英语四级考试阅读练习

Personality is , to large extent,inherent --A-type parents usually bring about A-type offspring.But the environment must also have a profound effect,since if competition is improtant to the parents, it is likely to become a major factor lives of their children.

One place where children soak up A characteristics is school,which is ,by its very nature,a highly competitive institution. Too many schools adopt the \"win at all costs\" moral standard and measure their success by sporting achievements. The current passion for making children compete against their classmates or against the clock produces a two-layer system,in which competitive A types seem in some way better than thier B-type fellows.Being too keen to win can have dangerous consequences:remember that Pheidippides ,the first marathon runner,dropped dead seconds after saying:\"Rejoice,we conquer!\". By far the worst form of competition in school is the disproportionate emphasis on examinations . It is a rare school that allows pupils to concentrate on those things they do well.The merits of competition by examination are somewhat questionable,but competition in the certain knowledge of failure is positively harmful.

Obviously, it is neither practical nor desirable that all A youngsters change into 'B's. The would needs types,and schools have an important duty to try to fit a child's personality to his possible future employment. It is top management.

1.Acoording to the author,waht factors contribute to the building of personality?

a.inheritance

b.inheritance,competition and environment

c.competition

d.environment

2.Which of the following statements is not ture according to the author of the passage?

a.Schools usually adopt severe competitive policies.

b.Students are often divided by competition results.

c.School is place where children cultivate their characteristics.

d.The stronger desire for winning,the better.

3.The phrase \"soak up\" is closest in meaning to ____.

a.pull up

b.take up

c.take in

d.pull in

4.What attitude does the author hold toward examinations in schools?

a.positive

b.negative

c.doubtful

d.neutral

5.what suggestion does the author make concerning the management of schools?

a.All students be made into competitive A types. b.A child's personality be considered in regard to his possible future job.

c.All students be changed into B characteristics.

d.Schools abolish all forms of examinations.

参考答案：b d c c b

Asked to name their favorite city, many Amerians would select San Francisco began as a small Spanish outpost located on a magnificent bay.The town was little more than a village serving ranchers when the United States took possession of it in 1846 during the war with Mexico. San Francisco sprang into a city overnight because of the nearby discovery of gold in 1848.A great rush to California took place.Wagon trains plodded their dangerous way across 2000 miles of prairie and mountains,while hundreds of sailing vessels made the equally hazardous trip around the Horn.The vessels disgorged thousands of passengers -- then the crews deserted teir ship and hundreds of vessels were left to rot in the bay.Within two years,California had enough population to become a state and San Francisco was for many years the hub of that newly-arrived population.

The city's present popularity is due to an excellent climate, an easy style of living ,good food,and numerous tourist attractions. The city is famous for its cable cars which \"clang and bang\" up the steep hills,and for its excellent seafood stals along the wharf. Most visitors arriving from nations in the Pacific Basin spend several days getting to know the town.

1.According to this article, who were the first Californians?

a.deserters from sailing ships

b.spanish ranchers

c.gold miners

d.tourists

2.san francisco's appeal includes all of the following factors____.

a.attractive lifestyle,good seafood,desirable weather

b.tourist attactions,extreme seasons,cable cars

c.wagon trains,gold mining,good climate

d.cable cars,pleasent climate,flat terrain

3.san francisco today is a thriving city because of ____.

a.heavy industry

b.governmental headquarters

c.goldmining

d.trade and tourism

4.In waht year did California become an American state?

a.1850

b.1852

c.1846

d.1848

参考答案：b a d a

Most young people enjoy some form of physical activity.It may be walking, cycling or swimming,or in winter,skating or skiing.It may be game of some kind football,hockey,golf,or tennis.It may be mountaineering.

Those who have a passion for climbing high and difficult mountains are often looked upon with astonishment.Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardship,and to take risks on high mountains? This astonsihment is caused probably by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity to which men give their leisure.

Mountaineering is a sport and not a game.There are no man-made rules,as there are for such games as golf and football.There are , of course,rules of adifferent kind which it would be dangerous to ignore,but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to many people.Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.

