gre阅读练习每日一篇(十一)

　　掌握了gre阅读里的长难句，到了实战演习的时候了。gre阅读练习每日一篇帮助gre考生循序渐进地进行练习和总结。希望gre考生在进行gre阅读练习时，也按着考试时候的时间规定自己的练习，这样才能有效果。

　　Although pathogenic organisms constantly alight on the skin, they find it a very unfavorable environment and, in the absence of injury, have great difficulty colonizing it. This self-sterilizing capacity of the skin results from the tendency of all well-developed ecosystems toward homeostasis, or the maintenance of the status quo.

　　Species that typically live in soil, water, and elsewhere rarely multiply on the skin. Undamaged skin is also unfavorable to most human pathogens. The skin is too acid and too arid for some species. The constant shedding of the surface skin layers further hinders the establishment of invaders. The most interesting defense mechanism, however, results from the metabolic activities of the resident flora . Unsaturated fatty acids, an important component of the lipids in sebum collected from the skin surface, inhibit the growth of several bacterial and fungal cutaneous pathogens. These acids are a metabolic product of certain gram-positive members of the cutaneous community, which break down the more complex lipids in freshly secreted sebum.

　　17. The primary purpose of the passage is to

　　 offer an analysis of metabolic processes

　　 detail the ways in which bacteria and fungi can be inhibited

　　 describe mechanisms by which the skin protects itself against pathogens

　　 analyze the methods whereby biological systems maintain the status quo

　　 provide a specific example of the skins basic defenses against pathogens

　　18. The resident flora mentioned in line 16 refer to

　　 Unsaturated fatty acids

　　 sebum collected from the skin surface

　　 bacterial and fungal cutaneous pathogens

　　 certain gram-positive members of the cutaneous community

　　 more complex lipids

　　19. Among the natural defenses of the skin against pathogenic organisms are all of the following EXCEPT the

　　 dryness of the skin

　　 acidity of the skin

　　 tendency of the pathogens toward homeostasis

　　 shedding of surface layers of the skin

　　 metabolic breakdown of lipids

　　20. The author presents her material in which of the following ways?

　　 Stating a problem and then supplying a solution

　　 Presenting a phenomenon and then analyzing reason for it

　　 Providing information and then drawing a conclusion from it

　　 Making a general statement and then arguing by analogy

　　 Making an inference and then developing it by illustration

　　Masterpieces are dumb, wrote Flaubert, They have a tranquil aspect like the very products of nature, like large animals and mountains. He might have been thinking of War and Peace, that vast, silent work, unfathomable and simple, provoking endless questions through the majesty of its being. Tolstois simplicity is overpowering , says the critic Bayley, disconcerting, because it comes from his casual assumption that the world is as he sees it. Like other nineteenth-century Russian writers he is impressive because he means what he says, but he stands apart from all others and from most Western writers in his identity with life, which is so complete as to make us forget he is an artist. He is the center of his work, but his egocentricity is of a special kind. Goethe, for example, says Bayley, cared for nothing but himself. Tolstoi was nothing but himself.

　　For all his varied modes of writing and the multiplicity of characters in his fiction, Tolstoi and his work are of a piece . The famous conversion of his middle years, movingly recounted in his Confession, was a culmination of his early spiritual life, not a departure from it. The apparently fundamental changes that led from epic narrative to dogmatic parable, from a joyous, buoyant attitude toward life to pessimism and cynicism, from War and Peace to The Kreutzer Sonata, came from the same restless, impressionable depths of an independent spirit yearning to get at the truth of its experience. Truth is my hero, wrote Tolstoi in his youth, reporting the fighting in Sebastopol. Truth remained his herohis own, not others, truth. Others were awed by Napoleon, believed that a single man could change the destinies of nations, adhered to meaningless rituals, formed their tastes on established canons of art. Tolstoi reversed all preconceptions; and in every reversal he overthrew the system, the machine, the externally ordained belief, the conventional behavior in favor of unsystematic, impulsive life, of inward motivation and the solutions of independent thought.

　　In his work the artificial and the genuine are always exhibited in dramatic opposition: the supposedly great Napoleon and the truly great, unregarded little Captain Tushin, or Nicholas Rostovs actual experience in battle and his later account of it. The simple is always pitted against the elaborate, knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Tolstois magical simplicity is a product of these tensions; his work is a record of the questions he put to himself and of the answers he found in his search. The greatest characters of his fiction exemplify this search, and their happiness depends on the measure of their answers. Tolstoi wanted happiness, but only hard-won happiness, that emotional fulfillment and intellectual clarity which could come only as the prize of all-consuming effort. He scorned lesser satisfactions.

　　21. Which of the following best characterizes the authors attitude toward Tolstoi?

　　 She deprecates the cynicism of his later works.

　　 She finds his theatricality artificial.

　　 She admires his wholehearted sincerity.

　　 She thinks his inconsistency disturbing.

　　 She respects his devotion to orthodoxy.

　　22. Which of the following best paraphrases Flauberts statement quoted in lines 1-4?

　　 Masterpiece seem ordinary and unremarkable from the perspective of a later age.

　　 Great works of art do not explain themselves to us any more than natural objects do.

　　 Important works of art take their place in the pageant of history because of their uniqueness.

　　 The most important aspects of good art are the orderliness and tranquility it reflects.

　　 Masterpieces which are of enduring value represent the forces of nature.

　　23. The author quotes from Bayley to show that

　　 although Tolstoi observes and interprets life, he maintains no self-conscious distance from his experience

　　 the realism of Tolstois work gives the illusion that his novels are reports of actual events

　　 unfortunately, Tolstoi is unaware of his own limitation, though he is sincere in his attempt to describe experience

　　 although Tolstoi works casually and makes unwarranted assumption, his work has an inexplicable appearance of truth

　　 Tolstois personal perspective makes his work almost unintelligible to the majority of his readers

　　24. The author states that Tolstois conversion represented

　　 a radical renunciation of the world

　　 the rejection of avant-garde ideas

　　 the natural outcome of his earlier beliefs

　　 the acceptance of religion he had earlier rejected

　　 a fundamental change in his writing style

　　25. According to the passage, Tolstois response to the accepted intellectual and artistic values of his times was to

　　 select the most valid from among them

　　 combine opposing viewpoints into a new doctrine

　　 reject the claims of religion in order to serve his art

　　 subvert them in order to defend a new political viewpoint

　　 upset them in order to be faithful to his experience

　　26. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true of War and Peace?

　　 It belongs to an early period of Tolstois work.

　　 It incorporates a polemic against the disorderliness of Russian life.

　　 It has a simple structural outline.

　　 It is a work that reflects an ironic view of life.

　　 It conforms to the standard of aesthetic refinement favored by Tolstois contemporaries.

　　27. According to the passage, the explanation of Tolstois magical simplicity lies partly in his

　　 remarkable power of observation and his facility in exact description

　　 persistent disregard for conventional restraints together with his great energy

　　 unusual ability to reduce the description of complex situations to a few words

　　 abiding hatred of religious doctrine and preference for new scientism

　　 continuing attempt to represent the natural in opposition to the pretentious

　　答案：17-27：CDCBCBACEAE