choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET1.(10 points)
Think of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aeroplane window and realise that you are flying, higher than a bird. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a brown-paper envelope, or your cellphone in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.
The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. (41)
The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production, means of distribution, site of reception, and place of praise and critique. The computer is the 21st century's culture machine.
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. (42)I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.
All animals download, but only a few upload. Beavers build dams and birds make nests. Yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods - paintings, sculpture and architecture - and superfluous experiences - music, literature, religion and philosophy. (43)
For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. (44)
Television is a one-way tap flowing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after he has turned it on.
(45)What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of \
[A] Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and
ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.
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[B] Applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others.
[C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.
[D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading - between passive consumption and active creation - whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine.
[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players. [F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past
half-century, much of the world's media culture has been defined by a single medium - television - and television is defined by downloading.
[G]The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.
Part C Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise. In some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton’s laws of motion and Darwinian evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory frame work.
(46)In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of everything-a single generative equation for all we see.It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail, nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal.
This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too.
(47)Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification for it all humans share common origins it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings. Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world’s languages, music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. (48)To filter out what is unique from what is shared might enable
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us to understand how complex cultural behavior arose and what guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.
That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the light of two previous attempts to find universality in language. The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that
humans are born with an innate language-acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.
(49)The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many language which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints
Gray and his colleagues have put them to the test by examining four family trees that
between them represent more than 2,000 languages.(50)Chomsky’s grammar should show patterns of language change that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it. Whereas Greenbergian universality predicts strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations. Neither of these patterns is borne out by the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages are lire age-specific and not governed by universals
Section III Writing Part A 51. Directions:
Some internationals students are coming to your university. Write them an email in the name of the Students’ Union to
1) extend your welcome and
2) provide some suggestions for their campus life here.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET2.Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use “Li Ming” instead.
Do not write the address(10 points) Part B
52. Directions: write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay you should
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1) describe the drawing briefly 2) explain its intended meaning, and 3) give your comments
You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET2.(20 points) 答案解析： 1.【答案】B
【解析】从空后信息可以看出，这句表达的是\法官表现得像政治家\的情况下，法庭就不能保持其作为法律法规的合法卫士的形象，所以应该选C,maintain\维持，保持\，其他显然语义不通。
2.【答案】A
【解析】从第三段可以看出，文章认为法院和政治之间应该是有界限的。所以这里应该是当法官像政治家一样行事，模糊了二者之间的区别时，就失去了其作为法律卫士的合法性。只有B，when表示这个意思。
3.【答案】B
【解析】第二段给的具体事例说明，法官出现在政治活动中会使法官形象受损，影响他们独立、公正的名声。只有B，weaken能表示这个意思。
4.【答案】D
【解析】空前信息显示，法官出席政治活动会让法院的审判收到影响，人们就会认为其审判不公正，所以选D，be accepted as...\被认为是\。
5.【答案】C
【解析】空所在的语境为：产生这样的问题，部分原因在于\法官没有_ _道德规范\。后一句话说，至少法院应该遵守行为规范，这显然是进一步说明上一句话。所以上一句是说法官没有受到道德规范的约束，选C，bound。
6.【答案】B
【解析】根据解析5可以看出，这里应该是说遵守行为规范，subject与to连用，表示\服从某物，受…支配\。故本题选B。
7.【答案】D
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【解析】分析句子结构可知，这里是由that引导的定语从句修饰说明前面的行为规范，是说法院也应当遵守适用于其他联邦司法部的行为规范。apply to \适用于\符合题意。resort to \求助于\坚持(原则等)\语意不通。
8.【答案】B
【解析】空所在的语境为，类似这样的案例提出了这样一个问题：法院和政治之间是否还存在着界限。提出问题，产生问题用只能选raise。
9.【答案】A
【解析】根据第8题可知，空内应填line，\界限\。 barrier \障碍\，similarity\相似性\，conflict\冲突\都不合题意。
10.【答案】B
【解析】根据句意，宪法的起草者们预想的是将司法从政治中分出来，让其享有独立的权力。envision as \将…想象成…\。所以选B。
11.【答案】A
【解析】本题考察逻辑搭配。本选项答案的确定需结合前句意思，制宪者旨在使法律不受政治的任何影响，这样一来，法官就可以免受掌权者的影响了。此空就是考察由此所带来的结果，故选[A]。
12.【答案】C
【解析】此题承接上题，可知法律不受政治的影响，从而法官也不用担心掌权者(those in power)。
13.【答案】C
【解析】此题承接上题, 结合句意, 可知该半句主要表达\法官也无需政治支持了。\选项C最符题意。
14.【答案】D
【解析】此题考察词意辨析。原句表达\我们的法律体系是法律完全不受政治的影响，是因为这两者是紧密。。。\。结合句意思，[D]最合题意.
15.【答案】A
【解析】此题考察词意辨析。文中说\宪法具有政治性，是因其的选择都是植根于诸如自由，财产之类的基本社会。。。中。\自由，财产是西方社会的一些基本社会理念或概念，故选[A]。
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2012年考研英语一真题原文及答案解析完整版
