哈工大博士英语考试冲刺试题三Passage 1The realm of product liability is one that has always put legal scholars and practitioners at odds. Viewed by some as genuine efforts to protect the public from dangerous goods and others as an excuse for dirty lawyers to sue rich companies, the matter has yet to be resolved. Product liability, and its implications for disgruntled consumers wishing to sue the makers of what they buy, continues to be debated.Those who argue that current product liability laws are positive assert that without such laws, manufacturers would be free to do as they please without regard for the safety of the consumers who buy their products. As a result, they argue, shoddy merchandise would emerge, with every possible corner cut in order to lower costs, at the expense of quality. Not only would the shoddy merchandise be a rip-off, however, but the products could likely be harmful as well. Proponents of this point of view hail the new wave of warning labels and increased quality assurance that has resulted from recent product liability legislation, confident in their conviction that it has made the American marketplace a safer place to shop.Opponents of the current status-quo, however, cite the overwhelming amount of litigation that has taken place as a result of stricter product liability. A moderate approach id advised by this group, between the necessary safeguards that would prevent abuse of the system by the companies and the excessive consumer-protection laws that allow producers to be sued at the drop of a hat. These people argue that greed and the alluring possibility of easy money lead unscrupulous buyers to look for any excuse to bring minor grievances to court, hoping for a million-dollar outcome.As the situation stands now, the former camp is getting its way, reflecting society's priority of safety over economics. Recent lobbying by producers have begun to shift the tide, however, as abuse of product liability laws continues and grows, courts are beginning to note the trend and take appropriate measures, casting a keener eye on such cases so as to distinguish between frivolous cases and more serious claims. In regard to the future of product liability legislation and its relation to our ever increasingly litigious society, only time will tell.1.It is stated that consumers who bring product liability problems to litigation ____A.Are primarily motivated by the possibility of quick money through a lawsuitB.Suffer injures from faulty merchandise and deserve appropriate compensationC.Will find their options limited in the future as product liability laws will move toward amore moderate positionD.Bring their issues to litigation based on both legitimate and profit-seeking groups2.Manufacturers in the text tend to ____A.Invariable produce dangerous products that require legislation to ensure safetyB.Hold profit and cost-cutting in higher regard than consumer safetyC.Be the victims of a legal institution that unfairly targets themD.Be bound by the current system, causing them to take caution in producing theirproducts3.Those who favor less strict product liability laws believe that ____A.Such laws curb producers' ability to create shoddy merchandise to attain greater profitB.The laws need to be modified to better serve the needs both consumers and producersC.The result of such laws have been positive thus far, but need to be modifiedD.Strict product liability laws are unnecessary and should be disposed of4.The author's attitude toward the issue seems to be ____A.BiasedB.PuzzlingC.ObjectiveD.Indifferent5.The main purpose of this text is to ____A.Present two opposing sides of an argument for the reader's considerationcate the reader about the effect of product liability legislation on the legal systemC.Convince the reader that product liability laws need to be changedrm the reader of the current status of product liability lawsPassage 2The continuing and justified alarm over illegal drug use by the young has obscured an underlying problem that is larger and ever more threatening to society. It is an epidemic of legal drug abuse that is just what the doctor ordered.Depressing, social inadequacy, anxiety, apathy, marital disorder, children's misbehavior and other psychological problems are usually solved by physicians with prescription pads. Psychologists as well as physicians of every other sociality now prescribe a wide variety of mood-altering drugs for patients with emotional, motivational and learning problems, and even the mildest psychological discomforts. It is time for an immediate examination of the role that psychoactive drugs play in human life.We must combat the medical-psychiatric model of human behavior that seeks a drug for every psychological discomfort and under which a person who is not continuously calm, anxiety-free, happy and content is defined as a medical patient.We must question a medical approach in which psychoactive drugs are used as an easy solution, a simple acceptable way to avoid dealing with personal and interpersonal problems. Such “treatment” is counterproductive: it does not solve the underlying problems, it keeps the person from learning how to cope with his world, it often reduces a person’s willingness to interact with others, and it may actually impair the body’s self-regulating psychological functions. In addition, it deceives the medical and psychiatric professions into false security by suggesting that there is no urgent need for further research, no need for the development of more humanistic approaches.One of the most disturbing effects of psychoactive drugs is that they