2012年考研英語二真題及答案詳解完整版

Section Ⅰ Use of English

Directions:

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark [A], [B], [C] or [D]on ANSWER SHEET 1. ( 10 points)　

Millions of Americans and foreigners see G.I. Joe as a mindless war toy, the symbol of American military adventurism, but that’s not how it used to be. To the men and women who   1 in World War Ⅱand the people they liberated, the G.I. was the   2  man grown into hero, the poor farm kid torn away from his home, the guy who  3  all the burdens of battle, who slept in cold foxholes, who went without the   4  of food and shelter, who stuck it out and drove back the Nazi reign of murder. This was not a volunteer soldier, not someone well paid,   5   an average guy up   6  the best trained, best equipped, fiercest, most brutal enemies seen in centuries.

His name isn't much. GI. is just a military abbreviation   7  .Government Issue, and it was on all of the articles  8   to soldiers. And Joe? A common name for a guy who never    9   it to the top. Joe Blow, Joe Palooka. Joe Magrac...a working class name. The United States has 10   had a president or vice-president or secretary of state Joe.

G.I. Joe had a  11   career fighting German, Japanese, and Korean troops. He appears as a character. or a   12   of American personalities, in the 1945 movie The Story of G.I. Joe, based on the last days of war correspondent Emie Pyle. Some of the soldiers Pyle   13    portrayed themselves in the film. Pyle was famous for covering the   14   side of the war, writing about the dirt-snow-and-mud soldiers not how many miles were    15    or what towns were captured or liberated. His reports   16   the “Willie” cartoons of famed Stars and Stripes artist Bill Maulden. Both men­   17   the dirt and exhaustion of war, the   18    of civilization that the soldiers shared with each other and the civilians: coffee, tobacco, whiskey, shelter, sleep.  19    Egypt, France, and a dozen more countries, G.I. Joe was any American soldier,   20    the most important person in their lives.

1.[A] performed         [B] served                  [C] rebelled            [D] betrayed

2.[A] actual               [B] common              [C] special              [D] normal

3.[A] bore                 [B] cased                   [C] removed           [D] loaded

4.[A] necessities         [B] facilities               [C] commodities      [D] properties

5.[A] and                   [B] nor                      [C] but                   [D] hence

6.[A] for                   [B] into                     [C] form                 [D] against

7.[A] meaning            [B] implying              [C] symbolizing      [D] claiming

8.[A] handed out        [B] turn over              [C] brought back   [D] passed down

9.[A] pushed              [B] got                      [C] made                [D] managed

10.[A] ever                [B] never                   [C] either                [D] neither

11.[A] disguised         [B] disturbed              [C] disputed            [D] distinguished

12.[A] company         [B] collection             [C] community        [D] colony

13.[A] employed        [B] appointed             [C] interviewed       [D] questioned

14.[A] ethical             [B] military               [C] political            [D] human

15.[A] ruined             [B] commuted            [C] patrolled           [D] gained

16.[A] paralleled        [B] counteracted         [C] duplicated         [D] contradicted

17.[A] neglected         [B] avoided                [C] emphasized       [D] admired

18.[A] stages              [B] illusions               [C] fragments          [D] advances

19.[A] With               [B] To                       [C] Among             [D] Beyond

20.[A] on the contrary   [B] by this means     [C] from the outset     [D] at that point

完形填空答案：

1.B 2.B 3.A 4.A 5.C 6.B 7.C 8.A 9.D 10.B11.D 12.B 13.C 14.D 15.B16.A 17.C 18.B 19.B 20.D

Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text 1

Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recently years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student's academic grade.

This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.

District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across­-the-­board rule.

At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.

The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L. A. Unified to do homework right

21. It is implied in Paragraph 1 that nowadays homework________.

[A] is receiving more criticism                                

[B] is no longer an educational ritual

[C] is not required for advanced courses                        

[D] is gaining more preferences

22. L.A. Unified has made the rule about homework mainly because poor students________.

[A] tend to have moderate expectations for their education    

[B] have asked for a different educational standard

[C] may have problems finishing their homework                

[D] have voiced their complaints about homework

23. According to Paragraph 3, one problem with the policy is that it may________.

[A] discourage students from doing homework                    

[B] result in students' indifference to their report cards

[C] undermine the authority of state tests                             

[D] restrict teachers' power in education

24. As mentioned in Paragraph 4, a key question unanswered about homework is whether ______.

[A] it should be eliminated                               [B] it counts much in schooling

[C] it places extra burdens on teachers                      [D] it is important for grades

25. A suitable title for this text could be________.

[A] Wrong Interpretations of an Educational Policy          

[B] A Welcomed Policy for Poor Students

[C] Thorny Questions about Homework                   

[D] A Faulty Approach to Homework

Text 2

Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls' lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls' identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two­-year-­olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls' lives and interests.

Girls' attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colour­-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What's more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-­neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolized femininity. It was not until the mid-­1980s，when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children's marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years.

I had not realized how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children's behavior: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularized as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.

Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping stone” between infant wear and older kids' clothes. It was only after “toddler” became a common shoppers' term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever­tinier categories has proved a sure-­fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences—or invent them where they did not previously exist.

26. By saying “it is…the rainbow” (Line 2, Para.1), the author means pink________.

[A] should not be the sole representation of girlhood            

[B] should not be associated with girls' innocence

[C] cannot explain girls' lack of imagination                        

[D] cannot influence girls' lives and interests

27. According to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours?

[A] Colors are encoded in girls' DNA.                                 

[B] Blue used to be regarded as the colour for girls.

[C] Pink used to be a neutral colour in symbolizing genders. 

[D] White is preferred by babies.

28. The author suggests that our perception of children's psychological development was much influenced by________.

[A] the marketing of products for children                          

[B] the observation of children's nature

[C] researches into children's behavior                                 

[D] studies of childhood consumption

29. We may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised to________.

[A] focus on infant wear and older kids' clothes                   

[B] attach equal importance to different genders

[C] classify consumers into smaller groups                          

[D] create some common shoppers' terms

30. It can be concluded that girls' attraction to pink seems to be________.

[A] clearly explained by their inborn tendency                     

[B] fully understood by clothing manufacturers

[C] mainly imposed by profit­-driven businessmen                

[D] well interpreted by psychological experts 

Text 3

In 2010, a federal judge shook America's biotech industry to its core. Companies had won patents for isolated DNA for decades—by 2005 some 20% of human genes were patented. But in March 2012 a judge ruled that genes were unpatentable. Executives were violently agitated. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a trade group, assured members that this was just a “preliminary step” in a longer battle.

On July 29th they were relieved, at least temporarily. A federal appeals court overturned the prior decision, ruling that Myriad Genetics could indeed hold patents to two genes that help forecast a woman's risk of breast cancer. The chief executive of Myriad, a company in Utah, said the ruling was a blessing to firms and patients alike.

But as companies continue their attempts at personalized medicine, the courts will remain rather busy. The Myriad case itself is probably not over. Critics make three main arguments against gene patents: a gene is a product of nature, so it may not be patented; gene patents suppress innovation rather than reward it; and patents’ monopolies restrict access to genetic tests such as Myriad's. A growing number seem to agree. Last year a federal task­force urged reform for patents related to genetic tests. In October the Department of Justice filed a brief in the Myriad case, arguing that an isolated DNA molecule “is no less a product of nature…than are cotton fibres that have been separated from cotton seeds.”

Despite the appeals court's decision, big questions remain unanswered. For example, it is unclear whether the sequencing of a whole genome violates the patents of individual genes within it. The case may yet reach the Supreme Court.

As the industry advances, however, other suits may have an even greater impact. Companies are unlikely to file many more patents for human DNA molecules—most are unlikely patented or in the public domain. Firms are now studying how genes interact, looking for correlations that might be used to determine the causes of disease or predict a drug's efficacy. Companies are eager to win patents for “connecting the dots，” explains Hans Sauer, a lawyers for the BIO.

Their success may be determined by a suit related to this issue, brought by the Mayo Clinic, which the Supreme Court will hear in its next term. The BIO recently held a convention which included sessions to coach lawyers on the shifting landscape for patents. Each meeting was packed.

31. It can be learned from Paragraph 1 that the biotech companies would like________.

[A] their executives to be active                            

[B] judges to rule out gene patenting

[C] genes to be patentable                                 

[D] the BIO to issue a warning

32. Those who are against gene patents believe that________.

[A] genetic tests are not reliable                            

[B] only man­made products are patentable

[C] patents 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 organization

[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 profits 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

答案：

TEXT1：21. A 22.C 23.A 24.B 25.D

TEXT2：26.A 27.B 28.A 29.C 30.C

TEXT3：31.C 32.B 33.A 34.D 35.D

TEXT4：36.D 37.D 38.B 39.D 40.A

Part B

Directions:

Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the right column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the left column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

“Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this 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 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 De Viris 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. InThe 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 authors of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist’s personal experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samuel Smiles wrote Self-Helpas 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 Smiles, “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 Engels in The Communist Manifesto. For them, history did nothing, it possessed no immense wealth nor waged battles: “It is man, real, 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.?

答案：41-45：AFGCE

Section III Translation

46. Directions:

Translate the following text from English into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

When people in developing countries worry about migration, they are usually concerned at the prospect of their best and brightest departure to Silicon Valley or to hospitals and universities in developed world. These are the kind of workers that countries like Britain, Canada and Australia try to attract by using immigration rules that privilege college graduates.

Lots of studies have found that well-educated people from developing countries are particularly likely to emigrate. A big survey of Indian households in 2004 found that nearly 40% of emigrants had more than a high-school education, compared with around 3.3% of all

Indians over the age 25. This “brain drain” has long bothered policymakers in poor countries. They fear that it hurts their economies, depriving them of much-needed skilled workers who could have taught at their universities, worked in their hospitals and come up with clever new products for their factories to make.

