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单元自测题、参考答案及解析之三 |
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OKhere.net 你来我网-考研社区 作者： 2005-5-12 10:22:16 双博士 | |
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单元自测题五
Passage One
Bank of America,holding company for the San Francisco-based Bank of America,was once unchallenged as the nation ‘s biggest banking organization.At its peak,it had more branches in California-1,100-than the U.S.Postal Service.It was also a highly profitable enterprise.But since 1980,Bank of America’s earnings have been down or flat.From March 1985 to March 1986,for example,earnings per share dropped 50.8 percent.Samuel H.Armacost,president and CEO,has confessed that he doesn’t expect a turnaround soon.
Some of Bank of America’s old magic seems to have rubbed off on New York’s Citibank,perennial rival to top banking honors.Thanks to aggressive growth policies, Citiicorp’s assets topped Bank of America’s for the first time in 1983 and by a healthy margin.Citibank has also been generating profits at a fast clip,enabling it spend lavishly on campaigns to enter new markets-notably Bank of America’s turf in California.
The bad times Bank of America is currently facing are partly the result of the good times the bank enjoyed earlier.Based in a large and populous state and operating in a regulated environment,Bank of America thrived.Before deregulation,banks could not compete by offering savers a higher return,so they competed with convenience.With a branch at every crossroads,Bank of America was able to attract 40 percent of the California deposit market—a source of high earnings when the legal maximum plausible to depositors was much lower than the interest on loans.
The progressive deregulation of banking forced Bank of America to fight for its customers by offering them competitive rates.But how could this mammoth bureaucracy, with its expensive overhead,offer rates as attractive as its leaner competitors? Pruning the establishment was foremost in the minds of Bank of America policymakers.But cutbacks have proceeded slowly.Although the bank is planning to consolidate by offering full services only in key branches,so far only about 40 branches have been closed.Cutbacks layoffs,it seems,would not fit the tradition of the organization. And they would intensify the moral problems that already threaten the institution.
1.According to the passage,New York’s citibank.
A.is a dark horse in the field of banking
B.has been growing in a moderate way
C.has been making efforts to conquer the markets of Bank of America
D.has more branches than Bank of America now
2.Which of the following is not the reason for which Bank of America thriced?
A.Its turfcalifornia was a state with a large number of population.
B.The economic environment that was controlled by the government.
C.Its deposit rate was higher than other banks.
D.Its large amount of branches.
3.The underlined phrase“mammoth bureaucracy”refers to .
A.its expensive overhead
B.its large amount of branches
C.its long history
D.corruption of its leaders
4.Now the most important factor for a bank to win in competition seems to be.
A.higher deposit rate
B.flexibility of capital
C.high banking honors
D.support of the government
5.Which of the following conclusions we can’t draw from the passage?
A.The U.S.Postal service had less than 1100 branches in California a few decades before.
B.The benefit of Bank of America has been reducing since 1980.
C.The prospect of Bank of America is not quite favorable.
D.Moral problem is also a factor that leads to the decline of Bank of America.
Passage Two
Testing has replaced teaching in most public schools. My own children’s school week is framed by pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then skim the text for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to state proudly and openly that they teach to the mandated state test.
Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon. Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn them, and then using some sensible methods of assessment to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to reverse the process. First one looks at a commercially available test. Then one distills the skills needed not to master reading, saying, or math, but to do well in the test. Finally, the test skills are taught.
The ability to read or write or calculate might imply the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparation for a test of a skill with the acquisition of that skill. Too many discussions of basic skills make this fundamental confusion because people are testobsessed rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught.
Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple terms, the phenomenon of students with phonic and grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are competent at test taking and filling in workbooks and ditto masters. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can’t see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grades that they have no time or ease of mind to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary.
6. The author gives an account of Erica’s performance in her study in order to .
A． illustrate her cleverness in testtaking
B． reveal the incompetence of teachers
C． show there is something wrong with the current practice in teaching
D． demonstrate the best way to read textbooks
7. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. The phenomenon of teaching to the test has aroused curiosity in many educators.
