|
|
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are four passages in this part. Each passage is followed
by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four
choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark
the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the
centre.
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Television is one of today's most powerful and widespread means of mass
communication. It directly influences our lives on both a short and long term
basis; it brings worldwide situations into our homes; it affords extensive
opportunities for acquiring higher education; and it performs these tasks in a
convenient yet effective manner. We are all aware of the popularly accepted
applications of television, particularly those relative to entertainment and
news broadcasting.
Television, however, has also been a vital link in unmanned deep space
exploration (such as the Voyager Ⅰ and Ⅱ missions), in providing visions from
hazardous areas (such as proximity to radioactive materials or environments) in
underwater research, in viewing storms moving across a metropolitan area (the
camera being placed in a weather protective enclosure near the top of a tower),
etc..The earth's weather satellites also use television cameras for viewing
cloud cover and movements from 20,000 miles in space. Infrared filters are used
for night views, and several systems include a spinning mirror arrangement to
permit wide area views from the camera. Realizing the unlimited applications for
today's television, one may thus logically ponder the true benefits of confining
most of our video activities to the mass entertainment field.
Conventional television broadcasting within the United States centers
around free enterprise and public ownership. This requires funding by commercial
sponsors,and thus functions in a revenue producing business manner. Television
in USSR subjected areas, conversely, is a governmentowned and maintained
arrangement. While such arrangements eliminate the need for commercial
sponsorship, it also has the possibility of limiting the type of programs
available to viewers (a number of purely entertainment programs similar to the
classic “Bewitched”, however, have been seen on these government controlled
networks. All isn't as gray and dismal as the uninformed might unnecessarily
visualize).
A highly modified form of television called Slow Scan TV is presently being
used by many Amateur Radio operators to provide direct visual communications
with almost any area of the world . This unique visual mode recently allowed
people on the tiny South Pacific country of Pitcairn Island to view, for the
first time in their lives, distant areas and people of the world. The chief
radio Amateur and communications officer of Pitcairn, incidentally, is the
legendary Tom Christian great, great grandson of Tom Christian of “Mutiny on the
Bounty” fame. Radio Amateurs in many lands worked together for several months
establishing visual capabilities for Pitcairners. The results have proven
spectacular, yet the visual capabilities have only been used for health
education, or welfare purposes.
Commercial TV is still unknown to natives of that tiny country. Numerous
other forms of television and visual communication have also been used on a semi
restricted basis. This indicates the many untapped areas of video and television
which may soon be exploited on a more widespread basis. The old cliché of a
picture being worth a thousand words truly has merit.
21.According to the passage, applications of television are easily
accepted in ____.
A) metropolitan area
B) deep space exploration
C) programs about entertainment and news
D) remote areas
22.Which of the following statements is true in the eyes of the writer?
A) Applications of television are beneficial to big cities.
B) Applications of television are believed to be good activities.
C) Applications of television are restricted to television systems.
D) Applications of television do benefit to the mass entertainment
field. |
|
发表于 2017-2-17 20:52:00