Ⅳ. Reading Comprehension (60 points)
Directions:
There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose one best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Passage One
In ancient times wealth was measured and exchanged in things that could be touched: food, tools, and precious metals and stones. Then the barter system was replaced by coins, which still had real value since they were pieces of rare metal. Coins were followed by fiat money, paper notes that have value only because everyone agrees to accept them.
Today electronic monetary systems are gradually being introduced that will transform money into even less tangible forms, reducing it to a series of “bits and bytes”, or units of computerized information, going between machines at the speed of light. Already, electronic fund transfer allows money to be instantly sent and received by different banks, companies, and countries through computers and telecommunications devices.
61. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?
A. International Banking Policies B. The History of Monetary Exchange
C. The Development of Paper Currencies D. Current Problems in the Economy
62. According to the passage, which of the following was the earliest kind of exchange of wealth?
A. Bartered foods B. Fiat money C. Coin currency D. Intangible forms
63. The author mentions food, tools and precious metals and stones together because they are all ________.
A. useful items B. articles of value
C. difficult things to obtain D. material objects
64. According to the passage, coins once had real value as currency because they ______.
represented a great improvement over barter
permitted easy transportation of wealth
were made of precious metals
could become collector’s items
65. Which of the following statements about computerized monetary systems is NOT supported by the passage?
They promote international trade.
They allow very rapid money transfers.
They are still limited to small transactions (交易).
They are dependent on good telecommunications systems.
Passage Two
At the University of Kansas art museum, scientists tested the effect of different colored walls on two groups of visitors to an exhibit of paintings. For the first group the room was painted white; for the second, dark brown. Movement of each group was followed by an electrical equipment under the carpet. The experiment showed that those who entered the dark brown walked more quickly, covered more area, and spent less time in the room than people in the white one. Dark brown made people more active, but the activity ended sooner. Not only the choice of colors but also the general appearance of a room affects those inside. Another experiment presented people with photographs of faces whose energy was to be commented. Three groups of people were used; each was shown the same photos, but each group was in an ordinary room—a nice office. The third was in a tastefully designed living room with carpeting. Results showed that the people in the beautiful room tend to give higher marks to the faces than those in the ugly room did. Other studies that students do better on tests taken in comfortable room than in ordinary-looking or ugly rooms.
66. Which of the following is the best expression of the main idea of this passage?
People in beautiful rooms tend to give higher marks to photos of faces than people in ugly rooms
The color and general appearance of a room have a deeper effect on the behavior of the people in it
The University of Kansas has studied the effects of the color of room on people’s behavior
Beautifully furnished, light-coloured rooms make people more comfortable than ugly, dark rooms
67. According to the passage, we may conclude that the whiter a room is ________.
A. the longer people like to stay in it B. the sooner people in it will leave
C. the more active people in it will become D. the more excited people
68. What is referred to as the “general appearance” in this passage is ________.
how many broad windows a room has, through which sunlight might come in
the size of a room
whether there are beautiful walls in a room
what the room looks like
69. This passage provides us with _______.
A. a piece of scientific information B. a normal lesson
C. an interesting test D. a piece of news
70. At least how many tests were carried out by the scientists referred to in this passage?
A. Three B. Two C. Only one D. No one knows
Passage Three
The water we drink and use is running short in the world. We all have to learn how to stop wasting our limited water. One of the steps we should take is to find ways of reusing it. Experiments have already been done in this field.
Today in most large cities, fresh water is used only once, then it runs into waste system. But it is possible to pipe the used water to a purifying factory. There it can be filtered and treated with chemicals so that it can be used again, just as it were fresh from a spring.
But even if every large city purified and reused its water, we still would not have enough. Then we could turn to the oceans. All we’d have to do to make use of the seawater on earth is to get rid of the salt. This process is called desalinization, and it is already in use in many parts of the world.
