TheMuseumofChildhoodisspreadov-优题课

Passage Nine(Holmes’ Knowledge)
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System! ” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.
1.What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?
[A]Praising. B.Critical. [C]Ironical. [D]Distaste.
2.What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?
[A]By deduction. B.By explanation. [C]By contrast. [D]By analysis.
3.What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?
[A]Learning what every body learned.
B.Learning what was useful to you.
[C]Learning whatever you came across.
[D]Learning what was different to you.
4.What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
B.One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.

Passage Eight(The Development of Cities)
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
A.Types of mass transportation.
B.Instability of urban life.
C.How supply and demand determine land use.
D.The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
2.Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?
A.To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
B.To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
C.To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D.To contrast their rate of growth.
3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
A.It was expensive.
B.It happened too slowly.
C.It was unplanned.
D.It created a demand for public transportation.
4.The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
A.that is large.
B.that is used as a model for land development.
C.where the development of land exceeded population growth.
D.with an excellent mass transportation system.

Passage seven(Stricter Traffic Law can Prevent Accidents)
From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car ! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.
It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-years-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.
The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behaviour. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy tragic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten.
It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be mad much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as to severe if tit results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.
1.The main idea of this passage is
A.Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists.
B.Thousands of people the world over are killed each year.
C.The laws of some countries about driving are too lax.
D.Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents.
2.What does the author think of society toward motorists?
A.Society smiles on the motorists.
B.Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns.
C.Victims of accidents are nothing.
D.Society condones their rude driving.
3.Why does the author say:’ his car becomes the extension of his personality?’
A.Driving can show his real self.
B.Driving can show the other part of his personality.
C.Driving can bring out his character.
D.His car embodies his temper.
4.Which of the followings is NOT mentioned as a way against traffic accidents?
A.Build more highways.
B.Stricter driving tests.
C.Test drivers every three years.
D.raise age limit and lay down safety specifications.
5.The attitude of the author is
A.ironical B.critical C.appealing D.militant

Passage six(Dropouts for Ph. D. s)
Educators are seriously concerned about the high rate of dropouts among the doctor of philosophy candidates and the consequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph. D. s. Some have placed the dropouts loss as high as 50 percent. The extent of the loss was, however, largely a matter of expert guessing. Last week a well-rounded study was published. It was published. It was based on 22,000 questionnaires sent to former graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it seemed to show many past fears to be groundless.
The dropouts rate was found to be 31 per cent, and in most cases the dropouts, while not completing the Ph. D. requirement, went on to productive work. They are not only doing well financially, but, according to the report, are not far below the income levels of those who went on to complete their doctorates.
Discussing the study last week, Dr. Tucker said the project was initiated ‘because of the concern frequently expressed by graduate faculties and administrators that some of the individuals who dropped out of Ph. D. programs were capable of competing the requirement for the degree. Attrition at the Ph. D. level is also thought to be a waste of precious faculty time and a drain on university resources already being used to capacity. Some people expressed the opinion that the shortage of highly trained specialists and college teachers could be reduced by persuading the dropouts to return to graduate schools to complete the Ph. D.’
“The results of our research” Dr. Tucker concluded, “did not support these opinions.”
Lack of motivation was the principal reason for dropping out.
Most dropouts went as far in their doctoral program as was consistent with their levels of ability or their specialities.
Most dropouts are now engaged in work consistent with their education and motivation.
Nearly 75 per cent of the dropouts said there was no academic reason for their decision, but those who mentioned academic reason cited failure to pass the qualifying examination, uncompleted research and failure to pass language exams. Among the single most important personal reasons identified by dropouts for non-completion of their Ph. D. program, lack of finances was marked by 19 per cent.
As an indication of how well the dropouts were doing, a chart showed 2% in humanities were receiving $ 20,000 and more annually while none of the Ph. D. ‘s with that background reached this figure. The Ph. D. ‘s shone in the $ 7,500 to $ 15,000 bracket with 78% at that level against 50% for the dropouts. This may also be an indication of the fact that top salaries in the academic fields, where Ph. D. ‘s tend to rise to the highest salaries, are still lagging behind other fields.
As to the possibility of getting dropouts back on campus, the outlook was glum. The main condition which would have to prevail for at least 25 % of the dropouts who might consider returning to graduate school would be to guarantee that they would retain their present level of income and in some cases their present job.
1.The author states that many educators feel that
A.steps should be taken to get the dropouts back to campus.
B.the fropouts should return to a lower quality school to continue their study.
C.the Ph. D. holder is generally a better adjusted person than the dropout.
D.The high dropouts rate is largely attributable to the lack of stimulation on the part of faculty members.
2.Research has shown that
A.Dropouts are substantially below Ph. D. ‘s in financial attainment.
B.the incentive factor is a minor one in regard to pursuing Ph. D. studies.
C.The Ph. D. candidate is likely to change his field of specialization if he drops out.
D.about one-third of those who start Ph. D. work do not complete the work to earn the degree.
3.Meeting foreign language requirements for the Ph. D.
A.is the most frequent reason for dropping out.
B.is more difficult for the science candidate than for the humanities candidate.
C.is an essential part of many Ph. D. programs.
D.does not vary in difficulty among universities.
4.After reading the article, one would refrain from concluding that
A.optimism reigns in regard to getting Ph. D. dropouts to return to their pursuit of the degree.
B.a Ph. D. dropout, by and large, does not have what it takes to learn the degree.
C.colleges and universities employ a substantial number of Ph. D. dropouts.
D.Ph. D. ‘s are not earning what they deserve in nonacademic positions.
5.It can be inferred that the high rate of dropouts lies in
A.salary for Ph. D. too low.
B.academic requirement too high.
C.salary for dropouts too high.
D.1000 positions.

