97年8月 托福聽(tīng)力文字 Part A
1. A: You know the noise in my dorm has really gotten out of control. My roommate and
I can rarely get to sleep before midnight.
B: Why don’t you take the problem up with the dorm supervisor?
What does the man suggest the woman do?
2. A: That’s a nice computer you have.
B: Now all I have to do is figure out how to use it.
What does the man imply?
3. A: Your little nephew is growing by leaps and bounce.
B: Yes. He must be at least three feet tall already.
What do the speakers say about the woman’s nephew?
4. A: Debra said she’s going to stay up all night studying for her exam tomorrow morning.
B: Wouldn’t she be better off getting a good night sleep so she’ll feel fresh in the morning?
What does the man imply?
5. A: Did you pick up your letter at the post office?
B: No. I got my roommate to do it.
What happened to the letter?
6. A: Have you asked your brother to do the dishes?
B: Thousands of times.
What does the man mean?
7. A: Tom and I are having a party next week. We wonder if you and Joe would be free
to join us.
B: Sounds great. But I’d better talk to Joe before we say yes.
What does the man imply?
8. A: Hi. I see you’re walking. Where’s your bicycle today?
B: Oh, I bent the wheel yesterday so I had to take it to the shop.
What does the woman mean?
9. A: Joe took a taxi home alone ten minutes ago.
B: I wonder why he didn’t wait for me to go with him.
What does the woman mean?
10. A: I hear you older sister is on the Olympic team and on the honor’s list. She must
be quite a person.
B: She sure is. I’ve always looked up to her.
What does the man say about his sister?
11. A: What a morning! My train usually takes 45 minutes, but today it took me over an
hour to get to campus.
B: I saw signs in the station that construction will be going on for the next three
months.
What can be inferred from the conversation?
12. A: On my way up to your office I found this briefcase in the elevator. What do you
think I should do?
B: Take it to the receptionist. The lost-and-found box’s there.
What does the man suggest the woman do?
13. A: Could you please tell me where I can find a CD by the Beetles?
B: Sure. It will be over there with all the CDs and pop rock. They are arranged
alphabetically by group.
In what kind of store does this conversation take place?
14. A: Have you heard that Prof. Jones is retiring?
B: Yes. The faculty won’t find anyone to fill her shoes.
What does the woman imply about Prof. Jones?
15. A: What a wonderful performance! The marching band has never sounded better.
B: Thanks. I guess all those hours of practices are finally paying off.
What does the woman mean?
16. A: What’s Laura doing here today? I thought she was supposed to be out of the
office on Mondays.
B: She decided she’d rather have Fridays off instead.
What can be inferred about Laura?
17. A: I’ve got a coupon for half-off diner at that new restaurant down the street. I think
I’ll use it when my cousin comes for a visit this weekend.
B: Where did you get it? I wouldn’t mind trying that place out too.
What does the man want to know?
18. A: I’m thinking of getting a new printer.
B: I’d invest in a laser printer. The print quality’s much better.
What does the woman mean?
19. A: We’ve got a whole hour before the Browns come by to pick us up.
B: Yeah. But we’d better get moving.
What does the woman suggest they do?
20. A: Do you still want to go to graduate school after you get out of college?
B: I’ve changed my mind about that. I want to start working before I go back to
school.
What does the woman mean?
21. A: I just heard there are going to be showers on and off all weekend.
B: There goes the picnic.
What does the man mean?
22. A: I’m getting worried about Jennifer. All she talks about these days is her volleyball
team and all she does is practice.
B: Her grades will fall for sure. Let’s try to find her after diner and talk some sense
into her.
What are the speakers probably going to tell Jennifer?
23. A: I’m not sure that Mike will be able to find an apartment before school starts, even
though he’s been looking for weeks.
B: Frankly I think the odds are against him at this point.
What does the man mean?
24. A: I’m not accustomed to using a gas stove.
B: It’s simple. Just turn the knob until the burner lights then adjust the flame.
