2009年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（一）试题
Section I Use of English
Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Research on animal intelligence always makes us wonder just how smart humans are. 1 the fruit-fly experiments described by Carl Zimmer in the Science Times. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly 2 to live shorter lives. This suggests that 3 bulbs burn longer, that there is a(n) 4 in not being too bright.
Intelligence, it 5 , is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow 6 the starting line because it depends on learning — a(n) 7 process— instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to 8 .
Is there an adaptive value to9 intelligence? That’s the question behind this new research. Instead of casting a wistful glance 10 at all the species we’ve left in the dust I.Q.-wise, it implicitly asks what the r
eal 11 of our own intelligence might be. This is 12 the mind of every animal we’ve ever met.
Research on animal intelligence also makes us wonder what experiments animals would 13 on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, 14 , is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. We believe that 15 animals ran the labs, they would test us to 16 the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for locations. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really 17 , not merely how much of it there is. 18 , they would hope to study a(n) 19 question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in? 20 the results are inconclusive.
1.[A] Suppose [B]Consider[C]Observe[D]Imagine
2.[A] tended [B]feared[C]happened [D] threatened
3.[A] thinner [B]stabler[C]lighter[D]dimmer
4.[A] tendency [B]advantage[C]inclination [D] priority
5.[A] insists on [B]sums up[C]turns out[D]puts forward
6.[A] off [B]behind[C]over[D]along
7.[A] incredible [B] spontaneous [C] inevitable[D]gradual
8.[A] fight [B]doubt[C]stop[D]think
9.[A] invisible [B]limited[C]indefinite[D]different
10.[A] upward [B]forward[C]afterward[D]backward
11.[A] features [B]influences[C]results[D]costs
12.[A] outside [B]on[C]by[D]across
13.[A] deliver [B]carry[C]perform[D]apply
14.[A] by chance [B] in contrast [C]as usual[D]for instance
15.[A] if [B]unless[C]as[D]lest
16.[A] moderate [B] overcome [C] determine [D] reach
17.[A] at [B] for [C] after [D] with
18.[A] Above all [B] After all [C] However [D] Otherwise
19.[A] fundamental [B] comprehensive [C] equivalent [D] hostile
20.[A] By accident [B] In time [C] So far [D] Better still
Section II Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of famili ar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation.
So it seems paradoxical to talk about habits in the same contextas creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.
Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately press into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.
“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, h owever, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”
swabbingAll of us work through problems in ways of which we’re unaware, she says. Researchers in the late 19
60 discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. At the end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.
The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. “This breaks the major rule in the American belief system —that anyone can do anything,” explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book This Year I
21. In Wordsworth’s view, “habits” is characterized by being .
[A] casual
[B] familiar
[C] mechanical
[D] changeable.
22. Brain researchers have discovered that the formation of habit can be .
[A] predicted
[B] regulated
[C] traced
[D] guided
23. “ruts”(Line 1, Paragraph 4) is closest in meaning to .
[A] tracks
[B] series
[C] characteristics
[D] connections
24. Dawna Markova would most probably agree that .
[A] ideas are born of a relaxing mind
[B] innovativeness could be taught
[C] decisiveness derives from fantastic ideas
[D] curiosity activates creative minds
25. Ryan’s comments suggest that the practice of standardized t esting
[A] prevents new habits from being formed
[B] no longer emphasizes commonness
[C] maintains the inherent American thinking model
[D] complies with the American belief system
Text 2
It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly)
wisdom —or at least confirm that he’s the kid’s dad. All he needs to do is shell out $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore — and another $120 to get the results.
More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they
first become available without prescriptions last years, according to Doug Fogg, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over-the-counter kits. More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests directly to the public, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2500.
Among the most popular: paternity and kinship testing, which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and families can use to track down kids put up for adoption. DNA testing is also the latest rage among passionate genealogists —and supports businesses that offer to search for a family’s geographic roots .
Most tests require collecting cells by swabbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA.
But some observers are skeptical. “There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,” says Troy Duster, a New York University sociologist. He notes that each individual has many ancestors — numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited through men in a father’s line or mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down only from mothers. This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.
Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don’t rely on data collected systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means that a DNA database may have a lot of data from some regions and not others, so a person’s test results may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review or outside evaluation.
26. In paragraphs 1 and 2, the text shows PTK’s _________.
[A] easy availability
[B] flexibility in pricing
[C] successful promotion
[D] popularity with households
27. PTK is used to ________.
[A] locate one’s birth place
[B] promote genetic research
[C] identify parent-child kinship
[D] choose children for adoption
28. Skeptical observers believe that ancestry testing fails to________.
[A] trace distant ancestors
[B] rebuild reliable bloodlines
[C] fully use genetic information
[D] achieve the claimed accuracy
29. In the last paragraph, a problem commercial genetic testing faces is ________.
[A] disorganized data collection
[B] overlapping database building

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