Ⅳ阅读理解(A)部分历届考研真题评析
根据教育部公布的有关《全国硕士研究生入学考试英语考试大纲》的规定，阅读理解（A）部分的阅读材料共4篇，每篇5道题，共20小题，每题2分，共40分，阅读总量约为1 600个单词左右，平均每篇400个单词左右。考查考生理解具体信息、掌握文章大意、猜测生词词义并进行推断等能力。考生应根据短文内容，从每题的四个选择项中选出一个最佳答案，即将Answer Sheet中的相应选项涂黑。
阅读理解主要考查考生获取准确信息的能力，考查包括两大类：一类为客观理解题，即理解文章中的叙述的具体事实和抽象概念，另一类为主观理解题，即通过阅读文章，对文章的主旨和深层次的意义、作者的态度、意图以及整篇文章的逻辑关系有更深入的理解，并根据此进行推理和判断。根据1986～2005考研英语试题阅读理解部分内容的分析、统计表明，阅读理解部分的主要内容包括社会生活、科普、人物传记、政治经济等；短文的题材包括议论文、说明文、应用文等（见本书第一部分的《考纲要求》）。
上节已谈到阅读理解部分涉及的内容和提问方式，现根据不同的提问方式提出以下不同的解题方法，并以近年来的考题作为例题。
一用短文具体内容进行提问的解题技巧与历年真题
这种类型的提问方式，我们只要紧紧扣住提问中的关键字词(关键字词可能是短文中某字词的同义词或引申义)，答案都可以在文中直接找到，或需稍加推论。这种提问包括以下几种方式：
1.用What，Which等疑问词进行开头，后接文章中具体内容的提问方式。
2.用According to 作为开头，后接文章的具体内容的提问方式。
3.用动宾结构或介宾结构的提问方式(如：The writer is sorry to have noticed that)。
4.在系动词(如is，are等)后面填入表语的提问方式。
5.用…because等问明原因的提问方式。
6.用True, Not True以及Except等提问方式。
7.在短文中找出替换词句的提问方式。
(一)用What, Which等疑问词开头，后接文章中具体内容的历年真题和解题技巧。此种类型的题我们只要紧跟提问中的关键字词，然后在文章中寻找，答案大部分可以在文章中找到。请看以下历年考研真题：
2002年第4篇全真考研题
The Supreme Court’s decisions on physicianassisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.
Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physicianassisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of “double effect”, a centuriesold moral principle holding that an action having two effects—a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler,director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who “until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient medication to control their pain if that might hasten death.”
George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. “It’s like surgery,” he says. “We don’t call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn’t intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you’re a physician, you can risk your patients’ suicide as long as you don’t intend their suicide.”
On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assistedsuicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.
Just three weeks before the Court’s ruling on physicianassisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a twovolume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment of pain and the aggressive use of “ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying” as the twin problems of endoflife care.
The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospitals, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospitalbased care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life.
Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these wellmeaning medical initiatives translate into better care. “Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering,” to the extent that it constitudes “systematic patient abuse”. He says medical licensing boards “must make it clear...that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension.”
56.From the first three paragraphs, we learn that.
A. doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients’ pain
B. it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives
C. the Supreme Court strongly opposes physicianassisted suicide
D. patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide
57.Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
A. Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients’ death.
B. Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.
C. The Court ruled that highdosage painrelieving medication can be prescribed.
D. A doctor’s medication is no longer justified by his intentions.
58.According to the NAS’s report, one of the problems in endoflife care is.
A. prolonged medical procedures
B. inadequate treatment of pain
C. systematic drug abuse
D. insufficient hospital care
59.Which of the following best defines the word“aggressive”(Line 3, Paragraph 7)?
A. Bold. B. Harmful. C. Careless. D. Desperate.
60.George Annas would probably agree that doctors should be punished if they.
