1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 187 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 ABut the heaviest users, who would end up paying more, have every reason not to switch. “Everyone has always regarded water as a free good, “ says Barba
2、ra Young, the head of the Environment Agency. Because of that, officials have been reluctant to impose meters on an unwilling population, although there are powers to do so in an emergency. They are fitted automatically to new homes and can be forced on people when they move house, but take-up has b
3、een slow. OFWAT reckons that only around a quarter of homes use metered water.BAt first glance, the prospect of a drought in England seems about as likely as that of floods in the Sahara. But the popular perception of Britain as a uniformly dank and sodden island is misleading. The south of the coun
4、try gets the same amount of rain as parts of Syria, and London is a drier city than Dallas or Istanbul. Recently, the skies have been unusually clear. Months of below-average rainfall have raised the prospect of a summer droughtthe worst for decades in parts of the south-east.CDomestic use accounts
5、for 70% of the total, but the price that most consumers pay for water unlike gas or electricitybears no relation to how much they use. Instead, costs are fixed according to the value of a house, encouraging over-consumption. OFWAT , the industry economic regulator, water companies and government hav
6、e all tried to persuade people to install water meters, mainly by holding out the prospect of lower bills.DMinisters and water companies are again encouraging everyone to use less water. Despite the sometimes unsavoury nature of the advice offeredBritons have, in the past, been encouraged to refrain
7、 from flushing toiletssuch exhortations do seem to work: Thames Water, which supplies London and large parts of southern England, reckons that a publicity campaign last year caused a 4% fall in demand.EIn the short run, not much can be done. The rune-readers at the Met Office, Britains weather-forec
8、asting centre, predict a cold, dry February. Even if the rains return later in the year, they will not help much: greater evaporation and thirstier plants mean that little summer rain makes it into rivers. But if a drought persuades officials and users to change some lazy old habits, it may be no ba
9、d thing.FThere are problems on the supply side too. Many blame the water companies for not fixing leaky pipes. These are a big problem, especially in London, where parts of the infrastructure are over 150 years old. Thames Water, which supplies the capital, reckons a third of the water it pumps into
10、 the system soaks away into the ground. Part of the problem is that OFWAT, with its duty to keep prices low, is reluctant to approve the price rises needed to fund a proper replacement programmealthough Thames plans to spend 1 billion over the next five years patching up and replacing the worst bits
11、 of its network.GFrustratingly, none of these worries are new. One of New Labours first acts after taking office in 1997 was a water summit, chaired by John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, to crack down on leakage and encourage efficient use in the face of rising demand. But progress has been g
12、lacial. A voluntary water-efficiency code for housebuilders is only now out for consultation, and Mr Prescotts plans to build half a million new homes in the driest bit of the country have raised eyebrows. Many water firms plan to build new reservoirs, but that will take several years.Order:5 AAmong
13、 the reasons I wouldnt send my own child to boarding school is that being around ones adolescent peers 24 hours a day doesnt seem particularly healthy. It makes the things that already loom large in high schoolgrades, clothes, sports, heartache, acneloom even larger. Going home at night provides phy
14、sical distance from the relentlessness of all teenagers, all the time, and, ideally, parents provide perspective. Although they might be dorky, parents know an important lesson about everything from serious hazing to the embarrassment of dropping a lunch tray in a crowded cafeteria: This, too, shall
15、 pass.BCertainly teachers provide an adult perspective at boarding schools, but its a very unusual teacher who influences an adolescent as much as the average parent does. Furthermore, while many boarding school teachers knock themselves out on students behalf not just by teaching but also by coachi
16、ng and running dorms, theyre undermined by lesser teachers who, rather than guiding students out of teenage pettiness, seem themselves to get sucked down into it. There is on every boarding school campus some variation on the teacher who, if hes not actually buying beer to ingratiate himself with th
17、e popular senior guys, sure seems to wish he could.CIn 1989, when I was 13 and living in Cincinnati, I waged a one-girl campaign to persuade my mother and father to let me attend Groton School in Massachusetts. Despite my parents ambivalence about boarding school, they ultimately acquiesced, I went,
18、 and I received a very good educationnot all of it academic. More than a decade later, I couldnt resist setting my first novel at a boarding school. Now at readings, Im asked if Id send my own child away to school, and I say no.DFor me, the question isnt why parents wouldnt send a child to boarding
19、school as much as why they would. Unless there are either severe problems at home or flat-out terrible local schools, I dont see the point. Even in the case of terrible schools, Im not convinced that parents cant significantly augment their childrens education. Among the advantages of boarding schoo
20、l are opportunities for independence, academic stimulation, small classes, peer companionship and the aforementioned campus beautybut every single one of these opportunities is available at dozens of liberal arts colleges, so why not just wait a few years until the student will better appreciate suc
21、h gifts and save $140,000?EThe self-containment of boarding schools can create terrariums of privilege in which students develop a skewed sense of money and have a hard time remembering that, in fact, it is not normal to go skiing in Switzerland just because its March, or to receive an S. U. V. in c
22、elebration of ones 16th birthday. At, for example, Choate Rosemary Hallone of many boarding schools starting classes this or next weekroom, board and tuition for 2005-2006 is $35,360. If, as Choates Web site explains, 27% of students receive financial aid, that means the other 73% come from families
23、 that are, by just about any standards except perhaps their own, very rich. Even when these schools hold chapel services espousing humility and service to others, its the campus facilitiesthe gleaming multimillion-dollar gymnasium, saythat can send a louder message.FIts not that I see boarding schoo
24、ls as evil. I just dont see them as necessary, and despite their often self-congratulatory rhetoric, I dont see them as noblecertainly no more so than public schools.GThe person who asks the question usually is middle-aged and it seems highly likely that my questioner already is or soon will be a bo
