Language as a System of Symbols
Of all systems of symbols(符号）, language is the most highly developed. It has been pointed out that human beings, by agreement, can make anything stand for anything. Human beings have agreed, in the course of centuries of mutual(相互的）dependency, to let the various noises that they can produce with their lungs, throats, tongues, teeth, and lips systematically stand for certain happenings in their nervous systems. We call that system of agreements language.
There is no necessary connection between the symbol and that which it stands for. Just as social positions can be symbolized by feathers worn on the head, by gold on the watch chain, or by a thousand other things according to the culture we live in, so the fact of being hungry can be symbolized by a thousand different noises according to the culture we live in.
However obvious these facts may appear at first glance, they are actually not so obvious as they seem except when we take special pains to think about the subject. Symbols and the things they stand for are independent of each other, yet we all have a way of feeling as if, and sometimes acting as if, there were necessary connections. For example, there are people who feel that foreign languages are unreasonable by nature; foreigners have such funny names for things, and why can’t they call things by their right names? This feeling exhibits itself most strongly in those English and American tourists who seem to believe that they can make the natives of any country understand English if they shout loud enough. Like the little boy who is reported to have said: “Pigs are called pigs because they are such dirty animals,” they feel that the symbol is inherently(内在地） connected in some way with the things symbolized.
68．Language is a highly developed system of symbols because human beings ______.
A．have made use of language for centuries
B．use our nervous systems to support language
C．have made various noises stand for any events
D．can make anything stand for anything by agreement
69．What can we conclude from Paragraph 2?
A．Different noises may mean different things.
B．Our culture determines what a symbol stands for.
C．The language we use symbolizes our social positions.
D．Our social positions determine the way we are dressed.
70．In Paragraph 3, “take special pains” probably means “_____”.
A．try very hard B．take our time C．are very unhappy D．feel especially painful
71．The example of the little boy is used to show that _____.
A．adults often learn from their young
B．“pig” is a dirty word because pigs are dirty
C．words are not connected with the things they stand for
D．people sometimes have wrong ideas about how language works
Not everyone can become a professional basketball or football player. Not everyone, especially youth living in the city, has access to large green fields. But kids still want to compete. So all over America, young people started skateboarding and bicycling. This is where the Extreme Games, or X-Games, started.
The X-Games are beautiful to watch. They simply defy gravity. Riders fly down ramps on skateboards and do crazy tricks in the air. The X-Games have become so popular that this year BMX cycling is the newest sport in the Beijing Olympics. You will see competitors descend a 25-foot (8 meters) ramp, the highest in the world, as they race through a wild obstacle course.
But the X-Games are more than sports. They have become a culture. Fans of the X-Games have rejected the mainstream. They wear certain clothes, listen to different music and live life to the fullest.
It is not unusual to see young people riding a skateboard or showing off their cycling tricks in a park. Extreme sports arrived in China in the late 1990s. The Chinese Extreme Sports Association was established in 2004
Shanghai will hold the Asian X-Games at the end of April. Check them out and maybe you'll find a new sport you love. According to the passage we know that _________.
| A．all the young people have access to large green fields |
| B．not all the young people like playing sports |
| C．only young people living in the countryside have access to large green fields |
| D．not all the people can become a professional basketball player |
The Extreme Games start from _________.
| A．people's work |
| B．the countryside life |
| C．people's different sports interest |
| D．large green fields |
The Extreme Games are popular with a lot of people because of the factors except that _________.
| A．it is a very exciting sport |
| B．it makes people more confident |
| C．it is quite wonderful |
| D．it is the only sport for both city people and country people |
That we often see some young people wearing all kinds of clothes, listening to music and riding a skateboard or showing off their cycling tricks shows _________.
| A．the Extreme Games have come to China for a long time |
| B．the Extreme Games have become a fashionable culture |
| C．the Extreme Games have become new sports |
| D．the Extreme Games have become the best way to keep fit |
Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some call it the summer learning set-back. Put simply, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they forget. The only thing they might gain is weight. Recent studies show that children gain weight more quickly in the summer than when they are in school.
Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar. Students get winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes for about eight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school.
Last year, a study at Ohio State University reported that year-round students did not learn any more than other students. Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summer than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help.
