2015年成人高考高起点英语阅读练习题

　　I. Reading Comprehension (50 points, 2 points for each)

　　Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.

　　Passage One

　　Computers should be in the schools. They have the potential to accomplish great things. With the right software, they could help make science tangible or teach neglected topics like art and music. They could help students form a concrete idea of society by displaying on screen a version of the city in which they live — a picture that tracks real life moment by moment.

　　In practice, however, computers make our worst educational nightmares come true. While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computers discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in favor of video. While we fret about the decreasing cogency of public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and promote fast, shallow romps across the information landscape. While we worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software that will do a student’s arithmetic or correct his spelling.

　　Take multimedia. The idea of multimedia is to combine text, sound and pictures in a single package that you browse on screen. You don’t just read Shakespeare; you watch actors performing, listen to songs, view Elizabethan buildings. What’s wrong with that? By offering children candy—coated books, multimedia is guaranteed to sour them on unsweetened reading. It makes the printed page look even more boring than it used to look. Sure, books will be available in the classroom, too—but they’ll have all the appeal of a dusty piano to a teen who has a Walkman handy.

　　So what if the little nippers don’t read? If they’re watching Olivier instead, what do they lose? The text, the written word along with all of its attendant pleasures. Besides, a book is more portable than a computer, has a higher—resolution display, can be written on and dog—eared and is comparatively dirt cheap.

　　Hypermedia, multimedia’s comrade in the struggle for a brave new classroom, is just as troubling. It’s a way of presenting documents on screen without imposing a linear start—to—finish order. Disembodied paragraphs are linked by theme; after reading one about the First World War, for example, you might be able to choose another about the technology of battleships, or the life of Woodrow Wilson, or hemlines on the 20s. This is another cute idea that is good in minor ways and terrible in major ones. Teaching children to understand the orderly unfolding of a plot or a logical argument is a crucial part of education. Authors don’t merely agglomerate paragraphs; they work hard to make the narrative read a certain way, prove a particular point. To turn a book or a document into hypertext is to invite readers to ignore exactly what counts — the story.

　　Questions 1—5 are based on Passage One.

　　1. The first paragraph is primarily concerned with ______.

　　A. picturing in what ways computers can help in schools

　　B. describing how computers make all subjects easier in schools

　　C. showing what computers have accomplished in schools

　　D. examining how computers are being used in schools

　　2. What is the author’s attitude towards the software that will do a student’s arithmetic or correct his spelling?

　　A. Amazed.

　　B. Reserved.

　　C. Interested.

　　D. Disapproval.

　　3. What does the author mean by “unsweetened reading” in Paragraph 3?

　　A. Online reading.

　　B. Difficult reading materials.

　　C. Regular books.

　　D. Serious and sad stories.

　　4. The author mentions Shakespeare in order to ______.

　　A. illustrate how multimedia presents information in classroom

　　B. cite one of the most frequently used sources in schools

　　C. introduce the importance of reading classics

　　D. show how multimedia is integrated in traditional teaching

　　5. Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the author?

　　A. Teaching students to understand logical argument is highly ignored.

　　B. The employment of hypermedia may hurt students’ learning process.

　　C. Hypermedia exposes students to too much information.

　　D. Students’ reading skills have drastically dropped.

　　Passage Two

　　One theory that has gained influence among sociologists is that some members of stigmatized groups, when faced with stressful situations, expect themselves to do worse — a prophecy that fulfills itself. These expectations, which can occur even in otherwise fair situations — such as, say, a standardized test —produce stress and threaten cognitive function. The effect is called “stereotype threat,” and African—Americans, girls, even jocks have all been shown susceptible to stereotype threat.

　　Now a new study shows that old people are also vulnerable to the phenomenon. Research psychologists recruited 103 volunteers, ages 60 to 82, to perform simple arithmetic and recall tests. The psychologists manipulated about half of the participants into feeling stereotype threat by telling them that the entire purpose of the tests was “to examine aging effects on memory.” That statement was designed to prime the participants’ worry that their advanced age would affect their performance. By contrast, participants in the control group were told that the tests had been constructed to correct for any biases that might be associated with age, a white lie imparted to damp down stereotype threat.

