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　　SAT阅读练习题:Reading Comprehension Test 14

　　Much of what goes by the name of pleasure is simply an effort

　　to destroy consciousness. If one started by asking, what is

　　man? what are his needs? how can he best express himself?

　　one would discover that merely having the power to avoid work

　　5 and live one’s life from birth to death in electric light and

　　to the tune of tinned music is not a reason for doing so. Man

　　needs warmth, society, leisure, comfort and security: he also

　　needs solitude, creative work and the sense of wonder. If he

　　recognized this he could use the products of science and

　　10 industrialism eclectically, applying always the same test:

　　does this make me more human or less human? He would then

　　learn that the highest happiness does not lie in relaxing,

　　resting, playing poker, drinking and making love simultaneously.

　　1. The author implies that the answers to the questions in sentence two would reveal that human beings

　　A. are less human when they seek pleasure

　　B. need to evaluate their purpose in life

　　C. are being alienated from their true nature by technology

　　D. have needs beyond physical comforts

　　E. are always seeking the meaning of life

　　2. The author would apparently agree that playing poker is

　　A. often an effort to avoid thinking

　　B. something that gives true pleasure

　　C. an example of man’s need for society

　　D. something that man must learn to avoid

　　E. inhuman

　　Examine the recently laid egg of some common animal, such as

　　a salamander or newt. It is a minute spheroid – an apparently

　　structureless sac, enclosing a fluid, holding granules in

　　suspension. But let a moderate supply of warmth reach its

　　5 watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so

　　rapid, yet so steady and purposeful in their succession, that

　　one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled

　　modeler upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible

　　trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and

　　10 smaller portions. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger

　　traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and

　　molded the contour of the body; pinching up the head at one

　　end, the tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb

　　into due proportions, in so artistic a way, that, after

　　15 watching the process hour by hour, one is almost

　　involuntarily possessed by the notion, that some more subtle

　　aid to vision than a microscope, would show the hidden

　　artist, with his plan before him, striving with skilful

　　manipulation to perfect his work.

　　3. The author makes his main point with the aid of

　　A. logical paradox

　　B. complex rationalization

　　C. observations on the connection between art and science

　　D. scientific deductions

　　E. extended simile

　　4. In the context of the final sentence the word “subtle” most nearly means

　　A. not obvious

　　B. indirect

　　C. discriminating

　　D. surreptitious

　　E. scientific

　　Passage one

　　There are not many places that I find it more agreeable to

　　revisit when I am in an idle mood, than some places to which

　　I have never been. For, my acquaintance with those spots is

　　of such long standing, and has ripened into an intimacy of

　　5 so affectionate a nature, that I take a particular interest

　　in assuring myself that they are unchanged. I never was in

　　Robinson Crusoe’s Island, yet I frequently return there. I

　　was never in the robbers’ cave, where Gil Blas lived, but

　　I often go back there and find the trap-door just as heavy

　　10 to raise as it used to be. I was never in Don Quixote’s

　　study, where he read his books of chivalry until he rose

　　and hacked at imaginary giants, yet you couldn’t move a

　　book in it without my knowledge. So with Damascus, and

　　Lilliput, and the Nile, and Abyssinia, and the North Pole,

　　15 and many hundreds of places — I was never at them, yet it

　　is an affair of my life to keep them intact, and I am

　　always going back to them.

　　Passage two

　　The books one reads in childhood create in one’s mind a

　　sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous

　　20 countries into which one can retreat at odd moments

　　throughout the rest of life, and which in some cases can

　　even survive a visit to the real countries which they are

　　supposed to represent. The pampas, the Amazon, the coral

　　islands of the Pacific, Russia, land of birch-tree and

　　25 samovar, Transylvania with its boyars and vampires, the

　　China of Guy Boothby, the Paris of du Maurier—one could

　　continue the list for a long time. But one other

　　imaginary country that I acquired early in life was

　　called America. If I pause on the word “America”, and

　　30 deliberately put aside the existing reality, I can call

　　up my childhood vision of it.

