2014考研英语二真题

Part A

Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

Text 1

What would you do with 590m? This is now a question for Gloria Mackenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. If she hopes her new-found for tune will yield lasting feelings of fulfillment, she could do worse than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dumn and Michael Norton.

These two academics use an array of behavioral research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes. Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly what was once exciting and new becomes old-hat; regret creeps in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms Dumn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time-as stories or memories-particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others.

This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most "happiness bang for your buck." It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it).Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason MacDonald's restricts the availability of its popular McRib - a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession.

Readers of “HappyMoney” are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfillment, not hunger.Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors’ policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.

21. According to Dumn and Norton,which of the following is the most rewarding purchase?
[A]A big house
[B]A special tour
[C]A stylish car
[D]A rich meal

22. The author’s attitude toward Americans’ watching TV is
[A]critical
[B]supportive
[C]sympathetic
[D]ambiguous

23. Macrib is mentioned in paragraph 3 to show that
[A]consumers are sometimes irrational
[B]popularity usually comes after quality
[C]marketing tricks are after effective
[D]rarity generally increases pleasure

24. According to the last paragraph,Happy Money
[A]has left much room for readers’criticism
[B]may prove to be a worthwhile purchase
[C]has predicted a wider income gap in the us
[D]may give its readers a sense of achievement

25. This text mainly discusses how to
[A]balance feeling good and spending money
[B]spend large sums of money won in lotteries
[C]obtain lasting satisfaction from money spent
[D]become more reasonable in spending on luxuries

Text 2

An article in Scientific America has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you’re more beautiful than you are. We have a deep-seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to research into what the call the “above average effect”, or “illusory superiority”, and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others—all obviously statistical impossibilities.

We rose tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations. We become defensive when criticized, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem, we stalk around thinking we’re hot stuff.

Psychologist and behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key studying into self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather that have people simply rate their beauty compress with others, he asked them to identify an original photogragh of themselves’ from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is “an automatic psychological process occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation”. If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flattering image- which must did- they genuinely believed it was really how they looked. Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that, those who self-enhance the must (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored picture were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other makers for having higher self-esteem. “I don’t think the findings that we having have are any evidence of personal delusion”, says Epley. “It’s a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves’. If you are depressed, you won’t be self-enhancing. Knowing the results of Epley ‘s study,it makes sense that why people heat photographs of themselves Viscerally-on one level, they don’t even recognise the person in the picture as themselves, Facebook therefore ,is a self-enhancer’s paradise,where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit ,style ,beauty, intellect and lifestyle it’s not that people’s profiles are dishonest,says catalina toma of Wiscon—Madison university ,”but they portray an idealized version of themselves.

26. According to the first paragraph, social psychologist have found that ______.
[A] our self-ratings are unrealistically high
[B] illusory superiority is baseless effect
[C] our need for leadership is unnatural
[D] self-enhancing strategies are ineffective

27. Visual recognition is believed to be people’s______
[A] rapid watching
[B] conscious choice
[C] intuitive response
[D] automatic self-defence

28. Epley found that people with higher self-esteem tended to______
[A] underestimate their insecurities
[B] believe in their attractiveness
[C] cover up their depressions
[D] oversimplify their illusions

29.The word “Viscerally”(Line 2,para.5) is closest in meaning to_____.
[A]instinctively
[B]occasionally
[C]particularly
[D]aggressively

30. It can be inferred that Facebook is self-enhancer’s paradise because people can _____.
[A]present their dishonest profiles
[B]define their traditional life styles
[C]share their intellectual pursuits
[D]withhold their unflattering sides

Text 3

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