2007年北大MPA考前辅导班强化班英语讲义——阅读理解.doc

2007年北京大学MPA考前辅导班强化班英语讲义北京大学MPA考前辅导班内部讲义2007年MPA全国联考考前辅导 强化班英 语 讲 义(阅读理解)主讲人：丁雪明上课时间:6月23日(下午) 6月30日(上午) 8月11日(全天)阅 读 材 料Reading For Main IdeaParagraph OneThree Yale University professors agreed in a panel discussion tonight that the automobile was what one of them called Public Health Enemy No. 1 in this country. Besides polluting the air and congesting the cities, cars are involved in more than half the disabling accidents and they contribute to heart disease because we dont walk anywhere any more, said Dr. H. Richard Weinerman, professor of medicine and public health. Dr. Weinermans sharp indictment of the automobile came in a discussion of human environment on Yale Reports, a radio program broadcast by Station WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. The program opened a three-part series on Staying Alive. For the first time in human history, the problem of mans survival has to do with his control of man-made hazards, Dr. Weinerman said. Before this, the problem had been the control of natural hazards.The main idea of the article is that .Americans are too attached to their carsAmerican cars are too fastAutomobiles endanger healthAutomobiles are the main public transportation tools of USA.Paragraph TwoLet us consider how voice training may contribute to personality development and an improved social adjustment. In the first place, it has been fairly well established that individuals tend to become what they believe other people think them to be. When people react more favorably toward us because our voices convey the impression that we are friendly, competent, and interesting, there is a strong tendency for us to develop those qualities in our personality. If we are treated with respect by others, we soon come to have more respect for ourselves. Then, too, ones own consciousness of having a pleasant, effective voice of which he does not need to be ashamed contributes materially to a feeling of poise, self-confidence, and a just pride in himself. A good voice, like good clothes, can do much for an ego that otherwise might be inclined to droop.The passage is mainly concerned with .The way to get self-confidenceThe reflection of our personalityHow to acquire a pleasant voiceVoice training and personality developmentParagraph threeHuman beings have adapted to the physical world not by changing their physical nature, but by adjusting their society. Animals and plants have made adjustments, over long periods, by the development of radical changes in their very organisms. Hereditary differences meet needs of various environments. But among humans, differences in head form and in other physical features are not, in most cases, clearly adaptive. Nor is it clear that mental capacities of races are different. As far as we know, the races are equally intelligent and equally capable of solving their problems of living together. The varying ways of life, it seems, are social and learned differences and not physical and inherited differences. It stands to reason, therefore, that mans adjustment to his surroundings should be studied in custom and institution, not in anatomy and neural structure. The main point of the passage isA.Animals and plants change their organisms to adapt to the physical worldB.Human beings not only change their organisms but also adjust their society to adapt to the physical world C. Human beings adjust their society to adapt to the physical worldD. Animals and plants change their society to adapt to the physical worldParagraph four Albert Einstein once attributed the creativity of a famous scientist to the fact that he never went to school, and therefore preserved the rare gift of thinking freely. There is undoubtedly truth in Einstein s observation; many artists and geniuses seem to view their schooling as a disadvantage. But such a truth is not a criticism of schools. It is the function of schools to civilize, not to train explorers. The explorer is always a lonely individual whether his or her pioneering be in art, music, science, or technology . The creative explorer of unmapped lands shares with the genius what William James described as the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way, so far as schools teach perceptual patterns they tend to destroy creativity and genius. But if schools could somehow exist solely to cultivate genius, then society would break down. For the social order demands unity and widespread agreement, both traits that are destructive to creativity. There will always be conflict between the demands of society and the impulses of creativity and genius.Which of the following can best summarize the gist of the passage?A. schools limit creativity and genius and should be abolishedB. Schools should be designed to encourage creativity.C. Explorers are geniuses.D. Schools can not meet the demands of both geniuses and society at the same time. Understanding Individual Words And SentencesParagraph OneFor the last 82 years, Swedens Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near-great to the immortal. But today the Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from without and from within. Critics protest that the selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for one of the countrys two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes.The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academys inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.The word “provincialism” in the second paragraph might refer to .the location of the Academyinternal politics of the Academyisolation from outside influencesgenuine trends in the literary worldParagraph TwoIn late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that Americas inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan. Over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America.The sentence “This is no flash in the pan” means that .the low inflation rate has lasted for some timethe inflation rate will soon risethe inflation will disappear quicklythere is no inflation at present.Paragraph ThreeScience has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileos 17th century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blakes harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Issac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.The word “schism” in the context probably means .A. confrontation B. dissatisfaction C. separation D. contemptParagraph FourIn a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market, transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.The