英语六级阅读强化练习九

1、 阅读强化练习九Part Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)On FriendshipFew Americans stay put（固定不动的）for a lifetime. We move from town to city to suburb, from high school to college in different states, from a job in one region to a better job elsewhere, from the home where we raise our

2、children to the home where we plan to live in retirement. With each move we are forever making new friends, who become part of our new life at that time.For many of us the summer is a special time for forming new friendships. Today millions of Americans vacation abroad and they go not only to see ne

3、w sights but alsoin those places where they do not feel too strangewith the hope of meeting new people. No one really expects a vacation trip to produce a close friend. But surely the beginning of a friendship is possible. Surely in every country people value friendship.They do. The difficulty when

4、strangers from two countries meet is not a lack of appreciation of friendship, but different expectations about what constitutes friendship and how it comes into being. In those European countries that Americans are most likely to visit, friendship is quite sharply distinguished from other, more cas

5、ual relations, and is differently related to family life. For a Frenchman, a German or an Englishman friendship is usually more particularized and carries a heavier burden of commitment.But as we use the word, “friend” can be applied to a wide range of relationshipsto someone one has known for a few

6、 weeks in a new place, to a close business associate, to a childhood playmate, to a man or woman, to a trusted confidant（心腹朋友）.There are real differences among these relations for Americansa friendship may be superficial, casual, situational or deep and enduring. But to a European, who sees only our

7、 surface behavior, the differences are not clear.As they see it, people known and accepted temporarily, casually, flow in and out of Americans homes with little ceremony and often with little personal commitment. They may be parents of the childrens friends, house guests of neighbors, members of a c

8、ommittee, business associates from another town or even another country. Coming as a guest into an American home, the European visitor finds no visible landmarks. The atmosphere is relaxed. Most people, old and young, are called by first names.French friendshipWho, then, is a friend? Even simple tra

9、nslation from one language to another is difficult, “You see,” a Frenchman explains, “if I were to say to you in France, This is my good friend, that person would not be as close to me as someone about whom I said only This is my friend. Anyone about whom I have to say more is really less.”In France

10、, as in many European countries, friends generally are of the same sex, and friendship is seen as basically a relationship between men. Frenchwomen laugh at the idea that “women cant be friends,” but they also admit sometimes that for women “Its a different thing.” And many French people doubt the p

11、ossibility of a friendship between a man and a woman. There is also the kind of relationship within a groupmen and women who have worked together for a long time, who may be very close, sharing great loyalty and warmth of feeling. They may call one anotherco painsa word that in English becomes “frie

12、nds” but has more the feeling of “pals” or “buddies”. In French eyes this is not friendship, although two members of such a group may well be friends.For the French, friendship is a one-to-one relationship that demands a keen awareness of the other persons intellect, temperament and particular inter

13、ests. A friend is someone who draws out your own best qualities, with whom you sparkle and become more of whatever the friendship draws upon. Your political philosophy assumes more depth, appreciation of a play becomes sharper, taste in food or wine is accentuated, enjoyment of a sport is intensifie

14、d.And French friendships are divided into categories. A man may play chess with a friend for thirty years without knowing his political opinions, or he may talk politics with him for as long a time without knowing about his personal life. Different friends fill different niches（合适的地方）in each persons

15、 life. These friendships are not made part of family life. A friend is not expected to spend evenings being nice to children or courteous to a deaf grandmother. These duties, also serious and mandatory, are primarily for relatives. Men who are friends may meet in a cafe. Intellectual friends may mee

16、t in larger groups for evenings of conversation. Working people may meet at the little bistro（小酒馆） where they drink and talk, far from the family. Marriage does not affect such friendships; wives do not have to be taken into account.In the past in France, friendships of this kind seldom were open to

17、 any but intellectual women. Since most womens lives centered on their homes, their warmest relations with other women often went back to their girlhood. The special relationship of friendship is based on what the French value moston the mind, on compatibility of outlook, on vivid awareness of some

18、chosen area of life.German friendshipIn Germany, in contrast with France, friendship is much more articulately a matter of feeling. Adolescents, boys and girls, form deeply sentimental attachments, walk and talk togethernot so much to polish their wits as to share their hopes and fears and dreams, t

