Passage 1 People have thought very differently about children in different historical eras. In ancient Rome and throughout the Middle Ages, for example, childhood was brief: A boy or girl was considered an "infant" until the age of six, but soon afterward worked alongside adults in the fields, in the workshops, or at home. Children were thought to be born in a state of sin and were viewed as the property of their fathers. Such beliefs contributed to strict discipline of children and neglect of their special needs. These harsh attitudes softened during the Renaissance and Enlightenment as the humanistic spirit of the times caused a rediscovery of the special qualities of childhood. In paintings, for example, young children were depicted as playing and doing other childish things, rather than being shown as miniature adults. The importance of childhood as a unique period of development was understood more fully in the 17th and 18th centuries, as reflected in the writings of two important European thinkers: the English philosopher John Locke and the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. John Locke argued that the newborn infant comes into the world with no inherited predispositions (天性), but rather with a mind as a "blank slate" that is gradually filled with ideas, concepts, and knowledge from experiences in the world. He concluded that the quality of early experiences, particularly how children are raised and educated, shapes the direction of a child's life. Later, Jean Jacques Rousseau claimed that children at birth are innately good rather than evil, and that their natural tendencies should be protected against the corrupting influences of society. Rousseau's attitude had an important influence on society, and inspired, for example, the novelists Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, who decried (揭露) the exploitation of child labor and highlighted the need for educational and social reform.
1. It can be inferred that children in the Middle Ages ______.
A.were mistreated and exploited
B.were generally regarded as miniature adults
C.did not observe the institutional disciplines
D.did not start their childhood until the age of six
A B C D
A
[解析] 推断题。根据题干关键词in the Middle Ages,可在第一段中找到答案。根据...worked alongside adults..., sin, property, ...neglect of their special needs可知,孩子六岁便开始工作,没有快乐的童年生活;一出生就被看作是罪恶的,被视为父亲的财产;人们主要是爱护和照顾孩子,而忽略了他们的特殊需要。B、C、D项可以从文章中找出答案,推断出的是A项的内容。
2. The author cites the example the two European thinkers' writings to show that ______.
A.children's behavior was described as adult-like
B.children's innocence and playfulness were neglected
C.childhood was revealed as a period of independence
D.childhood was revealed as a unique period of development
A B C D
D
[解析] 细节题。可在文中The importance of childhood as a unique period of development was understood...as reflected in the writings of...找到答案。
4. The central argument made by John Locke is that ______.
A.children's future development depends on their genetic background
B.children's upbringing and early education may shape their future life
C.children's character formation is largely influenced by their parents
D.the proper way of upbringing is to keep children away from society
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节题。本题考查洛克的核心观点。可在文中He concluded that...particularly how children are raised and educated, shapes the direction of a child's life找到答案。
5. At the end of the passage, the two novelists are mentioned to emphasize ______.
A.the call for educational and social reform
B.the importance of children's school education
C.the influence of Rousseau's attitude toward children
D.the potential negative influences of society on children
A B C D
C
[解析] 细节题。可在文章末尾Rousseau's attitude had an important influence on society找到答案。
Passage 2 A guest at the Holiday Inn on Union Square in San Francisco is attempting to turn on the radio in his room. Not matter which button he pushes, the radio will not play. Finally, the guest reports a defective (有毛病的) radio. A hotel employee soon arrives at the guest's room with a new radio, a box of chocolates, and flowers. As for the radio already in the room, the employee turns it on without difficulty and quickly reassures the guest that the radio is tricky to operate. The employee shows the guest how to work the radio and pleasantly exits the room, leaving the radios, the chocolates and the flowers. An elderly woman is in her favorite food store, Ukrop's Super Market of Richmond, Virginia. She picks up a large pineapple from the display case, holds it for several moments, and then returns it with obvious reluctance. Ukrop's president, James Ukrop, witnesses this scene and asks the customer if she would like to buy half of the pineapple, indicating that the store would be glad to cut it in half. The customer accepts and states how she looks forward to visiting Ukrop's because the staff is so friendly and makes her feel so welcome. Night after night, in Aurora, Colorado, police officers answer calls for break ins of cars parked outside a local dance hall. One officer notes that the burglaries usually involve purses of female customers who say they lock their handbags in their cars, fearing the bags would be stolen from unattended tables during dances. The officer then persuades the dance hall owner to install lockers and the burglary calls drop from dozens each month to two in four months. These three stories emphasize our central argument, that is, the essence of services marketing is service. Service quality is the foundation of services marketing, for the core product being marketed is a performance. The performance is the product; the performance is what customers buy. A strong service concept gives companies the opportunity to compete for customers; a strong performance of the service concept builds competitiveness by earning customers' confidence and reinforcing branding, advertising, selling, and pricing.
