1、公共英语(五级)15 及答案解析(总分：7.00，做题时间：120 分钟)一、Section II Use of E(总题数：1，分数：1.00)Perhaps there are far 【B1】 wives than I imagine who take it for 【B2】 that housework is neither satisfying nor even important once the basic demands of hygiene and feeding have been 【B3】 But home and family is the one realm in 【
2、B4】 it is really difficult to shake free of ones upbringing and 【B5】 new values. My parents house was impeccably kept; cleanliness was a moral and social virtue, and personal untidiness, visibly old clothes, or long male hair provoked biting jocularity. If that 【B6】 been all, maybe I could have adap
3、ted myself 【B7】 housework on an easy-going, utilitarian basis, refusing the moral overtones 【B8】 still believing in it as something constructive 【B9】 it is part of creating a home. But at the same time my mother 【B10】 to resent doing it, called it drudgery, and convinced me that it wasnt a fit activ
4、ity for an intelligent being. I was the only child, and once I was at school there was no 【B11】 why she should have continued 【B12】 her will to remain housebound, unless, as I suspect, my father would not hear of her having a job of her own. I can now begin to 【B13】 why a woman in a small suburban h
5、ouse, with no infants to look after, who does not 【B14】 reading because she has not had much of an education, and who is intelligent 【B15】 to find neighborly chit-chat boring, should carry the pursuit of microscopic specks of dust to the 【B16】 of fanaticism in an 【B17】 to fill hours and salvage her
6、self-respect. My parents had not even the status-seeking impetus to send me to university that Joes had; my mother 【B18】 me to be “a nice quiet person who wouldnt be 【B19】 in a crowd“ , and it was feared that university education 【B20】 in ingratitude (independence). （分数：1.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项
7、 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_二、Section III Reading(总题数：3，分数：3.00)In the immediate post-war years, the city of Birmingham scheduled some 50,000 small working class cottage as slums due for demolition. Today that pr
8、ocess is nearly complete. Yet it is clear that, quite apart from any question of race, an environmental problem remains. The expectation built into the planning policies of 1945 was that in the foreseeable future the city would be a better place to live in. But now that slum clearance has run its co
9、urse, there seems to be universal agreement that the total environment where the slums once stood is more depressing than ever. For the past ten years the slum clearance areas have looked like bomb sites. The buildings and places survived on islands in a sea of rubble and ash. When the slums were th
10、ere they supported an organic community life and each building, each activity, fitted in as part of the whole. But now that they have been destroyed, nothing meaningful appears to remain, or rather those activities which do go on do not seem to have any meaningful relation to the place. They happen
11、there because it is an empty stage which no one is using any more. Typical of the inner-city in this sense is the Birmingham City Football Ground. Standing in unsplendid isolation on what is now wasteland on the edge of Small Heath, it brings into the area a stage army on twenty or so Saturdays a ye
12、ar who come and cheer and then go away again with little concern any more for the place where they have done their cheering. Even they, however, have revolted recently. “The ground,“ says the leader of the revolt, “is a slum“, thus putting his finger on the fact that the demolition of houses creats
13、rather than solves problems of the inner-city. A new element has now come upon the scene in the inner-city in the form of the tower block. Somehow it doesnt seem to be what Le Corbusier and the planners who wrote those post-war Pelicans intended. The public spaces either havent yet been developed or
14、 are more meanly conceived, and the corridors and lifts are places of horror. In fact these places were always suspected. They had no legitimacy in the minds of the public as suburban family housing had, and those who were placed there felt that they had been cheated. Along with the decaying element
15、s, therefore, that which had been conceived as part of the brave new world was part of the problem. （分数：1.00）(1).The past few decades in Birmingham have proved that slum clearance_.（分数：0.20）A.will usually take longer than expectedB.creates as many problems as it solvesC.often raises racial issuesD.a
16、lways achieves its aims, if well planned(2).According to the passage, now that the slum dwellings have gone, _.（分数：0.20）A.no one does anything at all in those areasB.urban theatrical life has gone, tooC.rebuilding can start almost immediatelyD.the area is extremely unattractive(3).According to the a
