1、高級英語考試試題二. Reading comprehensionPassage oneTelevision-the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies marked by rapid change and growth-is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic re

2、volution of sorts, made possible by the television and computer technologies.The word“television”, derive from its Greek ( tele : distant ) and Latin ( vision : sight ) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance. Very simply put ,it works this way : through a sophisticated system o

3、f electronics, television provides the capability of converting an image ( focused on a special photo-conductive plate within a camera ) into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These impulses, when fed into a receiver ( television set ), can be electronically reconstitut

4、ed into the same image.Television is more than just an electronics system, however. It is a means of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by its me

5、ans of transmission. First , there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals. Second, there is non-broadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups through controlled transmission tech

6、niques.Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are most familiar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. ABC,NBC and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news, information, and entertainment

7、s. These gains of broadcasting have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainments, placing our role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.1. What is the literal meaning of the world “ television ” ? A. sight from a distance B. TV C. airwave transmission D. vehicle for commu

8、nication1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as a function of electronic in television transmission? A. the feeding of impulses into a television set B. the conversion of an image into electronic impulses C. the sending of impulses through a wire cable D. the turning of one imag

9、e into another 3. What field of television is intended for specific groups? A. broad-based B. non-broadcast C. reconstituted D. technological 4. In the passage, the word “ purveyors” could be best replaced by which of the following? A. suppliers B. directors C. cheats D. managers5. Which of the foll

10、owing statement about the relationship between television and its viewers can be inferred from the passage? A. Viewers would indulge in TV programs. B. Viewers depend on television to understand other. C. Viewers do not take an active role in watching TV. D. Television has shaped viewers minds.Keys:

11、ADBACPassage twoEducating girls quite possibly yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Womens education may be unusual territory for economists, but enhancing womens contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And

12、 economics, with its emphasis on incentives(激勵)，provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived of an education.Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls

13、grow up only to marry into somebody elses family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and kept at home to do housework while their brother are sent to school- the prophecy(預言) becomes self-fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle(惡性循環(huán)) of neglect.An educated mother

14、, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of all her choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of

15、her daughter than makes it much likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle.Few will dispute that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well.

16、Most obviously, there is the direct effort of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the just the beginning. Educating women als

17、o has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.1. The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is _. A) rewarding B) troublesome C) expensive D) labor-saving2. By saying “the prophecy becomes self-fulfilling” (Lines 4-5, Para.2), the author means that _.A

18、)girls will eventually find their goals in life beyond reachB)girls will be increasingly discountented with their life at home C)girls will be capable of realizing their own dreams D)girls will turn out to be less valuable than boys3. The author believes that a vicious circle can turn into a virtuou

19、s circle when _.A) women care more about education B) parents can afford their daughters education C) girl can gain equal access to education D) a family has fewer but healthier children4. What does the author say about womens education?A) It has aroused the interest of growing number of economists.

20、B) It will yield greater return than other known investments.C) It is now given top priority in many developing country.D) It deserves greater attention than other social issues.5. The passage mainly discusses _.A) unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries B) the major contribution

21、s of educated women to societyC) the economic and social benefits of educating womenD) the potential earning power of well-educated women Keys:AACBC Passage threeSpeeding off in a stolen car, the thief think he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a r

22、emote immobilizer，and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again. The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro-processor and memory, and a GPR（全球定位系統(tǒng)）sat

23、ellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted. In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. The pattern of vehicle cr

24、ime has changed, says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old. Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer wont all

25、ow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition(點火) key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting hold of the o

26、wners keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the theft of vehicles fitted with a tracking system. If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms

27、 due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal. Staff at the centre will then contract the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicles movement via the cars GPS unit.1. Whats the function of the remote immobiliser fitted to a car? A) To allow the car to lock aut

28、omatically when stolen. B) To prevent the car thief from restarting it once it stops. C) To help the police make a surprise attack on the car thief D) To prevent car theft by sending a radio signal to the car owner. 2. By saying The pattern of vehicle crime has changed(Line 1-2, Para. 3), Martyn Ran

29、dall suggests that _. A) self-prepared tools are no longer enough for car theft B) the thief has to make use of computer technology C) it takes a longer time for the car thief to do the stealing D) the thief has lost interest in stealing cars over 10 years old 3. What is essential in making a modern

30、 car tougher to steal? A ) A GPS satellite positioning receiver. C) A special cellphone signal B) A unique ID card. D) A coded ignition key. 4. Why does the tracking system set a 100-metre minimum before sending an alarm to the operations centre?A) To give the driver time to contact the operations c

