全国2010年1月高等教育自学考试英语阅读(二)试题
课程代码:00596
请将答案填在答题纸相应位置上,全部题目用英文作答(翻译题除外)

I. Reading Comprehension. (50 points, 2 points for each)
Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet.
Passage One
Jim Trelease has devoted the past 16 years to promoting what he considers the best-kept secret in education today. "Most people don’t believe me when they first hear it," he says. "They dismiss it for three reasons: One, it’s simple. Two, it’s free. Three, the child enjoys it. So how good can it be?"
His audience tonight, mostly young parents and teachers gathered in the St. Helena, Calif., elementary-school auditorium, giggles nervously. "I know what you’re thinking," Trelease says. "There are only 24 hours in a day. It’s true. But who ever told you that parenting was going to be a time-saving activity?" Trelease continues to persuade them that no matter how busy they are, the foremost nurturing they can give a child, next to hugging him, is reading aloud to him.
He backs up his pitch with facts. Numerous studies, including recent reports by the Center for the Study of Reading and the National Council of Teachers of English, confirm that reading to children builds vocabulary, stimulates imagination, stretches the attention span, nourishes emotional development, and introduces the textures and nuances of the English language. Reading aloud is, in essence, an advertisement for learning to read.
Trelease laments that elementary-school students are too often conditioned to associate reading with work. "We have concentrated so hard on teaching children how to read that we have forgotten to teach them to want to read," he says.
His audience is surprised to hear that only 22 percent of eighth-graders read for fun daily, while 65 percent watch three hours or more of television each day. Research also indicates that average reading proficiency drops when TV viewing reaches about three hours a day. Their parents’ habits are no better: a recent survey shows a decline in newspaper readership among U.S. adults.
Lest there be any doubt about the stakes involved, Trelease makes a bold claim. Reading, he says, is the single most important social factor in American life today. "The more you read, the smarter you grow. The longer you stay in school, the more money you earn. The more you earn, the better your children will do in school. So if you hook a child with reading, you influence not only his future but also that of the next generation."
When his two children, Elizabeth and Jamie, were young, Trelease and his wife, Susan, fed them as many books as meals. "I read to my kids because my father had read to me," he says. "I just wanted them to have the good feelings I had had."
Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.
1. What does the word "dismiss" (paragraph 1) mean?
A. send away
B. ready to accept
C. approve of
D. refuse to consider
2. Trelease’s speech focuses on______.
A. how to teach reading
B. the importance of reading
C. why children read less
D. the proper amount of reading
3. According to Trelease, what is missing in the practice of teaching reading in today’s elementary schools?
A. Teaching reading skills.
B. Cooperating with parents.
C. Making children want to read.
D. Providing good reading materials.
4. The audience is surprised by Trelease’s talk in that ______.
A. the majority of eighth-graders watch 3 hours TV daily
B. reading proficiency is mainly influenced by TV viewing
C. children tend to copy their parents’ bad habits
D. few adults read any newspapers nowadays
5. What does Trelease think of reading?
A. It is difficult but very important.
B. It can help improve other skills.
C. It is the key to success in society.
D. It should be taught by parents.
Passage Two
Questions arise after the vote of the environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes - chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The committee would bind Spain to the principles of the Great Ape Project, which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future. The project’s directors, Peter Singer, the Princeton ethicist, and Paola Cavalieri, an Italian philosopher, regard apes as part of a "community of equals" with humans.
If the bill passes - the news agency Reuters predicts it will - it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes except in self-defense. Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary impri

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