全国2014年4月自考00596英语阅读（二）自学考试试题
全国2014年4月高等教育自学考试
英语阅读（二）试题
课程代码：00596I. Reading Comprehension (50 points,2 points for each)
Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B,C and D． Choose the best answer and then blacken the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet.
Passage One
Social anxiety is the single most common psychological problem, according to the 1986 results of the Stanford shyness inventory, a survey conducted by Philip G.Zimbardo, a professor of social psychology at Stanford University in California. At a party with strangers, for instance, three-quarters of adults feel anxious. “The best estimate is that 40 percent of all Americans suffer from shyness,” says Zimbardo.
How can you avoid being nervous when you meet people? Prepare. Preparation for any communication situation is a must. You’ve been invited to a big dinner party in two weeks. You know that one of the other guests is a politician. Scan the newspapers and magazines; listen to newscasts for topics of conversation in political areas. Then at the party, pretend you’re an interviewer on talk show. Think of questions to ask what can’t be answered yes or no. “In your opinion, who...”“What do you think of...” Keep the momentum going.
Whether you’re delivering a speech, approaching your boss for a raise or an important social occasion, do your homework. The most polished, smoothly delivered, spontaneous-sounding talks are the result of many hours of work. The memorable one-liners and moving phrases that go down in history don’t come from last-minute bursts of inspiration.
If you’re making a presentation of any sort, begin preparing as far ahead of time as possible. “Good writing,” says Harvard University historian Richard Marius, “is a kind of wrestling with thought.” Begin the wrestling match early. Two days before your presentation is usually too late to go into the ring and come up with a winning idea.
“To communicate,” says New York Times columnist William Safire, “put your thoughts in order, give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.”
Prepare yourself as well as your material, giving special attention to your voice. A shrill, nasal tone strikes your listeners like chalk screeching on a blackboard. By putting energy and resonance into your voice, you will have a positive effect. If your voice is timid or quivers with nervousness, you sense it, the audience hears it, and you see discomfort in their eyes. With energy and enthusiasm in your voice the listeners say ahhh, tell me more. You read approval.
Like your voice, your appearance is a communication tool. For example, if you are animated, you are most likely to see animated listeners. You give the audience the message: I’m glad I’m here; I’m glad you’re here.
Your approach can, in fact, be a powerful weapon for deflecting hostility-from an audience, an interviewer, an employer. A benevolent aspect says I understand and conveys good will and positive expectations. It works.
Questions l-5 are based on Passage One.
1. According to paragraph 2, one can avoid shyness while talking to a politician at a party by ______.
A. listening to his talk B． reading newspapers to him
C. preparing in a advance D． asking him hard questions
2. In paragraph 3 the author suggests that we do our homework for an important social occasion because ______.
A. only careful preparation can make our talks polished
B．homework can help us learn from our own mistakes
C. we need inspiration for memorable and moving talks
D． it is necessary to avoid harsh criticism from the supervisors
3. Based on paragraph 4, when should you begin the preparation for a presentation?
A. Two days ahead of time. B． As early as possible.
C. When you are clearheaded. D． When you are not busy.
4. According to paragraph 6, what kind of voice is likely to win the audience’s approval?
A. A nasal tone. B． A shrill tone.
C. A quivering tone. D． An energetic tone.
5. What is the author’s attitude toward overcoming nervousness?
A. Critical. B． Negative.
C. Suspicious. D． Positive.
Passage Two
How many languages do you speak? One, maybe, two, you say? Wrong! If you speak English, you use words from at least 3 5 foreign languages. Surprised?
You shouldn’t be. Tim Morris is an English professor at the University of Texas, Arlinton. He says that when we speak English, we are using bits and pieces of many languages. Scholars estimate that one-third of the world’s languages are of Indo-European origin. These include English, French, Latin, German, Dutch, Celtic, and Slavic tongues. Back around AD 450, when Julius Caesar was alive, English as we know didn’t exist. English is relatively young. Its roots go back l,500 years to Britain. People there spoke Celtic. Then came Anglo-Saxon invaders.“These conquerors spoke languages closely related to older forms of Dutch.” Morris says. Dutch words like “woord”, “gas” and “man”, became the English equivalents “word”, “grass” and “man”. Anglo-Saxon “Anglish” became “English”.
But our story doesn’t end there. English continued to grow and change. When Norman French invaded Britain in 1066, the English vocabulary got an enormous boost. Scholars say that nearly half of all English words are French in their origin. Words like art, orange, taxi, tree and surprise are a few examples. When English colonists came to America in the 1700s, they encountered native Americans and their languages. Words like wigwam, teepee, chipmunk, possum, and tomahawk settled into the colonists’ vocabulary.
