四川大学211翻译硕士英语考研真题及辅导用书

考研真题

1. [电子书]四川大学外国语学院《211翻译硕士英语》[专业硕士]历年考研真题

2. [电子书]2026年翻译硕士《211翻译硕士英语》考研真题与模拟题

考研指导书

1. [电子书]2026年翻译硕士《211翻译硕士英语》专用教材

2. [题库]2026年翻译硕士《211翻译硕士英语》考研题库

四川大学外国语学院《211翻译硕士英语》[专业硕士]历年考研真题AI讲解

书籍目录

部分内容

2010年四川大学外国语学院211翻译硕士英语考研真题及详解

I. Vocabulary and
grammar (30’)

Multiple choice

Directions: Beneath each sentence there are four words or phrases
marked A, B, C and D. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence. Mark
your answers on your answer sheet.

1. Tom is the most ______
pupil in the class.

A. industrious

B. indulgent

C. industrialist

D. industrial

【答案】A

【解析】句意：Tom是班里最用功的学生。industrious勤勉的，勤奋的。indulgent放纵的；溺爱的。industrialist工业家，实业家。industrial工业的；产业的。

2. The mayor of the
city is a ______ old man.

A. respective

B. respectful

C. respecting

D. respectable

【答案】D

【解析】句意：市长是一位令人尊重的老者。respectable可敬的；有名望的。respective各自的。respectful有礼貌的；尊重人的。respecting是respect的现在分词形式。

3. I believe reserves
of coal here are ______ to last for fifty years.

A.
efficient

B.
sufficient

C.
proficient

D.
effective

【答案】B

【解析】句意：我认为这里的煤资源足够使用50年。sufficient充足的，充分的。efficient效率高的；有能力的。proficient熟练的；精通的。

4. Mr. Smith complained
about the ______ air-conditioner he had bought from the company.

A. infectious

B. deficient

C. ineffective

D. defective

【答案】D

【解析】句意：史密斯先生抱怨他从公司买的空调有问题。defective有缺陷的，有瑕疵的。infectious传染的；有感染力的。deficient不足的，缺乏的。ineffective无效的，不起作用的。

5. All the students
were excited at the ______ of a weekend sports competition.

A. opinion

B. view

C. thought

D. idea

【答案】C

【解析】句意：所有学生一想到周末的运动竞赛都感到很兴奋。at the thought of固定搭配，一想到……。at the
view of看到……的景象。at the idea of有……的想法。

6. The traveler’s
passport established his ______.

A. proof

B. evidence

C. identity

D. case

【答案】C

【解析】句意：游客的护照表明他的身份。identity身份。proof证据，用于证明某件事是真实的。evidence多用于指法律方面的“证据”。case情况；案例。

7. When we credit the successful people with
intelligence, physical strength or great luck, we are making excuses for
ourselves because we fall ______ in all three.

A. rare

B. short

C. lacking

D. scarce

【答案】C

【解析】句意：我们在坚信成功人士拥有智慧、体能和好运的同时，也是在为自己开脱，认为自己缺少以上三者。fall (be) lacking in固定搭配，意为“缺少”。rare稀少。be short of缺少，be short for……的简称。be scarce for匮乏，缺乏。

8. My sister is quite ______
and plans to get an M A. degree within one year.

A. aggressive

B. enthusiastic

C. considerate

D. ambitious

【答案】D

【解析】句意：我的姐姐雄心勃勃，她准备在一年内拿到艺术文化类的硕士学位。ambitious雄心勃勃的，有野心的。aggressive有进取心的；侵略的，好斗的。enthusiastic热情的。considerate体贴的；考虑周到的。

9. The twins are so
much ______ that it is difficult to tell one from the other.

A. similar

B. same

C. like

D. alike

【答案】D

【解析】句意：这对双胞胎长的太像了，很难区分开。alike相似的。similar同alike意思相同，但similar一般不用来修饰人。same一样的。like介词，意为“像……一样”。

10. His eyes were injured in a traffic accident,
but after a ______ operation, he quickly recovered his sight.

A. considerate

B. delicate

C. precise

D. sensitive

【答案】A

【解析】句意：他的眼睛在一次交通事故中受伤了，不过通过悉心的手术治疗，他很快恢复了视力。considerate体贴的，悉心的。delicate精密的；精美的。precise精确地，严密的。sensitive敏感的；善解人意的。

11. The chief foods
eaten in any country depend largely on ______ best in its climate and soil.

A. it grown

B. does it grown

C. what grows

D. what does it grow

【答案】C

【解析】句意：一个国家的主要食物种类取决于哪些作物最适合这个国家的气候和土壤。这里需要用what引导宾语从句，排除A，B，宾语从句应用陈述语序，排除D，故选C。

12. The fragrances of many natural substances
come from oils, ______ these oils may be used in manufacturing perfumes.

A. of

B. whether

C. from

D. and

【答案】D

【解析】句意：许多天然有机物的香味源自其中的油脂，这些油脂可以用来生产香水。两个分句都不缺成分，所以没有主从之分，是两个并列的句子，应用连词连接。A，B，C都是介词，故选D，这里and表示递进关系。

13. If only our team ______
one more point!

A. scores

B. had scored

C. scored

D. have scored

【答案】B

【解析】句意：要是我们球队多进一球就好了。这里考查虚拟语气，对过去事件的虚拟结构如下：sb./sth. would/ could/ should have done sth., if
sth./sb. had(not) done sth.，从句应该用过去完成时，故选B。

14. ______, he could
not lift the weight.

