2015年MEM考研英語二真題及答案

Section I Use of English

Directions：

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A， B， C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.(10 points)

In our contemporary culture， the prospect of communicating with-or even looking at-a stranger is virtually unbearable Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with their phones， even without a__1__underground

It's a sad reality-our desire to avoid interacting with other human beings-because there's __2__ to be gained from talking to the strange r standing by you. But you wouldn't know it， __3__ into your phone. This universal armor sends the__4__： “Please don't approach me.”

What is it that makes us feel we need to hide__5__our screens?

One answer is fear， according to Jon Wortmann， executive mental coach We fear rejection， or that our innocent social advances will be__6__as“creep， ”We fear we'llbe__7__We fear we'll be disruptive Strangers are inherently__8__to us， so we are more likely to feel__9__when communicating with them compared with our friends and acquaintances To avoid this anxiety， we__10__to our phones.“Phones become our security blanket， ”Wortmann says.“They are our happy glasses that protect us from what we perceive is going to be more__11__.”

But once we rip off the bandaid， tuck our smartphones in our pockets and look up， it doesn't __12__so bad. In one 2011 experiment， behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder asked commuters to do the unthinkable： Start a__13__. They had Chicago train commuters talk to their fellow__14__. “When Dr.Epley and Ms. Schroeder asked other people in the same train station to__15__how they would feel after talking to a stranger， the commuters thought their__16__would be more pleasant if they sat on their own， ” the New York Times summarizes. Though the participants didn't expect a positive experience， after they__17__with the experiment， “not a single person reported having been snubbed.”

__18__， these commutes were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those sans communication， which makes absolute sense， __19__human beings thrive off of social connections. It's that__20__： Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.

1. [A] ticket [B] permit [C]signal [D] record

2. [A] nothing [B] link [C]another [D] much

3. [A] beaten [B] guided [C]plugged [D] brought

4. [A] message [B] cede [C]notice [D] sign

5. [A] under [B] beyond [C] behind [D] from

6. [A] misinterpreted [B] misapplied [C] misadjusted [D] mismatched

7. [A] fired [B] judged [C] replaced [D] delayed

8. [A] unreasonable [B] ungrateful [C] unconventional [D] unfamiliar

9. [A] comfortable [B] anxious [C] confident [D] angry

10. [A] attend [B] point [C] take [D] turn

11. [A] dangerous [B] mysterious [C] violent [D] boring

12. [A] hurt [B] resist [C] bend [D] decay

13. [A] lecture [B] conversation [C] debate [D] negotiation

14. [A] trainees [B] employees [C] researchers [D] passengers

15. [A] reveal [B] choose [C] predict [D] design

16. [A] voyage [B] flight [C] walk [D] ride

17. [A] went through [B] did away [C] caught up [D] put up

18. [A] In turn [B] In particular [C]In fact [D] In consequence

19. [A] unless [B] since [C] if [D] whereas

20. [A] funny [B] simple [C] logical [D] rare

【答案】

1. [C]signal 2.[D] Much

3.[C] plugged 4.[A]message

5.[C] behind 6.[A]misinterpreted

7.[B] judged 8.[D] unfamiliar

9. [B]anxious 10.[D] turn

11. [A]dangerous 12.[A] hurt

13.[B] Conversation 14.[D] passengers

15.[C] predict 16.[D] ride

17.[A] went through 18. [C]in fact

19.[B] since 20.[B] simple

Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Text 1

A new study suggests that contrary to most surveys. People art actually more stressed at home than at work. Researchers measured people's cortntlol. Which is it at stress marker. While they were at work and while they were at home and found it higher at what is supposed to be a place of refuge.

"Further contradicting conventional wisdom, we found that women as well as men have lower levels of stress at work than at home," writes one of the researchers. Sarah Damaske, In fact women say they feel better at work. She notes. "it is men not women. Who report being bappicr at home than at work," Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with childrcn and without, but more so for nonparents. This is why pcoplc who work outside the home have better health.