　　Those in the first group performed significantly worse on the memory tests than those whose internal stereotypes hadn’t been triggered. Interestingly, people between the ages of 60 and 70 were far more susceptible to stereotype threat than those aged 71 to 82. The authors theorize, persuasively, that people who have just entered their seventh decade are more sensitive to stereotype threat than those who have already been considered old for a decade.

　　Remarkably, the power of stereotype threat was enough to overcome true aptitude: even people who generally had good working memories and weren’t prone to anxiety — in short, great test—takers — performed worse after being reminded of their age. The power of stereotype is so strong that it can overwhelm many of our other traits.

　　But the good news is that you can flip this particular psychological coin on its opposite side: recent research has found that positive stereotype reinforcement may be just as powerful as any negative threat. Indiana University psychologists found that women’s performance on math tests did not suffer as researchers had expected, even when the typical “women are bad at math” stereotype was invoked, as long as a positive stereotype (say, college students are good at math) was presented at the same time. In this case, that means that the aged are likely to have better—functioning memories when they are told, for instance, that older people “have more experience” or “have seen it all before.”

　　Questions 6—10 are based on Passage Two.

　　6. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

　　A. Examples of discriminations.

　　B. The concept of stereotype threat.

　　C. A dominant theory in sociology.

　　D. Stressful situations for the stigmatized.

　　7. The word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______.

　　A. weak

　　B. incapable

　　C. insecure

　　D. susceptible

　　8. The psychologist used a white lie to ______.

　　A. weaken the participants’ worry

　　B. monitor the participants’ reaction

　　C. increase the difficulty of the tests

　　D. correct biases associated with age

　　9. The difference between the participants in their 70s and those in their 60s was ______ .

　　A. the former did better on the tests

　　B. the latter were given easier questions

　　C. the latter took the results less seriously

　　D. the former showed more concern about age

　　10. What message does the author intend to convev in the last paragraph?

　　A. Negative stereotypes can be turned into positive ones.

　　B. More should be done to help those discriminated.

　　C. Stereotypes can be used as an advantage.

　　D. Discrimination on campus should be eliminated.

　　Passage Three

　　A good reader becomes sooner or later a good book buyer. The sooner, the better. Of course, we all read many more books than we have room for in our homes, even if we could afford to buy them all; yet the reading done in a book drawn from a library cannot be so pleasant at the moment nor so permanently useful as the reading done in our own copy.

　　A book which is worth reading is likely to be read more than once, and at each reading some idea or some statement makes such an impression that we wish to refer to it again. Some readers underline the page as they read, but I find that a page which I have underlined cannot give me so many fresh impressions as one which has no marks on it. If I come on a passage already marked up, I remember the thoughts and feelings which prompted those first markings, and I have them again, with no additions. But a clean page may always give me something new.

　　My habit is to make my own index of a book as I read. I put down the number of the page and a word or two to identify the thought or the fact which I get from it. On a second or third reading I am likely to double or triple the size of this index. This is my substitute for underlining. Most of the books in my library are so indexed that I can find quickly the passage which from time to time I wish to look up.

　　To use a book in this way, organizing it for continued usefulness year after year, we must, of course, do our reading in a copy which belongs to us. If a reader were wealthy enough, he could buy his books always in new and expensive edition, with only best paper and in the kind of binding he prefers. I never could afford such luxury, and I have known few serious and devoted readers who could. The books I buy are chiefly those of less expensive editions.

　　In the last few years a new convenience and economy has come to the American book—buying public: the twenty—five—cent book now widely available at newsstands, drugstores, etc. Bantam books, Signet books, and Pocket books together offer many hundred different titles of more or less respectable literary merits. These inexpensive books give hours of pleasurable reading with broadened knowledge and stimulated thought.

