川大考博英语阅读长难句解析

阅读

1）2004年6月大学英语四级考试阅读真题

Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born With, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.

When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.

Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the “hand talk” his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually: have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as “substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy (异端邪说).

It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff—it’s brain stuff.”

21. The study of sign language is thought to be _____C___.

A) a new way to look at the learning of language

B) a challenge to traditional, views on the nature of language

C) an approach: to simplifying the grammatical structure of a language

D) an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language（C）

22. The, present growing interest in sign language was stimulated by ___C_____.

A) a famous scholar in the study of the human brain

B) a leading specialist in the study of liberal arts

C) an English teacher in a university for the deaf

D) some senior experts in American Sign Language（C）

23. According to Stokoe, sign language is _____B___.

A) a Substandard language

B) a genuine language

C) an artificial language

D) an international language（B）

24. Most educators objected to Stokoe’s ide a because they thought _____D___.

A) sign language was not extensively used even by deaf people

B) sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted

C) a language should be easy to use and understand

D) a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds（D）

25. Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that ____D____.

A) sign language is as efficient as any other language

B) sign language is derived from natural language

C) language is a system of meaningful codes

D) language is a product of the brain（D）

2）It was the worst tragedy in maritime history, six times more deadly than the Titanic. When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Russian submarine in the final winter of World War II, more than 10,000 people-mostly women, children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germany-were packed aboard. An ice storm had turned the decks into frozen sheets that sent hundreds of families sliding into the sea as the ship tilted and began to go down. Others desperately tried to put lifeboats down. Some who succeeded fought off those in the water who had the strength to try t o claw their way aboard. Most people froze immediately. I’ll never forget the screams,” says Christa Ntitzmann, 87, one of the 1,200 survivors. She recalls watching the ship, brightly lit, slipping into its dark grave-and into seeming nothingness, rarely mentioned for more than half a century.

Now Germany’s Nobel Prize-winning author Gtinter Grass has revived the memory of the 9,000 dead, including more than 4,000 children-with his latest novel Crab Walk, published last month. The book, which will be out in English next year, doesn’t dwell on the sinking; its heroine is a pregnant young woman who survives the catastrophe only to say later: “Nobody wanted to hear about it, not here in the West (of Germany) and not at all in the East.” The reason was obvious. As Grass put it in a recent interview with the weekly Die Woche: “Because the crimes we Germans are responsible for were and are so dominant, we didn’t have the energy left to tell of our own sufferings.”

The long silence about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was probably unavoidable-and necessary. By unreservedly owning up to their country’s monstrous crimes in the Second World War, Germans have managed to win acceptance abroad, marginalize the neo-Nazis at home and make peace with their neighbors. Tod ay’s unified Germany is more prosperous and stable than at any time in its long, troubled history. For that, a half century of willful forgetting about painful memories like the German Titanic was perhaps a reasonable price to pay. But even the most politically correct Germans believe that they’ ye now earned the right to discuss the full historical record. Not to equate German suffering with that of its victims, but simply to acknowledge a terrible tragedy.

31. Why does the author say the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was the worst tragedy in maritime history? （B）

A) It was attacked by Russian torpedoes.

B) It caused the largest number of casualties.

C) Most of its passengers were frozen to death.

D) Its victims were mostly women and children.

32. Hundreds of families dropped into the sea when ___（A）_____.

A) the badly damaged ship leaned toward one side

B) a strong ice storm tilted the ship

C) the cruise ship sank all of a sudden

D) the frightened passengers fought desperately for lifeboats

33. The Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy was little talked about for more than half a century because Germans _____（D）___.

A) were eager to win international acceptance

B) had been pressured to keep silent about it

C) were afraid of offending their neighbors

D) felt guilty for their crimes in World War II

34. How does Gunter Grass revive the memory of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy? （D）

A) By describing the ship’s sinking in great detail.

B) By giving an interview to the weekly Die Woche.

C) By presenting the horrible scene of the torpedo attack.

D) By depicting the survival of a young pregnant woman.

35. It can be learned from the passage that Germans no longer think that ____（C）____.

A) the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy is a reasonable price to pay for the nat ion’s past misdeeds

B) Germany is responsible for the horrible crimes it committed in World War II

C) they will be misunderstood if they talk about the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy

D) it-is wrong to equate their sufferings with those of other countries

3）Ther e are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. 『Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens.』①They tell you it’s a game better suited to th e 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that glorifies “the hit”.

By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.

On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close ups. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for i nvolvement. The TV won’t do it for you.

Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. 『But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or bring the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman’s position.』②Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”

The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.

1. The passage is mainly concerned with .

A. the different tastes of people for sports

B. the different characteristics of sports

C. the attraction of football

D. the attraction of baseball

2. Those who don’t like baseball may complain that .

A. it is only to the taste of the old

B. it involves fewer players than football

C. it is not exciting enough

D. it is pretentious and looks funny

3. The author admits that .

A. baseball is too peaceful for the young

B. baseball may seem boring when watched on TV

C. football is more attracting than baseball

D. baseball is more interesting than football

4. By stating “I could have had my eyes closed. ” the author means (4th paragraph last sentence):

A. The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game.

B. Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no different to the result.

C. The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time and do his work well.

D. The consequent was too bad he could not bear to see it.

5. We can safely conclude that the author .

A. likes football

B. hates football

C. hates baseball

D. likes baseball

Vocabulary

1. dugout n.棒球场边供球员休息的地方

2. pitcher n.投手

3. symphony n.交响乐

4. chamber n.室内

5. contemplate vt.沉思，注视

长难句解析

①【解析】此句的主干是“Baseball…means…watching…”，其中“in funny tight outfits”用来修饰“grown men”,“standing…”和“staring”用来做“grown men”的定语。

【译文】对于他们来说，棒球就是在无聊的几个小时中几个身着紧身衣的大人伫立在场地周围没事可做地东张西望。

②【解析】这是一个复合句，“goes up…”，“flexes…”“takes…”，“glances…”做“the third baseman”的并列谓语。

【译文】但每当投球手掷出球的那一瞬间，你再看吧，三垒运动员脚尖点地，屈臂或把接球手套直指前方，左右移动步伐，或前或后，或许他还要越过场地盯着一垒球手的动作。

答案与详解

【短文大意】本文主要讲述垒球的特征及欣赏。

1. D主旨题。文章第一段简述了人们对垒球所持的偏见——认为它毫无活力、从容和缓，不像橄榄

球那样高潮迭起、令人激动。文章的第二、三、四、五段探讨了垒球的根本特征及欣赏角度，文章的最后一句话用一个比喻概括了垒球的魅力：“如果橄榄球是一曲交响乐的话，那么，垒球中所表现出来的运动恰似一曲优美的室内乐。”可见，本文主要探讨的是垒球的特点及其欣赏。A不对，第一段也确实提到了不同观众对不同运动形式的偏好，但这只是用以引出对垒球的特征及欣赏的讨论。

2. C细节题。文章第一段指出：许多人不喜欢垒球，一提起垒球这些人就打哈欠甚至皱眉头。对他们来说，看垒球意味着眼巴巴地观望着身着运动装(outfit)的人呆立在球场上，东瞧瞧西望望，很少有什么(激动人心的)事发生——没意思透了。他们认为这样的运动更适合上个世纪的人的口味，不像橄榄球那样充满活力。A意为：“它只适合老年人的口味。”注意：原文说的是适合上个世纪的人的口味，二者意味不一样。D意为：“它矫揉造作、滑稽可笑。”这与说它gentlemanly(具有绅士风度，矜持，即：没有冲撞或拼抢)不一样。