A. manage their patients incompetently
B. give patients more medicine than needed
C. reduce drug dosages for their patients
D. prolong the needless suffering of the patients
56.B题意为：从前三段可以看出。
A.医生过去常增加药剂量以控制病人的病痛；
B.医生加速垂死的病人结束生命，现在仍是违法的；
C.最高法院强烈反对“physicianassisted suicide”；
D.依据宪法病人无权自杀。
文章前三段都是围绕“physicianassisted”展开的，从第二句可以看出，尽管最高法院作出决定，依据宪法“physicianassisted suicide”是违法的，但事实上法院支持“双重效果”这一医疗原则。从这句话的转承语气，可以得出B是正确的，C、D错误，最高法院并没有强烈反对这种自杀，也没有说病人的任何suicide都是违法的，而从Nancy Dubler的话中也可以看出，医生抱怨的是不能给病人足够的剂量止痛，从而排除A项。故正确选项为B。
57.C本题要选出正确的陈述，可用排除法。
A项不正确，从第一段“the Court supported the medical principle of “double effect”...is permissible if the doctor intends only the good effect.”可以看出，只有当医生恶意危害病人的生命时才会犯罪。
B项不正确，从第六段“On another level…”可看出，“modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.” 现代医学不但不能帮助一些病危者没有痛苦地恢复，反而延长了他们临死时的生理上的痛苦。D项不正确，理由同A项。
58.B题意为：根据NAS的报告，在“临终关怀”中存在的问题之一是。
考生需要快速在文中找到相应段落，第七段“the NAS released a report ...”提到“the twin problems of endoflife care”为“undertreatment of pain”和“aggressive use of...procedures...”，文中只提到aggressive use of ineffectual and forced medical procedures，故排除A，B项实际上是undertreatment of pain的另一种说法，C、D为干扰选项，均不是NAS报告中的内容，故正确选项为B。
59.A本题考查的是单词词义的理解。aggressive “积极的，进取的”引申为“过度的”，bold “大胆的”，harmful “有害的”，careless “粗心的”，desperate “绝望的，严重的”，只有A与aggressive在此处的含义最贴近。
60.D题意为，George Annas赞同这样的观点，如果医生，他们应受到惩罚。第五段，第八段都阐述了Annas的观点，可以看出，Annas坚持医生不应毫无意义地延长病人临终前的痛苦，否则，“painful deaths...should result in license suspension”(吊销执照)，因此D为正确选项，A、B与题干无关，为干扰选项，C项亦不如D项贴切、准确。
译文
最高法院对医生协助的自杀事件所作出的裁决会有深远的影响，它将决定医学界如何为患绝症的病人减少痛苦。
虽然最高法院认为，宪法没有规定医生可以协助病人自杀，但法院实际上支持了医学界“双重影响”的标准。这一历史悠久的标准规定：如果某一行为有一个好的愿望，但有可能会导致不好的结果，那么对于怀有良好愿望的执行者来说，他的行为是可以被允许的。
正是出于这一原则，近年来很多医生通过大量使用吗啡来减少绝症病人的痛苦。虽然大量地使用麻醉剂最终会导致病人死亡。
蒙特费尔医疗中心的主任南希·达勃乐认为，这一原则可以保护某些医生，这些人“非常非常坚决地认为，如果会导致死亡，就不能给病人足够的药物来止痛。”
波士顿大学法学系主任乔治·安娜斯认为：只要医生按照合法目的开药，就算病人用这种药物自杀，医生也没有任何责任。他认为：“这就像外科手术一样，我们并不认为因外科手术死亡的病人是被杀的，因为医生并没有想杀死病人，虽然他们手术时有死亡的危险。如果你是一位医生，你可以冒险让你的病人有自杀的机会，只要你没想让他们自杀。”
在另外一方面，医学界很多人都承认关于协助自杀问题的讨论，很大程度上来自于病人的绝望，现代医疗技术的进步看来只是延长了他们面临死亡的痛苦。
就在最高法院对医生协助自杀作出最终判决之前的三个星期，美国国家科学院公告了一份两卷的报告——面对死亡：临终关怀的改善。报告认为，对病人伤痛的处理不力，以及没有真正效果但可以延长病人生命因而也延长其痛苦的药品的过度使用，是临终前护理所存在的两大问题，后者甚至让病人在面临死亡时蒙羞。
医疗行业正在采取措施，要求年轻医生接受住院护理训练，以检查他们对积极止痛疗法的掌握程度以树立新的住院治疗护理规范，并确认病人临终前看护和止痛的新标准。
安娜斯说，在坚持这种用意良好的护理新规范方面，律师可以发挥重要的作用。“很多医生看上去并不关心患者无休止的痛苦，这种情况已经恶劣到有组织虐待的程度，法律必须作出相应的规定，让患者痛苦死亡会导致医生被取消行医资格。”
2001年第4篇全真考研题
The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying:“Won’t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anticompetitive force?”
There’s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful.Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982.Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly.International affiliates account for a fastgrowing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment.In Argentina,for instance,after the reforms of the early 1990s,multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms.This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms,of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.
I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs,lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers’ demands.All these are beneficial,not detrimental,to consumers.As productivity grows,the world’s wealth increases.
Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty.Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could recreate the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S.,when the Standard Oil trust was broken up.The mergers of telecom companies,such as WorldCom,hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress.On the contrary,the price of communications is coming down fast.In cars,too,concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler,Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.
Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched.A few weeks ago,Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry.Who is going to supervise,regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won’t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of “defending competition”on issues that affect many other nations,as in the U.S.vs.Microsoft case?
