Reading Comprehension

In this section there are five passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.

 

TEXT A

All Sir William Jones wanted to do was to learn Sanskrit. While he was studying, however, he made a surprising discovery. This ancient language of India was amazingly similar to Latin and Greek. The Sanskrit word for “mother"一matar - was almost identical to the Latin word, matar. “Father" was pitar Sanskrit, pater in Latin and Greek. The more he studied, the more similarities he found.

How could this be? Thousands of miles and many natural barriers separated India and Europe.Sill, Jones concluded, the similarities were too strong to be accidental. In 1786, he announced“No one could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source."

Since then, scholars have traced many languages to this“common source." Today, these languages are called the Indo-European family. But where did this source originate? Language and geography provide the clues. European languages have similar words for the animals and trees of northern Europe,such as oak, willow, bear, and wolf. There are no common words for the animals and trees of southern Europe.

To scholars, this suggests that the Indo-European languages began in north central Europe. In time, some northern Europeans set out toward the east, settling in lran, India, and Pakistan. Others migrated westward toward southern and western Europe. The root language developed into dozens of different languages, but the family resemblances remain. The word for“three”is drei in German, tries in Spanish, tire in Albanian, and tire in Russian.

Almost every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family, but there are exceptions.Hungarian and Finnish cling to other language families. High in the Pyrenees, the Basque people speak a language that has no known relatives. Perhaps the Basques were the original inhabitants of the region.Isolated by mountains, they may have been bypassed by the spread of Indo-European culture.

 

1. What did Sir William Jones discover when he was learning Sanskrit?

A. Sanskrit was very similar to some European languages.

B. Sanskrit was an ancient language.

C. The Sanskrit word for mother is the same as that in Latin.

D. Latin and Greek were very similar to Sanskrit.

2. Which of the oil owing statements is true about“the common source ?

A. Jones found out the common source.

B. All languages sprang from the common source.

C. Only three languages sprang from the common source.

D. Since 1786, scholars have traced many languages to the common source.

3. Where did the common source originate?

A. In southern Europe.

B. In north-central Europe.

C. In India.

D. In Pakistan.

4. What can be concluded from the passage?

A. Jones first discovered the root language.

B. The languages with the common source are called the Indo-European family.

C. The root language developed into different languages as people migrated.

D. Every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family.

 

TEXT B

Your first culture shock came after you left your home country and you needed to adjust to the United States. It is now important to learn cultural information about your company, so that you will in and perform successfully The people who make up this environment have their own customs, habits and expectations of each new employee. Gathering information that is formal (policy) and informal (traditions) will help you learn the professional norms and become fully accepted.

Policies are corporate documents describing procedures, rules, and standards that guide decision making and conduct. They are similar to official laws that govern a country. Some sources of such written company information include the annual report, product or service brochures, technical and procedural manual, employee directory and the company newsletter. Organizational traditions are usually unwritten but common practices that have evolved over time. They set the tone and philosophy of the particular corporation, just as the customs of a country do. The best way to learn such information is to observe and talk with others such as your supervisor and co- workers.

You can supplement ideas from formal introductory materials given you earlier. Explore with follow，employees those behaviors that may be tolerated but frowned upon. Ask your supervisor for feedback to avoid typical traps that could cause your co-workers to reject you as a professional. Keep this guide nearby, and refer to it often in private. Reviewing formal company procedures, handouts, written notes,ideas, comments from bosses and colleagues, together with materials in this handbook, will help you make a more healthy cultural adjustment.

5. What is the purpose to learn cultural information?

A. To know the USA better.

B. To work better in the new environment.

C. To make more money.

D. To improve one's English.

6. According to the passage,___is not the policy's function.

A. describing procedures, rules and standards

B. governing a country

C. helping to guide decision making and conduct

D. writing down the company's information

7.____is the best way to learn the organizational traditions.

A. To read the policies

B. To study the philosophy

C. To study a country's customs

D. To observe and communicate with the colleagues and boss

8. How to make a more healthy cultural adjustment?

A. Read this passage often.

B. Discuss the organizational culture with your colleagues.

C. Gather and review the formal and informal information in the corporation.

D. Ask your boss for help.

9. The passage is written to_____

A. help readers to understand the organization's culture

B. explain the culture shock

C. analyze the policies and traditions

D. help readers to work better with their supervisor and co-workers

TEXT C

"White hostility toward African Americans, and the resulting discrimination, have been fueled by a sense of threat. During slavery, many working class whites, encouraged by slaveholders, feared the release of large numbers of blacks into the labor market and society in general. When northern industries used African Americans as strikebreakers in the first decades of this century, white workers feared the loss of their jobs. Today, many white Americans fear“black violence." Moreover, specific fears about the“costs" of welfare as well as the“taking”" of jobs through affirmative action have added to the fear of black violence.

