2015年武汉大学考博英语考试真题

2015年武汉大学考博英语考试真题

一、阅读理解

Justice in society must include both a fair trial to the accused and the selection of an appropriate punishment for those proven guilty. Because justice is regarded as one form. of equality, we find in its earlier expressions the idea of a punishment equal to the crime. Recorded in the Old Testament is the expression "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." That is, the individual who has done wrong has committed an offence against society. To make up for his offence, society must get even. This can be done only by doing an equal injury to him. This conception of retributive justice is reflected in many parts of the legal documents and procedures of modern times. It is illustrated when we demand the death penalty for a person who has committed murder. This philosophy of punishment was supported by the German idealist Hegel. He believed that society owed it to the criminal to give a punishment equal to the crime he had committed. The criminal had by his own actions denied his true self and it is necessary to do something that will counteract this denial and restore the self that has been denied. To the murderer nothing less than giving up his own will pay his debt. The demand of the death penalty is a right the state owes the criminal and it should not deny him his due.

Modern jurists have tried to replace retributive justice with the notion of corrective justice. The aim of the latter is not to abandon the concept of equality but to find a more adequate way to express it. It tries to preserve the idea of equal opportunity for each individual to realize the best that is in him. The criminal is regarded as being socially ill and in need of treatment that will enable him to become a normal member of society. Before a treatment can be administered, the cause of his antisocial behavior. must be found. If the cause can be removed, provisions must be made to have this done. Only those criminals who are incurable should be permanently separated front the rest of the society. This does not mean that criminals will escape punishment or be quickly returned to take up careers of crime. It means that justice is to heal the individual, not simply to get even with him. If severe punishments is the only adequate means for accompanying this, it should be administered. However, the individual should be given every opportunity to assume a normal place in society. His conviction of crime must not deprive him of the opportunity to make his way in the society of which he is a part.

1. The best title for this selection is （）

A. Fitting Punishment to the Crime

B. Approaches to Just Punishment

C. Improvement in Legal Justice

D. Attaining Justice in the Courts

2.The passage implies that the basic difference between retributive ju

stice and corrective justice is the （）.

A. type of crime that was proven

B. severity for the punishment

C. reason for the sentence

D. outcome of the trial

3. The punishment that would be most inconsistent with the views o

f corrective justice would be（）.

A. forced brain surgery

B. whipping

C. solitary confinement

D. the electric chair

4. The Biblical expression "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”was presented in order to （）.

A. prove，that equality demands just punishment

B. justify the need for punishment as a part of law

C. give moral backing to retributive justice

D. prove that man has long been interested in justice

"In every known human society the male's needs for achievement ca n be recognized... In a

great number of human societies men's sureness of their sex role is tied up with their right, or

ability, to practice some activity that women are not allowed to pra ctice. Their maleness in fact

has to be underwritten by preventing women from entering some field or performing some feat."

This is the conclusion of the anthropologist Margaret Mead about the way in which the roles

of men and women in society should be distinguished.

If talk and print are considered it would seem that the formal emancipation of women is far from

complete. There is a flow of publications about the continuing domest ic bondage of women

and about the complicated system of defences which men have thrown u p around their

hitherto accepted advantages, taking sometimes the obvious form of exc lusion from types of

occupation and sociable groupings, and sometimes the more subtle form

of automatic doubt

of the seriousness of women's pretensions to the level of intellect and resolution that men, it

is supposed, bring to the business of running the world.

There are a good many objective pieces of evidence for the erosi on of men's status. In the

first place, there is the widespread postwar phenomenon of the woman Prime Minister, in India, Sri Lanka and Israel.

Secondly, there is the very large increase in the number of wome n who work, especially married women and mothers of children. More diffusely there are the increasin gly numerous

convergences between male and female behaviour: the approximation to i dentical styles in

dress and coiffure, the sharing of domestic tasks, and the admission

of women to all sorts of

hitherto exclusively male leisure-time activities.

