passage one
Today ,as in every other day of the year ,more than 3000 U.S. adlescents will smoke their first cigarette on their way to becoming regular smokers as adults. During their lifetime,it can be expected that of these 3000 about 23 will be murdered,30 will die in traffic accidents, and nearly 750 will be killed by a smoking-related disease. The number of deaths attributed to cigarette smoking outweithts all other factors, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a cause of death.
Since the late 1970s, when daily smoking among high school seniors reached 30 precent , smoking rates among youth have declined . While the decline is impressive ,several important issues must be raised.
First, in the past several years,smoking rates among youth have declined very little. Second,in the late 1970s ,smoking among male high school seniors exceeded that among female by nearly 10 percent . The statistic is reversing.Third ,several recent studies have indicate high school dropouts have excessively high smoking rates, as much as 75 percent .
Finally, thouth significant declines in adolescent smoking have occurred in the past decade,no definite reasons for the decline exist. Within this context,the Naional Cancer Instiute (NCI) began its current effort to determine the most effecive measures to reduce smoking levesl among youth.
1.According to the author, the deaths among youth are mainly caused by _____.
a.traffic accidents
b.smoking-related desease
c.murder
d.all of these
2.Every day there are over_____high school strdents who will become regular smoker.
a.75 b.23 c.30 d.3000
3.By "dropout" the author means______.
a.students who failed the examination
b.students who left school
c.students who lost their way
d.students who were driven out of school
4.The reason for declining adolescent smoking is that ________.
a.NCI has taken effective measures
b.smoking is prevented among high school seniors
c.there are many smokers who have died of cancer
d.none of these
5.What is implied but not stated by the author is that ________.
a.smoking rates among youth have declined very little
b.there are now more female than male smokers among high school seniors
c.high smoking rates are due to the incease in wealth
d.smoking at high school are from low socio-economic backgrounds
passage two
One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit one's mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like "I was wrong about that," and it is even harder to say, "I was wrong , and you were right about that."
I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store in the neighbourhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and Ibegan to remember vaguely the incident he was describing.
I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gome into the store with may mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident tood place.
There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of eggs indozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I want to work.
The manager heard the moise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the culprit. He severely reprimanded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not.
6.How old was the author when he wrote this article?
a.about 8
b.about 18
c.about 23
d.about 15
7.Who was to blame for knocking off the stacks of cartons?
a.The author
b.The manager
c.A woman
d.The author's mother
8.Which of the following statements is not true?
a.The woman who knocked off the stacks of cartons was seriously criticized by the mananger
b.The author was severely critizized by the manager.
c.A woman carelessly knocked off the stacks of cartons
d.It was the author who put the display back together
9.Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?
a.Its Harder to Admit One's Mistake
b.I was once the culprit
c.I remember an incident
d.A case of mistaken identity
10.The tone of the article expresses the author's_______.
a.admiration for the manager's willingness to admit mistakes
b.anger to the manager for his wrong accusation
c.indignation against the woman who knocked off the stacks of cartons
d.reget for the mistake the made in the store
passage three
There are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. 『Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens.』① They tell you it’s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that glorifies “the hit”.
By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.
On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, closeups. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.
Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. 『But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or bring the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman’s position.』② Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”
The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.
11. The passage is mainly concerned with ______.
A. the different tastes of people for sports
B. the different characteristics of sports
C. the attraction of football
D. the attraction of baseball
12. Those who don’t like baseball may complain that ______.
A. it is only to the taste of the old
B. it involves fewer players than football
C. it is not exciting enough
D. it is pretentious and looks funny
13. The author admits that ______.
A. baseball is too peaceful for the young
B. baseball may seem boring when watched on TV
C. football is more attracting than baseball
D. baseball is more interesting than football
14. By stating “I could have had my eyes closed. ” the author means (4th paragraph last sentence):
A. The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game.
B. Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no different to the result.
C. The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time and do his work well.
D. The consequent was too bad he could not bear to see it.
15. We can safely conclude that the author ______.
A. likes football B. hates football
C. hates baseball D. likes baseball
【参考答案】
1-5 BDBDB
6-10 CCADA
11-15 DCBBD
【参考解析】
11. D 主旨题。文章第一段简述了人们对垒球所持的偏见——认为它毫无活力、从容和缓，不像橄榄球那样(禁止)迭起、令人激动。文章的第二、三、四、五段探讨了垒球的根本特征及欣赏角度，文章的最后一句话用一个比喻概括了垒球的魅力：“如果橄榄球是一曲交响乐的话，那么，垒球中所表现出来的运动恰似一曲优美的室内乐。”可见，本文主要探讨的是垒球的特点及其欣赏。 A不对，第一段也确实提到了不同观众对不同运动形式的偏好，但这只是用以引出对垒球的特征及欣赏的讨论。
12. C 细节题。文章第一段指出：许多人不喜欢垒球，一提起垒球这些人就打哈欠甚至皱眉头。对他们来说，看垒球意味着眼巴巴地观望着身着运动装(outfit)的人呆立在球场上，东瞧瞧西望望，很少有什么(激动人心的)事发生——没意思透了。他们认为这样的运动更适合上个世纪的人的口味，不像橄榄球那样充满
活力。 A意为：“它只适合老年人的口味。”注意：原文说的是适合上个世纪的人的口味，二者意味不一样。 D意为：“它矫揉造作、滑稽可笑。”这与说它gentlemanly(具有绅士风度，矜持，即：没有冲撞或拼抢)不一样。
13. B 推断题。第三段指出，在电视上，垒球运动被切换成不同角度的画面，而且不断地使用重放、特写等电视制作技术，这破坏了该运动的整体运动感，使观众无法将自己投入(project)到运动中去，以体会到这种寓动于静的运动之美。电视做不到这一点(The TV won’t do it for you)，因此，电视上的垒球比赛看上去(seems)孤孤单单、冷冷清清、沉沉静静、慢慢腾腾。C、D不对，作者仅指出了不同运动有不同运动的特征，并未说哪种运动优于哪种。参阅文章最后一句。
14. B 推断题。第四段整个都在描述垒球场上的一个场景：拿三垒的运动员假设对方全投出好球，作好了一切准备，但是对方投出的并不是好球。所以在那时候他的准备做不做都不会影响比赛结果。他说本来可以闭上眼睛，意思就是B项所写的。A、C、D都不符合作者的意图。这道题需要完整地了解第四段内容才能作好选择。
15. D 推断题。在本文中，作者主要探讨了垒球的特征及欣赏，作者着重指出的是：只有根据垒球的特征来欣赏它，才能体会到它的魅力。在他看来，观察到垒球比赛中运动员的各种动作、垒球位之间的关系等是欣赏它的关键(第三段第二句)。只有从整体来把握它，才能看到每一个小的动作、每一个眼神乃至于“静止”的意义，也只有这样，才能全身心地投入比赛中，欣赏到它的魅力。可见，作者对垒球有很深的理解而且非常喜爱垒球。主要参考第三、四、五段。