If we compare mountaineering and other more familiar sports,we might

think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a 'team game'. We should be mistaken in this. There are ,it is true, no 'matches' between 'teams' of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may depend,there is obviously teamwork.

The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and more powerful than man. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport tequires high mental and physical qualities.

A mountain climber continues to improve in skill year after year. A skier is probably past his best by the age of thirty,and most international tennis champions are in their early twenties.But it is not unusual for man of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in Alps.They may take more time than younger men, but they probably climb with more skill and less waste of effort,and their certianly experience equal enjoyment.

1.Mountaineering involves____.

a.cold

b.hardship

c.physical risk

d.all of the above

2.The difference between a sport and a game has to do with the kind of _____.

a.activity

b.rules

c.uniform

d.participants

3.Mountaineering can be called a team sport because_____.

a.it is an Olympic event

b.teams compete against each other

c.mountaineers depend on other while climbing

d.there are 5 climbers on each team

4.Mountaineers compete against______.

a.nature

b.each other

c.other teams

d.international standards

5.Choose the best title for the passage_______.

a.mountaineering is different from golf and football

b.mountaineering is more attractive than other sports

c.mountaineering

d.mountain climbers

参考答案：d b c a c

No one knows exactly how many disabled people there are in the world,but estimates suggest the figure is over 450million. The number of disabled people in India alone is probably more than double the total population of Canada.

In the united Kingdom,about one in ten people have some disability.Disability is not just something tht happens to other people:as we get older,many of us will become less mobile,hard of hearing or have failing eyesight.

Disablement can take many forms and occur at any time of life.Some people are born with disabilities.Many others become disabled as they get older.There are many progressive disabling diseases.The longer time goes

on,the worse they become.Some people are disabled in accidents. Many others may have a period of disability in the form of a mental illness.All are affected by people's attitude towards them.

Disabled people face many physical barriers.Next time you go shopping or to work or visit friends,imagine how you would manage if you could not get up steps,or on to buses and trains.How would you cope if you could not see where you were going or could not hear the traffic? But there are other barriers:prejudice can be even harder to break down and ignorance inevitably represents by far the greatest barrier of all. It is almost impossible for the able-bodied to fuly appreciate what the severely disabled go through,so it is important to draw attention to these barriers and show that it is the individual person and their ability,not their disability,which counts.

1.The first paragraph points out that______.

a.there are many disabled people in the world

b.the number of disabled people in India is the greatest

c.India has much more disabled people that Canada

d.it is impossible to get an exact figure of the world's disabled people

2.The key word in paragraph 4 is _____.

A.disability

b.ignorance

c.prejudice

d.barriers

3.The last word of the passage \"counts\" most probably means_____.

a.is most important

b.is considered

c.is included

d.is numbered

4.Which of the following statements is not true?

a.even the able-bodied many lose some of their body functions when they get older.

b.there are about 10 percent disabled persons in the UK.

c.the whole society should pay due attention to the barriers faced by the disabled people

d.there still exists prejudice against the disabled which results mainly from ignorance

5.It can be concluded from the passage that____.

a.we should try our best to prevent disablement

b.both physical and metal barriers are hard to break down

c.we just take a proper attitude towards the disabled

d.the able-bodies people will never fully understand the disabled

参考答案：a d a d c

Courses with the numbers 800 or above are open only to graduate students.Certain courses,generally those devoted to introductory material,are numbered 400 for undergraduate students and 600 for graduate students. Courses designed for students seeking a professional degree carry a 500 number for undergraduate students and a 700 munber for graduate students.

A full-time graduate student is expected to take courses which total ten to sixteen credit hours. Students holding assistantships are expected to enroll for proportionately fewer hours.A part-time graduate student must register for a minimun of five credit hours.

