1、全国00596英语阅读二自考试题绝密 考试结束前全国2014年4月高等教育自学考试英语阅读（二）试题课程代码：00596请考生按规定用笔将所有试题的答案涂、写在答题纸上。全部题目用英文作答（翻译题除外）。选择题部分注意事项：1 答题前，考生务必将自己的考试课程名称、姓名、准考证号用黑色字迹的签字笔或钢笔填写在答题纸规定的位置上。2 每小题选出答案后，用2 B铅笔把答题纸上对应题目的答案标号涂黑。如需改动，用橡皮擦干净后，再选涂其他答案标号。不能答在试题卷上。I. Reading Comprehension (50 points,2 points for each)Directions: In
2、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 blacken the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet.Passage OneSocial anxiety is the single most common psychological problem, acco
3、rding to the 1986 results of the Stanford shyness inventory, a survey conducted by Philip G.Zimbardo, a professor of social psychology at Stanford University in California. At a party with strangers, for instance, three-quarters of adults feel anxious. “The best estimate is that 40 percent of all Am
4、ericans suffer from shyness,” says Zimbardo.How can you avoid being nervous when you meet people? Prepare. Preparation for any communication situation is a must. Youve been invited to a big dinner party in two weeks. You know that one of the other guests is a politician. Scan the newspapers and maga
5、zines; listen to newscasts for topics of conversation in political areas. Then at the party, pretend youre an interviewer on talk show. Think of questions to ask what cant be answered yes or no. “In your opinion, who.”“What do you think of.” Keep the momentum going.Whether youre delivering a speech,
6、 approaching your boss for a raise or an important social occasion, do your homework. The most polished, smoothly delivered, spontaneous-sounding talks are the result of many hours of work. The memorable one-liners and moving phrases that go down in history dont come from last-minute bursts of inspi
7、ration.If youre making a presentation of any sort, begin preparing as far ahead of time as possible. “Good writing,” says Harvard University historian Richard Marius, “is a kind of wrestling with thought.” Begin the wrestling match early. Two days before your presentation is usually too late to go i
8、nto the ring and come up with a winning idea.“To communicate,” says New York Times columnist William Safire, “put your thoughts in order, give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.”Prepare yourself as well as your material, giving special attention to your voice.
9、 A shrill, nasal tone strikes your listeners like chalk screeching on a blackboard. By putting energy and resonance into your voice, you will have a positive effect. If your voice is timid or quivers with nervousness, you sense it, the audience hears it, and you see discomfort in their eyes. With en
10、ergy and enthusiasm in your voice the listeners say ahhh, tell me more. You read approval.Like your voice, your appearance is a communication tool. For example, if you are animated, you are most likely to see animated listeners. You give the audience the message: Im glad Im here; Im glad youre here.
11、Your approach can, in fact, be a powerful weapon for deflecting hostility-from an audience, an interviewer, an employer. A benevolent aspect says I understand and conveys good will and positive expectations. It works.Questions l-5 are based on Passage One.1. According to paragraph 2, one can avoid s
12、hyness while talking to a politician at a party by _.A. listening to his talk B reading newspapers to himC. preparing in a advance D asking him hard questions2. In paragraph 3 the author suggests that we do our homework for an important social occasion because _.A. only careful preparation can make
13、our talks polishedBhomework can help us learn from our own mistakesC. we need inspiration for memorable and moving talksD it is necessary to avoid harsh criticism from the supervisors3. Based on paragraph 4, when should you begin the preparation for a presentation?A. Two days ahead of time. B As ear
14、ly as possible.C. When you are clearheaded. D When you are not busy.4. According to paragraph 6, what kind of voice is likely to win the audiences approval?A. A nasal tone. B A shrill tone.C. A quivering tone. D An energetic tone.5. What is the authors attitude toward overcoming nervousness?A. Criti
15、cal. B Negative.C. Suspicious. D Positive.Passage TwoHow many languages do you speak? One, maybe, two, you say? Wrong! If you speak English, you use words from at least 3 5 foreign languages. Surprised?You shouldnt be. Tim Morris is an English professor at the University of Texas, Arlinton. He says
16、that when we speak English, we are using bits and pieces of many languages. Scholars estimate that one-third of the worlds languages are of Indo-European origin. These include English, French, Latin, German, Dutch, Celtic, and Slavic tongues. Back around AD 450, when Julius Caesar was alive, English
17、 as we know didnt exist. English is relatively young. Its roots go back l,500 years to Britain. People there spoke Celtic. Then came Anglo-Saxon invaders.“These conquerors spoke languages closely related to older forms of Dutch.” Morris says. Dutch words like “woord”, “gas” and “man”, became the Eng
18、lish equivalents “word”, “grass” and “man”. Anglo-Saxon “Anglish” became “English”.But our story doesnt end there. English continued to grow and change. When Norman French invaded Britain in 1066, the English vocabulary got an enormous boost. Scholars say that nearly half of all English words are Fr
19、ench in their origin. Words like art, orange, taxi, tree and surprise are a few examples. When English colonists came to America in the 1700s, they encountered native Americans and their languages. Words like wigwam, teepee, chipmunk, possum, and tomahawk settled into the colonists vocabulary.Centur
20、ies later, in the early 1900s, immigrants streamed to Americas shores. Italians taught us to say broccoli, macaroni, opera, and studio. Spanish speakers added mosquito, mustang, tortilloa, and alligator. Bagel, kosher, and pastrami came from those who spoke Yiddish. And yam, gorilla, and jitterbug w
21、ere taken from African languages.Its impossible to say exactly how big the English language is. Even counting all the words in a dictionary wont give you an accurate figure. But you may be interested to know that college-size editions like Merriam-Websters 10th Collegiate contain about 90,000 “headw
22、ords”. Headwords are main entries in bold print. Under a headword are plurals and various forms of that word, along with definitions. In a large dictionary, like the Oxford English Dictionary, are more than 250,000 headwords. Some say the true number of English words is twice of that. Thats a lot of
23、 words! But even a highly educated person uses only about 10% of them.Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.6. From the passage we know that _.A. English belongs to Sino-Tibetan familyB English belongs to Indo-European familyC. English was spoken by people before AD 450D English was spoken by the
24、Anglo-Saxon invaders7. According to the passage, the origin of English can be dated back to _.A. the late 1700s B the year 1066C. the early 1900s D 1,500 years ago8. Of the following words, _ is of Yiddish origin.A kosher B tortilloaC. possum D woord9. A large dictionary, like the Oxford English Dic
25、tionary, _.A. tells the true number of English wordsBgives 250,000 headwords without definitionC. fails to tell the true number of English wordsD fails to give the plural or singular form of headwords10. Which of the following statements is TRUE?A. In the mid-1900s, Italian immigrants streamed to Am
26、erica.BIts quite common to come across an Italian word in English.C. One-third of English words are borrowed from other languages.D Native American languages failed to exert any influence on English.Passage ThreeThe estimates of the number of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department o
27、f Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher at about a million.Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public
28、 education and damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teach children.Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by
29、remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.John Marshall, an education of
30、ficial, says, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers.” The idea is, “Lets give the kids access to public school so theyll see its not as terrible as theyve been told, and theyll want to come back.”Perhaps, but dont count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the sys
31、tem because they have strong convictions that their approach to education-whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual childs interests and natural paceis best.“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center for Home Ed
32、ucation. She says，“Home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.”Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn-both intellectually and emotion