convince the drug user that psychological problems have chemical solutions and that the better psychological living can be achieved through chemistry rather than non-medical methods. The attitude that prompts one to seek psychological quick-change in a doctor’s office can also lead one to a pusher on the street corner. That the medically prescribed drugs are standardized and chemically pured begs the question.The drug-abuse problem is compounded by the pharmaceutical companies that seek new drug markets and bigger sales, persuading physicians and the public that unpleasant human emotions are abnormal and should be suppressed with drugs.The drug-abuse problem is further intensified by those physicians who see themselves as universal healers, who take the easy route by prescribing psychoactive drugs without consideringmore relevant non-medical approaches. Appealingly simplistic solutions to personal distress are the hallmark of the unprincipled politician, the intolerant social reformers and the medical quack.The public must demand concern for potential dangers and services confined to areas of competence. The welfare of society is too precious to be entrusted solely to the hands of physicians. We may have been basing our trust on a myth of medical competence. Perhaps what may be needed in local communities is more inquiry of experts who can really help solve psychological problems.6.People’s concern with illegal drug use by the young is ____A.The most important issueB.ReasonableC.HumanisticD.Unprincipled7.What is the exact meaning of “epidemic”(para.1) ____A.prevalentB.distinguishedC.devastatedD.sophisticated8.According to the author, ____A.Each psychological problems has a chemical solutionB.The physician is solely responsible for the welfare of societyC.Medical profession is competent for solving all our problemsD.The physician should also consider non-medical approached to our problem9.the main idea of the text is ____A.legal drug abuse become a serious problemB.psychoactive drugs have been used to treat psychological problemsC.there are several factors that lead to the abuse of psychoactive drugsD.physicians can not solve psychological problems10.What’s the function of paragraph 2?e examples to support the idea in paragraph onee examples to support the idea in paragraph twoC.Raise a question for the textD.Raise a solution for the problemPassage 3Life is indeed full of problems on which we have to make decisions, as citizens or as citizens individuals. But neither the real difficulty of these decisions, nor their true and disturbing challenge to each individual, can often be communicated through the mass media. The disinclination to suggest a real choice of individual decision, which is to be found in the media, is not simply the product of a commercial desire to keep the customers happy. It is within the grain of mass communication.The organs of the Establishment, however well intentioned they may be and whatever their form (the State, the Church, voluntary societies, political parties), have a vested interest in ensuring that the public boat is not violently racked and will so affect those who work within the mass media that they will be led insensibly towards forms of production which, through they go through the motions of dispute and enquiry, do not break through the skin to where suchenquiries might really hurt. They will rend to move when exposing problems well within the accepted cliché assumptions of democratic society disturbing application of them to features give, but this soon becomes an agitation of problems for the sake of the interest of that agitation in itself. They will, therefore, again assist a form of acceptance of the status quo. There are exceptions to tendency, but they are uncharacteristic.The result can be seen in a hundred radio and television programs as plainly as in the normal treatment of public issues in the popular press. Different levels of background in the readers or viewers may be assumed, but what usually takes place is a substitute for the process of arriving as judgment. Programs such as this are noteworthy less for the “stimulation” they offer than for the fact that stimulation (repeated at regular intervals) may become a substitute for, and so a hindrance to, judgments carefully arrived at and tested in the mind and in the pulses. Mass communications, then, do, not ignore intellectual matters; they tend to castrate them to allow them to sit on the side of the fireplace, sleek and useless, a family plaything.11.the media is reluctant to suggest a real choice of individual decision, ____A.solely out of a commercial desireB.it conforms to the nature of mass communicationsC.because its utmost aspiration is to make customers happyD.such a real choice is very complicated12.the author says that a natural concern of the Establishment is to ____A.change the form of public institutionsB.perform a good service to societyC.maintain its position in societyD.arouse strong emotions in the public13.too frequent exposure to the kind of material discussed in the passage causes the viewer orreader to ____A.lose touch with the real worldB.attach too much importance to testing reactionsC.form judgments which are too emotionalD.cease to examine his own reaction to problems14.What is the author’s final judgment on how mass communications deal with intellectualmatters?A.They regard them as unimportantB.They rob them of their dramatic impactC.They see them as a domestic pastimeD.They consider them to be of only domestic interest15.according to the passage, when covering and exposing problems, the media will ____A.sometimes make disturbing application of them but it’s uncharacteristicB.try to achieve an effect stimulation to challenge the status quoC.have a thoroughgoing inquiry to make people challenge the EstablishmentD.not challenge the cliché assumption of society because the mass media are notresponsible enoughPassage 4Social anxiety, in its many forms, is epidemic. About 40percent of American think of themselves as shy, while only 20percent say they have never suffered from shyness at some pointin their lives. Shyness occurs when a person's apprehensions are so great that they inhibit his making an expected or desired social response. Symptoms of shyness can be as minor as failing to make make eye contact when speaking to someone, or as major as avoiding conversations whenever possible.