2015年4月全国自主考试英语阅读(一)真题及答案

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And what a noble medium the English language is.[ (63)It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positivist pleasure at the richness and variety the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother-tongue.(64)It an English writer cannot say what he has to say in English and in simple English, depend upon it, it is probably not worth saying. ]What a pity it is that English is not more generally studied. I am not going to attack classical education. (65)No one who has the slightest pretension to literary tastes can be insensible to the attraction of Greece and Rome.[(66)But I confess our present educational system excites in my mind grave misgivings.]I cannot believe that a system is good, or even reasonable, which thrusts upon reluctant and uncomprehending multitudes of treasures which can only be appreciated by the privileged and gifted few. [(67)To the vast majority of boys who attend our public schools a classical education is from beginning to end one long useless, meaningless rigmaroles, ]If I am told that classics are the best preparation for the study of English. I reply that by far the greater number of students finish their education while this preparatory stage is sill incomplete and without deriving any of the benefits which are promised as its result.

(From The Joys of Writing)

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What do neuroeconomists intend to find. when they use MRIs to view the brain as it is making money choices?

Why don't Americans want to save money?

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It is hard to get any agreement on the precise meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to (51)____ they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to "place" a new acquaintance, however, are a complex mixture of (52)____. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all (53)____. a part.

In ancient civilizations, the Sumerian, for example, which flourished in the lower Euphrates valley from 5 000 to 2000 B.C., social differences were based on birth, status or rank, (54)____on wealth. Four main classes were (55)____. These were the rulers, the priestly administrators, the freemen (such as craftsmen, merchants or farmers) and the slaves In Greece, after the sixth century B.C, there was a growing (56)____between the peasants and the landed aristocrats, and a gradual (57)____in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of "middle class" of traders and killed workers grew up. The population of Athens, (58)____, was divided into three main lass which were politically and (59)____distinct. About one-third of the total were slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of democracy. The next main group (60)____ resident foreigners, the "metics", who were freemen, though they too were allowed no share in political life. The third group was the powerful body of "citizens", who were themselves divided into sub-classes.

(From Social Classes)

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(accurate)Many people began to question the of his report.

(glory) A statue was erected to the country's national heroes.

(care) He said that it was that led him' to make the silly mistake.

(expend) Our biggest this year was our summer holiday in Hawaii.

(sole) The manager was responsible for the company's unsuccessful sales campaign.

(danger) He would never do anything to ; the lives of his children.

(explain) Could you give me a brief of how the new digital voice recorder works?

(curious) Filled with , she peered through the window.

(law) He said he was the owner of the house.

(profit) Over the years online file sharing has developed into a highly business.

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“The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, came to me. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old." So wrote Helen Keller.

The morning after the arrival of her teacher, (31)   .After she had played with it for a while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelt the word d-o-l-l onto her hand. (32)     ,and tried to imitate her teacher. When she finally succeeded in forming the letters correctly, (33)   . Excitedly she found her way to her mother, held up her hand and wrote the letters “doll". And in the days that followed, (34)    .

Helen soon learned, however, that things and actions have names. One day, while she was playing with her new doll, Miss Sullivan placed the doll on her lap, made her touch again and wrote the letters d-o-l-l on the palm of her hand (35)      .until Helen associated the word with the object.

Once, as we were walking down the path to the well, (36)       . I asked, “What is that strange smell in the air?” Miss Sullivan led me to the well. She took my hand and placed it under the spout from which water flew out."(37)     , Miss Sullivan spelt the word "water on her other hand. Suddenly everything came back. She knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the cool liquid with which she was playing now with both her hands. That living word gave her joy, light and hope. (38)    , every familiar object she touched seemed to have a new meaning for her. She was eager to know more. As her education progressed, (39)       ,Helen was living a new life full of excitement. She now had the key to a language and was keen to use it. We who have eyes to see and ears to hear can learn easily. But Helen could

not, (40)    . She made full use of all the other abilities she had, to such an advantage that she became the world"s famous teacher of the blind and the deaf.

(From Helen Keller)

[A] she was pleased and proud

[B] This was repeated several times

[C] Helen was led into a room and given a doll

[D] Miss Sullivan was an experienced and patient teacher

[E] As the cool stream washed Helen's hand

[F] though not without difficulty for both the teacher and the pupil

[G] At once Helen was interested in this finger play

[H] Helen Keller had her lessons in normal classrooms

[I] On reaching the house

[J] as she was both blind and deaf

[K] she learned to spell a great many words in this way

[L] I was attracted by some peculiar smell

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Dull work can be accepted if it______

Most housewives are valued by their husbands for______

Compared with a man who has no work, a man with a dull job is generally ______

Passage 6

Questions 26-30 are based on the following passage

Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fill a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And. Whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been more pleasant.

