C. much D. a lot

10. A. chance B. basis C. purpose D. opportunity

11. A. apply B. appeal C. stick D. turn

12. A. our B. its C. your D. their

13. A. concerning B. following C. considering D. disregarding

14. A. preference B. requirements C. tendencies D. ambitions

15. A. a B. any C. no D. the

16. A. Therefore B. However C. Nevertheless D. Moreover

17. A. majority B. mass C. minority D. multitude

18. A. proposal B. suggestion C. consideration D. appraisal

19. A. towards B. against C. out of D. without

20. A. turns B. parts C. choices D. risks
Section ⅡReading Comprehension

【分析题】：

第17题：Text 2

SoBig.F was the more visible of the two recent waves of infection because it propagated itself by e-mail, meaning that victims noticed what was going on. SoBig.F was so effective that it caused substantial disruption even to those protected by anti-virus software. That was because so many copies of the virus spread (some 500,000 computers were infected) that many machines were overwhelmed by messages from their own anti-virus software. On top of that, one common counter-measure backfired, increasing traffic still further. Anti-virus software often bounces a warning back to the sender of an infected e-mail, saying that the e-mail in question cannot be delivered because it contains a virus. SoBig.F was able to spoof this system by “harvesting” e-mail addresses from the hard disks of infected computers. Some of these addresses were then sent infected e-mails that had been doctored to look as though they had come from other harvested addresses. The latter were thus sent warnings, even though their machines may not have been infected.

Kevin Haley of Symantec, a firm that makes anti-virus software, thinks that one reason SoBig.F was so much more effective than other viruses that work this way is because it was better at searching hard-drives for addresses. Brian King, of CERT, an internet-security centre at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, notes that, unlike its precursors, SoBig.F was capable of “multi-threading”: it could send multiple e-mails simultaneously, allowing it to dispatch thousands in minutes.

Blaster worked by creating a “buffer overrun in the remote procedure call”. In English, that means it attacked a piece of software used by Microsoft's Windows operating system to allow one computer to control another. It did so by causing that software to use too much memory.
Most worms work by exploiting weaknesses in an operating system, but whoever wrote Blaster had a particularly refined sense of humour, since the website under attack was the one from which users could obtain a program to fix the very weakness in Windows that the worm itself was exploiting.

One way to deal with a wicked worm like Blaster is to design a fairy godmother worm that goes around repairing vulnerable machines automatically. In the case of Blaster someone seems to have tried exactly that with a program called Welchi. However, according to Mr Haley, Welchi has caused almost as many problems as Blaster itself, by overwhelming networks with “pings”—signals that checked for the presence of other computers.

Though both of these programs fell short of the apparent objectives of their authors, they still caused damage. For instance, they forced the shutdown of a number of computer networks, including the one used by the New York Times newsroom, and the one organising trains operated by CSX, a freight company on America's east coast.

Computer scientists expect that it is only a matter of time before a truly devastating virus is unleashed.

26. SoBig.F damaged computer programs mainly by ____.
[A] sending them an overpowering number of messages
[B] harvesting the addresses stored in the computers
[C] infecting the computers with an invisible virus
[D] destroying the anti-virus software of the computers
27. Which of the following best defines the word “ doctored” (line , para. 1) ?
[A] falsified [B] cured
[C] deceived [D] diagnosed
28. Compared with SoBig.F, Blaster was a virus that was _____.
[A] more destructive
[B] more humorous
[C] less vulnerable
[D] less noticeable
29. From the text we learn that Welchi ____.
[A] is a wicked worm causing as many damages as Blaster did
[B] is a program designed by Haley to detect worms like Blaster
[C] is a program intended to fix the infected machines
[D] is a worm meant to defeat the virus with “ pings”
30. The tone of the text can best described as _____.
[A] optimistic and humorous
[B] analytical but concerned
[C] passionate but pessimistic
[D] scholarly and cautious

【分析题】：

第18题：From Southeast Asia to the Black Sea, fishing nets have become deathtraps for thousands of whales, dolphins and porpoises—species whose survival will be threatened unless fishing methods change.
The World Wildlife Fund, a U.S. based environmental group, lists species threatened by accidental catch, and recommends low cost steps to reduce their entanglement in fishing gear. (41) . Dolphins in the Philippines, India and Thailand are urgent priorities.
Threatened populations include Irrawaddy dolphins in Malampyaya Sound off the Philippines’ Palawan island, about 220 miles south of Manila. Only 77 remain. Dolphins also face the threat of traders who sell them to aquariums, especially in Asia.
(42) .
The WWF report said up to 3,000 Spinner dolphins may be caught each year in gillnets, which stretch from the sea floor to the surface and are hard for dolphins to see or detect with their sonar.
(43).
Dolphins are also under threat in Indonesia, Myanmar, India’s Chilka Lake and Thailand’s Songkhla Lake.
Fishing gear kills thousands of porpoises each year in the Black Sea. Atlantic humpback dolphins face the same fate off the coasts of Ghana and Togo in Africa, as do Franciscana dolphins in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Indo Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins often die in nets off the south coast of Zanzibar.
(44) .U.S. fisheries in 1993 2003 introduced changes that reduced by a third the number of dolphins accidentally killed by fishing, or bycatch. But few other countries have followed that example and in much of the rest of the world, progress on bycatch mitigation has been slow to nonexistent.
(45). Slight modifications in fishing gear can mean the difference between life and death for dolphins.

【分析题】：

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