A. Strong while he was

B. However strong as he was

C. Strong as he was

D. Strong although he was

【答案】C

【解析】句意：尽管他很强壮，还是不能举起这样的重量。本题考查让步状语从句，while、however、as、though都可以引导让步状语从句，但是只有as引导是从句可以倒装，结构是“形容词/副词+as+主语+谓语动词”，故排除A，D。B项中however与as重复，应该去掉一个。故选C。

15. Tom is one of the
top students who ______ by the headmaster.

A. have been praised

B. has been praised

C. have praised

D. are praised

【答案】A

【解析】句意：Tom是受到校长表扬的优秀学生之一。who引导的定语从句先行词为the top
students，所以从句中谓语用复数形式，排除B，D。根据句意，学生是被表扬的，故用被动语态，选A。

16. You could do it, if
you ______ try hard enough.

A. might

B. should

C. could

D. would

【答案】B

【解析】句意：只要你足够努力就能够成功。本题考查虚拟语气，对将来情况的虚拟，表达方式为If sb. should do …, sb. would/could do …假如某人将……，某人将……。故选B。

17. The chairman
requested that ______.

A. the members studies the problem more carefully

B. the problem would be more carefully studied

C. the members had studied the problem with more care

D. the problem be studied with more care

【答案】D

【解析】句意：主席要求更加仔细地研究这个问题。固定用法，表示“要求”“命令”等意思的词引导的宾语从句，其谓语动词要保持原形，故选D。

18. George would
certainly have attended the proceedings ______.

A. if he didn’t get a flat tire

B. if the flat tire hadn’t happened

C. had he not had a flat tire

D. had the tire not flattened itself

【答案】C

【解析】句意：假如乔治的轮胎没有漏气，他肯定会出席仪式。本题考查虚拟语气，对过去情况的虚拟结构如下：sb./sth. would/could/should have done sth., if sth./sb. had(not) done sth.，其中可以将had提前，其他语序不变，构成倒装句。A项时态不对。“轮胎漏气”的表达方式为“have/get a flat tire”，故选C。

19. I would appreciate ______
it a secret.

A. you to keep

B. that you would keep

C. your keeping

D. that you are keeping

【答案】C

【解析】句意：如果你替我保密的话，我将非常感激你。“appreciate doing sth.”为固定搭配，排除A。中间可以加名词主格或者宾格构成独立主格结构，补充说明“doing”动作的发出者，C项正确。appreciate后也可跟that引导的宾语从句，但时态应与主句保持一致，用一般过去时，故B，D项错误。

20. We ______ the
letter yesterday, but it didn’t arrive.

A. must receive

B. must have received

C. ought to receive

D. ought to have received

【答案】D

【解析】句意：我们本应该昨天就收到信，却没有来。ought to have received本应该……却没有……，符合句意。must
have received表示对过去的肯定猜测。

Ⅱ. Reading comprehension
(40’)

Section 1  Multiple
choice (20’)

Directions: In this section there are reading passages followed by
multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your
answer sheet.

Passage A

This year some twenty-three hundred teen-agers from all
over the world will spend about ten months in U.S. homes. They will attend U.S.
schools, meet U.S. teen-agers, and form lifelong impressions of the real
America. At the same time, about thirteen hundred American teen-agers will go
abroad to learn new languages and gain a new understanding of world problems.
On returning home they, like others who have participated in the exchange
program, will pass along their fresh impression to the youth groups in which
they are active.

What have the visiting students discovered? A German boy
says, “We often think of America only in terms of skyscrapers. Cadillacs, and
gangsters. Americans think of Germany only in terms of Hitler and concentration
camps. You can’t realize how wrong you are until you see for yourself.”

A Los Angeles girl says, “It’s the leaders of the countries
who are unable to get along. The people get along just fine.”

Observe a two-way student exchange in action. Fred Herschbach,
nineteen, spent last year in Germany at the home of George Pfafflin. In turn,
Mr. Pfafflin’s son Michael spent a year in the Herschbach home in Texas.

