1、公共英语五级-210 及答案解析(总分：113.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Use of Eng(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Recent surveys show that Japanese youth have become a “Me Generation“ that rejects traditional values. “Around 1980 many Japanese, 1 young people abandoned the values of economic success and began 2 for new sets of values to 3
2、 them happiness,“ writes sociologist Yasuhiro in Comparative Civilizations Review. Japanese youth are placing more importance on the individual“s pursuit of 4 and less on the values of work, family, and society. Japanese students seem to be losing patience with work, 5 their counterparts in the Unit
3、ed States and Korea. In a 1993 6 of college students in the three countries, only 10% of the Japanese regarded 7 as a primary value compared with 47% of Korean students and 27% of American students. A greater 8 of Japanese aged 1824 also preferred easy jobs 9 heavy responsibility. The younger Japane
4、se are showing less concern for family values as they pursue an inner world of private satisfaction. Data collected 10 the Japanese government in 1993 shows that only 23% of Japanese youth are thinking about supporting their aged parents, in contrast 11 63% of young Americans. It appears that many y
5、ounger-generation Japanese are 12 both respect for their parents 13 a sense of responsibility to the family. Author Yoshizaki attributes the change 14 Japanese parents ! over-indulgence of their children, material affluence, and growing 15 for private matters. The shift 16 individualism among Japane
6、se is most pronounced among 17 very young.According to 1991 data 18 the Bunka Center of Japan, 50% of Japanese youth aged 1619 can be labeled “self-centered“ compared with 33% among 19 aged 25-29. To earn the self-centered label, the young people responded positively to 20 ideas as “I would like to
7、make decisions without considering traditional values“ and “I don“t want to do anything I can“t enjoy doing. “（分数：20.00）二、Section Reading Co(总题数：0，分数：0.00)三、Part A(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Text 1(总题数：1，分数：4.00)In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytim
8、e television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be consid
9、ered the king of “trash talk“. The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the eye, common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of so
10、ciety“s moral catastrophes, yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments of other people“s lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual“s quality
11、 of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word“. He makes a small speech that sums u
12、p the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show“s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life
13、“s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18-to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath th
14、e show“s exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk
15、 show world.（分数：4.00）(1).Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are_ .（分数：0.80）A.more family-orientedB.unusually popularC.more profoundD.relatively formal(2).Though the social problems Jerry Springer talks about appear distasteful, the audience_ .（分数：0.80）A.
16、remain fascinated by themB.are ready to face up to themC.remain indifferent to themD.are willing to get involved in them(3).Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?（分数：0.80）A.A new type of robot.B.Racist hatred.C.Family budget planning.D.Street violence.(4).Despite t
17、heir different approaches, the two talk shows are both_ .（分数：0.80）A.ironicalB.sensitiveC.instructiveD.cynical(5).We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows_ .（分数：0.80）A.have monopolized the talk show circuitB.exploit the weaknesses in human natureC.appear at different times of the dayD.ar
18、e targeted at different audiences五、Text 2(总题数：1，分数：4.00)Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life, By openin
19、g vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant from city centers than they were in the pre-modern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarc
20、ely two miles from the old business district; by the end of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of al
21、most every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250, 000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another
22、 550,000 were plotted outside the City limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800, 000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty yearslots that could have housed five to six million people
23、. Of course, many were never occupied: there was always a huge surplus of subdivided but vacant land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carded out b
24、y thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create dema
25、nd as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.（分数：4.00）(1).With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?（分数：0.80）A.Types of mass transportation.B.Instability of urban life
26、.C.How supply and demand determine land use.D.The effects of mass transportation on urban expansion.(2).The author mentions all of the following as effects of mass transportation on cities EXCEPT_.（分数：0.80）A.growth in city areaB.separation of commercial and residential districtsC.changes in life in
27、the inner cityD.increasing standards of living(3).Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?（分数：0.80）A.To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.B.To show that mass transit changed many cities.C.To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.D.To contrast their rates
28、 of growth.(4).According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?（分数：0.80）A.it was expensive.B.It happened too slowly.C.It was unplanned.D.It created a demand for public transportation.(5).The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city_.（分数：0.8
29、0）A.that is largeB.that is used as a model for land developmentC.where land development exceeded population growthD.with an excellent mass transportation system六、Text 3(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Until men invented ways of staying underwater for more than a few minutes, the wonders of the world below the surface
