考研真题
1. 福建师范大学外国语学院《211翻译硕士英语》[专业硕士]历年考研真题
2. 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. 2026年翻译硕士《211翻译硕士英语》专用教材
2. 2026年翻译硕士《211翻译硕士英语》考研题库
福建师范大学外国语学院《211翻译硕士英语》[专业硕士]历年考研真题AI讲解
书籍目录
2010年福建师范大学外国语学院211翻译硕士英语考研真题及详解
2011年福建师范大学外国语学院211翻译硕士英语考研真题及详解
部分内容
2010年福建师范大学外国语学院211翻译硕士英语考研真题及详解
I. Vocabulary and
grammar (30 points, 1.5 points for each)
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 Mr. Smith will _____ resign in view of
the complete failure of the research project.
A. doubtfully
B. adequately
C. presumably
D. reasonably
【答案】C
【解析】句意：鉴于史密斯先生这次在研究项目上彻底的失败，他很有可能要辞职。presumably很可能，大概。doubtfully怀疑地，含糊地。adequately足够地。reasonably合理地，有理性地。因此，本题的正确答案为C。
2 She is so sophisticated that she remains confident and _____
untroubled by our present problems.
A. indefinitely
B. infinitely
C. optimistically
D.
pessimistically
【答案】C
【解析】句意：她非常的老练，遇到我们现在遭遇的问题她依旧自信，乐观，不受干扰。optimistically乐观地。乐观地，与confident属于同一个语义场。indefinitely无期限地。infinitely极其，非常。pessimistically悲观地。因此，本题的正确答案为C。
3 The Chinese Red Cross is _____ the
International Red Cross.
A. blended with
B. affiliated
with
C. adjacent to
D. pertinent to
【答案】B
【解析】句意：中国红十字会隶属于国际红十字会。be affiliated with隶属于。be blended with与……混合在一起。be adjacent to与……毗邻。be pertinent to与……相干。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
4 The authorities will _____ your license
if you get caught drunk driving.
A. revoke
B. restore
C. authorize
D. withdraw
【答案】A
【解析】句意：如果你酒驾被抓，当局会撤销你的驾驶证。revoke取消，撤销，废除（许可，法律、协议等）。restore恢复，复位。authorize批准，许可。withdraw撤离。因此，本题的正确答案为A。
5 Often such arguments have the effect of
_____ rather than clarifying the issues involved.
A. compromising
B. obscuring
C. tackling
D. prejudicing
【答案】B
【解析】句意：通常这样的争论只会让问题模糊化，而不是解释清楚牵涉的问题。obscure作动词，意为“使模糊，使隐晦”。compromise妥协，和解。tackle解决问题。prejudice作动词，意为“使怀有偏见”。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
6 More than 85 percent of the population in that country speaks
French as a mother tongue and _____ to the Roman Catholic faith.
A. ascribes
B. subscribes
C. adheres
D. caters
【答案】B
【解析】句意：那个国家85%以上的人把法语当成母语并且坚持罗马天主教的信仰。adhere to 固守，坚持，固执（于……），粘附，附着，追随，支持。ascribe to 归咎于，归因于， 把……归属于。subscribe to 捐助，订购（书籍等）。cater to 对……提供所需的东西，迎合，供应伙食。因此，本题的正确选项为B。
7 Some American colleges are state-supported, others are privately
_____, and still others are supported by religious organizations.
A. enlightened
B. attributed
C. authorized
D. endowed
【答案】D
【解析】句意：在美国，一些大学是国立的，一些大学时私人捐赠建立的，还有一些是宗教组织建立的。有题意可知，本题要选出同support同义的词。endow（向学校等机构）捐钱，资助。enlighten启发，启蒙。attribute把……归因于。authorize批准，授权。因此，本题的正确答案为D。
8 When people are asked what kind of housing they need or want, the
question _____ a variety of answers.
A. defies
B. magnifies
C. mediates
D. evokes
【答案】D
【解析】句意：当人们被问起他们需要什么样的房子，这个问题引起了多种答案。 evoke引起，唤起。defy违抗，反抗。magnify放大，增强。mediate调停，调解促成（协议）。因此，本题的正确答案为D。
9 A felling of sadness _____ the
atmosphere after they heard the news of the air crash.
A. scattered
B. permeated
C. shattered
D. overflowed
【答案】B
【解析】句意：人们听到这场空难的消息后，悲伤的情绪在空气中弥漫开来。
permeate（气体、液体）弥漫，（情绪）扩散，感染。scatter撒，散播。shatter使破碎，使破裂。overflow漫出，溢出。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
10 The lady in this strange tale very obviously suffers from mental
illness. Her plot against a completely innocent ole man is a sign of _____.