Fred, lanky and lively, knew little German when he arrived,
but after two months’ study the language began to come to him. School was
totally different from what he had expected—much more formal, much harder.
Students rose respectfully when the teacher entered the room. They took
fourteen subjects instead of the six that are usual in the United States. There
were almost no outside activities.

Family life, too, was different. The father’s word was law,
and all activities revolved around the closely knit family unit rather than the
individual. Fred found the food—mostly starches—monotonous at first. Also, he
missed having a car.

“At home, you pick up some kids in a car and go out and
haven good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon get used to it.”

A warm-natured boy, Fred began to make friends as soon as
he had mastered enough German to communicate. “I didn’t feel as if I were with
foreigners. I felt as I did at home with my own people.” Eventually he was
invited to stay at the homes of friends in many of Germany’s major cities. “One’s
viewpoint is broadened,” he says, “by living with people who have different
habits and backgrounds. You come to appreciate their points of view and realize
that it is possible for all people in the world to come closer together. I
wouldn’t trade this year for anything.”

Meanwhile, in Texas, Mike Pfafflin, a friendly German boy,
was also forming independent opinions. “I suppose I should criticize the
schools,” he says. “It was far too easy by our standards. But I have to admit
that I liked it enormously In Germany we do nothing but study. I think that
maybe your schools are better training for citizenship. There ought to be some
middle ground between the two.” He took part in many outside activities,
including the dramatic group.

Mike picked up a favorite adjective of American youth;
southern fried chicken was “fabulous,” When expressing a regional point of
view, he used the phrase “we Texans.” Summing up his year, he says with
feeling, “America is a second home for me from now on. I will love it the rest
of my life.”

This exciting exchange program was government sponsored at
first; now it is in the hands of private agencies, including the American Field
Service and the International Christian Youth Exchange. Screening committees
make a careful check on exchange students and host homes. To qualify, students
must be intelligent, adaptable, outgoing-potential leaders. Each student is
matched, as closely as possible, with a young person in another country whose
family has the same economic, cultural, and religious background.

After their years abroad, all students gather to discuss
who, they observed. For visiting students to accept and approve of all they saw
would be a defeat for the exchange program. They are supposed to observe
evaluate, and come to fair conclusions. Nearly all who visited the United
States agreed that they had gained faith in American ideals and deep respect
for the U.S brand of democracy. All had made friendship that they were sure
would last a life-time. Almost all were struck by the freedom demitted American
youth. Many were critical, though, of the indifference to study in American
schools, and of Americans’ lack of knowledge about other countries.

The opinions of Americans abroad were just as vigorous. A
U.S. girl in Vienna: “At home, all we talk about is dating, movies, and
clothes. Here we talk about religion, philosophy, and political problems. I am
going to miss that.”

A U.S boy in Sweden: “I learned to sit at home, read a good
book, and gain some knowledge. It I told them this back home, they would think
I was a square.”

An American girl in Stuttgart, however, was very critical
of the German school. “Over here the teacher is king, and you are somewhere far
below. Instead of being friend and counselor, as in America the teacher is
regarded as a foe—and behaves like it too!”

It costs a sponsoring group about a thousand dollars to
give an exchange student a year in the United States. Transportation is the
major expense, for bed, board, and pocket money are provided by volunteer
families. There is also a small amount of federal support for the program.

For some time now, attempts have been made to include
students from iron curtain countries. But so far the Communists have not
allowed their young people to take part in this program which could open their
eyes to a different world.

In Europe, however, about ten students apply for every
place available, in Japan, the ratio is fifty to one. The student exchange
program is helping these eager younger citizens of tomorrow learn a lot about
the world today.

1. Exchange students
are generally placed in homes that are ______.

A. very similar to their own homes

B. typical of homes in the land they are visiting

C. as different from their own home as is possible

D. None of the above

2. The greatest value
of the program is that each visiting student ______.

A. has a chance to travel in foreign countries

B. shares what he learned with others

C. learns a new language

D. gains a new understanding of world problems

3. Fred Herschbach and
Mike Pfafflin agreed that ______.

A. Americans are friendlier than Germans

B. German food is more monotonous than American foods

C. German schools are harder than American schools

D. the teacher in German is king

4. The major expense
that a group sponsoring an exchange student must meet is ______.

A. bed and board

B. pocket money and incidentals

C. transportation

D. transportation, bed board and pocket money

5. It is reasonable to
suppose that the author wishes that ______.

A. American schools provided fewer outside activities

B. more money were available to finance the exchange
program

C. the program were government sponsored

D. visiting foreign students will completely accept the
culture of America

【答案与解析】

1. A  句意：交换学生通常被安置在与自己家庭情况相似的外国家庭中。文章第十一段最后一句提到“Each student is matched, as closely as possible, with a
young person in another country whose family has the same economic, cultural,
and religious background.”意思是每个同学与和自己家庭文化背景最相近的外国同学配对，然后互换家庭，所以选A。

