态度观点
Passage 1
The speaker, a teacher from a community college, addressed a sympathetic audience. Heads nodded in agreement when he said, ―High school English teachers are not doing their jobs.‖ He described the inadequacies of his students, all high school graduates who can use language only at a grade 9 level. I was unable to determine from his answers to my questions how this grade 9 level had been established.
My topic is not standards nor its decline. What the speaker was really saying is that he is no longer young; he has been teaching for sixteen years, and is able to think and speak like a mature adult.
My point is that the frequent complaint of one generation about the one immediately following it is inevitable. It is also human nature to look for the reasons for our dissatisfaction. Before English became a school subject in the late nineteenth century, it was difficult to find the target of the blame for language deficiencies (缺陷). But since then, English teachers have been under constant attack.
The complainers think they have hit upon an original idea. As their own command of the language improves, they notice that young people do not have this same ability. Unaware that their own ability has developed through the years, they assume the new generation of young people must be hopeless in this respect. To the eyes and ears of sensitive adults the language of the young always seems inadequate.
Since this concern about the decline and fall of the English language is not perceived as generational phenomenon but rather as something new and peculiar to today’s young people, it naturally follows that today’s English teachers cannot be doing their jobs. Otherwise, young people would not commit offenses against the language.
1.The speaker the author mentioned in the passage believed that ________.
A) the language of the younger generation is usually inferior to that of the older generation B) the students had a poor command of English because they didn’t work hard enough C) he was an excellent language teacher because he had been teaching English for sixteen years. D) English teachers should be held responsible for the students’ poor command of English
2. In the author’s opinion, the speaker ________.
A) gave a correct judgment of the English level of the students B) had exaggerated the language problems of the students
C) was right in saying that English teachers were not doing their jobs D) could think and speak intelligently
3.The author’s attitude towards the speaker’s remarks is ________. A) neutral B) critical C) positive D) compromising
4. It can be concluded from the passage that ________. A) it is justifiable to include English as a school subject
B) the author disagrees with the speaker over the standard of English at grade 9 level C) English language teaching is by no means an easy job D) language improvement needs time and effort 5. In the passage the author argues that ________.
A) it is unfair to blame the English teachers for the language deficiencies of the students B) young people would not commit offenses against the language if the teachers did their jobs
properly
C) to eliminate language deficiencies one must have sensitive eyes and ears D) to improve the standard of English requires the effort of several generations
实验型文章
Passage 2
Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to ―think and concentrate.‖ Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived (被剥夺) of cigarettes through a series of tests.
In the first test, each subject (试验对象) sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well.
The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.
In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.
The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non-smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details.
―As our tests became more complex,‖ sums up Spilich, ―non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins.‖ He predicts, ―smokers might performed adequately at many jobs – until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.‖ 1. The purpose of George Spilich’s experiments is ________. A) to find out whether smoking helps people’s mental capacity B) to show how smoking damages people’s mental capacity C) to prove that smoking affects people’s regular performance
D) to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers 2. George Spilich’s experiment was conducted in such a way as to ________. A) compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details B) check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers C) put the subjects through increasingly complex tests D) register the prompt responses of the subjects
3. The word ―bested‖ (line 3, paragraph 5) means ________. A) beat C) envied
B) caught up with D) made the best of
4. Which of the following statements is true?
A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.
B) Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects. C) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.
D) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks. 5. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________. A) smokers should not expect to become airline pilots B) smokers may prove unequal to handling emergency cases C) no airline pilots smoke during flights
D) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness
专升本英语阅读练习材料
Passage 1
Energy crisis
The energy crisis has been with us for a long time and will be with us for an even longer time. Whether Arab oil flows freely or not, it is clear to everyone that world industry cannot be allowed to depend on so breakable a base. The supply of oil can be shut off unexpectedly at any time, and in any case, the oil wells will all run dry in thirty years or so at the present rate of use.
New sources of energy must be found, but it is not likely to result in any situation which will ever restore that sense of cheap and plentiful energy we have had in the times past.
To make the situation worse, there is as yet no sign that any slowing of the world’s population is in sight. Although the birthrate has dropped in some nations, including the United States, the population of the world seems sure to pass six billion as the twenty-first century opens.
Taking all this into account, what might we reasonably estimate supermarkets to be like in the year 2001?
To begin with, the world food supply is going to become steadily tighter over the next thirty years — even here in the United States. By 2001, the population of the United States will be at least two hundred fifty million, and the nation will find it difficult to expand food production to fill the additional mouths. This will be particularly true since energy shortage will make it difficult to continue agriculture in the high-energy American fashion that makes it possible to combine few farmers with high yields.
It seems almost certain that by 2001 the United States will no longer be a great exporting nation and that, if necessity forces exports, it will be at the price of belt-tightening at home.
In fact, as food items will tend to decline in quality and decrease in variety, people will have to accept more ―unnatural food‖.
1. The passage is mainly concerned with _______. A) the pressing general problem in the near future B) energy crisis and new sources of energy C) population and food supply in the United States