第四十一篇：(Unit 11,Passage 1)
In the last 12 years total employment in the United States grew faster than at any time in the peacetime history of any country – from 82 to 110 million between 1973 and 1985 – that is, by a full one third. The entire growth, however, was in manufacturing, and especially in no – blue-collar jobs…
This trend is the same in all developed countries, and is, indeed, even more pronounced in Japan. It is therefore highly probable that in 25 years developed countries such as the United States and Japan will employ no larger a proportion of the labor force I n manufacturing than developed countries now employ in farming – at most, 10 percent. Today the United States employs around 18 million people in blue-collar jobs in manufacturing industries. By 2010, the number is likely to be no more than 12 million. In some major industries the drop will be even sharper. It is quite unrealistic, for instance, to expect that the American automobile industry will employ more than one –third of its present blue-collar force 25 years hence, even though production might be 50 percent higher.
If a company, an industry or a country does not in the next quarter century sharply increase manufacturing production and at the same time sharply reduce the blue-collar work force, it cannot hope to remain competitive – or even to remain “developed.” The attempt to preserve such blue – collar jobs is actually a prescription for unemployment…
This is not a conclusion that American politicians, labor leaders or indeed the general public can easily understand or accept. What confuses the issue even more it that the United States is experiencing several separate and different shifts in the manufacturing economy. One is the acceleration of the substitution of knowledge and capital for manual labor. Where we spoke of mechanization a few decades ago, we now speak of “robotization “ or “automation.” This is actually more a change in terminology than a change in reality. When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line in 1909, he cut the number of man – hours required to produce a motor car by some 80 percent in two or three years –far more than anyone expects to result from even the most complete robotization. But there is no doubt that we are facing a new, sharp acceleration in the replacement of manual workers by machines –that is, by the products of knowledge.
1.According to the author, the shrinkage in the manufacturing labor force demonstrates______.
A.the degree to which a country’s production is robotized
B.a reduction in a country’s manufacturing industries
C.a worsening relationship between labor and management
D.the difference between a developed country and a developing country
2.According to the author, in coming 25years, a developed country or industry, in order t remain competitive, ought to ______.
A.reduce the percentage of the blue-collar work force
B.preserve blue – collar jobs for international competition
C.accelerate motor – can manufacturing in Henry Ford’s style
D.solve the problem of unemployment
3.American politicians and labor leaders tend to dislike_____.
A.confusion in manufacturing economy
B.an increase in blue – collar work force
C.internal competition in manufacturing production
D.a drop in the blue – collar job opportunities
4.The word “prescription” in “a prescription for unemployment” may be the equivalent to ______
A.something recommended as medical treatment
B.a way suggested to overcome some difficulty
C.some measures taken in advance
D.a device to dire
5.This passage may have been excepted from ________
A.a magazine about capital investment
B.an article on automation
C.a motor-car magazine
D.an article on global economy
第41篇答案：AADCD
第42篇：(Unit 11,Passage 2)
What does the future hold for the problem of housing? A good deal depends, of course, on the meaning of “future”. If one is thinking in terms of science fiction and the space age, it is at least possible to assume that man will have solved such trivial and earthly problems as housing. Writers of science fiction, from H.G. Wells onwards, have had little to say on the subject. They have conveyed the suggestion that men will live in great comfort, with every conceivable apparatus to make life smooth, healthy and easy, if not happy. But they have not said what his house will be made of. Perhaps some new building material, as yet unimagined, will have been discovered or invented at least. One may be certain that bricks and mortar(泥灰，灰浆) will long have gone out of fashion.
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But the problems of the next generation or two can more readily be imagined. Scientists have already pointed out that unless something is done either to restrict the world’s rapid growth in population or to discover and develop new sources of food (or both), millions of people will be dying of starvation or at the best suffering from underfeeding before this century is out. But nobody has yet worked out any plan for housing these growing populations. Admittedly the worst situations will occur in the hottest parts of the world, where housing can be light structure or in backward areas where standards are traditionally low. But even the minimum shelter requires materials of some kind and in the teeming, bulging towns the low-standard “housing” of flattened petrol cans and dirty canvas is far more wasteful of ground space than can be tolerated.
Since the war, Hong Kong has suffered the kind of crisis which is likely to arise in many other places during the next generation. Literally millions of refugees arrived to swell the already growing population and emergency steps had to be taken rapidly to prevent squalor（肮脏）and disease and the spread crime. The city is tackling the situation energetically and enormous blocks of tenements（贫民住宅）are rising at an astonishing aped. But Hong Kong is only one small part of what will certainly become a vast problem and not merely a housing problem, because when population grows at this rate there are accompanying problems of education, transport, hospital services, drainage, water supply and so on. Not every area may give the same resources as Hong Kong to draw upon and the search for quicker and cheaper methods of construction must never cease.
