自考英语阅读一 一考通阅读练习题

Unit 1单元同步练习I. Careful ReadingDirections: In this section, there are 3 reading passages followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. Passage 1Large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale, faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little prospect of raising the sort of sums needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance, they are generally unwilling to provide money on a permanent basis for long-term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in exchange for a share in future profits. Thus they do by issuing stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation the savings of individuals and institutions, both at home and overseas.When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other saver who is seeking to invest his money.Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the government or by local authorities. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones, railways, this country could not function. All these require continuous spending on new equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than is raised through taxes alone. The government, local authorities and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange.There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose job or whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another this new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance.1. Almost all companies trying to develop new products and create ne jobs have to ____.A. borrow large sums of money from friends and relativesB. persuade the banks to provide long-term financeC. rely on their own financial resourcesD. depend on the population as a whole for finance2. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is ___.A. raised by selling the shares in the companiesB. raised by putting into circulation the savings of individuals overseasC. repaid to its original owners as soon as possibleD. invested in different companies on the Stock Exchange3. When the savers want their money back they ___.A. go to the company to take it backB. have to borrow money from other peopleC. put their shares in the company back on the marketD. transfer their money to a more successful company4. All the essential services on which we depend are ___.A. run by the government or out local authoritiesB. in constant need of financial supportC. unable to meet the needs of the populationD. financed wholly by rates and taxes5. The Stock Exchange makes it possible for the government, local authorities and nationalized industries to ___.A. make certain everybody saves moneyB. borrow as much money as they wishC. raise money to finance new developmentsD. make certain everybody lends money to themPassage 2Lacking a cure for AIDS, society must offer education, not only by public pronouncement but in classrooms. Those with AIDS or those at high risk of AIDS suffer prejudice; they are feared by some people who find living itself unsafe, while others feared by some people who find living itself unsafe, while others conduct themselves with a “bravado故作勇敢”that could be fatal. AIDS has afflicted a society already short on humanism, open-handedness and optimism. Attempts to strike it out with the offending microbe细菌are not abetted教唆by pre-existing social ills. Such concerns impelled me to offer the first university level undergraduate AIDS course, with its two important aims.To address the fact that AIDS is caused by a virus, not by moral failure or societal collapse. The proper response to AIDS is compassion couples with an understanding of the disease itself. We wanted to foster (help the growth of ) the idea of a humane society.To describe how AIDS tests institutions upon which our society rests. The economy, the political system, science, the legal establishment, the media and our moral ethical-philosophical attitudes must respond to the disease. Those responses, whispered, or shrieked, easily accepted or highly controversial, must be put in order if the nation is to manage AIDS. Scholars have suggested that how a society deals with the threat of AIDS describes the extent to which what society has the right to call itself civilized. AIDS, then, is woven into the tapestry挂毯of modern society; in the course of explaining that tapestry, a teacher realizes that AIDS may bring about changes of historic proportions. Democracy obliges its educational system to prepare students to become informed citizens, to join their voices to the public debate inspired by AIDS. Who shall direct just what resources of manpower and money to the problem of AIDS? Even more basic, who shall formulate a national policy on AIDS? The educational challenge, then, is to enlighten the individual and the societal, or public, responses to AIDS.1. What is the passage mainly talking about?A. The necessity of the education about AIDS.B. How to achieve the mains of AIDS courses.C. He wanted to teach the students that AIDS resulted from moral failure.D. People take improper attitudes towards AIDS and those with or at high risk of AIDS.3. The word “afflict” in the third sentence of the first paragraph most probably means “___”.A. benefitB. cause suffering toC. teachD. draw attention from4. What does the author think is the correct response to AIDS?A. Fear and contempt.B. Optimism and bravado.C. Understanding and compassion.D. Resentment and avoidance.5. Which of the following can best explain “AIDS tests the institutions upon which our society rests” according to the passage?A. AIDS is a sign of moral failure and social collapse.B. AIDS indicates that our social systems have been very inefficient.C. The responses of a society to the threat of AIDS determines whether and to what extent the society can be called civilized.D. The spreading of the fatal disease suggests that the nation’s resources have been wrongly used. II. Speed ReadingDirections: Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer andf blacken the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet.Passage 1BUnit 59. CinderellaJacob Grimm Wilhelm GrimmTextUnit 1121. Prometheus---A Story from Greek MythsTextBefore Zeus became chief of all the gods on Mount Olympus, there were other gods—children of a the Sky and the Earth. Some of them, the Titans, were savage and cruel. For ten years, Zeus and his brothers and sisters fought against the Titans. Finally, with the help of one-eyed giants called Cyclops, the Titans were defeated, and Zeus sent them all to a fiery prison in the underworld.One of these Titans, named Prometheus, was very wise. He had guessed that Zeus would win the war, and had therefore fought on his side. He had convinced his brother, Epimetheus, to do the same.Thus, when there was peace again, and Zeus sat on his throne on Mount Olympus, he sent forPrometheus. In gratitude for Prometheus’ helps, Zeus gave him great power. He sent him to earth and told him to earth and told him to make mortal man out of clay. When Prometheus had made his statues of men out of clay, said Zeus, he would come and breathe life into them. They were to be only men—no women or children.Zeus told Prometheus to teach the mortals anything they needed to know in order to live. He was also to teach them the arts, so that they could build beautiful temples to honour the gods. There was, in fact, only one thing he could not teach them.“You may give the morals any gift except the gift of fire,” said Zeus, “Fire belongs to the gods only, and must be kept on Mount Olympus.”Prometheus was happy to be of service to man. He taught people how to make their own tools and how to build homes for themselves. He taught them how to plant and grow their own food, and how to use animals to make their work easier. He even taught them how to make music and how to paint. But without fire, life on earth was very difficult. Food had to be eaten raw; houses could not be kept ward. Tools had to be of stone, because there was no fire for working metals.Athena, daughter of Zeus, had been watching over Prometheus and had helped him in his work. Now, because Prometheus was kind and wanted man to be comfortable on earth, he called upon Athena to help him get fire from Mount Olympus. She knew that Zeus was away and promised to lead Prometheus to Mount Olympus by a secret path. Before leaving, Prometheus called his brother Epimetheus to him and to him what he was going to do.“My brother,” said Prometheus, “I know that when I steal the fire from the heavens, Zeus will be very angry. He will, I am sure, punish me severely. I am willing to accept punishment if you will promise to take my place. I love mankind, and want to be sure that you will carry on my work.”Sadly, Epimetheus gave his promise. Then Prometheus added, “Be very careful when I am gone. Be sure, above all, that you do not do anything to anger Zeus. He has great powers, and is to be feared.”Then Athena led Prometheus to Mount Olympus. Just as he arrived, Apollo came back from his day’s journey in his chariot of the sun. Prometheus lit a torch from the chariot and put the fire in a hollow stalk that he concealed under his cloak. Then he stole away without being seen by any of the gods, and brought his fire to earth.When Prometheus lit the first compfire on earth, the people were afraid of it. But they trusted him, and so they came closer and closer and enjoyed the fire’ pleasant warmth and beautiful glow.Prometheus knew that he would not have much time before Zeus discovered that he had been disobedient. But he also knew that, powerful as Zeus was, once a god had given a gift it could not be taken away. So he quickly taught the mortals how to use the gift of fire.Now Zeus was a jealous god. He grudged men all the gifts that Prometheus had given them and he was angry with Prometheus for teaching men so many things.。