博士英语考试阅读30篇
Unit 1 – Reading
Drunken-driving sometimes called America's socially accepted form of murder -- has become a national epidemic. Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers, adding up to an incredible 250,000 over the past decade.
A drunken driver is usually defined as one with a 0.10 blood alcohol contentor roughly three beers, glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours. Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American macho image and judges were lenient in most courts, but the drunken slaughter has recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies, especially involving young children, that public opinion is no longer so tolerant.
Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21, reversing a trend in the 1960s to reduce it to 18. After New Jersey lowered it to 18, the number of people killed by 18-20-year-old drivers more than doubled, so the state recently upped it back to 21.
Reformers, however, fear raising the drinking age will have little effect unless accompanied by educational programmes to help young people to develop "responsible attitudes" about drinking and teach them to resist peer pressure to drink.
Tough new laws have led to increased arrests and tests and in many areas already, to a marked decline in fatalities. Some states are also penalizing bars for serving customers too many drinks. A tavern in Massachusetts was fined for serving six or more double brandies to a customer who was "obviously intoxicated" and later drove off the road, killing a nine-year-old boy.
As the fatalities continue to occur daily in every state, some Americans are even beginning to speak well of the 13 years national prohibition of alcohol that began in 1919, which President Hoover called the "noble experiment". They forget that legal prohibition didn't stop drinking, but encouraged political corruption and organized crime. As with the booming drug trade generally, there is no easy solution.
1. Drunken driving has become a major problem in America because _____.
A) most Americans are heavy drinkers
B) Americans are now less shocked by road accidents
C) accidents attract so much publicity
D) drinking is a socially accepted habit in America
Answer：D
2. Why has public opinion regarding drunken driving changed?
A) Detailed statistics are now available.
B) The news media have highlighted the problem.
C) Judges are giving more severe sentences.
D) Drivers are more conscious of their image.
Answer：B
3. Statistics issued in New Jersey suggested that _____.
A) many drivers were not of legal age
B) young drivers were often bad drivers
C) the level of drinking increased in the 1960s
D) the legal drinking age should be raised
Answer：D
4. Laws recently introduced in some states have _____.
A) reduced the number of convictions
B) resulted in fewer serious accidents
C) prevented bars from serving drunken customers
D) specified the amount drivers can drink
Answer：B
5. Why is the problem of drinking and driving difficult to solve?
A) Alcohol is easily obtained.
B) Drinking is linked to organized crime.
C) Legal prohibition has already failed.
D) Legislation alone is not sufficient.
Answer：D
Unit 2
Los Angeles-Bill Joy is not a Luddite. He is not afraid of new technology. As founder and chief scientist of the Silicon Valley Company, he has been on the vanguard of the hight tech revolution for 20 years. But recently Joy took a glimpse into the future and it scared him to death. What he saw was a world in which humans have been effectively supplanted by machines; a world in which superpowerful computers with at least some attributes of human intelligence manage to replicate themselves and develop their own autonomy and people become superfluous and risk becoming extinct.
"It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But what we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but accept all of the machines' decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human will be incapable of making them intellifently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them would amount to suicide.".
Previously, Joy had dismissed such scenarios as sci-fi fantasy, but then he listened to friends who were experts in robotics and realized that this brave new world was much closer than any of us might imagine -- as close as 30 years away. The further that Joy dug into the cutting edge of research in the new technologies -- robotics, genetic engineering and Nan technology -- the more horrified he became. Not only did he see scenarios in which robots would like to take on a life of their own and exterminate the human race, but also he began to see ways in which other staples of sci-fi horror might come to pass. Specifically, robots, engineered organism, and Nan bots share a dangerous amplifying factor: they can self-replicate. A bomb is blown only once -- but one robot can become many, and quickly get out of control.
"I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals. We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes." Joy concludes. "Have we already gone too far down the path to alter course? I don't believe so, but we aren't trying yet, and the last chance to assert control -- the fail-safe point -- is rapidly approaching."
1. According to the passage, the word "Luddite"(in paragraph 1, line 1) means?
A) the name of a place where science is underdeveloped.
B) the name of a country.
C) the name of an organization which aims to advocate developing the new technology.
D) the name of a party which protest at developing science.
Answer：D
2. From the passage, we know that it is that scared Bill Joy to death?
A) robots have been practically running the world.
B) humans are actually at the mercy of the machines.
C) humans are facing a fatal situation that the machines are out of control gradually and the machines will overwhelm the whole world.
D) humans will be exiled from the earth by the machines and they have to explore another fixed star.
Answer：C
3. What does the sentence "I don't believe so, but we aren't trying yet..."(in the last paragraph, line 5) indicate?
A) It is high time for us to give an end to the new technologies.
B) We should cease to explore the perilous Nan technology.
C) Humans have to devote themselves to save the whole world by containing and wrecking the machines.
