I Vocabulary （10%）
For each of the following sentences there are four choices. Choose the best one to complete the sentence.
1. The directions were so ____ that it was impossible to complete the assignment.
A) ingenious B) ambitious C) notorious D) ambiguous
2. Our ________ host always enjoys having friends to share his Lucullan suppers.
A) cursive B)martial C) fractious D) convivial
3. Recently a number of cases have been reported of young children ____a violent act previously seen on television.
A) modifying B) stimulating C) accelerating D) duplicating
4. This kind of material can _____heat and moisture.
A) delete B) compel C) repel D) constrain
5. The damage to his car was ____; therefore, he could repair it himself.
A) considerable B) appreciable C) negligible D) invisible
6. The ____of a cultural phenomenon is usually a logical consequence of some physical aspect in the life style of the people.
A) implementation B) expedition C) demonstration D) manifestation
7. One of the responsibilities of the Coast guard is to make sure that all ships _______ follow traffic rules in busy harbors.
A) cautiously B) dutifully C) faithfully D) skillfully
8. The Eskimo is perhaps one of the most trusting and considerate of all Indians but seems to be _______ the welfare of his animals.
A) critical about B) indignant at C) indifferent to D) subject to
9. The chairman of the board _______ on me the unpleasant job of dismissing good workers the firm can no longer afford to employ.
A) compelled B) posed C) pressed D) tempted
10. Using extremely different decorating schemes in adjoining rooms may result in _______ and lack of unity in style.
A) conflict B) confrontation C) disturbance D) disharmony
11. Corrupt politicians who condone the activities of the gamblers are equally _______.
A) cryptic B)esoteric C)culpable D)occult
12. I don’t know the details for I just gave your manuscript only a(n) _______ glance.
A) cursory B)cumbrous C)onerous D)obscure
13.the Red Cross society helped _________ families to survive the war in the Persian Gulf.
A) demure B)destitute C)assiduous D)sedate
14. the man felt ________ when the girl turned down his proposal of marriage.
A) despondent B) fabulous C)dilapidated D)fortuitous
15. the boy gave a ______ look at his classmate’s test paper when the teacher turned.
A) frivolous B)furtive C)frenetic D)frigid
16. Rubber boots are ___________ to water.
A) imperious B)impetuous C)impervious D)impeccable
17. Missiles were mounted at various points to _______ the enemy aircrafts.
A) integrate B)jeopardize C)intercept D)interrogate
18. Being careless, she had her arm _____ by the barbed wire.
A) lacerated B)lamented C)juggled D)bemoaned
19. The wrestler’s _______ maneuvers made it difficult for his opponent to obtain a hold.
A) hermetic B)protean C)titanic D)procrustean
20. Psychoanalysis can help a patient recall long-forgotten experiences lost in the ______ recess of his mind.
A) labyrinthine B)chimerical C)iridescent D)mercurial
II Reading Comprehension (50%)
Passage 1
There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been accomplished by an equivalent surge in industrial research. A recent study of important inventions made since the turn of the century reveals that more than half were the product of individual invent-ors working alone, independent of organized industrial research. While industrial laboratories contributed such important products as nylon and transistors, independent inventors developed air conditioning, the automatic transmission, the jet engine, the helicopterminsulin, and streptomycin. Still other inventions, such as stainless steel, television, silicons, and plexiglass were developed through the combined efforts of individuals and laboratory teams.
Despite these findings, we are urged to support monopoly power on the grounds that such power creates an environment supportive of innovation. We are told that the independent inventor, along with the small firm, cannot afford to undertake the important research needed to improve our standard of living while protecting our diminishing resources; that only the prodigious assets of the giant corporation or conglomerate can afford the kind of expenditures that can produce the technological advances vital to economic progress. But when we examine expenditures for research, we find that of the more than $ 35 billion spent each year in this country, almost two-thirds is spent by the federal government. More than half of this government expenditure is funneled into military research and product development, accounting for the enormous increase in spending in such industries as nuclear energy, aircraft, missiles, and electronics. There are those who consider it questionable that these defense-linked research projects will account for an improvement in the standard of living or, alternately, do much to protect our diminishing resources.
Recent history has demonstrated that we may have to alter our longstanding conception of the process actuated by competition. The price variable, once perceived as the dominant aspect of the competitive process is now subordinate to the competition of the new product, the new business structure, and the new technology. While it can be assumed that in a highly competitive industry not dominated by a single corporation, investment in innovation--a risky and expensive budget item--might meet resistance from management and stockholders who might be more concerned with cost-cutting, efficient organization, and large advertising budgets, it would be an egregious error to assume that the monopolistic producer should be equated with bountiful expenditures for research. Large-scale enterprises tend to operate more comfortably in stable and secure circumstances, and their managerial bureaucracies tend to promote the status quo and resist the threat implicit in change. Furthermore, the firm with a small share of the market will aggressively pursue new techniques and different products, since with little vested interest in capital equipment or plant it is not deterred from in-vestment in innovation. In some cases, where inter-industry competition is reduced or even entirely eliminated, the industrial giants may seek to avoid capital loss resulting from obsolescence by deliberately obstructing technological progress.
The conglomerates are not, however, completely exempt from strong competitive pressures; there are instances in which they, too, must compete, as against another industrial Goliath, and then their weapons may include large expenditures for innovation.
16. According to the passage, important inventions of the twentieth century ________.
A. are not necessarily produced as a result of governmental support for military weapons research and development.
B. came primarily from the huge laboratories of monopoly industries.
C. were produced at least as frequently by independent inventors as by research teams.
D. have greater impact on smaller firms than on conglomerates.
17. It is the author"s belief, as expressed or implied in the passage, that________.
A. monopoly power creates an environment supportive of innovation.
B. governmental protection for military research will do much to protect our dwindling resources.
C. industrial giants, with their managerial bureaucracies, respond more quickly to technological change.
D. firms with a small share of the market will aggressively pursue innovations because they are not locked into old capital equipment.
18. Management and stockholders might be deeply concerned with cost cutting rather than innovation if _______.
A. their company is faced with strong competition in a field not dominated by one of the industrial giants.
B. they are very stable and secure and hold a monopoly position in their industry.
C. they are part of the military-industrial complex and are the recipients of federal funds for product development.
D. they have produced some of the important inventions of this century.
19. Which of the following statements is neither expressed nor implied in the passage?
A. Important inventions have been produced, in he past, by individuals as well as by corporate teams.
B. The federal government"s research funds are funneled into pure research as well as military research.
C. The development of the automatic transmission is not credited to organized industrial research.
D. Industrial giants may deliberately suppress innovations to avoid capital loss resulting from obsolescence.
20. The author"s purpose in this passage is to____.
A. advocate an increase in governmental support of organized industrial research.
B. point out a common misconception about the relationship between the extent of industrial research and the growth of monopolistic power in industry.
C. describe the inadequacies of small firms in dealing with the important matter of research and innovation.
D. show that America"s strength depends upon individual ingenuity and resourcefulness.
III Translation from English into Chinese (20%)
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what at last I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward reward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberated in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a haled burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and I would gladly live it again if the chance were offered to me.
IV Write a composition of 250—300 words on“A Solution to the Present Housing Problem”(20%)