These fears have translated into negative stereotypes of African Americans as a people who are prone to crime and violence, unwilling to work, and a drain on the white taxpayer through their welfare dependency. In turn, these stereotypes have been used to justify informal discrimination, to prevent the help to the urban poor, to be negligent in enforcing laws or policies prohibiting discrimination practices against black workers, and most important, to hesitate in making a serious effort at job African Americans. The result is that African Americans' share of valued resources  has not increased much over the last two decades, even as formal discrimination has been greatly lessened. That fact is used to further the negative belief that African Americans have "not taken advantage of their equal opportunities.

10. According to the passage, how did the northern industries make of. African Americans in the 1900s?

A. Sent them to ask the strikers to go back to work.

B. Made them work very hard.

C. Employed them to threaten the white strikers.

D. Released them into the labor market.

11. What is the ill influence of these negative stereotypes?

A. Giving help to the poor black.

B. Justifying informal discrimination.

C. Enforcing laws prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers.

D. Creating opportunities of employment for the black.

12. What can be inferred from“a drain on the white taxpayer" about the African Americans?

A. They are unwilling to work.

B. They never pay tax.

C. They lack security.

D. Their welfare depends on the white's tax.

13. The author wrote the passage to tell us.

A. African Americans pose a threat to the whites in employment

B. African Americans are dependent on the tax paid by the whites

C. African Americans are discriminated against because they are often on strike

D. the sense of threat intensifies the white's hostility and discrimination against the African Americans

 

TEXT D

"People thought or themselves as having rights from companies, said Hoshua Freeman, a labour historian at Columbia University. That sense of entitlement grew even stronger in the early decades after World War ll and collective bargaining became the arena for arguing out wags, pensions, best insurance, vacations, hours and job security. That system is disappearing today. Career-long attachments to one employer, a notion ban

in the 1720s, are no longer the norm. The new class-consciousness makes Less distinction between workers and managers. Rights are relative, at best. An increasingly conservative electorate has reduced governments role in regulating the economy. Unions have lost influence and membership.

What people do Is try to cope, by themselves, said Ms. Skelly, of DYG. self-employment ts one solution, I)Y(s polls show, and that Is a rising trend. "They try, on the pub, to hide any weakness in their performance," she said. "They work longer hours and take work home, without letting the boss know,to give the impression that they can do difficult tasks quickly. There is nothing like, we are all in this together" There is too much competition. People talk of their weakness to fiends and spouse, but not to coworkers."

And many Americans feel in their hearts that the unemployment might be justified. "There is a among people that we are inefficient and bloated," Ms. Skelly said.“And until they feel that is no longer true, they are reluctant to criticize the forces that are cutting out the fat and the inefficiencies."

14. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that.

A. people do not enjoy their rights nowadays

B. people are more likely to change their jobs than they were in the 1920s

C. workers and managers share the same rights today

D. nowadays, people refuse to take part in the Union

15. According to Ms. Skelly, which of the following is true?

A. People like to work overtime.

B. People want to work at home.

C. People want to impress the boss with their capability and efficiency.

D. People need help from their families, for they cannot cope with difficult problems themselves.

16. People hide their weakness from,

A. their parents

B. their wives or husbands

C. their friends

D. their colleagues

17. The main idea of the passage is_

A. people thought of themselves ass haring rights from companies

B. people's sense of entitlement is not as strong as it used to be

C. people work at home

D. people regard unemployment as usual

 

TEXT E

You may not have thought of it just this way, but the letter you write is part of you, and expression of your personality. Therefore to write letters that are mere patterns of form is to present a colorless personality.

Letters, by their very nature, are too individual to be standardized. A letter may be absolutely perfect according to the standards of good taste and good form; but unless it also expresses something of the writer's personality, it is not a good letter.

In other words, don't be satisfied to write letters that are just correct and nothing more. Try to write letters that are correct for you .. letters that are warm and alive with reflections of your own personality.

And if this sounds like a platitude (陈词滥调), stop for a moment and think back over your recent correspondence. What was the most interesting letter you received? Was it a letter anyone could have written? Or was it a letter that instantly“came alive" as you read it一that brought the personality of the sender right into the room with you as though you were face to face, listening instead of reading;

The fault with too many letters, today as in the past - the reason so many letters are dull and lie less, and often fail to accomplish the purpose for which they are written is simply this: They sound exactly like the letters everyone else writes. They are neither exciting to receive nor stimulating to read.

18. What does the author mean by saying“the letter you write is part of you"?

A. Writing letters plays an important part in your life.

B. When you write letters, you should be careful about what to write.

C. People can see your personality from the letters you write.

D. You should write good letters.

19. What does the author want to explain in the fourth paragraph?

A. A good letter presents one's personality.

B. His opinion is a platitude.

C. Letter-writing is interesting.

D. Talking face to face is a better way to communicate than writing letters.

20. The best title for the passage is.

A. Letter Writing

B. Personality in Letter Writing

C. To Write Interesting Letters

D. To Write Correct Letters