模拟题1 考博英语

Practice Examination 1

Part I Reading Comprehension (40 % )

Questions 1 to 4 are based on the following passage:

According to economic signaling theory，consumers may perceive the frequency with which an unfamiliar brand is advertised as a cue that the brand is of high quality. The notion that -highly advertised brands are associated with high-quality products does have some empirical support. Marquardt and McGann found that heavy advertised products did indeed rank high on certain measures of produt quality. Because large adverti.sing expenditures represent a significant investment on the part of a manufacturer，only companies that expect to recoup these costs in the long run， through consumers' repeat purchases of the product，can afford to spend such amounts.

However，two studies by Kirmani have found that although consumers initially perceive expensive advertising as a signal of high brand quality， at some level of spending the manufacturer's advertising effort may be perceived as unreasonably high， implying low manufacturer confidence in product quality.If consumers perceive excessive advertising effort as a sign of a manufacturer’s desperation，the result may be less favorable brand perceptions. In addition，a third study by Kirmani， of print advertisements，found that the use of color affected consumer conception of brand quality. Because consumers recognize that color advertisemeta are more expensive than black and white， the point at which repetition of an advertosement is perceived as excessive comes sooner for a color advertisement than for a black-and-white advertisement.

1.The primary purpose of the passage is to

A.present findings that contradict one explanation for the effects of a particular advertising practice

B.argue that theoretical explanations about the effects of a particular advertising practice are of limited value without

empirical evidence

C.discuss how and why particular advertising practices may affect consumers' perceptions D. contrast the research methods used in two different studies of a particular advertisingpractice

2.Kirmani' s res~arch suggests which of the following regarding consumers' expectations about the quality of

advertised products?

A.Those expectations are likely to be highest if a m\

the same prodoct.

B.Those expectations can be shaped by the presence of color in an advertisement as well as by the frequency with which

an advertisement appears.

C.Those expectations are usually high for frequently advertised new brands but not for frequently advertised familiar

brands.

D.Those expectations are likely to be higher for products，whose black-and-white advertisements are often repeated than

for those whose color dvertisemens are lessoften repeated.

3.Kirmani' s third study suggests which of the following conclusions about ablack-and-white advertisement? A. It can be repeated more frequently than a comparable colar advertisement could beforeconsumers begin to suspect

low manufacturer confidence in the quality of the advertised product.

B. It will have the greastest impact on the consumers’ perfections of the quality of theadvertised product if it appears

during periods when a color version of the same advertisement is also being used.

C. It will attract more attention from readers of the print publication in which it appears ifit is used only a few times. D. It may be perceived by some consumers as more expensive than a comparable coloradvertisement.

4. Kirmani would be most，likely to agree with which of the following statements about

quality?

consumers'

perceptions of the relationship between the frequency with which a product is advertised and the product’s

A.Consumers' perceptions about the frequency with which an advertisement appears are their primary consideration

when evaluating an advertisement's claims about product quality.

B.Because most consumers do not notice the frequency of advertisement，it has little impact on most customers'

expectations regarding product quality.

C.Consumers perceive frequency of advertisement as a signal about product quality only when the advertisement is for a

product that is newly on the market.

D.The frequency of advertisement is not always perceived by consumers to indicate that manufacturers are highly

confident about their products' quality.

Questions 5 to 8 are based on the following passage:

The idea of the brain as an information processor-a machine manipulating blips of energy according to fathomable rules-has come to dominate neuroscience. However，one enemy of the brain-as-computer metaphor is John R. Searle， a philosopher who argues that since computers simply follow algorithms， they cannot deal with important aspects of human thought such as meaning and content. Computers are syntactic，rather than semantic，creatures. People， on the other hand， understand meaning? because they have something Searle obscurely calls the causal powers of the brain.

Yet how would a brain work if not by reducing what it learns about the world to information-some kind of code that can be transmitted from neuron to neuron? What else could meaning and content be?If the code can be cracked，a computer should be able to simulate it，at least in principle. But even if a computer could simulate the workings of the mind，Searle would claim that the machine would not really be thinking; it would just be acting as if it were. His argument proceeds thus: if a computer were used to simulate a stomach， with the stomach's churnings faithfully reproached on a video screen， the machine would not be digesting real food.It would just be blindly manipulating the symbols that generate the visual display.

Suppose，though，that a stomach were simulated using plastic tubes，a motor to do the churning，a supply of digestive juices，and a timing wechanism.If food went in one end of the device，what came out the other end would surely be digested food. Brains，unlike stomachs，are information processors, and if one information processor were made to simulate another information processor, it is hard to see how one and not the other could be said to think. Simulated thoughts and real thoughts are made of the same element: information. The representations of the world that humans carry around in their heads are already simulations. To accept Searle’s argument， one would have to deny the most fundamental notion in psychology and neuroscience: that brains work by processing information.

5. The main purpose of the passage is to A. B. C. D. 6. A. B. C. D. 7. A. B. C. D.

It can be inferred that the authar af the passage believes that Searle's argument is flawedby. its failure to. distinguish between syntactic and semantic aperatians

explain adequately haw peaple，unlike camputers，are able to. understand meaning pravide can crete examples illustrating its claims abaut thinking understand haw camputers use algarithms to. pracess information

Which of the following is most consistent with Searle's reasoning as presented in the passage? Meaning and content cannot be reduced to algorithms.

Theprocess of digestion can be simulated mechanically， but not on a computer.

