2015年北京师范大学考博英语真题及详解Part I Reading Comprehension (45%)Directions: Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D by marking thecorresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line throughthe center.1The Pacific Northwest coast of north America is temperate rain forest, where trees like the red cedar grow straight trunks more than two meters thick at the base and sixty meters high. Western red cedar is often called the canoe cedar because it supplied the native people of the region with the raw material for their seagoing dugout canoes. These extraordinary crafts, as much as twenty meters in length, were fashioned from a single tree trunk and carried as many as forty on fishing and whaling expeditions into the open ocean.The Haida people from the Queen Charlottes Islands off British Columbia were noted for their skill in canoe building. After felling a giant tree with controlled burning, the canoe makers split the log into lengthwise sections with stone wedges. They burned away some of the heartwood, leaving a rough but strong cedar shell. They then carved away wood from the inside, keeping the sections below the waterline thickest and heaviest to help keep the canoe upright in stormy seas. To further enhance the canoe’s stability, they filled the hull with water and heated itto boiling by dropping in hot stones. This rendered the wood temporarily flexible, so the sides of the hull could be forced apart and held with sturdy wooden thwarts, which served as both cross braces and seats. The canoes were often painted with elaborate designs of cultural significance to the tribe.The Haida raised canoe building to a high art, designing boats of such beauty and utility that neighboring tribes were willing to exchange quantities of hides, meats, and oils for a Haida canoe. These graceful vessels became the tribe’s chief item of export. In their swift and staunch canoes, the first people of the Northwest were able to take full advantage of the riches provided by the sea. With harpoons of yew wood, baited hooks of red cedar, and lines of twisted and braided bark fibers, they fished for cod, sturgeon, and halibut, and hunted whales, seals, and sea otters.1. Why did the canoe makers keep the sections of the canoe below the waterline thickest and heaviest?A. To prevent the canoe from overturning in rough water.B. To shorten the work of carving wood from the inside.C. To avoid having to paint the bottom of the canoe.D. To make the canoe strong enough to hold forty people.2. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph two?A. Carving changed the texture and strength of the wood.B. It took the canoe makers several months to build a canoe.C. The wood was beaten with stone tools to make it flexible.D. Canoes were important cultural artifacts of the Haida.3. The word staunch in paragraph three is close in meaning to _____.A. silentB. strongC. scentedD. severe4. It can be inferred from paragraph three that _____.A. canoes were the Haida’s only known art formB. the Haida dominated trade among local tribesC. the people used up all of the natural resourcesD. trees provided essential tools for obtaining food5. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?A. The western red cedar thrives in a variety of climates.B. The skill of the Haida canoe makers has never been copied.C. Haida canoes were of great value in the regional economy.D. People no longer use cedar canoes for fishing and whaling.【答案与解析】1.A 细节理解题。
根据题干可定位至第二段。
该段第四句提到“They then carved awaywood from the inside, keeping the sections below the waterline thickest and heaviest to help keep the canoe upright in stormy seas.”，由此可知，海达人将水平面以下的独木舟部分造得最厚最重，是为了让船只能够在波涛汹涌的海上平稳前行，不被海浪掀翻。
A项表述与此相符。
故选A项。
2.D 推理判断题。
第二段最后一句提到“The canoes were often painted with elaboratedesigns of cultural significance to the tribe.”，由此可知，海达人在独木舟上面绘制对本部落具有文化意义的精巧图案，因此独木舟也是海达人重要的文化产品。
故D项正确。
雕刻并不会改变木头的纹理和受压情况，故A项错误；B项文中没有提及；文中提到往船身灌水并通过丢热石头将水加热至沸腾，并不是用石头敲打，故C项错误。
3.B 语义判断题。
第三段第三句提到“In their swift and staunch canoes”，此处staunch和swift都用于形容独木舟的特征，第二段介绍独木舟的制作方法时强调了独木舟的结实，浏览四个选项，B项strong（结实的）符合原文意思，故B项正确。
其余三项均不符合文章意思。
4.D 推理判断题。
文章最后一句提到“With harpoons of yew wood, baited hooks ofred cedar, and lines of twisted and braided bark fibers, they fished for cod, sturgeon, and halibut, and hunted whales, seals, and sea otters.”，由此可知，木材为海达人提供了重要的捕食工具，故D项正确。