A. impulse
B. insanity
C. inspiration
D. disposition
【答案】B
【解析】句意：很明显，这篇奇异故事中的女士有精神病，她对一位完全无辜的老人设置阴谋就体现了她的精神失常。insanity精神失常。impulse冲动，心血来潮。inspiration灵感。disposition性格，性情。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
11 We’ll be very careful and keep what you’ve
told us strictly _____.
A. rigorous
B. confidential
C. incredible
D. mysterious
【答案】B
【解析】句意：我们会非常小心，严格保密你告诉我们的话。confidential保密的，机密的。rigorous细致的，谨慎的。incredible难以置信的，mysterious神秘的。confidential保密的，最符合语境。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
12 Herman’s success is due to his hard work and his ability to
_____ plans which will get work done efficiently.
A. fulfill
B. elevate
C. formulate
D. paralyze
【答案】C
【解析】句意：赫尔曼的成功要归功于他的勤奋和制定高效工作计划的能力。formulate制定，规划，构想。fulfill完成。elevate举起，抬高，提拔。paralyze使麻痹。因此，本题的正确答案为C。
13 Peter was _____ of speeding when he saw
the patrolmen.
A. on the edge
of
B. on the way
of
C. on the
fringe of
D. on the verge
of
【答案】D
【解析】句意：彼得在看到巡警的时候几乎超速了。on the verge of几乎，差不多。on the edge of与on the fringe of同义，意为“在……边缘”。on the way of在……的路上，关于……的方法。因此，本题的正确答案为D。
14 It is usually agreed that economic controls can _____ inflation
by preventing overt wage and price and price increases from taking place.
A. suppress
B. impress
C. compress
D. depress
【答案】A
【解析】句意：多数人同意经济控制能够通过阻止公开的工资和价格增长来抑制通货膨胀。suppress抑制，压制。impress给……留下印象。compress压缩。depress使抑郁，降低（价格）。因此，本题的正确答案为A。
15 _____, a man who expresses himself efficiently is sure to
succeed more rapidly than a man whose command of language is poor.
A. Other things
being equal
B. Were other
things equal
C. To be equal
to other things
D. Other thins
to be equal
【答案】A
【解析】句意：在其它条件相同的情况下，一个能有效地表达自己的人比一个语言表达能力差的人更容易获得成功。本题考查独立主格结构，A项为“other
things are equal”的独立主格形式，being为非谓语。B项为虚拟语气句，原型是“if other things were equal”，既然从句为虚拟语气句，相应的主句也应该为虚拟语气句，明显与事实不符。C项为目的状语从句，与原句逻辑不通。D项时态不对，不需要用将来时。因此，本题的正确答案为A。
16 Most doctors recognize that medicine is
_____.
A. an art as
much it is a science
B. as much an
art as it is a science
C. as an art as
much it is a science
D. much an art
as it is a science
【答案】B
【解析】句意：大多数医生都承认医学既是一门科学，也是一门艺术。本题考查as much as的用法。as much as意为“既……又……”时，用法有两种，第一是as much as作为一个整体，第二种是as much + A + as + B，如 It’s as much your responsibility as mine.翻译为“这既是你的责任，也是我的责任”。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
17 _____ that they may eventually reduce the amount of labor needed
on construction sites by 90 percent.
A. So clever
are the construction robots
B. So clever
construction robots are
C. Such
construction robots are clever
D. Such clever
construction robots are
【答案】A
【解析】句意：建筑机器人是如此的聪明，它们的建设最终可能减少90个百分点的地盘需要的劳动量。so/such 结构放在句首的时候要构成部分倒装。clever是形容词所以要用so。 so
clever are the construction robot=the construction robots are so clever。因此，本题的正确答案为A。
18 Once they had fame, fortune, secure
futures; _____ is utter poverty
A. now that all
is left
B. now all that
is left
C. now all
which is left
D. now all what
is left
【答案】B
【解析】句意：他们曾经有名望、有财富和有无虑的未来，而现在剩下的只是彻底的贫穷。all是个代词,后跟定语从句，并且只能用关系代词that引导，what不是关系代词，不能引导定语从句。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
19 The years of practice, of developing my
special technique, are just about to _____.
A. turn up
B. figured out
C. pay off
D. clear away
【答案】C
【解析】句意：多年的培养技能的练习终于快要得到回报了。pay off得到回报。turn up露面，被发现。figure out计算，弄明白。clear away清除，收拾。因此，本题的正确答案为C。
20 Because a degree from a good university is the means to a better
job, education is one of the most _____ areas in Chinese life.