D) It is right time for humans to dominate the high developing technology effectively and handle it skillfully.
Answer：D
4. Bill Joy realized the situation that _____.
A) the day when the world controlled by the machines is just round the corner
B) the human world is on the edge of an exceeding danger
C) the machines in the future will be as perilous as the mass destruction
D) humans are now on their wit's end
Answer：B
5. Which of the following can best describe the author's attitude towards the future relationship between humans and machines?
A) Optimistic.
B) Pessimistic.
C) Confident.
D) Indifferent.
Answer：B
Unit 3
The study of philosophies should make our own ideas flexible. We are all of us apt to take certain general ideas for granted, and call them common sense. We should learn that other people have held quite different ideas, and that our own have started as very original guesses of philosophers.
A scientist is apt to think that all the problems of philosophy will ultimately be solved by science.
I think this is true for a great many of the questions on which philosophers still argue. For example, Plato thought that when we saw something, one ray of light came to it from the sun, and another from our eyes and that seeing was something like feeling with a stick. We now know that the light comes from the sun, and is reflected into our eyes. We don't know in much detail how the changes in our eyes give rise to sensation. But there is every reason to think that as we learn more about the physiology of the brain, we shall do so, and that the great philosophical problems about knowledge are going to be pretty fully cleared up.
But if our descendants know the answers to these questions and others that perplex us today, there will still be one field of which they do not know, namely the future. However exact our science, we cannot know it as we know the past. Philosophy may be described as argument about things of which we are ignorant. And where science gives us a hope of knowledge it is often reasonable to suspend judgment. That is one reason why Marx and Engels quite rightly wrote to many philosophical problems that interested their contemporaries.
But we have got to prepare for the future, and we cannot do so rationally without some philosophy. Some people say we have only got to do the duties revealed in the past and laid down by religion,
and god will look after the future. Other say that the world is a machine and the course of future events is certain, whatever efforts we may make, Marxists say that the future depends on ourselves, even though we are part of the historical process. This philosophical view certainly does inspire people to very great achiements. Whether it is true or not, it is powerful guide to action.
We need a philosophy, then, to help us to tackle the future. Agnosticism easily becomes an excuse for laziness and conservation. Whether we adopt Marxism or any other philosophy, we cannot understand it without knowing something of how it developed. That is why knowledge of the history of philosophy is important to Marxism, even during the present critical days.
1. What is the main idea of this passage?
A) The main idea of this passage is the argument whether philosophy will ultimately be solved by science or not.
B) The importance of learning philosophies, especially the history of philosophy.
C) The difference between philosophy and science.
D) A discuss about how to set a proper attitude towards future.
Answer：B
2. The example of what Plato thought in the passage shows that __________.
A) the development of science really can solve a great many of the problems on which philosophers still argue
B) Plato knew nothing about Physics
C) the scientists have achieved a lot in terms of light theory
D) different people have different ways of perception
Answer：A
3. What field can our descendants know?
A) The origin of human beings.
B) Some questions that perplex us today.
C) Many philosophical problems which Marx and Engels wrote rather little.
D) The future.
Answer：D
4. How many kinds of ideas are there about the future?
A) Two.
B) Three.
C) Four.
D) Five.
Answer：B
5. What are the functions of studying philosophies mentioned in the passage?
A) The study of philosophies would make our own ideas flexible.
B) The study of philosophies would help prepare us for the future and guide our actions.
C) The study of philosophies would enable us to understand how things develop as to better tackle the future.
D) All of the above.
Answer：D
Unit4
The mental health movement in the United States began with a period of considerable englightenment. Dorothea Dix was shocked to find the mentally ill in jails and almshouses and crusaded for the establishment of asylums in which people could receive humane care in hospital-like environments and treatment which might help restore them to sanity. By the mid 1800s, 20 states had established asylums, but during the late 1800s and early 1900s, in the face of economic depression, legislatures were unable to appropriate sufficient funds for decent care. Asylums became overcrowded and prison like. Additionally, patients were more resistant to treatment than the pioneers in the mental health field had anticipated, and security and restraint were needed to protect patients and others. Mental institutions became frightening and depressing places in which the rights of patients were all but forgotten.
These conditions continued until after World War II. At that time, new treatments were discovered for some major mental illnesses theretofore considered untreatable (pencillin for syphilis of the brain and insulin treatment for schizophrenia and depressions), and a succession of books, motion pictures, and newspaper exposes called attention to the plight of the mentally ill. Improvements were made and Dr. David V ail's Humane Practices Program is a beacon for today. But changes were slow in coming until the early 1960s. At that time, the Civil Rights movement led lawyers to investigate America's prisons, which were disproportionately populated by blacks, and they in turn followed prisoners into the only institutions that were worse than the prisons -- the hospitals for the criminally insane. The prisons were filled with with angry young men who, encouraged by legal support, were quick to demand their rights. The hospitals for the criminally insane, by contrast, were populated with people who were considered "crazy" and who were often kept obediently in their place through the use of severe bodily restraints and large doses of major tranquilizers. The young cadre of public interest lawyers liked their role in the mental hospitals. The lawyers found a population that was both passive and easy to champion. These were, after all, people who, unlike criminals, had done nothing wrong. And in many states, they were being kept in horrendous institutions, an injustice, which once exposed, was bound to shock the public and, particularly, the judicial conscience. Patients' rights groups successfully encouraged reform by lobbying in state legislatures.