1.In order to be eligible to enroll in Mechanical Engineering 850,a student must be ______.

a.a graduate student

b.a part-time student

c.a full-time student

d.an undergraduate student

2.If an undergraduate student uses the number 520 to register for an accounting course,what number would a graduate student probably use to register for the same course?

a.accounting 520

b.accounting 620

c.accounting 720

d.accounting 820

3.A student who register for eight credit hours is a ______.

a.full-time student

b.graduate student

c.part-time student

d.non-degree student

4.A graduate student may not _____

a.enroll in a course numbered 610

b.register for only one three-hour course

c.register for courses if he has an assistantship

d.enroll in an introductory course

参考答案：a c c b

Byrne turned the key in the heavy lock and put it calmly in his pocket.He did so much more from caution than from any kind of fear.This was the only entrance to the house,and he did not mean to be caught unawares by any danger from outside.He wondered if Tom Corbin had been as cautious the night before.Though Tom would be away for at least three days,Byrne had a strange feeling of his nearness.In the stillness he seemed to hear Tom's voice.He looked round quickly, for the tricks of hearing are the most realistic of all.But there were only the women.It seemed impossible that Tom should not be there.

The girl,carrying a smoky oil lamp,led Byrne upstairs.He threw open one after another the doors along the passage.At this,the girl stopped and raised the lamp in each doorway,staring at him meanwhile.Satisfied he was the only guest,Byrne came to the last door,which the girl threw open herself.

\"You sleep here,sir\" she said,giving him the lamp.\"Your friend slept here too.It's our most comfortable bed.\"

\"Good night,miss,\" he said politely.

Her lips moved in reply, but he did not catch the words.Her eyes never for a moment left his face.He stepped in,and as he turned to close the door she was still standing there motionless.He paused,and in the silence he thought he again heard the sound of Tom's voice.The sound ferrified him now ,not only because it seemed much nearer but also because he imagined a note of warning in it.

1.Why did Byrne take the key with him?

a.to let Tom in,when he turned.

b.because he was afraid of what was going to happen

c.to stop any enemy being let into the house

d.because he did not want the women to escape

2.We know from the passage that Tom Corbin_____.

a.had left the house three days befor

b.had left quite as suspicious as Byrne was

c.has stayed in the house for three days.

d.had slept in the house the night before

3.Byrne was surprised when he turned round because_____.

a.Tom was not in the room

b.he had not expected to find Tom there

c.there was no danger behind him

d.the women were there

4.Why did Byrne look inside each room?

a.he wanted to choose the best room for himself

b.he was looking for tom corbin

c.the girl wanted him to examine each of the rooms.

d.he wished to make sure there was no one inside

5.Although Byrne politely wished the girl good night_____.

a.she gave him a rude answer

b.she did not leave him

c.she refused to look at him

d.she said nothing to him

6.What made Byrne very frighteded?

a.the strangeness of the place

b.being along,at the end of the passage

c.the sound he thought he heard

d.the danger out side

There is evidence that the usual variety of high blood pressure is,in part,a familiar disease.Since families have similar genes as well as similar environments,familiar diseases could be due to shared genetic influences,to shared environmental factors,or to both.For some years,the role of one environmental factor commonly shared by families,namely dietary salt(i.e.,sodium chloride),has been studied at Brookhaven National Laboratory.These studies suggest that chromic excess salt ingestion can lead to high blood pressure in man and animals.Some individuals,however,and some rats consume large amounts of salt without developing high blood pressure.No matter how strictly all environmental factors were controlled in these experiments,some salt-fed animals never developed hypertension whereas a few rapidly developed very severe hypertension followed by early death.These marked variations were interpreted to result from differences in genetic constitution.

By mating is successive generations only those animals that failed to develop hypertension from salt ingestion,a resistant strain(the \"R\" Strain)has been evolved in which consumption of large quantities of salt fails to influence the blood pressure significantly.In contrast,by mating only animals that quickly develop hypertension from salt,a sensitive strain(\"S\" strain)has also been developed.

The availability of these tow strains permits investgations not heretofore possible.They provide a plausible laboratory model on which to investigate some clinical aspects of the human prototypes of hypertension.More important,there might be the possibility of developing

methods by which genetic susceptibility of human beings to high blood pressure can be defined without waiting for its appearance.Radioactive sodium 22 was an important \"tool\" in working out the characteristics of the sodium chloride metabolism.

