1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(十五)及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、BREADING COMPREH(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、BTEXT A/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Clancy Martin knows a lot about lying. Hes now an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, specializing in 19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy and busi
2、ness ethics, and he wrote his dissertation on deception. But he really learned how to lie in his youth, when he was a crackerjack jewelry salesman. Not as good as his brother, perhaps, but good enough to turn a fake Rolex into the real thing and money into the expression of love. I do miss it, Marti
3、n admits. I miss that feeling of being on the edge. Say what you will, there is something fun about deceiving people. It may be a sickness.Talking to Martin about deception can be unnerving. His voice, sweetened with sincerity, has the compulsive tones of a convert. Sincere people make good salesmen
4、. So what to make of Clancy Martin a man who wants to sell his debut novel while reclaiming his soul?When he was young, selling was simple a matter of getting a customer to buy into his fictions. He was a very gifted liar, says his brother and former business partner, Darren. Wed say storyteller a w
5、onderful storyteller. That much is still true, as Martins novel, How to Sell, makes clear. How to Sell is outrageous, theatrical and slicker than oil. It tells the tale of Bobby Clark, a high-school dropout who joins his older brother at a jewelry emporium in Texas. Its a festival of drugs, diamonds
6、 and sex. Prostitution, a saleswoman turned hooker suggests at one point, is a more honest kind of living than the jewelry trade (at least in this book). With what I do now, she tells Bobby, I sleep well at night.Martin was born in Toronto, in 1967. Like his protagonist, he left high school, moved t
7、o Texas and got a job at the jewelry store where his brother worked. I would say that, unfortunately, most of the book is lifted directly from my life with some exaggeration and lots of omission, says Martin cheerfully. For a young man, the life had a kind of reckless glamour. You sell a diamond, an
8、d boom, he says. But Martin was a little different from most employees. He read, for example. Just as Bobby riffs on a Jorge Luis Borges story to sell a bracelet, Martin wove stories for customers from the plotlines of books, and hed read Spinozas Ethics between booze and bumps of coke. Bobbys pain,
9、 too, comes from Martins life: his complicated relationships with his older brother and his charming but crazy father, Bill, who was never quite far enough out of the picture. I think a lot of Clancys interest in self-deception came from his interest in who his dad was, says his ex-wife, Alicia Mart
10、in. It was difficult to know, especially in the later years, talking to Bill, what was real.Martin tried to steer his life in another direction. He went to college, began graduate school in philosophy and married. Then, one day, when he was in Copenhagen working on a paper on Kier Kegaard, his broth
11、er called and asked him to help with the business plan for expanding his jewelry store. Suddenly, Martin was out of school and back in jewels. Unlike the shop started by the brothers in the novel, the Martins joint venture was clean, Darren insists. But the game, more or less, was the same: the proc
12、ess of turning a gem from a mass of matter into a narrative of possibility.In the seven years Martin worked there, life was never boring, but it wasnt much of a life. I had all this experience, and no sense of moral responsibility, Martin says. His marriage broke up. He despaired. But he began writi
13、ng, and that seemed to offer the promise of something worthwhile. Id been doing all this cocaine, he says, and I got to the office very early, 5 or 6:30 in the morning. At this time I was so close to killing myself, and every morning I made it part of my ritual: Id get my gun and go into the bathroo
14、m and look in the mirror with the gun in my mouth, and finally I said, I cant do this anymore, and I went into the office and went to my computer and wrote this short story. He returned to graduate school. He wanted to understand deception and self-deception not practice it. Insofar as he could.Mart
15、in remarried and became a professor. In addition to writing fiction, he translates Nietzsche and has edited several collections on ethics (including the forthcoming Philosophy of Deception); his nonfiction book Love, Lies and Marriage comes out next year. When we spoke two months ago, he said his li
16、fe was now incredibly calm and domestic. He did not say that he was undergoing one of the most trying periods of his life. Last week, Martin sent an e-mail that had the rush of confession. I dont know if I mentioned that I did try, finally, to kill myself, about four months ago, he wrote. He said th
17、at he was now finally sober, and that the spring had been an interesting road, learning rigorous honesty and moral inventory and all that. Being true to oneself, it turns out, is not something that can be learned entirely in the classroom, or through the therapy of writing a novel.When we first spok
18、e, Martin talked about Nietzsches insistence on the necessity of being honest about self-deception. We have to recognize that to flourish as human beings, we have to lie to ourselves, he said. But were not going to lie to ourselves about that. We deceive ourselves with open eyes.With How to Sell, Ma
19、rtin has written a gem of a story. Selling it probably wont be hard. The bigger challenge for Martin might be to learn how to stop selling.（分数：25.00）(1).In Martins book, the jewelry business is A. an ideal place for high school drop-outs to start their career. B. like a party in which everybody enjo
20、ys the excitement and luxury. C. full of opportunities for knowledgeable people to prosper. D. a world where people rarely value the virtue of honesty.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Which of the following is NOT true about Bobby Clark, the protagonist of the book How to Sell? A. He makes use of what he has re
21、ad to promote sale. B. He was born in Toronto and dropped out of high school. C. He has a brother who introduces him into the jewelry business. D. His relationship with his father is rather complicated.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).It can be inferred from paragraph 5 and 6 EXCEPT that A. the sense of moral r
22、esponsibility is important to marriage. B. the jewelry business has great appeal to Martin. C. philosophy is a much less interesting subject than deception. D. excitement is not the most important component of life.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).The sentence in the last paragraph The bigger challenge for Mart
23、in might be to learn how to stop selling implies that A. once a person learns how to sell, the skill will never be forgotten. B. if a book becomes a best-seller, it is difficult not to stop selling it. C. cheating might become a kind of addiction that is hard to get rid of. D. books on cheating can
24、always arouse peoples interest of purchase.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Which of the following does this passage most probably belong to? A. A book review in a newspaper. B. An introduction in a jewelry magazine. C. An extract from a biography. D. An analysis of deception from an essay.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.三、BT
