杨凤芝英语基础训练三

来源：跨考教育时间：2011-12-30 15:25:30

杨凤芝英语基础训练三

　　Unit three

　　Text 1

　　It doesn’t come as a surprise to you to realize that it makes no difference what you read or study if you can’t remember it. You just waste your valuable time. Maybe you have already discovered some clever ways to keep yourself from forgetting.

　　One dependable aid that does help you remember what you study is to have a specific purpose or reason for reading. You remember better what you read when you know why you’re reading.

　　Why does a clerk in a store go away and leave you when your reply to her offer to help is, “No, thank you. I’m just looking”? Both you and she know that if you aren’t sure what you want, you are not likely to find it. But suppose you say instead, “Yes, thank you. I want a pair of sun glasses.” She says, “Right this way, please.” And you and she are off -- both eager to look for exactly what you want.

　　It’s quite the same with your studying. If you chose a book at random, “just looking” for nothing in particular, you are likely to get just that -- nothing. But if you do know what you want, and if you have the right book, you are almost sure to get it. Your reasons will vary; they will include reading or studying “to find out more about”, “to understand the reasons for”, “to find out how”. A good student has a clear purpose or reason for what he is doing.

　　This is the way it works. Before you start to study, you say to yourself something like this, “I want to know why Stephen Vincent Benet happened to write about America. I’m reading this article to find out.” Or, “I’m going to skim this story to see what life was like in medieval England.” Because you know why you are reading or studying, you relate the information to your purpose and remember it better.

　　Reading is not one single activity. At least two important processes go on at the same time. As you read, you take in ideas rapidly and accurately. But at the same time you express your own ideas to yourself as you react to what you read. You have a kind of mental conversation with the author. If you expressed your ideas orally, they might sound like this: “Yes, I agree. That’s my opinion too.” or “Ummmm, I thought that record was broken much earlier. I’d better check those dates,” or “But there are some other facts to be considered!” You don’t just sit there taking in ideas -- you do something else, and that something else is very important.

　　This additional process of thinking about what you read includes evaluating it, relating it to what you already know, and using it for your own purposes. In other words, a good reader is a critical reader. One part of critical reading, as you have discovered, is distinguishing between facts and opinions. Facts can be checked by evidence. Opinions are one’s own personal reactions.

　　Another part of critical reading is judging sources. Still another part is drawing accurate inferences.

　　16. If you cannot remember what you read or study, ________.

　　[A] it is no surprise

　　[B] it means you have not really learned anything

　　[C] it means you have not chosen the right book(B)

　　[D] you realize it is of no importance

　　17. Before you start reading, it is important ________.

　　[A] to make sure why you are reading

　　[B] to relate the information to your purpose

　　[C] to remember what you read(A)

　　[D] to choose an interesting book

　　18. Reading activity involves ________.

　　[A] only two simultaneous processes

　　[B] primarily learning about ideas and evaluating them critically

　　[C] merely distinguishing between facts and opinions(B)

　　[D] mainly drawing accurate inferences

　　19. A good reader is one who ________.

　　[A] relates what he reads to his own knowledge about the subject matter

　　[B] does lots of thinking in his reading

　　[C] takes a critical attitude in his reading(C)

　　[D] is able to check the facts presented against what he has already known

　　Text 2

　　If you live in a large city, you are quite familiar with some of the problems of noise, but because of some of its harmful effects, you may not be aware of the extent of its influence on human behavior. Although everyone more or less knows what noise is, i.e., it is sounds that one would rather not hear, it is perhaps best to define it more precisely for scientific purposes. One such definition is that noise is sounds that are unrelated to the task at hand. Thus stimuli that at one time might be considered relevant will at another time be considered noise, depending on what one is doing at the moment. In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in the effects of noise on human behavior, and concepts such as “noise pollution” have arisen, together with movements to reduce noise.