1.The study of the effects of salt on high blood pressure was carried out ______.

a.as members of the same family tend to use similar amounts of salt

b.to explore the long-term use of a sodium based substance

c.because it was proven that salt caused high blood pressure

d.because of the availability of chemically pure salt and its derivatives

2.The main difference between \"S\" and \"R\" rats is their ______.

a.need for sodium 22

b.rate of mating

c.reaction to salt

d.type of blood

3.We can infer from the article that sodium 22 can de used to ______.

a.control high blood pressure

b.cure high blood pressure caused by salt

c.tell the \"S\" rats from the \"R\" rats

d.determine what a sodium chloride metabolism is like

4.The most beneficial results of the research might be ______.

a.development of diets free of salt

b.an early cure for high blood pressure

c.control of genetic agents that cause high blood pressure

d.the early identification of potential high blood pressure victims

5.Which of the statements best relates the main idea of this article?

a.When salt is added rats and human beings react similarly.

b.The near future will see a cure for high blood pressure.

c.The medical field is desperately in need of research.

d.A tendency toward high blood pressure may be a hereditary factor.

参考答案：a c d d d

\"Culture shock\" occurs as result of total immersion in a new culture.It happens to \"people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad.\"Newcomers may be anxious because they do not speak the language,know the customs,or understand people's behavior in daily life.The visitor finds that \"yes\" may not always mean \"yes\friendship,or that statements that appear to be serious are really intended as jokes.The foreigner may be unsure as to when to shake hands,when to start conversations,or how to approach a stranger.The notion of \"culture shock\" helps explain feelings of bewilderment and disorientation.Language problems do not account for all the frustrations that people feel.When one is deprived of everything that was once familiar,such as understanding a transportation system, knowing how to register for university classes,or knowing how to make friends,difficulties in coping whth the new society may arise. \"...when an individual enters a strange culture,he or she is like fish out of water.\"Newcomers feel at times that they do not belong to and feel alienated from the native members of the culture.When this happens visitors may want to reject everything about the new environment and may glorify and exaggerate the positive aspects of their own culture.Conversely visitors may scorn their native country by rejecting its values and instead choosing to identify with(if only temporatily)the value of the new country.This may occur as an attempt to over-identify

with the new culture in order to be accepted by the people in it.

1.The expression \"he or she is like fish out of water\"suggests ______.

a.people away from their cultures can hardly survive in a new culture

b.a fish can not survive without water

c.people away from their culture experience mental isolation

d.people away from their culture have difficulties in new environment 2.In order to identify with the new environment,some people may ______.

a.give an exaggerated picture of their own country

b.criticize the positive aspects of their own county

c.abandon their original beliefs

d.accept a temporary set of values

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the author?

a.Perplexity results in culture shock.

b.A typical symptom of cultur shock is confusion.

c.Culture shock is the explanation of anxiety.

d.Culture shock happens to foreign students only.

4.Newcomer may worry about ______.

a.their ignorance of the alien customs

b.their knowledge of \"Yes\" in the native language

c.their understanding of friendship

d.their control of their behavior

5.When the foreign visitor is immersed in new problems he finds hard to cope whith,he is most likely to feel ______.

a.uninsured

b.deprived

c.alienated

d.baffled

参考答案：c d a d b

Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways. The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society. There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance in mixed societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision. In a society where people are quite similar in many ways, there are fewer occasions for people to see the need or the opportunity for change because everything seems to be the same. And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and undisputed.

Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; in the less basic and less emotional aspects of society than in their opposites; in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones; in form rather than in substance; and in elements that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange elements.

Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp dichotomies. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities,

because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts.

1.The passage is mainly discussing __________ .

a.the necessity of social change

b.certain factors that determine the ease with which social changes occur

c.two different societies

d.certain factors that promote social change

2.______ is one of the factors that tend to promote social change.

a.Joint interest

b.Different points of view

c.Less emotional people

d.Advanced technology

3.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

a.Social change tends to meet with more difficulty in basic and emotional aspects of society.

b.Disagreement with and argument about conditions tend to slow down social change.

c.Social change is more likely to occur in the material aspect of society.

d.Social change is less likely to occur in what people learned when they were young.