Everyone carries round with him a fairly definite idea of the pr imitive or natural conditions of

human life. It is acquired more by the study of humorous cartoons t han of archaeology, but

that does not matter since it is not significant as theory but only as an expression of inwardly

felt expectations of people's sense of what is fundamentally proper i n the differentiation

between the roles of the two sexes. In this rudimentary natural soci ety men go out to hunt

and fish and to fight off the tribe next door while women keep the fire going. Amorous

initiative is firmly reserved to the man, who sets about courtship w ith a club.

5. The phrase "men's sureness of their sex role" in the first parag raph suggests that they （）

A. are confident in their ability to charm women.

B. take the initiative in courtship.

C. have a clear idea of what is considered "manly".

D. tend to be more immoral than women are.

6. The third paragraph （）

A. generally agrees with the first paragraph

B. has no connection with the first paragraph

C. repeats the argument of the second paragraph

D. contradicts the last paragraph

7. The usual idea of the cave man in the last paragraph（）

A. is based on the study of archaeology

B. illustrates how people expect men to behave

C. is dismissed by the author as an irrelevant joke

D. proves that the man, not woman, should be the wooer

8. The opening quotation from Margaret Mead sums up a relationship b etween man and woman which the author（）

A. approves of

B. argues is natural

C. completely rejects

D. expects to go on changing

Farmers in the developing world hate price fluctuations. It makes it hard to plan ahead. But most of them have little choice: they sell at the price the market sets. Farmers in Europe, the U.S. and Japan are luckier: they receive massive government subsidies in the form of guaranteed prices or direct handouts. Last month U.S. President Bush signed a new farm bill that gives American farmers $190 billion over the next 10 years, or $83 billion more than they had been scheduled to get, and pushes U.S. agricultural support close to crazy European levels. Bush said the step was necessary to "promote farmer independence and preserve the farm way of life for generations". It is also designed to help the Republican Party win control of the Senate in November's mid term elections.

Agricultural production in most poor countries accounts for up to 50% of GDP, compared to only 3% in rich countries. But most farmers in poor countries grow just enough for themselves and their families. Those who try exporting to the West find their goods whacked with huge tariffs or competing against cheaper subsidized goods. In 1999 the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development concluded that for each dollar developing countries receive in aid they lose up to $14 just because of trade barriers imposed on the export of their manufactured goods. It's not as if the developing world wants any favours, says Gerald Ssendwula, Uganda's Minister of Finance. "What we want is for the rich countries to let us compete."

Agriculture is one of the few areas in which the Third World can compete. Land and labour are cheap, and as farming methods develop, new technologies should improve output. This is no pie in the sky speculation. The biggest success in Kenya's economy over the past decade has been the boom in exports of cut flowers and vegetables to Europe. But that may all change in 2008, when Kenya will be slightly too rich to

qualify for the "least developed country" status that allows African producers to avoid paying stiff European import duties on selected agricultural products. With trade barriers in place, the horticulture industry in Kenya will shrivel as quickly as a discarded rose. And while agriculture exports remain the great hope for poor countries, reducing trade barriers in other sectors also works: Americas African Growth and Opportunity Act, which cuts duties on exports of everything from handicrafts to shoes, has proved a boon to Africa's manufacturers. The lesson: the Third World can prosper if the rich world gives it a fair go.

This is what makes Bush's decision to increase farm subsidies last month all the more depressing. Poor countries have long suspected that the rich world urges trade liberalization only so it can wangle its way into new markets. Such suspicions caused the Seattle trade talks to break down three years ago. But last November members of the World Trade Organization, meeting in Doha, Qatar, finally agreed to a new round of talks designed to open up global trade in agriculture and textiles. Rich countries assured poor countries, that their concerns were finally being addressed. Bush's handout last month makes a lie of America's commitment to those talks and his personal devotion to free trade.

9.By comparison, farmers （）receive more government subsidies than others.?

A.in the developing world

B.in Japan

C.in Europe

D.in America?

10.In addition to the economic considerations, there is a （）moti ve behind Bush’s signing of the new farm bill.?

A.partisan

B.social

C.financial

D.cultural?

11.The message the writer attempts to convey throughout the passage i s that （）?

A.poor countries should be given equal opportunities in trade?