The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while the capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can procure (获取) However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one's own circle. Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men this comes chiefly through their work. In this respect those women whose lives are occupied with housework are much less fortunate than men, or than women who work outside the home, The domesticated wife does not receive wages, has no means of betting herself, is taken for granted by her husband (who sees practically nothing of what she does), and is valued by him not for her housework but for quite other qualities. Of course this does not apply to those women who are sufficiently well-to-do to make beautiful houses and beautiful gardens and become the envy of their neighbors; but such women are comparatively few. For the great majority, housework cannot bring as much satisfaction as work of other kinds brings to men and to professional women.

The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet, however modest, for ambition, belongs to most work, and is sufficient to make even a man whose work is dull happier on the average than a man who has no work at all. But when work is interesting. it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from tedium. The kinds of work in which there is some interest may be arranged in a hierarchy.

For most people, even uninteresting work has the advantage of    .

In the capitalistic society, income is usually an indication of______

How many ways of naming flash fiction are mentioned in Paragraph4?

Among all the labels referring to very short stories, the most popular one is .

The passage mainly focuses on flash fiction in terms of its______

The form of flash fiction can be best described as______

What suggestion do you think the author is most likely to give in the following paragraphs?

Passage 5

Questions 21-25 are based on the following passage.

Many editors and writers today define flash fiction as a story ranging from a few words to not usually over 1,500 to 2000 words (but more often less than 1.000 words). A traditional short story ranges from 3,000 to 20,000 words, so flash fiction is considerably shorter. However, while length can help identify flash fiction, it is of little use in actually defining it.

The amorphous and variable quality of flash fiction allows for the constant changing of shapes as these stories draw and develop from various genres and traditions to create stand-alone stories that often work on their own terms. Countless writers are involved in writing flash fiction in various ways. Many are involved in following the form's long tradition, and many others are reinventing the form as they continue to experiment with the boundaries and methods of fiction, These shortest of stories are not always diversions for the moment but are often stories that are profound and memorable -as good fiction of longer lengths can be.

Charles Baxter notes in the introduction to Sudden Fiction International 60 Short Short Stories, "This form is not about to be summarized by anyone's ideas about it. The stories are on so many various thresholds: they are between poetry and fiction, the story and the sketch, prophecy and reminiscence, the personal and the crowd. As a form, they are open, and exist in a state of potential.

Some names for flash fiction are chosen to stress brevity, suggesting that such stories can be read or even written in a flash. Other names are chosen to emphasize the way in which the stories affect and enlighten readers. And still other names are chosen for the way in which they cause readers to perform the act of reading. many times forcing them to slow down and read such pieces as slowly and carefully as they would read good poetry.

Even though this type of writing travels by several names, flash fiction has become the most popular label, likely because of its snappy poetic consonance, which makes it easy to hold in memory, and because of its distance from the older, less descriptive term "short-shorts". More and more writers, editors, and readers use "flash fiction" to refer to very short stories.

 Flash fiction usually refers to a story ranging from a few words to ______

The neuroeconomists research is cited to prove______

According to the passage, during the housing boom the banks ______

How many reasons are given in Paragraph 3?

Passage4

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

But I can't save any money. It's an excuse I hear a lot from which I detect a note of defiance. In the past few years, it has become increasingly frequent, as more and more Americans make less than we spend, eating up the savings in our homes. The national savings rate is declining. And the situation seems to be getting worse.

We certainly know that saving money is good for us. Yet saving for tomorrow is sill a largely ignored and unappreciated skill. The question that naturally follows is: Why? Why don't Americans make saving a priority?

To start with, saving today is much harder. The typical household income has held largely steady for a good half decade, while prices have continued to rise. If

you're having to spend a disproportionate amount of income on food and gas, it's hard to save. Besides, credit became too accessible. For years it was simply too easy to get your hands on money to spend. While banks at one time would not let you spend more than 36 percent of your total income on debt, they stretched that

number to 55 percent during the housing boom. Why save when you could get that big flat-screen TV today and pay for it with mortgage debt that was both cheap and deductible? Last but not least, saving is, was, and always will be no fun. Think about it this way: Choosing to save almost always means opting for delayed gratification instead of immediate gratification. The pleasure of getting something good today is much greater than that in the future even if the reward in the

future is bigger.

Recently, neuroeconomists, a relatively new breed of experts in economics and neuroscience, have started using MRIs (核磁共振成像） to view the brain as it is making money choices. When something we want to buy comes into view, they see the pleasure center firing up. Similarly, getting a few dollars today is more trilling than getting a slightly larger profit tomorrow. And if you have to wait a few months for that gain, it will have to be much bigger in order to arouse the same interest in your brain. Things way off in the future like retirement don't

jostle the pleasure center much at all.

