考研英语阅读Unit-18.doc

Unit 18 Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.逆境出人才。学习内容题 材词 数建议时间得分统计做题备忘Part AText 1科普知识392/10Text 2商业经济477/10Text 3社会生活406/10Text 4文化教育451/10Part B商业经济617/10Part C科普知识363/10Part ADirections：Read the following texts. Answer the questions blow each text by choosing A,B,C or D.Text 1The desire for achievement is one of lifes great mysteries. Social scientists have devoted lifetimes to studying the drives that spur us out of bed in the morning, compel us to work or study hard and spark all manner of human endeavor. Indeed, a 1992 textbook actually documents 32 distinct theories of human motivation. Given this diversity of thought, its easy to forget that for a half century, American society has been dominated by the psychological school known as behaviorism，or Skinnerian psychology. Although behaviorism and its fundamental principle of “positive reinforcement” have long since lost their way in academic circles, the Skinnerian legacy remains powerful in every realm of trash. Tired out? Do it, and you can go to the movies Friday night. Not in the mood for work? Keep plugging away, and you might get a bonus. Not interested in calculus? Strive for an A in the class, and you will make the honor roll. The theory may be bankrupt, but incentives and rewards are so much a part of American culture that its hard to imagine life without them. Yet thats exactly what a growing group of researchers are advocating today. A steady stream of research has found that rather encouraging motivation and productivity, rewards actually can undermine genuine interest and diminish performance. “Our society is caught in a whopping paradox,”asserts Alfie Kohn, author of the new book Rewards (published by Houghton Mifflin), which surveys recent research on the effectiveness of rewards, “We complain loudly about declining productivity, the crisis of our school and the distorted values of our children. But the very strategy we use to solve those problems damaging rewards like incentive plans and grade and candy bars in front of people is partly responsible for the fix were in.”Its a tough argument to make in a culture that celebrates the spoils of success. Yet study after study shows that people tend to perform worse, to give up more easily and to lose interest more quickly when a reward is involved. Children who are given treats for doing artwork, for example, lose their initial love of art within weeks. Teenagers who are promised a reward for tutoring youngsters dont teach as enthusiastically as tutors offered nothing. And chief executive officers who have been awarded long-term incentive plans have often steered their companies toward lower returns. 1. What does behaviorism basically believe in?A motivation and productivity.B performance and interest. C rewards and stimulus.D behavior and reinforcement.2. According to paragraph 2, it can be inferred that A rewards are highly effective in America.B rewards are not much sought after in schools.C rewards have long lost their appeal in American society.D Americans are addicted to rewards. 3. What does Alfie Kohns statement imply?A Our society is experiencing a declining in productivity.B Damaging rewards distort values of our children.C Incentives and rewards attribute to the problem we are complaining.D Rewards like incentive plans and grade and candy bars are harmful.4.We can infer from the last paragraph thatA people are not used to being conditioned by prizes.B rewards, like punishments, attempt to control behavior.C rewards are so indispensable to American cultures.D the principle of “positive reinforcement” is not fully enforced.5. What can be concluded from the text?A “Positive reinforcement” is useful to students. B With rewards, people tend to plug away.C Reward is sometimes harmful to people.D The desire for achievement is lifes great mystery.Text 2Lloyds TSB, the UKs biggest high street bank, is being forced to withdraw a memo which orders its branch staff not to switch customers into accounts that would pay them higher rates of interest. The bank will today write to every one of its 2600 branches to “clarify” the contents of an internal memo, which tells staff it is “unacceptable” to inform current account customers that they could make better returns by shifting spare cash into accounts with higher returns. The average balance in a Lloyds TSB account is understood to be 2000 and if half of every balance was moved into an alternative instant access account operated by Lloyds, the bank would have to pay an estimated $160 million in additional interest in a year. Lloyds, which has 7 million customers and last year made more than $3 billion profit, pays 0.3 percent interest on its current account. Its instant access account offers 3.4 percent. The memo told staff they could lose out on incentive scheme reward including cash bonuses and foreign holidays if they were caught switching cash out of low interest accounts. A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB said the memo, entitled Key Sales and Service Objectives, was designed to improve service levels and had been “quoted out of context”. It was written by Mike Mitchell, the banks national sales manager, and circulated in January. It was designed to stop its staff opening new accounts merely to receive incentive scheme points. Staff are allowed, however, to make other suggestions to customers, including selling them financial services such as unit trust investments and private health insurance, which generate substantial profits for the bank. Branch worker who successfully sell such products receive incentive scheme rewards, directly related to how much profit the bank makes from them. The banks spokeswoman said: “The spirit of this memo, of putting customers