1、GRE（ VERBAL）阅读模拟试卷 7及答案与解析 0 Mary Barton, particularly in its early chapters, is a moving response to the suffering of the industrial worker in the England of the 1840s. What is most impressive about the book is the intense and painstaking effort made by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, to convey the
2、experience of everyday life in working class homes. Her method is partly documentary in nature: the novel includes such features as a carefully annotate reproduction of dialect, the exact details of food prices in an account of a tea party, an itemized description of the furniture of the Bartons liv
3、ing room, and a transcription (again annotated) of the ballad “The Oldham Weaver”. The interest of this record is considerable, even though the method has a slightly distancing effect. As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could hardly help approaching working-class life as an outside observer an
4、d a reporter, and the reader of the novel is always conscious of this fact. But there is genuine imaginative re-creation in her accounts of the walk in Green Heys Fields, of tea at the Bartons house, and of John Barton and his friends discovery of the starving family in the cellar in the chapter “Po
5、verty and Death.” Indeed, for a similarly convincing re-creation of such families emotions and responses (which are more crucial than the material details on which the mere reporter is apt to concentrate), the English novel had to wait 60 years for the early writing of D. H. Lawrence. If Gaskell nev
6、er quite conveys the sense of full participation that would completely authenticate this aspect of Mary Bartons, she still brings to these scenes an intuitive recognition of feelings that has its own sufficient conviction. The chapter “Old Aices History” brilliantly dramatizes the situation of that
7、early generation of workers brought from the villages and the countryside to the urban industrial centers. The account of Job Leigh, the weaver and naturalist who is devoted to the study of biology, vividly embodies one kind of response to an urban industrial environment: an affinity for living thin
8、gs that hardens, by its very contrast with its environment, into a kind of crankiness. The early chaptersabout factory workers walking out in spring into Green Heys Fields, about Alice Wilson, remembering in her cellar the twig-gathering for brooms in the native village that she will never again see
9、, about job Leigh, intent on his impaled insectscapture the characteristic responses of a generation to the new and crushing experience of industrialism. The other early chapters eloquently portray the development of the instinctive cooperation with each other that was already becoming an important
10、tradition among workers. 1 It can be inferred from examples given in the last paragraph of the passage that which of the following was part of “the new and crushing experience of industrialism” for many members of the English working class in the nineteenth century. （ A） Extortionate food prices （ B
11、） Geographical displacement （ C） Hazardous working conditions （ D） Alienation from fellow workers （ E） Dissolution of family ties 2 It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes that Mary Barton might have been an even better novel if Gaskell （ A） concentrated on the emotions of a singl
12、e character （ B） made no attempt to re-create experiences of which she had no firsthand knowledge （ C） made no attempt to reproduce working-class dialects （ D） grown up in an industrial city （ E） managed to transcend her position as an outsider 3 Which of the following best describes the authors att
13、itude toward Gaskells use of the method of documentary record in Mary Barton? （ A） uncritical enthusiasm （ B） Unresolved ambivalence （ C） Qualified approval （ D） Resigned acceptance （ E） Mild irritation 4 Which of the following is most closely analogous to Job Leigh in Marry Barton, as that characte
14、r is described in the passage? （ A） An entomologist who collected butterflies as a child （ B） A small-town attorney whose hobby is nature photography （ C） A young man who leaves his familys dairy farm to start his own business （ D） A city dweller who raises exotic plants on the roof of his apartment
15、 building （ E） A union organizer who works in a textile mill under dangerous conditions 4 The work of English writer Aphra Behn (16401689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writing prose narratives. According to literary critic Rachel Carnell, most scholars view
16、this change as primarily motivated by financial considerations: earning a living by writing for the theatre became more difficult in the 1680s, so Behn tried various other types of prose genres in the hope of finding another lucrative medium. In fact, a long epistolary scandal novel that she wrote i
17、n the mid-1680s sold quite well. Yet, as Carnell notes, Behn did not repeat this approach in her other prose works; instead, she turned to writing shorter, more serious novels, even though only about half of these were published during her lifetime. Carnell argues that Behn, whose stage productions
