英语阅读(二)试题_全国1月自考试卷
英语阅读（二）试题_全国2009年1月自考
试卷
全国2009年1月自考英语阅读（二）试题
课程代码：00596
请将答案填在答题纸相应位置上。全部题目用英文作答(翻译题除外)
I. Reading Comprehension. (50 points, 2 points for each) Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet. Passage One
Before going into camp there are many things for the camper to learn if he does not know how, and one of these things is how to make a fire. If one has matches, kindling and wood, there is no trick in making a campfire, but there is a good trick in making a fire where there are no matches and the wood is green or wet.
Our own Indians get fire by rotating a hard upright stick in a cup-shaped hollow of lighter wood, in which dry charcoal or the shavings of punk were placed. Cotton and any other substances
that catch a flame easily would answer as well. This is getting fire by friction.
Camps are either temporary, that is changed from day to day, or they are permanent and may be visited year after year, or they may be used for a few weeks at a time.
During the autumn and when the weather is dry and the nights not too cool, the best way to camp is in the open, sleeping on beds of boughs, about a roaring fire, and with one blanket under and another over.
Small dog tents, like the ones our soldiers carried in the Civil War, are cheap and very convenient. Each man carried a section, and two made a tent, into which two men crawled when it rained, but in dry weather they preferred to sleep in the open, even when it was freezing.
Shelters of boughs, arranged in an A-framed fashion from a ridge pole make good temporary shelters and are first rate as windbreaks at night.
A shack built of crossed logs requires some time to build and some skill to make, but it is not beyond the reach of any boy who has seen —and who has not —an old-fashioned log shanty.
But all boys, even trained foresters, are apt to get lost in strange
woods. Every one, however, should know what to do in such a circumstance. As a rule the denser growth of moss on trees is on the north side. This knowledge may help find the direction, but it is better to carry a small pocket compass.
When the sky is clear, the sun and the stars help to guide the course, and if they are followed one is saved from traveling in a circle, as the lost are pretty sure to do in a dense forest.
If twigs are broken from bushes they will serve to show the course to those out searching. A good plan is to follow down the course of a stream, which always flows into a larger body of water and will lead to some abode. If a hill is accessible, the lay of the land may be had from its summit.
In any event, should you be lost, do not get rattled. You will be missed in camp and a search will be made by your friends. Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.
1. “There is no trick in making a campfire”(Para. 1). The word “trick” means ______.
A. magic
B. deception
C. skill
D. difficulty
2. The writer gives the example of how Indians made a fire to show ______.
A. the native Indians were good at making tricks
B. hunters in the West were clever in using tools
C. campers need to use primitive tools for survival
D. campers should have some knowledge about the natives
3. Which camp does the writer prefer according to the passage?
A. Elaborate camps that boys like to build themselves.
B. Small dog tents that soldiers carried in the Civil War.
C. Camps of A-framed fashion that are put up against wind.
D. Camps that are for a temporary use and simply set.
4. To find one’s way out, the writer recommends ______.
A. finding the direction by breaking twigs
B. following down a stream leading to the summit
C. using a portable instrument that shows directions
D. looking at the sky to avoid traveling in a circle
5. What writing method is applied in the passage?
A. Arguing.
B. Explaining.
C. Retelling.
D. Reasoning.
Passage Two
It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the quick pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters behind the wheel. It is all very well, again, to have a tiger behind the wheel, but to have one in the driver’s
seat is another matter altogether. You might tolerate the odd road-hog, the rude and inconsiderate, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the situation calls for “Be Kind to Other Drivers” campaign, otherwise it may get completely out of hand.
Road politeness is not good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most coolheaded and good-tempered of drivers to resist the temptation to revenge when subjected to uncivilized behavior. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards relieving the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgements of goodwill and tolerance is necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such acknowledgements of politeness are all too rare today. Many drivers nowadays don’t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.
However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who brakes violently to allow a car to emerge from a side street at some hazard to following traffic, when a few seconds later the road would be clear anyway; or the man who waves a child across a zebra crossing into the path of oncoming vehicles that may be unable to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road
wherever and whenever they care to. It always amazes me that the highways are not covered with the dead bodies of these grannies. A veteran driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if motorists learn to filter correctly into traffic streams one at a time without causing the total blockages that give rise to bad temper. Unfortunately, modern motorists can’t even learn to drive, let alone master the subtler aspects of roadsmanship.
