2014年考研英語二真題及答案解析

Directions:

Read thefollowing text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B,C or D on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Thinner isn’t alwaysbetter. A number of studies have __1___ that normal-weight people are in factat higher risk of some diseases compared to those who are overweight. And thereare health conditions for which being overweight is actually ___2___. Forexample, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thinwomen. ___3___ among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an ___4___of good health.

Of even greater___5___ is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define. Itis often defined ___6___ body mass index, or BMI. BMI ___7__ body mass dividedby the square of height. An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered tobe normal weight. Between 25 and 30 is overweight. And over 30 is consideredobese. Obesity, ___8___,can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese,and very severely obese.

While such numericalstandards seem 9 , they are not. Obesity is probably lessa matter of weight than body fat. Some people with a high BMI are in factextremely fit, 10 others with a low BMI may be in poor 11 .For example, manycollegiate and professional football players 12 as obese, though theirpercentage body fat is low. Conversely, someone with a small frame may havehigh body fat but a 13 BMI.

Today we have a(an)_14 _ to label obesity as a disgrace. The overweight are sometimes_15_in themedia with their faces covered. Stereotypes _16_ with obesity include laziness,lack of will power, and lower prospects for success. Teachers, employers, andhealth professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese. _17_veryyoung children tend to look down on the overweight, and teasing about bodybuild has long been a problem in schools.

Negative attitudes toward obesity, ___18___ in health concerns, have stimulated a numberof anti-obesity ___19___. My own hospital system has banned sugary drinks fromits facilities.Many employers have instituted weight loss and fitnessinitiatives. Michelle Obama has launched a high-visibility campaign__20___ childhood obesity, even claiming that itrepresents our greatest national security threat.

1. A. denied B. concluded C. doubled D. ensured

2. A. protective B. dangerous C. sufficient D. troublesome

3. A. Instead B. However C. Likewise D. Therefore

4. A. indicator B. objective C. origin D. example

5. A. impact B. relevance C. assistance D. concern

6. A. in terms of B. in case of C. in favor of D. in of

7. A. measures B. determines C. equals D. modifies

8. A. in essence B. in contrast C. in turn D. in part

9. A. complicated B. conservative C. variable D. straightforward

10. A. so B. while C. since D. unless

11. A. shape B. spirit C. balance D. taste

12. A. start B. quality C. retire D. stay

13. A. strange B. changeable C. normal D. constant

14. A. option B. reason C. opportunity D. tendency

15. A. employed B. pictured C. imitated D. monitored

16. A. compared B. combined C. settled D. associated

17. A. Even B. Still C. Yet D. Only

18. A. despised B. corrected C. ignored D. grounded

19. A. discussions B. businesses C. policies D. studies

20. A. for B. against C. with D. without

PartA

Directions:

Readthe following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A,B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

Text 1

What would you do with590m? This is now a question for Gloria Mackenzie, an 84-year-old widow whorecently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect thebiggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. If she hopes her new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfillment, she could do worse than readHappy Money by Elizabeth Dumn and Michael Norton.

These two academicsuse an array of behavioral research to show that the most rewarding ways tospend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involvevisions of fancy cars and extravagant homes. Yet satisfaction with thesematerial purchases wears off fairly quickly what was once exciting and newbecomes old-hat; regret creeps in. It is far better to spend money onexperiences, say Ms Dumn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals oreven going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable withtime-as stories or memories-particularly if they involve feeling more connectedto others.

This slim volume ispacked with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most"happiness bang for your buck." It seems most people would be betteroff if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friendsand family and less of it watching television (something the average Americanspends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it).Buyinggifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things foroneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. Thisis apparently the reason MacDonald's restricts the availability of its popularMcRib - a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object ofobsession.

Readers of “Happy Money”are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfillment, not hunger. Money maynot quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generallyhappier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spendingmoney on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, andscarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyonewill agree with the authors’ policy ideas, which range from mandating moreholiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But mostpeople will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.

21. According to Dumn and Norton,which of the following is the most rewarding purchase?

[A]Abig house [B]Aspecial tour [C]A stylish car [D]A rich meal

22. Theauthor’s attitude toward Americans’ watching TV is________.

[A]critical [B]supportive [C]sympathetic [D]ambiguous

23. Macrib ismentioned in paragraph 3 to show that_______.

[A]consumersare sometimes irrational

[B]popularityusually comes after quality

[C]marketingtricks are after effective

[D]rarity generally increasespleasure

24. Accordingto the last paragraph, Happy Money_______.

[A]hasleft much room for readers’criticism

[B]may prove to be aworthwhile purchase

[C]haspredicted a wider income gap in the us

[D]maygive its readers a sense of achievement

25. This textmainly discusses how to______.

[A]balance feeling good andspending money

[B]spendlarge sums of money won in lotteries

[C]obtainlasting satisfaction from money spent

[D]becomemore reasonable in spending on luxuries

Text 2

An article inScientific America has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually,you think you’re more beautiful than you are. We have a deep-seated need tofeel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancingstrategies to research into what the call the “above average effect”, or“illusory superiority”, and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselvesas above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well withothers—all obviously statistical impossibilities.

