Passage One
Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Passage One
Merchant and passenger ships are generally required to have a life preserver for every person aboard and, in many cases, a certain percentage of smaller sizes for children. According to United States Coast Guard requirements, life preservers must be simple in design, reversible, capable of being quickly adjusted to fit the uninitiated individual, and must be so designed as to support the wearer in the water in an upright or slightly backward position.

Sufficient buoyancy (浮力) to support the wearer should be retained by the life preserver after 48 hour in the water, and it should be reliable even after long period of storage. Thus it should be made of materials resistant to sunlight, gasoline, and oils, and it should be not easily set on fire.

The position in which the life preserver will support a person who jumps or falls into the water is most important, as is its tendency to turn the wearer in the water from a face-down position to an upright or slightly backward position, with his face clear of the water, even when the wearer is exhausted or unconscious.

The method of adjustment to the body should be simple, and self-evident to uninitiated persons even in the dark under the confused conditions which follow a disaster. Thus, the life preserver should be reversible, so that it is nearly impossible to set it on wrong. Catches, straps, and ties should be kept to a minimum. In addition, the life preserver must be adjustable to the wide variety of shapes and sizes of wearers, since this greatly affects the position of floating and the self-righting qualities. A suitable life preserver should also be comfortable to wear at all times, in and out of the water, not so heavy as to encourage to take it off on shipboard while the ship is in danger, nor so burdensome that it hinders a person in the water while trying to swim.

21. The passage is mainly about ________.
A) the uses of life preservers
B) the design of life preservers
C) the materials for life preservers
D) the buoyancy of life preservers

22. According to the passage, a life preserver should be first of all, ________.
A) adjustable
B) comfortable
C) self-evident
D) self-righting

23. United States Coast Guard does NOT require the life preserver to the made ________.
A) with as few strings as possible
B) capable of being worn on both sides
C) according to each wearer’s size
D) comfortable and light to wear

24. By “the uninitiated individual” (Para. 1, line 6) the author refers to the person ________.
A) who has not been instructed how to use a life preserver
B) who has a little experience in using a life preserver
C) who uses a life preserver without permission
D) who becomes nervous before a disaster

25. What would happen if a person were supported by the life preserver in a wrong position?
A) The waves would move him backwards.
B) The water would choke him.
C) He would immediately sink to the bottom.
D) He would be exhausted or unconscious.

Passage Two
Passage Two
A hundred years ago it was assumed and scientifically “proved” by economists that the laws of society made it necessary to have a vast army of poor and jobless people in order to keep the economy going. Today, hardly anybody would dare to voice this principle. It is generally accepted that nobody should be excluded from the wealth Western industrialized countries, a system of insurance has been introduced which guarantees everyone a minimum of subsistence (生活维持费) in case of unemployment, sickness and old age. I would go one step further and argue that, even if these conditions are not present, everyone has the right to receive the means to subsist (维持生活), in other words, he can claim this subsistence minimum without having to have any “reason”. I would suggest, however, that it should be limited to a definite period of time, let’s say two years, so as to avoid the encouraging of an abnormal attitude which refused any kind of social obligation.

This may sound like a fantastic proposal, but so, I think, our insurance system would have sounded to people a hundred years ago. The main objection to such a scheme would be that if each person were entitled to receive minimum support, people would not work. This assumption rests on the fallacy of the inherent laziness in human nature, actually, aside from abnormally lazy people, there would be very few who would not want to earn more than the minimum, and who would prefer to do nothing rather than work.

However, the suspicions against a system of guaranteed subsistence minimum are not groundless, from the standpoint of those who want to use ownership of capital for the purpose of forcing others to accept the work conditions they offer. If nobody were forced to accept work in order not to starve, work would have to be sufficiently interesting and attractive to induce one to accept it. Freedom of contract is possible only if both parties are free to accept and reject it; in the present capitalist system this is not the case.

But such a system would not only be the beginning of real freedom of contract between employers and employees, its principal advantage would be the improvement of freedom in inter-personal relationships in every sphere of daily life.

26. People used to think that poverty and unemployment were due to ________.
A) the slow development of the economy
B) the poor and jobless people’s own faults
C) the lack of responsibility on the part of society
D) the large number of people who were not well-educated

27. Now it is widely accepted that ________.
A) the present system of social insurance should be improved
B) everybody should be granted a minimum of subsistence without any “reason”
C) everybody has the right to share in the wealth of the country
D) people have to change their attitude towards the poor

28. The writer argues that a system of social insurance should ________.
A) provide benefits for the sick, old and unemployed
B) encourage people to take on more social obligations
C) guarantee everyone the right to be employed
D) provide everyone with the right to a minimum subsistence for a certain period

29. The word “fallacy” (Para. 2. L. 6) means ________.
A) doubt
B) fact
C) strong argument
D) wrong belief

30. According to the writer, a system of guaranteed subsistence minimum ________.
A) demands too much from society
B) makes freedom of contract impossible
C) helps people take interest in their work
D) helps bring about changes in the relationship among people
Passage Three
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
The newborn can see the difference between various shapes and patterns from birth. He prefers patterns to dull or bright solid colors and looks longer at stripes and angles than at circular patterns. Within three weeks, however, his preference shifts dramatically to the human face.