“Shy people tend to be too preoccupied with themselves,”said Jonathan Cheek, a psychologist at College who is one of those at the forefront of current research on the topic. “For example, for a smooth conversation, you need to pay attention to the other person’s cues—what he is saying and doing. But the shy person is full of worries about how he seems to the other person, and so he often misses cues he should pick up. The result is an awkward lag in the conversation. Shy people need to stop focusing on themselves and switch their attention to the other person.”Nevertheless, shy people by and large have better social abilities than they think they do. When Dr. Cheek videotaped shy people talking to strangers, and then had raters evaluate how socially skilled the people were, he found that, in the eyes of other people, the shy group had few obvious problems. But when he asked the shy people themselves how they had done, they were unanimous in saying that they had been social flops.Shy people are their own worst critics and in general they feel they are being judged more positively than they actually are. Shy people always overestimate how obvious their social anxiety is to other.Not all self-consciousness leads to social anxiety, in the view of Amold Buss, one of the first psychologists to study the phenomenon. The garden variety of self-consciousness, Dr. Buss has written, is simply an introspective awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings. What he calls “public self-consciousness,” on the other hand, is a powerful perception of oneself as the object of social scrutiny. The latter is the root of social anxiety.Social anxiety generally creates three different kinds of problems, which can occur separately or in tandem. For some people, their social anxiety is primarily cognitive: they suffer from repetitive thoughts expressing their fear of making a poor impression, such as “he must think I’m an idiot,” or “I can’t think of anything to say.” Other people, though experience their social anxiety almost entirely through physiological symptoms, such as blushing, a pounding heart, or sweating in social situation. In either case, these symptoms lead to a set of behavioral ones: for example, not being able to speak although one wants to, or a general social awkwardness.16.“shy people tend to be too preoccupied with themselves,” can be paraphrased as shy peopleA.Are strict with themselvesB.Pay attention to their performanceC.Are excessively concerned with other’s comment on themselvesD.Are too concentrated on thinking to notice other things17.Jonathan Cheek believes that shy people ____A.Pay much attention to the other people’s cuesB.Have better social abilities than they think they doC.Always overestimate their social abilitiesD.Are too preoccupied with the conversation topic18.in para.3, the social flops means the people who ____A.are very sociableB.are awkward sociallyC.get to know people quicklyD.are skilled at communication19.According to Amold Buss, which of the following statement is true?A.Social anxiety is a kind of disease that can’t be curedB.Shy people worry too much about other people’s attitudeC.Shy people underestimate their anxietyD.No self-consciousness leads to anxiety20.Jonathan Cheek’s statement and Amold Buss’ statement ____A.Support each otherB.Are quite differentC.Are contradictoryD.Are the samePassage 5For companies on the cusp of the internet Age, the resource in shortest supply is neither raw material nor capital, neither powerful technology nor new markets. What keeps managers up nights at these companies is the scarcity of brainpower, the talent to give wings to visions of a future that becomes the present at the speed of light. “Capital is accessible, and smart strategies can simply be copied, “says Ed Michaels, a McKinsey & Co. Director.” The half-life of technology is growing shorter all the time. For many companies today, talented people are the prime source of competitive advantage.IBM founds Thomas Watson and earlier chieftains constructed organizations that were models of order, logic and conformity, the later best symbolized by the white shirts and stiff collars every IBM salesman had to wear. The hierarchy and bureaucratic protocol that were the hallmarks of those corporations were crucial to success in an age when change came slowly and markets were largely domestic.Today’s managers recognize that flat organizations of empowered people are critical to gaining quick decisions in a global market place that moves at net speed. Internet Age companies rely on the initiative and smarts of more responsive to the market. The ultimate goal, says CEO Jorma Ollila of Finland’s telecom giant Nokia, is “Flexibility, an open mind, and transparency of organization.”In this new environment, the