Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or
unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Navigation computers, now sold by most car-makers, cost $2,000 and up. No surprise, then,
that they are most often found in luxury cars, like Lexus, BMW and Audi. But it is a developing
technology－meaning prices should eventually drop-and the market does seem to be growing.
Even at current prices, a navigation computer is impressive. It can guide you from point to point in most major cities with precise turn-by-turn directions-spoken by a clear uman-sounding voice, and written on a screen in front of the driver.
The computer works with an antenna ( 天线 ) that takes signals from no fewer than three of
the 24 global positioning system (GPS) satellites. By measuring the time required for a signal to
travel between the satellites and the antenna, the car's location can be pinned down within 100
meters.
The satellite signals, along with inputs on speed from a wheel-speed sensor and direction froma meter, determine the car's position even as it moves. This information is combined with a map database. Streets, landmarks and points of interest are included.
Most systems are basically identical. The differences come in hardware-the way the computer accepts the driver's request for directions and the way it presents the driving instructions.On most systems, a driver enters a desired address, motorway junction or point of interest via a touch screen or disc. But the Lexus screen goes a step further: you can point to any spot on the map screen and get directions to it.
BMW's system offers a set of cross hairs ( 瞄准器上的十字纹 ) that can be moved across themap (you have several choices of map scale) to pick a point you'd like to get to. Audi's screen can be switched to TV reception.
Even the voices that recite the directions can differ, with better systems like BMW's and
Lexus's having a wider vocabulary. The instructions are available in French, German, Spanish,
Dutch and Italian, as well as English. The driver can also choose parameters for determining the
route: fastest, shortest or no freeways ( 高速公路 ), for example.
21. We learn from the passage that navigation computers________.
A) will greatly promote sales of automobiles
B) may help solve potential traffic problems
C) are likely to be accepted by more drivers
D) will soon be viewed as a symbol of luxury
22. With a navigation computer, a driver will easily find the best route to his destination________.
A) by inputting the exact address C) by checking his computer database
B) by indicating the location of his car D) by giving vocal orders to the computer
23. Despite their varied designs, navigation computers used in cars
A) are more or less the same price
B) provide directions in much the same way
C) work on more or less the same principles
D) receive instructions from the same satellites
24. The navigation computer functions________.
A) by means of a direction finder and a speed detector
B) basically on satellite signals and a map database
C) mainly through the reception of turn-by-turn directions
D) by using a screen to display satellite signals
25. The navigation systems in cars like Lexus, BMW and Audi are mentioned to show
A) the immaturity of the new technology
B) the superiority of the global positioning system
C) the cause of price fluctuations in car equipment
D) the different ways of providing guidance to the driver
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
"The world's environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss." If that were an examination topic, most students would tear it apart, offering a long list of complaints: from local smog ( 烟雾 ) to global climate change, from the felling ( 砍伐 ) of forests to the extinction of species. The list would largely be accurate, the concern legitimate. Yet the students who should be given the highest marks would actually be those who agreed with the statement. The surprise is how good things are, not how bad.
After all, the world's population has more than tripled during this century, and world output
has risen hugely, so you would expect the earth itself to have been affected. Indeed, if people lived, consumed and produced things in the same way as they did in 1900 (or 1950, or indeed 1980), the world by now would be a pretty disgusting place: smelly, dirty, toxic and dangerous.
But they don't. The reasons why they don't, and why the environment has not been mined,
have to do with prices, technological innovation, social change and government regulation in re-
sponse to popular pressure. That is why, today's environmental problems in the poor countries
ought, in principle, to be solvable.
Raw materials have not run out, and show no sign of doing so. Logically, one day they must: the planet is a finite place. Yet it is also very big, and man is very ingenious. What has happened is that every time a material seems to be running short, the price has risen and, in response, people have looked for new sources of supply, tried to find ways to use less of the material, or looked for a new substitute. For this reason prices for energy and for minerals have fallen in real terms during the century. The same is true for food. Prices fluctuate, in response to harvests, natural disasters and political instability; and when they rise, it takes some time before new sources of supply become available. But they always do, assisted by new farming and crop technology. The long term trend has been downwards.
It is where prices and markets do not operate properly that this benign ( 良性的 ) trend begins to stumble, and the genuine problems arise. Markets cannot always keep the environment healthy. If no one owns the resource concerned, no one has an interest in conserving it or fostering it: fish is the best example of this.
