大学英语阅读材料.docx

Passage 1 Exchange a glance with someone, then look away. Do you realize that you have made a statement? Hold the glance for a second longer, and you have made a different statement. Hold it for 3 seconds, and the meaning has changed again. For every social situation, there is a permissible time that you can hold a persons gaze without being intimate, rude, or aggressive. If you are on an elevator, what gaze-time are you permitted? To answer this question, consider what you typically do. You very likely give other passengers a quick glance to size them up (打量) and to assure them that you mean no threat. Since being close to another person signals the possibility of interaction. You need to emit a signal telling others you want to be left alone. So you cut off eye contact, what sociologist Erring Goffman (1963) calls a dimming of the lights. You look down at the floor, at the indicator lights, anywhere but into another passengers eyes. Should you break the rule against staring at a stranger on an elevator, you will make the other person exceedingly uncomfortable, and you are likely to feel a bit strange yourself. If you hold eye contact for more than 3 seconds, what are you telling another person? Much depends on the person and the situation. For instance, a man and a woman communicate interest in this manner. They typically gaze at each other for about 3 seconds at a time, then drop their eyes down for 3 seconds, before letting their eyes meet again. But if one man gives another man a 3-second-plus stare, he signals, l know you, l am interested in you, or You look peculiar and I am curious about you. This type of stare often produces hostile feelings.1. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that_. A) every glance has its significance B) staring at a person is an expression of interest C) a gaze longer than 3 seconds is unacceptable D) a glance conveys more meaning than words2. If you want to be left alone on an elevator, the best thing to do is_. A) to look into another passengers eyes B) to avoid eye contact with other passengers C) to signal you are not a threat to anyone D) to keep a distance from other passengers3. By a dimming of the lights (Line 13,Para.1 )Erving Goffman means_. A) closing ones eyes B) turning off the lights C) ceasing to glance at others D) reducing gaze-time to the minimum4. If one is looked at by a stranger for too long, he tends to feel_. A) depressed B) uneasy C) curious D) amused5. The passage mainly discusses_. A) the limitations of eye contact B) the exchange of ideas through eye contact C) proper behavior in situations D) the role of eye contact in interpersonal communication.Passage 2 Geraldo Rivera is well known for his compassionate investigative reports on WABC-TV Eyewitness News. He has done exposes（揭露性报道）of New York Citys welfare hotels, the over-pricing of prescription drugs, and drug abuse. In 1971, he received the Associated Press Broadcaster of the Year award for the program Drug Crisis in East Harlem. He received the award again in 1972 for the program Migrants, Dirt Cheap. His most famous expose however was done on the horrible conditions at Staten Islands Willowbrook State School. It is the worlds largest institution for the mentally disabled. His investigation began when he and his camera crew gained access to one of the buildings. Geraldos emotionally charged reports exposed the unsanitary（不卫生的）conditions and neglectful, often abusive, treatment of the patients. He cried over what he discovered, and he made his viewers cry, too. The programs created a public plea for reform, and changes were made. Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York restored $20 million to the schools slashed budget. The programsWillow brook earned him the Scripps-Howard Award, an Emmy（埃米金像奖）, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.Geraldo Rivera has continued working for the mentally disabled. He founded One-to-One, a charity （慈善机构）that provides small group homes for the care of the mentally disabled in the community. He hosts huge outdoor festivals for the mentally disabled in New York Citys Central Park. He also wrote a book about some of the courageous people he has met as an investigative journalist. It is called A Special Kind of Courage. As he himself says,“ I make no pretense（矫饰） of objectivity. But Im not just in the business of making people cry. Im in the business of change.” 6. Geraldo Rivera is working as a(n)_.A. news reporter for a newspaper in New YorkB. investigative reporter for a special TV programC. investigative officer of the New York governmentD. philanthropist(慈善家) for the welfare of the mentally disabled 7. How many awards did Rivera receive for his work?A. TwoB. ThreeC. FourD. Five 8. Riveras investigation and expose on the conditions at Willowbrook State School led to _.A. the public concern and request for changesB. the improvement of the conditions thereC. a considerable increase in the schools budgetD. all of the above 9. The term “One-to-One” in the 3rd paragraph refers to _.A. an organization in the community that helps take better care of the mentally disabledB. a device that helps mentally disabled behave themselvesC. an organization that provides homes for the mentally disabledD. a hospital that helps cure the mentally disabled 10. The author suggests in this passage that_.A. Rivera has always been objective in reporting what he findsB. Rivera never tries to conceal his own compassion in his reportingC. Rivera has changed peoples views on the disabledD. Riveras work and efforts have greatly improved the