What is the man going to do?
25. A: I must admit that since I started exercising I’ve been feeling less tied.
B: What did I tell you?
What does the man mean?
26. A: The subway sure is packed this morning.
B: Yeah, it’s a pain that if we all drove everyday we wouldn’t be able to breath in this
city.
What does the woman imply?
27. A: This room is freezing!
B: You can say that again.
What does the woman mean?
28. A: I’m really sorry my article didn’t make the deadline. I guess that held up
everything, huh?
B: Well, um, not exactly. But I wouldn’t look for it in this month’s newsletter.
What does the woman imply?
29. A: If you could, would you trade places with your sister?
B: Yeah. She’s got it made.
What does the woman mean?
30. A: Don’t you want to have diner before you go to your evening class?
B: I’ll grab a snack at the break. That should hold me over till I get back.
What will the woman probably do? Part B
Questions 31-35 Listen to a telephone conversation about student housing.
Good morning, housing office. How can I help you?
Hi. I’m calling about the new subsidized low-cost housing for graduate students.
Are you aware that it’s only available to married graduate students and their families?
Yes. I think my wife and I may qualify, since she’s still in graduate school. But I was
wondering whether there were any other requirements.
Well, unless you have more than one child, you have to have a combined annual
income that’s less than 15,000 dollars.
I’m working as a part-time research assistant, so that’s no problem. But right now
we’re living with my wife’s parents. Does that mean we have to include their income too?
Not necessarily. Why don’t you stop by our office so I can give you some forms to fill
out and explain everything in more detail?
That sounds like a good idea. Would tomorrow morning be all right?
The afternoon might be better. It can be pretty crazy around here on a Friday
morning.
All right, then. I’ll try to make it in the afternoon. Is there anyone special I should
ask for?
You can ask for me, Susan Davison or my assistant Bill Brown.
31. Why does the man call the woman?
32. Where does the man live?
33. Why does the man believe he’s eligible for low-cost housing?
34. What can be inferred about the man?
35. Why does the woman suggest that the man visit her office in the afternoon? Questions 36-38 Listen to a discussion about the Ice Age.
Hey, Jane. What’s so interesting?
What? Oh, hi, Tom. I’m reading this fascinating article on the societies of the Ice
Age during the Pleistocene period.
The Ice Age? There weren’t any societies then, just the bunch of cave people.
That’s what people used to think. But a new exhibition at the American Museum of
National History shows that ice age people were surprisingly advanced.
Oh, really? In what ways?
Well, ice age people were the inventors of languages, art and music as we know it.
And they didn’t live in caves. They built their own shelters.
What did they use to build them? The cold weather would have killed almost of the
trees, so they couldn’t have use wood.
In some the warmer climates, they did build houses of wood. In other places, they
used animal bones and skins or lived in natural stone shelters.
How did they stay warm? Animal skin walls don’t sound very sturdy.
Well, it says here, that in the early Ice Age, they often faced their homes towards the
south to take advantage of the sun, a primitive sort of solar heating.
Hey, that’s pretty smart!
Then people in the late Ice Age even insulated their homes by putting heated
cobblestones on the floor.
I guess I spoke too soon. Can I read that magazine article after you’re done? I
think I’m going to try to impress my anthropology teacher with my amazing knowledge of
Ice Age civilization.
Ha… What a show-off?
36. What did the man think about the people of the Ice Age?
37. How did people in the early Ice Age keep warm?
38. What does the man want the woman to do?
Part C
Questions 39-43 Listen as a guide describes the ancient art of thatching a roof.
Welcome to the Forewinds Historical Farm where traditions of the past are preserved
for visitors like you. Today our master thatchers will begin giving this barn behind me a
sturdy thatched roof able to withstand heavy winds and last up to a hundred years. How
did they do it? Well, in a nutshell , fetching involves covering the beams or rafters, the
wooden skeleton of a roof, with reeds or straw. Our thatchers here have harvested their
own natural materials for the job the bundles of water reeds you see lying over there
beside the barn. Thatching is certainly uncommon in the United States today. I guess
that’s why so many of you have come to see this demonstration.
