全国2004年7月高等教育自学考试

　　英语阅读(一)试题

　　课程代码：00595

　　请将答案填在答题纸相应位置上

　　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. (inferior)Having realized her bodily ________ to her cousins, Jane Eyre dreaded coming home.

　　2. (stir)His ________ speech encouraged us to study even harder.

　　3. (propose)Shall we discuss the intention book ________last week.

　　4. (sympathy)I know you feel angry, and I ________ you.

　　5. (conspicuous)The shy girl tried to make herself as ________ as possible.

　　6. (dignify)Our English teacher is a ________ lady.

　　7. (agree)Smile at me, and stop being so________.

　　8. (caution)She opened the door ________so as not to wake the bady.

　　9. (commit)He has a lot of ________for he has agreed to pay his brother’s school expenses.

　　10. (exasperate)The ________ noise upstairs made me upset.

　　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. In No Marriage, No Apologies, families and households are the same concepts.

　　2. In The Decameron, Filomena’s story was concerned with the people in the royal palace.

　　3. According to Bringing up Children, an adult’s character is in a great measure decided by his childhood experiences.

　　4. In A Day’s Wait, what led the boy to think that he was going to die was that he mistook the Fahrenheit scale for the Celsius one.

　　5. In How to Live Like a Millionaire, according to the author, marriage is one of the important factors in building wealth.

　　6. In Rip Van Winkle, Rip had formed the habit of being agreeable to all by thinking highly of everyone except his wife.

　　7. In The Lady or the Tiger, the king was cruel and had none of the grace and polish of his neighbors.

　　8. In New Applications, the bank manager, AI Gropin, was such an extravagant person that he was not accepted by many people in the town.

　　9. According to The World at War, Britain favored the camp of Germany because France threatened her interests in Africa and Russia threatened her Indian border.

　　10. According to The Story of the Bible, the face of nature was a formless mass in darkness in the beginning.

　　11. According to Stories from Greek Myths, Prometheus had never rebelled against Zeus’ supremacy; his only crime was to help mortal men to raise themselves above all animals.

　　12. In Bricks from the Tower of the Babel, the author does not agree that International languages can make successful translations of fictions.

　　13. According to What Body Language Can Tell You That Words Cannot, in early courtship both man and woman are behaving awkwardly, often very uncertain as to what is best to say.

　　14. In The Girls in Their Summer Dresses, Frances said,“Look out you’ll break your neck. ” She said so to warn her husband of the danger in the street.

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

　　16. In Jane Eyre, Mrs. Reed didn’t allow Jane to join the company of her son and daughters.

　　17. According to The Merchant of Venice, many noble and princely suitors wished to marry Portia because she inherited a large sum of money from her father who had died recently.

　　18. In The canterbury Tales, the three young men forgot their attempt to find out and kill Death when they caught a glance of great number of gold pieces on the ground.

　　19. In The Necklace, the heroine was pretty and charming, but she was unfortunately born into a family of a factory worker.

　　20. According to How Gorge, Once upon a Time, Got up Early in the Morning, Gorge’s watch went wrong one evening and stopped at a quarter past eight because he hung it up over his pillow without ever looking at it.

　　Ⅲ. Reading Comprehension. (50%)

　　Section 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

　　Telecommuting — substituting the computer for the trip to the job—has been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work.

　　For workers it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in traffic, and help with child-care conflicts. For management, telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility, in some areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local governments are encouraging companies-to start telecommuting programs in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality.

　　But these benefits do not come easily. Making a telecommuting program work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences between telecommuting realities and popular images.

　　Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes into his office three days a week and works at home the other two. An accountant stays at home to care for her sick child; she hooks up her telephone modem connections and does office work between calls to the doctor.

　　These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the necessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is necessary if the parent is to get any work done. Management, too, must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology, that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.

　　That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains small.

　　1. What is the main subject of the passage?

　　A. Business management policies

　　B. Driving to work

　　C. Extending the workplace by means of computers

　　D. Computers for child-care purposes

　　2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a problem for office employees?

