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2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
The ethical
judgments of the Supreme Court justices have
become an important issue recently. The
court cannot _1_ its legitimacy as
guardian of the rule of law _2_ justices behave
like politicians. Yet, in
several
instances, justices acted in ways that _3_
the court’s reputation for being
independent and
impartial.
Justice Antonin Scalia, for example,
appeared at political events. That kind of
activity makes it less
likely that the
court’s decisions will be
_4_ as
impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that
the justices
are not _5_by an ethics
code. At the very least, the court should make
itself _6_to the code of conduct that
_7_to the rest of the federal
judiciary.
This and other
similar cases _8_the question of whether there is
still a _9_between the court and
politics.
The
framers of the Constitution envisioned law
_10_having authority apart from politics. They
gave
justices permanent positions
_11_they would be free to _12_ those in power and
have no need to _13_
political support.
Our legal system was designed to set law apart
from politics precisely because they are
so closely _14_.
Constitutional law is political because
it results from choices rooted in fundamental
social _15_ like
liberty and property.
When the court deals with social policy decisions,
the law it _16_ is inescapably
political-which is why decisions split
along ideological lines are so easily _17_ as
unjust.
The justices must
_18_
doubts about the court’s
legitimacy by making themselves
_19_ to
the code of
conduct. That would make
rulings more likely to be seen as separate from
politics and, _20_, convincing
as
law.
1.
[A]emphasize
[B]maintain
[C]modify
[D]
recognize
2. [A]when
[B]lest
[C]before
[D]
unless
3. [A]restored
[B]weakened
[C]established
[D]
eliminated
4. [A]challenged
[B]compromised
[C]suspected
[D]
accepted
5.
[A]advanced
[B]caught
[C]bound
[D]founded
6. [A]resistant
[B]subject
[C]immune
[D]prone
7.
[A]resorts
[B]sticks
[C]loads
[D]applies
8.
[A]evade
[B]raise
[C]deny
[D]settle
9.
[A]line
[B]barrier
[C]similarity
[D]conflict
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2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
10.
[A]by
[B]as
[C]though
[D]towards
11.
[A]so
[B]since
[C]provided
[D]though
12.
[A]serve
[B]satisfy
[C]upset
[D]replace
13.
[A]confirm
[B]express
[C]cultivate
[D]offer
14.
[A]guarded
[B]followed
[C]studied
[D]tied
15.
[A]concepts
[B]theories
[C]divisions
[D]conceptions
16.
[A]excludes
[B]questions
[C]shapes
[D]controls
17.
[A]dismissed
[B]released
[C]ranked
[D]distorted
18.
[A]suppress
[B]exploit
[C]address
[D]ignore
19. [A]accessible
[B]amiable
[C]agreeable
[D]accountable
20. [A]by all
mesns
[B]atall costs
[C]in a word
[D]as
a result
Come on
–Everybody’s doing it. That whispered
message, half invitation and hal
f
forcing, is what most of us think
of
when we hear the
words peer
pressure.
It usually leads to no good-
drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new
book
Join the Club
, Tina
Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be
a positive force through what she calls the social
cure, in which organizations and
officials use the power of group dynamics to help
individuals improve their lives and
possibly the word.
Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer
Prize, offers a host of example of the social cure
in action: In South Carolina, a
state-
sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against
the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In
South Africa,
an HIV-prevention
initiative known as LoveLife recruits young people
to promote safe sex among their peers.
The idea seems
promising
，
and Rosenberg is a
perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness
of
many pubic-health campaigns is spot-
on: they fail to mobilize peer pressure for
healthy habits, and they
demonstrate a
seriously flawed understanding of
psychology
.” Dare to be different,
please don’t smoke!”
pleads one
billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among
teenagers-teenagers, who desire
nothing
more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues
convincingly that public-health advocates ought to
take a
page from advertisers, so
skilled at applying peer pressure.
But on the general effectiveness of the
social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive.
Join the Club
is filled
with too much irrelevant detail and not
enough exploration of the social and biological
factors that make
peer pressure so
powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure
as it’s presented here is that it doesn’t
work very well for very long. Rage
Against the Haze failed once state funding was
cut. Evidence that the
LoveLife program
produces lasting changes is limited and
mixed.
There’s no doubt that
our peer groups exert enormous influence on our
behavior. An emerging body of research
shows that positive health habits-as
well as negative ones-spread through networks of
friends via social communication.
