广东学位英语考试-阅读理解练习

Reading Comprehension

Directions: There are 3 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage:

Some psychologists（心理学家）maintain that mental acts such as thinking are not performed in the brain alone, but that one's muscles also participate. (76)It may be said that we think with our muscles in somewhat the same way that we listen to music with our bodies.

You surely are not surprised to be told that you usually listen to music not only with your ears but with your whole body. Few people can listen to music without moving their body or, more spe-cifically, some part of their body. Often when one listens to a symphonic concert on the radio, he is attracted to direct the orchestra（乐队）even though he knows there is a good conductor on the job.

Strange as this behavior may be, there is a very good reason for it. One cannot derive all pos-sible enjoyment from music unless he participates, so to speak, in its performance. The listener "feels" himself into the music with more or less noticeable motions of his body.

( 77 )The muscles of the body actually participate in the mental process of thinking in the same way, but this participation is less obvious because it is less noticeable.

1. Some psychologists think that thinking is __________.

A. not a mental process

B. more of a physical process than a mental action

C. a process that involves our entire bodies

D. a process that involves the muscles as well as the brain

2. The process of thinking and that of listening to music are similar in that__________.

A. both are mental acts

B. muscles participate in both processes

C. both processes are performed by the entire body

D. we derive equal enjoyment from them

3. Few people are able to listen to familiar music without__________.

A. moving some part of their body

B. stopping what they are doing to listen

C. directing the orchestra playing it

D. wishing that they could conduct music properly

4. The listener's way of "feeling" the music is__________.

A. the unnoticed motion of his muscles

B. "participating" in the performance

C. bending an ear to the music

D. being the conductor of the orchestra

5. According to the passage, muscle participation in the process of thinking is__________.

A. deliberate

B. apparent

C. indistinct

D. impressive

Passage 2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage:

It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. (78)The meanings of thou-sands of everyday perceptions . the bases for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory.

Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use. It includes not only "remembering" things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involving any change in the way an animal typically behaves. (79)Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain be-cause he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile. Memory is also involved when a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat.

Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and ma-chines. Computers, for example, contain devices for storing data for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory-storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being. The instant-access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 "words"-ready for instant use. An averageU.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of Engfish. However, this is but a fraction of the total amount of information which the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.

The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings.

A large part of a person's memory is in terms of words and combinations of words.

6. According to the passage, memory is considered to be__________.

A. the basis for decision making and problem solving

B. an ability to store experiences for future use

C. an intelligence typically possessed by human beings

D. the data mainly consisting of words and combinations of words

7. The comparison made between the memory capacity of a large computer and that of a human be-ing shows that __________.

A. the computer's memory has a little bigger capacity than a teenager's

B. the computer's memory capacity is much smaller that an adult human being's

C. the computer's memory capacity is much smaller even than a teenager's

D. both A and B

8. The whole passage implies that__________.

A. only human beings have problem-solving intelligence

B. a person's memory is different from a computer's in every respect

C. animals are able to solve only very simple problems

D. animals solve problems by instincts rather than intelligence

9. The phrase "in terms of" in the last sentence can best be replaced by__________.

A. "in connection with"

B. "expressed by"

C. "consisting"

D. "by means of"

10. The topic of the passage is:__________.

A. What would life be like without memory?

B. Memory is of vital importance to life.

C. How is a person's memory different from an animal's or a computer's?

D. What is contained in memory?

Passage 3

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage:

Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services. People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of others they need or want. When they work,they usually get paid in money.

Most of the money today is made of metal or paper. But people used to use all kinds of things as money. One of the first kinds of money was shells.

Shells were not the only things used as money. In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money. In some parts of Africa, cattle were one of the earliest kinds of money. Other animals were used as money, too.

The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the cen-ter. People strung them together and carried them from place to place.

Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money. The first coins in England were made of tin. Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later, other countries began to make coins of gold and silver.

But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money. They began to use paper money. (80)The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than paper moneused toda.

Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today.