first, has been obfuscated by sentences which are meant to say one thing but may be interpreted as saying another.” In some cases, she claimed, those with high sums to invest can get better returns from their existing current accounts because the interest rate rises as the balance goes up. But she admitted that the memo tells staff that all current account switches “must be initiated by the customer”, and that staff are not allowed to advise customers their money might earn better returns in alternative accounts. The only time such suggestions can be made, says the memo, is in a formal one-to-one interview with the customer. The bank insisted that the memo was designed to improve customer service, but it has angered branch staff, who believe they are being ordered not to operate in the customers, best interests. The Lloyds spokeswoman added: “We agree that this memo may be misinterpreted”.The banks deputy chief executive, Michael Farley, has intervened and will be rewriting the memo.6. Lloyds TSB is going to withdraw the internal memo becauseA it has been made known to the general public.B it has been opposed by all its customers.C it is misinterpreted by its branch staff.D it is considered against customers best interests.7. The statement that the memo had been “quoted out of context” meansA a confession of the banks malpractice.B a guarantee of improvement of the banks service.C a response to criticisms of the memo.D a hint to withdraw and rewrite the memo.8. According to the memo, the branch staffA will get no cash bonuses if they are caught selling private health insurance to customers.B will receive no incentive scheme rewards if found shifting cash into higher interest accounts.C cannot make any suggestions to customers to switch their money out of current accounts.D shall never tell their customers the interest rates of different accounts.9. The word “obfuscated” (line14, paragraph 3) can be replaced by A clarified. B strengthened. C obscured. D weakened.10. According to the text, which of the following statement is true?A The interest rate of an instant access account is lower than that of a current account.B The interest rate of an account rises as the balance in it goes up to a certain level.C The memo does not allow account switches even thought theyre required by customers.D The memo encourages the staff to sell more financial services to improve customer service.Text 3There is a severe classic tragedy within major league baseball, tragedy that catches and manipulates the life of every athlete as surely as forces beyond the heaths manipulated Hardys simple Wessex folk into creatures of imposing stature. Major league baseball is an insecure society; it pays a lavish salary to an athlete and then, when he reaches thirty-five or so, it abruptly stops paying him anything. But the tragedy goes considerably deeper than that. Briefly, it is the tragedy of fulfillment. Each major leaguer, like his childhood friends, always wanted desperately to become a major leaguer. Whenever there was trouble at home, in school, or with a girl, there was the sure escape of baseball; not the stumbling, ungainly escape of an ordinary ballplayer, but a sudden, remarkable metamorphosis into the role of a hero. For each major leaguer was first a star in his neighborhood or in his town, and each lived with the unending solace that there was one thing he could always do with grace and skill and poise. Somehow, he once believed with the most profound faith he possessed, that if he ever did make the major leagues, everything would then become ideal. A major league baseball team is comprised of twenty-five youngish men who have made the major leagues and discovered that, in spite of it, life remains distressingly short of ideal. In retrospect, they were better off during the years when their adolescent dream was happily simple and vague. Among the twenty-five youngish men of a ball club, who individually held the common dream that came to be fulfilled, cynicism and disillusion are common as grass. So Willie Mays angrily announces that he will from now on charge six hundred dollars to be interviewed, and Duke Snider shifts his dream-site from a ball park to an farm overlooking the Pacific, and Peewee Reese tries to fight off a momentary depression by saying: “Sure I dreamt about baseball when I was a kid, but not the night games. No, sir. I did not dream about the lights.” For most men, the business of shifting and reworking dreams comes late in life, when there are older children upon whose unwilling shoulders the tired dreams may be deposited. It is harsh, jarring thing to have to shift dreams at thirty, and if there is ever to be a major novel written about baseball, it will have to come to grips with this theme. 11. What can we infer from paragraph 1?A Tragedy manipulates baseball players into creatures of imposing stature.B No major league baseball player can escape the tragedy inherent in his team.C Hardy, the novelist, wrote ennobling stories about athletes.D Winning and losing ball games are heartbreaking experiences.12. What is the tragedy in major league baseball?A Baseball is a hard life.B Ballplayers arent well paid once the reach thirty-five.C Ballplayers never achieve their ambitions.D Achievement of major league status wants ideal.13. The tragedy in baseball lies in the fact thatA ballplayers do not accomplish what they set out to do.B athletic ability diminishes as players grow older.C disillusion catches ballplayers because of fulfillment .D baseball is business, not a sport.14. According to the author, cynicism and disillusion among baseball players isA widespread. B more apparent than real.C rarely expressed, but commonly felt.D more common than among other athletes.15. Which of the following is true according to the text?A The individuals urge to play major league baseball can be traced back to childhood. B Playing major league baseball is an unending solace for a player in his life.C Once a man fulfills his dream to become a major leaguer, hell be desperately disappointed.D Its better for most men to shifting and reworking dreams later in life than at thirty.Text 4Roger Rosenblatts book Black Fiction, in attempting to apply literary rather than sociopolitical criteria to its subject, successfully alters the approach taken by most previous studies. As Rosenblatt notes, criticism of Black writing has often served as an excuse for expounding on Black history. Addison Gayles recent work, for example, judges the value of Black fiction by overtly political standards, faring each work according to the notions of Black identity which it put forward.Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstance, its authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological, and talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology limits much of the fictional enterprise. Rosenblatts literary analysis discloses relations and connotations among works of Black fiction which solely political studies have overlooked or ignored. Writing acceptable criticism of Black Fiction, however, presupposes giving satisfactory answers to a number of questions. First of all, is there a sufficient reason, other than the racial identity of the authors, to group together works by Black authors? Second, how does Black fiction make itself distinct from other modern fiction with which it is largely contemporaneous? Rosenblatts shows that Black fiction constitutes a distinct body of writing that has an identifiable, coherent literary tradition. Looking at novels written by Blacks over the last eighty years, he discovers recurring concerns and designs independent of chronology. These structures are thematic, and they spring, not surprisingly, from the central fact that the Black characters in these novels exist in a predominantly White culture, whether they try to conform to that culture or rebel against it.Black Fiction does leave some aesthetic questions open. Rosenblatts thematic analysis permits consideration objectivity; he even states that it is not his intention to judge the merit of the various works yet his reluctance seems misplaced, especially since an attempt to appraise might have led to interesting results.For instance, some of the novels appear to be structurally diffused. Is this a defect, or are the authors working out of, or trying to create, a different kind of aesthetic? In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomers Cane, verges on expressionism or surrealism; does this technique provide a counterpoint to the popular theme that describes the fate against which Black heroes are struggling, a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression?In spite of such omissions, what Rosenblatt does include in his discussion makes for a keen and worthwhile study. Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of novels, bringing to our attention in the process some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon Johnsons Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Its argument is tightly constructed, and its forthright, clear style exemplifies levelheaded and penetrating criticism.16. The author objects to criticism of Black Fiction becauseA it emphasizes purely literary aspects of such fiction.B it misinterprets the ideological content of such fiction.C it misunderstands the notions of Black identity in such fiction.D it uses political instead of literary criteria in evaluating such fiction.17. The word” spring” (line 1, Para. 2) most probably meansA emerge suddenly B develop quicklyD prosper extensively C break away gradually18. Black Fiction would have been improved if Rosenblatt had A evaluated more carefully its ideological and historical aspects.B attempted to be more objective in his approach to novels by it.C judged the literary merit of the novels he analyzes thematically.D established a basis for placing it within its own literary tradition.19. The author refers to James Weldon Johnsons works toA point out relations between Rosenblatts analysis and earlier criticism.B clarify the point about expressionistic style made earlier in the text.C qualify the assessment of Rosenblatts book made in paragraph 1.D give an example of one of the accomplishments of Rosenblatts work.20. The text intends to tell us A the soundness of a work of criticism.B various critical approaches to a subject.C the limitations of a particular kind of criticism.D the major points made in a work of criticism.Part B Directions: The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 21-25,you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list AG to fill in each numbered box. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you in boxes. A A number of small cotton mills soon followed, but most of them failed by the turn of the century because their promoters did not aim to a wide market. Not until the “Embargo Act” of 1807 and the consequent scarcity of English textiles that stimulated demand for domestic manufactures did spinning millers become numerous in the United States. Between 1805 and 1815, 94 new cotton mills were built in New England, and the mounting competition led Almy and Brown to push their markets south and west. Only two decades after Arkwright machinery was introduced into this country, the market for yarn was becoming national and the spinning process was becoming a true factory operation as it was in England.B It was as an enterpriser, however, that Francis Lowell made a more significant contribution. He persuaded other men of means to partic