1.What is the author’s opinion of housing problems in the first paragraph?
A.They may be completely solved at sometime in the future.
B.They are unimportant and easily dealt with.
C.They will not be solved until a new building material has been discovered.
D.They have been dealt with in specific detail in books describing the future.
2.The writer is sure that in the distant future ___.
A.bricks and mortar will be replaced by some other building material.
B.a new building material will have been invented.
C.bricks and mortar will not be used by people who want their house to be fashionable.
D.a new way of using bricks and mortar will have been discovered.
3.The writer believes that the biggest problem likely to confront the world before the end of the century ___.
A.is difficult to foresee.
B.will be how to feed the ever growing population.
C.will be how to provide enough houses in the hottest parts of the world.
D.is the question of finding enough ground space.
4.When the writer says that the worst situations will occur in the hottest parts of the world or in backward areas, he is referring to the fact that in these parts ___.
A.standards of building are low.
B.only minimum shelter will be possible.
C.there is not enough ground space.
D.the population growth will be the greatest.
5.Which of the following sentences best summarizes Paragraph 3?
A.Hong Kong has faced a serious crisis caused by millions of refugees.
B.Hong Kong has successfully dealt with the emergency caused by millions of refugees.
C.Hong Kong’s crisis was not only a matter of housing but included a number of other problems of population growth.
D.Many parts of the world may have to face the kind of problems encountered by Hong Kong and may find it much harder to deal with them.
第四十二篇答案：AABDD
第四十三篇：(Unit 11, Passage 3)
It is a curious paradox that we think of the physical sciences as “hard”, the social sciences as “soft,” and the biological sciences as somewhere in between. This is interpreted to mean that our knowledge of physical system is more certain than our knowledge of biological systems, and these in turn are more certain than our knowledge of social systems. In terms of our capacity of sample the relevant universes, however, and the probability that our images of these universes are at least approximately correct, one suspects that a reverse order is more reasonable. We are able to sample earth’s social systems with some degree of confidence that we have a reasonable sample of the total universe being investigated. Our knowledge of social systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries. Even the folk knowledge in social systems on which ordinary life is based in earning, spending, organizing, marrying, taking part in political ac
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tivities, fighting and so on, is not very dissimilar from the more sophisticated images of the social system derived form the social sciences, even though it is built upon the very imperfect samples of personal experience.
In contrast, our image of the astronomical universe, or even if earth’s geological history, ca easily be subject to revolutionary changes as new data come in and new theories are worked out. If we define the “security” of our image of various parts of the total system as the probability of their suffering significant changes, then we would reverse the order for hardness and as the most secure, the physical sciences as the least secure, and again the biological sciences as somewhere in between. Our image of the astronomical universe is the least secure of all simply because we observe such a fantastically small sample of it and its record-keeping is trivial records of biological systems. Records of the astronomical universe, despite the fact that we learnt things as they were long age, are limited in the extreme.
Even in regard to such a close neighbor as the moon, which we have actually visited, theories about its origin and history are extremely different, contradictory, and hard to choose among. Our knowledge of physical evolution is incomplete and insecure.
1.The word “paradox” (Line 1, Para. 1) means “_____”.
A.implication B.contradiction
C.interpretation D.confusion
2.Accroding to the author, we should reverse our classification of the physical sciences as “hard” and the social sciences as “soft” because _______.
A.a reverse ordering will help promote the development of the physical sciences
B.our knowledge of physical systems is more reliable than that of social systems
C.our understanding of the social systems is approximately correct
D.we are better able to investigate social phenomena than physical phenomena
3.The author believes that our knowledge of social systems is more secure than that of physical systems because______.
A.it is not based on personal experience
B.new discoveries are less likely to occur in social sciences
C.it is based on a fairly representative quantity of data
D.the records of social systems are more reliable
4.The chances of the physical sciences being subject to great changes are the biggest because _____.
A.contradictory theories keep emerging all the time
B.new information is constantly coming in
C.the direction of their development is difficult to predict
D.our knowledge of the physical world is inaccurate
5.We know less about the astronomical universe than we don about any social system because ______.
