Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are four 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.
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Television is one of today's most powerful and widespread means of masscommunication. It directly influences our lives on both a short and longterm basis; it brings worldwide situations into our homes; it affords extensive opportunities for acquiring higher education; and it performs these tasks in a convenient yet effective manner. We are all aware of the popularly accepted applications of television, particularly those relative to entertainment and news broadcasting.
Television, however, has also been a vital link in unmanned deep space exploration (such as the Voyager Ⅰ and Ⅱ missions), in providing visions from hazardous areas (such as proximity to radioactive materials or environments) in underwater research, in viewing storms moving across a metropolitan area (the camera being placed in a weatherprotective enclosure near the top of a tower), etc..The earth's weather satellites also use television cameras for viewing cloud cover and movements from 20,000 miles in space. Infrared filters are used for night views, and several systems include a spinningmirror arrangement to permit widearea views from the camera. Realizing the unlimited applications for today's television, one may thus logically ponder the true benefits of confining most of our video activities to the mass entertainment field.
Conventional television broadcasting within the United States centers around free enterprise and public ownership. This requires funding by commercial sponsors,and thus functions in a revenueproducing business manner. Television in USSR subjected areas, conversely, is a governmentowned and maintained arrangement. While such arrangements eliminate the need for commercial sponsorship, it also has the possibility of limiting the type of programs available to viewers (a number of purely entertainment programs similar to the classic “Bewitched”, however, have been seen on these governmentcontrolled networks. All isn't as gray and dismal as the uninformed might unnecessarily visualize).
A highly modified form of television called SlowScan TV is presently being used by many Amateur Radio operators to provide direct visual communications with almost any area of the world . This unique visual mode recently allowed people on the tiny South Pacific country of Pitcairn Island to view, for the first time in their lives, distant areas and people of the world. The chief radio Amateur and communications officer of Pitcairn, incidentally, is the legendary Tom Christiangreat, great grandson of Tom Christian of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame. Radio Amateurs in many lands worked together for several months establishing visual capabilities for Pitcairners. The results have proven spectacular, yet the visual capabilities have only been used for health education, or welfare purposes.
Commercial TV is still unknown to natives of that tiny country. Numerous other forms of television and visual communication have also been used on a semirestricted basis. This indicates the many untapped areas of video and television which may soon be exploited on a more widespread basis. The old cliché of a picture being worth a thousand words truly has merit.
21.According to the passage, applications of television are easily accepted in ____.
A) metropolitan area
B) deep space exploration
C) programs about entertainment and news
D) remote areas
22.Which of the following statements is true in the eyes of the writer?
A) Applications of television are beneficial to big cities.
B) Applications of television are believed to be good activities.
C) Applications of television are restricted to television systems.
D) Applications of television do benefit to the mass entertainment field.
23.According to the passage television in USSR ____.
A) is limited to a revenueproducing business manner
B) requires funding by commercial sponsors
C) puts away the need of commercial aid
D) is badly in need of commercial help
24.In the passage, the author tries to tell us purely entertainment program
s similar to the classic “Bewitched” ____.
A) are as good as those in the U.S.
B) have been seen on many governmentcontrolled networks
C) are as gray and dismal as the uninformed might unnecessarily visualize
D) are not as gloomy as the uninformed might
25.The author's attitude toward television programs is ____.
A) positive B) indifferent
C) critical D) dangerous
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
I came across an old country guide the other day. It listed all the tradesmen in each village in my part of the country, and it was impressive to see the great variety of services which were available on one's own doorstep in the late Victorian countryside.
Nowadays a superficial traveler in rural England might conclude that the only village tradesmen still flourishing were either selling frozen food to the inhabitants or selling antiques to visitors. Nevertheless, this would really be a false impression. Admittedly there has been a contraction of village commerce, but its vigour is still remarkable.
Our local grocer's shop, for example, is actually expanding in spite of the competition from supermarkets in the nearest town. Women sensibly prefer to go there and exchange the local news while doing their shopping, instead of queueing up(anonymously) at a supermarket. And the proprietor knows well that personal service has a substantial cash value.