A. sophisticated
B. competitive
C. contagious
D. superficial
【答案】B
【解析】句意：因为在中国优秀大学的学历是通向一份好工作的途径，因此，教育是中国人生活中竞争最激烈的领域之一。competitive竞争的。sophisticated见多识广的，精密的。contagious接触传染的。superficial表面的，肤浅的。因此，本题的正确答案为B。
II. Reading
comprehension (40 points)
Section 1 Multiple
choice (20 points, 2 points for each)
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
Persistent bullying is one of the worst
experiences a child can face. How can it be prevented? Peter Smith, Professor
of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, directed the Sheffield
Anti-Bullying Intervention Project, funded by the Department for Education.
Here he reports on his findings.
Bullying can
take a variety of forms, from the verbal—being taunted or called hurtful names—to the physical—being kicked or shoved—as well as indirect forms, such
as being excluded from social groups. A survey I conducted with Irene Whitney
found that in British primary schools up to a quarter of pupils reported
experience of bullying, which in about one in ten cases was persistent. There
was less bullying in secondary schools, with about one in twenty-five suffering
persistent bullying, but these cases may be particularly recalcitrant.
Bullying is
clearly unpleasant, and can make the child experiencing it feel unworthy and
depressed. In extreme cases it can even lead to suicide, though this is
thankfully rare. Victimized pupils are more likely to experience difficulties
with interpersonal relationships as adults, while children who persistently
bully are more likely to grow up to be physically violent, and convicted of
anti-social offences.
Until recently,
not much was known about the topic, and little help was available to teachers
to deal with bullying. Perhaps as a consequence, schools would often deny the
problem. “There is no bullying at this school” has been a common refrain,
almost certainly untrue. Fortunately more schools are now saying: “There is not
much bullying here, but when it occurs we have a clear policy for dealing with
it.”
Three factors
are involved in this change. First is an awareness of the severity of the
problem. Second, a number of resources to help tackle bullying have become
available in Britain. For example, the Scottish Council for Research in
Education produced a package of materials, Action Against Bullying, circulated
to all schools in England and Wales as well as in Scotland in summer 1992, with
a second pack, Supporting Schools Against Bullying, produced the following
year. In Ireland, Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behavior in Post-Primary
Schools was published in 1993. Third, there is evidence that these materials
work, and that schools can achieve something. This comes from carefully
conducted “before and after” evaluations of interventions in schools, monitored
by a research team. In Norway, after an intervention campaign was introduced
nationally, an evaluation of forty-two schools suggested that, over a two-year
period, bullying was halved. The Sheffield investigation, which involved
sixteen primary schools and seven secondary schools, found that most schools
succeeded in reducing bullying.
Evidence
suggests that a key step is to develop a policy on bullying, saying clearly
what is meant by bullying, and giving explicit guidelines on what will be done
if it occurs, what records will be kept, who will be informed, what sanctions
will be employed. The policy should be developed through consultation, over a
period of time—not
just imposed from the head teacher’s office! Pupils, parents and staff should
feel they have been involved in the policy, which needs to be disseminated and
implemented effectively.
Other actions
can be taken to back up the policy. There are ways of dealing with the topic
through the curriculum, using video, drama and literature. These are useful for
raising awareness, and can best be tied in to early phases of development,
while the school is starting to discuss the issue of bullying. They are also useful
in renewing the policy for new pupils, or revising it in the light of
experience. But curriculum work alone may only have short-term effects; it
should be an addition to policy work, not a substitute.
There are also
ways of working with individual pupils, or in small groups. Assertiveness
training for pupils who are liable to be victims is worthwhile, and certain
approaches to group bullying such as “no blame”, can be useful in changing the
behavior of bullying pupils without confronting them directly, although other
sanctions may be needed for those who continue with persistent bullying.
Work in the
playground is important, too. One helpful step is to train lunchtime
supervisors to distinguish bullying from playful fighting, and help them break
up conflicts. Another possibility is to improve the playground environment, so
that pupils are less likely to be led into bullying from boredom or
frustration.
With these
developments, schools can expect that at least the most serious kinds of
bullying can largely be prevented. The more effort put in and the wider the
whole school involvement, the more substantial the results are likely to be.
The reduction in bullying—and the consequent improvement in pupil happiness – is surely a
worthwhile objective.
1 A recent survey
found that in British secondary schools _____.
A. there was more bullying than had previously been the
case
B. there was less bullying than in primary schools
C. cases of persistent bullying were very common
D. indirect forms of bullying were particularly difficult
to deal with
2 Children who are
bullied _____.
A. are twice as likely to commit suicide as the average
person
B. find it more difficult to relate to adults
C. are less likely to be violent in later life
D. may have difficulty forming relationships in later life
3 The writer thinks
that the declaration “There is no bullying at this school” _____.
