2002年基础英语试卷
I. Reading Comprehension
This section contains two passages. Read each passage and then answer the questions given at the end of the passage.
Passage One
Just before Sept. 11 changed storytelling in America forever, my Hollywood agent explained that my new novel was doomed in movieland because it lacked sufficient “explosive moments.” Given this, the fact that the Defense Department is currently consulting with Hollywood scriptwriters and producers to help U.S. generals “think outside the box” is beyond comprehension. Hollywood storytellers invented the box. They worship the box. They have spent their lives mass-producing the box.
As American movie geniuses scramble to reinvent their formula and edit out scenes that might offend post-Sept. 11 sensibilities, I feel a wonderful release. The box is dead. The tyranny of Hollywood has temporarily abated. What will fill the storytelling vacuum has yet to be seen. But my bet is that the appetite for stories that explore violence and mayhem, rather than exploiting them, will have an even broader appeal.
Although the body count is traditionally high in my genre, the best thrillers and crime novels have never been about thrills or crimes. They are about the often subtle, often banal inner workings of evil, and about the many shapes of heroism —— those impossible struggles of the individual challenged by forces that threaten his soul more than his body.
Certainly, some of the landscape of popular fiction is changed. Stock characters that have been so reliable in their ability to scare us silly —— serial killers, stalkers, hit men, mob bosses, psychopathic cannibals —— wither and turn to dust in the face of the far more potent forms of evil we have encountered.
Real-life heroes reshape standards for bravery. Who has not tested his imagination by banding together with strangers on that doomed plane, throwing together a hasty plan, then storming down the narrow aisle to tackle a group of razor-wielding thugs? Who hasn’t imagined himself pushing upward into those smoke-darkened hallways as choking civilians rush out of harm’s way, while all around us a faint rumble rises?
Thriller writers grapple with the devilish distinction between revenge and justice, and show violence and bravery in their starkest forms. Books like Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick and A Farewell to Arms share the gritty sensibility and brutally honest portraits of violence that distinguish the modern thriller.
Since Sept. 11, my Hollywood agent has changed her tune. Now the reason my book will never be made into a film is that the one explosive moment it did contain a scene portraying an airliner brought down by terrorists. In a book written over a year ago, I’ve broken a brand new taboo. I get no points for prescience and want none. My barometer was twitching: that’s all I can say. I write about what scares me.
And these days everywhere I look, I see material.
1. Explain the following sentences or phrases in English, bringing out the implied meaning, if there is any: (18 points)
(1) They have spent their lives mass-producing the box.
(2) … edit out scenes that might offend post-Sept. 11 sensibilities
(3) … the appetite for stories that explore violence and mayhem, rather than exploiting them, will have an even broader appeal
(4) Although the body count is traditionally high in my genre.
(5) … wither and turn to dust in the face of the far more potent forms of evil…
(6) … my Hollywood agent has changed her tune
2. Give a brief answer to the following questions: (6 points)
(1) What does the author mean by saying: “I’ve been broken a brand new taboo”?
Passage Two
It’s the first week of school at the University of California, Berkeley, and Sproul Plaza, the campus’s main thoroughfare, is bustling with the usual lunchtime crowd: protesters clanging garbage-can lids and plinking cowbells; upperclassmen blaring boomboxes; a jazz ensemble luring potential recruits with a Miles Davis standard. It’s a portrait of diversity in every way but one: skin color. A disproportionate number of the students walking around Sproul are Asian-Americans. Amy Tang, a third-year cognitive-science major, sits at a booth for the Chinese Student Association. “I came to Berkeley for the diversity,” she says, surveying the plaza. “But when I got here and saw all the Asians, it was really weird.”
Berkeley’s rapidly morphing student body has sparked one of the fiercest debates in higher education. The school’s Asian-American population had already been surging for years when, in 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, a ballot initiative that banned affirmative action at all state institutions. At the time, the campus was torn by protests. And the result seemed to confirm the doomsayers’ predictions: enrollment of African-American, Hispanic and Native American students plunged at Berkeley; while the Asian-American population continued to rise. Asian-American students now make up about 45 percent incoming freshmen, white students 30 percent, Hispanic students 9 percent and African-American only 4 percent. And the drops in under-represented minorities are even more acute at the grad schools. William Bagley, a university regent who supports affirmative action, insists that the university’s most prestigious campuses —— like Berkeley —— have become “reverse ghettos, with Asians and whites and a lack of color.”