What the study doesn't measure is whether people are still doing work when they' re at home, whether it is household work or work brought home from the office. For many men, the end of the workday is a time to kick back. For women who stay home, they never get to leave the office. And for women who work outside the home, they often are playing catch-up-with-household tasks. With the blurring of roles, and the fact that the home front lags well behind the workplace in making adjustments for working women, it' s not surprising that women are more stressed at home.

But it's not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what they're supposed to be doing: working, making money, doing the tasks they have to do in order to draw an income. The bargain is very pure: Employee puts in hours of physical or mental labor and employee draws out life-sustaining moola.

On the home front, however, people have no such clarity. Rare is the household in which the division of labor is so clinically and methodically laid out. There are a lot of tasks to be done, there are inadequate rewards for most of them. Your home colleagues-your family-have no clear rewards for their labor; they need to be talked into it, or if they' re teenagers, threatened with complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, they' re your family. You cannot fire your family. You never really get to go home from home.

So it's not surprising that people are more stressed at home. Not only are the tasks apparently infinite, the co-workers are much harder to motivate.

21.According to Pa ragraph 1，most previous su rveys found that home___________

[A]was an un realistic place for relaxation

[B]generated more stress than the workplace

[C]was an ideal place for stress measurement

[D]offered greater relaxation than the workplace

22.According to Damaske， who are likely to be the happiest at home?

[A]Working mothers

[B]Childless husbands

[C] Childless wives

[D]Working fathers

23.The blurring of working women's roles refers to the fact thay___________

[A]they are both bread winners and housewives

[B]their home is also a place for kicking back

[C]there is often much housework left behind

[D]it is difficult for them to leave their office

24.The word"moola"(Line 4，Para 4)most probably means___________

[A]energy

[B]skills

[C]earnings

[D]nutrition

25.The home front differs from the workplace in that_____________

[A]home is hardly a cozier working environment

[B]division of labor at home is seldom clear-cut

[C]household tasks are generally more motivating

[D]family labor is often adequately rewarded

【答案】

21.[D] offered greater relaxation than the workplace

22.[B] childless husbands

23.[A] they are both bread winners and housewives

24.[C] earnings

25.[B] division of labor at home is seldom clear-cut

Text 2

For years, studies have found that first-generation college students-those who do not have a parent with a college degree-lag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created "a paradox" in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has "continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close" achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Sciense.

But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach(which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap(measured by such factors as grades)between first-generation and other students.

The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findins are based on a study involving 147 students(who completed the project)at an unnamed private unive rsity.First generation was defined as not having a parent with a fou r-year college degree Most of the first-generation students(59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants，a federal g rant for undergraduates with financial need，while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students wit at least one parent with a four-year degree

Their thesis-that a relatively modest inte rvention could have a big impact-was based on the view that first-gene ration students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students They cite past resea rch by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be na rrowed to close the achievement gap.

Many first-gene ration students"struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education，learn the'rules of the game，'and take advantage of college resou rces," they write And this becomes more of a problem when collages don't talk about the class advantage and disadvantages of different groups of students Because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students' educational expe rience，many first-gene ration students lack sight about why they a re struggling and do not unde rstand how students' like them can improve

