GMAT考試閱讀資料(五)(1)

1、GMAT考試閱讀資料(五)(1)Passage 23At the end of the nin etee nth cen tury, a rising in terestin Native America n customs and an in creas ing desire toun dersta nd Native America n culture prompted eth nolo-giststo begi n record ing the life stories of Native Amer-(5) ica n.Eth nologists had a dist inct reas

2、 on for wanting tohear the stories : they were after linguistic or anthropo-logical data that would suppleme nt their own fieldobservatio ns, and theybelieved that the pers on alstories, eve n of a sin gle in dividual :could in crease their(10) un dersta nding of the cultures thatthey had bee nobser

3、v ing from without. In additi on many eth no logistsat the turn of the cen tury believed that NativeAmer-ica n manners and customs were rapidly disappeari ng,and that it was importa nt to preserve for posterity as(15)much in formatio n as could be adequately recordedbefore the cultures disappeared f

4、orever.There were , however ,arguments against thismethodas a way of acquiri ng accurate and complete informa-tion. Franz Boas , for example , described autobiogra-" whilePaul20 phies as being "of limited value， and useful chiefly forthe study of the perversion of truth by memory， andinevi

5、tably derived25 gator's own emotionalRadin contended that investigators rarely spentenough time with the tribes they were observing results too tinged by the investi- tone to be reliable.Even more importantly ， as these life storiesmovedfrom the traditional oral mode to recorded writtenform much

6、 was inevitably lost. Editors often decidedwhat elements were significant to the field research on a30 given tribe.Native Americans recognized that theessence of their lives could not be communicated inEnglish and that events that they thought significantwere often deemed unimportant by their interv

7、iewers.Indeed ， the very act of telling their stories could force 35 Native American narrators to distort their cultures astaboos had to be broken to speak the names of deadrelatives crucial to their family stories.Despite all of this ， autobiography remains a usefultool for ethnological research ：

8、such personal reminis- 40 cences and impressions ， incomplete as they may be arelikely to throw more light on the working of the mindand emotions than any amount of speculation from anethnologistor eth no logical theorist from ano therculture.1. Which of the followi ng best describes theorga ni zati

9、 on of the passage?(A) The historical backgro unds of two curre ntly used research methods are chroni cled.(B) The validity of the data collected by using two differe nt research methods is compared.(C) The usef uln ess of a research method is questio ned and the n a new method is proposed.(D) The u

10、se of a research method is described and the limitati ons of the results obta ined are discussed.(E) A research method is evaluated and the changes n ecessary for its adaptati on to other subject areas are discussed.2. Which of the followi ng is most similar to the acti onsofnin etee nth-ce ntury et

11、h nologists in their edit ing of thelife stories of Native America ns ?(A) A wit ness in a jury trial inv okes the FifthAme ndme nt in order to avoid relati ng pers on ally in crim in at ing evide nee.(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her in formatio n on the possible future in crea

12、se in a stock'svalue.(C) A sports announ cer describes the acti on in a team sport with which he is un familiar.(D) A chef purposely excludes the specialin gredie nt from the recipe of his prizew inning dessert.(E) A politicia n fails to men tio n in a campaig n speech the similarities in the po

13、siti ons held by her opp onent for political office and by herself.3. Accord ing to the passage , collect ing life stories can be a useful methodology because(A) life stories provide deeper in sights into a culture than the hypothesiz ing of academics who are not members of that culture(B) life stor

14、ies can be collected easily and they aren ot subject to in valid in terpretati ons(C) eth no logists have a limited nu mber of research methods from which to choose(D) life stories make it easy to disti nguish betwee n the importa nt and uni mporta nt features of a culture(E) the collecti on of life

15、 stories does not require a culturally kno wledgeable inv estigator4. In formati on in the passage suggests that which ofbias in thethe follow ing may be a possible way to elim in ate edit ing of life stories ?(A) Basing all inferences made about the culture onan eth no logical theory(B)Elim in at i

16、ng all of the emoti on-lade nin formati on reported by the in forma nt(C)Tran slati ng the in forma nt's words in to theresearcher's Ian guage(D) Reducing the number of questions and carefullyspecify ing the content of the questio ns that the inv estigatorcan ask the in forma nt(E)Report ing

17、 all of the in formatio n that thein forma nt provides regardless of the inv estigator's pers onalopi nion about its in tri nsic value5. The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to(A)questio n an expla nati on(B)correct a misc on cepti on(C)critique a methodology(D)discredit an idea(E)cl

18、arify an ambiguity6. It can be in ferred from the passage that acharacteristicof the eth no logical research on NativeAmerica nscon ducted duri ng the nin etee nth cen tury was theuse of which of the followi ng ?(A) Inv estigators familiar with the culture un der study(B) A Ian guage other tha n the

19、 in forma nt's for record ing life stories(C) Life stories as the eth no logist's primary source of i nformatio n(D) Complete tran scripti ons of i nforma nts' descripti ons of tribal beliefs(E) Stringent guideli nes for the preservati on of cultural data7. The passage men tio ns which o

20、f the follow ing as afactor that can affect the accuracy ofeth no logists'tra nscripti ons of life stories ?(A) The in forma nts' social sta nding within the culture(B) The in clusive ness of the theory that provided the basis for the research(C) The len gth of time the researchers spe nt in

21、 the culture un der study(D) The nu mber of life stories collected by theresearchers(E) The verifiability of the in formatio n provided bythe research in forma nts8. It can be in ferred from the passage that the authorwould be most likely to agree with which of the followi ngstateme nts about the usefu In ess of life stories as a sourceofeth no graphic in formatio n?(A) They can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.(B) They are most useful as a source of li