全国2012年10月自考英语阅读二真题下载

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选择题部分

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I. Reading Comprehension (50 points, 2 points for each)

Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are

five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then

blacken the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet.

Passage One

From time to time, we need an expert. In such situations, the Internet has beenlike a gift from the gods. In the old days, authorities were near at hand for expertadvice: the village seamstress on how to make a buttonhole, the blacksmith on howto take care of a horse’s hooves, or the apothecary on what to do about warts. Onthe Internet, advice and answer sites are popping up all over the place, withself-proclaimed experts at the ready.

Exp.com claims to have “tens of thousands of experts who can help you,”while the more restrained Abuzz.com, owned by The New York Times, limits itspitch to “Ask Anything! Real People. Real Answers.”It’s said that expert sites orknowledge networks represent the latest stage in the Internet’s evolution, a“democratization of expertise.” However, if your question is about something otherthan “Who invented the light bulb?”, the answers are likely to be a wildpotpourri

of personal opinions.

Top colleges and universities are rushing into online education, but the bignews is the proliferation of a new breed of for-profit online institutions bringingInternet education to the masses.“The Internet will probably be the single mostdemocratizing force in education,”says Columbia Business School Dean MeyerFeldberg, who envisions educational programs being routed through the net tohundreds of millions of people.

The largest online institution is the University of Phoenix, with some 6,000students today and hopes of reaching 200,000 students in 10 years. The universityoffers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in business management,technology, education, and nursing. The university notes that its degree programscost far less and may take some students far less time to complete.

On the other hand, a Business Week surveyof 247 companies found that only ahandful would consider hiring applicants who earned their MBA degrees online.Whether that will change as for-profit online universities improve their offerings and graduates prove their worth-is anyone’s guess.

The rest of the world is moving into cyberspace more slowly than the UnitedStates, and, in the developing world, the Internet has hardly penetrated at all. UNSecretary-General Kofi Annan is determined to change this through the UnitedNations Information Technology Service, which will train large numbers of peopleto tap into the income enhancing power of the Internet. Annan is also proposing anInternet health network that will provide state-of-the-artmedical knowledge to10,000 clinics and hospitals in poor countries.

Questions l-5 are based on Passage One.

1.From the passage we may assume that the author______.

A. trusts olddays experts more than online ones

B. believes that most ofthe online experts are qualified

C. trusts the intelligence oflarge amounts ofexperts online

D. believes that online experts can answer people’s questions better

2. From paragraph 2 we can infer that the author’s attitude towards experts onlineis_________.

A. excited B. neutral

C. doubtful D. indifferent

3. Whichof the following best describes the author’s opinion towards the future ofonline education?

A. People have to wait and see.

B. It is predictable in future development.

C. It cannot thrive without good management.

D. People believe that it is doomed from the start.

4. The underlined phrase“state-of-the-art” in paragraph 6 means______.

A. advanced and in large quantity B. very creative and artistic

C. skillfulandattractive D. verymodern

5. Kofi Annan’s United Nations Information Technology Service aims at ______.

A. improving UN staff’s computer skill

B. promoting the use ofthe Internet over the world

C. providing medical knowledge to poor hospitals

D. promoting the use ofthe Internet in the United States

Passage Two

Nowadays there is a remarkable consensus among educators and business andpolicy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century. Right now we’re aiming too low. Competency inreading and math —the focus of so much No Child Left Behind (NCLB) testing – isthe meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise: utterly necessarybut insufficient. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in thetraditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills.Here’s what they are:

Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now, even insmall-town America, and they must learnto act that way. Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are“global trade literate, sensitive toforeign cultures, conversant in different languages” — not exactly strong points inthe U.S., where fewer than half of high school students are enrolled in aforeign-language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends to fixate onU.S. history.

Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy —the ones that won’t getoutsourced or automated – “put an enormous premium on creative and innovativeskills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos,” says Marc Tucker, an author of the skills-commissionreport and president of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Traditionally that’s been an American strength, butschools have become less daring in the back-to-basics climate ofNCLB. Kids alsomust learnto think across disciplines, since that’s where most new breakthroughsare made. It’s interdisciplinary combinations —design and technology, mathematics and art – “that produce YouTube and Google,” says Thomas Friedman, thebest-selling author of The World Is Flat.

