2008年考研英語模擬試題二及答案解析

　　Sample Four

　　Directions：

　　You are going to read a list of headings and a text about Backlogs of History. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each numbered paragraph （41-45）。 The first and last paragraphs of the text are not numbered. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. （10 points）

　　[A] Passion for personal and familial archival collection.

　　[B] Reception of a hospital delivery bill.

　[C] Overabundance of trivial personal documents.
　　[D] Explosion of public documents.

　　[E] It is imperative to put archival policies into perspective.

　　[F] What tactics should be adopted in document-saving？

　　One morning a few years ago an envelope arrived from my parents containing the bill from New Rochelle Hospital for my delivery， in 1952. The contents of a basement or attic were being culled， and the bill had turned up in one of the many cardboard reliquaries that have long lent a kind of ballast to my childhood home. The hospital's total charge for a five-day stay including drugs and phone calls， came to $187.86. I was amazed at the cost， to be sure. But I was also struck by something else： that among all those decades' worth of family documents my parents had looked through， the delivery bill was the only thing they thought of sufficient interest to pass along.

　　41��

　　At some point most of us realize that having a personal archival strategy is an inescapable aspect of modern life： one has to draw the line somewhere. What should the policy be toward children's drawings and report cards？ Toward personal letters and magazine clippings？ People work out answers to such questions， usually erring， I suspect， on the side of over-accrual of rubbish documents. Almost everyone seems to save— or “curate，” as archaeologist says—issues of National Geographic. That is why in garbage landfills copies of that magazine are rarely found in isolation； rather， they are found in herds， when an entire collection has been discarded after an owner has died or moved.

　　42��

　　I happen to be an admirer of the archiving impulse and an inveterate archivist at the household level. Though not quite one of those people whom public-health authorities seem to run across every few years， with a house in which neatly bundled stacks of newspaper occupy all but narrow aisles， I do tend to save almost everything that is personal and familial， and even to supplement this private hoard with oddities of a more public nature—a calling card of Thomas Nast's， for instance， and Kim Philby copy of the Joy of Cooking.

　　43��

　　I cannot help wondering， though， whether as a nation we are compiling archives at a rate that will exceed anyone's ability ever to make sense of them. A number of observers have cited the problem of “information overload” as if it were a recent development， largely the consequence of computers. In truth， the archive backlog has been a problem for millennia. Historians obviously have problems when information is scarce， but it's not hard to see a very different problem emerging as source material becomes spectacularly overabundant.

　　44��

　　Leave aside the task of assessing an entire epoch and consider what is required in purely physical terms to preserve even a single prominent person's lifetime documentary output. Benjamin Disraeli's correspondence survived down to the level of what today would be an E-mail message： “My darling， I shall be home for dinner at 1/2 pt 7. In haste， Your， Dis.” Woodrow Wilson left so much behind that the historian Arthur S. Link spent his entire career at Princeton University annotating and publishing Wilson's personal papers， in sixty-nine volumes.

　　45��

　　Is it preposterous to begin thinking of some of our archives as the new tels？ Tels are the mounds that layer upon layer of former cities make； they are everywhere in the Middle East， harboring the archaeological record of thousands of years of human history. But there are too many of them for more than a few ever to be excavated systematically and understanding what's in even those few takes decades if not centuries.

　　Don't get me wrong： I am not proposing that we discard any thing at all. One rarely knows in advance what will turn out to be of interest or importance and what should have gone directly into the oubliette. It is always delightful when something is discovered. But information does have its natural predators， and it may be that sometimes natural processes work out for the best.

　Part C
　　Directions：

　　Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. （10 points）

　　Immigrants adoption of English as their primary language is one measure of assimilation into the larger United States society. Generally languages define social groups and provide justification for social structures. Hence， a distinctive language sets a cultural group off from the dominant language group. （46）Throughout United States history this pattern has resulted in one consistent， unhappy consequence discrimination against members of the cultural minority Language differences provide both a way to rationalize subordination and a ready means for achieving it.

　　Traditionally， English has replaced the native language of immigrant groups by the second or third generation. Some characteristics of today's Spanish-speaking population， however， suggest the possibility of a departure from this historical pattern. Many families retain ties in Latin America and move back and forth between their present and former communities. （47）This “revolving door” phenomenon， along with the high probability of additional immigrants from the south， means that large Spanish-speaking communities are likely to exist in the United States for the indefinite future.

　　This expectation underlies the call for national support for bilingual education in Spanish-speaking communities' public schools. Bilingual education can serve different purposes. （48）However， in the 1960s， such programs were established to facilitate the learning of English so as to avoid disadvantaging children in their other subjects because of their limited English. More recently， many advocates have viewed bilingual education as a means to maintain children's native languages and cultures. The issue is important for people with different pole to separatism at the other. To date， the evaluations of bilingual education's impact on learning have been inconclusive. The issue of bilingual education has， nevertheless， served to unite the leadership of the nation's Hispanic communities. （49）Grounded in concerns about status that are directly traceable to the United States history of discrimination against Hispanics， the demand for maintenance of the Spanish language in the schools is an assertion of the worth of a people and their culture. If the United States is truly a multicultural nation—that is， if it is one culture reflecting the contributions of many—this demand should be seen as a demand not for separation but for inclusion.

　　More direct efforts to force inclusion can be misguided. For example， movement to declare English the official language do not truly advance the cohesion of a multicultural nation. They alienate the twenty million people who do not speak English as their mother tongue. They are unnecessary since the public's business is already conducted largely in English. （50）Further， given the present state of understanding about the effects of bilingual education on learning， it would be unwise to require the universal use of English. Finally， it is for parents and local communities to choose the path they will follow， including hoe much of their culture they want to maintain for their children.