閱讀理解題

　　第4部分：閱讀理解（第31～45題，每題3分，共45分）

　　下面有３篇短文，每篇短文后有5道題，每題材后面有4個選項。請仔細(xì)閱讀短文并根據(jù)短文回答其后面的問題，從4個選項中選擇一個最佳答案涂在答題卡相應(yīng)的位置上。

　　第一篇

Valuing Childhood

　　The value of childhood is easily blurred （變得模糊不清） in today's world. Consider some recent developments: The child-murderers in the Jonesboro, Ark. schoolyard shooting case were convicted and sentenced. Two boys, 7 and 8, were charged in the murder of an 11-year-old girl in Chicago.

　　Children who commit horrible crimes appear to act of their own will. Yet, as legal proceedings in Jonesboro showed, the one boy who was able to address the court couldn't begin to explain his acts, though he tried to apologize. There may have been a motive —— youthful jealousy （妒忌） and resentment. But a deeper question remains: Why did these boys and others in similar trouble apparently lack any inner, moral restraint?

　　That question echoes for the accused in Chicago, young as they are. They wanted the girl's bicycle, a selfish impulse common enough among kids.

　　Redemption （拯救） is a practical necessity. How can value be restored to young lives distorted .by acts of violence? The boys in Jonesboro and in Chicago will be confined in institutions for a relatively short time. Despite horror at what was done, children are not cannot be dealt with as adults, not if a people wants to consider itself civilized. That's why politicians' cries for adult treatment of youthful criminals ultimately miss the point.

　　But the moral void （真空） that invites violence has many sources. Family instability contributes. So does economic stress. That void, however, can be filled. The work starts with parents, who have to ask themselves whether they're doing enough to give their children a firm sense of right and wrong. Are they really monitoring their activities and their developing processes of thought?

　　Schools, too, have a role in building character. So do youth organizations. So do law enforcement agencies, which can do more to inform the young about laws, their meaning, and their observance （遵守）.

　　The goal, ultimately, is to allow all children a normal passage from childhood to adulthood （成年）, so that tragic gaps in moral judgement are less likely to occur. The relative few who fill such gaps with acts of violence hint at many others who don't go that far, but Who lack the moral foundations childhood should provide ~ and which progressive human society relies on.

　　31 The two boys in Chicago were

　　A shot.

　　B murdered.

　　C accused.

　　D sentenced.

　　32 The boys in Jonesboro and Chicago apparently lacked a sense of

　　A right and wrong.

　　B discipline.

　　C shame.

　　D safety.

　　33 According to politicians, when children commit crimes, they should be treated in the same way as

　　A murderers.

　　B criminals.

　　C victims.

　　D adults.

　　34 Which of the following does the writer cite as a source of moral void?

　　A Official corruption.

　　B Social injustice.

　　C Family instability.

　　D Racial discrimination.

　　35 Which of the statements is NOT true according to this passage?

　　A Parents should strengthen moral instruction.

　　B　Schools should help create a moral sense in children.

　　C Law enforcement agencies should do more to help children understand laws.

　　D Youth organizations play no role in building character.

　　第二篇

Hacking

　　People tend to think of computers as isolated machines, working away all by themselves. Some do-personal computer without an outside link, like someone's hideaway （隱蔽的） cabin in the woods. But just as most of homes are tied to a community by streets, bus routes and electric lines, computers that exchange intelligence are part of a community m local, national and even global network joined by telephone connections.

　　The computer network is a creation of the electric age, but it is based on old-fashioned trust. It cannot work without trust. A rogue loose （為所欲為的無賴） in a computer system called hacker （黑客） is worse than a thief entering your house. He could go through anyone's electronic mail or add to, change, distort or delete anything in the information stored in the computer's memory. He could even take control of the entire system by placing his own instructions in the software that runs it. He could shut the computer down whenever he wished, and no one could stop him. Then he could program the computer to erase any sign of his ever having been there.

　　Hacking, our electronic-age term for computer break-in, is more and more in the news－brainy kids vandalizing university records, even pranking （胡鬧） about in supposedly safeguarded systems. To those who understand how computer networks are increasingly regulating life in the late 20th century, these are not laughing matters. A potential for disaster is building: A dissatisfied former insurance-company employee wipes out information from payroll （工資表） files. A student sends out a "virus", a secret and destructive command, over a national network. The virus copies itself at lightning speed, jamming the entire network —— thousands of academic, commercial and government computer systems. Such disastrous cases have already occurred. Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer. Spoiling a system responsible for air-traffic control at a busy airport, or knocking out the telephones of a major city, is a relatively easy way to spread panic. Yet neither business nor government has done enough to toughen its defenses against attack. For one thing, such defenses are expensive; for another, they may interrupt communication ——the main reason for using computers in the first place.

