浙江03年7月自学考试《英语阅读(一)》试题

浙江省2003年7月高等教育自学考试
英语阅读(一)试题
课程代码：00595
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Ⅰ. Vocabulary. (10%)
Complete each of the following sentences with the proper form of
the word in the brackets. Write the word on the Answer Sheet.
1. (adaptation)When you go to a foreign country, you must ______
yourself to new manners and customs.
2. (except)Either of you has to finish the work tonight, I could
make no ______ either.
3. (indicate)There seems no ______ of his being punished.
4. (significance)Even the most ______part of the problem ought to
be carefully considered.
5. (vain)She tried ______to ask her husband to give up smoking.
6. (hesitate)Whenever he sees someone in trouble, he will give a
hand without.
7. (suspicious)I have a ______that he is not telling the truth.
8. (detach)She is so ______from us that it is hard to get to know
her.
9. (skyrocket)The ______prices in the pre- liberation days made
the poor poorer.
10. (possess)You can take ______of that sum, because you're the
eldest son in the family.
Ⅱ. Text Comprehension. (20%)
According to the texts you have learned, decide whether each of
the following statements is true or false. Write T or F on the Answer
Sheet.

1. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock was a Christian but he was
such a hard-hearted man that he had never shown a touch of mercy to
debtors who could not pay.
2. In Jane Eyre, Bessie's account of school discipline made Jane
unwilling to go to school.
3. In True Love, Milton was arrested because he asked his
computer robot to search for the perfect woman to marry him.
4. Frances, in The Girls in Their Summer Dresses, kept to herself
the feeling that her husband might leave her someday.
5. According to What Body Language Can Tell You That Words Cannot,
touching, in most cases, should be avoided since it is very emotional.
6. In the United Nations, there are five working languages and at
all official meetings, the five languages are all translated.
7. In Stories from Greek Myths, Zeus the father of the gods
ordered Hephaestus to make massive chains and fasten them upon the
immortal body of Prometheus and Hephaestus only too readily accepted
his order.
8. According to The Story of the Bible, the first rays of dawn
appeared admist the darkness, but soon everything went back into
darkness.
9. The First World War started in 1914, when Germany first
attacked Belgium.
10. According to The World at War, the United States joined the
British side against Germany in 1917.
11. Gorge, in How George, Once upon a Time, Got up Early in the
Morning, made such a noise in the house that Mrs. G. was waken up,
thinking that it was a burglar.
12. According to New Application, Miriam had arranged the bank's
window in a special display because her bank was promoted to a State
Bank.
13. In Rip Van Winkle, when Rip sound his old house empty and in
ruins, he next looked for the village inn.

14. In Gifts of the Magi, Jim bought a set of combs for Della's
beautiful hair as a present for Valentine's Day.
15. According to How to Live Like a Millionaire, to most people,
fortune is the matter of luck or inheritance or even intelligence.
16. In A Day's Wait, the author described the hunting scene for
the reason that it diverts the reader so that the boy's real thoughts
will be a greater surprise when they are revealed.
17. According to Bringing up Children, the encouragement of
children to achieve new skills should be balanced between the
extremes of pushing and lack of interest.
18. In Decameron, when Lisabetta found out her lover, she felt it
impossible to give him a proper burial.
19. According to No Marriage, No Apologies, researches have found
that most marriages that begin in cohabitation end in divorce.
20. In Canterbury Tales, the three young men had come out to kill
Death but were killed by Death in the end.
Ⅲ. Reading Comprehension. (50%)
Seciton A Reading Comprehension In this part there are 4 reading
passages followed by 20 questions or unfinished statements. For each
of them there are 4 options marked A,B,C, and D. You should decide on
the best one and write your answer on the Answer Sheet. (40%)
Passage 1
The most striking single fact about chimpanzees is the
flexibility of their social life, the lack of any rigid form of
organization. It represents about as far a departure from the baboon
type of organization as one can find among the higher primates, and
serves to emphasize the great variety of primate adaptations.
Chimpanzees are more human than baboons or rather they jibe better
with the way we like to picture ourselves, as free-wheeling
individuals who tend to be unpredictable, do not take readily to any
form of regimentation, and are frequently charming. (Charm is
relatively rare among baboons. )
Two researchers have described what they found during more than
eight months spent among chimpanzees in their natural habitat, the

