大学英语课程考试阅读材料级概要

1、 HYPERLINK 0/ec3.0/C378/Course/Content/javascript:GotoNode(308, 312) 大学英语课程考试阅读材料1级Directions: There are 30 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answ

2、er to each question.Passage 1:Colds are very common. The symptoms of the common cold include a sore throat, runny nose, stuffed-up nose（鼻塞）, and tiredness. Colds are caused by viruses（病毒）, but scientists cannot explain the exact cause. There is no cure. Many people, however, believe that they know t

3、he causes of and cures for the common cold. For example, they believe that it is possible to get a cold if we get chilled, if we get extra tired, or if we are too close to a person with a cold. In other words, if we want to prevent catching cold, we should stay warm and dry; we should avoid getting

4、too tired, and we should not be in close contact with people who have colds.Meanwhile, there are probably hundreds of cures throughout the world for the common cold. For example, the following suggestions are popular in quite a number of societies: (l ) drink plenty of water; (2) get extra rest; (3)

5、 take a lot of vitamin C, (4) take aspirin; (5) keep warm.Each year people spend a lot of money on cold medicines - pills, liquids, lozenges (含片).But these medicines do not cure colds they can only relieve cold symptoms. In other words, they make us feel better.1. The passage is mainly about _.A. lo

6、oking for the common coldB. some facts about the common cold C. introducing some patients D. new medicines for curing the common cold2. According to the passage, people with colds feel _.A. quiet B. activeC. thirsty D. tired3. To prevent catching cold, you _.A. should keep away from a person who has

7、 a coldB. should wash your hair in cold weatherC. should go out on a rainy day D. should make yourself tired4. Which of the following is NOT a cure for the common cold?A. Take a lot of vitamin C. B. Drink plenty of water. C. Put on as many clothes as possible.D. Get more rest.5. Which of the followi

8、ng is true about the common cold?A. Scientists are close to finding a cure for colds.B. There are hundreds of symptoms of the common cold.C. Many people know what causes the common cold.D. There are no medicines that can cure colds. Passage 2:Every human being, no matter what he is doing, gives off

9、body heat. The usual problem is now to get rid of it. But the designers of the Johnstown campus of the University of Pittsburgh set themselves the opposite problem - how to collect body heat. They have designed a collection system which uses not only body heat, but the heat given off by such objects

10、 as light bulbs（灯泡） and refrigerators(冰箱) as well. The system works so well that no fuel is needed to make the campuss six buildings comfortable.Some parts of most modern buildings - theaters and offices as well as classrooms - are more than sufficiently heated by people and lights and sometimes mus

11、t be air-conditioned even in winter. The technique of saving heat and redistributing it is called heat recovery. A few modern buildings recover heat, but the Universitys system is the first to recover heat from buildings and reuse it in others.Along the way, Pitt has learned a great deal about some

12、of its producers. The harder a student studies, the more heat his body gives off. Male students send out more heat than female students, and the larger a student is, the more heat he produces. It is tempting to conclude that the hottest prospect for the Johnstown campus would be a hard-working overw

13、eight male genius（天才）.1. What is characteristic of the buildings on Johnstown campus of the University of Pittsburgh?A. They collect body heat to regulate the temperature inside.B. They are more comfortable to live in than other buildings. C. They use light bulbs to heat the classrooms.D. They consu

14、me less fuel to keep the classrooms cool.2. According to the passage, the technique of heat recovery is used _ .A. to provide a special form of air-conditioning in the cityB. to provide heat for the hot water systemC. to collect heat and reuse itD. to find out the source of heat 3. The phrase the ho

15、ttest prospect in this passage refers to _.A. the person who suffers most from heatB. the person who gives off most heat C. the person who needs more heat than othersD. the person who makes better use of body heat4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according the passage?A. The harder a

16、student works, the more heat he or she produces.B. The bigger a student is, the more heat he or she sends out.C. A 1arge and hard-working boy student gives off the most heat.D. A girl student sends out more heat than a boy student.5. Which of the following may be the best title for this passage?A. R

17、ecovery of Body Heat B. Body Heat and Sex C. Modern Buildings Heat SystemD. Ways of Heating Buildings Passage 3.Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space. The amount of space a person needs around him is a cultural difference, not an economic one. Knowing your own psychologi

18、cal(心理上的) space needs is important because they strongly affect your choices, including, for example, the number of bedrooms in the home. If you were brought up in a two-child family, and both you and your sister or brother had your own bedrooms, the chances are, if you have two children or more, th

19、at you also will offer separate bedrooms for them. In America, for example, they train people to want to have their own rooms by giving them their own rooms when they are babies. This is very rare in the world. In many other countries, the baby sleeps in the same bed with his parents or in a bed nea