　　36 The writer mentions "a thief" in the second paragraph

　　A to show that a hacker is more dangerous than a thief.

　　B to tell people that thieves like to steal computers nowadays.

　　C to demand that a protective computer system should be set up against thieves.

　　D to demonstrate that hackers and thieves are the same people.

　　37 The word "vandalizing" in Line 17 means

　　A "stealing".

　　B "creating".

　　C "destroying",

　　D "updating",

　　38 According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A Hacking is also known as computer break-in.

　　B Experts on computer networks consider hacking nothing serious.

　　C Hacking is a widespread concern.

　　D Hacking is potentially disastrous.

　　39 Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an instance of attack by a hacker?

　　A Deleting information in the computer's memory.

　　B Shutting down the computer whenever he wishes.

　　C Entering your house to steal.

　　D Spoiling a system for air traffic.

　　40 One of the reasons why business or government has not taken tough measures to stop hacking is that

　　A it will cause fear among the public.

　　B hacking has not caused much damage.

　　C tough measures are illegal.

　　D communication may be interrupted.

　　第三篇

Space-Age Archeology

　　It's a strange partnership, but a very effective one: Satellites and space-shuttle-carried radar are helping archeologists. How? By "seeing" through sand or through treetops to locate important archeological sites.

　　The traditional tools of archeologists are shovels and picks. But high technology is making the archeologist's work and time far more productive.

　　Take, for example, the second 1981 flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. During that mission, a powerful, experimental radar was pointed at a lifeless stretch of desert in Egypt called the Selima Sand Sheet （part of the Sahara Desert）. To everyone's surprise, the radar penetrated through the sand to the harder rock beneath. On the surface, there is a little indication that Africa's Sahara Desert was never anything but a desert. When the archeologists studied the radar images, they saw what seemed to be impossible: there was sand-buried landscape that was shaped by flowing water; traces of ancient riverbeds appeared to be over nine miles wide, far wider than most sections of the present-day Nile River. Today, the area is one of the hottest, driest desert in the world.

　　Archeologists dug pits along the old river banks and found clues to the past: stream-rounded pebbles （鵝卵石）, Stone-Age axes, broken ostrich （鴕鳥） eggshells, and the shells of land snails. The archeologists were quite pleased with these findings. For years, they'd been finding stone axes scattered through the desert, and couldn't understand why. Now we know that early humans were living on the banks of old rivers, and left their beautiful tools behind. Some are so sharp that you could shave with them.

　　More recently, Landsat 4, a special Earth-mapping satellite, aided in the discovery of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico. Landsat can, with the help of false-color imagery, "see through" much of the area. Armed with these maps, a five-person expedition took to the air in a helicopter.

　　By the end of the second day, the team found a stretch of walled fields that expedition members said look like "old New England fences". They just go on, non-stop, for 40 miles. Later in the week, an ancient village was pinpointed, as was the "lost" city of Oxpemul, once found in the early 1930's but quickly reclaimed by the jungle. The findings made them able to map the extent of the Mayan civilization in about five days. Working on foot, it would have taken at least 100 years.

　　41 With the help of the space-shuttle-carried radar, archeologists found

　　A a new stretch of the Sahara desert.

　　B traces of ancient riverbeds under the Sahara Desert.

　　C some traditional archeological tools in the Sahara Desert.

　　D a mountain beneath the Sahara Desert.

　　42 Which of the following is true of the sand-buried landscape?

　　A It was an old avenue,

　　B It was an underground river.

　　C It was shaped by flowing water.

　　D It was shaped by the old Nile River.

　　43 The stream-rounded pebbles and Stone-Age axes which were found along the ancient river banks show that

　　A an early human civilization once existed along the old riverbanks.

　　B ancient people didn't know how to make weapons.

　　C most species of animals in Sahara have disappeared.

　　D early humans were good at fighting with sharp weapons.

　　44 "They" in the second line of the last paragraph refers to

　　A old New England fences.

　　B the stretch of walled fields.

　　C the expedition members.

　　D ancient villages.

　　45 Which of the following best summarizes the main information of the passage?

　　A High-tech helps locate many fascinating archeological sites.

　　B Without high-tech, the archeologist's work would come to a stop

　　C High-tech is has taken the place of shovels and picks.

　　D High-tech makes the archeologist's work more fruitful.

　　【參考答案】

　　31. C　　32. B　　33. D　　34. C　　35. D

　　36. A　　37. C　　38. B　　39. C　　40. D

　　41. B　　42. C　　43. A　　44. B　　45. D