阅读理解题

　　第一篇

Valuing Childhood

　　The value of childhood is easily blurred (变得模糊不清) in today's world. Consider some recant developments: The child-murderers in the Jonesboro, Ark. Schoolyard shooting case were convicted and sentenced. Two boys, 7 and 8, were charged in the murder of an 11-year-old girl in Chicago.

　　Children who commit horrible crimes appear to act of their own will. Yet, as legal proceedings in Jonesboro showed, the one boy who was able to address the court couldn't begin to explain his acts, though he tried to apologize. There may have been a motive youthful jealousy (妒忌) and resentment. But a deeper question remains: Why did these boys and others in similar trouble apparently lack any inner, moral restraint?

　　That question echoes for the accused in Chicago, young as they are. They wanted the girl's bicycle, a selfish impulse common enough among kids.

　　Redemption (拯救) is a practical necessity. How can value be restored to young lives distorted by acts of violence? The boys in Jonesboro and in Chicago will be confined in institutions for a relatively short time. Despite horror at what was done, children are not -- cannot be -- dealt with as adults, not if a people wants to consider itself civilized. That's why politicians' cries for adult treatment of youthful criminals ultimately miss the point.

　　But the moral void (真空) that invites violence has many sources. Family instability contributes. So does economic stress. That void, however, can be filled. The work starts with parents, who have to ask themselves whether they're doing enough to give their children a firm sense of right and wrong. Are they really monitoring their activities and their developing processes of thought?

　　Schools, too, have a role in building character. So do youth organizations. So do law enforcement agencies, which can do more to inform the young about laws, their meaning and their observance (遵守).

　　The goal, ultimately, is to allow all children a normal passage from childhood to adulthood (成年), so that tragic gaps in moral judgement are less likely to occur. The relative few who fill such gaps with acts of violence hint at many others who don't go that far, but who lack the moral foundations childhood should provide -- and which progressive human society relies on.

　　1 The two boys in Chicago were

　　A shot.

　　B murdered.

　　C accused.

　　D sentenced.

　　2 The boys in Jonesboro and Chicago apparently lacked a sense of

　　A right and wrong.

　　B discipline.

　　C shame.

　　D safety.

　　3 According to politicians, when children commit crimes, they should be treated in the same way as

　　A murderers.

　　B criminals.

　　C victims.

　　D adults.

　　4 Which of the following does the writer cite as a source of moral void？

　　A Official corruption.

　　B Social injustice.

　　C Family instability.

　　D Racial discrimination.

　　5 Which of the statements is NOT true according to this passage？

　　A Parents should strengthen morel instruction.

　　B Schools should help create a morel sense in children.

　　C Law enforcement agencies should do more to help children understand laws

　　D Youth organizations play no role in building character.

第二篇

Characteristics of Publicity

　　Publicity offers several benefits. There are no costs for message time or space. An ad in prime-time television may cost $250,000 to $500,000 or more per minute, whereas a five-minute report on a network newscast would not cost anything. However, there are costs for news releases, a publicity department, and other items. As with advertising, publicity reaches a mass audience. Within a short time, new products or company policies are widely known.

　　Credibility about messages is high, because they are reported in independent media A newspaper review of a movie has more believability than an ad in the same paper, because the reader associates independence with objectivity. Similarly, people are more likely to pay attention to news reports than to ads. For example, The Women's Wear Daily has both fashion reports and advertisements. Readers spend time reading the stories, but they flip through (浏览) the ads. Furthermore, there may be 10 commercials during a half-hour television program or hundreds of ads in a magazine. Feature stories are much fewer in number and stand out clearly.

　　Publicity also has some significant limitations. A firm has little control over messages their timing, their placement, or their coverage by a given medium. It may issue detailed news releases and find only portions cited by the media; and media have the ability to be much more critical than a company would like.

　　For example, in 1982, Procter & Gamble faced a substantial publicity problem over the meaning of its 123-year-old company logo (标志). A few ministers and other private citizens believed that the symbol was sacrilegious (亵渎的). These beliefs were covered extensively by the media and resulted in the firm receiving 15,000 phone calls about the rumor in June alone. To combat this negative publicity, the firm issued news releases featuring prominent clergy (神父) that refuted (消除) the tumors, threatened to sue (控告) those people spreading the stories, and had a spokesperson appear on Good Morning America. The media cooperated with the company and the false rumors were temporarily put to rest. However, in 1985, negative publicity became so disruptive that Procter & Gamble decided to remove the logo from its products.

　　A firm may want publicity during certain periods, such as when a new product is introduced or new store opened, but the media may not cover the introduction or opening until after the time it would aid the firm. Similarly, the media determine the placement of a story; it may follow a report on crime or sports. Finally, the media determine whether to cover a story at all and the amount of coverage to be devoted to it. A company-sponsored jobs program might go unreported or receive three-sentence coverage in a local newspaper.

　　6 The word "mass" in Line 5 could best be replaced by

　　A grouped.

　　B crowded.

　　C gathered.

　　D large.

　　7 The second paragraph implies that people are more likely to believe stories

　　A in a newspaper than in a women's daily.

　　B in a newspaper than in a magazine.

　　C In an Independent newspaper than in a dependent newspaper.

　　D in a magazine than in a local newspaper.

　　8 According to the passage, which of the following statements is true？

　　A A firm can control and time publicity accurately.

　　B A firm can neither control nor time publicity accurately.

　　C A firm can either control or time publicity accurately.

　　D In most cases a firm can control and time publicity accurately.

　　9 The example in Paragraph 4 is intended to demonstrate

　　A the power of publicity.

　　B the victim of publicity.

　　C the terrible effects of rumors.

　　D the vulnerability of people to publicity.

　　10 The passage implies that

　　A the placement of a story is not quite important.

　　B the report of a crime may not be true.

　　C local newspapers are not interested in company-sponsored programs

　　D publicity is not always necessary.

　　第三篇

Effects of Environmental Pollution

　　If pollution continues to increase at the present rate, formation of aerosols (浮质) in the atmosphere will cause the onset (开始) of an ice age in about fifty years' time. This conclusion, reached by Dr S. I. Rasool and Dr S. H. Schneider of the United States Goddard Space Flight Centre, answers the apparently conflicting questions of whether an increase in the carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) content of the atmosphere will cause the Earth to warm up or increasing the aerosol content will cause it to cool down. The Americans have shown conclusively that the aerosol question is dominant.

　　Two specters haunting conservationists have been the prospect that environmental pollution might lead to the planet's becoming unbearably hot or cold. One of these ghosts has now been laid, because it seems that even an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to eight times its present value will produce an increase in temperature of only 2℃, which would take place over several thousand years. But the other problem now looms (隐约出现)larger than ever.

　　Aerosols are collections of small liquid or solid particles dispersed in air or some other medium. The particles are all so tiny that each is composed of only a few hundred atoms. Because of this they can float in the air for a very long time. Perhaps the most commonly experienced aerosol is industrial smog (烟雾) of the kind that plagued London in the 1950s and is an even greater problem in Los Angeles today. These collections of aerosols reflect the Sun's heat and thereby cause the Earth to cool.

　　Dr Rasool and Dr Schneider have calculated the exact effect of a dust aerosol layer just above the Earth's surface in the temperature of the planet. As the layer builds up, the present delicate balance between the amount of heat absorbed from the Sun and the amount radiated from the Earth is disturbed. The aerosol layer not only reflects much of the Sun's light but also transmits the infrared (红外线的) radiation from below. So, while the heat input to the surface drops, the loss of heat remains high until the planet cools to a new balanced state.

　　Within fifty years, if no steps are taken to stop the spread of aerosols in the atmosphere, a cooling of the Earth by as much as 3.5~C seems inevitable. If that lasts for only a few years it would start another ice age, and because the growing ice caps at each pole would themselves reflect much of the Sun's radiation it would probably continue to develop even if the aerosol layer were destroyed.

　　The only bright spot in this gloomy forecast lies in the hope expressed by Dr Rasool and Dr Schneider that nuclear power may replace fossil fuels in time to prevent the aerosol content of the atmosphere from becoming critical.

　　11 The author's main purpose in writing the article is to warn of

　　A warm weather.

　　B hot weather.

　　C a new ice age.

　　D a new iceberg.

　　12 The word "spectres" in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to

　　A "pollution".

　　B "carbon dioxide".

　　C "aerosols".

　　D "ghosts".

　　13 We learn from the third paragraph that

　　A London was plagued with rats in the 1950s.

　　B London is covered with smog today.

　　C London was polluted by smog in the 1950s.

　　D Los Angeles is as heavily polluted today as London was in the 1950s.

　　14 What will happen if the dust aerosol layer develops？

　　A The Earth will get extremely hot.

　　B The balance between the amount of heat absorbed from the Sun and the amount lost could hardly be maintained.

　　C The light of the Sun could no longer reach the surface of the Earth.

　　D Infrared radiation could no longer be transmitted from the Earth to outer space.

　　15 The only way to stop the spread of aerosols in the atmosphere, according to Dr Rasool and Dr Schneider， is to use

　　A fossil fuels.

　　B electric power.

　　C nuclear energy.

　　D coal power.

　　【参考答案】

　　1.C   2.A   3.D   4.C   5.D

　　6.D   7.C   8.B   9.A   10.D

　　11.C  12.D  13.C  14.B   15.C