25、EXT B/B(总题数：1，分数：30.00)Dumb and Dumber, one of the modern classics of American comedy, tells the story of an affable idiot, Lloyd Christmas, who falls in love with a classy beauty, Mary Swanson. In one scene he asks her the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me ending up together. The answer
26、is Not good. Not good like one out of a hundred? asks Lloyd. More like one out of a million, Mary replies. Lloyd pauses for a moment, then shoots back, So youre telling me theres a chance?That is the American spirit. Americans have traditionally been much more optimistic than Europeans, and happier
27、too. They believe that people determine their own destinies rather than being the mere playthings of fate. They also believe that their children will have a better life than they do.This helps to explain the dynamism of the American economy. Americans regard failure even bankruptcy as a stone in the
28、 road rather than a damning verdict. It also helps to explain the appeal of the American experiment. The American, by nature, is optimistic, JFK once said. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly. Europeans ask, Why? Americans ask, Why not?But
29、the past five years have produced a dramatic souring in the countrys mood. Three- quarters of Americans now think that the country is on the wrong track. The number of people who are hostile to trade and immigration has risen sharply, as has the number who think that America should engage less in wo
30、rld affairs. Trust in government is half what it was in 2001. Both the president and Congress have bargain-basement approval ratings. And people are increasingly pessimistic about the future. Barely a third thinks that their children will be better off than they themselves are. The reason why the ma
31、n with the message of hope, Barack Obama, and the man who hails from Hope, Mike Huckabee, are doing so well is that people think hope is in short supply.There are good reasons for this pessimism. People are tired of the Bush administration, with its partisanship and incompetence. The Iraq war has sh
32、attered Americas image of itself as a mighty but good-hearted giant. Iraq means chaos and Abu Ghraib rather than the triumphant export of democracy.The war may be going better of late, but the majority of Americans still think that it was not worth the fighting, and the bad news about the economy is
33、 burying the good news about the surge. Americans are accustomed to thinking of their houses as pots of gold (and pots of gold that can be remortgaged when you need a bit of extra cash). The gold is now turning into lead.This is creating a bull market in pessimism. The likes of Bill OReilly and Lou
34、Dobbs have transformed themselves into cable stars by ranting about cultural decay and broken borders. Patrick Buchanans latest book is called Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology and Greed Are Tearing America Apart. We are on a path to national suicide, he says. America is not just coming apart,
35、but also decomposing.There is certainly no shortage of bad news. But coming apart? Decomposing? The current issue of Commentary a magazine hardly noted for its sunny disposition contains an excellent article, Crime, Drugs, Welfare and Other Good News by Peter Wehner (a former senior White House aide
36、) and Yuval Levin, which shows why Mr Buchanan is talking through his hat.（分数：30.00）(1).The authors purpose in quoting Dumb and Dumber is A. to introduce to the reader a typical American movie. B. to illustrate what is typical of American mind, will and feelings. C. to indicate that every American h
37、as the right to pursue happiness. D. to show the humor and straightforwardness of Americans.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Which of the following is NOT a part of the traditional American spirit? A. Failure is regarded as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling stone. B. Ones destiny is in the charge of ones
38、elf, but not at the mercy of others. C. The next generation will have a more prosperous future. D. Americans are more willing to do experiments than the European counterparts.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).All the following are seen as a dramatic change in the countrys mood EXCEPT A. the majority of Americans
39、 think that the country is being led astray. B. more and more Americans are opposed to their countrys more involvement in world affairs. C. the Bush administrations approval rating hits an all-time low ever since 2001. D. most people look forward hopefully to the government led by Barack Obama.（分数：5
40、.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Which of the following is cited as an expression of American pessimism? A. America is no longer a mighty and good-hearted giant. B. Bill OReilly and his like are popular among the public. C. Americans consider their houses as pots of lead. D. Most Americans think the Iraq war was not
41、 worth the fighting.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).The phrase talking through his hat (Last line in the last paragraph) most probably means A. talking with the hat in hand. B. talking in a showy way. C. talking nonsense. D. talking without hesitation.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(6).What can be inferred from the last two
42、 paragraphs? A. Americans are witnessing cultural decay and broken borders. B. America will be torn apart some day by evils such as greed. C. The article in Commentary holds a view that is opposite to that of Buchanan. D. Good news is in short supply now in America.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.四、BTEXT C/B(总题数：1
43、，分数：20.00)Many parents may think that each new sibling offers their offspring the gift of companionship. But while we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings.Mos
44、t studies look at the negative consequences of having siblings in terms of educational outcome, said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, the lead author of the study. But we decided to look at social skills to see if there was any other possible benefit to having brothers or sisters. She and her co-author, Douglas
45、 Downey are sociologists at Ohio States Marion campus, and neither is an only child. They presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August.The paper is in large part a reply to a 2004 study, Playing Well with Others in Kindergarten: The Benefits of Si
46、blings at Home, also co-authored by Dr.Downey, which found that kindergarten teachers rated children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills, self-control and problem behaviors.But an only child isnt necessarily a loner, misfit and brat. First, the social advantages found in children with sib
47、lings in the kindergarten study were quite modest. Second, the study relied on teacher evaluations, and teachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among their charges.And now it seems that any benefits documented in kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Using a metric called pe
48、er nomination, in which youths are asked to identify their friends by name, Dr.Downey and Dr.Bobbitt-Zeher drew on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, with a sample size of 13,466 students in 7th through 12th grades. They then counted how many people named each individual as a friend. This was used
