中山大学研究生英语期末考试题.doc

Passage 1
One motivational analyst who became curious to know there had been such a great rise in impulse buying at supermarkets was James Vicary. He suspected that some special psychology must be going on inside the women as they shopped in supermarkets. His suspicion was that perhaps they underwent such an increase in tension when confronted with so many possibilities that they were forced into making quick purchases. He set out to find out if this was true. The best way to detect what was going on inside the shopper was through the use of a galvanometer or lie detector. That obviously was impractical. The next best thing was to use a hidden motion-picture camera and record the eye-blink rate of the women as they shopped. How fast a person blinks his eyes is a pretty good index of his state of inner tension. The average person, according to Mr. Vicary, normally blinks his eyes about 32 times a minute. If he is tense, he blinks them more frequently; and, under extreme tension, he may blink up to 50 or 60 times. If he is notably relaxed, on the other hand, his eye-blink rate may drop to a subnormal twenty or less.
Mr. Vicary set up his cameras and started following the ladies as they entered the store. The results were startling, even to him. Their eye-blink rate, instead of going up to indicate mounting tension, went down and down, to a very subnormal fourteen blinks a minute. The ladies fell into what Mr. Vicary calls a hypnoidal trance, a light kind of trance that, he explains, is the first stage of hypnosis. Mr. Vicary has decided that the main cause of the trance is that the supermarket is packed with products which in former years would have been items only kings and queens could have afforded and here in this fairyland they were available to all. Mr. Vicary theorizes: “Just within this generation, anyone can be a king or queen and go through these stores where the products say ‘buy me, buy me’.”

1 Vicary’s curiosity was aroused by the fact that _________.
A. there was a decrease in sales in supermarkets
B. women were showing strong resistance to products in supermarkets
C. there seemed to be no logic in women’s buying habits
D. women were shopping very carefully
2 According to the article, eye-blink rate is an indication of ________.
A. the truth or falsity of a statement
B. the mental ability of a person
C. blood pressure
D. the emotional state of a person
3 Mr. Vicary’s test ________________.
A. proved his original hypothesis to be true
B. proved that the tension of a woman shopper, after entering the store, decreased rather than increased
C. nullified the eye-blink rate as a measurement of tension
D. showed that a woman’s reaction to the products in a supermarket is impossible to determine
4 After his tests, Mr. Vicary concluded that _____________.
A. shopping was apt to create serious nervous disorders
B. a supermarket is a fantastic place
C. women are entranced by the many wonderful items available in supermarkets
D. women develop an inferiority complex when in supermarkets
5 Implied but not stated: _______________.
A. Quick purchases are the result of inner tension
B. The first stage of hypnosis is a light trance
C. Research conducted by motivation analysis can disprove their original premises
D. Supermarkets seeking a fairyland atmosphere should install hidden movie cameras

Passage 2
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related. A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced. A good example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to predict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. If observations confirm the scientists’ predictions, the theory is supported. If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said: “Science is built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house.”
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist’s thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test hypotheses. For without hypotheses, further investigation lacks purpose and direction. When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated into theories.

6 “Bricks” are mentioned in Paragraph 3 to indicate how _________.
A. mathematicians approach science
B. building a house is like performing experiments
C. science is more than a collection of facts
D. scientific experiments have led to improved technology
7 In the fourth paragraph, the author implies that imagination is most important to scientists when they ________.
A. evaluate previous work on a problem
B. formulate possible solutions to a problem
C. gather known facts
D. close an investigation
8 In the last paragraph, the author refers to hypothesis as “a leap into the unknown” in order to show that hypotheses ________________.
A. are sometimes ill-conceived
B. can lead to dangerous results
C. go beyond available facts
D. require effort to formulate
9 In the last paragraph, what does the author imply is a major function of hypotheses?
A. Sifting through known facts.
B. Communicating a scientist’s thoughts to others.
C. Providing direction for scientific research.
D. Linking together different theories.
10 Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?
A. Theories are simply imaginary models of past events.
B. It is better to revise a hypothesis than to reject it.
C. A scientist’s most difficult task is testing hypotheses.
D. A good scientist needs to be creative.

Passage 3
For most of us, the work is the central, dominating fact of life. We spend more than half our conscious hours at work, preparing for work, traveling to and from work. What we do there largely determines our standard of living and to a considerable extent the status we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well. It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner, that because most work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations by concentrating their hopes on the other parts of their lives. I reject that as a counsel of despair. For the foreseeable future the material and psychological rewards which work can provide, and the conditions in which work is done, will continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction that life can offer. Yet only a small minority can control the pace at which they work or the conditions in which their work is done; only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity, imagination, or initiative.
Inequality at work and in work is still one of the cruelest and most glaring forms of inequality in our society. We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise directly or indirectly from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unless we tackle it head-on. Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society.
The most glaring inequality is that between managers and the rest. For most managers, work is an opportunity and a challenge. Their jobs engage their interest and allow them to develop their abilities. They are constantly learning; they are able to exercise responsibility; they have a considerable degree of control over their own and others’ working lives. Most important of all, they have opportunity to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, and for a growing number of white-collar workers, work is a boring, dull, even painful experience. They spend all their working lives in conditions which would be regarded as intolerable --- for themselves --- by those who take the decisions which let such conditions continue. The majority have little control over their work; it provides them with no opportunity for personal development. Often production is so designed that workers are simply part of the technology. In offices, many jobs are so routine that workers justifiably feel themselves to be mere cogs in the bureaucratic machine. As a direct consequence of their work experience, many workers feel alienated from their work and their firm, whether it is in public or in private ownership.

