Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is fol
lowed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A),B),C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the
corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
American Indians played a central role in the war known as the American Revolution. To them, however, the dispute between the colonists and England was peripheral. For American Indians the conflict was a war for American Indian independence, and whichever side they chose, they lost it. Mary Brant was a powerful influence among the Iroquois. She was a Mohawk, the leader of the society of all Iroquois matrons, and the widow of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Her brother, Joseph Brant, is the bestknown American Indian warrior of the Revolution, yet she may have exerted even more influence in the confederacy than he did. She used her influence to keep the western tribes of Iroquois loyal to the English king, George Ⅲ. When the colonists won the war, she and her tribe had to abandon their lands and retreat to Canada. On the other side, Nancy Ward held positions of authority in the Cherokee nation. She had fought as a warrior in the war against the Creeks and as a reward for her heroism was made “Beloved Woman” of the tribe. This office made her chief of the women’s council and a member of the council of chiefs. She was friendly with the white settlers and supported the Patriots during the Revolution. Yet the Cherokees too lost their land.
21.What is the main point the author makes in the passage?
A.Siding with the English in the Revolution helped American Indians regain their land.
B.At the time of the Revolution the Superintendent of Indian Affairs had
little power.
C.Regardless of whom they supported in the Revolution, American Indians lost their land.
D.The outcome of the Revolution was largely determined by American Indian
women.
22.The word “it” in line 5 refers to ____.
A.side B.revolution
C.dispute D.independence
23.How did Ward gain her position of authority?
A.By bravery in battle.
B.By marriage to a chief.
C.By joining the confederacy.
D.By being born into a powerful family.
24.To which tribe did Nancy Ward belong?
A.Mohawk. B.Iroquois. C.Cherokee. D.Creek.
25.According to the passage, what did Mary Brant and Nancy Ward had in co
mmon?
A.Each was called “Beloved Woman” by her tribe.
B.Each influenced her tribe’s role in the American Revolution.
C.Each lost a brother in the American Revolution.
D.Each went to England after the American Revolution.
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Born in 1830 in rural Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson spent her entire
life in the household of her parents. Between 1858 and 1862, it was later discovered, she wrote like a person possessed, often producing a poem a day. It was also during this period that her life was transformed into the myth of Amherst. Withdrawing more and more, keeping to her room, sometimes even refusing to see visitors who called, she began to dress only in white—a habit that added to her reputation as an eccentric.
In their determination to read Dickinson’s life in terms of a traditional romantic plot, biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life—her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce’s 1976 play, the Belle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1850’s transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion was not the result of a failed love affair, but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for selfsovereignty, carried on an argument with the puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of “true womanhood”.
26.What’s the author’s main purpose in the passage?
A.To interpret Emily Dickinson’s eccentric behavior.
B.To promote the popular myth of Emily Dickinson.
C.To discuss Emily Dickinson’s failed love affair.
D.To describe the religious climate in Emily Dickinson’s time.
27.Which of the following is not mentioned as being one of Emily Dickinson’s eccentricities?
A.Refusing to eat. B.Wearing only white.
C.Avoiding visitors. D.Staying in her room.
28.According to the passage, biographers of Emily Dickinson have traditionally ____.
A.criticized most of her poems
B.ignored her innocence and emotional fragility
C.seen her life in romantic terms
D.blaming her parents for restricting her activities
29.The author implies that many people attribute Emily Dickinson’s seclusion to ____.
A.physical illness B.a failed love affair
C.religious fervor D.her dislike of people
30.It can be inferred from the passage that Emily Dickinson lived in a society that was characterized by ____.
A.strong Puritan beliefs
B.equality of men and women
C.the encouragement of nonconformity
D.the appreciation of poetic creativity
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
The railroad industry could not have grown as large as it did without steel. The first rails were made of iron. But iron rails were not strong enough to support heavy trains running at high speeds. Railroad executives wanted to replace them with steel rails because steel was ten or fifteen times stronger and lasted twenty times longer. Before the 1870’s, however, steel was too expensive to be widely used. It was made by a slow and expensive process of heating, stirring and reheating iron ore.
Then the inventor Henry Bessemer discovered that directing a blast of air at melted iron in a furnace would burn out the impurities that made the iron brittle. As the air shot through the furnace, the bubbling metal would erupt in showers of sparks. When the fire cooled, the metal had been changed, or converted to steel. The Bessemer converter made possible the mass production of steel. Now three to five tons of iron could be changed into steel in a matter of minutes.
Just when the demand for more and more steel developed, prospectors discovered huge new deposits of iron ore in the Mesabi Range, a 120long region in Minnesota near Lake Superior. The Mesabi deposits were so near the surface that they could be mined with steam shovels.
Barges and steamers carried the iron ore through Lake Superior to depots on the southern shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. With dizzying speed Gary, Indiana, and Toledo, Youngstown, and Cleveland, Ohio, became major steelmanufacturing centers. Pittsburgh was the greatest steel city of all.
Steel was the basic building material of the industrial age. Production skyroc
keted from seventyseven thousand tons in 1870 to over eleven million tons in 1900.
