2004年Text 2
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoeuml; Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush‘s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking， six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi）. The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world‘s five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).
Can this merely be coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school，teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row， and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough through them.
46. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAA A cars and Zodiac cars？
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality.
[B] A type of conspicuous bias.
[C] A type of personal prejudice.
[D] A kind of brand discrimination.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
AAAA和Zodiac汽車出租公司這個例子出現(xiàn)在文章的第二段，是說人們平時通過查電話號碼簿叫出租車的時候，名字以A開頭的公司比名字以Z開頭的公司遠遠要有優(yōu)勢，這就是第一段中提到的"discrimination of alphabetism"（字母表主義）。同時該段明確指出這種歧視一一直沒有受到人們的注意，也就是被忽視。因此本題題干的例子是用來解釋說明第一段提出的文章中心思想，因此正確答案為A，其中overlooked對應于第一段第三句的unaware of ， 而inequality對應于該段第一句的unfairness 和discrimination。B、C選項中bias, prejudice都是discrimination的同義詞，但conspicuous與原文正好相反，personal 也與原文不符合。D選項brand（商標）也沒有在文中提到。本題的關(guān)鍵是抓住區(qū)分幾個修飾詞的含義。
[題目譯文]
作者用AAAA和Zodiac汽車出租公司的例子是想要說明什么？
[A] 一種被忽視的不平等
[B] 一種明顯的歧視
[C] 一種個人偏見
[D] 一種品牌偏見
50. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.
[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.
[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.
[答案] D
[解題思路]
判斷這種正誤題需要與原文逐項對應信息。A選項ill-treated（受虐待）不符合原文，文章只談及歧視，但人們并無受虐待，因此A選項錯誤。B選項的主語VIP指的是所有的大人物，但文章中雖舉例說一部分大人物姓名排在字母表的前一半，卻并沒有如此絕對的表述，因此B選項錯誤。C選項在文中并沒有提及。D選項總結(jié)了全文的觀點，是正確選項，說明按字母排序這種看似公平的方法實際上卻導致了無意（unintentional）的歧視。
[題目譯文]
下面哪項符合文意？
[A] 那些姓氏以N-Z字母靠頭的人們經(jīng)常受到不好的待遇。
[B] 西方國家中的一些重要人物從字母排序主義中獲益頗多
[C] 消除字母排序主義的運動還有很長的路要走
[D] 按照字母排序可能在無意中造成了偏見。 2004年Text 3
When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn’t cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she’d like to. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I’m a good economic indicator," she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they’re concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at a middle-brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don’t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too." she says.
Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening.
Consumers say they’re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there’s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses," says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Deadly, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.
Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn’t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan’s hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.
54. Why can many people see "silver linings" to the economic slowdown?
[A] They would benefit in certain ways.
[B] The stock market shows signs of recovery.
[C] Such a slowdown usually precedes a boom.
[D] The purchasing power would be enhanced.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
做本題的關(guān)鍵不在于了解"silver linings"這個詞組的含義，而在于準確定位對應信息，即文章的最后一段。縱觀該段，主要談論的內(nèi)容是經(jīng)濟不景氣帶來的一些好處，如利率降低有利于購房、高級餐廳的價格降低等，四個選項中只有A選項符合最后一段的意思。"silver linings"這個詞組的含義也正是"黑暗中的一線希望"。B選項雖然在原文中有所提及，但這與目前的經(jīng)濟形勢無關(guān)。C、D選項在文中沒有提及，考生不要盲目地用自己的經(jīng)濟知識去判斷，而要緊緊圍繞原文。
[題目譯文]
為什么很多人從經(jīng)濟減速中看到了希望？
[A] 他們會以一些方式獲益。
[B] 股票市場顯出了復蘇跡象。
[C] 這種經(jīng)濟減速通常是經(jīng)濟繁榮的前兆。
[D] 購買力會得到加強 2004年Text 4
Americans today don‘t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance." Razitch‘s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society."
"Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized--going to school and learning to read--so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country‘s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."
56. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
[A] The habit of thinking independently.
[B] Profound knowledge of the world.
[C] Practical abilities for future career.
[D] The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
[答案] C
[解題思路]
本題的對應信息為文章第一段第三句話"Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge"（學校也只不過是我們把孩子送去獲得實用教育--而不是為了知識而追求知識的地方），因此C選項與此正好吻合，而其他三項看似有道理，卻與文章的內(nèi)容沒有關(guān)系。
[題目譯文]
美國的父母們希望他們的孩子在學校里學到什么？
[A] 獨立思考的習慣
[B] 關(guān)于世界的深入知識
[C] 未來職業(yè)的使用技能
[D] 追求知識的信心
59. Emerson, according to the text, is probably
[A] a pioneer of education reform.
[B] an opponent of intellectualism.
[C] a scholar in favor of intellect.
[D] an advocate of regular schooling.
[答案] B
[解題思路]
第五段第一句話指出"Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children"（愛默生和其他一些超自然主義哲學家認為學校教育和高強度的書本學習會使孩子受到不自然的限），這說明愛默生反對學校進行智力和知識教育，因此答案顯然是B。C選項與B選項的意思相反，是錯誤答案。D選項中regular schooling屬無中生有，原文并沒有提及。A選項也與文章無關(guān)。
[題目譯文]
根據(jù)文章，愛默生可能是 。
[A] 教育改革的先驅(qū)
[B] 知識主義的反對者
[C] 熱愛知識的學者
[D] 常規(guī)教育的倡導者 2005年Text 1
Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human", with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.
The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys, which have all the necessary ingredients to capture the public imagination. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their finicky female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males (although why this is so remains a mystery).
Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr Brosnan’s and Dr de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to swap pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.
In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (in the absence of an actual monkey able to eat it) was enough to induce sullen behaviour in a female capuchin.
Dr Brosnan and Dr de Waal report that such behaviour is unusual in their trained monkeys. During two years of bartering prior to these experiments, failure to exchange tokens for food occurred in fewer than 5% of trials. And what made the behaviour even more extraordinary was that these monkeys forfeited food that they could see-and which they would have readily accepted in almost any other set of circumstances.
The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35m years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.
23. Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are ，考試大
[A] more inclined to weigh what they get.
[B] attentive to researchers’ instructions.
[C] nice in both appearance and temperament.
[D] more generous than their male companions.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
本文的對應信息在文章的第二段。第二段中先談到了母卷尾猴的特征有cute, good-natured, cooperative, share food readily等，這些分別與B、C、D選項符合。下一句話提到，最重要的是，"它們往往比雄性猴子更注重商品和服務的價值"，這才是最重要的原因。A選項中"weigh"這個詞的意思是"衡量"，該次是解題的關(guān)鍵，但是也可以通過排除其他三個選項得出正確答案。
[題目譯文]
母卷尾猴之所以被選為研究對象的最重要原因是它們
[A] 更會權(quán)衡它們得到的東西
[B] 認真聽研究人員的指揮
[C] 外表和性情都很好
[D] 比公卷尾猴更加大方
24. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys
[A] prefer grapes to cucumbers.
[B] can be taught to exchange things.
[C] will not be co-operative if feeling cheated.
[D] are unhappy when separated from others.
[答案] C
[解題思路]
本文的對應信息在文章的最后一段，"Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated"（這種合作只有在每只猴子感到自己沒有受到欺騙時才可能穩(wěn)定），也就是說如果它們感到自己受騙、就不會合作。A、B選項在文中都有提及，但不是研究成果。D選項的錯誤在于文中并沒有提到這一點。
[題目譯文]
Brosnan博士和de Waal博士最終在他們的研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)猴子
[A] 比起黃瓜更喜歡葡萄
[B] 能夠?qū)W會交換東西
[C] 如果感到受騙就會拒絕合作
[D] 在于其它猴子分開時就會不開心
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoeuml; Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush‘s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking， six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi）. The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world‘s five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).
