专练十四 阅读理解

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A

Many people neglect this most important communication skill.

Do you know that we spend an average of our waking day communicating？ Of this communication time， 9% is spent writing， 16% reading， 30% talking and 45% listening. Immediately after hearing something， most of us can recall only 50% of what we hear. Within two to eight weeks， we can recall only 25% or less of the original message. Our mental attitudes reduce our ability to retain what we hear.

Some suggestions to being a good listener are mentioned below.

First of all， stop talking ― you can’t listen while you are talking.

Ask questions ― when you don’t understand， when you need further clarification， when you want them to like you and when you want to show that you are listening.

Don’t interrupt ― give them time to say what they have to say.

Concentrate on what they are saying ― actively focus your attention on their words， their ideas and their feelings as they relate to the subject.

Look at the prospect ― by looking， it gives them confidence that you are， in fact， listening. It helps you to concentrate too.

Leave your emotions behind ― try to forget your own worries and problems. Leave them outside of the meeting room. They will prevent you from listening well.

Understand the main points ― concentrate on the main ideas and not the illustrative material.

Don’t argue mentally ― when you are trying to understand other people， it is a handicap to argue with them mentally as they are speaking. This only sets up a barrier between yourself and the speaker.

Use the difference in rate ― you can listen faster than you can talk. So use this rate difference to your advantage by staying on the right track， anticipating what they are going to say， thinking back over what they have just said and evaluating the development of their argument. You speak at about 150 words per minutes， but you think at 250 to 500.

Learn to listen and you will achieve a great success in your life.

1. In order to be a good listener， you should not .

A. ask question

B. focus your attention on what are being said

C. remember your own worries and problems

D. concentrate on the main idea

2. According to the author， what is the advantage of using the difference in rate？

A. You listen faster than you talk.

B. You can think back over what they have just said and evaluate the development of the argument.

C. It can help you concentrate on what they are saying.

D. It can give you time to ask questions.

3. The underlined word “handicap” can best defined to .

A. gloves B. obstacle C. disability D. cap

4. What is the text mainly about？

A. The importance of the listening

B. How to become a good speaker

C. How to succeed by listening

D. Some suggestions to being a good listener

B

Experts say that agriculture provides fourteen percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions each year. The gases released include carbon dioxide， a major cause of global warming.

Twenty-one nations around the world recently joined forces to better understand and prevent greenhouse gas emissions from farms. The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases was launched at the United Nations conference on climate change. The meeting took place in Copenhagen， Denmark last month.

Agricultural experts blame a number of farm activities for producing greenhouse gases. For example， animal waste and cattle digestive systems release methane gas. Fertilized soil and the burning of crop waste also release harmful gases into the air. Experts say some methods of farming ― turning the soil to prepare for planting ― also release harmful carbon dioxide.

An official of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research says agricultural greenhouse gas emissions can be cut. Maive Rute suggests feeding animals a diet designed to reduce emissions.

The new agricultural research group says protecting against global warming is only part of its purpose. It says the world also needs to develop better farming methods to feed growing populations in poor countries.

United States Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said no one single nation can fight agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase food production at the same time. This is why the alliance is important for combining resources and finding new ones.

The United States Department of Agriculture will increase spending on farm emissions research by ninety million dollars over the next four years. The total will reach one hundred and thirty million dollars. The U. S. D. A. will share the research with other countries in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and support researchers from developing countries that belong to the alliance. Money from the Borlaug Fellowship program will let the researchers study agricultural climate change with American scientists.

Mister Vilsack said that just as climate change has no borders， there should be no borders for research.

5. In Paragraph 4， Maive Rute recommends .

A. increasing food production

B. changing cattle digestive systems

C. developing better farming methods

D. giving animals the food meant to produce fewer emissions

6. The underlined word “alliance” in Paragraph 6 probably means .

A. action or state being joined together

B. an agreement signed between countries

C. a program or project set up for a research

D. an organization formed for different goals

7. How much has the U. S. D. A. spent on farm emission research so far？

A. 130 million dollars

B. 220 million dollars

C. 40 million dollars

D. 90 million dollars

8. The purpose of the passage is to .

A. suggest a total ban on farm activities

B. introduce the Copenhagen conference held last month

C. appeal to more countries to cut agricultural emissions.

D. inform readers of the major cause of global warming

C

Providing a high-quality education for all children is important to America’s economic future.

President Obama has decided to provide every child with access to a complete and competitive education， from cradle through career.

