2014北外网院专升本入学考试英语题目汇编阅读理解3(含答案)

阅读理解3

Passage One

This summer, for the first time, Emory College let freshmen pick their own roommates in an online roommate-selection system. Students, using screen names to hide their identities, posted profiles of themselves detailing personality attributes, work habits, music and food preferences, and exchanged information using e-mail.

Housing officials at Emory say they expect that letting students pick their own roommates who are their closest matches will increase the likelihood of compatibility, and there’s little risk of hurt feelings if the e-mail exchanges do not lead to a match, since the initial round of contacts is done under screen names.

Several studies have shown that roommates have an impact on the attitudes and social behavior of those they live with, and one recent study found that a roommate's academic performance has a small, but statistically significant effect on the other roommate's grade-point average. Other studies, however, did not find that effect.

The business of assigning roommates varies widely across the country. At Davidson College, the housing staff sort every freshman with careful hand-selection. The Davidson philosophy is that roommates should be as similar as possible, while halls should be as diverse as possible.

"We had a match that seemed perfect, until we discovered that one was a cattle rancher's son and the other was a vegan (绝对素食者)," said Ms. Kromm. "They should definitely meet, on the same hall. But we didn't want to put them in the same room." Occasionally, an incoming student asks to be paired with an Asian, or says she might not be able to get along with a Republican. In such cases, Ms. Kromm will remind them that Davidson does not accept roommate preferences based on race, ethnicity, and religion.

Davidson’s care in matching pays off. By Christmas last year, only four students requested roommate changes out of 480. No one knows whether computer-matching works as well, but at Emory, so far, student reaction seems to be overwhelmingly positive.

Questions 1-5: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

1.In computer matchmaking, initially students do not reveal their _______.

A. personalities

B. identities

C. habits

D. hobbies

2.If e-mail exchanges between students fail to lead to a match, the students

involved _______.

A. will end up with hurt feelings

B. will stop using their screen names

C. won't feel embarrassed or discouraged

D. won't have another chance to contact others

3.As mentioned in the passage, only one study found that roommates have an

impact on the _______of the other roommates.

A. academic grades

B. social behavior

C. sleeping patterns

D. personal attitudes

4.It can be inferred from the passage that computer matching _______.

A. is unlikely to be a great success

B. is a novelty with no final results

C. will not be as good as expected

D. will soon replace hand selection

5.Both computer matching and hand selection follow the principle of _______.

A. putting students with similarities together

B. meeting all legitimate demands of students

C. letting students pick their own roommates

D. seeking diversity in roommate matching

Passage Two

Daniel Tammet is talking. As he talks, he studies my shirt and counts the stitches (缝线). Ever since the age of three, when he suffered a disease, Tammet has been obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator, but can't drive a car or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.

Tammet is softly spoken and shy about making eye contact. He lives on the Kent coast, but never goes near the beach－there are too many pebbles to count. The thought of a mathematical problem with no solution means too much for him. Trips

to the supermarket are always a chore because there's too much mental stimulus. "Instead of thinking 'What cheese do I want this week?', I just keep counting." Tammet is also a "savant", an individual with an extraordinary mental ability. An estimated 1% of the population have savant abilities, but no one knows exactly why.

A number of scientists hope that Tammet might help us understand better. Professor Allan Snyder explains why Tammet is of particular, and international, scientific interest. "Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. But Daniel can describe what he sees in his head."

Last year Tammet broke the European record for recalling pi, the mathematical constant, to 22,514 decimal places. He found it easy, because he didn't even have to "think". He wanted to prove that though he's technically disabled, the disability needn't get in the way.

Questions 6-10: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

6.What do we know about Daniel Tammet?

A. He has trouble doing some simple things.

B. He suffers from serious memory loss.

C. He is good at communicating.

D. He was born with a terrible disease.

7.Tammet avoids the beach because _______.

A. he has no sense of direction

B. he is troubled by his odd habit

C. he is afraid of dealing with people

D. he tends to stay away from public places

8.Supermarkets are places that would make Tammet _______.

A. excited

B. reasonable

C. uncomfortable

D. angry

9.Tammet is considered unique because _______.

A. he has shown signs of a genius

B. he has an extreme mental ability

C. he is willing to share his experiences

D. he can tell what is happening in his head

10.Recalling pi to 22,514 decimal places _______.

A. proved to be difficult for Tammet

B. demonstrated Tammet's optimism

C. meant a new world record was set

D. made clear how savants work

Passage Three

"For more than eight years we have been recommending that greater care be taken in the use of difficult loan words, but it doesn't seem to have had much effect," said an official of the cultural affairs agency, which compiled the report. "It's not our intention to try to control the spread of foreign terms, but this is something that needs to be debated by the research community."