全文譯文

當(dāng)發(fā)展中的人民考慮移民的時(shí)候，他們通常最向往離開家鄉(xiāng)前往硅谷或是發(fā)達(dá)的醫(yī)院和大學(xué)。這些人才是諸如美國、加拿大和澳大利亞等期望吸引到的類型，這些通過制定有利于大學(xué)畢業(yè)生的移民政策吸引人才。

多項(xiàng)研究表明，來自于發(fā)展中受過良好教育的人尤其可能選擇移民國外。2004 年對(duì)印度家庭的一次大型調(diào)查顯示，接近 40%的移民國外者都接受過高中以上的教育，相比之下，在整個(gè)印度超過 25 歲的印度人口中，只有大約 3.3%的人接受過高中以上的教育。這樣的“人才流失”現(xiàn)象長期困擾著貧困的政策制定者。

這些政策制定者們擔(dān)心，移民造成的人才流失會(huì)使本國經(jīng)濟(jì)蒙受損失，奪走本國急需的人才，而這些人本可以在自己的大學(xué)教書，自己的醫(yī)院工作，并且為本國的工廠開發(fā)新的產(chǎn)品。

Section IV Writing

Part A

47. Directions:

Suppose you have found something wrong with the electronic dictionary that you bought from an online store the other day. Write an email to the customer service center to

1) make a complaint, and

2) demand a prompt solution.

You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.

Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use “Zhang Wei”instead.

Do not write the address. (10 points)

答案：Section Ⅳ Ⅳ Writing

Part A

審題

本提綱的要求是寫一封投訴信。題目指令中的重點(diǎn)信息有以下幾點(diǎn)，請(qǐng)考生審題的時(shí)候重點(diǎn)把握：1.電子字典的質(zhì)量問題或使用中出現(xiàn)的一些關(guān)于該產(chǎn)品本身的問題。注意關(guān)于電子產(chǎn)品的質(zhì)量問題描述時(shí)的語言的正確表達(dá)；2.網(wǎng)店購物的提及；3.投訴；4.解決事宜。

范文

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to make a complaint against your product quality. I bought an electronic dictionary from your online store last week butI found something wrong with its quality when I first used it. So I am writing this letter to complain against the flaws in your product.

To begin with, when I turn it on, all I got was a fuzzy screen, which was completely unacceptable. Secondly,I did not find the original equipment battery promised free of charge in the advertisement posted on the homepage of your shop.

Therefore, I would like to either change the electronic dictionary for a new one or receive a refund for it. I would be most grateful for your help.

Sincerely,

Zhang Wei

譯文

親愛的先生、女士：

我寫信是來投訴你們產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量問題。我上周在您的網(wǎng)店里購買了一個(gè)電子字典，但是我第一次用的時(shí)候發(fā)現(xiàn)它有些質(zhì)量問題。所以我寫信告知您產(chǎn)品的缺陷。

首先，開機(jī)時(shí)字典屏幕非常模糊，這是根本不能接受的。其次，電子字典里裝配的電池也與你們網(wǎng)站上宣傳的免費(fèi)原裝電池不符。

因此，我想您是否能給我換一個(gè)新的電子字典或是給我退款。我將會(huì)非常感謝您的幫助。

真誠的

張偉

Section IV Writing

Part B

48. Directions:

Write an essay based on the following table. In your writing, you should

1) describe the table, and

2) give your comments.

You should write at least 150 words.

Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15point)

Part B

審題

該表格反映某公司不同年齡段的員工對(duì)工作滿意度的調(diào)查情況。該表并不單純反映不同年齡段人對(duì)工作滿意度

的差異，應(yīng)該通過現(xiàn)象看到事物本質(zhì)，分析造成該現(xiàn)象的原因是什么。

范文

This table illustrates the difference of degree of satisfaction among employees at different ages in some company.

In general, the overall trend of the degree of satisfaction is different with the variation of ages. Of those who feel satisfactory about their jobs, those beyond 50 years old take up the majority, accounting for 40%, followed by those who are no more than 40 years old, which take up 16.7%.Those between 41 to 50 years old have the lowest satisfactory rate,merely 0.0%.Of those who feel dissatisfactory about their jobs, those between 41 to 50 years old take up the majority, accounting for 64.0%, followed by those less than 40 years old, which take up 33.3%.Those who beyond 50 years old enjoy the lowest dissatisfactory rate, taking up only 10%.Besides, there are still 50.0% of less than 40 years old employees, 36.0% of those between 41 to 50 years old and 50.0% of over 50 years old employees remaining uncertain about the degree of satisfaction.

The contributory factors to this result can mainly divide into three parts. Firstly, those less than 40 years old are ambitious, impractical and eager to find their places in work.With those characteristics, they often get upset when they fail to fulfill their goals. Secondly,those between 41 to 50 years old employees, confronted with challenges posed by their young colleagues, often face a great deal of working competition and pressure. Lastly, with their impending retirement, those beyond 50 years old face relatively small working pressure and feel satisfactory about their jobs.