考研英语阅读理解标准90篇+提高30篇unit-812817.pdf

《考研英语阅读理解标准90篇+提高30篇unit-812817.pdf》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《考研英语阅读理解标准90篇+提高30篇unit-812817.pdf（21页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、 学英语 找长喜 1 Unit 8 Nothing is to be got without pains but poverty.世上唯有贫穷可以不劳而获。学习内容 题 材 词 数 建议时间 得分统计 做题备忘 Part A Text 1 科普知识 429 /10 Text 2 商业经济 421 /10 Text 3 文化教育 457 /10 Text 4 社会生活 432 /10 Part B 科普知识 592 /10 Part C 文化教育 479 /10 Part A Directions：Read the following texts.Answer the questions blo

2、w each text by choosing A,B,C or D.Text 1 Traffic statistics paint a gloomy picture.To help solve their traffic woes,some rapidly growing U.S.cities have simply built more roads.But traffic experts say building more roads is a quick-fix solution that will not alleviate the traffic problem in the lon

3、g run.Soaring land costs,increasing concern over social and environmental disruptions caused by road-building,and the likelihood that more roads can only lead to more cars and traffic are powerful factors bearing down on a 1950s-style constructions program.The goal of smart-highway technology is to

4、make traffic systems work at optimum efficiency by treating the road and the vehicles traveling on them as an integral transportation system.Proponents of this advanced technology say electronic detection systems,closed-circuit television radio communication,ramp metering,variable message signing,an

5、d other smart highway technology can now be used at a reasonable cost to improve communication between drivers and the people who monitor traffic.Pathfinder,a Santa Monica,California-based smart-highway project in which a 14-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Freeway,making up what is called a“smart c

6、orridor”,is being instrumented with buried loops in the pavement.Closed-circuit television cameras survey the flow of traffic,while communications linked to properly equipped automobiles advise motorists of the least congested routes or detours.Not all traffic experts,however,look to smart-highway t

7、echnology as the ultimate solution to traffic gridlock.Some say the high-tech approach is limited and can only offer temporary solutions to a serious problem.“Electronics on the highway addresses just one aspect of the problem:how to regulate traffic more efficiently,”explains Michael Renner,senior

8、researcher at the Worldwatch Institute.“It doesnt deal with the central problems of too many cars for roads that cant be built fast enough.It sends people the wrong message.”“They start thinking Yes,there used to be a traffic congestion problem,but thats been solved now because we have an advanced h

9、igh-tech system in place.”Larson agrees and adds,“Smart highways is just one of the tools that we will use to deal with our traffic problems.Its not the solution itself,just part of the package.There are different strategies.”学英语 找长喜 2 Other traffic problem-solving options being studied and experime

10、nted which include car pooling,rapid mass-transit systems,staggered or flexible work hours,and road pricing,a system whereby motorists pay a certain amount for the time they use a highway It seems that we need a new,major thrust to deal with the traffic problems of the next 20 years.There has to be

11、a big change.1.The compound word“quick-fix”(Line 4,Paragraph 1)most probably means A best B helpful C ready Defficient 2.According to the text,the smart highway technology is aimed to A integrate the road and the vehicles on them into a transportation system B advise motorists of the least congested

12、 routes.C optimize the highway capabilities.D improve communication between driver and the traffic monitors.3.Which of the following is true of Pathfinder?A Its a good example of smart highway technology.B Its a project of a 14-mile stretch of freeway.C Its a smart corridor dealing with traffic prob

13、lems.D It offers ultimate solutions to a serious traffic problem.4.According to Larson,to deal with the traffic problem,A car pooling must be studied.B rapid mass transit systems must be introduced.C flexible work hours must be experimented.D overall strategies must be coordinated.5.Which of the fol

14、lowing is the best title for this text?A Smart Highway Projects The Ultimate Solution to Traffic Congestion.B A Quick-fix Solution for the Traffic Problems.C A V enture to Remedy Traffic Woes.D Highways Get Smart Part of the Package to Relieve Traffic Gridlock.Text2 Americas economic recovery remain