most successful companies are endowing entry-level employees with the reverence once accorded only to customers. They are working to fulfill the desire for meaning and belonging by creating egalitarian meritocracies. And they are paying generously for performance, not only with cash, but with ownership. As Cisco System Inc. CEO John T. Chambers puts it: the new Economy is heavy on intellectual capital. The sharing of knowledge is what really makes it go. In the new Economy, you expect lifelong learning, not necessarily lifelong employment. People used to work for wages. In the new Economy, they work for ownership. Security comes from the stock. labor often fought management in the Old Economy. Today, teamwork and empowerment are crucial to success.In short, the world economy is going through a seismic shift to intellectual capital from capital investment. That’s why computer mogul Michael S. Dell made people No.1 on his top 10 list of priorities to executives earlier this year. And at a company adding more that 8000 people this year to its 29.000 employees, the talent must be hired and developed fast.Finding people like Martin is an all-consuming priority at Dell. Recruiters start with substantial research on what it likes to succeed. Besides confirming the necessary functional or technical skills, managers test applicants for their tolerance of ambiguity and change their capacity to work in teams and learn on the fly. At the VP level, candidates are sent to a consultant for a lengthy behavioral interview and extensive pencil-and-paper testing. “It is a high-risk, high-reward environment,” says Andy Esparza, vice-president of staffing. “We have to screen fro people who can thrive in that kind of culture.”21.Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the text?A.Talented people are the prime source of competitive advantage.B.Flat organizations of empowered people are crucial to win the marketC.Sharing of knowledge is critical in competitionD.Teamwork and ownership are important to success.22.according to paragraph 4, how can employees gain egalitarian meritocracies?A.They share their knowledge.B.They respect their customersC.They get high paymentD.They work hard and gain stock23.the main idea of the last paragraph is ____A.technical skills are indispensableB.substantial research is the first step for recruitingC.interview and testing are two necessary methodsD.recruiting is a high-risk and high-reward job24.the author’s style in the text seems best characterized as ____A.respectfulB.persuasiveC.didacticD.diffident25.from the text we can infer that ____A.today’s market are largely globalB.capital investment is the priority at NokiaC.even new employees are respected in many companiesD.the management of former IBM was a model of hierarchyPassage 6Software piracy problems exists and have become serious in recent years due to information systems overload, decentralized purchasing, budget constraints, general user and corporate management attitudes, lack of knowledge of the copyright laws, and now internet access. Most organizations have not managed their software very effectively. Determining the extent of the problem is a time-consuming process.The industry’s response has been to from trade associations to educate the public about the copyright law and to aggressively pursue pirates. Some of the largest PC companies have set up their own in-house programs to combat the problem. Corporate exposure to software piracy problem is increasing due to the need to manage more machines, software and on-line and internet access. Civil and criminal penalties for copyright infringement have stiffened. As a result, law suits for copyright infringement have increased significantly as well as calls to hot-linesfrom unhappy employees due to corporate downsizing.When infringement software is reported, the company is at risk of embarrassing litigation for copyright infringement. The company will most probably lose as the copyright holder usually has a “smoking gun” based on reports from former employees or other whistle blowers. There is also the simple fact that no matter how hard the information systems staff try, there are and always will be copies of software programs that cannot be validated by purchasing records. They come in from home, are created by otherwise conscientious employees trying to get their jobs done or just unauthorized copies created by cost conscious managers and employees. Internet access lnly increases these problems as software is downloaded from sites worldwide.A software management program will reduce the risks from using counterfeit or copied software and help avoid damage from viruses and corrupt programs. By conducting an audit before infringement is reported, the corporation will reduce its exposure.Employers should set guidelines for when and how to download software and data from on-line support and provide the ability to download bug fixes and program updates. However, one bad virus can damage the whole company’s networks or shut down the whole system. Firewall technology that controls access to and from outside systems can help. Information systems staff should work with management to develop policies that reduce risk but reflect the level of openness that suits a particular company’s corporate culture.26.Which of the following contributes to software piracy problem?A.On-line accessB.The audit systemC.Software licensesD.Viruses27.Which measure is not taken to combat software piracy problems?A.Associations educate employees about proper downloadws have been laid down to punish piratesC.PC companies set up in-house programsD. A software management program is created28.