2. D  句意：交换项目的最大价值在于每个交换生对世界问题有了新的认识。第十二段第三句提到“They are supposed to observe evaluate, and come to fair
conclusions.”意思是学生应该通过交换项目学会自己观察、评价国外遇到的现象并得出自己对其的看法和结论，故选D。

3. C  句意：Fred Herschbach和Mike
Pfafflin一致认为，德国学校比美国学校更为严格。第五段第二句指出“School was totally different from what he had expected—much
more formal, much harder.”可以得出Fred认为德国学校更正式和严格，第九段第二句中，Mike评论“It was far too easy by our standards”，意思是按照德国的标准来讲，美国的学校太宽松了。因此答案为C。

4. C  句意：进行交换生项目的组织必须为每位交换生提供的主要开支是交通费用。倒数第三段第二、三句指出，这些组织需要支付的主要开支为交通费，食宿和零用钱由各家庭志愿提供，故选C。

5. B  句意：以下说法比较合理的一项是，作者希望交换项目可以得到更多资金支持。倒数第三段中，作者指出，负责交换项目的组织需要为每位学生提供一千美元的资金支持，食宿费由各家庭支付，政府只提供一少部分资金支持，而这导致最后一段中描述的很多学生争抢一个交换名额的情况，由此可以推断，作者希望能有更多的资金支持交换项目，从而使更年轻人从项目中受益。

Passage B

“How many copies do you want printed, Mr. Greeley?”

“Five thousand!” The answer was snapped back without
hesitation.

“But, sir,” the press foreman protested, “we have
subscriptions for only five hundred newspapers.”

“We’ll sell them or give them away.”

The presses started rolling, sending a thundering noise out
over the sleeping streets of New York City. The New York Tribune was
born.

The newspaper’s founder, owner, and editor, Horace Greeley,
anxiously snatched the first copy as it came sliding off the press. This was
his dream of many years that he held in his hand. It was as precious as a
child. Its birth was the result of years of poverty, hard work, and
disappointments.

Hard luck and misfortune had followed Horace all his life.
He was born of poor parents on February 3, 1811, on a small farm in New
Hampshire. During his early childhood, the Greeley family rarely had enough to
eat. They moved from one farm to another because they could not pay their
debts. Young Horace’s only boyhood fun was reading—when he could snatch a few
moments during a long working day.

“The printed word always fascinated Horace. When he was
only ten years old, he applied for a job as an apprentice in a printing shop.
But he didn’t get the job because he was too young.

Four years later, Horace walked eleven miles to East
Poultney in Vermont to answer an ad. A paper called the Northern Spectator
had a job for a boy. The editor asked him why he wanted to boa printer, Horace
spoke up boldly: “Because, sir, I want to learn all I can about newspapers.”

The editor looked at the oddly dressed boy. Finally he
said, “You’ve got the job, son.”

For the first six months, room and board would be the only
pay for his work. After that, he would get room and board and forty dollars a
year.

Horace hurried home to shout the good news to his family.
When he got there, he learned that his family was about to move again—this time
to Pennsylvania. Horace decided to stay and work. Mrs. Greeley hated leaving
her son behind, but gave her consent. Twice during his apprenticeship Horace
walked six hundred miles to visit his family. Each time, he took all the money
he had saved and gave it to his father.

The Spectator failed after Horace had spent four
years working for it. He joined his family in Erie, Pennsylvania, and got a job
on the Erie Gazette. Half the money he earned he gave to his family. The
other half he saved to go to New York.

When he was twenty, Horace arrived in New York with ten
dollars in his pocket. He was turned down twice when he asked for a job.
Finally he became a typesetter for John T West’s Printery. The only reason Horace
got the job was that it was so difficult other printers wouldn’t take it. His
job was to set a very small edition of the Bible. Horace almost ruined his eyes
at that job.

As young Greeley’s skill grew, better jobs came his way. He
could have bought better clothes and moved out of his dingy room. But he was
used to being poor, and his habits did not change He spent practically nothing
on himself. Even after his Tribune became a success, he lived as if he
hadn’t enough money for his next meal.

The Tribune grew and thrived. It was unlike any
newspaper ever printed before in the United States. Greeley started a new type
of journalism. His news stories were truthful and accurate His editorials
attacked as well as praised. Many people disagreed with what he wrote, but
still they read it. The Tribune became America’s first nationwide
newspaper. It was read as eagerly in the Midwest and Far West as it was in the
East. Greeley’s thundering editorials became the most powerful voice in the
land.

Greeley and his Tribune fought for many causes. He
was the first to come out for the right of women to vote. His Tribune
was the leader in demanding protection for homesteads in the West. He aroused
the north in the fight against slavery. During a depression in the East, jobless
men asked what they could do to support themselves. Said Greeley: “Go West,
young man, go West!”