1.What is the typical trend of businesses today?
A.to take in more foreign funds
B.to invest more abroad
C.to combine and become bigger
D.to trade with more countries
2.According to the author,one of the driving forces behind M&A wave is.
A.the greater customer demands
B.a surplus supply for the market
C.a growing productivity
D.the increase of the world’s wealth
3.From paragraph 4 we can infer that.
A.the increasing concentration is certain to hurt consumers
B.WorldCom serves as a good example of both benefits and costs
C.the costs of the globalization process are enormous
D.the Standard Oil trust might have threatened competition
4.Toward the new business wave,the writer’s attitude can be said to be.
A.optimistic B.objective C.pessimistic D.biased
1.C本题用“What”引出问题，后面要求接具体内容，这种提问方式，答案可以在文章中直接找到。该题问当今企业中的主要趋势是什么。我们可以参照第一段前两句“整个世界正在经历前所未有的合并大潮。这一合并之风从极度活跃的美国到达欧洲，而后，以前所未有的力量到达到那些日渐兴起的国家”。因此答案C“合并扩大规模”为正确答案，A、B、D三项均与文章内容不符。
2.A本题问根据作者的观点，合并潮的动力之一是什么。我们可以参照文章第三段第一句“……运输与通信费用下降；贸易与投资障碍减少；市场扩大。这一切都需要扩大业务往来来满足消费者的需求”。因此A答案“日趋增加的顾客的巨大需求”为正确答案。B答案“市场供应过剩”与文章内容不符；C答案“生产力日益提高”，文章未提；D答案“世界财富的增加”是生产力提高的结果，并不是企业合并的结果。
3.D该题问从第四段可以推论出什么。我们可以参照第四段第二句“然而，目前几家石油公司的合并是否会再次给竞争带来威胁却难以预料，因为，美国一个世纪前曾由于合并引发了一场竞争危机，造成了标准石油托拉斯解体。”由此推断答案D“标准石油托拉斯可能对竞争产生过威胁”为正确答案。其他三项均与文章内容不符。
4.B态度题。从整篇文章的逻辑构思来看，作者一开头就提出主题——企业合并浪潮。然后指出引起这种合并的三个因素，并认为合并对消费者有利无害，可见，作者是从正反两个方面来分析合并浪潮的，故选择项A.“客观的”符合上述分析。
译文
整个世界正经历着前所未有的最大合并潮。这一合并潮从极度活跃的美国到达欧洲，然后，以前所未有的力量到达那些日渐兴起的国家。这些国家的许多人都在关注着这一合并现象。他们为此担心：这种企业的合并，会不会演变成一种无法控制的反竞争力量呢?
毫无疑问，合并之后规模大的企业会更大，力量也会更强。1982年，跨国公司在国际贸易中仅占20%弱。今天已超过25％，并且正以很快的速度增加。在对外开放的国度中，对外国投资是来者不拒；国际分公司的生产所占的比重也越来越大。例如阿根廷，20世纪90年代改革以后，在200家最大型的公司中，跨国公司的工业总产值几乎从43%上升至70%。这种现象引起了人们对小型经济实体、民族商人的作用以及世界经济的最终稳定性的极大关注。
据我认为，引起这场合并潮的最重要的力量与导致全球化的力量是相同的，那就是运输与通信费用的下降；贸易与投资障碍的减少以及市场的扩大。这一切都需要扩大业务的往来，来满足消费者的需求。这对消费者只能有利而不会不利。随着生产力的提高，世界财富也在增加。
目前，这种合并潮带来的好处或害处所造成的损失还不是很多见。然而，目前几家石油公司的合并是否会再次给竞争带来威胁却难以预料，因为，美国一个世纪前曾经由于合并引发了一场竞争危机，造成了标准石油托拉斯解体。像世界电信这类电讯公司的合并好像不会造成费用的上升，也不会使技术进步速度减慢。恰恰相反，通信费用在快速下降。汽车行业，如戴姆勒汽车公司、克莱斯勒、雷诺和尼桑汽车公司，也在合并，但消费者似乎并没有受到此合并的伤害。
然而，我们必须密切注视这种合并潮。几周前，阿兰·格林斯潘就告诫人们提防银行业的大合并。谁将作为最后形式的贷方监督、管理和运作这家正在形成的庞大银行呢?当一个国家对侵害公平竞争现象控制过于严格时，跨国公司会不会把生产从一个地方转移到另一个地方呢?一个国家能不能像美国对付微软公司那样，在影响他国利益的问题上承担起保护竞争的职责呢?
2000年第2篇全真考研题
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70yearolds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.
There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in uppermiddleclass India compared to the tribes.