17、uthor, a number of Birmingham City football fans_.（分数：0.20）A.seem to be reluctant to continue supporting their teamB.are as rebellious as any other clubs supportersC.get necessary release from watching their team playD.are concerned about the future of that part of Birmingham(4).What did people thin
18、k about tower blocks when they were first built?（分数：0.20）A.Town planners thought they were badly conceived.B.The public compared them with rural housing.C.The man in the street mistrusted them.D.People thought them an improvement on suburban housing.(5).From the style in which its written, this pass
19、age was almost certainly taken from_.（分数：0.20）A.an official local planning reportB.a novel set in BirminghamC.a history of the Industrial RevolutionD.a sociology textbookNo woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit
20、of our times. Being thin is deemed as such a virtue. The problem with such a view is that some people actually attempt to live by it. I myself have fantasies of slipping into narrow designer clothes. Consequently, I have been on a diet for the better or worse part of my life. Being rich wouldnt be b
21、ad either, but that wont happen unless an unknown relative dies suddenly in some distant land, leaving me millions of dollars. Where did we go off the track? When did eating butter become a sin, and a little bit of extra flesh unappealing, if not repellent? All religions have certain days when peopl
22、e refrain from eating, and excessive eating is one of Christianitys seven deadly sins. However, until quite recently, most people had a problem getting enough to eat. In some religious groups, wealth was a symbol of probable salvation and high morals, and fatness a sign of wealth and well-being. Tod
23、ay the opposite is true. We have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat or even only somewhat overweight is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength. Our obsession with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have mor
24、e overweight people than ever before, and that, in many case, being overweight correlates with an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases, however, may have as much to do with our way of life and our high-fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in
25、the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem too much fat and a lack of fiber than a weight problem. The real concern, then, is not that we weigh too much, but that we neither exercise enough nor eat well. Exercise is necessary for strong bones and both heart and lung health. A balanced die
26、t without a lot of fat can also help the body avoid many diseases. We should surely stop paying so much attention to weight. Simply being thin is not enough. It is actually hazardous if those who get ( or already are) thin think they are automatically healthy and thus free from paying attention to t
27、heir overall life-style. Thinness can be pure vain glory. （分数：1.00）(1).In the eyes of the author, an odd phenomenon nowadays is that_.（分数：0.20）A.the Duchess of Windsor is regarded as a woman of virtueB.looking slim is a symbol of having a large fortuneC.being thin is viewed as a much desired quality
28、D.religious people are not necessarily virtuous(2).Swept by the prevailing trend, the author_.（分数：0.20）A.had to go on a diet for the greater part of her lifeB.could still prevent herself from going off the trackC.had to seek help from rich distant relativesD.had to wear highly fashionable clothes(3)
29、.In human history, peoples views on body weight_.（分数：0.20）A.were closely related to their religious beliefsB.changed from time to timeC.varied between the poor and the richD.led to different moral standards(4).The author criticizes womens obsession with thinness_.（分数：0.20）A.from an economic and educ
30、ational perspectiveB.from sociological and medical points of viewC.from a historical and religious standpointD.in the light of moral principles(5).Whats the authors advice to women who are absorbed in the idea of thinness?（分数：0.20）A.They should be more concerned with their overall lifestyle.B.They s
31、hould be more watchful for fatal diseases.C.They should gain weight to look healthy.D.They should rid themselves of fantasies about designer clothes.Steve Courtney wrote historical novels. Not, he was quick to explain, over-colorful love stories of the kind that made so much money for so many women
32、writers, but novels set, and correctly set, in historical periods. Whatever difference he saw in his own books, his readers did not seem to notice it, and his readers were nearly all women. He had studied in university, and he had been a particularly good student, and he had never afterwards let any
