TXET 1 ：2013年在职工程硕士英语阅读理解练习及答案
- 第1页：TXET 1
- 第2页：TXET 2
- 第3页：TXET 3
- 第4页：TXET 4
Around the world more and more people are taking part in dangerous sports and activities. Of course, there have always been people who have looked for adventure-those who have climbed the highest mountains, explored unknown parts of the world or sailed in small boats across the greatest oceans. Now, however, there are people who seek an immediate excitement from a risky activity which may only last a few minutes or even seconds.
I would consider bungee jumping to be a good example of such an activity. You jump from a high place (perhaps a bridge or a hot-air balloon) 200 meters above the ground with an elastic rope tied to your ankles. You fall at up to 150 kilometers an hour until the rope stops you from hitting the ground. It is estimated that two million people around the world have now tried bungee jumping. Other activities which most people would say are as risky as bungee jumping involve jumping from tall buildings and diving into the sea from the top of high cliffs.
Why do people take part in such activities as these? Some psychologists suggest that it is because life in modern societies has become safe and boring. Not very long ago, people's lives were constantly under threat. They had to go out and hunt for food, diseases could not easily be cured, and life was a continuous battle for survival.
Nowadays, according to many people, life offers little excitement. They live and work in comparatively safe environment; they buy food in shops; and there are doctors and hospitals to look after them if they become ill. The answer for some of these people is to seek danger in activities such as bungee jumping.
1. A suitable title for the passage is .
A. Dangerous Sports: What and Why?
B. The Boredom of Modern Life
C. Bungee Jumping: Is It Really Dangerous?
D. The Need for Excitement
2. More and more people today .
A. are trying activities such as bungee jumping
B. are climbing the highest mountains
C. are close to death in sports
D. are looking for adventures such as exploring unknown places
3. People probably take part in dangerous sports nowadays because .
A. they have a lot of free time
B. they can go to hospital if they are injured
C. their lives lack excitement
D. hey no longer need to hunt for food
4. The writer of the passage has a(n) attitude towards dangerous sports.
A. positive
B. negative
C. objective
D. subjective
参考答案：A A C C
本文导航- 第1页：TXET 1
- 第2页：TXET 2
- 第3页：TXET 3
- 第4页：TXET 4
Every year television stations receive hundreds of complaints about the loudness of advertisements. However, federal rules forbid the practice of making ads louder than the programming. In addition, television stations always operate at the highest sound level allowed for reasons of efficiency. According to one NBC executive, no difference exists in the peak sound level of ads programming. Given this information, why do commercials sound so loud?
The sensation of sound involves a variety of factors in addition to its speak level. Advertisers are skillful at creating the impression of loudness through their expert use of such factors. One major contributor to the perceived loudness of commercials is that much less variation in sound level occurs during a commercial. In regular programming the intensity of sound varies over a large range. However, sound levels in commercials tend to stay at or near peak levels.
Other "tricks of the trade" are also used. Because low-frequency sounds can mask higher frequency sounds, advertisers filter out any noises that may drown out the primary message. In addition, the human voice has more auditory (听觉的) impact in the middle frequency ranges. Advertisers electronically vary voice sounds so that they stay within such a frequency band. Another approach is to write the script so that lots of consonants ( 辅音 ) are used, because people are more aware of consonants than vowel ( 元音 ) sounds. Finally, advertisers try to begin commercials with sounds that are highly different from those of the programming within which the commercial is buried. Because people become adapted to the type of sounds coming from programming, a dramatic change in sound quality draws viewer attention. For example, notice how many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some type.
The attention-getting property of commercial can be seen by observing one-to-two -year-old children who happen to be playing around a television set. They may totally ignore the programming. However, when a commercial comes on, their attention is immediately drawn to it because of its dramatic sound quality.
