Unit 9
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 reading 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:
Three English dictionaries published recently all lay claim to possessing a “new” feature. The BBC English Dictionary contains background information on 1,000 people and places prominent in the news since 1988; the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: Encyclopedic (百科全書的) Edition is the OALD plus encyclopedic entries; the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture is the LDOCE plus cultural information.
The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have a distinctly “cultural” as well as language learning content. That being said, the way in which they approach the cultural element is not identical, making direct comparisons between the three difficult.
While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic/cultural entries for the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, there is a
. Oxford lays claim to being encyclopedic on content whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English-speaking world. The Oxford dictionary can therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny (審視) for cultural bias than the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of the world from the cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world. The cultural objectives of the BBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an analysis of over 70 million words recorded from the BBC World Service and National Public Radio of Washington over a period of four years, their 1,000 brief encyclopedic entries are based on people and places that have featured (占顯著地位) in the news recently. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to the World Service who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in listening comprehension.
In reality, though, the BBC dictionary will be purchased by a far wider range of language learners, as will the other two dictionaries. We will be faced with a situation where many of the users of these dictionaries will at the very least have distinct socio-cultural perspectives and may have world views which are totally opposed and even hostile to those of the West. Advanced learners from this kind of background will not only evaluate a dictionary on how user-friendly it is but will also have definite views about the scope and appropriateness of the various socio-cultural entries.
21. What feature sets apart the three dictionaries discussed in the passage from traditional ones?
A) The combination of two dictionaries into one
B) The new approach to defining words
C) The inclusion of cultural content
D) The increase in the number of entries
22. The Longman dictionary is more likely to be criticized for cultural prejudice because .
A) its scope of cultural entries goes beyond the culture of the English-speaking world
B) it pays little attention to the cultural content of the non-English-speaking countries
C) it views the world purely from the standpoint of the English-speaking people
D) it fails to distinguish language from culture in its encyclopedic entries
23. The BBC dictionary differs from Oxford and Longman in that .
A) it has a wider selection Of encyclopedic entries
B) it is mainly designed to meet the needs of radio listeners
C) it lays more emphasis on language than on culture
D) it is intended to help listeners develop their listening comprehension skills
24. It is implied in the last paragraph that, in approaching socio-cultural content in a dictionary, special thought should be given to .
A) the language levels of its users
B) the number of its prospective purchasers
C) the different tastes of its users
D) the various cultural backgrounds of its users
25. What is the passage mainly about?
A) Different ways of treating socio-cultural elements in the three new English dictionaries.
B) A comparison of people's opinions on the cultural content in the three new English dictionaries.
C) The advantages of the BBC dictionary over Oxford and Longman.
D) The user-friendliness of the three new English dictionaries.
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
Real policemen hardly recognize any resemblance between their lives and what they see on TV.
The first difference is that a policeman's real life revolves round criminal law. He has to know exactly what actions are crimes and what evidence can be used to prove them in court. He has to know nearly as much law as a professional lawyer, and what is more, he has to apply it on his feet, in the dark and rain, running down a street after someone he wants to talk to.
Little of his time is spent in chatting. He will spend most of his working life typing millions of words on thousands of forms about hundreds of sad, unimportant people who are guilty of stupid, petty crimes.
Most television crime drama is about finding the criminal: as soon as he's arrested, the story is over. In real life, finding criminals is seldom much of a problem. Except in very serious cases like murders and terrorist attacks little effort is spent on searching.
Having made an arrest, a detective really starts to work. He has to prove his case in court and to do that he often has to gather a lot of different evidence.
A third big difference between the drama detective and the real one is the unpleasant pressures: first, as members of a police force they always have to behave absolutely in accordance with the law. Secondly, as expensive public servants they have to get results. They can hardly ever do both. Most of the time some of them have to break the rules in small ways.
If the detective has to deceive the world, the world often deceives him. Hardly anyone he meets tells him the truth. And this separation the detective feels between himself and the rest of the world is deepened by the simple-mindedness — as he sees it — of citizens, social workers, doctors, law-makers, and judges, who, instead of eliminating crime punish the criminals less severely in the hope that this will make them reform. The result, detectives feel, is that nine-tenths of their work is re-catching people who should have stayed behind bars. This makes them rather cynical (憤世嫉俗的).
26. A policeman has to be trained in criminal law because .
A) he must work hard to help reform criminals
B) he must behave as professional lawyers do
C) he must be able to tell when and where a crime is committed
D) he must justify the arrests he makes of criminals
27. What is the most suitable word that describes the work of a policeman according to the passage?
A) Dangerous B) Demanding C) Distressing D) Dramatic
28. According to the passage, policemen spend most of their time and efforts .
A) patrolling the street, rain or shine C) collecting and providing evidence
B) tracking and arresting criminals D) consulting the rules of law
29. What's the policeman's biggest headache?
A) He has to get the most desirable results without breaking the law in any way.
