2006考研英語真題英語一閱讀部分(共9頁)

1、精選優(yōu)質(zhì)文檔-傾情為你奉上Text 1In spite of“endless talk of difference,”American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is“the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference”characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed into“a culture o

2、f consumption”launched by the 19th century department stores that offered“vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite”these were stores“anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democra

3、tic act.”The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today's immigrati

4、on is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation. In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of the population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000. Now, consider three

5、indices of assimilationlanguage, home ownership and intermarriage.The 1990 Census revealed that“a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke Englishwellorvery wellafter ten years of residence.”The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual and proficient i

6、n English. “By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families.”Hence the description of America as a“graveyard”for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, higher than the 69.8 percent

7、 rate among native-born Americans.Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics“have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks.”By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians.Rodriguez no

8、tes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet“some Americans fear that immigrant living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nation's assimilative power.”Are there divisive issues and pockets of seet

9、hing anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against America's turbulent past, today's social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment.21.The word“homogenizing”(Line 1, Paragraph 1) most probably means_.A

10、identifyingB associatingC assimilatingD monopolizing22.According to the author, the department stores of the 19th century_.A played a role in the spread of popular cultureB became intimate shops for common consumersC satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable eliteD owed its emergence to the culture of

11、consumption23.The text suggests that immigrants now in the U.S._.A are resistant to homogenizationB exert a great influence on American cultureC are hardly a threat to the common cultureD constitute the majority of the population24.Why are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks mentioned in Paragrap

12、h 5?A To prove their popularity around the world.B To reveal the public's fear of immigrants.C To give examples of successful immigrants.D To show the powerful influence of American culture.25.In the author's opinion, the absorption of immigrants into American society is_.A rewardingB succes

13、sfulC fruitlessD harmfulText 2Stratford-on-Avon, as we all know, has only one industryWilliam Shakespearebut there are two distinctly separate and increasingly hostile branches. There is the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which presents superb productions of the plays at the Shakespeare Memorial T

14、heatre on the Avon. And there are the townsfolk who largely live off the tourists who come, not to see the plays, but to look at Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shakespeare's birthplace and the other sights.The worthy residents of Stratford doubt that the theatre adds a penny to their revenue. They

15、 frankly dislike the RSC's actors, them with their long hair and beards and sandals and noisiness. It's all deliciously ironic when you consider that Shakespeare, who earns their living, was himself an actor (with a beard) and did his share of noise-making.The tourist streams are not entirel

16、y separate. The sightseers who come by busand often take in Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace on the sidedon't usually see the plays, and some of them are even surprised to find a theatre in Stratford. However, the playgoers do manage a little sight-seeing along with their playgoing. It is the

17、playgoers, the RSC contends, who bring in much of the town's revenue because they spend the night (some of them four or five nights) pouring cash into the hotels and restaurants. The sightseers can take in everything and get out of town by nightfall.The townsfolk don't see it this way and th

18、e local council does not contribute directly to the subsidy of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stratford cries poor traditionally. Nevertheless every hotel in town seems to be adding a new wing or cocktail lounge. Hilton is building its own hotel there, which you may be sure will be decorated with Ha

19、mlet Hamburger Bars, the Lear Lounge, the Banquo Banqueting Room, and so forth, and will be very expensive.Anyway, the townsfolk can't understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row. Last year its 1,431 seats were

20、 94 percent occupied all year long and this year they'll do better.) The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have stayed low.It would be a shame to raise prices too much because it would drive away the young people who are Stratford's most attractive clientele. T

21、hey come entirely for the plays, not the sights. They all seem to look alike (though they come from all over)lean, pointed, dedicated faces, wearing jeans and sandals, eating their buns and bedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre to buy the 20 seats and 80 standing-room tick

22、ets held for the sleepers and sold to them when the box office opens at 10:30 a.m.26.From the first two paragraphs, we learn that_.A the townsfolk deny the RSC's contribution to the town's revenueB the actors of the RSC imitate Shakespeare on and off stageC the two branches of the RSC are no

23、t on good termsD the townsfolk earn little from tourism27.It can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that_.A the sightseers cannot visit the Castle and the Palace separatelyB the playgoers spend more money than the sightseersC the sightseers do more shopping than the playgoersD the playgoers go to no other

24、 places in town than the theater28.By saying“Stratford cries poor traditionally”(Line 2, Paragraph 4), the author implies that_.A Stratford cannot afford the expansion projectsB Stratford has long been in financial difficultiesC the town is not really short of moneyD the townsfolk used to be poorly

25、paid29.According to the townsfolk, the RSC deserves no subsidy because_.A ticket prices can be raised to cover the spendingB the company is financially ill-managedC the behavior of the actors is not socially acceptableD the theatre attendance is on the rise30.From the text we can conclude that the a

26、uthor_.A is supportive of both sidesB favors the townsfolk's viewC takes a detached attitudeD is sympathetic to the RSCText 3When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals: they suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large,

27、 slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They

28、have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper

29、published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservativ

30、e. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely t

31、o be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in t

32、he past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts mus

33、t take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the“shifting baseline”. The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the p

34、ast. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business.31.The extinction of large prehistoric

35、 animals is noted to suggest that _.A large animal were vulnerable to the changing environmentB small species survived as large animals disappearedC large sea animals may face the same threat todayD slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones32.We can infer from Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm's paper th

36、at _.A the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced by 90%B there are only half as many fisheries as there were 15 years agoC the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20% of the original amountD the number of larger predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old33.By sa

37、ying“these figures are conservative”(Line 1, Paragraph 3), Dr. Worm means that _.A fishing technology has improved rapidlyB the catch sizes are actually smaller than recordedC the marine biomass has suffered a greater lossD the data collected so far are out of date34.Dr. Myers and other researchers

38、hold that _.A people should look for a baseline that can work for a longer timeB fisheries should keep the yield below 50% of the biomassC the ocean biomass should be restored its original levelD people should adjust the fishing baseline to the changing situation35.The author seems to be mainly conc

39、erned with most fisheries' _.A management efficiencyB biomass levelC catch-size limitsD technological applicationText 4Many things make people think artists are weird. But the weirdest may be this: artists' only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel b

40、ad.This wasn't always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere from the 19th century onward, more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless, phony or, worst of all, boring, as we went from Wordsworth's daffodils to Ba

41、udelaire's flowers of evil.You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen so much misery. But it's not as if earlier times didn't know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there i

42、s too much damn happiness in the world today.After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not

43、 just an ideal but an ideology.People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that the

44、ir souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.Today the messages the average Westerner is surrounded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messenge

45、rs, all smiling, smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agendato lure us to open our walletsthey make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. “Celebrate!”commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.But what we forgetwhat our economy depends on us forgettingis that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today