18、are primarily comedies, may have turned to an emerging literary form, the novel, in a conscious attempt to criticize, and subvert for her own ends, the conventions and ideology of a well-established form of her day, the dramatic tragedy. Carnell acknowledges that Behn admired the skill of such conte
19、mporary writers of dramatic tragedy as John Dryden, and that Behns own comic stage productions displayed the same partisanship for the reigning Stuart monarchy that characterized most of the politically oriented dramatic tragedies of her day. However, Carnell argues that Behn took issue with the way
20、 in which these writers and plays defined the nature of tragedy. As prescribed by Dryden, tragedy was supposed to concern a heroic man who is a public figure and who undergoes a fall that evokes pity from the audience. Carnell points out that Behns tragic novels focus instead on the plight of little
21、-known women and the private world of the household; even in her few novels featuring male protagonists, Behn insists on the importance of the crimes these otherwise heroic figures commit in the domestic sphere. Moreover, according to Carnell, Behn questioned the view promulgated by monarchist drama
22、tic tragedies such as Drydens: that the envisioned “public” political idealpassive obedience to the nations kingought to be mirrored in the private sphere, with family members wholly obedient to a male head of household. Carnell sees Behns novels not only as rejecting the model of patriarchal and hi
23、erarchical family order, but also as warning that insisting on such a parallel can result in real tragedy befalling the members of the domestic sphere. According to Carnell, Behns choice of literary form underscores the differences between her own approach to crafting a tragic story and that taken i
24、n the dramatic tragedies, with their artificial distinction between the public and private spheres. Behns novels engage in the political dialogue of her era by demonstrating that the good of the nation ultimately encompasses more than the good of the public figures who rule it. 5 The passage is prim
25、arily concerned with （ A） tracing how Behns view of the nature of tragedy changed over time （ B） explaining one authors view of Behns contribution to the development of an emerging literary form （ C） differentiating between the early and the late literary works of Behn （ D） contrasting the approache
26、s to tragedy taken by Behn and by Dryden （ E） presenting one scholars explanation for a major development in Behns literary career 6 The passage suggests that Carnell sees Behns novels featuring male protagonists as differing from dramatic tragedies such as Drydens featuring male protagonists in tha
27、t the former （ A） depict these characters as less than heroic in their public actions （ B） emphasize the consequences of these characters actions in the private sphere （ C） insist on a parallel between the public and the private spheres （ D） are aimed at a predominantly female audience （ E） depict f
28、amily members who disobey these protagonists 7 The passage suggests that Carnell believes Behn held which of the following attitudes about the relationship between the private and public spheres? （ A） The private sphere is more appropriate than is the public sphere as the setting for plays about pol
29、itical events. （ B） The structure of the private sphere should not replicate the hierarchical order of the public sphere. （ C） Actions in the private sphere are more fundamental to ensuring the good of the nation than are actions in the public sphere. （ D） Crimes committed in the private sphere are
30、likely to cause tragedy in the public sphere rather than vice versa. （ E） The private sphere is the mirror in which issues affecting the public sphere can most clearly be seen. 8 It can be inferred from the passage that the “artificial distinction” refers to the （ A） practice utilized in dramatic tr
31、agedies of providing different structural models for the public and the private spheres （ B） ideology of many dramatic tragedies that advocate passive obedience only in the private sphere and not in the public sphere （ C） convention that drama ought to concern events in the public sphere and that no
32、vels ought to concern events in the private sphere （ D） assumption made by the authors of conventional dramatic tragedies that legitimate tragic action occurs only in the public sphere （ E） approach taken by the dramatic tragedies in depicting male and female characters differently, depending on whe
33、ther their roles were public or private 8 Although recent years have seen substantial reductions in noxious pollutants from individual motor vehicles, the number of such vehicles has been steadily increasing. Consequently, more than 100 cities in the United States still have levels of carbon monoxid
