1996年Passage 4
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal , “spatial” thinking about things technological .
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics ,especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”
A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium” system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.
In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.
Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out , “A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process . . . The designer and the inventor . . . are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist.”
This nonverbal “spatial” thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, “The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.”
When all these shaping forces--schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking--interacted with one another on the rich U. S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic, emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.
66. The best title for this passage might be__
[A]Inventive Mind
[B]Effective Schooling
[C]Ways of Thinking
[D] Outpouring of Inventions
[答案] A
[解题思路]
本文一开始首先提出问题，指出美国早期涌现了大量的创造发明，从第二段开始讨论出现这种现象的多种原因，并指出有创造力的空间思维能力是最重要的因素。文章的主要内容也是围绕这一因素展开，因此A为正确答案。B选项不是文章讨论的重点。C选项的错误在于文章没有讨论各种不同的思维方式。而D选项则是文章第一段用来引出话题的讨论，不能代表文章主要思想。
[题目译文]
本文的最佳标题可能是 。
[A] 具有创造性的头脑
[B] 有效的学校教育
[C] 思维方式
[D] 发明的涌现
1996年Passage 5
Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher’s pipelines. A few have already appeared. The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology , geology , and biology have provided a consistent , unified, and constantly improving account of what happened. \"Scientific\" creationism, which is being pushed by some for “equal time” in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are evil, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of nonfunda mentalist religious leaders have come to regard “scientific” creationism as bad science and bad religion.
The first four chapters of Kitcher’s book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior.
Kitcher is a philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of
his arguments. The nonspecialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and
argument that support evolutionary theory. The final chapter on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: “This book stands for reason itself.” And so it does-and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.
70. This passage appears to be a digest of__
[A]a book review
[B]a scientific paper
[C]a magazine feature
[D] a newspaper editorial
[答案] A
[解题思路]
本题考察文章的来源，实际上也就是对中心思想的考查。综合全文，尤其是每段的第一句话、以及文章对Kitcher这本书的大量评论，可见文章是一篇书评，A为正确选项。
[题目译文]
这篇文章是一片 的摘要。
[A] 书评
[B] 科学论文
[C] 杂志上的特别文章
[D] 报纸社论
2009年考研英语长篇连载：阅读理解A命题思路透析(8)
第三章、情感态度题命题思路透析
Part I、命题规律透析
每一篇文章的作者在写作的时候，都不可避免地在文章中表达自己的情感、态度和观点，有时候这种表达非常直接，而有的时候却又非常模糊、甚至看上去模棱两可。而考生是否能够从作者的字里行间把握作者的情感、态度和观点则是对考生英语阅读能力的一大较高难度的考验。情感态度题一般用于考查考生能够正确理解作者的写作意图、作者对某种现象的看法、对某个问题或事件的观点、对所论述对象的态度。有的时候，这类题目可能避开作者的总体态度，而考查作者对文章中提到的某个细节的观点等，这需要考生在阅读题干的时候加以区分。一般而言，情感态度题涉及到的题目都是文章中相对有争议的问题，而且关于态度的表述可能并没有一个明确的句子，而是分布在文章的各个角落，没有一定的规律，因此难度也相对比较大。
情感态度题常见表达方式
What is the author\'s attitude towards IQ tests?
[A]Supportive. [B]Skeptical. [C]Impartial. [D]Biased (2007)
In the author’s opinion, the absorption of immigrants into American society is
[A]rewarding. [B]successful. [C]fruitless. [D]harmful. (2006)
From the text we can conclude that the author
[A]is supportive of both sides [B]favors the townsfolk’s view
[C]takes a detached attitude [D]is sympathetic (2006)
How do the public feel about the long-term economic situation?
[A]Optimisti[C] [B]Confused [C]Carefree. [D]Panicked (2004)
The author\'s attitude toward Richard Lamm\'s remark is one of
[A]strong disapproval. [B]reserved consent.
[C]slight contempt. [D]enthusiastic support. (2003)
What is many captive shippers\' attitude towards the consolidation in the rail industry?