Simulated thaughs and real thaughts are essentially similar because they are compased primarily af infarmatian.- A camputer can use “causal pawers”similar to. thase af the human brain when pracessing infarmatian. propose an experiment analyze a function refute an argument explain a contradiction

8.

It can be inferred fram the passage that the authar would agree with Searle on which of the following points? A. Computers aperate by following algarithms.

B.The human brain can never fully understand its own functions. C. D.

Questions 9 to 12 are based on the following passage:

Women's grassroots activism and there vision of a new civic cansciausness lay at the heart af sacial refarm in the United States throughout the Pragressive Era\ between the depression af 1893 and America’s entry into. the Secand WarId? War. Though largely disenfranchised except for school elections, white middle-class wamen refarmers won a variety of victaries，natablyin the improvement of conditions especially for wamen and ehildren.Iranically, though, child labor legislatian pitted wamen of different classes against one another. To the reformers，child labor and industrial homework were equally inhumane practices that should be autlawed，but，as a number af women historians

have recently observed, working-class mather did nat always share this view. Given the precarious finances of working-class families and the necessity af paoling the wages af as many family members as possible，working-class families viewedthe passage andenforcement of stringent child labar statutes as a persanal economic disaster and made strenuaus effarts to. circumvent child labar laws. Yet refarmers rarely understoodthis resistance in terms af the desperate ecanamic situatian af working-class families， interpreting it instead as evidence af paar parenting. This is not to dispute wamen reformers' perceptian af child labor as a terribly explaitative practice，but their understanding of child labar and their legislative salutians far ending it failed to take account of the econamic needs of working-class families.

9. The primary purpase af the passage is to

A.explain why women reformers of the Progressive Era failed to achieve their goals

B.discuss the origins of child labor laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centunes C.compare the living conditions of working-class and middle-class women in the Progressive Era D.

10. The view mentioned in the fourt4 sentence of the passage refers to which of the following? A. Some working-class mothers' resistance to the enforcement of child labor laws. B. Reformers' belief that child labor and industrial homeworkshould be abolished. C. Reformers' opinions about how working-class families raised their children.

D. Certain women historians' observation that there was a lack of concensus between women of different classes on the

issue of child labor anf industrial homework.

11. The author of the passage asserts which of the following about women reformers who tried to abolish child labor?

A. They alienated working-class mothers by attempting to enlist them in agitating for progressIve causes. B.They underestimated the prevalence of child labor among the working classes.

C.They were correct in their convictiion child labor was deplorable but shortsighted about the impact of child labor

legislation on working-class families.

D.They were aggressive in their attempts to enforce child labor legislation but were unable to prevent working!-class

families from circumventing it.

12. According to the passage，one of the most striking achievements of white middle-class women reformers during the Progressive Era was . A. B. C.

gaining the right to vote in school elections

mobilizing working class women in the fight against child labor uniting women of different classes in grassroots activism

discuss an oversight on the part of women refomers of the Progressive Era The camparisan af the brain to. a machine is overtly simplistic.

The mast accurate madels af physical processes are computer simulatians.

D.

improving women’s and children's working conditions

Questions 13 to 16 are based on the following passage:

A recent study has provided clues to predator-prey dynamics in the late Pleistocene era. Researchers compared the number of tooth fractures in present carnivores with tooth fractures in carnivores that lived 36，000 to 10，000 years ago and that were preserved in the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. The breakage frequencies in the extinct species were strikingly higher than those in the present-day species.

In considering possible explanations for this finding， the researchers dismissed demographic bias because older individuals were. not overrepresented in the fossil samples.They rejected preservational bias because a total absence of breakage in two extinct species demonstrated that the fractures were not the result of abrasion with the pits. They ruled out local bias because breakage data obtained from other Pleistocene sites were similar to the La Brea data. The explanation they consider most plausible is behavioral differences between extinct and presen-day? carnivores-in particular， more contact between the teeth of predators and the bones of prey due to more thorough consumption of carcasses by the extinct species. Such thorough carcass consumption implies to the researchers either that prey availability was low， at least seasonally， or that there was intense competition over kills and a high rate of carcass theft due to relatively high predator densities.

13. The primary purpose of the passage is to . A. B. C.

14. According to the passage，compared with Plesitocene carnivores in other areasPleistocene carnivores in the La Brea area . A. B. C. D.

15. The researchers' conclusion concerning the absence of demographic bias would be mostseriously undermined if it were found that

A. the older an individual carnivore is, the more likely it is to have a large number of tooth fractures B. D.

16. According to the passage， if the researchers had NOT found that two extinct carnivore species were free of tooth breakage，the researchers would have concluded that. A. B. C. D.

the difference in breakage frequencies could have been the result of damage to the fossil remains in the La Brea pits the fossils in the other Pleistocene sites could have higher breakage frequencies thando the fossils in the La Brea pits

Pleistocene carnivore species probably behaved ver￥ similarly to one another with respect to consumption of carcasses

all Pleistocene carnivore species differed behaviorally from present-day carnivore specles the average age at death of a present-day carnivore is greater than was the average age at the death of a Plesitocene carnivore

the methods used to determine animals ' ages in fossil samples tend to misidentify many older individuals as included the same species，in approxmately the same proportions had a similar frequency of tooth fractures populated the La Brea area more densely consumed their prey more thoreoughly

present several explanations for a well-known fact suggest alternative methods for resolving a debate argue in favor of a controversial theory

D. discuss the implications of a research finding

C. in Pleistocene carniore species，older individuals consumed carcasses as thoroughly as did younger individuals younger individuals