Passage 19Psychologists now believe that noise has a
considerable effect on People's attitudes and behavior. Experiments have proved that in
noisy situations (even temporary ones), people be have more irritably and less
cooperatively; in more permanent noisy situations, many people cannot work hard, and they
suffer from severe anxiety as well as other psychological problems. However, psychologists
distinguish between "sound" and "noise". "Sound" is measured
physically in decibels. "Noise" cannot be measured in the same way because it
refers to the psychological effect of sound and its level of "intensity" depends
on the situation. Thus, for passengers at an airport who expect to hear airplanes taking
off and landing, there may be a lot of sound, but not much noise (that is, they are not
bothered by the noise). By contrast, if you are at a concert and two people behind you are
whispering, you feel they are talking noisily even if there is not much sound. You notice
the noise because it affects you psychologically. Both sound and noise can have negative
effects, but what is most important is if the person has control over the sound. People
walking down the street with earphones, listening to music that they enjoy, are receiving
a lot of decibels of sound, but they are probably happy hearing sounds which they control.
On the other hand, people in the street without earphones must tolerate a lot of noise
which they have no control over. It is noise pollution that we need to control in order to
help people live more happily.
- According to the passage,people _____.[ANSWER]
A)can not work better in a noisy situation
B)will suffer from complete deafness because of noise pollution
C)can be psychologically affected by working in very noise factories
D)may cooperate well in a noisy surrounding
- "Sound",as defined by the psychologist,_____.[ANSWER]
A)can be measured in the same way that "noise" is measured
B)may be extremely harmful to health
C)is not at all different from "noise"
D)can be measured by machines
- People waiting at an airport _____.[ANSWER]
A)enjoy hearing airplanes taking off and landing
B)are usually not troubled by the noise
C)can easily tell sound from noise
D)are often physically affected by the noise
- People enjoy listening to music,_____.[ANSWER]
A)though they are receiving a lot of decibels of sound in fact
B)because it does not have any negative effect
C)because they do not have to tolerate the noise around them
D)even though it is sometimes unpleasant hearing strange sounds
- We can conclude from the passage that we need to control noise pollution if _____.[ANSWER]
A)we want to stay both psychologically and physically healthy
B)we don't want to be physically dent
C)we want to cooperate well
D)we don't want to be anxious
Passage 20Becket not only traveled light, he lived light. In
all the world he owned just the clothes he stood up in, a full suitcase and a bank
account. Arriving anywhere with these possessions, he might just as easily put up for a
month or a year as for a single night. For long stays, not less than a month, he might
take a furnished flat, sometimes even a house. But whatever the length, he rarely needed
anything he did not have with him. He was, he liked to think, a self-contained person.
Becket had one occasional anxiety: the suspicion that he owned
more than that would fit comfortably into the case. The feeling, when it came, was the
signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about. This was the
automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example. Having no use for choice or variety,
he kept just a raincoat, a suit, a pair of shoes and a few shirts, socks and so on; no
more in the clothing line. He bought and read many books, and left them wherever he
happened to be sitting when he finished them. They quickly found new owners.
Becket was a professional traveler, interested and interesting. He
liked to get the feeling of a place by living in it, reading its newspapers, watching its
TV, discussing its affairs. Though Becket's health gave him no cause for alarm, he made a
point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere. "A doctor knows a place and
its people better than anyone" , he used to say. He never went to see a doctor; he
always sent for one; that, he found, was the quickest way to confidences, which came out
freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becket was an artist as well. He painted pictures of his places
and, when he had gathered enough information, he wrote about them. He sold his work,
through an agent, to newspapers and magazines. It was an agreeable sort of life for a good
social mixer, and as Becket never stayed anywhere for long, he enjoyed the satisfying
advantage of paying very little in tax.
- What do we know about Becket's possessions?[ANSWER]
A)He had enough baggage to stay for one night.
B)He carried all of them around with him.
C)He had thrown or given them away.
D)He left most of his things at home when he travelled.
- Becket took over a flat when _____.[ANSWER]
A)there were no suitable hetels
B)he meant to stay somewhere for several nights
C)he was sure of staying a year or more
D)he expected not to move on for a month at least
- How did Becket feel about taxation?[ANSWER]
A)It worried him,so he kept moving from place to place.
B)He hated it,so he broke the tax laws.
C)He was pleased he could honestly avoid it.