word “real” could best be replaced by which of the following?A. high quality B. concrete C. utter D. authenticSearching for implicationsParagraph OneAir pollution costs us a lot of money. It soils and corrodes our buildings. It damages farm crops and forests. It has a destructive effect on our works of art. The cost of all this damage to our government is astronomical. It would be much more worthwhile, both for the environment and for us, to spend our tax dollars on air pollution control. The author implies that as air pollution becomes more serious, factories will be forced to stop operation.great damages will be done to our government.more money should be spent to solve the ernment will spend a lot to development astronomy.Paragraph TwoThe only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment to be told by any of-us how little we know and how bewildering seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.It can be inferred from the passage that scientists of the 18th century _.A. thought that they knew a great deal and could solve most problems of scienceB. were afraid of facing up to the realities of scientific researchC. knew that they were ignorant and wanted to know more about natureD. did more harm than good in promoting mans understanding of natureParagraph ThreeMeanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. It became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife.All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the impractical goal of creating jobs for all to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.It can be inferred from the two paragraphs that _.A. the creation of jobs for all is an impossibilityB. we must make every effort to solve the problem of unemploymentC. people should start to support themselves by learning a practical skillD. we should help people to get full-time jobsParagraph FourIn 1980, Canada announced strict additional limits on ownership of energy companies by foreign institutions and individuals. Since these may no longer own more-than 50 percent of such companies, sources of capital for these corporations are now sharply restricted.Which of the following can be inferred from the paragraph? A. Before 1980, foreigners were allowed to own a majority of shares in Canadian energy companies.B. Canadas 1980 limitations might get some foreigners into trouble. C. After 1980, foreigners may not own a majority share in a Canadian company.D. Before 1980, there were no limitations on foreign individuals owning Canadian energy companies.Judging True/FalseParagraph OneThe word television, derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (vision: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance. Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system of electronics television provides the capability of converting an image (focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera) into electronic impulses , which can be sent through a wire or a cable. These impulses, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be electronically reconstituted into that same image.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the paragraph as a function of electronics in television transmission?The conversion of image into electronic impulses.The sending of impulses through a wire cable.The changing of one image into another image.The feeding of impulses into receiver.Paragraph TwoIf one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define price many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words, that price is the money value of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that supply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a factor in the complete understanding of price?instructions that come with a productthe quality of a productthe quantity of a productguarantees on a productParagraph ThreeMoney spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable prices, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labor, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television license would need to be doubled and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent more. In the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the advantages of advertising?A. securing greater fame B. providing more jobs C. enhancing living standards D. reducing newspaper costParagraph FourIn Indonesia many years ago the wives of government workers or members of the armed forces were organized into womens organizations. The leadership of these womens organization was set up according to the hierarchical positions of the members husbands. For example, the organization of women personnel of a government ministry would automatically have as its chairperson the wife of the minister at the national level, and the chairperson of the provincial organization would be the wife of the governor, and so on to the lower administrative levels. It is amazing how a woman who may have no interest in being a leader nevertheless automatically becomes a chairperson because of the official position of her husband. When the husband is no longer minister or governor, she also automatically loses her position. Many of these women have complained to me that they feel this is a straitjacket imposed on them, but they feel they have to accept the role for the sake of safeguarding their husbands careers.Which of the following is true according to this Paragraph?Womens organizations were set up in the government administrative levels and the armed forces. The head of the womens organization of a county must be the wife of the governor.All the leaders of the womens organizations enjoyed their roles. The wife of a governor loses her leading position for the sake of her husband.Deciding Authors ToneParagraph OneWe find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.In the passage the authors attitude towards mixed-ability teaching is _.A. critical B. approving C. doubtful D. objectiveParagraph TwoThe vast majority of American manufacturers face international competition. This competition forces companies to improve quality and cut costs. By contrast, protectionism encourages monopoly, lower quality and higher prices. Americans pay an enormous price for protectionism-over $ 60 billion a year, or $ 1000 for a family of four. Thanks to protectionism, for example, American consumers pay twice the world price for sugar.What is the authors attitude toward protectionism as denoted from this paragraph?A. sincere B.