20、r them.The space in the home also shows a lot about psychological space needs. Some families gather closer to each other and the size of their house has nothing to do with it. Others have separate little corners where family members go to be alone.Although it is true that psychological space needs a

21、re not decided by economic reasons, they sometimes have to be changed a little because of economic pressures. It is almost impossible, however, to completely change your psychological space needs.1. The passage is chiefly concerned with _ .A. American way of livingB. living requirements in different

22、 culturesC. living conditions in developed countries D. space and economic factors2. According to the author, the amount of living space a person needs is decided by _ .A. his financial situations B. the relationship between the family membersC. his cultural background D. how many rooms there are in

23、 his house3. The example of American families seems to suggest that _ .A. psychological space needs are developed when one is very youngB. Americans are more eager to be alone when they are at homeC. it is advisable to let the baby sleep with his parentsD. it is advisable to let the baby sleep with

24、his sister4. Some families gather close to each other at home because _ .A. it satisfies their psychological space needsB. they have no living spaceC. they have been brought up in a small familyD. they have small corners for themselves5. According to the author, psychological space needs _ .A. will

25、change greatly as ones incomes are reducedB. will change if you move to a smaller houseC. can hardly be changed altogetherD. can be changed at willPassage 4.Do you believe that only boys do well in science? Does it seem to you that girls have better vocabularies than boys? In your opinion, are boys

26、better at building things ? If your answer to each of those questions is “Yes,” you are right.On the average, males score higher on tests that measure mathematical reasoning, mechanical ability, and problem-solving skills. Females show superior ability in tests measuring vocabulary, spelling, and me

27、mory.It is known that bones, muscles（肌肉） and nerves（神经） develop faster in baby girls. Usually, too, baby girls talk at an earlier age than boys do. Scientists think there is a physical reason for this. They believe that the nerve endings in the left side of the brain develop faster in girls than in

28、boys. And it is this side of the brain that strongly influences an individuals ability to use words, to spell, and to remember things.By the time they start to schoo1, therefore, little girls have an advantage that boys do not have. Girls are physically more ready to remember facts, to spell, and to

29、 read. These, of course, are skills that are important in elementary school.But what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have been developing something called aggression (进攻 ). An aggressive person has courage and energy. He feels strong and independent. He is often th

30、e first one to start fight.1. Scientists believe that the differences between boys and girls are determined by _.A ) their personal abilitiesB) their physical conditionC ) their courage and independenceD) their age and sex2. Which of the following is Not true?A ) Girls remember things more easily.B

31、) Boys score higher on tests that measure mathematical reasoning. C ) Boys are more skillful at building things.D) Girls are better at facts which measure problem solving ability.3. According to this passage, boys are _.A ) more ready to spellB) more ready to remember factsC ) stronger and more inde

32、pendentD) quicker at learning4. The word this ( Para 3) refers to_.A ) the difference between boys and girlsB. the ability to solve problems C ) the development of brainsD) the age when babies begin to talk 5. The authors view of the difference between boys and girls is based on_.A ) scientific fact

33、sB ) personal experienceC ) social behaviorsD ) logical reasoningPassage 5:Third World countries often mistakenly decided to permit rapid industrialization. When this industrialization occurs, many new factories open, and workers get jobs. Unfortunately, many of these new jobs are not permanent. The

34、 leaders of an industry want their factories to be as productive as possible, and they will do anything to achieve that goal. Whenever they can, they take advantage of automation, which means that workers are replaced by a more efficient machine. As a result, a worker trained for a specific factory

35、job becomes unemployed, and the profits of the factory owners are maximized.Many experts in Third World economics are concerned about rapid industrialization because it brings problems as well as progress. Citizens of these countries need jobs that will last, not jobs that are temporary. In the opin

36、ion of these economists, the leaders of Third World countries should be aware of the dangers as well as the advantages of rapid industrialization.1. The rapid industrialization in Third World countries could mean _.A) more progress to the stateB) more profits to the factory ownersC) more problems to

37、 the governmentD) all of the above2. Of the following four points, which one do leaders of an industry consider first?A) More jobs for the workers.B) Rapid development in all the fields.C) Better pay for the workers.D) Highest productivity.3. According to the passage, automation could lead to _.A) m

38、ore jobs and therefore more payB) fewer machines and therefore more workers C) more machines and therefore fewer workersD) fewer machines and therefore more workers4. In the sentence “Citizens of these countries need jobs that will last”(Para.2), the word “last” means _.A) follow all the restB) go o

39、nC) become lateD) be most recent5. The author wrote the passage in order to _.A) tell us an interesting storyB) reveal a factC) tell us the disadvantages of automationD) give a warning to some Third World countries Passage 6:If we were asked exactly what we were doing a year ago, we should probably

40、have to say that we could not remember. But if we had kept a book and had written in it an account of what we did each day, we should be able to give an answer to the question.It is the same in history. Many things have been forgotten because we do not have any written account of them. Sometimes men

41、 did keep a record of the most important happenings in their country, but often it was destroyed by fire or in a war. Sometimes there was never any written record at all because the people of that time and place did not know how to write. For example, we know a good deal about the people who lived i

42、n China 4, 000 years ago because they could write and leave written records for those who lived after them. But we know almost nothing about the people who lived even 200 years ago in central Africa, because they had not learned to write.Sometimes, of course, even if the people cannot write, they ma

43、y know something of the past. They have heard about it from older people, and often songs and dances and stories have been made about the most important happenings, and these have been sung and acted and told for many generations. For most people are proud to tell what their fathers did in the past.