71. The way to stop wasting our limited water is to ________.
A. do experiments with water B. purify the used water and reuse it
C. use fresh water once again D. make use of seawater
72. The following tells us how to reuse the used water. Which is the right order of the passage?
A. to have the used water filtered B. to put chemicals in it
C. to pipe it to the users D. to pipe the used water to be purified to a factory
73. There wouldn’t be enough water for us if we didn’t _________.
A. turn to the oceans for more water B. reuse used water and make use of seawater
C. desalt seawater D. take steps to reuse all water on earth
74. The would “it” in the last sentence refers to _______.
A. seawater B. purified water
C. the process of getting rid of the salt in seawater
D. the process of collecting salt from the sea oceans
75. The best title for the passage is “_______”.
A. How to Reuse Water
B. Two Solutions to the Problem of Water Shortage
C. Stop Wasting Our Limited Water
D. How to Make Use of Seawater
Passage Four
Some people hate everything that is modern. They cannot imagine how anyone can really like modern music; they find it hard to accept the new fashions in clothing; they think that all modern painting is ugly; and they seldom have a good word for the new buildings that are being built everywhere in the world. Such people look for perfection in everything, and they take their standards of perfection from the past. They are usually impatient with anyone who is brave enough to experiment with new or to express himself or the age in materials original ways. It is, of course, true that many artists do not succeed in their work and instead produce works that can only be considered as failures. If the work of art is a painting, the artist’s failure concerns himself alone, but if it is a building, his failure concerns others too, because it may damage the beauty of the whole place. This does sometimes happen, but it is completely untrue to say, as some people do, that modern architecture is nothing.
We can’t judge every modern building by the standards of the ancient time, even though we admire the ancient buildings. Technologically, the modern buildings are more advanced. The modern architect knows he should learn from the ancient works, but with his greater resources of knowledge and materials, he will never be content to imitate the past. He is too proud to do that.
76. Some people hate everything that is modern because _______.
A. they are aged B. they find it hard to accept modern things
C. they take their standards of perfection from the Greek
D. they look at things by the standards of the past
77. The writer of the passage thinks that ________.
it is true to say artists fail in their work
it is untrue to say artists fail in their work
it is true to say some artists fail in their work
it is true to say only painters fail in their work
78. The writer thinks the failure of a building _______.
A. means nothing B. concerns others
C. concerns only the artist D. concerns all the people in the world
79. The writer thinks that _________.
we can’t judge buildings by the ancient standards
we can’t judge all the buildings by the ancient standards
we can’t judge all the modern buildings by the ancient standards
we can’t judge modern buildings
80. Technologically, the modern buildings are more advanced. The sentence means _____.
the ancient architects had no technology
the modern architects use more advanced technology
the modern buildings are advanced because they are completely different from the ancient buildings
the modern buildings are more beautiful
Ⅴ. Writing (20 points)
Directions:
For this part, you are allowed 20 minutes to write a short composition of about 80 words on the title: Where to Live-in the City or in the Country? Base your composition on the outline given below.
1.一些人喜欢住在城市，因为城市生活有许多便利。
2.但有些人喜欢住在农村。
3.我认为，……
Ⅰ. Phonetics
1.A 2.D 3.D 4.C 5.D 6.B 7.A 8.B 9.C 10.C
Ⅱ. Vocabulary and Structure
11.D 12.C 13.D 14.C 15.D 16.A 17.A 18.B 19.C 20.D 21.C 22.B 23.B 24.A
25.B 26.A 27.C 28.C 29.C 30.A 31.B 32.C 33.A 34.D 35.A 36.A 37.C 38.D
39.D 40.B 41.A 42.C 43.C 44.B 45.C 46.C 47.B 48.A 49.A 50.B
Ⅲ. Cloze
51.B 52.A 53.D 54.C 55.B 56.A 57.C 58.B 59.D 60.C
Ⅳ. Reading Comprehension
61.B 62.A 63.D 64.C 65.C 66.B 67.A 68.D 69.A 70.A 71.B 72.A 73.B 74.C
75.B 76.D 77.C 78.B 79.C 80.B
Ⅴ. Writing
Where to live —in the City or in the Country
Some people like living in the city because city life has many advantages. They think there are more job opportunities in cities, life there is more colorful and meaningful than that in the country, and there are more modern conveniences in cities for people to enjoy.
But some other people prefer to live in the countryside. They say life in the countryside is closer to nature and better for their health, life there is quieter and that country people are more honest than city people.
I would like to live in a city when I am young to earn enough money and I live in the countryside when I am old for having a quite life.