What accounts for the shift? To start, the pool of eligible Asian-American applicants was already huge. Nearby San Francisco boasts the highest percentage of Asian-Americans in the continental United States. And Asian-Americans are many times more likely than other groups to graduate at the top of their high-school classes. At Cal, many Asian-American students attribute heir academic success to family pressure and, in some cases, an immigrant mind-set. “There’s such a push to succeed,” says Marian Liu, a fifth-year student at Cal whose father was a Chinese immigrant. Ward Connerly, a UC regent who is one of the most vocal opponents of affirmative action, says that before 209, Asian-American students were discriminated against. “There was this fear that without the use of race, the whole campus would become Asian,” he says.
It’s a much different picture for Berkeley’s African-American, Hispanic and Native American students. Even after they’ve been admitted, Berkeley has a tough time persuading them to enroll. Brett Byers, a fourth-year business major who runs the schools’ Black Recruitment and Retention Center, calls prospectives to try to persuade them to come to Cal. “When I call, they think there are no black students here,” she says. Byers recently helped reprise a tradition —— called “Black Wednesday” —— where the campus’s dwindling population of black students could relax, network and socialize on Sproul. “There was a time when students of color used to hang out all the time on Sproul,” says Anya Booker, a friend and adviser of Byer’s who graduated from Berkeley in 1989. “The shame is that it’s been reduced to a single Wednesday.” And students say the lack of underrepresented minorities is apparent in class —— especially the grad schools. Serena Lin, a first-year law student who was also an undergraduate at Berkeley, says she sat in on a drug-policy seminar when she was a prospective student. “They were talking about how U.S. drug policy affects minorities,” she says. “And there wasn’t a single African-American in the class.
These days Berkeley is trying to adjust to life after 209. The campus’s biggest new buzzword is “outreach.” The University of California is spending $150 million —— more than twice the pre-209 number —— in an effort to increase the pool of qualified underrepresented minority students. And Daniel Hernandez, editor of the school newspaper, says that despite all the challenges, race relations on campus are relatively healthy. “Students are sort of settling into the way things are.” says Hernandez. But is that necessarily good? Underrepresented minorities have long been the backbone of Berkeley’s political mood, energizing the campus. In gaining a new face, Berkeley will have to live with what it has lost.
1. Explain the following sentences or phrases in English, bringing out the implied meaning, if thee is any: (18 points)
(1) It’s a portrait of diversity in every way but one: skin color.
(2) And the result seemed to confirm the doomsayers’ predictions…
(3) And he drops in underrepresented minorities are even more acute at the grad schools.
(4) … an immigrant mind-set
(5) Students are sort of settling into the way things are…
(6) … have long been the backbone of Berkeley’s political mood, energizing the campus
2. Answer the following questions briefly and to the point: (18 points)
(1) Why does the author say that university’s most prestigious campuses like Berkeley “have become reverse ghettos, with Asians and whites and a lack of color”?
(2) What does the author mean when he says: “In gaining a new face, Berkeley will have to live with what it has lost.”?
(3) How does the author feel about proposition 209?
I. Translate the following passage into English: (40 points)
爱国者人爱之，自尊者人尊之
记得在苏黎世大学进行为期一年的博士后研修时，由于勤奋努力，我提前两个月完成了我的课题研究任务。当导师古根汉姆教授读完我提交的6篇论文时，惊喜万分。没过几天，校方拿来一份合同，提出以1.2 万瑞士法郎（约合人民币6万元）的月薪聘我担任研究员，我毫不犹豫地拒绝了。
我的举动大大出乎教授的意料，当天晚上，一向惜时如金的他，破例邀我去散步。我告诉他我之所以这么做的原因：第一，我的祖国很需要我；第二，我又我的阴阳，我的所作所为不能违背我的信仰。我正想礼节性地道个歉，他却阻止了我，对我说，薛，你是第一个拒绝我的人，但你的选择却使我更为敬重你。教授感叹道，虽然我信仰的东西不一样，但能为信仰而活着、而奋斗的人，总是令人尊敬的。
我从瑞士归国时，古根汉姆教授免费送我价值3000多美元的菌株合一本亲笔签名的最新著作。而在这之前，我就是出高价购买这种菌株，教授也是不会答应的。
我先后去过5个国家留学，与20多个国家的人共过事，从中我发现一个现象：爱国者人爱之，自尊者人尊之。人是要有一点精神的，这种精神就是理想、信念、民族自尊心、自信心合自豪感的总和。
苏黎世大学 University of Zurich
古根汉姆 Guggenheim
瑞士法郎 Swiss franc
菌株 bacterial strain
