清华大学2000年5月考博英语真题

Passage 3
One of the foremost authors of the era between the two world wars, Hemingway in his early works depicted tile lives of two types of people. One type consisted of men and women deprived, by World War I, of faith in the moral values in which they had believed, and who lived with cynical disregard for anything but their own emotional needs. The other type were men of simple character and primitive emotions, such as prizefighters and bullfighters. Hemingway wrote of their courageous and usually futile battles against circumstances. His earliest works include the collections of short stories Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923), his first work; In Our time (1924),tales reflecting his experiences as a youth in the northern Michigan woods; Men without women(1927), a volume that included "The Killers," remarkable for its description of impending doom; and Winner Take Nothing (1933), stories characterizing people in unfortunate circumstances in Europe. The novel that established Hemingway's reputation. The Sun Also Rises (1926), is the story, of a group of morally irresponsible Americans and Britons living in France and Spain, members of the so-called lost generation of the post-world War I period. Hemingway's second important novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929), is the story, of a deeply moving love affair in wartime Italy between an American officer in the Italian ambulance service and a British nurse. The novel was followed by two nonfiction works, Death in the Afternoon (1932), prose pieces mainly about bullfighting; and Green, gills of Africa (1935), accounts of big-game hunting.

Hemingway's economical writing style often seems simple and almost childlike, but his method is calculated and used to complex effect. In his writing Hemingway provided detached descriptions of action, using simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely. By doing so he avoided describing his characters' emotions and thoughts directly. Instead, in providing the reader with the raw material of an experience and eliminating the authorial viewpoint. Hemingway made the reading of a text approximate the actual experience as closely as possible. Hemingway was also deeply concerned with authenticity, in writing. He believed that a writer could treat a subject honestly only if the writer had participated in or observed the subject closely. Without such knowledge the writer's work would be flawed because the reader would sense the author's lack of expertise: In addition, Hemingway believed that an author writing about a familiar subject is able to write sparingly and eliminate a great deal of superfluous detail from the piece without sacrifleing the voice of authority. Hemingway's stylistic influence on American writers has been enormous. The success of his plain style in expressing basic. yet deeply felt, emotions contributed to the decline of the elaborate Victorian-era prose that characterized a great deal of American writing in the early 20th century. Many American writers have cited Hemingway as an influence on their own work.

51. The novel that brought Hemingway greatest fame________.

A) Three Stories and Ten Poems　　　　B) In Far Time

C) Men Without Women　　　D) The Sun Also Rises

52 Which of the following can best describe Hemingway's writing style?

A) simple and precise　　　 B) bullfighting

C) superfluous　　　　　D) complicated

53. According to this passage which of the following is the great contribution of Hemingway?

A) He introduced a new subject into literature.

B) His writing style influenced a group of American writers　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

C) He proved that one should write about details.

D) He said that writers should know what they are writing.
54. This passage is mainly, about Hemingway's ___________

A) life　　　　　　　B) background　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

C) novels and writing style　　D) influence

55. The sentence. "Hemingway was also deeply concerned with authenticity in writing".　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

"authenticity" is closest in meaning with

A) author's right　　　B) credibility

C) authorization　　　D) authorship

Section B
Directions: After you have read the following passage write out a summary in English with about 70 to 90 words. Put your summary, on the Answer Sheet.

It is said that the public and Congressional concern. about deceptive packaging uproar started because Senator Hart discovered that the boxes of cereals consumed by him, Mrs. Hart, and their children were becoming higher and narrower, with a decline of net weight from 12 to 10.5 ounces, without any reduction in price. There were still twelve biscuits, but they had been reduced in size. Lze. Later, the Senator rightly complained of a store-bought pie in a handsomely illustrated box that pictured, in a single slice, almost as many cherries as there were in the whole pie.

The manufacturer who increases the unit price of his product by changing his package size to lower the quantity, delivered can, without undue hardship, put his product into boxes, bags. and tins that will contain even 4-ounce, 8-ounce, one-pound quantities of break fast foods, cake mixes, etc. A study of drugstore and supermarket shelves will convince any observer that all possible size and shapes of boxes, jars, bottles and tins are in use more same time and as the package journals show, week by week, there is never any hesitation in introducing a new size and shape of box or bottle when it aids in product differentiation. The producers of packaged products argue strongly against changing sizes of packages to contain even weights and volumes, but no one in the trade comments unfavorably on the huge costs incurred by endless changes of package sizes, materials, shape, art work. and net weights hat are used for improving a product's market position.

When a packaging expert explained that he was able to multiply tile price of hard sweets by 2.5,from I dollar to 2.50 dollars by changing to a fancy jar, or that he had made a 5-ounce bottle look as though it held 8 ounces, he was in effect telling the public that packaging can be a very expensive luxury. It evidently does come high. when an average family pays about 200 dollars a year for bottles, cans, boxes, jars and other containers, most of which can't be used for anything but stuffing the garbage can.

注：请将概要用英文写在答题纸上。

Section C

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with five questions. After you have read the passage, answer these questions in English and then put them on the Answer Sheet.

If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work-force skills, American firms have a problem. Human-resource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival or the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired-reined at the lowest possible cost-much as one buys raw materials or equipment.

The lack of importance attached to human-resource management can be seen in the corporate hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human-resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human-resource management is central - usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy.

While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces, in fact they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.
As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is tip and running at capacity and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with he equipment can be employed. Tine result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.

注：请将答案用英文写在答题纸上。

56. What does the management of human resources in American companies think about employees skill training?

57. What is the position of the head of human-resource. management in an American firm?

58.　　　money most American firms put in training mainly goes to ______.

59. According to the passage, the decisive factor in maintaining a firm's competitive advantage is ______.

60. What is the main idea of the passage?

Part IV　　　Writing　(15%)　(请将作文用英文写在答题纸上)

Directions: In this section, you are asked to write a composition on the title of "Two Important Possible Changes. Which May Occur In Higher Education in China in the 2lst Century" with no less than 150 English words. Your composition should be based on the following outline given in Chinese.

1.21世纪高等教育在社会发展中将起到更为重要的作用。

2.在21世纪高等教育将会发生许多变化（举两例说明）

3.你对这些变化的认识及看法。

考博必备！历年真题及答案

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