Can this merely be coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school，teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row， and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough through them.
46. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAA A cars and Zodiac cars？
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality.
[B] A type of conspicuous bias.
[C] A type of personal prejudice.
[D] A kind of brand discrimination.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
AAAA和Zodiac汽車出租公司這個例子出現(xiàn)在文章的第二段，是說人們平時通過查電話號碼簿叫出租車的時候，名字以A開頭的公司比名字以Z開頭的公司遠遠要有優(yōu)勢，這就是第一段中提到的"discrimination of alphabetism"（字母表主義）。同時該段明確指出這種歧視一一直沒有受到人們的注意，也就是被忽視。因此本題題干的例子是用來解釋說明第一段提出的文章中心思想，因此正確答案為A，其中overlooked對應于第一段第三句的unaware of ， 而inequality對應于該段第一句的unfairness 和discrimination。B、C選項中bias, prejudice都是discrimination的同義詞，但conspicuous與原文正好相反，personal 也與原文不符合。D選項brand（商標）也沒有在文中提到。本題的關(guān)鍵是抓住區(qū)分幾個修飾詞的含義。
[題目譯文]
作者用AAAA和Zodiac汽車出租公司的例子是想要說明什么？
[A] 一種被忽視的不平等
[B] 一種明顯的歧視
[C] 一種個人偏見
[D] 一種品牌偏見
50. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.
[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.
[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.
[答案] D
[解題思路]
判斷這種正誤題需要與原文逐項對應信息。A選項ill-treated（受虐待）不符合原文，文章只談及歧視，但人們并無受虐待，因此A選項錯誤。B選項的主語VIP指的是所有的大人物，但文章中雖舉例說一部分大人物姓名排在字母表的前一半，卻并沒有如此絕對的表述，因此B選項錯誤。C選項在文中并沒有提及。D選項總結(jié)了全文的觀點，是正確選項，說明按字母排序這種看似公平的方法實際上卻導致了無意（unintentional）的歧視。
[題目譯文]
下面哪項符合文意？
[A] 那些姓氏以N-Z字母靠頭的人們經(jīng)常受到不好的待遇。
[B] 西方國家中的一些重要人物從字母排序主義中獲益頗多
[C] 消除字母排序主義的運動還有很長的路要走
[D] 按照字母排序可能在無意中造成了偏見。 2004年Text 3
When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn’t cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she’d like to. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I’m a good economic indicator," she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they’re concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at a middle-brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don’t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too." she says.
Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening.
Consumers say they’re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there’s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses," says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Deadly, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.
Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn’t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan’s hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.
54. Why can many people see "silver linings" to the economic slowdown?
[A] They would benefit in certain ways.
[B] The stock market shows signs of recovery.
[C] Such a slowdown usually precedes a boom.
[D] The purchasing power would be enhanced.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
做本題的關(guān)鍵不在于了解"silver linings"這個詞組的含義，而在于準確定位對應信息，即文章的最后一段。縱觀該段，主要談論的內(nèi)容是經(jīng)濟不景氣帶來的一些好處，如利率降低有利于購房、高級餐廳的價格降低等，四個選項中只有A選項符合最后一段的意思。"silver linings"這個詞組的含義也正是"黑暗中的一線希望"。B選項雖然在原文中有所提及，但這與目前的經(jīng)濟形勢無關(guān)。C、D選項在文中沒有提及，考生不要盲目地用自己的經(jīng)濟知識去判斷，而要緊緊圍繞原文。
[題目譯文]
為什么很多人從經(jīng)濟減速中看到了希望？
[A] 他們會以一些方式獲益。
[B] 股票市場顯出了復蘇跡象。
[C] 這種經(jīng)濟減速通常是經(jīng)濟繁榮的前兆。
[D] 購買力會得到加強 2004年Text 4
Americans today don‘t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance." Razitch‘s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society."
"Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized--going to school and learning to read--so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country‘s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."
56. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
[A] The habit of thinking independently.
[B] Profound knowledge of the world.
[C] Practical abilities for future career.
[D] The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
[答案] C
[解題思路]
本題的對應信息為文章第一段第三句話"Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge"（學校也只不過是我們把孩子送去獲得實用教育--而不是為了知識而追求知識的地方），因此C選項與此正好吻合，而其他三項看似有道理，卻與文章的內(nèi)容沒有關(guān)系。
[題目譯文]
美國的父母們希望他們的孩子在學校里學到什么？
[A] 獨立思考的習慣
[B] 關(guān)于世界的深入知識
[C] 未來職業(yè)的使用技能
[D] 追求知識的信心
59. Emerson, according to the text, is probably
[A] a pioneer of education reform.
[B] an opponent of intellectualism.
[C] a scholar in favor of intellect.
[D] an advocate of regular schooling.
[答案] B
[解題思路]
第五段第一句話指出"Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children"（愛默生和其他一些超自然主義哲學家認為學校教育和高強度的書本學習會使孩子受到不自然的限），這說明愛默生反對學校進行智力和知識教育，因此答案顯然是B。C選項與B選項的意思相反，是錯誤答案。D選項中regular schooling屬無中生有，原文并沒有提及。A選項也與文章無關(guān)。
[題目譯文]
根據(jù)文章，愛默生可能是 。
[A] 教育改革的先驅(qū)
[B] 知識主義的反對者
[C] 熱愛知識的學者
[D] 常規(guī)教育的倡導者 2005年Text 1
Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human", with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.
The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys, which have all the necessary ingredients to capture the public imagination. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their finicky female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males (although why this is so remains a mystery).
Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr Brosnan’s and Dr de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to swap pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.
In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (in the absence of an actual monkey able to eat it) was enough to induce sullen behaviour in a female capuchin.
Dr Brosnan and Dr de Waal report that such behaviour is unusual in their trained monkeys. During two years of bartering prior to these experiments, failure to exchange tokens for food occurred in fewer than 5% of trials. And what made the behaviour even more extraordinary was that these monkeys forfeited food that they could see-and which they would have readily accepted in almost any other set of circumstances.
The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35m years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.
23. Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are ，考試大
[A] more inclined to weigh what they get.
[B] attentive to researchers’ instructions.
[C] nice in both appearance and temperament.
[D] more generous than their male companions.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
本文的對應信息在文章的第二段。第二段中先談到了母卷尾猴的特征有cute, good-natured, cooperative, share food readily等，這些分別與B、C、D選項符合。下一句話提到，最重要的是，"它們往往比雄性猴子更注重商品和服務的價值"，這才是最重要的原因。A選項中"weigh"這個詞的意思是"衡量"，該次是解題的關(guān)鍵，但是也可以通過排除其他三個選項得出正確答案。
[題目譯文]
母卷尾猴之所以被選為研究對象的最重要原因是它們
[A] 更會權(quán)衡它們得到的東西
[B] 認真聽研究人員的指揮
[C] 外表和性情都很好
[D] 比公卷尾猴更加大方
24. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys
[A] prefer grapes to cucumbers.
[B] can be taught to exchange things.
[C] will not be co-operative if feeling cheated.
[D] are unhappy when separated from others.
[答案] C
[解題思路]
本文的對應信息在文章的最后一段，"Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated"（這種合作只有在每只猴子感到自己沒有受到欺騙時才可能穩(wěn)定），也就是說如果它們感到自己受騙、就不會合作。A、B選項在文中都有提及，但不是研究成果。D選項的錯誤在于文中并沒有提到這一點。
[題目譯文]
Brosnan博士和de Waal博士最終在他們的研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)猴子
[A] 比起黃瓜更喜歡葡萄
[B] 能夠?qū)W會交換東西
[C] 如果感到受騙就會拒絕合作
[D] 在于其它猴子分開時就會不開心