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北京外国语大学

2012年基础英语考试试题

Part Ⅰ GRAMMAR (30 Points)

A.Correct Errors

The passage contains ten errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of one error .

In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way:

For a wrong word, underline the wrong word and write the correct one in the blank provided at the end of the line.

For a missing word, mark the position of the missing word with a ^ and write the word which you believe is missing in the blank at the end of the line .

For an unnecessary word, cross the unnecessary word with a slash / and put the word in the blank at the end of the line.

Part Ⅱ READING COMPREHENSION (80 points)

A.Multiple Choice

Please read the following passages and choose A, B, C or D to best complete the statements or best answer the questions in front of them.

Passage 1
Staffing in a Foreign Subsidiar

If you travel to another country, you will be struck at how the whole feel of the place is different.You will therefore not be surprised to learn that in general, the nature of institutions, the structure of commerce and work organization and the behavior of people in the workplace differ from country to country. These national differences form a crucial part of our understanding of the International Human Resource Management (IHRM).

The role of Human Resource (HR) manager of a foreign subsidiary is to develop HR practices that are (1) acceptable within the local culture and (2) acceptable to management at the headquarters of the multi-national corporation (MNC). However, the balancing of these two requirements is a difficult task. Whether subsidiary HR managers are home host, or third country nationals, they bring their own “cultural baggage”, which may affect their ability to accommodate cultural differences in the host work force. Employees in a subsidiary may consist of a mixture of home, host, and third country nationals—all with their own distinct cultural backgrounds and preferences. The subsidiary’s HR manager must help all employees adapt to the HR practices operating in the subsidiary, even though these practices may be derived from the cultures very different from their own. The following text will focus on staffing in describing the difficulties faced by subsidiary HR managers in developing an efective HR system.

A subsidiary HK manager ought to use a hiring process that fits the local labor market. For example, an MNC may need the services of a local personnel selection agency to identify the sources of skilled employees. Local employment laws must be adhered to, and premium salaries may have to be offered to lure highly qualified individuals away from local firms. In Japan, the collective nature of Japanese society traditionally has made it difficult for foreign companies to hire qualified Japanes employees. These individuals tend to “stay in the family” and work for Japanese, not foreign, employers. Although during the downturn in the Japanese economy during the early 1990s this attitude became less prevalent, it still remains a problem.

In some countries, hiring may require using a government-controlled labor bureau. This may be particularly prevalent in hierarchical cultures with high power distance. In Vietnam, for example, local labor bureaus are heavily involved in the hiring process. Sometimes the local bureaus may supply a foreign subsidiary with employees who are not adequately skilled for the job, and it may be difficult for the subsidiary to refuse employment. Important staffing issues may have to be approved by very high government officials

The development of a selection system may be complicated by the fact that selection tests used in the home country of the MNC may be culturally biased and inappropriate elsewhere. For example,many personality tests were developed using Western samples. The personality profiles provided by such tests, and certainly their normative data, would be meaningless in trying to understand the behavior of Japanese or Thai job applicants. Assertive individuals who take initiative and stand out from the crowd may appear well adjusted according to the norms of Western personality tests. However, a Japanese job applicant with a similar score might be a disaster if hired to work in the MNC’s subsidiary in Tokyo because “standing out” as an individual is inconsistent with the more collectivist Japanese culture. Even if the concepts measured by the tests are applicable, there are difficulties in getting many tests adequately translated into the host country language. Issues of race, age and sex discrimination can cause considerable difficulties for the subsidiary HR manager. In Singapore, a fairly hierarchical and masculine culture, it is acceptable and legal to place job advertisements that specifically state the race, age range, and sex of employees being sought. This would blatantly violate American EEO laws.An American working as HR manager in a Singapore subsidiary could experience a considerable moral dilemma, following practices that are in line with local laws and culture but conflict with home country laws and home country organizational culture.

