The only way to travel is on footThe past ages of man have all been carefully la
题型：不详难度：来源：
The only way to travel is on foot
The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled（标记）by anthropologists（人类学家）. Descriptions like ‘Palaeolithic(旧石器时代) Man’, ‘Neolithic Man’, etc., neatly（干净地；整洁地） sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label ‘Legless Man’. Histories of the time will go something like this: ‘in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators（自动电梯，自动扶梯）in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers（居民） of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn’t use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred （糟蹋）by the presence of large car parks. ’
The future history books might also record that we were deprived（剥夺） of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop.
Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: ‘I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.’ The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says ‘I’ve been there. ’ You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say ‘I’ve been there’ – meaning, ‘I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. ’
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.
1. Anthropologists label nowadays’ men ‘Legless’ because
A . people forget how to use his legs. B people prefer cars, buses and trains.
C lifts and escalators prevent people from walking. D there are a lot of transportation devices.
2. Travelling at high speed means
A people’s focus on the future. B a pleasure.
C satisfying drivers’ great thrill. D a necessity y of life.
3. Why does the author say ‘we are deprived of the use of our eyes’ ?
A People won’t use their eyes. B In traveling at high speed, eyes become useless.
C People can’t see anything on his way of travel. D People want to sleep during travelling.
4. What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
A Legs become weaker. B Modern means of transportation make the world a small place.
C There is no need to use eyes. D The best way to travel is on foot.
5. What does ‘a bird’s-eye view’ mean?
A See view with bird’s eyes. B A bird looks at a beautiful view.
C It is a general view from a high position looking down. D A scenic place. |
答案
小题1:A
小题2:A
小题3:C
小题4:D
小题5:C |
解析
文章以因果写作方法，写出了由于种种现代化交通设施、人们不需用脚走路，甚至也不需要用眼看景，出门就坐汽车、公交车、地铁、飞机……，车、机速度飞快，外边的景物难以看清，最终导致人们忘记用脚、用眼成为“无脚之人”。一切都经历不到。作者建议最佳的旅游方法是徒步――经历现实。
小题1:人们忘了用脚。答案在第一段：人类学家把以往年代的人们分别标上旧石器时代、新石器时代人，等等。干脆利落地总结了一个时期。当他们转向20世纪，他们肯定会标上“无脚的人”。因为在20世纪，人们忘了如何用脚走路。男人女人早年外出就坐车、公共汽车、火车。大楼里由电梯、自动扶梯，不需要人们走路。即使度假期间，他们也不用脚。他们筑有缆车道、滑雪载车和路直通山顶。所有的风景旅游区都有大型的汽车停车场。
B 人们喜欢汽车、公交车、火车等。 C 电梯、自动扶梯制止人们走路。 D 有许多交通运输工具。
小题2:人们的注意力在未来。见最后一段第一句话：当你高速旅行，现在等于零，你主要生活在未来，因为你大部分时间盯在前面到达的某个地方。真到了，又没有意义了，你还要再向前进。
B 是一种欢乐。 C 满足司机强烈的渴望。第二段中提及死机醉心于开车、不停车但不是快速前进着眼于未来。 D 生活的需要。这一条在第一段中提及这种情况是因为他们那异常的生活方法强加给时代的居民。这是指不用脚走路，而用一切代步器――交通运输工具，不是开快车。
小题3:人们在旅行途中什么都见不到。答案在第二段，由一地转向另一地，路上你什么都没有见到。乘飞机你只能俯视世界，火车，汽车，只见外界朦胧景象掠过窗子。海上旅游，只见到海。“我到过那里”此话含义就是“我以一小时一百英里在去某某地方时经过那里”。正因为如此，作者指出将来的历史书上会记录下：我们被剥夺了眼睛的应用。
A 人们不愿用眼睛。 B 在高速旅行中，眼睛没有用了。 D 旅行中，人们想睡觉。
小题4:旅行的最佳方式是走路。文章第一段、第二段分别讲述了旅行可不用脚、不用眼等情况。第三段，在讲述了人们只知向前向前，一切经历都停滞，现实不再是现实，还不如死的好。而用脚走路的旅行者总是生活再现实，对他来说旅行和到达是一回事，他一步一步走到某地，他用眼睛、耳朵，以至整个身体去体验现在时刻、旅行终点，他感到全身舒坦愉悦的疲劳，美美享受满足的酣睡；一切真正旅行者的真实报偿。这一段就是作者写文章的目的――走路是旅行的最佳方式。
A 脚变得软弱无力。 B 现代交通工具把世界变小。 C 没有必要用眼睛。
小题5:从高出向下看的景致：俯视。A 用鸟的眼睛看景点。 B 鸟在看美景。 D 风景点 |
举一反三
Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
“ Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “ Cinderella(灰姑娘), or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”
Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoner too, helping them knowing who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story. Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. “For every advance in business,” she says, “ there is a greater need for communication.” Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.
