Passage seven(Stricter Traffic Law can Prevent Accidents)

　　From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous 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。

　　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。

　　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。

　　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。

　　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。

　　5.       The attitude of the author is

　　[A] ironical

　　[B] critical

　　[C] appealing

　　[D] militant

　　Vocabulary

　　1.       immunise          使免疫，使免除

　　2.       expectation of life = life expectancy        平均寿命

　　3.       versus = against     对顶，反对

　　4.       mutilate            伤害

　　5.       wilful               任性的，固执的

　　6.       benign              宽厚的，仁慈的

　　7.       condone           宽容

　　8.       desecrate          亵渎，玷污

　　9.       code                法规，规定，惯例

　　10.   stringent           严格的，紧急的，迫切的

　　11.   performance        演出，成品，这里是指car’s behavior such as speed, function etc。可译成行为，汽车行为、功能等。

　　难句译注

　　1.       Man versus the motor-car ! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing。

　　【参考译文】人和汽车对抗！这是一场人类永远是输家的无休止的战斗。

　　2.       All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned。

　　【参考译文】应当禁止所有强调力量和表现行为的广告。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　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

　　1.       D 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。)”这里列出几件要干的事：“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。

　　2.       D 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，每年大量的杀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。

　　3.       A “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。

　　4.       A 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。

　　5.       B 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。

　　Passage Eight(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 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 subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth。

　　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。

　　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。

　　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。

　　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。

　　Vocabulary

　　1.       revise               改变

　　2.       fabric               结构

　　3.       catalyze            催化，加速

　　4.       sort out    把……分门别类，拣选

　　5.       omnibus           公共汽车/马车

　　6.       trolley              (美)有轨电车，(英)无轨电车

　　7.       periphery          周围，边缘

　　8.       sprawl              建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开

　　9.       lot                    小片土地

　　10.   underscore        强调，在下面划横线

　　11.   transit lines        运输线路

　　12.   subdivision        (出售的)小块土地，再划分小区

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　文章论述了“公共交通从三方面改变了城市的社会和经济结构。”采用分类写法。文章一开始就提出三方面：第一，促进城市实质性的扩展；第二，把人和土地分民别类加以利用；第三，加速了城市生活的不稳定性。然后就是三方面的具体内容。

　　答案详解

　　1.       D 公共交通运输对城市扩展的影响。文章开门见山提出这一点“公共交通运输从三个根本方面改变了美国城市的社会和经济结构。”后面文章内容就是三方面的具体化。

　　A. 公共交通运输类型。 B. 城市生活的不稳定性。 C. 供需如何决定土地利用。这三项文中作为具体问题提到，并不是文章涉及的主要题目。

　　2.       C 说明公共交通改变了许多城市。答案箭第一段第四句“举例说，1850年，波士顿市界离老的商业地区几乎不到2英里，到了这世纪末，其半径扩至10英里。现在供得起的人们可以住得很远，远离老的城市中心，仍然来回去那里上班、购物和娱乐”。第七句，“举例说，在1890至1920年期间，据记载，芝加哥市界内有约250，000个新的住宅楼区大多数设在郊区。经过同样这段时期，市区外，但仍在芝加哥大都市地区内，又计划建造了550，000个住宅楼区。”

　　A. 表示成长的正反两方面效果。B. 举有无公共交通运输的城市为例。 D. 对比两者成长率；都不是本文中举两城市例子的目的。

　　3.       C 没有计划。见第二段第三句起“城市扩展蔓延根本无计划，好几千个小的投资商进行扩展，毫不考虑相互协调配合利用土地，也不考虑未来土地利用。”

　　A. 太贵 和 B。太慢，两个选项，文内没有提。D. 它创造了对公共交通运输的需求。这不是住宅扩展的一个缺点，而是三个根本改变城市的一个方面。见第一段第三句：“通过大量开发未占土地扩建住宅，公共汽车、马车、铁路、来回火车，有轨电车把已有人定居的居住区向外扩展了三四倍，比他们先现代时期的市中心更远。”

　　4.       C(第二段中以芝加哥城市例子说明)土地开发超过人口增长速度。答案详见第二段“这些购买和置备土地建设住宅，特别是购置临近城市或就在市界外的土地，抢在交通线路和中产阶层的居民进去之前。他们这样做的目的是创造一种需求，也是响应这种需求。芝加哥就是这种过程的典型例子。那里的房地产小块土地比人口增长快得很多很多。”

