in
creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and
enlightening others.
[C] Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to
embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.
[D] This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading—between passive consumption and active creation—whose outcome will shape our collective future
in ways we can only begin to imagine.
[E] The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being
replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players.
[F] One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of
the world’s media culture has been defined by a single medium— television —and television is defined by downloading.
[G]The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful
downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading. Part C Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should
be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise. In
some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton’s laws of motion and
Darwinian evolution each
bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory framework.
(46) In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of
everything—a single generative equation for all we see. It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory
would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail. Nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal.
This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too. (47) Here, Darwinism
seems to offer justification, for if all humans share common origins, it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural
diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings. Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship
rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world’s languages, music, social and
religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. (48) To filter out what is unique from what
is shared might enable us to understand how complex cultural behavior arose and what guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.
That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality 76
check. Russell Gray at the University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the
light of two previous attempts to find universality in language.
The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that humans
are born with
an innate language-acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then
sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.
(49) The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality, identifying traits
(particularly in word order) shared by many languages, which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints.
Gray and his colleagues have put them to the test by examining four family trees that between them represent
more than 2,000 languages. (50) Chomsky’s grammar should show patterns of language change that are
independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it, whereas Greenbergian universality predicts
strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations. Neither of these patterns is borne out by
the analysis, suggesting that the structures of the languages are lineage-specific and not governed by universals. [418 words]
Section III Writing Part A 51. Directions:
Some international students are coming to your university. Write them an email in the name of the
Students’ Union to 1) extend your welcome and
2) provide some suggestions for their campus life here.
You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.
Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use “Li Ming” instead. Do not write the address. (10 points) Part B 52. Directions:
Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay you should 1) describe the drawing briefly, 2) explain its intended meaning, and 3) give your comments.
You should write neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (20 points) 77
2012 年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题答案 Section Ⅰ Use of English 1.B2.A3.B4.D5.C6.B7.D8.B9.A10.B
11.A12.C13.C14.D15.A16.C17.A18.C19.D20.D
Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension Part A
Text 121.D22.B23.A24.C25.D Text 226.C27.D28.A29.D30.A Text 331.A32.B33.B34.D35.C Text 436.C37.D38.B39.C40.A Part B
41.C42.D43.A44.F45.G
Part C
46.在物理学领域，一种做法把这种寻求大同理论的冲动推向极端，试图寻找包含一切的理论——一个涵
括我们所看到的一切的生成性公式。
47.这里，达尔文学说似乎做出了证明，因为如果人类有着共同的起源，那么似乎就有理由认为文化的多
样性也可以追溯到更为有限的起源。
48.从共有特征中滤出独有特征，这使我们得以理解复杂的文化行为是如何产生的，并从进化或认知角度
理解什么引导了它的走向。
49.第二次努力——由乔舒亚·格林堡做出——采用更为经验主义的方法来研究语言的普遍性，确定了多
种语言（尤其在语法词序方面）的共有特征，这些特征被认为是代表了由认知限制产生的倾向。
50.乔姆斯基的语法应该显示出语言变化的模式，这些模式并不受语言谱系或贯穿谱系路径的影响；而格
林堡式的普遍性则预言了特定的语法词序关系类型之间所存在的紧密互依性。
Section Ⅲ Writing Part A 51.见分析 Part B 52.见分析