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inheritor of a dream come true. The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. (41) The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production, means of distribution, site of reception, and place of praise and critique. The computer is the 21st century's culture machine.
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. (42)I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.
All animals download, but only a few upload. Beavers build dams and birds make nests. Yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods - paintings, sculpture and architecture - and superfluous experiences - music, literature, religion and philosophy. (43) For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. (44)
Television is a one-way tap flowing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after he has turned it on. (45)
What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of \- creations and experiences to which others adhere. [A] Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.
[B] Applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others. [C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions
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of people every day. [D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading - between passive consumption and active creation - whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine.
[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players.
[F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world's media culture has been defined by a single medium - television - and television is defined by downloading. [G]The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading. Part C
Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise. In some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton?s laws of motion and Darwinian
evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory frame work.
(46)In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of everything-a single generative equation for all we see.It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail, nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal.
This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too. (47)Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification for it all humans share common origins it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings. Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world?s languages, music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. (48)To filter out what is unique from what is shared might enable us to understand how complex cultural behavior arose and what guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.
That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the
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University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the light of two previous attempts to find universality in language. The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that humans are born with an innate language-acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.
(49)The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many language which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints
Gray and his colleagues have put them to the test by examining four family trees that between them represent more than 2,000 languages.(50)Chomsky?s grammar should show patterns of language change that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it. Whereas Greenbergian
universality predicts strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations. Neither of these patterns is borne out by the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages are lire age-specific and not governed by universals [NxtPage]
Section III Writing Part A
51. Directions:
Some internationals students are coming to your university. Write them an email in the name of the Students? Union to 1) extend your welcome and
2) provide some suggestions for their campus life here.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET2.Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use “Li Ming” instead. Do not write the address(10 points) Part B
52. Directions: write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay you should 1) describe the drawing briefly
2) explain its intended meaning, and 3) give your comments
You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET2.(20 points)
2012考研英语真题答案
Section Ⅰ Use of English
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2012年的完型填空是有关美国司法官伦理和政治关系的一篇文章，出自New York Times, June, 30th , 2011的“Ethics, Politics and the Law”一文。选材回归了2000年完型曾出过的法律类文章，而且和当年一样，也是包含几个小段落，不像以往的文章，三段或者四段论，脉络比较清晰，结构容易把握。而且，较去年比较“平易近人”的文章，这篇法律类文章背后有一定的背景知识，比较关注时事或者对这一块儿有所了解的同学，会相应得心应手一些。另外，20道题目中，多达13题都是在考查动词，虽然选项中基本不存在干扰项，除了15题一道考查两词的辨析之外，其他的选项含义都差别甚远，按理说值得高兴。但是这些考查动词的题目中，许多都考查对于熟词僻义的掌握情况，往年就是08年出现了3处，今年也出现3处。仅有2道题考查逻辑词，而且这两道题是送分题，不需要考虑太多。一向是命题人偏爱的以“able”作后缀的形容词依然出现(19题)。下面就真题作一个详细解析。
和以往一样，第一句话不设空，帮助同学们理解全文探讨的话题： 美国高等法庭司法官的伦理道德问题。
题1选B。maintain. 此空有赖于对后文的理解。这直接体现了我们作完型的整体思路，也就是首先通读全文。尤其是看到最后一段直接给出提议：希望法官和政治划清界限从而保证自己的权威性，因此全文的导向和逻辑就非常清晰了。同时，题2答案(when)也顺势而出：如果法官们和政治家一样，法庭就不能捍卫自己作为法律卫道士的权威。
题2选A。这里的when其实表示条件关系，即“如果……。”
题3选择 weakened。上下文语义题+词义辨析。选项含义差别较大，要求对上下文逻辑关系掌握清楚。Yet表示一个转折：“即使这样，还是有很多法官这样做，损害了法庭独立和公正的名声。” 本题如果能把导向把握准，即可定位在B和D两项，D项eliminated 过于绝对，排除。 题4 选D. accepted。 上下文语义。依然是通过上下文逻辑关系，按段精度解题。这段用两个法官参与政治事件的例子说明他们的行为使得法院的裁决不偏不倚而被认可变得不太可能。A选项challenged 和C项suspected意义相反，和主旨矛盾，即肯定了法官参与政治行为。B项compromised “调停” 和主题无关。 题5 选C。上下文语义题。本段属于总分形式。首先提出法官参与政治导致的问题，然后分析问题的原因：“这种情况有一部分是由于法官们不受伦理道德准则的约束。” 其他三项不合逻辑，均不具干扰性。
题 6 选B。完型填空在历史上对于subject这个词一向情有独钟。04年，05年，08年以及10年选项中都出现，只有05年落选。而且这3年考查的意思都一致，即“易遭受……”，考查形式有“is subjected to”， “is subject to” 以及 “subject sb. to sth。(使得某人容易遭受)”。今年依然是“subject”入选，但是这次取了大家最熟悉的意思，即“使服从，受…管制”，“法院应该依行为准则办事”。至于选项A resistant 和 C immune两个选项和subject 这三个词在04年的第8道题也同时出现。“Be immune to”指“对…免疫，不起作用”。可见很多时候命题人不总以内容为基础来设置干扰选项，也提醒大家要重视对于历年真题的复习。
题7 选 D. applied。上下文语义题。选项所在的句子是定语从句，修饰前面的“code of conduct”， 即“法院应该让自己服从于那些也同样应用于其他联邦法院的行为准则”。A项resort to：诉诸于，求助于; B项sticks to: 坚持;这两项的主语