This
is a subtle form of peer pressure: we
unconsciously imitate the behavior we see every
day.
Far less certain, however, is how
successfully experts and bureaucrats can select
our peer groups and steer their
activities in virtuous directions. It’s
lik
e the teacher who breaks up the
troublemakers in the back row by pairing them
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2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
with
better-
behaved classmates. The tactic
never really works. And that’s the problem with a
social cure engineered
from the
outside: in the real world, as in school, we
insist on choosing our own friends.
21.
According to the first paragraph, peer pressure
often emerges as
[A] a
supplement to the social cure
[B] a stimulus to group
dynamics
[C] an obstacle to
school progress
[D] a cause
of undesirable behaviors
22. Rosenberg holds that public
advocates should
[A] recruit
professional advertisers
[B]
learn from advertisers’ experience
[C] stay away from commercial
advertisers
[D] recognize
the limitations of advertisements
23. In the author’s view,
Rosenberg’s book fails to
[A] adequately probe social and
biological factors
[B]
effectively evade the flaws of the social cure
[C] illustrate the
functions of state funding
[D]produce a long-lasting social
effect
24.
Paragraph 5shows that our imitation of
behaviors
[A] is harmful to
our networks of friends
[B]
will mislead behavioral studies
[C] occurs without our realizing it
[D] can produce negative
health habits
25. The author suggests in the last
paragraph that the effect of peer pressure is
[A] harmful[B] desirable[C]
profound[D] questionable
A
deal
is
a
deal-except,
apparently
,when
Entergy
is
involved.
The
company,
a
major
energy
supplier
in
New
England,
provoked
justified
outrage
in
Vermont
last
week
when
it
announced
it
was
reneging
on
a
longstanding
commitment to abide by the strict
nuclear regulations.
Instead, the
company has done precisely what it had long
promised it would not challenge the
constitutionality of
Vermont’s
rules
in
the
federal
court,
as
part
of
a
desperate
effort
to
keep
its
Vermont
Yankee
nuclear
power
plant
running. It’s a
stunning move.
The conflict
has been surfacing since 2002, when the
corporation bought Vermont’s only nuclear power
plant, an
aging reactor in Vernon. As a
condition of receiving state approval for the
sale, the company agreed to seek permission
from state regulators to operate past
2012. In 2006, the state went a step further,
requiring that any extension of the
plant’s license be subject to Vermont
legislature’s approval. Then, too, the company
went along.
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2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
Either Entergy never
really intended to live by those
commitments, or it simply didn’t foresee what
would happen
next. A string of
accidents, including the partial collapse of a
cooling tower in 207 and the discovery of an
underground
pipe
system
leakage,
raised
serious
quest
ions
about
both
Vermont
Yankee’s
safety
and
Entergy’s
management–
especially after the company made
misleading statements about the pipe. Enraged by
Entergy’s behavior, the Vermont
Senate
voted 26 to 4 last year against allowing an
extension.
Now the company is suddenly
claiming that the 2002 agreement is invalid
because of the 2006 legislation, and that
only the federal government has
regulatory power over nuclear issues. The legal
issues in the case are obscure: whereas
the Supreme Court has ruled that states
do have some regulatory authority over nuclear
power, legal scholars say that
Vermont
case
will
offer
a
precedent-setting
test
of
how
far
those
powers
extend.
Certainly,
there
are
valid
concerns
about the patchwork
regulations that could result if every state sets
its own rules. But had Entergy kept its word, that
debate would be beside the point.
The company seems to have concluded
that its reputation in Vermont is already so
damaged that it
has noting left to lose
by going to war with the state. But there should
be consequences. Permission to
run a
nuclear plant is a poblic trust. Entergy runs 11
other reactors in the United States, including
Pilgrim
Nuclear station in Plymouth.
Pledging to run Pilgrim safely, the company has
applied for federal
permission to keep
it open for another 20 years. But as the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC)
reviews the
company’s application, it should keep it mind what
promises from Entergy are worth.
26. The phrase “reneging
on”(Line .1) is closest in meaning t
o
[A] condemning.[B]
reaffirming.[C] dishonoring.[D]
securing.
27. By
entering into the 2002 agreement, Entergy intended
to
[A] obtain protection
from Vermont regulators.
[B]
seek favor from the federal
legislature.