31、entre.B) To allow for possible errors in the GPS system.C) To keep police informed of the cars movements.D) To leave time for the operations centre to give an alarm.5. What will the operations centre do first after receiving an alarm?A) Start the tracking system. C) Contract the car owner.B) Locate

32、the missing car D) Block the car engine.Keys:BABBCPassage four It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this

33、matter. You either have science or you dont, and if you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat and promptly useful bits.The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant

34、 about the nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in this way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed that the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment to be told by any of us how little we know and how bewildering seem

35、s the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century science to be the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up

36、stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true lig

37、ht at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably no questions we can think up that cant be answered, sooner or later, including even the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may w

38、ell be questions we cant think up, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, but that is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our through to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.1. According to the author, really good science _. A. woul

39、d surprise the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment B. will produce results which cannot be foreseen C. will help people to make the right choice in advance D. will bring about disturbing results2. It can be inferred from the passage that scientists of the 18th century _.A. through that

40、 they knew a great deal and could solve most problem of scienceB. were afraid of facing up to the realities of scientific researchC. knew that they were ignorant and wanted to know more about natureD. did more harm than good in promoting mans understanding of nature3. Which of the following statemen

41、ts is NOT true of scientists in earlier times?A. They invented false theories to explain thing they didnt understand.B. They falsely claimed to know all about nature.C. They did not believe in results from scientific observation.D. They paid little attention to the problems they didnt understand.4.

42、What is the authors attitude towards science?A. He is depressed because of the ignorance of scientists.B. He is doubtful because of the enormous difficulties confronting it.C. He is confident though he is aware of the enormous difficulties confronting it.D. He is delighted because of the illuminatin

43、g scientific findings.5. The author believes that _.A. man can find solutions to whatever questions concerning nature be can think up B. man can not solve all the problems he can think up because of limits of human intellectC. sooner or later man can think up all the questions concerning nature and

44、answer them D. questions concerning consciousness are outside the scope of scientific researchKeys:BACCAPassage five In 1979 the Catholic Church finally forgive Galileo for claiming that the Earth and other planet revolved around the sun. in 1633 the examiners at the Minerva Church in Rome had found

45、 Galileo guilty of heresy, spreading false beliefs. Galileo was sixty-eight years old at the time of his trial and was ill. After two days of continuous questioning and the treat of torture, Galileo, confessed to heresy and kneeled before the examiners, saying for all to here that his theories had b

46、een wrong. The judge could have had Galileo burned at the stake for his beliefs, but because he had confessed, they were lenient with the astronomer. They sentenced him to an unlimited term in prison, but quickly changed the sentence to house arrest in his own home, effectively ending Galileos teach

47、ing career. For years Galileo had believed that the earlier theory, that the stars revolved around the Earth, was incorrect, but he kept quiet out of respect for the Church. He had never finished his university studies in mathematics because he had run out of money, but his brilliant work as a stude

48、nt allowed him to teach. He proved he uniform effect of gravity in a series of brilliant calculations, for example, not by dropping a feather and a cannonball from the Learning Tower of Pisa, his home city, as is commonly thought.In 1606, though, Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope; he

49、 redesigned and improved his own telescope in one day. Using the telescope to test his mathematical calculations, he also discovered Jupiters moons, the features of Earths moon, and the structure of the Milky Way. But while watching the movement of sunspots , he became convinced , once and for all,

50、that the earlier astronomer , Copernicus, was right: the Earth and other planets orbited around the sun. The Earth wan one of many planets, and not the center of the universe. Galileo began to press for permission from the Church to write about his “theories of the world” and in 1642 he received per

51、mission.His greatest book, contrasting the two systems, was written and published eight years later. Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems was quickly seen as a landmark scientific work, both for its ideas and for its fine writing. But the Church meantime had its own problems with the Protestant

52、 Reformation. Church leaders now considered Galileos work dangerous and revolutionary. A “document” was found that contradicted the permission Galileo though he had obtained to write about his theories. Galileo was then arrested and placed before the inquisition. Galileo died in 1642, blind and stil

53、l imprisoned in his own home. He retained convinced that he had always been right.The Church, 345 years later, finally agreed that he had been correct. The findings of the judges at Galileos trial were not reversed, even though their precise finding had been that the astronomer was “vehemently suspe

54、ct of heresy.” The findings of any inquisition, even the Galileo court-as well as notorious Spanish Inquisition must be allowed to stand, at least partly because their findings often resulted in death sentences for people accused of heresy. But in 1979, Pope John Paul addressed the August Pontifical Science Academy in the Vatican and offered apology to Galileo: “ The greatness of Galileo, like that of Einstein, is known to all. But the former had to suffer greatly, we cannot hide it, from Church institutions and men.”1. The purpose of this passage is to _