A. is no longer true in many schools
B. was not in fact made by many schools
C. reflected the school’s lack of concern
D. reflected a lack of knowledge and resources
4 What were the
findings of research carried out in Norway?
A. Bullying declined by 50% after an anti-bullying
campaign.
B. Twenty-one schools reduced bullying as a result of an
anti-bullying campaign.
C. Two years is the optimum length for an anti-bullying
campaign.
D. Bullying is a less serious problem in Norway than in the
UK.
5 Which of the
following is the most suitable title for the passage?
A. Bullying: what parents can do
B. Bullying: are the media to blame
C. Bullying: the link with academic failure
D. Bullying: from crisis management to prevention
【答案与解析】
1 B 文章第1段提到“There was less bullying in secondary schools”，第1段提到英国小学生中长期霸凌的概率是1/10，而英国中学生中长期霸凌的概率为1/25，由此可知，英国中学中的霸凌现象比小学的少。故选B。
2 D 文章第2段第3句提到“Victimized pupils are more likely to experience
difficulties with interpersonal relationships as adults”，由此可知，受霸凌的学生会在今后的成人生活中遇到人际交往的问题。故选D。
3 D 文章第4段开头提到学校从不承认校园霸凌到承认的态度转变主要是有两个原因：“First is an awareness of the severity of the
problem. Second, a number of resources to help tackle bullying have become
available in Britain.”，由此可推测，之前学校不承认校园霸凌的原因是校方缺乏意识和资源，故选D。文章第3段倒数第2句提到题中的说法是不正确的，故排除A、B。C项在文中没有提及。故选D。
4 A 文章第4段倒数第2句提到“In Norway, after an intervention campaign was
introduced nationally, an evaluation of forty-two schools suggested that, over
a two-year period, bullying was halved”，由此可知，在一场反霸凌运动后，霸凌现象减少了一半，故A正确。B项错在学校的数量，学校的数量应为42。C项过度延伸题意，这场运动持续了2年，但作者并没有指出2年是最佳的时长。D项在文中没有提及。故选A。
5 D 文章从第三段开始讲述阻止校园霸凌现象的方法，由此可见全文大部分内容与抑制校园霸凌的内容有关，因此选择D项。文章并未提到校园霸凌与父母、媒体以及学术的关系，故因此排除A、B、C。故选D。
Passage B
It is over five
hundred years since Columbus “discovered” America. The celebration of the
anniversary has at least produced one benefit. It has so effectively focused on
the worldwide problem of the rights of aboriginal peoples. Developments in
America demonstrate the problem more clearly than anywhere else. This was a
whole continent, the population of which in Columbus’s day may have numbered as
many as 100 million. Today only a fraction of these Indian peoples survive, and
any truly Indian culture can only be found isolated in small pockets. Why was
the Indian culture less able than others to resist the European pressure? Any
processes elsewhere resembling the one in America have only taken place in more
marginal areas of the world. Such processes are complex, and this is not the
place for a more detailed analysis. What is clear, however, is that at certain
times and in certain places we are confronted by a different force from
infectious diseases and mortality or the haphazard outcome of wars and
rapacity, and that is the systemic “ethnic cleansing” of the aboriginal
population—better
known as genocide. There is a most urgent need to define the rights of
aboriginal peoples and to respect those rights in a manner which makes it
possible to live in peace and mutual understanding. To succeed in this, we need
people like Turn. For this Committee it was a happy coincidence that it was
precisely in the year of Columbus that she emerged as such a strong candidate
for this Prize.
Tum chose to
dedicate herself to political and social work for her people. She tells us in
her autobiography what a difficult choice it was not to have a family. She was
engaged, she tells us, and felt an obligation to the ancestral principle of
seeking happiness not only for oneself but for one’s family. A threat of ethnic
cleansing of course lends extra weight to such an obligation. But she chose
otherwise. She became an active member of the CUC. Then she participated in the
founding of the organization called the Revolutionary Christians. “We
understood ‘revolutionary’ in the real meaning of the word: ‘transformation’.
If I had chosen the armed struggle, I would be in the mountains now.” Owing to
her political activity, she has had to spend twelve years in exile in Mexico.