Why should a baby with so little visual experience attend more to a human face than to any other kind of pattern’? Some scientists think this preference represents a built in advantage for the human species. The object of prime importance to the physically helpless infant is a human being. Babies seem to have a natural tendency to the human face as potentially rewarding. Researchers also point out that the newborn wisely relies more on pattern than on outline, size, or color. Pattern remains stable, while outline changes with point of view; size, with distance from an object; and brightness and color, with lighting.

Mothers have always claimed that they could see their newborns looking at them as they held them, despite what they have been told. The experts who thought that perception (知觉) had to await physical development and the consequence of action were wrong for several reasons. Earlier research techniques were less sophisticated than they are today. Physical skills were once used to indicate perception of objects-skills like visual tracking and reaching for an object, both of which the newborn does poorly. Then, too, assumptions that the newborn’s eye and brain were too immature for anything as sophisticated as pattern recognition caused opposing data to be thrown away. Since perception of form was widely believed to follow perception of more “basic” qualities such as color and brightness, the possibility of its presence from birth was rejected.

31. What does a newborn baby like to see most’?
A) Bright colors.
B) Circular patterns.
C) Stripes and angles.
D) Various shapes.

32. The newborn pays more attention to a human face than any other kind of objects because ________.
A) he sees a human face more often than any other kind of pattern
B) he has an inherent ability to regard a human being as helpful
C) a human face is the most complex pattern he can see
D) a human face is often accompanied by a pleasant voice

33. Contrary to what they believe, mothers have been told that newborns ________.
A) care little about a human face
B) can’t track their movements
C) can’t see their faces
D) can easily perceive brightness

34. In earlier researches on the newborn’s perception, scientists ________.
A) ignored evidence contrary to their assumptions
B) believed that perception of form comes before perception of color and brightness
C) opposed throwing away effective data
D) proved that physical skills come after visual perception

35. The main idea of the passage is that ________.
A) research techniques are of vital importance scientific investigation
B) the findings of earlier scientific researchers often prove wrong
C) newborns can perceive forms from birth
D) more often than not the claims of mothers are reliable

Passage Four
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.

Albert Einstein recalled his learning problems philosophically: “My intellectual (智力的) development was slow, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up. Naturally, I could go deeper into the problem than a child.” And so, 11 years after dismissal from school, young Albert Einstein published the theory of relativity that changed our understanding of the universe.

No one in this century has been more widely recognized as a genius than Einstein. Yet his problems with early intellectual development and his peculiar gifts cast great doubt on all our conventional ideas about genius, intelligence or “I.Q.” (智商). On the one hand, Einstein showed early defects in abilities that our mental tests value; on the other hand, his special intellectual faculties went far beyond most definitions of intelligence. Moreover, their growth appears peculiarly gradual, contradicting the popular conception of intelligence as something inborn and fixed. His resolute persistence and his skills in playing games with ideas were apparently as decisive to his genius as any cutting edge of intellect (智能).

These powerful aspects of intelligence that conventional definitions overlook are getting close attention in a new wave of research. This comes after years of earlier studies which exposed the narrowness of our usual measures of mental ability. Intelligence, it turns out, is multifaceted and marvelous; it includes personal characteristics, creativity skills and intellectual capabilities that show up on no test. What is most exciting is that some of these iii-defined abilities are possessed by many people. Just knowing about such neglected skills will help us discover and develop untapped (未开发的) potential-in ourselves and in our children.

36. This passage is about ________.
A) the development of Einstein’s intellect
B) the wide recognition of Einstein as a genius
C) conventional ideas concerning genius
D) an insight to the complexity of human intelligence

37. According to the passage, when Einstein was at school, he ________.
A) fell behind other pupils
B) was fond of studying philosophical problems
C) was proud of his own diligence
D) thought more deeply about the problems of space and time than his classmates

38. Which of the following led to Einstein’s success?
A) His good skills in game-playing.
B) His diligence and powerful mind.
C) His unusual insight into the conception of intelligence.
D) His decisiveness in taking actions.

39. “Multifaceted” (Para. 3, Line 6) probably means ________.
A) having many aspects
B) having many abilities
C) having many skills
D) having many uses

40. According to the passage which of the following statements is TRUE’?
A) Conventional intelligence tests are not reliable.
B) For ordinary people intelligence is something inborn and fixed.
C) Einstein was apparently a genius in playing games as well as in scientific research.
D) Einstein’s early defects in abilities contributed to his later mental development.
参考答案