4.The expression \"greater tolerance\"(paragraph 1) refers to _____ .

a.\"greater willingness to accept social change\"

b.\"quicker adaptation to changing circumstances\"

c.\"more respect for different beliefs and behavior\"

d.\"geeater readiness to agree to different opinions and ideas\"

5.Social change is less likely to occur in a society where people are quite similar in many ways because ________ .

a.people there have got so accustomed to their conditions that they seldom think it necessary to change

b.people there have identical needs that can be satisfied without much difficulty

c.people there are easy to please

d.people there are less disputed

参考答案：b b b c a 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.

In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.

The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded.

1.The first games for the desabled were held _____ after Sir Ludwig Guttmann arrived in England.

a.40 years

b.21 years

c.10 years

d.9 years

2.Besides Stoke Mandeville,surely the games for the disabled were once held in _____.

a.New York

b.London

c.Rome

d.Los Angeles

3.In Paragraph 3,the word \"athletes\" means _____.

a.people who support the games

b.people who watch the games

c.people who organize the games

d.people who compete in the games

4.Which of the following statements in NOT true?

a.Sir Ludwig Guttmann is an early organizer of the games for the disabled.

b.Sir Ludwig Guttmann is an injured soldier.

c.Sir Ludwig Guttmann is from Germany.

d.Sir Ludwig Guttmann is welcomed by the British government.

5.From the passage,we may conclude that the writer is _____.

a.one of the organizers of the games for the disabled

b.a disabled person who once took part in the games

c.against holding the games for the disabled

d.in favour of holding the games for the disabled

参考答案：cbccb

The United States is a federal union of 50 states.The capital of national government is in Washington,D.C.(District of Columbia).The federal constitution sets up the structures of the national government and lists its powers and activities.The constitution gives Congress the authority to make laws which are necessary for the common defense and the good of the nation.It also gives the federal government the power to deal with national and international problems that involve more than one state.All powers that are not given to the federal government by the constitution are the responsibility of the individual states.

The federal government has three branches--the executive,the legislative,and the judicial.The legislative brandch makes the laws,executive branch carries out the laws,and judicial branch interprets the laws.The President heads the executive branch and the Supreme Court heads the judicial branch.The legislative branch includes both houses of Congress--the Senate and the House of Reprsentatives.The constitution limits the powers of each branch and prevents one branch from gaining too much power.For example,Congress can pass a Law the President may sign

it.Nevertheless,the Supreme Court can declare the law unconstitutional and nullify it.

All government in the United States is \"of the people,by the people and for the people\".The people elect the President and the members of Congress.However,the President appoints the heads of federal departments and the Supreme Court judges.Every citizen votes in secret.Consequently,no one knows for whom and indevidual votes.The people believe that their government should provide a frameword and order within which they are left free to run their own lives.

1.Who makes the laws?

a.The Congress.

b.The Federal government.

c.The President.

d.The supreme Court.

2.The capital of the United States lies in _____.

a.the state of the COlumbia

b.none of the fifty states

c.the state of New York

d.the state of Washington

3.Based on what you can know from the passage,which of the following statements is true?

a.The heads of federal departments are elected by the people.

b.The President sets up the structures of the federal government.

c.The judicial branch has the authority to explain the laws.

d.The constitution gives all powers to the federal government.

4.The constitution limits the powers of each branch of the federal government because _____.

a.the U.S. has fifty states

b.the individual states have their own governments

c.the federal government has three branches

d.any one branch should not have too much power

5.The main point of this passage is ______.

a.the three branches of the U.S. government

b.American government

c.the Federal Consititution

D.the people should be left free to run their own lives

参考答案：a b c d b

The Colonel ask Ashenden a good many questions and then suggested that he had particular qualifications for the Secret Service. Ashenden knew several European languages and the fact that he was a writer provided excellent cover: on the pretext that he was writing a book he could, without attracting attention, visit any neutral country.