33、 academic knowledge he had achieved interfere with his writing. Helen, his wife, who did not have a very high opinion of her husbands ability as a novelist, had been careful to say when she married him she was not historically minded. Above all, Helen was doubtful whether her relationship with Steve
34、 would work at all in the village of Stretton, to which they had just moved. It was Steve who had wanted to move to the country, and she had been glad of the change, in principle, whatever doubts she was now having about Stretton as a choice. But she wondered whether Steve would, before long, want t
35、o live in London again, and what she would do if he did. The Stretton house was not a weekend cottage. They had moved into it and given up the London flat altogether, partly at least, she suspected, because that was Steves idea of what a successful author ought to do. However, she thought he was not
36、 going to feel like a successful author half as much in Stretton as he had in London. On the other hand, she supposed he might just start dashing up to London for the day to see his agent or have dinner with his publisher, leaving her behind in Stretton, and she thought on the whole she would like t
37、hat. （分数：1.00）(1).What was Steves attitude towards women who wrote love stories?（分数：0.20）A.He would have liked to earn as much money as they did.B.He was afraid of being compared unfavourably with them.C.He did not think he could write about the same subjects.D.He had a low opinion of the kind of bo
38、oks they wrote.(2).What did Helen have to be careful to hide?（分数：0.20）A.Her lack of interest in history.B.Her low opinion of her husbands writing.C.Her dislike of her husbands admirers.D.Her inability to understand his books.(3).What were Helens feelings about the move from London to Stretton?（分数：0.
39、20）A.She wanted to remain in the country.B.She had been unwilling to leave London.C.She thought it was time to return to London.D.She would have preferred a weekend house in the country.(4).Helen thought Steve might not be content of Stretton because_.（分数：0.20）A.he would not be able to write so well
40、 in the countryB.he would not feel so important in StrettonC.his relationship with Helen was changingD.he would not be lonely without all his London friends(5).The passage as a whole suggests that Steves novels were_.（分数：0.20）A.popular but unimportantB.serious literary worksC.admired for their histo
41、rical truthD.written with women readers in mind三、Part B Directions: I(总题数：1，分数：1.00)From her advantage point she watched the main doors swing open and the first arrivals pour in. Those who had been at the head of the line paused momentarily on entry, looked around curiously, then quickly moved forwa
42、rd as others behind pressed in. Within moments the central public area of the big branch bank was filled with a chattering, noisy crowd. The building, relatively quiet less than a minute earlier, had become a Babel. Edwina saw a tall heavyset black man wave some dollar bills and declare loudly, “I w
43、ant to put my money in the bank. “ 66. ( ) It seemed as if the report about everyone having come to open an account had been accurate after all. Edwina could see the big man leaning back expansively, still holding his dollar bills. His voice cut across the noise of other conversations and she heard
44、him proclaim, “Im in no hurry. Theres something Id like you to explain. “ Two other desks were quickly manned by other clerks. With equal speed, long wide lines of people formed in front of them. Normally, three members of staff were ample to handle new account business, but obviously were inadequat
45、e now. Edwina could see Tottenhoe on the far side of the bank and called him on the intercom. She instructed, “ Use more desks for new accounts and take all the staff you can spare to man them. “ 67. ( ) Tottenhoe grumbled in reply, “You realize we cant possibly process all these people today, and h
46、owever many we do will tie us up completely. “ “ Ive an idea,“ Edwina said, “ thats what someone has in mind. Just hurry the processing all you can. “ 68. ( ) First, an application form called for details of residence, employment, social security, and family matters. A specimen signature was obtaine
47、d. Then proof of identity was needed. After that, the new accounts clerk would take all documents to an officer of the bank for approval and initialing. Finally, a savings passbook was made out or a temporary checkbook issued. Therefore the most new accounts that any bank employee could open in an h
48、our were five, so the three clerks might handle a total of ninety in one business day, if they kept going at top speed, which was unlikely. 69. ( ) Still the noise within the bank increased. It had become an uproar. A further problem was that the growing mass of arrivals in the central public area of the bank was preventing access to tellers counters by other customers. Edwina could see a few of them outside, rega
