阅读理解-练习十五及答案解析.doc

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1、阅读理解-练习十五及答案解析(总分：20.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Text A(总题数：1，分数：2.00)From ancient Mayan heads to modern video installations, the culture of Mexico is surging into the United States.Over the next two years, and perhaps for a good deal longer, major Mexican art shows will be at American museums almost without in

2、terruption. There will also be many smaller shows, along with presentations of Mexican music, theater and dance in modern as well as traditional forms.This new wave of cultural generosity supports the politics of President Vicente Fox, who favors closer relations between the United States and Mexico

3、.“It is not a coincidence,“ said Ignacio Duran, cultural minister at the Mexican Embassy here. “Its a concerted effort. It has been under way for some time, but now its reaching a peak.“Mexico considers this a very effective instrument,“ he said. “People who appreciate the culture of a country begin

4、 to identify with that country. I think it has a beneficial influence on policy.“ Since March the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has been showing decorative and fine art from the period of Spanish rule over Mexico. It is a broad and revealing exhibition, with objects ranging from intricately carved

5、furniture and silver candelabra to a vivid 18th-century portrait of a self-confident noblewoman. After this show closes in Houston on Aug. 4, it will travel to the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Del., and the San Diego Museum of Art.Next spring the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts here will

6、stage a four-week festival of Mexican performers. In keeping with the image that Mexico now wants to promote, mariachi and Tex-Mex bands will share the program with modern dance companies, jazz ensembles, mime troupes and experimental theater.From October 2003 until July 2004, a large and comprehens

7、ive show of Mayan art will be mounted in the United States, first in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and then at the National Gallery of Art here. Scores of other cultural programs sponsored at least partly by Mexican government agencies are under way or planned across

8、the United States. Some are small in scale, like a literary and diplomatic reception that was recently held here to honor the late poet and philosopher Octavio Paz, who died in 1995. Others are highly ambitious, like a film festival that would trace the history of Mexican cinema through 120 movies f

9、rom Sergei Eisensteins 1932 classic “Que Viva Mexico“ to the current hit “Y Tu Mama Tambien./（分数：2.00）(1).Which of the following is one of the main reasons why the culture of Mexico is surging into the United States?（分数：1.00）A.It is a coincidence.B.It is an American-Mexican joint commercial venture.

10、C.It is an effort for closer bilateral relations.D.It is an attempt to change the image of Mexico.(2).Which of the Mexican art forms has NOT been mentioned among those exhibited in the USA in this passage?（分数：1.00）A.Mexican moviesB.Mexican decorative and fine art.C.Mexican modern sculptureD.Mexican

11、music, theater and danc二、Text B(总题数：1，分数：3.00)Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. Hawthornes father was a sea captain. He died of fever when Hawthorne was only four. Hawthornes childhood was not particularly abnormal, as many famous authors have claimed to have. Hawthorne

12、attended Bowdoin College and graduated after four years. After graduation, he returned to Salem. Contrary to his familys expectations, Hawthorne did not begin to read law or enter business, rather he moved into his mothers house to turn himself into a writer.Hawthornes first novel, Fanshawe, was pub

13、lished anonymously in 1828 at his own expense. Because of a lack of sales, Hawthorne recalled every copy he could find of the book and destroyed them. When a local printer delayed publishing his Seven Tales of My Native Land, Hawthorne withdrew the manuscript and burned it in a mood half-savage, hal

14、f-despairing. He had destroyed other stories before publication because he thought they were “morbid.“ In 1837, at the age of thirty-two, Hawthorne published his first collection, Twice-Told Tales. Longfellow, the most popular poet of the day, gave it a flattering review. New York magazine editors r

15、ead it and offered him jobs.Two years later, Hawthorne married Sophia. Hawthorne soon realized that supporting a wife was not as easy as he anticipated it to be. He could never manage it by Writing stories, so he decided to leave Salem for a political appointment as measurer of coal and salt in the

16、Boston customhouse. The contrast between his old ways and this new way of life was a shock for Hawthorne. He had hoped to discover what “reality“ was like as well as earn a respectable salary, and he gave it a try. After two years, however, he resigned from this “very grievous thralldom.“ Then Hawth

