In modern society, ceremonies for adolescence have lost their formal recognition and symbolic significance and there no longer is agreement as to what constitutes initiation ceremonies. Social ones have been replaced by a sequence of steps that lead to increased recognition and social status. For example, grade school graduation, high school graduation and college graduation constitute such a sequence, and while each step implies certain behavioral changes and social recognition, the significance of each depends on the socio-economic status and the educational ambition of the individual. Ceremonies for adolescence have also been replaced by legal definitions of status roles, right, privileges and responsibilities. It is during the nine years from the twelfth birthday to the twenty-first that the protective and restrictive aspects of childhood and minor status are removed and adult privileges and responsibilities are granted. The twelve-year-old is no longer considered a child and has to pay full fare for train, airplane, theater and movie tickets. Basically, the individual at this age loses childhood privileges without gaining significant adult rights. At the age of sixteen the adolescent is granted certain adult rights which increases his social status by providing him with more freedom and choices. He now can obtain a driver‘s license; he can leave public schools; and he can work without the restrictions of child labor laws. At the age of eighteen the law provides adult responsibilities as well as rights; the young man can now be a soldier, but he also can marry without parental permission. At the age of twenty-one the individual obtains his full legal rights as an adult. He now can vote, he can buy liquor, he can enter into financial contracts, and he is entitled to run for public office. No additional basic rights are acquired as a function of age after majority status has been attained. None of these legal provisions determine at what point adulthood has been reached but they do point to the prolonged period of adolescence.
36. The period of adolescence is much longer in industrial societies because ________.
[A] the definition of maturity has changed [B] the industrialized society is more developed
[C] more education is provided and laws against child labor are made
[D] ceremonies for adolescence have lost their formal recognition and symbolic significance 37. Former social ceremonies that used to mark adolescence have given place to ________.
[A] graduations from schools and colleges [B] social recognition [C] socio-economic status [D] certain behavioral changes
38. No one can expect to fully enjoy the adulthood privileges until he is ________.
[A] eleven years old [B] sixteen years old [C] twenty-one years old
[D] between twelve and twenty-one years old
20
39. Starting from 22, ________.
[A] one will obtain more basic rights
[B] the older one becomes, the more basic rights he will have [C] one won‘t get more basic rights than when he is 21 [D] one will enjoy more rights granted by society 40. According to the passage, it is true that ________.
[A] in the late 19th century in the United States the dividing line between adolescence and
adulthood no longer existed [B] no one can marry without the permission of his parents until the age of twenty-one [C] one is considered to have reached adulthood when he has a driver‘s license [D] one is not free from the restrictions of child labor laws until he can join the army
Text 3
Most growing plants contain much more water than all other materials combined. C. R. Darnes has suggested that it is as proper to term the plant a water structure as to call a house composed mainly of brick -- a brick building. Certain it is that all essential processes of plant growth and development occur in water. The mineral elements from the soil that are usable by the plant must be dissolved in the soil solution before they can be taken into the root. They are carried to all parts of the growing plant and are built into essential plant materials while in a dissolved state. The carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air may enter the leaf as a gas but is dissolved in water in the leaf before it is combined with a part of the water to form simple sugars -- the base material from which the plant body is mainly built. Actively growing plant parts are generally 75 to 90 percent water. Structural parts of plants, such as woody stems no longer actively growing, may have much less water than growing tissues.
The actual amount of water in the plant at any one time, however, is only a very small part of what passes through it during its development. The processes of photosynthesis, by which carbon dioxide and water are combined -- in the presence of chlorophyll (叶绿素) and with energy derived from light -- to form sugars, require that carbon dioxide from the air enter the plant. This occurs mainly in the leaves. The leaf surface is not solid but contains great numbers of minute openings, through which the carbon dioxide enters. The same structure that permits the one gas to enter the leaf, however, permits another gas -- water vapor -- to be lost from it. Since carbon dioxide is present in the air only in trace quantities (3 to 4 parts in 10,000 parts of air) and water vapor is near saturation in the air spaces within the leaf (at 80F, saturated air would contain about 186 parts of water vapor in 10,000 parts of air), the total amount of water vapor lost is many times the carbon dioxide intake. Actually, because of wind and other factors, the loss of water in proportion to carbon dioxide intake may be even greater than the relative concentrations of the two gases. Also, not all of the carbon dioxide that enters the leaf is synthesized into carbohydrates (碳水化合物).