There also can be unexpected disadvantages associated with hiring particular types of local employees. For example, in a multicultural society, the use of an employee from one ethnic group in a managerial position may not be acceptable to members of other ethnic groups. In India, die caste system, which historically has played a prominent role in Indian society, could make it inappropriate to hire someone from a lower caste to supervise employees of a higher caste. In some countries (Japan, for example), it may be inappropriate to hire a younger person for a job that has supervisory responsibilities over older employees.

1. Balancing the dual role of a subsidiary company’s HR manager is difficult because_____.

A. local employees are reluctant to accept the subsidiary’s corporate culture

B.the HR manager does not understand the host country’s customs

C.employees from different cultures need to accept the subsidiary HR practices

D.important staffing issues may have to be approved by local government

2. In Japan, people tend to “stay in the family”, which means_____.

A. they would work at home, away from the offic

B.they prefer to work for a Japanese company

C.they would choose to work for a family business

D.they have to care for family due to economic downturn

3. According to the passage, job advertisements specifying race, age range, and sex of prospective employees are legal in_____.

A. Singapore

B.Japan

C.India

D.Thailand

4. The selection tests used in an American MNC may be inappropriate for hiring employees in Tokyo because_____.

A. the Japanese job applicants tend to associate with themselves

B.Japan has developed its own HR management practices

C.the behavior of Japanese job applicants is hard to understand

D.the American personality profiles do not apply in Japanese recruitmen

5. What is the central idea of this passage?

A. Understanding two cultures is obligatory for a subsidiary’s HR management.

B.Cultural differences pose many difficulties to a subsidiary’s hiring process

C.Cultural practices have immense influence on an MNCs’ HR activities

D.A subsidiary’s hiring process ought to fit the local labor market

Passage 2
Chinese College Students Flocking to US Campuses

Bo Sun knew next to nothing about football—or the state of Nebraska, for that matter—until he started looking for US colleges and universities on the Internet. Now, as one of a growing number of Chinese students at the state’s flagship university, he catches every game he can.

President Obama announced plans last month to “dramatically expand” to 100,000 the number of US students who study in China over the next four years, calling such exchanges “a clear commitment to build ties among our people in the steady pursuit of cooperation that will serve our nations, and the world.” But Sun, who grew up in China’s Jiangxi province, is part of a surge already taking place in the other direction. In 2008 alone, 98,510 Chinese graduate and undergraduate students poured into US colleges and universities, lured by China’s emphasis on academic achievement and the prestige of US higher education.

China is second only to India when graduate students and undergrads are counted. But undergraduates such as Sun are the newer phenomenon. Nationally, an 11% growth in undergrad enrollments in 2008 was driven largely by a 60% increase from China, a report by the Institute of International Education (IIE) says. Graduate student enrollments were up 2%.

US colleges and universities have long welcomed students from China, where the higher education system can’t meet the demand. Two years ago, a record 10 million students throughout China took the national college entrance test, competing for 5.7 million university slots. Because foreign undergraduates typically aren’t eligible for US federal aid, colleges here can provide limited financial help. Now, thanks to China’s booming economy in recent years, more Chinese families can afford to pay.

The increase also reflects a “strong dialogue” between the two countries, says US State Department deputy assistant secretary Alina Romanowsky. She says the recent growth can’t be pinned to specific changes in visa polity, but some US college officials say they detect a friendlier attitude among US embassies and consulates, which review visa applications. One key question for any country is whether visa-seeking students can prove they will return to their home country upon graduating from a US college. “Because the Chinese economy has improved, students feel there are opportunities there waiting for them.” says Gretchen Olson, director of international programs at Drake University in Des Moines,where there are 28 undergraduates from China this fall, up from one in 2003.

In turn, the United States has greatly benefited from hosting foreign students. They contributed nearly $18 billion last year in tuition and living expenses to the US economy, including about $89 million in Nebraska, according to a November report from the Institute of International Education.Though it’s costly for colleges to recruit abroad, that population “has the potential to be a significant source of revenue.” says University of Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman.

Nearly half (47%) of Chinese undergraduates, and 29% of all foreign undergraduates, receive some discounts on their tuition based on their academic record. But most international students, including Sun, pay the entire non-resident rate for tuition and fees—about $18,000 this year. That’s money the school otherwise might not have seen, because Nebraska’s high-school-age population is declining.

