Passage 36

　　Beldon and Canfield are two seashore towns, not fat apart. Both towns have many hotels, and in summer the hotels are full of holiday-makers and other tourists (观光者).

　　Last August there was a fire at the Seabreeze Hotel in Beldon. The next day, this news appeared on page two of the town’s newspaper. The Beldon Post:

　　FIRE AT SEABREEZE

　　Late last night firemen hurried to the Seabreeze Hotel and quickly put out a small fire in a bedroom. The hotel manager said that a cigarette started the fire. We say again to all our visitors, “Please don’t smoke cigarettes in bed.” This was Beldon’s first hotel fire for five years.

　　The Canfield Times gave the news in these words on page one:

　　ANOTHER BELDON HOTEL CATCHES FIRE

　　Last night Beldon firemen arrived just too late to save clothing, bedclothes and some furniture at the Seabreeze Hotel. An angry holiday-maker said, “An electric lamp probably started the fire. The bedroom lamps are very old at some of these hotels. When I put my bedside light on, heard a funny noise from the lamp.” We are glad to tell our readers that this sort of adventure does not happen in Canfield.

　　What are the facts, then? It is never easy to find out the exact truth about an accident. There was a fire at the Seabreeze Hotel last August: that is one fact. Do we know anything else? Yes ─we know that firemen went to the hotel.

　　Now what do you think of the rest of the “news”?

　　1. Which of the following best gives the main idea of this text?

　　A. Beldon and Canfield are both good places for tourists in summer.

　　B.A fire broke out one night in Seadreeze Hotel last summer.

　　C. It was not easy to find out exact truth from newspapers.

　　D. Two newspapers gave reports on the same matter.

　　2. Which of the following are probably facts?

　　a. The fire broke out in a bedroom at the hotel.

　　b. A cigarette started the fire. c. An old lamp started the fire.

　　d. The fire broke out at night. e. There has never been a fire in Canfield

　　A. b and c B. a and d C. c and e D. a and c

　　3. The Canfield Times used the headline (标题) like this in order to make its readers think____.

　　A. hotels in Beldon often catch fire

　　B. hotels in Beldon don’t often catch fire

　　C. this was the second fire at the Seabreeze Hotel

　　D. Beldon was a good place except that hotels there are not quite safe

　　4. The Canfield newspaper gave a report just the opposite to the Beldon post by saying that___.

　　A. the bedroom lamps were very old at the Seabreeze Hotel

　　B. the bedroom lights made funny noise when the fire took place

　　C. the firemen failed to save clothing, bedclothes and other things

　　D. such accidents never happened in Canfield for the past 5 years

　　答案与分析

　　一样的火情，不一样的报道，其中的奥妙也许是醉翁之意不在酒。

　　1. C短文所表述的内容是：两家报纸所报道的火灾用词不同，情节不同，态度立场也不同。所以短文的中心思想是：要想从报纸上得知确切真相是很难的。

　　2. B两家报纸都报道的内容是：a. The fire broke out in a bedroom at the hotel. D. The fire broke out at night.所以正确选项是B。

　　3. A标题中another的意思是“又一个”，这就提醒读者Beldon 的旅馆不止着过一次火。

　　4. C Canfield Times的报道是:Last night Beldon firemen arrived just too late to save clothing, bedclothes and some furniture at the Seabreeze Hotel. 而Beldon Post的报道是：Late last night firemen hurried to the Seabreeze Hotel and quickly put out a small fire in a bedroom.

　　Passage 37

　　At a daycare center in Texas, children were playing outside. One of the children was Jessica McClure. She was 18 months old. Her mother, worked at the daycare center, was watching the children. Suddenly Jessica fell and disappeared. Jessica’s mother screamed and ran to her.

　　A well was in the yard of the center. The well was only eight inches across and a rock always covered it. But children had moved the rock. When Jessica fell, she fell right into the well.

　　Jessica’s mother reached inside the well, but she couldn’t feel Jessica. She ran to a phone and dialed 911 for help. Men from the fire department arrived. They discovered that Jessica was about 20 feet down in the well. For the next hour the men talked and planned Jessica’s rescue.

　　“We can’t go down into the well,” they said. “It’s too narrow. So, we’re going to drill a hole next to the well. Then we’ll drill a tunnel across to Jessica. When we reach her, we’11 bring her through the tunnel and up through our hole.”

