2019年考研英语基础练习题19

>>考研英语模拟题：2019年考研英语基础练习题19

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Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.

Text 1

In a democratic society citizens are encouraged to form their own opinions on candidates for public office,taxes, constitutional amendments, environmental concerns, foreign policy, and other issues. The opinions held by any population are shaped and manipulated by several factors: individual circumstances, the mass media, special interest groups, and opinion leaders.

Wealthy people tend to think differently on social issues from poor people. Factory workers probably do not share the same views as white collar, nonunion workers. Women employed outside their homes sometimes have perspectives different from those of full time homemakers. In these and other ways individual status shapes one’s view of current events.

The mass media, especially television, are powerful influences on the way people think and act. Government officials note how mail from the public tends to “follow the headlines”. Whatever is featured in newspapers and magazines and on television attracts enough attention that people begin to inform themselves and to express opinions.

The mass media have also created larger audiences for government and a wider range of public issues than before. Prior to television and the national editions of newspapers, issues and candidates tended to remain localized. In Great Britain and West Germany, for example, elections to the national legislatures were usually viewed by voters as local contests. Today’s elections are seen as struggles between party leaders and programs.

In the United States radio and television have been beneficial to the presidency. Since the days of Franklin D.Roosevelt and his “fireside chats”, presidents have appealed directly to a national audience over the heads of Congress to advocate their programs. Special groups spend vast sums annually trying to influence public opinion. Public utilities, for instance, tried to sway public opinion in favor of nuclear power plants. Opposed to them were citizens’ organizations that lobbied to halt the use of nuclear power. During the 1960s the American Medical Association conducted an unsuccessful advertising campaign designed to prevent the passage of Medicare. Opinion leaders are usually such prominent public figures as politicians, show business personalities, and celebrity athletes. The opinions of these individuals, whether informed and intelligent or not, carry weight with some segments of the population. Some individuals, such as Nobel prizewinners, are suddenly thrust into public view by the media. By quickly reaching a large audience, their views gain a hearing and are perhaps influential in shaping views on complex issues.

21. The second paragraph is mainly about the influence of .

[A] gender on people’s view [B] people’s status on their view

[C] living standard on people’s view [D] different ranks on people’s view

22. The expression “follow the headlines” (Line 2, Para. 3) shows .

[A] people seldom have time to read newspaper articles

[B] people think the headlines contain the most important information

[C] people often get their opinions from newspapers or television

[D] most people look on newspapers or TV as misleading

23. Which of the following suggests the role of TV in the shaping of public opinion?

[A] TV programs have a strong influence on governmental policy.

[B] Chats on televisions are chief means for running for presidency.

[C] More and more people show interest in politics because of TV.

[D] Before the use of TV, people showed little interest in politics.

24. It is obvious that the opinions of famous people .

[A] is often ignored by the public [B] is seldom expressed to the point

[C] is often imposed on the public [D] has a strong influence on people

25. According to the passage, which of the following is true?

[A] The viewpoints of people in different circumstances are totally different.

[B] The mass media is the most important means that influences people’s opinions.

[C] Some interest groups sometimes are not on the behalf of common people.

[D] The views of the public are influence by famous public figures because their opinions are more

reasonable.

Text 2

For the generation that grew up during the feminist revolution and the rapid social change of the 1960s and 1970s, it at first seemed achievement enough just to “make it” in a man’s world. But coupled with their ambition, today’s women have developed a fierce determination to find new options for being both parent and professional without sacrificing too much to either role or burning themselves out beyond redemption. Women have done all of the accommodating in terms of time, energy and personal sacrifice that is humanly possible, and still they have not reached true integration in the workplace. For a complicated set of reasons---many beyond their control---they feel conflict between their careers and their children. All but a rare few quickly dispel the myth that superwoman ever existed.

For many women, profession and family are pitted against one another on a high-stakes collision of their professions. In the home, men and women struggle to figure out how dual-career marriages should work. Role conflict for women reaches far beyond the fundamental work/family dilemma to encompass a wholeconstellation of fiercely competing priorities. Women today find themselves in an intense battle with a society that cannot let go of a narrowly defined work ethic that is supported by a family structure that has not existed for decades. The unspoken assumption persists that there is still a woman at home to raise the children and manage the household. But the economic reality is that most people, whether in two-parent or single-parent families, need to work throughout their adult lives. As a consequence, the majority of today’s mothers are in the labor market.

The first full-fledged generation of women in the professions did not talk about their overbooked agenda or= the toll it took on them and their families. They knew that their position in the office was shaky at best. With virtually no choice in the matter, they bought into the traditional notion of success in the workplace—usually attained at the high cost of giving up an involved family life. If they suffered self-doubt or frustration about how hollow professional success felt without complementary rewards from the home, they blamed themselves---either for expecting too much or for doing too little. And they asked themselves questions that held no easy answers:

Am I expecting too much? Is it me? Am I alone in this dilemma? Do other women truly have it all? Until now, this has been a private dilemma, unshared, as each woman was left to forge her own unique solution to merging her dual loyalties to work and family. Too often she felt that alone had failed to achieve a comfortable balance between the two.

