[考研类试卷]在职艺术硕士（MFA）全国联考英文阅读理解模拟试卷8及答案与解析.doc

1、在职艺术硕士（MFA ）全国联考英文阅读理解模拟试卷 8 及答案与解析一、英文阅读理解题0 Like many of my generation, I have a weakness for hero worship. At some point, however, we all begin to question our heroes and our need for them. This leads us to ask: What is a hero?Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world gener

2、ally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people.A hero does something worth talking about. A hero has a story of adventure to tell and a community who will listen. But a hero goes beyond mere fame.Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves. Like high-voltage tra

3、nsformers, heroes take the energy of higher powers and step it down so that it can be used by ordinary people.The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. Those who imitate a genuine hero experience life with new depth, enthusiasm, and meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom do they s

4、erve? What are they willing to live and die for? If the answer or evidence suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes. Madonna and Michael Jackson are famous, but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant?Heroes are catalysts (催化剂) for change. Th

5、ey have a vision from the mountaintop. They have the skill and the charm to move the masses. They create new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of the British Empire. Without Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. , we might still have segregated (隔离的) buses, restaurants, and p

6、arks. It may be possible for large-scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities, but the pace of change would be slow, the vision uncertain, and the committee meetings endless. (293 words)1 Although heroes may come from different cultures, they_.（A）generally possess certain insp

7、iring characteristics（B） probably share some weaknesses of ordinary people（C） are often influenced by previous generations（D）all unknowingly attract a large number of fans2 According to the passage, heroes are compared to high-voltage transformers in that_.（A）they have a vision from the mountaintop（

8、B） they have warm feelings and emotions（C） they can serve as concrete examples of noble principles（D）they can make people feel stronger and more confident3 Madonna and Michael Jackson are not considered heroes because_.（A）they are popular only among certain groups of people（B） their performances do

9、not improve their fans morally（C） their primary concern is their own financial interests（D）they are not clear about the principles they should follow4 Gandhi and Martin Luther King are typical examples of outstanding leaders who_.（A）are good at demonstrating their charming characters（B） can provide

10、an answer to the problems of their people（C） are capable of meeting all challenges and hardships（D）can move the masses with their forceful speeches5 The author concludes that historical changes would_.（A）be delayed without leaders with inspiring personal qualities（B） not happen without heroes making

11、 the necessary sacrifices（C） take place if there were heroes to lead the people（D）produce leaders with attractive personalities5 In recent years, Israeli consumers have grown more demanding as theyve become wealthier and more worldly-wise. Foreign travel is a national passion; this summer alone, one

12、 in 10 citizens will go abroad. Exposed to higher standards of service elsewhere, Israelis are returning home expecting the same. American firms have also begun arriving in large numbers. Chains such as KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut are setting a new standard of customer service, using strict employe

13、e training and constant monitoring to ensure the friendliness of frontline staff. Even the American habit of telling departing customers to “Have a nice day“ has caught on all over Israel. “Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, Lets be nicer,“ says Itsik Cohen, director of a consulting firm. “Not

14、hing happens without competition. “Privatization, or the threat of it, is a motivation as well. Monopolies (垄断者) that until recently have been free to take their customers for granted now fear what Michael Perry, a marketing professor, calls “the revengeful (报复的) consumer“. When the government opene

15、d up competition with Bezaq, the phone company, its international branch lost 40% of its market share, even while offering competitive rates. Says Perry, “People wanted revenge for all the years of bad service. “ The electric company, whose monopoly may be short-lived, has suddenly stopped requiring

16、 users to wait half a day for a repairman. Now, appointments are scheduled to the half-hour. The graceless El Al Airlines, which is already at auction (拍卖), has retrained its employees to emphasize service and is boasting about the results in an ad campaign with the slogan, “You can feel the change

17、in the air. “ For the first time, praise outnumbers complaints on customer survey sheets. (291 words)6 It may be inferred from the passage that_.（A）customer service in Israel is now improving（B） wealthy Israeli customers are hard to please（C） the tourist industry has brought chain stores to Israel（D

18、）Israeli customers prefer foreign products to domestic ones7 In the authors view, higher service standards are impossible in Israel_.（A）if customer complaints go unnoticed by the management（B） unless foreign companies are introduced in greater numbers（C） if theres no competition among companies（D）wi

19、thout strict routine training of employees8 If someone in Israel today needs a repairman in case of a power failure, _.（A）they can have it fixed in no time（B） its no longer necessary to make an appointment（C） the appointment takes only half a day to make（D）they only have to wait half an hour at most

20、9 The example of El Al Airlines shows that_.（A）revengeful customers are a threat to the monopoly of enterprises（B） an ad campaign is a way out for enterprises in financial difficulty（C） a good slogan has great potential for improving service（D）staff retraining is essential for better service10 Why d

21、id Bezaqs international branch lose 40% of its market share?（A）Because the rates it offered were not competitive enough.（B） Because customers were dissatisfied with its past service.（C） Because the service offered by its competitors was far better.（D）Because it no longer received any support from th

22、e government.10 Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few grouping

23、s. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,“ explains the professor. “People pr

24、ogramme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the womans custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme. “ About one in 20 of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programmed assembly f

25、ailures“.Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doingan average of 12 each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smalle

26、r peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain programmes occurs, as for instance between going to and from work. “ Women on average reported slightly more lapses12. 5 compared with 10. 9 for menprobably because they were more reliable reporters.A startl

27、ing finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worseeven dangerous. (321 word

28、s)11 In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects_.（A）to keep track of people who tend to forget things（B） to report their embarrassing lapses at random（C） to analyze their awkward experiences scientifically（D）to keep a record of what they did unintentionally12 Professor Smith discovered that_.（A