25、arding-school parent. But it turns out Im not alone: an increasing number of parents are deciding against boarding school. Enrollment at private day schools has grown 15% in the past decade, while enrollment at boarding schools has grown only 2. 7%. Overall boarding school enrollment dropped from ab
26、out 42,000 in the late 1960s to 39, 000 in the last school yeareven though, according to the Census Bureau, the population of 14-to 17-year-olds was more than 1. 5 million higher in 2004 than in 1968.Order:10 You should think seriously about working for a year or two before you go to graduate school
27、. One student said that having worked first was “essential“ for his success in graduate school. Many of the people I interviewed said that older and more mature students who return for a graduate degree after working get through faster, have less trouble with delay, and have self-respect gained from
28、 real-world accomplishments that helps them deal with the insecurities of the graduate environment. One masters student said, “It was easy to tell the people who had worked first. They were the ones who knew what they were doing. “1. Recharge your batteriesIf you are uncertain about your commitment,
29、 or are exhausted after four years of working for the grades to get into graduate school, take a year off.2. Learn the skills they didnt teach you in collegeIn a full-time job, you are forced to make dramatic changes in the work habits you developed as an undergraduate. You have to work steadily eve
30、ry day, instead of in occasional frantic rushes at exam time. You learn the importance of careful planning to meet deadlines and to develop Jong-term projects. You realize that what seemed like a lot of work when you were an undergraduate was not a great deal when measured against the amount you can
31、 do with constant daily application.3. Develop confidenceThe competency and confidence you gain on the job will help you break out of thinking of yourself as a lowly student and of the professors as superior beings. For many of you, work will act to diminish your anxiety about finding your way in th
32、e world.4. Investigate a field that interests youWorking in your field can help you determine whether the area really interests you. Perhaps you can find a job as a research or laboratory assistant. Do you like research? It would be good to find out now before you are committed to graduate school an
33、d an academic career of what amounts to writing endless term papers.5. Develop motivationMany people return to school because they need the degree for further career advancement. For example, one biologist, after working as an editor for a highly respected technical journal for four years, where she
34、 made many valuable contacts in the course of working with authors, decided to return for her Ph. D. so that she could advance into more prestigious positions. The contacts she had made helped her with her graduate school career.Certainly you do not have to work first. Even though many people start
35、graduate school without being prepared, for you it might make sense to begin immediately after getting your bachelors degree. One humanities chairman said, “If youre absolutely eager, go in. Any hesitation, take off one or two years. “ Its up to you to decide.AA historian with a masters degree taugh
36、t for a number of years at a state university in Alaska and then decided to get a Ph. D. to improve his stature in the university. He used his connections to get into a good school under a professor he already knew, took a sabbatical, and completed his degree in 20 months of hard work(8 months for t
37、he thesis).BCan you get a job after graduate school? Will you do well? Will you like the working world? Answering these questions by working will give you the psychological freedom to approach graduate school without feeling it is your only option. Your will know that if you dont like graduate schoo
38、l, you can leave and still survive. Perhaps you will find that you like work so much that you dont want to go back to school after all.CSeveral students I talked with made it into graduate school and then hit a serious slump because they were out of energy. Wait to start graduate school until you ar
39、e highly motivated so that you can begin earning yourself a good reputation from your first day.DA Ph. D. student in history said, “I was lucky to find my thesis topic while doing an independent study. My adviser liked it, so he asked me to stay on as his grad student. It was the safest route becaus
40、e I already knew I like the guy and I was already into my thesis work. “EIf you want to be a writer, try working for a publishing house so you can learn about what gets published and how. If you are interested in art history, getting a job in a gallery or museum is an obvious step.FYou can also acqu
41、ire or improve specific work skills, like word processing and library research, and you can learn simple tricks necessary to get efficient and rapid results, like using messengers or fax machines when you are in a pinch.15 There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good wr
42、iting, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly. The following principles state what most of us know and at times forget.1. Use the active voiceThe active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive. This rule does not, of course, mean that the write
43、r should discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary. The habitual use of the active voice makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action but in writing of any kind.2. Put statements in positive formMake definite
44、 assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal languages. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. Hence, as a rule, it i
45、s better to express even a negative in positive form.3. Use definite, specific, concrete languagePrefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract. If those who have studied the art of writing are in accord on any one point, it is on this: the surest way to
46、arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete. The greatest writersHome, Dante, Shakespeareare effective largely because they deal in particular and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.4. Omit needless wordsVigorous writing is conci
47、se. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his
48、subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.5. Use figures of speech sparinglyThe simile is a common device and a useful one, but similes coming in rapid fire, one right on top of another, are more detracting than illuminating.Style is an increment in writing. When we speak of Fitzgeralds sty
49、le, we dont mean his command of the relative pronoun, we mean the sound his words make on paper. Every writer, by the way he uses the language, reveals something of his spirit, his habit, his capacities, his bias. This is inevitable as well as enjoyable. All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelationit is self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito. Style takes its final shape more from attitudes of mind than from principles of composition