For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 years—even the past 100 years—our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution:they “look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.” No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.
5.What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?
A. A lack of mates. B. A fierce competition.
C. A lower survival rate. D. A defective gene.
6.What does the example of India illustrate?
A. Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.
B. Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.
C. The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.
D. India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.
7.The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because .
A. life has been improved by technological advance
B. the number of female babies has been declining
C. our species has reached the highest stage of evolution
D. the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing
8.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.
B. Ways of Continuing Man’s Evolution.
C. The Evolutionary Future of Nature.
D. Human Evolution Going Nowhere.
5. C细节推理题。文章第一段开头是答题的关键：Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70yearolds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed.可见，男性的出生率高于女性，但是随着年龄增加，男女比例呈明显下降趋势。作者试图用这些数据表明，生为男人的危险并不是在于寻找配偶的困难，而是男性的死亡率（male mortality）远远高于女性。
6. B细节理解题。本题用“What”引出提问，后面需要接具体的内容，这种提问方式，答案我们可从本文第二段最后两句话“这个国家的大城市给少数人提供了财富，而其余的部落民族却一贫如洗。今天众多的普通人，每个人在存活子女的数量方面都一样，这意味着：与部落相比，自然选择在印度的中上阶层已失去了80%的效应。”这与(B)中的“自然选择在富人与穷人中已很难起作用”的意思相吻合，故应选B。A“富人生的孩子没有穷人生得多”，与上面的表述相矛盾。C“中等阶层的人口比部落人口少80%”和D“印度是个高出生率的国家”文中都未提及。
7. A细节因果题。在第3段第5句中作者写道：“我们不再进化。这是因为机器和社会代替我们进化了。”换言之，机器的使用、社会的进步使我们的生活发生了变化，即A“技术的进步提高了生活质量”。文章称这种现象为“进化方面的自杀”，故应否定C“我们的物种已进化到了最高阶段”。B“女婴数量一直呈下降趋势”和D“贫富差距正在消失”文中并未提及。
8. D全文主旨题。文章最后一段对全文内容进行了总结：For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change.人类的进化已经结束了，身体上发生的变化却微乎其微。最后作者说，But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.尽管我们的后代会为我们距离理想的社会如此遥远而感到惊讶，但是他们将和我们的模样毫无二致。这进一步说明，人类的进化早已经停止。A“人类进化中性别比率的变化”比较片面，这只是影响进化的一个方面，不能以此作为文章的题目。本文并未讨论人类将来怎么办，故B“人类进化继续下去的各种办法”也不能作为文章的标题。本文作者并未从物种的角度来展望大自然的进化前景，因此C“大自然的进化前景”也应予以否定。
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作为男人总是充满危险的。出生时男女比例大约为105：100，但是到了成熟期，这种比例的下降几乎达到了平衡，在七十岁的老年人中，女性比男性多了一倍。但是男性的死亡率高这一特点正在明显地改变。现在，男婴的存活率同女婴的一样高。这意味着在男孩到了寻找伴侣的关键年月，将第一次出现男孩过剩现象。更重要的是，又一个自然选择的机会被取消了。五十年前，婴儿(特别是男婴)生存下来的机会取决于其自身的重量。轻一公斤或重一公斤几乎就意味着其必死无疑。今天，重量几乎不再起作用。因为许多差别是由基因引起的，所以又一个进化因素消失了。
消除进化因素还有另一种方法，那就是保持存活，少生孩子。现在，几乎没有几个人像过去那样生殖力旺盛。除了一些宗教社区外，没有几个妇女能生15个孩子。现在，所生孩子的数目如同死亡年龄一样，人人相差无几。我们大多数人的子女几乎一样多。人与人之间的差别以及利用差别进行自然选择的机会越来越小。印度则能说明正在发生的一切。这个国家(印度)给大城市的一部分人提供财富，而给其余各部落民族以贫困。当今众多的普通人，每个人的生存机会和子女数量都相同。这意味着：与部落相比，自然选择在印度的中上阶层已失去80%的作用。
对我们来说，这意味着进化已经结束；已经达到了生物的理想境界。令人奇怪的是，这种进化几乎没有涉及到身体的变化。没有别的物种占据大自然中如此多的地方。在过去的十万年中，甚至一百年中，我们的生活发生了巨大的变化，但我们的身体却没改变。我们没有进化，因为机器和社会替我们改变了生活。达尔文有一句话描述了那些对进化无知的人：那些无知的人“看有机的生命如同野人看一条船，看某种完全无法理解的东西”。毫无疑问，我们会记住20世纪的生活方式，虽然其丑态万千，难以让人理解。但是，不论我们的后代多么惊讶于我们距离理想状态的遥远，但他们的长相将和我们一样。