　　The men began to drill the hole at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 1987. The men had a difficult job; they were drilling through solid rock. During her days in the well, Jessica sometimes called for her mother. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she cried and sometimes she sang.

　　All over the world, people waited for news of Jessica. Everyone worried about her.

　　At 8 p.m. on Friday, October 16, men reached Jessica and brought her up from the well. Then paramedics rushed her to the hospital. Jessica was dirty, hungry, thirsty and tired. Her feet and forehead were badly injured. But Jessica was alive.

　　After Jessica’s rescue, one of the rescuers made a metal cover for the well wrote, “To Jessica, with love from all of us.”

　　1. Which of the following shows the right order of what happened to Jessica?

　　a. People talked and planned Jessica’s rescue.

　　b. Jessica’s feet and forehead were badly injured.

　　c. Jessica fell into a well in the yard.

　　d. People began to drill a hole and a tunnel.

　　e. Someone moved the rock on the well.

　　f. She was brought up from the well.

　　g. Jessica sometimes called or slept or cried or sang.

　　h. Her mother reached inside the well.

　　A. e, c, b, g, a, d, h, f B. c, b, a, d, g, f, h, e

　　C. c, e, g, a, d, h, f, b D. e, c, g, a, g, d, f, b

　　2. Jessica stayed in the well at least_____.

　　A. 45 hours B. 46 hours C. 57 hours D. 58 hours

　　3. The best title for the passage is____.

　　A. An Unlucky Girl B. An Unpleasant Experience

　　C. Everybody’s Baby D. Mother’ s Fault

　　4. Which of the following pictures matches the word “paramedics”_____.

　　答案与分析：

　　本文是记叙文，全文叙述了抢救落入井中的小女孩Jessica的过程。

　　1. D 事件排序题。 首先我们找出第一个发生的事件e，这样答案在A,D间，然后将b和h 比较就很容易得出答案。

　　2. D 从第5段我们知道人们在10月14日上午11点开始抢救，一直到10月16日晚上8点将Jessica抢救出来，前后时间是57小时，从第三段For the next hour the men talked and planned Jessica’s rescue我们得知人们研究方案还有一个多小时时间。

　　3. C 主旨大意题。在抢救Jessica的过程中人人都向她的母亲那样尽心尽力，因此C为最佳答案。

　　4. C 细节题。我们极易错选A。然而paramedics用的是复数形式，因此C为最佳答案。

　　Passage 38

　　FOREIGN EXCHANGE

　　A CLASS OE THEIR OWN

　　1. The students who refer to both the good time and the bad time include ________ .

　　A. Susan Lane and Sara Small

　　B. Linda Marks and David Links

　　C. Tom Jennings and Linda Marks

　　D. Leanne Smythe and Tom Jennings

　　2. The writing above would probably be _______.

　　A. the records of students’ activities

　　B. the foreign students’ name cards

　　C. the notice about a visit to foreign countries

　　D. the advertisement from an international travel service

　　3. The student who valued learning another language is ________.

　　A. Linda Marks B. Sara Small

　　C. Tom Jennings D. Leanne Smythe

　　4. How many students mention the culture difference they have experienced?

　　A. Three. B. Four. C. Five. D. Six.

　　答案与分析

　　本文列举了几个学生对不同的文化交流的看法。

　　1. C 从“There were times when it was difficult but I liked it, experiencing a different culture”以及“It’s like a roller-coaster ride, there are lots of ups and downs, but you always come back for more”我们可以看出Tom Jennings and Linda Marks都指出了good times以及bad times。

　　2. A文中有学生客观性的评述，因此本文为学生活动记录。

　　3. B 从她说的I found the European school system to be hard but I am fluent now in German so it was worth it我们可以得此答案。

　　4. A 谈与自己文化不同的有Susan Lane，David Links以及Tom Jennings。

　　Passage 39

　　In recent years many countries of the world have been faced with the problem of how to make their workers more productive. Some experts believe that the answer is to make jobs more varied (变化) .But do more varied jobs lead to greater productivity ? There is something to suggest that while variety certainly makes the worker’s life more enjoyable, it does not actually make him work harder. So variety is not important.

