Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed 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.

Passage 1

By about A.D. 500 the Mound Builder (筑堤人) culture was declining, perhaps because of attacks from other tribes or perhaps because of severe climatic changes that undermined agriculture. To the west another culture, based on intensive agriculture, was beginning to flourish. Its center was beneath present-day St. Louis, and it radiated out to encompass most of the Mississippi watershed, from Wisconsin to Louisians and from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Thousands of villages were included in its orbit. By about A.D. 700 this Mississippian culture, as is known to archaeologists, began to send its influence eastward to transform the life of most of the less technologically advanced woodland tribes. Like the Mound Builders of the Ohio region, these tribes, probably influenced by Meso-American cultures through trade and warfare, built gigantic mounds as burial and ceremonial places. The largest of them, rising In four terraces to a height of one hundred feet, has a rectangular base of nearly fifteen acres, larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Built between A.D. 900 and 1100 this huge earthwork faces the site of a palisaded(用栅围护)Indian city which contained more than one hundred small artificial mounds marking burial sites. Spread among them was a vast settlement containing some 30 000 people by current estimations. The finely crafted ornaments and tools recovered at Cahokia, as this center of Misissippi culture is called, include elaborate ceramics (陶器)finely sculpted stonework, carefully embossed and engraved copper and mica (云母)sheets, and one funeral blanket fashioned from 12 000 shell beads. They indicate that Cahokia was a true urban center, with clustered housing, markets, and specialists in toolmaking, hide-dressing, potting, jewelry-making, weaving, and salt-making.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?

A. The Mississippian culture. B. The decline of Mound Builder culture. C. The architecture of Meso-American Indians. D. the eastern woodlands tribes.

2. The paragraph preceding this one most probably discussed .

A. the Mound Builder cultureB. warfare in A.D. 500C. the geography of the Mississippi area D. agriculture near the Mississippi River

3. In relation to the Mississippian culture, the Mound Builder culture was located

A. in essentially the same area B. farther south along the watershed C. to the east D. to the west

4. The Mississippian culture influenced the culture of the .

A. eastern woodland tribes B. Mound BuildersC. Meso-AmericansD. Egyptians

5. According to the passage, the mounds were used as .

A. palaces for the royal familiesB. fortresses for defenseC. centers for conducting tradeD. places for burying the dead

Passage 2

Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable prices, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labor, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television license would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost percent more.

And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven Acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value.

Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of.There is one more point I feel I ought t

[1] [2] [3]  下一页

o touch on. Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.

If its message were confined merely to information-and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the color of a shirt is subtly persuasive-advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-know television personality wants.

6. By the first sentence of the passage the author means that .

A. he is fairly familiar with the cost of advertisingB. everybody knows well that advertising is money consumingC. advertising costs money like everything elseD. it is worthwhile to spend money on advertising

7. The phrase“live up to" in Line 3, Paragraph 2 can be replaced by .

A. surviveB. complementC. agree withD. carry on

8. In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of advertising?

A. Securing greater fame.B. Providing more jobs. C. Enhancing living standards.D. Reducing newspaper cost.

9. The author deems that the well-known TV personality is .

A. very precise in passing his judgment on advertisingB. interested in nothing but the buyer's attentionC. correct in telling the difference between persuasion and information D. obviously partial in his views on advertising

10. In the author's opinion .

A. advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing information B. advertising informs people of new ideas rather than wins them overC. there is nothing wrong with advertising in persuading the buyerD. the buyer is not interested in getting information from an advertisement

Passage 3

In 1950 it was predicted that eight or ten electronic computers would be sufficient to handle all the scientific and business needs of the United States. Likewise, the chief executive officer of IBM advised the company not to invest time or money in developing computers because he foresaw a limited commercial market. But these predictions were proved totally inaccurate as the computer industry developed into a multibillion-dollar business. Today the computer plays a vital role in the lives of many Americans and is seen as one of the greatest technological developments of all times.

Basically a computer is an electronic machine that is capable of performing mathematical tasks to solve scientific or clerical problems in a relatively short period of time. There are two main elements of any computer system——hardware and software.

Hardware is the physical equipment, i.e. the machinery and electronic components. Certain tasks are performed by the hardware. In very simple terms, these tasks can be described in the following processes:input→storage and/or manipulation→output

Properly prepared pieces of information known as data are put into the computer (input). They are put away for future use (storage) and/or handled for a specific purpose (manipulation). Finally, the results are made available to the users (output). The combination of these tasks is known as data processing. Equally as important as hardware in the operation of computers is software. This term refers to the programs and procedures that make it possible to use the computer. A program is a detailed set of instructions that tells the computer what to do, how to do it, and the proper sequence of steps to follow. Programs are written in special computer languages by trained people called computer programmers. Programmers must be familiar with the computer language used in each program. There are a number of different computer languages used in data processing; COBOL(Common Business Oriented Language) is the one used most frequently in business computer applications.

The technological development of computer hardware and software has affected the modern world in numerous ways. Business is one of the areas in which the effect has been greatest.

11. Since the 1950's the computer industry has .

A. declined B. remained about the same C. increased tremendously D. increased slightly

12. Properly prepared pieces of information that are put into the computer are termed .

A. input B. data C. facts D. information

13. The manipulation step of data processing involves .

A. handling data B. making the results available to the users C. putting the information away for future use D. getting the data into the computer

14. Computer programs tell the computer .

上一页  [1] [2] [3]  下一页

A. what to do B. how to do something C. the proper sequence of steps to follow D. all of the above

15. Computer programs are written by .

A. computer analysts B. computer programmers C. computer operators D. computers

Passage 4

In these days of technological triumphs, it is well to remind ourselves from time to time that living mechanisms are often incomparably more efficient than their artificial imitations. There is no better illustration of this idea than the sonar (声纳)system of bats. Ounce for ounce, and watt for watt, it is billions of times more efficient and more sensitive than the radars and sonars contrived (发明) by man.

上一页  [1] [2] [3]