[A]Indifferent. [B]Supportive. [C]Indignant. [D]Apprehensive. (2003)
From the text we can see that the writer seems .
[A]optimisti[C] [B]sensitive. [C]gloomy. [D]scared (2002)
Towards the new business wave, the writer’s attitude can be said to be .
[A]optimisti[C] [B]objective. [C]perssmistic [D]biased (2001)
The author` s attitude towards the issue seems to be__
[A]biase[D] [B]indifferent. [C]puzzling. [D]objective. (1999)
The author`s attitude toward the issue of “science vs. antiscience” is _____ .
[A]impartial. [B]subjective. [C]biased [D]puzzling. (1998)
The author`s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of _____.
[A]opposition. [B]suspicion. [C]approval. [D]indifference.
其他的提问方式还包括：
According to the author, .
The author’s main purpose in this passage is .
The author argues in the passage that .
The author’s purpose of writing this passage is .
The author’s main thought is that .
The author probably feels that .
What is the mood , tone of the passage?
In this passage the author’s attitude towards … can best be described as .
Which of the following best describe the author’s attitudes towards ?
In the author’s opinion, .
The author holds a(n) attitude towards ...
The author appears to feel that .
从以上例子中我们可以看出，情感态度题的提问方式也有一些规律可循。
首先，题目中一般都会用到the author’s attitude或者attitude 的近义词来进行表述。但是有的时候考查的不是作者的观点态度，而是文中某个人的观点态度，此时都会有according to, in the eyes of 等字样，考生应当加以区分
其次，情感态度题的词语选项一般可以分为以下几种：
（1）褒义词：positive (肯定的, 积极的), optimistic (乐观的), useful (有用的, 有益的), admiring (赞赏的, 钦佩的), interesting (有趣的), instructive (有益的, 教育性的), enthusiastic (热心的, 热情的), supportive (支持的), support(支持), approval (赞成, 承认), approving (满意的), confident (自信的, 确信的), impressed (留下印象的), reverent (尊敬的), polite (有礼貌的, 文雅的)
（2）贬义词：negative (否定的, 消极的), pessimistic (悲观的, 厌世的), subjective (主观的, 个人的), disappointed (失望的), frustrated (失败的, 落空的), critical (批评的), questioning (质疑的), doubtful (可疑的, 不确的), compromising (妥协的), dissatisfied (不满意的, 不高兴的), biased (有偏见的), satirical (讽刺的), tolerant (容忍的, 宽恕的), puzzling (迷惑的), suspicious (怀疑的), gloomy (令人沮丧的), scared (恐惧的), cynical (愤世嫉俗的), oppose (反对), opposition (反对), disgust (令人反感), disgusting (令人厌恶的), worried (闷闷不乐的), depressed (沮丧的), contemptuous (轻蔑的, 侮辱的), hostile (敌对的), opinionated (武断的)
（3）中性词：objective (客观的), impartial (公平的, 不偏不倚的), indifferent (无关紧要的), impassive (冷漠的), detached (超然的，不偏不倚的), concerned (关心的), unconcerned (不关心的), uninterested (不感兴趣的), neutral (中性的), cautious (谨慎的, 小心的), humorous (滑稽的, 诙谐的), apathetic (缺乏兴趣的), disinterested (无私的), sensitive (敏感的), factual (事实的, 实际的), informative (提供资讯的), persuasive (说服的), personal (个人的,), formal (正式的), informal (非正式的), casual (偶然的), analytical (分析的)
情感态度题常见出题位置
1、文章中直接表达作者或者其他人态度的句子。
2、文章中一些感情色彩较浓的词语，尤其是形容词、动词和副词等。
3、文章的第一段和最后一段，尤其是最后一段。
4、文章中出现转折的地方，如nevertheless, however, but, yet等。
5、文章中一些情态动词后面的内容，这些情态动词有should, shouldn’t, must, mustn’t等。
情感态度题正确答案选项的特点
1、很多情况下，作者只是在客观描述一种现象或是一个观点，所以objective作为正确选项的频率极高。
2、一般来说，indifferent不会正确选项，因为作者如果对一个事件漠不关心、就不会专门撰文。另外，向cynical, disgust, deperate等词语如果出现也不会是正确选项，因为一般考研阅读理解所选的文章不会带有如此强烈的情感，如谩骂、攻击等。
3、如果作者开篇就提出了一个观点，而全文中有没有转折和对比的内容，一般来说作者对这个观点持支持态度。
4、如果作者开篇提出一个观点或者引述了别人的观点，而后文出现重要的转折，对上述观点进行批评后者否定，那么作者自己的观点往往与开头提出的观点相反。
5、如果选项中出现了一对反义词，那么正确答案往往是这对反义词中的一个，考生可以忽略其余两个选项。