　　As I have grown older and the number of books on my shelves has increased, I appreciate editions which do not take much room. When I began reading years ago, I was proud of my small collection of two or three hundred books. By the time I owned a thousand, my little study held all it could. Now, in my late years, I must squeeze books into a city apartment. By careful and continuous selection I keep my library clown to ten thousand books. This would be, of course, too large a number for any but a professional scholar or writer. But my advice to a booklover is to weed out his library at least once every two years, giving, away the books which are not likely to be read again.

　　You can start a good library of your own with only a few dollars, buying good books in cheap editions or in finer editions secondhand. Buy at least a book a month. But never, never buy a book which you will not immediately read. A library bought only for looks is not literature, but interior decoration.

　　Questions 11—15 are based on Passage Three.

　　11. According to the author, it is ______.

　　A. important to read critically rather than memorize the facts

　　B. useful to underline some important ideas

　　C. beneficial to take notes while reading

　　D. good to leave no marks on pages

　　12. If you are fond of buying books, it is better to

　　A. buy those you like

　　B. seek those which are popular

　　C. seek some new editions

　　D. buy those which you can afford

　　13. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the author?

　　A. The more books you buy, the faster your library will grow.

　　B. The clearer the index, the more quickly you will find the passage you want.

　　C. The longer you read a book, the more you will benefit from it.

　　D. The more expensive the editions are, the more valuable the books are.

　　14. The first four paragraphs of this passage deal with ______.

　　A. why we should take notes while reading

　　B. how we choose a good book to read

　　C. why we should have a book of our own

　　D. how we can read efficiently

　　15. Why does the author write this passage?

　　A. To explain how to become a good reader.

　　B. To give advice through his experience.

　　C. To indicate that a private library is also an interior decoration.

　　D. To tell readers that buying cheap books is a good way to start one’s library.

　　Passage Four

　　At one time, it was thought that cancer was a “disease of civilization,” belonging to much the same causal domain as “neurasthenia” and diabetes, the former a nervous weakness believed to be brought about by the stress of modem life and the latter a condition produced by bad diet and indolence. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some physicians attributed cancer — notably of the breast and the ovaries — to psychological and behavioral causes. William Buchan’s wildly popular eighteenth—century text “Domestic Medicine” judged that cancers might be caused by “excessive fear, grief and religious melancholy.” In the nineteenth century, reference was repeatedly made to a “cancer personality.” As Susan Sontag observed, cancer was considered shameful, not to be mentioned. Among the Romantics and the Victorians, suffering and dying from tuberculosis might be considered a badge of refinement; cancer death was nothing of the sort. “It seems unimaginable,” Sontag wrote, “to aestheticize cancer. ”

　　Cancer is “the modem disease” not just because we understand it in radically new ways but also because there’s a lot more about cancer. For some cancers, the rise in incidence is clearly connected with things that get into our bodies that once did not — the causal link between smoking and lung cancer being the most spectacular example. But the rise in cancer mortality is, in its way, very good news: as we live longer, and as many infectious and epidemic diseases have ceased to be major causes of death, so we become prone to maladies that express themselves at ages once rarely attained. At the beginning of the twentieth century, life expectancy at birth in America was 47.3 years, and in the middle of the nineteenth century it was less than forty. The median age at diagnosis for breast cancer in the United States is now sixty—one; for prostate cancer it is sixty—seven; for colorectal cancer it’s seventy. “Cancer has become the price of modern life,” an epidemiologist recently wrote. In the U.S., about half of all men and about a third of women will contract cancer in their lifetime; cancer now ranks just below heart disease as a cause of death in the U.S. But in low—income countries with shorter life expectancies it doesn’t even make the top ten.

　　Questions 16—20 are based on Passage Four.

