研究生英语阅读理解和完型填空练习

I. Reading Comprehension (20 points)

 Passage 1

Ask most people how they define the American Dream and chances are they’ll say, “Success.” The dream of individual opportunity has been home in American since Europeans discovered a “new world” in the Western Hemisphere. Early immigrants like Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur praised highly the freedom and opportunity to be found in this new land. His glowing descriptions of a classless society where anyone could attain success through honesty and hard work fired the imaginations of many European readers: in Letters from an American Farmer (1782) he wrote. “We are all excited at the spirit of an industry which is unfettered (无拘无束的) and unrestrained, because each person works for himself … We have no princes, for whom we toil (干苦力活)，starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing in the world.” The promise of a land where “the rewards of a man’s industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor” drew poor immigrants from Europe and fueled national expansion into the western territories.

Our national mythology (神化) is full of illustration the American success story. There’s Benjamin Franklin, the very model of the self-educated, self-made man, who rose from modest origins to become a well-known scientist, philosopher, and statesman. In the nineteenth century, Horatio Alger, a writer of fiction for young boys, became American’s best-selling author with rags-to-riches tales. The notion of success haunts us: we spend million every year reading about the rich and famous, learning how to “make a fortune in real estate with no money down,” and “dressing for success.” The myth of success has even invaded our personal relationships: today it’s as important to be “successful” in marriage or parenthoods as it is to come out on top in business.

But dreams easily turn into nightmares. Every American who hopes to “make it” also knows the fear of failure, because the myth of success inevitably implies comparison between the haves and the have-nots, the stars and the anonymous crowd.

Under pressure of the myth, we become indulged in status symbols: we try to live in the “right” neighborhoods, wear the “right” clothes, eat the “right” foods. These symbols of distinction assure us and others that we believe strongly in the fundamental equality of all, yet strive as hard as we can to separate ourselves from our fellow citizens.

1. What is the essence of the American Dream according to Crevecoeur?

By saying “the rewards of a man’s industry follow with equal steps the progress of

his labor” (Para. 1), the author means ______________.

The characters described in Horatio Alger’s novels are people who _______________.

It can be inferred from the last sentence of the second paragraph that _________________.

 What is the paradox of American culture according to the author?

Passage 2

We were late as usual. My husband had insisted on watering the flowers in the garden by himself, and when he discovered that he couldn’t manage he had asked me for help at the last moment. So now we had an hour to get to the airport. Luckily, there were not many cars or buses on the road and we were able to get there just in time. We checked in and went straight to a big hall to wait for our flight to be called. We waited and waited but no announcement was made. We asked for information and the girl there told us that the plane hadn’t even arrived yet. In the end there was another announcement telling us that passengers waiting for Flight LJ108 could get a free meal voucher (凭单) and that the plane hadn’t left Spain for technical problems. We thought that meant that it wasn’t safe for the plane to fly. We waited again for a long time until late evening when we were asked to report again. This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel.

The next morning after a bad night because of all the planes taking off and landing, we reported back to the airport. Guess what had happened while we were asleep! Our plane had arrived and taken off again. All the other passengers had been woken up in the night to catch the plane, but for some reason or other we had been forgotten. You can imagine how we felt!

6. The plane the writer and her husband would take _____.

The plane was delayed _____.

The passengers were given a free meal because _____.

They were in a big hall, waiting for _____.

The plane took off again _____.

Passage 1

Culture shock is the loss of emotional balance, disorientation (茫然失措), or confusion that a person feels when moving from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one. When it is a common experience, the degree to which it occurs will vary from one person to another. Individual personality, previous cross-cultural experience, and language proficiency all affect a person’s ability to interact socially in the new culture. The basic cause of culture shock is the abrupt loss of all that is familiar, leading to a sense of isolation.

When an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of those familiar signs and hints are removed. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded or good-willed he may be, a series of properties have been knocked from under him. This may be followed by a feeling of frustration and anxiety. People react to the frustration in much the same way. First they reject the environment which causes the discomfort: “The ways of the host country are bad because they make us feel bad.”

Another aspect of culture shock is regression (倒退). The home environment suddenly assumes a tremendous importance, and everything becomes irrationally glorified. All difficulties and problems are forgotten and only the good things back home are remembered. It usually takes a trip home to bring one back to reality.

Common symptoms of culture shock include the following extremes. These are excessive concerns over delays and other minor frustrations; fear of being cheated, robbed or injured; sleeplessness or a desire to sleep more; and a great longing to go home. Underlying all these is the uncomfortable feeling of not really belonging, of being an outsider.