In her book A
Strategy for Peace, the Swedish-American moral philosopher Sissela Bok
describes what she calls the “pathology of partisanship”, or the brutalizing
effect of the use of violence. Whoever commits acts of violence will lose his
humanity. Thus, violence breeds violence and hate breeds hate. She quotes the
English poet Stephen Spender, who experienced this process in himself when he
took part in the Spanish Civil War. “It was clear to me that unless I cared
about every murdered child impartially, I did not care about children being
murdered at all.” But how can one break out of the vicious circle of the
pathology of partisanship? It is easy enough to keep out and call for
non-violence or an end to hatred when one is not oneself confronted with the
blind violence of the other side. Nor is it indeed our responsibility to judge
or to condemn in such cases. What we can do, however, is to point to the
shining individual examples of people who manage to preserve their humanity in
brutal and violent surroundings, of persons who for that very reason compel our
special respect and admiration. Such people give us a hope that there are ways
out of the vicious circle.
Tum’s
autobiography is an extraordinary human document. It describes cruelty in sober
and matter-of-fact terms. Its driving force is moral indignation. In some
connections, she also mentions her hatred of those responsible for the violence
and repression. But at the same time, the account reflects a disarming humanity.
Almost gaily, she notes funny little concrete details in an otherwise ruthless
existence; with love, she describes Indian customs. I know no better example of
her disarming attitude than her description here in Oslo last year of her
meeting with Colonel Roderigues: “We greeted each other and exchanged a few
words. The man who killed my mother congratulated me on my nomination for the
Nobel Peace Prize and called it a national honour. I realized then that at
bottom we are all human beings. It was like meeting a distant acquaintance. I
had a feeling of calm as I spoke to him.”
It is stupid to
meet the world with too much trust, but even more stupid to meet it with too
little. The goal of Tum’s work, as she has said on many occasions; is
reconciliation and peace. She knows, better than most, that the foundations for
future reconciliation are laid in the manner in which one conducts one’s
struggle. Even in the most brutal situations, one must retain one’s faith that
there is a minimum of human feelings in all of us. Tum preserved that faith. It
is with the deepest respect and in admiration of her efforts that the Norwegian
Nobel Committee today awards her the Nobel Peace Prize.
6 The passage indicates that the major
reason for the decline of the India culture is _____.
A. its isolation
from other cultures
B. the influence
of infectious diseases
C. the result of
avarice and cupidity
D. the genocide
of the Indian people
7 According to the passage, which of the
following statements is NOT true?
A. Tum has never
hated Colonel Roderigues.
B. We have not
well protected the rights of aboriginal peoples.
C. Tum was
engaged but did not get married.
D. Stephen
Spender understood the brutalizing effect of war.
8 The author thinks that one way to break out of the vicious circle
of the pathology of partisanship is to______.
A. end hatred
when one is not the victim of violence
B. condemn blind
instances of violence or brutality
C. preserve
one’s humanity even in brutal situations
D. meet the
world with as much trust as possible
9 Tum is an advocate of all the following
EXCEPT______.
A. human rights
B. armed
struggle
C. non-violence
D. reconciliation
10 It can be inferred from the passage that Tum would view humanity
as all the following EXCEPT______.
A. having a
hatred of only those who are responsible for violence
B. having a
disarming attitude towards those responsible for repression
C. having the
belief that at bottom every one of us is a human being
D. having the
faith that peaceful struggle will lead to reconciliation
【答案与解析】
6 D 文章第一段倒数第4句提到“What
is clear, however, is that…better known as genocide.”由此可知，印第安文化消失的主要原因是印第安种族的灭绝，故D表述正确。A、B、C都是印第安种族灭绝的原因，不具有概括性。故选D。
7 A 文章第4段提到“I
know no better example of her disarming attitude than her description here in
Oslo last year of her meeting with Colonel Roderigues”从关键词“disarming attitude”可知，Tum对 Colonel Roderigues消除了敌意，由此推测Tum曾经恨过Colonel Roderigues，因此A错误，故选A。
8 C 文章第3段倒数第2句提到“What we can do, however, is
to point to the shining individual examples of people who manage to preserve
their humanity in brutal and violent surroundings”，由此可知，要想打破偏见病理的循环，我们要在残忍的环境里依旧保持人道主义之心。故选C。
9 B 文章第4段中间提到“the
account reflects a disarming humanity”，文章还多处提到Tum“disarming
attitude”说明Tum排斥武力，暴力，主张和平。因此B项不属于Tum的观点，故选B。
10 A 文章倒数第2段提到Tum曾对那些发动暴力有怨恨，但紧接着作者提到Tum的态度是消除敌意，因此B表述正确，A错误。C、D项在最后一段均有体现。故选A。
Section 2 Answering
question (20 points, 4 points for each)
Direction: Read the following passage 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
An unexplained
and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running
has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming.
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in
a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth’s natural systems are no
longer able to absorb as much as in the past. The findings will be discussed
tomorrow by the government’s chief scientist, Dr. David King, at the annual
Greenpeace lecture.