Judicial intervention have had some definite positive effect, but there is growing awareness that courts cannot provide the standards and the review mechanisms that assure good patient care. The details of providing day-to-day care simply cannot be mandated by a court, so it is time to take from the courts the responsibility for delivery of mental health care and assurance of patient rights and return it to the state mental health administrators to whom the mandate was originally given. Though it is a difficult task, administrators must undertake to write rules and standards and to provide the training and surveillance to assure that treatment is given and patient rights are respected.
1. The main purpose of the passage is to _________.
A) provide an historical perspective on problems of mental health care
B) increase public awareness of the plight of the mentally ill
C) shock the reader with vivid descriptions of asylums
D) describe the invention of new treatments for mental illness
Answer：A
2. The author's attitude toward people who are patients in state institutions can best be described as __________.
A) inflexible and insensitive
B) detached and neutral
C) understanding and sympathetic
D) enthusiastic and supportive
Answer：C
3. It can be inferred from the passage that, had the Civil Rights movement nor prompted an investigation of prison conditions _________.
A) states would never have established asylums for the mentally ill
B) new treatments for major mental illness would have likely remained untested
C) the Civil Rights movement in America would have been politically ineffective
D) conditions in mental hospitals might have escaped judicial scrutiny
Answer：D
4. The tone of the final paragraph can best be described as _________.
A) overly emotional
B) cleverly deceptive
C) cautiously optimistic
D) fiercely independent
Answer：C
5. According to the passage, mental hospital conditions were radically changed because of ________.
A) as groups of young angry men in the 1900s
B) active young lawyers in the 1960s
C) innocent insane patients' protest
D) powerful court interventions
Answer：B
U5
What will it mean to know the complete human genome. Eric Lander of MIT's Whitehead Insititute compares it to the discovery of the periodic table of the elements in the last 1800s. "Genomics is now providing biology's periodic table." says Lander. "Scientists will know that every phenomenon must be expalinable in terms of this meansly list" which will in on a single CD-ROM. Already researchers are extracting DNA from patients, attaching fluorescent molecules and sprinkling the sample on a glass chip whose surface is speckled with 10,000 known genes. A laser reads the fluorescence, which indicates which of the known genes on the chip are in the mystery sample from the patient. In only the last few months such "gene-expression monitoring" has diagnosed a muscle tumor in a boy thought to have leukemia, and distinguished between two kinds of cancer that require very different chemotherapy.
But decoding the book of life poses daunting moral dilemmas. With knowledge of our genetic code will come the power to re-engineer the human species. Biologists will be able to use the genome as a parts list much as customers scour a list of china to replace broken plates and may well let prospective parents choose their unborn child's traits. Scientists have solid leads on genes for different temperaments, body builds, statures and cognitive abilities. And if anyone still believes that parents will recoil at praying God, and leave their baby's fate in the hands of nature recall that couples have already created a frenzied market in eggs from Ivy League women.
Beyond the profound ethical issues are practical concerns. The easier it is to change ourselves and our children, the less society may tolerate those who do not; warns Lori Andrews of Kent College of Law. If genetic tests in uterus predict mental dullness, obesity, short stature or other undesirable traits of the moment will society disparage children whose parents let them be born with those traits? Already, Andrews finds, some nurses and doctors blame parents for bringing into the world a child whose birth defect was diagnosable before delivery; how long will it be before the same condemnation applies to cosmetic imperfections? An even greater concern is that well intentioned choices by millions of individual parents-to-be could add up to unforseen consequences for all of humankind. It just so happens that some disease genes also confer resistence to disease: carrying a gene for sickle cell amenia, for instance, brings resistence to malaria. Are we smart enough, and wise enough, to know how knocking out "bad" genes will affect our evolution as a species?
