1、GRE（ VERBAL）阅读模拟试卷 8及答案与解析 0 The history of the transmission of ancient Roman texts prior to invention of the printing press is reconstructed from evidence both internal and external to the text themselves. Internal evidence is used to reconstruct the relationship of the surviving manuscripts of a R
2、oman text to one another, as represented in a modern stemma codicum: a diagram depicting the genealogical relationship of surviving manuscripts and those the stemmas editor believes existed at one time. Stemmata are scholars only road maps to textual connections based on internal evidence, but they
3、may paint a distorted picture of reality because they diagram the relationships of only those manuscripts known or inferred today. If surviving copies are few, the stemma perforce brings into proximity manuscripts that were widely separated in time and place of origin. Conversely, the stemma can als
4、o bestow a semblance of separation on manuscripts written within a few months of one another or even in the same room. One type of external evidence that may shed light on the transmission of Roman texts is the availability of a work in the Middle Ages, when many classical texts were circulated. Too
5、 often, though, too much is inferred about a particular works circulation in the Middle Ages from the number of manuscripts surviving today. When a work survives in a single manuscripts copy, editors call the manuscript, rather glamorously, the “lone survivor”- implying that all its (presumably rare
6、) companions were destroyed sometime early in the Middle Ages by pillaging barbarians. It is equally possible that the work survived far into the Middle Ages in numerous copies in monastic libraries but went unnoticed due to lack of interest. The number of extant manuscripts, however few, really doe
7、s not allow scholars to infer how many ancient Latin manuscripts of a work survived to the ninth, the twelfth, or even the fifteenth century. Quotations from a Roman text by a medieval author are another category of external evidence. But does the appearance of a rare word or grammatical constructio
8、n- or even a short passage- really indicate a medieval authors firsthand knowledge of this or that ancient work, or does such usage instead derive from some intermediate source, such as a grammar book or a popular style manual? Medieval authors do quote extensively from ancient authors, while such q
9、uotations provide some evidence of the works medieval circulation, as well as define its evolving fortunes and the various uses to which it was put, they may be far less useful in reconstructing the text of an ancient work. Much as scholars want to look for overall patterns and formulate useful gene
10、ralizations, the transmission of each text is a different story and each manuscripts history is unique. Scholars must be careful not to draw conclusions that go beyond what evidence can support. 1 The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following? （ A） Tracing certain changes in the met
11、hods used to study the transmission of ancient Roman texts. （ B） Contrasting two types of evidence used in investigating the transmission of ancient Roman texts. （ C） Outlining certain difficulties associated with studying the transmission of ancient Roman texts. （ D） Advocating the use of one type
12、of evidence about ancient Roman texts over the use of another type. （ E） Explaining the development and potential uses and drawbacks of stemmata in the study of ancient Roman texts. 2 As described in the passage, a stemma is most closely analogous to which of the following? （ A） A department store i
13、nventory list that excludes some departments （ B） A map from which a large section has been torn off （ C） A chronology that includes only major historical events （ D） A family tree in which some generations are not recorded （ E） A government organizational chart from which some agencies are omitted
14、3 In its discussion of external evidence, the passage suggests which of the following about manuscripts of ancient Roman texts during the Middle Ages? （ A） It is possible that fewer manuscripts were destroyed by barbarians in the early Middle Ages than scholars frequently suppose. （ B） Additional co
15、pies of some so-called lone survivor manuscripts may have existed well into the Middle Ages. （ C） If an ancient Roman text is quoted in a work by a medieval author, then it is likely that at least one manuscript copy of that text survived into the Middle Ages. 4 Choose the sentence in the first para
16、graph that suggests that scholars might be led to underestimate the extent of the connection between certain manuscripts. 4 For most of the twentieth century, scholars generally accepted the proposition that nations are enduring entities that predated the rise of modern nation-states and that provid
17、ed the social and cultural foundations of the state. This perspective has certainly been applied to Korea; most historians have assumed that the Korean nation has existed since the dawn of historical time. In recent years, however, Western scholars have questioned the idea of the nation as an enduri
