1、2009 年 英语语言文学 英语综合 改错A fairly standard consensual definition is “a relatively permanent change in behavior (sic.; its American of course) that results from practise.“ This is of course arguable, particularly the “practice“ criterion. Others would accept changes in “capability“ or even simple “knowle
2、dge“ or “understanding“, even if it is not manifest in behaviour. It is however an important criterion that “learned“ behaviour is not pre-programmed or wholly instinctive (not a word used much nowadays), even if an instinctual drive underpins it. Behaviour can also change as a result of maturation-
3、simple growing-up-without being totally learned. Think of the changing attitude of children and adolescents to opposite-sex peers. Whatever the case, there has to be interaction with the environment.Even if psychologists ever agree about what learning is, in practice educationalists wont, because ed
4、ucation introduces prescriptive notions about specifying what ought to be learnt, and there is considerable dispute about whether this ought only to be what the teacher wants the learner to learn (implicit in behavioural models), or what the learner wants to learn (as in humanistic models).2009 英语语言
5、文学 完形填空 全文Obtaining Linguistic DataMany procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about ones mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home.In all cases, someone ha
6、s to act as a source of language data - an informant. Informants are(ideally) native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language(e.g. translations, comments about correctness, or judgements on usage). Often, when studying their mother
7、 tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics. But a linguists person
8、al judgements are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgements of other linguists, at which point recourse is needed to more objective methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech.Many factors must b
9、e considered when selecting informants - whether one is working with single speakers(a common situation when languages have not been described before), two people interacting, small groups or large-scale samples. Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these facto
10、rs are known to influence the kind of language used. The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting(e.g. the level of formality) are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants(e.g. their fluency and consistency). For larger studies, scrupulous atte
11、ntion has been paid to the sampling theory employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use.Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguists claims about the language to be checked, and provides a way of making those clai
12、ms more accurate(difficult pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly). But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to mini
13、mise the observers paradox(how to observe the way people behave when they are not bening observed). Some recordings are made without the speaker being aware of the fact - a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated. Alternatively, attempts can be made to
14、 make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones. A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style(e.g. asking older informants about how times have changed in
15、 their locality).An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguists problems, however. Speech is often unclear and ambiguous. Where possible , therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observers written comments on the non-verbal behaviour of the participants, and about the contex
16、t in general. A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said. Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations(the camera connot be everywhere), and transcriptions always benefit from any additional commentary provided by a
17、n observer.Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviour. With a bilingual informant, or through use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation techniques(How do you
18、 say table in your language?). A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview worksheets and questionnaires. Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just a single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used: a particular feature of pro
19、nunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words. There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as asking informants to fill in the blanks in a substitution frame(e.g I_see a car), or feeding them the wrong stimulus for correction(Is it p
20、ossible to say I no can see?).A representative sample of language, compiled for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus. A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers. Its rang
21、e and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature. The size of the porpus depends on practical factors, such
22、as the time available to collect, process and store the data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total
23、millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, through either introspection or experimentation.2009 英语语言文学 英语综合 阅读
24、理解 Passage 1BAKELITEThe birth of modern plasticsIn 1907, Leo Hendrick Baekeland, a Belgian scientist working in New York, discovered and patented a revolutionary new synthetic material. His invention, which he named Bakelite, was of enormous technological importance, and effectively launched the mod
25、ern plastics industry.The term plastic comes from the Greek plassein, meaning to mould. Some plastics are derived from natural sources, some are semi-synthetic (the result of chemical action on a natural substance), and some are entirely synthetic, that is, chemically engineered from the constituent
26、s of coal or oil. Some are thermoplastic, which means that, like candlewax, they melt when heated and can then be reshaped. Others are thermosetting: like eggs, they cannot revert to their original viscous state, and their shape is thus fixed for ever., Bakelite had the distinction of being the firs