His prices may be a bit higher than those in the town, but he will deliver anything at any time. His assistants think nothing of bicycling down the village street in their lunch hour to take a piece of cheese to an oldage pensioner who sent her order by word of mouth with a friend who happened to be passing, the more affluent customers telephone their shopping lists and the goods are on their doorsteps within an hour. They have only to knit at a fancy for some commodity outside the usual stock and the grocer, a redfaced figure, instantly obtains it from them.
The village gains from this sort of enterprise, of course. But I also find it satisfactory because a village shop offers one of the few ways in which a modest individualist can still get along in the world without attaching himself to the big battalions of industry or commerce. Most of the village shopkeepers I know, at any rate, are decidedly individualist in their ways. For example, our shoemaker is a formidable figure: a thickset, irritable man whom children treat with marked respect, knowing that an illjudged word can provoke an angry eruption at any time. He stares with smouldering contempt at the pairs of cheap, massproduced shoes taken to him for repair: has it come to this, he seems to be saying, that he, a craftsman, should have to waste his skills upon such trash? But we all know he will in fact do excellent work upon them. And he makes beautiful shoes for those who can afford such luxury.
26.The writer considered the old country guide interesting because he found in it ____.
A) the names of so many of the shops in the village around
B) the many people selling to, and doing jobs for, residents in local villages at the time it appeared
C) the variety of shops and services available in Victorian days in Britain
D) information about all the jobs there were in his own and surrounding villages at the time it appeared
27.The local grocer's shop is expanding even though ____.
A) women spend a lot of their time there just gossiping
B) town shops are larger and rather cheaper
C) people like to shop where they are less wellknown
D) people get personal service in his shop
28.The writer implies that one disadvantage of town shops is that ____.
A) their prices are higher
B) people cannot telephone them
C) their staff may take less trouble to satisfy customers
D) one has to queue up in them
29.The writer appreciates the village shop because ____.
A) he welcomes competition with organized business
B) he likes the idea that a humble person can be successful
C) this is a case of individual success in a world of increasing
D) he welcomes an example of private enterprise surviving in an age of giant companies
30.What is the village shoemaker's reaction to massproduced shoes?
A) He considers they are not worth the effort of mending properly.
B) He is angry with the customers for bringing in such rubbish.
C) He despises their quality.
D) He feels exasperated because people waste their money on inferior shoes.
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
Black Americans have served with honor in every American military action, though this fact is often omitted in history books. Even though black men almost had to beg to be allowed to serve in the Revolutionary War, they went on to serve well. Two blackmen, Oliver Cromwell and Prince Whipple, were with Washington when he crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776, to attack the British at Trenton. A black man named Estabrook captured the Royal Army's general Prescott Newport, and Peter Salem, a black, killed Major Pitcairn as he was savoring his expected victory at Bunker Hill.
Even though they were forced to serve in separated units, black soldiers distinguished themselves in combat. This was despite the fact that whites had long believed that blacks could neither command nor use firearms. In 1863, William Carney of the Massachusetts Colored Infantry received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in battles with the Plains Indians. Isaiah Dorman, Coster's black scout, served and died at the Little Big Horn in 1876.Henry Flipper was the first black graduate of West Point in 1877.
In World War Ⅰ, 40,000 black American combat soldiers served with the French command. Neither U.S. nor British commanders would use these men. But Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, soldiers in the 369th Infantry's black “Hellfighters” were still the first Americans to win the Croix de Guerre, France's top military award.
During World War Ⅱ over 600,000 black men and women served in the armed forces, including some 400,000 who served overseas. Dorie Miller, a black mess attendant in navy, was one of our first heroes in this war. At Pearl Harbor during the Japanese sneak attack, he manned a machine gun and shot down four planes. The black fighter pilots of Benjamin Davis, Jr. distinguished themselves throughout the war. They served most courageously during the Italian campaign. During the war in Vietnam, mainly because of civil rights pressures in America but also owing to the fine record of black military units, all American forces were fully integrated. Once again blacks played vital roles. And 13.2 percent of all war deaths were of blacks, even though blacks constitute only 11 percent of all Americans. Black American soldiers continue to serve their land well.
31.The main idea of this passage is that ____.