Years ago experts warned us that the car-ownership explosion would demand a lot more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart. Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.
6. According to the passage, troubles on the road are primarily caused by ______.
A. people’s attitude towards the road-hogs
B. the rhythm of modern life
C. the behavior of the driver
D. the horrible traffic conditions
7. The sentence “You might tolerate the odd road-hog...the rule.” (Para. 1) implies that ______.
A. nowadays impolite drivers constitute the majority of motorists
B. rude and impolite drivers can be met only occasionally
C. the well-mannered motorist cannot tolerate the road-hog
D. our society is unjust towards well-mannered motorists
8. By “good sense”(Para.2), the writer means ______.
A. the driver’s ability to understand and react reasonably
B. the driver’s prompt response to difficult and severe conditions
C. the driver’s tolerance of rude or even savage behavior
D. the driver’s acknowledgement of politeness and regulations
9. Experts have long pointed out that in the face of car-ownership explosion ______.
A. drivers will suffer great loss if they pay no respect to others
B. drivers should have more communication among themselves
C. drivers should be ready to yield to each other
D. road users should make more sacrifice
10. In the writer’s opinion ______.
A. strict traffic regulations are badly needed
B. drivers should apply road politeness properly
C. rude drivers should be punished
D. drivers should avoid traffic jams
Passage Three
One period of our lives when superior results are demanded of
us is, strangely enough, childhood. Despite being young we are expected to achieve good grades, stay out of trouble, make friends at school, do well on tests, perform chores at home and so on. It’s not easy.
The good news is that being likeable can help a child perform better. Likeable children enjoy many advantages, including the ability to cope more easily with stresses of social interaction and growing up.
In her book Understanding Child Stress, Dr. Carolyn Leonard states that children who are likeable, optimistic, and personable fare well and are able to gain support from others. This leads to resilience and focus; a child who has adequate emotional armor can continue down the path to success. Much research shows that resilience, the ability to recover from or adjust early to misfortune and sustained life stress, has enabled children to succeed in school, avoid drug abuse, and develop a healthy self-concept.
Why does a likeable child more easily navigate stress and do better in his or her life? Because likeability helps create what’s known as a positive feedback loop. The positive feelings you invoke in other people are returned to you, creating constant encouragement and an antidote to the daily strains of life.
This feedback loop continues into adulthood. To return once again to the example of teaching, learning becomes easier with a likeable personality. Michael Delucchi of the University of Hawaii reviewed dozens of studies to determine if likeable teachers received good ratings because of their likeability or because they in fact taught well. Delucchi found that “Students who perceive a teacher as likeable, in contrast to those who do not, may be more attentive to the information that the teacher delivers and they’ll work harder on assignments, and they’ll be more receptive to grading and they will learn more.”
You may have noticed this pattern in your own life when you try to give some advice. The more positive your relationship with that person, the more he or she seems to listen, and the more you feel certain that that person has heard you and intends to act on your words.
Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.
11. The writer implies in the first paragraph that ______.
A. children are expected to do well in school work
B. children are expected much than we usually think
C. likeable children outperform in their childhood
D. likeable children fare well in dealing with peers
12. According to Dr. Leonard, likeable children ______.
A. can cope more easily with stress independently
B. can avoid any trouble and unpleasant events
C. can develop a proper self-evaluation
D. can focus their attention on learning
13. The term “emotional armor” in paragraph 3 means ______.
A. mental support from peers
B. mental support from adults
C. ability to handle life stress
D. ability to achieve success
14. The main purpose of the studies done by Michael Delucchi is to find ______.
A. if a likeable teacher has a positive personality
B. if a likeable teacher draws more attention
C. what results a likeable teacher gets in class
D. what factors influence a likeable teacher’s evaluation
15. The passage aims at proving that ______.
A. likeable people outperform in their childhood
B. likeable people outperform in life generally
C. likeable people can cultivate confidence in them
D. likeable people can cultivate popularity in peers
Passage Four
When I was about 5 years old, I used to watch a bird in the skies of southern Alberta from the Blackfoot Blood Reserve in northern Montana where I was born. I loved this bird; I would
watch him for hours. He would glide effortlessly in that gigantic sky, or he would come down and light on the water and float there very majestically. Sometimes when I watched him he would creep into the grasses and waddle around not very gracefully. We called him meksikatsi, which in the Blackfoot language means “pink-colored feet”; meksikatsi and I became very good friends.
