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阅读理解-专项阅读练习
Passage 1 Before the 1870's, trained nurses were virtually unknown in the United States. Hospital nursing was an unskilled occupation, taken up by women of the lower classes, some of whom were conscripted from the penitentiary or the almshouse. The movement for reform originated not with doctors, but among upper-class women, who had taken on the role of guardians of a new hygienic order. Though some doctors approved of the women's desire to establish a nurses training school, which would attract the daughters of the middle class, other medical men were opposed. Plainly threatened by the prospect, the objected that educated nurses would not do as they were told-a remarkable comment on the status anxieties of nineteenth-century physicians. But the women reformers did not depend on the physicians' approval: When resisted, as they were at Bellevue in efforts to install trained nurses on the maternity wards, they went over the heads of the doctors to men of their own class of greater power and authority. (Florence Nightingale, who had friends high in the English government, had followed exactly the same course in reforming her country's military hospitals.) professional nursing, in short, emerged neither from medical discoveries nor from a program of hospital reform initiated by physicians; outsiders saw the need first. ［A］ public Hygiene in the United States The economy of the United States after 1952 was the economy of a well-fed, almost fully employed people. Despite occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar liquidation and lived in a state of boom. The history of extraction, production, and distribution had therefore been almost nothing but a statistical table reflecting prosperity. An economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950's, may be typical as illustrating the decade. The national output was valued at about 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The production of manufacturers was about 40 percent more than it had averaged in the years immediately following World War Ⅱ.The country's business spent about 30 billion dollars for new factories and machinery. National income available for spending was almost a third greater than it had been in 1950. Consumers spent about 256 billion dollars; that is, about 700 million dollars a day, or about twenty-five million dollars every hour, all around the clock. Sixty-five million people held jobs and only a little more than two million wanted jobs but could not find them. Only agriculture complained that it was not sharing in the boom. To some observers this was an ominous echo of the mid-1920's. As farmers' share of their products declined, marketing costs rose. But there were few pessimists among the observers of the national economy. Those few seemed to fear that the prosperity was based on government pump-priming on a stupendous scale. The passage is mainly concerned with which of the following aspects of the United States history? ［A］ The agricultural trends of the 1950's Passage 3 During the American War of Independence, women were involved in the active fighting in three ways. First, as members of a distinct branch of the Continental Army, referred to as “Women of the Army”, women water carriers, who had plenty of opportunity to observe the firing of cannons, could replace a wounded comrade. The second way that women were involved in active fighting was as regular troop members who wore men's uniforms and fought side by side with their male counterparts. Theoretically, women were not supposed to be recruited into the Continental Army, but if a woman was a good soldier, no one made an issue of sex at a time when the army was so short of soldiers that boys not yet in their teens were also being recruited in violation of rules. Third, women were occasional fighters affiliated with local militia companies or committees of safety firmed to protect the local community. ［A］ Women played an important role in military hospitals during the Revolutionary War. In the long run a government will always encroach upon freedom to the extent to which it has the power to do so; this is almost a natural law of