forest：“We were quite surprised to observe that there is no single
distinct social unit in chimpanzee society. Not only is there no
‘family’or‘harem’organization; neither is there a
‘troop’organization—that is to say, no particular chimpanzees keep
permanently together. On the contrary, individuals move about at will,
alone or in small groups best described as bands, which sometimes
form into large aggregations. They leave their associates if they
want to, and join up with new ones without conflict. ”
The general practice is best described as“easy come, easy
go,”although there are certain group-forming tendencies. As a rule
chimpanzees move about in one of four types of band: adult males only;
mothers and offspring and occasionally a few other females; adults
and adolescents of both sexes, but no mothers with young; and
representatives of all categories mixed together. The composition of
bands may change a number of times during the course of a day as
individuals wander off and groups split or combine with other groups.
On the other hand, certain individuals prefer one another's company.
One of the researchers observed that four males often roamed together
over a four-month period, and mothers often associated with their
older offspring.
1. The author's main purpose is to explain______.
A. how chimpanzees mate
B. the differences between baboons and chimpanzees
C. why chimpanzees live in the forest
D. the relationships among chimpanzees
2. The author implies that the social behavior of baboons
is______ .
A. predictable B. practical
C. political D. primitive
3. According to the passage, the researchers were surprised that
chimpanzees had such______.
A. temporary associations B. humanlike families

4. In line 15, the phrase“easy come, easy go”could best be
replaced by ______.
A. immobile B. nonchalant
C. functional D. aggressive
5. According to the passage, the membership of a chimpanzee band
may change several times in a ______.
A. day B. week C. month D. year
Passage 2
With a literary history that goes back as far as the seventeenth
century, Florida has long been a major haunt for writers from all
over the United States. Jonathan Dickinson, whose group of Quakers
was cast up on the coast near what is now Palm Beach after they were
wrecked en route from Jamaica to Pennsylvania, recorded the tragedy
in God's Protecting Providence in 1699. Not only was this book one of
America's first bestsellers, but it was also the first account of the
American Indians of the southeastern coast. Other early writers who
followed Dickinson celebrated the rich and various plant and animal
life of the region, striking sympathetic chords in the imaginations
of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the English poets William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Florida has been visited by many writers who sometimes were so
taken by what they saw that they adopted it as their home. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, spent several winters
on an orange farm that she and her husband bought in 1867. The
Stowes' original intent in buying a home, which is at Mandarin on the
Saint Johns River, was to create a model for the employment of former
slaves. The original intent had to give way to other considerations.
So many spectators flocked to the farm to catch a glimpse of Mrs.
Stowe that a charge of 25 cents per person for admission was
established.
On his way to report on the Cuban Revolution in 1896, Stephen
Crane spent some time in Jacksonville. It was there that Crane met
his wife, who at that time ran a popular tavern in the town. On his
way to Cuba, Crane's boat sank off the coast of Florida, an incident
that provided Crane with the material on which his masterpiece“The
Open Boat”is based.

James Weldon Johnson, a prominent Black author, was a native of
Florida. He was born in Jacksonville in 1871 and was a songwriter,
poet, novelist, teacher, and the first Black man to become a lawyer
in Florida since the Reconstruction. Johnson also fought successfully
to upgrade the quality of education for Black people in Florida.
6. What is the main topic of the passage?
A. Early books about Florida
B. Florida's literary history
C. The first settlers of Palm Beach
D. Black American literature
7. The word “it”in line 5 refers to______.
A. tragedy B. book
C. life D. coast
8. The popular book God's Protecting Providence primarily dealt
with_______.
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson B. the beach
C. animal life D. a shipwreck
9. The word “rich” in line 7 is closest in meaning to______.
A. expensive B. healthy
C. abundant D. heavy
10. It can be inferred from the passage that Harriet Beecher
Stowe was_____.
A. a celebrity B. a travel writer
C. an associate of Stephen Crane D. a native of Florida

The modem age is an age of electricity. People are so used to
electric lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard

to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a
power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars
hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide
them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.
Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a
little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been
experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are
discovering more and more that the living world may hold many
interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.
All living cells send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the
heart beats, it sends out pulses of recorded electricity; they form
an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well
the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of
electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram. The
electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely
small—often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record
them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so
specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle
cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked together,
the effects can be astonishing.
The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can send a
jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the
water in which it lives (An electric house current is only one
hundred twenty volts. ) As many as four-fifths of all the cells in
the electric eel's body are specialized for generating electricity,
and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to
the length of its body.
11. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Electric eels are potentially dangerous
B. Biology and electricity appear to be closely related
C. People would be at a loss without electricity
D. Scientists still have much to discover about electricity
12. The author mentions all of the following as results of a
blackout EXCEPT______.
A. refrigerated food items may go bad