Passage five(Meditation in Indonesian Business)
It looked like a typical business meeting. Six men, neatly dressed in white shirts and ties filed into the boardroom of a small Jakarta company and sat down at a long table. But instead of consulting files or hearing reports, they closed their eyes and began to meditate, consulting the spirits of ancient Javanese kings. Mysticism touches almost every aspect of life in Indonesia and business is no exception. One of the meditators said his weekly meditation sessions are aimed mainly at bringing the peace of mind that makes for good decision-making. But the insight gained from mystic communication with spirits of wise kings has also helped boost the profits of his five companies.
Mysticism and profits have come together since the 13th century introduction of Islam to Indonesia by Indian Moslem merchants. Those devout traders, called ‘Wali Ullah’ or ‘those close to God, ’ energetically spread both trade and religion by adapting their appeals to the native mysticism of Java. Legends attribute magic power of foreknowledge to the Wali Ullah. These powers were believed to be gained through meditation and fasting.
Businessman Hadisiko said his group fasts and meditates all night every Thursday to become closer to God and to contact the spirits of the great men of the past. ‘If we want to employ someone at the managerial level, we meditate together and often the message comes that this man can’t hole onto money or he is untrustworthy. Or maybe the spirits will tell us he should be hired.’ Hadiziko hastened to add that his companies also hold modern personnel management systems and that formal qualifications are essential for a candidate even to be considered. Perspective investments also are considered through mystic meditation. ‘With the mind relaxed and open, it is easier to be objective in judging the risk of a new venture. Meditation and contact with the wisdom of the old leaders sharpens your own insight and intuition. Then you have to apply that intuition to the information you have and work hard to be successful. ’ Mystic meditation helped reverse a business slide his companies experienced in the mid-1980. Operating with normal business procedures, he lost more than $ 3 millions in that year alone. Meditation brought back his peace of mind. Putting the right persons in the right jobs and gaining confidence in his business decisions were the keys to a turning around that has brought expansion and profitability. The mysticism in Handspike’s boardroom is part of a growing movement in Indonesia called Kebatinan – the ‘search for the inner self.’
One of his managers, Yusuf Soemado, who studied business administration at Harvard University, compared the idea of mystic management to western system of positive thinking. ‘Willpower and subconscious mind are recognized as important factors in business. Such approaches as psycho-cybernetics, Carnegie’s think and growth rates, or the power of positive thinking are western attempts to tap the same higher intelligence that we contact through meditation,’ he said.
1.What is the most important factor in their doing business?
A.Mysticism. B.Religion. C.Meditation. D.Investment.
2.Whom do they consult?
A.The spirits of ancient Javanese kings.
B.Wali Ullah.
C.Old Kings.
D.Carnegie.
3.Why did Hadisike hasten to add ‘his companies also hold modern personnel management systems…’?
A.He thought Mysticism was not so good as expected.
To show they too focused on qualifications.
C.To show they hired qualified persons.
D.To show the possibility of combination of the scientific management with religion.
4.According to the passage, the function of the meditation is
A.to gain profit from the god.
[N]to gain peace of mind to make decision.
C.to gain foreknowledge.
D.to gain objective conclusion.
5.What does ‘operating with normal business procedures’ refer to?
A.Adopting the western way of doing business.
B.Ordinary way of doing business without meditation and fasting.
C.Contact with God.
D.Putting right persons in the right jobs.