A.theories of its origin and history are varied
B.our knowledge of it is highly insecure
C.only a very small sample of it has been observed
D.few scientists are involved in the study of astronomy
第43篇答案：ACDAD
第44篇：(Unit 11, Passage 4)
The promise of finding long-term technological solutions to the problem of world food shortages seems difficult to fulfill. Many innovations that were once heavily supported and publicized have since fallen by the wayside. The proposals themselves were technically feasible, but they proved to be economically unviable and to yield food products culturally unacceptable to their consumers.
One characteristic common to unsuccessful food innovations has been that, even with extensive government support, they often have not been technologically adapted or culturally acceptable to the people for whom they had been developed. A successful new technology, therefore, must fit the entire social cultural system in which it is to find a place. Security of crop yield, practicality of storage, and costs are much more significant than previously been realized by the advocates of new technologies.
The adoption of new food technologies depends on more than these technical and cultural considerations; economic factors and governmental policies also strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation. Economists in the Anglo-American tradition have taken the lead in investigating the economics of technological innovation. Although they exaggerate in claiming that profitability is the key factor guiding technical change—they completely disregard the substantial effects of culture—they are correct in stressing the importance of profits. Most technological innovations in agriculture can be fully used only by large landow
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ners and are only adopted if these profit-oriented business people believe that the innovation will increase their incomes. Thus, innovations that carry high rewards for big agribusiness groups will be adopted even if they harm segments of the population and reduce the availability of food in a country. Further, should a new technology promise to alter substantially the profits and losses associated with any production system, those with economic power will strive to maintain and improve their own positions. Therefore, although technical advances in food production and processing will perhaps be needed to ensure food availability, meeting food needs will depend much more on equalizing economic power among the various segments of the populations within the developing countries themselves.
1.The passage mentions all of the following as factors important to the success of a new food crop except the ___.
A.practicality of storage of the crop.
B.security of the crop yield.
C.quality of the crop’s protein.
D.cultural acceptability of the crop.
2.The author suggests that, in most emerging countries, extensive government intervention accompanying the introduction of a food innovation will ___.
A.usually be sufficient to guarantee the financial success of the innovation.
B.be necessary to ensure that the benefits of the innovation will be spread throughout the society.
C.normally occur only when the innovation favors large landowners.
D.generally cost the country more than will be earned by the innovation.
3.The first paragraph of the passage best supports which of the following statements?
A.Too much publicity can harm the chances for the success of a new food innovation.
B.Innovations that produce culturally acceptable crops will generally be successful.
C.A food-product innovation can be technically feasible and still not be economically viable.
D.It is difficult to decide whether a food-product innovation has actually been a success.
4.The author provides a sustained argument to uphold which of the following assertions?
A.Profitability is neither necessary nor sufficient for a new technology to be adopted.
B.Profitability is the key factor guiding technological change.
C.Economic factors and governmental policies strongly influence the ultimate success of any innovation.
D.Innovations carrying high rewards for big agribusiness groups harm the poor.
5.The primary purpose of the passage is to discuss the ___.
A.means of assessing the extent of the world food shortage.
B.difficulties of applying technological solutions to the problem of food shortages.
C.costs of introducing a new food technology into a developing country.
D.nature of the new technological innovations in the area of food production.
第四十四篇答案：CBCCB
第四十五篇：(Unit 12,Passage 1)
What most people don’t realize is that wealth isn’t the same as income. If you make $ 1 million a year and spend $ 1 million, you’re not getting wealthier, you’re just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.
The most successful accumulators of wealth spend far less than they can afford on houses, cars, vacations and entertainment. Why? Because these things offer little or no return. The wealthy would rather put their money into investments or their businesses. It’s an attitude.
Millionaires understand that when you buy a luxury house, you buy a luxury life –style too. Your property taxes skyrocket, along with the cost of utilities and insurance, and the prices of nearby services, such as grocery stores, tend to be higher.
The rich man’s attitude can also be seen in his car. Many drive old unpretentious sedans. Sam Walton, billionaire founder of the Wal – Mart Store, Inc., drove a pickup truck.
Most millionaires measure success by net worth, not income. Instead of taking their money home, they plow as much as they can into their businesses, stock portfolios and other assets. Why? Because the government doesn’t tax wealth; it taxes income you bring home for consumption, the more the government taxes.
The person who piles up net worth fastest tends to put every dollar he can into investments, not consumption. All the while, of course, he’s reinvesting his earnings from investments and watching his net worth soar. That’s the attitude as well.