But it wasn’t always that way. In the 17th century the colonists here thatched their
roofs with reeds and straw, just as they had done in England. After a while though, they
began to replace the thatch with wooden shingles, because woods were so plentiful.
And eventually, other roofing materials like stones, slates and clay tiles came into use.
It’s a real shame that most people today don’t realize how strong and long lasting a
thatched roof is. In Ireland, where thatching is still practiced, the roofs can survive winds
of up to 110 miles per hour. That’s because straw and reeds are so flexible. They bend
but don’t break in the wind like other materials can. Another advantage’s that the roofs
keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. And then of course, there’s
the roof’s longevity. The average is sixty years, but they can last up to a hundred.
With all these reasons to start thatching roofs again wouldn’t it be wonderful to see this
disappearing craft to return to popularity.
39. What is about to be demonstrated?
40. What are thatch roofs made of?
41. According to the speaker, why did thatching die out in the United States?
42. According to the speaker, why does thatch survive strong winds?
43. According to the speaker, how might thatching become popular again?
Questions 44-46 Listen to a radio news story.
A lot of people in the United States are coffee drinkers. Over the last few years, a
trend has been developing to introduce premium specially blended coffees known as
gourmet coffees into the American market. Boston seems to have been the birthplace
of this trend. In fact, major gourmet coffee merchants from other cities like Seattle and
San Francisco came to Boston, where today they engaged in a kind of coffee war with
Boston’s merchants. They are all competing for a significant share of the gourmet coffee
market. Surprisingly, the competition among these leading gourmet coffee businesses
will not hurt any of them. Experts predict that the gourmet coffee market in the United
States is growing and will continue to grow to the point that gourmet coffee will soon
capture a half of what is now a 1.5 million-dollar market and will be an 8 million-dollar
market by 1999. Studies have shown that coffee drinkers who convert to gourmet coffee
seldom go back to the regular brands found in supermarkets. As a result, these brands
will be the real losers in the gourmet coffee competition.
44. What is the main topic of the news story?
45. What probably leads people to choose gourmet coffees over regular brands?
46. What will probably happen in the future to stores that sell only regular brands of
coffee?
Questions 47-50 Listen to part of a talk in an art history class.
You may remember that a few weeks ago we discussed the question of what
photography is. Is it art, or is it a method of reproducing images? Do photographs
belong in museums or just in our homes? Today I want to talk about a person who tried
to make his professional life an answer to such questions. Alfred Stieglitz went from the
United States to Germany to study engineering. While he was there, he became
interested in photography and began to experiment with his camera. He took pictures
under conditions that most photographers considered too difficult. He took them at night,
in the rain and of people and objects reflected in windows. When he returned to the
United States, he continued these revolutionary efforts.
Stieglitz was the first person to photograph skyscrapers, clouds and views from an
airplane. What Stieglitz was trying to do in his photographs was what he tried to do
throughout his life: make photography an art. He thought that photography could be just
as beautiful a form of self-expression as painting or drawing. For Stieglitz, his camera
was his brush. While many photographers of the late 1800s and early 1900s thought of
their work as a reproduction of identical images, Stieglitz saw his as a creative art form.
He understood the power of the camera to capture the moment. In fact, he never
retouched his prints or made copies of them. If he were in this classroom today, I’m
sure he’d say, “Well, painters don’t normally make extra copies of their paintings, do
they?”