1. The main similarity between the biology's periodic table and the periodic table of the elements is _________.
A) they are both lists
B) they can be used to explain every phenomenon in their own fields
C) they can be used to diagnose diseases
D) they are both used to cure diseases
Answer：B
2. In the second paragraph, "the book of life" refers to __________.
A) a book written by a prophet
B) a book written by a biologist
C) the periodic table of the elements
D) the human genome
Answer：D
3. We can infer that some couples are eager to get eggs from Ivy League women because _________.
A) they can't give birth to children
B) they want to have a good-looking child
C) they want to have a clever child
D) curiosity drives them to do that
Answer：C
4. It can be learned from the passage that _________.
A) "gene-expression monitoring" is helpful in curing diseases
B) all of the disease genes are harmful to human beings
C) short people may also be looked down upon in future
D) scientists are encouraged to do research on human genome
Answer：C
5. The author's attitude towards knowing the complete human genome can be described as ________.
A) critical
B) objective
C) positive
D) indifferent
Answer：B
U6
Western nations initially ignored Russia's ruthless military campaign in Chechnya to gain Moscow's support for the war on terrorism. Now, as reports of human rights abuses in the region stream in, Europe and America are losing patience.
Recent Amnesty International reports describe in gruesome detail the Russian military's role in the rape and trafficking of Chechen women. A 2001 U.S. State Department report on trafficking in persons described Russia as "a source country for women trafficked for prostitution." Many of those women come from war-torn Chechnya. There are also reports of Russian soldiers using Chechen civilians as human shields to storm hideouts of Chechen militias. These dreadful war crimes speak volumes to the moral bankruptcy of the Russian military establishment, and continue to fuel the Chechen yearning for independence.
Shortly after Sept. 11, President Putin may have convinced the West to look the other way. But the tide is beginning to turn. At a January meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe(PACE) in Strasbourg, Germany, a special session was included to address the crisis in Chechnya, muc to the chagrin of the Russian delegation. Russian delegates mocked Chechen representative Ahmed Zakaevv, calling him a representative of Osama bin Laden. During the same period, a meeting took place between Chechen diplomat Ilyas Ahmadov and representatives of the U.S. State Department. These high-profile meetings between delegates of the Chechen resistance leadership and Western leaders seem to signal the end of short-lived Western silence.
The Russian government's diplomatic failure to win legitimacy for its war in Chechnya and to equate it with the war in Afghanistan was also matched by a series of military blunders committed by its forces on the ground. Recently, the Russian military announced the conclusion of a sweeping crackdown on "terrorists", and claimed to have killed over 90 Chechen revels. Shortly after the announcement, The Independent, a London-based paper, accused the Russian government of fabricating the news of the military crackdown to cover up the deaths of 15 Russian soldiers killed by friendly fire. Soon after, 14 senior Russian officials, including a deputy interior minister, were killed when their military helicopter crashed during a flight over Chechnya. The death toll included General Mikhail Rudhenko, who is in charge of security in southern Russia.
It may seem as if the plight of the Chechen people has no end in sight. But their determination to be free is unmistakable. Russia's atrocities in Chechnya go back to the 19th century, when the
diminutive but oil-rich region was annexed to the Czarist Empire after a bloody campaign of colonization. Since then, the Chechens have endured mass deportations and massacres, and have stared genocide in the face.
1. Europe and America didn't blame Russia for its deeds in Chechnya mainly because _________.
A) Russia did nothing wrong in Chechnya before
B) they wanted to gain Russia's support for the war on terrorism
C) they didn't want to intervene into other countries' affairs
D) they were not blamed by advocates of human rights
Answer：B
2. The underlined word "fabricating" (Paragraph 4) most probably mean __________.
A) concealing
B) reporting
C) inventing
D) postponing
Answer：C
3. Which of the following is incorrect according to the passage?
A) President Putin hasn't convinced the west to believe that its war on Chechnya is proper.
B) In the western nation's opinion, the war in Chechnya is similar to that in Afghanistan.
C) Chechnya didn't belong to Russia two centuries ago.
D) The Chechens have suffered a lot under the rule of Russia.
Answer：B
4. We can infer that _________.
A) Western nations will blame Russia for its ruthlessness in Chechnya
B) Russia will stop military crackdown in Chechnya
C) Chechnya will be liberated a few years later
D) Chechnya may become an ally of western states in future
Answer：A
5. The author's attitudes towards the Chechens is ________.
A) neutral
B) indifferent
C) sympathetic
D) critical
Answer：C
U7
Bank of America, holding company for the San Francisco -- based Bank of America, was once unchallenged as the nation's biggest banking organization. At its peak, it had more branches in California -- 1,100 -- than the U.S. Postal Service. It was also a highly profitable enterprise. But since 1980, Bank of America's earnings have been down or flat. From March 1985 to March 1986, for example, earnings per share dropped 50.8 percent. Samuel H. Armacost, president and CEO, has confessed that he doesn't expect a turnaround soon.
Some of Bank of America's old magic seems to have rubbed off on New York's Citibank,
perennial rival for top banking honors. Thanks to aggressive growth policies, Citicorp's assets topped Bank of America's for the first time in 1983 -- and by a healthy margin. Citibank has also been generating profits at a fast clip, enabling it to spend lavishly on campaigns to enter new markets -- notably Bank of America's turf in California.
