2017年5月14日GRE阅读真题

>>GRE考试：2017年5月14日GRE阅读真题

>>GRE考试精品课程

(1)逻辑单题/削弱/中等

The damage that trucks do to highways escalates dramatically with the weight borne per axle. New regulations increase the maximum permitted vehicle weight; these regulations will therefore allow onto the highway trucks capable of doing even more damage than those currently permitted.

1. The argument is open up to criticism on the grounds that it

A. fails to establish that the level of damage done by trucks is a serious problem

B. omits evidence about one of the two relevant factors

C. ignores the possibility that careful driving can lessen damage to highways

D. presumes that trucks are the only vehicles capable of causing substantial damage to highways

E. presumes that something is bound to happen just because it is allowed to happen

(2)短文章/观点论证/社会历史/易

An Irish newspaper editorial encouraging women to participate in the non-importation movement launched in Ireland in 1779 appears consistent with a perception that the political use of the consumer boycott originated in North America and spread eastwards across the Atlantic to Ireland. This is a view that most historians have concurred with. For example, T.H. Breen argued that the consumer boycott was a brilliantly original American invention.Breen did acknowledge that a few isolated boycotts may have taken place in other countries. However, Mary ODowd argues that from the late seventeenth century, Irish political discourse advocated for the nonconsumption of imported goods and support for home manufactures by women in ways that were strikingly similar to those used later in North America.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with

A. resolving a dispute

B. advocating a course of action

C. tracing the evolution of a practice

D. citing competing views of an issue

E. chronicling a series of events

2. In the context of the passage, the highlighted sentence serves to

A. qualify a point made in the preceding sentence

B. correct an erroneous assumption

C. provide evidence in support of a perception cited in the opening sentence

D. provide a rationale for the view expressed in the following sentence

E. establish the popularity of a point of view

(3)问题解决/考古/易

Although the passenger pigeons, now extinct, were abundant in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America, archaeological studies at twelfth-century Cahokian sites in the present day United States examined household food trash and found that traces of passenger pigeon were quite rare. Given that the sites were close to a huge passenger pigeon roost documented by John James Audubon in the nineteenth century and that Cahokians consumed almost every other animal protein source available, the archaeologists conducting the studies concluded the passenger pigeon population had once been very limited before increasing dramatically in post-Columbian America. Other archaeologists have criticized those conclusions on the grounds that passenger pigeon bones would not be likely to be preserved. But all the archaeological projects found plenty of bird bones- and even tiny bones from fish.

1. The author of the passage mentions “tiny bones from fish” primarily in order to

A. explain why traces of passenger pigeon are rare at Cahokian sites

B. support a claim about the wide variety of animal proteins in the Cahokian diet

C. provide evidence that confirms a theory about the extinction of the passenger pigeon

D. cast doubt on the conclusion reached by the archaeologists who conducted the studies discussed in the passage

E. counter an objection to an interpretation of the data obtained from Cahokian sites

2. Which of the following, if true, would most call into question the reasoning of “the archaeologists conducting the studies”?

A. Audubon was unable to correctly identify twelfth-century Cahokian sites

B. Audubon made his observations before passenger pigeon populations began to decline.

C. Passenger pigeons would have been attracted to household food trash

D. Archaeologist have found passenger pigeon remains among food waste at eighteenth-century human settlements

E. Passenger pigeons tended not to roost at the same sites for very many generations

(4)观点论证/考古/易

Some archaeologists speculate that the Americas might have been initially colonized between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago. However, to support this theory it is necessary to explain the absence of generally accepted habitation sites for that time interval in what is now the United States. Australia, which has a smaller land area than the United States, has many such sites, supporting the generally accepted claim that the continent was colonized by humans at least 40,000 years ago. Australia is less densely populated (resulting in lower chances of discovering sites) and with its overall greater aridity would have presented conditions less favorable for hunter-gatherer occupation. Proportionally, at least as much land area has been lost from the coastal regions of Australia because of postglacial sea-level rise as in the United States, so any coastal archaeological record in Australia should have been depleted about as much as a coastal record in the United States. Since there are so many resource-rich rivers leading inland from the United States coastlines, it seems implausible that a growing population of humans would have confined itself to coasts for thousands of years. If inhabitants were present 25,000 years ago, the chances of their appearing in the archaeological record would seem to be greater than for Australia.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with doing which of the following?