3. B推断题。第三段指出，在电视上，垒球运动被切换成不同角度的画面，而且不断地使用重放、特写等电视制作技术，这破坏了该运动的整体运动感，使观众无法将自己投入(project)到运动中去，以体会到这种寓动于静的运动之美。电视做不到这一点(The TV won’t do it for you)，因此，电视上的垒球比赛看上去(seems)孤孤单单、冷冷清清、沉沉静静、慢慢腾腾。C、D不对，作者仅指出了不同运动有不同运动的特征，并未说哪种运动优于哪种。参阅文章最后一句。

4. B推断题。第四段整个都在描述垒球场上的一个场景：拿三垒的运动员假设对方全投出好球，作好了一切准备，但是对方投出的并不是好球。所以在那时候他的准备做不做都不会影响比赛结果。他说本来可以闭上眼睛，意思就是B项所写的。A、C、D都不符合作者的意图。这道题需要完整地了解第四段内容才能作好选择。

5. D推断题。在本文中，作者主要探讨了垒球的特征及欣赏，作者着重指出的是：只有根据垒球的特征来欣赏它，才能体会到它的魅力。在他看来，观察到垒球比赛中运动员的各种动作、垒球位之间的关系等是欣赏它的关键(第三段第二句)。只有从整体来把握它，才能看到每一个小的动作、每一个眼神乃至于“静止”的意义，也只有这样，才能全身心地投入比赛中，欣赏到它的魅力。可见，作者对垒球有很深的理解而且非常喜爱垒球。主要参考第三、四、五段。

Among the more colorful characters of Leadv ille’s golden age were H.A.W.Tabor and his second wife,Elizabeth McCourt,better known as “Baby Doe”.Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West.Horace Austin Warner Tabor was a school teacher in Vermont.With his first wife and two children he left Vermont by covered wagon in 1855 to homestead in Kansas.Perhaps he did not find farming to his liking,or perhaps he was lured by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines.At any rate,a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch,which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. “Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here.”he said.

As it turned out,it was silver,not lead,that was to make Leadville’s fortune an d wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself,so he opened a general store,which sold everything from boots to salt,flour,and tobacco.『It was his custom to “grubstake” prospective miners,in other words,to supply them with food and supplies,or “grub”, wh ile they looked for ore,in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered.』①He did this for a number of years,but no one that he aided ever found anything of value.

Finally one day in the year 1878,so the story goes,two m iners came in and asked for “grub”. Tabor had decided to quit supplying it because he had lost too much money that way.These were persistent, however,and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. “Oh help yourself.One more time won’t make any difference,” He said and went on selling shoes and hats to other customers.the two miners took $17 worth of supplies,in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings.They picked a barren place on the mountainside and began to dig.After nine days they struck a rich vein of

silver.Tabor bought the shares of the other two men,and so the mine belonged to him alone.This mine,known as the “Pittsburgh Mine,” made 1 300 000 for Tabor in return for his $17 investment.

Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for $117 000.This turned out to be even more fabulous than the Pittsburgh,yielding $35 000 worth of silver per day at one time.Leadville grew.Tabor became its first mayor,and later became lieutenant governor of the state.

1.Leadville got its name for the following reasons EXCEPT.

A.because Tabor became its leading citizen

B.because great deposits of lead is expected to be found there

C.because it could bring good fortune to Tabor

D.because it was renamed

2.The word “grubstake” in paragraph 2 means.

A.to supply miners with food and supplies

B.to open a general store

C.to do one’s contribution to the development of the mine

D.to supply miners with food and supplies and in return get a share in the mine,if one was discovered

3.Tabor made his first fortune.

A.by supplying two prospective miners and getting in return a one-third interest in the findings

B.because he was persuaded by the two miners to quit supplying

C.by buying the shares of the other

D.as a land speculator

4. The underlying reason for Tabor’s life career is.

A. purely accidental

B. based on the analysis of miner’s being very poor and their possibility of discovering profitable mining site

C. through the help from his second wife

D. he planned well and accomplished targets step by step

5.If this passage is the first part of an article,who might be introduced in the following part?

