Reading Comprehension
habits of English people and those,say,of your students.Unless the teacher has such a picture,any comments he may make on his students' pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use,and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted.
26.What does the writer actually say about pronouncing foreign languages? [A].Only a few people are really proficient. [B].No one is really an expert in the skill.
[C].There aren't many people who are even fairly good.
[D].There are even some people who are moderately proficient.
27.The writer argues that going about the problem of pronunciation in the wrong way is [A].an obvious cause of not grasping the problem correctly [B].a fundamental consequence of not speaking well [C].a consequence of not grasping the problem correctly [D].not an obvious cause of speaking poorly
28.The best way of learning to speak a foreign language,he suggests,is by_______. [A].picking it up naturally as a child [B].learning from a native speaker
[C].not concentrating on pronunciation as such [D].undertaking systematic work
29.The value the student puts on correct speech habits depends upon_______. [A].how closely he attends to the matter [B].whether it is English that is being taught [C].his teacher's approach to pronunciation
[D].the importance normally given to grammar and spelling 30.How might the teacher find himself wasting lesson time? [A].By spending lesson time on pronunciation.
[B].By making ill-informed comments upon pronunciation. [C].By not using books on phonetics in the classroom.
[D].By not giving students a clear mental picture of the difference between sounds. 答案: C C D C B
Passage 9 An industrial society,especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain,is heavily dependant on certain essential services:for instance,electricity supply,water,rail and road transport,the harbors.The area of dependency has widened to include removing rubbish,hospital and ambulance services,and,as the economy develops,central computer and information services as well.If any of these services ceases to operate,the whole economic system is in danger.
It is this interdependency of the economic system that makes the power of trade unions such an important issue.Single trade unions have the ability to cut off many economic blood supplies.This can happen more easily in Britain than in some other countries,in part because the labor force is highly organized.About 55 per cent of British workers belong to unions,compared to under a quarter in the United States.For historical reasons,Britain's unions have tended to develop along trade and occupational lines,rather than on an industry-by-industry basis,which makes wage policy,democracy in industry and the improvement of procedures for fixing wage levels difficult to achieve.
Reading Comprehension
There are considerable strains and tensions in the trade union movement,some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure.Some unions have lost many members because of industrial changes.Others are involved in arguments about who should represent workers in new trades.Unions for skilled trades are separate from general unions,which means that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feeling between unions.In traditional trades which are being pushed out of existence by advancing technologies,unions can fight for their members' disappearing jobs to the point where the jobs of other union's members are threatened or destroyed.The printing of newspapers both in the United States and in Britain has frequently been halted by the efforts of printers to hold on to their traditional highly-paid jobs. 1.Why is the question of trade union power important in Britain? [A].The economy is very much interdependent. [B].Unions have been established a long time.
[C].There are more unions in Britain than elsewhere. [D].There are many essential services.
2.Because of their out-of-date organization some unions find it difficult to______. [A].change as industries change [B].get new members to join them [C].learn new technologies
[D].bargain for high enough wages
3.Disagreements arise between unions because some of them [A].try to win over members of other unions [B].ignore agreements
[C].protect their own members at the expense of others [D].take over other union's jobs
4.It is difficult to improve the procedures for fixing wage levels because______. [A].some industries have no unions
[B].unions are not organized according to industries [C].only 55 per cent of workers belong to unions [D].some unions are too powerful
5.Which of the following is NOT TRUE?
[A].There are strains and tensions in the trade union movement. [B].Some unions have lost many members. [C].Some unions exist in the outdated structure.
[D].A higher percentage of American workers belong to unions than that of British workers. 答案: A A C B D
Passage 10 It's a hot summer day,and you,your family,and friends decide to drive to the beach for a cookout.
When you get to the beach,the sand and the rocks are so hot that they hurt your bare feet.You put on sneakers in a hurry.The water is so bright and shining in the sun that you can hardly look at it.While the charcoal(木炭)fire is starting to burn in the cookout stove,every one goes for a swim.The water feels good—warm at the top,but cooler down around your toes.