Becoming smarter about new sources ofinformation. In an age of overflowinginformation and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what’s coming atthem and distinguish between what’s reliable and what isn’t. “It’s important thatstudents know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it,” saysDell executive Karen Bruett, who serves on the board of the Partnership for 21stCentury Skills, a group of corporate and education leaders focused on upgradingAmerican education.

Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as importantas IQ for success in today’s workplace.‘‘Most innovations today involve largeteams of people,” says former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. “Wehave to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures.”

Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.

6. The passage is mainly concerned with______.

A. the No Child Left Behind program as a minimum requirement

B. interdisciplinary combination for 21st century school education

C. the overall competence required of a student in the 21st century

D. emotional intelligence as a means to career success in the 21st century

7. Ifthe workers are global trade literate, they shouldbe______.

A. global citizens even when they are kids

B. armed with foreign cultures and languages

C. living in big cities rather than in small towns

D. good at doing business with peoples over the world

8. It can be inferred from the passage that American kids used to be strong at______.

A. making interdisciplinary combinations

B. social-studies courses and U.S. history

C. producing YouTube and Google

D. creative and innovative thinking

9. What should a student in an age of exploding information do with new sourcesofinformation?

A. They should guard against the wrong information.

B. They should be able to tell the difference between them.

C. They should know how to interpret and organize them.

D. They should be able to process them and identify the reliable ones.

10. According to the passage, emotional intelligence involves______.

A. teamwork, cooperation skills and communication skills

B. ability to deal with people from different backgrounds

C. ability to make innovations as well as high intelligence

D. success in today’s workplace with people from many cultures

Passage Three

It has been two decades since the fate of a bashful bird that most people hadnever seen came to symbolize the bitter divide over whether to save or saw downthe ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. Yet it was not until Thursday that thefederal government offered its final plan to prevent the bird, the northernspottedowl, from going extinct.

After repeated revisions, constant court fights and shifting science, the Fishand Wildlife Service presented a plan that addresses a range of threats to the owl,including some that few imagined when it was listed as a threatened species in1990.

The newer threats include climate change and the arrival of a formidablefeathered competitor, the barred owl, in the soaring old-growth evergreens ofWashington, Oregon and California where spotted owls nest and hunt.

One experiment included in the plan: shooting hundreds of barred owls to seewhether that helps spotted owls recover.

Even after all these years since the spotted owl became the cause célèbre ofthe environmental movement, it is far from clear that the plan isa solution.Advocates on both sides say it will inevitably be challenged, and both sides haveexpressed frustration with the Obama administration on the issue.

The spotted owl is declining by an average of 3 percent per year across itsrange. While some populations in SouthernOregon and NorthernCalifornia aremore stable, some of the steepest rates of decline are here in Washington. Somestudy areas in the Olympic and Cascade ranges show annual declines as high as 9percent.

The listing of the spotted owl as a threatened species led to a virtual ban onlogging in many older federal forests, inspiring angry lawsuits and threats ofviolence by rural loggers against owl advocates, who often came from urban areas.

“Nothing against the bird, but it’s wreaked a lot of havoc in the PacificNorthwest for the past 20 years,”said Ray Wilkeson, president of the OregonForest Industries Council, which represents loggers, sawmills and others in theindustry. “A lot of human suffering has resulted from this. Now there’re newthreats to the owl that may be beyond anybody’s ability to control.”

Although the plan does not map critical habitat— the mapping process ismore than a year away from completion, a fact that frustrates conservationists – itproposes expanding protections for owls beyond areas currently set aside. Theexisting areas were outlined by the Northwest Forest Plan, which was approved ayear after President Clinton’s Timber Conference, revised under President GeorgeW. Bush to allow more logging and reinstated by the Obama administration.

The American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group, said the planwould impose “massive new restrictions on both federal and private lands.”

