浙江省2002年7月高等教育自学考试

　　英语阅读(一)试题

　　课程代码：00595

　　Ⅰ.Vocabulary.(10%)

　　Complete each of the following sentences with the proper form of the word in the brackets.Write the word on the Answer Sheet.

　　1. (absurd)Getting up at this time ws an utter ______.

　　2. (agree)It is hard to get any ______ on the precise meaning of the term ‘social class’.

　　3. (overwhelm)It was less than an ______ success.

　　4. (make)The ______ of the Constitution knew that changes would be necessary.

　　5. (horror)When I first arrived,I was ______ by the number of beggars there.

　　6. (major)The ______ of the members do not belong to his political party.

　　7. (strength)The position of the crown was ______ after the kingdom had been reunited.

　　8. (eager)The German army waited ______ for orders to cross the Channel.

　　9. (divide)Religious problems caused India's ______ into two new independent states,India and Pakistan,in 1947.

　　10. (know)This is the tree that gives forth the ______ of Good and Evil.

　　Ⅱ.Text Comprehension.(20%)

　　According to the texts you have learned,decide whether each of the following statements is true or false.Write T or F on the Answer Sheet.

　　1. The Jews didn't accept the idea of One God until the death of Moses.

　　2. Prometheus could teach the mortals anything they needed to know in order to live.

　　3. In the Girls in their Summer Dresses,Frances kept to herself the feeling that her husband might leave her someday.

　　4. When Pandora opened the box for the first time,all the winged creatures escaped except War.

　　5. In the United Nations,there are five working languages and at all official meetings,the five languages are all translated.

　　6. In Jane Eyre,Jane's first day at Lowood was full of curiosity and satisfaction.

　　7. In some manner,body language tells for more than words do.

　　8. The Statue of Liberty was sent to the USA by France as a gift to tell the whole world that the USA was an independent country.

　　9. In the Fisherman and His Wife,the old fisherman was not pleased with his wife when she wished for one thing after another.

　　10. In the Necklace,Mathilde Loisel was pretty and charming and she was from a wealthy family.

　　11. The modern Olympics compared with the ancient ones are inspired by the same ideals.

　　12. In the Canterbury Tales,the old ugly man went all over the Earth,searching for Death to take him.

　　13. According to the Wife of Bath,man should always be obedient and generous to their wives.

　　14. In the Decameron,Lorenzo was killed unaware by a hired murderer in a remote place.

　　15. In large cities in the United States,minority groups and the poor often live in ghettos or slums.

　　16. On Boxing Day,people spend their time watching boxing games on TV.

　　17. In Gifts of the Magi,Jim bought a set of combs for Della's beautiful hair as a present for Valentine's Day.

　　18. In True Love,Joe's task is to search for the ideal woman for himself.

　　19. In the Merchant of Venice,Bassanio offered to pay Shylock three times as much as the loan of the money Antonia had made.

　　20. A police officer,if he charges the offender,is often asked to act as a witness.

　　Ⅲ.Reading Comprehension.(50%)

　　Seciton A Reading Comprehension

　　In this part there are 4 reading passages followed by 20 questions or unfinished statements.For each of them there are 4 options marked A,B,C, and D.You should decide on the best one and write your answer on the Answer Sheet.(40%)

　　Passage 1

　　The flat,at the top of a huge tower block in northern suburb of London,was empty.It had been vacant for a long time,a year or eighteen months perhaps.The dust flew up in clouds from the worn carpet and rainwater dripped from a hole in the ceiling onto the floorboards below.Both windows on the landing were cracked and curtainless.The light worked but there was no shade and electric wire was black with cobwebs.

　　Very carefully they inspected the room.All were empty.There were two ancient leather armchairs in one,together with an old oak table,covered with dust,and an enormous double bed in the front room—too large,probably to go through the door.It had been left without a mattress.All over the floor lay scraps of newspaper,rags,coat hangers and other grubby oddments.

　　The water,however,was still on.The taps were a little rusty,though,and difficult to run..

　　″What do you think?″asked the man.He was about twenty years old,unshaven,wearing a thick sweater,jeans and suede boots.

　　″It's better than nothing,″answered the girl.She was carrying a small child wrapped in a blanket.She herself wore a duffle?coat and a long skirt that touched the floor.

　　″We can clean it up,″the man said.″That hole in the ceiling will need repairing but that's about all.A coat of paint and a few rolls of wallpaper will cover up the cracks.We'll have to get hold of a mattress,some more blankets,a couple of kitchen chairs maybe.″?