18、ng entity. Both Gellner and Anderson have argued, in their studies of European, Latin American, and Southeast Asian cases, that the nation is strictly a modern phenomenon, a forging of a common sense of identity among previously disparate social groups through the propagandizing efforts of activitie
19、s of the modern state. In short, it was the state that created the nation, not the other way around. Younger Koreanists, with Em prominent among them, have begun to apply this approach to Korea. These scholars, noting the isolated nature of village life in premodern Korea and the sharp difference in
20、 regional dialects, suggest that ordinary villagers could not possibly have thought of themselves as fellow countrymen of villagers in other regions. These scholars also note that elites, conversely, often had outward-looking, universalistic orientations, as did aristocracies elsewhere, such as in p
21、remodern Europe. Finally, they observe that the very word for “nation” in Korean, minjok, is a neologism first employed by Japanese scholars as translation of the Western concept and that it was first appropriated by Korean activists in the early twentieth century. They argue, therefore, that a Kore
22、an “nation” came into being only after that time. In short, in the case of Korea we have an argument between “primordialists”, who contend that nations are natural and universal units of history, and “modernists”, who assert that nations are historically contingent products of modernity. The positio
23、ns of both groups seem problematic. It seems unlikely that in the seventh century the peoples of the warring states of Koguryo, Peakche, and Shilla all thought of themselves as members of a larger “Korean” collectivity. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the Korean peninsula had a much longer his
24、tory well over one thousand yearsas a unified political collectivity than did the peoples studied by Gellner and Anderson. Not only does the remarkable endurance of the Korean state imply some sort of social and cultural basis for that unity, but the nature of the premodern Korean state as a central
25、ized bureaucratic polity also suggests the possibility that the organizational activities of the state may have created a homogenous collectivity with a sense of shared identity much earlier than happened in the countries of western Europe that provide the model for “modernist” scholarship. 5 The pr
26、imary purpose of the passage is to （ A） evaluate two competing views regarding the origin of the Korean nation （ B） rebut a controversial perspective on the origin of the Korean nation （ C） question the idea of the Korean nation as an enduring entity （ D） consider the influence of the modernist posi
27、tion on younger Koreanists （ E） explain some of the unique features of the Korean nation 6 Select the sentence in the third paragraph that provides some information that supports the position of younger Koreanists regarding the creation of the Korean nation. 7 The author would probably agree with wh
28、ich of the following statements regarding the work of Gellner and of Anderson? （ A） Neither Gellners nor Andersons work has had a significant influence on the study of the Korean nation. （ B） Their argument that the nation is a strictly modern phenomenon does not hold in the case of Korea. （ C） Both
29、 of them have downplayed the propagandizing efforts of Korean intellectuals as a means of forging a Korean identity. （ D） Both of them have exaggerated the homogenizing impact of the state as a factor in the case of nations. （ E） Both them have overestimated the extent to which disparate social grou
30、ps find a common sense of identity through belonging to the same nation. 8 According to the author of the passage, a difference between Korea and the “European, Latin American, and Southeast Asian cases” has to do with （ A） the extent of the differences among various regional dialects prior to the e
31、stablishment of a national language （ B） the number of disparate social groups that existed prior to the creation of a national identity （ C） when a nationally unified political entity came into existence （ D） whether the bureaucratic state played a role in the creation of the nation （ E） the extent
32、 to which the creation of the nation fostered significantly greater social and cultural unity 8 In 1995 the Galileo spacecraft captured data about Jupiters atmosphere- namely, the absence of most of the predicted atmospheric water- that challenged prevailing theories about Jupiters structure. The un
33、expectedness of this finding fits a larger pattern in which theories about planetary composition and dynamics have failed to predict the realities discovered through space exploration. Instead of “normal planets” whose composition could be predicted by theory, the planets populating our solar system