But supporters say it will provide more wood for mills by increasing forestthinning and restoration work to battle threats like disease and fire that couldincrease with climate change. The plan would provide timber companies incentivesto create potential spotted owl habitat. Officials from the Forest Service and fromthe Bureau of Land Management, which oversee logging on federal land, expressedsupport for the plan.

While timber advocates question protections for a bird that some say may bebound for extinction, conservationists say that it is too soon to give up on thespotted owl, and that the fight to save it has served broader benefits of the forest,from cleaner water and air to habitat for hundreds of other species, includingendangered salmon.

“The spotted owl is the icon,” Dr. Forsman said, “but there are a lot of otherplayers in terms of species and protecting biodiversity in these forests.”

Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.

11. The purpose ofthe new government plan is to______.

A. save Northernspotted owl

B. save the Northwest forest

C. list environmental threats to the Northernspotted owl

D. list the Northernspotted owl as a threatened species

12. Which (from Paras. 3, 4) of the following is NOT true?

A. The number ofbarred owls grows fast.

B. The spotted owl is hunted in the forest.

C. The number of spotted owls is in decline.

D. The barred owl is a newcomer to the forest.

13. Who doubt about the plan?

A. Only timber advocates.

B. Only owl advocates.

C. Advocates from both urban and rural areas.

D. Both owl advocates and timber advocates.

14. Conservationists feel frustrated because______.

A. the new mapping ofhabitat in the protection for owls is slow to complete

B. the new mapping ofhabitat for owls will extend beyond presently set areas

C. the revised Northwest Forest Plan under President Obama is maintained

D. President Bush revised Northwest Forest Plan and allowed more logging

15. Dr. Forsman wanted to express in the last paragraph that_______.

A. the spotted owlis a rare species

B. there are a lot of other players in the forest

C. the spotted owl needs protection

D. some other species are equally important

Passage Four

If you’ve ever been pranked on April Fools’ Day, you may wonder how thistradition started. Well, you’re not alone. No one knows for sure how April Fools’Day began. But the most likely explanation has to do with the calendar.

No, that’s not an April Fools’ Day joke. People used to celebrate New Year’sDay on April lst. Just like today, people would have big parties to celebrate. Overtime, the calendar changed and so did the date for New Year’s. In the 1500s, thenew calendar marked New Year’s Day as January lst. But because there was noInternet or other means to spread the word, the news traveled slowly by word ofmouth. It took a while for everyone to hear about the change, and even then somepeople resisted it. They continued to celebrate New Year’s on April lst. Thesepeople were given the nickname“April fools”.

People following; the new calendar played tricks on the“April fools” bysending them on“fool’s errands”. They had the“April fools” deliver invitations tobig New Year’s celebrations that weren’t really going to happen. In France, “Aprilfools” were called“Poisson d’Avril”, which is French for “April Fish”. This beganbecause people thought fish were easy to catch since they could be fooled intotaking the bait on a hook. Children would tag a paper fish on a person’s back tomark them as an “April Fish”. When the person discovered the fish, the pranksterwould yell“Poisson d’Avril”.

Not everyone is convinced that this is actually how the tradition of April Fools’Day began. People have tried to pinpoint the exact date of the first April Fools’ Day,but this only led to more pranks. A professor from Boston University pranked areporter by making up a story about a court jester who said he could run the empirebetter than the king. The jester was made king for a day on April lst. This turnedout to be a big April Fools’ Day trick because the reporter thought the story wasreal.

Even though we aren’t sure how this tradition began, people still celebrateApril Fools’ Day by playing tricks on each other. So the next time you pranksomeone and yell “April Fools!” remember that the day may actually be about thepeople who didn’t want to change their traditions when the new calendar wasadopted. Or maybe it’s just a day to celebrate the joker in all of us.

Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four

16. If you prank somebody, it means you______.

A. play card with that person B. win a trick over that person

C. play a trick on that person D. know a trick ofthat person

17. In the 1500s, who were given the nickname “April fools”?

A. People who were not smart enough.

B. People who didn’t know when April Fools’ Day was.

C. People who celebrated New Year’s Day on January lst.

D. People who refused to recognize New Year’s Day as January lst.

18. On April lst, children in France used to______.

A. place paper fish on other people’s backs

B. wear paper fish on their backs

C. buy a new calendar

D. go boat fishing

19. What does the underlined word errandmean in paragraph 3?

A. A small gift sent to somebody.

B. A short trip to get something done.

C. A brieftrip to send invitation cards.

D. A short message sent to somebody.

20. What is the author’s purpose for writing this article?

A. To tell readers how April Fools’ Day is celebrated.

B. To remind readers that April Fools’ Day is coming up.

C. To teach readers about the history ofApril Fools’ Day.

D. To persuade readers into celebrating April Fools’ Day.

Passage Five

You may a ready know that hurricanes are major tropical storms that can causedevastating waves, wind, and rain. They happen during “Hurricane Season”, whichis from June lst until November 30th in the Atlantic Ocean and from May 15thuntil November 30th in the PacificOcean.

A storm progresses through four different stages before it is actuallyconsidered a hurricane. First is a tropical disturbance, which has thunderstorms androtating winds, or what scientists call cyclonic circulation. Next is a tropicaldepression, which is similar to a tropical disturbance, but has winds between 23and 39 miles per hour. A tropical storm is the next level, which has stronger wind speeds between 40 and 73 miles per hour. Once winds reach 74 miles per hour, thestorm is officially classified as a hurricane. The winds pick up energy from thewarm surface ocean water.

As a hurricane crosses over land, it begins to dissipate, or break apart andreduce in strength. This is because it is no longer over the warm ocean water that itneeds for energy. At this point, a hurricane can still cause a lot of damage becauseof high winds, rain, and flooding, but unless it makes its way back over the openocean, it is downgraded from a hurricane back to a tropical storm.

The center of a hurricane is called the eye. While most of a hurricane containsdangerously strong winds, the eye is actually a calm area in the storm. When theeye of a hurricane passes over land, people might think that it’s over, but beforelong the wind and rain increase again as the second part of the hurricane movesthrough.

Can you imagine flying a plane through a hurricane? If you’re a hurricanehunter, it’s your job! Hurricane Hunters fly airplanes on weather missionsto helpthe National Hurricane Center make predictions about hurricanes. Pilots determinehow fast the winds are blowing, how big the hurricane is, and which direction it’smoving. This helps people to be better prepared for hurricanes as they approachshore.

Hurricanes can leave behind lots of destruction. In 2005, Hurricane Katrinaripped through Louisiana,Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. This was the sixthwindiest hurricane on record, and it was one of the deadliest hurricanes in history.It took l,833 lives and caused over 76 billion dollars in damages.

Many people are surprised to learnthat Katrina’s wind didn’t cause most of thedamage. The wind had caused levees in New Orleans to break. When the leveesbroke, water from the Gulf of Mexico rushed into the low-lying land. Over 80%ofthe city ofNew Orleans was buried in flood water.

Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.

21. Which sequence of storm stages is in the correct order?

A. Tropical depression, tropical disturbance, tropical storm, hurricane.

B. Hurricane, tropical stormtropical depression, tropical disturbance.

C. Hurricane, tropical depression, tropical storm, tropical disturbance.

D. Tropical disturbance, tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane.

22. What wouldyou observe if you were in the eye of a hurricane?

A. Very heavy rain. B. Very little wind.

C.Strong and spinning winds. D. Strong winds and heavy rain. .

23. What happens when a hurricane crosses over land?

A. It breaks apart and forms tornadoes.

B. It gathers more vapor from land.

C. It moves more quickly.

D. Itloses strength.

24. What does a hurricane hunter do?

A. Fly airplanes through hurricanes.

B. Help people find a safe place to stay.

C. Issue warnings to notify people of danger.

D. Use computers to predict the paths ofhurricanes.

25. What caused the most destruction during Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

A. Houses being blown away.

B. Floods due to breaking levees.

C. Heavy rain due to Hurricane Katrina.

D. People going outdoors during the storm.

非选择题部分

注意事项：

用黑色字迹的签字笔或钢笔将答案写在答题纸上，不能答在试题卷上。

II. Vocabulary (10 points, 1 point for each)

Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refersto the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on theAnswer Sheet.