“Smoking gun” in the fourth paragraph most probably refer to ____A.Strong infringementB.Angry responseC.Irrefutable evidenceD.validated record29.It can be inferred from the text that ____A.firewall technology is the best method of solving software piracy problemsrmation systems staff are familiar with software license practiesC.business management opposes software download from the internetD.the internet plays a part in software piracy problems30.This text is aimed at providing advice to ____A.software companiesB.business companiesC.corporate employeesD.public readersTranslationTranslate following passage from English to Chinese.Passage 1It might be supposed that greater efficiency should be achieved if several people collaborate to solve a problem than if only one individual works on it. Such results are by no means invariable.Although groups often may increase the motivation of their members to deal with problems, there is a counterbalancing need to contend with conflicts arising among members of s group and with efforts to give it coherent direction. Problem solving is facilitated by the presence of an effective leader who only provides direction but permits the orderly, constructive expression of a variety of opinions, much of the leader’s effort may be devoted to resolving differences. Success in problem solving also depends on the distribution of ability within a group. Solutions simply may reflect the presence of an outstanding individual who might perform even better by himself.Although groups may reach a greater number of correct solutions, or may require less time to discover an answer, their net man-hour efficiency is typical lower than that achieved by skilled individuals working alone.Passage 2Until about 100 years ago, people had by and large come to terms with death. They usually died in their homes, among their relatives. Numerous pictures attest to the fact that children were not excluded from deathbeds, as they were to be during the 20th century.The general acceptance of death was to be subverted by the advances of modern medicine and by the rapid spread of rationalist thought. This led, during a period of only a few decades, to a striking change of attitudes. In the advanced industrial countries, a large number of people now die in hospitals. The improvement in life expectancy and the advances of modern surgery and medicine have been achieved at a certain price. A mechanistic approach has developed, in which the protraction of dying has become a major by –product of modern technology. The philosophy of the modern medicine has been diverted from attention to the sick and has begun to concentrate on the sickness. Instead of perceiving death as something natural, modern physicians have come to see it as bad or alien, a defeat of all their therapeutic endeavors, at times almost a personal defeat. Sickness is treated with all possible weapons, often without sufficient thought for the sick person—at times even without thought as to whether there is still a “person” at all. Passage 3Given that literacy is not a prerequisite of rationality and civilization, it may be asked why writing systems were invented and why, when they were, they so completely displaced preexisting oral traditions. Many accounts have been given of the dramatic impact on an “oral”culture of the encounter with written text. Isak Dinesen, in her autobiographical Out of Africa reported on the response of Kikuyu tribesmen to their first exposure to written text. “I learned that the effect of a piece of news was many times magnified when it was imparted by writing. The messages that would have been received with doubt and scorn, if they had been given by word of mouth were now taken as truth.Certainly writing has been observed to displace oral traditions. The American scholar Albert Lord wrote: “when writing is introduced and begins to be used for the same purposes as the oral narrative song, when it is employed for telling storied and is widespread enough to find an audience capable of reading, this audience seeks its entertainment and instruction in books rather than in the living songs of men, and the older art gradually disappear.Passage 4In the human species individuals are equipped with fewer instincts than is the case in many nonhuman species. And, as already noted, they are born cultureless. Therefore an infant Horno sapiens must learn a very deal and acquire a vast number of conditional reflexes and habit patterns in order to live effectively, not only in society but in a particular kind of sociocultural system, be it Tibetan, Eskimo, or French. The process, taken as a whole, is called socialization—the making of a social being out of one that was at birth wholly individualistic and egoistic.Education in its broadest sense may properly be regarded as the process by which the culture of a sociocultureal system is impressed or imposed upon the plastic, receptive infant. It is this process that makes continuity of culture possible. Education, formal and informal, is the specific means of socialization. By informal education is meant the way a child learns to adapt his behavior to that of others, to be like others, to become s number of a group. By formal education is meant the intentional and more or less systematic effort to affect the behavior of others by transmitting elements of culture to them, be it knowledge or belief, patterns of behavior, or ideals and values.Translate following passage from Chinese to English.1虽然这份报告描述的糟糕情况不太可能发生，但是确实有些问题需要马上解决。