47. What is the professor mainly discussing?
48. What question had the professor raised in the previous class?
49. What does the professor imply about the photographs Stieglitz took at night?
50. Why did Stieglitz choose not to make copies of his photographs? 1997年8月托福考試閱讀理解全真試題 Question 1-10
In the 1600 s when the Spanish moved into what later
was to become the southwestern United States, they encoun-
tered the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo, Hopi, and Zuni
peoples. These ancestors, known variously as the Basket
Makers, the Anasazi, or the Ancient Ones, had lived in the
area for at least 2,000 years. They were an advanced agricultural
people who used irrigation to help grow their crops.
The Anasazi lived in houses constructed of adobe and
wood. Anasazi houses were originally built in pits and were
entered from the roof. But around the year 700 A.D., the
Anasazi began to build their homes above ground and join them
together into rambling multistoried complexes, which the
Spanish called pueblos or villages. Separate subterranean rooms
in these pueblos---known as kivas or chapels---were set aside
for religious ceremonials. Each kiva had a fire pit and a hole
that was believed to lead to the underworld. The largest pueblos
had five stories and more than 800 rooms.
The Anasazi family was matrilineal, that is, descent was
traced through the female. The sacred objects of the family
were under the control of the oldest female, but the actual
ceremonies were conducted by her brother or son. Women owned
the rooms in the pueblo and the crops, once they were harvested.
While still growing, crops belonged to the man who,
in contrast to most other Native American groups, planted
them. The women made baskets and pottery, the men wove
textile and crafted turquoise jewelry.
Each village had two chiefs. The village chief dealt with
land disputes and religious affairs. The war chief led the men
in fighting during occasional conflicts that broke out with
neighboring villages and directed the men in community building
projects. The cohesive political and social organization of
the Anasazi made it almost impossible for other groups to
conquer them.
1. The Anasazi people were considered "agriculturally advanced" because of the way they
(A) stored their crops
(B) fertilized their fields.
(C) watered their crops.
(D) planted their fields.
2.The Anasazi people were considered "agriculturally advanced" because of the way they
(A) stored their crops
(B) fertilized their fields
(C) watered their crops
(D) planted their fields
3.The word "pits" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
(A) stages
(B) scars
(C) seeds
(D) holes.
4.The word "stories" in line 17 is closest in meaning to
(A) articles
(B) tales
(C) levels
(D) rumors
5.Who would have been most likely to control the sacred objects of an Anasazi family?
(A) A twenty-year-old man
(B) A twenty-year-old woman
(C) A forty-year-old man
(D) A forty-year-old woman
6.The word "they" in line 22 refers to
(A) women
(B) crops
(C) rooms
(D) pueblos
7.The word "disputes" in line 28 is closest in meaning to
(A) discussions
(B) arguments
(C) developments
(D) purchases
8.Which of the following activities was NOT done by Anasazi men?
(A) Making baskets
(B) Planting crops
(C) Building homes
(D) Crafting jewelry.
9.According to the passage, what made it almost impossible for other groups to conquer the Anasazi?
(A) The political and social organization of the Anasazi
(B) The military tactics employed by the Anasazi
(C) The Anasazi s agricultural technology.
(D) The natural barriers surrounding Anasazi willages.
10.The passage supports which of the following generalizations?
(A) The presence of the Spanish threatened Anasazi society.
(B) The Anasazi benefited from trading relations with the Spanish.
(C) Anasazi society exhibited a well-defined division of labor.
(D) Conflicts between neighboring Anasazi villages were easily resolved.
Question 10-20
Barbed wire, first patented in the United States in 1867,
played an important part in the development of American
farming, as it enabled the settlers to make effective fencing to
enclose their land and keep cattle away from their crops. This
had a considerable effect on cattle ranching, since the herds no
longer had unrestricted use of the plans for grazing, and the
fencing led to conflict between the farmers and the cattle
ranchers.
Before barbed wire came into general use, fencing was often
made from serrated wire, which was unsatisfactory because
it broke easily when under strain, and could snap in cold
weather due to contraction. The first practical machine for
producing barbed wire was invented in 1874 by an Illinois
farmer, and between then and the end of the century about
400 types of barbed wire were devised, of which only about a
dozen were ever put to practical use.