The bad times Bank of America is currently facing are partly the result of the good times the bank enjoyed earlier. Based in a large and populous state and operating in a regulated environment, Bank of America thrived. Before deregulation, banks could not compete by offering savers a higher return, so they competed with convinience. With a branch at every crossroads, Bank of America was able to attract 40 percent of the California deposit market -- a source of high earnings when the legal maximum payable to depositors was much lower than the interest on loans.
The progressive deregulation of banking forced Bank of America to fight for its customers by offering them competitive rates. But how could this mammoth bureaucracy, with its expensive overhead, offer rates as attractive as its loaner competitors? Pruning the establishment was foremost in the minds of Bank of America policymakers. But cutbacks have proceeded slowly. Although the bank is planning to consolidate by offering full services only in key branches, so far only about 40 branches have been closed. Cutbacks through attrition have reduced the work force from 83,000 to fewer than 73,000; wholesale layoffs, it seems, would not fit the tradition of the organization. And they would intensify the morale problems that already threaten the institution.
1. According to the passage, New York's Citibank _________.
A) is a dark horse in the field of banking
B) has been growing in a moderate way
C) has been making efforts to conquer the markets of Bank of America
D) has more branches than Bank of America now
Answer：C
2. Which of the following is NOT the reason for which Bank of America thrived?
A) It's turf -- California was a state with a large number of population.
B) The economic environment that was controlled by the government.
C) Its deposit rate was higher than that of other banks.
D) Its large amount of branches.
Answer：C
3. The phrase "mammoth bureaucracy" (Line 2, Paragraph 4) refers to _______.
A) its expensive overhead
B) its large amount of branches
C) its long history
D) corruption of its leaders
Answer：B
4. Now the most important factor for a bank to win in competition seems to be _________.
A) higher deposit rate
B) flexibility of capital
C) high banking honors
D) support of the government
Answer：A
5. Which of the following conclusions can't be drawn from the passage?
A) The U.S. Postal Service had less than 1,100 branches in California a few decades before.
B) The profit of the Bank of America has been reducing since the 1980s.
C) The prospect of the Bank of America is not quite promising.
D) Moral problem is also a factor that leads to the decline of the Bank of America.
Answer：B
U8
V olcanic fire and glacial ice are natural enemies. Eruptions at glaciated volcanoes typically destroy ice fields, as they did in 1980 when 70 of Mount Saint Helens ice cover was demolished. During long dormant intervals, glaciers gain the upper hand cutting deeply into volcanic cones and eventually reducing them to rubble. Only rarely do these competing forces of heat and cold operate in perfect balance to create a phenomenon such as the steam caves at Mount Rainier National Park.
Located inside Rainier's two ice-filled summit craters, these caves form a labyrinth of tunnels and vaulted chambers about one and one-half miles in total length. Their creation depends on an unusual combination of factors that nature almost never brings together in one place. The cave-making recipe calls for a steady emission of volcanic gas and heat, a heavy annual snowfall at an elevation high enough to keep it from melting during the summer, and a bowl-shaped crater to hold the snow.
Snow accumulating yearly in Rainier's summit craters is compacted and compressed into a dense form of ice called firm, a substance midway between ordianry ice and the denser crystalline ice that makes up glaciers. Heat rising from numerous opening (called fumaroles) along the inner crater walls melts out chambers between the rocky walls and the overlying ice pack. Circulating currents of warm air then melt additional openings in the firm ice, eventually connecting the individual chambers and, in the larger of Rainier's the crater's, forming a continuous passageway the extends two-thirds of the Way around the crater's interior.
To maintain the cave system, the elements of fire under ice must remain in equilibrium, enough snow must fill the crater each year to replace that melted from below. If too much volcanic heat is discharged, the crater's ice pack will melt away entirely and the caves will vanish along with the snows of yesteryear. If too little heat is produced, the ice, the replendished annually by winter snowstorms, will expand, pushing against the enclosing crater walls and smothering the present caverns in solid firm ice.
1. With what topic is the passage mainly concerned?
A) The importance of snowfall for Mount Rainier.
B) The steam caves of Mount Rainier's.
C) How ice covers are destroyed.
D) The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980.
Answer：B
2. According to the passage, long periods of volcanic inactivity can lead to a volcanic cone's _______.
A) strong eruption
B) sudden growth
C) destruction
D) unpredictability
Answer：C
3. The second paragraph mentions all of the following as necessary elements in the creation of steam caves EXCEPT _______.
A) a glacier
B) a crater
C) heat
D) snow
Answer：A
4. According to the passage, heat from Mount Rainier's summit craters rises from _________.
A) crystalline ice
B) firms
C) chambers
D) fumaroles
Answer：D
5. "smothering" (Paragrah 4) means _________.
