2004年中国传媒大学考博英语真题及详解【圣才出品】

Part I Listening Comprehension (15 points)

（略）

Part II Reading Comprehension (40 points)

Passage 1

The most noticeable trend among today’s media companies is vertical integration - an attempt to control several related aspects of the media business at once, each part helping the other. Besides publishing magazines and books, Time Warner, for example, owns Home Box Office (HBO), Warner movie studios, various cable TV systems throughout the United States and CNN as well. The Japanese company Matsushita owns MCA Records and Universal Studios and manufactures broadcast production equipment

To describe the financial status of today’s media is also to talk about acquisitions. The media are buying and selling each other in unprecedented numbers and forming media groups to position themselves in the marketplace to maintain and increase their profits. In 1986, the first time a broadcast network had been sold, two networks were sold that year - ABC and NEC.

Media acquisitions have skyrocketed since 1980 for two reasons. The first is that most big corporations today are publicly traded companies, which means that their stock is traded on one of the nation’s stock exchanges. This makes acquisitions relatively easier.

company’s stock when the stock becomes available. The open availability of stock in these companies means that anybody with enough money can invest in the American media industries, which is exactly how Rupert Murdoch joined the media business.

The second reason for the increase in media alliances is that beginning in 1980, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gradually deregulated the broadcast media. Before 1980, for example, the FCC allowed one company to own only five TV stations, five AM radio stations, and five FM radio stations; companies also were required to hold onto a station for three years before the station could be sold. The post-1980 FCC eliminated the three-year rule and raised the number of broadcast holdings allowed for one owner. This trend of media acquisitions is continuing throughout the 1990s, as changing technology expands the market for media products.

The issue of media ownership is important. If only a few corporations direct the media industries in this country, the outlets for differing political viewpoints and innovative ideas could be limited.

16. What do Time Warner and Matrushita have in common?

A. They both belong to Rupert Murdoch.

B. They are both big American media corporations.

C. They are both outlets of differing viewpoints and innovative ideas.

D. They both own several different but related media businesses.

A. The changing technology employed by the media

B. The media’s increasing profits in the marketplace.

C. The ever tougher regulations of the FCC on the media since 1980.

D. The availability of the media’s stocks on stock exchanges.

18. The issue of media ownership is important because ______.

A. it affects the amount of money the stockholders will make

B. it decides whether we can have different aspects of the media

C. it concerns the channels through which to express opinions

D. it means that more and more people will hold onto only a few stations

19.The post-1980 FCC ______.

A. allows one company to own no more than five TV stations.

B. requires the three-year rule for the company owner.

C. imposes stricter control over media business.

D. reduces government regulation of media companies.

20.A publicly owned company means ______.

A. a company owned by state government.

B. a company owned by people.

C. a company’s stock can be sold and bought by any one in a stock exchanges company.

D. a company owned by few rich people.

【答案与解析】

16.D 作者第一段开始就指出现在传媒企业的趋势是vertical integration…each part

helping the other，就是纵向联合，同时控制几家不同的但相互有关系的企业互利互惠，随后以Time Warner and Matsushita为例来进一步解释，故选项D正确。

17.D 第三段指出…their stock is traded on one of the nation’s stock exchanges.

即传媒公司的股票可以在同一个国家股票交易市场中交易。This makes acquisitions relatively easier. 故选项D正确。

18.C 文章最后一段指出，如果只有几家公司控制着国内的传媒行业的话，那许多与政府

观点相悖或是许多新颖的观点都有可能被限制，故选项C正确。

19.D 由第五段中“eliminated the three-year rule and raised the number of

broadcast holdings allowed for one owner”可知，FCC放松了管制，故选项D正确。

20.C 由第三段中“which means that their stock is traded on one of the nation’s

stock exchanges”可知，就是说公司的股票可以在股票市场上公开交易。故选项C正确。

Passage 2

Still more complex forms of realistic thinking seem to occur when tasks are presented in which the goal is impossible (or very difficul0 to achieve directly. In such situations, people commonly appear to pass through intermediate stages of exploring and organizing their resources; in-deed, one may first need to exert himself in understanding the problem itself before he can begin to seek possible

directions toward a solution. Familiar examples of problem-solving tasks include anagrams (e.g., rearrange “lpepa” to spell “apple”); mathematical problems; mechanical puzzles; verbal “brain teasers” (e.g., Is it legal for a man to marry his widow’s sister?); and, in a more practical sense, design and construction problems. Also of interest are issues of human relations, games, and questions pertinent to economics and politics.

Problem-solving activity falls broadly into two categories; one emphasizes simple trial and error; the other requires some degree of insight. In trial and error, the individual proceeds mainly by exploring and manipulating elements of the problem situation in an effort to sort out possibilities and to run across steps that might carry him closer to the goal. This behavior is most likely to be observed when the problem solver lacks advance knowledge about the character of the solution, or when no single rule seems to underlie the solution. Trial-and-error activity is not necessarily overt (as in one’s observable attempts to fit together the pieces of a mechanical puzzle); it may be implicit or vicarious as well, the individual reflecting on the task and symbolically testing possibilities by thinking about them.

In striving toward insight, a person tends to exhibit a strong orientation toward understanding principles that might bear on the solution sought. The person actively considers what is required by the problem, noting how its elements seem to be interrelated, and seeks some rule that might lead directly to the goal. The insightful thinker is likely to center on the problem to understand

what is needed, to take the time to organize his resources, and to recentre on the problem (reinterpret the situation) in applying any principle that seems to hold promise.

Direction and flexibility characterize insightful problem solving. The thinker directs or guides his steps toward solution according to some plan; he exhibits flexibility in his ability to modify or to adapt procedures as required by his plan and in altering the plan itself. Both characteristics are influenced by the thinker’s attitudes and by environmental conditions. If, for example, the task is to empty a length of glass tubing of water (without breaking it) by removing wax plugs about a half-inch up the tube from each end, and the only potential tools are a few objects ordinarily found on a desk top, the usual appearance and functions of such common objects may make it difficult for the problem solver to see how they can be adapted to fit task requirements. If a paper clip is perceived as bolding a sheaf of papers in the usual way, such perception would tend to interfere with the individual’ s ability to employ the principle that the dip’s shape could be changed: straightened out for use in poking a hole in the wax.

21. The underlined word “pertinent” in the first paragraph moat probably means ______.

A. alien

B. available

C. reconciled

D. related