As the Tribune gained more power, Greeley became
more interested in politics He led in forming and naming the Republican Party.
He, more than any other man, was responsible for Abraham Lincoln’s being named
to run for President.

Horace Greeley was first of all a successful newspaperman.
He was also a powerful political leader. But he was not a popular man. In 1872
he ran for President against Ulysses S Grant. Grant was re-elected by an
overwhelming margin.

Greeley was then in deep mourning over the recent death of
his wife. He was heart-broken over losing the election. He never recovered from
the double blow only weeks after his defeat, he died in New York City. His
beloved Tribune lived on after him as the monument he wanted. Just
before died, he wrote:

“I cherish the hope that the journal I projected and
established will live and flourish long after I shall have mouldered into
forgotten dust, and that the stone that covers my ashes may bear to future eyes
the still intelligible inscription, Founder of the New York Tribune.”

6. Horace gladly
accepted his first job ______.

A. because of the kind of work it was

B. because of the high salary offered

C. because of the location of the office

D. became he couldn’t find any other job

7. When Horace founded
the Tribune he was ______.

A. already a rich and famous newspaperman

B. poor, but skilled in newspaper work

C. poor, but eager to learn newspaper work

D. rich and skilled in newspaper work

8. The Tribune was
different from all other American papers because it was ______.

A. available by subscription only

B. printed in New York city

C. distributed throughout the nation

D. it offered the editor’s personal opinions only

9. Before the Tribune
was founded, news reporting was ______.

A. honest but uninteresting

B. distorted or dishonest

C. almost unknown

D. interesting but distorted

10. Greeley probably
felt that his greatest accomplishment was ______.

A. rising from poverty to wealth

B. becoming a popular political leader

C. founding the New York Tribune

D. All of the above

【答案与解析】

6. A  句意：Horace很高兴地接受第一份工作的原因是这正是他想要的工作。文章第九段最后一句，当Horace被问及为什么想做这份工作时，他回答“I
want to learn all I can about newspapers”，说明这份工作正是他想要的，故选A。文章第十一段说明这份工作开始仅提供食宿，排除B。第十二段中提到Horace的家要搬到Pennsylvania，而这份工作是在Vermont（第九段第一句），有600英里之远，排除C项。D项在文中没有提到。

7. D  句意：Horace创办《论坛报》的时候已经很富有，并且熟悉报纸行业的各项技能。文章第十五段开头提到，随着Greeley的技艺越来越好，他开始有好的工作机会，能够购置好的衣服并搬出昏暗的房子，由此可以得出Greeley当时技能纯熟，也很富有，排除B，C项，D项符合原文意思。Greeley变得出名发生在其创办《论坛报》之后，A项错误。

8. C  句意：《论坛报》同美国其他报纸的不同之处在于它在全国范围内发行。倒数第六段第二句开始描述了《论坛报》与美国其他报纸的不同之处。倒数第三句“The Tribune became America’s first nationwide
newspaper.”，说明《论坛报》是第一份全国性的报纸，即当时唯一在全国发行的报纸，故选C。

9. B  句意：《论坛报》成立之前，新闻报道是歪曲的或者不真实的。倒数第六段第三、四“Greeley started a new type of journalism. His news stories
were truthful and accurate”，即Greeley开创了新的报道方式，他的新闻故事真实而准确。由此可以得出，这之前的报道不真实，选B。

10. C  句意：Greeley可能认为他最大的成就是建立了《论坛报》。文章第六段第二、三句“This was his dream of many years … result of
years of poverty, hard work, and disappointments.”说明了《论坛报》对Greeley的重要性，最后一段Greeley在死前写的一段话，说明自己希望在死后《论坛报》能够更好，因此最可能是他眼中自己最大的成就。

Section 2  Answering
questions (20’)

Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE
SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from
the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space
in your answer sheet.

Questions 1～3

At seven o’clock each morning a bell sounds in the red
brick buildings on the steep bank of the Hudson River at Ossining, New York. As
it rings, an entire, separate town of some 2300 persons comes to life. It is
the prison town of Sing Sing, a world of men who are confined but also living,
working, playing—and hoping Sing Sing is a town that lives on hope.

The seven o’clock bell is the signal for Sing Sing’s 1748
inmates and 514 man staff to begin another round of duties. The prisoners rise,
wash and dress. They make up their narrow beds army-style and make certain that
the objects on their dressers are regulation neat. By 7:15, when guards come
along the runways to unlock the individual cells, the men are ready. They file
slowly to the mess hall, falling into step along the way with friends and
acquaintances. Each man grabs a tray and gets a breakfast of oatmeal with milk
and sugar, bread, and coffee; he takes his seat at one of the long rows of
eating benches, places the tray before him, and begins his breakfast So starts
the day in Sing Sing.