31.According to the passage, the railroad industry preferred steel to iron because steel was ____.
A.cheaper and more plentiful
B.lighter and easier to mold
C.cleaner and easier to mine
D.stronger and more durable
32.According to the passage, how did Bessemer method make the mass production of steel possible?
A.It directed air at melted iron in a furnace, removing all impurities.
B.It slowly heated iron ore then stirred it and heated it again.
C.It changed iron ore into iron which was a substitute for steel.
D.It could quickly find deposits of iron ore under the ground.
33.According to the passage, where were large deposits of iron uncovered?
A.In Pittsburgh. B.In the Mesabi Range.
C.Near Lake Michigan.D.Near Lake Erie.
34.The words “Barges and steamers” could best be replaced by which of the following?
A.Trains.B.Planes.C.Boats.D.Trucks.
35.It can be inferred from the passage that the mass production of steel
caused ____.
A.a decline in the railroad industry
B.a revolution in the industrial world
C.an increase in the price of steel
D.a feeling of discontent among steel workers
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedicated to keeping orderly records of governmental units (state and statistics come from the same Latin root, status) and a gentlemanly gambling father who relied on mathematics to increase his skill at playing the odds in games of chance. The influence of the mother on the offspring, statistics, is represented by counting, measuring, describing, tabulating, ordering, and the taking of censuses—all of which led to modern descriptive statistics. From the influence of the father came modern inferential statistics, which is based squarely on theories of probability.
Descripitive statistics involves tabulating, depicting, and describing collections of data. These data may be either quantitative, such as measures of height, intelligence, or grand level—variables that are characterized by an underlying continuum—or the data may represent qualitative variables, such as sex, college major, or personality type. Large masses of data must generally undergo a process of summarization or reduction before they are comprehensible. Descriptive statistics is a tool for describing or summarizing or reducing to comprehensible from the properties of an otherwise unwieldy mass of data.
Inferential statistics is a formalized body of methods for solving another class of problems that present great difficulties for the unaided human mind. This
general class of problems characteristically involves attempts to make prediction using a sample of observations. For example, a school superintendent wishes
to determine of the proportion of children in a large school system who come to school without breakfast, have been vaccinated for flu, or whatever. Having a little knowledge of statistics, the superintendent would know that it is unnecessary
and inefficient to question each child; the proportion for the entire district could be estimated fairly accurately from a sample of as few as 100 children. Thus, the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or estimate characteristics of a population from a knowledge of the characteristics of only a sample of the population.
36.With what is the passage mainly concerned?
A.The drawbacks of descriptive and inferential statistics.
B.Applications of inferential statistics.
C.The development and use of statistics.
D.How to use descriptive statistics.
37.Why does the author mention the “mother” and “father” in the first
paragraph?
A.To point out that parents can teach their children statistics.
B.To introduce inferential statistics.
C.To explain that there are different kinds of variables.
D.To present the background of statistics in a humorous and understandable way.
38.Which of the following is NOT given as an example of qualitative variable?
A.Gender. B.Height.
C.College major. D.Type of personality.
39.Which of the following statements about descriptive statistics is best
supported by the passage?
A.It simplifies unwieldy masses of data.
B.It leads to increased variability.
C.It solves all numerical problems.
D.It changes qualitative variables to quantitative variables.
40.According to the passage which is the purpose of examining a sample of
a population?
A.To compare different groups.
B.To predict characteristics of the entire population.
C.To consider all the quantitative variables.
D.To tabulate collections of data.
Part Ⅲ Vocabulary and Structure (20 minutes)
Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A),B),C) and D). Choose the one answer that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.
41.He is among those lucky students who have won ____ to firstrate university.
A.permission B.admittance C.profession D.admission
42.Mathematics as well as other subjects ____ a science.
A.was B.is C.are D.belong to
43.We should ____ our human and material resources if we are to succeed
in the joint venture.
A.pour B.plunge C.pool D.pick
44.I would appreciate ____ it a secret.
A.your keeping B.that you keep
C.you to keep D.that you will keep
45.Some old people don’t like pop songs because they can’t ____ so much
noise.
A.resist B.tolerate C.sustain D.undergo
46.I’ll lend you my cassette recorder ____ I’ve done with it.
A.every time B.the moment C.until D.lest
47.I ____ several interesting facts about Mexico in that book.
A.came to B. came into C.came over D.came across
48.The seeingeye dog was the blind man’s ____ companion.
A.continual B.consistent C.constant D.continuous
49.Getting up is an everyday ____.
A.happening B.occurrence C.incident D.event
50.We are not ____ to veto(否定) our own proposals.
A.likely B.possible C.probable D.potential
51.This is ____ the first time you have been late.
A.under no circumstances B.on no account
C.by no means D.for no reason
52.Can you ____ me on the phone by the sound of my voice?
A.make up B.make over C.make out D.make off
53.The mechanic examined the car engine ____ but could find nothing wrong with it.
A.throughout B.exactly C.thoroughly D.altogether
54.Mr. Smith used to work the night ____ in a power plant.