34、 are unique individuals whose chemical and tectonic identities were created through numerous contingent events. One implication of this is that although the universe undoubtedly holds other planetary systems, the duplication of the sequence that produced our solar system and the development of life
35、on Earth is highly unlikely. Recently planetary scientists have suggested that the external preconditions for the development of Earths biosphere probably included four paramount contingencies. First, a climate conducive to life on earth depends upon the extraordinarily narrow orbital parameters tha
36、t define a continuously habitable zone where water can exist in a liquid state. If Earths orbit were only 5 percent smaller than it is, temperatures during the early stages of Earths history would have been high enough to vaporize the oceans. If the Earth-Sun distance were as little as 1 percent lar
37、ger, runaway glaciations on Earth about 2 billion years ago would have caused the oceans to freeze and remain frozen to this day. Second, Jupiters enormous mass prevents most Sun-bound comets from penetrating the inner solar system. It has been estimated that without this shield, Earth would have ex
38、perienced bombardment by comet-sized impactors a thousand times more frequently than has actually been recorded during geological time. Even if Earths surface were not actually sterilized by this bombardment, it is unlikely that any but the most primitive life-forms could have survived. This suggest
39、s that only planetary system containing both terrestrial planets like Earth and gas giants like Jupiter might be capable of sustaining complex life-forms. Third, the gravitational shield of the giant outer planets, while highly efficient, must occasionally fail to protect Earth. Paradoxically, while
40、 the temperatures required for liquid water exist only in the inner solar system, the key building blocks of life, including water itself, occur primarily beyond the asteroid belt. Thus the evolution of life has depended on a frequency of cometary impacts sufficient to convey water, as well as carbo
41、n and nitrogen, from these distant regions of the solar system to Earth while stopping short of an impact magnitude that would destroy the atmosphere and oceans. Finally, Earths unique and massive satellite, the Moon, plays a crucial role in stabilizing the obliquity of Earths rotational axis. This
42、obliquity creates the terrestrial seasonality so important to the evolution and diversity of life. Mars, in contrast, has a wildly oscillating tilt and chaotic seasonality, while Venus, rotating slowly backward, has virtually no seasonality at all. 9 The passage is primarily concerned with （ A） Enum
43、erating conditions that may have been necessary for a particular development （ B） Outlining the conditions under which scientists may be able to predict certain events. （ C） Explaining how a particular finding affected scientists understanding of a phenomenon （ D） Suggesting reasons why a particular
44、 outcome was more likely to occur than other possible outcomes. （ E） Assessing the relative significance of factors that contributed to a particular occurrence. 10 It can be inferred from the passage that the “planetary scientists” would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements
45、 concerning the development of complex life forms on Earth? （ A） It might have occurred earlier in Earths history if cometary impacts had been less frequent than they were. （ B） It could have occurred if Earths orbit were 1 percent larger than it is but not if Earths orbit were 5 percent smaller. （
46、C） It probably follows a pattern common on other terrestrial planets that occupy planetary systems containing gas giants. （ D） Its dependence on the effect that Jupiters gravitational shield has on Earth was difficult to recognize prior to 1995. （ E） It has been contingent on conditions elsewhere in
47、 Earths solar system as well as on conditions on Earth itself. 11 The author of the passage most likely mentions Mars “oscillating tilt” primarily in order to （ A） Provide evidence for a proposition about the potential effects of cometary impacts （ B） Emphasize the absence from our solar system of “
48、normal planets” （ C） Contrast the rotational axis of Mars with that of Venus. （ D） Characterize the role of other planets in the solar system in earths development. （ E） Emphasize the importance of the Moon to the development of life on Earth. 12 The passage suggests each of the following about wate
49、r on Earth except: （ A） It was conveyed to Earth by comets. （ B） It appeared on Earth earlier than did carbon and nitrogen. （ C） Its existence in a liquid state is contingent on Earths orbital parameters. （ D） Much of it came from a part of the solar system where water cannot exit in a liquid state. （ E） It is unlikely that there would be much of it available to support life if the gravitational shield of the outer planets did not limit the frequency with which comets strike Earth. GRE（ VERBAL）阅 读模拟试卷 8答案与解析 【知识模块】 阅读长文章 1 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 本文总体的结构就是提出问题 : 研究古罗