A legislative task force in 2003 encouraged its public institutions to “more actively recruit nonNebraska high school graduates”—but with a caveat: They can’t “diminish the state’s priority of providing appropriate need-based aid to Nebraska’s high school graduates”. Nebraska, which admits any resident or non-resident who meets basic academic requirements, is largely spared the criticism sometimes aimed at more selective institutions.

Among concerns voiced by USA TODAY readers in response to a story on die topic was whether American students were being denied entrance to more elite universities because slots were being set aside for students overseas. But Paul Thibaut, admissions dean at Carleton College in Northfield,Minn., which admits about 27% of applicants, says that argument misunderstands one of US higher education’ s greatest strengths. Although some American students may be displaced by those students, Thibaut says it’s true “only if you’re looking at a single institution. It isn’t true when you look across the entire system of higher education and all the options. There’s no one being denied a good college education.” Moreover, it works both ways, he says. Carleton, which enrolled 18 Chinese freshmen this year, admitted no more than 10% of the 300 Chinese who applied.

6. Which of the following is a reason for the surge of Chinese students into US campuses?

A. China’s inability to meet students’ education demand.

B.Obama’s plan to expand education exchange.

C.China’s determination to raise its education level.

D.US offer of financial aid to foreign students

7. According to US State Department official Romanowsky, the sharp increase of Chinese students in US is a reflection of_____.

A. major changes in US visa policy

B.enhanced opportunities in China

C.closer ties between the US and China

D.friendlier attitude of US towards Chinese

8. The author uses Bo Sun’s case to show the surge of Chinese students in the category of_____.

A. graduate students

B.science students

C.undergraduate students

D.government-supported students

9. By the word “caveat” (Paragraph 8), the author means_____.

A. agreement

B.announcement

C.court order

D.warning

10. The passage suggests that USA TODAY readers’ concern about Chinese students pouring into the

US is caused by_____.

A. ignorance

B.hostility

C.anxiety

D.misunderstanding

B.True or False

Read the following passage carefully and then decide whether the statements which follow are true (T) or false (F).

Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?

There are safety-warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol. Now some groups are advocating that similar cautions be printed on cell phones. Recently, a bill in the Maine state senate proposed a label warning users, especially children and pregnant women, of the risks of brain cancer from electromagnetic radiation emanating from the device. But the Maine legislature voted down the bill in March, stating that the scientific evidence does not indicate a public health risk.

Yet, the debate rages on. Can cell phones really cause cancer? Supporters of the Maine legislation argued that uncertainty about the long-term effects of cell phone radiation warranted public safety notices. They also pointed to a handful of European studies that linked brain and auditory nerve tumors with using cell phones for more than 10 years and at younger ages.

“I think my short answer is that the evidence isn’t 100 percent, but there’s a strong indication that, yes, cell phone use does cause cancer (over a long period of time),” said David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University of Albany, and an advocate for the Maine bill on cell phone warnings.

Carpenter points to a 2007 meta-analysis that associated ipsilateral auditory nerve tumors (acoustic neuromas) with people who had used cell phones for at least 10 years, as well as a 2009 Swedish study that found a heightened risk for brain tumors among people who had used cell phones for at least 10 years, especially for those under 20 years old.

Not surprisingly, cell phone industry insiders disagree. “The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices, within the (radiation) limits established by the FCC,do not pose a public health risk or cause any adverse health effects,” said John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA—The Wireless Association, an international trade group that represents the wireless telecom industry.

For instance, 2001 Danish study and 2006 follow-up found no relationship between cancer risk and long-term cell phone use among more than 400,000 users. In addition, a statistical review from the National Institutes of Cancer revealed no rise in cancer incidence rates from 1975 to 2005 in relation to the rise in cell phone usage.

Joshua Muscat, a public health science professor at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the cancer-causing potential of cell phone radiation, also questions the connection. “There is no known mechanism by which radio frequency fields generated by cell phones can cause cancer because cell phone radiation is non-ionizing.” Muscat said.