A.Tabor’s life.

B.Tabor’s second wife,Elizabeth McCourt.

C.Other colorful characters.

D.Tabor’s other careers.

Vocabulary

1.barren adj. 贫瘠的

2.fabulous adj. 神话般的，难以置信的

3.lure vt.诱惑，引诱

4.deposit n.沉淀，储蓄

5.grubstake v.下注

长难句解析

①【解析】“It”是形式主语，真正的主语是“to”后面的句子，“while”引导时间状语从句。

【译文】他的通常做法是对来采矿的人“下注”，说得更明确一点就是泰勃供给这些人食品、用品等物品，作为回报，当他们采到矿后就会分给他一部分股份。

答案与详解

【短文大意】本文主要讲述霍塞斯·奥斯汀·沃纳·泰勃发家的故事。

1. C细节题。因为Leadville可以为Tabor带来巨富。这一点不是Leadville得名的原因，因为在文章第二段中，讲到这一点时，提及三个原因：A.因为Tabor成为当地的居民代表人物，B.因为在Leadville 有丰富的铅的储藏量。D.因为Leadville是因为Tabor重要而起的名，唯独C没有，因为到后来发现是银矿才给他带来巨富。

2. D词汇题。第二段中grubstake的词义与D所述内容是相同的，即“供给探矿者资金，衣物，食品以及其他物品”。(可参阅英华大辞典修订第二版64页)但此处还补充地讲，作为回报，供给者可以获得矿中资源一定份额。(见文章第二段第4行)

3. A细节题。Tabor第一次真正发财是他为两名矿工提供资助，为此他获得他们矿资源三分之一的股份。见文章第三段4-9行内容：两名开矿者从Tabor那儿借走价值17美元的物品，作为回报，Tabor获得他们矿资源三分之一股份。于是两位开矿者在一座山旁的不毛之地开始挖掘，九天之后，发现了银的富矿，于是Tabor又将两人的股份全买下，这样，银矿属于Tabor一个人所有，这个矿就是后来著名的“匹兹堡”矿。Tabor用17美元的投资换来了130万美元的收获。

4. B推断题。由原文可知泰勃的财产来源是有一定偶然性的，但是毕竟也是基于他开创的“grubstake”模式，因为A、D都不对，C更是没有根据，因为他还没有娶第二位夫人这一切就发生了。分析泰勃的做法，会得出B选项所示的结论。

5. B推断题。如果本文是一篇文章的第一部分，那么在文章的第二部分将介绍谁呢?key可以从文章第一句分析出来，在Leadville的黄金年代，其多彩的特点当中，Tabor及其第二任妻子Elizabeth McCourt 是值得大书特书的，接着，文章都在讲述有关H.A.W.Tabor发家致富的历史，如先买下匹兹堡矿，后又买下Matchless矿，最后成为市长，代理州长，等等，所以涉及到的全是男主人公，因此下边再讲的话，应成为女主人公即Elizabeth McCourt的天地了，她是Tabor的第二任妻子。这是顺理成章的事

5)

Open up most fashion magazines and you will see incredibly thin models with impossible hair and wearing unreasonably expensive, impracticably styled clothes. But shouldn't clothes be comfortably durable and make a principle of being simple for the individual who wears them? Why are we constantly told that we need to buy new clothes and add fresh pieces to our collection?

Fashions change year after year so lots of people can make piles of money. If folks are convinced that they need a different look each season, that this year's sweater's length and shoes style are important, they can be persuaded to buy. The fashion industry would have you ignore your shortcomings and just make you feel beautiful and happy. In fact it is not only a phenomenon we can find in people's dressing. Fashion controls our lives. Fashion controls what we wear, what we eat, what we drink, the way we cut our hair, the makeup We buy and use, the color of the cars we drive. Fashion even controls our ideas. You don't believe me? How many. Of your friends are vegetarians? Why are they vegetarians? Because it is fashionable!

