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发表于 2007-9-22 17:05
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索玉柱英语预测试卷(二)及答案精解2
Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choos
ing A,B,C or D.Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.(40 points)
Text 1
Researchers have studied the poor as individuals, as families and households, as members of poor communities, neighborhoods and regions, as products of larger povertycreating structures. They have been analyzed as victims of crime and criminals, as members of minority cultures, as passive consumers of mass culture and active producers of a “counterculture”, as participants in the informal economy, as inventors of survival strategies, as an economic burden and as a reserve army of labor—to mention just some of the preoccupations of poverty research.
The elites, who occupy the small upper stratum within the category of the nonpoor, and their functions in the emergence and reproduction of poverty are as interesting and important an object for poverty research as are the poor themselves. The elites have images of the poor and of poverty which shape their decisions and actions. So far, little is known about those images, except as they are sketchily portrayed in popular stereotypes. The elites may well ignore or deny the external effects of their own actions (and omissions) upon the living conditions of the poor, Many social scientists may take a very different view. As poverty emerged and was reproduced, legal frameworks were created to contain the problems it caused with profound, and largely unknown, consequences for the poor themselves. In general, political, educational and social institutions tend to ignore or even damage the interests of the poor. In constructing a physical infrastructure for transport, industry, trade and tourism, the settlements of the poor are often the first to suffer or to be left standing and exposed to pollution, noise and crowding.
Most important are the economic functions of poverty, as for lack of other options the poor are forced to perform activities considered degrading or unclean. The poor are more likely to buy secondhand goods and leftovers foodstuffs, thus prolonging their economic utility. They are likely to use the services of lowquality doctors, teachers and lawyers whom the nonpoor shy away from. ［1］Poverty and the poor serve an important symbolic function, in reminding citizens of the lot that may befall those who do not heed the values of thrift, diligence and cleanliness, and of the constant threat that the rough, the immoral and the violent represent for the rest of society.
Physically, the poor and the nonpoor are often kept apart, through differential land use and ghettoization. Socially, they are separated through differential participation in the labor market, the consumption economy, and in political, social and cultural institutions. Conceptually, they are divided through stereotyping and media. This separation is even more pronounced between the elites and the poor.［441 Words］
21According to the author, studying the elites also sheds light on poverty research because
［A］ they are also members of the same society as the poor.
［B］ they play an important role in creating and reproducing poverty.
［C］ solution of the poverty problem is at their mercy.
［D］ they know the living conditions of the poor better than other groups.
22While social scientists are devoting much of their effort to poverty research,
［A］ not enough legal frameworks have been created to relieve the condition of the poor.
［B］ they have done little to actually provide relief programs for the poor.
［C］ they ignore the role of the elites as an object for poverty research.
［D］ the poor people themselves do not much appreciate such effort.
23In the eyes of the society,
［A］ the poor tend to symbolize what lazy evil people turn out to be.
［B］ the poor are not worthy of the sympathy the society shows them.
［C］ economic prejudice is more of an obstacle to the solution of poverty.
［D］ the nonpoor should show more sympathy for the poor.
24The word “pronounced” in the last sentence of the passage probably means
［A］ sympathetic. ［B］ conspicuous.
［C］ identifiable.［D］ unbridgeable.
25In the passage, the author is mainly concerned with
［A］ analyzing a problem.［B］ providing a solution.
［C］ defining a situation.［D］ outlining a proposal.
Text 2
Popular ideological assumptions about society change with the decades, as well as with the enlargement of knowledge. The analysis of the human genetic code published last week demonstrates that humans, genetically speaking, are only twice as complicated as the fruit fly, and among themselves share 99.9 percent of their genes.
Culture and nurture count in making us what we turn out to be, although that will perhaps come as no great surprise to those outside the closed world of academic theory.
This partakes of the rediscovery of the wheel, since before positivism largely took over the social sciences in American universities in the 1950s, it was generally assumed by professors, as well as laymen, that culture had a great deal to do with how material civilization developed.
［1］That argument, however, depended on historical evidence and reasoning, which had come to be considered “soft” knowledge—unscientific, subjective, itself culturebound and, even more recently, as a selfserving tale told by white male patriarchs in order to oppress the rest.
To suggest that modern liberal civilization, science and technology emerged in Western Europe because of a particular cultural development linked to the assumptions, values and philosophies of classical Greece and Rome, the Jewish and Christian religions, and the ideas of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, was thought to put down other civilizations where such development had not taken place.
This notion, “popular early in the 20th century,” according to a New York Times report on the matter, is now “unsettling scholars and policymakers,” since it “challenges the assumptions of market economists and liberal thinkers.” These are nearly all, to some degree, economic determinists.
The matter is of practical concern in making policy. Take the worst case: the problem of contemporary Africa.
Until the 1950s, Africa was generally considered to be a region of premodern cultures, developed among a variety of peoples originally practicing simple agriculture, or hunting and gathering. Some cultures were of great artistic complexity; all had complex codes of value and ceremony; some were quite advanced politically, resembling in many respects European feudalism, but all were without written languages or written knowledge.［370 Words］
26What was possibly assumed before about humans and the fruit fly?
［A］ They were equally complicated in terms of gene.
［B］ Humans were much more genetically complicated than the fruit fly, genetically speaking.
［C］ Humans were two times as complicated as the fruit fly in gene.
［D］ The fruit fly was less stable than humans in the structure of genes.
27Which of the following is true according to the text?
［A］ Modern scholars tend to deny the influence of culture on social development.
［B］ Only after the 1950s did scholars realize the great impact of culture.
［C］ Positivism believes in the truth that culture has a lot to do with economic development.
［D］ laymen would be surprised to see that culture is so influential on society.
28By “soft” knowledge it is meant that the argument for cultures impact on society is
［A］ sound.［B］ unapproachable.
［C］ groundless.［D］ naive.
29The author took Afica as an example of
［A］ political advancement.
［B］ sophisticated economy.
［C］ artistic complexity.
［D］ underdeveloped cultures.
30What is the main idea of the text?
［A］ Culture and nurture are closely related to each other.
［B］ Culture is a motive force in social development.
［C］ Policymaking comes mainly from culture.
［D］ Scientific culture directs economic development. |
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