We rose tint ourmemories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations. We become defensivewhen criticized, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our ownesteem, we stalk around thinking we’re hot stuff.

Psychologist andbehavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key studying intoself-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather that have people simply rate theirbeauty compress with others, he asked them to identify an original photograghof themselves’ from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appearmore and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is “an automaticpsychological process occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparentconscious deliberation”. If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flatteringimage- which must did- they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there anyevidence that, those who self-enhance the must (that is, the participants whothought the most positively doctored picture were real) were doing so to makeup for profound insecurities. In fact those who thought that the images higherup the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those whoshowed other makers for having higher self-esteem. “I don’t think the findingsthat we having have are any evidence of personal delusion”, says Epley. “It’s areflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves’. If you aredepressed, you won’t be self-enhancing. Knowing the results of Epley ‘sstudy,it makes sense that why people heat photographs of themselvesViscerally-on one level, they don’t even recognize the person in the picture asthemselves, Face book therefore ,is a self-enhancer’s paradise, where peoplecan share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit ,style,beauty, intellect and lifestyle it’s not that people’s profiles are dishonest,says Catalina toma of Wiscon—Madison university ,”but they portray an idealizedversion of themselves.

26. Accordingto the first paragraph, social psychologist have found that ______.

[A] our self-ratings areunrealistically high

[B]illusory superiority is baseless effect

[C]our need for leadership is unnatural

[D]self-enhancing strategies are ineffective

27. Visualrecognition is believed to be people’s______.

[A]rapid watching

[B]conscious choice

[C] intuitive response

[D]automatic self-defence

28. Epleyfound that people with higher self-esteem tended to______.

[A]underestimate their insecurities

[B] believe in theirattractiveness

[C]cover up their depressions

[D]oversimplify their illusions

29. The word“Viscerally”(Line 2,para.5) is closest in meaning to_____.

[A]instinctively

[B]occasionally

[C]particularly

[D]aggressively

30. It can beinferred that Facebook is self-enhancer’s paradise because people can _____.

[A]presenttheir dishonest profiles

[B]definetheir traditional life styles

[C]sharetheir intellectual pursuits

[D]withhold their unflatteringsides

Text 3

Crying is hardly anactivity encouraged by society. Tears, be they of sorrow, anger, on joy,typically make Americans feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The shedder oftears is likely to apologize, even when a devastating (毀滅性的) tragedy was theprovocation. The observer of tears is likely to do everything possible to putan end to the emotional outpouring. But judging from recent studies of cryingbehavior, links between illness and crying and the chemical composition oftears, both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even becounterproductive.

Humans are the onlyanimals definitely known to shed emotional tears. Since evolution has givenrise to few, if any, purposeless physiological response, it is logical toassume that crying has one or more functions that enhance survival.

Although someobservers have suggested that crying is a way to solicit assistance from others(as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardlynecessary to get help. Vocal cries would have been quite enough, more likelythan tears to gain attention, So, it appears, there must be something specialabout tears themselves.

Indeed, the newstudies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in alleviatingstress, University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemicalcomposition of tears have recently isolated two important chemicals fromemotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed inresponse to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to cut onion would containno such substance.

Researchers at severalother institutions are investigating the usefulness of tears as a means ofdiagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs.

At Tulane University’sTeat Analysis Laboratory Dr. Peter Kastl and his colleagues report that theycan use tears to detect drug abuse and exposure to medication(藥物), to determinewhether a contact lens fits properly of why it may be uncomfortable, to studythe causes of “dry eye” syndrome and the effects of eye surgery, and perhapseven to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.

At Columbia UniversityDt. Liasy Faris and colleagues are studying tears for clues to the diagnosis ofdiseases away from the eyes. Tears can be obtained painlessly without invadingthe body and only tiny amounts are needed to perform highly refined analyses.

31. It isknown from the first paragraph that ________.

[A] shedding tears givesunpleasant feelings to American

[B]crying may often imitate people or even result in tragedy

[C]crying usually wins sympathy from other people

[D]one who sheds tears in public will be blamed

32. What does“both those responses to tears”(Line 6, Para, 1) refer to?

[A]Crying out of sorrow and shedding tears for happiness.

[B]The embarrassment and unpleasant sensation of the observers.

[C] The tear shedder’sapology and the observer’s effort to stop the crying.

[D]Linking illness with crying and finding the chemical composition of tears.

33.“Counterproductive” (Lines 6-7, Para,1) very probably means “________”.

[A]having no effect at all

[B]leading to tension

[C] producing disastrousimpact

[D]harmful to health

34. What doesthe author say about crying?

[A]It is a pointless physiological response to the environment.

[B] It must have a role toplay in man’s survival.

[C]It is meant to get attention and assistance.

[D]It usually produces the desired effect.

35. What canbe inferred from the new studies of tears?

[A] Emotional tears have thefunction of reducing stress.