Nevertheless, when you press a cell phone against your car while it’s in use, head and brain tissues can absorb that vibrating, low-frequency radiation and heat. Because of that radiation effect, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sets specific absorption rates (SARs) that dictate the maximum amount of radiation cell phones and mobile devices can give off.

“The power output from these phones is extremely low,” Muscat told Discovery News. However,David Carpenter counters that the SARs don’t take into account the potential long-term damage of close-range exposure to heat-inducing radiation, especially in children. “Those (FCC) levels are set by engineers and physicists, and those aren’t the people who should be setting health-based standards.” he said.

Carpenter thinks that the results from a large, 13-country study called Interphone, which consists of a series of 16 case-controlled studies conducted between 2000 and 2005, could finally settle the debate. Each of the Interphone studies recruited at least 100 people who had developed brain cancer or certain types of tumors, along with a healthy control group. But it’s been hampered by methodological shortcomings. In many cases, the group was asked to describe their cell phone habits, which critics contend led to recall bias. So far, it still hasn’t rendered a final verdict.

For now, the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, US Food and Drug Administration, among other leading health agencies and organizations, aren’t ringing the alarm bells.For one thing, scientists have yet to pinpoint how the low-frequency cell phone radiation could cause cancer.

“Cell phone radiation’s effect in the body appears to be insufficient to produce the genetic damage typically associated with developing cancer,” said Robert N. Hoover, director of epidemiology for the National Cancer Institute, in an official statement to Congress. “To date, no alternative mechanism about how this exposure might result in cancer has been vetted adequately.”

Until scientists can unmask that “mechanism”, Carpenter urges consumers to play it safe and text message or hold cell phones away from their ears to limit radiation exposure. Even Muscat from Penn State leaves a space—albeit a narrow one—for caution. “It is a legitimate concern in the sense that there may be some unknown, undiscovered mechanism that could be promoting the development of cancer,”Muscat said, “This seems unlikely, but if one looks at other scientific disciplines such as cosmology or particle physics, there are often paradigm shifts that occur with new discoveries.”

11. In Maine safety-warning labels are not printed on cell phones to caution the risks of brain cancer from cell phone radiation.

12. It is believed that using cell phones for calls is more risky than using them for text messaging.

13. The scientific evidence proves that there is a link between long-term use of cell phones and increased risk for brain tumors.

14. Cell phone use may be hazardous because the amount of radiation the device gives off can produce the genetic damage typically associated with developing cancer.

15. Cell phone radiation is non-ionizing and therefore exposure can strip electrons from atoms and molecules and directly damage cellular DNA, like X-rays can.

C.Gap Filling

Please choose from the list after the passage the best sentences to fill in the gaps in the text. There are more sentences than gaps.

No one perhaps has ever felt passionately towards a lead pencil. But there are circumstances in which it can become supremely desirable to possess one; moments when we are set upon having an object, an excuse for walking half across London between tea and dinner. As the foxhunter hunts in order to preserve the breed of foxes and the golfer plays in order that open spaces may be preserved from the builders, so when the desire comes upon us to go street rambling the pencil does for a pretext and getting up we say: “Really I must buy a pencil,” 16_____.

The hour should be the evening and die season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. We are not then taunted as in the summer by the longing for shade and solitude and sweet airs from the hayfields. The evening hour, too, gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves. As we step out of the house on a fine evening between four and six, we shed the self our friends know us by and become part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers, whose society is so agreeable after the solitude of one’s own room. 17_____.