politics, since whatever the intentions of the men who exercise political power, the sheer momentum of government leads to a constant pressure upon the liberties of the citizen. But in many countries society has responded by throwing up its own defenses in the shape of social classes or organized corporations which, enjoying economic power and popular support, have been able to set limits to the scope of action of the executive. Such, for example, in England was the origin of all our liberties-won from government by the stand first of the feudal nobility, then of churches and politics parties, and lately of trade unions, commercial organizations, and the societies for promoting various causes. Even in European lands which were arbitrarily ruled, the powers of the monarchy, though absolute in theory, were in their exercise checked in a similar fashion. Indeed the fascist dictatorships of today are truly tyrannical governments which fashion. Indeed the fascist dictatorships of today are truly tyrannical governments which western Europe has known for centuries, and they have been rendered possible only because on coming to power they destroyed all forms of social organization which were in any way rivals to the state. ［A］ limited powers of monarchies Passage 5 American Indians played a central role in the war known as the American Revolution. To them, however, the dispute between the colonists and England was peripheral. For American Indians the conflict was a war for American Indian independence, and whichever side they choose they lost it. Mary Brant was a powerful influence among the Iroquois. She was a Mohawk, the leader of the society of all Iroquois matrons, and the widow of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Her brother, Joseph Brant, is the best-known American Indian warrior of the Revolution, yet she may have exerted even more influence in the confederacy than he did. She used her influence to keep the western tribes of Iroquois loyal to the English King, George Ⅲ. When the colonists won the war, she and her tribe had to abandon their lands and retreat to Canada. On the other side, Nancy Ward held positions of authority in the Cherekee nation. she had fought as a warrior in the war against the Creeks and as a reward for her heroism was made “Beloved Woman” of the tribe. This office made her chief of chiefs. She was friendly with the White settlers and supported the Patriots during the Revolution. Yet the Cherekees too lost their land. What is the main point the author makes in the passage? ［A］ Siding with English in the Revolution helped American Indians regain their land Passage 6 Which of the following is the main topic of the passage? ［A］ How tornadoes can be prevented Passage 7 Resources can be said to be scarce in both an absolute and in a relative sense; the surface of the Earth is finite, imposing absolute scarcity; but the scarcity that concerns economists is the relative scarcity in different uses. Materials used for one purpose cannot at the same time be used for other purposes; if the quantity of an input is limited, the increased use of it in one manufacturing process must cause it to become less available for other uses. The cost of a product in terms of money may not measure its true cost to society. The true cost of, say, the construction of a supersonic jet is the value of the schools and refrigerators that will never be built as a result. Every act of production uses up some of society's available resources; it means the fore going of an opportunity to produce something else. In deciding how to use resources most effectively to satisfy the wants of the community, this opportunity cost must ultimately be taken into account. In a market economy the price of a good and the quantity supplied depends on the cost of making it, and that cost, ultimately, is the cost of not making other goods. The market mechanism enforces this relationship. The cost of, say, a pair of shoes is the price of the leather, the labor, the fuel, and other elements used up in producing them. But the price of these inputs, in turn, depends on what they can produce elsewhere-if the leather can be used to produce handbags that are valued highly by