26. Recruiting more first-generation students has

[A]reduced their d ropout rates

[B]narrowed the achievement gao

[C] missed its original pu rpose

[D]depressed college students

27.The author of the research article are optimistic because

[A]the problem is solvable

[B]their approach is costless

[C] the recruiting rate has increased

[D]their finding appeal to students

28.The study suggests that most first-gene ration students

[A]study at private universities

[B]are from single-pa rent families

[C]are in need of financial support

[D]have failed their collage

29. The author of the paper believe that first-generation students

[A]a re actually indifferent to the achievement gap

[B]can have a potential influence on othe r students

[C] may lack opportunities to apply for resea rch projects

[D]are inexperienced in handling their issues at college

30.We mayinfer from the last paragraph that--

[A]universities often r~ect the culture of the middle-class

[B]students are usually to blame for their lack of resources

[C]social class g reatly helps en rich educational experiences

[D]colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question

【答案】

26.[C] missed its original purpose

27.[A] the problem is solvable

28.[C] are in need of financial support

29.[D] are inexperienced in handling issues at college

30.[D] colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question

Text3

Even in traditional offices，"the lingua franca of corporate America has gottenmuch more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago，" said Ha rva rd Business School professor Nancy Koehn She sta rted spinning off examples."If you and I pa rachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990，we would see much less frequent use of terms like Journey, mission,passion. There were goals，there were strategies，there were objectives，but we didn't talk about energy;we didn't talk about passion."

Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabula ry is very "team"-oriented-and not by coincidence."Let's not forget sDorts-in male-dominated corporate America，it's still a big deal. It's not explicitly conscious;it's the idea that I'm a coach，and you're my team，and we're in this togethec. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies，but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win".

These terms a re also intended to infuse work with meaning-and，as Khu rana points out，increase allegiance to the firm."You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations：Terms like vision，values，passion，and purpose，"saidKhurana

This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud debates over work-life balance The "mommy wars" of the 1990s a re still going on today, prompting arguments about whywomen still can'thave it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In，whose title has become abuzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug，offline，life-hack，bandwidth，andcapacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home But ifyour work is your "passion," you'II be more likely to devote yourself to it，even ifthat means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed

But this seems to be the irony of office speak：Everyone makes fun of it，butmanage rs love it，companies depend on it，and regular people willingly absorb itAs Nunberg said，"You can get people to think it's nonsense at the same timethat you buy into it." In a workplace that's fundamentally indiffe rent to your lifeand its meaning office speak can help you figu re out how you relate to yourwork-and how your work defines who you are

31. According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become________

[A]more e motional

[B]more objective

[C]less energetic

[D]less energetic

[E]less strategic

32."team"-oriented corporate vocabulary is closely related to________

[A]historical incidents

[B]gender difference

[C]sports culture

[D]athletic executives

33.Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to________

[A]revive historical terms

[B]promote company image

[C]foster corporate cooperation

[D]strengthen employee loyalty

34.It can be inferred that Lean In_________

[A]voices for working women

[B]appeals to passionate workaholics

[C]triggers dcbates among mommies

[D]praises motivated employees

35.Which of the following statements is true about office speak?

[A]Managers admire it but avoid it

[B]Linguists believe it to be nonsense

[C]Companies find it to be fundamental

[D]Regular people mock it but accept it

【答案】

31.[A] more emotional

32.[C] sports culture

33.[D] strengthen employee loyalty

34.[A] voices for working women

35.[C] companies find it to be fundamental

Text 4

Many people talked of the 288,000 new jobs the Labor Department reporled for Jure, along with the drop in the unemployment take to 6 J percent. at good news. And they were right. For now it appears the economy is creating jobs at a decent pace. We still have a long way to go to get back to full employment, but at least we are now finally moving forward at a faster pace.

However there is another important part of the jobs picture that was targely ovedookcd. There was a big jump in the number of people who report voluntarily working part-time. This figure is now 830,000(4,4 percent)above its year ago level.

Before explaining the connection to the Obamacare, it is worth making an important distinction. Many people who work part-time jobs actually want full-time jobs. They take part-time work because this is all they can get. An increase in involuntary part-time work is evidence of weakness in the labor market and it means that many people will be having a very hard time making ends meet.

There was an increase in involuntary part-time in June, but the general direction has been down. Involuntary part-time employment is still far higher than before the recession, but it is down by 640,000(7.9 percent)from its year ago level.

We know the difference between voluntary and involuntary part-time employment because people tell us. The survey used by the Labor Department asks people if they worked less than 35 hours in the reference week. If the answer is "yes."they are classified as working part-time. The survey then asks whether they worked less than 35 hours in that week because they wanted to work less than full time or because they had no choice. They are only elassified as voluntary part-time workers if they tell the survey taker they chose to work less than 35 hours a week.

