2012年7月英语阅读(一)自考试题

2012年7月（全国）英语阅读(一)自考试题

 

Careful Reading. (40 points, 2 points for each)
　　Directions: Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answers and then
　　write the corresponding letters on your Answer Sheet.
　　
Passage One
　　Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
　　The Nile made Egypt’s civilization possible. The river is more than 400 miles long. In its fertile valley crops are grown for food and cotton for clothing. Mud from the river bottom makes good bricks for houses. Thus ways of getting food, clothing and shelter were close for the Egyptians.
　　The Nile is a highway for the people of Egypt. Flat bottomed boats and large narrow barges carry products from one city to another. There are also passenger boats on the Nile, carrying people up and down the river. In ancient times huge blocks of stones were floated down the river on barges. These stones are used in making buildings and monuments.
　　For thousands of years the Egyptians have depended on the Nile for their crops. The land on both sides of the Nile is desert, where crops cannot be raised
　　But crops grow well in the Nile Valley. In fact, several different crops are often grown on the same land during the same year.
　　Once the Nile flooded each year, overflowed its banks, and carried rich soil in land every summer. These floods were caused by early summer rains.
　　At present there is a series of dams in the Nile. Water raises high in the river each summer as usual. The people do not let the Nile flood, however. They store the water behind dams. It is now possible to use the water as needed, not just at flood time.
　　1. In the past ______.
　　A. there was rain all the year long
　　B. the Nile flooded every year
　　C. the Nile became deeper and deeper after each rainfall
　　D. the Nile was not a long river
　　2. Egyptians have grown crops well ______.
　　A. on both sides of the Nile
　　B. on the land near the desert area
　　C. in the Nile valley
　　D. far away from the desert area
　　3. In the valley of the Nile ______.
　　A. bricks for houses are made
　　B. different crops are raised on the same land
　　C. only cotton can grow well
　　D. people grow all crops except cotton
　　4. “The Nile is a highway for the people of Egypt” means ______.
　　A. cars and trucks can move as fast as possible along it
　　B. the river bottom can serve as a road in dry season
　　C. the river is an important water transportation line in Egypt
　　D. on the river there are a lot of boats and people
　　5. Which of the following can best summarize the passage?
　　A. The Nile is the source of flood.
　　B. The Nile is a highway for the people in Egypt.
　　C. The flat bottomed boats have been used.
　　D. The Nile made Egypt’s civilization possible.

Passage Two
　　Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.
　　Sleep plays a major role in preparing the body for an alert and productive tomorrow. But sleep is not a period of inactivity. The sleeping brain is highly active at various times during the night, performing numerous “house keeping tasks”. These keep us alive and aid our ability to think and remember. Sleep also energizes the body and brain. Most people spend one-third of their lives sleeping and this will affect the other two-thirds in terms of alertness, energy, moods, body weight, perception, memory, thinking, reaction time, productivity and performance.
　　To limit sleep means our health and daytime potential are significantly reduced
　　So, good sleep strategies are essential in order to feel energized day after day. There is no strategy which works for everyone, so each person needs to experiment. One important thing is that you shouldn’t worry too much if you go a few nights without a lot of sleep. It won’t ruin your life. On any given night, one in four people can’t sleep properly and everyone suffers from a lack of sleep at some time.
　　How does one minimize this problem? It is really quite simple. The first thing you must do is to reduce stress as much as possible. Stress is part of everyday life and, while we can never be entirely without stress, it can be managed
　　This means taking control of your life and focusing on what is important. One sleeping strategy is to sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and relax all your muscles, breathing easily through your nose. Continue this for ten to twenty minutes. This should help you reduce stress and sleep better. Or, you can try getting plenty of exercise, because a tired body is likely to sleep better.
　　6. According to the passage, sleep is important because ______.
　　A. it is a period of complete inactivity for the brain
　　B. it helps us understand what we have already achieved
　　C. it makes us more effective when we are awake
　　D. it helps us to lose weight
　　7. Methods of getting enough sleep ______.
　　A. vary between men and women
　　B. are the same for everybody
　　C. vary from person to person
　　D. are based on your job
　　8. According to the passage, being unable to sleep ______.
　　A. affects young children the most
　　B. affects everybody at some time
　　C. is worse for those who have relaxing lives
　　D. is likely to ruin people’s life
　　9. A simple strategy to sleep better is to ______.
　　A. work harder than you could
　　B. put your stress under control
　　C. breathe through your nose
　　D. sleep on a chair instead of bed
　　10. After a lot of physical exercise, ______.
　　A. you should find stress increases dramatically
　　B. you will become out of breath
　　C. you should be able to enjoy better sleep
　　D. you will not need to sleep for some time

Passage Three
　　Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.
　　Every body gets sick. Disease and injury make us suffer throughout our lives, until finally some attack on the body brings our existence to an end
　　Fortunately, most of us in modern industrialized societies can take relatively good health for granted most of the time. In fact, we tend to fully realize the importance of good health only when we or those close to us become seriously ill. At such times we keenly appreciate the ancient truth that health is our most precious asset, one for which we might readily give up such rewards as power, wealth, or fame.
　　Because ill health is a universal problem, affecting the individual and society, the human response to sickness is always socially organized
　　No society leaves the responsibility for maintaining health and treating ill health entirely to the individual. Each society develops its own concepts of health and sickness and authorizes certain people to decide who is sick and how the sick should be treated
　　Around this focus there arises, over time, a number of standards, values, groups, statuses, and roles: in other words, an institution. To the sociologist, then, medicine is the institution concerned with the maintenance of health and treatment of disease.
　　In the simplest pre-industrial societies, medicine is usually an aspect of religion. The social arrangements for dealing with sickness are very elementary, often involving only two roles: the sick and the healer (治疗者). The latter is typically also the priest, who relies primarily on religious ceremonies, both to identify and to treat disease: for example, bones may be thrown to e