27、t totally synthetic thermosetting plastic.The history of todays plastics begins with the discovery of a series of semi-synthetic thermoplastic materials in the mid-nineteenth century. The impetus behind the development of these early plastics was generated by a number of factors - immense technologi
28、cal progress in the domain of chemistry, coupled with wider cultural changes, and the pragmatic need to find acceptable substitutes for dwindling supplies of luxury materials such as tortoiseshell and ivory.Baekelands interest in plastics began in 1885 when, as a young chemistry student in Belgium,
29、he embarked on research into phenolic resins, the group of sticky substances produced when phenol (carbolic acid) combines with an aldehyde (a volatile fluid similar to alcohol). He soon abandoned the subject, however, only returning to it some years later. By 1905 he was a wealthy New Yorker, havin
30、g recently made his fortune with the invention of a new photographic paper. While Baekeland had been busily amassing dollars, some advances had been made in the development of plastics. The years 1899 and 1900 had seen the patenting of the first semi-synthetic thermosetting material that could be ma
31、nufactured on an industrial scale. In purely scientific terms, Baekelands major contribution to the field is not so much the actual discovery of the material to which he gave his name, but rather the method by which a reaction between phenol and formaldehyde could be controlled, thus making possible
32、 its preparation on a commercial basis. On 13 July 1907, Baekeland took out his famous patent describing this preparation, the essential features of which are still in use today.The original patent outlined a three-stage process, in which phenol and formaldehyde (from wood or coal) were initially co
33、mbined under vacuum inside a large egg-shaped kettle. The result was a resin known as Novalak, which became soluble and malleable when heated. The resin was allowed to cool in shallow trays until it hardened, and then broken up and ground into powder. Other substances were then introduced: including
34、 fillers, such as woodflour, asbestos or cotton, which increase strength and. moisture resistance, catalysts (substances to speed up the reaction between two chemicals without joining to either) and hexa, a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde which supplied the additional formaldehyde necessary to
35、form a thermosetting resin. This resin was then left to cool and harden, and ground up a second time. The resulting granular powder was raw Bakelite, ready to be made into a vast range of manufactured objects. In the last stage, the heated Bakelite was poured into a hollow mould of the required shap
36、e and subjected to extreme heat and pressure; thereby setting its form for life.The design of Bakelite objects, everything from earrings to television sets, was governed to a large extent by the technical requirements of the moulding process. The object could not be designed so that it was locked in
37、to the mould and therefore difficult to extract. A common general rule was that objects should taper towards the deepest part of the mould, and if necessary the product was moulded in separate pieces. Moulds had to be carefully designed so that the molten Bakelite would flow evenly and completely in
38、to the mould. Sharp corners proved impractical and were thus avoided, giving rise to the smooth, streamlined style popular in the 1930s. The thickness of the walls of the mould was also crucial: thick walls took longer to cool and harden, a factor which had to be considered by the designer in order
39、to make the most efficient use of machines.Baekelands invention, although treated with disdain in its early years, went on to enjoy an unparalleled popularity which lasted throughout the first half of the twentieth century. It became the wonder product of the new world of industrial expansion -the m
40、aterial of a thousand uses. Being both non-porous and heat-resistant, Bakelite kitchen goods were promoted as being germ-free and sterilisable. Electrical manufacturers seized on its insulating: properties, and consumers everywhere relished its dazzling array of shades, delighted that they were now,
41、 at last, no longer restricted to the wood tones and drab browns of the prepfastic era. It then fell from favour again during the 1950s, and was despised and destroyed in vast quantities. Recently, however, it has been experiencing something of a renaissance, with renewed demand for original Bakelit
42、e objects in the collectors marketplace, and museums, societies and dedicated individuals once again appreciating the style and originality of this innovative material.2009 英语语言文学 英语综合 阅读理解 Passage 2Nature or Nurture? A few years ago, in one of the most fascinating and disturbing experiments in beha
43、vioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their willingness to obey instructions given by a leader in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram to
44、ld each volunteer teacher-subject that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils ability to learn. Milgrams experimental set-up involved placing the teacher-subject before
45、 a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from 15 vols of electricity (slight shock) to 450 volts (danger - severe shock) in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered, beginning at the lowest
46、 level and increasing in severity with each successive wrong answer. The supposed pupil was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to simulate receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum of groans, screams and writhings together with an assortment of statements and expletives denouncing both the exper
47、iment and the experimenter. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for, as per the rule governing the experimental situation of the moment. As the experiment unfolded, the pupil would deliberately give the wrong ans
48、wers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks and/or complaints about
49、continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupils cries for mercy and carry on with the experiment. If the subject was still reluctant to proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was, You have no other choice. You must go on. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even