The bird had a very particular significance to me because I desperately wanted to be able to fly too. I felt very much as if I was the kind of person who had been born into a world where flight was impossible. And most of the things that I dreamed about or read about would not be possible for me but would be possible only for other people.
When I was ten years old, my life changed drastically. I found myself adopted forcefully and against my parents’ will; they were considered inadequate parents because they could not make enough money to support me, so I found myself in that terrible position that 60 percent of native Americans find themselves in, living in a city that they do not understand at all, not in another culture but between two cultures.
A teacher of the English language told me that meksikatsi was not called meksikatsi, even though that is what my people have
called that bird for thousands of years. Meksikatsi, he said, was really “duck”. I was very disappointed with English. I could not understand it. First of all, the bird did not look like “duck”, and when it made a no ise, it did not sound like “duck”, and I was even more confused when I found out that the meaning of the verb “to duck” came from the bird and not vice versa.
As I came to understand English better, I understand that it made a great deal of sense, but I never forgot that meksikatsi made a different kind of sense. I realized that languages are not just different words for the same things but totally different concepts, totally different ways of experiencing and looking at the world.
Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.
16. According to the passage, meksikatsi can do all of the following EXCEPT ______.
A. waddling elegantly around in the grasses
B. floating majestically on the water
C. creeping shyly into the grasses
D. flying effortlessly in the sky
17. The bird “meksikatsi” was probably particularly attractive to the author because ______.
A. he wanted to become a pilot when he grew up
B. the color of the bird caught the author’s imagination
C. the bird always reminded him of his own culture
D. the bird represented freedom in the author’s mind
18. Which of the following is implied in the third paragraph?
A. The difficulty native Americans found in adapting to a different culture.
B. The author’s parents couldn’t support him financially.
C. The author considered it a challenge to live in a city.
D. The change at the age of ten meant little to the author.
19. The difference between meksikatsi and duck means to the author that ______.
A. the same things differently named mean a difference in life style
B. different cultures can be in agreement in naming things
C. English naming is the most unnatural way of naming
D. the naming in one culture is invariably better than that in another
20. According to the passage, the author is of the opinion that ______.
A. people all over the world like birds with no exception
B. most English words come from American native languages
C. the naming system in a language conveys meanings
D. native Americans are more fond of birds than European settlers
Passage Five
Most of us lead unhealthy lives: we spend far too much time sitting down. If, in addition, we are careless about our diets, our bodies soon become flabby and our system sluggish. The guilt feelings start: “I must go on a diet”, “I must try to lose weight”, “I must get more fresh air and exercise”, “I must stop smoking”, “I must try to keep fit”. There are some aspects of our unhealthy lives that we cannot avoid.
I am thinking of such features of modern urban life as pollution, noise, rushed meals and stress. But keeping fit is a way to minimize the effects of these evils.
The usual suggestion for a person who is looking for a way to keep fit is to take up some sport or other. While it is true that every weekend you will find people playing football and tennis in the local park, they are outnumbered a hundred to one by the people who are simply watching them. It is an illusion to think that you will get fit by going to watch the football match every Saturday, unless you count the effort required to fight your way through the crowds to get to the best seats.
For those who do not particularly enjoy competitive sports —
and it is especially difficult to do so if you are not good at them —there are such solitary activities as cycling, walking and swimming. What often happens, though, is that you do them in such a leisurely way, so slowly, that it is doubtful if you are doing yourself much good, apart from the fact that you have at least managed to get up out of your armchair. Of course you can be very thorough about exercises. Many sports shops now sell frightening pieces of apparatus, chest-expanders and other mysterious gadgets of shiny spring steel, which, according to the advertisements, will bring you up to an Olympic standard of fitness, provided programs generally involve long periods of time bending these curious bits of metal into improbable shapes.
It all strikes me as utterly boring and also time-consuming. Somebody suggested recently that all such effort was pointless anyway because if you spend half an hour every day jogging round the local park, you will add to your life exactly the number of hours that you wasted during the “jogging” in the first place. The argument is false even if the facts are correct, but there is no doubt that exercise in itself can be boring. Even after you have found a routine for keeping in shape, through sport or gymnastics, you are still only half way to good
health, because, according to the experts, you must also master the art of complete mental and physical relaxation.
