1991-2011年考研英语阅读理解真题

第一部分 19912000年_1991 年 Text 1A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for goodmen to do nothing.So,as a police officer,I have some urgent things to say to goodpeople.Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime.Somethinghas gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life.It has happened inthe area of values.A key ingredient is disappearing,and I think I know what it is:accountability.Accountability isnt hard to define.It means that every person is responsible for his orher actions and liable for their consequences.Of the many values that hold civilization together 一 honesty,kindness,and so on-accountability may be the most 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 havenever learned,to impose it on themselves.But as every policeman knows,externalcontrols on peoples behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt,shame and embarrassment.Fortunately there are still communities-smaller towns,usually-where schoolsmaintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim:In this familycertain things are not tolerated-they simply are not done!”Yet more and more,especially in our larger cities and suburbs,these inner restraintsare loosening.Your typical robber has none.He considers your property his property;he takes what he wants,including your life if you enrage him.The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes.Thirty years ago,if acrime was committed,society was considered the victim.Now,in a shocking reversal,its the criminal who is considered victimized:by his underprivileged upbringing,bythe school that didnt teach him to read,by the church that failed to reach him withmoral guidance,by the parents who didnt provide a stable home.I dont believe it.Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not toengage in criminal activities.If we free the criminal,even partly,from accountability,we become a society of endless excuses where no one accepts responsibility foranything.We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person whocommits a crime is the one responsible fbr it.31.What the wise man said suggests that.A its unnecessary for good people to do anything in face of evilB its certain that evil will prevail if good men do nothing about itC its 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 c r i me,.A society is to be held responsibleB modern 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.A less self-disciplineB better sense of disciplinefC more mutual respectD less effective government34.The writer is sorry to have noticed that.AJ people in large cities tend to excuse criminalsBJ 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.AJ 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 belong or short,depending on social expectations and on societys definition as to whatconstitutes maturity and adulthood.In primitive societies adolescence is frequently arelatively short period of time,while in industrial societies with patterns of prolongededucation coupled with laws against child labor,the period of adolescence is muchlonger and may include most of the second decade of ones life.Furthermore,thelength of the adolescent period and the definition of adulthood status may change in agiven society as social and economic conditions change.Examples of this type ofchange are the disappearance of the frontier in the latter part of the nineteenth centuryin the United States,and more universally,the industrialization of an agriculturalsociety.In modern society,ceremonies for adolescence have lost their formal recognition andsymbolic significance and there no longer is agreement as to what constitutesinitiation ceremonies.Social ones have been replaced by a sequence of steps that leadto increased recognition and social status.For example,grade school graduation,highschool graduation and college graduation constitute such a sequence,and while eachstep implies certain behavioral changes and social recognition,the significance ofeach depends on the socio-economic status and the educational ambition of theindividual.Ceremonies for adolescence have also been replac