A) eliminate
B) enlarged
C) prevented
D) hollowed
Answer：A
U9
Moviegoers may think history is repeating itself this weekend. The summer's most anticipated film, Pearl Harbor, which has opened recently, painstakingly recreates the Japanese attack that drew the United States into World War II. But that isn't the film's only reminder of the past. Harbor invites comparison to Titanic, the biggest hit of all time. Like Titanic, Harbor heaps romance and action around a magor historical event. Like Titanic, Harbor attempts to create popular global entertainment from a deadly real-life. Like Titanic, Harbor costs a pretty penny and hopes to get in even more at the box office.
Bot Titanic and Pearl Harbor unseal their tales of love and tragedy over more than three hours. Both stories center on young passion, triangles of tension with one woman and two men: In Titanic, Lenardo DiCaprio and Billy Zane compete for the love of the same woman, a high-society type played by a British actress name Kate (Winslet). In Harbor, two pilots (Ben Affelck, Josh Hartnett) fall for the same woman, a nurse played by a British actress named Kate (Beckinsale).
The scens of peril also have similarities. Harbor has a shot in which soldiers cling for dear life as
the battleship USS Oklahoma capsizes. The moment is recalled of the Titanic's sinking scene in which DiCaprio and Winslet hang from the ocean liner as half of the ship vertically plunges into the water. In Harbor, one of its stars floats atop a piece of debris in the middle of the night, much like Winslet's character does in Titanic.
And the jaw-dropping action of Titanic is matched by Harbor's 40-minute recreation of Dec. 7, 1941 attack on the United States' Pacific Fleet. Both films spent heavily on special effects. Harbor director, Michael Bay, for example, says he kept salaries down so more could be spent on the visuals. Both movies event shot their ship-sinking scenes at the same location: Fox Studios Baja in Mexico.
Harbor's makers have even taken a Titanic-like approach to the soundtrack. The film includes one song, There You'll Be, performed by country music superstar Faith Hill. Titanic, which is one of the best selling soundtracks of all time, also had only one pop song: Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.
"If Harbor becomes a major moneymaker, filmmakers may comb history books searching for even more historical romance-action material," says a critic.
1. What are the two things that the author of this article tries to compare?
A) The attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Titanic.
B) Historical fiction movies and successful box office hits.
C) The movie Titanic and the on-show movie Pearl Harbor.
D) Sinking boats and famous actors.
Answer：C
2. What does the phrase "cost a pretty penny" (Paragraph 1) mean?
A) To be very attractive.
B) To cost a lot.
C) To have big box office returns.
D) To require a lot of effort to accomplish.
Answer：B
3. It is said in the passage that _______.
A) major historical events can never repeat themselves
B) both Titanic and Pearl Harbor are the historical reappearance
C) Pearl Harbor may have a better box office return than Titanic
D) Titanic is the most successful film in history
Answer：D
4. Pearl Harbor and Titanic are similar in all the following aspects EXCEPT _________.
A) both spent large amount of money on special effects
B) both have soundtracks starring a major pop star
C) both added made-up stories to historical events
D) both are documentary movies of historical events
Answer：D
5. If Pearl Harbor is as successful as Titanic, which of the following movies might we see next?
A) The Battle of Waterloo.
B) The Adventures of Mr. Bean.
C) Space Invaders.
D) The Haunted House.
Answer：A
U10
Traditionally, the study of history has had fixed boundaries and focal points -- periods, countries, dramatic events, and great leaders. It also has had clear and firm notions of scholarly procedure: how one inquires into a historical problem, how one presents and documents one's findings, what constitutes admissible and adequate proof.
Anyone who has followed recent historical literature can testify to the revolution that is taking place in historical studies. The currently fashionable subjects come directly from the sociology catalog: childhood, work, leisure. The new subjects are accomplished by new methods. Where history once was primarily narrative, it is now entirely analytic. The old questions "What happened?" and "How did it happen?" have given way to the question "Why did it happen?" Prominent among the methods used to answer the question "Why" is psychoanalysis, and its use has given rise to psychohistory.
Psychohistory does not merely use psychological explanations in historical contexts. Historians have always used such explanations when they were appropriate and when there was sufficient evidence for them. But this pragmatic use of psycholoanalysis is not what psychohistorians intend. They are committed, not just to psychology in general, but to Freudian psychoanalysus. This cimmitment precludes a commitment to history as historians have always understood it. Psychohistory derives its "facts" not from history, the detailed records of events and their consequences, but from psychoanalysis of the individuals who made history, and deduces its theories not from this or that instance in their lives, but from a view of human nature that transcends history. It denies the basic criterion of historical evidence: that evidence be publicly accessible to, and therefore accessable by, all historians. And it violates the basic tenet of historical method: that historian be alert to the negative instances that would refute their theses. Psychohistorians, convinced of the absolute rightness of their own theories, are also convinced that theirs is the "deepest" explanation of any event, and that other explanations fall short of the truth.