　　Exposure to loud noises can definitely produce a partial or complete loss of hearing, depending on the intensity, duration, and frequency composition of the noise. Many jobs present noise hazards, such as working in factories and around jet aircraft, driving farm tractors, and working (or sitting) in music halls where rock bands are playing. In general, continuous exposure to sounds of over 80 decibels (a measure of the loudness of sound) can be considered dangerous. Decibel values correspond to various sounds. Sounds above about 85 decibels may, if exposure is for a sufficient period of time, produce significant hearing loss. Actual loss will depend upon the particular frequencies to which one is exposed, and whether the sound is continuous or intermittent.

　　Noise can have unexpected harmful effects on performance of certain kinds of tasks, for instance, if one is performing a watch keeping task that requires vigilance, in which he is responsible for detecting weak signals of some kind (e.g., watching a radar screen for the appearance of aircraft).

　　Communicating with other people is unfavorably affected by noise. If you have ridden in the rear of a jet transport, you may have noticed that it was difficult to carry on a conversation at first, and that, eventually, you adjusted the loudness of your speech to compensate for the effect. The problem is noise.

　　20. Noise differs from sound in that ________.

　　[A] it is sounds that interfere with the task being done

　　[B] it is a special type of loud sound

　　[C] it is usually unavoidable in big cities(A)

　　[D] it can be defined more precisely than the latter

　　21. One of the harmful effects of noise on human performance is that ________.

　　[A] it reduces one’s sensitivity

　　[B] it renders the victim helpless

　　[C] it deprives one of the enjoyment of music(A)

　　[D] it drowns out conversations at worksites

　　22. The purpose of this passage is ________.

　　[A] to define the effects of noise on human behavior

　　[B] to warn people of the danger of noise pollution

　　[C] to give advice as to how to prevent hearing loss(A)

　　[D] to tell the difference between noise and sound

　　Text 3

　　The traditional belief that a woman’s place is in the home and that a woman ought not to go out to work can hardly be reasonably maintained in present conditions. It is said that it is a woman’s task to care for the children, but families today tend to be small and with a year or two between children. Thus a woman’s whole period of childbearing may occur within five years. Furthermore, with compulsory education from the age of five or six her role as chief educator of her children soon ceases. Thus, even if we agree that a woman should stay at home to look after her children before they are of school age, for many women, this period would extend only for about ten years.

　　It might be argued that the house-proud woman would still find plenty to do about the home. That may be so, but it is certainly no longer necessary for a woman to spend her whole life cooking, cleaning, mending and sewing. Washing machines take the drudgery out of laundry, the latest models being entirely automatic and able to wash and dry a large quantity of clothes in a few minutes. Refrigerators have made it possible to store food for long periods and many pre-cooked foods are obtainable in tins. Shopping, instead of being a daily task, can be completed in one day a week. The new man-made fibers are more hardwiring than natural fibers and greatly reduce mending, while good ready-made clothes are cheap and plentiful.

　　Apart from women’s own happiness, the needs of the community must be considered. Modern society cannot do well without the contribution that women can make in professions and other kinds of work. There is a serious shortage of nurses and teachers, to mention only two of the occupations followed by women. It is extremely wasteful to give years of training at public expense only to have the qualified teacher or nurse marry after a year or two and be lost forever to her profession. The training, it is true, will help her in duties as a mother, but if she continued to work, her service would be more widely useful. Many factories and shops, too, are largely staffed by women, many of them married. While here the question of training is not so important, industry and trade would be seriously short of staff if married women did not work.

　　23. The author holds that ________.

　　[A] the right place for all women, married or otherwise, is the home, not elsewhere

　　[B] all married women should have some occupation outside the home

　　[C] a married woman should give first priority to her duties as a mother(B)

　　[D] it is desirable for uneducated married women to stay at home and take care of the family

　　24. A house-proud woman ________.

　　[A] would devote her whole life to her family

　　[B] would take her own happiness and that of her family as her chief concern

　　[C] would still need some special training at public expense to help her in her duties as a housewife(D)

　　[D] would take full advantage of modern household appliances

　　25. According to the author, modern society ________.

　　[A] can operate just as well even without women participation