1. The radio in the guest's room at the Holiday Inn does not work because ______
4. In a service business, the product being marketed is ______.
A.a brand
B.a person
C.a promise
D.a performance
A B C D
D
[解析] 题干问,在服务企业中,产品是作为一个什么。由文中最后一段第二句“Service quality is the foundation of services marketing, for the core product being marketed is a performance”。可知D项正确。答案为D。
5. The author sets forth the argument of the passage by ______.
Passage 3 Blaming the media for violence is misguided. To better understand the issue of violence and society, it is helpful to examine its historical roots. Certainly not all tribal societies were violent. For example, many native tribes in the American southwest were entirely peaceful. However, for most tribal people throughout most of the world, war and violence have always been part of life. One of our oldest books, the Old Testament, tells of constant tribal wars among the peoples of the Middle East. Likewise, ancient texts such as the Greek Iliad, the Indian Bhagavad-Gita and the Nordic Beowulf all tell tales of war and violence. Certainly the peoples of ancient Babylonia, Greece, India, and Scandinavia were not influenced by the media, yet most of the earliest human records indicate that violence has been an ever-present part of human life. Since violence was with us long before modern media, it seems unlikely that controlling the media now would have much impact on stopping human violence. A comparison of violence in nations around the world indicates that there is no relationship between media violence and real violence. In the United States, in 1996, there were 9,390 gun-related deaths. In the same year, Japan had 15 gun-related deaths. Yet the level of violence on television in Japan is higher than that in the U.S. Japanese TV often depicts graphic violence that would not be allowed on U.S. television, and Japanese movie-goers see the same major Hollywood films that Americans see, but street crime is so rare in Tokyo that most people do not worry about it. In contrast, in American cities, people in general, and women in particular, are afraid to walk alone at night. Security is an ever-present concern in the U.S., where citizens limit their lives in numerous ways to reduce the chances of joining the 11,000 people who are killed by guns in America each year. However, the number of murders in the U.S. is small compared to Columbia, where, for example, 23,000 people were murdered in 1999. Columbians have much less exposure to media violence than either Americans or Japanese; they have fewer TV stations and watch fewer films. Indeed, those committing murders in Columbia are often people from the countryside who have the least exposure to the media. Thus people who are not exposed to the media are often more likely to commit violent crimes than those exposed to it. Since Canada borders the U.S., Canadians receive the same TV and radio programs that Americans receive, yet gun violence in Canada is nearly one hundred times lower than that in the U. S. Clearly there is no significant relationship between media violence and real-life violence. We need to look elsewhere for solutions to real-life violence.
1. The author cites the examples of ancient texts in the first paragraph to show that ______.
A.ancient texts are just as violent as modern media
B.ancient societies could be both peaceful and violent
C.violence came into being long before modern media did
D.there is more violence in ancient, works than in the media
2. The author uses Japanese, Columbian and Canadian examples to show that real-life violence and media violence ______.
A.are not related
B.are not serious
C.affect each other
D.are directly related
A B C D
A
[解析] 题干问,作者用日本人,哥伦比亚人和加拿大人的例子来说明现实生活中的暴力和媒体上的暴力是怎样的关系。由文章第二段最后可知Clearly there is no significant relationship between media violence and real-life violence。
3. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that the safest country is ______.
4. The phrase "reduces the chances of joining..." (para. 2) may be replaced by ______.
A.refuses to take part in
B.adds to the number of
C.avoids becoming one of
D.decreases the number of
A B C D
C
[解析] 题干问,reduces the chances of joining是什么意思。在文中找到相关的句子,其整句话意思为安全问题在美国是永远存在的担忧,在美国,许多公民用多种方式限制暴力事件的发生以减少死亡,然而每年仍有11000人被枪杀。根据句意,人们是为了避免自己成为被枪杀的人之一。
5. According to the passage, those who are the least exposed to media violence are citizens of ______.
A.Japan
B.the U.S.
