2025年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语（二）一模模拟考A卷

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 the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps boost creativity, ___1____, an international study ____2___ by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion.

Psychologists from Lancaster University, the University of Gävle, and the University of Central Lancashire say that their findings indicate music actually ___3____ people’s creativity.

To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that ___4____ music "significantly impaired" the participants' ability to complete tasks associated with verbal ____5___.

The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no _____6__ on subjects' creativity.

The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, tan, and flower. Then, they were asked to ____7___ a single word associated with all three that could be combined ___8____ form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, suntan, sunflower).

Participants ____9___ the tasks in either a quiet room, or while ____10___ to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.

"We found strong ____11___ of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music ___12____ the verbal working memory processes of the brain, hindering creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case __13_____ library noises create a "steady state" environment that doesn't disrupt __14_____.

It's worth mentioning that even familiar music with well-known lyrics ___15____ participants' creativity, regardless of whether or not it elicited a positive reaction, or ___16____ participants typically studied or created while listening to music.

"To conclude, the findings here ____17___ the popular ___18____ that music ___19____ creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content, ___20____ disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving," the study reads.

1.

The digital revolution has not only changed the way we communicate, it has also changed the way that we engage with the world, purchase goods and services, and get information. The implications that this has for businesses and brands is immense. There was a time when a person could only make a purchase by physically going into a store. Now, consumers can go online to buy goods and products from online stores.

If any business fails to adapt to the technological changes that are sweeping through, they will find themselves becoming obsolete and losing ground to sometimes smaller, but nimbler competitors, who are more open to embracing the changes that are occurring.

Traditional marketing assumed that a consumer would either be sitting in front of a TV screen, reading papers and magazines, listening to the radio, or glancing at a billboard as they drive along in a car. As a result, the tools of traditional marketing, were mostly limited to advertisements on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and roadside billboards. They offered no opportunity for feedback from the client, and reviews were often limited to mouth to mouth feedback from friends and family. The new digital age has upended that paradigm. Now, the potential customer can search online for the product they are interested in. They can get reviews about the quality of service that can be expected from businesses that they are considering engaging with. They can check out pricing and compare them across various retailers. They can go to the social media pages of influencers and get their views on various products and services.

The age of the silent consumer is dead. Now, consumers are speaking, digitally, to millions of people around the world, and those conversations are shaping what they buy, when they buy it and who they buy it from. Far from being a lamentable fate, however, this new phase of marketing in the digital age offers exciting, profitable opportunities for businesses that are ready to adapt to meet the needs of their customers. The silent consumer is a dying breed. The long-held notion that brands can control the customer’s perception of a product or service is finally giving way to marketing in the digital age: user-generated content and social advertising. Static marketing is declining as peer reviews and consumer feedback have now taken centre stage.

The advent of social media means users are a lot more empowered and engaged, able to give direct feedback and have their voices heard. More than ever before, they are able to establish preferences and register protests. The average consumer’s attention span is now limited in order to cope with the overload of information. Responsive brands stay ahead of the curve by seeing this change as positive and utilising various consumer apps to shift from one-way broadcasting to dialogue.

As General Motors Co, Waymo and other companies race to develop fully driverless vehicles, new California state records show these companies are making progress but are still relying on human safety operators to take control of the wheel at times.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday released self-reported data from companies with permits to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. The reports offer a glimpse into the progress of developing driverless technology, which could reshape personal transportation by improving road safety and potentially creating massive new businesses. California has been the main location for such tests, though some companies such as Waymo have expanded trials elsewhere to regulation-friendlier states like Arizona. 

California requires companies that are awarded testing permits to disclose certain data, including the frequency of times when its autonomous technology is deactivated because of a failure or because a safety operator took control. Each company defines a so-called disengagement differently, so it is hard to directly compare them, but the data show how these companies are individually progressing.

Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, which has logged the most test miles on public roads, recorded about 1.2 million miles in the reporting period that ran from December 2017 through last November. That was more than triple the number of miles logged a year ago. Its rate of disengagement improved to 0.09 per 1,000 miles from 0.179 in 2017. “A lower rate of disengagements shows that our cars are getting better at recognizing and handling a variety of driving situations,” including rare scenarios, Waymo said in a blog posting. “Disengagements in these cases are actually a good thing because they are the equivalent to discovering and solving an issue with our car’s capability.”

General Motors’ driverless unit Cruise, which focuses its testing in San Francisco, more than tripled the miles it tested to 447,621 last year. Its rate of disengagement improved to 0.19 miles per 1,000 from 0.80 a year ago.

Both companies are working to develop a robot taxi business. Waymo began a commercial service in December in suburban Phoenix with safety operators still in the vehicles. It hasn’t said when the vehicles will become truly driverless.

Text 3

When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn’t cutting, filling or polishing as many nails as she’d like to, either. Most of her clients spend 12 dollars to 50 dollars weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. “I’m a good economic indicator,” she says. “I provide a service that people can do without when they’re concerned about saving some dollars.” So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. “I don’t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too.” she says.

Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening.

Consumers say they’re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, “there’s a new gold rush happening in the 4 million dollars to 10 million dollars range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses,” says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. “Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three,” says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.

Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn’t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan’s hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Wall Street may still be worth toasting.

Text 4

Come on—Everybody’s doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half forcing, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good-drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new book Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the world.

Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, offers a host of example of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as Love Life recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers.

The idea seems promising, and Rosenberg is a perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness of many public-health campaigns is spot-on: they fail to mobilize peer pressure for healthy habits, and they demonstrate a seriously flawed understanding of psychology.” Dare to be different, please don’t smoke!” pleads one billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among teenagers—teenagers, who desire nothing more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure.

But on the general effectiveness of the social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive. Join the Club is filled with too much irrelevant detail and not enough exploration of the social and biological factors that make peer pressure so powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure as it’s presented here is that it doesn’t work very well for very long. Rage Against the Haze failed once state funding was cut. Evidence that the Love Life program produces lasting changes is limited and mixed.

There’s no doubt that our peer groups exert enormous influence on our behavior. An emerging body of research shows that positive health habits—as well as negative ones—spread through networks of friends via social communication. This is a subtle form of peer pressure: we unconsciously imitate the behavior we see every day.

Far less certain, however, is how successfully experts and bureaucrats can select our peer groups and steer their activities in virtuous directions. It’s like the teacher who breaks up the troublemakers in the back row by pairing them with better-behaved classmates. The tactic never really works. And that’s the problem with a social cure engineered from the outside: in the real world, as in school, we insist on choosing our own friends.

Part B

Directions: Read the following text and answer questions by choosing the most suitable subtitles from the list A-G for each numbered paragraph(41-45). There are two extra subtitles which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

Modern day workers are often bombarded with tasks, interrupted multiple times a day and faced with rigorous deadlines they must meet. Coupled with the demands of the outside world, it is likely no surprise to anyone that stress can be a common feeling within the workplace. Increased stress can also lead to decreased productivity due to fatigue or lack of motivation, therefore it is essential to know how to combat these negative feelings and stay focused without becoming overwhelmed. This will not only benefit the quality of your work, but your mental health, too.

There are a number of simple techniques you could use within the workplace to help manage your stress levels and those of the team surrounding you. So, below you’ll find our top tips:

41. _______________________________

High energy levels in the mornings (although this may sometimes seem impossible) are essential to start the day and, hopefully, end the day with a positive outlook and a clear mindset. Staying hydrated, avoiding coming to work on an empty stomach and aiming to be well rested overnight will all contribute to better mornings and more motivation. You may also find it beneficial to give yourself a little extra time in the mornings to get ready for the day. This will prevent rush and panic and ensure you are fully prepared for whatever is thrown your way.

It is widely agreed that cluttered spaces can play a huge role in how we feel about our work and ourselves, because mess distracts our attention away from what we should be focused on and restricts full relaxation. It can also hinder our productivity, preventing us from locating the tools we need to work efficiently, and invading our creative spaces. Therefore, it would be useful to get organised: get rid of the things you don’t need, coordinate the things you do need into designated areas or folders and personalise your zone to make it your own.

The famous saying “don’t suffer in silence” should come to mind here. Sometimes, just having somebody to talk to and share your issues with can take a weight off of your shoulders, even if they can’t fix the problem for you. Having a solid support network in the workplace and not isolating yourself from that network will ensure that everybody involved is able to manage their stress levels more easily just through the power of communication, because it helps to know that you are not alone.

Rather than letting the workload overwhelm you, creating a balanced schedule that allows you to work at a manageable pace will lessen the chances of workplace burnout. If possible, try to avoid multitasking and allow your mind to focus on one assignment at a time instead of splitting your attention between too many. It is also important to take time out for regular breaks away from the desk to help you recharge and clear your mind.

Sometimes we need to work without any distractions and to shut ourselves off from those around us—and that is okay. You should not feel guilty for getting rid of interruptions to work solo if productivity is dwindling. You might find it useful to bring a pair of earphones to work and make a playlist of calming music, or find a quiet place in the work environment where you can focus uninterrupted and achieve what you need to.

It's easy to imagine how second-hand smoke can impact an innocent bystander—most of us have probably inhaled the smoke from someone else's tobacco without wanting to. But it's not the only habit that can affect others; ‘second-hand drinking’ is a thing, too. It's become increasingly clear that second-hand drinking is a significant public health issue.

Now, a study in the United States has placed its effects on the same level as second-hand smoking. Using US national survey data from 2015, research has found that each year, one in five American adults experience harm because of someone else's drinking. These harms include things like threats, physical aggression, drunk driving, and even financial or family problems. For men, this harm was usually from a stranger and resulted in ruined property, or physical aggression. But for women, the drinker tended to be a family member, causing financial issues or problems in the house.