That bowl on the mantelpiece, for instance, was bought at Mantua on a windy day. We were leaving the shop when the sinister old woman plucked at our skirts and said she would find herself starving one of these days, but, “Take it!” she cried, 18_____. So, guiltily, but suspecting nevertheless how badly we had been fleeced, we carried it back to the little hotel where, in the middle of the night, the innkeeper quarreled so violently with his wife that we all leant out into the courtyard to look, and saw the vines laced about among the pillars and the stars white in the sky. 19_____. There, too, wasthe melancholy Englishman, who rose among the coffee cups and the little iron tables and revealed the secrets of his soul—as travelers do. All this-Italy, the windy morning, the vines laced about the pillars,the Englishman and the secrets of his soul—rise up in a cloud from the china bowl on the mantelpiece.And there, as our eyes fall to the floor, is that brown stain on the carpet. Mr. Lloyd George made that. “The man’s a devil!” said Mr. Cummings, putting the kettle down with which he was about to till the teapot so that it burnt a brown ring on the carpet.

But when the door shuts on us, all that vanishes. 20_____. How beautiful a street is in winter! Itis at once revealed and obscured. Here vaguely one can trace symmetrical straight avenues of doors and windows; here under the lamps are floating islands of pale light through which pass quickly bright men and women, who, for all their poverty and shabbiness, wear a certain look of unreality, an air of triumph,as if they had given life the slip, so that life, deceived of her prey, blunders on without them. But, after all, we are only gliding smoothly on the surface. The eye is not a miner, not a diver, not a seeker after buried treasure. It floats us smoothly down a stream; resting, pausing, the brain sleeps perhaps as it looks.

A. How beautiful a London street is then, with its islands of light, and its long groves of darkness, and on one side of it perhaps some tree-sprinkled, grass-grown space where night is folding herself to sleep naturally

B. and thrust the blue and white china bowl into our hands as if she never wanted to be reminded of her quixotic generosity

C. For there we sit surrounded by objects which perpetually express the oddity of our own temperaments and enforce the memories of our own experience

D. as if under cover of this excuse we could indulge safely in the greatest pleasure of town life in winter-rambling the streets of London.

E. The shell-like covering which our souls have excreted to house themselves, to make for themselves a shape distinct from others, is broken, and there is left of all these wrinkles and roughnesses a central oyster of perceptiveness, an enormous eye.

F. The moment was stabilized, stamped like a coin indelibly among a million that slipped by imperceptibly.

Part Ⅲ TRANSLATION (40 points)

A.Please read the following passage and translate it into Chinese.

We sometimes fall in with persons who have seen much of the world, and of the men who, in their day, have played a conspicuous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and have no observation, in the true sense of the word. They abound in information in detail, curious and entertaining, about men and things, and, having lived under the influence of no very clear or settled principles, religious or political,they speak of every one and everything, only as so many phenomena, which are complete in themselves, and lead to nothing, not discussing any truth, or instructing the hearer, but simply talking. No one would say that these persons, well informed as they are, had attained to any great culture or intellect or to philosophy.

B.Please read the following passage and translate it into English.

书本究竟能够带给我们什么,几乎没有人探究过这个问题。在我们读书的时候,最常见的情况是,我们思想不明确,目标不一致。逢小说便要求其真实,逢诗歌又指望它虚幻。认为传记必会吹捧,而史书一定附会我们自己的偏见。如果我们在读书时能够摒弃这些成见,那就会是阅读的良好起点。不要对作者发号施令,而应该试着去设身处地设想,与他合作,同他共谋。如果你一开始便却步矜持,有所保留,动辄挑剔,那么书中可能蕴含的精义,便无法充分领悟了。而如果敞开心胸,虚怀若谷,透过开篇迂回曲折的字里行间,领悟到那细腻微妙、几乎难以察觉到的迹象与暗示,那一个与众不同的人便呈现在我们眼前了。

参考答案

Part Ⅰ GRAMMAR (30 Points)

A.Correct Errors

1. about→with。固定结构:in negotiations with sb.

2. moral→immoral。句意是“在这些组织看来,他们对暴行或者不道德行为不负责任”。

3. ^ the role→in。固定结构:cast sb. in the role of sth.

4. in →/ 。give是及物动词,give in表示“投降”。

5. for→/ 。Here is an example表示“这里举一个例子”。

6. with→and。Thousands died和thousands more suffered terrible injuries是两个完整句子,要用连词and连接。

7. the Indians ^ →who。这里是the Indians的定语从句,先行词在定语从句中作主语,不可省。

8. responsively→ responsibly。responsively表示“易感应地”;responsibly“负责地”。

9. on→ for。call on“拜访”,固定结构:call on sb. to do sth.;call for“要求”,用法:call for sth.

