Directions:

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

Though not biologically related, friends are as related as fourth cousins, sharing about 1% of genes. That is 1 a study published from the University of California and Yale University in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has 2 .

The study is a genome-wide analysis conducted 3 1932 unique subjects which 4 pairs of unrelated friends and unrelated strangers. The same people were used in both 5 .While 1% may seem 6 , it is not so to a geneticist. As James Fowler, professor of medical genetics at UC San Diego, says, Most people do not even 7 their fourth cousins but somehow manage to select as friends the people who 8 our kin.

The study 9 found that the genes for smell were something shared in friends but not genes for immunity. Why this similarity in olfactory genes is difficult to explain, for now. 10 Perhaps, as the team suggests, it draws us to similar environments but there is more 11 it. There could be many mechanisms working in tandem that 12 us in choosing genetically similar friends 13 than nal kinship of being friends with 14 !One of the remarkable findings of the study was that the similar genes seem to be evolving 15 than other genes. Studying this could help 16 why human evolution picked pace in the last 30,000 years, with social environment being a major 17 factor.

The findings do not simply corroborate peoples 18 to befriend those of similar 19 backgrounds, say the researchers. Though all the subjects were drawn from a population of European extraction, care was taken to 20 that all subjects, friends and strangers were taken from the same population. The team also controlled the data to check ancestry of subjects.

Section II Reading Comprehension

1、What

2、英語Concluded

3、真題On

4、答案大全Compared

5、考研Samples

6、英語Insignificant

7、真題Know

8、答案大全Resemble

9、考研Also

10、英語Perhaps

11、真題To

12、答案大全Drive

13、考研Ratherthan

14、英語Benefits

15、真題Faster

16、understand

17、Contributory

18、Tendency

19、Ethnic

20、see

Part A

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

TEXT 1

King Juan Carlos of Spain once insistedkings dont abdicate, they die in their sleep. But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republicans left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles?

The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarized, as it was following the end of the France regime, monarchs can rise above mere polities and embody a spirit of national unity.

It is this apparent transcendence of polities that explains monarchys continuing popularity as heads of state. And so, the Middle East expected, Europe is the most monarch-infested region in the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican City and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure.

Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history-and sometimes the way they behave today-embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomas Piketty and other economists are warming of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states.

The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Princes and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses (or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media intrusiveness makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image.

While Europes monarchies will no doubt be smart enough to survive for some time to come, it is the British royals who have most to fear from the Spanish example.

It is only the Queen who has preserved the monarchys reputation with her rather ordinary (if well-heeled) granny style. The danger will come with Charles, who has both an expensive taste of lifestyle and a pretty hierarchical view of the world. He has failed to understand that monarchies have largely survived because they provide a service-as non-controversial and non-political heads of state. Charles ought to know that as English history shows, it is kings, not republicans, who are the monarchys worst enemies.