2014年职称英语考试-阅读理解强化习题(15)

　　Spacing in Animals

　　Flight Distance

　　Any observant person has noticed that a wild animal will allow a man or other potential enemy to approach only up to a given distance before it flees. Flight distance is the terms used for this interspecies spacing. As a general rule, there is a positive relationship between the size of an animal and its flight distancethe larger the animal, the greater the distance it must keep between itself and the enemy. An antelope will flee when the enemy is as much as five hundred yards away. The wall lizards flight distance, on the other hand is about six feet. Flight is the basic means of survival for mobile creatures.

　　Critical Distance

　　Critical distance apparently is present wherever and whenever there is a flight reaction. Critical distance includes the narrow zone separating flight distance from attack distance. A lion in a zoo will flee from an approaching man until it meets a barrier that it cannot overcome. If the man continues the approach, he soon penetrates the lions critical distance, at which point the cornered lion reverses direction and begins slowly to stalk the man.

　　Social Distance

　　Social animals need to stay in touch with each other. Loss of contact with the group can be fatal for a variety of reasons including exposure to enemies. Social distance is not simply the distance at which an animal will lose contact with his groupthat is, the distance at which it can no longer see, hear, or smell the groupit is rather a psychological distance, one at which the animal apparently begins to feel anxious when he exceeds its limits. We can think of it as a hidden band that contains the group.

　　Social distance varies from species to species. It is quite shortapparently only a few yardsamong some animals, and quite long among others.

　　Social distance is not always rigidly fixed but is determined in part by the situation. When the young of apes and humans are mobile but not yet under control of the mothers voice, social distance may be the length of her reach. This is readily observed among the baboons in a zoo. When the baby approaches a certain point, the mother reaches out to seize the end of its tail and pull it back to her. When added control is needed because of danger, social distance shrinks. To show this in man, one has only to watch a family with a number of small children holding hands as they cross a busy street.

　　1. Which of the following is the most appropriate definition of Flight Distance?

　　A. Distance between animals of the same species before fleeing.

　　B. Distance between large and small animals before fleeing.

　　C. Distance between an animal and its enemy before fleeing.

　　D. Distance between certain animal species before fleeing.

　　2. If an animals critical distance is penetrated, it will

　　A. begin to attack.

　　B. try to hide.

　　C. begin to jump.

　　D. run away.

　　3. According to the passage, social distance refers to

　　A. physical distance

　　B. psychological distance.

　　C. physiological distance.

　　D. philosophical distance.

　　4. Which of the following could best replace the word band in We can think of it as a hidden band that contains the group ?

　　A. Strip of land

　　B. Distance

　　C. Society

　　D. Community

　　5. The example of the children holding hands when crossing the street in the last paragraph shows that

　　A. social distance is not always needed.

　　B. there is no social distance among small children.

　　C. humans are different from animals in social distance.

　　D. social distance is sometimes determined by outside factors.

　　Some Things We Know about Language

　　Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some things we do know.

　　First, we know that all human beings have a language of some sort. There is no race of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one another. Furthermore, in historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language.

　　Second, there is no such thing as a primitive language. There are many people whose cultures are undeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized, but the languages they speak are not primitive. In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing.

　　This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated. Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate. Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises. Study has proved this to be nonsense. There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old. They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive than English and Greek.

　　Finally, we know that language changes. It is natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones. This is easy to understand if we look backward in time. Change goes on in all aspects of language. Grammatical features change as do speech sounds, and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly. Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language.

　　1. In the second paragraph the author thinks that

　　A. some backward race doesnt have a language of its own.

　　B. some race in history didnt possess a language of its own.

　　C. any human race, whether backward or not, has a language.

　　D. some races on earth can communicate without language.

　　2. According to the author, people of undeveloped cultures can have ___________ language.

　　A. complicated

　　B. uncivilized

　　C. primitive

　　D. well-known

　　3. The author has used American Indian languages as an example to show that they are

　　A. just as old as some well-known languages.

　　B. just as advanced as some well-known languages.

　　C. more developed than some well-known languages.

　　D. more complex than some well-known languages.

　　4. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

　　A. Language is a means of expressing a particular culture.

　　B. All languages can well express their respective cultures.

　　C. Some primitive languages can also express their cultures.

　　D. Some primitive languages are better than other languages.

　　5. According to he author language changes are most likely to occur in

　　A. grammar

　　B. pronunciation.

　　C. vocabulary

　　D. intonation.