2023年全国大英赛阅读理解专项训练
时间：2023-05-03 11:03 浏览：次
专项训练（一）
Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions. Respond to the questions using information from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
Section A
Throughout history, there have been instances in which people have been unwilling to accept new theories, despite startling evidence. This was certainly the case when Copernicus published his theory—that the earth was not the centre of the universe.
(1) His theory, which was formulated by gathering and organizing the thoughts of the earlier thinkers, proposed that the universe was a closed space bounded by a spherical envelope beyond which there was nothing. The earth, according to Ptolemy, was a fixed and immobile mass, located at the centre of the universe. The sun and the stars, revolved around it.
Ptolemy’s theory, was of course, incorrect, but at the time nobody contested it. European astronomers were more inclined to save face. Instead of proposing new ideas, they attempted to patch up and refine Ptolemy’s flawed model. Students were taught using a book called The Sphere which had been written two hundred years previously. (2)
(3) He proposed that the earth turned on its axis once per day, and travelled around the sun once per year. Even when he made his discovery, he was reluctant to make it public, knowing how much his shocking revelations would disturb the church. However, George Rheticus, a German mathematics professor who had become Copernicus’s student, convinced Copernicus to publish his ideas, even though Copernicus, a perfectionist, was never satisfied that his observations were complete.
Copernicus’s ideas went against all the political and religious beliefs of the time. Humans, it was believed, were made in God’s image, and were superior to all creatures. (4) Copernicus’s theories contradicted the ideas of all the powerful churchmen of the time. Even the famous playwright William Shakespeare feared the new theory, pronouncing that it would destroy social order and bring chaos to the world. However, Copernicus never had to suffer at the hands of those who disagreed with his theories. He died just after the work was published in 1543.
(5) Two other Italian scientists of the time, Galileo and Bruno, agreed wholeheartedly with the Copernican theory. Bruno even dared to say that space was endless and contained many other suns, each with its own planets. For this, Bruno was sentenced to death by burning in 1600. Galileo, famous for his construction of the telescope, was forced to deny his belief in the Copernican theories. He escaped capital punishment, but was imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Complete the article with the following sentences. There are two extra statements that you do not need to use.
A. In 1530, however, Copernicus made an assertion which shook the world.
B. The theory appealed to human nature.
C. Until the early 16th century, western thinkers believed the theory put forward by Ptolemy, an Egyptian living in Alexandria in about 150 A.D.
D. However, the scientists who followed in Copernicus’s footsteps bore the brunt of the church’s anger.
E. The natural world had been created for humans to exploit.
F. The most important aspect of Bruno’s work is that it forever changed the place of man in the cosmos.
G. In short, astronomy failed to advance.
Section B
An Asian engineer is assigned to a US laboratory and almost suffers a nervous breakdown. A US executive tells his staff he’s going to treat them fairly—and creates dissension. A Japanese manager is promoted by his British president, but within six months asks for a transfer.
Each of these real -life cases involved people who were regarded as superior employees, but were ill -equipped to cope with the complexities and dangers of intercultural management.
“Multinational companies have studied everything else, now they are finally looking at culture”, says Clifford Clarke, founder and president of the California—based IRI International Inc. One of a small but growing number of consulting firms that specialize in teaching business people from differing cultures how to communicate and work with each other.
“Never show the shoe to an Arab, never arrive on time for a party in Brazil, and in Japan, don’t think‘yes’ means ‘yes’”, advise US consultants Lennie Copland and Lewis Brown Griggs, who have produceda series of films anda book to help managers improve their international business skills. But simply learning the social “dos”and “don’ts”is not the answer, according to the new culture specialists. The penalties for ignoring different thinking patterns, they point out, can be disastrous.
For example, the American manager who promised to be fair thought he was telling his Japanese staff that their hard work would be rewarded, but when some workers received higher salary increases than others, there were complaints. “You told us you’d be fair, and you lied to us,”accused one salesman. “It took me a year and a half,” sighed the American,“to realize that‘fair’, to my staff, meant being treated equally.”
The Asian engineer who suffered in America was the victim of another mistaken expectation. “He was accustomed to the warm group environment so typical in Japan,”said his US manager.“But in our company, we’re all expected to be self -starters, who thrive on working alone. For him, it was emotional starvation. He’s made the adjustment now, but he’d be humiliated if I told you his name, that’s another cultural difference.”
