高考英语阅读理解专项训练——文化类

　　(1)

　　A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.

　　This attitude toward manual(体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward, furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily assembled from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.

　　1. From paragraph 1, we can know that in America _________.

　　A. people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man

　　B. people can always rise to the top through their won efforts

　　C. college professors win great respect from common workers

　　C. people feel painful to mention their fathers as labors.

　　2. According to the passage, the hostess cooks dinner herself mainly because _________.

　　A. servants in American are hard to get

　　B. she takes pride in what she can do herself

　　C. she can hardly afford servants

　　D. It is easy to prepare a meal with canned food

　　3. The expression “ wait on table” in the second paragraph means “_________”.

　　A. work in a furniture shop

　　B. keep accounts for a bar

　　C. wait to lay the table

　　D. serve customers in a restaurant

　　4. Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage?

　　A. A Respectable Self-made Family

　　B. American Attitude toward Manual Labor

　　C. Characteristics of American Culture

　　D. The Development of Manual Labor

　　【答案解析】

　　本文介绍了崇尚自我奋斗，尊重体力劳动的美国文化。

　　1. A。细节题。 根据 A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made made 我们可以了解到，“崇尚自我奋斗”是美国文化的特点。

　　2. B。推断题。根据This attitude toward manual(体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life.(在美国生活的方方面面，尊重体力劳动态度的现象仍然随处可见)，可以推断女主人亲自下厨，是因为她以能做这样的体力活而自豪。

　　3. D。词义猜测题。wait on table 意为“服务顾客”，注意其后的 washing dishes 也有一定的暗示意义，故答案为 D。

　　4. B。主旨题。纵观全文，文章主要讲了美国崇尚自我奋斗，尊重体力劳动的文化习惯。故答案为B。

　　(2)

　　A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.

　　A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises(出现) from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.

　　There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar(奇怪的) that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend.

　　No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.

　　1. The author considers that a fairy story is more effective when it is _______.

　　A. repeated without any change

　　B. treated as a joke

　　C. made some changes by the parent

　　D. set in the present

　　2. According to the passage, great fear can take place in a child when the story is _______.

　　A. in a realistic setting

　　B. heard for the first time

　　C. repeated too often

　　D. told in a different way

　　3. The advantage claimed(提出) for repeating fairy stories to young children is that it _______.

　　A. makes them less fearful

　　B. develops their power of memory

　　C. makes them believe there is nothing to be afraid of

　　D. encourages them not to have strange beliefs

　　4. The author’s mention of sticks and telephones is meant to suggest that _______.

　　A. fairy stories are still being made up

　　B. there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales

　　C. people try to modernize old fairy stories

　　D. there is more concern for children's fears nowadays

　　5. One of the reasons why some people are not in favor of fairy tales is that _______.

　　A. they are full of imagination

　　B. they just make up the stories which are far from the truth

　　C. they are not interesting

　　D. they make teachers of history difficult to teach

　　【答案解析】

　　本文为论说文，作者驳斥了对神话故事的种种指责和误解。

　　1. C。细节题。根据 It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better. 可推知此题答案为C。

　　2. B。细节题。根据 this arises(出现) from the child having heard the story once. 可推知此题答案为B。

　　3. A。细节题。根据Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.可以得出此答案。

　　4. B。推断题。有些人认为神话不现实，都是教孩子一些不存在的东西，会对孩子有不好的影响。作者用虚拟语气作了一个假设，如果这些观点站得住脚的话，可能会出现这样的情况：the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend. 可见持这种观点的人实际上是对神话的一种误解。

　　5. B。推断题。根据 …not objectively true, do not exist可知有些人不赞成神话故事的原因是这些故事是编出来的，远离现实。故选B。

　　(3)

　　The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare’s time is estimated(估计) to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.

　　In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate(足够的) working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate working knowledge for each situation.

　　The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.

　　1. What would be the best title for this passage?

　　A. The Difficulties of Learning English

　　B. International Communications

　　C. The Standard Varieties of English

　　D. English as a World Language

　　2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A. Some 260 million people in the world have an adequate working knowledge of English.