The issue of voluntary part-time relates to Obamacare becanse one of the main purposes was to allow people to get insurance outside of employment. For many people, especially those with serious health conditions or family members with serious health conditions, before Obamacare the only way to get insurance was through a job that provided health insurance.

However, Obamacare has allowed more than 12 million people to either get insurance through Medicaid or the exchanges. These are people who may previously have felt the need to get a full-time job that provided insurance in order to cover themselves and their families. With Obamacare there is no longer a link between employment and insurance.

36. Which part of the jobs picture was neglected?

A. The prospect of a thriving job market.

B. The increase of voluntary part-time jobs.

C. The possibility of full employment.

D. The acceleration of job creation.

37. Many people work part-time because they

A. prefer part-time jobs to full-time jobs

B. feel that is enough to make ends meet

C. cannot get their hands on full-time jobs

D. haven' t seen the weakness of the market

38. Involuntary part-time employment in the US

A. is harder to acquire than one year ago

B. shows a general tendency of decline

C. satisfies the real need of the jobless

D. is lower than before the recession

39. It can be learned that with Obamacare, .

A. it is no longer easy for part-timers to get insurance

B. employment is no longer a precondition to get insurance

C. it is still challenging to get insurance for family members

D. full-time employment is still essential for insurance

40. The text mainly discusses.

A. employment in the US

B. part-timer classification

C. insurance through Medicaid

D. Obamacare's trouble

【答案】

36.[B] the increase of voluntary part-time jobs

37.[C] cannot get their hands on full-time jobs

38.[B] shows a general tendency of decline

39.[B] employment is no longer a precondition to get insurance

40.[A] employment in the US

Part B

Directions:

Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing the most suitable subheading from the list A-G for each of the numbered paragraphs(41-45).There are two extra subheadings which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.

[A]Be silly

[B]Have fun

[C] Ask for help

[D] Express your emotions

[E] Don't overthink it

[F] Be easily pleased

[G] Notice things

As adults, it seems that we are constantly pursuing happiness, often with mixed results. Yet children appear to have it down to an art—and for the most part they don't need self-help books or therapy. instead, they look after their wellbeing instinctively, and usually more effectively than we do as grownups. Perhaps it's time to learn a few lessons from them.

41.______________

What does a child do when he's sad? He cries. When he's angry? He shouts. Scared? Probably a bit of both. As we grow up,we learn to control our emotions so they are manageable and don't dictate our behaviours, which is in many ways a good thing. But too often we take this process too far and end up suppressing emotions, especially negative ones. that's about as effective as brushing dirt under a carpet and can even make us ill. What we need to do is find a way to acknowledge and express what we feel appropriately, and then—again like children—move.

42.____________

A couple of Christmases ago, my youngest stepdaughter, who was nine years old at the time, got a Superman T-shirt for Christmas. It cost less than a fiver but she was overjoyed, and couldn't stop talking about it. Too often we believe that a new job, bigger house or better car will be the magic silver bullet that will allow us to finally be content, but the reality is these things have very little lasting impact on our happiness levels. Instead, being grateful for small things every day is a much better way to improve wellbeing.

43.______________________

Have you ever noticed how much children laugh? If we adults could indulge in a bit of silliness and giggling, we would reduce the stress hormones in our bodies , increase good hormones like endorphins, improve blood flow to our hearts and even have a greater chance of fighting off enfection. All of which, of course, have a positive effect on happiness levels.

44.__________________

The problem with being a grown up is that there's an awful lot of serious stuff to deal with—work, mortgage payments, figuring out what to cook for dinner. But as adults we also have the luxury of being able to control our own diaries and it's important that we schedule in time to enjoy the things we love. Those things might be social, sporting, creative or completely random(dancing aroud the living room, anyone?)—it doesn't matter, so long as they're enjoyable, and not likely to have negative side effects, such as drinking too much alcohol or going on a wild spending spree if you're on a tight budget.