conditions of the disabled in New York. Passage 3 In the old days, children were familiar with birth and death as part of life. This is perhaps the first generation of American youngsters (年轻人) who have never been close by during the birth of a baby and have never experienced the death of a family member. Nowadays when people grow old, we often send them to nursing homes. When they get sick, we transfer them to a hospital, where children are forbidden to visit terminally ill patients-even when those patients are their parents. This deprives (剥夺) the dying patient of significant family members during the last few days of his life and it deprives the children of an experience of death, which is an important learning experience. Some of my colleagues and I once interviewed and followed approximately 500 terminally iii patients in order to find out what they could teach us and how we could be of more benefit, not just to them but to the members of their families as well. We were most impressed by the fact that even those patients who were not told of their serious illness were quite aware of its potential outcome. It is important for family members, and doctors and nurses to understand these patients communications in order to truly understand their needs, fears, and fantasies (幻想). Most of our patients welcomed another human being with whom they could talk openly, honestly, and frankly about their trouble. Many of them shared with us their tremendous need to be informed, to be kept up-to-date on their medical condition and to be told when the end was near: We found out that patients who had been dealt with openly and frankly were better able to cope with the approach of death and finally to reach a true stage of acceptance prior to death.11. The elders of contemporary Americans_.A) were often absent when a family member was born or dying B) were quite unfamiliar with birth and death C) usually witnessed the birth or death of a family member D) had often experienced the fear of death as part of life12. Children in America today are denied the chance_. A) to learn how to face death B) to visit dying patients C) to attend to patients D) to have access to a hospital13. Five hundred critically ill patients were investigated with the main purpose of_. A) observing how they reacted to the crisis of deathB) helping them and their families overcome the fear of death C) finding out their attitude towards the approach of deathD) learning how to best help them and their families14. The need of a dying patient for company shows_. A) his desire for communication with other people B) his fear of approaching death C) his pessimistic attitude towards his condition D) his reluctance to part with his family15. It may be concluded from the passage that_. A) dying patients are afraid of being told of the approach of death B) most doctors and nurses understand what dying patients need C) dying patients should be truthfully informed of their condition D) most patients are unable to accept death until it is obviously inevitablePassage4 The oldest and simplest method, then, of describing differences in personality was to classify people according to types. Such a system is called a Typology. A famous example of this method was set forth in Greece about the year 400 B.C. A physician named Hippocrates theorized that there were four fluids, or humors, in the body. Corresponding to each humor, he believed, there existed a definite type of personality. The four humors were blood, yellow bile（胆汁）, black bile, and phlegm（黏液）. A person in whom all four humors were in perfect balance had a harmonious（和谐的） personality. If a person had too much blood, he was called sanguine, or cheerful and optimistic. Someone with too much yellow bile was choleric, or irritable and easily angered. Too much black bile made a person melancholy, or depressed and pessimistic. An oversupply of phlegm caused a human being to be phlegmatic, or slow and unfeeling. Scientists have long since discarded Hippocrates fluid theory. But the names of the humors, corresponding to these temperaments（气质）, have survived and are still useful, to some extent, in describing personality. Other features of people, such as their faces and physiques, have also been used to classify personality. Today, however, personality theories and classifications may also include factors such as heredity, the environment, intelligence, and emotional needs. Psychology, biology, and sociology are involved in these theories. Because of the complexity of human personality, present-day theories are often very different from one another. Psychologists vary in their ideas about what is most important in determining personality. 16. This passage focuses on_.A. the history of the system of typologyB. important factors in determining personalityC. personality theory and classificationD. important features of human beings 17. According to Hippocrates fluid theory, a person with a perfect balance of all the four humors in him_.A. was humorous and good at singingB. had a pleasant and agreeable temperamentC. would always be cheerful and optimisticD. seldom quarreled of fought with others 18. Which of the following is NOT true?A. people with too much yellow bile were easily angeredB. the names of the four fluids are still used todayC. people with an oversupply of blood would easily get excitedD. many features of human beings have been used to classify personality 19. Modern personality theories and classifications_. A. are often very different because personality itself is rather complicatedB. involve psychology , biology, and sociologyC. are based only on heredity, the environment, intelligence, and emotional needsD. all of the above 20. In the forth-coming paragraphs, the author is most probably going to talk about_.A. some new interpretations of the Hisppocrates fluid theoryB. different opinions of psychologists about the factors in determining personalityC. various definitions of typology given by different psychologistsD. the comparison between present-day personality theories and ancient personality theoriesPassage 5 Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors (流星) but also because of rays from the sun and other stars. The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth. Light gets through, and this is essential for plants to make the food which we eat. Heat, too, makes our environment endurable. Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous quantities of radiation from the sun are screened off. As soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their spacecraft, if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage. Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space. The unit of radiation is called rem. Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1 rem without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage - a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of deformed (畸形的) children or even grandchildren.Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high radiation and, during the outward and return journeys, the Apollo crew accumulated a large amount of rems. So far, no dangerous amounts of radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far.21. According to the first paragraph, the atmosphere is essential to man in that_. A) it protects him against the harmful rays from space B) it provides sufficient light for plant growth C) it supplies the heat necessary for human survival D) it screens off the falling meteors22. We know from the passage that_. A) exposure to even tiny amounts of radiation is fatal B) the effect of exposure to radiation is slow in coming C) radiation is avoidable in space exploration D) astronauts in spacesuits neednt worry about radiation damage23. The harm radiation has done to the Apollo crew members_. A) is insignificant B) seems overestimated C) is enormous D) remains unknown24. It can be inferred from the passage that_. A) the Apollo mission was very successful B) protection from space radiation is no easy job C) astronauts will have deformed children or grandchildren D) radiation is not a threat to well-protected space explorers25. The best title for this passage would be_. A) The Atmosphere and Our Environment B) Research on Radiation C) Effects of Space Radiation D) Importance of Protection Against RadiationPassage 6 Although the United Kingdom covers only a small area of the earths surface, it represents people of many different origins and cultures. Yet all of them are British indeed, it would be difficult to find anyone in modern Britain who could say with certainty that his ancestors had not come to the British Isles from somewhere else. Who, then, are todays Britains and what kind of people are they? The history of human settlement in Britain goes back to the Stone Age hunters and gatherers who arrived from the European continent about 10,000 years ago. The peoples who followed them were settled agriculturalists who kept domestic animals and knew how to make simple pottery. Around 2000 BC these Stone Age people started to erect huge stone monuments, or henges, possibly for religious purposes. Work on the henges continued into the Bronze Age, until about 1500BC. The most imposing and mysterious of these ancient monuments is Stonehenge, on windswept Salisbury plain in southwest England. Easy communication between the islands and the continental mainland must have existed and, from earliest times, this encouraged migration. By the end of the Bronze Age, around 700BC, Celtic people had arrived from north-western Europe bringing with them a revolutionary new skill: ironworking. Celts continued to come and settle in Britain for about 500 years and, by the time the Romans first landed in 55BC, the Celtic culture was well established. The earliest written records of Britains inhabitants come from the Romans who eventually conquered the various Celtic kingdoms then flourishing in England, Wales and the Scottish Low-lands. 26. In this passage the author intends to tell the origin of _.A. the BritishB. the CeltsC. the EnglishD. the Romans27. From the passage we know that_.A. everyone in Britain came from the British IslesB. almost everyone came to the British Isles from somewhere elseC. almost everyone in Britain had his or her family origin from the British IslesD. almost every British citizen had his or her family origin from somewhere else28. According to the passage, the earliest inhabitants in Britain were_.A. the earliest agriculturalists B. CeltsC. Stone Age hunters and gatherersD. Romans29. Thanks to _ we can learn about the earliest inhabitants in Britain.A. Celts from north-western EuropeB. Stonehenge on Salisbury plainC. The well-established Celtic cultureD. The Romans occupying the Celtic Kingdoms in Britain30. According to the passage which of the following is NOT true?A. There were already religious activities in ancient Britain.B. Communication between the British islands and the continental mainland was convenient in the earliest times.C. There were many Celtic Kingdoms in Britain when the Romans came in 55 BC.D. There were blacksmiths in Britain before 700 BC. Passage 7 The concept of environment is c