The Japanese manager who failed to respond to his promotion could not bring himself to use the more direct language needed to communicate with his London -based superiors. “I used to think all this talk about cultural communication was a lot of baloney,”says Eugene J. Flath, president of Intel Japan Ltd., a subsidiary of the American semiconductor maker. “Now, I can see it is a real problem. Miscommunication has slowed our ability to coordinate action with our home office.”
That’s why Intel, with the help of consultant Clarke, began an intercultural training program this spring which Flath expects will dramatically reduce decision-making time now lost in making sure the Americans and the Japanese understand each other.
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
6. What does“Multinational companies have studied everything else, now they are finally looking at culture”mean?
7. From the context, which word is in close meaning to“nonsense”?
8. Why did the Japanese staff complain to the American manager?
9. For whom are the cultural communication problems becoming especially urgent?
10. Why did the promoted Japanese manager ask for transfer?
Section C
Maize is Mexico’s lifeblood—the country’s history and identity are entwined with it. But this centuries—old relationship is now threatened by free trade. Laura Carlsen investigates the threat and profiles a growing activist movement.
On a mountain top in southern Mexico, Indian families gather. They chant and sprinkle cornmeal in consecration, praying for the success of their new crops, the unity of their communities and the health of their families. In this village in Oaxaca people eat corn tamales, sow maize plots and teach children to care for the plant.
The cultural rhythms of this community, its labours, rituals and celebrations will be defined—as they have been for millennia—by the lifecycle of corn. Indeed, if it weren’t for the domestication of teocintle (the ancestor of modern maize) 9,000 years ago mesoamerican (中美州的) civilization could never have developed. In the Mayan sacred book, the Popol V uh, the gods create people out of cornmeal. The ‘people of corn’ flourished and built one of the most remarkable cultures in human history.
But in Mexico and Central America today maize has come under attack. As a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Mexico has been flooded with imported corn from north of the border in the US. The contamination of native varieties with genetically modified imported maize could have major consequences for Mexican campesinos (farmers), for local biodiversity and for the world’s genetic reserves.
A decade ago Mexican bureaucrats and business people had it all figured out. NAFTA would drive “uncompetitive”maize farmers from the countryside to work in booming assembly factories across the country. Their standard of living would rise as the cost of providing services like electricity and water to scattered rural communities would fall. Best of all, cheap imported maize from the US—the world’s most efficient and most heavily subsidized producer—would be a benefit to Mexican consumers.
Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. There weren’t quite enough of those factory jobs and the ones that did materialize continued to be along the US border, not further in Mexico. And despite a huge drop in the price farmers received for their corn, consumers often ended up paying more. The price of tortillas—the country’s staple food—rose nearly fivefold as the Government stopped domestic subsidies and giant agribusiness firms took over the market. Free trade defenders like Mexico’s former Under-Secretary of Agriculture Luis Tellez suggest:“It’s not that NAFTA failed, it’s just that reality didn’t turn out the way we planned it.”Part of that reality was that the Government did nothing to help campesinos in the supposed transition. Nor did NAFTA recognize inequalities or create compensation funds to help the victims of free trade—unlike what occurred with economic integration in the European Union.
Basically, Mexico adopteda sink-or-swim policy for small farmers, opening the floodgates to tons of imported US corn. Maize imports tripled under NAFTA and producer prices fell by half. The drop in income immediately hit the most vulnerable and poorest members of rural society. While more than a third of the corn grown by small farmers is used to feed their families, the rest is sold on local markets. Without this critical cash, rural living standards plunged.
Maize is at the heart of indigenous and campesino identity. Jos佴 Carrillo de la Cruz, a Huichol Indian from northern Jalisco, describes that relationship:“Corn is the force, the life and the strength of the Huichol. If there were a change, if someone from outside patented our corn, it would end our life and existence.”
The good news is that the free-trade threat to Mexico’s culture and food security has sparked a lively resistance. “In Defence of Corn”, a movement to protect local maize varieties, is not a membership organization but a series of forums and actions led by campesinos themselves. It’s a direct challenge to both free trade and the dictums of corporate science.
The farmers’ tenacity and refusal to abandon the crop of their ancestors is impressive. But larger economic conditions continue to shape their lives. Rural poverty and hunger have soared under free trade—and placed a heavier burden on women left to work the land. The battle for food sovereignty continues. Movement leaders insist that the Government reassess its free trade policies and develop a real rural development programme.
Complete the summary with words from the passage, changing the form where necessary, with only one word for each blank.