[C] acquire an
extension of its business license .
[D] get permission to purchase a power
plant.
28.
According to Paragraph 4, Entergy seems to have
problems with its
[A]
managerial practices.
[B] technical
innovativeness.
[C]
financial goals.
[D] business
vision
29. In
the auth
or’s view, the Vermont case
will test
[A] Entergy’s
capacity to fulfill all its promises.
[B] the mature of states’ patchwork
regulations.
[C] the federal
authority over nuclear issues .
[D] the limits of states’ power over
nuclear issues.
30. It can be inferred from the last
paragraph that
[A] Entergy’s
business elsewhere might be affected.
[B] the authority of the NRC will be
defied.
4
2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
[C] Entergy will withdraw its Plymouth
application.
[D] Vermont’s
reputation might be damaged.
In the
idealized version of how science is done, facts
about the world are waiting to be observed and
collected by
objective researchers who
use the scientific method to carry out their work.
But in the everyday practice of science,
discovery frequently follows an
ambiguous and complicated route. We aim to be
objective, but we cannot escape the
context of our unique life experience.
Prior knowledge and interest influence what we
experience, what we think our
experiences mean, and the subsequent
actions we take. Opportunities for
misinterpretation, error, and self-deception
abound.
Consequently,
discovery claims should be thought of as
protoscience. Similar to newly staked mining
claims, they
are
full
of
potential.
But
it
takes
collective
scrutiny
and
acceptance
to
transform
a
discovery
claim
into
a
mature
discovery.
This
is
the
credibility
process,
through
which
the
individual
researcher’s
me,
here,
now
becomes
the
community’s
anyone, anywhere, anytime
.
Objective knowledge is the goal, not the starting
point.
Once a discovery claim becomes
public, the discoverer receives intellectual
credit. But, unlike with mining claims,
the
community takes
control
of
what
happens
next. Within the
complex
social
structure
of
the
scientific
community,
researchers make discoveries; editors
and reviewers act as gatekeepers by controlling
the publication process; other
scientists use the new finding to suit
their own purposes; and finally, the public
(including other scientists) receives the
new
discovery
and
possibly
accompanying
technology.
As
a
discovery
claim
works
it
through
the
community,
the
interaction
and
confrontation
between
shared
and
competing
beliefs
about
the
science
and
the
technology
involved
transforms an individual’s discovery
claim into the community’s credible discovery.
Two paradoxes exist
throughout this credibility process. First,
scientific work tends to focus on
some
aspect of prevailing Knowledge that is viewed as
incomplete or incorrect. Little reward
accompanies duplication and
confirmation of what is already known and
believed. The goal is
new-
search
,
not re-search.
Not surprisingly, newly published
discovery claims and credible discoveries that
appear to
be important and convincing
will always be open to challenge and potential
modification or refutation by
future
researchers. Second, novelty itself frequently
provokes disbelief. Nobel Laureate and
physiologist
Albert
Azent-
Gyorgyi once described discovery
as “seeing what everybody has seen and thinking
what
nobody has thought.” But thinking
what nobody else has thought
and
telling others what they have
missed
may not change their views. Sometimes years are
required for truly novel discovery claims to be
accepted and appreciated.
In the end, credibility “happens” to a
discovery claim –
a process that
corresponds to what philosopher Annette
Baier
has
described
as
the
commons
of
the
mind
.
“We
reason
together,
challenge,
revise,
and
complete
each
other’s
reasoning and each
other’s conceptions of reason.”
31. According to the first
paragraph, the process of discovery is
characterized by its
[A]
uncertainty and complexity.
[B] misconception and
deceptiveness.
[C]
logicality and objectivity.
[D]
systematicness and regularity.
32. It can be inferred
from Paragraph 2 that credibility process
requires
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2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
[A] strict inspection.
[B]shared
efforts.
[C] individual
wisdom.
[D]persistent
innovation.
aph
3 shows that a discovery claim becomes credible
after it
[A] has attracted
the attention of the general public.
[B]has been examined by the scientific
community.
[C] has received
recognition from editors and reviewers.
[D]has been frequently quoted by peer
scientists.
34.
Albert Szent-Gy?
rgyi would most likely
agree that
[A] scientific
claims will survive challenges.
[B]discoveries today inspire future
research.
[C] efforts to
make discoveries are justified.