B. Skills in general are not only useless but often lead students astray.
C. Ability to read and write is one thing, and ability to do well in standardized tests is quite another.
D. Preparation for test of a skill does not necessarily mean the acquisition of that skill.
8. The author insists that .
A. mandated state tests be replaced by some more sensible methods of assessment
B. teachers pay more attention to the nature and quality of what is taught
C. students not be concerned with grades but do more reading and thinking
D. radical changes be brought about in the general approach to teaching
9. We can safely conclude that may cause educational problems.
A. test obsession B. standardized tests
C. test-taking D. preparation for mandated state tests
10. By “crisis of comprehension” the author means many students .
A． are too much concerned with grades
B． fail to understand the real goal of education
C． lack proper practice in phonic and grammar drills
D． are unable to understand what they read, though they do reasonably well on standardized tests
Passage Three
The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, you'd expect greater understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other's countries at a moderate cost. What was once the “grand tour”, reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody's grasp. The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Modern travelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn't have dreamed of. But what's the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other?Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels, where he eats his international food and sips his international drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organizers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own; and anyway, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way. At its very worst, this leads to a new and hideous kind of colonization. The summer quarters of the inhabitants of the site universitaire are temporarily reestablished on the island of Corfu. Blackpool is recreated at Torremolinos where the traveler goes not to eat paella, but fish and chips.The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We don't see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are. You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned, these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. You come away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, “Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites” and that “Latin peoples shout a lot”. You only have to make a few foreign friends to understand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you?Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations stir up racial hatred and blind us to the basic fact-how trite it sounds! - that all people are human. We are all similar to each other and at the same time all unique.
11. The best title for this passage is
A tourism contributes nothing to increasing understanding between nations.
B tourism is tiresome.
C conducted tour is dull.
D tourism really does something to one's country.
12. What is the author's attitude toward tourism?
A apprehensive.
B negative.
C critical.
D appreciative.
13. Which word in the following is the best to summarize Latin people shout a lot?
A silent.
B noisy.
C lively.
D active.
14. The purpose of the author's criticism is to point out
A conducted tour is disappointing.
B the way of touring should be changed.
C when traveling, you notice characteristics which confirm preconception.
D national stereotypes should be changed.
15. What is “grand tour” now?
A moderate cost.
B local sight-seeing is investigated by the tourist organization.
C people enjoy the first-rate comforts.
D everybody can enjoy the “grand tour”.
Passage Four
Dieters in the United States spend as much per year on weight loss programs and products as the entire federal budget for education,training,employment,and social services.The obsession with thinness in many Western industrialized countries is no doubt related to the prevalence of two eating disorders:anorexia nervosa and bulimia.Both disorders tend to strike precisely those groups most affected by the cultural preoccupation with thinness;;they are most common in young,white females and are rarely reported outside the West,except in Japan.
In anorexia nervosa the individual refuses to eat,starving herselif until she is less than 85 percent of her ideal body weight.Anorexia is a life-threatening illness that can lead to permanent physiological changes(such as brittle bones)and death,usually through heart attack.Anorexias are frequently terrified of becoming fat and have a distorted image of their bodies as fat,even as they are wasting away.Along with starving themselves,anorexics often exercise excessively.The disorder is about 10 times more prevalent in women than in men,and it typically begins in adolescence or the early adult years.The causes of anorexia are still poorly understood,and the outcome of treatment ranges from complete cure to complete failure.
Anorexics are often bright,talented,perfectionistic,and preoccupied with feeling in control.Controlling food intake seems to be a way of maintaining control in general,particularly over impulses.Psychotherapists who work with anorexic females commonly report that a wish to becoming a physically mature women often underlies anorexicsymptoms.In this objective,anorexics are successful:Severely restricted food intake can stop the development of secondary sex characteristics such as breasts,halt menstruation,and make the body look like a little girl’s. By restricting food intake,anorexics may be triggering mechanisms that evolved to prevent pregnancy and perhaps to discourage sexual interest from males during famine,when food was scarce and reproduction was secondary to survival.
Bulimia is characterized by a binge-and -purge syndrome in which the person gorges on food (typically massive amounts of carbohydrates such as bags of Ores or potato chips )and then either induces vomiting or uses laxatives (purging).The typical result is a feeling of relief,but it is often accompanied by depression and a sense of being out of control.Like anorexia,bulimia is almost exclusively a female disorder,some 90 percent of reported cases are female.
16.The topic of the passage is.
A.weight and cultures
B.eating disorders
C.why some people easily get fat
D.weight and race
17.It can be inferred from the first paragraph that.
A.Japanese culture is not obsessed with being thin
B.American government spends a lot of money per year on weight-control programs
C.the concern over body weight is universal
D.American people are very concerned with their thinness
18.Anorexia is characterized by.
A.starvation
B.brittle bones
C.excessive exercise
D.both A and C
19.According to the third paragraph,women controls the intake of food in order to.
A.become a physically mature woman
B.prevent pregnancy
C.discourage male courtship
D.hait the development of breasts
20.According to the last paragraph,bulimia often comes along with.
A.a sense of control
B.permanent damage to the body
C.depression
D.satisfaction
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