For thousands of years, corn has beena very important (11) in the Mexican culture. After the North American Free Trade Agreement, (12) modified corn has been imported from the USA in very large amounts. Mexican business people hoped that this would mean that Mexican farmers had to get jobs in factories and that their (13) of living would increase. Instead of this result, the farmers suffered from the low price of corn and people had to pay more for their corn. The farmers wish that the government had (14) them during this time. As a result of the hardship, the farmers have organised themselves by forming a (15) .
专项训练（二）
Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions. Respond to the questions using information from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
Section A
At Lilliput Farm we have three cottages for rent as self-catering holiday accommodation.
We have been awarded4 stars in the Holiday Accommodation Accreditation Service for excellence in quality and service.
Dairymaid’s Loft is the largest of the properties. There is one double bedroom with en suite, a twin room anda single room. (1) There is a large kitchen, a living room, dining room and newly -fitted bathroom. Please note that, since the entire property is on the first floor, and the stairs are steep, the accommodation is not suitable for the elderly, the infirm, pets and very young children. (2) There is a double bedroom and a twin room with bunk-beds. There is a small kitchen anda large living room. There is a shower room with separate WC. The accommodation is spread over two floors. Pets are allowed, but we request that they are kept downstairs.
(3) There is also a sofa bed in the living room which can sleep two people. It has a large living area comprising a kitchen/diner and living space. There is a ramp leading up to the property, and the large bathroom is fitted so as to be suitable for wheelchair users and people who use walking aids. We ask that pets are not brought into this property.
All the properties have: a television, CD player and DVD player. Dairymaid’s Loft and Haymaker’s Den have Sky Television. Shepherd’s Rest has wi -fi access. Cots can be provided to all properties, but please note that Dairymaid’s Loft may be unsuitable for toddlers and crawling babies. (4) Dairymaid’s Loft also hasa dishwasher anda tumble drier.
All cottages have electric power. None are fitted with gas. (5) You will receivea £10 worth of electricity at the beginning of your stay with our compliments (£5 for short breaks). After that, you will need to add money to the meter. Shepherd’s Rest also has a wood-burning stove. Guests will receive one complimentary basket of wood. Subsequent baskets can be purchased for £2 each. Please help yourself to wood in the barn and put money in the honesty box.
Complete the article with the following sentences. There are two extra statements that you do not need to use.
A. Haymaker’s Den is a one-bedroom cottage at ground floor level.
B. There is also a sofa-bed in the living room.
C. Cottages can be booked by the week or for short breaks.
D. Shepherd’s Rest is suitable for up to four occupants.
E. To make a booking, you will need to make a deposit of fifty percent up front.
F. Electricity is paid via a meter.
G. All properties have a washing machine, fridge freezer and microwave.
     Section B
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
6. Which TWO advertisements mention entry requirements?
7. Which TWO advertisements say what you will have achieved by completing the course?
8. Which TWO advertisements mention being run by professionally trained teachers?
9. Which advertisement indicates that it doesn’t matter how old you are?
10. Which TWO advertisements are suitable for children to take?
Section C
For over 200 years, there has been an interest in the way children learn to speak and understand their first language. Scholars carried out several small-scale studies, especially towards the end of the 19th century, using data they recorded in parental diaries. But detailed, systematic investigation did not begin until the middle decades of the 20th century, when the tape recorder came into routine use. This made it possible to keep a permanent record of samples of child speech, so that analysts could listen repeatedly to obscure extracts, and thus produce a detailed and accurate description. Since then, the subject has attracted enormous multi-disciplinary interest, notably from linguists and psychologists, who have used a variety of observational and experimental techniques to study the process of language acquisition in depth.
Central to the success of this rapidly emerging field lies the ability of researchers to devise satisfactory methods for eliciting linguistic data from children. The problems that have to be faced are quite different from those encountered when working with adults. Many of the linguist’s routine techniques of enquiry cannot be used with children. It is not possible to carry out certain kinds of experiments, because aspects of children’s cognitive development—such as their ability to pay attention, or to remember instructions—may not be sufficiently advanced. Nor is it easy to get children to make systematic judgments about language, a task that is virtually impossible below the age of three. And anyone who has tried to obtain even the most basic kind of data—a tape recording of a representative sample of a child’s speech—knows how frustrating this can be. Some children, it seems, are innately programmed to switch off as soon as they notice a tape recorder being switched on.
