装备指挥技术学院2009年博士研究生招生考博英语真题

　　Passage 4

　　NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland has been given the nod to lead a robotic lunar mission in 2008 -- a key step in President George W. Bush’s recently announced space vision strategy. The lunar reconnaissance orbiter would likely be geared to investigate the potential for water ice trapped at the Moon’s poles. This type of investigation may involve powerful radar to scan the always darkened craters, thought by some scientists to contain bountiful quantities of water ice.

　　Water ice is believed to have been brought to the Moon by impacting comets. Both NASA’s Lunar Prospector and the Pentagon’s Clementine spacecraft offered tantalizing data interpreted by some experts as indicative of water ice deposits.

　　A number of alterative, fast-track approaches are under review at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build the lunar orbiter. A newly formed GSFC lunar study team held their first meeting Thursday to begin scoping out how best to move the project forward.

　　President Bush has directed NASA to undertake lunar exploration activities to enable sustained human and robotic exploration of Mars and more distant destinations in the solar system. Starting no later than 2008, the Bush plan calls for initiating a series of robotic missions to the Moon to prepare for and support future human exploration activities. A follow-on robotic lunar lander is also slated for 2009. The White House space directive states that the first extended human expedition to the lunar surface could occur as early as 2015, but no later than the year 2020.

　　In reestablishing and reenergizing NASA’s Moon program, the White House envisions lunar exploration activities to further science, and to develop and test new approaches, technologies, and systems, including use of lunar and other space resources, to support sustained human space exploration to Mars and other destinations.

　　51. On the robotic lunar mission which is to be led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the lunar orbiter _______.

　　A. would possibly investigate whether there is water ice at the Moon’s pole.

　　B. would announce the president’s space vision strategy to the whole world.

　　C. would likely extend human expedition to the lunar surface for the first time.

　　D. would offer tantalizing data interpreted by some experts as space resources.

　　52. On the robotic lunar mission, _____ will be explored to search for water ice.

　　A. impacting comets near the Moon

　　B. the darkened craters on the Moon.

　　C. a robotic lunar lander on the Moon

　　D. NASA’s Moon program

　　53. According to the third paragraph of the passage, why a newly formed GSFC lunar study team held their first meeting on Thursday?

　　A. To build the lunar orbiter as soon as possible.

　　B. To move the NASA’s Moon programs forward.

　　C. To search for the best approach to build the lunar orbiter.

　　D. To discuss the scope the lunar orbiter is to explore.

　　54. Federal government of the U.S. states in its space directive that _______.

　　A. the first human landing on the lunar surface would occur no later than 2020

　　B. the first long-time human expedition to the lunar surface would occur in 2015

　　C. the first human extended expedition to the moon would occur before 2021

　　D. the first human survival on the lunar surface would occur no later than 2020

　　55. One of the purposes of NASA’s Series lunar exploration missions is to _____.

　　A. further investigate impacting comets that have brought water ice to the Moon

　　B. scope out how best to move the Pentagon’s Clementine spacecraft project forward

　　C. prepare for and support Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build the lunar orbiter

　　D. develop and test new technologies to support human space exploration to Mars

　　Section B (10 points, 2 points each)

　　Directions: In this section, there is a passage with five questions. After you have read the passage, answer each question in English with no more than 15 words. Write down your answer on the Answer Sheet.

　　Passage 5

　　Is Having a Home a Right?

　　Even on these coldest nights of the year, Americans can't claim a right to adequate housing - not yet. But the notion that having a home is a basic human right is one that is gaining some currency around the globe, as well as on the corners of some of the most frigid cities in the United States.

　　Record-breaking cold spells this winter have brought fresh attention to the plight of the 840,000 Americans who sleep in streets or in makeshift shelters on any given night. Twenty-five cities are reporting an average 13 percent increase in requests for emergency shelter over 2002, according to a US Conference of Mayors survey.

　　Arguing that housing is a basic human entitlement, some advocates for the homeless have sharply criticized the situation in the US. Despite the country's enormous wealth, a growing number of its citizens are homeless - a state of affairs that some international groups view as unacceptable and unjust.