Britain’s most prestigious scientific institution, the Royal Society, will host a meeting for some ofthe world’s top psychologists. Their aim is to find out why it is that some people’s lives go so right. What is it that makes them happy and fulfilled, while others seem doomed to founder in misery, dissatisfaction and dejection?

Psychologists have known for some time that optimism is a good defense against unhappiness.“If you are optimistic and you think life is going to get better,it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Baylis.“You will involve yourselfmore, you will take more care of yourself. You will figure that if you do moreexercise and not booze as much, life will be better.”

Positive psychologists believe optimism can be learned, and we can teachourselves to see a half-empty glass as half-full.“Research on depression shows thatone of the biggest causes of depression is ruminating about something that wentwrong in the past,” says Baylis.“What happens is you look into the past and think about some event and keep turning it over, saying, ‘I messed up, I messed up,’ andyou let it hurt you.”

But just as dwelling on negative events can lead to depression, dwelling onthings that have gone well can help pick you up.“You have to thank your luckystars about what goes right on a daily basis. Whenever you get the feeling ofbeingnegative about things, just take a moment out and remind yourself of the stuff thathas gone well. It could be anything from a conversation to your garden lookingnice, or that it didn’t rain on you when you were out on your bike. It’s an extremelypowerful technique.”

By reminding ourselves what went well instead of what went wrong, positivepsychologists believe we can build a buffer against unhappiness, making us betterable to take life's knocks when they come.

26. having high status (Para. 1)

27. satisfied because of fully developing one’s abilities (Para. 1)

28. a sad and depressed state (Para. 1)

29. a prediction of what will happen in the future (Para. 2)

30. to drink alcohol, especially in large quantities (Para. 2)

31. a mental state of gloomy feelings (Para. 3)

32. to think deeply about something (Para. 3)

33. not optimistic (Para. 4)

34. a cushion-like device that reduces shock (Para.5)

35.a discouraging experience (Para. 5)

III. Summarization (20 points, 2 points for each)

Directions: In this part of the test, there are ten paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs isfollowed by an incomplete phrase or sentence which summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Spell out themissing letters of the wordon your Answer Sheet.

Passage One

Women in 1970 earned on average 52 cents for every dollar a man earned. By2007, women earned 71 cents, a great improvement. But that’s not likely to growmuch as long as a greater percentage of women work in lower-paying fields and more women than men leave the workplace for periods to raise children.

36.Women generally earn 1______than men.

Passage Two

Why is our appetite so powerful a driver of our behavior? If that question has long defied easy answers, it’s no wonder. Understanding a single biological unit — the heart, the lungs— is hard enough. Understanding a process as complex asappetite— one that involves taste, smell, sight, brain chemistry, gut chemistry, metabolism and, most confounding of all, psychology —is exponentially harder.

37. Appetite mechanismis d______to understand.

Passage Three

Emotions and values play an enormous role in how we process informationand make choices. We are beset by cognitive biases that throw what would besound decision-making off-balance. Take loss aversion: psychologists have foundthat human beings tend to be more concerned about avoiding losses than achievinggains, holding onto what they have even when this is not in their best interests.

38. Emotions and values greatly a______ decision-making.

Passage Four

Most mammals can sprint faster than humans— having four legs gives themthe advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost anyanimal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool atspeeds and distances that would overheat other animals.

39. Human’s efficient c______ system.

Passage Five

Rising carbon dioxide levels leads to global warming. The industrialized worldhas been the main protagonist given that carbon dioxide lasts about 100

years in the atmosphere, but as the developing nations become increasinglymechanized and urbanized, the balance is shifting. Indeed, the carbon emissions ofAsia more than doubled from 1990 onwards.

