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1、 PartPart IIII ReadingReading ComprehensionComprehension (35(35 minutes)minutes)PassagePassage OneOneQuestions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smok
2、ing helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived（被剥夺）of cigarettes through a series of tests.In the first test, each subject（试验对象）sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a groupi
3、ng of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well.The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster, but under the
4、stimulation of nicotine（尼古丁）, active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it
5、. Non- smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insigni
6、ficant details.“As our tests became more complex.” Sums up Spilich, “non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins” He predicts, “smokers might perform adequately at many jobs - until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but
7、if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.”21. The purpose of George Spilichs experiments is _.A) to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokersB) to show how smoking damages peoples mental capacityC) to prove that smoking affects peoples regu
8、lar performanceD) to find out whether smoking helps peoples short-term memory22. George Spilichs experiment was conducted in such a way as to _.A) compel the subjects to separate major information from minor detailsB) put the subjects through increasingly complex testsC) check the effectiveness of n
9、icotine on smokersD) register the prompt responses of the subjects23. The word “bested” (Line 3, Para.5) most probably means _.A) beatB) enviedC) caught up withD) made the best of24. Which of the following statements is true?A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.B) Acti
10、ve smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.C) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.D) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.25. We can infer from the last paragraph that _.A) smokers should not expect to become airline p
11、ilotsB) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illnessC) no airline pilots smoke during flightsD) smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency casesPassagePassage TwoTwoQuestions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:There is no denying that students should learn something about how comput
12、ers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal-combustion engine（内燃机） has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons（活塞）being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be help
13、ed by a course that considers the computers impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy（读写能力）; it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art.Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are
14、two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programmin
15、g can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making.Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more “user-friendly”. Let us assume that in the future every
16、one is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase “learning to use a computer” mean? It sounds like “learning to drive a car”, that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer.In fact, “learning to use a computer” is much more like “learning to play a game”, but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game