　　16. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

　　A. Common causes of cancers.

　　B. Treatments for different cancers.

　　C. Traditional bliefs on cancer.

　　D. People’s attitudes to cancer patients.

　　17. What can we learn about the Victorians from Paragraph 1?

　　A. They believed that some diseases were superior to others.

　　B. They thought that some diseases were unimaginable.

　　C. They attributed some diseases to behavioral causes.

　　D. They held superstitious ideas towards some diseases.

　　18. The word “maladies” in Paragraph 2 means ______.

　　A. tunes

　　B. illnesses

　　C. serious problems

　　D. advanced ages

　　19. Why are more and more people diagnosed with cancers today?

　　A. People nowadays have more bad habits.

　　B. People nowadays enjoy longer life expectancy.

　　C. People nowadays are exposed to more sources of stress.

　　D. People nowadays are more vulnerable psychologically.

　　20. “It” in the last sentence refers to ______.

　　A. life expectancy

　　B. heart disease

　　C. modernity

　　D. cancer

　　Passage Five

　　Ever since 2003, when Lisa Belkin’s article in The Times Magazine about highly privileged and high—achieving moms — “The Opt—Out Revolution” — was generalized by the news media to claim that mothers overall were choosing to leave the work force, researchers have been revisiting the state of mothers’ employment and reaching very similar conclusions.

　　In 2005, the Motherhood Project published a report that said most mothers, given free choice, would choose to be employed — provided their employment didn’t take up too much time. Approximately two—thirds said they’d ideally work part—time or from home; only 16 percent said they’d prefer to work full—time.

　　Sociologist David Cotter looked carefully at four decades of employment data and found that women with choices — those with college education — were overwhelmingly choosing, to stay in the work force. The only women “opting out” in any significant numbers were the very richest and the very poorest.

　　You might say that the movement of the richest women out of the work force proves that women will, in the best of all possible worlds, go home. But these women often have husbands who work 70 or 80 hours a week and travel extensively; someone has to be home. They are privileged, it’s true, but very often they have also been cornered by the all—or—nothing non—choices of our workplaces.

　　The alternative narrative — of constricted horizons, not choice — that might have emerged from recent research has never really made it into the mainstream. It just can’t, it seems, find a foothold. “The reason we keep getting this narrative is that there is this deep cultural ambivalence about mothers’ employment,” said Cotter. “On the one hand, people believe women should have equal opportunities, but on the other hand, we don’t envision men taking on more child care and housework and, unlike Europe, we don’t seem to be able to envision family—friendly work policies.”

　　Why this matters — and why opening this topic up for discussion is important — is very clear: because our public policy continues to rest upon a false idea, eternally recycled in the media, of mothers’ free choices, and not upon the constraints that truly drive their behavior. If journalism repeatedly frames the wrong problem, then those who make public policy may very well deliver the wrong solution. E. J. Graff, a senior researcher at Brandeis University, says, “If women are happily choosing to stay home with their babies, that’s a private decision. But it’s a public policy issue if schools, jobs and other American institutions are structured in ways that make it frustratingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, for parents to manage both their jobs and family responsibilities.”

　　Questions 21—25 are based on Passage Five.

　　21. According to Paragraph 1, what conclusion about mothers’ employment have researchers drawn?

　　A. The majority of mothers wanted to leave the work force.

　　B. The working environment was not friendly to mothers.

　　C. High—achieving mothers were forced to leave their jobs.

　　D. The employment of mothers took up too much time.

　　22. What do we learn about the report published by the Motherhood Project?

　　A. Its ideas agree with previous studies.

　　B. Its ideas are generally questioned by the public.

　　C. It addresses the real problem in mothers’ employment.

　　D. It contradicts the results of recent researches.

　　23. The phrase “opting out” in Paragraph 3 means

　　A. avoiding certain duties

　　B. choosing not to work

　　C. deciding to leave a group

　　D. fighting against some policies

　　24. According to Paragraph 5, which of the following statements is TRUE?

　　A. European mothers take longer maternity leave than American mothers.

　　B. American mothers take longer maternity leave than European mothers.

　　C. European fathers are more involved in child care than American fathers.

　　D. American fathers are more involved in child care than European fathers.

　　25. What does the author say about the public policy concerning mothers’employment?

　　A. It is in line with the mainstream academic studies.

　　B. It is in conflict with journalistic reports.

　　C. It is currently based on false ideas.

　　D. It is extensively criticized for its inefficiency.

　　非选择题部分

　　注意事项：

　　用黑色字迹的签字笔或钢笔将答案写在答题纸上，不能答在试题卷上。

　　II. Vocabulalry (10 points, 1 point for each)

　　Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refers to the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on the Answer Sheet