40. Developing countries p______more carbon emissions than before.

Passage Six

An average ofjust one 85-gram serving of unprocessed red meat —such as amedium hamburger or a small pork chop —per day increased by 12 percent thechances a person would get type 2 diabetes over the course ofa decade or two.

41. C______ of red meat increases risk of diabetes.

Passage Seven

When it comes to money, it often pays to ignore financial news. The media isin the business of selling news, and to do that, they sensationalize it. Fueled by theover-eager reporting, irrational exuberance can quickly turnto pervasive gloom.Neither state of mind makes sense. They’re both extremes that lead investors tomake poor decisions.

42. Financial news may m______ investors.

Passage Eight

Orbiting only about three million miles out from its star,the Jupiter-size gasgiant planet, dubbed TrES-2b, is heated to980 degrees Celsius. Yet the apparently inky world appears to reflect almost none of the starlight that shines on it.

43. A d______ planet that reflects almost no light.

Passage Nine

Thirty-six years ago, when the grizzly was first listed as threatened, there wereno bears along the Rocky Mountain Front, the plains at the base of the Rockies. Ifone was spied, it was routinely killed by ranchers. Now there are over a hundred,perhaps many more.

44. A______ ofbears in their former habitat.

Passage Ten

Scientists have been finding evidence of life inside meteorites for well over100 years —that, or the building blocks of life. The claims of life have provedfalse every time. It always turns out to be a wishful interpretation of chemicals,minerals and tiny structures inside the meteorite that could be the fossilizedlong-dead bacteria— but almost certainly aren’t.

45. Scientists f______ to find valid evidence oflife inside meteorites.

IV. Translation.(20 points, 4 points for each)

Directions: In the following passage, there are five groups of underlined sentences. Read thepassage carefully and translate these sentences into Chinese. Write the Chinese version onyourAnswer Sheet.

The over-sixty population is growing faster than any other age group. Between1950 and 2050 it is expected to increase from 200 million to2 billion. As thenumber of older persons increases, so will the need to ensure their social inclusion,based on an income from decent work or retirement and a chance to participate incommunity life through employment, volunteer work or other activities. (46)According to the International Labor Organization,“decent work” is work thatmeets people’s basic aspirations, not only for income, but also for security forthemselves and their families, in a working environment that is safe. Decent worktreats men and women equally, without discrimination or harassment. Finally,decent work provides social security and is carned out in conditions of freedomandhuman dignity.

But there are over l.2 billion people in the world who live on an income oflessthan $1 a day, and another billion who live on less than $2 a day. (47) They livehand to mouth, day to day, and do not have enough income to support their dailyexistence—much less put something aside for retirement.In most developingcountries retirement is a luxury few older people can afford. Even in developedcountries some hard working people will not have enough to live on retirement.Many women —paid less than men, working more at home than men, and workingmore informally than men —may not be ready or able to rest at 65.

By tradition, at least in developed countries, there is a change to roles as onemoves from active middle years into“gentle” and“enjoyable” retirement. Thischange in roles has been viewed by the public, by government and by business, as atransition from a productive time oflife to one that is unproductive and dependent.But today more than ever, this is not true. (48) Most older people do not withdrawfrom society. Instead, they continue to contribute to their households, to theirdescendants and to their communities, although their contribution may not be paidemployment.

Instead of producing goods or services —the traditional economic model“products” – older persons may contribute a “product” that has value to society,such as caring for children, caring for other older persons, caring for the oldest old,providing community leadership, mentoring or being an effective role model. (49)But in spite of their significant human and economic benefits, such contributionshave not been figured into an economy’s gross national product. And they have notbeen appropriately valued.

Over the past several decades, most industrialized countries have experienced asubstantial drop in the average age at which individuals retire from the labormarket. (50) Longer life expectancy and better health have not been accompaniedby longer working lives. As a consequence, these countries are facing seriousconcerns about the viability of social security systems.A key challenge for thesecountries is to mitigate the effects of a drop in the working age population byincreasing and prolonging the participation of older people in the labor market.

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