2015年华南理工大学考博英语真题

1101

华南理工大学

2015年攻读博士学位研究生入学考试试卷（试卷上做答无效，请在答题纸上做答，试后本卷必须与答题纸一同交回）

科目名称：英语(A卷)

适用专业：全校所有专业

Passage 1

The word conservation has a thrifty meaning. To conserve is to save and protect, to leave what we ourselves enjoy in such good condition that others may also share the enjoyment. Our forefathers had no idea that human population would increase faster than the supplies of raw materials; most of them, even until very recently, had the foolish idea that the treasures were “limitless” and “inexhaustible”. Most of the citizens of earlier generations knew little or nothing about the complicated and delicate system that runs all through nature, and which means that, as in a living body, an unhealthy condition of one part will sooner or later be harmful to all the others.

Fifty years ago nature study was not part of the school work; scientific forestry was a new idea; timber was still cheap because it could be brought in any quantity from distant woodlands; soil destruction and river floods were not national problems; nobody had yet studied long-term climatic cycles in relation to proper land use; even the word “conservation” had nothing of the meaning that it has for us today.

For the sake of ourselves and those who will come after us, we must now set about repairing the mistakes of our forefathers. Conservation should, therefore, be made a part of e veryone’s daily life. To know about the water table in the ground is just as important to us as a knowledge of the basic arithmetic formulas. We need to know why all watersheds need the protection of plant life and why the running current of streams and rivers must be made to yield their full benefit to the soil before they finally escape to the sea. We need to be taught the duty of planting trees as well as of cutting them. We need to know the importance of big, mature trees, because living space for most of man’s fellow creatures on this planet is figured not only in square measure of surface but also in cubic volume above the earth. In brief, it should be our goal to restore as much of the original beauty of nature as we can.

A.1). The author’s attitude tow ards the current situation in the exploitation of

natural resources is___.

A) positive B) neutral C) suspicious D) critical

2). According to the author, the greatest mistake of our forefathers was that

________.

A) they had no idea about scientific forestry

B) they had little or no sense of environmental protection

C) they were not aware of the significance of nature study

D) they had no idea of how to make good use of raw materials

3). It can be inferred from th e passage that earlier generations didn’t realize

________.

A) the interdependence of water, soil, and living things

B) the importance of the proper land use

C) the harmfulness of soil destruction and river floods

D) the extraordinary rapid growth of population

4). With a view to correcting the mistakes of our forefathers, the author

suggests that ________.

A) we plant more trees

B) we be taught environmental science, as well as the science of plants

C) environmental education be directed toward everyone

D) we return to nature

5). What does the author imply by saying “living space … is figured …

also in cubic volume above the earth” (lines 8 - 9, Para. 3)?

A) Our living space on the earth is getting smaller and smaller.

B) Our living space should be measured in cubic volume.

C) We need to take some measures to protect space.

D) We must create better living conditions for both birds and animals.

Passage 2

Material culture refers to the toucha ble, material “things”—physical objects that can be seen, held, fell, used —that a culture produces. Examining a culture’s tools and technology can tell us about the group’s history and way of life. Similarly, research into the material culture of music: can help us to understand the music culture. The most vivid body of “things” in it, of course, are musical instruments. We cannot bear for ourselves the actual sound of any musical performance before the 1870s when phonograph was invented, so we rely on instruments for important information about music-cultures in the remote past and their development. Here we have two kinds of evidence: instruments well preserved and instruments pictured in art. Through the study of instruments, as well as paintings, written documents, and so on, we can explore the movement of music from the Near East to China over a thousand years ago, or we can outline the spread of Near Eastern influence to Europe that resulted in the development of most of the instruments in the symphony

orchestra.

Sheet music or printed music, too, is material culture. Scholars once defined folk music-cultures as those in which people learn and sing music by ear rather than from print, but research shows mutual influence among oral and written sources during the past few centuries in Europe, Britain, and America. Printed versions limit variety because they tend to standardize any song, yet they stimulate people to create new and different songs. Besides, the ability to read music notation has a far-reaching effect on musicians and, when it becomes widespread, on the music-culture as a whole.

One more important part of music’s material culture should be singled out: the influence of the electronic media—radio, record player, tape recorder, television, and videocassette, with the future promising talking and singing computers and other developments. This is all part of the “information revolution”, a twentieth-century phenomenon as important as the industrial revolution was in the nineteenth. These electronic media are not just limited to modern nations; they have affected music cultures all over the globe.

6).Research into the material culture of a nation’s is of great importance because___________.

A) it helps produce new cultural tools and technology

B) it can reflect the development of the nation

C) it helps understand the nation’s past and present

D) it can demonstrate the nation’s civilization

7). It can be learned from this passage that ________.

A) the existence of the symphony was attributed to the spread of Near Eastern and Chinese music

B) Near Eastern music had influence on the instruments in the symphony orchestra

C) the development of the symphony shows the mutual influence of Eastern and Western music

D) the musical instruments in the symphony were developed on the basis of Near Eastern music

8). According to the author, music notation is important because________.

A) it has a great effect on the music-culture as more and more people are able to read it

B) it tends to standard folk sings when it is used by folk musicians

C) it is the printed version of standardized folk music

D) it encourages people to popularize printed versions of songs

9).It can be concluded from the passage that the introduction of electronic media into the world of music_____.

A) has brought about an information revolution

B) has speeded up the arrival of a new generation of computers

C) has given rise to new forms of music culture

D) has given to the transformation of traditional musical instruments

10). Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A) Musical instruments developed through the years will sooner later be replaced by computers.

B) Music cannot be passed on to future generation unless it is recorded.

C) Folk songs cannot spread far unless they are printed on music sheets.

D) The development of music culture is highly dependent on its material aspect. Part III. TRANSLATION AND WRITING (70 points)

Directions: Read the following text and finish Task A and Task B respectively.

The United States is in the midst of an energy revolution. (1)We have led the world in combined oil and natural gas production for three years running, pushing ahead of energy exporters like Russia and Saudi Arabia. Electricity generation from renewables is soaring as well: wind generation has tripled since 2008 and generation from solar is up more than tenfold. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline consumption—which as recently as 2005 was projected to rise steadily into the future—has actually fallen 5 percent since that time. This has contributed to cutting our oil imports nearly in half, helping to narrow the U.S. trade deficit to its smallest share of GDP since the 1990s.

Much of this revolution has been driven by a dynamic private energy sector which has furnished the new innovations and the entrepreneurial risk-taking necessary for these historic increases in American energy production. But it has been supported and advanced by the three prongs of the Administration’s All-of-the-Above energy strategy: supporting economic growth and job creation; enhancing U.S. energy security, and laying the foundation for a clean energy future.

This All-of-the-Above energy strategy is not merely compatible with reduced greenhouse gas emissions, it is an essential part of how we achieve that goal. At the same time that we have seen this energy boom, we have also seen a 10 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2007 to 2013—the largest

improving energy efficiency at existing coal-fired power plants;

increasing utilization of existing natural gas plants;

adding new low-emission power sources like wind and nuclear; and increased energy efficiency.