Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

Directions: There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the one best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a pencil.

Children are a relatively modern invention. Until a few hundred years ago they look like adult, wearing grown-up clothes and grown-up expressions, performing grown-up tasks. Children did not exist because the family as we know it had not evolved.

Children today not only exist; they have taken over, in no place more than in America, and at on time more than now. It is always Kids' Country here. Our civilization is child-centered, child-obsessed. A kid's body is our physical ideal. In Kids' Country we do not permit middle-aged. Thirty is promoted over 50, but 30 knows that soon his time to be overtaken will come.

We are the first society in which parents expect to learn from their children. Such a topsy-turvy situation has come to abort at least in part because, unlike the rest of the world, ours is an immigrant society, and for immigrants the only hope is in the kids. In the Old Country, that is, Europe, hope was in the father, and how much wealth he could accumulate and pass along to his children. In the growth pattern of America and its ever-expanding frontier, the young man was ever advised to GO WEST; the father was ever inheriting from his son. Kid's Country may be the inevitable result.

Kid's Country is not all bad. America is the greatest country in the world to grow up in because it is Kid's Country. We not only wear kids' clothes and eat kids' food; we dream kids' dreams and make them come true. It was, after all, a boys' game to go to the moon.

If in the old days children did not exist, it seems equally true today that adults, as a class, have begun to disappear, condemning all of us to remain boys and girls forever, jogging and doing push-ups against eternity.

21. The author uses the example of the Renaissance painting to show that.A. adults showed less concern for children than we do nowB. adults were smaller and thinner at that time, but they still had lots of work to doC. children looked and acted like adults at that timeD. children were not permitted to appear in family paintings at that time

22. In the third paragraph,“the Old Country" is contrasted with America .A. to show differences in family sizeB. to show differences in attitudes towards family relationsC. to show two kinds of geographyD. to show two different kinds of economic relations between generations

23. Going to the moon is an example of .A. America's dreams and creativityB. America's childish and queer behaviorC. Why America hasn't grown upD. Why America is considered as the greatest country in the world

24. According to the passage, which of the following is true?A. It is very difficult for the middle-aged to live in AmericaB. America is Kid's Country because the majority of the American population are childrenC. Kid's Country was taking shape in America when immigrants poured into the country. D. America is more of Kid's Country than any other countries in the world

25. By saying“condemning all of us to remain boys and girls forever, jogging and doing push-ups against eternity", the author means that .A. she thinks people shouldn't be so concerned about physical fitnessB. she feels too old and tired to do such hard exerciseC. American society is overemphasizing youth and physical appearanceD. What happened to children centuries ago may occur to adults in America soon

Passage 2

The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, radios, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.

Yet people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.

All living cells sent out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses that can be measured and recorded on the surface of the body. When the pulses are recorded, they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram, The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small-often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscled cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked together, the effect can be astonishing.

The electric eel is an amazing living storage battery. It can send a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it lives. (An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to the length of its body.

26. What is the main idea of the passage ?A. Electric eels are potentially dangerous. B. Biology and electricity appear to be closely related.C. People would be at a loss without electricity.D. Scientists still have much to discover about electricity.

27. The author mentions all of the following as results of a blackout EXCEPT . A. refrigerated food item may go bad B. traffic lights do not work C. people must rely on candlelightD. elevators and escalators do not function

28. Why does the author mention electric eels? A. To warn the reader to stay away from them.B. To compare their voltage to that used in houses. C. To give an example of a living electrical generator.D. To describe a new source of electrical power.

29. How many volts of electricity can an electric eel emit? A. 1,000.B. 800.C. 200.D. 120.

30. It can be inferred from the passage that the longer an eel is the .A. more beneficial it will be to science B. more powerful will be its electrical charge C. easier it will be to find D. tougher it will be to eat

Passage 3

American Scientists have developed a new kind of wire that can carry telephone messages for long distances. The new fluoride glass wire, or optical fibre, is a major improvement over the optical fibres now used in many modern communication systems.