The years before a child reaches kindergarten are among the critical in his or her life to influence learning. The President will urge states to introduce high standards across all publicly funded early learning settings， develop new programs to improve opportunities and outcomes， engage parents in their child’s early learning and development， and improve the early education workforce.

President Obama will reform America’s public schools to deliver a 21st century education that will prepare all children for success in the new global workplace. He will push to end the use of ineffective， “off-the-shelf” tests， and support new， state-of-the-art assessment and responsibility systems that provide timely and useful information about the learning and progress of students.

Teachers are the single most important resource to children’s learning. President Obama will invest in a national effort to reward outstanding teachers， while enlisting the best and brightest in the field of teaching. And he will challenge states and school districts to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom.

The President believes that investment in education must be accompanied by reform and innovation（创新）. He supports the expansion of high-quality charter schools（特许学校）. He has challenged states to life limits that stop growth among successful charter schools and has encouraged strict responsibility for all charter schools.

President Obama has decided to ensure that America will regain its lost ground and have the highest proportion of students graduating from college in the world by 2020. The President believes that regardless of educational path after high school， all Americans should enroll in at least one year of higher education or job training to better prepare our workforce for the 21st century economy.

To reach these goals， the President has decided to increase higher education access and success by restructuring and greatly expanding college financial aid， while making federal program simpler， more reliable， and more efficient for students.

9. What’s President Obama’s idea about education？

A. To offer all children a full and good education

B. To urge states to introduce high standards for education

C. To enable every child to succeed in a global economy

D. To increase higher education access

10. Which of the following things is NOT part of President Obama’s decision？

A. Remove ineffective teachers from other countries

B. Reform America’s public schools

C. Enlist some teachers from other countries

D. Expand high-quality charter schools

11. What can we infer from the passage？

A. America has the largest number of college students at present.

B. All American children will receive higher education for free.

C. More and more American people intend to work as a teacher.

D. America will have the highest proportion of graduates in the near future.

12. Where do you think the passage are taken from？

A. A medical magazine

B. A newspaper

C. A science magazine

D. A guidebook

D

Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record the history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily accumulates. What is more， they will not have to rely solely on the written word. Films， videos， CDs and CD-ROMS are just some of the confusing amount of information they will have.

They will be able， as it were， to see and hear us in action. But the historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from the few absent clues available. Even seemingly insignificant remains can shed interesting light on the history of early man.

Up to now， historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the coming of agriculture， for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.

Historians have long been puzzled by dots， lines and symbols which have been engraved on walls， bones， and the ivory tusks of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age which began about 35，000 B. C. and ended about 10，000 B. C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world， historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases of the moon. It is， in fact， a primitive type of calendar. It has long been known that the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning， for they were as near as early man could get to writing. It is possible that there is a definite relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes accompany them. It seems that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20，000 years earlier than has been supposed.

13. What is the importance of the dots， lines， and symbols engraved on stone， bones and ivory？

A. They are a primitive type of calendar.

B. They record the history of that time.

C. They can meet the people’s need to understand something about the seasons.

D. They are simply a form of artistic expression.

14. From the passage， we can infer that the nomads were the people who .

A. made a living by engraving dots， lines and symbols on walls， bones， and the ivory tusks of mammoths.

B. made a living by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age.

C. made a living by recording the history.

D. made a living by looking after the sheep

15. In assuming that calendars came into being with the coming of agriculture， historians made the mistake of .

A. relying solely on the written word

B. disregarding the markings that early man had been responsible for

C. not connecting the passage of days with the phases of the moon.

D. supposing that nomadic man had no reason to understand the seasons

16. The paintings which have been found on the walls of nomadic dwelling places .

A. have taught historians something about the nomadic way of life

B. have no other content that their artistic merit

C. are not thought to be connected with an ancient calendar system

D. are invariably accompanied by odd dots， lines and symbols.

E

This is an excerpt of an incredibly inspiring speech by Steve Jobs （CEO of Apple and Pixar） delivered to graduates of Stanford University on June 12， 2005.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky ― I found what I loved to do early in life.

Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard， and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation ― the Macintosh ― a year earlier， and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started？ Well， as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me， and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge（分歧） and eventually we had a falling out. When we did， our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. What had been the focus of my entirelife was gone， and it was destructive.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs（企业家） down ― that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure， and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me ― I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected， but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then， but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again， less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years， I started a company named NeXT， another company named Pixar， and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film， Toy Story， and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events， Apple bought NeXT， I retuned to Apple， and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance（复兴）. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.