44、 This we may call “remembered history.” Some of it has now been written down. It is not so exact or so valuable to us as written history is, because words are much more easily changed when used again and again in speech than when copied in writing. But where there are no written records, such spoken

45、 stories are often very helpful.1. Which of the following ideas is not conveyed in the passage?A) “Remembered history”, compared with written history, is less reliable.B) Written records of the past plays a most important role in our learning of the human history.C) A written account of our daily ac

46、tivities helps us to answer some questions.D) Where there are no written records, there is no history.2. We know very little about the central Africa 200 years ago because .A) there was nothing worth being written down at that timeB) the people there ignored the importance of keeping a recordC) the

47、written records were perhaps destroyed by a fireD) the people there had not known how to write3. “Remembered history” (Line 6, Para, 3) refers to .A) history based on a persons imaginationB) stories of important happenings passed down from mouth to mouthC) songs and dances about the most important e

48、ventsD) both B) and C)4. “Remembered history” is regarded as valuable only when .A) it is written downB) no written account is availableC) it proves to be trueD) people are interested in it5. It can be inferred (推论) from the passage that we could have learned much more about our past than we do now

49、if our ancestors (祖先) had .A) kept a written record of every past eventB) not burnt their written records in warsC) told exact stories of the most important happeningsD) made more songs and dancesPassage 7:The water level of oceans rises and falls alternately (交替地) twice a day. This movement of wate

50、r is called the tide (潮汐). Tides are caused by the pull of the sun and the moon on the earths surface; since the moon is closer, it affects the tides more than the sun. When the moon is directly overhead, it actually pulls on the water that is below it. This causes the water level to rise because th

51、e water is pulled away from the earth. As the moon disappears (消失) over the horizon (地平线), the pull lessens and the water level settles back towards the ocean bottom.When the water reaches its highest level, we have high tide. And when the water comes to its lowest level, we have low tide. From its

52、lowest point, the water rises gradually for about six hours until it reaches high tide. Then it begins to fall continuously for about six hours until it reaches low tide. Then the cycle begins again.1. Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?A) The Moon and Oceans.B) The Moon an

53、d the TideC) Water LevelsD) The Pull of the Moon and the Sun2. The pull of the moon on the earths surface is stronger than that of the sun because .A) the moon is directly over the earthB) the moon pulls the water away from the earthC) the moon is closer to the earthD) the moon moves around the eart

54、h3. Water level reaches its low point when .A) the moon is hidden by cloudsB) the moons effect is indirectC) the moon moves far awayD) the sun is overhead4. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?A) Weather sometimes affects tides.B) The force directly affecting the eart

55、hs surface comes from the moon onlyC) The effect of the sun on the ocean water can be neglectedD) Tides are the result of the pull of the moon and the sun.5. In the sentence “As the moon disappears over the horizon, the pull lessens.” (Line 6, Para.1), the word lessens most probably means .A) risesB

56、) arrivesC) decreasesD) spreadsPassage 8:The ideal (理想的) teacher may be young or old, tall or short, fat or thin. He should know his subject, but he can make mistakes if he is willing to learn. His personality (人格) is as important as his scholarship (学识). The ideal teacher must be enthusiastic (热情的)

57、. He must never teach anything he himself is not interested in. He should be a bit of an actor and he should not be afraid to show his feelings and express his likes and dislikes. He must like his students and respect them, but he must also respect himself and take pride in his work. Otherwise, he c

58、annot respect his students and win respect from them. The ideal teacher should have an understanding of his students and be able to relate to them. He needs students understanding, too. The ideal teacher should be kind, encouraging, and helpful and he should motivate (激发) his students to seek (探索) k

59、nowledge. The ideal teacher should see his students as individuals (个人) and acknowledge (承认) their differences. He must know how to encourage the self-development and growth of each of his students. The ideal teacher is one who grows, learns, and improves himself along with his students.So what abou

60、t the teachers around you?1. Which of the following is the least important in judging an ideal teacher according to the passage?A) His age and appearance.B) His scholarship.C) His personality.D) His attitude towards his students.2. Can an ideal teacher make mistakes?A) No. He should be very careful