Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension

　　Part A

　　Directions:

　　Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

　　Text 1

　　U. S.-led occupation authorities have begun a secret campaign to recruit and train agents with the once-dreaded Iraqi intelligence service to help identify resistance to American forces here after months of increasingly sophisticated attacks and bombings, according to U.S.. and Iraqi officials.

　　The extraordinary move to recruit agents of former president’s security services demonstrates a growing recognition among U.S. officials that American military forces—already stretched thin—cannot alone prevent attacks like the devastating truck bombing of the U.N. headquarters recently, the officials said.

　　Authorities have stepped up the recruitment over the past two weeks, one senior U.S. official said, despite sometimes firm objections by members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, who complain that they have too little control over the pool of recruits. While U.S. officials acknowledge the sensitivity of cooperating with a force that embodied the ruthlessness of the overthrown president’s rule, they assert that an urgent need for better and more precise intelligence has forced unusual compromises.

　　“The only way you can combat terrorism is through intelligence,” the senior official said. “It’s the only way you’re going to stop these people from doing what they’re doing.” He added: “Without Iraqi input, that’s not going to work.”

　　Officials are reluctant to disclose how many former agents have been recruited since the effort began. But Iraqi officials say they number anywhere from dozens to a few hundred, and U.S. officials acknowledge that the recruitment is extensive.

　　“We’re reaching out very widely,” said one official with the U.S.-led administration, who like most spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity over questions of intelligence and sources.

　　Added a Western diplomat: “There is an obvious evolution in American thinking. First the police are reconstituted, then the army. It is logical that intelligence officials from the regime would also be recruited.”

　　Officials say the first line of intelligence-gathering remains the Iraqi police, who number 6,500 in Baghdad and 33,000 nationwide. But that force is hampered in intelligence work by a lack of credibility with a belief-broken public, and its numbers remain far below what U.S. officials say they need to bring order to an unruly capital. Across Iraq, walk-in informers have provided tips on weapons hidings and locations of suspected guerrillas, but many Iraqis dismiss those reports as occasional and sometimes motivated by a desire for personal gain.

　　The emphasis in recruitment appears to be on the intelligence service known as the Mukhabarat, one of four branches in the former security service, although it is not the only target for the U.S. effort. The Mukhabarat, whose name itself inspired fear in ordinary Iraqis, was the foreign intelligence service, the most sophisticated of the four.

　　1. America’s attitude towards Iraqi intelligence was one of _____

　　[A] disgust [B] hatred [C] fear [D] resent

　　2. The word “devastating” (Line 3, Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to _____

　　[A] destructive [B] regretful [C] frustrating [D] terrible

　　3. The U.S. officials consider the nature of the recruitments of former security services _____

　　[A] give-ins to the bombing

　　[B] setbacks of US-led administration

　　[C] examples of US-Iraqi cooperation

　　[D] compromises of some kind

　　24. Which of the following is true regarding the recruitment of the intelligence?

　　[A] The new-release people are unwilling to tell anything about themselves.

　　[B] It is just a preparatory step for the reconstruction of the Iraqi armed forces.

　　[C] The western world as a whole dislikes the idea of reconstruction in this way.

　　[D] An obvious connection exists in the reconstructions of the army and the police.

　　5. A large part of the Iraqi people hold information about weapon hidings as _____

　　[A] fear-inspired [B] money-driven

　　[C] unreliable [D] sophisticated

　　答案

　　1.C 2.A 3.D 4.A 5.B

　　總體分析

　　本文是一篇關于以美國為首的占領當局招募前伊拉克情報局的特工的報道。

　　第一段：介紹該招募行動的起因。

　　第二段：指出該招募行動的意義。

　　第三、四段：美高級官員聲稱該招募行動是為了打擊恐怖主義而做出的妥協。

　　第五、六段：政府官員不愿意透露這項行動的具體情況。

　　第七段：指出其他西方國家將這一舉措看作是美國人思想進步的表現。

　　第八段：介紹目前伊拉克情報收集的不良狀況。

　　第九段：介紹招募行動的重點部門。