Text 4
The Hear of the Matter,”the just –released report by the American Academy of Arts and sciences(AAAS), deserves praise for affirming the importance of the humanities andsocial sciences to the prosperity and security of liberal democracy in America.Regrettably,however,the report’s failure toaddress the true nature of the crisis facing liberal education may cause moreharm than good。
In 2010,leading congressionalDemocrats and Republicans sent letters to the AAAS asking that it identifyactions that could be taken by “federal,state and local government,universities,foundations, educators,individual benefactor and others” to “maintain national excellence in humanitiesand social scientific scholarship and education。” In response, the American Academyformed the Commission on the Humanities and Social Science .Among thecommission’s51 members are top-tier-university presidents, scholars, lawyers, judges,and business executives as well as prominent figures from diplomacy, filmmaking,music and journalism。
The goals identified in the report aregenerally admirable .Because representative government presupposes an informedcitizenry, the report supports full literacy; stresses the study of history andgovernment, particularly American history and American government; andencourages the use of new digital technologies. To encourage innovation andcompetition, the report calls for increased investment in research, thecrafting of coherent curricula that improve students’ ability to solve problemsand communicate effectively in the 21st century, increased funding for teachersand the encouragement of scholars to bring greater study of foreign languages, internationalaffairs and the expansion of study abroad programs。
Unfortunately, despite 2.5 years in themaking, "The Heart of theMatter" never gets to the heart of the matter: the illiberal nature ofliberal education at our leading colleges and universities. The commissionignores that for several decades America's colleges and universitieshave produced graduates who don't know the content and character of liberaleducation and are thus deprived of its benefits. Sadly, the spirit of inquiryonce at home on campus has been replaced by the use of the humanities andsocial sciences as vehicles for publicizing "progressive," orleft-liberal propaganda。
Today, professors routinely treat theprogressive interpretation of history and progressive public policy as theproper subject of study while portraying conservative or classical liberalideas-such as free markets and self-reliance-as falling outside the boundariesof routine, and something legitimate, intellectual investigation。
The AAAS displays great enthusiasm forliberal education . Yet its report may well set back reform by obscuring thedepth and breadth of the challenge that Congress asked it to illuminate。
36. According to Paragraph1, what is the author’s attitude toward the AAAS’s report?
[A] Critical
[B] Appreciative
[C] Contemptuous
[D]Tolerant
37. Influential figures in the congress requiredthat the AAAS report on how to
[A] define the government’s role in education
[B] safeguard individuals’ rights to education
[C] retain people’s interest in liberal education
[D] keep a leading position in liberal education
38. According to paragraph 3,the report suggests
[A] an exclusive study of American history。
[B] a greater emphasis on theoretical subjects。
[C] the application of emerging technologies。
[D] funding for the study of foreign languages。
39. the author implies in paragraph 5 thatprofessors are
[A] supportive of free markets
[B] conservative about public policy。
[C] biased against classical liberal ideas。
[D] cautious about intellectual investigation。
40. which of the following would be the besttitle for the text?
[A] Ways to Grasp “The Heart of the matter”
[B] Illiberal Education and “The Heart of theMatter”
[C] The AAAS’s contribution to Liberal Education
[D] Progressive Policy vs Liberal Education
Part B
Directions:
Thefollowing paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-45, you arerequired to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent text by choosing fromthe list A-G and filling them into the numbered boxes. Paragraphs A and E havebeen correctly placed.Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)
[A] Some archaeological siteshave always been easily observable—for example, the Parthenon in Athens, Greece,the pyramids of Giza in Egypt and the megaliths of Stonehenge insouthern England.But these sites are exceptions to the norm. Most archaeological sites have beenlocated by means of careful searching, while many others have been discoveredby accident. Olduvai Gorge, an early hominid site in Tanzania, was found by a butterflyhunter who literally fell into its deep valley in 1911. Thousands of Aztecartifacts came to light during the digging of the Mexico City subway in the 1970s。
[B] In another case, Americanarchaeologists Rene Million and George Cowgill spent years systematicallymapping the entire city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexiconear what is now Mexico City.At its peak around AD 600,this city was one of the largest human settlements inthe world. The researchers mapped not only the city’s vast and ornateceremonial areas, but also hundreds of simpler apartment complexes where commonpeople lived。
[C]How do archaeologists knowwhere to find what they are looking for when there is nothing visible on thesurface of the ground? Typically, they survey and sample (make test excavationson) large areas of terrain to determine where excavation will yield usefulinformation. Surveys and test samples have also become important forunderstanding the larger landscapes that contain archaeological sites
[D]Surveys can cover a singlelarge settlement or entire landscapes. In one case, many researchers workingaround the ancient Maya city of Copan, Honduras, havelocated hundreds of small rural villages and individual dwellings by using aerialphotographs and by making surveys on foot. The revaluing settlement maps showhow the distribution and density of the rural population around the citychanged dramatically between AD500 and 850,when Copan collapsed.