Since the 1960s, however, several sophisticated recording techniques and experimental designs have been devised. Children can be observed and recorded through one-way-vision windows or using radio microphones, so that the effects of having an investigator in the same room as the child can be eliminated. Large -scale sampling programmes have been carried out, with children sometimes being recorded for several years. Particular attention has been paid to devising experimental techniques that fall well withina child’s intellectual level and social experience. Even pre-linguistic infants have been brought into the research: acoustic techniques are used to analyse their vocalisations, and their ability to perceive the world around them is monitored using special recording equipment. The result has been a growing body of reliable data on the stages of language acquisition from birth until puberty.
There is no single way of studying children’s language. Linguistics and psychology have each brought their own approach to the subject, and many variations have been introduced to cope with the variety of activities in which children engage, and the great age range that they present. Two main research paradigms are found.
One of these is known as“naturalistic sampling”. A sample of a child’s spontaneous use of language is recorded in familiar and comfortable surroundings. One of the best places to make the recording is in the child’s own home, but it is not always easy to maintain good acoustic quality, and the presence of the researcher or the recording equipment can bea distraction (especially if the proceedings are being filmed). Alternatively, the recording can be made in a research centre, where the child is allowed to play freely with toys while talking to parents or other children, and the observers and their equipment are unobtrusive.
A good quality, representative, naturalistic sample is generally considered an ideal datum for child language study. However, the method has several limitations. These samples are informative about speech production, but they give little guidance about children’s comprehension of what they hear around them. Moreover, samples cannot contain everything, and they can easily miss some important features of a child’s linguistic ability. They may also not provide enough instances of a developing feature to enable the analyst to make a decision about the way the child is learning. For such reasons, the description of samples of child speech has to be supplemented by other methods.
The other main approach is through experimentation, and the methods of experimental psychology have been widely applied to child language research. The investigator formulates a specific hypothesis about children’s ability to use or understand an aspect of language, and devises a relevant task for a group of subjects to undertake. A statistical analysis is made of the subjects’ behaviour, and the results provide evidence that supports or falsifies the original hypothesis.
Using this approach, as well as other methods of controlled observation, researchers have come up with many detailed findings about the production and comprehension of groups of children. However, it is not easy to generalise the findings of these studies. What may obtain in a carefully controlled setting may not apply in the rush of daily interaction. Different kinds of subjects, experimental situations, and statistical procedures may produce different results or interpretations. Experimental research is thereforea slow, painstaking business; it may take years before researchers are convinced that all variables have been considered and a finding is genuine.
Complete the summary with words from the passage, changing the form where necessary, with only one word for each blank.
One method of carrying out research is to record children’s spontaneous language use. This can be done in their homes, where, however, it may be difficult to ensure that the recording is of acceptable (11) quality. Another venue which is often used is a (12) centre, where the researcher can avoid distracting the child.A drawback of this method is that it does not allow children to demonstrate their comprehension.
An alternative approach is to use methodology from the field of (13) psychology. In this case,a number of children are asked to carry out a relevant (14) , and the results are subjected to a (15) analysis.
专项训练（三）
Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions. Respond to the questions using information from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
Section A
The idea that a sales team can learn something from Girl Scouts will come as a surprise to many. What has this out- dated organisation got to do with the fast -moving, corporate world of today? But in the girl scouts’ annual cookie drive, two hundred million units are sold per year, and their revenues exceed $700 million.
(1) Her mission was to revitalize a 95-year tradition-bound icon, famous only for camping, crafts and cookies. She has worked on instilling leadership qualities in the girls, developing new funding opportunities, creating an efficient organisational structure and developinga reinvigorated brand which is relevant to the modern world.
(2) No longer relying on neighbourhood door -to-door sales to obtaina meagre revenue, the organisation now utilises a wide range of savvy, modern methods which businesses worldwide can learn from.
Firstly, the girl scouts organization focuses on providing the girls with life skills. (3) ‘Cookie College’ training courses develop the scouts’ business acumen, providing them with presentation, marketing and money management skills; skills which will be invaluable in their future lives.
These well-trained salesgirls can turn out exceptional results. Scout Markita Andrews sold over $80,000 dollars worth of cookies in the twelve years she was a girl scout. Her success is for the most part due to the incentive. By selling the greatest number of cookies, Markita wona trip around the world. Rewards are not only given to the lucky winners, however. Scouts earn reward points as they sell more cookies. (4)
But Girl scouts are not only training and motivating their workforce, but they are also changing their tactics. Gone are the days when girls went door -to -door around the neighbourhood selling to family and friends.
(5) They sell to large organisations and businesses, where cookies can be offered as sales incentives or part of corporate gift baskets. This way, girls are able to shift a greater number of cookies and maximise their sales time.
