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1、2023考研英语春季阅读讲义2006年考研英语阅读真题Text 1In spite of“endless talk of difference American society is an amazing machine fbr homogenizing people. There is the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed int
2、o a culture of consumption55 launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered “vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite these were stores “anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a p
3、ublic and democratic act. The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that toda
4、ys immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation. In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000. Now, conside
5、r three indices of assimilationlanguage, home ownership and intermarriage.The 1990 Census revealed that a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English well or very weir after ten years of residence”. The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual and
6、 proficient in English. By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families.Hence the description of America as a “graveyard” for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, higher than the
7、 69.8 percent rate among native-born Americans.Foreign-bom Asians and Hispanics have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.- born whites and blacks. By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians
8、.Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet “some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nations assimilative power.”Are there divisive issues and pocke
9、ts of seething anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against Americas turbulent past, todays social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment.21.The word “homogenizing” (Line 2, Paragraph 1) most probably means.A
10、 identifying B associating C assimilating D monopolizing22 .According to the author, the department stores of the 19th century.A played a role in the spread of popular cultureB became intimate shops for common consumersC satisfied the needs of a knowledgeable eliteD owed its emergence to the culture
11、 of consumption23 .The text suggests that immigrants now in the U.S.A are resistant to homogenizationB exert a great influence on American cultureC are hardly a threat to the common cultureD constitute the majority of the population24. Why are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks mentioned in Para
12、graph 5?A To prove their popularity around the world.B To reveal the public s fear of immigrants.C To give examples of successful immigrants.D To show the powerful influence of American culture.25. In the authors opinion, the absorption of immigrants into American society is.A rewarding B successful
13、 C fruitless D harmfulText 2Stratford-on-Avon, as we all know, has only one industry-William Shakespeare一but there are two distinctly separate and increasingly hostile branches. There is the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which presents superb productions of the plays at the Shakespeare Memorial T
14、heatre on the Avon. And there are the townsfolk who largely live off the tourists who come, not to see the plays, but to look at Anne Hathaways Cottage, Shakespeares birthplace and the other sights.The worthy residents of Stratford doubt that the theatre adds a penny to their revenue. They frankly d
15、islike the RSCs actors, them with their long hair and beards and sandals and noisiness. Its all deliciously ironic when you consider that Shakespeare, who earns their living, was himself an actor (with a beard) and did his share of noise-making.The tourist streams are not entirely separate. The sigh
16、tseers who come by bus一and often take in Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace on the side一dont usually see the plays, and some of them are even surprised to find a theatre in Stratford. However, the playgoers do manage a little sight-seeing along with their playgoing. It is the playgoers, the RSC cont
17、ends, who bring in much of the towns revenue because they spend the night (some of them four or five nights) pouring cash into the hotels and restaurants. The sightseers can take in everything and get out of town by nightfall.The townsfolk dont see it this way and local council does not contribute d
18、irectly to the subsidy of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stratford cries poor traditionally. Nevertheless every hotel in town seems to be adding a new wing or cocktail lounge. Hilton is building its own hotel there, which you may be sure will be decorated with Hamlet Hamburger Bars, the Lear Lounge,
19、 the Banquo Banqueting Room, and so forth, and will be very expensive.Anyway, the townsfolk cant understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row. Last year its 1,431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and thi
20、s year theyll do better.) The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have stayed low.It would be a shame to raise prices too much because it would drive away the young people who are Stratford5s most attractive clientele. They come entirely for the plays, not the sights. Th
21、ey all seem to look alike (though they come from all over)一lean, pointed, dedicated faces, wearing jeans and sandals, eating their buns and bedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre to buy the 20 seats and 80 standing-room tickets held for the sleepers and sold to them when th
22、e box office opens at 10:30 a.m.26. From the first two paragraphs, we learn that.A the townsfolk deny the RSCs contribution to the towns revenueB the actors of the RSC imitate Shakespeare on and off stageC the two branches of the RSC are not on good termsD the townsfolk earn little from tourism27. I
23、t can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that.A the sightseers cannot visit the Castle and the Palace separatelyB the playgoers spend more money than the sightseersC the sightseers do more shopping than the playgoersD the playgoers go to no other places in town than the theater28. By saying Stratford crie
24、s poor traditionally (Line 2-3, Paragraph 4), the author implies that.A Stratford cannot afford the expansion projectsB Stratford has long been in financial difficultiesC the town is not really short of moneyD the townsfolk used to be poorly paid29. According to the townsfolk, the RSC deserves no su
25、bsidy because.A ticket prices can be raised to cover the spendingB the company is financially ill-managedC the behavior of the actors is not socially acceptableD the theatre attendance is on the rise30. From the text we can conclude that the author.ioA is supportive of both sidesB favors the townsfo
26、lk viewC takes a detached attitudeD is sympathetic to the RSCText 3When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals: They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow- growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted
27、 to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around t
28、he world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals
29、that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improve
30、d. Todays vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the
31、 early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot
32、 of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current
33、 among marine biologists, that of the shifting baseline”. The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustain
34、able yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business.31. The extinction of large prehistoric animals is noted to suggest that.iiA large animal were vulnerabl
35、e to the changing environmentB small species survived as large animals disappearedC large sea animals may face the same threat todayD slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones32. We can infer from Dr. Myers and Dr. Worms paper that.A the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced b
36、y 90%B there are only half as many fisheries as there were 15 years agoC the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20% of the original amountD the number of larger predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old33.By saying these figures are conservative (Line 1, paragraph 3), Dr. Worm mea
37、ns that.A fishing technology has improved rapidlyB the catch-sizes are actually smaller than recordedC the marine biomass has suffered a greater lossD the data collected so far are out of date34. Dr. Myers and other researchers hold that.A people should look for a baseline that can work for a longer
38、 timeB fisheries should keep their yields below 50% of the biomassC the ocean biomass should be restored to its original levelD people should adjust the fishing baseline to the changing situation35.The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries9.A management efficiencyB biomass levelC c
39、atch-size limitsD technological applicationText 4Many things make people think artists are weird. But the weirdest may be this: artists5 only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.This wasnt always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, a
40、re those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere from the 19th century onward, more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless, phony or, worst of all, boring, as we went from Wordsworths daffodils to Baudelaires flowers of evil.You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness be
41、cause modern times have seen so much misery. But its not as if earlier times didnt know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today.12After all, what is the one modem form of expression almo
42、st completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They wor
43、ked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not ex
44、actly need their art to be a bummer too.Today the messages the average Westerner is surrounded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in per
45、fect homes. And since these messages have an agenda-to lure us to open our wallets一they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. Celebrate!” commanded the ads fbr the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.But what we forget-what our economy
46、depends on us forgetting一is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need art to tell us, as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that y
47、ou will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. Its a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.36. By citing the examples of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that.A poetry is
48、 not as expressive of joy as painting or musicB art grows out of both positive and negative feelingsC poets today are less skeptical of happinessD artists have changed their focus of interest37. The word “bummer” (Line 5, paragraph 5) most probably means something.A religious B unpleasant C entertaining D commercial38.1 n the authors opinion, advertising.A emerges in the wake of the anti-happy artB is a cause of disappointment for the general publicC replaces the church as a major sourc