　　5. The first sentence of passage one contains an element of

　　A. paradox

　　B. legend

　　C. melancholy

　　D. humor

　　E. self-deprecation

　　6. By calling America an “imaginary country” the author of passage two implies that

　　A. America has been the subject of numerous works for children

　　B. he has never seen America

　　C. his current vision of that country is not related to reality

　　D. America has stimulated his imagination

　　E. his childhood vision of that country owed nothing to actual conditions

　　7. Both passages make the point that

　　A. imaginary travel is better than real journeys

　　B. children’s books are largely fiction

　　C. the effects of childhood impressions are inescapable

　　D. books read early in life can be revisited in the imagination many years later

　　E. the sight of imaginary places evokes memories

　　8. Both passages list a series of places, but differ in that the author of passage one

　　A. has been more influenced by his list of locations

　　B. never expects to visit any of them in real life, whereas the writer of passage two thinks it at least possible that he might

　　C. is less specific in compiling his list

　　D. wishes to preserve his locations in his mind forever, whereas the author of passage two wishes to modify all his visions in the light of reality.

　　E. revisits them more often

　本套SAT阅读练习题参考答案在下一页

参考答案

　　1.Correct Answer: D

　　Explanation:

　　The main point of the passage is to show that so-called pleasure is not enough to justify existence. By answering these questions we will apparently reveal that pleasure and physical comforts are only part of what a human being needs. (We also need “solitude, creative work and the sense of wonder”.) These ideas are best conveyed by answer D.

　　2.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　Poker is mentioned as part of the list of things that do not bring us the highest happiness. We need to relate this list to the first sentence to get the answer. Poker is apparently an example of “what goes by the name of pleasure” and which the author says is an “effort to destroy consciousness”. Answer A is best because it paraphrases this idea. (“Destroy consciousness” is changed to “avoid thinking”).

　　3.Correct Answer: E

　　Explanation:

　　The author is at pains to show us how watching an embryo develop makes it look like a modeler is at work. He is comparing the way parts appear during development to the way a model is formed from clay. A figurative comparison is called a simile and here we have an extended simile because the author persists with different aspects of the comparison through several sentences.

　　4.Correct Answer: C

　　Explanation:

　　The author has the fanciful idea that if he had an instrument more penetrating than a microscope he could “see” the modeler at work. The use of the word “subtle” implies that the instrument would have to have more power to reveal things and in this sense would be more “discriminating”. “Discriminating” is one of the words that examiners like because students often misunderstand. In this sense “discriminating” means able to make finer distinctions or judgments.

　　5.Correct Answer: A

　　Explanation:

　　How is it possible for someone to revisit somewhere he has never been? This apparently contradictory statement is an example of a paradox - something that appears contradictory but for which there is an explanation. In this case the explanation is that the visits are all in the imagination.

　　6.Correct Answer: E

　　Explanation:

　　America is a real country so to call it “imaginary” is paradoxical. (See explanation to the previous question.) The author apparently gained an idea of what America was like from his childhood reading, but this idea in his imagination was unlike the real country, hence he calls it “imaginary”.

　　7.Correct Answer: D

　　Explanation:

　　We can eliminate answer A because the word “better” is unjustified. B refers to children’s books in general, and we have no evidence about all children’s books. C can be eliminated because of the very strong word “inescapable”. E is incorrect because it is impossible to see imaginary places. D is clearly the correct answer.

　　8.Correct Answer: B

　　Explanation:

　　The author of passage one does not indicate that he could visit the North Pole or Robinson Crusoe’s island, but the author of passage two suggests that some of the fabulous countries can “survive a visit to the real countries which they are supposed to represent”. Hence answer B is correct. (If you want to eliminate the other choices then eliminate A because of the word “more”; eliminate C because the author of passage one is actually more specific in his list; eliminate D on the basis of the word “all”; eliminate E because we have no evidence to warrant the use of the word “more”.)