It was while they were discussing this point that the Colonel said,\"You know you might get material that would be very useful to you in your work. I'll tell you an incident that occurred only recently. Very dramatic. A foreign government minister went down to a Mediterranean resort to fecover from a cold and he had some very important documents with him that he kept in a despatchcase. \"A day or two after he arrived, he picked up a blonde at some restaurant or other, and he got very friendly with her. He took her back to his hotel, and when he came to himself in the morning the lady and the despatch-case had disappeared. They had one or two drinks up in his room and his theory is that when his back was turned the woman slipped a drug in his glass.\"

\"Do you mean to say that happened the other day?\"said Ashenden wearily.

\"The week before last.\"

\"Impossible,\"cried Ashenden. \"Why, we've been putting that incident on the stage for sixty years, we've written it in a thousand novels. Do you mean to say that life has only just caught up with us?\"

\"Well, I can vouch for the truth of the story.\" said the Colonel, \"And believe me, the government concerned has been put to no end of trouble by the loss of the documents.\"

\"Well sir, if you can't do better than that in the Secret Service,\" sighed Ashenden, \"that I'm afraid that as a source of inspiration to the writer of fiction, it's washout.\"

1.How did the Colonel suggest that Ashenden's being a writer would relate to his work as a spy?

a.It would make travelling abroad more possible.

b.It would make it easier for him to meet people.

c.It would enable him to avoid arousing suspicion.

d.It would enable him to use the languages he knew.

2.The reason for the Minister's trip was ________ .

a.to fetch some documents

b.to get over an illness

c.to meet a spy

d.to deliver some papers

3.According to the Colonel the incident happened _______ .

a.a few days before

b.a few weeks before

c.two weeks before

d.sixty years before

4.Ashenden cried 'Impossible' after hearing the Colonel's story because he thought ______ .

a.it could not possibly happen

b.it was too embarrassing

c.it was too close to fiction

d.it was too recent

5.The effect of the loss of documents on the foreign government was that _______ .

a.it put an end to one source of trouble

b.it caused them a lot of inconvenience

c.they merely denied it had happened

d.they refused to believe it

参考答案：c b c c d

Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways. The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society. There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance in mixed societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision. In a society where people are quite similar in many ways, there are fewer occasions for people to see the need or the opportunity

for change because everything seems to be the same. And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and undisputed.

Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; in the less basic and less emotional aspects of society than in their opposites; in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones; in form rather than in substance; and in elements that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange elements.

Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp dichotomies. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts.

1.The passage is mainly discussing __________ .

a.the necessity of social change

b.certain factors that determine the ease with which social changes occur

c.two different societies

d.certain factors that promote social change

2.______ is one of the factors that tend to promote social change.

a.Joint interest

b.Different points of view

c.Less emotional people

d.Advanced technology

3.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

a.Social change tends to meet with more difficulty in basic and emotional aspects of society.

b.Disagreement with and argument about conditions tend to slow down social change.

c.Social change is more likely to occur in the material aspect of society.

d.Social change is less likely to occur in what people learned when they were young.

4.The expression \"greater tolerance\"(paragraph 1) refers to _____ .

a.\"greater willingness to accept social change\"

b.\"quicker adaptation to changing circumstances\"

c.\"more respect for different beliefs and behavior\"

d.\"geeater readiness to agree to different opinions and ideas\"

5.Social change is less likely to occur in a society where people are quite similar in many ways because ________ .

a.people there have got so accustomed to their conditions that they seldom think it necessary to change

b.people there have identical needs that can be satisfied without much difficulty

c.people there are easy to please

d.people there are less disputed

参考答案：b b b c a

\"Culture shock\" occurs as result of total immersion in a new culture.It happens to \"people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad.\"Newcomers may be anxious because they do not speak the language,know the customs,or

understand people's behavior in daily life.The visitor finds that \"yes\" may not always mean \"yes\friendship,or that statements that appear to be serious are really intended as jokes.The foreigner may be unsure as to when to shake hands,when to start conversations,or how to approach a stranger.The notion of \"culture shock\" helps explain feelings of bewilderment and disorientation.Language problems do not account for all the frustrations that people feel.When one is deprived of everything that was once familiar,such as understanding a transportation system, knowing how to register for university classes,or knowing how to make friends,difficulties in coping whth the new society may arise. \"...when an individual enters a strange culture,he or she is like fish out of water.\"Newcomers feel at times that they do not belong to and feel alienated from the native members of the culture.When this happens visitors may want to reject everything about the new environment and may glorify and exaggerate the positive aspects of their own culture.Conversely visitors may scorn their native country by rejecting its values and instead choosing to identify with(if only temporatily)the value of the new country.This may occur as an attempt to over-identify with the new culture in order to be accepted by the people in it.