　　The gas cooker works.The girl examined the kitchen and then went into the bathroom.A small bar of blue soap left by the previous tenants lay on a shelf below a mirror.She filled the basin with water and washed the baby's hands and face.They had taken over the flat because they needed a home and could not,at that time,afford to buy one.Being on the council's waiting list hadn't helped much either.Now they would claim ″squatters' rights″ and live in this flat until they found

　　something else—somewhere to bring up a family in.

　　1. Where is the flat located?

　　A. On the top of a tower. B. On a huge block of stone.

　　C. At the top of a skyscraper. D. In a city north of London.

　　2. Using context clues we may infer that ″grubby oddments″(Para.2) most probably means ______.

　　A. dirty bits and pieces B. worm eaten garments

　　C. unusual objects D. oddities covered in dust

　　3. The appearance of the man could best be described as ______.

　　A. bearded B. foreign-looking

　　C. casual D. very correct

　　4. When he says ″…but that's about all″(Para.6) the man means ______.

　　A. but there is just a beginning

　　B. but that is just a beginning

　　C. but there are repair jobs to be done everywhere

　　D. but there are holes all over the ceiling

　　5. What could be said about their previous efforts to obtain accommodation?

　　A. They had just waited for something to happen without doing anything to help themselves.

　　B. They had already put their names on a local authority housing list.

　　C. They had not attempted to save money in order to buy a house of their own. D. They liked moving house frequently and did not want to settle down.

　　Passage 2

　　Poverty exists because our society is an unequal one,and there are overwhelming political pressures to keep it that way.Any attempt to redistribute wealth and income in the United States will inevitably be opposed by powerful middle and upper-class interests.People can be relatively rich only if others are relatively poor,and since power is concentrated in the hands of the rich,public policies will continue to reflect their interests rather than those of the poor.

　　As Herbert Gans(1973) has pointed out,poverty is actually functional from the point of view of the nonpoor.Poverty ensures that ″dirty″ work gets done.If there were on poor people to scrub floors and empty bedpans,these jobs would have to be rewarded with high incomes before anyone would touch them.Poverty creates jobs for many of the nonpoor,such as police officers,welfare workers,pawnbrokers,and government bureaucrats.Poverty makes life easier for the rich by providing them with cooks,gardeners,and other workers to perform basic chores while their employers enjoy more pleasurable activities.Poverty provides a market for inferior

　　goods and services,such as day-old bread,run-down automobiles,or the advice of incompetent physicians and lawyers.Poverty legitimizes middle-class values.To the middle class,the fate of the poor—who are supposed to lack the virtues of thrift,honesty,monogamy,and a taste for hand work—only confirms the desirability of qualities the poor are thought to lack.Poverty also provides a group that can be made to absorb the costs of change.For example,the poor bear the brunt(首当其冲) of unemployment caused by automation,and it is their homes,not those of the wealthy,that are demolished(毁坏) when a route has to be found for a new highway.There is no deliberate,conscious ″conspiracy″ of the wealth to keep the poor in poverty.It is just that poverty is an inevitable outcome of the American economic system,which the poor are politically powerless to influence or change.

　　6. The title that best expresses the main idea of this passage is ______.

　　A. ″An Unequal Society″ B. ″Political Factors in Poverty″

　　C. ″The Fate of the Poor″ D. ″Functions of Poverty″

　　7. Poverty exists in American society because ______.

　　A. the wealthy work hand and glove to keep it

　　B. the overwhelming majority of the nonpoor are totally indifferent to it

　　C. the rich are politically powerful while the poor are politically powerless D. all of the above

　　8. The poor take on ″dirty work″ ______.

　　A. under political pressures B. for the high pay offered

　　C. as they are reasonably paid D. though ill?paid

　　9. Poverty makes life easier ______.

　　A. for the nonpoor as they can get well paid jobs

　　B. for the rich as there are sorts of domestic helps readily available

　　C. for the poor as they can get cheap bread and automobiles

　　D. for the businessmen as they can easily found a market for inferior goods and services

　　10. The author thinks that ______.

　　A. the poor lack such desirable qualities as thrift or honesty

　　B. the poor are not inclined to work hard

　　C. the poor are willing to bear the costs of change

　　D. none of the above

　　Passage 3

　　Somebody ought to defend the workaholic.These people are unjustly accused,abused,and defamed—often termed sick or morbid(病态的).