17、orne moved to Concord, Massachusetts.Hawthorne produced more than twenty tales during three years in Concord, sold them to magazines, and then collected them in Mosses from an Old Manse. His reputation was growing. It took Hawthorne a return to Salem to bring him fame. After three years of dealing w

18、ith the dullness of the work as a surveyor in the Salem customhouse, he was fired for political reasons. His wife comforted him by saying, “Now you can write your book.“ In seven months it was finished. In April 1850, The Scarlet Letter was published. Hawthorne called this book “positively a hell-fi

19、red story, into which I found it ahnost impossible to throw any cheering light.“ Some contemporary critics called it “Americas first tragedy“. The last fourteen years of Hawthornes life were very different from the struggle to be recognized that his entire life had been about. Within a year Hawthorn

20、e finished and published another novel named The House of Seven Gables; a story about a Pyncheon family of Salem and Maules curse. A year later he published The Blithedale Romance, a satire of Brook Farm. After seven years in Europe, he tried an even more ambitious novel, The Marble Faun. Sadly, non

21、e of these novels reached the acclaim that The Scarlet Letter had with critics.（分数：3.00）(1).Which of the following is NOT stated or implied in the passage?（分数：1.00）A.Hawthorne wrote his first collection of short stories, Twice-Told Tales, in collaboration with Longfellow.B.Hawthornes family didnt wa

22、nt him to take writing as his profession.C.Hawthornes first attempts to get his tales published were not successful.D.Hawthornes fame chiefly rests on his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter.(2).The author implies in the passage that Hawthorns job at the Boston customhouse made him（分数：1.00）A.happy that

23、he could live a new life.B.satisfied that he was able to earn a respectable salary.C.disappointed that he didnt get what he had expected.D.hopeful that he discovered what “reality“ was lik(3).We can infer from the passage that The Scarlet Letter is about（分数：1.00）A.a horrible story.B.a half-savage st

24、ory.C.a morbid story.D.a sad story.三、Text C(总题数：1，分数：6.00)Today business cards are distributed with abandon by working people of all social classes, illustrating not only the ubiquity of commercial interests but also the fluidity of the world of trade. Whether one is buttonholing potential clients f

25、or a carpentry service, announcing ones latest academic appointment, or “networking“ with fellow executives, it is permissible to advertise ones talents and availability by an outstretched hand and the statement “Heres my card.“ As Robert Louis Stevenson once observed, everybody makes his living by

26、selling something. Business cards facilitate this endeavor.It has not always been this way. The cards that we use today for commercial purposes are a vulgarization of the nineteenth-century social calling cards, an artifact with a quite different purpose. In the Gilded Age, possessing a calling card

27、 indicated not that you were interested in forming business relationships, but that your money was so old that you had no need to make a living. For the calling-card class, life was a continual round of social visits, and the protocol (礼 仪) governing these visits was inextricably linked to the prope

28、r use of cards. Pick up any etiquette manual predating World War , and you will find whole chapters devoted to such questions as whether a single gentleman may leave a card for a lady; when a lady must, and must not, turn down the edges of a card; and whether an unmarried girl of between fourteen an

29、d seventeen may carry more than six or less than thirteen cards in her purse in months beginning with a “J“. The calling card system was especially cherished by those who made no distinction between manners and mere form, and its preciousness was well defined by Mrs. John Sherwood. Her 1887 manual c

30、alled the card “the field mark and device“ of civilization.The business version of the calling card came in around the turn of the century, when the formerly well defined borders between the commercial and the personal realms were used widely, society mavens (专家) considered it unforgivable to fuse t

31、he two realms. Emily Posts contemporary (当代) Lilian Eichler called it very poor taste to use business cards for social purposes, and as late as 1967 Amy Vanderbilt counseled that the merchants marker “may never double for social purposes./（分数：6.00）(1).According to the author, people distribute their

32、 business cards in order to（分数：1.00）A.make their living.B.facilitate selling their products.C.illustrate the fluidity of the world of trade.D.show their social status.(2).The sentence “your money was so old“ in the second paragraph means（分数：1.00）A.you had an old pound note.B.your money was useless.C

33、.you had a lot of money.D.you inherited a fortune from your ancestor.(3).What is NOT true about the calling-card class in the 19th century?（分数：1.00）A.Their use of cards was supposed to go by a set of complex rules of manner.B.They lived a leisured life without worrying about earning a living.C.They

