2014年4月全国自主考试英语阅读(一)真题及答案

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Apart from his evolutionary theory, what other contributions did Darwin make in his life?

In what way did Darwin's evolutionary theory challenge the basic beliefs of his day?

Because a friend of mine asked me, I called on good-natured, talkative old Simon Wheeler and asked him about my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley. [(63)This story is the result of that visit. I have a deep suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley doesn't exist; that my friend from the East never knew such a person; and that he made the request of me as a joke.][ (64)I think he imagined that if I went to Wheeler and asked him about Smiley, then Wheeler would make up a story and bore me to death with some terribly long, exasperating, useless tale. ]If that was my friend's plan, it succeeded.

    I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the barroom stove of the dilapidated tavern in the decayed mining camp of Angel's, and I noticed that he was fat and baldheaded. [(65)He looked gentle, and his face showed him to be a happy, peaceful man.] He awakened and greeted me enthusiastically. [(66)I told him that a friend of mine had asked me to ask around about an old friend of his from childhood. ]My friend's old friend was named Leonidas W. Smiley. I further explained that my friend thought that Smiley was a young minister of the Gospel and that he lived in Angel's Camp—or at least he used to. [(67)I told Wheeler that I would be very grateful if he could tell me anything about Smiley, since I wanted to honor my friend’s request.]

 (From The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County)

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The semi-barbaric king had a daughter whom he loved deeply. She was as passionate, fanciful, and strong as her father and was (51)______ to him. As is the case in many fairy tales, this daughter, the apple of her father’s eye, was in love with a young man (52)______was below her in station. He was a commoner. He was also brave, handsome, and daring, and he loved the royal daughter (53)______all his being. The princess had enough barbarism in her (54)______their love affair was dramatic… too dramatic. It was a secret for months, but then the king found out about it. 

The king didn’t hesitate for a minute. He sent the young man to prison and (55)______a date for his trial in the arena. When the date arrived, everyone in the kingdom wanted to attend. They all knew of the king’s (56)______in the case, and there was excitement in the air.

 The king's men searched for the (57)______tiger in the realm. They also searched for the fairest maiden in the land so that he could have a fitting bride (58)______he were found innocent. Of course, everyone knew that he had committed the “crime” of (59)______ the princess, but the king did not allow the facts of the case to alter his decision. The trial would go on (60)______planned. The youth would be gone no matter what happened; he would either be dead or married. The king could enjoy the proceedings for the sport of it.

 (From The Lady or the Tiger)

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41．(bright) That new carpet will certainly ______ up your living room．

42．(anxiety)The foreign minister admitted he was still ______ about the situation in that country．

43．(ill) Scientists have not yet found a cure for this ______．

44．(sign)The recent decline of the stock market does not necessarily ______ the start of a recession．

45．(simple) Some students lost marks ______ because they hadn’t read the question carefully．

46．(enjoy)Lunch break at the hotdog stand in the park is the most ______ and interesting time of the day for me．

47．(able) This health center serves all patients，regardless of their ______ to pay．

48．(understand)She expressed her opinions in such clear terms that no one would _____ her．

49．(1ead) Ever since the 1990s，Microsoft has been a world ______ in software design．

50．(judge) It’s too soon to make a ______ about the impact of the new policy．

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According to the author, it is not difficult to ______.

The makers of the Constitution knew that changes would be necessary and that if there was no way of making them, the Constitution would no longer be useful. They, therefore, made it possible for Americans to change the Constitution by adopting amendments to it, (31)     . All amendments written into the Constitution have been made in accordance with rules (32)

     . An amendment may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by Congress (33)     . It must then be approved by three-fourths of all the states. Then and only then (34)     .

     Since 1789 (35)     . Ten of them were adopted almost immediately (36)     . They are the amendments (37)     because they protect the rights of individuals．Some amendments have extended the right to vote by forbidding discrimination in respect to the fight to vote on account of race，color or sex，and (38)     ．One great amendment abolished slavery in the United States．The Fourteenth Amendment，(39)     ，has done much in recent years to bring greater justice to black people and others．Other amendments have changed the method of electing senators(40)     ，and increased the taxing power of Congress．By amendment we have sought to overcome defects in the Constitution and thus to keep it alive．

 (From The Constitution of the United States)

[A] accepted after the Civil War

[B] laid down in the original document

[C]in order to make it more democratic

[D] that we call the Bill of Rights

[E] by interpretation on the part of the Supreme Court

[F] twenty-six amendments to the Constitution have been adopted

[G] that Congress had no power under the Constitution to pass such a law

[H]at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures

[I]but they did not make it easy to do so

[J] does the change become part of the Constitution

[K] after the Constitution went into effect

[L]by lowering the voting age to eighteen

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In the author's opinion, the influence of the blogosphere is ______.