Now this does not mean snoozing in the armchair or going dancing. It has something to do with deep breathing, emptying your mind of all thoughts, medication and so on.
Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.
21. According to the passage, if you want to keep fit, you should ______.
A. not do only competitive sports, but solitary ones
B. not only take up sports, but also enjoy your relaxation
C. not put on too much weight around your waist
D. not spend long hours sitting in your armchair
22. The tone of the sentence “unless you count your effort…, get to the best seats” is ______.
A. serious
B. doubtful
C. critical
D. ironic
23. The author’s point of view on solitary sports is that ______.
A. they lack a sense of competition
B. they can be done in a slow way
C. they do not contribute much to your health
D. they can be done at any time and in any place
24. What does “solitary”(Para.4) mean?
A. Boring.
B. Time-consuming.
C. Done collectively.
D. Experienced alone.
25. Which of the following is correct according to the passage?
A. Relaxation, like sports, is equally important in keeping fit.
B. Competitive sports are difficult and solitary, thus boring.
C. Going to football matches can help to keep you healthy.
D. Sports apparatus are indispensable to keeping fit.
II. Vocabulary. (10 points, 1 point for each)
Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refers to the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on the Answer Sheet.
If spaceships were launched from space or from the moon, the absence of weight would permit the ships to be launched with great speed at reduced pressures. A relatively small explosion would be enough to send a ship off at a very fast rate. And, since there is no atmosphere in space as there is on earth, the spaceship would meet with no resistance. To illustrate this point, remember how strong the wind feels if we are traveling fast in a car; then imagine a car traveling through an area where there is no wind. The windless condition is comparable to the condition
in
outer space.
The first astronaut to walk in space, Leonov, and his companion, Beliaiev, began making preparations for the walk as soon as their spaceship was launched. The spaceship was equipped with a double door, which was fitted with bellows between the ship and the outside. This made it possible for the astronaut, in his space suit with oxygen supply, to go first from the air-filled ship to the bellows. Then the air was let out of the bellows, and, while the man stepped outside, the air
inside the ship remained at normal pressure. If the door had opened directly into space, the air in the ship would have rushed out and been lost when the door opened.
Leonov and Beliaiev practiced testing the doors several times after they had begun revolving around the earth. When the time came for Leonov to go out, his companion helped him attach the cable that was to keep him from floating away from the ship. Then Leonov entered the bellows, and the door closed behind him. As the air was let out of the bellows, he felt his suit swell up because of the air pressure inside.
26. the lack of something (Para. 1)
27. to allow/let something to happen (Para. 1)
28. an opposition from one force to another (Para. 1)
29. similar to something else in quality (Para. 1)
30. a tool used to blow air (Para.2)
31. not unusual (Para.2)
32. straight (Para.2)
33. turning around or moving in a circle (Para.3)
34. to connect one thing to another (Para.3)
35. to enlarge or expand in size (Para.3)
III. Summarization. (20 points, 2 points for each) Directions: In this section of the test, there are ten paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs is followed by an incomplete phrase or sentence which summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Spell out the missing letters of the word on your Answer Sheet. Paragraph One
A friendly dog can make older people feel less isolated — and it appears to make little difference if that wagging tail belongs to a robot doggie or the real thing. Researchers compared a real dog with a far-from-lifelike robot dog, to see how residents of three U.S. nursing homes would respond.
36. Robot as good as real dog can ease 1____ people. Paragraph Two
Accidents and illness are unhappy things to talk about, but no
one can expect to live a lifetime without having some kind of accident or becoming ill. Some accidents and illnesses are serious and may result in long periods of recovery from poor health.
37. It seems impossible to a____ all accidents and illness in one’s lifetime.
Paragraph Three
Excessive pressure from schoolwork is probably the most common problem in urban areas affecting Chinese children’s development. Giving children time to dabble in many fields is vital for their physical and mental development. In the process, they will gradually show a liking for particular activities. Parents can help their kids make choices.
38. “Less work, more p______” is recommended for urban children.
Paragraph Four
Beginning in the 1980s, higher incomes and greater job opportunities in China’s large cities have been enticing growing numbers of farmers into becoming migrant workers. Currently, the migrant population has reached an unprecedented level. About 200 million farmers have left their homes to earn a living in cities.