15、s uncomfortably weak.The latest data show industrial production falling while the trade deficit soars to record levels.To round off a dismal week for economic statistics,the Fed announced that industrial production fell by 0.2%in December compared with the previous month.That came as a disappointmen

16、t to economists who had been expecting a small rise.Monthly data are always unreliable,of course;there is always a plausible explanation for unexpectedly bad(or good)news.But nearly all recent economic statistics point to the same conclusion that Americas recovery remains sluggish and erratic.It cou

17、ld put pressure on the Fed to consider cutting interest rates again when its policy-making committee meets at the end of the month.The biggest obstacle to healthier economic performance,though,is political.As the Feds chairman,Alan Greenspan,acknowledged in the closing months of 2002,uncertain about

18、 the future is holding both investors and consumers back.The shadowy threat of international terrorism and the much more explicit prospect of a war with Iraq have made many Americans nervous about the future.For businesses still reeling from the speed at which the late-1990s boom turned to 学英语 找长喜 3

19、 slump,the political climate is one more reason to put off investing in new plant and equipment or hiring new staff.For consumers,for so long the mainstay of the American economy,the thrill of the shopping mall seems,finally,to be on the wane.It is hard to put a favorable interpretation on most of t

20、he data.But it is important to keep a sense of perspective.Some recent figures look disappointing partly because they fall short of over-optimistic forecasts a persistent weakness of those paid to predict the economic future,no matter how often they are proved wrong.The Fed will be watching carefull

21、y for further signs of weakness during the rest of the month.Mr.Greenspan is an avid,even obsessive,consumer of economic data.He has made it clear that the Fed stands ready to reduce interest rates again if it judges it necessary even after 12 cuts in the past two years.At its last meeting,though,wh

22、en it kept rates on hold,the Fed signaled that it did not expect to need to reduce rates any further.Monetary policy still offers the best short-term policy response to weak economic activity,and with inflation low the Fed still has scope for further relaxation.President Bushs much-vaunted fiscal st

23、imulus is unlikely to provide appropriate help,and certainly not in a timely way.6.Which of the following best describes Americas economic situation now?A It is flourishing.B It faces an uncertain future.C It remains depressing.D It shows unreliable signs.7.The figure 0.2%in paragraph 1 indicates th

24、at A Americas economic recovery is still shaky.B Economists are disappointed at the future economy.C It is a good sign for Americas economic recovery.D The biggest obstacle to healthier economic performance is political.8.What factor makes investors put off investing in new plant and equipment?A The

25、 sluggish economic situation.B The direct threat of international terrorism.C The possibility of international terrorism.D Investors shortage of capital.9.What is the writers attitude toward some recent figures mentioned in paragraph 3?A Optimistic.B Skeptical.C Worrisome.D Critical 10.How does mone

26、tary policy offer help for weak economic activity?A It can stimulate investment in new plant and equipment.B It can reduce interest rates so as to stimulate weak economic activity.C The Fed tries to keep inflation low.D President Bush can offer appropriate monetary policy.Text 3“I want to criticize

27、the social system,and to show it at work,at its most intense.”Virginia Woolfs provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs.Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics,since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the“poetic

28、”novelist concerned with examining states of reverie and vision 学英语 找长喜 4 and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness.But Virginia Woolf was a realistic as well as a poetic novelist,a satirist and social critic as well as a visionary:literary critic s cavalier dismissal of

29、Woolfs social vision will not withstand scrutiny.In her novels,Woolf is deeply engaged by the questions of how individuals are shaped(or deformed)by their social environments,how historical forces impinge on peoples lives,how class,wealth,and gender help to determine peoples fates.Most of her novels