　　Geophysicist Dr. Andrea Donnellan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., remembers the morning of January 17, 1994, like few others Like millions of other Southern California residents, she was shaken from her sleep in her normally tranquil foothill community home as a large earthquake caused a mountain, located just 30 miles away, to grow nearly 15 inches higher, all in a matter of seconds.

　　“Large earthquakes are always disconcerting,” she said. “Being a geophysicist I was immediately interested in how large the earthquake was and where it had occurred.”

　　Within minutes, news reports confirmed that Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley had taken a direct hit from an earthquake comparable in size to the damaging 1972 San Fernando earthquake. More than 60 people were killed in each earthquake and thousands were injured. The latter event became one of the costliest natural disasters ever to strike the United States. Only the pre—dawn time of day and the fact that it was a holiday kept the death toll from being much higher.

　　Less than two months before that fateful day, Donnellan and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had published a landmark paper in the journal Nature on ground distortion north of LA’s San Fernando Valley. Six years of relatively sparse data from a fledgling network of Global Positioning System (GPS) deformation monitors, that had been developed and installed around Southern California by scientists at JPL and other organizations, had detected that Earth’s crust was being squeezed closed across the Ventura Basin. The data showed the area’s faults were accumulating strain, and they gave the scientists clear indications of the style and relative size of an earthquake that might strike there, even though the faults there do not all break the surface. They placed no time frame on when such a temblor might occur, however.

　　26. people who live somewhere permanently (Para. 1)

　　27. free from disturbance; calm (Para. 1)

　　28. causing one to feel unsettled (Para. 2)

　　29. a specialist who studies the movements of parts of the Earth (Para. 2)

　　30. stated with assurance that a report or fact is true (Para. 3)

　　31. similar to something else in size or number (Para. 3)

　　32. having disastrous consequences (Para. 4)

　　33. immature or inexperienced (Para. 4)

　　34. acquiring an increasing number or quantity of (Para. 4)

　　35. an earthquake (Para. 4)

　　III. Summarization. (20 poirits, 2 points for each)

　　Directions: In this section of the test, there are ten paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs is followed by an incomplete phrase or sentence which summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Spell out the missing letters of the word on your Answer Sheet.

　　Paragraph One

　　The oil drilled and pumped from underground holds the energy of eons’ worth of sunlight energy collected by plants and stored as organic matter. Over millions of years of heat and pressure, the energy in that organic matter has been further concentrated to yield hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal.

　　36. F____ of fossil fuels.

　　Paragraph Two

　　A sand castle is made of a network of sand grains glued together by very thin bridges of water. Without any water, sand flows; a perfectly dry sand castle would collapse into a heap. Too much water, on the other hand, creates sand soup. But embedded in a matrix of water molecules, sand particles stay in place, somewhat like molecules in solid substances.

　　37. Proper amount of water is the key to b____ sand castles.

　　Paragraph Three

　　When infants 18 months old see an unrelated adult whose hands are full and who needs assistance opening a door or picking up a dropped clothespin, they will immediately help. The helping behavior seems to be innate because it appears so early and before many parents start teaching children the rules of polite behavior.

　　38. Human beings may be b____ with the urge to help.

　　Paragraph Four

　　People across the northern hemisphere are facing the fact that a warming planet doesn’t get rid of winter. On Monday the heaviest snow on record plastered Seoul. In coming days, the central US will experience its most brutal cold wave in 10 to 20 years. And most of Westem Europe will be encased in a deep freeze by this weekend.

　　39. Winter is still c____.

　　Paragraph Five

　　With their normal summer diet of greens and berries shriveled by summer heat or drought in many spots nationwide, hungry bears are rummaging through garbage, ripping through screens and crawling into cars in search of sustenance.

