发布时间 : 星期一 文章2012考研英语二试题及详解更新完毕开始阅读588554ada1c7aa00b42acb59
[C] patants on genes depend much on innovation
[D] courts should restrict access to genetic tests 33. According to Hans Sauer , companies are eager to win patents for_____. [A] establishing disease correlations [B] discovering gene interactions [C] drawing pictures of genes [D] identifying human DNA 34. By saying“Each meeting was packed”(Line 4,Para.6), the author means that______.
[A] the supreme court was authoritative [B] the BIO was a powerful organisation [C] gene patenting was a great concern
[D] lawyers were keen to attend conventions
35. Generally speaking, the author’s attitude toward gene patenting is______. [A] critical [B] supportive [C] scornful
[D] objective Text 4
The great recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. And ultimately, it is likely to reshape our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years.
No one tries harder than the jobless to find silver linings in this national economic disaster. Many said that unemployment, while extremely painful, had improved them in some ways: they had become less
materialistic and more financially prudent; they were more aware of the struggles of others. In limited respects, perhaps the recession will leave society better off. At the very least, it has awoken us from our national fever dream of easy riches and bigger houses, and put a necessary end to an era of reckless personal spending.
But for the most part, these benefits seem thin, uncertain, and far off. In The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, the economic historian
Benjamin Friedman argues that both inside and outside the U.S., lengthy periods of economic stagnation or decline have almost always left society more mean-spirited and less inclusive, and have usually stopped or reversed the advance of rights and freedoms. Anti-immigrant sentiment typically increases, as does conflict between races and classes.
Income inequality usually falls during a recession, but it has not shrunk in this one. Indeed, this period of economic weakness may reinforce class divides, and decrease opportunities to cross them – especially for young people. The research of Till Von Wachter, the economic at Columbia University, suggests that not all people graduating into a recession see their life chances dimmed: those with degrees from elite universities catch up fairly quickly to where they otherwise would have been if they had graduated in better times; it is the masses beneath them that are left behind.
In the Internet age, it is particularly easy to see the resentment that has always been hidden within American society. More difficult, in the moment, is discerning precisely how these lean times are affecting society’s character. In many respects, the U.S. was more socially tolerant entering this recession than at any time in its history, and a variety of national polls on social conflict since then have shown mixed results. We will have to wait and see exactly how these hard times will reshape our social fabric. But they certainly will reshape it, and all the more so the longer they extend. 36. By saying “to find silver linings”(Line 1,Para.2)the author suggests that the jobless try to ___.
[A] seek subsidies from the government [B] explore reasons for the unemployment [C] make profit from the troubled economy [D]look on the bright side of the recession
37. According to Paragraph 2, the recession has made people___. [A] realize the national dream [B] struggle against each other [C] challenge their prudence [D]reconsider their lifestyle
38. Benjamin Friedman believes that economic recessions may___.
[A] impose a heavier burden on immigrants
[B] bring out more evils of human nature
[C] promote the advance of rights and freedoms [D]ease conflicts between races and classes
39. The research of Till Von Wachter suggests that in the recession graduates from elite universities tend to___.
[A] lag behind the others due to decreased opportunities [B] catch up quickly with experienced employees [C] see their life chances as dimmed as the others [D]recover more quickly than the others
40. The author thinks that the influence of hard times on society is _____. [A] certain [B] positive [C] trivial [D]destructive
Part B
Directions:
Read the following text and answer the questions by reading information from the left column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Make your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
“University history, the history of what man has accomplished in the world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here,” wrote the Victorian Thomas Carlyle Well, not any more it is not. Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favorite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from our forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration. From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing Debins Illustribus—on Famous Men, highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on its head. In The Prince, he championed cunning, ruthlessness, and boldness, rather than virtue, mercy and justice, as the skills of successful leaders.
Over time, the attributes of greatness shifted. The Romantics
commemorated the leading painters and author of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist’s person experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samuel Smile wrote self
—Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explorers. “The valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self —help, of patient purpose resolute working and steadfast
integrity, issuing in the formation of truly noble and manly character, exhibit.” wrote Smile, “what it is in the power of each to accomplish for himself.” His biographies of James Watt, Richard Arkwright and Josian Wedgwood were held up as beacons to guide the working man through his difficult life.
This was all a bit bourgeois for Thomas Carlyle, who focused his biographies on the truly heroic lives of Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte. These epochal figures represented lives hard to imitate, but to be acknowledged as possessing higher authority than mere mortals.
Not everyone was convinced by such bombast. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” wrote Marx and Engel in The Communist Manifesto. For them, history did nothing, it possessed no immense wealth nor waged battles: “It is man, living man who does all that.” And history should be the story of the masses and their record of struggle, As such, it needed to appreciate the economic realities, the social contexts and power relations in which each epoch stood. For:“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past.”
This was the tradition which revolutionized our appreciation of the past. In place of Thomas Carlyle, Britain nurtured Christopher Hill, EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. History from below stood alongside
biographies of great men. Whole new realms of understanding — from gender to race to cultural studies — were opened up as scholars unpicked the multiplicity of lost societies. And it transformed public history too: downstairs became just as fascinating as upstairs. [A] emphasized the virtue of classical heroes 41. Petrarch [B] highlighted the public glory of the leading 42.Niccolò Machiavelli 43. Samuel Smiles artists. [C] focused on epochal figures whose lives were hard to imitate. [D]opened up new realms of understanding the masses and their record of struggle.