[E] To find their sites, archaeologists today rely heavily onsystematic survey methods and a variety of high-technology tools andtechniques. Airborne technologies, such as different types of radar andphotographic equipment carried by airplanes or spacecraft . allowarchaeologists to learn about what lies beneath the ground without digging.Aerial surveys locate general areas of interest or larger buried features, suchas ancient buildings or fields。
[F]Most archaeologicalsites, however, are discovered by archaeologists who have set out to look forthem. Such searches can take years. British archaeologists Howard Carter knewthat the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun existed from informationfound in other sites. Carter sifted through rubble in the Valley of the Kings for seven years before he located the tomb in 1922.In the late 1800s British archaeologists Sir Arthur Evans combed antiquedealers’ stores in Athens, Greece. He was searching for tinyengraved seals attributed to the ancient Mycenaean culture that dominated Greece from the1400s to 1200s BC. Evans’ interpretations of these engravings eventually him tofind the Minoan palace at Knossos(Knossos), on the island of Crete,in 1900.
[G]Ground surveys allowarchaeologists to pinpoint the places where digs will be successful. Mostground surveys involve a lot of walking, looking for surface clues such issmall fragments of pottery. They often include a certain amount of digging totest for buried materials at selected points across a landscape. Archaeologistsalso may locate buried remains by using such technologies as ground radar,magnetic-field recording, and metal detectors. Archaeologists commonly usecomputers to map site and the landscapes around sites. Two-andthree-dimensional maps are helpful tools in planning excavations, illustratinghow sites look, and presenting the results of archaeological research。
41→A→42→E→43→44→44→45
Section III Translation
Directions:
Read the following textcarefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Yourtranslation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Music means different thingsto different people and sometimes even different things to the same person atdifferent moments of his life. It might be poetic, philosophical, sensual, ormathematical, but in any case it must, in my view, have something to do withthe soul of the human being. Hence it is metaphysical; but the means ofexpression is purely and exclusively physical: sound. I believe it is preciselythis permanent coexistence of metaphysical message through physical means thatis the strength of music. (46) It is also the reason why when we try todescribe music with words, all we can do is articulate our reactions to it, andnot grasp music itself。
Beethoven’s importance inmusic has been principally defined by the revolutionary nature of hiscompositions. He freed music from hitherto prevailing conventions of harmonyand structure. Sometimes I feel in his late works a will to break all signs ofcontinuity. The music is abrupt and seemingly disconnected, as in the lastpiano sonata. In musical expression, he did not feel restrained by the weightof convention. (47) By all accounts he was a freethinking person, and acourageous one, and I find courage an essential quality for the understanding,let alone the performance, of his works。
This courageous attitude infact becomes a requirement for the performers of Beethoven’s music. Hiscompositions demand the performer to show courage, for example in the use ofdynamics. (48) Beethoven’s habit of increasing the volume with an intensecrescendo and then abruptly following it with a sudden soft passage was only rarely used by composers before him。
Beethoven was a deeplypolitical man in the broadest sense of the word. He was not interested in dailypolitics, but concerned with questions of moral behaviour and the largerquestions of right and wrong affecting the entire society. (49) Especiallysignificant was his view of freedom, which, for him, was associated with therights and responsibilities of the individual: he advocated freedom of thoughtand of personal expression。
Beethoven’s music tends tomove from chaos to order as if order were an imperative of human existence. Forhim, order does not result from forgetting or ignoring the disorders thatplague our existence; order is a necessary development, an improvement that maylead to the Greek ideal of catharsis. It is not by chance that the FuneralMarch is not the last movement of the Eroica Symphony, but the second, so thatsuffering does not have the last word. (50) One could paraphrase much of thework of Beethoven by saying that suffering is inevitable, but the courage tofight it renders life worth living。
Section IV Writing
Part A
51. Directions:
Write a letter of about100words to the president of your university, suggesting how to improvestudents physical condition 。
You should include thedetails on the you think necessary。
You should write neatly onthe ANSWER SHEET。
Do not sign your own name atthe end of the letter .Use “Li Ming”instead。
Do not write the address (10points)
Part B
52. Directions:
Write anessay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay you should
1) describethe drawing briefly
2) explainits intended meaning, and
3) give yourcomments
唯學(xué)網(wǎng)是一家集教育資訊發(fā)布與院校教學(xué)管理系統(tǒng)于一體的多功能開放式綜合教育服務(wù)平臺,教育領(lǐng)域涵蓋學(xué)歷學(xué)位教育等十一個大類及上百個子類。因此考生如若獲知關(guān)于考研的任何資訊如2014年考研真題、考研最新動態(tài)等,可隨時關(guān)注考研培訓(xùn)欄目,如有任何疑問也可在線留言,小編會為您在第一時間解答!