34、e, particulate matter, and ozone (generated by photochemical reactions with hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust) that exceed legally established limits. There is a growing realization that the only effective way to achieve further reductions in vehicle emissionsshort of a massive shift away from the p
35、rivate automobileis to replace conventional diesel fuel and gasoline with cleaner-burning fuels such as compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, ethanol, or methanol. All of these alternatives are carbon-based fuels whose molecules are smaller and simpler than those of gasoline. These molecu
36、les burn more cleanly than gasoline, in part because they have fewer, if any, carbon-carbon bonds, and the hydrocarbons they do emit are less likely to generate ozone. The combustion of larger molecules, which have multiple carbon-carbon bonds, involves a more complex series of reactions. These reac
37、tions increase the probability of incomplete combustion and are more likely to release uncombusted and photochemically active hydrocarbon compounds into the atmosphere. On the other hand, alternative fuels do have drawbacks. Compressed natural gas would require that vehicles have a set of heavy fuel
38、 tanksa serious liability in terms of performance and fuel efficiencyand liquefied petroleum gas faces fundamental limits on supply. Ethanol and methanol, on the other hand, have important advantages over other carbon-based alternative fuels: they have a higher energy content per volume and would re
39、quire minimal changes in the existing network for distributing motor fuel. Ethanol is commonly used as a gasoline supplement, but it is currently about twice as expensive as methanol, the low cost of which is one of its attractive features. Methanols most attractive feature, however, is that it can
40、reduce by about 90 percent the vehicle emissions that form ozone, the most serious urban air pollutant. Like any alternative fuel, methanol has its critics. Yet much of the criticism is based on the use of “gasoline clone” vehicles that do not incorporate even the simplest design improvements that a
41、re made possible with the use of methanol. It is true, for example, that a given volume of methanol provides only about one-half of the energy that gasoline and diesel fuel do; other things being equal, the fuel tank would have to be somewhat larger and heavier. However, since methanol-fueled vehicl
42、es could be designed to be much more efficient than “gasoline clone” vehicles fueled with methanol, they would need comparatively less fuel. Vehicles incorporating only the simplest of the engine improvements that methanol makes feasible would still contribute to an immediate lessening of urban air
43、pollution. 9 The author of the passage is primarily concerned with （ A） countering a flawed argument that dismisses a possible solution to a problem （ B） reconciling contradictory points of view about the nature of a problem （ C） identifying the strengths of possible solutions to a problem （ D） disc
44、ussing a problem and arguing in favor of one solution to it （ E） outlining a plan of action to solve a problem and discussing the obstacles blocking that plan 10 According to the passage, incomplete combustion is more likely to occur with gasoline than with an alternative fuel because （ A） the combu
45、stion of gasoline releases photochemically active hydrocarbons （ B） the combustion of gasoline involves an intricate series of reactions （ C） gasoline molecules have a simple molecular structure （ D） gasoline is composed of small molecules. （ E） gasoline is a carbon-based fuel 11 which of the follow
46、ing most closely parallels the situation described in the first sentence of the passage? （ A） Although a town reduces its public services in order to avoid a tax increase, the towns tax rate exceeds that of other towns in the surrounding area. （ B） Although a state passes strict laws to limit the ty
47、pe of toxic material that can be disposed of in public landfills, illegal dumping continues to increase. （ C） Although a towns citizens reduce their individual use of water, the towns water supplies continue to dwindle because of a steady increase in the total population of the town. （ D） Although a
48、 country attempts to increase the sale of domestic goods by adding a tax to the price of imported goods, the sale of imported goods within the country continues to increase. （ E） Although a country reduces the speed limit on its national highways, the number of fatalities caused by automobile accide
49、nts continues to increase. 12 It can be inferred from the passage that a vehicle specifically designed to use methanol for fuel would （ A） be somewhat lighter in total body weight than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline （ B） be more expensive to operate than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline （ C） have a larger and more powerful engine than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline （ D） have a larger and heavier fuel tank than a “gasoline clone” vehicle fueled with methanol （ E） average more miles per gallon than a “gasoline clone” vehicl
