2014年长安大学考博英语真题

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Part III. Reading Comprehension (50 minutes, 30 points)

Directions: There are 6 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and write your answer on the Answer Sheet.

One day in 1963, a dolphin named Elvar and a famous astronomer, Carl Sagan, were playing a little game. The astronomer was visiting an institute which was looking into the way dolphins communicate with each other. He was standing at the edge of one of the tanks where several of these highly intelligent, friendly creatures were kept. Elvar had just swum up alongside hiui,and had turned on his back. He wanted Sagan to scratch his stomach again, as the astronomer had done twice before. But this time Elvar was too deep in the water for Sagan to reach him. Elvar looked up at Sagan, waiting. Then, after a minute or so, the dolphin leapt up through the water into the air and made a sound just like the word `More?'

The astonished astronomer went -to the director of the institute and told him about the incident.

`Oh, yes: That's one of the words he knows,' the director said, showing no surprise at all.

Dolphins have bigger brains in proportion to their body size than humans have, andit has been known for a long time that they can make a number o€ sounds. What is more, these sounds seem to have different functions, such as warning each other of danger. Sound travels much faster ,and much further in water than it does in air. That is why the parts of the brain that deal with sound are much better developed in dolphins than in humans. But can it be said that dolphins have a `language' in the real sense of the word? Scientists don't agree on this.

A language is not just a collection of sounds, or even words. A language has a structure, or what we call a grammar. The grammar of a language helps to give it meaning. For example, the two questions `Who loves Mary?' and `Who does Mary love?' mean different things. If you stop to think about it, you will see that this difference doesn't come from the words in the question but from the difference in structure. That is why the question `Can dolphins speak?' can't be answered until we find out if dolphins not only make sounds but also arrange them in ways which affect their meaning.

71. The dolphin leapt into the air because

A) Sagan had turned his back

B) it was part of the game they were playing

C) he wanted Sagan to scratch him again

D) Sagan wanted him to do this

72. When Sagan told the director about what the dolphin had done, the director

A) didn't seem to think it was unusual

B) thought Sagan was joking

C) told Sagan about other words the dolphin knew

D) asked him if he knew other words

73. Dolphins' brains are particularly well-developed to

A) help them to travel fast in water

B) arrange sounds in different structures

C) respond to different kinds of sound

D) communicate with humans through sound

74. The sounds we call words can be called a language only if

A) each sound has a different meaning

B) each sound is different from the other

C) there is a system of writing

D) they have a structure or grammar

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