1. Culture shock is basically caused by ________.

 The degree of culture shock to which one feels varies ________.

The first response a person tends to have when setting foot on a new land is ________.

A home-coming trip will ________.

Which is NOT a symptom of culture shock?

Passage 2

Many experts complain that media too often take advantage of the science fiction aspects of nanotech (纳米技术). Reports of nanotech often refer to K. Eric Drexler’s book Engines of Creations, which predicts an age full of dominant molecular manufacturing and a world without material scarcity. Whatever humans need will one day be built cheaply with microscopic self-replicating machines that put atoms together to create copies of anything alive in the world — from trees to human bodies.

In fact, the scientific community is deeply divided over whether self-replicating machines are possible. If they are, major dangers could exist. Mr. Drexler himself thought that self-replicating machines could probably go out of control. He writes in his book that man-made “plants” with “leaves no more efficient than today’s solar cells could win over real plants, crowding the earth with leaves that are not suitable to be eaten. Tough “bacteria” could be more competitive than the real bacteria: “They could spread everywhere, replicate swiftly, and reduce the earth to dust in a matter of days.”

Critics of nanotech have made use of such images, calling for a delay on commercial nanotech until regulations are established. They also point to the possible military uses of nanotech. Bill Joy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, wrote in a wired magazine essay in 2000 that if nanotech falls into the wrong hands, it could bring dangers to society.

Opponents say Mr. Joy is overreacting. “In a way, calling for bans on research into molecular manufacturing is like calling for a delay on faster-than-light travel because no one is doing it,” says Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor.

Professor Reynolds says it is a good idea to regulate nanotech, but in ways the government would regulate any products that could be dangerous. Export controls and certification systems for nanotech companies are examples. US lawmakers have put forth four bills on nanotech research and development.

6. K. Eric Drexler in his book predicts a future world with sufficient material, because 

Which is NOT mentioned as the possible dangers about self-replicating machines?

To call for a delay on commercial nanotech, critics of nanotech make use of ________.

Opponents of Bill Joy would NOT agree to ________.

Which of the following statements best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

Reading Comprehension (20 points)

 Passage 1

Tread (踩) softly in the garden and pluck that rose with care; flowers cry when cut, cucumbers scream and even healthy fruit gurgles (发出咯咯声) according to new acoustic（声学的） research on the stressful life of plants.

The findings, released by the Institute for Applied Physics at the University of Bonn, could have important implications for farmers since, with the proper eavesdropping device, one can now distinguish between healthy and sick vegetables. Talking to plants, it seems, is not as rewarding as listening to them.

The Bonn scientists have developed laser-driven microphones that pick up sounds inaccessible to the human ear. When a leaf or a stem is sliced, the plant signals pain (or perhaps merely dismay) by releasing the gas ethylene (乙烯) over its entire surface.

Doctor Frank Kuhnemann of Bonn University has been trapping the ethylene in a bell jar. The gas molecules are later bombarded with laser beams, which makes them vibrate. This produces a sound wave picked up by the microphones. “The more a plant is subjected to stress, the louder the signal we get on our microphone,” he said.

By eavesdropping on plants it should be possible to develop an early warning system to detect pests and disease. Knowing the stress level of fruit and vegetables can also be an aid in efficient storing and transporting. Acoustical evidence demonstrates that apples emit higher levels of ethylene, which causes neighboring plants to wilt (枯萎). As a result, the scientists urged fruit producers to store apples separately.

1. The first paragraph tells us that ___________.

The findings’ implication lies in that ____________.

In the experiment, ___________ is not used.

According to the passage, plants can ____________.

Through the experiment we know that _____________.

Passage 2

Despite a cooling of the economy, high-technology companies are still crying out for skilled workers. The Information Technology Association of America projects that more than 800,000 technology jobs will go unfilled next year. The lack of qualified workers poses a huge threat to the U. S. economy.

The most commonly cited reason for this state of affairs is that the country’s agrarian-age (农村时代) education system fails to prepare students in the primary and secondary grades for twenty-first-century work. Yet an inadequate and outmoded education system is only part of the problem. A less tangible but equally powerful cause is an antique classification system that divides the workforce into two camps: white-collar knowledge workers and blue-collar manual laborers.

Blue-collar workers emerged in the United States during the Industrial Age as work migrated from farms to factories.White-collar office workers became a significant class in the twentieth century, outnumbering the blue-collar workers by mid-century. Corporations increasingly require a new layer of knowledge worker: a highly skilled multi-disciplined talent, who combines the mind of the white-collar worker with a solid grounding in mathematics and science (physics, chemistry, and biology). These “gold-collar” workers — so named for their contributions to their companies and to the economy as well as for their personal earning ability — apply that knowledge to technology.