Present optical fibres are made from silica glass. They are not costly to produce, but the signals carried by these silica optical fibres weaken very quickly. A repeater device must be built every 50 kilometers to increase or amplify the signals' strength. Such repeater devices are costly and they need electrical power. This creates special problems for optical fibre systems that cross oceans. Long copper wires are needed to carry electricity from shore to repeater devices under the ocean. Repairing the underwater repeaters is costly and takes much time.

The new fluoride optical fibre is only a little bigger around than a human hair, yet each could carry 10,000 telephone messages at one time for thousands of kilometers. Traditional copper telephone wires can carry only 4 messages. And unlike present silica optical fibres, the new fluoride glass wires could carry messages for thousands of kilometers with very few, if any, repeater devices.

The navy scientists developed the new optical fibres for systems that cross oceans, but they said there also would be many other uses for the fluoride glass wires. The new optical wires could be used for long-distance temperature sensing devices. They could be used in some medical operations.

Scientists caution that the new fluoride optical fibre still is only experiment. Researchers have not yet been able to make long tiny wires from fluoride glass.

31. Which of the following statements is not true?A. Silica optical fibres are not expensive to produce.B. Signals carried by silica optical fibres are rather weak.C. Additional devices are needed for present optical fibre/fiber systems.D. Repeaters bring about special problems for transoceanic communications.

32. The major advantage of fluoride optical fibres/fibers over silica wires is that fluoride glass .A. needs much fewer, if any, repeatersB. carries more telephone messagesC. is less costly to produceD. is tinier

33. The new glass wire was designed for . A. communications systems that cross oceansB. long-distance temperature sensing devicesC. some medical operations D. replacing silica optical fibres

34. The fluoride optical fibres is experimental because the new glass wire made so for . A. is quite expensiveB. can not yet carry enormous messagesC. still needs repeatersD. is not long enough

35. The author's main idea is that . A. present optical fibres are made from silica glassB. silica optical fibres need repeaters to amplify the signals carriedC. American scientists have developed a new glass wire to carry long-distance telephone messagesD. the new optical fiber had many uses

Passage 4

There is no doubt that adults, and even highly educated adults, vary greatly in the speed and efficiency of their reading. Some proceed very slowly throughout; others dash along too quickly and then have to regress. Poor readers in particular may lack the ability to vary their manner of reading according to the type of reading matter and to their intentions in reading it. A good reader can move at great speed through the text of a novel or similar light reading matter. He may be able to skim a page, picking up a word or two here and there, and gain a general idea of what the text is about without really reading it. In reading more difficult material, with the intention of taking in the whole of it, he will proceed more slowly, but even then he will vary his pace, concentrating on the key words and passages, perhaps re-reading them several times and pass more quickly over the remainder. A less efficient reader tends to maintain the same speed whatever the material he reads. Consequently, even light reading matter gives him little pleasure because he reads so slowly. But this pace may be too fast for really difficult material which requires special concentration at difficult points. A type of reading which necessitates careful attention to detail is proofreading, in which the reader, in order to detect misprints in a sample print, has to notice not so much the meaning of what he reads as the exact shape and order of letters and words in the text. This is extremely difficult for most people, since they are accustomed to overlooking such details. In fact, considerable practice is required to practise this task efficiently and it can be done only be reading very slowly, and by paying comparatively little attention to the general meaning of the text.

36. The author claims that there is a difference in reading speed .A. among readers who have different experience. B. among all the readers. C. between the poorly educated and the highly educated. D. among the highly educated people

37. A good reader is a reader who . A. concentrates on the wonderful part of the article B. always reads slowly and carefully C. changes his speed according to the kind of text D. changes his speed according to the interesting of the text.

38. The author says that when reading a novel, a good reader can quickly read . A. every part of the bookB. the most wonderful part in the book. C. the major part in the book D. the scientific part of the book.

39. The last two sentences of the first paragraph mean that . A. a reading speed too slow for a difficult book is just right for a non-serious one. B. a reading speed too slow for a non-serious book may be too fast for a difficult one. C. A reading speed too fast for difficult material is just right for a non-serious book is also too slow for a difficult one. D. A reading speed too slow for a non-serious book is also too slow for a difficult one.

40. Which of the following can be the title of the passage?A. Reading and listening B. Difference between highly-educated and poorly educated C. Practice reading skillD. Difference in the speed and efficiency of reading

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