英语六级阅读专项王长喜六级考试的标准阅读8

　　第二十九篇

　　Drunken drivingsometimes called Americas socially accepted form of murderhas become a national epidemic. Every hour of every day about three Americans on average are killed by drunken drivers， adding up to an incredible 250，000 over the past decade.

　　A drunken driver is usually defined as one with a 0.10 blood alcohol content or roughly three beers， glasses of wine or shots of whisky drunk within two hours. Heavy drinking used to be an acceptable part of the American macho image and judges were lenient in most courts， but the drunken slaughter has recently caused so many well-publicized tragedies， especially involving young children， that public opinion is no longer so tolerant.

　　Twenty states have raised the legal drinking age to 21， reversing a trend in the 1960s to reduce it to 18. After New Jersey lowered it to 18， the number of people killed by 18-20-year-old drivers more than doubled， so the state recently upped it back to 21.

　　Reformers， however， fear raising the drinking age will have little effect unless accompanied by educational programs to help young people to develop responsible attitudes about drinking and teach them to resist peer pressure to drink.

　　Though new laws have led to increased arrests and tests and， in many areas already， to a marked decline in fatalities. Some states are also penalizing bars for serving customers too many drinks. A tavern in Massachusetts was fined for serving six or more double brandies to a customer who obviously intoxicated and later drove off the road， killing a nine-year-old boy.

　　As the fatalities continue to occur daily in every state， some Americans are even beginning to speak well of the 13 years of national prohibition of alcohol that began in 1919， what President Hoover called the noble experiment. They forgot that legal prohibition didnt stop drinking， but encouraged political corruption and organized crime. As with the booming drug trade generally， there is no easy solution.

　　1.Drunken driving had become a major problem in America because ___.

　　A.most Americans are heavy drinkers.

　　B.Americans are now less shocked by road accidents.

　　C.accidents attract so much publicity.

　　D.drinking is a socially accepted habit in America.

　　2.Why has public opinion regarding drunken driving changed?

　　A.Because detailed statistics are now available.

　　B.Because the news media have highlighted the problem.

　　C.Because judges are giving more severe sentences.

　　D.Because drivers are more conscious of their image.

　　3.Statistics issued in New Jersey suggested that ___.

　　A.many drivers were not of legal age.

　　B.young drivers were often bad drivers.

　　C.the level of drinking increased in the 1960s.

　　D.the legal drinking age should be raised.

　　4.Laws recently introduced in some states have ___.

　　A.reduced the number of convictions.

　　B.resulted in fewer serious accidents.

　　C.prevented bars from serving drunken customers.

　　D.specified the amount drivers can drink.

　　5.Why is the problem of drinking and driving difficult to solve?

　　A.Because alcohol is easily obtained.

　　B.Because drinking is linked to organized crime.

　　C.Because legal prohibition has already failed.

　　D.Because legislation alone is not sufficient.

　　答案：DBDBD

　　1

　　第三十篇

　　Fresh water life itself， has never come easy in the Middle East. Ever since the Old Testament(旧约圣经) God punished man with 40 days and 40 nights of rain， water supplies here have been dwindling. The rainfall only comes in winter， Inshallah Good willing and drains quickly through the semiarid land， leaving the soil to bake and to thirst for next November.

　　The regions accelerating population， expanding agriculture， industrialization， and higher living standards demand more fresh water. Drought and pollution limit its availability. War and mismanagement squander it. Says Joyce Starr of the Global Water Summit Initiative， based in Washington， D.C. Nations like Israel and Jordan are swiftly sliding into that zone where they are suing all the water resources available to them. They have only 15 to 20 years left before their agriculture， and ultimately their food security， is threatened.

　　I came here to examine this crisis in the making， to investigate fears that water wars are imminent， that water has replaced oil as the regions most contentious commodity. For more than two months I traveled through three river valleys and seven nations from southern Turkey down the Euphrates River Syria， Iraq， and on to Kuwait; to Israel and Jordan， neighbors across the valley of the Jordan; to the timeless Egyptian Nile.

　　Even amid the scarcity there are haves and have notes. Compared with the United States， which in 1990 had a freshwater potential of 10000 cubic meters(2.6 million galloons) a year for each citizen， Iraq had 5 500， Turkey had 4 000， and Syria had more than 2 800. Egypts potential was only 1 100. Israel had 460， Jordan a meager 260. But these are not firm figures， because upstream use of river water can dramatically alter the potential downstream.

　　Scarcity is only one element of the crisis. Inefficiency is another， as is the reluctance of some water poor nations to change priorities from agriculture to less water intensive enterprises. Some experts suggest that if nations would share both water technology and resources， they could satisfy the regions population， currently 159 million. But in this patchwork of ethnic and religious rivalries， water seldom stands alone as an issue. It is entangled in the politics that keep people from trusting and seeking help from one another. Here， where water， like truth， is precious， each nation tends to find its own water and supply its own truth.

　　As Israeli hydrology professor Uri Shamir told me ： If there is political will for peace， water will not be a hindrance. If you want reasons to fight， water will not e a hindrance. If you want reasons to fight， water will give you ample opportunities.

　　1.Why for next November (para.1)? Because________.

　　A.according to the Ole Testament fresh water is available only in November

　　B.rainfall comes only in winter starting form November

　　C.running water systems will not be ready until next November

　　D.it is a custom in that region that irrigation to crops is done only in November

　　2.What is the cause for the imminent water war?

　　A.Lack of water resources B.Lack of rainfall

　　C.Inefficient use of water D.All the above

　　3.One way for the region to use water efficiently is to _______

　　A.develop other enterprises that cost less water

　　B.draw a plan of irrigation for the various nations

　　C.import water from water rich nations

　　D.stop wars of any sort for good and all

　　4.Uri Shamirs viewpoint is that ________.