Measurements of
CO2 have been continuous for 50 years at Mauna Loa Observatory. 12.000ft up a
mountain in Hawaii, regarded as far enough away from any carbon dioxide source
to be a reliable measuring point. In recent decades CO2 increased on average by
1.5 parts per million (ppm) a year because of the amount of oil, coal and gas
burnt, but has now jumped to more than 2 ppm in 2002 and 2003. Above or below
average rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been explained in the past
by natural events. When the Pacific warms up during EI Nino, the amount of
carbon dioxide rises dramatically as warm oceans emit CO2 rather than absorb it.
But scientists
are Puzzled because over the past two years, when the increases have been 2.
08ppm and 2.5ppm respectively, there has been no EI Nino. Charles Keeling, the
man who began the observations in 1958, is now 74 and still working in the
field. He said yesterday: “The rise in the annual rate to above two parts per
million for two consecutive years is a real phenomenon. It is possible that
this is merely a reflection of natural events like previous peaks in the rate,
but it is also possible that it is the beginning of a natural process
unprecedented in the record.”
Analysts stress
that it is too early to draw any long-term conclusions. But the fear is that
the greater than normal rises in CO2 emissions mean that instead of decades to
bring global warming under control we may have only a few years. At worst, the
figures could be the first sign of the breakdown in the Earth’s NATURAL SYSTEM
FOR ABSORBING THE GAS. That would herald the so-called “runaway greenhouse
effect,” where the planet’s soaring temperature becomes impossible to contain.
One of the
predictions made by climate scientists in the intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change is that as the Earth warms, the absorption of carbon dioxide by
vegetation-known as “carbon sink”—is reduced. Dr. Keeling said since there was no sign of a dramatic
increase in the amount of fossil fuels being burnt in 2002 and 2003, the rise
“could be a weakening of the Earth’s carbon sinks, associated with the world
warming, as part of a climate change feedback mechanism. It is a cause for
concern.”
Tom Burke,
visiting professor at Imperial College London, and a former special adviser to
the former Tory environment minister, warned: “We’re watching the clock and the
clock is beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes off.” Peter
Cox, head of the Carbon Cycle Group at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for
Climate Change, said the increase in carbon dioxide was not uniform across the
globe. “My guess is that there were extra forest fires in the northern hemisphere,
and particularly a very hot summer in Europe.” Dr. Cox said. “This led to a
die-back in vegetation and an increase in release of carbon from the soil,
rather than more growing plants taking carbon out of the atmosphere, which is
usually the case in summer.”
Scientists have
dubbed the two-year CO2 rise the Mauna Loa anomaly. Dr. Cox said one of its
most interesting aspects was that the CO2 rises did not take place in EI Nino
years. Previously the only figures that climbed higher than 2 ppm were EI Nino
years. The heat wave of last year which claimed at least 30,000 lives across
the world was so out of the ordinary that many scientists believe it could only
have been caused by global warming. But D r Cox is concerned that too much
might be read into two years’ figures. “5 or 6 years on the trot would be very
difficult to explain,” he said.
Dr. Piers
Forster, senior research fellow of the University of Reading’s Department of
Meteorology, said: “if this is a rate change, of course it will be very significant.
It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global
warming predictions for the next hundred years or so will have to be redone.”
David Hofmann of
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration centre, which also studies
CO2, was more cautious. “I don’t think an increase of 2 ppm for two years in a
row is highly significant—there are climatic perturbations that can make this occur,” he said.
“But the absence of a known climatic event does make these years unusual. Based
on those two years alone I would say it was too soon to say that a new trend
has been established, but it warrants close scrutiny.”
1 Why has the change in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the
past two years raised fear and concern among climate scientists?
2 Explain briefly Tom Burke’s warning “We’re watching the clock and
the clock is beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes
off.” (para.6)
3 What are the major explanations for the
change in CO2 over the past two years?
【答案与解析】
1 Because in the past, above or below average rises in CO2 levels
in the atmosphere have been explained by natural events such as EI Nino.
However, this time while there has been no EI Nino, the CO2 levels have risen unprecedentedly.
Thus scientists fear that this may be caused by global warming.
（文章开头就提到科学家担心过去两年二氧化碳含量空前绝后的增高很有可能预示着全球变暖的开端。随后第2、3段又继续解释原因，即往年二氧化碳高于平均水平的增加是因为自然事件，像厄尔尼诺。但过去这两年并没有出现过厄尔尼诺，因此科学家担心原因可能是全球变暖到来了。）
2 Tom Burke’s warning means that the situation is becoming more and
more pressing, maybe quite soon we’ll finally enter the age of global warming.