26. According to the passage, today’s women .

[A] want to achieve a balance between her loyalties to work and family

[B] are stronger advocates of gender equality than the older generation

[C] do not want to sacrifice anything at all for the desired liberation

[D] are getting no nearer to achieving their ambition

27. The myth held by some “superwomen” is that they can .

[A] reconcile their careers with parental responsibilities.

[B] devote themselves to their career without regard for their children

[C] resist the temptation of their ambition to make great achievements

[D] resolve the conflicts between their careers and children without any sacrifice

28. In what way do women today find themselves in an intense battle with the society?

[A] The society regards women as less able to perform social tasks.

[B] Women do too much about their career and too little about their families.

[C] The society still holds the traditional image about a family.

[D] Women no longer regard the family as a basic unit of the society.

29. When women fail to achieve a balance between work and children, they .

[A] let things go their own courses [B] admit that they are not superwomen

[C] usually choose to give up their work [D] often blame themselves for it

30. The author’s attitude towards women’s dilemma seems to be one of .

[A] suspicion [B] indifference [C] irony [D] sympathy

Text 3

One of the earliest changes experienced by newly modernizing countries is the reduction of infectious

disease through the diffusion of public health technology. Public health technology lowers the death rate, especially among infants and children, causing rapid population growth. Since most of the people of less developed nations live in rural areas that cannot absorb the increased population, unemployment presses people off the land. They tend to migrate into urban areas where newly developing industry and commerce and modern consumer goods and services offer hope for employment and a better life. Unfortunately, the opportunities are more apparent than real; and often the transition is more painful than pleasant.

In the course of the transition from agrarian life to modern urban living, the family undergoes major changes in function, structure, relations, and style. Functionally, the family changes from a production unit to a consumption unit. No longer is there need for a large multi-worker household to operate the family’s farm interests, and the extended family household changes to the one containing only a core nuclear family. In the city children become economic liabilities rather than economic assets, and eventually families have fewer of them.

Wives lose their functions as producers and maintainers of the labor force and become free to pursue extra household activities. The modern economy forces work outside the home away from kinfolk. Not the father but also the mother is forced into the marketplace or factory to obtain enough money for the family to survive in a pecuniary economy.

Without the extended family household, no one remains at home to supervise children, so they are left on their own. They may be sent into the streets to earn money. Daily life becomes filled with more secondary than primary relations. There is an erosion of family control over individual members.

Scarce urban housing forces overcrowding in both dwelling and neighborhood. Dense structures with common halls, stairways, and utilities cause more intensive contact with neighbors than in rural villages. Loss of rural courtyards, oven rooms, and large family areas drives group activities such as cooking, eating, and sitting into small rooms or city streets. More positively, household furnishings change as families are able to acquire the high-status accoutrements of modern living such as kerosene burners for cooking(replacing dung cakes)and beds (instead of mats).

31. The spread of public health technology .

[A] lowered the birthrate [B] decreased infectious disease

[C] created more employment opportunities [D] eradicated the infectious disease

32. By “wives lose their functions as producers and maintainers of the labor force”, the author means

that .

[A] many women are no longer able to join the labor force

[B] many women become too weak to work

[C] many women refuse to have children

[D] the major job for women is no longer to give birth to and bring up children

33. The first sentence of Paragraph 3, “The modern economy forces work outside the home away from

kinfolk” means that .

[A] the forces of modern economy operate beyond the influence of the family

[B] the forces of modern economy are going out of the family

[C] modern economy forces work to go out of the family

[D] modern economy forces work which is outside the home to move away from family members

34. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

[A] In today’s city life, nobody is willing to stay home to supervise children.

[B] Today’s city family has very weak control over its members.

[C] Extended families from the countryside survive only in mutual activities.

[D] All immigrants from abroad need help from relatives to become independent.

35. According to the author, it is good that .

[A] neighbors in cities have more intensive contact with one another than rural people.

[B] group activities such as cooking, eating, and sitting take place in small rooms or city streets

[C] families are able to acquire the high-status accoutrements of modern living

[D] there is a cultural lag in the U.S.

Text 4

Before a big exam, a sound night’s sleep will do you more good than poring over textbooks. That, at least, is the folk wisdom. And science, in the form of behavioral psychology, supports that wisdom. But such behavioral studies cannot distinguish between two competing theories of why sleep is good for the memory. One says that sleep is when permanent memories form. The other says that they are actually formed during the day, but then “edited” at night, to flush away what is superfluous.

To tell the difference, it is necessary to look into the brain of a sleeping person, and that is hard. But after a decade of painstaking work, a team led by Pierre Maquet at Liege University in Belgium has managed to do it. The particular stage of sleep in which the Belgian group is interested in is rapid eye movement(REM) sleep, when brain and body are active, heart rate and blood pressure increase, the eyes move back and forth behind the eyelids as if watching a movie, and brainwave traces resemble those of wakefulness. It is during this period of sleep that people are most likely to relive events of the previous day in dreams.