 In the author"s eyes, Americans say they can't save any money because they______

The middle class expanded considerably over the twentieth century mainly because______

“Class" is important because it ______

The British would distinguish their social classes mainly by______

British doctors and lawyers belong to the__

More research should be conducted in which______

The research was based on the data of the______

Passage 2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

Engaging in a hobby like reading a book, making a patchwork quilt or even playing computer games can delay the onset of dementia, a US study suggests. Watching TV, however, does not count and indeed, spending significant periods of time in front of the box may speed up memory loss, researchers found. Nearly 200 people aged 70 to 89 with mild memory problems were compared with a group who had no impairment. The researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota asked the volunteers about their daily activities within the past year and how mentally active they had been between the age of 50 to 65. Those who had, during middle age, been busy reading, playing games or engaging in craft hobbies like patch working or knitting were found to have a 40% reduced risk of memory impairment. In later life, those same acclivities reduced the risk by a rate between 30% and 50%. Those who watched TV for less than 7 hours a day were also 50% less likely to develop memory loss than those who spend longer staring at the screen.

This study is exciting because it demonstrates that ageing does not need to be a passive process," said neuroscientist Dr. Yonas Geda. By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss. Of course, the challenge with this type of research is that we are relying on past memories of the subjects (实验对象), therefore we need to confirm these findings with additional research." Sarah Day, head of public health at the Alzheimer's Society, said, "One million people will develop dementia in the next 10 years so there is a desperate need to find ways to prevent dementia. Exercising and challenging your brain -by learning new skills, doing puzzles such as crosswords, and even learning a new language -can be fun. However, more research, where people are followed up over time, is needed to understand whether these sorts of activities can reduce the risk of dementia."

If one suffers from dementia, he would be unable to    .

It was found in the research that______

Passage 2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

Engaging in a hobby like reading a book, making a patchwork quilt or even playing computer games can delay the onset of dementia, a US study suggests. Watching TV, however, does not count and indeed, spending significant periods of time in front of the box may speed up memory loss, researchers found. Nearly 200 people aged 70 to 89 with mild memory problems were compared with a group who had no impairment. The researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota asked the volunteers about their daily activities within the past year and how mentally active they had been between the age of 50 to 65. Those who had, during middle age, been busy reading, playing games or engaging in craft hobbies like patch working or knitting were found to have a 40% reduced risk of memory impairment. In later life, those same acclivities reduced the risk by a rate between 30% and 50%. Those who watched TV for less than 7 hours a day were also 50% less likely to develop memory loss than those who spend longer staring at the screen.

This study is exciting because it demonstrates that ageing does not need to be a passive process," said neuroscientist Dr. Yonas Geda. By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss. Of course, the challenge with this type of research is that we are relying on past memories of the subjects (实验对象), therefore we need to confirm these findings with additional research." Sarah Day, head of public health at the Alzheimer's Society, said, "One million people will develop dementia in the next 10 years so there is a desperate need to find ways to prevent dementia. Exercising and challenging your brain -by learning new skills, doing puzzles such as crosswords, and even learning a new language -can be fun. However, more research, where people are followed up over time, is needed to understand whether these sorts of activities can reduce the risk of dementia."

If one suffers from dementia, he would be unable to    .

The subjects of the research mentioned in the passage were .

This passage indicates that Puerto Rico is______

This passage has probably been taken from a/an .

The most densely populated community in Europe is ______

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

The average population density of the world is 47 persons per square mile, Continental densities range. from no permanent inhabitants in Antarctica to 211 per square mile in Europe. In the Western hemisphere, population densities range from 4 per square mile in Canada to 675 per square mile in Puerto Rico. In Europe the range is from 4 per square mile in Iceland to 831 per square mile in the Netherlands. Within countries there are wide variations of population densities. For example, in Egypt, the average is 55 persons per square mile, but 1,300 persons inhabit each square mile in settled portions where the land is arable (可耕种的).

High population densities generally occur in regions of developed industrialization, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain, or where lands are intensively used for agriculture, as in Puerto Rico and Java.

Low, average population densities, which are characteristic of most underdeveloped countries, are generally associated with a relatively low percentage of cultivated land. This generally results from poor quality lands. It may also be due to natural obstacles to cultivation, such as deserts, mountains or malaria-infested jungles; to land uses other than cultivation, as pasture and forested land; to primitive methods that limit cultivation; to social obstacles; and to land ownership systems which keep land out of production.

More economically advanced countries of low population density have, as a rule, large proportions of their populations living in urban areas. Their rural population densities are usually very low. Poorer developed countries of correspondingly low general population density, on the other hand, often have a concentration of rural population living on arable land, which is as great as the rural concentration found in the most densely populated industrial countries.

 Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

In the cultivated areas of Egypt, we may expect to find ______