A. Presenting an objection to a claim

B. Accounting for an apparent anomaly

C. Outlining an alternative interpretation

D. Correcting a particular misconception

E. Questioning the validity of a comparison

2. The author of the passage implies which of the following about 25,000 years ago?

A. The coastline of the region that is now the United States is longer than it was 40,000 years ago.

B. Rivers in what is now the United States were numerous than they are now.

C. Australia was less densely populated at that time than was the region that is now the United States.

D. Australia’s climate was significantly drier than it is now.

E. Global sea level was lower than it is now.

3. The author of the passage implies that, in what is now the United States, archaeological evidence of inhabitation in the period from 40,000 to 25,000 years ago is lacking because that region is

A. had its oldest habitation sites inundated following a postglacial rise in sea level

B. has many resource-rich rivers that facilitated the dispersal of early inhabitants from an initial concentration in coastal areas

C. was sparsely populated until about 25,000 years ago

D. was colonized less than 25,000 years ago

E. was inhabited only by hunter-gatherers until 25,000 years ago

(5)现象描述/艺术/中等

The revival of mural painting that has occurred in San Francisco since the 1970s, especially among the Chicano population of the city’s Mission District, has marked differences from its social realist forerunner in Mexico and the United States some 40 years earlier. Rather than being government sponsored and limited to murals on government buildings, the contemporary mural movement sprang from the people themselves, with murals appearing on community buildings and throughout college campuses. Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is the process. In earlier twentieth-century Mexico, murals resulted from the vision of individual artists. But today’s murals are characteristically the products of artists working with local residents on design and creation.

Such community engagement is characteristic of the Chicano art movement as a whole, which evolved from the same foundations as the Chicano civil rights movement of the mid-1960s. Both were a direct response to the needs of Chicanos in the United States, who were fighting for the right to adequate education, political empowerment, and decent working conditions. Artists joined other cultural workers in making political statements and played a key role in taking these statements to the public. They developed collectives and established cultural centers that functioned as the public-relations arm of the Chicano sociopolitical movement.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. argue for the superiority of a style of art

B. consider the impact of an art movement

C. describe the political content of a certain works of art

D. detail the characteristic style of an art movement

E. place an art movement in its historical context

2. According to the passage, which of the following statements about the “cultural centers” is true?

A. They were the venue where many later leaders of the Chicano civil rights movement first became politically active.

B. Though later widespread, they originated in San Francisco area.

C. Springing up in a number of communities, they initially had largely apolitical goals centered on art instruction.

D. They constituted the nucleus from which the Chicano civil rights movement originated.

E. Founded by artists, they provided support for the Chicano civil rights movement.

3. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the first paragraph and the second paragraph of the passage?

A. The first focuses on the mural artists as individuals; the second, on their actions as a group.

B. The first compares the mural revival with an earlier artistic movement; the second describes the context contemporary to the revival

C. The first defines the revival by distinguishing it from an earlier artistic movement; the second addresses the political goals of both the revival and its forerunner

D. The first presents an apparently plausible account of the relationship between the revival and is forerunner, the second calls that account into question

E. The first is concerned with the artistic aims and ambitions behind the San Francisco murals; the second considers their political significance

(6) 短文章/问题解决/历史/难

The manuscripts of the eight extant Latin tragedies identify the plays as the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae. Since nobody of that name is known, modern scholars believe the dramasto be the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, the well-known philosopher, orator and politician. Clearly the tragedies were written during Seneca’s lifetime: internal references to earlier poets, most notably Ovid, indicate that the dramas cannot have been composed prior to the second decade C.E., and the plays must have been written by 96C.E., when Quintilian quotes Medea, one of the tragedies.