Where does fashion come from? Often the reasons are quite logical. Scientists and historians study the fashions of the past and discover the secrets of each fashion.

When girls see an attractive guy, their blood pressure rises and their lips become redder. That's why guys think that girls wearing lipstick are beautiful.

Why do guys shave their heads? In the past soldiers shaved their heads to kill the insects that lived in their hair. Now guys shave their heads so that they look strong and masculine, like soldiers.

People spend a lot of time and money on fashion. But are they wasting their money? Changes in fashion help to develop new technologies. Changes in style create work for people all over the world. Many people work in the fashion industry, particularly in the fashion capitals of London, New York, Paris and Milan.

And finally, fashion makes you feel good, doesn't it? When you are dressed in the latest style, dancing to the most fashionable music, after watching the latest hit film, you feel great, don't you?

1. What's the author's viewpoint about the models and their hairstyles and clothes?

A. Unbiased.

B. Indifferent.

C. Critical.

D. Appreciative.

2. It is indicated by the author that clothes should be

A. comfortable and durable.

B. new and fresh.

C. expensive and fashionable.

D. simple and unique

3. The fashion industry makes profits by

A. selling the products at high prices.

B. creating a need in you.

C. helping you get rid of your shortcomings.

D. making you look more beautiful.

4. The author thinks what has been found about fashions by the scientists and the. historians is

A. incredible.

B. amazing.

C. reasonable.

D. creative.

5. The passage mentions the advantages of fashion EXCEPT that

A. it can help promote technological development.

B. it enables people to remain up-to-date.

C. it can create more job opportunities for people.

D. it can make people achieve a great feeling.

1．观点态度题。根据第l段的incredibly，impossible，unreasonably，impracticably等词，可以看出作者对时装杂志上的模特儿及他们的发式和服饰持不认可的态度。

2．细节判断题。第l段最后两个问句表明了作者认为衣服应该是comfortably durable，而不应该一味追求new或者flesh，A正确。

3．推理判断题。本题考查复合句的理解。第2段首句提到“时尚一年一年地变化，因此很多人可以赚大把的钱”，后面再具体说明商人是如何通过时尚赚钱的。第2句表明，时尚业能使人们觉得需要某种东西，也就是选项B所说的。选项A在文中并无提及，选项C和D的陈述与本段的倒数第2句不符。

4．推理判断题。第5段第2句中的logical表明作者认为科学家和历史学家的研究结果是可信的，有道理的，因此C为正确选项。虽然下面所举的两个例子看起来很有趣，但是作者重点不是为了说明这些研究结果的有趣程度，而是为了说明时尚的起因都是符合逻辑的。

5．细节判断题。选项A和C分别在倒数第2段第3．4句提到，选项D在最后一段提到。只有选项B在文中没有提及。

6) Given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say about their school experiences. In one study of 400 adults who had achieved distinction in all areas of life, researchers found that three fifths of these individuals either did badly in school or were unhappy in school. Few MacArthunr Prize fellows, winners of the MacArthur Award for creative accomplishment, had good things to say about their precollegiate schooling if they had not been placed in advanced programs. Anecdotal(名人轶事的) reports support this. Pablo Picasso, Charles Darwin, MARK twain, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Butler Yests all disliked school .so did Winston Churchill, who almost failed out of Harrow, an boy.” Often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers oft feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.

Some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their gifts were not scholastic.

Maybe we can account for Picasso in this way/But most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchanging and consequently lost interest. Yeats described the lack of fit between his mind and school∶″Because I had found it difficult to attend to anything less interesting than my own though ts, I was difficult to teach.”As noted earlier, gifted children of all kinds tend to be strong-willed nonconformists. Nonconformity and stubbornness (and Yeats’s lev el of arrogance and self-absorption) are likely to lead to conflicts with teachers.

When highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers. A writing prodigy(神童) studied by David Feldman and Lynn Goldsmith was taught far more about writing by his journalist father than his English teacher. High-IQ children in Australia studied by Miraca Gross had much more positive feelings about their families than their schools. About half of the mathematicians studied by Benjamin Bloom had little good to say about school. They all did well in school and took honors classes when available, and some skipped grades.

26、The main point the author is making about schools is that________.

（本题分值：2分）

【正确答案】

B

A) they should satisfy the needs of students from different family backgrounds

B) they are often incapable of catering to the needs of talented students

C) they should organize their classes according to the students’ ability

D) they should enroll as many gifted students as possible

27、The author quotes the remarks of one of Oliver Goldsmith’s teachers_________.

（本题分值：2分）

【正确答案】

A

A) to provide support for his argument

B) to illustrate the strong will of some gifted children

C) to explain how dull students can also be successful

D) to show how poor Oliver’s performance was at school

28、Pable Picasso is listed among the many gifted children who_________.

（本题分值：2分）

【正确答案】

C

A) paid no attention to their teachers in class

B) contradicted their teachers much too often

C) could not cope with there-studies at school successfully

D) behaved arrogantly and stubbornly in the presence of their teachers.

29、Many gifted people attributed their success___________.

（本题分值：2分）

【正确答案】

A

A) mainly to parental help and their education at home

B) both to school instruction and to their parents’ coaching

C) more to their parents’ encouragement than to school training

D) less to their systematic education than to their talent

30、The root cause of many gifted students having bad memories of their school years is that ____. （本题分值：2分）

【正确答案】

C

A) their nonconformity brought them a lot of trouble

B) they were seldom praised by their teachers

C) school courses failed to inspire or motivate them

D) teachers were usually far stricter than their parents

完型A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide -- the division of the world into the info (information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access -- after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we’ve ever had.

Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.

To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is why America’s Second Wave infrastructure -- including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on -- were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain’s former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you’re going to be. That doesn’t mean ly ing down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.

A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide--the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that __1__ does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less __2__ then, however, were the new, positive __3__ that work against the digital divide. __4__,there are reasons to be __5__.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more __6__, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential __7__ there are. More and more __8__, afraid their countries will be left __9__, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be __10__ together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will __11__ rather than widen in

the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for __12__ world poverty that we've ever had.

Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to __13__ poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has __14__ potential.

To __15__ advantage of this tool, some poor countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices __16__ respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is a/an __17__ of their sovereignty might well study the history of __18__ (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is __19__ America's Second Wave infrastructure-__20__ roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment.

1. A) divide B) information C) world D) lecture

2. A) obscure B) visible C) invisible D) indistinct

3. A) forces B) obstacles C) events D) surprises

4. A) Seriously B) Entirely C) Actually D) Continuously

5. A) negative B) optimistic C) pleasant D) disappointed

6. A) developed B) centralized C) realized D) commercialized

7. A) users B) producers C) customers D) citizens

8. A) enterprises B) governments C) officials D) customers

9. A) away B) for C) aside D) behind

10. A) netted B) worked C) put D) organized

11. A) decrease B) narrow C) neglect D) low

12. A) containing B) preventing C) keeping D) combating

13. A) win B) detail C) defeat D) fear

14. A) enormous B) countless C) numerical D) big

15. A) bring B) keep C) hold D) take

16. A) at B) with C) of D) for

17. A) offence B) investment C) invasion D) insult

18. A) construction B) facility C) infrastructure D) institution

19. A) why B) where C) when D) how

20. A) concerning B) concluding C) according D) including

答案详解

1.A 由文中第一行的digital divide得出答案。

2.B obscure模糊的，不清楚的；visible看得见的，明显的；invisible看不见的；indistinct不清楚的，模糊的。空格前的less已有否定意义