Complete the article with the following sentences. There are two extra statements that you do not need to use.
A. And these figures are achieved only ina three-month period in the spring.
B. The organization has changed greatly in latter years, ever since the appointment of CEO Kathy Cloninger in 2003.
C. By investing in the girls, the organization creates a team with strong leadership and communication skills.
D. They now go in for the bulk sales strategy.
E. Through role -playing, case studies and tasks, the girls become inspired and passionate about their role as a salesperson.
F. And nowhere are these changes more noticeable than in the annual cookie sale.
G. 1,500 cookies gets the scout a Wii game system.
Section B
Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all. We do not know who launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured a field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People thinka great deal of them so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their dispute other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history, in which millions of people were killed or mutilated. And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets—while, that is to say, we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life—nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages.
But we must not expect too much. After all, the race of men has only just started. From the point of view of evolution human beings are very young children indeed, babies, in fact, of a few months old. Scientists reckon that there has been life of some sort on the earth in the form of jelly fish and that kind of creature for about twelve hundred million years; but there have been men for only one million years, and there have been civilized men for about eight thousand years at the outside. These figures are difficult to grasp; so let us scale them down. Suppose that we reckon the whole past of living creatures on the earth as one hundred years; then the whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that month there have been civilizations for between seven and eight hours. So you see there has been little time to learn in, but there will the oceans of time in which to learn better. Taking man’s civilized past at about seven or eight hours, we may estimate his future, that is to say, the whole period between now and when the sun grows too cold to maintain life any longer on the earth, at about one hundred thousand years. Thus mankind is only at the beginning of its civilized life, and as I say, we must not expect too much. The past of man has been on the whole a pretty beastly business, a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing and hurting. We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things. All we can ask is that they will sometimes have done something else.
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
6. What are the greatest countries in most people’s points of view?
7. What should the civilized people do?
8. What is the meaning of“For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right”in Paragraph 1?
9. According to the passage, conquerors and generals have been our most famous men, but what did they fail to do?
10. Why can’t we expect too much about the civilization?
Section C
In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of“trash talk”. The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be.
For example, the show takes the ever -common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society’s moral catastrophes, yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual’s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show witha “final word”. He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show’s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life’s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a association with the young adults of society. There are 18 -21 year -olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show’s exploitation.
While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world.
Complete the summary with words from the passage, changing the form where necessary, with only one word for each blank.
TV talk shows flooded every inch of space on daytime television in the world of (11) . Among all the TV talk shows, the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows are standing (12) the rest. The topics on the Jerry Springer show can be described as (13) while Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The topic on his show mainly covers the (14) of society and personal life. Jerry always ends every show with a“final word”which was considered to be (15) by the most people while the Oprah show is form middle-class Americans.
专项训练（四）
Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions. Respond to the questions using information from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
Section A
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact base. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. (1) Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world.
(2) The advantage of using a dedicated medical social networking site is that all the members are screened against the state licensing board list of practitioners. The role of social networks is especially of interest to pharmaceutical companies who spend approximately “32 percent of their marketing dollars”attempting to influence the opinion leaders of social networks.
(3) The popular site Facebook has been cloned for various countries and languages and some specializing in connecting students and faculty.
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for social good. Such models may be highly successful for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested and passionate users. (4)
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part, this may be because social networking isa relatively new service, and the value of using them has not been firmly established in customers’ minds. Companies such as MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising on their site. (5) Some believe that the deeper information that the sites have on each user will allow much better targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide. Sites are also seeking other ways to make money, such as by creating an online marketplace or by selling professional information and social connections to businesses.
Complete the article with the following sentences. There are two extra statements that you do not need to use.
A. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads.
B. Hence, they are seeking large memberships, and charging for membership would be counter productive.
C. Various social networking sites have sprung up catering to different languages and countries.
D. Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal investigations.
E. Users benefit by interacting with a like-minded community and finding a channel for their energy and giving.
F. On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much personal information.
G. Social networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare professionals as a means to manage institutionalknowledge, disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight individual physicians and institutions.
Section B
High in the Mojave Desert, 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles, lies a vast field of mirrors. Crisscrossing rows of glass and metal, glinting in the sunlight, cover a full square mile of dirt. It is a fully operational array of power plants churning out an average of 180 megawatts of electricity.
