2005
PART II READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)
In this ction there are four reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.
TEXT A
I remember meeting him one evening with his pushcart. I had managed to ll all my papers and was coming home in the snow. It was that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East Side.
I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked so lonely, the tears came to my eyes. Then
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he saw me, and his face lit with his sad, beautiful smile—Charlie Chaplin's smile.
"Arch, it's Mikey," he said. "So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a banana. "
He offered me one. I refud it. I felt it crucial that my father ll his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed and joked with me, and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and snow.
"You haven't sold many bananas today, pop," I said anxiously.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"What can I do? No one ems to want them. "
It was true. The work crowds pushed home moroly over the pavements. The rusty sky darkened over New York buildings, the tall street lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father's bananas.
"I ought to yell," said my father dolefully. "I ought to make a big noi like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway, I'm ashamed of yelling, it makes me feel like a fool. "
I had eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it somehow. I must remain here and help my father.
"I'll yell for you, pop," I volunteered.
"Arch, no," he said, "go home; you have worked enough today. Just tell momma I'll be late. "
But I yelled and yelled. My father, standing by, spoke occasional words of prai, and said I was a wonderful yeller. Nobody el paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily, endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed; the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures pouring over t
he sidewalks in snow. None of them stopped to buy bananas. I yelled and yelled, nobody listened.
My father tried to stop me at last. "Nu," he said smiling to console me, "that was wonderful yelling, Mikey. But it's plain we are unlucky today! Let's go home. "
家谱树
I was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells. But at last my father persuaded me to leave with him.
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11. "unyoked" in the first paragraph is clost in meaning to
[A] nt out. [B] relead. [C] dispatched. [D] removed.
12. 汤因比Which of the following in the first paragraph does NOT indicate crowds of people?
暂存盘[A] Thousands of. [B] Flowed. [C] Pouring. [D] Unyoked.
13. Which of the following is intended to be a pair of contrast in the passage?
[A] Huge crowds and lonely individuals. [B] Weather conditions and street lamps.
[C] Clattering trains and peddlers' yells. CD] Moving crowds and street traffic.
14. Which of the following words is NOT suitable to describe the character of the son?
防汛防台
[A] Compassionate. [B] Responsible. [C] Shy. [D] Determined.
鸡毛满天飞15. What is the theme of the story?
[A] The miry of the factory workers. [B] How to survive in a harsh environment.
[C] Generation gap between the father and the son. [D] Love between the father and the son.
16. What is the author's attitude towards the father and the son?
[A] Indifferent. [B] Sympathetic. [C] Appreciative. [D] Difficult to tell.
TEXT B
When former President Ronald Reagan fell and broke his hip at the age of 89, he joined
a group of more than 350,000 elderly Americans who fracture their hips each year. Suffering from advanced Alzheimer's dia, Reagan was in one of the highest-risk groups for this type of accident. The incidence of hip fractures not only increas after age 50, but doubles every five to six years as the risk of falling increas. Slipping and tumbling are not the only caus of hip fractures; weakened bones sometimes break spontaneously. But falling is the major cau, reprenting 90% of all hip fractures.