Modern barbed wire is made from mild steel high-tensile
steel, or aluminum. Mild steel and aluminum barbed wire
have two strands twisted together to form a cable which is
stronger than single-strand wire and less affected by temperature
changes. Single-strand wire, round or oval, is made from
high-tensile steel with the barbs crimped or welded on . The
steel wires used are galvanized - coated with zinc to make
them rustproof. The two wires that make up the line wire or
cable are fed separately into a machine at one end. They leave
it at the other end twisted-together and barbed. The wire to
make the barbs is fed into the machine from the sides and cut
to length by knives that cut diagonally through the wire to
produce a sharp point. This process continues automatically,
and the finished barbed wire is wound onto reels, usually made
of wire in length of 400 meters or in weights of up to 50
kilograms.
A variation of barbed wire is also used for military
purposes. It is formed into long coils or entanglements called
concertina wire.
11.What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) Cattle ranching in the United States.
(B) A type of fencing
(C) Industrial uses of wire
(D) A controversy over land use.
12.The word "unrestricted" in line 5 is closest in meaning to
(A) unsatisfactory
(B) difficult
(C) considerable
(D) unlimited
13.The word "snap" in line 10 could best be replaced by which of the following?
(A) freeze
(B) click
(C) loosen
(D) break
14.What is the benefit of using two-stranded barbed wire?
(A) Improved rust-resistance
(B) Increased strength
(C) More rapid attachment of barbs
(D) Easier installation.
15.According to the author, the steel wires used to make barbed wire are specially processed to
(A) protect them against rust
(B) make them more flexible
(C) prevent contraction in cold weather
(D) straighten them.
16.The word "fed" in line 24 is closest in meaning to
(A) put
(B) eaten
(C) bitten
(D) nourished
17.The knives referred to in line 27 are used to
(A) separate double-stranded wire
(B) prevent the reel from advancing too rapidly
(C) twist the wire
(D) cut the wire that becomes barbs
18.What is the author s purpose in the third paragraph?
(A) To explain the importance of the wire.
(B) To outline the difficulty of making the wire
(C) To describe how the wire is made
(D) To suggest several different uses of the wire.
19.According to the passage, concertina wire is used for
(A) livestock management
(B) international communications
(C) prison enclosures
(D) military purposes.
20.Which of the following most closely resembles the fencing described in the passage?
(A) （圖）
(B) （圖）
(C) （圖）
(D) （圖）
Question 21-29
Under certain circumstance the human body must cope
with gases at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. For
example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a dive made
with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers
to stay underwater longer and dive deeper. The pressure
exerted on the human body increases by 1 atmosphere for every
10 meters of depth in seawater, so that at 30 meters in seawater
a diver is exposed to a pressure of about 4 atmospheres.
The pressure of the gases being breathed must equal the
external pressure applied to the body; otherwise breathing is very
difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a
scuba diver at 40 meters are present at five times their usual
pressure. Nitrogen which composes 80 percent of the air we
breathe usually causes a balmy feeling of well-being at this
pressure. At a depth of 5 atmospheres nitrogen causes symp-
toms resembling alcohol intoxication known as nitrogen narcosis.
Nitrogen narcosis apparently results from a direct effect
on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen dissolved in the
blood. Deep dives are less dangerous if helium is substituted
for nitrogen, because under these pressures helium does not
exert a similar narcotic effect.
As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen in the
lungs increases. Nitrogen then diffuses from the lungs to the
blood and from the blood to body tissues. The reverse occurs
when the diver surfaces; the nitrogen pressure in the lungs
falls and the nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood
and from the blood into the lungs. If the return to the surface
is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse
out rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed . They can
cause severe pains, particularly around the joints.