26. According to the author, most students________.
A) believe the world's environment is in an undesirable condition
B) agree that the environment of the world is not as bad as it is thought to be
C) get high marks for their good knowledge of the world's environment
D) appear somewhat unconcerned about the state of the world's environment
27. The huge increase in world production and population ________.
A) has made the world a worse place to live in
B) has had a positive influence on the environment
C) has not significantly affected the environment
D) has made the world a dangerous place to live in
28. One of the reasons why the long-term trend of prices has been downwards is that________.
A) technological innovation can promote social stability
B) political instability will cause consumption to drop
C) new farming and crop technology can lead to overproduction
D) new sources are always becoming available
29. Fish resources are diminishing because________.
A) no new substitutes can be found in large quantities
B) they are not owned by any particular entity
C) improper methods of fishing have mined the fishing grounds
D) water pollution is extremely serious
30. The primary solution to environmental problems is________.
A) to allow market forces to operate properly
B) to curb consumption of natural resources
C) to limit the growth of the world population
D) to avoid fluctuations in prices
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing
has gone out of fashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However, paradoxically, just recently a group of black parents filed a lawsuit (诉讼) in California claiming that the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test. (They believed, correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore, reversed, at least partially,his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting, even facilitating,
such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is
not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and
social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question.
31. Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades?
A) Its validity was challenged by many communities.
B) It was considered discriminative against minority children.
C) It met with strong opposition from the majority of black parents.
D) It deprived the black children of their rights to a good education.
32. The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to________.
A) draw public attention to IQ testing C) remove the state's ban on intelligence tests
B) put an end to special education D) have their children enter white schools
33. The author believes that intelligence testing ________.
A) may ease racial confrontation in the United States
B) can encourage black children to keep up with white children
C) may seriously aggravate racial discrimination in the United States
D) can help black parents make decisions about their children's education
34. The author's opinion of child adoption seems to be that________.
A) no rules whatsoever can be prescribed
B) white families should adopt black children
C) adoption should be based on IQ test results
D) cross-racial adoption is to be advocated
35. Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that _______.
A) good will may sometimes complicate racial problems
B) social surroundings are vital to the healthy growth of children
C) intelligence testing also applies to non-academic areas
D) American opinion can shift when it comes to sensitive issues
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
Not too many decades ago it seemed "obvious" both to the general public and to sociologists that modern society has changed people's natural relations, loosened their responsibilities to kin (亲戚) and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years a growing body of research has revealed that the "obvious" is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a smaller proportion of your neighbors than you do if you are a resident of a smaller community. But, for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else.
Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small, private social worlds.Indeed, the number and quality of meaningful relationships do not differ between more and less urban people. Small-town residents are more involved with kin than are big-city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism may produce a different style of life, but the quality of life does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of smaller communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers.
These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living next door or keep an eye out for young trouble makers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a community's population size and its social heterogeneity ( 多样性 ). For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behavior including gambling, drugs, etc. Large-city urbanites are also more likely than their small-town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan (见多识广者的 ) outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates, and to be tolerant of nontraditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so-called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size.
36. Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the first paragraph?
A) Two contrasting views are presented.
B) An argument is examined and possible solutions given.
C) Research results concerning the quality of urban life are presented in order of time.
D) A detailed description of the difference between urban and small-town life is given.
37. According to the passage, it was once a common belief that urban residents______.
A) did not have the same interests as their neighbors
B) could not develop long-standing relationships
C) tended to be associated with bad behavior
D) usually had more friends
38. One of the consequences of urban life is that impersonal relationships among neighbors_____.
A) disrupt people's natural relations
B) make them worry about crime
C) cause them not to show concern for one another
D) cause them to be suspicious of each other
39. It can be inferred from the passage that the bigger a community is,______.
A) the better its quality of life
B) the more similar its interests
C) the more tolerant and open-minded it is
D) the likelier it is to display psychological symptoms of stress
40. What is the passage mainly about?
A) Similarities in the interpersonal relationships between urbanites and small-towndwellers.
B) Advantages of living in big cities as compared with living in small towns.
C) The positive role that urbanism plays in modern life.
D) The strong feeling of alienation of city inhabitants.
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