B) He has to justify his arrests while unable to provide sufficient evidence in most cases.
C) He can hardly find enough time to learn criminal law while burdened with numerous criminal cases
D) He has to provide the best possible public service at the least possible expense
30. Why do policemen feel separated from the rest of the world?
A) Because they do not receive due support from society.
B) Because they find people insincere to them.
C) Because they feel superior to simple-minded people around them.
D) Because they are suspicious of the people around them.
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
To live in the United States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf's assertion that social change exists everywhere. Technology, the application of knowledge for practical ends, is a major source of social change.
Yet we would do well to remind ourselves that technology is a human creation; it does not exist naturally. A spear or a robot is as much a cultural as a physical object. Until humans use a spear to hunt game or a robot to produce machine parts, neither is much more than a solid mass of matter. For a bird looking for an object on which to rest, a spear or robot serves the purpose equally well. The explosion of the Challenger space shuttle (挑戰者號航天飛機) and the Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl drive home the human quality of technology; they provide cases in which well-planned systems suddenly went haywire (變得混亂) and there was no ready hand to set them right. Since technology is a human creation, We are responsible for what is done with it. Pessimists worry that we will use out technology eventually to blow our world and ourselves to pieces. But they have been saying this for decades, and so far we have managed to survive and even flourish. Whether we will continue to do so in the years ahead remains uncertain. Clearly, the impact of technology on our lives deserves a closer examination.
Few technological developments have had a greater impact on our lives than the computer revolution. Scientists and engineers have designed specialized machines that can do the tasks that once only people could do. There are those who assert that the switch to an information-based economy is in the same camp as other great historical milestones, particularly the Industrial Revolution. Yet when we ask why the Industrial Revolution was a revolution, we find that it was not the machines. The primary reason why it was revolutionary is that it led to great social change. It gave rise to mass production and, through mass production, to a society in which wealth was not confined to the few.
In somewhat similar fashion, computers promise to revolutionize the structure of American life, particularly as they free the human mind and open new possibilities in knowledge and communication. The Industrial Revolution supplemented and replaced the muscles of humans and animals by mechanical methods. The computer extends this development to supplement and replace some aspects of the mind of human beings by electronic methods. It is the capacity of the computer for solving problems and making decisions that represents its greatest potential and that poses the greatest difficulties in predicting the impact on society.
31. A spear or a robot has the quality of technology only when it .
A) is used both as a cultural and a physical object
B) serves different purposes equally well
C) is utilized by man
D) can be of use to both man and animal
32. The examples of the Challenger and Chernobyl cited by the author serve
to show that .
A) if not given close examination, technology could be used to destroy our world B) technology is a human creation, so we are responsible for it
C) technology usually goes wrong, if not controlled by man
D) being a human creation, technology is liable to error
33. According to the author, the introduction of the computer is a revolution mainly because .
A) the computer has revolutionized the workings of the human mind
B) the computer can do the tasks that could only be done by people before
C) it has helped to switch to an information technology
D) it has a great potential impact on society
34. By using the phrase “the human quality of technology” (Para. 2, Lines6-7), the author refers to the fact that technology .
A) has a great impact on human life
B) has some characteristics of human nature
C) can replace some aspects of the human mind
D) does not exist in the natural world
35. The passage is based on the author's .
A) keen insight into the nature of technology
B) prejudiced criticism of the role of the Industrial Revolution
C) cautious analysis of the replacement of the human mind by computers
D) exaggerated description of the negative consequences of technology
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
Now custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great importance. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most common place. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief and the very great varieties it may manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine(未受外界影響的) eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes (固定的模式);his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. When one seriously studies social orders that have had the opportunity to develop independently, the figure (這種比喻) becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.
36. The author thinks the reason why custom has been ignored in the academic world is that .
A) custom reveals only the superficial nature of human behavior
B) the study of social orders can replace the study of custom
C) people are still not aware of the important role that custom plays in forming our world outlook
D) custom has little to do with our ways of thinking
37. Which of the following is true according to John Dewey?
A) An individual can exercise very little influence on the cultural tradition into which he is born.
B) Custom is the direct result of the philosophical probings of a group of people.
C) An individual is strongly influenced by the cultural tradition even before he is born.
D) Custom represents the collective wisdom which benefits the individual.
38. The word “custom” in this passage most probably means .
A) the concept of the true and the false of a society
B) the independently developed social orders
C) the adjustment of the individual to the new social environment
D) the patterns and standards of behavior of a community
39. According to the passage, a person's life, from his birth to his death, .
A) is constantly shaping the cultural traditions of his people
B) is predominated by traditional custom
C) is continually influenced by the habits of other communities
D) is chiefly influenced by the people around him.
40. The author's purpose in writing this passage is .
A) to urge individuals to follow traditional customs
B) to stress the strong influence of customs on an individual
C) to examine the interaction of man and social customs
D) to show man's adjustment to traditional customs