Breakfast over, the men file from the mess hall and under
the watchful eyes of guards, drop their eating utensils into boxes provided at
the doors. At five minutes to eight they go outside in a long, chattering line
down to the cluster of prison workshops.

The prison has a dual function: it has its own permanent
population, but it also serves as a receiving station for the great flow of
prisoners from New York City. Here they come to be examined, screened, and
eventually transferred to upstate institutions.

For the first two weeks, the new arrival is put through a
series of mental, physical, and psychological examinations and given courses to
prepare him for prison life. In each batch of new prisoners there are hardened
men for whom prison can serve just one function—to remove them from society and
keep them from doing further harm. But in each batch there are also those who
can be helped and encouraged and turned into law-abiding citizens. It is toward
these that most of the effort at the prison is directed.

Sing Sing is a school, hospital, and factory as well as a
prison if initial tests show that a man is illiterate, he goes to the prison
school to receive the equivalent of an eighth-grade education if he needs
medical treatment, he is sent to the prison hospital. If he shows some special
aptitude, or appears capable of learning a trade, he is assigned to a regular
job in one of the shops.

The shops cover a wide range of activities. A man may be
assigned to the print shop to learn the printer’s trade, or to the neighboring
machine shop, where a twelve-month course turns raw trainees into good auto
mechanics, Many of the prisons “graduates,” incapable of earning an honest
living before now support themselves on the good wages they make as skilled
workers.

The shops are busy until 11:40 a.m., when the men straggle
up the slope to the mess hall for dinner. In the afternoons some men go back to
the shops. Others may meet and talk with relatives in the prison’s visiting
room. Athletes may spend hours running and drilling on the basketball court.

The day’s work ends at 3:30, giving the men more than an
hour of relative freedom before the supper whistle sounds at 4:40. With the
evening meal, the day ends. The men go directly from the mess hall to their
cell blocks and are locked in for the night. Each cell is equipped with a set
of radio headphones tuned into programs sent over the prison circuit. A
prisoner may read one of the well-thumbed volumes from the prison library,
which circulates about 36,000 volumes a year, or he may work, as many inmates
do, on a correspondence course to improve his chances of making a living when
he gets out Lights go out at ten o’clock. This routine does not vary greatly
for any of Sing Sing’s inmates.

“We run the prison like a city of eighteen hundred people,
only of course with a lot more police,” says Warden Wilfred I. Denno. “Anything
you couldn’t do on the outside, you can’t do on the inside. You can’t fight,
you can’t abuse an officer, you can’t steal. If you do, you’ll be punished. We
hold court twice a week and try to make the punishment fit the crime.”

This code is impressed on the prisoner from the start, it
underlies his every move on every day he spends in Sing Sing. He is faced with
clear alternatives. If he misbehaves, he received punishment in the form of
restricted privileges or even strict confinement. In one typical week there
were only five infractions of prison rules, most of which were minor. One man
was reprimanded for not reposing to work on time, one for creating a
disturbance by trying to shove his way into the mess-hall line ahead of those
already waiting. In three weeks of reports there was only one case of serious,
outright rebellion against prison discipline. An inmate who was to be released
in a month suddenly refused to follow an officer’s order. He was promptly
placed in segregation for the rest of his prison term. There are no dark holes
or bread-and-water routines at Sing Sing—in segregation, the cells and the food
are the same as in the rest of the prison. But a man’s movements are
restricted. He is kept locked in his ceil, isolated from his fellows, and
cannot go to the movies or to the commissary.

If a prisoner behaves, he accumulates “good time,” an
important source of hope for most prisoners. Good time is the time by which, through
his own good conduct, a prisoner may reduce his minimum sentence. Good behavior
earns a man ten days good time a month. So a prisoner facing a
three-to-six-year term would be able to appear before the parole board for
possible release at the end of two years.

Release then is not automatic. The parole board must
consider many other factors. All that good time does is to guarantee a prisoner
the right to appear before the parole board earlier than he otherwise could.

The real importance of good time is that it gives a
prisoner the one hope that stirs all Sing Sing—the hope of earlier parole, the
hope of freedom. A prisoner has to hope, “Once you take away a man’s hope, you
make a bitter man.” Warden Denno says. That is the problem of Sing Sing: to
punish and yet avoid the deprivation of hope that can make an imprisoned man
more desperate, mere vengeful, and a greater menace to society.

1. What is Sing Sing?
Describe in your own words the functions of Sing Sing.

2. Why would Warden
Wilfred L Denno compare running the prison to running a city?

3. What does “good time”
refer to? Does it have any importance to the prisoners?

【答案与解析】

1. Sing Sing, located on the bank of the Hudson
River at Ossining, New York, is a prison town where live 1748 inmates and 514
man staff. It was different from normal prisons in that prisoners here, while
confined, still live a normal life of work and entertainment. Sing Sing functions as
a town holding a permanent population as well as a station to receive, examine,
educate and transform prisoners form New York City.