A) black Americans made contributions in the Revolutionary War
B) black Americans have admirably served their country in at least five wars
C) black Americans suffered a larger portion of war deaths in Vietnam than did any other minorities
D) black Americans served under the French command in World War Ⅰ
32.Benjamin Davis, Jr. was ____.
A) one of black fighter pilots during World War Ⅰ
B) commander of a group of black fighter pilots during World War Ⅱ
C) one of the soldiers who crossed the Delaware with Washington in 1776
D) a scout for Coster and died at the Little Big Horn
33.The passage implies that ____.
A) black Americans were forced to fight in World War Ⅰ
B) black Americans served in the military for a good life
C) Americans have been ignorant of the fact that blacks have played in America's military history
D) black Americans went into war because of their courage
34.The meaning of the word “savoring” is ____.
A) demanding B) commanding
C) assuring D) enjoying
35.Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A) Black Americans played an important role in the wars in America.
B) None of the white fight pilots joined World War Ⅱ.
C) The portion of deaths of blacks is larger than that of the whites.
D) All the statements are true.
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
The island of Great Britain being small(compared with the size of Australia),the natural place for holiday relaxation and enjoyment is its extensive coastline, above all its southern and eastern coasts, though Blackpool, which is probably the best known and most crowded seaside town, and the favorite resort of the masspopulation of industrial Lancashire, is on the northwest coast. Distant and littleinhabited areas like Northern Scotland, are too remote for the development of large seaside resorts.
For most children, going to the seaside suggests a week or fortnight of freedom on the beach, ideally a sandy one providing ample opportunity for the construction of sandcastles, fishing in pools for stranded shrimps, paddling in shallow water or swimming in deep. Children's entertainments may include the traditional knockabout puppet show “Punch and Judy”, donkey rides, paddleboats in artificialponds, minigolf and the swings and roundabouts in local fairgrounds. Their parents spend sunny days swimming in the sea and sunbathing on the beach. Not that the British sun can be relied on and the depressing sight of families wandering round the town in mackintoshes and under umbrellas is only too common. However there are always the shops with their tourist souvenirs, plenty of cafes and, if the worst comes to the worst, the cinema to offer a refuge. The average family is unlikely to seek accommodation in a hotel as they can stay more cheaply in one of the many boardinghouses. These are usually three or fourstoreyed Victorian buildings, whose owners spend the summer season letting rooms to a number of couples or families and providing three cooked meals a day at what they describe as a reasonable price, with the hope that in this way they will add enough to their savings to see the winter through. Otherwise there are the caravan and camping sites for those who prefer selfcatering.
Nowadays, even when an increasing number of people fly off to Mediterrane an resorts where a welldeveloped suntan can be assured, or explore in comfort Swiss lakes and mountains or romantic Italian or Spanish cities, the British seaside is still the main attraction for families, especially those with younger children. As they queue for boat trips, cups of tea or icecream under grey skies and in drizzling rain, the parents are reliving their own childhood when time seemed endless, their own sandcastle the most splendid on the beach, the sea always blue and friendly and the sun always hot.
36.A reason suggested in the first paragraph for the appeal of the British seaside is that ____.
A) it is an ideal place for children
B) most holiday resorts are in the warmer south and east
C) it is within easy reach
D) a large number of people enjoy going there
37.Children enjoy the seaside because ____.
A) they can be sure to play on a sandy beach
B) they are allowed to do anything they like
C) it provides a period of enjoyable escape from school routine
D) there are a variety of enjoyable ways of spending time there
38.It is suggested that as a form of holiday entertainment the cinema ____.
A) is visited only if there is nothing better to do
B) is the only place there is to go to in bad weather
C) has nothing whatever to recommend it
D) is the best place there is to go to in bad weather
39.What reason is suggested for running a boardinghouse?
A) The owners earn their living by doing this.
B) This helps to pay for the upkeep of a large house.
C) The resulting supplementary income will ensure a living for several months.
D) The money they make will keep them through the winter.
40.What attraction has the British seaside got for many parents in comparis on with European resorts?
A) They can take their families with them in their own country.
B) There are more ways of enjoying themselves there.
C) It takes them less time to get there.
D) They can relive happy memories.