D)He felt ashamed of not paying taxes.
- If anything worried Becket,it was _____.[ANSWER]
A)the thought of having too much baggage
B)his habit of leaving things lying about
C)the fact that he owned so little
D)the poor state of his clothes
- Becket did not keep books because _____.[ANSWER]
A)he had not interest in literature
B)the books he read belonged to other people
C)he had no room in his case for them
D)he preferred to give them to his friends
Pasage 21It is plain that in the year 2000 everyone will have
at his elbow several times more mechanical energy than he has today.
There will be advances in biological knowledge as far-reaching as
those that have been made in physics. We are only beginning to learn that we can control
our biological environment as well as our physical one. Starvation has been predicted
twice to a growing world population: by Malthus in about 1800, by Crookes in about 1900.
It was headed off the first time by taking agriculture to America and the second time by
using the new fertilizers. In the year 2000, starvation will be headed off by the control
of the diseases and the heredity(遗传) of plants and animals — by shaping our own
biological environment.
Now I come back to the haunting theme of automation. The most
common species in the factory today is the man who works or minds a simple machine — the
operator. By the year 2000, the repetitive tasks of industry will be taken over by the
machines, as the heavy tasks were taken over long ago; and the mental tedium will go the
way of physical exhaustion. Today we still distinguish, even among repetitive jobs,
between the skilled and the unskilled; but in the year 2000 all repetition will be
unskilled. We simply waste our time if we oppose this change; it is as inevitable as the
year 2000 itself.
- The article was written to _____.[ANSWER]
A)warn us of the impending starvation
B)present facts about life in the near future
C)oppose biological advances
D)warn of the evil side of automation
- Advances in biological knowledge were _____.[ANSWER]
A)kept pace with advances in physics
B)been responsible for the invention of new machines
C)surpassed those in physics
D)lagged behind those in physics
- According to the passage,starvation _____.[ANSWER]
A)can be predicted
B)is unavoidable C)can be prevented D)is mainly caused by poor agriculture
- Repetitive tasks in industry lead to _____.[ANSWER]
A)physical exhaustion
B)mental stimulation
C)mental exhaustion
D)extinction
- If the predictions of this writer are realized,the demand for the unskilled workers in
the twenty-first century will be _____.[ANSWER]
A)very high
B)very low
C)the same as today
D)constantly rising
Passage 22In these days of technological triumphs, it is well
to remind ourselves from time to time that living mechanisms are often incomparably more
efficient than their artificial imitations. There is no better illustration of this idea
than the sonar system of bats. Ounce for ounce and watt for watt, it is billions of times
more efficient and more sensitive than the radars and sonars designed by man. Of course,
the bats have had some 50 million years of evolution to refine their sonar. Their
physiological mechanisms for echo location, based on all this accumulated experience,
therefore merit our thorough study and analysis. To appreciate the precision of the bats'
echo location, we must first consider The degree of their reliance upon it. Thanks to
sonar, an insect-eating bat can get along perfectly well without eyesight. This was
brilliantly demonstrated by an experiment performed in the late eighteenth century by the
Italian naturalist Lazure Spallanzani. He caught some bats in a bell tower, blinded them,
and released them outdoors. Four of these blind bats were recaptured after they had found
their way back to the bell tower, and on examining their stomachs' contents, Spallanzani
found that they had been able to capture and fill themselves with flying insects. We know
from experiments that bats easily find insects in the dark of night, even when the insects
emit no sound that can be heard by human ears. A bat will catch hundreds of soft-bodied,
silent-flying moths in a single hour. It will even detect and chase pebbles tossed into
the air.
- The passage is mainly about _____.[ANSWER]
A)living mechanisms and their artificial imitations
B)the remarkable sonar system of bats
C)the deficiencies of man-made sonars
D)the experiment of "blind-bats"
- Where of the following statements is true?[ANSWER]
A)Living mechanisms are always more efficient than their artificial imitations.
B)Bats rely on their sonar system as well as eyesight to eat insects.
C)The sonar system of bats has had 50 million years to be refined.
D)People have discovered the bats' sonar system thousands of years age.
- Lazzoro Spallanzani demonstrated that a bat can get along well without eyesight through
_____.[ANSWER]
A)He caught soem bats and blinded them and released them.
B)Four of these blind bats found their way back.
C)He recaptured the four returned bats.
