33. By saying "these figures are conservative" (Line 1, paragraph 3), Dr. Worm means that ________.
[A] fishing technology has improved rapidly
[B] the catch-sizes are actually smaller than recorded
[C] the marine biomass has suffered a greater loss
[D] the data collected so far are out of date
34. Dr. Myers and other researchers hold that ________.
[A] people should look for a baseline that can work for a longer time
[B] fisheries should keep their yields below 50% of the biomass
[C] the ocean biomass should be restored to its original level
[D] people should adjust the fishing baseline to the changing situation
35. The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries’ ________.
[A] management efficiency
[B] biomass level
[C] catch-size limits
[D] technological application
Text 4
Many things make people think artists are weird. But the weirdest may be this: artists’ only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.
This wasn’t always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere from the 19th century onward, more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless, phony or, worst of all, boring, as we went from Wordsworth’s daffodils to Baudelaire’s flowers of evil.
You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen so much misery. But it’s not as if earlier times didn’t know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today.
After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.
People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
Today the messages the average Westerner is surrounded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agenda -- to lure us to open our wallets -- they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. “Celebrate!” commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
But what we forget -- what our economy depends on us forgetting -- is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need art to tell us, as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. It’s a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
36. By citing the examples of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that ________.
[A] poetry is not as expressive of joy as painting or music
[B] art grows out of both positive and negative feelings
[C] poets today are less skeptical of happiness
[D] artists have changed their focus of interest
37. The word “bummer” (Line 5, paragraph 5) most probably means something ________.
[A] religious
[B] unpleasant
[C] entertaining
[D] commercial
38. In the author’s opinion, advertising ________.
[A] emerges in the wake of the anti-happy art
[B] is a cause of disappointment for the general public
[C] replaces the church as a major source of information
[D] creates an illusion of happiness rather than happiness itself
39. We can learn from the last paragraph that the author believes ________.
[A] happiness more often than not ends in sadness
[B] the anti-happy art is distasteful but refreshing
[C] misery should be enjoyed rather than denied
[D] the anti-happy art flourishes when economy booms
40. Which of the following is true of the text?
[A] Religion once functioned as a reminder of misery.
[B] Art provides a balance between expectation and reality.
[C] People feel disappointed at the realities of modern society.
[D] Mass media are inclined to cover disasters and deaths.
Part B
Directions:
In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered gaps. There are two extra choices, which you do not need to use in any of the blanks. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
On the north bank of the Ohio river sits Evansville, Ind., home of David Williams, 52, and of a riverboat casino (a place where gambling games are played). During several years of gambling in that casino, Williams, a state auditor earning $35,000 a year, lost approximately $175,000. He had never gambled before the casino sent him a coupon for $20 worth of gambling.
He visited the casino, lost the $20 and left. On his second visit he lost $800. The casino issued to him, as a good customer, a "Fun Card", which when used in the casino earns points for meals and drinks, and enables the casino to track the user’s gambling activities. For Williams, those activities become what he calls "electronic heroin".
(41) ________. In 1997 he lost $21,000 to one slot machine in two days. In March 1997 he lost $72,186. He sometimes played two slot machines at a time, all night, until the boat docked at 5 a.m., then went back aboard when the casino opened at 9 a.m. Now he is suing the casino, charging that it should have refused his patronage because it knew he was addicted. It did know he had a problem.
In March 1998 a friend of Williams’s got him involuntarily confined to a treatment center for addictions, and wrote to inform the casino of Williams’s gambling problem. The casino included a photo of Williams among those of banned gamblers, and wrote to him a “cease admissions” letter. Noting the medical/psychological nature of problem gambling behavior, the letter said that before being readmitted to the casino he would have to present medical/psychological information demonstrating that patronizing the casino would pose no threat to his safety or well-being.
(42) ________.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the casino has 24 signs warning: “Enjoy the fun... and always bet with your head, not over it.” Every entrance ticket lists a toll-free number for counseling from the Indiana Department of Mental Health. Nevertheless, Williams’s suit charges that the casino, knowing he was “helplessly addicted to gambling,” intentionally worked to “lure” him to “engage in conduct against his will.” Well.
(43) ________.
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says “pathological gambling” involves persistent, recurring and uncontrollable pursuit less of money than of thrill of taking risks in quest of a windfall.
(44) ________. Pushed by science, or what claims to be science, society is reclassifying what once were considered character flaws or moral failings as personality disorders akin to physical disabilities.
(45) ________.
Forty-four states have lotteries, 29 have casinos, and most of these states are to varying degrees dependent on -- you might say addicted to -- revenues from wagering. And since the first Internet gambling site was created in 1995, competition for gamblers’ dollars has become intense. The Oct. 28 issue of Newsweek reported that 2 million gamblers patronize 1,800 virtual casinos every week. With $3.5 billion being lost on Internet wagers this year, gambling has passed pornography as the Web’s most profitable business.