It is remarkably, however, that Seneca himself never mentions the plays, since there are certain passages in them that could be used to illustrate points of his philosophy. There are at least two possible explanations. In the early Roman Empire, playwrights were sometimes exiled or executed for line constructed as directed against the emperor; thus, Seneca’s silence may be simple prudence. But if anyone could safely attach his name to dramas, surely it would be Seneca, the emperor’s tutor. And although Herrmann offers Seneca’s modesty as an explanation, Seneca is not averse to referring to his other writings. The evidence for equating Seneca with the author of the tragedies seems circumstantial.

1. The author mentions Medea primarily in order to

A. give an example of a play in which references to certain authors can be used to determine when the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae were composed

B. acknowledge the possibility that the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae may have been written by Quintilian rather than Seneca

C. suggest that certain of the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae may have been written near the end of Seneca’s lifetime

D. argue that Marci may have been one of the last of the eight plays in the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae to be written

E. indicate how the latest possible date for the time period during which the Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragordiae were composed might be established

2. The author of the passage makes which of the following claims about the eight extant Latin tragedies?

A. There is only circumstantial evidence that the plays were all written by the same author.

B. Scholars have persistently attributed the plays to Seneca despite evidence that some of them may have been composed prior to his lifetime.

C. Evidence in the manuscripts of the plays identifies them as having been written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger.

D. The plays contain some lines that have been construed as being directed against the emperor.

E. The plays contain material that could illustrate certain aspects of Seneca’s philosophy.

3. The author of the passage would most likely agree that if Seneca had in fact written the tragedies, then Seneca probably would have

A. used the plays as platforms for his philosophical ideas

B. referred to the plays in some of his other writings

C. been in danger of exile or execution for certain line in the plays

D. avoided attaching his name to be the plays out of modesty

E. written the plays during the latter portion of his lifetime

4. The author implies which of the following about Seneca’s status as the emperor’s tutor?

A. It enabled Seneca to illustrate points of his philosophy to the leaders of the early Roman Empire.

B. It had more of an effect on Seneca’s career as a dramatist than it did on his career as a philosopher, orator, and politician.

C. It might have offered Seneca some protection from certain dangers playwrights typically faced.

D. It required Seneca to avoid making references to his various writings.

E. It required that Seneca take particular care that his writings could not be construed as being directed against the emperor.

5. Each of the following assertions consistent with Seneca’s authorship of the plays appears in the passage EXCEPT

A. There is no known author by the name to which the plays are attributed.

B. Playwrights in the early Roman Empire were politically vulnerable.

C. There are references in the play to Ovid.

D. There are references in the plays to Seneca’s philosophical works.

E. There are quotations from the plays in the works of Quintilian.

(7) 对比/社会历史/易

1800 Thomas Dilworth’s New Guide to the English Dialogue was being widely used to teach reading in the United States. Dilworth's primer, unlike earlier ones, stressed the importance of children’s understanding what they read. While it is in fact unlikely that children would have recognized all the vocabulary Dilworth used, that was at least his stated goal. Dilworth recognized that primers should enable children to decode words from print with the form of language they already knew: speech. In contrast, many earlier authors assumed that, just as introductory Latin texts taught children an unknown language, introductory English texts should teach English as if it, too, were an unknown language—such their esoteric choice of vocabulary, it in effect became unknown.

1. According to the passage, the “earlier authors” adopted a model for English instruction that

A. mirrored the practice used in Latin instruction

B. was originally formulated by Dilworth

C. was less esoteric than that adopted by Dilworth

D. stressed familiarity with the peculiarities of English spelling

E. emphasized the importance of fluent and articulate speech

2. The author of the passage would probably agree with which of the following criticisms of English primers predating Dilworth’s?

A. Their Latinate grammatical terms poorly described the structures of English.

B. They failed to make effective use of the knowledge of language a child already possessed.

C. Their texts typically focused on subject matter that held little intrinsic interest for their readers.

D. They neglected to teach the language in a sufficiently systematic way.

E. They required a pedagogical method that few American teachers of the era possessed.

以上就是小编提供的2017年阅读真题的回忆，希望大家多多学习，想要获得更多的学习资料就请关注坦途网GRE考试频道。