Most people think of solar power as a flat panel on every rooftop. But photovoltaic panels have limitations. They work fine when the sun is strong, but when the clouds roll in you’d better have batteries to run the TV and dishwasher. And even on the sunniest days the panels are not very well suited for cities, where roof space is limited. For decades, engineers have been working on ways to catch the sun over a broad area concentrating it and using it to produce electricity on the same scale as centralized coal, hydro or nuclear power plants—hundreds of megawatts at a time. Several pilot plants have been operating in California, some for decades, but so far they have not had enough volume to force costs down to competitive levels.
Some countries are expected to go with much larger plants capable of generating more than 100 megawatts each. If some of the projects are completed, costs could come down from the current 15 cents a kilowatt -hour for the Mojave plant to 8 cents per kwh in the next 8 to 10 years. That would goa long way toward closing the gap with gas and oil, which now cost as little as 4 cents per kwh.
The Mojave plant is one of the world’s first commercial solar power plants, with five solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) supplying electricity to southern California. The basic component of a SEGS plant is a row of mirrors that reflect sunlight onto a pipe filled with oil. The oil heats up and is used to produce steam, which turns an electrical turbine. Assemblea few dozen rows of these trough -mirrors, and you have got capacity to generate 30 megawatts of power, enough for half a small town. The problem with trough technology is that the oil loses its heat too quickly. When the sun goes down, so does the power.
A Solar Tres design uses molten salt instead of oil. Since salt holds more heat longer than oil, it can drive turbine through the night. Concentric rings of mirrors direct sunlight toa tank of molten salt. When the stuff is hot enough, some goes straight to a generator to produce steam, while the rest is stored for use at night. The 15-megawatt Solar Tres plant would be the first long-term commercial power production project. Since the electricity is expected to be costly close to 20 cents per kwh, the Spanish government plans to subsidize the plant.
The next big thing—dish systems—is already in the works. The building block of sucha plant is a parabolic mirror, shaped likea satellite dish, which reflects sunlight onto a small generator suspended in front. The heat drives a turbine. Theoretically a dish configuration would produce more energy per acre than other solar concentrating plants, that is, if engineers could figure out a good way of linking many dishes together.
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
6. What is the disadvantage of the Mojave plant compared with Solar Tres design?
7. What is the present cost of for the Mojave plant?
8. What kinds of types of solar power plants are mainly mentioned in the passage?
9. Why couldn’t we widely use solar power as flat-panel ones in cities?
10. Theoretically, what is the advantage of dish configuration compared with other solar concentrating plants?
Section C
Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeinga decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don’t know where they should go next.
The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan’s rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed.
While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. “Those things that do not show up in the test scores— personality, ability, courage or humanity—are completely ignored,”says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s education committee. “Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild.” Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II had weakened the“Japanese morality of respect for parents.”
But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. “In Japan,”says educator Yoko Muro, “it’s nevera question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.”With economic growth has come centralization; fully 76 percent of Japan’s 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes (travels to and from work) and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter.
Complete the summary with words from the passage, changing the form where necessary, with only one word for each blank.
Nowadays, the traditional work-moral values of the Japanese are sharply (11) . Although Japan has fulfilled its economic needs, the young just don’t know where they should go next. The opportunities of the teenagers have also been (12) because of the postwar baby boom and the entry of women. Very few Japanese students and workers were (13) with their life. The (14) of the education towards personality, ability, courage or humanity leads kids to drop out and run wild. Mitsuo Setoyama argued that the “Japanese morality of respect for parents”had been (15) because of the liberal reforms.
阅读理解专项训练参考答案
专项训练（一）1—5 CGAED
6. Culture is important in communicating.
7. Baloney.
8. There was a misunderstanding of the word“fair”.
9. Multinational companies.
10. He lacked adequate communication with his superiors.
11. crop
12. genetically
13. standard
14. helped
15. movement
专项训练（二）
1—5 BDAGF
6. A and E.
7.B and D.
8. C and D.
9. D.
10. A and D.
11. acoustic
12. research
13. experimental
14. task
15. statistical
专项训练（三）
1—5 BFCGD
6. The countries that won the greatest number of battles against other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.
7. Settle their dispute without fighting.
8. Those who fight believe that the winner is right and the loser is wrong.
9. They failed to help the civilization forward.
10. The race of men has just started.
11. entertainment
12. above
13. shocking
14. improvement
15. valuable
专项训练（四）
1—5 AGCEB
6. The oil loses its heat too quickly.
7. 15 cents a kilowatt-hour.
8. Mojave plant, Solar Tres design, and Dish systems.
9. We don’t have enough roof space.
10. It can produce more energy per acre.
11. declining
12. limited
13. satisfied
14. ignorance
15. weakened
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