最新预测：英语六级新题型试卷（七）

Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

Directions: There are 4 reading 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.

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:

Opinion polls are now beginning to show that, whoever is to blame and whatever happens from now on, high unemployment is probably here to stay. This means we shall have to find ways of sharing the available employment more widely.

But we need to go further. We must ask some fundamental questions about the future work. Should we continue to treat employment as the norm? Should we not rather encourage many ways for self—respecting people to work? Should we not create conditions in which many of us can work for ourselves, rather than for an employer? Should we not aim to revive the household and the neighborhood, as well as the factory and the office, as centers of production and work?

The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a daunting thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom.

Employment became widespread when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places of employment until, eventually, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they live.

Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and families to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between the sexes.

It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were excluded—a problem now, as more teenagers become frustrated at school and more retired people want to live active lives.

All this may now have to change.

The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the idealist goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full—time jobs.

21. What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Employment became widespread in the 17th and 18th centuries.

B. Unemployment will remain a major problem for industrialized nations.

C. The industrial age may now be coming to an end.

D. Some efforts and resources should be devoted to helping more people cope with the problem of unemployment.

22. Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a factor contributing to the spread of employment?

A. the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries

B. the development of factories

C. relief from housework on the part of women

D. development of modern means of transportation

23. It can be inferred from the passage that____.

A. Most people who have been polled believe that the problem of unemployment may not be solved within a short period of time.

B. Many farmers lost their land when new railways and factories were being constructed.

C. In pre-industrial societies housework and community service were mainly carried out by women.

D. Some of the changes in work patterns that the industrial age brought have been reversed.

24. What does the word “daunting” in the third paragraph mean?

A. shocking B. interesting C. confusing D. stimulating

25. Which of the following is NOT suggested as a possible means to cope with the current situation?

A. create situations in which people work for themselves

B. treat employment as the norm

C. endeavor to revive the household and the neighborhood as centers of production

D. encourage people to work in circumstances other than normal working conditions

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:

Acid rain is a very serious air and water pollution problem. Many people feel that it is the most serious pollution problem that we now face. Scientists say that plant and animal life in thousands of lakes in the United States and Canada has already been destroyed by acid rain.

Acid rain forms in the upper atmosphere. There, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mix with water vapor. They mix with water vapor to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid. When the vapor condenses and rain falls, the acids fall with it. Every time acid rain falls in a lake, the level of acid in the lake rises. Over time, it can rise to the point at which plants and insects cannot survive. Without plants, which supply oxygen, and insects, which supply food, fish die. The lake becomes a dead lake.

The problem of acid rain has greatly increased in the last few years. Most of the blame for acid rain has been placed on industries. However, some people feel that ineffective air pollution laws are also to blame for the acid rain problem.

A few years ago, many cities and states passed local air pollution laws. The laws were written to improve the air quality in the cities and states. However, the laws usually didn't say anything about the amount of pollution that an industry could pump into the air. Industries found a way to meet the new pollution laws without reducing the amount of pollution they released. They met the new standards by building taller smokestacks.

With the taller smokestacks, air pollutants were released higher up into the atmosphere. The wind carried them far away from the polluting factory. To the people near the factory, the air seemed cleaner. However, the pollution that they once got was now coming down hundreds of miles away in the form of acid rain.

26. Which of the following is TRUE about acid rain?

A. It is acknowledged by scientists to be the most serious pollution problem that human beings now face.

B. Many endangered species are on the verge of extinction because of acid rain.

C. Acid rain is composed of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mixed with water vapor found in the upper atmosphere.

D. Acid rain is mostly found in the United States and Canada.

27. Why do lakes in the United States and Canada become dead lakes?

A. Fish in the lakes die because acid rain deprives them of oxygen.

B. Fish in the lakes die from taking in poisonous substances released from the acids.

C. Fish in the lakes die from direct contact with accumulated acid in the water.

D. Air pollutants are dissolved in the water and thus kill the fish.

28. Why didn't the state and local air pollution laws achieve the end of reducing pollution?

A. Industries tend to disregard the laws because they don't want to spend extra money on the processing of industrial wastes.

B. Although measures are taken to send industrial pollutants higher up the atmosphere the amount of industrial pollutants remains the same.

C. The smokestacks built to release pollutants are not tall enough.

D. Only a small number of industries are equipped to live up to the new standards of the air pollution laws.

29. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. Air pollution laws in the United States and in Canada typically don't specify the amount of pollutants released by industries.

B. The neighboring areas of a factory receive less pollution than distant areas.

C. The number of occurrences of acid rain over the last few years has been on the rise.

D. It is generally believed that ineffective air pollution laws rather than industries are to blame for acid rain.

30. Which is the best title for the passage?

A. Acid Rain: A Environmental Disaster

B. Who Is To Blame?

C. Formation of Acid Rain

D. New State and Local Air Pollution Laws