　　A. Being restricted to the office

　　B. Incurring expenses for lunches and clothing

　　C. Taking care of sick children

　　D. Driving in heavy traffic

　　3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a problem for employers that is potentially solved by telecommuting?

　　A. Employees’ lateness for work

　　B. Employees’ absence from work

　　C. Employees’ need for time alone to work intensively

　　D. Employees’ conflicts with second jobs

　　4. Which of the following does the author mention as a possible disadvantage of telecommuting?

　　A. Small children cannot understand the boundaries of work and play.

　　B. Computer technology is not advanced enough to accommodate the needs of every situation.

　　C. Electrical malfunctions can destroy a project.

　　D. The worker often does not have all the needed resources at home.

　　5. Which of the following is an example of telecommuting as described in the passage?

　　A. A scientist in a laboratory developing plans for a space station

　　B. A technical writer sending via computer documents created at home

　　C. A computer technician repairing an office computer network

　　D. A teacher directing computer?assisted learning, in a private school

　　Passage 2

　　No sooner had the first intrepid male aviators safely returned to Earth than it seemed that women, too, had been smitten by an urge to fly. From mere spectators they became willing passengers and finally pilots in their own right, plotting their skills and daring line against the hazards of the air and the skepticism of their male counterparts. In doing so, they enlarged the traditional bounds of a women’s world, won for their sex a new sense of competence and achievement, and contributed handsomely to the progress of aviation.

　　But recognition of their abilities did not come easily. “Men do not believe us capable. ”the famed aviator Amelia Earhart once remarked to a friend. “Because we are women, seldom are we trusted to do an efficient job. ”Indeed old attitudes died hard: when Charles Lindbergh visited the Soviet Union in 1938 with his wife, Anne－herself a pilot and gifted proponent of aviation－he was astonished to discover both men and women flying in the Soviet Air Force.

　　Such conventional wisdom made it difficult for women to raise money for the up-to-date equipment they needed to compete on an equal basis with men. Yet they did compete, and often they triumphed finally despite the odds.

　　Ruth Law, whose 590-mile flight from Chicago to Hornell, New York, set a new nonstop distance record in 1916, exemplified the resourcefulness and grit demanded of any woman who wanted to fly. And when she addressed the Aero Club of America after completing her historic journey, her plainspoken words testified to a universal human motivation that was unaffected by gender:“My flight was done with no expectation of reward,” she declared, “just purely for the love of accomplishment. ”

　　6. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

　　A. A Long Flight B. Women in Aviation History

　　C. Dangers Faced by Pilots D. Women Spectators

　　7. According to the passage, women pilots were successful in all of the following EXCEPT ________.

　　A. challenging the conventional role of women

　　B. contributing to the science of aviation

　　C. winning universal recognition from men

　　D. building the confidence of women

　　8. What can be inferred from the passage about the United States Air Force in 1938?

　　A. It had no women pilots.

　　B. It gave pilots handsome salaries.

　　C. It had old planes that were in need of repair.

　　D. It could not be trusted to do an efficient job.

　　9. In their efforts to compete with men, early women pilots had difficulty in________.

　　A. addressing clubs B. flying nonstop

　　C. setting records D. raising money

　　10. According to the passage, who said that flying was done with no expectation of reward?

　　A. Amelia Earhart B. Charles Lindbergh

　　C. Anne Lindbergh D. Ruth Law

　　Passage 3

　　Of all the folk artists in the United States the most well known of the twentieth century is certainly Grandma Moses-Anna Mary Robertson Moses(1860-1961). She was also the most successful within her lifetime and her work was reproduced on greeting cards and calendars and in prints. As with many folk artists, her career as a painter started late in life, at the age of 67, but she continued painting until her death at the age of 101, so her active painting life still spanned over 34 years.