Centuries later, in the early 1900s, immigrants streamed to America’s shores. Italians taught us to say broccoli, macaroni, opera, and studio. Spanish speakers added mosquito, mustang, tortilloa, and alligator. Bagel, kosher, and pastrami came from those who spoke Yiddish. And yam, gorilla, and jitterbug were taken from African languages.
It’s impossible to say exactly how big the English language is. Even counting all the words in a dictionary won’t give you an accurate figure. But you may be interested to know that college-size editions like Merriam-Webster’s 10th Collegiate contain about 90,000 “headwords”. Headwords are main entries in bold print. Under a headword are plurals and various forms of that word, along with definitions. In a large dictionary, like the Oxford English Dictionary, are more than 250,000 headwords. Some say the true number of English words is twice of that. That’s a lot of words! But even a highly educated person uses only about 10% of them.
Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.
6. From the passage we know that ______.
A. English belongs to Sino-Tibetan family
B． English belongs to Indo-European family
C. English was spoken by people before AD 450
D． English was spoken by the Anglo-Saxon invaders
7. According to the passage, the origin of English can be dated back to ______.
A. the late 1700s B． the year 1066
C. the early 1900s D． 1,500 years ago
8. Of the following words, ______ is of Yiddish origin.
A． kosher B． tortilloa
C. possum D． woord
9. A large dictionary, like the Oxford English Dictionary, ______.
A. tells the true number of English words
B．gives 250,000 headwords without definition
C. fails to tell the true number of English words
D． fails to give the plural or singular form of headwords
10. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. In the mid-1900s, Italian immigrants streamed to America.
B．It’s quite common to come across an Italian word in English.
C. One-third of English words are borrowed from other languages.
D． Native American languages failed to exert any influence on English.
Passage Three
The estimates of the number of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teach children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
John Marshall, an education official, says, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers.” The idea is, “Let’s give the kids access to public school so they’ll see it’s not as terrible as they’ve been told, and they’ll want to come back.”
Perhaps, but don’t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education-whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child’s interests and natural pace—is best.
“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center for Home Education. She says，“Home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.”
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn-both intellectually and emotionally-that the family is the most important institution in society.”
Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy(异端邪说), but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes.“These parents are highly independent and strive to take responsibility for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”
Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.
11. According to the passage, home schoolers are ______.
A. those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
B． those who are educated at home by their parents instead of going to school
C. those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
D． those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
12. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because ______.
A. there isn’t much they can do to change the present situation
B．public schools cannot offer proper education for all children
C. they want to show their tolerance of different teaching systems
D．home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
13. Home-school advocates are of the opinion that ______.
A. things in public schools are not so bad as has often been said
B． their cooperation with public schools will improve public education
C. home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give in
D． their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schools
14. Most home schoolers’ opposition to public education stems from their ______.
A. devotion to religion
B．concern with the cost involved
C. respect for the interests of individuals
D． worry about the inefficiency of public schools
15. According to Van Galen, some home schoolers believe that ______.
A. public schools take a herdlike approach to teach children
B．teachers in public schools are not as responsible as they should be
C. public schools are the source of bureaucracy and inefficiency in modem society
D． public schools cannot provide an education that is good enough for their children
Passage Four
What will people use the Internet for? Shopping and banking will be big growth areas. Henley predicts that, from under 1% of all purchases today, it will account for 6.4% of purchases within four years, amounting to 42 billion. Sales have already started with dry goods such as books and CDs and, as people learn to trust it, will move on to regular purchases such as food. Iceland, the supermarket chain, began computer shopping trials two weeks ago and has already signed up at least 15,000 customers, ranging from busy executives to the housebound. When it links up with digital television, Iceland expects to double that immediately.
Yet internet-linked televisions and phones may be only the start. One potential breakthrough is Bluetooth named after a 10th century Danish king famed for his rotten front tooth and uniting warring factions in Denmark and Norway.
The modern Bluetooth allows an unlikely array of machines to talk to each other, so that a phone tucked away in a briefcase can remember to send out a signal that turns on a video machine 50 miles away, switches on the heating or starts the cooker. Cars, offices and kitchens will all speak to each other. In Finland, the idea of phones communicating with computerized tills so that you press a button and pay for your supermarket goods or drink from a vending machine is being tested.Said one enthusiast:“Your phone will be your remote control for life.”
As with all revolutions, there are reservations. Health concerns about mobile phones are unresolved, with microwave radiation linked to increased tiredness and headaches in one recent study in Sweden.
Some argue that more sophisticated entertainment at home will deepen antisocial “cocooning” trends, that internet grocery deliveries will kill off the last comer shops, and that a “couch potato” generation of children will grow even more over-fat.
The most significant impact, however, will be in the way we work. Adrian Hosford, director of millennial projects at BT, predicts it will encourage more people to work at home. “People have talked about telecommuting for years, but at last it makes economic sense. Many offices will turn into touchdown centers, where people will only occasionally call in. This is already the case for one in five at BT,” he said.
Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.
16. According to the passage, internet purchases ______.
A. will have great growth in dry goods
B．will be accepted by more and more people
C. will be used in Iceland, the supermarket chain
D． will become a major form of purchase within four years
17. What do we know about Bluetooth?
A. It is a talking software.
B．It is named after a Danish king.
C. It is widely used in internet purchases.
D． It is a remote controller to turn on your phone.
18. The widespread use of Bluetooth might ______.
A. make people’s life more sophisticated
B． spare people more social time
C. be harmful to one’s health
D． violate people’s privacy
19. With the development of phone communication, it seems that ______.
A. people will have more time to stay at home
B． comer shops will be the only place for people to go
C. phone will help people to do all kinds of office work
D． children will be even more over-fat because of having potato
20. The most noticeable effect of Bluetooth will be on ______.
A. people’s diet B． people’s weight
C. people’s health condition D． people’s way of work
Passage Five
It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. American’s life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts (白内障) removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours.
Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians - frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient - too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified.
In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age-say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way” so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential.
I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have.
Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. Ask a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives.
Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.
21. The first sentence of paragraph l implies that ______.
A. Americans enjoy a higher life quality than ever before
B． Americans are better prepared for death than other people
C. Americans are over-confident of their medical technology
D． Americans take a vain pride in their long life expectancy
22. The example of cancer patients is used by the author to show that ______.
A. medical resources are often wasted
B． some treatments are too aggressive
C. doctors are helpless against fatal diseases
D． medical costs are becoming unaffordable
23. What is the author’s attitude toward Richard Lamm’s remark?
A. Slight contempt. B． Reserved consent.
C. Strong disapproval. D． Enthusiastic support.
24. Which of the statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The author is already in his 80s.
B． Sumner Redstone chairs Viacom at 53.
C. Sandra Day O’Connor lives no longer than 70 years old.
D． The surgeon general C. Everett Koop is still active as a leader in his 80s.
25. What the author intends to express in this passage is ______.
A. death should be accepted as a fact of life
B． life beyond a certain age is not worth living
C. medicine will further prolong people’s lives
D． excessive demand increases the cost of health care
非选择题部分
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Ⅱ. Vocabulary. (10 points, 1 point for each)
Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refers to the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on the Answer Sheet.
The beginning of man’s conquest of space took place in 1958, seven years before Leonov’s trip. The first successful launching of “Sputnik” demonstrated that it was indeed possible to send objects far enough out of range of earth’s gravity so that they would not fall back to earth. Rather, such objects could be forced to revolve around the earth, just as the moon does. However, while the moon is so far from earth that it takes it a month to revolve around the earth, manmade satellites, which are closer to earth, can make a complete revolution in a few hours.
It was three years after the first satellite launching that a spaceship containing a man made a successful flight. The flight lasted less than two hours, but it pointed the way to future developments.
Other planets are so far away that spaceships must attain tremendous speeds to reach them in a reasonable time. If spaceships were launched from space or from the moon, the absence of weight would permit the ship to be launched with great speed at reduced pressures. A relatively small explosion would be enough to send a ship off at a very fast rate. And, since there is no atmosphere in space as there is on earth, the spaceship would meet with no resistance. To illustrate this point, remember how strong the wind feels if we are traveling fast in a car; then imagine a car traveling through an area where there is no wind. The windless condition is comparable to the condition in outer space.
26. success in gaining control of something difficult (Para. 1)
27. made something clear to people (Para. 1)
28. things that have a fixed shape or form (Para. 1)
29. the force that causes things to fall to the ground (Para. l )
30. to turn around an axis or a center (Para. 1)
31. having something inside (Para.2 )
32. extraordinarily fast (Para.3 )
33. to allow something to happen (Para. 3)
34. any force that opposes the progress of something (Para.3 )
35. roughly similar to somethng else (Para.3 )
Ⅲ. Summarization. (20 points, 2 points for each)
Directions: In this section of the test, there are ten paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs is followed by an incomplete phrase or sentence which summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Spell out the missing letters of the word on your Answer Sheet.
Paragraph One
In the Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet is a character who contains many inconsistent traits. He is indecisive, but he is also a man of action; his motives are generally lofty, but sometimes they seem wholly selfish. Though basically gentle, he is also ruthless. All these make Hamlet human.
36. The c______ of Hamlet.
Paragraph Two
Despite claims by Fonterra that none of its milk powder found in Sri Lanka with traces of the toxic chemical element made it into the Chinese market, Chinese consumers and experts are in uproar over the company’s handling of its food safety problems.