1.The expression \"he or she is like fish out of water\"suggests ______.

a.people away from their cultures can hardly survive in a new culture

b.a fish can not survive without water

c.people away from their culture experience mental isolation

d.people away from their culture have difficulties in new environment 2.In order to identify with the new environment,some people may ______.

a.give an exaggerated picture of their own country

b.criticize the positive aspects of their own county

c.abandon their original beliefs

d.accept a temporary set of values

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the author?

a.Perplexity results in culture shock.

b.A typical symptom of cultur shock is confusion.

c.Culture shock is the explanation of anxiety.

d.Culture shock happens to foreign students only.

4.Newcomer may worry about ______.

a.their ignorance of the alien customs

b.their knowledge of \"Yes\" in the native language

c.their understanding of friendship

d.their control of their behavior

5.When the foreign visitor is immersed in new problems he finds hard to cope whith,he is most likely to feel ______.

a.uninsured

b.deprived

c.alienated

d.baffled

参考答案：c d a d b

There is evidence that the usual variety of high blood pressure is,in part,a familiar disease.Since families have similar genes as well as similar environments,familiar diseases could be due to shared genetic influences,to shared environmental factors,or to both.For some years,the role of one environmental factor commonly shared by families,namely dietary salt(i.e.,sodium chloride),has been studied at Brookhaven National Laboratory.These studies suggest that chromic excess salt

ingestion can lead to high blood pressure in man and animals.Some individuals,however,and some rats consume large amounts of salt without developing high blood pressure.No matter how strictly all environmental factors were controlled in these experiments,some salt-fed animals never developed hypertension whereas a few rapidly developed very severe hypertension followed by early death.These marked variations were interpreted to result from differences in genetic constitution.

By mating is successive generations only those animals that failed to develop hypertension from salt ingestion,a resistant strain(the \"R\" Strain)has been evolved in which consumption of large quantities of salt fails to influence the blood pressure significantly.In contrast,by mating only animals that quickly develop hypertension from salt,a sensitive strain(\"S\" strain)has also been developed.

The availability of these tow strains permits investgations not heretofore possible.They provide a plausible laboratory model on which to investigate some clinical aspects of the human prototypes of hypertension.More important,there might be the possibility of developing methods by which genetic susceptibility of human beings to high blood pressure can be defined without waiting for its appearance.Radioactive sodium 22 was an important \"tool\" in working out the characteristics of the sodium chloride metabolism.

1.The study of the effects of salt on high blood pressure was carried out ______.

a.as members of the same family tend to use similar amounts of salt

b.to explore the long-term use of a sodium based substance

c.because it was proven that salt caused high blood pressure

d.because of the availability of chemically pure salt and its derivatives

2.The main difference between \"S\" and \"R\" rats is their ______.

a.need for sodium 22

b.rate of mating

c.reaction to salt

d.type of blood

3.We can infer from the article that sodium 22 can de used to ______.

a.control high blood pressure

b.cure high blood pressure caused by salt

c.tell the \"S\" rats from the \"R\" rats

d.determine what a sodium chloride metabolism is like

4.The most beneficial results of the research might be ______.

a.development of diets free of salt

b.an early cure for high blood pressure

c.control of genetic agents that cause high blood pressure

d.the early identification of potential high blood pressure victims

5.Which of the statements best relates the main idea of this article?

a.When salt is added rats and human beings react similarly.

b.The near future will see a cure for high blood pressure.

c.The medical field is desperately in need of research.

d.A tendency toward high blood pressure may be a hereditary factor.

参考答案：a c d d d