　　Her subjects are based on the New England countryside and evoke a strong mood of nostalgia. Many of her early paintings are copies of, or use sections from, prints by Currier and Ives that she then recomposed in her own way. In her versions the figures became more stylized and the landscapes less naturalistic. Her painting was preceded by the production of landscapes in needlework, and it was only the onset of arthritis that forced the change of medium. The images, however, continued the same, and she reexecuted some of her needlework landscapes in paint at a later date.

　　From these early sources she then began to compose original paintings such as Housick Falls, New York in Winter (1944) that relied on her surroundings and her memories of country life and activities; these paintings display an increasing technical ability. By the 1940’s her work had become a marketable commodity and collectors created a demand for her paintings.

　　Like many painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Grandma Moses made use of photographs for information, for figures, for fragments of landscape, and for buildings, but her work, especially that of her later years, was not a slavish copying of these but compositions using them as source material. Her output was prodigious, and consequently her work is of varying quality. Although much of her public appeal is based on the emotive image of the“Grandma”figur来源：www.91exam.orge producing naive pictures of country life, her paintings place her among the top folk painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

　　11. What is the main topic of the passage?

　　A. The painting materials used by Grandma Moses

　　B. The major artistic influences on Grandma Moses

　　C. The folk art of Grandma Moses

　　D. The life of Grandma Moses

　　12. According to the passage, Grandma Moses started her painting career.

　　A. whithout much success B. in her sixties

　　C. after much study D. by producing greeting cards

　　13. Why does the author mention Currier and Ives in lines 8-9?

　　A. They are folk artists

　　B. They collected many of Grandma Moses’ paintings

　　C. They made calendars from Grandma Moses’ landscapes

　　D. Grandma Moses based some paintings on their work

　　14. According to the passage, Grandma Moses switched from needlework to painting because of________.

　　A. her desire to create landscapes B. the public’s interest in painting

　　C. her need to make money D. a physical condition that affected her

　　15. The word“naive”in line 24 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

　　A. Unsophisticated B. Ignorant

　　C. Unspoiled D. Trusting

　　Passage 4

　　Before the 1850’s the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church-connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.

　　Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800’s, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges—Harvard, Yale, Columbia—and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor’s own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph. D, an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate students learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.

　　At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

　　16. The word“this”in line 14 refers to which of the following?

　　A. Creating and passing on knowledge B. Drilling and learning by rote

　　C. Disciplining students D. Developing moral principles

　　17. According to the passage, the seminar system encouraged students to.

　　A. discuss moral issues B. study the classics, rhetoric, and music

　　C. study overseas D. work more independently

　　18. The word“constricted”in line 21 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

　　A. Mandatory B. Limited

　　C. Challenging D. Competitive

　　19. It can be inferred from the passage that before 1850, all of the following were characteristic of higher education EXCEPT________.

　　A. the elective system B. drilling

　　C. strict discipline D. rote learning

　　20. Those who favored the new university would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?

　　A. Learning is best achieved through discipline and drill.

　　B. Shaping the moral character of students should be the primary goal.

　　C. Higher education should prepare students to contribute to society.

　　D. Teachers should select their students’ courses.

　　Section B: Skimming and ScanningIn 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 1

　　Taking natural objects such as rocks, bones, clouds and flowers for subject matter, Georgia O’Keeffe reduced them to their simplest form, often by employing a close-up view or some other unusual vantage point. With such techniques, including the use of thin paint and clear colors to emphasize a feeling of mystical silence and space, she achieved an abstract simplicity in her paintings. O’Keeffe spent a summer in New Mexico in 1929 and the bleak landscape and broad skies of the desert so appealed to her that she later settled there permanently. Cows’ skulls and other bare bones found in the desert were frequent motifs in her paintings. Other common subjects included flowers, the sky, and the horizon lines of the desert. After O’Keeffe’s three-month trip around the world by plane in 1959, the sky“paved with clouds”as seen from an airplane also became one of her favorite motifs and the subject of her largest work, a 24-foot mural that she began in 1966.