　　An investigator for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in January cited the US for "a range of violations" in a "dire reality" of "human rights denial" in the area of housing.

　　Homeless advocates have also cried foul. A January report from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty says US promises made in 1948, 1949, and 1996 to progressively house all its citizens "have been badly broken." The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, meanwhile, is preparing to argue that a projected net loss of 8,000 public housing units over the next five years would, for as many as 10,000 squatters, constitute unfair "forced eviction" under international human rights law.

　　"I think a lot of us are groping for ways to square local, state, and national law with human rights principles," says Rene Heybach, director of the Chicago Coalition's Law Project. "There's a great yearning to find an international focus because our government hasn't provided enough to keep our people safe."

　　But changes are a foot, argue some members of the Bush administration.

　　"It may very well be," says Philip Mangano, executive director of the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness and the government's point person on homelessness, that remedying "this wrong of homelessness will lead us to establish the right to housing. That would be consistent with our history of righting wrongs in this country, like slavery, and then creating rights afterward."

　　Mr. Mangano disputes the claim that the Bush administration has failed to address what he acknowledges to be a problem exacerbated by simultaneous job losses and rising housing costs. He points to the current year's $1.27 billion investment in a range of programs to reduce homelessness. The figure marks a $100 million increase over the prior year, he said, and represents "probably the most ever invested anywhere" to put the needy in homes.

　　The United States is not alone in experiencing a rise in homelessness, Mangano points out. And although other countries, such as Scotland and France, have in recent years passed legislation toward housing all citizens, the US is in his view honoring the spirit of its international pledges by funding programs to stem the causes of homelessness.

　　56. Why do people pay more attention to the matter of homelessness?

　　57. What is a state of affairs that some international groups view as unacceptable and unjust?

　　58. Why does Rene Heybach, director of the Chicago Coalition's Law Project, say that there's a great yearning to find an international focus?

　　59. According to Mr. Mangano, what factors probably contribute to the increase of the homeless in America?

　　60. What countries have in recent years passed laws toward housing all citizens according to the passage?

　　Part IV Error Detection and Correction (10 points, 1 point each)

　　Directions: Each of the following sentences has four underlined parts. These parts are labeled A, B, C and D. Identify the part of the sentence that is incorrect and mark out your choice on the Answer Sheet. Then, without altering the meaning of the sentence, write down your correction on the Answer Sheet.

　　61. Chemistry did (A) not emerge like (B) a science until (C) after the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century and then only rather (D) slowly and laboriously.

　　62. But chemical (A) knowledge is as old as history, being (B) almost entirely concerning (C) with the practical arts of living (D).

　　63. This (A) basic chemical knowledge, which was applied (B) in most cases as a rule of thumb, was (C) nevertheless depend (D) on previous experiment.

　　64. The most serious problem was the vast (A) range of material available (B) and the consequence (C) difficulty of (D) organizing it into some system.

　　65. The thinker or philosopher stood apart (A) from this mundane world, where (B) the practical arts appeared in (C) lack any intellectual content (D) or interest.

　　66. Experts in (A) specific trades had developed (B) their own techniques and guarded our (C) knowledge to prevent others from (D) stealing their livelihood.

　　67. That history is written (A) in the chemical makeup of (B) the planet's rocks and minerals, exposing (C) like layers of a cake along many of its (D) valley and crater walls.

　　68. From June 17 to September 5, 1993, the "East Turkistan" terrorist (A) organization was responsible (B) for ten explosion (C) at department stores, markets, hotels and places for cultural activities in the southern (D) part of Xinjiang.

　　69. Under mounting pressures both at home and aboard (A), the Bush administration is trying (B) to win support at the UN Security Council so (C) as to acquire more legitimacy for its future military action (D) against Iraq.

　　70. We must tackle (A) with the root causes of terrorism, avoiding (B) the negative sides of globalization, and strive for solutions (C) to other (D) non-traditional issues.

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