19、o form a common front against the world of school and family and to join in a kind of mutual discovery of each others and their own inner life. Within the family, the closest relationship over a lifetime is between brothers and sisters. Outside the family, men and women find in their closest friends

20、 of the same sex the devotion of a sister, the loyalty of a brother. Appropriately, in Germany friends usually are brought into the family. Children call their fathers and their mothers friends “uncle” and “aunt”. Between French friends, who have chosen each other for the similar of their point of v

21、iew, lively disagreement and sharpness of argument are the breath of life. But for Germans, whose friendships are based on common feelings, deep disagreement on any subject that matters to both is regarded as a tragedy. Like ties of kinship, ties of friendship are meant to be irrevocably binding. Yo

22、ung Germans who come to the United States have great difficulty in establishing such friendships with Americans. We view friendship more tentatively, subject to changes in intensity as people move, change their jobs, marry, or discover new interests.English friendshipEnglish friendships follow still

23、 a different pattern. Their basis is shared activity. Activities at different stages of life may be of very different kindsdiscovering a common interest in school, serving together in the armed forces, taking part in a foreign mission, staying in the same country house during a crisis. In the midst

24、of the activity, whatever it may be, people fall into stepsometimes two men or two women, sometimes two couples, sometimes three peopleand find that they walk or play a game or tell stories or serve on a tiresome and exacting committee with the same easy anticipation of what each will do day by day

25、or in some critical situation. Americans who have made English friends comment that, even years later, “You can take up just where you left off.” Meeting after a long interval, friends are like a couple who begin to dance again when the orchestra strikes up after a pause. English friendships are for

26、med outside the family circle, but they are not, as in Germany, closely involved with the family nor are they, as in France, separated from the family. And a break in an English friendship comes not necessarily as a result of some irreconcilable difference of viewpoint or feeling but instead as a re

27、sult of misjudgment, where one friend seriously misjudges how the other will think or feel or act, so that suddenly they are out of step.ConclusionWhat, then, is friendship? Looking at these different styles, including our own, each of which is related to a whole way of life, are there common elemen

28、ts? There is the recognition that friendships are formed, in contrast with kinship, through freedom of choice. A friend is someone who chooses and is chosen. Related to this is the sense each friend gives the other of being a special individual, on whatever grounds this recognition is based. And bet

29、ween friends there is inevitably a kind of equality of give-and-take. These similarities make the bridge between societies possible, and the Americans characteristic openness to different styles of relationship makes it possible for him to find new friends abroad with whom he feels at home.1.What do

30、es the Americans, life style of moving have to do with their concept of friendship?2.Why do many Americans go abroad for holidays? 3.What is the main difficulty in making friends across countries? 4.What do Frenchwomen think of friendship between women? 5.In France, who undertake duties such as bein

31、g nice to children or courteous to a deaf grandmother? 6.Why did Frenchwomen except intellectual women seldom have friendship in the past?7.Germans regard deep disagreement on any subject that matters to both of the two friends as a tragedy, because _.8.For _, friendship often changes in intensity w

32、hen people move, change their jobs, marry, or discover new interests.9. _, in which people can easily anticipate what each other will do day by day, leads to the formation of English friendship.10.Different from kinship, friendship is the result of _, which is the common element of friendships of di

33、fferent styles.Part Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)Section A All over the world, your chances of success in school and life depend more on your family circumstances than on any other factor. By age three, kids with professional parents are already a full year ahead of their poo

34、rer peers. They know twice as many words and score 40 points higher on IQ tests. By age 10, the gap is three years. By then, some poor children have not mastered basic reading and math skills, and many never will: this is the age at which failure starts to become unchangeable.A few school systems se

35、em to have figured out how to erase these gaps. Finland ensures that every child completes basic education and meets a rigorous standard. In the United States, KIPP charter schools enroll students from the poorest families and ensure that almost every one of them graduates high school80 percent make

36、 it to college.These success stories offer lessons for the rest of us. First, get children into school early. High-quality preschooling does more for a childs chances in school and life than any other educational intervention.Second, recognize that the average kid spends about half his waking hours

37、up until the age of 18 outside of schooldont ignore that time. KIPP students spend 60 percent more time in school than the average American student. They arrive earlier, leave later, attend more regularly, and even go to school every other Saturday.Third, pour lots of effort into training teachers.