“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says, “ What I do is to focus on the value of the stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody’s story.”
小题1:What do we learn about American storyteller from Paragraph 2?| A．They share the same way of storytelling. | | B．They prefer to tell the stories from other cultures. | | C．They learn their stories from the American natives. | | D．They find storytelling useful for both children and adults. |
小题2:The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners can _____.| A．start a new life | B．settle down in another place | | C．direct films | D．become good actors |
小题3:Pugh has practised storytelling with _____ groups of people.小题4:What is the main idea of the text?| A．Storytelling can influence the way people think. | | B．Storytelling is vital to the growth of business. | | C．Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school. | | D．Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others. |
|
In recent years many countries of the world have been faced with the problem of how to make their workers more productive. Some experts claim the answer is to make jobs more varied. But do more various jobs lead to greater productivity? There is evidence to suggest that while variety certainly makes the worker’s life more enjoyable, it does not actually make him work harder. As far as increasing productivity is concerned, then variety is not an important factor.
Other experts feel that giving the worker freedom to do his job in his own way is important, and there is no doubt that this is true. The problem is that this kind of freedom cannot easily be given in the modern factory with its complicated machinery which must be used in a fixed way. Thus while freedom of choice may be important, there is usually very little that can be done to create it.
Another very important consideration is how each worker contributes to the product he is making. In most factories the worker sees only one part of the product. Some car factories are now experimenting with having many small production lines rather than one large one, so that each worker contributes more to the production of the cars on his line. It would seem that not only is degree of the worker contribution an important factor, therefore, but it is also one we can do something about.
To what extent does more money lead to greater productivity? The workers themselves certainly think this is important. But perhaps they want more money only because the work they do is boring. Money just lets them enjoy their spare time more. A similar argument may explain demands for shorter working hours. Perhaps if we succeed in making their jobs more interesting, they will neither want more money, nor will shorter working hours be so important to them.
小题1:Which of the following is the best way to make workers work harder according to the author? | A．Increasing their pay. | | B．Giving them more spare time. | | C．Making the work itself meaningful. | | D．Replacing large production lines with small ones. |
小题2:The reason why a worker cannot have freedom in doing the job in his own way is that _______. | A．the machinery is so complex that it should be fixed | | B．the production lines are too large in modern factories | | C．the bosses can create very little freedom of choices for workers | | D．the machines must be operated strictly according to instructions and rules |
小题3:For a worker on an assembly line in a car factory, the job is not enjoyable because _______. | A．he can only make a part of a car | | B．he does not know what he is doing | | C．his life in spare time is more interesting | | D．the importance of his job is not clear to him |
小题4:In the article, the word “productivity” means _______. | A．the activity of producing something | | B．the production volume in a time unit | | C．the plan and the method of production | | D．both the quantity and quality of a product |
小题5:The best title for this passage may be _______. | A．Problems of Modern Workers | | B．Making Jobs More Interesting | | C．Pushing Workers to Produce More | | D．How to Improve Labor Conditions |
|
George Washington Carver showed that plant life was more than just food for animals and humans. Carver’s first step was to analyze plant parts to find out what they were made of. He then combined these simpler isolated substances with other substances to create new products.
The branch of chemistry that studies and finds ways to use raw materials from farm products to make industrial products is called chemurgy. Carver was one of the first and greatest chemurgists of all time. Today the science of chemurgy is better known as the science of synthetics(合成纤维织物). Each day people depend on and use synthetics made from raw materials. All his life Carver battled against the disposal of waste materials, and warned of the growing need to develop substitutes(代用品) for the natural substances being used up by humans.
Carver never cared about getting credit for the new products he created. He never tried to patent(申请专利) his discoveries or get wealthy from them. He turned down many offers to leave Tuskegee Institute to become a scientist in private industry. Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light, offered him a laboratory in Detroit to carry out food research. When theUnited States government made him a collaborator in the Mycology and Plant Disease Survey of the Department of Agriculture, he accepted the position with the understanding that he wouldn’t leave Tuskegee. An authority on plant disease—especially of the fungus(真菌) variety—Carver sent hundreds of specimens(标本) to the United States Department of Agriculture. At the peak of his career, Carver’s fame and influence were known on every continent.