　　Other experts feel that giving the worker freedom to do his job in his own way is important and there is no doubt that this is true. The problem is that this kind of freedom cannot easily be given in the modern factory with its complicated (复杂的) machinery which must be used in a fixed way. Thus while freedom of choice may be important, there is usually very little that can be done to make it. Another important consideration is how much each worker contributes to the product he is making. In most factories the worker sees only one small part of the product. Some car factories are said to be experimenting with having many small production lines rather than a large one, so that each worker contributes more to the production of the cars on his line. It would seem that not only is degree of work contribution important, therefore.

　　To what extent (程度) on earth, however, does more money lead to greater productivity? The workers themselves certainly think this important. But perhaps they want more money only because the work they do is so boring .Money just lets them enjoy their spare time more. A similar argument may explain demands for shorter working hours. Perhaps if we succeed in making their jobs more interesting, they will neither want more money ,nor will shorter working hours be so important to them.

　　1. The last sentence in this passage means that if we succeed in making workers’ jobs more interesting,____.

　　A. they will want more money B. they will demand shorter working hours.

　　C. more money and shorter working hours are important

　　D. more money and shorter working hours will not be so important to them

　　2. In this passage, the writer tells us____.

　　A. why to make the workers more productive

　　B. possible factors (因素) leading to greater productivity

　　C. to what extent more money leads to greater productivity

　　D. how to make workers’ jobs more interesting

　　3. The writer of this passage is probably a_____.

　　A. teacher B. worker C. manager D. physicist

　　答案与分析

　　本文是说明文。全文说明了让工人工作效率提高的有效方法。

　　1. D 句意理解题。最后一句的意思是“我们能够让工人的工作更有趣的话，他们就不会要求更多的钱，更少的工作时间了。”

　　2. B 本题为主旨大意题。作者全文叙述了人们所提出的提高工人工作效率的几种方法，并就此进行讨论，因此B为最佳答案。

　　3. C 推理判断题。全文讲述的是工人的工作效率问题，因此排除A； 全文在讲述工人时多次用到they, them, themselves，因此排除B；从短文最后一句“Perhaps if we succeed in making their job more interesting,...”看，we 在这里指工厂的老板们，因此C为最佳答案。

　　Passage 40

　　Ours has become a society of employees (雇员). A hundred years or so ago only one of every five Americans at work was employed, i.e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago “being employed ”meant working as a factory laborer, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a formal regular education, holding a professional or management job requiring professional and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years. Middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population─growing so fast that the industrial worker, the oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in importance in number.

　　Yet you will find little, if anything, written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion (提升).You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field. Every trade requires different skills, sets different standards and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not have the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative (管理上的) work, the greater the emphasis (强调) on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.

　　1. It is suggested that fifty years ago_____.

　　A. eighty per cent of American working people were employed in factories

　　B. twenty per cent of American intellectuals (知识分子) were employees

　　C. the percentage of intellectuals in the total work force was almost the same as that of industrial workers

　　D. the percentage of intellectuals working as employees was not so large as that of industrial workers

　　2. The word “dubious” most probably means_____.

　　A. valuable B. useful C. doubtful D. helpful

　　3. According to the writer, professional knowledge or skill is_____.

　　A. less important than realization of being a good employee

　　B. as important as the ability to deal with public relation

　　C. more important than employer-employee relations

　　D .as important as the ability to cooperate with others in the organization

　　4. From the passage it can be seen that employeeship helps one____.

　　A. to be more successful in his work

　　B. to be more specialized in his field

　　C. to solve technical problems

　　D. to develop his professional skill

　　答案与分析

　　本文是说明文。全文讲述了“雇佣”一词在过去与现在的意义的不同。

　　1. D推理判断题。从短文第一段And when fifty years ago “being employed ”meant wearing as a factory laborer, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a formal regular education, holding a professional or management job requiring professional and technical skills我们得知，在五十年前，“被雇佣”意味着成为工厂的一名劳动力，而现在雇员中接受正规教育，具有职业或技术才能，担任职业或管理工作的人越来越多。

　　2. C词义理解题。此空较难选出，我们极易错选B或D。 从最后一段Every trade requires different skills, sets different standards and requires a different preparation以及下文， 我们可以得知作者怀疑写在纸上的建议的有效性，因此 C为最佳答案。

　　3. A句意理解题。从Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not have the skills of their trade我们得知， 作者认为更多的人失败是因为他们不知道做一个雇员的要求，而不是因为他们没有技能。

　　4. A推理判断题。从the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative work到文章最后可推出此结论。