Ⅲ 阅读(共两节,满分40分)
第一节 阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
阅读下面短文,从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed (揭示) a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.
41.The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.
A.he wanted to work in the centre of London
B.he could no longer afford to live without one
C.he was not interested in any other available job
D.he had received some suitable training
42.The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.
A.he often traveled underground B.he had written many poems
C.he could deal with difficult situations D.he had worked in a company
43.The length of his interview meant that _________.
A.he was not going to be offered the job
B.he had not done well in the intelligence test
C.he did not like the interviewer at all
D.he had little work experience to talk about
44.What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?
A.How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be. B.How difficult it is to be a poet.
C.How unsuitable he was for the job. D.How badly he did in the interview.
45.What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?
A. He was very aggressive. B. He was unhappy with his job.
C. He was quite inefficient. D. He was rather unsympathetic.
The idea of being able to walk on water has long interested humans greatly. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever accomplishing such a thing without artificial aid --- we simply weigh too much, and all our mass pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.
However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard(蜥蜴)native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water's surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we'll need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate "hitting."
But fortunately there is an alternative: cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a "non-Newtonian" liquid that doesn't behave like normal water. Now if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles(粒子)in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick liquid of cornflour.
Fun though all this may sound, it's still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink --- and take a shower afterward!
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Walking on water hasn't become a reality mainly because humans.
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2. |
What do we know about Basilicus basilicas from the passage?
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3. |
What is the function of the cornflour according to the passage?
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4. |
What is the author's attitude toward the idea of human's walking on water?
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There have always been a lot of commonly believed but false ideas about being fat and doing exercise. Some people believe that they can’t help putting on weight as they get older, while others hold that if they stop exercising, their muscles will turn into fat. Here are some more myths:
I’ll never lose weight --- I come from a fat family
Wrong! While we can’t change the body type we are born with, we can’t blame our genes for making us fat. There’s plenty of evidence that fatness runs in families, and the main reason is that they share the same habits of eating too much and exercise too little.
I am fat because I burn calories slowly
Wrong! Fatness is not caused by a slow metabolism(新陈代谢). If fact, although fat people consume more energy that slim people, they also fail to realize how much they eat! Keeping a diary can help you work out your daily food intake more accurately.
Exercise is boring
Wrong! Anything will become boring if you do it repetitively. The key is to develop a balanced and varied program that’s fun as well as progressive. If you enjoy a Sunday walk, take a different route. If you do Yoga, try a tai chi class. If you like swimming, set yourself a distance or time challenge.
No pain, no gain
Wrong! Exercise is not meant to hurt. Indeed, pain is your body telling you something’s wrong, and continuing to exercise could lead to serious injury. You may experience mild discomfort as you begin to exercise regularly, but this your body adapting to the positive changes in your lifestyle and the aches should disappear relatively quickly. If you don’t, rest and seek medical advice.What does the author think about being fat?
A.It is the family genes that make people fat. |
B.People are fat because they consume too little energy. |
C.A diary of exercise can prevent people from becoming fat. |
D.It is the consequence of people’s unbalanced lifestyle. |
According to the author, how can we make exercise more interesting?
A.By taking varied exercise. |
B.By choosing simple exercise. |
C.By doing regular exercise. |
D.By sticking to outdoor exercise. |
What is the author’s opinion about “No pain, no gain” in exercising?
A.Keeping fit is essentially a painful experience. |
B.Exercise should be stopped if continuous pain is felt. |
C.Pain in exercise is a precondition for reaching your goal. |
D.Getting used to pain leads to positive changes in your body. |
What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To declare the importance of keeping fit. |
B.To clarify some misconceptions about fatness and exercise. |
C.To confirm what has long been believed about keeping fit. |
D.To explain some medical facts about being fat and doing exercise. |
I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled(贴标签)everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.
War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming. "Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!" Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.
The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled(爬)under her covers, sobbing.
Obviously, that was not something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.
Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn't notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, "Thanks."
Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn't always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.
1. |
What made Kate so angry one evening?()
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2. |
The author tidied up the room most probably because().
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3. |
How is Paragraph 1 mainly developed?()
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4. |
What might be the best title for the story?()
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A city child’s summer is spent in the street in front of his home, and all through the long summer vacations I sat on the edge of the street and watched enviously the other boys on the block play baseball. I was never asked to take part even when one team had a member missing—not out of special cruelty, but because they took it for granted I would be no good at it. They were right, of course.
