Section III Writing

　　Part A

　　51. Directions:

　　Restrictions on the use of plastic bags have not been so successful in some regions. “White pollution ”is still going on. Write a letter to the editor(s) of your local newspaper to

　　1)give your opinions briefly and,

　　2) make two or three suggestions

　　You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.(10 points)

　　Part B

　　52. Directions:

　　In your essay, you should

　　1) describe the drawing briefly,

　　2) explain its intended meaning, and then

　　3) give your comments.

　　You should write neatly on ANSHWER SHEET 2. (20 points)

　　2009年全國碩士研究生入學考試英語試題答案與解析

　　Section I Use of English

　　Directions:

　　Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

　　Research on animal intelligence always makes me wonder just how smart humans are 1 the fruit-fly experiments described in Carl Zimmer’s piece in the Science Times on Tuesday. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly 2 to live shorter lives. This suggests that 3 bulbs burn longer, that there is a(n) 4 in not being too terrifically bright.

　　Intelligence, it 5 , is a high�瞤riced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow 6 the starting line because it depends on learning—a (an) 7 process—instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to 8 .

　　Is there an adaptive value to 9 intelligence? That’s the question behind this new research. I like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance10at all the species we’ve left in the dust I.Q.�瞱ise, it implicitly asks what the real 11of our own intelligence might be. This is12the mind of every animal we’ve ever met.

　　Research on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would13on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, 14, is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. We believe that15animals ran the labs, they would test us to16the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really17, not merely how much of it there is.18, they would hope to study a19question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in?20 the results are inconclusive.

　　對動物智能進行的研究總是讓我想了解人類到底有多聰明。不妨考慮一下卡爾·齊默周二發表在《科學時報》雜志上的對于果蠅實驗的描述，那些學得比普通果蠅更聰明的果蠅往往壽命比較短。這讓人想起比較暗淡的燈泡照明時間反而比較長，不那么聰明也有自身的優勢。

　　事實證明，聰明是一種昂貴的選擇。它需要更多的保養，消耗更多的燃料，起步慢，這是因為聰明依賴學習——一個漸進的過程——而不是本能。許多其他物種都能夠學習，它們顯然已經學會的一件事就是什么時候停止學習。

　　是否有一個有限聰明的適應值呢?這是該項研究背后的問題。我喜歡它。該研究不是要我們對那些在智力方面已被人類遠遠拋在后面的物種投以悲憐的眼光，而是含蓄地提出一個問題：人類智慧的真正代價可能是什么。而這是我們遇見所有動物都在思考的問題。

　　研究動物智能也讓我想知道如果動物有機會的話，它們會對人類進行何種實驗。例如，每一只有主人的貓都在進行一項有關操作性條件反射的小規模研究。我認為，如果讓動物管理實驗室的話，它們會對我們進行測試，來確定我們的忍耐度、我們的忠誠度、我們對地域的記憶力。它們將設法確定人類智慧的用途，而不僅僅是人類有多少智慧。更重要的是，它們希望研究一個基本問題：人類是否真正了解他們生活的這個世界?迄今為止，結果尚不確定。