30、 are rooted in a realistically rendered social setting and in a precise historical time.Woolfs focus on societys has not been generally recognized because of her intense antipathy to propaganda in art.The pictures of reformers in her novels are usually satiric or sharply critical.Even when Woolf is

31、fundamentally sympathetic to their causes,she portrays people anxious to reform their society and possessed of a message or program as arrogant or dishonest,unaware of how their political ideas serve their own psychological needs.(Her Writers Diary notes:“the only honest people are the artists,where

32、as those social reformers and philanthropists.harbor.discreditable desires under the disguise of loving their kind.”)Woolf detested what she called“preaching”in fiction,too,and criticized novelist D.H.Lawrence(among others)for working by this method.Woolfs own social criticism is expressed in the la

33、nguage of observation rather than in direct commentary,since for her,fiction is a contemplative,not an active art.She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues;it is the readers work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of

34、 view behind them.As a moralist,Woolf words by indirection,subtly undermining officially accepted mores,mocking,suggesting,calling into question,rather than asserting,advocating,bearing witness:hers is the satirists art.Woolfs literary models were acute social observers like Chekhov and Chaucer.As s

35、he put it in The Common Reader,“It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote;and yet,as we read him,we are absorbing morality at every pore.”Like Chaucer,Woolf chose to understand as well as to judge,to know her socie

36、ty s root and branch a decision crucial in order to produce art rather than polemic.11.Whats the autho s attitude towards the literary critics mentioned in paragraph 1?A scornful.B ironic.C joking.D disappointed.12.According to the text,Woolf realistically described the social setting in her novels

37、in that A she was aware that literary critics considered the novel to be the most realistic.B she was interested in the effect of social condition on people s characters and actions.C she needed to be attentive to details to support the arguments she advanced.D she wished to prevent critics from cha

38、rging her for an ambiguous and inexact style.13.According to the text,Woolf chose Chaucer as a literary model because she believed that A he was the first English author to focus on society as well as on individual characters.B he was an honest author trying to asserting,advocating bearing witness.C

39、 he was more concerned with calling the society s accepted mores into question.Dhis writing was greatly,if subtly,effective in influencing the moral attitudes of his readers.14.Which of the following is true according to the text?A Woolf showed herself to be sympathetic to the reformers in her writi

40、ngs.学英语 找长喜 5 B Woolf criticized D.H.Lawrence for the realistic settings in his novels.C Woolf didnt remarked on the social issues directly in her novels.D Literary critics had ignored the social criticism in the works of Chekhov and Chaucer.15.Which would be the best title for this text?A A Key to

41、Understanding Virginia Woolfs Novels.B Poetry and Satire as Influences on the Novels of Virginia Woolf.C Virginia Woolfs Comment on the Twentieth Century Novel.D Virginia Woolfs NovelsReflections on the Individual and Society.Text 4 Age has its privileges in America,and one of the more prominent of

42、them is the senior citizen discount.Anyone who has reached a certain age in some cases as low as 55 is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life.Eligibility is determined not by ones need but by the date on ones birth certificate.Practica

43、lly unheard of a generation ago,the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in model rooms and free coffee on airliners.People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them:yet,millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy a

44、nd solvent.Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans.The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that elderly and needy are synonymous.Perhaps that once was true,but today elderly Americans as a group

45、have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population.To be sure,there is economic diversity within the elderly,and many older Americans are poor.But most of them arent.It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies.For many firms,they are a stimulus to revenue

46、.But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense,directly or indirectly,of younger Americans.Moreover,they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Se

47、curity benefits,which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old.Employment is another sore point.Buoyed by laws and court decisions,more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion oppo

48、rtunities for younger workers.Far from a kind of charity they once were,senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who dont need them.It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority ov

49、er those of others.Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people cant take care of themselves and need special treatment;and they threaten the creation of a new myth,that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups.Senior ci

50、tizen discounts are essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age.16.Accoding to paragraph1,we know that A offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice.B senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a decent life.学英