　　One?third of American business and commerce is carried on the shoulders of workaholics.The ratio might exist in art and science too.Workaholics are achievers.There is a national conspiracy against excellence—undue admiration of commonnes

　　s and mediocrity(平庸).It is as though we are against those who make uncommon sacrifices because they enjoy doing something.

　　Some popular psycologists say that the workaholic has an inferiority complex which leads to overcompensation.This is certainly not the case.Inferiority,or low esteem,describes laziness more accurately than it describes dedication.

　　We do not seem to realize that very little excellence is achieved by living a well-balanced life.Edison,Ford,Einstein,Freud all had single-minded devotion to work whereby they sacrificed many things,including family and friendship.The accusation is made that workaholics bear guilt by not being good parents or spouses.But guilt can exist in the balanced life also.Consider how many ″normal″ people find,at middle age,that they have never done anything well—they are going to settle for less than what they could have become.

　　11. From this passage we know that workaholic is a term referring to those ______.

　　A. who enjoy work more than anything else

　　B. who make greater contributions than others

　　C. who make uncommon sacrifices in their personal life

　　D. all of the above

　　12. The author's main concern in this passage is to ______.

　　A. point out the role the workaholic plays in the American economy

　　B. defend people who are addicted to work

　　C. encourage us not to worry about our imperfection

　　D. consider the difficulties that confront us at middle age

　　13. The author of the passage would most likely agree that the workaholic ______.

　　A. is mentally ill

　　B. performs an insignificant proportion of American business

　　C. will not have the regrets that many ″normal″ people face at middle age

　　D. suffers from low self-esteem

　　14. According to this passage,______.

　　A. Freud led a well balanced life

　　B. generally speaking,workaholics can be helped

　　C. workaholics should be admired

　　D. so-called ″normal″ people are truly the sick people among us

　　15. According to the author,one can hardly achieve excellence unless one ______.

　　A. lives an abnormal life B. sacrifices friendship and family

　　C. had total devotion to work D. ignores popular opinions

　　Passage 4?

　　One thing to remember in connection with concrete is that you are not allowed very much leeway(余地) for errors in either measurements or location.Once you have a solid mass of concrete set in place it is going to stay there,you have a difficult job ahead of you if you try to remedy a mistake.Make very sure,before you fill the form,that everything is where and how you want it.

　　There are numerous rules regarding the proper mixing,hardening and finishing of concrete,but the essential one concerns the amount of water to use.The less water in the mix,the less the finished job will shrink.The less water used,the harder and more enduring the job after it has set.

　　The amateur concrete worker is plagued(烦扰) with two desires.One is to use enough water to have the concrete nice and soft and easy to push around.You have been warned against that.The second is to take off the wooden forms too early,to see what the job looks like.That is really fatal.If the forms are stripped off too soon,while the concrete is still ″green″,two things are likely to happen—you are almost sure to break off corners or edges,and you are likely to cause a major crack or defect in the body of the work.An excellent rule is to wait until you are sure the concrete is properly hardened,and then wait another day before removing the forms.

　　16. The best title for this selection would be ______.

　　A. Rules for Working with Concrete B. Concrete and Its Uses

　　C. Concrete,the Home?owner's Joy D. How to Finish Concrete

　　17. Which of the following main ideas is NOT included in this passage?

　　A. Preparation of forms for the concrete must be thorough.

　　B. Forms must be allowed to remain on long enough.

　　C. Mixing concrete slowly will make it very hard and strong.

　　D. Using as little water as possible is recommended.

　　18. In mixing concrete one of the desires the amateur must resist is to ______.

　　A. leave the form on too long

　　B. strip off the forms a day after the concrete has properly hardened

　　C. use too much water

　　D. use too little water

　　19. A human quality apparently NOT essential in some one who works with concrete is ______.

　　A. carefulness B. patience

　　C. self?control D. inventiveness

　　20. By the concrete being too ″green″ the author means that the concrete has ______.

　　A. become cracked B. not yet cured

　　C. not dried out D. not settled in place

　　Section B Skimming and Scanning

　　In this part there are 2 reading passages followed by 10 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 options marked A,B,C and D.Skim or scan them and decide on the best answer and write your answer on the Answer Sheet.(10%)

　　Passage 5

　　It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory.The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions,the bases for the decisions we make,and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences,which are brought into the present by memory.

　　Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use.It includes not only ″remembering″ things like arithmetic or historical facts,but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves.Memory is involved when a rat gives up an eating grain because he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile.Memory is also involved when a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat.

