北京师范大学考博英语真题回顾

6

Doesan unborn baby know his mother’s voice? psychology professor Anthony DeCasperadvised an ingenious experiment to find out. He placed padded earphones over anewborn’s ears and gave him a bottle nipple attached to a closed rubber tube. Changesin pressure in the tube switched channels on a tape recorder. If the babypaused extra long between bursts of sucking, he heard on channel; if he pausedshorter than average, he heard the other. The baby now had the ability, ineffect to change channels.

DeCasperfound that newborns choose the recording of their mother’s voice over that ofanother woman’s. The baby, however, has no innate interest in his father’svoice, which is heard in the womb only from time to time, while the mother’svoice is ever present. Within two weeks after birth, however, the baby canrecognize Dad’s voice too.

Anewborn is even attuned to the cadence and rhythm of his native language. In aFrench study using a setup similar to DeCasper’s, French babies given thechoice between French and Russian words responded more to the sound of French.

BrianSatt, a research specialist in clinical psychology, has parents sing alullaby-like “womb song” to their babies. The unborn baby often develops aspecific, consistent movement pattern when its song is sung. According to Satt,most parents can calm a fussy newborn with the song most of the time, which isa prize worth more than rubies to a new parent.

Heis roused by a heavy jolt. His mother has tripped and fallen heavily on onehip. He is much too well cushioned to experience any injury, but her pain andthe fear that she may have hurt him floods both their bodies with adrenalineand other stress-related hormones. He cries and kicks vigorously, a cry neverheard because there is no air to make sound. As she recovers the stresshormones ebb away, and he calms down too.

41. Which of the following is NOT mentionedabout the unborn baby in the passage?

A. An unborn baby can occasionally hear hisfather’s voice.

B. Dc. Casper’s approach proved absolutelyeffective in a French experiment.

C. An unborn baby is able to identify thetone and rhythm of his native language.

D. Parents are able to soothe a fussynewly-born baby.

42. According to the author, an unborn baby .

A. is unable to identify his mother’slullaby after birth

B. is able to identify his mother’s voicerather than that of others’

C. is able to help release adrenaline andother stress-related hormones

D. is able to distinguish French accentfrom Russian accent

43. It is known from the passage that .

A. mother’s stress, anger, shock or griefmight not hurt the unborn baby in the womb

B. an unborn baby’s cry might never beheard because of the particular condition of the womb.

C. lullabies are the most precious means toyoung parents

D. an unborn baby has to move at intervalsin the womb

44. The author believes that the reactionof an unborn baby to his mother’s voice .

A. belongs to one of the natural tendencies

B. is an indication which shows an unbornbaby can use all his senses after birth

C. is but a physiological circulation ofany human being

D. is the most important factor which leadsan unborn baby to the survival in the womb

45. It can be assumed that the paragraphpreceding the passage most probably discussed .

A. the development of the baby in hismother’ s womb

B. the well-developed taste buds of thebaby

C. the fact that the baby remainsmotionless just as what he performs in the first month of his mother’spregnancy

D. the fact that the baby can start to usesome of his senses by the last few weeks of pregnancy

Ⅲ. Translation and Writing (55 points)

PartA Translation

Translatethe following into Chinese (30 points):

Engineering isthe professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of theresources of nature to the uses of humankind. Engineering has been defined asthe creative application of “scientific principles to design or developstructures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizingthem singly or in combination.” The term engineeringis sometimes more loosely defined, especially in Great Britain, as themanufacture or assembly of engines, machine tools, and machine parts.

Associated with engineeringis a great body of special knowledge; preparation for professional practiceinvolves extensive training in the application of that knowledge. The functionof the scientist is to know, while that of the engineer is to do. The scientistadds to the store of verified, systematized knowledge of the physical world;the engineer brings this knowledge to bear on practical problems. Engineeringis based principally on physics, chemistry, and mathematics and theirextensions into materials science, solid and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics,and systems analysis.

2

Although for thepurpose of this article English literature is treated as being confined towritings in English by natives or inhabitants of the British Isles, it is to acertain extent the case that literature---and this is particularly true of theliterature written in English---knows no frontiers. Thus, English literaturecan be regarded as a cultural whole of which the mainstream literatures of theUnited States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and important elements in theliteratures of other commonwealth countries are parts. It can be argued that nosingle English novel attains the universality of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’sWar and Peace. Yet in the Middle agesthe Old English literature was influenced and gradually changed by the Latinand French writings, eminently foreign in origin in which the churchmen and theNorman conquerors expressed themselves. From this combination emerged aflexible and subtle linguistic instrument exploited by Geoffrey Chaucer andbrought to supreme application by William Shakespeare.

Translatethe following into English (10 points):

从二十世纪中叶起，名国政府对科学技术的重视引起了各级教育机构的响应，理论科学和应用科学的巨大进步也激起了人们学习自然科学的兴趣，科学技术因此有了飞速的发展。但与此同时，人们忽视了对人文科学和社会科学的学习，公民对道德观念和社会准则在生活中的意义缺乏认识。这在一定程度上导致了以下后果：地方、民族和国际间的暴力冲突层出不穷，环境污染日益严重，这些都给人类生活带来了危险。因此，在教育中应纠正重理轻文的倾向，在生活中恢复人文主义的价值，以求物质文明和精神文明的平衡发展。

PartB Summary Writing (15 points)

Read thefollowing passage carefully and then write a summary of it in English in about120 words.

Developments in19^th century Europe are bounded by two great events. The FrenchRevolution broke out in 1789, and its effects reverberated throughout much ofEurope for many decades. World War I began in 1914. Its inception resulted from many trends in Europeansociety, culture, and diplomacy during the late 19^th century. Inbetween these boundaries---the one opening a new set of trends, the otherbringing long-standing tensions to a head---much of modern Europe was defined.

Europe duringthis 125-year span was both united and deeply divided. A number of basiccultural trends, including new literary styles and the spread of science, ranthrough the entire continent. European states were increasingly locked indiplomatic interaction, culminating in continentwide alliance system after1871. At the same time, this was the century of growing nationalism, in whichindividual states jealously protected their identities and indeed establishedmore rigorous border controls than ever before. Finally, the European continentwas to an extent divided between two zones of differential development. Changessuch as the Industrial Revolution and political liberalization spread first andfastest in western Europe---Britain, France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia,and, to an extent, Germany and Italy. Eastern and southern Europe, more ruralat the outset of the period, changed more slowly and in somewhat differentways.

Europe witnessedimportant common patterns and increasing interconnections, but thesedevelopments must be assessed in terms of nation-state divisions and, evenmore, of larger regional differences. Some trends, including the ongoing impactof the French Revolution, ran through virtually the entire 19^thcentury. Other characteristics, however, had a shorter life span.

Some historiansprefer to divide 19^th century history into relatively small chunks. Thus1789-1815 is defined by the French Revolution and Napoleon; 1815-48 forms aperiod of reaction and adjustment; 1848-71 is dominated by a new round ofrevolution and the unifications of the German and Italian nations; and1871-1914, an age of imperialism, is shaped by new kinds of political debateand the pressures that culminated in war. Overriding these important markers,however, a simpler division can also be useful. Between 1789 and 1849 Europedealt with the forces of political revolution and the first impact of the IndustrialRevolution. Between 1849 and 1914 a fuller industrial society emerged,including new forms of states and of diplomatic and military alignments. Themid-19^th century, in either formulation, looms as a particularlyimportant point of transition within the extended 19^th century.

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