1、雅思（阅读）模拟试卷 5及答案与解析 一、 Reading Module (60 minutes) 1 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Twist in the Tale Fears that television and computers would kill childrens desire to read couldnt have been more wrong. With sales roa
2、ring, a new generation of authors are publishings newest and unlikeliest literary stars A Less than three years ago, doom merchants were predicting that the growth in video games and the rise of the Internet would sound the death knell for childrens literature. But contrary to popular myth, children
3、 are reading more books than ever. A recent survey by Books Marketing found that children up to the age of 11 read on average for four hours a week, particularly girls. B Moreover, the childrens book market, which traditionally was seen as a poor cousin to the more lucrative and successful adult mar
4、ket, has come into its own. Publishing houses are now making considerable profits on the back of new childrens books and childrens authors can now command significant advances. Childrens books are going through an incredibly fertile period, says Wendy Cooling, a childrens literature consultant. Ther
5、es a real buzz around them. Book clubs are happening, sales are good, and people are much more willing to listen to childrens authors. C The main growth area has been the market for eight to fourteen-year-olds, and there is little doubt that the boom has been fuelled by the bespectacled apprentice,
6、Harry Potter. So influential has J. K. Rowlings series of books been that they have helped to make reading fashionable for pre-teens. Harry made it OK to be seen on a bus reading a book, says Cooling. To a child, that is important. The current buzz around the publication of the fourth Harry Potter b
7、eats anything in the world of adult literature. D People still tell me, “Children dont read nowadays“, says David Almond, the award-winning author of childrens books such as Skellig.The truth is that they are skilled, creative readers. When I do classroom visits, they ask me very sophisticated quest
8、ions about use of language, story structure, chapters and dialogue. No one is denying that books are competing with other forms of entertainment for childrens attention but it seems as though hildren find a special kind of mental nourishment within the printed page. E A few years ago, publishers los
9、t confidence and wanted to make books more like television, the medium that frightened them most, says childrens book critic Julia Eccleshare. But books arent TV, and you will find that children always say that the good thing about books is that you can see them in your head. Children are demanding
10、readers, she says. If they dont get it in two pages, theyll drop it. F No more are childrens authors considered mere sentimentalists or failed adult writers. Some feted adult writers would kill for the sales, says Almond, who sold 42,392 copies of Skellig in 1999 alone. And advances seem to be growi
11、ng too: UK publishing outfit Orion recently negotiated a six-figure sum from US company Scholastic for The Seeing Stone, a childrens novel by Kevin Crossley-Holland, the majority of which will go to the author. G It helps that once smitten, children are loyal and even fanatical consumers. Author Jac
12、queline Wilson says that children spread news of her books like a bushfire. My average reader is a girl of ten, she explains. Theyre sociable and acquisitive. They collect. They have parties - where books are a good present. If they like something, they have to pass it on. After Rowling, Wilson is c
13、urrently the best-selling childrens writer, and her sales have boomed over the past three years. She has sold more than three million books, but remains virtually invisible to adults, although most ten-year-old girls know about her. H Childrens books are surprisingly relevant to contemporary life. P
14、rovided they are handled with care, few topics are considered off-limits for children. One senses that childrens writers relish the chance to discuss the whole area of topics and language. But Anne Fine, author of many award- winning childrens books is concerned that the British literati still ignor
15、e childrens culture. Its considered worthy but boring, she says. I I think theres still a way to go, says Almond, who wishes that childrens books were taken more seriously as literature. Nonetheless, he derives great satisfaction from his child readers. They have a powerful literary culture, he says
16、. It feels as if youre able to step into the store of mythology and ancient stories that run through all societies and encounter the great themes: love and loss and death and redemption. J At the moment, the race is on to find the next Harry Potter. The bidding for new books at Bologna this year- th
17、e childrens equivalent of the Frankfurt Book Fair - was as fierce as anything anyone has ever seen. All of which bodes well for the long-term future of the market - and for childrens authors, who have traditionally suffered the lowest profile in literature, despite the responsibility of their role.