3.A force力量，武力；obstacle障碍；event事件；surprise惊奇，诧异。句意：现在有新的、乐观的力量来对抗数字鸿沟。

4.C seriously认真地；entirely完全的；actually实际上；continuously连续地。

5.B negative消极的；optimistic乐观的；pleasant令人愉快的；disappointed令人失望的。前文说有积极的力量在对抗数字鸿沟的不利因素，因此，实际上我们有理由保持乐观的态度。

6.D develop发展；centralize集中；realize认识到；commercialize使商业化，由下文“网络有利于商业途径的普及”，可知此处表述的意思是网络越来越商业化。in the interest of...为了...的利益

7.C user使用者；producer生产者；customer消费者；citizen公民。句意：越多的人上网就有越多的潜在消费者。

8.B enterprise企业，事业；government政府；official官员；句意：越来越多的政府害怕他们的国家...

9.D leave behind 留下，超过与leave相关的短语：leave aside把某事搁置一边leave out 省去，遗漏，不考虑leave off 停止，不再穿

10.A 网络把人们联系在一起，选netted

11.B decrease减少，narrow变窄；neglect忽视，疏忽；low降低句意：因此，我现在认为数字鸿沟是在变窄而不是在拓宽

12.D contain包含，容纳；prevent防止，阻止；keep保留，保持；combat战斗，搏斗

13.C win赢得；detail详述，细说；defeat击败，战胜；fear畏惧。

14.A enormous巨大的；countless无数的；numerical数字的。potential作名词为不可数，不能用countless 修饰，big一般表示尺寸、数字、范围上的大。

15.D take advantage of 利用

16.B with respect to 关于，至于with也可换成in.表示关于的还有with regard to,concerning等。

17.C offence冒犯；investment投资；invasion入侵；insult侮辱

18.C construction建筑；facility设备；infrastructure基础设施；institution公共机构，制度。从后文中出现的infrastructure可以轻易得到答案。

19.A 表语从句，表示原因，“这也就是为什么...”

20.D concerning关于；concluding结束的；according根据；including包括。

The course of history is never smooth. It is sometimes beset with difficulties and obstacles and nothing short of a heroic spirit can help surmount them. A mighty long river sometimes flows through a broad section with plains lying boundless on either side, its waters rolling on non-stop for thousands upon thousands of miles. Sometimes it comes up against a narrow section flanked by high mountains and steep cliffs, winding through a course with many a perilous twist and turn. A nation, in the course of its development, fares likewise. The his torical course of man’s life is just like a journey. A traveler on a long journey passes through now a broad, level plain, now a rugged, hazardous road.

1目前面临中华的民族的历史进程，充满了艰难险阻。

2.三个警察冒着高温和浓烟，营救出了孩子们。

3.英国人能写小说和戏剧，偶尔也能出一名世界著名的画家。但是对于电影，他们却取得很少的功绩。

4 理智战胜困难说着容易做着难。

5长城东起山海关西到嘉峪关，全长六千公里，被称为万里长城。

汉语原文：历史的道路，不会是坦平的，有时走到艰难险阻的境界。这是全靠雄健的精神才能冲过去的。一条浩浩荡荡的长江大河，有时流到很宽阔的境界，平原无际，一泻万里。有时流到很逼狭的境界，两岸丛山迭岭，绝壁断崖，江河流于期间，回环曲折，极其险峻。民族生命的进展，其经历亦复如是。人类在历史上的生活正如旅行一样。旅途上的征人所经过的地方，有时是坦荡平原，有时是崎岖险路。

汉语出处：《艰难的国运与雄健的国民》作者：李大钊，译者：张培基。

作文：Benefits of volunteering

2001年第2篇考研阅读题真题改成的完形填空

A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide--the division of the world into the info(information) rich and the info poor. And that __1__ does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less __2__ then, however, were the new, positive __3__ that work against the digital divide. __4__,there are reasons to be __5__.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more