D)The stomachs' of the blind bats found to be fill with flying insects.
- Bats find insects in the dark of night with the help of _____.[ANSWER]
A)echoes
B)eyesight
C)sound waves
D)none ofthe above
- Implied but not stated _____.[ANSWER]
A)Pebbles tossed into the air make no sound that can be heard by human ears
B)A bat will catch hundreds of months in a single hour
C)Insect-eating bats are totally blind
D)The sonar system of bats is as good as man-made sonar
Passage 23Representatives of Callahan Media Associates (CMA)
announced today that the news agency would attempt to buy the National Broadcasting System
(NBS), the second largest television and radio network in the United States. Ronald
Callahan, son of Jessica Callahan, who started CMA, told reporters that he expects his
company's offering price to be high enough to win out over other offers. He indicated that
NBS executives had already discussed reorganization plans that might result from a CMA
takeover.
A native of the United Kingdom, Jessica Callahan began to buy
newspapers, magazines, and radio stations in the United States eight years ago, and CMA
now owns or controls more than fifteen news organizations here. Before she became a leader
in media in this country, she had established her family-owned company as one of the most
important forces in British TV and newspapers. Callahan started her news career more than
twenty-five years ago, and she had worked as a reporter on three different papers when she
took the job of editor of England's Birmingham Herald (伯明汉先驱报), a newspaper
that had been experiencing financial difficulties for several years. Her success in
raising the news reporting standards as well as making the Herald into a profitable
business gained Callahan the attention and respect of the British news establishment. By
the time she was 35, she had become a publisher and started CMA, which is now one of the
largest media organizations in the world.
Callahan had never visited the United States before she came to
Miami and became the publisher of the Miami Journal almost eight years ago, but she had
been reading the newspaper for several years, and she said that she liked the paper's
style. After she had owned the Journal for just over a year, she bought a small radio
station in Georgia, and in the next five years she went on to acquire news organizations
in several different parts of the country.
If CMA becomes the owner of NBS, for the first time it will have
control over a nationwide TV network. In an interview last week, Philip Rosen, the
president of NBS, said that he was not very happy about the purchase. He agreed that
Callahan and CMA had done a lot to help American newspapers become more financially
secure, but he expressed fears that the new management was going to make news coverage on
NBS irresponsible. He stated that he hoped he could remain with NBS but said that this
might not be possible.
- The writer thins that CMA's offer to buy the National Broadcasting System is probably
_____.[ANSWER]
A)the only one
B)a good one
C)unacceptably low
D)of great competition
- Jessica Callahan captured the confidence of the press after she became the editor of
Birmingham Herald because _____.[ANSWER]
A)she was experienced
B)she had strong financial background
C)since then it started to make money
D)she enjoyed good popularity
- Jessica Callahan has never _____.[ANSWER]
A)visited the United States
B)owned a national TV network
C)worked as an editor
D)read the Miami Journal
- The attitude of NBS top executive to the CMA takeover was that _____.[ANSWER]
A)he was opposed to the purchase
B)he hoped the takeover would bot affect the system's fame
C)he was afraid NBS would suffer serious financial loss
D)he could not leave his present position
- Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?[ANSWER]
A)Jessica Callahan --- a Successful Woman
B)CMA --- from British to USA
C)CMA Buying NBS?
D)CMA's Attractive Offer to NBS
Passage 24The agricultural revolution in the nineteenth century
involved two things the invention of labor-saving machinery and the development of
scientific agriculture. labor-saving machinery naturally appeared first where labor was
scarce. "In Europe", said Thomas Jefferson, "the object is to make the most
of their land, labor being abundant; here it is to make the most of our labor, lard being
abundant". It was in America, there fore, that the great advances in
nineteenth-century agricultural machinery first Came. At the opening of the century, with
the exception of a crude plow, farmers could have carried practically all of the existing
agricultural implements on their backs: by 1860, most of the machinery in use today had
been designed in an early form. The most important of the early inventions was the iron
plow. As early as 1990 Charles Newbold of New Jersey had been working on the idea of a
cast-iron plow and spent his entire fortune in introducing his invention. The farmers,
however, would home none of it, claiming that the iron poisoned the soil and made the
weeds grow. Nevertheless many people devoted their attention to the plow, until in 1869,
James Oliver of South Bend, Indiana, turned out the first chilled-steel plow.