（文章第一段指出了Sing Sing的地理位置和性质，“on the steep bank of the Hudson River at
Ossining, New York”，“It is the prison town of Sing Sing”，第二段第一句说明了这里的居民是谁。第四段说明了Sing Sing的功能，一是作为一个监狱接受并改造罪犯，二是作为一个行政镇存在，罪犯和治安人员是它的公民。）

2. Because Sing Sing is different from other
prisons. It is both a town and a prison. Prisoners here are considered not only
as prisoners, but also as citizens in this town. So the officers have to run it
in a similar way as running a city.

（参见文章倒数第五段。罪犯在这里服刑的同时也是这个城镇的公民。他们在这里按规定工作、娱乐和生活，所以管理者要参考管理城市的方式管理Sing Sing。）

3. Good time is the time by which, through his
own good conduct, a prisoner may reduce his minimum sentence. Yes, it does.
Because good time may shorten the sentence period of a prisoner, offering
prisoners hope of freedom and the opportunities to be released earlier.

（“好时光”的定义见文章倒数第三段第二句。“好时光”指的是罪犯通过良好的表现获得的减刑。“好时光”的重要性参见文章倒数第一段。）

Questions 4～5

To all the world, nothing seems more completely American
than the cowboy. Yet the truth is that the cowboy’s horse, clothes, and trade
are all part of the rich heritage contributed by Mexico to her northern
neighbor.

Even the word cowboy is a translation of the Mexican
term vaquero. The word cowboy was unknown to the American
settlers who first headed west to Texas in the 1820’s. These people thought of
themselves as farmers. In fact, the only cattle most of them brought were a cow
or two for milk and a yoke of oxen to draw their plows. It was their Mexican
neighbors—the Tejanos whose herds had roamed the open ranges since the
early 1700’s—who introduced them to cattle raising, taunt them to use the
lariat, the branding iron, and the homed saddle, and
showed them how to break the wild mustangs and round up the free-ranging
longhorns. So well did the new Texans take to Tejano ways that soon you
spoke fighin’ words if you referred to them as anything as ordinary as mere
“farmers.” They had been changed into saddle-proud
ranchers.

Later, as the cattle industry spread all over the West, its
Mexican origins were largely forgotten. But even today the language of the
rangeland clearly shows how great were the cowboy’s borrowings. Corral, pinto, palomino, mesquite, bronco, rodeo, mesa, canyon,
arroyo, loco, plaza, fiesta, pronto—by the hundreds Mexican words slipped into
English with only a change in accent. Borrowed “by ear,” other words underwent
weird alterations. From sabe came savvy, jaquima turned
into hackamore, chaparajos was shortened to chaps, estampida
was converted into stampede, vamos emerged as vamoose, and
the juzgado gave birth to hoosegow. Even the famed ten-gallon
hat, got its name not from some Texan’s tall tale but from a Mexican song about
a gaily decorated hat, or sombrero galoneado.

In countless other ways the people of the United States are
indebted to the Mexicans who once lived in the old Southwest. There were only
seventy-five thousands of them when Mexico ceded the region to the United
States, and these were scattered from the Gulf Coast in the east to the shores
of the Pacific in the west. They had lived in the borderlands since 1598, more
than twenty years before the Pilgrims sailed for the New World. In the course
of more than 250 years they had left their mark on the land. Many of the
western states in the United States still bear the lovely lyrical names the
Mexican settlers first wrote upon their maps. So do countless rivers and
mountains, and thousands of cities and towns—from Corpus Christi in Texas to
all the Sans and Santas along the Pacific shore.

Through trial and error, the rugged Mexicans had learned to
survive and prosper in the dry, half-desert land, When English-speaking people
poured into the region, the Spanish-speaking people shared their knowledge with
the new settlers, making things much easier for them Settlers in other parts of
the United States did not have this advantage.

In all the rest of the country, pioneers had to break their
own trails. But those who headed west in gold rush days could follow the Santa
Fe Trail from the Missouri to the Rockies. In the old settlements of New
Mexico, the wagon trams could rest their oxen and replenish their supplies
before moving on down the Old Spanish Trail on the Tucson-Yuma route.

In the 1850’s, army engineers were sent west to survey the
railroad routes that would link East with West. The northern parties had to
find their own way through vast stretches of little-explored territory but in
the Southwest the surveyors merely remapped the trails that had been packed
hard over the years by Mexican mule trains. Two major railroads—the Southern
Pacific and the Santa Fe—and many main highways were built along the routes
made by the early Spanish settlers when they first spread out into the new
land.

Early migrants from the East thought of the Southwest as a
great desert, a land that had to be passed through, but was hardly to be
settled upon. However, they changed their minds when they saw the rich green
fields along the Rio Grande, fields that had been irrigated since the early
1600’s. In time the newcomers were able to turn even desert into some of the
most fertile farmland in all the nation.