18、1 Questions 1-7 Look at the following list of people A-E and the list of statements (Questions 1-7). Match each statement with one of the people listed. Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. A Wendy Cooling B David Almond C Julia Eccleshare D Jacqueline Wilson E 1 Chil
19、dren take pleasure in giving books to each other. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 2 Reading in public is an activity that children have not always felt comfortable about doing. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare
20、 （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 3 Some well-known writers of adult literature regret that they earn less than popular childrens writers. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 4 Children are quick to decide whether they like or dislike
21、 a book. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 5 Children will read many books by an author that they like. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 6 The public do not realise how much
22、 children read today. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 7 We are experiencing a rise in the popularity of childrens literature. （ A） Wendy Cooling （ B） David Almond （ C） Julia Eccleshare （ D） Jacqueline Wilson （ E） Anne Fine 8 Questions
23、8-10 Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the reading passage, answer the following questions. Write your answers in boxes 8-10 on your answer sheet. 8 For which age group have sales of books risen the most? 9 Which company has just invested heavily in an unpublished childrens book? 10 Who is c
24、urrently the best-selling childrens writer? 11 Questions 11-14 Reading Passage 1 has ten paragraphs A-J. Which paragraph mentions the following (Questions 11-14)? Write the appropriate letters (A-J) in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet. 11 the fact that children are able to identify and discuss the i
25、mportant elements of fiction 12 the undervaluing of childrens society 13 the impact of a particular fictional character on the sales of childrens books 14 an inaccurate forecast regarding the reading habits of children 15 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27, which
26、are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Fun for the Masses Americans worry that the distribution of income is increasingly unequal. Examining leisure spending changes that picture. A Are you better off than you used to be? Even after six years of sustained economic growth, Americans worry about that q
27、uestion. Economists who plumb government income statistics agree that Americansincomes, as measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, have risen more slowly in the past two decades than in earlier times, and that some workers real incomes have actually fallen. They also agree that by almost any measure
28、, income is distributed less equally than it used to be. Neither of those claims, however, sheds much light on whether living standards are rising or falling. This is because living standard is a highly amorphous concept. Measuring how much people earn is relatively easy, at least compared with meas
29、uring how well they live. B A recent paper by Dora Costa, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, looks at the living-standards debate from an unusual direction. Rather than worrying about cash incomes, Ms Costa investigates Americansrecreational habits over the past century. She
30、finds that people of all income levels have steadily increased the amount of time and money they devote to having fun. The distribution of dollar incomes may have become more skewed in recent years, but leisure is more evenly spread than ever. C Ms Costa bases her research on consumption surveys dat
31、ing back as far as 1888. The industrial workers surveyed in that year spent, on average, three-quarters of their incomes on food, shelter and clothing. Less than 2% of the average familys income was spent on leisure but that average hid large disparities. The share of a familys budget that was spent
32、 on having fun rose sharply with its income: the lowest-income families in this working-class sample spent barely 1% of their budgets on recreation, while higher earners spent more than 3%. Only the latter group could afford such extravagances as theatre and concert performances, which were relative
33、ly much more expensive than they are today. D Since those days, leisure has steadily become less of a luxury. By 1991, the average household needed to devote only 38% of its income to the basic necessities, and was able to spend 6% on recreation. Moreover, Ms Costa finds that the share of the family
34、 budget spent on leisure now rises much less sharply with income than it used to. At the beginning of this century a familys recreational spending tended to rise by 20% for every 10% rise in income. By 1972-73, a 10% income gain led to roughly a 15% rise in recreational spending, and the increase fe
35、ll to only 13% in 1991. What this implies is that Americans of all income levels are now able to spend much more of their money on having fun. E One obvious cause is that real income overall has risen. If Americans in general are richer, their consumption of entertainment goods is less likely to be
36、affected by changes in their income. But Ms Costa reckons that rising incomes are responsible for, at most, half of the changing structure of leisure spending. Much of the rest may be due to the fact that poorer Americans have more time off than they used to. In earlier years, Iow-wage workers faced
37、 extremely long hours and enjoyed few days off. But since the 1940s, the less skilled (and lower paid) have worked ever-fewer hours, giving them more time to enjoy leisure pursuits. F Conveniently, Americans have had an increasing number of recreational possibilities to choose from. Public investmen
38、t in sports complexes, parks and golf courses has made leisure cheaper and more accessible. So too has technological innovation. Where listening to music used to imply paying for concert tickets or owning a piano, the invention of the radio made music accessible to everyone and virtually free. Compa
39、ct discs, videos and other paraphernalia have widened the choice even further. G At a time when many economists are pointing accusing fingers at technology for causing a widening inequality in the wages of skilled and unskilled workers, Ms Costas research gives it a much more egalitarian face. High
40、earners have always been able to afford amusement. By lowering the price of entertainment, technology has improved the standard of living of those in the lower end of the income distribution. The implication of her results is that once recreation is taken into account, the differences in Americans l
41、iving standards may not have widened so much after all. H These findings are not water-tight. Ms Costas results depend heavily upon what exactly is classed as a recreational expenditure. Reading is an example. This was the most popular leisure activity for working men in 1888, accounting for one-qua
42、rter of all recreational spending. In 1991, reading took only 16% of the entertainment dollar. But the American Department of Labours expenditure surveys do not distinguish between the purchase of a mathematics tome and that of a best-selling novel. Both are classified as recreational expenses. If m
43、ore money is being spent on textbooks and professional books now than in earlier years, this could make recreationalspending appear stronger than it really is. I Although Ms Costa tries to address this problem by showing that her results still hold even when tricky categories, such as books,are remo
44、ved from the sample, the difficulty is not entirely eliminated. Nonetheless, her broad conclusion seems fair. Recreation is more available to all and less dependent on income. On this measure at least, inequality of living standards has fallen. 15 Questions 15-21 Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraph
45、s A-I. From the list of headings below choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph. Write the appropriate numbers (i-xi) in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet. List of headings Wide differences in leisure activities according to income Possible inconsistencies in Ms Costas data More personal i
46、ncome and time influence leisure activities Investigating the lifestyle problem from a new angle Increased incomes fail to benefit everyone A controversial development offers cheaper leisure activities Technology heightens differences in living standards The gap between income and leisure spending c
47、loses Two factors have led to a broader range of options for all Have peoples lifestyles improved? High earners spend less on leisure 【 Example】： Paragraph E Answer 15 Paragraph A 16 Paragraph B 17 Paragraph C 18 Paragraph D 19 Paragraph F 20 Paragraph G 21 Paragraph H 22 Questions 22-26 Complete ea
48、ch of the following statements (Questions 22-26) using words from the box. Write the appropriate letter A-H in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet. A Recreational activities B the family budget C holiday time D government expenditure E computer technology F income levels G non-luxury spending H profess
49、ional reading I high-income earners 22 It is easier to determine _ than living standards. 23 A decrease in _ during the 20th century led to a bigger investment in leisure. 24 According to Ms Costa, how much Americans spend on leisure has been directly affected by salaries and _. 25 The writer notes both positive and negative influences of _. 26 According to the writer, the way Ms Costa defined _ may have bee