consumers, the price of leather will be bid up correspondingly. What does this passage mainly discuss? ［A］ The scarcity of manufactured goods Passage 8 (1990年试题) In May 1989, space shuttle “Atlantis” released in outer space the space probe “Megallan”, which is now on her 15-month and one-billion-kilometer flight to Venus. A new phase in space exploration has begun. The planet Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth; it is the only other object in the solar system, in fact, that even comes close to the Earth's size. Venus has a similar density, so it is probably made of approximately the same stuff, and it has an atmosphere, complete with clouds. It is also the closest planet to earth, and thus the most similar in distance from the sun. In short, Venus seems to justify its long-held nickname of “earth's twin.” The surface temperature of Venus reaches some 900F. Added to that is an atmospheric pressure about 90 times Earth's. High overhead in the carbon dioxide (CO2) that passer for air is a layer of clouds, perhaps 10 to 20 miles thick, whose little drops consist mostly of sulfuric acid (H2SO4). water is all but nonexistent. The main idea of this passage is about . ［A］ problems of space travel Passage 9 Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-coca-cola and Pepsi cola-are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. we set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting. We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. we asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished. Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly. While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and coke fans may reality be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. The author's purpose in writing this passage is to . ［A］ show that taste preference is highly subjective Passage 10 Procrastinators are people who have a chronic habit of putting things off, usually until the last minute and sometimes until it is too late altogether. The most common reason that procrastinators themselves give for their habit, which they are usually quite willing to talk about even if not willing to change, is that they are lazy. Other typical excuses are that they are undisciplined, brilliant but disorganized, or very poor at organizing their time. Some procrastinators, however, almost against their very nature, actually get as far as trying to do something about their problem and seek help. Recent research with such people seems to suggest that their difficulties are much more complex than the procrastinators themselves think. The general conclusions are that such people have a vulnerable sense of self-worth, are particularly fearful of failure, and deliberately put things off precisely so that they never leave themselves time to produce their best work. The reason for their delaying tactics is that, since they do everything at the last moment and under pressure, the procrastinators can retain their illusion of brilliance without ever having to put it to the test. 1. The main idea in the first paragraph is . ［A］ the nature of procrastination 2. The main idea in the second paragraph is . ［A］ how procrastinators have an illusion of brilliance 3. A suitable title for this passage might be . ［A］ The Chronic Habit of Procrastination 4. Of all the following ideas that appear in the passage, which do you think the author attributes most importance to? ［A］ Some procrastinators seek help for their problem Passage 11 What does a scientist do when he or she “explains” something? Scientific explanation comes in two forms; generalization and reduction. Most psychologists deal with generalization. They explain particular instances of behavior as examples of general laws. For instance most psychologists would explain a pathologically strong fear of dogs as an example of classical conditioning. presumably, the person was frightened earlier in life by a dog. An unpleasant stimulus was paired with the sight of the animal(perhaps the person was knocked down by a dog) and the subsequent sight of dogs evokes the earlier response-fear. Most physiologists deal with reduction. Phenomena are explained in terms of simpler phenomena. For example, the