Blogs differ from traditional internet sites in that ______.

One problem with blogs is that bloggers fail to consider ______.

Passage 6

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

The blogging craze of a couple of years ago, when it was estimated that ten new blogs were started somewhere in the world every minute, now seems to have died down a bit. Yet thousands of blogs—probably the better ones—remain. Blogs are now no longer seen as the exclusive possession of geeks, and are now seen as important and influential sources of news and opinions. So many people read blogs now that it has even been suggested that some blogs may have been powerful enough to influence the result of the recent U.S. election.

Blogs are very easy to set up. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and the desire to write something. A blog differs from a traditional internet site in two ways. First, a blog is one page consisting mostly of texts, though a few pictures are sometimes provided. Second, and more importantly, a blog is a space for people to respond to what you write. The best blogs are similar to online discussions, where people write in response to what the blogger has written. Blogs are regularly updated—busy blogs are updated every day, or even every few hours.

Not all blogs are about politics, however. There are blogs about music, films, sports, books—any subject you can imagine has its enthusiasts typing away and giving their opinions to fellow enthusiasts or anyone else who cares to read their opinions.

But how influential, or important, is the blogosphere really? One problem with blogs is that many people who read and write them seem only to communicate with each other. When people talk about the influence of the blogosphere, they do not take into account the millions of people around the world who are not bloggers, never read blogs, and don't even have access to a computer, let alone a good internet connection.

Sometimes, it seems that the blogosphere exists only to influence itself, or that its influence is limited to what is actually quite a small community. Blogs seem to promise a virtual democracy—in which anyone can say anything they like, and have their opinions heard—but who is actually listening to these opinions? Little hard evidence shows that blogs have influenced people in the way that traditional mass media such as television and newspapers are able to do.

 Now the blogging craze ______.

American Indians freeze-dried potatoes so that they could be ______.

Which of the following is true?

Passage 5

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

Potatoes are a tuber-producing crop originally grown in the Americas. Over 200 varieties of wild potatoes grow from what is now Colorado to what are now Chile and Argentina. The native peoples of the Andean region of South America were the first to domesticate potatoes and to cultivate them as a food crop. The earliest potato, found in an archaeological site in central Peru, has been dated back to about 8000 B.C.. Scientists believe that American Indians began domesticating potatoes at the end of the Ice Age. Four thousand years later, native peoples living in the Andean highlands had begun to rely on potatoes as a major part of their diet. By about 2000 B.C.. Indians in the coastal region of what is now Peru were also cultivating this crop extensively.

During the reign of the Inca, who established their empire in what is now Peru in about A.D.1000, American Indian farmers were growing not only white potatoes but red, yellow, black, blue, green, and brown ones as well. They were deliberately developing potatoes of varying sizes and shapes that would do well under a number of growing conditions. Because potatoes were easily grown, flourish in a number of climates, and high in vitamin C, they were an efficient way of meeting dietary needs.

In 1531, when Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro landed in what is now Peru, the native Andean peoples had developed about 3,000 types of potatoes and had also invented a method to freeze-dry them for storage. The Inca, who called potatoes papas, ate boiled potatoes as a vegetable and also made a kind of unleavened potato bread made from flour that had been ground from freeze-dried potatoes. They also added this potato flour to soups and stews and made porridge from it.

Pedro de Cieza, who traveled with Francisco Pizarro's expedition, compared potatoes to chestnuts. Because the tubers grew underground and were small, the Spaniards believed potatoes were truffles (块菌) and began calling them tartuffo. When English explorer Sir Francis Drake crossed the Strait of Magellan, he ate potatoes on the coast of what is now Chile that same year. Yet, historians are uncertain exactly whether the Spaniards or the English brought potatoes to Europe.

 The earliest potato was found in ______.

Potatoes became the major source of food for American Indians about ______.

American Indians developed potatoes of different sizes and shapes to ______.

Darwin believed that all species in the world ______.

It can be concluded from the passage that Darwin was ______.

The author intends to say in the last paragraph that ______.

The influence of Darwinism has been so strong that it is difficult to ______.

The author believes that public schools ______.

Passage 4

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

    Historical periods are dominated by distinct sets of ideas which form the general spirit of a period in history. Greek philosophy, Christianity, Renaissance thought, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment are examples of sets of ideas that dominated their historical periods. The changes from one period to the next are usually rather gradual.; other changes—more abrupt—are often referred to as revolutions. The most far-reaching of all these intellectual changes was the Darwinian revolution. The worldview formed by any thinking person in the Western world after 1859, when On the Origin of Species was published, was by necessity quite different from a worldview formed before 1859. It is almost impossible for a modern person to project back to the early half of the nineteenth century and reconstruct the thinking of this pre-Darwinian period, for the impact of Darwinism on our views has been so great.