　　21. With what subject is the passage mainly concerned?

　　A. Georgia O’Keeffe’s trip around the world

　　B. The private life of Georgia O’Keeffe

　　C. The paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe

　　D. Georgia O’Keeffe’s greatest work of art

　　22. Which of the following is an example of something often painted by O’Keeffe?

　　A. An airport B. A deserted street

　　C. An astronaut in outer space D. A cloud formation

　　23. With which of the following statements concerning Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?

　　A. They generally create a sense of stillness and open space

　　B. They are so realistic that they often resemble ordinary photographic images

　　C. Most of them are portraits of the painter’s friends and relatives

　　D. They represent humans in an eternal struggle with the forces of nature

　　24. Which of the following aspects of the desert landscape is NOT mentioned by the author as one that attracted O’Keeffe’s attention?

　　A. Bones B. Sand

　　C. The sky D. Flowers

　　Passage 2

　　In general, as soon as the newborn child’s muscles, sense organs, and nerves are fully formed, the child begins to use them. But much of the human nervous system is not fully developed until the child is a year or two old, and some parts, such as the corpus callosum, continue to mature for at least the next 20 years.

　　The general pattern of bodily development is from head to foot. Simple skills, such as head movements, appear first because the structures that control these skills are among the first to mature. More complex behavior patterns, such as crawling, standing, and walking, come much later in the developmental sequence than head movements do.

　　The motor centers in the brain are connected by long nerve fibers(usually through one or more synapses) to the muscles in various parts of the body. Since the head muscles are closer to the brain than the foot muscles, according to one theory, the head comes under the control of the motor centers long before the feet do. The appearance of a new motor skill(such as crawling and grasping) always suggests that a new part of the child’s body has just matured—that is, that the brain centers have just begun to control the muscles involved in the new motor skill.

　　25. What is the author’s main purpose in this passage?

　　A. To describe how children crawl, stand, and walk

　　B. To explain why some children are slow to develop

　　C. To describe early physical development in children

　　D. To explain the function of the corpus callosum

　　26. According to the passage, the corpus callosum is part of the human ________.

　　A. muscular system B. digestive system

　　C. circulatory system D. nervous system

　　27. According to the passage, which of the following motor skills does an infant first develop?

　　A. Moving the head B. Crawling

　　C. Controlling the arms D. Kicking

　　Passage 3

　　When we accept the evidence of our unaided eyes and describe the Sun as a yellow star, we have summed up the most important single fact about it—at this moment in time. It appears probable, however, that sunlight will be the color we know for only a negligibly small part of the Sun’s history.

　　Stars, like individuals, age and change. As we look out into space, we see around us stars at all stages of evolution. There are faint bloodred dwarfs so cool that their surface temperature is a mere 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there are searing ghosts blazing at 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost too hot to be seen, for the great part of their radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet range. Obviously, the“daylight”produced by any star depends on its temperature; today(and for ages to come) our Sun is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that most of the Sun’s light is concentrated in the yellow band of the spectrum, falling slowly in intensity toward both the longer and shorter light waves.

　　That yellow“hump”will shift as the Sun evolves, and the light of day will change accordingly. It is natural to assume that as the Sun grows older, and uses up its hydrogen fuel—which it is now doing at the spanking rate of half a billion tons a second－it will become steadily colder and redder.

　　28. What is the passage mainly about?

　　A. Faint dwarf stars B. The evolutionary cycle of the Sun

　　C. The Sun’s fuel problem D. The dangers of invisible radiation

　　29. What does the author say is especially important about the Sun at the present time?

　　A. It appears yellow B. It always remains the same

　　C. It has a short history D. It is too cold

　　30. Why are very hot stars referred to as“ghosts”?

　　A. They are short-lived. B. They are mysterious.

　　C. They are frightening. D. They are nearly invisible.

　　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 Lady or the Tiger, what was the king like? How was he different from his neighbors?

　　2. What kind of woman was the heroine in The Necklace ?

　　3. What insects appear in the last story of The Animals of Aesop? And what did the grasshopper do all summer?

　　4. Why did Shylock in The Merchant of Venice have a special hatred for Antonio?