movement of a muscle is explained in terms of changes in the membrane of muscle cells, entry of particular chemicals, and interactions between protein molecules within these terms of forces that bind various molecules together and cause various parts of these molecules to be attracted to one another. The task of physiological psychology is to “explain” behavior in physiological terms. Like other scientists, physiological psychologists believe that all natural phenomena-including human behavior-are subject to the laws of physics. Thus, the laws of behavior can be reduced to descriptions of physiological processes. How does one study the physiology of behavior? Physiological psychologists simply be reductionists. It is not enough to observe behaviors and correlate them with physiological events that occur at the same time. Identical behaviors, Under different conditions, may occur for different reasons, and thus be initiated by different physiological mechanisms: This means that we must understand “psychologically” why a particular behavior occurs before we can understand what physiological events made it occur. What does the passage mainly discuss? ［A］ The difference between “scientific” and “unscientific” explanations Passage 12 A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people. Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud America way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability. Accountability isn't hard to define. it means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences. Of the many values that hold civilization together-honesty, Kindness, and so on accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law-and, ultimately, no society. My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people's behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment. Fortunately there are still communities-smaller towns, usually-where schools maintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: “In this family certain things are not tolerated-they simply are not done!” Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him. The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it's the criminal who is consider victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn't teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didn't provide a stable home. I didn't believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless excuses where no one accepts responsibility for anything. We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it. The key point of the passage is that . ［A］ Stricter discipline should be maintained in schools and families
Passage 1 答案为C项。 文章提到，在19世纪70年代以前，美国还谈不上有受过训练的护士。然后又交待美国上层阶级的妇女发动改革运动，有些医生不赞成妇女建立护士训练学校，“But the women reformers did not depend on the physicians' approval …”文章的结尾进行总结说“professional nursing … emerged neither from medical discoveries nor from a program of hospital reform initiated by physicians; outsiders saw the need first.”就是说建立护士训练学校是因为有此需要，因而美国上层阶级的妇女率先兴起、投入这项改革运动。对文章的细节进行归纳后就不难看出哪一个选择项是本文最佳标题。A项的内容是美国的公共卫生，这在文章里根本未涉及到；B项的Florence Nightingale是在叙述有些女改革家越过医生去找她们本阶层那些更有权势的男子时所举的一个例子，说她在英国 政府中有些身居高位的朋友，她在改革她的国家军队医院时，就是采用这种方法。例举Florence Nightingale是为了加强主题思想的说服力，它只是一个小小的细节，根本不能做标题；C项是关于为建立护士训练学校而进行的不懈努力，正好与文章的内容相吻合；D项谈论的是上、下层阶级的卫生保健，文章中也没谈及，因此，很容易排除。 Passage 2 答案为C项。文章开始就叙述“1952年以后的美国经济是一种丰衣足食和几乎充分就业的经济”，接着是在各个领域中谈及繁荣的景象，比如：全国产量、制造业等。总之涉及的全是经济问题，贯穿文章始终。A项是关于50年代美国农业的趋势，文章在例举经济在各方面呈现繁荣景象时，顺便提一句：“Only agriculture complained that it was not sharing in the boom”，关于农业发展的趋势并不是作者要阐述的主题。B项是关于1955年的失业率，作者在说明1955年全国产量的增长、制造业生产的增长以及消费者消费增长的同时，为了强调这一时期的繁荣景象，用6500万人有工作，而只有200来万人想就业但却找不到工作来衬托，并不在于说明其失业率有多少。D项文章中根本未加涉及。只有C项，说明20世纪50年代美国总的经济情况，概括文章的主题所涉及的几个方面。 Passage 3 答案为D项。文章第一句开门见山地指出“妇女在美国独立战争中直接参加了战争，体现在三个方面”，点明了本文的主题，概括了中心思想，因此是主题句。段中的其他各句都服务于主题句所表述的主题，第一个方面体现在“women staffed field hospitals and acted as military support …”；第二个方面体现在“…as regular troop members”；最后是结尾句“…women were occasional fighters affiliated with local militia companies or committees of safety formed to protect the local community.”妇女以上述三种方式积极参与。选择项A只是三种方式中的一种；选择项B与文中所述内容不符；选择项C又夸大了妇女在战争中的作用。只有选项D全面地概括了本文主旨。 Passage 4 答案为D项。本题询问文章的中心思想。本文的中心思想在段中(段中主题句)。尽管文章以“… a government will always encroach upon freedom…”开始，但是紧接着连词“but”引出了主题，上下句形成一个转折的逻辑关系。