[D]scientific work calls for a critical
mind.
of the
following would be the best title of the
test?
[A] Novelty as an
Engine of Scientific Development.
[B]Collective Scrutiny in Scientific
Discovery.
[C] Evolution of
Credibility in Doing Science.
[D]Challenge to Credibility at the Gate
to Science.
If
the trade unionist Jimmy Hoffa were alive today,
he would probably represent civil servant. When
Hoffa’s Teamsters were in their prime
in 1960, only
one in ten American
government workers belonged
to a union;
now 36% do. In 2009 the number of unionists in
America’s public sector passed that of their
fellow members in the private sector.
In Britain, more than half of public-sector
workers but only about
15% of private-
sector ones are unionized.
There are three reasons for the
public-
sector unions’ thriving. First,
they can shut things down
without
suffering much in the way of consequences. Second,
they are mostly bright and well-educated. A
quarter of A
merica’s
public
-sector workers have a university
degree. Third, they now dominate
left-
of-
centre politics. Some of their ties
go back a long way. Britain’s Labor Party, as its
name implies, has
long been associated
with trade unionism. Its current leader, Ed
Miliband, owes his position to votes
from public-sector unions.
At the state level their influence can
be even more fearsome. Mark Baldassare of the
Public Policy
Institute of California
points out that much of the state’s budget is
patrolled by unions. The teachers’
unions keep an eye on schools, the
CCPOA on prisons and a variety of labor groups on
health care.
In many rich
countries average wages in the state sector are
higher than in the private one. But the
real gains come in benefits and work
prac
tices. Politicians have repeatedly
“backloaded” public
-sector
pay deals, keeping the pay increases
modest but adding to holidays and especially
pensions that are
already
generous.
Reform has been
vigorously opposed, perhaps most egregiously in
education, where charter schools,
academies and merit pay all faced
drawn-out battles. Even though there is plenty of
evidence that the
quality of the
teachers is the most important variable, teachers’
unions have fought against getting rid of
bad ones and promoting good
ones.
6
< br>2012
年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（一）
As the cost to everyone else has become
clearer, politicians have begun to clamp down. In
Wisconsin
the unions have rallied
thousands of supporters against Scott Walker, the
hardline Republican governor.
But many
within the public sector suffer under the current
system, too.
John Donahue
at Harvard’s Kennedy School points out that the
norms of culture in Western civil
services suit those who want to stay
put but is bad for high achievers. The only
American public-sector
workers who earn
well above $$250,000 a year are university sports
coaches and the president of the
United
States. Bankers’ fat pay packets have attracted
much criticism, but a public
-sector
system that
does not reward high
achievers may be a much bigger problem for
America.
36.
It can be learned from the first paragraph
that
[A] Teamsters still
have a large body of members.
[B] Jimmy Hoffa used to work as a civil
servant.
[C] unions have
enlarged their public-sector
membership.
[D]the
government has improved its relationship with
unionists.
37.
Which of the following is true of Paragraph
2?
[A] Public-sector unions
are prudent in taking actions.
[B] Education is required for public-
sector union membership.
[C]
Labor Party has long been fighting against public-
sector unions.
[D]Public-
sector unions seldom get in trouble for their
actions.
38. It
can be learned from Paragraph 4 that the income in
the state sector is
[A]
illegally secured.
[B] indirectly
augmented.
[C] excessively
increased.
[D]fairly adjusted.
39. The example of the
unions in Wisconsin shows that unions
[A]often run against the current
political system.
[B]can
change people’s political attitudes.
[C]may be a barrier to public-sector
reforms.
[D]are dominant in
the government.
40. John Donahue’s a
ttitude
towards the public-sector system is one
of
[A]disapproval.[B]appreci
ation.[C]tolerance.[D]indifference.
Think of
those fleeting moments when you look out of an
aeroplane window and realise that you are flying,
higher
than a bird. Now think of your
laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or
your cellphone in the palm of your hand.
Take a moment or two to wonder at those
marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream
come true.
The second half of the 20th
century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors,
entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to
create a fabulous machine that could
function as a typewriter and printing press,
studio and theatre, paintbrush and
gallery, piano and radio, the mail as
well as the mail carrier. (41)
The
networked computer is an amazing device, the first
media machine that serves as the mode of
production,
means of distribution, site
of reception, and place of praise and critique.
The computer is the 21st century's culture
machine.
7