C.Canada
D.Columbia
A B C D
D
[解析] 题干问,根据此文,哪个国家的公民最不易受媒体暴力的影响。文中第二段中间部分Columbians have much less exposure to media violence than either Americans or Japanese; they have fewer TV stations and watch fewer films. Canadians receive the same TV and radio programs that Americans receive可得出答案。
Passage 4 A head track coach, Bill Bowerman, designed a pair of lighter shoes with better support and greater strength and sent the design to leading sporting-goods companies. They all turned him down. The rejections brought Bowerman face to face with his own philosophy of "competitive response." He had taught his sportsmen to value competition not so much for its prizes as for its intellectual and spiritual satisfaction. This was true of his determination to make the shoes himself. He made his first pair of track shoes light and graceful. His runners won in his handmade shoes. But who would like to manufacture such shoes? In 1962, Knight, one of Bowerman's sportsmen, offered to travel to Japan and called on one of Japan's best manufacturers of sports shoes. The manufacturer promised to produce shoes of his design and Knight's company would be their only distributor in the U.S.. A year later, a shipment of 200 Bowerman shoes arrived in Oregon. At first, Knight and Bowerman worked with a small team and went selling out of cars at track meets. But slowly, the running world got to know the secret of their product. Then in 1972, the Japanese company cut off all supplies to their company and established a separate distribution network in the U.S. In 30 days Knight succeeded in finding a new manufacturer. And today the company takes the largest share in the shoe business. You ask me the brand name of the shoes? It's Nike, named after the Greek Goddess of Victory. Bowerman, Knight and the Nike team have a firm belief that a shared responsibility requires outstanding individual performance and a willingness to contribute that performance to the group.
1. The new track shoes designed by Bowerman ______.
4. The difficulty Knight ran into in 1972 arose from ______.
A.the rejection of the shoe design
B.the quality problem of the shoes
C.the competition from other companies
D.the Japanese company's new decision
A B C D
D
[解析] 根据时间点看文章倒数第二段,“then in 1972, the Japanese company cut off all supplies to their company and established a separate distribution network in the U.S. ”可见,选项D是对此句的改写。
5. The success of the Nike team lies in ______.
A.the manufacturer's philosophy
B.the fashionable design of the shoes
C.their cooperation with a foreign company
D.their individual performance and teamwork
A B C D
D
[解析] 最后一段提到,NIKE公司有自己的独特的信念,这是它们成功的原因。
Ⅱ.SPEED READING
Passage 5 Reading skills are very important. Experts estimate that it is possible for any normal adult English speaker to read 1,000 words a minute and more, with special training. Yet most students read only about 300 words per minute. The following principles might be helpful for foreign students who wish to increase their reading skills. Always read faster than is comfortable. The faster your normal rate of reading becomes, the better your understanding will be. Keep reading ahead. Do not allow yourself to regress while reading, even when you come across a new word. If some word, term or phrase has clouded your understanding, you should reread it only after you have read the entire paragraph through once. Read selectively. As you read make a conscious effort to screen the nouns, pronouns, and verbs from the other words, since these are the words that give meaning to what you have read. In effect, you should really read the nouns, pronouns and verbs and merely see the rest of the words in the sentence. Read beyond the lines. As a good reader, you should see ideas implied through the words, and bridge the gap between the obvious and the suggested, thus obtaining much more information. Because the reading assignments in most college courses are very long, students should plan to read every day. If, however, they find that they cannot complete all the assigned readings in the beginning, they should not panic. Instead, they should ask their classmates how much they are reading and attempt to learn from them what to read first and what to postpone until a later date. Because much of the past learning experience of foreign students may have been for the purpose of passing examinations, they might be inclined to put off studying until late in the term. Such behavior can result in failure in the US system, where assignments must be completed on time and done regularly each day.
1. With special training, a normal adult English speaker may read ______ words per minute.
A.300
B.Less than 1,000
C.1,000
D.1,000 and more
A B C D
D
[解析] 细节题。“通过特殊培训,一个正常的说英语的成年人可以每分钟读多少个词。”由第一段第二句话“Experts estimate..., with special training”可以得知正常说英语的成年人经过特殊培训,每分钟可以读1000多个单词。答案为D。
2. According to the author, what is the type of vocabulary the reader should not spend much time on while reading?______
A.Nouns.
B.Pronouns.
C.Prepositions.
D.Verbs.
A B C D
C
[解析] 细节题。“根据作者的意思,哪种词汇类型读者在阅读的过程中不应该花费太多时间?”第四段“In effect, you should really read the nouns, pronouns and verbs...”(事实上,你应该读名词、代词和动词……)就是该题答案。答案为C。
3. What principle should foreign students follow when they come across a new word while reading?______
A.Always read faster than is comfortable.
B.Keep reading ahead.
C.Read selectively.
D.Read beyond the lines.