[B]Exposure to excessive medication may increase emotional tears.

[C]Emotional tears can give rise to “dry eye” syndrome in some cases.

[D]Environmental pollutants can induce the shedding of emotional tears.

Text 4

When the governmenttalks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually onroads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.

Why is that? To someextent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good atcommunicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to shove forattention among multibillion-pound infrastructure project, so it is inevitablethat the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significantreason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.

Nevertheless, theaffordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the timeand we are simply not building enough new homes.

The comprehensivespending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this.It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps toaddress our urgent housing need.

There are someindications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, DonFoster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, mayintroduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authoritiescan borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60,000 extranew homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted,increasing GDP by 0.6%.

Ministers should alsolook at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would havea significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund newdevelopments from revenues.

But it is not justdown to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the shortterm, we must face up to the fact that the existing ￡4.5bn programme of grantsto fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015,is unlikely to beextended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it willretain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if returns to power. Thehousing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to eraof large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.

36. Theauthor believes that the housing sector__

[A]has attracted much attention

[B] involves certainpolitical factors

[C]shoulders too much responsibility

[D]has lost its real value in economy

37. It can belearned that affordable housing has__

[A]increased its home supply

[B]offered spending opportunities

[C] suffered government biases

[D]disappointed the government

38. Accordingto Paragraph 5,George Osborne may_______.

[A] allow greater governmentdebt for housing

[B]stop local authorities from building homes

[C]prepare to reduce housing stock debt

[D]release a lifted GDP growth forecast

39. It can beinferred that a stable rental environment would_______.

[A]lowerthe costs of registered providers

[B]lessenthe impact of government interference

[C]contribute to funding newdevelopments

[D]relievethe ministers of responsibilities

40. Theauthor believes that after 2015,the government may______.

[A]implement more policies to support housing

[B]review the need for large-scale public grants

[C]renew the affordable housing grants programme

[D]stop generous funding to the housing sector

Directions:

Translate the following text from English into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

Most people would define optimism as endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half fall. But that’s exactly the kind of false deerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimists means being in touch with reality.” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor, According to Ben- Shalar,realistic optimists are these who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

Ben-Shalar uses three optimistic exercisers. When he feels down-sag, after giving a bad lecture-he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that mot every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction, He analyzes the weak lecture, leaning lessons, for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the ground scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

【參考譯文】

大多數(shù)人愿意把樂觀定義為無盡的歡樂，就像一只總是裝著半杯水的杯子。但那是一種絕不會為積極心理學(xué)家所推薦的虛假快樂。哈佛大學(xué)的Tal Ben-Shahar教授說，“健康的樂觀主義，意味著要處于現(xiàn)實之中。”在Ben-Shahar看來，現(xiàn)實的樂觀主義者，會盡最大努力做好一件事，而不是相信每件事都會有最好的結(jié)果。

Ben-Shahar 會進行三種樂觀方面的練習(xí)。比如說，當(dāng)他進行了一次糟糕的演講，感到心情郁悶的時候，他會告訴自己這是人之常情。他會提醒自己：并不是每一次演講都可以獲得諾貝爾獲，總會有一些演講比其它演講效果差。接著是重塑，他分析了這個效果不好的演講，并且從那些起作用和不起作用的演講中吸取教訓(xùn)為將來做準(zhǔn)備。最后，需要有這樣一種觀點，那就是承認(rèn)，在廣闊的生命當(dāng)中，一次演講根本算不上什么。

Part A

47. Directions: Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a local student. Write him to email to

1)tell him about your living habits, and

2)ask for advice about living there.

You should write about 100 words on answer sheet.

Do not use your own name.

Dear John,

I am Li Ming who will go to study in your university and live together with you in one department. Now I am writing this letter to tell you some of my habits and ask you for some suggestions to adapt myself there.

To begin with, I usually get up early in the morning at six o’clock and then go out to do some exercise. To continue, I would like to spend my spare time in reading in the library. Meanwhile, I wonder if you could be so kind to offer me some proposals on how to get used to the life there.

I am looking forward to seeing you soon and wish everything goes well.

Yours sincerely,

Li Ming

Part B

48. Directions: Write your essay on ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)

You should

1. interpret the chart, and

2. give your comments.

You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)

What is clearly presented in the above chart is the different numbers of urban residents and rural population among 1990,2000 and 2010.The number of urban residents climbed steadily from 300 million in 1990 to 660 million or so in 2010，while rural population decreased slightly from about 820 million to 680 million or so in the same period.

It is not difficult to come up with some possible factors accounting for this trend. On the one hand, with the rapid development of economy and society, people in mounting numbers crowd into cities in search of employment, a decent living and the excitement of urban life recently. On the other hand, the economy in the rural districts is comparative less developed and thus the opportunity to make money and pursue their future is as well lean. As a result, an increasing number of folks are trying to escape this destiny by flocking into the urban areas.

Given the analyses above, I firmly believe that such established trend will surely continue for quite a while in the forthcoming years and due importance should be attached to this evident situation.