小题1:What does the passage mainly tell us?| A．It mainly tells us about Gorge Washington Carver, a great chemurgist. | | B．It mainly tells us about chemurgy. | | C．It mainly tells us about the research made in Tuskegee. | | D．It mainly tells us about the development of making synthetics. |
小题2:The underlined word “disposal” in the second paragraph mean “________”.| A．control | B．throwing away | | C．management | D．keeping |
小题3:Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?| A．Make a study of plant parts. | | B．Make new products out of farm products. | | C．Carver helped the United States Department of Agriculture. | | D．Make a study on animal disease. |
小题4:Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?| A．Carver never patented what he discovered. | | B．Carver refused many offers to work in private companies. | | C．Carver made little money out of his discoveries. | | D．Carver helped Edison invent electric light. |
|
Contribution of Coeducation
Imagining being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn’t be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children – conditions which they themselves wouldn’t put up with for one minute!
Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children’s heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of educations is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock.
A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is ( to give just a small example ) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girl or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its proper place.
But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don’t grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures – airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don’t grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobby knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.
小题1:What is the best title for this passage?
A only co-education can be in harmony with society.
B people are in great need of co-education.
C any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable.
D co-education has many features.
小题2:what does co-education offer to children?
A A society. B A true small model of society.
C A real life. D True version of social condition.
小题3:According to the passage, what is one of the chief aims of education?
A It is for students to acquire knowledge.
B It is to equip future citizens with scientific technology.
C It is to equip future citizens with what is required in getting a position in society.
D It is for students to get academic achievements.
小题4:Why do boys and girls in co-education have no illusion about each other?
A They live together and know each other too well.
B Years of living together at school dismiss such illusion.
C co-education encourage them to have an healthy attitude toward life.
D They are familiar with each other’s problems. |
While students in Hainan are quite used to clear skies, Beijing teenagers are not so lucky. As another warm winter approaches, the city can expect the normal clouds of smoke caused by air pollution.
But things could start to get better soon. The government is co-operating with a US-based environmental protection agency to update existing buses and trucks with clean fuel technology. The new technology could reduce air pollutants in existing diesel vehicles (柴油机) by 40 per cent. The programme will begin by testing buses in Beijing to see if the technology can be applied to them.
“We encourage the development of public transportation. But at the same time we need to reduce pollution from them,” said an official.
Efforts are being made to improve the capital’s environment with tighter controls on emissions (排放). Some heavily polluting factories and construction sites, such as those owned by the steel giant Shougang Group, have been asked to cut production in November and December or be closed.
Beijing was the third polluted city in the world at the end of last century, according to the UN. But thanks to recent measures, the capital has made some progress. Last year 224 clear days were rated as having good air quality. In 1998 the air quality index (指数) gave just 100 days as good.
“I am glad to see an improvement,” said a Senior 1 boy living in the northwest of Beijing. “Compared to other places, the air quality of Beijing is still worrying though. I hate the pollution. Once I was riding my bike in the morning when I almost had a traffic accident because I couldn’t see a car only metres away from me in frog.”
In early October, the skies were covered by such a thick fog that a display show by the visiting French air force was called off.
Rapid development, industry, traffic fumes (烟) and sandstorms from the desert all contribute to the city’s bad air.
小题1:The passage is mainly about ________?| A．a programme to improve Beijing’s air quality | | B．progress made in Beijing’s air quality | | C．Beijing’s air pollution | | D．the difference between Hainan and Beijing |
小题2:Which of the following is not the measure taken or to be taken to improve Beijing’s air?| A．Clean fuel technology will be used in public transportation. | | B．Some factories have been asked to cut production. | | C．Some construction sites have been told to be closed. | | D．A display show of airplanes has been called off. |
小题3:We can infer from the passage that, with the aim of being an ecological (生态的) city by the 2008 Olympics, ________.| A．far more still needs to be done | | B．nothing else needs to be done | | C．all traffic has to be closed | | D．the development of the city has to be slowed down |
小题4:Which is not correct according to the passage?| A．Beijing’s air quality is getting worse and worse. | | B．Development, industry, traffic fumes and sandstorms are all the causes of bad air quality. | | C．Clouds of smoke in the sky is the common feature in the winter of Beijing. | | D．The government is making every effort to stop air pollution. |
|
最新试题
热门考点