A.stretch B.shift C.time D.turn
55.I broke my relationship with Anne because she always found ____.
A.error B.mistake C.flaw D.fault
56.He failed again in the driving test. I don’t know why ____ he was so
nervous.
A.in the earth B.on the earth
C.in earth D.on earth
57.Sally’s score on the exam is the lowest in the class. She ____ hard.
A.should have studied B.must have to study
C.must have studied D.needn’t have studied
58.If you ____ in taking this attitude, we’ll have to ask you to leave.
A.insist B.keep C.resist D.persist
59.In Britain, the best season of the year is probably ____ spring.
A.latter B.later C.last D.late
60.____ he was a regular customer, the boss allowed 10% discount off th
e prices of the goods.
A.Giving B.Given that
C.Giving that D.To give that
61.Like the old, ____ respected in our country.
A.the female is B.a female is
C.the female are D.female is
62.It was difficult to tell what her ____ to the news could be.
A.impression B.comment C.reaction D.opinion
63.American women were ____ the right to vote until 1920.
A.ignored B.denied C.rejected D.refused
64.No one can behave ____, completely regardless of social conventions.
A.at will B.at random C.on purpose D.on easy
65.____ the advances of science, the discomforts of old age will no doubt always be with us.
A.As for B.Except C.In spite D.Despite
66.In his poems, he compared his little daughter ____ a flower.
A.by B.to C.for D.as
67.All flights ____ because of the heavy storm, we decided to take the
train.
A.having canceled B.being canceled
C.having been canceled D.canceled
68.Mother hopes her son will ____ doing anything rash.
A.keep from B.avoid from C.ask from D.protect from
69.This story is not real; it is ____.
A.imaginative B.imaginary
C.imaginable D.imagining
70.He slept in the ____ of the trees on such a hot day.
A.shade B.shelter C.shadow D.shield
Part Ⅳ Short Answer Questions (15 minutes)
Directions:
In this part there is a short passage with five questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words (not exceeding 10 words).
Our world is filled with sounds we never hear. The human auditory(听觉的) range is limited to begin with: if we could hear sounds lower than 20 vibrations per second, we would be driven mad by the rumblings and creakings of our muscles, intestines and heartbeats; every step we take would sound like an explosion. But even with our auditory range we select, focus, pay attention to a few sounds and blot out the rest. We are so assaulted(困扰) by sound that we continually “turn off”. But in the process we shut out the glorious symphony(交响乐) of sound in which the living world is bathed.
The soundtormented city dweller who habitually “turns off his audio” loses a dimension of social reality. Some people, for example, possess the ability to enter a crowded room and from the sounds encountered know immediately the mood, pace and direction of the group assembled. Everything becomes more real when heard as well as seen. It is, in fact, quite hard really to know a person by sight alone, without hearing his voice. And it is not just the sound of the voice that informs. Even the rhythm of footsteps reveals age and variations of mood—delight, depression, anger, joy.
Hearing can also soothe and comfort. The snapping of logs in the fireplace, the gossipy whisper of a broom, the inquisitive wheeze of a drawer opening—all are savored sounds that make us feel at home. In a wellloved home, every chair produced a different, recognizable creak, every window a different click, groan or squeak. The kitchen by itself is a source of many pleasing sounds. Every place, every event has a sound dimension.
The sense of hearing can perhaps be restored to modern man if he better understands its worth and how it works. Most people would be surprised to discover how far the sense can be pushed by cultivation. At a friend’s house recently, my wife opened her purse and some coins spilled out, one after another, onto the floor. “Three quarters, two dimes, a nickels and three pennies,” said our host as he came in from the next room. And as an after thought: “One of the quarters is silver.” He was right, down to the last penny.
“How did you do it?” we asked. “Try it yourself.” he said. We did, and with a little practice we found it easy.
Curiously, evidence indicates that people need sound. When we are lost in thought,
we involuntarily drum with our fingers or tap with a pencil—a reminder that we
are still surrounded by a world outside ourselves. Just cutting down reflected
sound can produce some odd results. The nearest thing on earth to the silence of
outer space, for example, is the “anechoic chamber” at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Burray Hills, N.J., which is lined with material that absorbs 99.98% of all reflected sound. Men who have remained in the room for more than an hour report that they feel nervous and out of touch with reality.
Questions:
S1.According to Paragraph One. Why do we blot out the sounds we don’t want to hear?
_____________________
_____________________
S2.The writer believes that the rhythm of our footsteps changes as______________________________________.
S3.How many different kinds of sounds are mentioned in Paragraph 3?
________________________
________________________
S4.What’s the main idea of Paragraphs 4 and 5?
_________________________
__________________________
S5.The whole passage tells us that by ignoring most of the sound around u
s we miss much that could give us ______________________________.
Part Ⅴ Writing (30 minutes)
Directions:For this part, you’re allowed thirty minutes to write a
composition on the topic “Reading Selectively or Extensively?” you should write at least 100 words, and base your composition on the outline (given in Chinese) below:
1.有人认为读书要有选择；
2.有人认为应当博览群书；
3.我的看法。