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节题。“外国的学生在阅读中如果遇到生词,他们应遵循什么原则?”由第三段最后一句话“If some word, term or phrase has clouded your understanding, you should reread it only after you have read the entire paragraph through once.”可以看出,外国学生采取的方式是继续读接下来的内容。答案为B。
4. According to the passage, who should the student turn to for advice if he cannot complete all the assigned readings in the beginning?______
A.His teacher.
B.His supervisor.
C.His tutor.
D.His classmates.
A B C D
D
[解析] 细节题。“根据文章,如果学生一开始无法完成所有的阅读任务,他应该向谁求助?”第五段最后一句话Instead, they should ask their classmates how much they are reading....告诉我们应该向同学求助。答案为D。
5. In the United States, the foreign students must do their reading assignments ______.
A.every day
B.until late in the term
C.right after their class
D.in the way their teachers have suggested
A B C D
A
[解析] 细节题。“在美国,外国学生必须怎样进行阅读。”文章最后一句话,“..., where assignments must be completed on time and done regularly each day”便是答案。答案为A。
Passage 6 In every society it is necessary to have a general system of laws to ensure justice. Laws are designed to make certain that people's rights are protected and that people respect each other's rights. Sometimes, however, laws are passed which are specific to a time or situation. For example, a town in Indiana once passed a law making it illegal to shoot open a can of food. Apparently, some gun-carrying citizens forgot their can openers and naturally enough, used their guns to do the job. This disturbed other citizens, and endangered their lives, so a law was passed to prevent it. Specific laws sometimes remain in existence long after the problem has disappeared. The laws then seem strange. For example, the Indiana law was no longer necessary when citizens stopped carrying guns and using them as can-openers. Since the law was no longer needed, what once made sense now seems like nonsense. Sometimes laws designed to serve a good purpose were passed but somehow these became mixed up in their .wording. As a result, the laws don't make sense. In one state there is a law which says that it is "illegal to move or to attempt to move a motor vehicle." Obviously, a massive traffic jam would occur if everyone suddenly obeyed that law. But no one does, of course, because the intention of the law was not to prevent owners from moving their own cars. It was to prevent people from moving (stealing) other people's cars. It is often harder to repeal a law than to pass one, so many of these old laws remain in existence. Because they no longer fit the way people live or because the problem no longer exists, these laws are ignored. Everyone understands that and life goes on. Thus, laws that once made very good sense now seem like nonsense.
1. According to the passage, laws are designed for the purpose of ______.
A.protecting people's rights
B.making people respect each other
C.opening the cans of food
D.punishing criminals
A B C D
A
[解析] 细节理解题。文章在第一段的第二句话中说道:Laws are designed to make certain that people's rights are protected and that people respect each other's rights.意思是指:制定法律的目的就是要保护公民的权益和促使公民来尊重彼此的权利。答案为A。
2. The word "job" in paragraph 1 refers to ______.
3. The author used the Indiana law as an example to explain ______.
A.how some laws are passed and changed
B.how people in Indiana open cans
C.why some laws may seem strange
D.why people in Indiana no longer use their guns
A B C D
C
[解析] 主旨大意题。作者先是在文章第一段中讲述了印第安纳州法律禁止公民使用枪支来打开罐头的例子。紧接着在第二段的第一行中就说:Specific laws sometimes remain in existence long after the problem has disappeared. The laws then seem strange.有时在问题消失之后,某些具体的法律规定仍然会存在很长时间没有废除。因而,印第安纳州的这项法律规定似乎很奇怪。可见,作者举例的目的就是为了解释为什么有些法律规定很奇怪。答案为C。
4. What's the problem with the law concerning motor vehicles?
A.It leads to traffic jams.
B.It is not clearly written.
C.It is not designed to serve a good purpose.
D.It has been out of date.
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节理解题。文章在最后一段的第二行中说道:It is illegal to move or attempt to move a motor vehicle...obeyed that law.一项法律曾经规定“骑摩托车是不合法的”,很显然,如果每位公民按照这项规定来做的话,势必会导致大规模的交通堵塞。又本段第一行中说道:Sometimes laws designed to serve a good purpose...in their wording.制定一项法律规定,其目的是好的,但有时,实施后的效果确实微乎其微的。可见,关于禁止骑摩托车的法律规定所带来的相关问题在文章中并未详细地阐述。答案为B。
5. We can conclude from the passage that ______.
A.a law system is necessary for every society
B.some laws that don't make sense may also get passed
C.it is more difficult to change the old law than pass a new one