Another complication may result if the breath is held dur-
ing ascent. During ascent from a depth of 10 meters, the
volume of air in the lungs will double because the air pressure at
the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This
change in volume may cause the lungs to distend and even rup-
ture. This condition is called air embolism. To avoid this
event, a diver must ascent slowly, never at a rate exceeding
the rise of the exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during
ascent.
21.What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The equipment divers use
(B) The effects of pressure on gases in the human body
(C) How to prepare for a deep dive
(D) The symptoms of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream.
22.The word "exposed to" in line 8 are closest in meaning to
(A) leaving behind
(B) prepared for
(C) propelled by
(D) subjected to
23.The word "exert" in line 21 is closest in meaning to
(A) cause
(B) permit
(C) need
(D) change
24.The word "diffuses" in line 23 is closest in meaning to
(A) yields
(B) starts
(C) surfaces
(D) travels
25.What happens to nitrogen in body tissues if a diver ascends too quickly.
(A) It forms bubbles
(B) It goes directly to the brain
(C) It is reabsorbed by the lungs.
(D) It has a narcotic effect.
26.The word "They" in line 29 refers to
(A) joints
(B) pains
(C) bubbles
(D) tissues.
27.The word "rupture" in line 36 is closest in meaning to
(A) hurt
(B) shrink
(C) burst
(D) stop
28.It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following presents the greatest danger to a diver?
(A) Pressurized helium
(B) Nitrogen diffusion
(C) Nitrogen bubbles
(D) An air embolism
29.What should a diver do when ascending?
(A) Rise slowly
(B) Breathe faster
(C) Relax completely
(D) Breathe helium.
Question 29-38
Each advance in microscopic technique has provided
scientists with new perspectives on the function of living
organisms and the nature of matter itself. The invention of the
visible-light microscope late in the sixteenth century introduced a
previously unknown realm of single-celled plants and animals.
In the twentieth century, electron microscopes have provided
direct views of viruses and minuscule surface structures. Now
another type of microscope, one that utilize x-rays rather than
light or electrons, offers a different way of examining tiny
details, it should extend human perception still farther into the
natural world.
The dream of building an x-ray microscope dates to
1895, its development, however, was virtually halted in the
1940 s because the development of the electron microscope
was progressing rapidly. During the 1940 s electron micro-
scopes routinely achieved resolution better than that possible
with a visible-light microscope, while the performance of x-ray
microscopes resisted improvement. In recent years, however,
interest in x-ray microscopes has revived, largely because of
advances such as the development of new sources of x-ray
illumination. As a result, the brightness available today is
millions of times that of x-ray tubes, which, for most of the
century, were the only available sources of soft x-rays.
The new x-ray microscopes considerably improve on the
resolution provided by optical microscopes. They can also be
used to map the distribution of certain chemical elements.
Some can form pictures in extremely short times, others hold
the promise of special capabilities such as three dimensional
imaging. Unlike conventional electron microscopy, x-ray
microscopy enables specimens to be kept in air and in water,
which means that biological samples can be studied under
conditions similar to their natural state. The illumination used,
so-called soft x-rays in the wavelength range of twenty to forty
angstroms (an angstrom is one ten-billionth of a meter), is
also sufficiently penetrating to image intact biological cells in
many cases. Because of the wavelength of the x-rays used,
soft x-ray microscopes will never match the highest resolution
possible with electron microscopes. Rather, their special pro-
perties will make possible investigations that will complement
those performed with light- and electron-based instruments.
30.What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The detail seen through a microscope
(B) Sources of illumination for microscopes
(C) A new kind of microscope
(D) Outdated microscopic technique
31.According to the passage, the invention of the visible-light microscope allowed scientists to
(A) see viruses directly
(B) develop the electron microscope later on
(C) understand more about the distribution of the chemical elements
(D) discover single celled plants and animals they had never seen before.
32.The word "minuscule" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) circular
(B) dangerous
(C) complex
(D) tiny
33.The word "it" in line 10 refers to
(A) a type of microscope
(B) human perception
(C) the natural world
(D) light
34.Why does the another mention me visible light microscope in the first paragraph?
