2011年考研英语已经结束，总体难度较之2010年有所下降。就各部分来说，第一部分完形填空难度与2010年持平，但是对文意的考查有所加强。阅读理解A部分相比去年来说，文章和题目的难度都是有所降低的；B部分则是第一次出现了排序题；C部分翻译不单单是考查我们分析理解长难句，也更侧重测试考生联系上下文去进行翻译；最后一部分大作文选取的是环境这一话题，这也是一个老生常谈的话题了，相比于2010年的火锅来说，难度明显降低；小作文选取的是推荐信。

　　第一部分：完形填空

　　文章是取自2009年3月25日Scientific American(《科学美国人》)，原文标题为 “How Humor Makes You Friendlier, Sexier”(幽默如何使你更加有人缘且性感)，作者为Steve Ayan。文章探讨的是笑声的作用与情感和肌肉反应之间的相互关系。除了延续以往对固定搭配和词汇的考查，更侧重于对文章意思的理解。这也就意味着进一步向阅读靠拢，侧重对文章整体意思和逻辑的把握。所以也就要求考生在做题时要具备一种全局观。

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　　How Humor Makes You Friendlier, Sexier

　　Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health。” But despite some claims to the contrary, chuckling probably has little influence on physical fitness. Laughter does produce short-term changes in cardiovascular function and respiration, boosting heart rate, respiratory rate and depth, as well as oxygen consumption. But because hard laughter is difficult to sustain, a good guffaw is unlikely to have measurable cardiovascular benefits the way, say, walking or ­jogging does。

　　In fact, instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the opposite. Studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that laughter relaxes muscles, decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the guffaw subsides。

　　Such physical relaxation might conceivably help moderate the effects of psychological stress. After all, the act of laughing probably does produce other types of physical feedback that improve an individual’s emotional state. According to one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted in physical reactions. American psychologist William James and Danish physiologist Carl Lange argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry because they are sad but that they become sad when the tears begin to flow。

　　Although sadness also precedes tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow from muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Würzburg in Germany and his colleagues asked volunteers to hold a pen either with their teeth—thereby creating an artificial smile—or with their lips, which would produce a disappointed expression. Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles reacted more exuberantly to funny cartoons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown, suggesting that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around. Similarly, the physical act of laughter could improve mood。

　　第二部分：阅读理解

　　A部分

　　Text 1文章取自Commentary (评论)2007年9月版，原文标题为Selling Classical Music，作者为Terry Teachout。文章分析的是一个交响乐团所面临的困境，以及作者给出的原因和解决途径。难度一般。

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　　Selling Classical Music(红字部分为考试片段)

　　The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement in July of his appointment to succeed Lorin Maazel in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. “Hooray! At last!” wrote Anthony Tommasini, the sober-sided classical-music critic of the New York Times。

　　One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. He is chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and recently spent three years as music director of the Santa Fe Opera. Both posts are undeniably important, but neither can fairly be described as a high-profile job. And while Gilbert has also led the New York Philharmonic in 31 concerts since making his debut with the orchestra six years ago, these appearances, though they were for the most part well received by critics and concertgoers, did not win for him anything remotely approaching universal acclaim。

　　Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert’s appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no whiff of the formidable maestro about him。” As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by (among others) Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Leonard Bernstein, and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise。

　　For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. I have never seen him conduct, or listened to any of the handful of recordings he has made to date. Nothing that I read about his Philharmonic concerts made me feel any urgent need to go and hear them. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes。

　　Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. These recordings are cheap, ubiquitously available, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today’s live performances; moreover, they can be “consumed” at a time and place of the listener’s choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings of the standard repertory has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert, one to which most classical musicians have been fatally slow to respond。

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