GRE阅读练习每日一篇(二十五)

　　编辑点评： GRE阅读的方法相信大家已经积累了很多了，本文就为大家提供一些GRE阅读的材料，大家来练一练，把平时学到的东西运用到实际中，也多多积累词汇和句子，提高自己的阅读能力。

　　每天做一些标准的GRE阅读练习，有助于大家在GRE考试的复习过程中不断地进行练习和总结。希望大家在进行GRE阅读练习时，充分运用平时所积累的知识，这样才能有效果。

　　A mysterious phenomenon is the ability of over-water migrants to travel on course. Birds, bees, and other species can keep track of time without any sensory cues from the outside world, and such biological clocks clearly contribute to their compass sense. For example, they can use the position of the Sun or stars, along with the time of day , to find north. But compass sense alone cannot explain how birds navigate the ocean: after a flock traveling east is blown far south by a storm, it will assume the proper northeasterly course to compensate. Perhaps, some scientists thought, migrants determine their geographic position on Earth by celestial navigation, almost as human navigators use stars and planets, but this would demand of the animals a fantastic map sense. Researchers now know that some species have a magnetic sense, which might allow migrants to determine their geographic location by detecting variations in the strength of the Earth s magnetic field.

　　17. The main idea of the passage is that

　　migration over land requires a simpler explanation than migration over water does

　　the means by which animals migrate over water are complex and only partly understood

　　the ability of migrant animals to keep track of time is related to their magnetic sense

　　knowledge of geographic location is essential to migrants with little or no compass sense

　　explanations of how animals migrate tend to replace, rather than build on, one another

　　18. It can be inferred from the passage that if the flock of birds described in lines 8-12 were navigating by compass sense alone, they would, after the storm, fly

　　east

　　north

　　northwest

　　south

　　southeast

　　19. In maintaining that migrating animals would need a fantastic map sense to determine their geographic position by celestial navigation, the author intends to express

　　admiration for the ability of the migrants

　　skepticism about celestial navigation as an explanation

　　certainly that the phenomenon of migration will remain mysterious

　　interest in a new method of accounting for over-water migration

　　surprise that animals apparently navigate in much the same way that human beings do

　　20. Of the following descriptions of migrating animals, which most strongly suggests that the animals are depending on magnetic cues to orient themselves?

　　Pigeons can properly readjust their course even when flying long distances through exceedingly dense fogs.

　　Bison are able to reach their destination by passing through a landscape that has been partially altered by a recent fire.

　　Elephants are able to find grounds that some members of the herd have never seen before.

　　Swallows are able to return to a given spot at the same time every year.

　　Monarch butterflies coming from different parts of North America are able to arrive at the same location each winter.

　　Roger Rosenblatt s book Black Fiction, in attempting to apply literary rather than sociopolitical criteria to its subject, successfully alters the approach taken by most previous studies. As Rosenblatt notes, criticism of Black writing has often served as a pretext for expounding on Black history. Addison Gayle s recent work, for example, judges the value of Black fiction by overtly political standards, rating each work according to the notions of Black identity which it propounds.

　　Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstances, its authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological, and talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology circumvents much of the fictional enterprise. Rosenblatt s literary analysis discloses affinities and connections among works of Black fiction which solely political studies have overlooked or ignored.

　　Writing acceptable criticism of Black fiction, however, presupposes giving satisfactory answers to a number of questions. First of all, is there a sufficient reason, other than the racial identity of the authors, to group together works by Black authors? Second, how does Black fiction make itself distinct from other modern fiction with which it is largely contemporaneous? Rosenblatt shows that Black fiction constitutes a distinct body of writing that has an identifiable, coherent literary tradition. Looking at novels written by Blacks over the last eighty years, he discovers recurring concerns and designs independent of chronology. These structures are thematic, and they spring, not surprisingly, from the central fact that the Black characters in these novels exist in a predominantly White culture, whether they try to conform to that culture of rebel against it.

　　Black Fiction does leave some aesthetic questions open. Rosenblatt s thematic analysis permits considerable objectivity; he even explicitly states that it is not his intention to judge the merit of the various works yet his reluctance seems misplaced, especially since an attempt to appraise might have led to interesting results. For instance, some of the novels appear to be structurally diffuse. Is this a defect, or are the authors working out of, or trying to forge, a different kind of aesthetic? In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomer s Cane, verges on 接近于v.接近, 近乎) expressionism or surrealism; does this technique provide a counterpoint to the prevalent theme that portrays the fate against which Black heroes are pitted, a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression?

　　In spite of such omissions, what Rosenblatt does include in his discussion makes for an astute and worthwhile study. Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of novels, bringing to our attention in the process some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon Johnson s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Its argument is tightly constructed, and its forthright, lucid style exemplifies levelheaded and penetrating criticism.

　　21. The author of the passage objects to criticism of Black fiction like that by Addison Gayle because it

　　emphasizes purely literary aspects of such fiction

　　misinterprets the ideological content of such fiction

　　misunderstands the notions of Black identity contained in such fiction

　　substitutes political for literary criteria in evaluating such fiction

　　ignores the interplay between Black history and Black identity displayed in such fiction

　　22. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

　　evaluating the soundness of a work of criticism

　　comparing various critical approaches to a subject

　　discussing the limitations of a particular kind of criticism

　　summarizing the major points made in a work of criticism

　　explaining the theoretical background of a certain kind of criticism

　　23. The author of the passage believes that Black Fiction would have been improved had Rosenblatt

　　evaluated more carefully the ideological and historical aspects of Black fiction

　　attempted to be more objective in his approach to novels and stories by Black authors

　　explored in greater detail the recurrent thematic concerns of Black fiction throughout its history

　　established a basis for placing Black fiction within its own unique literary tradition

　　assessed the relative literary merit of the novels he analyzes thematically

　　24. The author s discussion of Black Fiction can be best described as

　　pedantic and contentious

　　critical but admiring

　　ironic and deprecating

　　argumentative but unfocused

　　stilted and insincere

　　25. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would be LEAST likely to approve of which of the following?

　　An analysis of the influence of political events on the personal ideology of Black writes

　　A critical study that applies sociopolitical criteria to autobiographies by Black authors

　　A literary study of Black poetry that appraises the merits of poems according to the political acceptability of their themes

　　An examination of the growth of a distinct Black literary tradition within the context of Black history

　　A literary study that attempts to isolate aesthetic qualities unique to Black fiction

　　26. The author of the passage uses all of the following in the discussion of Rosenblatt s book EXCEPT

　　rhetorical questions

　　specific examples

　　comparison and contrast

　　definition of terms

　　personal opinion

　　27. The author of the passage refers to James Weldon Johnson s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man most probably in order to

　　point out affinities between Rosenblatt s method of thematic analysis and earlier criticism

　　clarify the point about expressionistic style made earlier in the passage

　　qualify the assessment of Rosenblatt s book made in the first paragraph of the passage

　　illustrate the affinities among Black novels disclosed by Rosenblatt s literary analysis

　　give a specific example of one of the accomplishments of Rosenblatt s work

　　答案：17-27：BABADAEBCDE