A little wind is blowing when you come out.The fire isn't quite ready for cooking yet,so you
Reading Comprehension
play tag(儿童捉人游戏)or read.
For lunch there are hot dog,corn,salad and rolls,sodas,fruit,and coffee for the adults.By the time the coffee water boils and the corn and hot dogs are cooked,all the bathing suits are dry.So are the towels spread out on the rocks,in the sun.
Lunch is good.Just as you are finishing,it starts to rain so you pack up and run.But nobody minds the rain.It will cool things off.
At the same time you were having fun at the beach,work was being done.Energy from the sun was doing work.Energy,in one form or another,does all the work in the world.
Heat energy from the sun dried the towels.It heated the sand and the rocks,the water and the air.It even made the rain and the wind.Heat from the sun does small work and big work,all over the earth.
Light energy from the sun was working on the beach too.It supplied the daylight. It lit the earth and made the sand bright and the water sparkling. The sun also supplied the energy that grew the food you ate.
Plants use light energy from the sun to make food for themselves.The food is a kind of sugar.It is also a kind of energy called chemical energy.Green plants change light energy from the sun into chemical energy.
Plants use some of that energy for everyday living and growing.They store the rest in their leaves and seeds,in fruit,roots,stems,and berries.
The salad and the corn,the rolls,fruit,and coffee all came from plants.You and all animals depend on plants for food.
The charcoal you used for cooking began as a plant too.Once,that charcoal was a living tree that used sunlight to make food and then stored part of the food it made.The energy in this stored food remained,even after the tree died.You used that energy when you burned the charcoal.
The gasoline you used for driving to the beach began with energy from the sun,too.It was made from oil.
Oil was formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived on earth millions of years ago.The remains of ancient living things are called fossils.This is why oil is called a fossil fuel.Coal and natural gas are fossil fuels,too.
Now fossil fuels are beginning to be used up.
That's why people worry about running out of energy.
But as long as the sun shines,the earth will not run out of energy.The sun pours more energy on earth than we can ever use.Most of that energy comes to us as heat and light.Energy from the sun is called solar energy.
Solar energy is a safe kind of energy.It doesn't make pollution or have dangerous leftovers.That is why scientists and inventors are experimenting with ways of harnessing the sun to do some of the jobs fossil fuels have been doing.
But to make the sun do work like that,they have to solve some problems.
They have to collect the sun's energy.Collecting sunshine isn't easy,unless you are a plant. Sunshine isn't easy to store,either.You can't fill a tank with it or put it in the wood box.You can't move it through a pipe or a wire.You can't turn it on.
Still,people have been using solar energy to help do their work for a long time.There are old ways and new ways of catching sunshine and putting it to work.
Suppose you were living in a cold place and going to spend the winter in a cave.Would you
Reading Comprehension
choose a cave that faced the winter sun or a cave that faced away from it?
You might make the same choice if you were building a house in a cold place.You would probably build the house,so the winter sun would pour in the windows to warm it.People have been building houses that way for a long time.
Is it possible to catch still more of the sun's heat in a house?Yes,Some houses also collect heat on the roof,move it indoors,store some,use some to make hot water and the rest for heating.A house like that is called a solar house.
People who build solar houses have learned how to do those things by observing how the earth itself uses solar energy.
Remember the beach?
Remember the hot sand and the hot rocks?
Some materials take in heat energy from the sun and hold it.They absorb the heat.Sand and rocks do this.So do some other solid materials,such as metals.Water absorbs the sun's heat too.
Color can also be important.Dark,dull colors absorb heat.Light-colored,shiny surfaces reflect heat.They bounce it back.That's why dark clothes are warmer in the winter and light colored clothes are cooler in the summer.
