同等学力英语阅读理解练习精选(5)

　　Passage Nine

　　Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely. But a study by Sarach Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.

　　The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of“goods and services”than males.

　　Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan’s and Dr. de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.

　　In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods(are much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or ref used to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber(without an actual monkey to eat it)was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.

　　The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions.In the wild, they are a cooperative, group-living species.Such cooperation islikely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

　　41. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by .

　　A. posing a contrast B. justifying an assumption

　　C. making a comparison D. explaining a phenomenon

　　42. The statement “it is all too monkey”(Last line, Paragraph 1)implies that .

　　A. monkeys are also outraged by slack rivals

　　B. resenting unfairness is also monkeys’nature

　　C. monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other

　　D. no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions

　　43. Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are .

　　A. more inclined to weigh what they get

　　B. attentive to researchers’instructions

　　C. nice in both appearance and temperament

　　D. more generous than their male companions

　　44. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys .

　　A. prefer grapes to cucumbers

　　B. can be taught to exchange things

　　C. will not be co-operative if feeling cheated

　　D. are unhappy when separated from the others

　　45. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

　　A. Monkeys can be trained to develop social emotions.

　　B. Human indignation evolved from an uncertain source.

　　C. Animals usually show their feelings openly as humans do.

　　D. Cooperation among monkeys remains stable only in the wild.

　　Passage Ten

　　Since the late 1930's the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States has been working to promote native language literacy among Indians. Indians were to be taught to read and write in their native language before being taught English. Studies in many cultures around the world demonstrate that children learn to read best in their mother tongue. Bilingual reading books and other educational materials were prepared in Navaho, Hopi, Siouan, Pueblo, and Papago languages. The difficulties were tremendous because many American Indian languages are distinctively different in structure from all other languages in the world. They do not have "words" in the sense that other languages do-as independent meaningful sound sequences that combine into “sentences”. Their “sentences”are made by combining prefixes, infixes, and suffixes into what looks like one long word but is essentially the equivalent of our sentence. It is impossible, in other words, to make an Indian utterance that is not a sentence. In our sense, Indian languages do not have parts of speech, conjugations etc. The sentence is the smallest structure available to speakers of the language. Therefore bridging the translation gap between English and such language is a massive feat.

　　In most cases, Indian children need to be bilingual though not necessarily be literate. That is, they need to speak their native language to participate fully in their home and tribal affairs. But, they do not need to read and write that language. On the other hand, they also need a reading, writing, and speaking knowledge of English, not only to get their due in this country but, ironically, also to preserve their heritage.

　　46. In the first sentence “literacy” means ­­ .

　　A. freedom B. concerning literature

　　C. quality D. being able to read and/or write

　　47. Indian bilingual textbooks were difficult to write because .

　　A. there were few qualified bilingual writers

　　B. there are so many differences among the Indian languages

　　C. Indian languages are essentially different in structure from English

　　D. Indians were not interested in learning English

　　48. Mistakes that would be impossible to make in the Indian languages are .

　　A. punctuation errors B. spelling errors

　　C. incomplete sentences D. inappropriate word choice

　　49. According to this passage, Indians who are literate in English have the advantage of being able to .

　　A. preserve their own heritage

　　B. talk with other English-speaking Indians

　　C. better understand the United States’ history

　　D. pursue their native literature

　　50. Which phrase best expresses the main idea of this passage?

　　A. The importance of bilingual reading books.

　　B. Language problems confronting the American Indian.

　　C. Historical backgrounds of American-Indian English.

　　D. The importance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

　　参考答案

　　Passage Nine

　　41. 答案：C从文章的第一段内容可知，人人都喜欢丰厚的加薪;然而，如果你了解到某个同事的薪水增加得更多的话，你的这份自得之心就可能消失;事实上，如果这位同事还有懒散的名声的话，你甚至可能会感到愤怒;这样的行为被看成是“极具人性的”，隐藏其中的假设是，其它动物不可能很好地做到这一点;但是，一项研究却显示，这种行为也极具猴性。由此可知：作者是通过比较来引出自己的主题的。因此C项为正确答案。

　　42. 答案：B 从文中第一段的内容可知，人人都喜欢丰厚的加薪;然而，如果你了解到某个同事的薪水增加得更多的话，你的这份自得之心就可能消失;事实上，如果这位同事还有懒散的名声的话，你甚至可能会感到愤怒;这样的行为被看成是“极具人性的”，其它动物不可能很好地做到这一点;但是，一项研究却显示，这种行为也极具猴性。据此可知，动物也会对不公平的事情感到愤怒。因此B项为正确答案。