　　A. 城市大。B. 用作土地开发的样板。 D. 具有优越的公共的交通系统。

　　Passage Nine(Holmes’ Knowledge)

　　His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system。

　　“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones。”

　　“But the Solar System! ” I protested。

　　“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently。

　　One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it。

　　Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer。

　　“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”

　　This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it。

　　1.       What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?

　　[A]Praising。

　　[B]Critical。

　　[C]Ironical。

　　[D]Distaste。

　　2.       What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?

　　[A]By deduction。

　　[B]By explanation。

　　[C]By contrast。

　　[D]By analysis。

　　3.       What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?

　　[A]Learning what every body learned。

　　[B]Learning what was useful to you。

　　[C]Learning whatever you came across。

　　[D]Learning what was different to you。

　　4.       What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?

　　[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation。

　　[B]One may become rather critical through observation and analysis。

　　[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis。

　　[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis。

　　Vocabulary

　　1.       Thomas Carlyle             托马斯·卡莱尔 1795-1881美国作家、历史家、哲学家

　　2.       jumble (up)               搞乱，使混乱

　　3.       lay hand on (upon) sth.        抓住，找到

　　4.       at best                     最好的情况下

　　5.       elbow out (off)                用胳膊肘挤出，推出

　　6.       deuce = devil        

　　what the deuce is it to me?     这里表示福尔摩斯的厌恶心理。义：这倒霉的词儿与我有什么关系？

　　7.       while away the time            消磨/打发时间

　　8.       shrewdness               机敏，敏锐，犀利

　　9.       far-fetched               牵强附会，不自然

　　10.   fathom                    看穿/透，推测，探索

　　11.   infallible                   一贯正确

　　12.   uninitiated                对某事无知的

　　13.   Euclid                     欧几里德(古希腊数学家)

　　14.   necromancer                      巫师

　　难句译注

　　1.       A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it。

　　【结构简析】主从句结构，主句A fool … 后跟lumber的定从that he comes across。从句so that 中有一knowledge的定从which; or链接前后两个分词crowded out 与jumbled up;但第一个so that 从句又是后面so that 的主句。

　　【参考译文】蠢人把他碰到的每种木材(制家具)都拿进来。这样，可能对他有用的知识都被挤出去；最好的情况下，也是和其他种种事情混在一起，所以他就很难抓住知识。

　　2.       Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way。

　　【结构简析】并列句，连词and后的句中有宾从how much…。

　　【参考译文】这片文章稍有炫耀的标题是“生命之书”。它想证明一个善于观察的人通过对他经历到的一切事情都进行真正地系统地考察可以学到多少东西。

　　3.       So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer。

　　【结构简析】复合主从句，so that句型。So句是倒装。正常句型应为：His results would appear so startling to the uninitiated that…，that句中又是主从句，从句用until连接，中插by which定语从句修饰 the processes。

　　【参考译文】他的结论对无知的人来说是那么惊人，所以他们很可能认为他是个巫师，除非他们学会了他用以得出结论的过程。

　　4.       Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it。

　　【结构简析】并列句，nor连接。前一句中有定语从句which修饰one，后一句nor为否定词。

　　【参考译文】像所有的其他艺术一样，演绎分析科学是一种通过长期默默的研究，可以习得的学问，而我们的生命并不长得足以使任何凡人都能在这一领域取得可能是臻美的成就。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是一篇“传记”，作者采用以反衬正的对比手法写出了福尔摩斯之惊人才华。第一句话开明宗旨“他的无知和他的有知一样卓越惊人”，接着就是种种无知，达到突出其有知的成就。两方面表达，一是福尔摩斯对无知的解释：不能照单全收；二是作者的反对见解衬托福之才华超人，能一滴水见大海。

　　答案详解

　　1.       A 赞扬。作者以无知烘托人物之有知，以他本人的反对批评观点来证明人物的正确。否定及所谓机刺旨在铺垫。正反对比赞扬福之精明强悍，才智超人，洞察力强。

　　2.       C 作者采用对比手法。

　　3.       B 学习对你有用之物。第二段福之表白，他把头脑比作一个小小的空屋，不能随意选择家具(知识)塞满空间，应选择“有用之才”，免得填满了废物，把有用之才挤出去。

　　4.       C 通过观察和分析人会变得很敏锐。最后二段都是讲福所写文章的内容。善于观察和分析的人可以一眼看透人之本质，一点水能知大西洋。这种一叶知秋的本领是通过长期观察、分析研究而得。也就是说，通过观察分析，人可以变得敏感聪慧，因为万物都有联系。