[D]scientific work calls for a critical mind.
35.Which of the following would be the best title of the test? [A] Novelty as an Engine of Scientific Development. [B]Collective Scrutiny in Scientific Discovery. [C] Evolution of Credibility in Doing Science.
[D]Challenge to Credibility at the Gate to Science.
If the trade unionist Jimmy Hoffa were alive today, he would probably represent civil servant. When Hoffa’s Teamsters were in their prime in 1960, only one in ten American government workers belonged to a union; now 36% do. In 2009 the number of unionists in America’s public sector passed that of their fellow members in the private sector. In Britain, more than half of public-sector workers but only about 15% of private-sector ones are unionized.
There are three reasons for the public-sector unions’ thriving. First, they can shut things down without suffering much in the way of consequences. Second, they are mostly bright and well-educated. A quarter of America’s public-sector workers have a university degree. Third, they now dominate
left-of-centre politics. Some of their ties go back a long way. Britain’s Labor Party, as its name implies, has long been associated with trade unionism. Its current leader, Ed Miliband, owes his position to votes from public-sector unions.
At the state level their influence can be even more fearsome. Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California points out that much of the state’s budget is patrolled by unions. The teachers’ unions keep an eye on schools, the CCPOA on prisons and a variety of labor groups on health care.
In many rich countries average wages in the state sector are higher than in the private one. But the real gains come in benefits and work practices. Politicians have repeatedly “backloaded” public-sector pay deals, keeping the pay increases modest but adding to holidays and especially pensions that are already generous.
Reform has been vigorously opposed, perhaps most egregiously in education, where charter schools, academies and merit pay all faced drawn-out battles. Even though there is plenty of evidence that the quality of the teachers is the most important variable, teachers’ unions have fought against getting rid of bad ones and promoting good ones.
As the cost to everyone else has become clearer, politicians have begun to clamp down. In Wisconsin the unions have rallied thousands of supporters against Scott Walker, the hardline Republican governor. But many within the public sector suffer under the current system, too.
John Donahue at Harvard’s Kennedy School points out that the norms of culture in Western civil services suit those who want to stay put but is bad for high achievers. The only American public-sector workers who earn well above $250,000 a year are university sports coaches and the president of the United States. Bankers’ fat pay packets have attracted much criticism, but a public-sector system that does not reward high achievers may be a much bigger problem for America.
36. It can be learned from the first paragraph that [A] Teamsters still have a large body of members. [B] Jimmy Hoffa used to work as a civil servant.
[C] unions have enlarged their public-sector membership.
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[D]the government has improved its relationship with unionists. 37. Which of the following is true of Paragraph 2?
[A] Public-sector unions are prudent in taking actions.
[B] Education is required for public-sector union membership.
[C] Labor Party has long been fighting against public-sector unions. [D]Public-sector unions seldom get in trouble for their actions.
38. It can be learned from Paragraph 4 that the income in the state sector is [A] illegally secured. [B] indirectly augmented. [C] excessively increased. [D]fairly adjusted.
39. The example of the unions in Wisconsin shows that unions [A]often run against the current political system. [B]can change people’s political attitudes. [C]may be a barrier to public-sector reforms.
[D]are dominant in the government.
40. John Donahue’s attitude towards the public-sector system is one of [A]disapproval.[B]appreciation.[C]tolerance.[D]indifference.
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)
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What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of \experiences to which others adhere.
[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.
[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
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 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.
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(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
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 1) describe the drawing briefly 2) explain its intended meaning, and 3) give your comments
You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET2.（20 points）
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【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”;stick to “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。
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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]。
16.【答案】C【解析】此题考察词意辨析。首先分析该句，可知空白处添加上一动词可构成一定语从句，限定“the law”。其次，文中语境表达“当法律处理社会政策决策问题时，。。。的法律不可避免的具有政治性。四个选项中，[C]为最佳答案。
17.【答案】A【解析】此题考察词意辨析。可由文中语境得知，该半句主要表达“这也就解释了为何背离思想路线的决策被看作是不公正的，从而被轻易的….”。结合语境，以及四个选项的意思，可知[A]最佳。
18.【答案】C【解析】此题考察词意辨析。由文中语境可知该句主要表达“法官必须。。。有关法庭(裁决的)公正合理的质疑。”四个选项中，仅[C]符合题意。
19.【答案】D【解析】本题考察短语搭配及相似短语辨析。四个选项均可与连用，其中accessible to 易接近的;可归属的;可得到的可归因的amiable to可亲，多指人和蔼可亲，易于接近agreeable to欣然同意的;适合的，适宜的accountable to对…负责
此题的理解需承接整个句, 首先此空所在后半句乃一方式状语，承接前半句说明法官怎样来解决有关法庭(裁决的)公正合理的质疑。将此四个选项分别代入，可得出正确答案[D]，法官只有对对行为准则负责，也即是遵循一定的行为准则才可确保其裁决的公正与合理。
20.【答案】D【解析】此题考察逻辑搭配。此句承接上句，旨在说明由此带来的结果，也即是文中所说的“。。。使得裁决看起来完全不受政治的影响，如法律一般令人信服。” 结合四个选项意思，可知选[D]。
21.【答案】D【解析】文章首段包含了两方面的内容，作者先简单介绍Peer pressure，再引出Tina Rosenberg在她的新书Join the Club中对于peer pressure的看法，这篇文章是以一篇书评的形式出现。而题目“根据第一段，同伴压力的出现常常是…”问的仅仅是同伴压力，并无涉及到Tina Rosenberg或者她的新书，因此答案则应主要涉及文章对于peer pressure的介绍，而非Tina对于peer pressure的看法。首段第三句说“(同伴压力)通常引起不好的事情，如酗酒，嗑药，乱交”，故答案选D，说明同伴压力出现导致的结果，这里的答案使用了同义替换的方式。
22.【答案】B【解析】根据题干关键词“public-health advocates”可以定位到第三段最后一句话“Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure”,即应该向广告商学习，这里主要是对于短语“take a page from”的理解，答案选B
23.【答案】A【解析】根据题干“在作者看来，Rosenberg的书没能…”，所选答案是要找出作者看来这本书的缺点是什么。文章第四段第一句话说“但是，在…方面，Rosenberg不太有说服力”，紧接着说“Join the Club中太多无关的细节，而对于使同伴压力能产生如此大作用的社会和生物因素并未做足够的探究”，这句话充分说明了在作者心目中这本书的不足在哪儿，故答案选A
24.【答案】C【解析】这是一道细节题。文章第五段首句告诉我们peer groups确实会对行为产生很大的影响，第二句具体说明影响的内容，即好的习惯和不好的习惯都会通过社会交际在朋友圈中传递，最后一句则对这种影响进行了总结，“这是同伴压力的细微表现，我们无意识地模仿日常所见到的行为”。而分析题干和选项，我们发现该题是对“imitation of behavior”进行归纳，回到原文，找到“我们无意识地模仿日常所见到的行为”，答案即刻清晰，这里是对unconsciously一词进行了释义，因此C选项正确。
25.【答案】D【解析】这道题考查作者对于peer pressure所能带来的影响的态度，作者通过最后一段第一句话首先向我们表明他对“专家和其他官方人员是否能成功选择同伴来引导他们的行为朝好的方向发展”的不肯定，接下来以教
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2012年考研英语一真题及答案完整解析(1)