    The intellectual revolution brought about by Darwin went far beyond the realm of biology, causing the overthrow of some of the most basic beliefs of his age. For example, Darwin rejected the belief in the individual creation of each species, establishing in its place the concept that all of life descended from a common ancestor. By extension, he introduced the idea that humans were not the special products of creation but evolved according to principles that operate everywhere else in the living world. Darwin upset current notions of a perfectly designed natural and gentle world and substituted in their place the concept of a struggle for survival. Victorian notions of progress and perfectibility were seriously weakened by Darwin's demonstration that evolution brings about change and adaptation, but it does not necessarily lead to progress, and it never leads to perfection.

    Darwin would be remembered as an outstanding scientist even if he had never written a word about evolution. Indeed, some people believe that Darwin’s most original contribution to biology was not the theory of evolution but his series of books on experimental botany published near the end of his life. This achievement is little known among non-biologists, and the same is true for his equally outstanding work on the adaptation of flowers and on animal psychology, as well as his imaginative work on earthworms. Darwin also attacked important problems with extraordinary originality, thereby becoming the founder of several now well-recognized separate disciplines. Darwin was the first person to work out a sound theory of classification, which is still used by most experts today.

 The author considers the change caused by Darwin’s On the Origin of Species ______.

One of the purposes for public school reformation is ______.

It is implied in the passage that women began to be educated in large numbers ______.

The turn-of-the-century American education dealt partly with the problem of ______.

Passage 3

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.

    The public schools of the United States—elementary, secondary, and higher—have a history, and it is the social history of the United States: the decades before the Civil War, in which the elementary or “common schools” were reformed; the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century, in which the secondary schools “welcomed” the “children of the plain people”; and the post-World War II decades, which found the public colleges and universities flooded non-traditional students—those traditionally excluded from higher education by sex, race, and class.

    In each of these periods, the quantitative expansion of the student population was matched by a qualitative transformation of the enlarged institutions. The common schools of the mid-1800s were charged with reforming the moral character of the children of failed artisans (工匠) and farmers; the expanded high schools at the turn of the century with preparing their poor, working-class, and immigrant teenagers for future lives in city and factory; the “open-access” public institutions in the postwar period with moving their students off the unemployment lines and into lower-level white-collar positions.

    The common schools, the high schools, the colleges and universities—all in their own times—were expanded and transformed so that they might better maintain social order and increase material productivity. But no matter how enlarged or reformed, they could not do the jobs expected of them: they could not solve the economic, social, and human problems brought about by uncontrolled urbanization and industrialization within the context of the private property system. The schooling reforms succeeded only in shifting the discussion and action from the social and productive system to the people who were now held responsible for not fitting into it.

The best title for the passage is ______.

According to the passage, the more composite features people have, ______.

The third paragraph emphasizes in part the importance of ______.

In his statement, Hamachek is giving emphasis to ______.

Passage 2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

Most people claim that we should judge others on the basis of how they act, not how they look. However, the reality is quite opposite. Appearance is especially important in the early stages of a relationship.

The influence of physical attractiveness begins early in life. Infants as young as six months prefer images of attractive faces to less appealing ones. From age five on, overweight boys are viewed by peers as less attractive; tall, thin ones are judged as uncommunicative and nervous; and muscular and athletic youngsters are seen as outgoing, active, and popular. The same principle continues into adult life. Handsome men and beautiful women are seen as more sensitive, kind, interesting, strong, calm, modest, sociable, outgoing, and exciting than their less attractive counterparts. Adults are more likely to interact with strangers who they view as attractive. Senior citizens also rate good-looking people as more desirable than those who are less attractive.

The passage can be used as an example of ______.

Which of the following is true?

At the beginning of her sightless life, Susan was seized by anger, self-pity and ______.

Which of the following is true of Mark?

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

     The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the young woman with the white cane made her way cautiously up the steps. She paid the driver and then, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, settled into one. She placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.

    It had been a year since Susan, thirty-four, became blind. As the result of a medical accident she was sightless, suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. All she could cling to was her husband Mark.

    Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and he became determined to use every means to help his wife.

    Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but she was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to ride the bus with Susan each morning and evening until she got the hang of (摸清情况) it. And that was exactly what happened.

For two weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses, specifically her hearing, to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment. He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat.

    Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a taxi back to his office. Although the routine of going back and forth was costly, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own.

    Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning arrived. Before she left, she embraced her husband tightly. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his patience, and his love. She said good-bye and, for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... Each day on her own went perfectly, and a wild gaiety (快乐) took hold of Susan. She was doing it! She was going to work all by herself!.

When Susan got on the bus, the passengers ______.