45.___________________

Having said all of the above, it's important to add that we shouldn't try too hard to be happy. Scientists tell us this can backfire and actually have a negative impact on our wellbeing. As the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu is reported to have said: "Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness."And in that, once more, we need to look to the example of our children, to whom happiness is not a goal but a natural by product of the way they live.

【答案】

41.[D] Most of your fears are unreal

42.[E] Think about the resent moment

43.[G] There are many things to be grateful for

44.[A] you are not alone

45.[C] Pave your own unique path

Section Ⅲ Translation

46. Directions:

Translate the following text from English into Chinese. Write your translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. (15 points)

Think about driving a route that's very familiar. It could be your commute to work, a trip into town or the way home. Whichever it is, you know every twist and turn like the back of your hand. On these sorts of trips it's easy tolose concentration on the driving and pay little attention to the passing scenery. The consequence is that you perceive that the trip has taken less time than it actually has.

This is the well-travelled road effect: people tend to underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route.

The effect is caused by the way we allocate our attention. When we travel down a well-known route, because we don't have to concentrate much, time seems to flow more quickly. And afterwards, when we come to think back on it, we can't remember the journey well because we didn't pay much attention to it. So we assume it wasshorter.

【參考譯文】

想想看在一條非常熟悉的路上駕駛的感覺，這可能發生在上班，進城或回家的路上。無論如何，你會熟悉路上的每一個迂回曲折。在這類旅行中，我們很容易會分散注意力并且不太關注路邊的風景。結果就是你誤以為旅途比實際所用的時間要少。這是美妙的旅程所產生的效果：人們往往會低估在熟悉的旅程中所用掉的時間。

我們分散注意力的方式會導致這種結果。當我們在知名的路途中行駛時，我們不必過于集中精力，時間似乎過得飛快。隨后，當我們回想整個過程時，由于沒有特別留神，會變得印象模糊。此時，我們似乎會覺得這段旅程會更短些。

Section Ⅳ Writing

Part A

47.Direerions:

Suppose your university is going to host a summer camp for high school students. Write a notice to

1)briefly introduce the camp activities, and

2)call for volunteers.

You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.

Do not use your name or the name of your university.

Do not write your address.(10 points)

【參考范文】

Notice

The Students' Union are arranging for a summer camp for high school students to broaden their horizon and experience different life.As there are some foreign students,who will also attend it,some volunteers are needed.The details are as follows.

To begin with,the summer camp is scheduled on July 15th and will end on July 22nd.That is to say,it will last for about one week and the theme is "Loving your country,Loving the world".What is more,different kinds of activities are included during the camp,like knowledge competition, patriotic songs contest, drama contest and so on.Last but not least,volunteers should be those who are good at communicating with foreigners and also take an active part in activities.

If you have any questions,please do not hesitate to contact us at 5678 soon.

Students' Union

Part B

48.Directions:

Write an essay based on the following chart. In your writing, your should

1)interpret the chart, and

2)give your comment.

You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET.

【參考范文】

The pie chart provides some interesting data regarding the family expense of urban residents during Spring Festival in our country. As is shown above, the family expense during the holiday is mainly used for gifts, accounting 40 percent of the whole expense.

Obviously, such statistics regarding family expenses reflects the lifestyles of the average urban family in China. To begin with, the most expense used for buying presents suggests that Chinese people are more likely to enjoy a lifestyle of communication during holidays, which may add more flavor to their routine life. What's more, it is interesting to note that urban residents attach importance to giving others gifts, thereby devoting much of the income to gifts for friends, relatives and family members. In addition, there is no denying in saying that the major factor responsible for the phenomenon is that urban people posses more money available for gifts thanks to the growth of urban economy.

Taking above-mentioned analysisinto account, we can naturally arrive at the conclusion: as the society further develops, the trend mirrored by the table is bound to continue for a couple of years in the forthcoming future.