34、used their calling cards to win ladies favor.D.There were guide books on the protocol for them to rea(4).According to the passage, business cards are likely to have appeared（分数：1.00）A.at the beginning of the 19th century.B.at the beginning of the 20th century.C.after 1967.D.after World War .(5).Whic

35、h of the following is NOT stated or implied in the passage?（分数：1.00）A.Todays business cards are a vulgarization of the 19th-century social calling card.B.In the 19th century, possessing a calling card indicated ones high social position.C.Most people think it improper to use business cards for socia

36、l purposes.D.In the 19th century, the calling-card class never used their cards for commercial purposes.(6).Judging from the passage, the authors attitude toward todays use of business cards is（分数：1.00）A.sarcastic.B.indifferent.C.opposing.D.approvin四、Text D(总题数：1，分数：4.00)The environment is everythin

37、g that surrounds us: plants, animals, buildings, country, air, water-literally everything that can affect us in any way. The environment of a town, with its buildings and traffic and its noise and smells, where everyone is on top of everyone else, is a far cry from that of the countryside, with its

38、fields and crops, its wild and domestic animals and its feeling of spaciousness. And the environment differs in different parts of the world.Ecology is the science of how living creatures and plants exist together and depend on each other and on the local environment. Where an environment is undistu

39、rbed, the ecology of an area is in balance, but if a creature is exterminated or an unfriendly species introduced, then the ecology of the district will upset-in other words, the balance of nature will be disturbed.Man is a part of the environment and has done more to upset the ecology during his sh

40、ort span on earth than any other living creature. He has done this by his ignorance, his greed, his thoughtless foolishness and wastefulness.He had poisoned the atmosphere and polluted both land and water. He has squandered the earths natural resources with no thought for the future, and has thought

41、 out the most savage ways of killing his fellow men-and every other sort of life at the same time.Since man has done so much damage, it is up to man to try to put matters right-if it is not already too late. If there is to be any remedy for our ills, that remedy ultimately lies in the hands of the y

42、oung, and the sooner they start doing something about it, the better.One of the main causes of the earths troubles is that the world is overpopulated and that this overpopulation is growing at an ever-increasing rate. At the same time we are using up our natural resources-fuels and mineral ores-at a

43、n ever increasing rate with no hope of replacing them.For many years the earth has been unable to provide enough food for these rapidly expanding populations and the position is steadily worsening since the fertility of some of our richest soils has been lost and vast areas that were once fertile la

44、nds have turned into barren deserts. And the trouble with deserts is that they tend to creep outwards on to the fertile soils. What is now the northern Sahara Desert was the cradle of the civilized world 2,500 years old.Even at this moment many of the earths natural treasures are being destroyed. Ma

45、ny valuable animals and plants are being killed off, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to grow enough food to preserve much of the earths population from starvation. The situation is getting out of hand. Time is running out. But with your help, we may be able to reserve the trends which thre

46、aten our very existence.（分数：4.00）(1).The main purpose of this passage is to（分数：1.00）A.inform people about the science of ecology.B.urge people to do something about the environment.C.criticize some actions of human beings.D.help us understand the world we live in.(2).The ecological balance depends o

47、n（分数：1.00）A.the preservation of the environment.B.plants and animals.C.the introduction of a variety of species.D.natural resources.(3).Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage?（分数：1.00）A.Growing population.B.Food shortage.C.Human illness.D.Extinction of some species.(4).Which

48、 of the following is NOT implied in the passage?（分数：1.00）A.If we solve the problem of overpopulation, the problem of energy shortage will disappear.B.Northern Sahara was once covered with vegetation.C.Human beings are overusing natural resources.D.Human beings are facing the threat of spreading dese

49、rts.五、Text E(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Flying across the country the other day, I sat next to a retired Air Force colonel, and we had a pleasant conversation about love of flying, travel and grandchildren-and for him, of retirement itself. “Yeah,“ he said, “theres only one thing that would make me give this up.“Whats that?“If Hillary or Jane Fonda runs for president, Im going to work full time to beat her.“I told him I knew Hillary. She doesnt even need a last name now. And shes no JaneFonda.“Well,“ I concluded before we began talking about planes and kids a