38、Studies in the United States have shown that kids with the most effective teachers learn three times as much as those with the least effective. Systems such as Singapores are choosy about recruiting; they invest in training and continuing education; they evaluate teachers regularly; and they award b

39、onuses only to the top performers.Finally, recognize the value of individualized attention. In Finland, kids who start to struggle receive one-on-one support from their teachers. Roughly one in three Finnish students also gets extra help from a tutor each year. If we can learn the lesson of what wor

40、ks, we can build on it.47.The factor which has greater effect on your chances of success in school and life is _.48.According to the author, by the age of ten, some poor children are still incompetent at _.49.In terms of Finland, after basic education every child should reach _.50.Among the educatio

41、nal interventions, the most effective one for the chances of a child in school and life is _.51.With regard to the school systems of Singapore, they are not only choosy in teacher recruitment, but also have regular teacher _.Section BPassage OneIn high school, we all get a label: sometimes, its one

42、we spend decades trying to live up to; sometimes its one we desperately want to leave behind. But are they accurate? And how do those labels shape who we become in an age when, thanks to social networks, we dont really ever leave our adolescent friends behind.Judging and being judged have always bee

43、n an unofficial part of the high-school curriculum. Most teens are trying to find out who they are and labels help make distinctions about who they could be, who theyre not, and who they should aspire to be. And those labels have power. “Theyre very sensitive to what their peers think of them, in pa

44、rt theyre trying to understand who they are and becoming adults,” says Judy Baer, professor of sociology at Rutgers University. “To fit in is important biologicallywe live in groups and we all want to fit in.”After high school, whether or not kids are defined by the labels that branded them very muc

45、h depends on how rigidly that kid adheres to the same systems of structure and hierarchy found in high school.One important change for this generation is that kids are taking longer to grow up and establish themselves in society as adults. And, while this extended adolescence has been lamented as “f

46、ailure to launch,” some experts say this long period of “emerging adulthood,” which can last into the late 20s, could make high-school labels less potent. “The kind of exploration and identity-defining that used to really predominate in adolescence and in the high-school years has largely kind of sh

47、ifted up the spectrum（范围）now into this emerging adulthood,” says Tim Clydesdale, a professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey. “Emerging adulthood,” then, gives kids a larger window to figure out who they are and how they define themselves, making the high-school labels just the first step

48、in a longer process of self-discovery.That might not make high school itself any easierin fact, some experts think that high school now is harder than ever, since expectations have never been higher for middle-class students, with so few options available to them. “The stakes have gotten higher for

49、middle-class kids. Its much more difficult to get into the good colleges. And supposed you graduate from those places, its much harder to get good jobs,” says Annette Hemmings, a sociology professor from the University of Cincinnati. That pressure is evident to high-school students, who are feeling

50、more and more compelled to perform well in every class and outperform other studentsanother factor that may diminish the need to fit in. Its now less about conspiracy than competition.52.What do we learn about high-school labels from the first paragraph? 53.Why does professor Judy Baer say “Theyre v

51、ery sensitive to what their peers think of them”(Line 34, Para.2)? 54.What do we know about “emerging adulthood” according to some experts? 55.Why is high school now harder than ever? 56.What does the author mean by the last sentence of this passage? Passage TwoFor all their great diversity of shape

52、s and sizes, glaciers can be divided into two essential types: valley glaciers, which flow downhill from mountains and are shaped by the constraints of topography （地貌）, and ice sheets, which flow outward in all directions from domelike centers of accumulated ice to cover vast expanse of terrain. Wha

53、tever their type, most glaciers are remnants of great shrouds of ice that covered the earth years ago. In a few of these glaciers the oldest ice is very ancient indeed；the age of parts of the Antarctic sheet may exceed 500,000 years.Glaciers are born in rocky womb above the snow line, where there is sufficient winter snowfall and summer cold for snow to survive the annual melting. The long gestation period of a glacier begins with the accumulation and gradual transformation of snow flakes. Soon after they reac