The best wealth-builders pay careful attention to their money and seek professional advice. Those who spend heavily on cars, boats and buses, I’ve found, tend to skimp on investme
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nt advice. Those who skimp on the luxuries are usually more willing to pay top dollar for good legal and financial advice.
The self-made rich develop clear goals for their money. They may wish to retire early, or they may want to leave an estate to their children. The goals vary, but two things are consistent: they have a dollar figure in mind-the amount they want to save by age 50, perhaps – and they work unceasingly toward that goal.
One thing may surprise you. If you make wealth – not just income – your goal, the luxury house you’ve been dreaming about won’t seem so alluring. You’ll have the attitude.
1.Which of the following statements is true?
A.Wealth is judged according to the life style one has.
B.Inheritance builds an important part in one’s wealth.
C.High income may make one live high and get rich t the same time.
D.Wealth is more of what one has made than anything else.
2.By the author’s opinion, those who spend money on luxury houses and cars_____.
A.will not be taxed by the government
B.have accumulated wealth in another sense
C.live high and have little saved
D.can show that they are among the rich
3.The rich put their money into business because_____.
A.they can get much in return to build their wealth
B.they are not interested in luxury houses and cars
C.their goal is to develop their company
D.that is the only way to spend money yet not to be taxed by the government
4.The U.S. government doesn’t tax what you spend money on _____.
A.cars Bhouses C.stock D.boats
5.To become wealthy, one should______.
A.seek as much income as he can
B.work hard unceasingly
C.stick to the way he lives
D.save up his earnings
第45篇答案：DCACB
第46篇：(Unit 12,Passage 2)
It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don’t need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, “I can’t think of a better way to do it,” says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents—compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers’ ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers.
1.According to the author, delinquency should be tackled ___.
A.before a
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dolescence
B.during institutional treatment
C.during adolescence
D.when the problem becomes acute
2.The number of young offenders could be reduced by the way of ___.
A.new legal measures
B.better residential care
C.brief periods of harsh punishment
D.examination of their backgrounds
3.What is the outcome result of putting young offenders into detention centers?
A.They become more violent
B.They receive useful training
C.They become used to institutions
D.They turn against society
4.Ten-year-old children likely to become offenders are usually___.
A.spoilt children from small families.
B.bright children in a poor family.
C.dull children with many brothers and sisters.
D.children whose parents have acquired wealth dishonestly.
5.The writer concludes that potential offenders could be helped by ___.
A.spending more time at school
B.more encouragement at school
C.more activities outside school
D.stricter treatment from teachers
第46篇答案：ADDCB
第47篇：(Unit 12,Passage 3)
Personality is to large extent inherent. A-type parents usually bring A-type offspring. But the environment must also have a profound effect, since if competition is important to the parents, it is likely to become a major factor in the lives of their children.
One place where children soak up A characteristics is school, which is, by its very nature, a highly competitive institution. Too many schools adopt the “win at all costs” moral standard and measure their success by sporting achievements. The current passion for making children compete against their classmates or against the clock produces a two-layer system, in which competitive A types seem in some way better than their type B fellows. Being too keen to win can have dangerous consequences: remember that Pheidippides, the first marathon runner, dropped dead seconds after saying: “Rejoice, we conquer!”
By far the worst form of competition in schools is the disproportionate emphasis on examinations. It is a rare school that allows pupils to concentrate on those things they do well. The merits of competition by examination are somewhat questionable, but competition in the certain knowledge of failure is positively harmful.
Obviously, it is neither practical nor desirable that all A youngsters change into B’s. The world needs types, and schools have an important duty to try to fit a child’s personality to hide possible future employment. It is top management.
If the preoccupation of schools with academic work was lessened, more time might be spent teaching children surer values. Perhaps selection for the caring professions, especially medicine, could be made less by good grades in chemistry and more by such considerations as sensitivity and sympathy. It is surely a mistake to choose our doctors exclusively from A type stock. B’s are important and should be encouraged.
1.In Paragraph 2, Line 2, the word “institution” refers to ___.
A.establishment
B.social custom
C.law
D.school
2.According to the passage, A-type individuals are in most cases ___.
A.impatient
B.considerate
C.aggressive
D.agreeable
3.The author strongly objects to the practice of examination at schools because ___.
A.the pressure is too great on the students.
B.some students are bound to fail.
C.failure rates are too high.
D.the results of examinations are doubtful.
4.The selection of medical professionals is currently based on ___.
A.candidates’ sensitivity
B.academic achievements
C.competitive spirit
D.surer values
5.From the passage we can draw the conclusion that ___.
A.the personality of a child is well established at birth.
