2015年考研英语二真题及答案.docx

2015 年考研英语二真题及答案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 withor even looking ata stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with their phones, even without a 1 on a subway.Its a sad realityour desire to avoid interacting with other human beingsbecause theres2 to be gained from talking to the stranger standing by you. But you wouldnt know it ， 3 into your phone. This universal protection sends the 4 : “Please dont 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 “weird.” We fear well be 7 .We fear well 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 uneasiness, 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 doesnt 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 didnt expect a positive experience, after they 17 with the experiment, “not a single person reported having been embarrassed.”18 , these commutes were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those without communication, which makes absolute sense, 19 human beings thrive off of social connections. Its that 20 : Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.1. A. ticket B. permit C.signal D. record2. A. nothing B. little C.another D. much3. A. beaten B. guided C.plugged D. brought4. A. message B. code C.notice D. sign5. A. under B. beyond C. behind D. from6. A. misinterpreted B. misapplied C. misadjusted D. mismatched7. A. fired B. judged C. replaced D. delayed8. A. unreasonable B. ungrateful C. unconventional D. unfamiliar9. A. comfortable B. anxious C. confident D. angry10. A. attend B. point C. take D. turn11. A. dangerous B. mysterious C. violent D. boring12. A. hurt B. resist C. bend D. decay13. A. lecture B. conversation C. debate D. negotiation14. A. trainees B. employees C. researchers D. passengers15. A. reveal B. choose C. predict D. design16. A. voyage B. flight C. walk D. ride17. A. went through B. did away C. caught up D. put up18. A. In turn B. In particular C.In fact D. In consequence19. A. unless B. since C. if D. whereas20. A. funny B. simple C. logical D. rareSection Reading ComprehensionPart ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by chosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text 1A new study suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed athome than at work. Researchers measured peoples cortisol, which is a stress marker, whilwere 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 happier at home than at work.” Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with children and without, but more so for nonparents. This is why people who work outside the home have better health.What the study doesnt 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, its not surprising that women are more stressed at home.But its not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what theyre 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 familyhave no clear rewards for their labor; they need to be talked into it, or if theyre teenagers, threatened with complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, theyre your family. You cannot fire you r family. You never really get to go home from home.So its 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 Paragraph 1, most previous surveys found that home_.A. was an unrealistic place for relaxation B. generated more stress than the workplaceC. was an ideal place for stress measurement D.offered greater relaxation than the workplace22. 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 womens roles refers to the fact that_.A. they are both bread winners and housewivesB. their home is also a place for kicking backC. there is often much housework left behindD. it is difficult for them to leave their office24. The word “moola” (Line 4, Para 4) most probably means_.A. energy B. skills C. earnings D. nutrition25. The home front differs from the workplace in that_.A. home is hardly a cozier working environmentB. division of labor at home is seldom clear-cutC. household tasks are generally more motivatingD. family labor is often adequately rewardedText 2For years, studies have found that first-generation college studentsthose who do not have a parent with a college degreelag 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 t hat recruiting first- generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has “continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close” an achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.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 findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the first- generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial need, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.Their thesisthat a relatively modest intervention could have a big impactwas based on the view that first-generation 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 research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle -class culture of higher education，learn the rules of the game, and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges dont 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 experience, many first -generation students lack insight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students like them can improve.”26. Recruiting more first-generation students has_.A. reduced their dropout rates B. narrowed the achievement gapC. missed its original purpose D. depressed college students27. The authors of the research article are optimistic because_.A. the problem is solvable B. their approach is costlessC. the recruiting rate has increased D. their finding appeal to students28. The study suggests that most first-generation students_.A. study at private universities B. are from single-parent familiesC. are in need of financial support D. have failed their college29. The authors of the paper believe that first-generation students_.A. are actually indifferent to the achievement gapB. can have a potential influence on other studentsC. may lack opportunities to apply for research projectsD. are inexperienced in handling their issues at college30. We may infer from the last paragraph that_.A. universities often reject the culture of the middle-classB. students are usually to blame for their lack of resourcesC. social class greatly helps enrich educational experiencesD. colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question