　　Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines.Computer,for example,contains devices for storing data for later use.It is interesting to compare the memory-storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being.The instant-access memory of a large computer may hold up to 1,000,000 ″words″—ready for instant use.An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of English.However,this is but a fraction of the total amount of information which the teenager has stored.Consider,for example,the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.

　　The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings.A large part of a person's memory is in terms of words and combinations of words.

　　21. According to the passage,memory is considered to be ______.

　　A. the basis for decision making and problem solving

　　B. an ability to store experiences for future use

　　C. an intellgence typically possessed by human beings

　　D. the data mainly consisting of words and combinations of words

　　22. The comparison made between the memory capacity of a large computer and that of a human being shows that ______.

　　A. the computer's memory has a little bigger capacity than a teenager's

　　B. the computer's memory capacity is much smaller than an adult human being's C. the computer's memory capacity is much smaller even than a teenager's

　　D. the computer's memory capacity is the same as any teenager's

　　23. The whole passage implies that ______.

　　A. only human beings have problem?solving intelligence

　　B. a person's memory is different from a computer's in every respect

　　C. animals are able to solve only very simple problems

　　D. animals solve problems by instincts rather than 来源：www.91exam.orgintelligence

　　24. The phrase ″in terms of″ in the last sentence can best be replaced by ______.

　　A. ″in connection with″ B. ″expressed of″

　　C. ″consisting″ D. ″by means of″

　　25. The topic of the passage is:______.

　　A. What would life be like without memory?

　　B. Memory is of vital importance to life.

　　C. How is a person's memory different from an animal's or a computer's?

　　D. What is contained in memory?

　　Passage 6

　　The great power of tornadoes is almost unbelievable.The speed of this whirling funnelshaped wind may be more than 500 miles per hour.It can tear up trees,carry buildings away,and can even lift large trucks off the highway.The tornado is like a giant vacuum sweeper that sucks up anything in its path.Experts believe that the most violent force of a tornado is found inside the funnel,where a vacuum is created because of very low air pressure.When this vacuum moves over a building which is filled with air under normal pressure,the difference between the air pressure inside the building and that outside causes the building to explode.The largest tornado on record had a funnel a mile wide.

　　There are many interesting stories about the strange things that tornadoes have done in the U.S.Common wheat straw has been driven several inches into posts and trees.Buildings have been turned completely around on their foundations and have remained intact.People and animals have been carried hundreds of feet,often suffering no physical harm.Feathers have been removed from chickens.Cars,trucks,and even whole freight trains have been carried away.

　　A tornado does not last long,about 20 to 30 minutes on the average.Usually it destroys an area about 16 miles long and the great damage that it does in one place lasts only about 30 seconds.Tornadoes normally occur on hot,humid days but not necessarily in the summer.The biggest and most destructive tornado in the U.S.struck on March 18,1925.Roaring along at a speed of 60 miles per hour,it swept clean a path a mile wide across the states of Missouri,Illinois,and Indian.In its 220-mile long journey across these three states,the tornado killed 689 people.

　　More than 200 tornadoes strike in the United States every year.It is not possible to predict when a tornado will strike although the U.S.Weather Bureau gives storm warnings when conditions are right to cause a tornado.The safest place to be if a tornado seems likely is in some underground area such as a cellar or a basement.

　　26. Low air pressure inside funnel of a tornado creates a ______.

　　A. tension B. vacuum

　　C. wind D. speed

　　27. A tornado may reach a speed of more than ______.

　　A. 500 miles per hour B. 700 miles per hour

　　C. 100 miles per hour D. 50 miles per hour

　　28. The most favorable kind of weather for a tornado is ______.

　　A. dry and dusty B. cold and windy

　　C. cloudy and rainy D. hot and humid

　　29. The largest recorded tornado funnel was ______.

　　A. 1 mile B. 6 miles

　　C. 10 miles D. 18 miles

　　30. A safe place to be when a tornado strikes is ______.

　　A. in a church B. in a tall building

　　C. under a tree D. in a basement

　　Ⅳ.Answer the questions.(20%)

　　There are 4 simple questions in this part,which are based on the texts you have learned.Give the brief answer to each of the questions.Your answers must be to the point and grammatically correct.Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

　　1. In the Decameron,how did Lisabetta learn that her lover had been killed by her brothers?

　　2. What happened if the accused chose the door with a tiger behind it?And what happened if he chose the other door?

　　3. In the Necklace,what did Mme.Loisel and Mme.Forestier say to each other when they met ten years later?

　　4. In the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,why couldn't Daniel jump?How much did Smiley lose because he couldn't jump?