B.family influence dominates the shaping of one’s characteristics.
C.the development of one’s personality is due to multiple factors,
D.B-type characteristics can find no place in a competitive society.
第47篇答案：DCBBC
第48篇：(Unit 12,Passage 4)
The word religion is derived from the Latin noun religio, which denotes both earnest observance of ritual obligations and an inward spirit of reverence. In modern usage, religion covers a wide spectrum of meaning that reflects the enormous variety of ways the term can be interpreted. At one extreme, many committed believers recognize only their own tradition as a religion, understanding expressions such as worship and prayer to refer exclusively to the practices of their tradition. Although many beli
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evers stop short of claiming an exclusive status for their tradition, they may nevertheless use vague or idealizing terms in defining religion for example, true love of God, or the path of enlightenment. At the other extreme, religion may be equated with ignorance, fanaticism, or wishful thinking.
By defining religion as a sacred engagement with what is taken to be a spiritual reality, it is possible to consider the importance of religion in human life without making claims about what it really is or ought to be. Religion is not an object with a single, fixed meaning, or even a zone with clear boundaries. It is an aspect of human experience that may intersect, incorporate, or transcend other aspects of life and society. Such a definition avoid the drawbacks of limiting the investigation of religion to Western or biblical categories such as monotheism (belief in one god only) or to church structure, which are not universal. For example, in tribal societies, religion unlike the Christian church usually is not a separate institution but pervades the whole of public and private life.
In Buddhism, gods are not as central as the idea of a Buddha. In many traditional cultures, the idea of a sacred cosmic order is the most prominent religious belief. Because of this variety, some scholars prefer to use a general term such as the sacred to designate the common foundation of religious life.
Religion in this understanding includes a complex of activities that cannot be reduced to any single aspect of human experience. It is a part of individual life but also of group dynamics. Religion includes patterns of behavior but also patterns of language and thought. It is sometimes a highly organized institution that sets itself apart from a culture, and it is sometimes an integral part of a culture. Religious experience may be expressed in visual symbols, dance and performance, elaborate philosophical systems, legendary and imaginative stories, formal ceremonies, and detailed rules of ethical conduct and law. Each of these elements assumes innumerable cultural forms. In some ways there are as many forms of religious expression as there are human cultural environments.
1.What is the passage mainly concerned about?
A.Religion has a variety of interpretation.
B.Religion is a reflection of ignorance.
C.Religion is not only confined to the Christian categories.
D.Religion includes all kinds of activities.
2.What does the word “observance” probably convey in Para. 1?
A.notice
B.watching
C.conformity
D.experience
3.According to the passage what people generally consider religion to be?
A.Fantastic observance
B.Spiritual practice
C.Individual observance of tradition
D.A complex of activities
4.Which of the following is not true?
A.It is believed by some that religion should be what it ought to be.
B.“The path of enlightenment” is a definition that the author doesn’t agree to.
C.According to the author, the committed believers define religion improperly.
D.The author doesn’t speak in favor of the definition of “the sacred”.
5.Which of the following is religion according to the passage?
A.Performance of human beings.
B.Buddha, monotheism and some tribal tradition.
C.Practice separated from culture.
D.All the above.
第48篇答案：ACBDB
第49篇：(Unit 13,Passage 1)
You stare at waterfall for a minute or two, and then shift your gaze to its surroundings. What you now see appears to drift upward.
These optical illusions occur because the brain is constantly matching its model of reality to signals from the body’s sensors and interpreting what must be happening—that your brain must have moved, not the other; that downward motions is now normal, so a change from it must now be perceived as upward motion.
The sensors that make this magic are of two kinds. Each eye contains about 120 million rods, which provide somewhat blurry black and white vision. These are the windows of night vision; once adapted to the dark, they can detect a candle burning ten miles away.
Color vision in each eye comes from six to seven million structures called cones. Under ideal conditions, every cone can “see” the entire rainbow spectrum of visible colors, but one type of cone is most sensitive to red, another to green, a third to blue.
Rods and cones send their messa
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ges pulsing an average 20 to 25 times per second along the optic nerve. We see an image for a fraction of a second longer than it actually appears. In movies, reels of still photographs are projected onto screens at 24 frames per second, tricking our eyes into seeing a continuous moving picture.
Like apparent motion, color vision is also subject to unusual effects. When day gives way to night, twilight brings what the poet T.S. Eliot called “the violet hour.” A light levels fall, the rods become progressively less responsive. Rods are most sensitive to the shorter wavelengths of blue and green, and they impart a strange vividness to the garden’s blue flowers.