I would never forget the wonderful evening when something changed. The baseball ended about eight or eight thirty when it grew dark. Then it was the custom of the boys to retire to a little stoop(门廊) that stuck out from the candy store on the corner and that somehow had become theirs. No grownup ever sat there or attempted to. There the boys would sit, mostly talking about the games played during the day and of the game to be played tomorrow. Then long silences would fall and the boys would wander off one by one. It was just after one of those long silences that my life as an outsider changed. I can no longer remember which boy it was that summer evening who broke the silence with a question: but whoever he was, I nod to him gratefully now. “What’s in those books you’re always reading?” he asked casually. “Stories,” I answered. “What kind?” asked somebody else without much interest.
Nor do I know what drove me to behave as I did,for usually I just sat there in silence, glad enough to be allowed to reain among them; but instead of answering his question, I told them for two hours the story I was reading at the moment. The book wasSister Carrie.They listened bug-eyed and breathless. I must have told it well, but I think there was another and deeper reason that made them to keep an audience. Listening to a tale being told in the dark is one of the most ancient of man’s entertainments, but I was offering them as well, without being aware of doing it, a new and exciting experience.
The books they themselves read werethe Rover BoysorTom Swiftor G.A.Henty. I had read them too, but at thirteen I had long since left them behind. Since I was much alone I had become an enthusiastic reader and I had gone through the books-for-boys series. In those days there was no reading material between children’s and grownups’books or I could find none. I had gone right fromTome Swift and His Flying Machineto Theodore Dreiser andSister Carrie. Dreiser had hit my young mind, and they listened to me tell the story with some of the wonder that I had had in reading it.
The next night and many nights thereafter, a kind of unspoken ritual (仪式) took place. As it grew dark, I would take my place in the center of the stoop and begin the evening’s tale. Some nights, in order to taste my victory more completely, I cheated. I would stop at the most exciting part of a story by Jack London or Bret Harte, and without warning tell them that that was as far as I had gone in the book and it would have to be continued the following evening. It was not true, of course; but I had to make certain of my new-found power and position. I enjoyed the long summer evenings until school began in the fall. Other words of mine have been listened to by larger and more fashionable audiences, but for that tough and athletic one that sat close on the stoop outside the candy store, I have an unreasoning love that will last forever.Watching the boys playing baseball, the writer must have felt ________.
A.bitter and lonely | B.special and different |
C.pleased and excited | D.disturbed and annoyed |
The writer feels grateful even now to the boy who asked the question because the boy ________.
A.invited him to join in their game |
B.liked the book that he was reading |
C.broke the long silence of that summer evening |
D.offered him an opportunity that changed his life |
According to Paragraph 3, story-telling was popular among the boys basically because ________.
A.the story was from a children’s book |
B.listening to tales was an age-old practice |
C.the boys had few entertainments after dark |
D.the boys didn’t read books by themselves |
The boys were attracted toSister Carriebecause ________.
A.it was written by Theodore Dreiser |
B.it was specifically targeted at boys |
C.it gave them a deeper feeling of pleasure |
D.it talked about the wonders of the world |
Sometimes the writer stopped at the most exciting part of a story to _______.
A.play a mean trick on the boys |
B.experience more joy of achievement |
C.add his own imagination to the story |
D.help the boys understand the story better |
What is the message conveyed in the story?
A.One can find his position in life in his own way. |
B.Friendship is built upon respect for each other. |
C.Reading is more important than playing games. |
D.Adult habits are developed from childhood. |
Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.
The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with “low technology,” a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship (手艺) that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的)—so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, but Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation (阐释) of low technology that focuses on nature.
Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.
Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished (贫乏的) , because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.”
This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life,” Morris said.
Research has shown that natural environments can restore(恢复) our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe,” taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.
These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that ________.
A.Twitter is having a hard time |
B.old cottages are in need of protection |
C.early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana |
D.Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology |
Low technology is regarded as something that _______.
A.is related to nature | B.is out of date today |
C.consumes too much energy | D.exists in the virtual world |
The main idea of Paragraph 5 is that human beings ________.
A.have destroyed many pre-industrial arts |
B.have a tradition of valuing arts and crafts |
C.can become intelligent by learning history |
D.can regain their individual identity by using machines |
The writer’s attitude to “low technology” can best be described as ________.
A.positive | B.defensive | C.cautious | D.doubtful |
What might be the best title for the passage?
A.Past Glories, Future Dreams |
B.The Virtual World, the Real Challenge |
C.High-tech Companies, Low-tech Offices |
D.The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity |