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第一部分 阅读理解全真题
Unit 1
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 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.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
What has the telephone done to us, or for us, in the hundred years of its existence? A few effects suggest themselves at once. It has saved lives by getting rapid word of illness, injury, or fire from remote places. By joining with the elevator to make possible the multi-story residence or office building, it has made possible ― for better or worse ― the modern city. By bringing about a great leap in the speed and ease with which information moves from place to place, it has greatly accelerated the rate of scientific and technological changes and growth in industry. Beyond doubt it has seriously weakened if not killed the ancient art of letter writing. It has made living alone possible for persons with normal social impulses; by so doing, it has played a role in one of the greatest social changes of this century, the breakup of the multi-generational household. It has made the war chillingly more efficient than formerly. Perhaps, though not provably (可证实)，it has prevented wars that might have arisen out of international misunderstanding caused by written communication. Or perhaps ― again not provably ― by magnifying and extending irrational personal conflicts based on voice contact, it has caused wars. Certainly it has extended the scope of human conflicts, since it impartially disseminates (传播) the useful knowledge of scientists and the nonsense of the ignorant, the affection of the affectionate and the malice (恶意) of the malicious.
21. What is the main idea of this passage?
A) The telephone has helped to save people from illness and fire.
B) The telephone has helped to prevent wars and conflicts.
C) The telephone has made the modern city neither better nor worse.
D) The telephone has had positive as well as negative effects on us.
22. According to the passage, it is the telephone that .
A) has made letter writing an art
B) has prevented wars by avoiding written communication
C) has made the world different from what it was
D) has caused wars by magnifying and extending human conflicts
23. The telephone has intensified conflicts among people because .
A) it increases the danger of war
B) it provides services to both the good and the malicious
C) it makes distant communication easier
D) it breaks up the multi-generational household
24. The author describes the telephone as impartial because it .
A) saves lives of people in remote places
B) enables people to live alone if they want to
C) spreads both love and ill will
D) replaces much written communication
25. The writer's attitude towards the use of the telephone is .
A) affectionate C) approving
B) disapproving D) neutral
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
When imaginative men turn their eyes towards space and wonder whether life exist in any part of it, they may cheer themselves by remembering that life need not resemble closely the life that exists on Earth. Mars looks like the only planet where life like ours could exist, and even this is doubtful. But there may be other kinds of life based on other kinds of chemistry, and they may multiply on Venus or Jupiter. At least we cannot prove at present that they do not.
Even more interesting is the possibility that life on their planets may be in a more advanced stage of evolution. Present-day man is in a peculiar and probably temporary stage. His individual units retain a strong sense of personality. They are, in fact, still capable under favorable circumstances of leading individual lives. But man's societies are already sufficiently developed to have enormously more power and effectiveness than the individuals have.
It is not likely that this transitional situation will continue very long on the evolutionary time scale. Fifty thousand years from now man's societies may have become so close-knit that the individuals retain no sense of separate personality. Then little distinction will remain between the organic parts of the multiple organism and the inorganic parts (machines) that have been constructed by it. A million years further on man and his machines may have merged as closely as the muscles of the human body and the nerve cells that set them in motion.
The explorers of space should be prepared for some such situation. If they arrive on a foreign planet that has reached an advanced stage (and this is by no means impossible), they may find it being inhabited by a single large organism composed of many closely cooperating units.
The units may be “secondary” ― machines created millions of years ago by a previous form of life and given the will and ability to survive and reproduce. They may be built entirely of metals and other durable materials. If this is the case, they may be much more tolerant of their environment, multiplying under conditions that would destroy immediately any organism made of carbon compounds and dependent on the familiar carbon cycle.
Such creatures might be relics(遗物) of a past age, many millions of years ago, when their planet was favorable to the origin of life, or they might be immigrants from a favored planet.
#P#
31. What does the word “cheer” (Line 2, Para. 1) imply?
A) Imaginative men are sure of success in finding life on other planets.
B) Imaginative men are delighted to find life on other planets.
C) Imaginative men are happy to find a different kind of life existing on other planets.
D) Imaginative men can be pleased with the idea that there might exist different forms of life on other planets.
32. Humans on Earth today are characterized by .
A) their existence as free and separate beings
B) their capability of living under favorable conditions
C) their great power and effectiveness
D) their strong desire for living in a close-knit society
33. According to this passage, some people believe that eventually .
A) human societies will be much more cooperative
B) man will live in a highly organized world
C) machines will replace man
D) living beings will disappear from Earth
34. Even most imaginative people have to admit that .
A) human societies are as advanced as those on some other planets
B) planets other than Earth are not suitable for life like ours to stay
C) it is difficult to distinguish between organic parts and inorganic parts of the human body
D) organism are more creative than machines
35. It seems that the writer .
A) is interested in the imaginary life forms
B) is eager to find a different form of life
C) is certain of the existence of a new life form
D) is critical of the imaginative people
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
The American baby boom after the war made unconvincing U.S. advice to poor countries that they restrain their births. However, there has hardly been a year since 1957 in which birth rates have not fallen in the United States and other rich countries, and in 1976 the fall was especially sharp. Both East Germany and West Germany have fewer births than they have deaths, and the United States is only temporarily able to avoid this condition because the children of the baby boom are now an exceptionally large group of married couples.
It is true that Americans do not typically plan their births to set an example for developing nations. We are more affected by women's liberation: once women see interesting and well-paid jobs and careers available, they are less willing to provide free labor for child raising. From costing nothing, children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive. And to the high cost of children are added the uncertainties introduced by divorce; couples are increasingly unwilling to subject children to the terrible experience of marital (婚姻的) breakdown and themselves to the difficulty of raising a child alone.
These circumstances ― women working outside the home and the instability of marriage ― tend to spread with industrial society and they will affect more and more countries during the remainder of this century. Along with them goes social mobility, ambition to rise in the urban world, a main factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the nineteenth century.
Food shortage will happen again when the reserves resulting from the good harvests of 1976 and 1977 have been consumed. Urbanization is likely to continue, with the cities of the developing nations struggling under the weight of twice their present populations by the year 2000. The presently rich countries are approaching a stable population largely because of the changed place of women, and they incidentally are setting an example of restraint to the rest of the world. Industrial society will spread to the poor countries, and aspirations (渴望) will exceed resources. All this will lead to a population in the twenty-first century that is smaller than was feared a few years ago. For those anxious to see world population brought under control the news is encouraging.
36. During the years from 1957 to 1976, the birth rate of the United States .
A) increased C) experienced both falls and rises
B) was reduced D) remained stable
37. What influences the birth rate most in the United States is .
A) highly paid jobs C) expenses of child raising
B) women's desire for independence D) high divorce rate
38. The sentence “From costing nothing, children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive.” (Line 4, Para. 2) implies that .
A) food and clothing for babies are becoming incredibly expensive
B) prices are going up dramatically all the time
C) to raise children women have to give up interesting and well-paid jobs
D) social development has made child-raising inexpensive
39. A chief factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the 19th century is .
A) birth control C) the instability of marriage
B) the desire to seek fortune in cities D) the changed place of women
40. The population in the 21st century, according to the writer, .
A) will be smaller than a few years ago
B) will not be as small as people expect
C) will prove to be a threat to the world
D) will not constitute as serious a problem as expected
Unit 2
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 reading 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 24 are based on the following passage:
Automation refers to the introduction of electronic control and automatic operation of productive machinery. It reduces the human factors, mental and physical in production, and is designed to make possible the manufacture of more goods with fewer workers. The development of automation in American industry has been called the “Second Industrial Revolution.”
Labour's concern over automation arises from uncertainty about the effects on employment, and fears of major changes in jobs. In the main, labour has taken the view that resistance to technical change is unfruitful. Eventually, the result of automation may well be an increase in employment, since it is expected that vast industries will grow up around manufacturing, maintaining, and repairing automation equipment. The interest of labour lies in bringing about the transition with a minimum of inconvenience and distress to the workers involved. Also, union spokesmen emphasize that the benefit of the increased production and lower costs made possible by automation should be shared by workers in the form of higher wages, more leisure, and improved living standards.
To protect the interests of their members in the era of automation, unions have adopted a number of new policies. One of these is the promotion of supplementary unemployment benefit plans. It is emphasized that since the employer involved in such a plan has a direct financial interest in preventing unemployment, he will have a strong drive for planning new installations so as to cause the least possible problems in jobs and job assignments. Some unions are working for dismissal pay agreements, requiring that permanently dismissed workers be paid a sum of money based on length of service. Another approach is the idea of the “improvement factor”, which calls for wage increases based on increases in productivity. It is possible, however, that labour will rely mainly on reduction in working hours in order to gain a full share in the fruits of automation.
21. Though labour worries about the effects of automation, it never doubts that .
A) automation will eventually prevent unemployment
B) automation will help workers acquire new skills
C) automation will eventually benefit the workers no less than the employers.
D) automation is a trend which cannot be stopped
22. The idea of the “improvement factor”(Para. 3, Line 8) implies roughly .
A) wages should be paid on the basis of length of service
B) the benefit of the increased production and lower costs should be shared by workers
C) supplementary unemployment benefit plans should be promoted
D) the transition to automation should be brought about with the minimum of inconvenience and distress to workers
23. In order to get the full benefits of automation, labour will depend mostly on .
A) additional payment to the permanently dismissed workers
B) the increase of wages in proportion to the increase in productivity
C) shorter working hours and more leisure time
D) strong drive for planning new installations
24. Which of the following can best sum up the passage?
A) Advantages and disadvantages of automation.
B) Labour and the effects of automation.
C) Unemployment benefit plans and automation.
D) Social benefits of automation.
Questions 25 to 30 are based on the following passage:
The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don't go.
But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don't fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other's experiments and writes false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out ― often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves ― they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that's a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn't explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We've been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can't absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn't make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things ― maybe it's just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.
25. According to the author, .
A) people used to question the value of college education
B) people used to have full confidence in higher education
C) all high school graduates went to college
D) very few high school graduates chose to go to college
26. In the 2nd paragraph, “those who don't fit the pattern” refers to .A) high school graduates who aren't suitable for college education
B) college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis
C) college students who aren't any better for their higher education
D) high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college
27. The drop-out rate of college students seems to go up because .
A) young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college
B) many young people are required to join the army
C) young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education
D) young people don't like the intense competition for admission to graduate school
28. According to the passage the problems of college education partly arise from the fact that .
A) society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained college graduates
B) high school graduates do not fit the pattern of college education
C) too many students have to earn their own living
D) college administrators encourage students to drop out
29. In this passage the author argues that .
A) more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for high school graduates
B) college education is not enough if one wants to be successful
C) college education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and quick-learning people
D) intelligent people may learn quicker if they don't go to college
30. The “surveys and statistics” mentioned in the last paragraph might have shown that .
A) college-educated people are more successful than non-college-educated people
B) college education was not the first choice for intelligent people
C) the less schooling one has the better it is for him
D) most people have sweet memories of college life
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
Ours has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one out of every five Americans at work was employed, i.e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago “being employed” meant working as a factory labourer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding a professional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population ― growing so fast that the industrial worker, that oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the expansion of industrial production.
Yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist's trade or bookkeeping (簿记). Every one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.
31. It is implied that fifty years ago .
A) eighty per cent of American working people were employed in factories
B) twenty per cent of American intellectuals were employees
C) the percentage of intellectuals in the total work force was almost the same as that of industrial workers
D) the percentage of intellectuals working as employees was not so large as that of industrial workers
32. According to the passage, with the development of modern industry, .
A) factory labourers will overtake intellectual employees in number
B) there are as many middle-class employees as factory labourers
C) employers have attached great importance to factory labourers
D) the proportion of factory labourers in the total employee population has decreased
33. The word “dubious” (Para. 2, Line 2) most probably means .
A) valuable C) doubtful
B) useful D) helpful
34. According to the writer, professional knowledge or skill is .
A) less important than awareness of being a good employee
B) as important as the ability to deal with public relations
C) more important than employer-employee relations
D) as important as the ability to co-operate with others in the organization
35. From the passage it can be seen that employeeship helps one .
A) to be more successful in his career C) to solve technical problems
B) to be more specialized in his field D) to develop his professional skill
Unit 3
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 reading 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:
It is natural for young people to be critical of their parents at times and to blame them for most of the misunderstandings between them. They have always complained, more or less justly, that their parents are out of touch with modern ways; that they are possessive and dominant; that they do not trust their children to deal with crises; that they talk too much about certain problems ― and that they have no sense of humour, at least in parent-child relationships.
I think it is true that parents often underestimate their teenage children and also forget how they themselves felt when young.
Young people often irritate their parents with their choices in clothes and hairstyles, in entertainers and music. This is not their motive. They feel cut off from the adult world into which they have not yet been accepted. So they create a culture and society of their own. Then, if it turns out that their music or entertainers or vocabulary or clothes or hairstyles irritate their parents, this gives them additional enjoyment. They feel they are superior, at least in a small way, and that they are leaders in style and taste.
Sometimes you are resistant, and proud because you do not want your parents to approve of what you do. If they did approve, it looks as if you are betraying your own age group. But in that case, you are assuming that you are the underdog: you can't win but at least you can keep your honour. This is a passive way of looking at things. It is natural enough after long years of childhood, when you were completely under your parents' control. But it ignores the fact that you are now beginning to be responsible for yourself.
If you plan to control your life, co-operation can be part of that plan. You can charm others, especially your parents, into doing things the way you want. You can impress others with your sense of responsibility and initiative, so that they will give you the authority to do what you want to do.
