大学英语六级考试阅读理解练习题(5)

　　33. The word dubious most probably means

　　A) valuable

　　B) useful

　　C) doubtful

　　D) helpful

　　注：烂的，没意义的

　　Yet you will fine little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist s trade or bookkeeping . Every one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.

　　24. The word hassles in the passage probably means _____.

　　quarrels

　　worries

　　disadvantages

　　agreements

　　注：不平衡的行为

　　Living at home, says Knighton, a school teacher, continues to give her security and moral support. Her mother agreed, Its ridiculous for the kids to pay all that money for rent. It makes sense for kids to stay at home. But sharing the family home requires adjustments for all. There are the hassles over bathrooms, telephones and privacy . Some families, however, manage the delicate balancing act. But for others, it proves too difficult. Michelle Del Turco, 24, has been home three times-and left three times. What I considered a social drink, my dad considered an alcohol problem, she explains. He never liked anyone I dated , so I either had to hide away or meet them at friends house.

　　34. The word subjects refers to _____.

　　the performance tests used in the study of sleep deficit

　　special branches of knowledge that are being studied

　　people whose behavior or reactions are being studied

　　the psychological consequences of sleep deficit

　　注：做算术题和背文章指人

　　To determine the consequences of sleep deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier. Weve found that if youre in sleep deficit, performance suffers, says Dr. David. Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate.

　　37. To live a completely sedentary life-style in the passage means _____.

　　to live a decent life

　　to live an inactive life

　　to live a life of vice

　　to live a life with complete freedom

　　The concept of personal choice in relation to health behaviors is an important one. An estimated 90 percent of all illness may be preventable if individuals would make sound personal health choices based upon current medical knowledge. We all enjoy our freedom of choice and do not like to see it restricted when it is within the legal and moral boundaries of society. The structure of American society allows us to make almost all our own personal decisions that may concern our health. If we so desire, we can smoke, drink excessively, refuse to wear seat belts, eat whatever food we want, and live a completely sedentary life-style without any exercise. The freedom to make such personal decisions is a fundamental aspect of our society, although the wisdom of these decisions can be questioned. Personal choices relative to health often cause a difficulty. As one example, a teenager may know the facts relative to smoking cigarettes and health but may be pressured by friends into believing it is the socially accepted thing to do.

　　24. The word dormant most probably means _____.

　　inactive

　　strong

　　alert

　　soft

　　If sufficient rain falls the next year to form another lake, the eggs hatch, and once again the shrimps pass rapidly through their cycle of growth, adulthood, egg-laying, and death. Some years there is insufficient rain to form a lake: in this case, the eggs will remain dormant for another years, or even longer if necessary. Very, very occasionally, perhaps twice in a hundred years, sufficient rain falls to form a deep lake that lasts a month or more. In this case, the species passes through two cycles of growth, egg-laying, and death. Thus, on such occasions, the species multiplies considerably, which further ensures its survival.

　　33. From the context, the word disconcerting most probably means _____.

　　misleading

　　embarrassing

　　stimulating a goal wit

　　upsetting

　　注：焦虑anxiety

　　To some, the thought of having to write an assigned number of pages, often more than ever produced before, is disconcerting. To others, the very idea of having to work independently is threatening. But there is no need to approach the research paper assignment with anxiety, and nobody should view the research paper as an obstacle to overcome. Instead, consider it a goal to accomplish, a goal within reach if you use the help this book can give you.

　　21. The word pinpoint basically means _______.

　　A) appreciate

　　B) obtain

　　C) interpret

　　D) identify

　　The process of perceiving other people is rarely translated into cold, objective terms. She was 5 feet 8 inches tall, had had fair hair, and wore a colored skirt. More often, we try to get inside the other person to pinpoint his or her attitudes, emotions, motivations, abilities, ideas and characters. Furthermore, we sometimes behave as if we can accomplish this difficult job very quickly -perhaps with a two-second glance.

　　31. The word paradox means _________ .

　　A) implication

　　B) contradiction

　　C) interpretation

　　D) confusion

　　It is a curious paradox that we think of the physical sciences as hard, the social sciences as soft, and the biological sciences as somewhere in between, This is interpreted to mean that our knowledge of physical systems is more certain than our knowledge of biological systems, and these in turn are more certain than our knowledge of social system. In terms of our capacity to sample the relevant universes, however, and the probability that our images of these universes are at least approximately correct, one suspects that a reverse order is more reasonable. We are able to sample earth s social systems with some degree of confidence that we have a reasonable sample of the total universe being investigated. Our knowledge of mal systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries. Even the folk knowledge in social systems on which ordinary life is based in earning, spending, organizing, marrying, taking part in political activities, fighting and so on, is not very dissimilar from the more sophisticated images of the social system derived from the social sciences, even though it is built upon the very imperfect samples of personal experience.

　　26. The word liability most probably means ______.

　　A) misfortune

　　B) instability

　　C) disadvantage

　　D) burden

　　Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive circle, beauty can become a liability.

　　28. The phrase function in the disservice of one another most probably means _______.

　　A) betray each other

　　B) harm one another

　　C) help to collaborate with each other

　　D) benefit on another

　　The question of whether war is inevitable is one which has concerned many of the worlds great writers. Before considering this question, it will useful to introduce some related concepts. Conflict, defined as opposition among social entities directed against one another is distinguished from competition, defined as opposition among social entities independently striving for some thing which is in inadequate supply. Competitors may not be aware of one another, while the parties to a conflict are. Conflict and vice of one another. Opposition is thus contrasted with cooperation, the process by which social entities function in the service of one another. These definitions are necessary because it is important to emphasize that competition between individuals or groups is inevitable in a world of limited resources, but conflict is not. Conflict, nevertheless, is very likely to occur, and is probably an essential and desirable element of human societies.

　　33. The word precedent probably refers to __________.

　　A) early acts for men to follow as examples

　　B) particular places for men to occupy especially because of their importance

　　C) things that men should agree upon

　　D) mens beliefs that everything in the world has already been decided

　　In the workplace, men have long had well defined precedents and role models for achieving success. It has been otherwise for women. A good many women in the business world are uncertain about the appropriate mixture of masculine an d feminine attributes they should convey by their professional clothing. The variety of clothing alternatives to women has also been greater than that avail able for men. Male administrators tend to judge women more favorably for managerial positions when the women display less feminine grooming-shorter hair, moderate use of make up, and plain tailored clothing. As one male administrator confessed, An attractive woman is definitely going to get a longer interview, but she wont get a job.

　　29. The word carcass most probably means__________ .

　　A) vegetables preserved for future use

　　B) the dead body of an animal ready to be cut into meat

　　C) expensive food that consumers can hardly afford

　　D) meat canned for future consumption

　　This means one has to feed approximately 9--10 times as much food value to the animal than one can consume from the carcass. As a system for feeding the hungry, the effects can prove disastrous. At times of crisis, grain is the food of life.

　　31. The phrase emanate fromin Paragraph 1 most probably means ______.

　　A) thrive on

　　B) account for

　　C) originate from

　　D) descend from

　　We all have offensive breath at one time or another. In most cases, offensive breath emanates from bacteria in the mouth, although there are other more causes. Until a few years ago, the most doctors could do was to counsel patients with bad breath about oral cleanliness. Now they are finding new ways to treat the usually curable condition.