The gold-collar worker already exists in a wide range of jobs. The maintenance technician who test and repairs aircraft systems at American Airlines; the network administrator who manages systems and network operations at Procter & Gamble; the engineering technologist who assists scientists at Sandia National Laboratories; and the advanced-manufacturing technician at Intel can all be regarded as gold-collar workers.

6. In the first paragraph, the word “projects” can be best replace by ___________.

Compared with a blue-collar worker, a gold-collar worker __________.

A gold-collar worker ___________.

The first group of blue-collar workers were most likely to be ________in the past.

When did the number of white-collar workers become bigger than that of the blue-collar workers in American?

Promptness is important in business, academic, and social settings.People who  11 appointments are considered 12. If people are late to job interviews, appointments or classes, they are often 13 as unreliable and irresponsible. In the business world, “time is money” and companies may fine their 14 for being late to business meetings. Of course, it is not 15  possible to be punctual. Social and business etiquette also provide 16  for late arrivals. Calling on the telephone if one is going to be more than a few minutes late for 17   appointments is considered polite and is often expected. Keeping a friend waiting  18 ten to twenty minutes is considered rude. On the 19 hand, arriving thirty minutes late to some parties is 20.

11. A) do B) leave C) make D) keep

12. A) dependable B) independent C) dependent D) undependable

14. A) watched B) observed C) looked D) viewed

14. A) executives B) leaders C) chiefs D) presidents

15. A) often B) frequently C) always D) usually

16. A) rules B) theories C) orders D) laws

17. A) programmed B) planned C) scheduled D) projected

18. A) past B) more C) beyond D) about

19. A) another   B) other C) each D) one

20. A) acceptable B) available C) accessible D) adaptable

A contract is an agreement between two or more people in  11    one person agrees to do something by a specified date in return for something done by the     12 . Usually the contract is a written document signed and dated by both  13    . It must state clearly the consideration, that is, what is to be given or done by one person in  __14   for what is given or done by the other. If one person does  __15____ was promised and the other does not, that the other may be sued in court and required by court order to make good. He or she   16    also to be required to pay for damages suffered as a result of the failure to perform. The things to be

  17    by both parties must be stated in definite terms   18      the court will hold that the contract is   19     vague and general to be enforced. Similarly, the time period within which the work is to be done must be    20     or the court will say that the document is not a contract.

11. A. which B. where C. it D. on that

12. A. another B. one C. other D. others

13. A. parts B. people C. parties D. aspects

14. A. replace B. change C. payment D. exchange

15. A. that B. what C. anything D. something

16. A. need B. has C. ought D. may

17. A. done B. do C. doing D. did

18. A. and B. or C. else D. so

19. A. so B. too C. rather D. over

20. A. familiar B. same C. definite D. sure

These days some of the most advanced technologies are being aimed at goods and services that give us more time.

In our daily lives, we all have time-consuming activities that are not economically   11, in the sense that they don’t produce goods and services that have value 12    do they give us pleasure. A prime 13    is commuting, going from homes to jobs. According to some recent estimates, Americans spend between 45 minutes and an hour commuting each day.  14    most Americans  have  about  two  weeks  of  15     vacation per year,  plus perhaps the same 16    of public holidays and sick days, the 17    working American may spend about 200 hours commuting annually. For the roughly 140 million working Americans, that’s 28 billion hours that could otherwise be 1 8    to work or leisure.

These hours are worth money. Getting our hours back would be a boon(好处; 利益) to our living standards,    19   we just used it for leisure. It 20   that doing this is a fairly high-tech problem.  Devices like smart phones, tablets,  and laptops are already allowing commuters who don’t drive themselves to recover some of these hours for activities of their choosing -- a step up from books and newspapers. Soon, the advent of self-driving cars will open up these possibilities to today’s car commuters, too.

11. A) advanced  B) unprofitable  C) annoying   D) productive

12. A) nor   B) all    C) both    D) neither

13. A) service  B) means   C) example   D) victim

14. A) Now that  B) Given that  C) Assuming that D) Provided that

15. A) paid   B) long    C) public   D) extended

16. A) time   B) amount   C) quantity   D) estimation

17. A) regular  B) normal   C) average   D) ordinary

18. A) cost   B) spent    C) taken    D) devoted

19. A) if   B) because  C) moreover   D) even if

20. A) turns up  B) turns out  C) turns to   D) turns in