高考英语 专题限时训练(32)文化教育型阅读理解(二).doc

专题限时训练(三十二)文化教育型阅读理解(二) (限时：25分钟) (一)“confidence” is probably one of the most noticeable traits(品质)in the americans. they show confidence in the way they talk, the way they smile, the way they dress and the way they walk. living and competing with all these confident american students, i find it extremely important to be confident as an international student and instructor. as a student, being confident means you should never hesitate to raise your hand whenever a question or a point comes to your mind. dont mind if it sounds simple or silly. otherwise you will never get a chance to speak in class at all. whats worse, the professors may think you are not prepared for the discussion or you do not have your own opinion on the issuethis is the last comment any graduate would like to receive.being confident for me as a foreign instructor means calmly asking the student to repeat what he or she has said if i did not get it. pretending to understand what you actually did not may just bring yourself embarrassment or even disgrace. but the time i most need to be confident is when my students come to my office and bargain about the grades i have given for their speeches(the course im teaching here is public speaking). modesty is a trait highly valued in china, but it wont be of much help here if you want to survive and succeed in a good american graduate program.1. to compete with american students its very important to _.a. be quite confidentbbe polite and friendlychave more discussions with themdunderstand what they think about2. a professor will have the worst opinion of a student who _.a. gives a silly or simple answerbtries to seize any chance to speak in classcshows no interest in the coursedis considered to have no opinion of his own3. the author is most likely to feel embarrassed if _.a. he asks a student to repeat what he has saidbthe students bargain with him che pretends to know what he doesnt dhe has to give a speech4we learn from the second paragraph that _. a. we should also remain modest in americabmodesty doesnt help in americacthe americans also like modest peopledmodesty can help you through an american graduate program5. the passage is mainly developed by _.a. providing examples bmaking comparisonscgiving different figures dtelling personal experiences(二)disease, poverty, hate, lovecharles dickens stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that dickens legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “greatliterature”february 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writers birthday. to mark this date, bbc writer alex hudson listed six things dickens gave the modern world. lets take a look at two of them.a white christmasdickens is described as “the man who invented christmas”not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today.in the early 19th century, christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer leigh hunt. the committee which ran the conservative party even held ordinary business meetings on christmas dayunthinkable in the west nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.many people believe that dickens popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. in his classic novel, a christmas carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth“home enjoyments, affections and hopes”in his biography of dickens, peter ackroyd wrote: “dickens can be said to have almost singlehandedly created the modern idea of christmas.”“dickensian” povertydickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of victorian london.he helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy(官僚作风) in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society “dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. in 2009, when the president of the association of teachers and lecturers in the uk wanted to talk about poverty in some areas of britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”， but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of dickens”1. the article is mainly about _.a. a brief introduction to charles dickensbcharles dickens impact on the worldcthe characters in charles dickens storiesdcharles dickens achievements in literature 2. why is dickens called “the man who invented christmas”？a. because he created both religious and cultural festival.bbecause his novels have something to do with christmas.cbecause one of his novels helped to shape christmas celebrations.dbecause he was the first man to have proposed celebrating christmas.3. we can learn from the passage that _.a. charles dickens novels reflect the true life at his age bdickensian is widely used to describe the christmas cevery person can take three days off for christmas dthe theme of charles dickens stories is about poverty4. according to the passage the phrase “red tape” refers to_.a. rules or regulations that are required to finish a task ba situation where poor members of society are hurt cconflict between people in power and weaker peopledpointlessly timeconsuming official procedures(三)does knowledge of a writers private life help to explain his works? its an ageold question, but its also one in which interest is aroused (激起) again by antonia frasers book about her life with harold pinter, must you go？the book is obviously a personal account rather than a study of the plays.all the same, id argue it sends a good deal of light on pinter, the dramatist (剧作家)i start from the belief that all information about a writer is helpful.in fact, one of the pleasures of writing pinters biography was discovering that nearly all his plays were started by some strong personal memory.this got me into trouble with some critics.i remember martin esslin, a great pinter scholar, arguing that i had reduced the value of pinters betrayal by linking it to the dramatists sevenyearlong love affair with joan bakewell.but, as i saw it, that was simply the plays origin.all i had done, i hoped, was to remind people that pinter was a writer who would make use of his own life experience.that point can also be seen from antonias book.theres an interesting account of a dinner with tom stoppard where pinter says that he doesnt plan his characters lives and then asks his fellow dramatist: “dont you find they take you over sometimes？”， to which stoppard firmly replies: “no.” that says a lot.one reason why the homecoming is a great play is that pinter allows his characters, almost unconsciously, to take over.despite stoppards many strengths, he tends to keep his characters under a much tighter control.again, theres an eyeopening passage in antonias book where she recalls a moment in 1983 when pinter refers back to his relationship with his former wife, vivien: “while she was alive, if you think about it, so much of my work was about unhappy frozen married relationships.” in shortas stoppard once wroteinformation, in itself, about anything, is light.and modern biography, particularly in the hands of masters, has been helpful to literature by opening writers lives to public eyes.for that reaso