（定位至文章第6段，Tom Burke形象地警示我们时钟走得越来越快了，好像预示着一颗炸弹就要爆炸了。时钟走得越来越快是在暗示我们的处境越来越危急，爆炸的炸弹这里指“全球变暖”，暗示着我们很可能真的要进入全球变暖时代，这样的话人类日后的处境会更加艰难。）
3 First, the absorption of carbon dioxide by vegetation—known as “carbon sink”—is reduced. Second, there may
have been extra forest fires in the northern hemisphere, and particularly a
very hot summer in Europe.
（文章第4、5段提到一个重要原因是吸收二氧化碳的植被减少了，或者是吸收二氧化碳气体的自然系统在崩坏。另一个原因在文章第6段，考克斯博士根据全球二氧化碳增长分布不均衡的形式推测，原因可能是欧洲地区在过去两年的夏天遭遇了比往年更多的森林火灾。）
Questions 4-5
The new SAT
scores are out, and buried in them is a sign of hope for American education.
True, the scores are actually a bit lower than last year’s; the combined
average for the SAT’s math and reading sections fell 7 points, to 1021, the
biggest decrease since 1975, when the score dropped 16 points, to 1010. But
statistically speaking, a 7-point decline (out of a possible 1600 on those two
sections) isn’t much. It’s less than the value of a single question, which is
about 10 points. Also, the SAT was radically changed last year. The College
Board made it longer and added Algebra II, more grammar and an essay. Fewer
kids wanted to take the new 3-hr. 45-min. test more than once, so fewer had an
opportunity to improve their performance. Scores were bound to slide.
But tucked into
the reams of data the College Board included with the new scores was some
wonderful news: I was wrong. In 2003 I spent six months tracking the
development of the new SAT. I sat through hours of test-development sessions
and even learned how to grade SAT essays. TIME ran my resulting story on its
cover that October.
The story did
make some predictions that turned out to be right. For instance, the new test
favors girls more than the old one did. It is a long-standing tenet of test making
that girls outperform boys on writing exams. For reasons I am not foolish
enough to speculate about in print, girls are better than boys at fixing
grammar and constructing essays, so the addition of a third SAT section, on
writing, was almost certain to shrink the male-female score gap. It did. Girls
trounced boys on the new writing section, 502 to 491. Boys still outscored
girls overall, thanks largely to boys’ 536 average on the math section,
compared with girls’ 502. But boys now lead on the reading section by just 3
points, 505 to 502; the gap was 8 points last year. What changed? The new test
has no analogies (“bird is to nest” as “dog is to doghouse”), and boys usually
clobbered girls on analogies.
My story also
predicted that the addition of the writing section would damage the SAT’S
reliability. Reliability is a measure of how similar a test’s results are from
one sitting to the next. The pre-2005 SAT had a standard error of measurement
of about 30 points per section. In other words, if you got a 500 on the math
section, your “true” score was anywhere between 470 and 530. But the new
writing section, which includes not only a multiple-choice grammar segment but
also the subjective essay, has a standard error of measurement of 40 points.
That means a kid who gets a 760 in writing may actually be a perfect 800—or a
clever-but-no-genius 720. In short, the College Board sacrificed some
reliability in order to include writing.
Finally, I was
right about one other thing: that the graders would reward formulaic, colorless
writing over sharp young voices. The average essay score for kids who wrote in
the first person was 6.9, compared with 7.2 for those who didn’t. (A 1-to-12
scale is used to grade essays. That score is then combined with the score on
the grammar questions and translated into the familiar 200 to 800 points.) As
my editors know well, first-person writing can flop. But the College Board is
now distributing a guide called “20 Outstanding SAT Essays”—all of them perfect
scores—and many are unbearably mechanical and clichéd.
Still, there’s
good news. The central contention of my 2003 story was that the SAT’S shift
from an abstract-reasoning test to a test of classroom material like Algebra 11
would hurt kids from failing schools. I was worried that the most vulnerable
students would struggle on the new version. Instead, the very poorest
children—those from families earning less than $20,000 a year—improved their
SAT performance this year. It was a modest improvement (just 3 points) but
significant, given the overall slump in scores. And noncitizen residents and
refugees saw their scores rise an impressive 13 points. It was middleclass and
rich kids who account for the much reported decline.
What explains
those wonderfully unpredictable findings? The College Board has no firm
answers, but its top researcher, Wayne Camara, suggests a (somewhat
self-serving) theory: the new SAT is less coachable. When designing the new
test, the board banned analogies and “quantitative comparisons”. “I think those
items disadvantaged students who did not have the resources, the motivation,
the awareness to figure out how to approach them,” says Camara. “By eliminating
those, the test becomes much less about strategy.” Because it focuses more on
what high schools teach and less on tricky reasoning questions, the SAT is now
more, not less, egalitarian.