(A) To begin a discussion of sixteenth century discoveries.
(B) To put the x-ray microscope in historical perspective
(C) To show how limited its uses are
(D) To explain how it functioned
35.Why did it take so long to develop the x-ray microscope?
(A) Funds for research were insufficient.
(B) The source of illumination was not bright enough until recently.
(C) Materials used to manufacture x-ray tubes were difficult to obtain
(D) X-ray microscopes were too complicated to operate.
36.The word "enables" in line 30 is closest in meaning to
(A) constitutes
(B) specifies
(C) expands
(D) allows
37.The word "Rather" in line 38 is closest in meaning to
(A) significantly
(B) preferably
(C) somewhat
(D) instead
38.The word "those" in line 40 refers to
(A) properties
(B) investigations
(C) microscopes
(D) x-rays
39.Based on the information in the passage, what can be inferred about x-ray microscopes in the future?
(A) They will probably replace electron microscopes altogether.
(B) They will eventually be much cheaper to produce than they are now.
(C) They will provide information not available from other kinds of microscopes.
(D) They will eventually change the illumination range that they now use.
Question 40-50
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its
freshness, its originality of perspective. Satire rarely offers
original ideas. Instead it presents the familiar in a new form.
Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they
do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes
these conditions seem foolish, harmful or affected. Satire jars
us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that
many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don
Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd, Brave New World
ridicules the pretensions of science, A Modest proposal
dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas
is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists
objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley
and people were aware of famine before Swift.
It was not the
originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was
the manner of expression the satiric method that made them
interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are
aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are
morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulat-ing and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they
brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous
irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles
familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition and speaks in a
personal idiom instead of abstract platitude.
Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived
because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent
reminder that they lived in a world of platitudinous thinking,
cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod
people into an awareness of truth though rarely to any action
on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of
what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious,
sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in
only a slight degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely
hold the ideals that movies attribute to them, nor do ordinary
citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity.
Intelligent people know these things but tend to forget them
when they do not hear them expressed.
40.What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Difficulties of writing satiric literature.
(B) Popular topics of satire
(C) New philosophies emerging from satiric literature
(D) Reasons for the popularity of satire.
41.The word "realization" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) certainly
(B) awareness
(C) surprise
(D) confusion
42.Why does the author mention Don Quirote, Brave New World and A Modest Proposal in lines 8-10?
(A) They are famous examples of satiric literature
(B) They present commonsense solutions to problems.
(C) They are appropriate for readers of all ages.
(D) They are books with similar stories.
43.The word "aesthetically" in line 18 is closest in meaning to
(A) artistically
(B) exceptionally
(C) realistically
(D) dependably
44.Which of the following can be found in satire literature?
(A) Newly emerging philosophies
(B) Odd combinations of objects and ideas
(C) Abstract discussion of moral and ethnics
(D) Wholesome characters who are unselfish.
45.According to the passage, there is a need for satire because people need to be
(A) informed about new scientific developments
(B) exposed to original philosophies when they are formulated
(C) reminded that popular ideas are often inaccurate
(D) told how they can be of service to their communities.
46.The word "refreshing" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
(A) popular
(B) ridiculous
(C) meaningful
(D) unusual
47.The word "they" in line 31 refers to
(A) people
(B) media
(C) ideals
(D) movies
48.The word "devote" in line 35 is closest in meaning to
(A) distinguish
(B) feel affection
(C) prefer
(D) dedicate
49.As a result of reading satiric literature, readers will be most likely to
(A) teach themselves to write fiction
(B) accept conventional points of view
(C) become better informed about current affairs
(D) reexamine their opinions and values
50.The various purposes of satire include all of the following EXCEPT
(A) introducing readers to unfamiliar situations
(B) brushing away illusions
(C) reminding readers of the truth
(D) exposing false values. |
