When Dr.. Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 2006 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100,000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to her quality newspapers too.) As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn’t file copy on time; some who did sent too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr.. Nicholls.
There remains the dinner-party game of who’s in, who’s out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted: Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr. John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christie’s entry in Missing Persons) notes, But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy’ (he had tried to escape by ship to America).
It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.
Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments, “Whether or not Hugo was a wall-painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript painter attest to his versatility”. Then there had to be more women, too (12 percent, against the original DBN’s 3), such as Roy Strong’s subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks, “Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory”. This doesn’t seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote, “except for the entry in the List of Contributors
there is no trace of J. W. Clerke”.
36．The
writer suggests that there is no sense in buying the latest volume _____.

A. because it is not worth the price
B. because it has fewer entries than before
C. unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly
D. unless one has all the volumes in the collection

37．On
the issue of who should be included in the DNB, the writer seems to suggest that _____.

A. the editors were irrational in their choices
B. the editors had clear rules to follow
C. the editors clearly favored benefactors
D. there were too many criminals in the entries

38．
Crippen was absent from the DNB _____.

A. because he escaped to the U.S.
B. because death sentence had been abolished
C. because of the editors’ mistake
D. for reasons not clarified

39．The
author quoted a few entries in the last paragraph to _____.

A. give emphasis to his argument
B. highlight the people in the Middle Ages
C. illustrate some features of the DNB
D. impress the reader with its content

40．
Throughout the passage, the writer ’s tone towards the DNB was _____.


A. bitter
B. complimentary
C. sarcastic
D. supportive
【答案与解析】

36．
D第一段第五句说And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to

31．
由此可知，这一整套书共有31册，只买一册就没什么意义了。

37．
A第二、第三段，作者很明确地表明了在人物选择上的不同看法，并举例说明在选择谁应被收录进词典时没有遵照一定的原则，是不合理的。如第三段第一句说There remains the dinner party game of who ’sin，who ’sout．这表明作者认为编者在选择对象时就像是邀请参加宴会的一场游戏，证明了编者不谨慎的态度。

38．
D文章只是在第三段谈到了Crippen未被收录进名人词典，该段的最后一句说Butthen Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught bytelegraphy.通篇没有说明Crippen未被收录进词典的原因。

39．
A在短文的最后一段作者先以收录的名人Hugo为例，没有记录其生死年月（dates of birth and death arenot recorded)；接着说对于画家LevinaTeerlinc的描述也不能让人觉得她是位值得纪念的艺术家（Doesn ’t seem toqualify her as a memorable artist）。从以上内容可知，作者引用一些条目目的是为了强调说明自己的观点：DNB的编纂方法与内容存在问题。

40．
C作者在文章一开始便指出买最近一册的DNB毫无意义，并分析了相关原因。接着作者在第三、四段讽刺说DNB在选择收录哪些名人的问题上就像做请人赴宴的游戏一样，毫无原则，极不合理。最后一段作者引用了几个名人条目强调说明了DNB的编纂方法与内容存在的问题。作者在对词典的不足之处进行评述时有理有据，并无“刻薄”之心。故选项Ｃ“讽刺的”为正确答案。


Section B: Short Answer Questions [20 points; 30 minutes]
Directions: In this section, there are two passages, each with five questions. Read the passages carefully. Then answer the questions by using the information from each passage. Please write your answers on the Answer Sheet.
Passage THREE
How is communication actually achieved? It depends, of course, either on a common language or on known conventions, or at least on the beginnings of these. If the common language and the conventions exist, the contributor, for example, the creative artist, the performer, or the reporter, tries to use them as well as he can. But often, especially with original artists and thinkers, the problem is in one way that of Creating a language, or creating a convention or at least of developing the language and conventions to the point where they are capable of bearing his precise meaning. In literature, in music, in the visual arts, in the sciences, in social thinking, in philosophy, this kind of development has occurred again and again. It often takes a long time to get through, and for many people it will remain difficult. But we need never think that it is impossible; creative energy is much more powerful than we sometimes suppose. While a man is engaged in this struggle to say new things in new ways, he is usually more than ever concentrated on the actual work, and not on its possible audience. Many artists and scientists share this fundamental unconcern about the ways in which their work will be received. They may be glad if it is understood and appreciated, hurt if it is not, but while the work is being done there can be no argument. The thing has to come out as the man himself sees it.
In this sense it is true that it is the duty of society to create conditions in which such men can live. For whatever the value of any individual contribution, the general body of work is of immense value to everyone. But, of course, things are not so formal, in reality. There is not society on the one hand and these individuals on the other. In ordinary living, and in his work, the contributor shares in the life of his society, which often affects him both in minor ways and in ways sometimes so deep that he is not even aware of them. His ability to make his work public depends on the actual communication system: the language itself, or certain visual or musical or scientific conventions, and the institutions through which the communication will be passed. The effect of these on his actual work can be almost infinitely variable. For it is not only a communication system outside him; it is also, however original he may be, a communication system which is in fact part of himself. Many contributors make active use of this kind of internal communication system. It is to themselves, in a way, that they first show their conceptions, play their music, present their arguments. Not only as a way of getting these clear, in the process of almost endless testing that active composition involves, but also, whether consciously or not, as a way of putting the experience into a communicable form. If one mind has grasped it, then it may be open to other minds.
In this deep sense, the society is in some ways already present in the act of composition. This is always very difficult to understand. But often, when we have the advantage of looking back at a period, we can see, even if we cannot explain, how this was so. We can see how much even highly original individuals had in common, in their actual work, and in what is called their “structure of feeling”, with other individual workers of the time, and with the society of that time to which they belonged. The historian is also continually struck by the fact that men of this kind felt isolated at the very time when in reality they were beginning to get through. This can also be noticed in our own time, when some of the most deeply influential men feel isolated and even rejected. The society and the communication are there, but it is difficult to recognize them, difficult to be sure.
41．According to the above passage, how can communication be achieved?
42．According to the above passage, how do creative artists andthinkers achieve communication?
43．In
terms of creative artists and scientists ’ attitude toward the public’s response to their work, what is their common characteristic?