The longer it takes something to heat up,the longer that thing holds the heat.Materials that heat up fast cool off fast.
If you go back to the beach in the evening after sunset,the sand and the rocks,which heated up fast,will be cool.But the water,which heated up slowly,will still be warm.
It takes a long time for the sun to heat the water in a big lake or ocean.But by the end of summer,a large body of water will have caught and stored enough heat from the sun to last for a good part of the winter.Water stores heat very well.
That's why land near a large body of water never gets quite as cold in the winter as land far away from the water.The stored heat in the water keeps the land around it warm.
Slowly,all winter long,heat from the water moves out into the cold air.Heat always moves that way—from a warmer place or thing to a cooler one.Once you know which way heat moves,you understand how things get hot and how they lose heat.
1.All the work in the world is done by energy coming from the sun in one form or another.
2.As we humans depend on plants for food,plants live on chemical energy converted from light energy.
3.Unless the sun dies,it will supply endless energy on earth.
4.It has been a long time since people began to use solar energy because sunshine can be stored in houses.
5.The advantage of the solar house is that it has hot water and heating.
6.A solar house doesn't have to use electricity when it makes a good use of solar energy. 7.The passage gives a brief account of how solar energy is employed.
8.We can understand how things get hot or lose heat as long as we know______. 9.Most of the energy the sun supplies to us is in the forms of______.
10.People like to use fossil fuels to get almost all kinds of energy because they are______. 答案: 1-7. Y Y Y N N N N 8. which way heat moves 9. heat and light 10. easy to use Reading Comprehension
Passage 11 I have never attended a large company's board meeting in my life, but I feel certain that the discussion often takes the following lines. The__1__of producing a new—for example—toothpaste would make 8 Op the decent price for it,so we will market it at ￡l.20. It is not a bad toothpaste (not specially good either,but not bad), and as people like to try new things it will sell well to start with; but the__2__of novelty soon fades,so sales will__3__. When that starts to happen we will reduce the price to ￡l.15.And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it, whereupon people will rush to buy it even though it still costs about forty-three percent more than its__4__price.
Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but lp OFF. What a shame to advertise lp OFF your soap or washing powder or dog food or whatever. Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an insult, but he doesn't.A bargain must not be__5__To be offered a \being invited to dinner and offered one single pea (tastily cooked), and nothing else. Even if it represented a__6__reduction it would be an insult. Still, people say, one has to have washing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny cheaper. When I was a boy in Hungary a man was__7__of murdering someone for the sake of one pengo, the equivalent of a shilling,and pleaded__8__. The judge shouted__9__:\To kill a man for a shilling! What can you say in your__10__?\shopper says, too:\
A.missed B.defense C.real D.cost E.anxiously F.attraction G.fair H.expense I. fall J.angrily K.dismissed L.accused M.guilty N.faulty O.security 答案: D F I G A C L M J
Passage 12 Although credit cards are becoming a more acceptable part of the financial scene,they are still regarded with suspicion by many as being a major part of the\now pay later\with hire-purchase,rental and leasing schemes,they provide encouragement to spend more money.Of course,it is only the foolhardy who yield to the temptation to live,temporarily at least,beyond their means,and such people would no doubt manage to do so even without credit cards.
Advertising campaigns have,however,promoted a growing realization of the advantages of these small pieces of plastic.They obviate(避免)need to carry large amounts of cash and are always useful in emergencies.
All the credit card organizations charge interest on a monthly basis which may work out as high as 25 per cent a year,yet judicious purchasing using a card can mean that you obtain up to seven weeks,interest-free credit.Using the card abroad,where items frequently take a long time to be included on your account,can extend this period even further.
It is worthwhile shopping around before deciding on a particular credit card.It is necessary to consider the amount of credit granted;interest rates,which may vary slightly;the number and range of outlets,though most cards cover major garages,hotels,restaurants and department stores;and of course,what happens if your card is lost or stolen.A credit card thief may be sitting on a potential