Psychohistory is not content to violate the discipline of history (in the sense of the proper mode of studying the writing about the past); it also violates the past itself. It denies to the past an integrity and will of its own, in which people acted out of a variety of motives and in which events had a multiplicity of causes and effects. It imposes upon the past the same determinism that it imposes upon the present, thus robbing people and events of their individuality and of their complexity. Instead of respecting the particularity of the past, it assimilates all events, past and present, into a single deterministic schema that is presumed to be true at all times and in all circumstances.
1. Which of the following best states the main point of the passage?
A) The approach of psychohistorians to historical study is currently in fashion even though it lacks the rigor and verifiability of traditional historical method.
B) Traditional historians can benefit from studying the techniques and findings of psychohistorians.
C) Areas of sociological study such as childhood and work are of little interest to traditional historians.
D) The psychological assessment of an individual's behavior and attitudes is more informative than the details of his or her daily life.
Answer：A
2. It can be inferred from the passage that one way in which traditional history can be distinguished from psychohistory is that traditional history usually ________.
A) views past events as complex and having their own individuality
B) relies on a single interpretation of human behavior to explain historical events
C) turns to psychological explanation in historical contexts to account for events
D) interprets historical events in such a way that their specific nature is transcended
Answer：A
3. Which of the following did the author mention as a characteristic of the practice of psychohistorians?
A) The lives of historical figures are presented in episodic (插话式的) rather than narrative form.
B) Archives used by psychohistorians to gather material are not accessible to other scholars.
C) Past and current events are all placed within the same deterministic schema.
D) Events in the adult life of a historical figure are seen to be more consequential than are those in the childhood of the figure.
Answer：C
4. The author of the passage suggests that psychohostorians view history primarily as _________.
A) a report of events, causes, and effects that is generally accepted by historians but which is, for the most part, unverifiable
B) an episodic account that lacks cohesion because records of the role of childhood, work, and leisure in the lives of historical figures are rare
C) an uncharted sea of seemingly unexplainable events that have meaning only when examined as discrete (不连续的) units
D) a record of the way in which a closed set of unchallengeable psychological laws seems to have shaped events
Answer：D
5. The author of the passage puts the word "deepest" (the last sentence of Paragraph 3) in quotation marks most probably in order to _________.
A) signal her reservations about the accuracy of psychohistorians' claims for their work
B) draw attention to a contradiction in the psychohistorians' method
C) emphasize the major difference between the traditional historians' method and that of the psychohistorians
D) disassociate her opinion of psychohistorians' insights from her opinion of their method Answer：A
U11
To these indirect presumtions that our sensations, following the mutations of our capacity for feeling, are always undergoing an essential change, must be added another presumption, based on what must happen in the brain. Every sensation corresponds to some cerebral action. For an identical sensation to recur it would have to occur the second time in an unmodified brain. But as this, strictly speaking, is a physiological impossibility, so is an unmodified feeling an impossibility; for to every brain-modification, however small, we suppose that there must correspond a change of equal amount in the consciousness which the brain subserves.
But if the assumption of "simple sensations" recurring in immutable shape is so easily shown to be baseless, how much more baseless is the assumption of immutability in the larger masses of our thought! For there it is obvious and palpable that our state of mind is never precisely the same. Every thought we have of a given fact is, strictly speaking, unique, and only bears any resemblance of kind with our other thoughts of the same fact. When the identical fact recurs, we must think of it in a fresh manner, see it under a somewhat different angle, apprehend it in different relations from those in which it last appeared. And the thought by which we cognize is the thought of it in those relations, a thought suffused with the consciousness of all that dim context. Often we are ourselves struck at the strange differences in our successive views of the same thing. We wonder how we ever could have opined as we did last month about a certain matter. We have outgrown the possibility of that state of mind, though we know not how.
For one year to another we see things in new lights. What was unreal has grown real, and what was exciting is insipid. The friends we used to care the world for are shrunken to shadow; the women once so divine, that stars, the woods, and the waters, how now so dull and common! -- The young girls that brought an aura of infinity, at present hardly distinguishable existences; the pictures so empty; and as for the booksm what was there to find so mysteriously significant in Goethe, or in John Mill so full of weight? Instead of all this, more zestful that ever is the work, the work; and fuller and deeper the import of common duties and of common goods.
1. Our sensations are assumed to change because __________.
A) the brain changes
B) no sensation occurs twice in the same way
C) sensations are complicated
D) our capacity for feeling remains constant
Answer：A
2. We can infer that the writer is ________.
A) friendless
B) not a young man
C) depressed by his findings
D) dismayed by the changeability of feeling and thoughts
Answer：B
3. Which of the following states the main idea of this passage?
A) We can know sensations only through reasoning, never by direct experience.
B) Our mental processes are characterized by change.