11. Which of the following can be cited as an example of the use of money in exchange for serv- ices?

A. To sell a bicycle for $20.

B. To get some money for old books at a garage sale.

C. To buy things you need or want.

D. To get paid for your work.

12. Where were shells used as money in history?

A. In the Philippines.

B. In China.

C. In Africa.

D. We don't know.

13. Why, according to the passage, did ancient Chinese coins have a square hole in the center?

A. Because it would be easier to put them together and carry them around.

B. Because it would be lighter for people to carry them from place to place.

C. Because people wanted to make it look nicer.

D. Because people wanted to save the expensive metal they were made from.

14. Why does the author say that even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy some- thing expensive?

A. Because they are easy to steal.

B. Because they are difficult for people to obtain.

C. Because they are not easy to carry around.

D. Because they themselves are expensive, too.

15. Which do you choose as the best title for this passage?

A. Money and Its Uses

B. Different Things Used as Money

C. Different Countries, Different Money

D. The History of Money

答案

Passage l

1.D事实细节题。第一段第一句提到一些心理学家认为精神活动如思考不仅是大脑的活动，而且肌肉也参与其中，所以选D。

2.B 事实细节题。第一段最后一句提到我们用肌肉思考与用身体听音乐在某种程度上是一样的，所以选B。

3.A事实细节题。第二段中提到很少有人听音乐时不扭动自己的身体，所以选A。

4.B推理判断题。第三段第二句提到如果一个人不参与到音乐中，也就是音乐演奏中，那他就无法从音乐中获得所有的乐趣。

5.C事实细节题。文章最后一句提到肌肉以同样的方式参与了思考的过程，但并不是十分明显，因为它不是很容易被注意到。distinct“明显的，显著的”，前缀in表示否定。indistinct“不明显的，不显著的”。

Passage 2

6.B事实细节题。根据文章第二段的第一句，记忆力就是储存信息以供将来使用的能力。所以选B。A、C、D都是记忆力特点的一个方面，不能单独解释记忆力。

7.C推理判断题。根据文章的第三段，一台计算机存储的“词汇”能达到100,000个；一个十几岁的少年的词汇量也能达到100,000个。然而，根据文章，100,000个单词只是一个十几岁的少年全部记忆存储的一小部分。所以，计算机的“记忆”储备量要比一个十几岁的少年的记忆存储量小得多。因为比较是在计算机和青少年之间进行的，与成年人无关，所以不能选B。

8.C推理判断题。从文章第二段小老鼠的例子可判断，动物也有记忆，也有一定解决问题的智力，所以C是对的。根据文章最后一段第一句提到的“高级智力advanced intelligence”可知动物也有智力，只是相比人类智力低而已，所以A说只有人类才有解决问题的智力是不准确的；D说动物解决问题靠本能而不靠智力也是不对的。而根据文章的第三段，计算机在存储“词汇”方面和一个十几岁的少年是一样的，所以B说计算机存储和人脑记忆在各方面都不一样是错误的。

9.B推理判断题。in terms of“根据；按照；用…来说”。如果不知道该短语的意思，也可通过主语“一个人的大部分记忆”和“词或词组”之间的关系来判断。本句的意思是一个人的大部分记忆都是靠词和词组表达出来的。

10.B归纳概括题。文章的主题要根据内容来确定。第一段讲的是记忆的重要作用；第二段解释记忆是什么及其表现；第三段讲人类将记忆功能运用到机器如计算机当中，并将人的记忆与计算机记忆进行比较；第四段说大部分记忆都是通过词汇表现的。四个选项当中只有B更贴近文章的主题，其他三个选项都只是文章涉及的一个方面，都不具有概括性。

Passage 3

11.D常识经验题。只有D（工作换取钱）才是钱与服务的交换，其余三项全是钱与商品的交换。

12.D事实细节题。由于文章没有提到贝壳最初是在哪里被用做货币的，所以选D。

13.A事实细节题。见文章第四段的二、三两句，中国古代的铜钱有孔，主要是因为人们为了携带方便要将之串起来。所以选A。

14.C推理判断题。由于金银很重，如果要花很多钱买某件东西的话，携带起来会很不方便。

15.D归纳概括题。本文章的写作脉络很清晰：先由今天的钱（纸币或硬币）说起，引出世界上最早的钱（每个国家都有不同的物来充当货币），接着谈到最早的硬币，之后随着钱的改进，出现了纸币。最后作者总结钱的发展是一段有趣的历史。可见文章的主要内容是讲钱的发展历史，所以选D。