Dr. Maquet used an electronic device called PET to study the brains of people as they practiced a task during the day, and as they slept during the following night. The task required them to press a button as fast as possible, in response to a light coming on in one of six positions. As they learnt how to do this, their response times got faster. What they did not know was that the appearance of the lights sometimes followed a pattern---what is referred to as “artificial grammar”. Yet the reductions in response time showed that they learnt faster when the pattern was present than when there was not.

What is more, those with more to learn (i.e., the” grammar”, as well as the mechanical task of pushing the button) have more active brains. The “editing” theory would not predict that, since the number of irrelevant stimuli would be the same in each case. And to eliminate any doubts that the experimental subjects were learning as opposed to unlearning, their response times when they woke up were even quicker than when they went to sleep.

The team, therefore, concluded that the nerve connections involved in memory are reinforced through reactivation during REM sleep, particularly if the brain detects an inherent structure in the material being learnt.

So now, on the eve of that crucial test, maths students can sleep soundly in the knowledge that what they will remember the next day are the basic rules of algebra and not the incoherent talk from the radio next door.

36. The phrase “poring over” in the first sentence of the text may be best interpreted as .

[A] memorizing with great effort [B] studying with close attention

[C] learning earnestly from [D] going thoroughly through

37. The reason why sleep is good for the memory .

[A] is to be clarified by behavioral psychology

[B] is rooted in its function of relaxing the brain

[C] lies in its contribution to the formation of lasting memories

[D] stems from its compiling memories and ridding things unwanted

38. During REM sleep, which of the following will happen?

[A] An increase in brain activities. [B] A drop in blood pressure.

[C] The slowing down of the heartbeat [D] The review of the day’s experiences.

39. The experimenters found that their subjects .

[A] learnt quickly how to respond to the light stimuli

[B] pushed the button faster in the absence of the light pattern

[C] increased their response time as they learnt the artificial grammar

[D] picked up the artificial grammar during their REM sleep

40. The Belgian group reached the conclusion that .

[A] the second theory failed to cover all the brain responses during sleep

[B] REM sleep reactivates the connections between the nerves and the memory

[C] it’s beyond doubt that the subjects were learning in contrast with unlearning

[D] the brain works more efficiently by knowing a set pattern of things to be learnt

Part B

Directions:

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For questions 41you’re you are required to reorganize the paragraphs into a coherent text by choosing from the list [A]~[G] to fill in each numbered box. The first and last paragraphs have been placed for you in Boxes. Mark your answers on Answer

Sheet 1. (10 points)

[A] One cannot think of any public statement of hers that was especially brilliant or witty. She was more innocent than clever; even her confession of an affair to a reporter sounded girlish. If pressed, few could say exactly what it was that made her so important, especially to people outside England, except for the fact that one could not take one’s eyes off the woman.

[B] Her life never seemed as tragic as it was often made out---just sad, and a little off. She married the wrong man. Her in-laws could be vindictive. For every photographer eager to capture a picture of her in one of those astonishing evening gowns or hats, another was skulking in the bushes ready to bring her down.

[C] The sudden death of an admired public person always seems an impossibility. People ascribe invulnerability, near immortality to our centers of attention. John Kennedy dies, and it could not happen. John Lennon dies, and it could not happen. Elvis, and Grace Kelly, and shock after shock. And now this death of a young

woman by whom the world had remained transfixed from the moment she first appeared before it, whose name contained the shadow of her end: Princess Di.

[D] In a way, she was more royal than the royals. She had a higher station than the Queen of England; she was the titular young monarch of her own country and of every other place in the world. She was the sentimental favorite figurehead, who was authorized to sign no treaties, command no armies, make no wars. All she had was the way she looked and sounded and carried herself. No model or actress could hold a candle to her. She was the image every child has of a princess----the one who can feel the pea under the mattresses, who kisses the frog, who lets down her hair from the tower window.

[E] But who would have believed it? People thought every thought that could be thought about Diana, but not death. She was beauty, death’s antithesis. Beauty is given not only a special place of honor in the world but also a kind of permanence, as if it were an example of tendency of nature to perfect itself, and therefore something that once achieved, lives forever.

[F] Yet that was no small thing. Diana was someone one had to look at, and such a person comes along once in a blue moon. She had a soft heart; that was evident. She had a knack for helping people in distress. And all such qualities rose in a face that everyone was simply pleased to see.

[G] Her marriage was gone long before her death. As the years went on, it is likely that there would have been other romances after Dodi al Fayed to titillate the throngs. Exactly how her life would have progressed is hard to imagine. She would have continued to be a good mother and a worker for the ill and the poor; she would have been pictured from time to time at a dinner party or on a boat. In older age she might have become the King’s mother, welcomed back into the royal family at a time of life that is automatically accorded stature. How would she have looked? The hair whiter, the skin a bit more lined, but the eyes would still have had that sweet mixture of kindness and longing. By then the story of her and Charles, the scandals and recriminations, might have been lost in smoke.

[H] Yet if people now were asked how they will remember Diana, what picture among the thousands they will hold in their mind, it would not be Diana at an official ceremony, or with a boyfriend, or even with her children. It would be her on the day of her wedding, when all the world was glad to be her subject and when she gave everyone who looked at her the improbable idea that life was beautiful.

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