30、 of the sea were almost unknown. The main problem, of course, lies in air. How could air be provided to swimmers below the surface of the sea? Pictures made about 2,900 years ago in Asia show men swimming under the surface with air bags tied to their bodies. A pipe from the bag carried air into the
31、swimmer“s mouth. But little progress was achieved in the invention of diving devices until about 1490, when the famous Italian painter, Leonardo da Vinci, designed a complete diving suit. In 1680, an Italian professor invented a large air bag with a glass window to be worn over the diver“s head. To
32、“clean“ the air a breathing pipe went from the air bag, through another bag to remove moisture, and then again to the large air bag. The plan did not work, but it gave later inventors the idea of moving air around in diving devices. In 1819, a German, Augustus Siebe, developed a way of forcing air i
33、nto the head-covering by a machine operated above the water. At last in 1837, he invented the “hard-hat suit“ which was to be used for nearly a century. It had a metal covering for the head and an air pipe attached to a machine above the water. It also had small openings to remove unwanted air. But
34、there were two dangers to the diver inside the “hard-hat suit“. One was the sudden rise to the surface, caused by a too great supply of air. The other was the crushing of the body, caused by a sudden diving into deep water. The sudden rise to the surface could kill the diver; a sudden dive could for
35、ce his body up into the helmet, which could also result in death. Gradually the “hard-hat suit“ was improved so that the diver could be given a constant supply of air. The diver could then move around under the ocean without worrying about the air supply. During the 1940s diving underwater without a
36、 special suit became popular. Instead, divers used a breathing device and a small covering made of rubber and glass over parts of the face. To improve the swimmer“s speed another new invention was used: a piece of rubber shaped like a giant foot, which was attached to each of the diver“s own feet. T
37、he manufacture of rubber breathing pipes made it possible for divers to float on the surface of the water, observing the marine life underneath them. A special rubber suit enabled them to be in cold water for long periods, collecting specimens of animal and vegetable life that had never been obtaine
38、d in the past. The most important advance, however, was the invention of a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, which is called a “scuba“. Invented by two Frenchmen, Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan, the scuba consists of a mouthpiece joined to one or two tanks of compressed air which are
39、 attached to the diver“s back. The scuba makes it possible for a diver-scientist to work 200 feet underwater or even deeper for several hours. As a result, scientists can now move around freely at great depths, learning about the wonders of the sea.（分数：5.00）(1).In 1490 or so, the main progress menti
40、oned in this passage was（分数：1.00）A.an Italian professor invented a large air bag.B.men invented the best diving devices.C.an Italian painter designed a complete diving suit.D.an air bag.(2).An invention of an Italian professor（分数：1.00）A.gave later inventors the idea of moving air around in diving de
41、vices.B.can “clean“ the air.C.was used to remove moisture.D.was nothing but a plan.(3).The German, Augustus Siebe, invented the “hard-hat suit“ which was used（分数：1.00）A.for nearly a hundred years.B.for almost a thousand years.C.for over a century.D.for a century.(4).Siebe“s invention was not a perfe
42、ct one, because（分数：1.00）A.too great a supply of air could result in a sudden rise to the surface.B.a sudden dive into deep water could cause the crushing of the body.C.the air pipe attached to a machine could be above the surface.D.both A and B.(5).The word “scuba“ is（分数：1.00）A.a certain diver“s nam
43、e.B.an original English word.C.named by the inventor.D.the first letters of five English words.七、Part B(总题数：1，分数：15.00)The year 1972 was marked by publication of a controversial book, The Limits to Growth. This study of the world“s future, done by a team of MIT scientists with the aid of computer “m
44、odes“ of the future of our society, forecast a planet-wide disaster unless humankind sharply limits its population growth and consumption of natural resources. 1 Many refused to believe that disaster is possible, probable, inevitableif we don“t change our mode of running Spaceship Earth. But for sci
45、ence fiction people were neither surprised nor outraged. The study was really old news to them. They“d been making their own “models“ of tomorrow and testing them all their lives. For what the scientists attempted with their computer model is very much like the thing that science fiction writers and
46、 readers have been doing for decades. Instead of using a computer to “model“ a future world society, science fiction writers have used their human imaginations; This gives the writers some enormous advantages. 2 Science fiction writers are not in the business of predicting the future. They do someth
47、ing much more important. They try to show the many possible futures that lie open to us. For there is not simply a future, a time to come that“s inevitable. Our future is built, hit by bit, minute by minute, by the actions of human beings. One vital role of science fiction is to show what kinds of f
48、uture might result from certain kinds of human actions. 3 For while a scientist“s job has largely ended when he“s reduced his data to tabular or graph form, the work of a science fiction writer is just beginning. His task is to convey the human story: the scientific basis for the possible future of
49、his story is merely the background. Perhaps “merely“ is too limiting a word. Much of science fiction consists of precious little except the background, the basic idea, the gimmick. But the best of science fiction, the stories that make a lasting impact on generations of readers, are stories about people. The people may be non-human. They may be robots or other types of machines. But they will be people, in the sense that human readers can feel for them, share their joys and sorrows, their dangers and their ultimate successes. 4 The formula for telling a po