　　43. 答案：A本题可参照文章的第二段。从中可知，研究人员研究了雌性棕色僧帽猴的行为;这些猴子看上去很聪明，它们是温和、协作性动物，乐意分享食物;最重要的是，如同人类女性一样，它们往往比雄性更注重“物品和服务”的价值。由此可知：雌性僧帽猴之所以被选来做这项研究，主要是因为它们注重“物品和服务”的价值。A项的“最倾向于重视它们所得到的东西”与文章的意思相符。因此A项为正确答案。

　　44. 答案：C本题可参照文章的第三、四段。从中可知，两位研究人员花了两年时间教猴子用代币换取食物;正常情况下，猴子们非常乐意用石块换取黄瓜;然而，当两个猴子被安置在隔开但相邻的小屋时，每个猴子就都可能观察另一个猴子在用石块换取什幺，它们的行为就变得明显不同;当研究人员递给一个猴子一颗葡萄以换取它的代币时，第二只猴子就不情愿拿它的代币只换取一根黄瓜;如果一只猴子不用交换代币就能获得一颗葡萄，那么另一只猴子要么就会把它的代币掷给研究人员，要么会把代币扔出室外，要么拒绝接受那根黄瓜。由此可知：当猴子觉得受骗时，它们就不会同研究人员合作。C项与文章的意思相符。因此C项为正确答案。

　　45. 答案：B根据文章的最后一段可知，到目前为止，这种公平意识是否在僧帽猴世界和人类社会独立演化，或者，这种意识是否源于僧帽猴和人类的共同祖先，这仍然是一个“悬而未解”的问题。据此可知，现在还不清楚人类和猴子的愤怒感源于什幺因素。B项的“人类的愤怒是从一种不确定的因素演变而来的”与文章的意思相符。因此B项为正确答案。

　　Passage Ten

　　印第安语与世界上其他语系的语言存在着明显的不同。在美国，让印第安儿童接受英语和印第安语的双语学习是必要的，因为这样不仅能让他们得到同等的受教育机会，而且还可以使他们保持本民族的传统。

　　46. D这是一道词汇题。解答词汇题的关键是要结合文章中上下文提供的信息和对句子结构进行细致的分析。"literacy"一词出现在文中第一段第一句中。我们不难看出，接下来一句是对第一句中“to promote native language literacy among Indians”的解释，即“在印第安人学习英语之前，先教会他们用本民族的语言进行阅读和写作”。所以，这里“literacy一词相当于“being able to read and write"，表示读写能力。本题的答题技巧就是利用英语文章中常用的“restatement skill"，即重申法。这种方法就是在下文中换一种方式对上文的内容重新进行解释。

　　47. C这是一道综合判断题。文中第一段第五句说：“因为许多美国的印第安语在结构上与世界上所有其他语言存在着明显的差异，所以说这种困难是巨大的。”由上句可知，这种困难是指为印第安人准备的双语课本。由此我们可知，C“印第安语在结构上与英语有着实质上的不同”符合文中内容。

　　48. C这是一道细节题。文中第一段倒数第四句说：“换句话说，让一个印第安人说出一个不完整的句子是不可能的。”也就是说，任何一个印第安人讲出的话都是完整的句子，所以也就不会有错误的句子存在。故C正确。

　　49. A这是一道细节题。文中最后一句说：“另一方面，他们也需要英语的读、写和说的知识，这样不仅能使他们在这个国家中得到他们应有的权益，而且，具有讽刺意味的是，他们还能保持自己的传统。”本题中的“literate"一词就是能读能写的意思，与文中说的英语的读、写、说的意思相符。因此A正确。

　　50. B这是一道要旨题，需结合全文来理解。本文的主题就是如何在印第安人中展开双语教学，即让他们在掌握英语的读写知识的同时，又让他们学会读写自己的语言。但要想真正做到这一点却存在很大的难度，因为两种语言的差异非常大。B“美国的印第安人面临的语言问题”与文中的主题最接近。A“双语阅读课本的重要性”。只是文中第二段重点表达的内容，不是文章的主题。C“美国印第安英语的历史背景”。文中未提及。D“印第安事务署的重要性”。在文中只是第一句提到过，以后均未涉及。

本文选自新东方在线论坛。