1. According to the passage, the maximum intensity of sound coming from comme rcials .
A. does not exceed that of programs
B. is greater than that of programs
C. varies over a large range than that of programs
D. is less than that of programs
2. Commercials create the sensation of loudness because .
A. TV stations always operate at the highest sound levels
B. their sound levels are kept around peak levels
C. their sound levels are kept in the middle frequency ranges
D. unlike regular programs their intensity of sound varies over a wide range
3. Many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some kind because .
A. pop songs attract viewer attention
B. it can increase their loudness
C. advertisers want to make them sound different from regular programs
D. advertisers want to merge music with commercials
4. One of the reasons why commercials are able to attract viewer attention is that .
A. the human voices in commercials have more auditory impact
B. people like cheerful songs that change dramatically in sound quality
C. high-frequency sounds are used to mask sounds that drown out the primary message
D. they possess sound qualities that make the viewer feel that something unusual is happening
5. In the passage, the author is trying to tell us .
A. How TV ads vary vocal sounds to attract attention
B. how the loudness of TV ads is overcome
C. how advertisers control the sound properties of TV ads
D. how the attention-getting properties of sounds are made use of in TV ads
参考答案：A B C D D
本文导航- 第1页：TXET 1
- 第2页：TXET 2
- 第3页：TXET 3
- 第4页：TXET 4
The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U. S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher—at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teaching children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population and as home sehoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home shoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
Says John Marshall, an education official, "We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers." The idea is, "Let's give the kids access to public school so they'll see it's not as terrible as they've been told, and they'll want to come back."
Perhaps, but don't count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education—wether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child's interests and natural pace—is best.
"The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone," says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also "strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn—both intellectually and emotionally—that the family is the most important institution in society."
Other home schoolers contend "not so much that the schools teach heresy (异端邪说) , but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately," Van Galen writes, "These parents are highly independent and strive to 'take responsibility' for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient."
1. According to the passage, home schoolers are .
A. those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
B. those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
C. those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
D. those who don't go to school but are educated at home by their parents
2. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because .
A. there isn't much they can go to change the present situation
B. they want to show their tolerance for different teaching systems
C. home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
D. public schools have so many problems that they cannot offer proper education for all children
3. Home-school advocates are of the opinion that .
A. things in public schools are not so bad as has often been said
B. their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schools
C. home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give in
D. their increased cooperation with public school will bring about the improvement of public education
4. Most home schoolers' opposition to public education stems from their .
A. respect for the interests of individuals
B. worry about the inefficiency of public schools
C. concern with the cost involved
D. devotion to religion
5. According to Van Galen some home schoolers believe that .
A. public schools take up a herdlike approach to teaching children
B. teachers in public school are not as responsible as they should be
C. public schools cannot provide an education that is good enough for their children
D. public schools are the source of bureaucracy and inefficiency in modern society
参考答案：B A C D C
本文导航- 第1页：TXET 1
- 第2页：TXET 2
- 第3页：TXET 3
- 第4页：TXET 4
Cyberspace (网络空间) , data superhighways, multimedia for those who have seen the future, the linking of computers, television and telephones will change our lives for ever. Yet for all the talk of a forthcoming technological Utopia (乌托邦) little attention bas been given to the implications of these developments for the poor. As with all new high technology, while the West concerns itself with the "how", the question of "for whom" is put aside once again.
Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communications revolution has affected the world economy. Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries, and transnational corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade, exchange and interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods. The electronic economy made possible by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets with destructive impact on the have-nots.
For them the result is instability. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small pans in the international economic machine. As "futures"(期货) are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.
So what are the options for regaining control? One alternative is for developing countries to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications themselves—so-called "development communications" modernization. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries' economies.
Communications technology is generally exported from the U. S., Europe or Japan; the patents, skills and ability to manufacture remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries. It is also expensive, and imported products and services must therefore be bought on credit—credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.
Furthermore, when new technology is introduced there is often too low a level of expertise to exploit it for native development. This means that while local elites, foreign communities and subsidiaries of transnational corporations may benefit, those whose lives depend on access to the information are denied it.
1. From the passage we know that the development of high technology is in the interesls of .
A. the rich countries
B. scientific development
C. the elite
D. the world economy
2. It can be inferred from the passage that .
A. international trade should be expanded
B. the interests of the poor countries have not been given enough consideration
C. the exports of the poor countries should be increased
D. communications technology in the developing countries should be modernized
3. Why does the author say that the electronic economy may have a destructive impact on developing countries?
A. Because it enables the developed countries to control the international market.
B. Because it destroys the economic balance of the poor countries.
C. Because it violates the national boundaries of the poor countries.
D. Because it inhibits the industrial growth of developing countries.
4. The development of modern communications technology in developing countries may .
A. hinder their industrial production
B. cause them to lose control of their trade
C. force them to reduce their share of exports
D. cost them their economic independence
5. The author's attitude toward the communications revolution is
A. positive
B. critical
C. indifferent
D. tolerant
参考答案：A B A D B