Stricter Traffic Law Can Prevent Accidents From the health point of view we are
题型：不详难度：来源：
Stricter Traffic Law Can Prevent Accidents
From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous（不平凡的）age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car ! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.
It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-years-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.
The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behaviour. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy tragic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten.
It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be mad much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as to severe if tit results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.
小题1:The main idea of this passage is
A Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists.
B Thousands of people the world over are killed each year.
C The laws of some countries about driving are too lax.
D Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents.
小题2:What does the author think of society toward motorists?
A Society smiles on the motorists. B Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns.
C Victims of accidents are nothing. D Society condones their rude driving.
小题3:Why does the author say:’ his car becomes the extension of his personality?’
A Driving can show his real self. B Driving can show the other part of his personality.
C Driving can bring out his character. D His car embodies his temper.
小题4:Which of the followings is NOT mentioned as a way against traffic accidents?
A Build more highways. B Stricter driving tests.
C Test drivers every three years. D raise age limit and lay down safety specifications.
小题5:The attitude of the author is
A ironical B critical C appealing D militant |
答案
小题1:D
小题2:D
小题3:A
小题4:A
小题5:B |
解析
文章论述“交通事故”，采用因果、对比手法。从人的平均寿命增加和交通事故率成正比谈起，触及事故率上升的原因，要求制定更严格的法规予以制止种种造成事故的不良行为。
答案详解
小题1:只有更严格的交通法规才能制止交通事故。这在最后一段的结论中体现的最清楚。前面几段只是讲造成事故的种种原因。其目的就是：“是制定世界交通法规以减少无谓的生命浪费的时候了。对于开车，有些国家的法规太松弛，甚至最严格的国家也不够严格。世界公认之法律只可能对交通事故率起大大降低的作用（有非常好的效果。）”这里列出几件要***事：“驾驶测试应当标准化，比现在的要严格；所有死机每三年考核一次；年轻人驾车的允许年龄应提高到21岁；全部机动车每年都应经过严格的安全测试（测定其安全性）……这些步骤可能听起来异常严厉，可是，如果其结果事减少每年死伤人数的话，就不存在什么太严格的事了。”
A. 主要是机动车死机造成的交通事故。 B. 全世界每年有几千人丧生。 C. 有些国家的交通法规太松弛。这三道答案都是文中谈到某一点，不能作为中心目的。
小题2:社会宽容这种野蛮开车行径。答案就在第三段：“令人惊讶的是社会对司机宽厚地笑笑，似乎宽容他们的行为。一切都为他们的方便而干。人们允许城市由于交通拥挤而几乎不能居住了，大型停车场把城镇“弄得”丑陋不堪，公路网玷污了乡村，每年大量的***伤仅仅成为统计数字，被很容易地忘记。”
A. 社会对司机笑容可掬。B. 大型停车场建在市和镇上。C. 交通死难者等于零。这三项都只是第三段的一个个具体事实。社会正是通过这一件件事来宽容司机野蛮开车，而造成事故。
小题3:“他的车就是他个性的外延”这句话就体现了“开车表现他真正的自我，真实的个性”。第二段讲的很清楚：“这么说完全正确：当一个人坐在方向盘后，他的车就成为他个性的外延。毫无疑问，汽车常常表现了人之最坏的品质。平常很安详愉快的人一坐在方向盘后可能就变得难以认识。他们咒骂、行为差劲、好斗、固执、任性得就像两岁的孩子。他们所有隐藏的失落、失望和忌妒感，似乎都在开车中暴露出来”。
B. 表现他个性的另一面。 C. 表现了他的性格。 D. 他的车体现了他的脾气秉性。只是表现自我中的某个事实。
小题4:只有建更多高速公路。没有提。
B. 更难的测试。C. 每三年对司机进行一次考察。 D. 提高年龄段和制定安全条例。都提到。见第一题译注。
小题5:批评的态度。文章第一、二、三段指出了造成交通事故的原因，呼吁各国制定严格的交通法规，批评现有的交通法规松弛不严格，最后指出世界是人类的，不是摩托车的等等，都说明作者对上述种种都具批评的态度。
A. 讽刺的。 C. 哀求的、呼吁的。 D. 富有战斗性的。 |
举一反三
Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the Community
Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they’re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. ‘It’s iniquitous,’ they say, ‘that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays…’
The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement.
Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway byelaws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.
We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!
Another thing we mustn’t forget is the ‘small ads.’ which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished(完成的,实现的)through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or ‘agony’ column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It’s the best advertisement for advertising there is!
1. What is main idea of this passage?
A. Advertisement.
B. The benefits of advertisement.
C. Advertisers perform a useful service to communities.
D. The costs of advertisement.
2. The attitude of the author toward advertisers is
A. appreciative. B. trustworthy.
C. critical. D. dissatisfactory.
3. Why do the critics criticize advertisers?
A. Because advertisers often brag.
B. Because critics think advertisement is a “waste of money”.
C. Because customers are encouraged to buy more than necessary.
D. Because customers pay more.
4. Which of the following is Not True?
A. Advertisement makes contribution to our pockets and we may know everything.
B. We can buy what we want.
C. Good quality products don’t need to be advertised.
D. Advertisement makes our life colorful.
5. The passage is_______________
A. Narration. B. Description.
C. Criticism. D. Argumentation. |
Mules
Although the top men in smuggling（走私）business must work together, most of a syndicate’s（集团）small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off（报废；注销）as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.
Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.
Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”
小题1:What is a “mule”?
A A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.
B A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.
C A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.
D A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.
小题2:The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to
A if he is arrested. B if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.
C if he is recognized and arrested. D if he runs away.
小题3:Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?
A To show how a smuggler is caught.
B To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.
C To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.
D To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.
小题4:how does a mule work?
A Jointly. B Independently.
C consciously. D Separately. |
The Development of Cities
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern（现代文明之前）era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate（财产）subdivision（细分再分的部分）there proceeded much faster than population growth.
小题1:With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
A Types of mass transportation.
B Instability of urban life.
C How supply and demand determine land use.
D The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
小题2:Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?
A To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
B To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
C To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D To contrast their rate of growth.
小题3:According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
A It was expensive.
B It happened too slowly.
C It was unplanned.
D It created a demand for public transportation.
小题4:The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
A that is large.
B that is used as a model for land development.
C where the development of land exceeded population growth.
D with an excellent mass transportation system. |
Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge(剧增)of women in the workforce may portend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would rather work than marry. The converse(反面)of this concern is that the prospects of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriage. In the past, only the earnings and financial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show that economic downturns tend to putting off marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy comes to life, the number of marriages also rises.
The increase in divorce rates follows to the increase in women working outside the home. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact of a wife’s work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible(似是而非的). Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. By raising a family’s standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family’s financial and emotional stability.
Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.
Also, a major part of women’s inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in most cases, men have remained the main breadwinners. A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.
小题1:The word “portend” (Line 2, Para.1) is closest in meaning to“_____”.| A．defy | B．signal | C．suffer from | D．result from |
小题2:It is said in the passage that when the economy slides_____. | A．men would choose working women as their marriage partners | | B．more women would get married to seek financial security | | C．even working women would worry about their marriages | | D．more people would prefer to remain single for the time being |
小题3:If women find fulfillment through work outside the home,_____. | A．they are more likely to dominate their marriage partners | | B．their husbands are expected to do more housework | | C．their marriage ties can be strengthened | | D．they tend to put their career before marriage |
小题4:One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____. | A．they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom | | B．they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands | | C．they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations | | D．they tend to suspect their husbands? loyalty to their marriage |
小题5:Which of the following statements can best summarize the authors view in the passage? | A．The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of the country. | | B．Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage. | | C．In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain independent | | D．The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case. |
|
Antinuclear Demonstration
Police fired tear gas and arrested more than 5,000 passively resisting protestors Friday in an attempt to break up the largest antinuclear demonstration ever staged in the United States. More than 135,000 demonstrators confronted police on the construction site of a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant scheduled to provide power to most of southern New Hampshire. Organizers of the huge demonstration said, the protest was continuing despite the police actions. More demonstrators were arriving to keep up the pressure on state authorities to cancel the project. The demonstrator had charged that the project was unsafe in the densely populated area, would create thermal pollution in the bay, and had no acceptable means for disposing of its radioactive wasters. The demonstrations would go on until the jails and the courts were so overloaded that the state judicial system would collapse.
Governor Stanforth Thumper insisted that there would be no reconsideration of the power project and no delay in its construction set for completion in three years. “This project will begin on time and the people of this state will begin to receive its benefits on schedule. Those who break the law in misguided attempts to sabotage the project will be dealt with according to the law,” he said. And police called in reinforcements from all over the state to handle the disturbances.
The protests began before dawn Friday when several thousand demonstrators broke through police lines around the cordoned-off construction site. They carried placards that read “No Nukes is Good Nukes,” “Sun-power, Not Nuclear Power,” and “Stop Private Profits from Public Peril.” They defied police order to move from the area. Tear gas canisters fired by police failed to dislodge the protestors who had come prepared with their own gas masks or facecloths. Finally gas-masked and helmeted police charged into the crowd to drag off the demonstrators one by one. The protestors did not resist police, but refused to walk away under their own power. Those arrested would be charged with unlawful assembly, trespassing, and disturbing the peace.
小题1:What were the demonstrators protesting about?
A Private profits. B Nuclear Power Station.
C The project of nuclear power construction. D Public peril.
小题2:Who had gas-masks?
A Everybody. B A part of the protestors.
C Policemen. D Both B and C.
小题3:Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a reason for the demonstration?
A Public transportation. B Public peril.
C Pollution. D Disposal of wastes.
小题4:With whom were the jails and courts overloaded?
A With prisoners. B With arrested demonstrators.
C With criminals. D With protestors.
小题5:What is the attitude of Governor Stanforth Thumper toward the power project and the demonstration?
A stubborn. B insistent. C insolvable. D remissible. |
最新试题
热门考点