21. The author is primarily addressing .
A) parents of teenagers C) teenagers
B) newspaper readers D) those who give advice to teenagers
22. The first paragraph is mainly about .
A) the teenagers' criticism of their parents
B) misunderstandings between teenagers and their parents
C) the dominance of the parents over their children
D) the teenagers' ability to deal with crises
23. Teenagers tend to have strange clothes and hairstyles because they .
A) want to irritate their parents
B) have a strong desire to be leaders in style and taste
C) have no other way to enjoy themselves better
D) want to show their existence by creating a culture of their own
24. Teenagers do not want their parents to approve of whatever they do because they .
A) have a desire to be independent
B) feel that they are superior in a small way to the adults
C) are not likely to win over the adults
D) have already been accepted into the adult world
25. To improve parent-child relationships, teenagers are advised to be .
A) obedient C) independent
B) responsible D) co-operative
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
The long years of food shortage in this country have suddenly given way to apparent abundance. Stores and shops are choked with food. Rationing (定量供应) is virtually suspended, and overseas suppliers have been asked to hold back deliveries. Yet, instead of joy, there is wide-spread uneasiness and confusion. Why do food prices keep on rising, when there seems to be so much more food about? Is the abundance only temporary, or has it come to stay? Does it mean that we need to think less now about producing more food at home? No one knows what to expect.
The recent growth of export surpluses on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great, partly because a strange sequence of two successful grain harvests in North America is now being followed by a third. Most of Britain's overseas suppliers of meat, too, are offering more this year and home production has also risen.
But the effect of all this on the food situation in this country has been made worse by a simultaneous rise in food prices, due chiefly to the gradual cutting down of government support for food. The shops are overstocked with food not only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it.
Moreover, the rise in domestic prices has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall, with the result that imported food, with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home-produced variety. And now grain prices, too, are falling. Consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be enabled to benefit from this trend.
The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers. The older generation have seen it all happen before. Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food imports and a shrinking home market. Present production is running at 51 per cent above pre-war levels, and the government has called for an expansion to 60 per cent by 1956; but repeated Ministerial advice is carrying little weight and the expansion programme is not working very well.
26. Why is there “wide-spread uneasiness and confusion” about the food situation in Britain?
A) The abundant food supply is not expected to last.
B) Despite the abundance, food prices keep rising.
C) Britain is importing less food.
D) Britain will cut back on its production of food.
27. The main reason for the rise in food prices is that .
A) people are buying less food
B) imported food is driving prices higher
C) domestic food production has decreased
D) the government is providing less support for agriculture
28. Why didn't the government's expansion programme work very well?
A) Because the farmers were uncertain about the financial support the government guaranteed.
B) Because the farmers were uncertain about the benefits of expanding production.
C) Because the farmers were uncertain whether foreign markets could be found for their produce.
D) Because the older generation of farmers were strongly against the programme.
29. The decrease in world food prices was a result of .
A) a sharp fall in the purchasing power of the consumers
B) a sharp fall in the cost of food production
C) the overproduction of food in the food-importing countries
D) the overproduction on the part of the main food-exporting countries
30. What did the future look like for Britain's food production at the time this article was written?
A) It looks depressing despite government guarantees .
B) An expansion of food production was at hand.
C) British food producers would receive more government financial support.
D) The fall in world food prices would benefit British food producers.
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don't, and if you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat and promptly useful bits.
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment (启蒙运动) to be told by any of us how little we know and how be wildering seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably no questions we can think up that can't be answered, sooner or later, including even the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions we can't think up, ever, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, but that is another matter. Within our limits we should be able to work our way through to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.
31. According to the author, really good science .
A) would surprise the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment
B) will help people to make the right choice in advance
C) will produce results which cannot be foreseen
D) will bring about disturbing results
32. It can be inferred from the passage that scientists of the 18th century .
A) knew that they were ignorant and wanted to know more about nature
B) were afraid of facing up to the realities of scientific research
C) thought that they knew a great deal and could solve most problems of science
D) did more harm than good in promoting man's understanding of nature
33. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about scientists in earlier times?
A) They invented false theories to explain things they didn't understand.
B) They falsely claimed to know all about nature.
C) They did not believe in results from scientific observation.
D) They paid little attention to the problems they didn't understand.
34. What is the author's attitude towards science?
A) He is confident though he is aware of the enormous difficulties in scientific research.
B) He is doubtful because of the enormous difficulties in scientific research.
C) He is depressed because of the ignorance of scientists.
D) He is delighted because of the illuminating scientific findings.
35. The author believes that .
A) man can not solve all the problems he can think up because of the limits of human intellect
B) man can find solutions sooner or later to whatever questions concerning nature he can think up
C) sooner or later man can think up all the questions concerning nature and answer them
D) questions concerning consciousness are outside the scope of scientific research |
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发表于 2016-7-11 18:39:45