1、大家论坛1/76王长喜-六级考试标准阅读 60 篇 I第一篇 (Unit one Passage 1)I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.Many intelligent people still equate ha
2、ppiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion.Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activit
3、ies that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These ric
4、h, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells “happiness”. But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled childre
5、n and profound loneliness.Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If hes honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement
6、. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out ever they want and sleep as late as they want. Couples with infant children are lucky to
7、get a whole nights sleep or a three-day vacation. I dont know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children.Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations we can ever come to. It liberates time: now we can
8、 devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those rich and glamorous people we
9、were so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.1. Which of the following is true?A. Fun creates long-lasting satisfaction.B. Fun provides enjoyment while pain leads to happiness.C. Happiness is enduring whereas fun is short-lived.D. Fun that is lon
10、g-standing may lead to happiness.2. To the author, Hollywood stars all have an important role to play that is to _.A. rite memoir after memoir about their happiness.B. tell the public that happiness has nothing to do with fun.C. teach people how to enjoy their lives.D. bring happiness to the public
11、instead of going to glamorous parties.3. In the authors opinion, marriage_.A. affords greater fun.www.TopS2/76B. leads to raising children.C. indicates commitment.D. ends in pain.4. Couples having infant children_.A. are lucky since they can have a whole nights sleep.B. find fun in tucking them into
12、 bed at night.C. find more time to play and joke with them.D. derive happiness from their endeavor.5. If one get the meaning of the true sense of happiness, he will_.A. stop playing games and joking with others.B. make the best use of his time increasing happiness.C. give a free hand to money.D. kee
13、p himself with his family.第一篇答案：CBCDB第二篇(Unit one Passage 2)Once it was possible to define male and female roles easily by the division of labor. Men worked outside the home and earned the income to support their families, while women cooked the meals and took care of the home and the children. Thes
14、e roles were firmly fixed for most people, and there was not much opportunity for women to exchange their roles. But by the middle of this century, mens and womens roles were becoming less firmly fixed.In the 1950s, economic and social success was the goal of the typical American. But in the 1960s a
15、 new force developed called the counterculture. The people involved in this movement did not value the middle-class American goals. The counterculture presented men and women with new role choices. Taking more interest in childcare, men began to share child-raising tasks with their wives. In fact, s
16、ome young men and women moved to communal homes or farms where the economic and childcare responsibilities were shared equally by both sexes. In addition, many Americans did not value the traditional male role of soldier. Some young men refused to be drafted as soldiers to fight in the war in Vietna
17、m.In terms of numbers, the counterculture was not a very large group of people. But its influence spread to many parts of American society. Working men of all classes began to change their economic and social patterns. Industrial workers and business executives alike cut down on “overtime” work so t
18、hat they could spend more leisure time with their families. Some doctors, lawyers, and teachers turned away from high paying situations to practice their professions in poorer neighborhoods.In the 1970s, the feminist movement, or womens liberation, produced additional economic and social changes. Wo
19、men of all ages and at all levels of society were entering the work force in greater numbers. Most of them still took traditional womens jobs as public school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. But some women began to enter traditionally male occupations: police work, banking, dentistry, and c
20、onstruction work. Women were asking for equal work, and equal opportunities for promotion.Today the experts generally agree that important changes are taking place in the roles of men and women. Naturally, there are difficulties in adjusting to these transformations.大家论坛3/761. Which of the following
21、 best express the main idea of Paragraph 1?A. Women usually worked outside the home for wages.B. Men and womens roles were easily exchanged in the past.C. Mens roles at home were more firmly fixed than womens.D. Men and womens roles were usually quite separated in the past.2. Which sentence best exp
22、resses the main idea of Paragraph 2?A. The first sentence.B. The second and the third sentences.C. The fourth sentence.D. The last sentence.3. In the passage the author proposes that the counterculture_.A. destroyed the United States.B. transformed some American values.C. was not important in the Un
23、ited States.D. brought people more leisure time with their families.4. It could be inferred from the passage that_.A. men and women will never share the same goals.B. some men will be willing to exchange their traditional male roles.C. most men will be happy to share some of the household responsibi
24、lities with their wives.D. more American households are headed by women than ever before.5. The best title for the passage may be _.A. Results of Feminist MovementsB. New influence in American LifeC. Counterculture and Its consequenceD. Traditional Division of Male and Female Roles.第二篇答案 DCBCB第三篇(Un
25、it one Passage 3)Recent research has claimed that an excess of positive ions in the air can have an ill effect on peoples physical or psychological health. What are positive ions? Well, the air is full of ions, electrically charged particles, and generally there is a rough balance between the positi
26、ve and the negative charged. But sometimes this balance becomes disturbed and a larger proportion of positive ions are found. This happens naturally before thunderstorm, earthquakes when winds such as the Mistral, Hamsin or Sharav are blowing in certain countries. Or it can be caused by a build-up o
