英语阅读（八）
A
Early in the 18th century, Captain Cook, a famous explorer of Australia, unexpectedly caught sight of an unusual animal during his first visit to Australia. The animal had a large mouse like head and jumped along on its large legs. To his great surprise, the unusual animal carried its young in a special pocket of flesh. Captain Cook pointed to the animal which was eating grass in the distance and asked his native guide what the animal was referred to. The guide seemed not to know that he was pointing at and finally said “Kang-a-roo”, but their requests were met with puzzled looks of the native people. Before long they got to discover that the native guide who made the answer to Cook’s question really meant, “I don’t know what you pointing at. “ Funny enough, the name “ Kang-a-roo”, stuck and it is still in use today.
1．Which of the following sentences best expresses the main idea?
A．captain Cook’s guide made a joke.
B．Native Australians could not speak English in Cook’s time.
C．Some words have rather funny origins (起源).
D．Captain Cook was a lover of wild animals.
2．When the native guide said “Kang-a-roo ”, he really meant “ ______”
A．Ah, it is a special kind of animal
B．I wonder what you have said
C．What do you mean by pointing at that animal?
D．I have no idea of what you are referring to.
3．We can infer from this passage ______.
A．we should learn many different languages
B．Captain Cook made a mistake in understanding
C．Captain Cook was a foolish explorer
D．the importance of a language in common
B
There are two types of twins; identical and non-identical twins. Identical twins are formed from a single egg in mother’s body which divides to from two separate babies. Identical twins look the same, and are often dressed by their parents in clothes of the same colors. It is often difficult to tell identical twins from each other, even when they are standing side by side. Non-identical twins come into being when the mother produces two separated eggs a the same time, both of which grow to form babies. In this case the twins look like normal brothers and sisters and are easy to tell one from the other.
In the 1970s and 1980s a scientist did some research into twins. He invited many pairs of identical twins to university and asked them to take part in a week of tests. He was particularly interested in adopted (收养) twins who had been separated at birth. He would give the twins different kinds of tests to study their speed of thinking, their speech, their memory, the ways they saw and heard different things, and so on. Time and time again he found separated twins who preferred clothes of the same color, used the same kind of shaving soap, wore the same shaped square glasses and the same colored socks.
There is a third type of twins, but it is a very unusual one. Twins which are joined together at birth are known in western countries as Siamese twins.
4．It is difficult to tell identical twins apart because _______.
A．they are dressed in the same clothes
B．they are dressed in the same color
C．they are very alike
D．they are standing side by side
5．If the twins are easy to tell from each other, they are ______.
A．very probably non-identical twins
B．surely identical twins
C．surely identical twins
D．always a brother and a sister
6．Which of the following is NOT true according to this passage?
A．In the 1970s and 1980s a scientist did some research into the two main types of twins.
B．In the week of tests, he tested their speed of thinking, their speech, their memory and some other things.
C．There were twins who had been separated from each other as soon as they were born.
D．Very often, separated twins were found to choose things of the same kind, the same shape and the same color.
7．This passage mainly tells us _______.
A．the main types of twins
B．what has been found out about twins
C．how twins are formed
D．how a scientist studied twins
C
There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing.
The connection between the two news items is simple; computers—the best invention of the 20th century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man’s bill was only $ 23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $ 2,000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied ” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money . The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed ” it. It was only a random (随便) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.
Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they’re sometimes slower than human beings and they’re easily fooled.
The US used to conscript (征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax(腊) on the card. The computer couldn’t read the card, and did nothing with it.
It’s in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let’s get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can’t put right.
8．In the first paragraph we can conclude ______.
A．the paper is telling a lie
B．the first sentence is the topic sentence
C．the two news items made people surprised
D．if a man did nothing at all for the telephone company, he would still get $2,000 a month
9．The main idea of the second paragraph is _______.
A．the computers are magical workers
B．the computers can do anything as well as man
C．the computers can write out the bill and even sign it
D．the computers sometimes also make mistakes
10．Computers ______.
A．were used to conscript people
B．are usually faster than human beings
C．are not so magical as people expect
D．were not easily controlled and always fooled human beings
11．The writer thinks _______.
A．we’d better use people instead of computers in our everyday life
B．we should not use computers because they always make mistakes
C．computers are widely used in our everyday life
D．if we want to work well, don’t use the computers
D
When several different people look at the same person, it is not unusual for each of them to see different things; when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times, you may see different things. The following are but some of the factors that lead to these varying perceptions (感知，认知)：
(1)Each person’s perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning education, and personal experiences.
(2) Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we’ve observed. It is not necessarily true that person perception is based on observations of a particular person. Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person; or you may focus (聚焦) primarily on the situation or role relationship. Most people do not use the same yardstick (标准) to measure their parents, their friends, and strangers.
(3) Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don’t see what may be obvious to others because of out own needs, desires, or temporary emotional states. This is a process known as selective perception. Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory (矛盾的) information is particularly obvious, but it can be done. We can ignore (忽视) the stimulus— “He’s basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting. ”
We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information— “All kids (孩子) get into mischief (顽皮) . Taking a book from the bookstore isn’t such a big deal. ” We can change the meaning of the contradictory information—”It wasn’t shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.”…
12．The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is _____.
A．the abilities of one’s auditory (听) and visual (视) sensors
B．cultural background and personal experiences
C．experiences one learns from others
D．critical measures taken by other people
13．While observing a particular person, ______.
A．one is likely to take all aspects (方面) into consideration
B．one pays more attention to his/her advantages
C．children often differ from grown-ups in perception
D．one tends to choose certain cues (提示) to look for
14．Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because ______.
A．their measuring yardsticks are not the same
B．either of them may be slow to catch information
C．the time for observation is not long enough
D．each of them uses different language to express his/her impressions
15．The word “stimulus ” in paragraph 4 refers to ______.
A．something attractive
B．selective perception
C．contradictory information
D．shoplifting
16．The worst thing in selective perception is that _______.
A．perceived information runs against you desire
B．facts can be totally ignored or distorted (扭曲)
C．importance of the contradictory information can be overrated (估计过高)
D．the same information may not be dealt with in the same way
E
You know you have to read “between the lines ”to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to “write between the lines. ” Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
I insist, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of damage but of love.
There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of buying is only the first step to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. A comparison may make the point clear. You buy a piece of beef and transfer it from the butcher’s icebox to your own. But you do not own the beef in the most important sense until you eat it and get it into your blood. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood to do you any good.
There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and bestsellers—unread, untouched. The second has a great many books—a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. The third has a few books or many—every one of them worn, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled (涂写) in from front to back.
Why is marking up a book necessary to reading it ? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don’t mean only conscious; I mean wide awake .) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
17．The third kind of owners of books must be ______.
A．experienced readers
B．untidy readers
C．active readers
D．careless readers
18．Marking up a book means ______.
A．writing down difficult sentences
B．finding the extra meanings of unknown words
C．writing in the space the ideas you get through careful reading
D．making notes to show you understand what you have read
19．What does the author persuade you to mark?
A．Whatever you have given deep thought to while reading.
B．Words and sentences that bring up rich ideas.
C．Primary questions that challenge you.
D．Whatever disagreements you may have with the book
20．A great advantage of marking up a book is ______.
A．to absorb all the brilliant ideas it contains
B．to make yourself a part of it, making further inquiry (查询) easy
C．to make yourself conscious that you are reading actively
D．to enable yourself to pick up the book for continual reading
参考答案 (八) 1---5 CDBCA 6---10 ABCDC 11---15 ABDAC 16---20 DCCAB