同等学力英语阅读理解练习精选(4)

　　Passage Seven

　　British universities, groaning under the burden of a huge increase in student numbers, are warning that the tradition of a free education is at risk. The universities have threatened to impose an admission fee on students to plug a gap in revenue if the government does not act to improve their finances and scrap some public spending cutbacks.

　　The government responded to the universities’ threat by setting up the most fundamental review of higher education for a generation, under a non-party troubleshooter (调停人), Sir Ron Dearing.

　　One in three school-leavers enters higher education, five times the number when the last review took place thirty years ago.

　　Everyone agrees a system that is feeling the strain after rapid expansion needs a lot more money-but there is little hope of getting it from the taxpayer and not much scope for attracting more finance, from business.

　　Most colleges believe students should contribute to tuition costs, something that is common elsewhere in the world but would mark a revolutionary change in Britain. Universities want the government to introduce a loan scheme for tuition fees and have suspended their own threatened action for now. They await Dearing’s advice, hoping it will not be too late-some are already reported to be in financial difficulty.

　　As the century nears its end, the whole concept of what a university should be is under the microscope. Experts ponder how much they can use computers instead of classrooms, talk of the need for lifelong learning and refer to students as “consumers”.

　　The Confederation (联盟) of British Industry, the key employers’ organization, wants even more expansion in higher education to help fight competition on world markets from booming Asian economies. But the government has doubts about more expansion. The Times newspaper agrees, complaining that quality has suffered as student numbers soared, with close tutorial supervision giving way to "mass production methods more typical of European universities".

　　31. The chief concern of British universities is __________.

　　A. how to tackle their present financial difficulty

　　B. how to improve their educational technology

　　C. how to expand the enrollment to meet the needs of enterprises

　　D. how to put an end to the current tendency of quality deterioration

　　32. We can learn from the passage that in Britain __________.

　　A. higher education is provided free of charge

　　B. universities are mainly funded by businesses

　　C. the government pays dearly for its financial policy

　　D. students are ready to accept loan schemes for tuition

　　33. What was the percentage of high school graduates admitted to universities in Britain thirty years ago?

　　A. About 15%. B. 20%or so. C. Below 10%. D. Above 30%.

　　34. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

　　A. British employers demand an expansion in enrollment at the expense of quality

　　B. the best way out for British universities is to follow their European counterparts

　　C. the British government will be forced to increase its spending on higher education

　　D. British students will probably have to pay for their higher education in the near future

　　35. Which of the following is the viewpoint of the Times newspaper?

　　A. British universities should expand their enrollment to meet the needs of industry.

　　B. Expansion in enrollment is bound to affect the quality of British higher education.

　　C. British universities should help fight competition on world markets.

　　D. European universities can better meet the needs of the modern world.

　　Passage Eight

　　Placing a human being behind the wheel of an automible often has the same curious effect as cutting certain fibers in the brain. The result in either case is more primitive behavior. Hostile feelings are apt to be expressed in an aggressive way.

　　The same man who will step aside for a stranger at a doorway will, when behind the wheel, risk an accident trying to beat another motorist through an intersection. The importance of emotional factors in automobile accidents is gaining recognition. Doctors and other scientists have concluded that the highway death toll resembles a disease epedemic and should be investigated as such.

　　Dr. Ross McFarland, Associate Professor of Industrial Hygiene at the Harvard University School of Public Health, said that accidents“now constitute a greater threat to the safety of large segments of the population than diseases do”.

　　Accidents are the leading cause of death between the ages of 1 and 35. About one third of all accidental deaths and one seventh of all accidental injuries are caused by motor vehicles.

　　Based on the present rate of vehicle registration, unless the accident rate is cut in half, one of every 10 persons in the country will be killed or injured in a traffic accident in the next 15 years.

　　Research to find the underlying causes of accidents and to develop ways to detect drivers who are apt to cause them is being conducted at universities and medical centers. Here are some of their findings so far.

　　A man drives as he lives. If he is often in trouble with collection agencies, the courts, and police, chances are he will have repeated automobile accidents. Accident repeaters usually are egocentric, exhibitionistic, resentful of authority, impulsive, and lacking in social responsibility. As a group, they can be classified as borderline psychopathic personalities, according to Dr. Mr Farland.

　　The suspicion, however, that accident repeaters could be detected in advance by screening out persons with more hostile impulses is false. A study at the University of Colorado showed that there were just as many overly hostile persons among those who had no accidents as among those with repeated accidents.

　　Psychologists currently are studying Denver high school pupils to test the validity of this concept. They are making psychological evaluations of the pupils to see whether subsequent driving records will bear out their thesis.

　　36. The author believes that, behind the wheel of an automobile, some people act .

　　A. as though they were uncivilized

　　B. as though their brain fibers needed cutting

　　C. as though they wanted to repress (抑制) hostile feeling

　　D. as though they should change their attitudes from hostility to amicability

　　37. Dr. MaFarland emphasizes the great menance of accidents by comparing it to .

　　A. hostile attitudes B. psychopathic behavior

　　C. an epidemic D. antisocial behavior

　　38. Which of the following statement is true, according to the article?

　　A. The accident rate will be reduced in the next few years.

　　B. Motor vehicle registration will cause an increase in accidents in the future.

　　C. Unless the accident is decreased, ten per cent of the American population will be killed or injured in motor accidents in the next 15 years.