41. A growing plant needs water for all of the following except ________.
21
[A] forming sugars [B] sustaining woody stems [C] keeping green
[D] producing carbon dioxide
42. The essential function of photosynthesis in terms of plant needs is ________.
[A] to form sugars
[B] to derive energy from light [C] to preserve water
[D] to combine carbon dioxide with water
43. The second paragraph uses facts to develop the essential idea that ________.
[A] a plant efficiently utilizes most of the water it absorbs
[B] carbon dioxide is the essential substance needed for plant development [C] a plant needs more water than is found in its composition [D] the stronger the wind, the more the water vapor loss
44. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
[A] The mineral elements will not be absorbed by the plant unless they are dissolved in its
root. [B] The woody stems contain more water than the leaves. [C] Air existing around the leaf is found to be saturated. [D] Only part of the carbon dioxide in the plants is synthesized. 45. This passage is mainly about ________.
[A] the functions of carbon dioxide and water [B] the role of water in a growing plant [C] the process of simple sugar formation [D] the synthesis of water with carbon dioxide
1992年
Text 1
It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the quick pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters behind the wheel. It is very well, again, to have a tiger in the tank, but to have one in the driver‘s seat is another matter altogether. You might tolerate the odd road-hog, the rude and inconsiderate driver, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the situation calls for a ?Be Kind to Other Drivers‘ campaign, otherwise it may get
22
completely out of hand.
Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed and good-tempered of drivers to resist the temptation to revenge when subjected to uncivilized behavior. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards relieving the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgement in response to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of goodwill and tolerance so necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such acknowledgements of politeness are all too rare today. Many drivers nowadays don‘t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.
However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who brakes violently to allow a car to emerge from a side street at some hazard to following traffic, when a few seconds later the road would be clear anyway; or the man who waves a child across a zebra crossing into the path of oncoming vehicles that may be unable to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they care to. It always amazes me that the highways are not covered with the dead bodies of these grannies.
A veteran driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if motorists learnt to filter correctly into traffic streams one at a time without causing the total blockages that give rise to bad temper. Unfortunately, modern motorists can‘t even learn to drive, let alone master the subtler aspects of boatmanship. Years ago the experts warned us that the car-ownership explosion would demand a lot more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.
31. According to this passage, troubles on the road are primarily caused by ________.
[A] people‘s attitude towards the road-hog [B] the rhythm of modern life [C] the behavior of the driver [D] traffic conditions
32. The sentence ―You might tolerate the odd road-hog... the rule.‖ (Para. 1) implies that
________.
[A] our society is unjust towards well-mannered motorists [B] rude drivers can be met only occasionally
[C] the well-mannered motorist cannot tolerate the road-hog [D] nowadays impolite drivers constitute the majority of motorists 33. By ―good sense,‖ the writer means ________.
[A] the driver‘s ability to understand and react reasonably [B] the driver‘s prompt response to difficult and severe conditions [C] the driver‘s tolerance of rude or even savage behavior [D] the driver‘s acknowledgement of politeness and regulations
34. Experts have long pointed out that in the face of car-ownership explosion, ________.
23
[A] road users should make more sacrifice [B] drivers should be ready to yield to each other
[C] drivers should have more communication among themselves [D] drivers will suffer great loss if they pay no respect to others 35. In the writer‘s opinion, ________.
[A] strict traffic regulations are badly needed [B] drivers should apply road politeness properly [C] rude drivers should be punished [D] drivers should avoid traffic jams
Text 2
In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts rather like a one-way mirror -- the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun‘s rays to enter but prevents the heat from escaping.
According to a weather expert‘s prediction, the atmosphere will be 3℃ warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several metres and severely flooding coastal cities. Also, the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere, possibly resulting in an alteration of earth‘s chief food-growing zones.
In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet. But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming, in other words, by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of fuels.
Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth.
However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures seem to be falling. Scientists conclude, therefore, that up to now natural influences on the weather have exceeded those caused by man. The question is: Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?
One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun. Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot spots and ―cold‖ spots (that is, the relatively less hot spots) on the sun. As the sun rotates, every 27.5 days, it presents hotter or ―colder‖ faces to the earth, and different aspects to different parts of the earth. This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth‘s atmospheric pressure, and consequently on wind circulation. The sun is also variable over a long term: its heat output goes up and down in cycles, the latest trend being downward.
Scientists are now finding mutual relations between models of solar-weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years, including the last Ice Age. The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is not. One way
24