　　B. There are some 260 million native speakers of English in the world.

　　C. It is almost impossible to estimate the number of people with an adequate working knowledge of English.

　　D. People learn English for a variety of reasons.

　　3. According to the passage, what is the main reason for the widespread use of English?

　　A. It was popular during Shakespeare’s time.

　　B. It is used in former British colonies.

　　C. It serves the needs of its native speakers.

　　D. It is a world language that is used for international communication.

　　4. What forms an adequate working knowledge of English?

　　A. The ability to read a newspaper.

　　B. It is difficult to judge because it differs for each situation.

　　C. Being a multilingual.

　　D. Being a native speaker.

　　5. What type of developing countries would be most likely to use English?

　　A. Those geographically close to the United States.

　　B. Those interested in the culture of the United States.

　　C. Former colonies of Great Britain.

　　D. Countries where international conferences are held.

　　【答案解析】

　　本文介绍了英语的发展变化情况，说明了英语最后成为世界语言的原因及英语在当代社会中的重要性。

　　1.D。主旨题。根据第3段第1句及全文的内容：英语在各个国家的各个领域的应用，可推知此题的答案为 D。

　　2.A。细节题。根据文章第1段中第2句及第2段的第1句的描述可推知此题的答案为A。

　　3.D。推断题。根据文章最后一段的描述，英语在世界不同领域、不同的地区的使用，可推知此题的答案为D。

　　4.B。细节题。根据文章第2段最后一句可推知此题答案为B。

　　5.C。细节题。根据文章最后一段倒数第2句可推知此题答案为C。

　　(4)

　　“If there is one thing I’m sure about, it is that in a hundred years from now we will still be reading newspapers. It is not that newspapers are a necessity. Even now some people get most of their news from television or radio. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday. But for most people reading a newspaper has become a habit passed down from generation to generation.

　　The nature of what is news may change. What basically makes news is what affects our lives — the big political stories, the coverage of the wars, earthquakes and other disasters, will continue much the same. I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though. It’s already happening in areas that may directly affect our lives, like genetic(基因) engineering. In the future, I think there will be more coverage of scientific explanations of why we feel as we do — as we develop a better understanding of how the brain operates and what our feelings really are.

　　It’s quite possible that in the next century newspapers will be transmitted(传送)

　　electronically from Fleet Street and printed out in our own home. In fact, I’m pretty sure that how it will happen in the future. You will probably be able to choose from a menu, making up your own newspaper by picking out the things you want to read — sports and international news, etc.

　　I think people have got it wrong when they talk about competition between the different media(媒体). They actually feed off each other. Some people once foresaw that television would kill off newspapers, but that hasn’t happened. What is read on the printed page lasts longer than pictures on a screen or sound lost in the air. And as for the Internet, it’s never really pleasant to read something just on a screen.

　　1. What is the best title for the passage?

　　A. The Best Way to Get News

　　B. The Changes of Media

　　C. Make Your Own Newspaper

　　D. The Future of Newspaper

　　2. In the writer’s opinion, in the future, _______.

　　A. more big political affairs, wars and disasters will make news

　　B. newspapers will not be printed in publishing houses any longer

　　C. newspapers will cover more scientific research

　　D. more and more people will watch TV

　　3. What will probably be on in the newspaper made by yourself?

　　A. Sports and international news.

　　B. A menu of important news.

　　C. The most important news.

　　D. What you are interested in.

　　4. From the passage, we can infer _______.

　　A. newspapers will win the competition among the different media

　　B. newspapers will stay with us together with other media

　　C. television will take the place of newspaper

　　D. the writer believe some media will die out

　　5. The phrase “feed off” in the last paragraph means _______.

　　A. depend on

　　B. compete with

　　C. fight with

　　D. kill off

　　【答案解析】

　　本文提出报纸这一资讯媒体在近百年内不会消失的观点并分析了其原因。

　　1. D。主旨题。从文章第1句：一百年后人们仍要读报，到后面文章讲到报纸跟人们生活的关系，报纸的形式和内容，可归纳出此题的答案为D。

　　2. C。细节题。根据文章第2段I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though.可推知此题答案为C。

　　3. D。推断题。从文章第3段最后一句You will probably be able to choose from a menu, making up your own newspaper by picking out the things you want to read… 可推知此题答案为D。

　　4. B。细节题。根据文章第1段第3句Even now some people get most of their news from television or radio. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday可推知此题答案为B。

　　5. A。词义猜测题。作者上一句说人们错误地认为各各种不同的媒体相互竞争，而下一句作者又说 They actually feed off each other(注意句中 actually 一词)，再结合所给的四个选项，可知选A为合适。