However, look at a white shirt during the reddish light of sunset, and you’ll still see it in its “true” color—white, not red. Our eyes are constantly comparing an object against its surroundings. They therefore observe the effect of a shift in the color of illuminating on both, and adjust accordingly.
The eyes can distinguish several million graduations of light and shade of color. Each waking second they flash tens of millions of pieces of information to the brain, which weaves them incessantly into a picture of the world around us.
Yet all this is done at the back of each eye by a fabric of sensors, called the retina, about as wide and as thick as a postage stamp. As the Renaissance inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci wrote in wonder, “Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of all the universe?”
1.Visual illusions often take place when the image of reality is ___.
A.matched to six to seven million structures called cones.
B.confused in the body’s sensors of both rods and cones.
C.interpreted in the brain as what must be the case.
D.signaled by about 120 million rods in the eye.
2.The visual sensor that is capable of distinguishing shades of color is called ___.
A.cones
B.color vision
C.rods
D.spectrum
3.The retina send pulses to the brain ___.
A.in short wavelengths
B.as color pictures
C.by a ganglion cell
D.along the optic nerve.
4.Twenty-four still photographs are made into a continuous moving picture just because ___.
A.the image we see usually stays longer than it actually appears.
B.we see an object in comparison with its surroundings.
C.the eyes catch million pieces of information continuously.
D.rods and cones send messages 20 to 25 times a second.
5.The author’s purpose in writing the passage lies in ___.
A.showing that we sometimes are deceived by our own eyes.
B.informing us about the different functions of the eye organs.
C.regretting that we are too slow in the study of eyes.
D.marveling at the great work done by the retina.
第49篇答案：CADAB
第50篇：(Unit 13,Passage 2)
Art is considered by many people to be little more than a decorative means of giving pleasure. This is not always the case, however; at times, art may be seen to have a purely functional side as well. Such could be said of the sandpaintings of the Navaho Indians of the American Southwest; these have a medicinal as well as an artistic purpose.
According to Navaho traditions, one who suffers from either a mental or a physical illness has in come way disturbed or come in contact with the supernatural—perhaps a certain animal, a ghost, or the dead. To counteract this evil contact, the ill person or one of his relatives will employ a medicine man called a “singer” to perform a healing ceremony which will attract a powerful supernatural being.
During the ceremony, which may last from 2 to 9 days, the “singer” will produce a sandpainting on the floor of the Navaho hogan. On the last day of the ceremony, the patient will sit on this sandpainting and the “singer” will rub the ailing parts of the patient’s body with sand from a specific figure in the sandpainting. In this way the patient absorbs the power of that particular supernatural being and becomes strong like it. After the ceremony, the sandpainting is then destroyed and disposed of so its power will not harm anyone.
The art of sandpainting is handed down from old “singer” to their students. The material used are easily found in the areas the Navaho inhabit; brown, red, yellow, and white sandstone, which is pulverized by being crushed between 2 stones much as corns is ground into flour. The “singer” holds a small amount of this sand in his hand and lets it flow between his thumb and fore-finger onto a clean, flat surface on the floor. With a steady hand and great patience,
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he is thus able to create designs of stylized people, snakes and other creatures that have power in the Navaho belief system. The traditional Navaho does not allow reproduction of sandpaintings, since he believes the supernatural powers that taught him the craft have forbidden this; however, such reproductions can in fact be purchased today in tourist shops in Arizona and New Mexico. These are done by either Navaho Indians or by other people who wish to preserve this craft.
1.The purpose of the passage is to ___.
A.discuss the medical uses of sandpaintings in medieval Europe.
B.study the ways Navaho Indians handed down their painting art.
C.consider how Navaho “singer” treat their ailments with sandpaintings.
D.tell how Navaho Indians apply sandpainting for medical purposes.
2.The purpose of a healing ceremony lies in ___.
A.pleasing the ghosts
B.attracting supernatural powers
C.attracting the ghosts
D.creating a sandpainting
3.The “singer” rubs sand on the patient because ___.
A.the patient receives strength from the sand
B.it has pharmaceutical value
C.it decorates the patient
D.none of the above
4.What is used to produce a sandpainting?
A.Paint
B.Beach sand
C.Crushed sandstone
D.Flour
5.Which of the following titles will be best suit the passage?
A.A New Direction for Medical Research
B.The Navaho Indians’ Sandpainting
C.The Process of Sandpainting Creation
D.The Navaho Indians’ Medical History
第50篇答案：DBACB
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