According to a professor of linguistics at Daitobunka University, Japan adopts English words at a more rapid pace than almost any other country. "It sometimes feels like the situation has got out of hand, and there are definitely occasions when we adopt language unnecessarily, but this is a positive step toward the internationalization of Japan," Mr. Suzuki said.

In marketing, Japanglish－a hybrid of contracted English and Japanese－is used to sell everything from 'Pocari Sweat' soft drinks to famikon (family computer) games. In sports, football commentators talk of hedingu shuuto (headers at goal) and naisu kiipa (nice goal-keeping), while the manager of the country's most popular baseball team promised to meiku durama (make drama) in its chase for the league title. But the biggest exponents of foreign words are teenagers. "Sometimes, I feel that English words really hit the spot because they are often shorter and more precise," said Norihide Watanabe, a middle-aged businessman."But when my daughter uses them, I don't have a clue what she is talking about."

Questions 11-15: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

11.It appears that bureaucrats in the cultural affairs agency have been _______.

A. encouraging the use of English in official documents

B. trying to prevent the use of English in public documents

C. trying to encourage careful use of English in official documents

D. trying to control the spread of English in official documents

12.It seems English loan words are a greater problem in Japan than in any other

country in the world because _______.

A. they spread more rapidly than in other countries

B. Japan is in the middle of a serious economic recession

C. not many people study English in Japan

D. of academic debates in the research community

13.The article implies that English is used _______.

A. out of necessity by sports commentators

B. unnecessarily by baseball teams

C. by too many business people

D. by many young people in Japan

14.The underlined phrase "hit the spot" in the last paragraph means to _______.

A. be exactly right

B. go the right way

C. be near the center

D. strike out

15.The article implies Japanglish is_______.

A. a business language

B. a sporting language

C. a created language

D. not very useful

Passage Four

The very fact that English is so widely spoken around the world leads to other problems. The commonest examples cited are the British and American versions of the language, but even this is simplifying the issue. As anyone who has traveled to Britain will agree, the "British English" we may have learned at school hardly helps us cope with the varied forms of the language used in different parts of the British Isles. It is often impossible to comprehend some of these dialects. The same might be said of English spoken in the United States: the term "American English" usually means "standard American"－the language that is spoken by some of the better-known presidents, congressmen, spokesmen and women, and entertainers we see in our cinemas or on our TV screens. This form of American English is based on the dialect of English used by educated people in Boston in the northeast of the U.S., Boston-based and classless, this form of American English is the one most usually taught to foreign learners of American English. Incidentally, standard American is very similar to a standard form of British English in most respects－except in pronunciation. This form of the language is not spoken by the majority of Americans, as visitors to California, Florida, Chicago or New York quickly discover. In many parts of the U.S. people speak a dialect which even other Americans sometimes find hard to comprehend.

Other brands of English are spoken in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa,

the Caribbean, and various parts of Africa and Asia. Some have argued that the language is in danger of splitting up into different dialects. However, modern communication systems –radio, TV, and now computer-based communication systems such as e-mail and the Internet –make this increasingly unlikely. These modern means of communication ensure that English speakers around the world have a vested interest in communicating with each other in a common language. Speakers of different dialects of English may meet up in different places around the world, and have no difficulty in communicating with each other. Whether we like it or not, English, as an international language of communication, is here to stay for the foreseeable future!

Questions 16-20: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

16.What does the underlined word "incidentally" mean in paragraph 1?

A. by chance

B. by the way

C. by hand

D. at the same time

17.What does the phrase " be here to stay" probably mean in paragraph 2?

A. will be difficult

B. will be good

C. will wait

D. will remain

18.In what way does talking about British and American English simplify the issue?

A. Many local dialects are spoken in different parts of the British Isles.

B. American English is not spoken by the majority of Americans.

C. In areas of America, people speak dialects not understood by others.

D. All of the above.

19.Standard American English is spoken by _______.

A. all Presidents and Congressmen

B. all Presidents and entertainers

C. political spokesmen and women

D. some classes of American society

20.One of the major reasons for English remaining a commonly used world

language is that _______.

A. it is widely used in Africa and Asia

B. dialects of English are old fashioned

C. English is a means of modern world communication

D. English speakers need to use it

阅读理解3

1. B 6. A 11. C 16. B

2. C 7. B 12. A 17. D

3. A 8. C 13. D 18. D

4. B 9. D 14. A 19. D

5. A 10. B 15. C 20. C