　　A.nations in that region are just fighting for water

　　B.people there are thirsty for peace instead of water

　　C.water is no problem as long as there is peace

　　D.those nations have every reason to fight for water

　　5.The authors tone in the article can be described as ______-.

　　A.depressing B.urgent C.joking D.mocking

　　答案：BDACB

　　2

　　第三十一篇

　　The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from the parents during the sensitive attachment period from birth to three may scar a childs personality and predispose to emotional problems in later life. Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlbys work that children should not be subjected to day care before the age of three because of the parental separation it entails， and many people do believe this. But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion.

　　Firstly， anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies. For example， we saw earlier that among the Ngoni the father and mother of a child did not rear their infant alonefar from it. Secondly， common sense tells us that day care would not so widespread today if parents， caretakers found children had problems with it. Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out， and even if they were， the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial. Thirdly， in the last decade， there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care， and they have uniformly reported that day care had a neutral or slightly positive effect on childrens development. But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue.

　　But Bowlbys analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to， say， more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics. Whatever the long-term effects， parents sometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with. Children under three are likely to protest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness. At the age of three or three and a half almost all children find the transition to nursery easy， and this is undoubtedly why more and more parents make use of child care at this time. The matter， then， is far from clear-cut， though experience and available evidence indicate that early care is reasonable for infants.

　　1.This passage primarily argues that ___.

　　A.infants under the age of three should not be sent to nursery schools.

　　B.whether children under the age of three should be sent to nursery schools.

　　C.there is not negative long-term effect on infants who are sent to school before they are three.

　　D.there is some negative effect on children when they are sent to school after the age of three.

　　2.The phrase predispose to (Para. 1， line 3) most probably means ___.

　　A.lead to

　　B.dispose to

　　C.get into

　　D.tend to suffer

　　3.According to Bowlbys analysis， it is quite possible that ___.

　　A.childrens personalities will be changed to some extent through separation from their parents.

　　B.early day care can delay the occurrence of mental illness in children.

　　C.children will be exposed to many negative effects from early day care later on.

　　D.some long-term effects can hardly be reduced from childrens development.

　　4.It is implied but not stated in the second paragraph that ___.

　　A.traditional societies separate the child from the parent at an early age.

　　B.Children in modern societies cause more troubles than those in traditional societies.

　　C.A child did not live together with his parents among the Ngoni.

　　D.Children in some societies did not have emotional problems when separated from the parents.

　　5.The writer concludes that ___.

　　A.it is difficult to make clear what is the right age for nursery school.

　　B.It is not settled now whether early care is reasonable for children.

　　C.It is not beneficial for children to be sent to nursery school.

　　D.It is reasonable to subject a child above three to nursery school.

　　答案：BDCAD

　　3

　　第三十二篇

　　The life story of the human species goes back a million years， and there is no doubt that man came only recently to the western hemisphere. None of the thousands of sites of aboriginal (土著的) habitation uncovered in North and South America has antiquity comparable to that of old World sites. Mans occupation of the New World may date several tens of thousands of years， but no one rationally argues that he has been here even 100，000 years.

　　Speculation as to how man found his way to America was lively at the outset， and the proposed routes boxed the compass. With one or two notable exceptions， however， students of American anthropology soon settled for the plausible idea that the first immigrants came b way of a land bridge that had connected the northeast comer of Asia to the northwest corner of North America across the Bering Strait. Mariners were able to supply the reassuring information that the strait is not only narrow it is 56 miles wide but also shallow， a lowering of the sea level there by 100 feet or so would transform the strait into an isthmus (地峡)。 With little eels in the way of evidence to sustain the Bering Strait land bridge， anthropologists (人类学家) embraced the idea that man walked dryshod (不湿鞋的) from Asia to America.

　　Toward the end of the last century， however， it became apparent that the Western Hemisphere was the New World not only for man but also for a host of animals and plants. Zoologists and botanists showed that numerous subjects of their respective kingdoms must have originated in Asia and spread to America. These findings were neither astonishing nor wholly unexpected. Such spread of populations is not to be envisioned as an exodus or mass migration， even in the case of animals. It is， rather， a spilling into new territory that accompanies increase in numbers， with movement in the direction of least population pressure and most favorable ecological conditions. But the immense traffic in plant and animals forms placed a heavy burden on the Bering Strait land bridge as the anthropologists ahead envisioned it. Whereas purposeful men could make their way across a narrow bridge， the slow diffusion of plant and animals would require an avenue as a continent and available for ages at a stretch.

　　1.The movement of plants and animals form Asia to America indicates ______.

　　A.that they could not have traveled across the Bering Strait

　　B.that Asia and the Western hemisphere were connected by a large land mass

　　C.that the Bering Sea was an isthmus at one time

　　D.that migration was in the one direction only

　　2.The author is refuting the notion that _____.

　　A.life arose in America independently of life in Europe

　　B.the first settlers in America came during the sixteenth century

　　C.a large continent once existed which has disappeared

　　D.man was a host to animals and plants

　　3.By using the words boxed the compass (in Line 7) the author implies that _____.

　　A.the migration of mankind was from West to East

　　B.the migration of mankind was from East to West

　　C.mankind traveled in all directions

　　D.mankind walked from Asia to America

　　4.One reason for the migration not mentioned by the author is _____.

　　A.overcrowding

　　B.favorable environmental conditions

　　C.famine

　　D.the existence of a land bridge

　　5.We may assume that in the paragraph that follows this passage the author argues about______.

　　A.the contributions of anthropologist

　　B.the contributions of zoologists and botanists

　　C.the contributions made by the American Indians

　　D.the existence of a large land mass between Asia and North America

　　答案：BCCCD