37. Consumers losing c______ in Fonterra.
Paragraph Three
Israel decided on Sunday to free 26 Palestinian prisoners over the next few days ahead of a new round of peace talks, in the first group of a total of more than 100 inmates it pledged to set free as part of a US-brokered resumption of negotiations.
38. Isreal to r______ 26 Palestinian prisoners.
Paragraph Four
Tennis is a stop-and-go sport, often with moments of violent activity, requiring a sudden surge of heart action. It is a good sport for those in good physical condition who do suitable daily conditioning exercises, and who do not approach their limit of activity or endurance.
39. Tennis as a sport a______ only for right people.
Paragraph Five
The edible soybean is a vegetable of high protein content containing 35 to 40 percent of protein and from 18 to 20 percent of oil. It is well supplied with vitamins and mineral salts. Compared with some other foods, soybeans contain one and one-half times as much protein as cheese and peas, eleven times as much protein as milk.
40. The b______ of soybeans.
Paragraph Six
Beijing’s army recruitment efforts have been increasingly hampered in recent years by a decline in the physical fitness of candidates, with many being ruled unsuitable due to common complaints such as being overweight or shortsighted. Around 60 percent of college students who apply for military service cannot pass the physical fitness exam.
41. Students’ f______ to meet army fitness standards.
Paragraph Seven
Open enrollment is being used today to get schools to perform better. The reasoning: the best schools will attract the best students. And to be “best”, the school must have a creative principal and teachers. The plan, in extreme cases, can close down poor schools that no longer attract any students.
42. Schools striving for e ______.
Paragraph Eight
A top U.S. official announced plans to establish a review group to look at the government’s intelligence collection methods and surveillance capabilities. Once established, the group will brief its interim findings to Obama within 60 days of its formation and provide a final report with recommendations in due course.
43. U.S. to e______ intelligence collection methods.
Paragraph Nine
Gay marriage is to become legal in England and Wales after the lower house of the British parliament approved the final changes to a law that had Prime Minister David Cameron’s backing. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark victory for gay rights by forcing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages.
44. Gay marriage gaining legal s______.
Paragraph Ten
All of us want to feel needed and admired. But unless we hear words of praise from others, how can we know that we are valued friends or co-workers? To give people the feeling of importance and worthiness, you need to always look for something in other people you can admire and praise - and tell them about it.
45. People need to learn the a______ of praising.
Ⅳ. Translation. (20 poirits, 4 points for each)
Directions: In the following passage, there are five groups of underlined sentences. Read the passage carefully and translate these sentences into Chinese. Write the Chinese version on your Answer Sheet.
Virtually every company with a computer is vulnerable to computer abuse, crime and accident. Security of the computer and of the information and assets
contained within it are therefore of paramount importance to management. (46) Skilled computer criminals can break into a computer system far more easily than an armed robber can gain access to a bank vault, and usually with far less risk of apprehension and punishment. A slight change in a complex program can bring about the misappropriation of thousands of pounds. Accidental erasure of crucial data can paralyse a company’s operations. Anyone familiar with the procedure can gain access to information stored in the computer, no matter how confidential, and use it for his own purposes.
Although the actual extent of computer crime is difficult to measure, most experts agree that it is one of the fastest growing areas of illegal activity. (47) The principal reason for both the growth and the lack of accurate measurement is the difficulty in detecting a well-executed theft. Losses per incident thus tend to be higher than in other types of theft. Once the computer criminal has compromised the system, it is just as easy to steal a great sum as it is to steal a little, and to continue stealing long after the initial theft. Indeed, the computer criminal may find it more difficult to stop his illicit activity than to start it.
(48) Computer criminals are, for the most part, well-educated and highly intelligent, and have the analytical skills that make them valued employees. The fact that computer criminals do not fit criminal stereotypes helps them to obtain the positions they require to carry out crimes. Being intelligent, they have fertile imaginations, and the variety of ways in which they use equipment to their advantage is constantly being extended. (49) In addition to direct theft of funds, the theft of data for corporate espionage or extortion is becoming widespread, and can obviously have a substantial effect on a company’s finances. Another lucrative scheme, often difficult to detect, involves accumulating fractions of pence from individidual payroll accounts, with electronic transfer of the accumulated amount to the criminal’s payroll. Employers are hardly concerned with pence, much less fractions of pence. In addition, of course, the company’s total payroll is unaffected. But the cumulative value of fractions of pence per employee in a company with a substantial payroll can add up to a useful gain.
Sabotage is also an increasingly common type of computer crime. This can involve disabling the hardware, but is more likely to affect the software. Everyone in the computer business has heard of cases of a “time-bomb” being placed in a program. (50) Typically, the programmer inserts an instruction that causes the computer to destroy an entire personnel data bank, for example, if the programmer’s employment is terminated. As soon as the termination data is fed into the system, it automatically erases the entire program.
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