整个主题围绕着“in many countries society has responded by throwing up its defenses in the shape of social classes…”，接着还例举了英国的实例来说明在许多国家里，社会所采取的对策，以社会各阶层或以组织机构的形式建立自己的防护手段，因为这些阶层和机构享有经济实力雄厚的大众的支持。文章最后总结说“Even in European lands which were arbitrarily ruled, the powers of the monarchy, though absolutely in theory, were in their exercise checked in a similar fashion”。综观全文，选择D项最能概括全文的主题。 Passage 5 答案为C项。本文开头便交待美国印第安人在那场被称为“美国大革命”的战争中发挥了重要作用，这一句可以看做是个引子，真正的主题句是下边内容，用一个转折词“however”引出“对美国印第安人来说，殖民地居民和英国之间的争执是与己无关的局外事”，以及“For American Indians the conflict was a war for American Indian independence, and whichever side they chose they lost it.”然后为了解释这一主题思想，作者引用Iroquois族妇女领袖Mary Brant和拥有“Beloved Woman”称号的“Cherekee”族女英雄Nancy Ward的例子来说明 “美国印第安人在这场战争中无论站在哪一边，他们都失去了独立”这一主题。因此C项为正确答案。A项内容恰好与主题表述内容相反； B项内容与原文也不符；D项夸大了妇女的作用，文中只是例举二位印第安人女英雄，并没说明美国独立战争的胜利主要靠美国印第安妇女。 Passage 6 答案为D项。本篇文章主要阐述龙卷风起破坏作用的原因——其内部的力，主要是由于“the low air pressure at the center of a tornado”。接下来的几段都是围绕这一主题展开的，先后详细地讲述了龙卷风中心的气压和屋内的气压，从屋内与屋外之间每平方英寸的压力差来分析龙卷风造成的损失。选择项D所阐述的内容是“怎样预防龙卷风”，虽然文中也渗透了一些关于如何使屋内外气压达到平衡以避免巨大的内压使建筑物发生爆炸，但这只是作者为了说明主题时所提到的一种方法，不能作为本 文的标题；选择项B的内容(什么时候经常刮龙卷风)文中根本未涉及；选择项C(龙卷风在何处形成的)排除，原因与B项相同；只有 选择项D(龙卷风为什么会带来这么大的损失)符合题意。 Passage 7 答案为B项。本文一开始就交待了主题“Resources can be said to be scarce in both an absolute and a relative sense …if the quantity of an input is limited, the increased use of it in one manufacturing process must cause it to become less available for other uses.”(用于一种目的的材料不能同时用于其他目的；如果投入量有限，那么在某个加工过程中增加它的使用量就一定会使其他用途更难获得材料)。第二段用举例的方式说明“The cost of a product in terms of money may not measure its true cost to society”； 原因是“每种生产活动都会耗尽社会可以获得的某些资源；它意味着放弃一个生产某种其他产品的机会”。第三段作者叙述在市场经济中， 一种商品的价格和供给量取决于它的生产成本，“and that cost, ultimately, is the cost of not making other goods”。因此说， 整篇文章都是围绕商品的价格特别是比较缺乏的资源或材料的价格是由什么来决定的。选择项B概括了这个主题。 Passage 8 答案为C项。短文第一段叙述人类对宇宙空间正进行探索；第二、三段对金星(The planet Venus)与地球(Earth)的许多相似与不同之处进行比较；在第四段中点出主题：“Venus is a valuable Laboratory for researchers studying the weather and climate of earth”，说明研究金星与地球异同的目的是为了更好地研究地球。故而正确答案选择C。 Passage 9 答案为A项。本主旨题为目的型，全文的主题句在首段首句“Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. ”第二句作者又进一步解释这一主题，指出“The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion”。作者为证实“个人的口味爱好全凭主观兴致”，做了一项实验，其结果表明“only a few Pepsi participants and coke fans may really be able to tell there favorite brand by taste and price.”。在四个选项中，A项恰好表达了作者撰写本文之目的。 Passage 10 1.答案为D项。本题询问的是第一段的中心思想，略读完本篇，我们知道作者在第一段里首先给“Procrastinator”下个定义，指出他们是一种“people who have a chronic habit of putting things off, usually until the last minute and sometimes until it is too late altogether”。在下完定义之后，作者接着指出这些办事拖拉的人承认他们办事拖拉最主要的原因就是懒惰，此外还有组织纪律差、不善于安排自己的时间等原因。因此，我们可以看出，第一段除向我们介绍“procrastinator”之外，只提到他们拖拉的原因。所以，选择项D最能表达第一段的主题。 2.答案为C项。文中第二段首先用一个引子，然后引出主题，说明最近的实验表明procrastinators的困难比他们自己想象的要复杂，其结论是“…such people have a vulnerable sense of self-worth, are particularly fearful of failure, and deliberately put things off precisely so that…”,拖拉的原因是“since they do everything at the last moment…, the procrastinators can retain their illusion of brilliance without ever having to put it to the test”。整个段落主要是讲最近对办事拖拉的人的研究结果。 3.答案为B项。通过上述两题对本文一、二段的分析，我们知道这篇文章主要说明办事拖拉的人给自己的行为找借口，而实验研究却表明他们拖拉的习性并不像他们自己认为的那么简单，事实上是这些人由于太害怕失败了，而故意耽搁时间，这样他们就不会有足够的时间把事情做好，为自己没能出色地完成任务寻找借口(时间紧、压力大)。因此，选择项B概括了文章的主题，它暗示文章是关于办事拖拉(耽搁)的借口与真实性。 4答案为B项。文章第一段是关于procrastinators为自己行为找到的借口。第二段才是作者要指出的问题的实质性，用一个转折词“however”来引出真实的缘由，作者用实验的结果来驳斥procrastinators的自我分析，从中强调procrastinators办事拖拉的真实原因并不像他们自己所认为的那样，而是故意耽误事情，这样可以避免对他们的考验，因为这些人自我价值观念很差，可又特别害怕失败受挫，于是就只好故意拖拉。 Passage 11 答案为D项。本文主要阐述心理学家、生理学家、以及生理心理学家用各种不同方法来解释各种自然现象。短文首先提出“What does scientist do when he or she `explain' something?”第二句又给出答案“Seintific explanation comes in two forms: generaliation and reduction”，然后主要叙述了心理学家采用概括法；第二段讲述生理学家主要采用归纳法；第三、四段说明生理心理学家又不是绝对的采用归纳法。纵观全文，我们可以判断出D项概括主题。 答案为D项。本文的中心思想表述在第三段及最后一段，属于段中——段尾主题句。在第三段，作者认为“Accountability isn't hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences.”(“accountability”是说每个人都应为他或她所做的事及其后果承担责任和义务)。文章尾段作者再次点题，指出“we in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it”。四个选项中，只有D项(应该有更多的人接受“accountability”这种价值观)表述了这种思想 |
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来自： wwwijhyt图书馆 > 《考研英语》