27、f static electricity indoors from carpets or clothing made of man-made fibres, or from TV sets, duplicators or computer display screens.When a large number of positive ions are present in the air many people experience unpleasant effects such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and some particularl
28、y sensitive people suffer nausea or even mental disturbance. Animals are also affected, particularly before earthquakes, snakes have been observed to come out of hibernation, rats to flee from their burrows, dogs howl and cats jump about unaccountably. This has led the US Geographical Survey to fund
29、 a network of volunteers to watch animals in an effort to foresee such disasters before they hit vulnerable areas such as California.www.TopS4/76Conversely, when large numbers of negative ions are present, then people have a feeling of well-being. Natural conditions that produce these large amounts
30、are near the sea, close to waterfalls or fountains, or in any place where water is sprayed, or forms a spray. This probably accounts for the beneficial effect of a holiday by the sea, or in the mountains with tumbling streams or waterfalls.To increase the supply of negative ions indoors, some scient
31、ists recommend the use of ionisers: small portable machines, which generate negative ions. They claim that ionisers not only clean and refresh the air but also improve the health of people sensitive to excess positive ions. Of course, there are the detractors, other scientists, who dismiss such clai
32、ms and are skeptical about negative/positive ion research. Therefore people can only make up their own minds by observing the effects on themselves, or on others, of a negative rich or poor environment. After all it is debatable whether depending on seismic readings to anticipate earthquakes is more
33、 effective than watching the cat.1. What effect does exceeding positive ionization have on some people?A. They think they are insane.B. They feel rather bad-tempered and short-fussed.C. They become violently sick.D. They are too tired to do anything.2. In accordance with the passage, static electric
34、ity can be caused by_.A. using home-made electrical goods.B. wearing clothes made of natural materials.C. walking on artificial floor coverings.D. copying TV programs on a computer. 3. A high negative ion count is likely to be found_.A. near a pound with a water pump.B. close to a slow-flowing river
35、.C. high in some barren mountains.D. by a rotating water sprinkler.4. What kind of machine can generate negative ions indoors?A. Ionisers.B. Air-conditioners.C. Exhaust-fansD. Vacuum pumps.5. Some scientists believe that_.A. watching animals to anticipate earthquakes is more effective than depending
36、 on seismography.B. the unusual behavior of animals cannot be trusted.C. neither watching nor using seismographs is reliable.D. earthquake 第三篇答案 BCDAA第四篇(Unit one Passage 4)A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes.
37、Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics, and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political 大家论坛5/76values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities o
38、f our ancestorsor of people very different from our owncan be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offer us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.In history books, objective information about the po
39、litical life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painti
40、ng The Third of May 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picassos Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Or
41、ozco, and David Alfaro Siqueirosas well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martinesdepicted these Mexican artists deep anger and sadness about social problems.In the same way, art can reflect a cultures religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that
42、 existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldnt read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Mid
43、dle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are unholy.1. More can be learned about a culture from a study of art history than general history because art history_.A. show us the religious and emotions of a people in addition to p
44、olitical values.B. provide us with information about the daily activities of people in the past.C. give us an insight into the essential qualities of a time and a place.D. all of the above.2. Art is subjective in that_.A. a personal and emotional view of history is presented through it.B. it can eas
45、ily rouse our anger or sadness about social problems.C. it will find a ready echo in our hearts.D. both B and C.3. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?A. Unlike Francisco Goya, Pablo and several Mexican artists expressed their political opinions in their paintings.B. H
46、istory books often reveal the compilers political views.C. Religious art remained in Europe for centuries the only type of art because most people regarded the Bible as the Holy Book.D. All the above mentioned.4. The passage is mainly discussing_.A. the difference between general history and art his
47、tory.B. The making of art history.C. What can we learn from art.D. The influence of artists on art history.5. In may be concluded from this passage that_.A. Islamic artists have had to create architectural decorations with images of flowers or geometric www.TopS6/76forms.B. History teachers are more
48、 objective than general history.C. It is more difficult to study art history than general history.D. People and stories from the Bible were painted on churches and other buildings in order to popularize the Bible.第四篇答案：DDDCA 第五篇 (Unit 2 Passage 1)If the old maxim that the customer is always right st
49、ill has meaning, then the airlines that ply the worlds busiest air route between London and Paris have a flight on their hands.The Eurostar train service linking the UK and French capitals via the Channel Tunnel is winning customers in increasing numbers. In late May, it carried its one millionth passenger, having run only a limited service between London, Paris and Brussels since November 1994, starting with two trains a day in each direction to Paris and Brussels. By 1997, the company believes that it will be carrying ten mil