[A] Although no such evidence was presented, the casino’s marketing department continued to pepper him with mailings. And he entered the casino and used his Fun Card without being detected.
[B] It is unclear what luring was required, given his compulsive behavior. And in what sense was his will operative?
[C] By the time he had lost $5,000 he said to himself that if he could get back to even, he would quit. One night he won $5,500, but he did not quit.
[D] Gambling has been a common feature of American life forever, but for a long time it was broadly considered a sin, or a social disease. Now it is a social policy: the most important and aggressive promoter of gambling in America is the government.
[E] David Williams’s suit should trouble this gambling nation. But don’t bet on it.
[F] It is worrisome that society is medicalizing more and more behavioral problems, often defining as addictions what earlier, sterner generations explained as weakness of will.
[G] The anonymous, lonely, undistracted nature of online gambling is especially conducive to compulsive behavior. But even if the government knew how to move against Internet gambling, what would be its grounds for doing so?
Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Is it true that the American intellectual is rejected and considered of no account in his society? I am going to suggest that it is not true. Father Bruckberger told part of the story when he observed that it is the intellectuals who have rejected America. But they have done more than that. They have grown dissatisfied with the role of intellectual. It is they, not America, who have become anti-intellectual.
First, the object of our study pleads for definition. What is an intellectual? 46) I shall define him as an individual who has elected as his primary duty and pleasure in life the activity of thinking in a Socratic (苏格拉底) way about moral problems. He explores such problems consciously, articulately, and frankly, first by asking factual questions, then by asking moral questions, finally by suggesting action which seems appropriate in the light of the factual and moral information which he has obtained. 47) His function is analogous to that of a judge, who must accept the obligation of revealing in as obvious a manner as possible the course of reasoning which led him to his decision.
This definition excludes many individuals usually referred to as intellectuals -- the average scientist, for one. 48) I have excluded him because, while his accomplishments may contribute to the solution of moral problems, he has not been charged with the task of approaching any but the factual aspects of those problems. Like other human beings, he encounters moral issues even in the everyday performance of his routine duties -- he is not supposed to cook his experiments, manufacture evidence, or doctor his reports. 49) But his primary task is not to think about the moral code which governs his activity, any more than a businessman is expected to dedicate his energies to an exploration of rules of conduct in business. During most of his waking life he will take his code for granted, as the businessman takes his ethics.
The definition also excludes the majority of teachers, despite the fact that teaching has traditionally been the method whereby many intellectuals earn their living. 50) They may teach very well and more than earn their salaries, but most of them make little or no independent reflections on human problems which involve moral judgment. This description even fits the majority of eminent scholars. Being learned in some branch of human knowledge is one thing, living in "public and illustrious thoughts,” as Emerson would say, is something else.
Section III Writing
Part A
51. Directions
You want to contribute to Project Hope by offering financial aid to a child in a remote area. Write a letter to the department concerned, asking them to help find a candidate. You should specify what kind of child you want to help and how you will carry out your plan.
Write your letter in no less than 100 words. Write it neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2.
Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter; use “Li Ming” instead.
Do not write the address. (10 points)
Part B
52. Directions:
Study the following photos carefully and write an essay in which you should
1. describe the photos briefly,
2. interpret the social phenomenon reflected by them, and
3. give your point of view.
You should write 160-200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points)
 
有两幅图片，图1 把崇拜写在脸上；图2 花300元做“小贝头”
注：Beckham是英国足球明星
有两张照片，一张照片上有一位男士脸上写着足球明星的名字，另一张照片上有一个男子在理发，他要求理发师为他设计一个小贝克汉姆的发型。
 
2006年考研英语真题答案
Section I: Use of English (10 points)
1. [A] 2. [B] 3. [D] 4. [A] 5. [D]
6. [C] 7. [B] 8. [C] 9. [A] 10. [A]
11. [C] 12. [B] 13. [D] 14. [C] 15. [C]
16. [A] 17. [B] 18. [C] 19. [A] 20. [D]
Section II: Reading Comprehension (60 points)
Part A (40 points)
21. [C] 22. [A] 23. [C] 24. [D] 25. [B]
26. [A] 27. [B] 28. [C] 29. [D] 30. [D]
31. [C] 32. [A] 33. [C] 34. [D] 35. [B]
36. [D] 37. [B] 38. [D] 39. [B] 40. [A]
Part B (10 points)
41. [C] 42. [A] 43. [B] 44. [F] 45. [D]
Part C (10 points)
46．我将他定义为一个对道德问题进行苏格拉底式思考并将此作为自己人生首要责任和快乐的人。
47．他的职责与法官相似，必须承担这样的责任：用尽可能明了的方式来展示自己做出决定的推理过程。
48．我之所以把他（普通科学家）排除在外，是因为尽管他的成果可能会有助于解决道德问题，但他承担的任务只不过是研究这些问题的事实方面。
49．但是，他的首要任务并不是考虑支配自己行为的道德规范，就如同不能指望商人专注于探索行业规范一样。