　　D. There is no hope that the accident rate will decrease during the next 15 years.

　　39. According to the article, studies at leading universities have shown that accident repeaters .

　　A. are in trouble with collection agencies

　　B. cannot be discovered on the basis of generally hostile attitudes

　　C. drive entirely differently from the way they usually live

　　D. can be detected in advance

　　40. According to Dr. McFarland, accident repeaters are .

　　A. criminally insane B. neurotic

　　C. shy D. borderline psychopathic cases

　　参考答案

　　Passage Seven

　　本文主要介绍了英国高校因缺乏教育经费而面临的问题和政府为解决这些问题所采取的相关政策。

　　31. A本题问英国大学主要关注的是什么。从第一段中，我们可以了解到英国大学警告说传统的免费教育将不复存在，因为学生人数的迅速增加，已使大学不堪重负。大学当局还威胁说要对学生人学收费以弥补收入的不足。所以，本题的正确答案应是A“如何解决目前的经费困难”。而B“如何改进教育技术”，C“如何扩大招生以满足企业的需求”，D“如何结束目前教育质量下滑的趋势”，这三个选项都不是本题的正确答案。

　　32. A本题问我们可以从文章中了解到英国如何。与此题答案相关的信息可以从第一段第一句话中找到。这句话指出，英国大学警告说免费教育的传统正在受到威胁。这正好是A项表达的含义：即在英国提供免费的高等教育。因此，本题的正确答案应是A。而其余三项均与原文不符。B“大学经费主要由企业提供”，C“政府为其财政政策支付大量资金”，D“学生乐于接受学费贷款计划”，这三个都是错误的。

　　33. C本题是一判断推算题。问30年前英国中学毕业生上大学的比率是多少。我们很难从文中直接找到答案。但是文中有提示信息，只不过需要我们稍微分析计算一下即可。文中第三段告诉我们：“三个人中就有一个在中学毕业后进人高等学校。这个数字是30年前那次统计时数量的5倍。”这句话清楚地告诉我们，30年前，进人高等学校的中学毕业生15个人中才有1个，即不到7%。所以，本题的正确答案应是C“低于10%”。

　　34. D本题是一道推断题。问从文章中我们可以推断出什么。针对四个选项所给的内容，利用查阅式阅读法，结合原文相关信息，我们发现文章第五段第一句话“Most colleges believe students should contribute to tuition costs.”中“contribute to tuition costs'，就是“为学费出一份力，起一份作用”的意思，句中“should”表示虚拟，这正好与选项D表达的意思相一致。因此，本题的正确答案应是D“英国的学生可能在不久的将来要为其所受的高等教育付费”。

　　35. B本题是一道具体细节题。问下面哪个是《泰晤士报》的观点。利用查阅式阅读法，我们可以从最后一段的最后一句话中找到与问题答案相关的信息。文章指出，《泰晤士报》不仅有与英国企业家联合会相同的观点：扩大高等教育以便有助于与蓬勃发展的亚洲经济在世界市场上竞争，而且还有它自己的观点：由于严格的导师制让位于欧洲大学所普遍采用的大规模生产的方法，以至于学生人数的迅猛增长将使教育质量受到损害。这种观点正是选项B所要表达的内容，即：扩大招生人数必定会影响英国教育的质量。因此，本题的正确答案应是B。

　　Passage Eight

　　36. 选A。本题要求我们判断作者的观点，第一、二段是判断的依据。人们坐在汽车方向盘后面，所产生的效果就像脑子中的某些纤维被切除了。不管在哪种情形下，其结果是行为变得野蛮了。第二段中的“primitive behavior”也就是“uncivilized behavior”，所以作者认为人们开车时，行为变得不文明。B项意为“他们脑子中的纤维似乎需要切除，这与作者在第一段中表达的意思不一致，C项意为“似乎他们想抑制不友善的情绪”，文中讲，人们在不友善时，往往变得很冲动，C项与此意思正相反。如果人们都能把仇视的态度变为和蔼的态度，那么也就不会有这么多的交通事故，因此D项也不正确。

　　37. 选C。细节判断题。第四段麦克芬兰德博士的原话就是解题依据：“交通事故比疾病更严重地威胁着人们的生命安全。”问题中的关键词是“menance”意为“threat”。在这里博士把交通事故和疾病相比较，因此C项为正确答案。

　　38. 选C。是非判断题。解这类题时根据问题的要求从四个选择答案中找一个与内容相符或不相符的句子。本题要求我们寻找一个与文章内容相符的句子。A项意为“在今后10年中，交通事故率将会有所下降”。交通事故率是否会下降并不是本文讨论的重点，本文讨论的是为什么人们坐在方向盘后行为会变得野蛮、不文明，作者也并没有明确指出这一内容。B项意为“车辆的增多会引起交通事故的上升”。文中第六段讲，按照目前车辆登记的速度，除非事故率减少一半，否则很多人将死于或伤于交通事故，本句意思为除非交通事故率下降，否则随着车辆的增多，交通事故将越来越多。根据文章的内容，引起交通事故的主要原因是人们的驾驶行为不够文明，并不是车辆的增多。车辆的增多也只是意味着或许会有更多不文明的司机。所以司机的行为是最根本的原因，D项意为“在今后15年中交通事故率不可能下降”。本句与A项内容相反，但作者在文中并没有涉及。C项意为“除非交通事故减少，否则将有1/10的美国人在今后15年中死于或伤于交通事故中”。这正符合第六段所阐述内容，为正确答案。

　　39. 选B。细节判断题。文章倒数第二段最后一句是解题依据。研究表明，在没有发生过交通事故的人当中同样有许多不友善的人。人们是否友善并不是常发生交通事故的原因。不友善的人并不等于事故多发者，所以人的态度友不友善，以此为基础，判断不了一个人是否是事故多发者。因此B项为正确答案。

　　40. 选D。文中第八段讲，事故多发者往往是自私自利，好出风头，憎恨政府，易感情冲动，缺乏社会责任感。要分类的话，他们属于那种处于精神变态的边缘。A、B、C项均与以上两句所描述的不符。

本文选自新东方在线论坛。