Sometimes it’s
nice to be wrong.
4 What are some of the “right” predictions
the author made about the new SAT a few years ago?
5 Why does the author say that the addition of the writing section
would “damage the SAT’s reliability” (para.4)?
【答案与解析】
4 The author’s right predictions include three aspects. First, the
new test favors girls more than the old one did. Second, the addition of the
writing section would damage the SAT’S reliability. Third, that the graders
would reward formulaic, colorless writing over sharp young voices.
（作者对于新的学业能力倾向测试有三大预测是应验的，分别分布在3、4、5三个段落。第3段提到作者预测新型学业测试对女生更有利，因为新增的写作正是女生擅长的部分。第4段提到新增的写作部分会让测试可靠度下降，因为写作的批改主观性太强。第5段提到作者预测批卷人更喜欢刻板类的文章，而不是个人立场鲜明的文章。）
5 The author tells us that before the
addition of the writing section, the standard error of measurement of SAT is
only about 30 points per section. However, with the addition of the new writing
section, which is a quite subjective part, the standard error of measurement rises
to 40 points. Therefore, the reliability of the test is more or less damaged.
（文章第4段提到，改革前的测试分值误差上下不过30分，但是因为新型的测试加入了主观性较强的作文，因此分值误差增加至40分左右。因此，测试的可靠度就下降了。）
III. Writing (30 points)
Some people
argue that the only way to improve road safety is to impose severe punishment
for driving offences. Do you agree or disagree?
Write a
composition of about 400 words on your view of the topic on the answer sheet.
【参考范文】
Measures on Improving the Road Safety
There is no
denying that vehicle accidents are one of the top causes of injuries and death
worldwide. In my opinion, to reduce traffic accidents and improve road safety
is likely to need more than a simple severe punishment for driving offences.
It is undeniable
that severe punishments for driving offences will limit drivers’ behavior
because no one is willing to be fined or punished. However, placing punishment
as the only way to improve the road safety is far from enough. Besides, this
policy may even cause some trouble. For instance, since punishment is the only
way to solve problems, some drivers may bear the fluky psychology by paying
money to solve troubles, which may results in a corrupt atmosphere. However, there
are various other measures that could be implemented to improve road safety.
Firstly, I think
that the minimum legal age of drivers should be raised. Minor drivers are more
likely to cause car accidents mainly due to their incapability to control their
vehicles in emergency. What’s more, young teenagers pursue excitement more than
comfort, for they believe driving fast is cool, which is quite dangerous on the
road.
Secondly, I
think to help reduce traffic injuries, a zero tolerance policy on drink driving
should be imposed worldwide. According to the WHO, the level of enforcement of
drink-driving laws has a direct effect on the incidence of drinking and
driving. Besides, drivers are supposed to strictly abide by traffic rules, as
ignoring or breaking them is another main cause of fatal road accidents. For
instance, over-speeding is deemed as top road killer and should be avoided
whether or not the traffic police or speed cameras are present.
Thirdly, the
safety awareness of drivers is as well important. For example, drivers who
ignore shoulder-check when making turns or merging are more likely to cause
crash injures than those who do check their shoulders. Also, bad road users’
behaviors like listing to music on headphones or using mobile phones while
driving can be extremely dangerous and should be avoided. Other safety
awareness includes always wearing a seatbelt and increasing visibility in poor
daylight and in darkness.
In conclusion, I
think that radical reduction of traffic accidents and significant improvement
on road safety would depend on severe punishment for driving offences, raise of
minimum driving age, zero tolerance to drinking driving and the drivers’
enhance of safety awareness. By those joined efforts, I believe the road safety
will be improved in the near future.
【解析】
对于公路车祸率居高不下的现象，有些人提出提高公路安全的唯一途径是加大惩罚力度的观点，针对这一观点，作者展开讨论。文章第一段开门见山表明立场，作者认为加大惩罚力度这唯一的途径是远远不够的。第二段作者指出加大惩罚力度的优势以及潜在的劣势，并提出还有许多其他的措施可行。第三段是作者提出的第一个措施，即提高最小驾驶年龄，论点是青少年驾驶难以掌控紧急情况。第四段是作者提出的第二个措施，即严格把控酒驾，论点是酒驾是所有车祸原因中的首位。第五段是作者提出的第三个措施，即驾驶要提高驾驶安全意识，如系好安全带，转弯时注意看周围有没有车等等。最后一段作者总结文章中提出的几大措施，认为只要这些多方面的工作都能做到位，公路安全一定会得到改善。
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