2005年北大考博英语真题

　　70. According to this passage, w hich of the follow ing statements is NOT true?

　　A. Consuming insatiably w ilt hasten the exhaustion of natural resources.

　　B. A superficial pursuit of material things w ill bring problems to family relationships.

　　C. One positive thing about overconsumption of Americans is that large exports of used clothes

　　are sent to Third World countries.

　　D. Americans now adays are replacing their cars, TV sets and furniture very frequently.

　　II. Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then explain in your own English

　　the exact meaning of the numbered and underlined parts. Put your answers on the

　　ANSWER SHEET. (15% )

　　America Loses a Great Public Think erGreat

　　Arthur Miller ’s death last w eek meant more than the loss of an outstanding playw right. It w as

　　the loss of a great public thinker w ho believed strongly that the essence of America--its greatness

　　w as in its promises. (71) Miller knew w hat ignorance and fear and the madness of crow ds.

　　especially w hen exploited by sinister leadership, could do to those promises. (72) His greatest

　　concerns, “w ere w ith the moral corruption brought on by bending one’s ideals to society’s dictates,

　　buying into the values of a group w hen they conflict w ith the voice of personal conscience.” (73)

　　The individual in Miller ’s view, had an abiding moral responsibility for his or her ow n behavior,

　　and for the behavior of society as a w hole. He said that “I felt that as improbable as it might seem,

　　there w ere moments w hen an individual conscience w as all that could keep a w orld from falling.”

　　Miller saw some of the differences in tw o sharply defined eras: the Depression-wracked

　　1930s and the prosperous postw ar 1950s. It w as perhaps around 1936, people w ho used to mind

　　no polities began thinking for the first time of common action as a w ay out of their impossible

　　conditions. (74) By the early ’50s the agony of the Depression w as gone. McCarthyism w as in

　　flow er. After the 50”s, how ever, Americans became more practical and pragmatic. The dean of the

　　University of Michigan w as complaining that his students’ highest goal w as to fit in w ith

　　corporate America rather than to separate truth from falsehood. (75) “They become experts at

　　grade-getting, but there’s less speculating about the w rongs of the w orld and ideal solutions

　　something no employer w as interested in.” Now Miller is gone, and if w e are not w ise enough to

　　pay attention, his uncomfortable truths w ill die w ith him.

　　Part Fou r: Cloze TestFour:

　　Directions: Fill in each numbered blank in the following passage with ONE suitable word to

　　complete the passage. Put your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10% )

　　Superstition is a difficult question. We cannot quite say that superstition in Br itai is dead. Itsn

　　history is both 76long and too recent for that, and indeed you w ill find many relics of it in

　　modern Br itain. But they are only relics connected chiefly w ith vague notions of good luck and

　　_____77 luck It is unlucky, for instance, to w alk under a ladder, or to spill salt, or break a mirror,

　　or to have 78to do w ith number 13; w hereas a horseshoe brings good 79, and people

　　jokingly ‘touch w ood’ 80prevent the return of a past misfortune. There are still many strange

　　country remedies against sickness 81are obviously superstitious. But the real measure of

　　superstition is fear. In this 82there is no superstition in Britain. British people as a w hole do 83

　　believe in evil inf luences or evil spirits. Sickness and misfortune are not the 84of w itchcraft,

　　but of dirt or chance or foolishness or inefficiency Witches belong 85to history books.

　　Part Five: Proofreading

　　Directions: This part consists of a short passage, in this passage, there are altogether 10

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