Water laws gave the new settlers some trouble at first.
They tried to use a system under which the landowners along the banks of a
stream controlled its waters. This system worked well in the water-rich East,
but in the dry lands of the Southwest it gave the lucky more water than they
needed, while others on higher ground got none at all. In time all the western
states had to switch over to the Mexican way—sharing water rights among all the
owners whose land could be irrigated.

Western sheep farmers, too, owe a great debt to their
forerunners. For the small flocks that the early Mexican settlers had brought
to Santa Fe had multiplied into large herds by the time the United States took
over the Southwest. New Mexico supplied sheep to ranges all over the country.
With the sheep went pastores, who still form a large percentage of the
herdsmen in North America. Until the recent introduction of sheep clipping
machines, sheepshearing was to a large extent a Mexican skill for which sheep ranchers
in the States would bid eagerly.

Mexicans have played an important part not only in cattle
and sheep farming, but in mining as well. It was a Mexican who discovered the
great Santa Rita copper deposit in New Mexico. Today, miners of Mexican descent
still form a major part of the work force in most of the copper mines of the
Southwest. In industry, farming, and countless other fields, the United States
owes a great deal to her neighbor.

4. What is the purpose of this article, to
demonstrate what Mexicans gave to the United States or how languages change and
grow? Why?

5. What does the fact
that Easterners borrowed words such as corral, bronco, and canyon suggest?

【答案与解析】

4. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate
what Mexicans gave to the United States. In the first three paragraphs, the
author demonstrated how American words are influenced by the Mexicans, but his
point is to describe that Mexicans are of great importance in American culture.
Moreover, in the following paragraphs, the author showed us how the Mexicans
help the Americans in the difficult times and how intelligent the Mexicans were
when they cultivating a new land. These all add up to the fact that the purpose
of this article is not about language.

（文章仅在前三段描述了美国语言中的变化，这在全篇的结构中，这是作为墨西哥对美国的影响的一个方面，即文化方面，接下来，作者又展示了墨西哥对美国农业等方面的影响。这些方面组合在一起共同展示了文章的主题，即墨西哥对美国的影响。）

5. It suggests that in terms
of language, the people of the United States are indebted to the Mexicans who
once lived in the old Southwest.

（这些词出现在文章第三段第三句。文章第四段开头说“In countless other ways the people of the United States are indebted to
the Mexicans who once lived in the old Southwest.”说明上段中提到美国对墨西哥词语借鉴的目的是说明美国在文化方面借鉴了墨西哥语。）

III. Writing (30’)

Write an essay of about
400 words to comment on the very short story below:

Failed SAT. Lost
scholarship. Invented rocket.

【参考范文】

GPA Means Not Everything

Maybe we have
already used to hearing such a comment: that young guy does very well on his
study and achieves a high GPA, so he must be something in the future. People
always judge a person’s future simply by his GPA without stopping to think
whether this judgment make any sense. There is one short story, saying, failed
SAT, lost scholarship, invented rocket. This story raises us a question: does
high GPA really mean great achievements? From my point of view, I don’t think
that GPA can mean everything, instead, one’s achievements are determined by
creative minds, hard work and opportunities.

To begin with,
creative minds are sources of new ideas and inventions. One with creative minds
usually shows great interests in all things and draws inspiration from the
world around him. Nowadays, too many people concentrate on exams rather than
study and they study hard simply to get high scores and scholarship. Considering
this condition, I am not surprised that many high-GPA-students can neither find
jobs nor make academic achievements. Only those who really love to learn can be
fully-devoted and have creative minds, like Bill Gates, like Albert Einstein.

Secondly, we
should attach significant importance to hard work, for action speaks louder
than words. Having creative minds is just a beginning and far from enough—we
have to work hard to test new ideas and put them into practice. In my childhood
I used to read many fairy tales, in which only those who are diligent enough
can live a happy life; on the contrary, those who are too lazy to do any work
will suffer hunger and homelessness in the end. Fairy tales as they are, they
also teach us something: hard work is the only way to bring dreams to reality. Creative
minds produce various dreams, but only hard work can prevent these beautiful
dreams to fragile bubbles.

At last,
opportunity is of the same importance in getting achievements. In history there
were so many people who endeavored all his life but could not attain success,
like Van Gogh. Van Gogh is not so unfortunate because his talent was finally
admired after his death. However, for those who worked hard but died in
obscurity, we can do nothing but heave a sigh.

In conclusion, a
person’s achievements is not determined by high GPA but by creative minds, hard
work and opportunities. If a creative and hard-working person can grasp good
opportunities, he is likely to achieve higher goals even without a high GPA.

更多内容，请点击获取：
http://shuyue.100xuexi.com/Ebook/976612.html