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Part I Reading Comprehension (40 %)
Direction: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by somequestions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choicesmarked A), B) C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark thecorresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage 1
As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an even earlier age. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe’s new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the “irresistible momentum of individualism” over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into tile workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on(扰乱) Europeans' private lives.
Europe’s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe's shift from social democracy to, the sharper, more individualistic climate of American style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today's tech-savvy(精通技术的) workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so.
Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage-twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative-dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.
The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn’t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year—old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn’t got time to get lonely because he has too much work “I have deadlines which .would make life with someone else fairly difficult.” Only all Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called “The Single Woman and Prince Channing,” thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don't last long-if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Eerliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she'd never have wanted to do what her mother did-give up a career to raise a family. Instead, “I’ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life.”
1. More and more young Europeans remain single because ________.
A. they are driven by an overwhelming sense of individualism
B. they have entered the workforce at a much earlier age
C. they have embraced a business culture of stability
D. they are pessimistic about their economic future
2. What is said about European society in the passage?
A. It has fostered the trend towards small families.
B. It is getting closer to American—style capitalism.
C. It has limited consumer choice market.
D. It is being threatened by irresistible privatization.
3. According to Paragraph 3, the newest group of singles are ________.
A. warm and lighthearted B. on either side of marriage
C. negative and gloomy D. healthy and wealthy
4. The author quotes Eppendorf to show that ________.
A. some modem women prefer a life of individual freedom
B. the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe
C. some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely
D. most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable
5. What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To review the impact of women becoming high earners.
B. To contemplate the philosophy underlying individualism.
C. To examine the trend of young people living alone.
D. To stress the rebuilding of personal relationships.
1. A 2. B 3. D 4. A 5. C
Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage:
Passage 2
The life story of the human species goes back a million years, and there is no doubt that man came only recently to the western hemisphere. None of the thousands of sites of aboriginal habitation uncovered in-Worth and South America has antiquity comparable to that of old World sites. Man's occupation of the New World may date several tens of thousands of years, but no one rationally argues that he has been here even 100,000 years.
Speculation as to how man found his way to America was lively at the outset, and the proposed routes boxed the compass. With one or two notable exceptions, however, students of American anthropology soon settled for the plausible idea that the first immigrants came by way of a land bridge that had connected the northeast comer of Asia to the northwest comer of North America across the Bering Strait)Mariners were able to supply the reassuring information that the strait is not only narrow it is 56 miles wide - but also shallow, a lowering of the sea level there by 100 feet or so would transform the strait into an isthmus (地峡).With little eels in the way of evidence to sustain the Bering Strait land bridge, anthropologists embraced the idea that man walked dry-hoed from Asia to America.
Toward the end of thy/last century, however, it became apparent that the Western Hemisphere was the New World not only for man but also for a host of animals and plants. Zoologists and botanists showed that numerous subjects of their respective kingdoms must have originated in Asia and spread to America. These findings were neither astonishing nor wholly unexpected. Such spread of populations is not to be envisioned as an exodus or mass migration, even in the case of animals. It is, rather, a spilling into new territory that accompanies increase in numbers, with movement in the direction of least population pressure and most favorable ecological conditions. But the immense traffic in plant and animal’s forms placed a heavy burden on the Bering Strait land bridge as the anthropologists ahead envisioned it. Whereas purposeful men could make their way across a narrow bridge, the slow diffusion of plant and animals would require an avenue as a continent and available for ages at a stretch.
6. The movement of plants and animals from Asia to America indicates _________.
A. that they could not have traveled across the Bering Strait
B. that Asia and the Western hemisphere were connected by a large land mass
C. that the Bering Sea was an isthmus at one time
D. that migration was in the one direction only
7. The author is refuting the notion that ______.
A. life arose in America independently of life in Europe
B. the first settlers in America came during the sixteenth century
C. a large continent once existed which has disappeared
D. man was a host to animals and plants
8. By using the words “boxed the compass” (in Line 7) the author implies that _______.
A. the migration of mankind was from West to East
B. the migration of mankind was from East to West
C. mankind traveled in all directions
D. mankind walked from Asia to America
9. One reason for the migration not mentioned by the author is _______.
A. overcrowding
B. favorable environmental conditions
C. famine
D. the existence of a land bridge
10. We may assume that in tile paragraph that follows this passage the author argues about _______.
A. the contributions of anthropologist
B. the contributions of zoologists and botanists
C. the contributions made by the American Indians
D. the existence of a large land mass between Asia and North America
6. B 7. C 8. C 9. C 10. D