10. 第一个about→with。charge sb. with sth.“控告某人某事”。

Part Ⅱ READING COMPREHENSION (80 points)

A. Multiple Choice
Passage I

1. C. 由题干可以定位到第二段第二句。分公司员工的文化背景和喜好大相径庭,所以无论人力经理有什么样的“文化包袱”,都要帮助雇员来适应公司的习惯。

2. B. 由题干可以定位到第三段第五句。日本人更愿意受雇于本国公司。

3. A. 由题干可以定位到第五段倒数第三句。在新加坡,招聘广告对雇员的种族、年龄、性别做出明确要求,这是可行并且合法的做法。

4. D. 由题干可以定位到第五段第三句。作者举例指出选拔测试中对分公司所使用的若是西方样本,那么对于了解日本和泰国的应聘者就不适合。

5. B. 作者重点指出分公司在人员招聘方面面临的巨大困难。包括适应所在国劳动力市场,政府介入,选拔测试的适用性和分等级国家的传统习惯。

Passage 2

6. A. 由题干可以定位到第四段第一句。美国大学一直很受中国学生欢迎,因为中国高等教育不能满足学生的需求。

7. C. 由题干可以定位到第五段首句。她认为中国留学人数的增加反映了两国对话交流加强。

8. C. 由题干可以定位到第三段前两句。中国在美留学总人数仅次于印度,但是像孙博这样的本科生留学是最新现象。

9. D. 由题干可以定位到第七段和第八段。内布拉斯加州高中适龄人口下降,公办学校加大招收非内布拉斯加州生源的高中生,也给出警告。

10. D. 由题干可以定位到第九段第一句。作者指出就单个学校而言,留学生确实代替了本国学生,但从整个教育系统来看,美国学生仍有有很多机会和选择。

B.True or False

11. T. 由题干可以定位到第一段第三句。

12. T. 由题干可以定位到最后一段首句。

13. F. 由题干可以定位到第六段第一句。

14. F. 由题干可以定位到第二段首句。

15. F. 由题干可以定位到第七段第二句。

C.Gap Filling

16. D. 由题干可以定位到文章开头。当我们有漫步街头的欲望时,就以买铅笔为借口出去。

17. C. 上文描述了冬日傍晚漫步街头的心境,不受责任羁绊,这里应该继续描述漫步时的所思所 想。

18. B. 由题干可以定位第三段。作者在这段开始追忆往昔。

19. F. 上文提到当他们回到小旅馆听到店主与妻子的吵架,便跑去旁观,下文是作者对此时此景的感受:时光在这一刻静止。

20. E. 作者在本段回到漫步街头的现实。E项中broken和left与文中的vanish相对,表示“用来保护自我心灵的那一层分泌物没有了,我们特有的形式也不复存在”。

Part Ⅲ TRANSLATION (40 points)

A.Please read the following passage and translate it into Chinese.

我们有时会邂逅一些涉世很深的人,以及一些曾经见过许多在其全盛年代便功业显赫的人,但是这些人却不善于概括推理,也毫无观察力。这些人对人、事掌有丰富详尽的资料,新奇有趣,引人入胜;但是,由于在宗教上或政治上一向缺乏明确或固定原则的指引,所以当他们谈说起某人某事时,也不过把这一切当作若干现象说说而已;这些谈说本身是完整的,但不能说明什么问题;他们不是在讨论什么问题,传授什么真理,或考虑如何对听者有所教益,而只是谈谈而已。这些人虽说见闻广博,却很难说在知识上有什么素养,或哲学上有什么境界。

B.Please read the following passage and translate it into English.

Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would he an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read.But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness,from the twist and turn of the beginning sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. BlZav2uF/sKoQac1SNgCDVFi3oeVd+qHcoB/hbQvHlxCKrDeayNnL7u3qC2F3FHo

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