B.“the least?developed country”status benefits agricultural countries?

C.poor countries should remove their suspicions about trade liberalizat ion?

D.farmers in poor countries should also receive the benefit of subsid ies

12.The writer’s attitude towards new farm subsidies in the U.S. is （）?

A.favourable

B.ambiguous

C.critical

D.reserved

Roger Rosenblatt’s book Black Fiction, in attempting to apply literary rather than sociopolitical criteria to its subject, successfully alters the approach taken by most previous studies. As Rosenblatt notes, criticism of Black writing has often served as a pretext for expounding on Black history. Addison Gayle’s recent work, for example, judges the value of Black fiction by overtly political standards, rating each work according to the notions of Black identity which it propounds.

Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstances, its authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological, and talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology circumvents much of the fictional enterprise. Rosenblatt’s literary analysis discloses affinities and connections among works of Black fiction which solely political studies have overlooked or ignored.

Writing acceptable criticism of Black fiction, however, presupposes giving satisfactory answers to a number of questions. First of all, is there a sufficient reason, other than the racial identity of the authors, to group together works by Black authors? Second, how does Black fiction make itself distinct from other modern fiction with which it is largely contemporaneous? Rosenblatt shows that Black fiction constitutes a distinct body of writing that has an identifiable, coherent literary tradition. Looking at novels written by Blacks over the last eighty years, he discovers recurring concerns and designs independent of chronology. These structures are thematic, and they spring, not surprisingly, from the central fact that the Black characters in these novels exist in a predominantly White culture, whether they try to conform to that culture or rebel against it.

Black Fiction does leave some aesthetic questions open. Rosenblatt’s thematic analysis permits considerable objectivity; he even explicitly states that it is not his intention to judge the merit of the various works yet his reluctance seems misplaced, especially since an attempt to appraise might have led to interesting results. For instance, some of the novels appear to be structurally diffuse. Is this a defect, or are the authors working out of, or trying to forge, a different kind of aesthetic? In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomer’s Cane, verges on expressionism or surrealism; does this technique provide a counterpoint to the prevalent theme that portrays the fate against which Black heroes are pitted, a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression?

In spite of such omissions, what Rosenblatt does include in his discussion makes for an astute and worthwhile study. Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of novels,

bringing to our attention in the process some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Its argument is tightly constructed, and its forthright, lucid style exemplifies levelheaded and penetrating criticism.

13 The author objects to criticism of Black fiction like that by Ad dison Gayle because it（）.

A. emphasizes purely literary aspects of such fiction

B. misinterprets the ideological content of such fiction

C. misunderstands the notions of Black identity contained in such fic tion

D. substitutes political for literary criteria in evaluating such fict ion

14. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with （）.

A. evaluating the soundness of a work of criticism

B. comparing various critical approaches to "a subject

C. discussing the limitations of a particular kind of criticism

D. summarizing the major points made in a work of criticism

15. The author's discussion of Black Fiction can be best described a s （）.

A. pedantic and contentious

B. critical but admiring

C. ironic and deprecating

D. argumentative but unfocused

16. It can be inferred that the author would be LEAST likely to ap prove of which of the following （）

A. An analysis of the influence of political events on the personal ideology of Black writers

B. A critical study that applies sociopolitical criteria to autobiogra phies by Black authors

C. A literary study of Black poetry that appraises the merits of po ems according to the political acceptability of their themes

D. An examination of the growth of a distinct Black literary traditi on within the context of Black history

二、汉译英

得病以前，我受父母宠爱，在家中横行霸道。一旦隔离，拘禁在花园山坡上一幢小房子里，我顿感到打入冷宫，十分郁郁不得志起来。一个春天的傍晚，园中百花怒放，父母在园中设宴，一时宾客云集，笑语四溢。我在山坡的小屋里，悄悄地掀起窗帘，窥见园中大千世界，一片繁华。自己的哥姐、堂表兄弟，也穿插其间，个个喜气洋洋。一瞬间，一阵被人摈弃、为世所遗的悲愤兜上心头，禁不住痛哭起来。

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三、作文

How to Prevent Plagiarism