C) Work is the best goal of men.
D) Each thought is known only in context of our other thoughts.
Answer：B
4. The author apparently feels that _________.
A) our values remain constant throughout our lives
B) our senses are more reliable than our minds
C) the things we value in our youth are worthless
D) our reality changes as we change
Answer：D
5. The word "insipid" (para. 3) means _________.
A) without interesting qualities
B) not tasty
C) lovely
D) invalid
Answer：A
U12
Over the last decade, demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast englargement and nose jobs, has increased by more than 400 per cent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. "What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that."
In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centers on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imberre commends "maintenance" work for people in their thirties. "The idea if waiting until one need a heroic transformation is silly," he says. "By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand." Dr. Inber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however, "It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery."
In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davie, who claims to "cater for the average person", agrees. He says: "I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday."
Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anaesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who recently paid ￡2,500 for liposuction to remove cellulite from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery veteran is a deceptively gentle one. "I had my legs done because they'd been bugging me for years. But going
into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it."
1. According to the text, the reason for cosmetic surgery is __________.
A) being physically healthy
B) looking normal
C) investing for life
D) improving appearance
Answer：B
2. According to paragraph 3, what Dr. Davies said implies that ________.
A) cosmetic surgery, though costly, is worth having
B) cosmetic surgery is very expensive
C) cosmetic surgery is necessary even for the average person
D) cosmetic surgery is beyong the reach of most people
Answer：A
3. There is a hot debate in America about ________.
A) whether those who are under 18 need cosmetic surgery
B) whether people should have "maintenance" work in their thirties
C) at what age people should have cosmetic surgery
D) whether cosmetic surgery should cater for the average person
Answer：C
4. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) It is wise to have cosmetic surgery under 18.
B) Cosmetic surgery is now easier and less painful.
C) People tend to abuse cosmetic surgery.
D) The earlier people have cosmetic surgery, the better they will be.
Answer：B
5. The text is mainly about _________.
A) the advantage of having cosmetic surgery
B) what kind of people should have cosmetic surgery
C) the reason why cosmetic surgery is so popular
D) the disadvantage of cosmetic surgery
Answer：C
U13
Like our political society, the university is under severe attack today and perhaps for the same reason; namely, that we have accomplished much of what we have set out to do in this generation, that we have done so imperfectly, and while we have been doing so, we have said a lot of things that simply are not true. For example, we have earnestly declared that full equality of opportunity in universities exists for everyone, regardless of economic circumstance, race or religion. This has never been true. In another sense the university has failed. It has stored great quantities of knowledge; it teaches more people; and despite its failures, it teaches them better. It is in the application of this knowledge that the failure has come.
Of the great branches of knowledge -- the sciences, the social sciences and humanities -- the sciences are applied, sometimes almost as soon as they are learned. Strenuous and occasionally successful efforts are made to apply the social sciences, but almost never are the humanities well applied. The great tasks of the university in the next generation are to search the past to form the future, to begin an earnest search for a new and relevant set of values, and to learn to use the knowledge we have for the questions that come before us. The university should use one-fourth of a student's time in his undergraduate years and organize it into courses which might be called history, and literature and philosophy, and anything else appropriate and organize these around primary problems.
The difference between a primary problem and a secondary problem is that primary problems tend to be around for a long time, whereas the less important ones get solved. One primary problem is that of interfering with what some call human destiny and others call biological development, which is partly the result of genetic circumstance and partly the result of accidental environmental conditions. It is anticipated that the next generation, and perhaps this one, will be able to interfere chemically with the actual development of an individual and perhaps biologically by interfering with his genes. Obviously, there are benefits both to individuals and to society from eliminating, or at least improving, mentally and physically deformed persons. On the other hand, there could be very serious consequences if this knowledge were used intentionally to produce superior and subordinate classes, each genetically prepared to carry out a predetermined mission.
This can be done, but what happens to free will and the rights of the individual? Here we have a primary problem that will still exist when we are all dead. After all, the purpose of education is not only to impart knowledge but to teach students to use the knowledge that they either have or will find, to teach them to ask and seek answers for important questions.
1. The author suggests that the university's greatest shortcoming is its failure to __________.
A) attempt to provide equal opportunity for all
B) offer courses in philosophy and the humanities
C) prepare students adequately for professional studies
D) help students see the relevance of the humanities to real problems
Answer：D
2. It is implied in the second paragraph that universities ________.
A) mistake literature as of little or no practical value
B) attach great importance to social sciences and humanities
C) can distinguish primary problems from secondary problems
D) do not offer undergraduate courses like history, literature and philosophy
Answer：A
3. Which of the following questions does the author answer in the passage?
A) What are some of the secondary problems faced by the past generation?
B) How can we improve the performance of our political society?
C) What is the chief objective of a university education?
D) Why is the university of today better than the university of the past?
Answer：C