86-99考研英语阅读真题.pdf

1991年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题Section II:Reading ComprehensionEach of the passages below is followed by some questions.For ach question four answers are given.Read thepassages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions.Put your choice in the ANSWERSHEET.(30 points)Text 1A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.So,asa police officer,I have some urgent things to say to good people.Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime.Something has gone terribly wrongwith our once-proud American way of life.It has happened in the area of values.A key ingredient isdisappearing,and I think I know what it is:accountability.Accountability isnt hard to define.It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable fortheir consequences.Of the many values that hold civilization together-honesty,kindness,and so on-accountability may be themost important of all.Without it,there can be no respect,no trust,no law and,ultimately,no society.My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse,or have never learned,to impose iton themselves.But as every policeman knows,external controls on peoples behavior are far less effective thaninternal restraints such as guilt,shame and embarrassment.Fortunately there are still communities smaller towns,usually where schools maintain discipline and whereparents hold up standards that proclaim:4tIn this family certain things are not tolerated-they simply are notdone!Yet more and more,especially in our larger cities and suburbs,these inner restraints are loosening.Your typicalrobber has none.He considers your property his property;he takes what he wants,including your life if youenrage him.The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes.Thirty years ago,if a crime was committed,society was considered the victim.Now,in a shocking reversal,its the criminal who is considered victimized:by his underprivileged upbringing,by the school that didnt teach him to read,by the church that failed to reachhim with moral guidance,by the parents who didnt provide a stable home.I dont believe it.Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminalactivities.If we free the criminal,even partly,from accountability,we become a society of endless excuseswhere no one accepts responsibility for anything.We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the oneresponsible for it.31.What the wise man said suggests that.A its unnecessary for good people to do anything in face of evilB ifs certain that evil will prevail if good men do nothing about itC ifs only natural for virtue to defeat evilD its desirable for good men to keep away from evil32.According to the author,if a person is found guilty of a cr i me,.A society is to be held responsibleB modem civilization is responsible for itC the criminal himself should bear the blameDJ the standards of living should be improved33.Compared with those in small towns,people in large cities have.AJ less self-discipline12B better sense of disciplineC more mutual respectD less effective government34.The writer is sorry to have noticed that.A people in large cities tend to excuse criminalsB people in small towns still stick to old discipline and standardsC todays society lacks sympathy for people in difficultyD people in disadvantaged circumstances are engaged in criminal activities35.The key point of the passage is that.A stricter discipline should be maintained in schools and familiesB more good examples should be set for people to followC more restrictions should be imposed on peoples behaviorD more people should accept the value of accountabilityText 2The period of adolescence,i.e.,the period between childhood and adulthood,may be long or short,dependingon social expectations and on societys definition as to what constitutes maturity and adulthood.In primitivesocieties adolescence is frequently a relatively short period of time,while in industrial societies with patterns ofprolonged education coupled with laws against child labor,the period of adolescence is much longer and mayinclude most of the second decade of ones life.Furthermore,the length of the adolescent period and thedefinition of adulthood status may change in a given society as social and economic conditions change.Examples of this type of change are the disappearance of the frontier in the latter part of the nineteenth centuryin the United States,and more universally,the industrialization of an agricultural society.In modern society,ceremonies for adolescence have lost their formal recognition and symbolic significance andthere no longer is agreement as to what constitutes initiation ceremonies.Social ones have been replaced by asequence of steps that lead to increased recognition and social status.For example,grade school graduation,high school graduation and college graduation co。