29、）certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents（B） many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness（C） men tend to be more absent-minded than women（D）absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness13 “Programmed assembly failures“ (Lines 67， Para. 2) refers to the phe

30、nomenon that people_.（A）often fail to programme their routines beforehand（B） tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry（C） unconsciously change the sequence of doing things（D）are likely to mess things up if they are too tired14 We learn from the third paragraph that_.（A）absent-mindedness tends t

31、o occur during certain hours of the day（B） women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods（C） women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness（D）mens absent-mindedness often results in funny situations15 It can be concluded from the passage that_.（A）people should avoid doing imp

32、ortant things during peak periods of lapses（B） hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at（C） people should be careful when programming their actions（D）lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration15 On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in scho

33、ol, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girl

34、s log half that time. All in all, however, childrens leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25 %.“Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机 ) that affects their parents,“ says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of childrens timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that

35、more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner“ households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers. )All wor

36、k and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,“ says T. Berry Brazel-ton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relatio

37、nships with their peers, but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time“ watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If theyre spending less ti

38、me in front of the TV set, however, kids arent replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Lets face it, whos got the time? (310 words)16 By mentioning “the same time crunch“ (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth m

39、eans（A）children have little time to play with thei * parents（B） children are not taken good care of by their working parents（C） both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time（D）both parents and children have trouble managing their time17 According to the author, the reason given by Sandr

40、a Hofferth for the time crunch is_.（A）quite convincing（B） partially true（C） totally groundless（D）rather confusing18 According to the author a child develops better if_.（A）he has plenty of time reading and studying（B） he is left to play with his peers in his own way（C） he has more time participating

41、in school activities（D）he is free to interact with his working parents19 The author is concerned about the fact that American kids_.（A）are engaged in more and more structured activities（B） are increasingly neglected by their working mothers（C） are spending more and more time watching TV（D）are involv

42、ed less and less in household work20 We can infer from the passage that_.（A）extracurricular activities promote childrens intelligence（B） most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off（C） efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful（D）most parents believe reading to be b

43、eneficial to children在职艺术硕士（MFA ）全国联考英文阅读理解模拟试卷 8 答案与解析一、英文阅读理解题1 【正确答案】 A【试题解析】 本题属于主旨概括题。文章第二段就是全文的主旨句：“Despite immense differences in cultures，heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people”(尽管存在着文化的差异，但全世界的英雄具有共同的引导人和激励人的特点。)因此答案为 A。【知识模块】 英文

44、阅读理解2 【正确答案】 C【试题解析】 本题属于细节题。文章第四段指出“Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves worth”，英雄服务于高于他们本人的力量或原则，然后又把他们比作高压变压器，也就是说，英雄可以被看做是高尚原则的具体榜样。因此选 C。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解3 【正确答案】 B【试题解析】 本题属于细节推断题。文章第五段谈到检测英雄的标准是看他们为什么服务，为谁服务，看他们愿为什么而死，为什么而生。如果他们只是为追逐个人名誉的话，他们就不是英雄，而只是名人。而后，文章又提到“Madonna and Mi

45、chael Jackson are famous，but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant?”从该句我们可得出其言下之意是，麦当娜和迈克尔杰克逊不能使歌迷的生活更加充实，也就是他们的表演不能使歌迷的道德得到升华。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解4 【正确答案】 D【试题解析】 本题属于细节题。文章最后一段列举了“Without Gandhi，India might still be part of the British EmpireWithout Rosa Parks and Martin Luther Kingwe m

46、ight still”，并没有说甘地和马丁 路德金他们善于显示他们的人格魅力，故 A 排除。B 和 C 文章没有提到，因此选 D。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解5 【正确答案】 A【试题解析】 本题属于细节推断题。只要理解文章最后一句话，就不难做出选择。“It may be possible for large-scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities，but the pace of change would be slow，the vision uncertain，and the committee mee

47、tings endless”(当然，没有这些富有人格魅力的领袖，大规模的变革也会发生，但是，变革的速度肯定会很慢，前景将不确定，委员会的会议将没完没了。)因此 A 是正确答案。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解6 【正确答案】 A【试题解析】 本题属于细节推断题。文章第一段谈到由于外来因素，以色列国内的服务质量受到的影响。而文章第二段谈到竞争和私有化使以色列的服务质量得到大大提高。文章举了很多例子来说明这一点。因此，本题选 A。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解7 【正确答案】 C【试题解析】 本题属于推测作者观点题。文章第一段最后一句谈到“Nothing happens without competitio

48、n”然后，文章第二段又举了几个公司的例子来说明这一点，因此本题选 C。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解8 【正确答案】 D【试题解析】 本题属于细节理解题。文章第二段提到“The electric company，whose monopoly may be shortlived，has suddenly stopped requiring users to wait half a day for a repairmanNow appointments are scheduled to the half-hour.”也就是说，只要等半个小时可以了。因此本题选 D。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解9 【正确答

49、案】 D【试题解析】 本题属于细节理解题。El Al 航空公司的例子说明对员工进行再培训是实现更好服务的根本。因此本题选 D。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解10 【正确答案】 B【试题解析】 本题属于细节理解题。文章第二段谈到当政府开始让 Bezaq 国际电讯参与竞争后，Bezaq 丧失了 40的市场份额，尽管 Bezaq 提供了相当有竞争力的价格，这是因为“People wanted revenge for all years of bad service”(人们想对其多年来的劣质服务进行报复。)因此本题选 B。【知识模块】 英文阅读理解11 【正确答案】 D【试题解析】 本题属于细节理解题。文章第一段说“Professor Smith recently persuadedto keep a diary of all their absentminded actions for a fortnight”，选项 D 是这句话的同义表述。选项 B 是强干扰项，但文章只说让他们记录下来自己的“absentmi