　　40. Hungry bears s____ for food.

　　Paragraph Six

　　Everyone knows that a placebo — a fake medication or sham procedure, typically used as a control in a medical trial — can nonetheless have a positive effect, relieving real symptoms like pain, bloating or a depressed mood. The placebo effect is a result of the patient’s expectation that the treatment will help.

　　41. F____ of a placebo.

　　Paragraph Seven

　　Standardized teaching an be done by mediocre teachers using scripted lessons. Excellent teaching requires well—honed judgments about inspanidual students based on observation, information from a robust assessment program, and a great deal of knowledge and informed intuition about young people.

　　42. Q____ of excellent teaching.

　　Paragraph Eight

　　We are successful because we can form long—lasting relationships with many others in spanerse and flexible ways, and that this, combined with our native intelligence, explains why Homo sapiens came to dominate the planet. In every way from teaching our young to the industrial spanision of labor we are a massively co—operative species that relies on larger and more spanerse networks of relationships than any other species.

　　43.I____ of relationships.

　　Paragraph Nine

　　Convenience friends are convenient indeed. They’ll lend us their cups and silverware for a party. They’ll drive our kids to soccer when we’re sick. They’ll take us to pick up our car when we need a lift to the garage. They’ll even take our cats when we go on vacation. As we will for them.

　　44. B____ of convenience friends.

　　Paragraph Ten

　　Einstein rebelled against rote learning, and that attitude helped make him the genius that he was. Likewise, our success as a nation will be determined not just by how well our schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables but by how well they promote imagination and creativity.

　　45. What should be p____ in school?

　　IV. Translation (20 points, 4 points for each)

　　Directions: In the following passage, there are five groups of underlined sentences. Read the passage carefully and translate these sentences into Chinese. Write the Chinese version on your Answer Sheet.

　　Dogs are extremely useful as companions for blind people. When a dog has been properly trained, he will always lead his blind master in the right direction and keep him out of danger. For example, seeing—eye dogs learn never to cross a busy road when cars are coming, even if their masters command them to do so.

　　Horses that are used for guard or police duty must learn never to be frightened of noises, traffic, and other disturbance. (46) Racing horses are able to run much faster than other horses, but they are also quite high strung. Therefore, it is necessary for people who train them to be very patient and understanding.

　　Pigeons have a natural instinct to return home, even if they are very far away and the trip is hard or dangerous. (47) Men utilize this homing instinct to send messages on small pieces of paper that are fastened to the pigeon’s back or legs. Pigeons have been known to fly as fast as 75 miles an hour and to cover distances of 500 to 600 miles. These homing pigeons begin their training when they are about four weeks old. After a few weeks they can begin flying and carrying messages. If all goes well, their flying career lasts about four years.

　　Animals can learn to do many things that, while not necessarily useful, are very amusing to watch. (48) In circuses, animals are taught to do the tricks that are most compatible with their physical and temperamental make—up. Lions and tigers can be taught to leap and spring gracefully when told to do so, or to stay in place on command. Elephants learn to walk in line, to stand on their hind legs, to lie on their sides, and to stand on their head. They can also learn to dance.

　　Another trainer had an elephant and a tiger, who after many weeks of living in the same cage, became accustomed to each other. Then the tiger was taught to jump on the elephant’s back. (49) Both animals become so interested in the act (as well as the praise and food they received after the act) that they forgot they were natural enemies. Later a lion was added to the act. This also took a lot of training. However, when the three animals grew accustomed to each other they made a most successful circus act.

　　Cinema and television use trained animals too. Some animals, such as skunks and foxes, are easy to film. All you have to do is to make a trail in front of the camera by dragging something that smells good to the animals over the ground. Big animals, such as lions and tigers, can be photographed as they bound happily back to their families and dinner. (50) If a movie actor is nearby, the well—trained animal will pay no attention to him. However, the audience may imagine that the actor escaped a terrible death by the skin of his teeth.

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