B. traffic lights do not work
C. people must rely on candlelight
D. elevators and escalators do not function
13. Why does the author mention electric eels?
A. To warn the reader to stay away from them
B. To compare their voltage to that used in houses
C. To give an example of a living electrical generator
D. To describe a new source of electrical power
14. How many volts of electricity can an electric eel emit?
A. 1,000 B. 800
C. 200 D. 120
15. It can be inferred from the passage that the longer an eel is
the______.
A. more beneficial it will be to science
B. more powerful will be its electrical charge
C. easier it will be to find
D. tougher it will be to eat
Passage 4
The military aspect of the United States Civil War has always
attracted the most attention from scholars. The roar of gunfire, the
massed movements of uniformed men, the shrill of bugles, and the
drama of hand－to－hand combat have fascinated students of warfare
for a century. Behind the lines, however, life was less spectacular.
It was the story of back-breaking labor to provide the fighting men
with food and arms, of nerve- tingling uncertainty about the course of
national events, of heartbreak over sons or brothers or husbands lost
in battle. If the men on the firing line won the victories, the means
to those victories were forged on the home front.

Never in the nation's history had Americans worked harder for
victory than in the Civil War. Northerners and Southerners alike
threw themselves into the task of supplying their respective armies.
Both governments made tremendous demands upon civilians and, in
general, received willing cooperation.
By 1863 the Northern war economy was rumbling along in high gear.
Everything from steamboats to shovels was needed—and produced.
Denied Southern cotton, textile mills turned to wool for blankets and
uniforms. Hides by the hundreds of thousands were turned into shoes
and harness and saddles; ironworks manufactured locomotives, ordnance,
armor plate. Where private enterprise lagged, the government set up
its own factories or arsenals. Agriculture boomed, with machinery
doing the job of farm workers drawn into the army.
In short, everything that a nation needed to fight a modern war
was produced in uncounted numbers. Inevitably there were profiteers
with gold-headed canes and flamboyant diamond stickpins, but for
every crooked tycoon there were thousands of ordinary citizens living
on fixed incomes who did their best to cope with rising prices and
still make a contribution to the war effort. Those who could bought
war bonds: others knitted, sewed, nursed, or lent any other
assistance in their power.
16. With what topic is the passage primarily concerned?
A. Why the South lost the Civil War
B. The causes of the Civil War
C. Where the Civil War battles were fought
D. The civilian response to the Civil War
17. According to the passage, during the Civil War the South no
longer provided the North with______.
A. cotton B. wool
C. hides D. shoes
18. In line 14, the word “Hides”is closest in meaning to which
of the follo
wing?

A. Animal skins B. Tree trunks
C. Disguises D. Shelters
19. In line 20, the word“crooked”could best be replaced by
which of the following?
A. twisted B. dishonest
C. uneven D. distorted
20. Where in the passage does the author mention a contribution
made by the government to the war economy?
A. Line 4 B. Lines 11-12
C. Line 16-17 D. Lines 19-20
Section B Skimming and Scanning In this part there are 3 reading
passages followed by 10 questions or unfinished statements. For each
of them there are 4 options marked A,B,C and D. Skim or scan them and
decide on the best answer and write your answer on the Answer Sheet.
(10%)

Television was not invented by any one person. Nor did it spring
into being overnight. It evolved gradually, over a long period, from
the ideas of many people—each one building on the work of their
predecessors. The process began in 1873, when it was accidentally
discovered that the electrical resistance of the element selenium
varied in proportion to the intensity of the light shining on it.
Scientists quickly recognized that this provided a way of
transforming light variations into electrical signals. Almost
immediately a number of schemes were proposed for sending pictures by
wire (it was, of course, before radio).
One of the earliest of these schemes was patterned on the human
eye. Suggested by G. R. Carey in 1875, it envisioned a mosaic of
selenium cells on which the picture to be transmitted would be
focused by a lens system. At the receiving end there would be a
similarly arranged mosaic made up of electric lights. Each selenium
cell would be connected by an individual wire to the similarly placed
light in the receiving mosaic. Light falling on the selenium cell
would cause the associated electric light to shine in proportion.

Thus the mosaic of lights would reproduce the original picture. Had
the necessary amplifiers and the right kind of lights been available,
this system would have worked. But it also would have required an
impractical number of connecting wires. Carey recognized this and in
a second scheme proposed to“scan”the cells—transmitting the signal
from each cell to its associated light, in turn, over a single wire.
If this were done fast enough, the retentive power of the eye would
cause the resultant image to be see as a complete picture.
21. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. The Art of Television
B. Television in the Electronic Era
C. Harmful Effects of Television Viewing
D. First Steps in the Invention of Television
22. In line 1 of the passage, the word“being”could best be
replaced by which of the following?
A. place B. existence
C. creature D. subsistence
23. An important discovery in early television was the electrical
resistance of______.
A. mosaics B. the human eye
C. lenses D. the element selenium

In 1781 twelve families trooped north from Mexico to California.
On a stream along the desert's edge, they built a settlement called
Los Angeles. For many years it was a market town, where nearby
farmers and ranchers met to trade. Then in 1876 a railroad linked Los
Angeles to San Francisco and, through San Francisco, to the rest of
the country. The next year farmers sent their first trainload of
oranges east. By 1885 a new railroad provided a direct route between
Los Angeles and Chicago.
Then in the 1890's oil was discovered in the city. As derricks
went up, workers built many highways and pipe lines. Digging began on

a harbor that would make Los Angeles not only an ocean port but also
a fishing center. The harbor was completed in 1914. That year the
Panama Canal opened. Suddenly Los Angeles was the busiest port on the
Pacific Coast.
Today the city is the main industrial center in the West. It
produces goods not only for other West Coast communities but also for
those in other parts of the country. It leads the nation in making
airplanes and equipment for exploring outer space. Many motion
pictures and television programs are filmed in Los Angeles. The city
is also the business center for states in the West. Improvements in
transportation are the main reason for Los Angeles' growth.
24. According to the passage, what was the main commercial
activity of Los Angeles during the years directly following its
settlement?
A. Fruit growing B. Oil drilling C. Fishing D. Trading
25. According to the passage, in which year were oranges first
shipped from Los Angeles to the East Coast by train?
A. 1781 B. 1876 C. 1877 D. 1890
26. San Francisco is mentioned in the passage for which of the
following reasons?
A. The settlers who founded Los Angeles came from San Francisco.
B. San Francisco linked Los Angeles with the rest of the country.
C. San Francisco was a market town where farmers came to trade.
D. Oil was discovered in San Francisco in the 1890's.
27. Where in the passage does the author state the principal
cause of the expansion of Los Angeles?
A. Line 5 B. Line 7 C. Line 11 D. Lines 12-13

Canals are watercourses constructed to improve and extend natural
waterways. They are generally built to facilitate transportation, but
from the beginning they have been used for many additional purposes

including draining swamps, irrigating land for cultivation and
promoting economic development.
Canals are often classified by the size of vessel they can
accommodate. Some small local canals, which are able to float only
100-to 300-ton boats or small rafts of timber, may be only 3 feet
deep. Major barge canals generally range from 6 to 9 feet in depth,
and some are as much as 10 or 12 feet deep. These canals can carry
1,350-to 2,000-ton crafts. Ship canals are 25 feet or more deep and
are capable of accommodating large vessels in the seagoing class.
Canals may also be classified as either water-level or lock
canals. Waterlevel canals do not vary in height along their courses.
The best known of these is the Suez Canal, which is at sea level.
Lock canals, which include most modern waterways, contain locks, or
special devices for raising and lowering boats along their courses by
changing the depth of the water. Each lock is a stretch of water
enclosed by gates at each end. After a boat enters the lock, water is
let in or drained out until it reaches approximately the same level
as the water ahead.
28. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. How canals are constructed B. Common types of canal boats and
barges
C. The world's largest canals D. How canals are used and
classified
29. The canals mentioned in the second paragraph are grouped
according to their______.
A. depth B. length C. altitude D. location
30. The word“accommodating”in line 9 could best be replaced
by______.
A. weighing B. loading C. handing D. storing
Ⅳ. Answer the questions. (20%)
There are 4 simple questions in this part, which are based on the
texts you have learned. Give the brief answer to each of the
questions. Your answers must be to the point and grammatically
correct. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

1. In The Lady or the Tiger, what happened if the accused chose
the door with a tiger behind it? And what happened if he chose the
other door?
2. In The Necklace, what did the couple find at the Palais Royal?
How did Loisel get the money to pay the jeweler?
3. In The Merchant of Venice, why did Antonio lend money from
Shylock?
4. In The Animals of Aesop, what did the monkey in the second
story see the fisherman do? Why did the monkey fall into the water?