In American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood. Research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term summer school. They said it created an image of children being forced to do work they missed during the school year. The parents welcomed other terms like " summer camp " ，" enrichment " ，" extra time " and " hands-on learning " . It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that _________.
| A．the educators in the US don't like long summer holiday |
| B．the students in the US learn nothing during their summer vacation |
| C．it's good for the students' health to spend long holiday |
| D．students are not ready to learn during the holiday by them-selves |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．A student in a traditional nine-month school is fatter than one in a year-round school. |
| B．Most American schools make use of a year-round calendar. |
| C．The traditional nine-month calendar has an advantage be-cause they have more class days. |
| D．Students following a traditional nine-month calendar has at least 3 long holidays. |
At the beginning of a new term, students from poor families—_________
| A．are fatter than those from rich families |
| B．have a more serious summer learning gap than those from rich families |
| C．learn more knowledge than those from a year-round school |
| D．make more progress than those from a traditional nine-month calendar school |
This passage mainly tells us _________.
| A．the American summer schools |
| B．to mind the summer learning gap |
| C．how to lose weight during the summer vacation |
| D．schools and local governments should offer programs to help students from poor families |
In 1949，two leagues came together to form the NBA. In 1996the NBA created the WNBA, the Women's National Basketball Association. And in 2001 the NBA created a development league to help train future players. Today about one NBA player in five was born outside the US. The NBA currently has thirty teams, which is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the US. The others are the National Football league, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.
In 1992，the US Olympic men's basketball team was called the " Dream Team " . For the first time there were players from the NBA. The Americans brought home the gold medal that year from Barcelona.
It was during the 1990s that a growing number of top NBA players began to come from outside the US. In 2002，Yao Ming was the first choice in the NBA draft, who was picked by the Houston Rockets. He also became the third Chinese national ever to play in the NBA. The first was Wang Zhi-zhi, who joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2001.
The NBA may be the world's most famous basketball league. But the 28th Summer Olympics in Athens provided an example of how the game is improving internationally.
Argentina defeated the US men's basketball team in the semifinals, then claimed the gold medal over Italy. It was the first medal ever for Argentina in Olympic basketball. It was also the first loss for the American team since 1988 in Seoul. In fact, between 1936and 2000，there was only one other time when the US did not win. That was at the 1972 Munich Games. Both times the Soviet Union took home the gold. From Paragraph 1，we can conclude that _________.
| A．the WNBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the US |
| B．about 80% of the NBA players come from the US |
| C．the development league to help train future players doesn't belong to NBA |
| D．the National Volleyball League belongs to the four major professional sports leagues in the US |
The US didn't win the gold medal in Olympic basketball EX-CEPT _________.
| A．1972 | B．1988 |
| C．1992 | D．2004 |
_________ won the men's basketball silver medal in the 28th Olympic Games.
| A．The US | B．Argentina |
| C．Italy | D．The Soviet Union |
The NBA players began to attend Olympic Games formally in _________.
| A．1936 | B．1988 |
| C．1992 | D．1996 |
Many people are good at one athletic event. A few excel in two. But very few can do well in seven different events. Jackie Joyner-Kersee is someone who could. Some people called her the world's greatest athlete.
Even as a child, Jackie Joyner wanted to do well in many sports. In high school she competed in volleyball and basketball. Basketball was her favorite sport then. She attended college on a four-year basketball scholarship. She became an all-American basketball player.
After marrying her coach, Bob Kersee, Jackie began focusing on track events. One of her best events was always the long jump. Over the years Joyner-Kersee has won many long jump medals. These include an Olympic gold medal and several world champion-ships.
What about the sport with seven different events? It is called the heptathlon. Besides the long jump, it includes events like hurdles, the high jump, and the shot put. Joyner-Kersee competed in this sport in four different Olympics. She won two gold medals and one silver.
Joyner-Kersee has succeeded for two reasons. Her great athletic ability is one thing. But she also possesses great mental toughness. That toughness helped her triumph in spite of her serious asthma and allergies.
Joyner-Kersee's last Olympics was in 1996. After that, she played professional basketball for a while. She did one final heptathlon in 1998 and then retired at the age of thirty-six. During college, Joyner-Kersee was very active in _________.
| A．the long jump | B．volleyball |
| C．basketball | D．the heptathlon |
Based on her life thus far, it would not be surprising if Joyner-Kersee _________
| A．became a referee |
| B．got out of sports completely |
| C．took up a new sport |
| D．became a volleyball announcer |
This passage is basically a _________
| A．biography of Jackie Joyner-Kersee |
| B．biography of Bob Kersee |
| C．history of women's sports |
| D．comparison between the long jump and heptathlon |
The underlined word “triumph“in the last paragraph but one can be replaced by _________.
| A．compete | B．win |
| C．fall in love | D．take part in |
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had "seven fathers" because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated (躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university's Writers' Workshop, however, she felt lonely—a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her "Creative voice".
"It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn't think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That's when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn't write about. "
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children's book, and a short-story collection. Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. |
| B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. |
| D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to __________.
| A．work for a school magazine |
| B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends |
| D．develop her writing style |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. |
| B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her feeling of being different. |
| D．Her childhood experience. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It is quite popular among students. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It wasn't successful as it was written in Spanish. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |