1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 62及答案与解析 0 Driving along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times. Although the city is confusingly shaped, it is easy to tell where it begins. Overhead power cables abruptly disappear and run underground. The g
2、rass, watered by innumerable sprinklers, is a brighter shade of green. Indeed, a blind man could tell where the boundary lies. Crossing into Artesia there is a bump, followed by a series of clumsily patched potholes; a few hundred yards later you re-enter Cerritos and the road is smooth again. Cerri
3、tos cannot boast a glorious history, old money or natural beauty. Fifty years ago it was a flat area of farmland known as Dairy Valley. These days,“its a terribly unremarkable place on the way to Disneyland,“ says Tom Irish, a property developer. Yet this small suburban city of some 55,000 people ha
4、s become remarkable thanks to superb management and geographical good fortune. It reveals much about why Americas suburbs are so appealing, and how they are changing. Like an increasing number of suburbs, Cerritos is both a bedroom community and an economic engine. It began to prosper in the early 1
5、970s when it encouraged car dealers to cluster near the motorway that clips its western edge. Fully 27 outfits now trade there, making it the largest such centre in a car-obsessed state. Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a“ town center“, otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far
6、 more jobs than working residents. Last year the city collected $483 in sales taxes per person more than the glitzy city of Santa Monica. And it has leased, not sold, its land, so a future stream of money is guaranteed. What goes on inside the offices seems less important to locals than what they lo
7、ok like. The city has municipal codes to rival those of notoriously staid Irvine, a planned city in Orange County: dont even think about installing a rotating, blinking or oscillating sign. Sculptures adorn car dealers forecourts. Cerritoss busy library is covered with titanium; its Wal-Mart is clad
8、 in granite. It has an opulent performing arts centre that will host some 140 impeccably populist acts this year. Building work is underway on the local jail, known for good reason as the“sheriffs hotel“. Although Cerritos has a contract with Los Angeless county sheriff for its policing, it pays for
9、 the building and the officers. They have some of the easiest jobs in California. So far this year 53 serious assaults have been recorded, a bit less than one per cop. The city is so peaceful, says Daryl Evans, the police captain, that gang members from nearby cities occasionally meet there to play
10、basketball, knowing they will not be attacked by rivals. Of course, many American cities have built parks, performing-arts centres and fancy libraries while struggling financially. The key to Cerritoss success may be the timing of its investments. Cities such as Cleveland and Baltimore poured money
11、into museums and other grand projects in the vain hope that they would lure businesses and young, creative folk. Cerritos began by building pipelines and roads, then moved on to business parks, policing and schools(including Californias best high school). Only when it was rolling in money did it bre
12、ak out the titanium. Local officials attribute the citys success to fiscal discipline and the ability to follow a long-term plan. That, in turn, is the result of its political culture. Cerritos has a tradition of powerful, long-serving city managers, to whom local politicians frequently defer. As La
13、ura Lee, the mayor, explains,“There are many things we, as elected officials, do not understand. “Voters, it seems, like this arrangement greatly. In a 2002 poll, an astonishing 96% of residents said they were satisfied with the provision of public services. Such single-mindedness is particularly st
14、riking given the citys diversity. In 1980 whites comprised more than half of the population. These days Asians do. Striving immigrants are cause and consequence of the citys excellent schools: in Cerritos High School, pupils who speak inadequate English score better in mathematics tests than those w
15、ho speak English fluently. Yet the newcomers have not formed ghettos. The last census showed that whites and Asians were more intermixed in Cerritos than in all but 16 other American cities. Whites were even more mixed-up with blacks and Hispanics. These days Cerritos faces strong competition. Its c
16、ar mall has inspired imitators; as a result, the value of sales has flattened while the number of vehicles sold seems to be falling. As the city ages, public services will come under increasing strain. Drastic decline is unlikely, but the city may be overtaken though it is almost certain that the pl
17、aces doing the overtaking will be bland, car-oriented and suburban. 1 The word “sprawl“ in the first paragraph indicates that_. （ A） the landscape of Orange County is of little variety （ B） Orange County is located in a plain of a considerable size （ C） parts of Orange County extend untidily in diff
18、erent directions （ D） Orange County is located in a mountainous area 2 Which of the following does NOT serve as an example to show local peoples concern of Cerritoss landscape? （ A） Grass watered by innumerable sprinklers. （ B） The library covered with titanium. （ C） The Wal-Mart clad in granite. （
19、D） The local jail known as the “sheriffs hotel“. 3 According to the fifth paragraph, we can infer that_. （ A） the total number of cops in Cerritos is no less than 53 （ B） gang members of nearby cities enjoy immunity in Cerritos （ C） the crime rates in Cerritos are relatively low （ D） Los Angeles cou
20、ntry sheriff is responsible for the expense of policing Cerritos 4 Which of the following does NOT account for Cerritoss success? （ A） Proper timing of investments. （ B） Advantageous location. （ C） Wealth of previous generations. （ D） Superb management. 5 According to the passage, what impression ca
21、n we get on Cerritos? （ A） The geographic boundaries of the city are of the remarkably regular shape. （ B） it is a thriving commercial center rather than a residential site. （ C） It is one of the most staidly planned cities in the region. （ D） It boasts a lifestyle that is rich in art and recreation
22、. 5 Working a typewriter by touch, like riding a bicycle or strolling on a path, is best done by not giving it a glancing thought. Once you do, your fingers fumble and hit the wrong keys. To do things involving practiced skills, you need to turn loose the systems of muscles and nerves responsible fo
23、r each maneuver, place them on their own, and stay out of it. There is no real loss of authority in this, since you get to decide whether to do the thing or not, and you can intervene and embellish the technique any time you like; if you want to ride a bicycle backward, or walk with an eccentric lop
24、ing gait giving a little skip every fourth step, whistling at the same time, you can do that. But if you concentrate your attention on the details, keeping in touch with each muscle, thrusting yourself into a free fall with each step and catching yourself at the last moment by sticking out the other
25、 foot in time to break the fall, you will end up immobilized, vibrating with fatigue. It is a blessing to have options for choice and change in the learning of such unconsciously coordinated acts. If we were born with all these knacks inbuilt, automated like ants, we would surely miss the variety. I
26、t would be a less interesting world if we all walked and skipped alike, and never fell from bicycles. If we were all genetically programmed to play the piano deftly from birth, we might never learn to understand music. The rules are different for the complicated, coordinated, fantastically skilled m
27、anipulations we perform with our insides. We do not have to learn anything. Our smooth-muscle cells are born with complete instructions, in need of no help from us, and they work away on their own schedules, modulating the lumen of blood vessels, moving things through intestines. Secretary cells ela
28、borate their products in privacy; the heart contracts and relaxes; cells communicate with each other by simply touching; all this goes on continually, without ever a personal word from us. The arrangement is that of an ecosystem, with the operation of each part being governed by the state and functi
29、on of all the other parts. When things are going well, as they generally are, it is an infallible mechanism. But now the autonomy of this interior domain, long regarded as inviolate, is open to question. The experimental psychologists have recently found that visceral organs can be taught to do vari
30、ous things, as easily as a boy learns to ride a bicycle, by the instrumental techniques of operant conditioning. If a thing is done in the way the teacher wants, at a signal, and a suitable reward given immediately to reinforce the action, it becomes learned. Rats, rewarded by stimulation of their c
31、erebral “pleasure centers“, have been instructed to speed up or slow down their hearts at a signal, or to alter their blood pressures, or switch off certain waves in their electroencephalograms and switch on others. The same technology has been applied to human beings, with other kinds of rewards, a
32、nd the results have been startling. It is claimed that you can teach your kidneys to change the rate of urine formation, raise or lower your blood pressure, change your heart rate, write different brain waves, at will. There is already talk of a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of human
33、disease. According to proponents, when the technology is perfected and extended it will surely lead to new possibilities for therapy. If a rat can be trained to dilate the blood vessels of one of his ears more than those of the other, as has been reported, what rich experiences in self-control and s
34、elf-operation may lie just ahead for man? There are already cryptic advertisements in the personal columns of literary magazines, urging the purchase of electronic headsets for the training and regulation of ones own brain waves, according to ones taste. You can have it. Not to downgrade it. It is e
35、xtremely important, I know, and one ought to feel elated by the prospect of taking personal charge, calling the shots, running ones cells around like toy trains. Now that we know that viscera can be taught, the thought comes naturally that weve been neglecting them all these years, and by judicious
36、application of human intelligence, these primitive structures can be trained to whatever standards of behavior we wish to set for them. 6 One can type better if he is relaxed because_. （ A） his muscles and nerves have learned to do the job well （ B） this skill requires concentration on the details w
37、hile typing （ C） man was born with this kind of skills inbuilt （ D） he can better exercise his authority over the fingers 7 The author considers it as a good luck for us to_. （ A） be born with some chosen skills （ B） live in a world of variety （ C） be able to understand music （ D） be able to walk, s
38、kip and ride bicycles 8 The operation of our inside organs is different from that of muscles and nerves in that it is_. （ A） primarily manipulated by blood vessels （ B） in constant need of training and practicing （ C） much less complicated and coordinated （ D） genetically programmed to work on its o
39、wn 9 Recently experimental psychologists have proved that_. （ A） rats intelligence is not higher than mans （ B） mans diseases can be cured by operant conditioning （ C） people can train their body structures to act at will （ D） it is easy to control the action of your body parts 10 The authors attitu
40、de towards the technique of training mans body can best be defined as （ A） ambiguous （ B） skeptical （ C） contemptuous （ D） positive 10 Most men live in harness. Richard was one of them. Typically he had no awareness of how his male harness was choking him until his personal and professional life and
41、 his body had nearly fallen apart. He had to get sick in his harness and nearly be destroyed by role-playing masculinity before he could allow himself to be a person with his own feelings, rather than just a hollow male image. Had it not been for a bleeding ulcer he might have postponed looking at h
42、imself for many years more. Like many men, Richard had been a zombie, a daytime sleep-walker. Worse still, he had been a highly “successful“ zombie, which made it so difficult for him to risk change. Our culture is saturated with successful male zombies, businessmen zombies, golf zombies, sports car
43、 zombies, playboy zombies, etc. They have lost touch with, or are running away from, their feelings and awareness of themselves as people. They have confused their social masks for their essence and they are destroying themselves while fulfilling the traditional definitions of masculine-appropriate
44、behavior. They are the heroes, the providers, the warriors, the empire builders, the fearless ones. Their reality is always approached through these veils of gender expectations. Men evaluate each other and are evaluated by many women largely by the degree to which they approximate the ideal masculi
45、ne model. Women have rightfully lashed out against being placed into a mold. Many women have described their roles in marriage as a form of socially approved prostitution. They assert that they are selling themselves out for an unfulfilling portion of supposed security. For psychologically defensive
46、 reasons the male has not yet come to see himself as a prostitute, day in and day out, both in and out of the marriage relationship. The males inherent survival instincts have been stunted by the seemingly more powerful drive to maintain his masculine image. He would, for example, rather die in the
47、battle than risk living in a different way and being called a “coward“ or “not a man“. As a recently published study concluded, “A surprising number of men approaching senior citizenship say they would rather die than be buried in retirement. “ The male in our culture is at a growth impasse. He wont
48、 move not because he is protecting his cherished central place in the sun, but because he cant move. He is a cardboard Goliath precariously balanced and on the verge of toppling over if he is pushed ever so slightly out of his well-worn path. He lacks the fluidity of the female who can readily move
49、between the traditional definitions of male or female behavior and roles. She can be wife and mother or a business executive. She can dress in typically feminine fashion or adopt the male styles. She will be loved for having “feminine“interests such as needlework or cooking, or she will be admired for sharing with the male in his “masculine“interests. She can be sexually assertive or sexually passive. Meanwhile, the male is rigidly caught in his masculine pose and, in many subtle and indirect ways, he is severely punished when