11 In the writer’s opinion, people judge others by_________.
A. the type of work they do
B. the place where they work
C. the time they spend at work
D. the amount of money they earn
12 According to the writer, in the future, work will ________.
A. matter less than it does now
B. be as important as it is now
C. be better paid than it is now
D. offer more satisfaction
13 What does the writer think is needed to solve our industrial problems?
A. A reduction in the number of strikes
B. Equality in salaries
C. A more equal distribution of responsibility
D. An improvement in moral standards
14 What advantages does the writer say managers have over other workers?
A. They cannot lose their jobs.
B. They get time off to attend courses.
C. They can work at whatever interests them.
D. They can make their own decisions.
15 Working conditions generally remain bad because _______________.
A. the workers are quite satisfied with them
B. no one can decide what to do about them
C. managers see no need to change them
D. office workers want to protect their positions

Passage 4
Coincident with concerns about the accelerating loss of species and habitats has been a growing appreciation of the importance of biological diversity, the number of species in a particular ecosystem, to the health of the Earth and human being. Much has been written about the diversity of terrestrial organisms, particularly the exceptionally rich life associated with tropical rain-forest habitats. Relatively little has been said, however, about diversity of life in the sea even though coral reef systems are comparable to rain forests in terms of richness of life.
An alien exploring Earth would probably give priority to the planet’s dominant, most distinctive feature – ocean. Humans have a bias toward land that sometimes gets in the way of truly examining global issues. Seen from far away, it is easy to realize that landmasses occupy one-third of the Earth’s surface. Given that two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is water and that marine life lives at all levels of the ocean, the total three-dimensional living space of the ocean is perhaps 100 times greater than that of land and contains more than 90 percent of all life on Earth even though the ocean has fewer distinct species.
The fact that half of the known species are thought to inhabit the world’s rain forests does not seem surprising, considering the huge numbers of insects that comprise the bulk of the species. One scientist found many different species of ants in just one tree from a rain forest. While every species is different from every other species, their genetic makeup constrains them to be insects and to share similar characteristics with 750,000 species of insects. If basic, broad categories such as phyla and classes are given more emphasis than differentiating between species, then the greatest diversity of life is unquestionably the sea. Nearly every major type of plant and animal has some representation there.
To appreciate fully the diversity and abundance of life in the sea, it helps to think small. Every spoonful of ocean water contains life on the order of 100 to 100,000 bacterial cells plus assorted microscopic plants and animals, including larvas of organisms ranging from sponges and corals to starfish and clams and much more.

16 What is the main point of the passage?
A. Humans are destroying thousands of species.
B. There are thousands of insect species.
C. The sea is even richer in life than the rain forests.
D. Coral reefs are similar to rain forests.
17 Why does the author compare rain forests and coral reefs (Paragraph 1)?
A. They are approximately the same size.
B. They share many similar species.
C. Most of their inhabitants require water.
D. Both have many different forms of life.
18 The passage suggests that most rain forest species are ________________.
A. insects
B. bacteria
C. mammals
D. birds
19 The author argues that there is more diversity of life in the sea than in the rain forests because ____________.
A. more phyla and classes of life are represented in the sea
B. there are too many insects to make meaningful distinctions
C. many insect species are too small to divide into categories
D. marine life-forms reproduce at a faster rate
20 Which of the following conclusions is supported by the passage?
A. Ocean life is highly adaptive.
B. More attention needs to be paid to preserving ocean species and habitats.
C. Ocean life is primarily composed of plants.
D. The sea is highly resistant to the damage done by pollutants.

Passage 5
Battles are like marriages. They have a certain fundamental experience they share in common; they differ infinitely, but sill they are all alike. A battle seems to me a conflict of will to the death in the same way that a marriage of love is the identification of two human beings to the end of the creation of life – as death is the reverse of life, and love of hate. Battles are commitments to cause death as marriages are commitments to create life. Whether, for any individual, either union results in death or in the creation of new life, each risks it – and in the risk commits himself.
As the servants of death, battles will always remain horrible. Those who are fascinated by them are being fascinated by death. There is no battle aim worthy of the name except that of ending all battles. Any other conception is, literally, suicidal. The fascist worship of battle is a suicidal drive; it is love of death instead of life.
In the same idiom, to triumph in battle over the forces which are fighting for death is – again