6、总结历年的文章，我们发现在关于社会科学和人文科学的文章中，一般来说如果作者都会有支持的态度；在关于自然科学的文章中，作者的态度则经常是objective, analytical等。
情感态度题干扰答案选项的特点
1、选项没有体现作者的观点，甚至是相反的意思。
2、选项中张冠李戴，把别人的观点放到了作者头上，或者把作者的观点放到了别人的头上，要加以区分。
3、上文中提到的indifferent 及其同义词和近义词等，以及包含强烈情感的词语。
情感态度题解题方法
1、找到直接表述作者态度的句子，对应相应的选项。
2、如果没有明确表述态度的句子，则从文章的字里行间把握文章的整体基调。
3、注意不要混淆自己的态度和作者的态度，也不要混淆作者的态度和文中其他人的态度。
4、推敲琢磨文章的遣词用句，把握动词、形容词和副词所包含的情感态度。
2009年考研英语长篇连载：阅读理解A命题思路透析(9)
Part II、真题解题
1993年Passage 2
In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic (官僚主义的) management in which man becomes a small , well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and \"human-relations\" experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.
The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.
Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the tight mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again-by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one’ s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness.
Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production or to nineteenth-century \"free enterprise\" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities-those of love and of reason-are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
40. The author’s attitude towards industrialism might best be summarized as one of __
[A] approval
[B] dissatisfaction
[C] suspicion
[D] tolerance
[答案] B
[解题思路]
纵观全文，其主要基调就是表达了对目前这个工业化体制的不满，人在其中失去了个性和独立性。其中，文章第一段最后一句指出“In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management”（事实上，蓝领和白领工人已经成了伴随自动化机器和官僚主义管理方式的节奏翩翩起舞的经济玩偶）。最后一段第二句话进一步指出“I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities-those of love and of reason-are the aims of all social arrangements”（我建议把我们的社会制度从以最大限度生产和最大限度消费为目的的官僚主义管理工业体制变成一个充分发挥人的潜能——如爱和理性的潜能——为目的的人道主义工业体制），要求改变这个社会体制，作者的不满情绪也是显而易见的。
[题目译文]
作者对于工业化的态度用以下哪个词语可以最好的概括？
[A]赞成
[B]不满
[C]怀疑
[D]容忍
1995年Passage l
Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable price, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labour, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television license would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent more.
And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it , and that it represents good value.
Advertising does more for the material benefit of the community than any other force I can think of.
There is one more point I feel I ought to touch on. Recently I heard a well-known television personality declare that he was against advertising because it persuades rather than informs. He was drawing excessively fine distinctions. Of course advertising seeks to persuade.
If its message were confined merely to information-and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive----advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention. But perhaps that is what the well-known television personality wants.
54. In the author’s opinion,__.
[A]advertising can seldom bring material benefit to man by providing information
[B]advertising informs people of new ideas rather than wins them over
[C]there is nothing wrong with advertising in persuading the buyer
[D]the buyer is not interested in getting information from an advertisement
[答案] C
[解题思路]
本题对应于文章最后一段，该段第一句话指出“If its message were confined merely to information-and that in itself would be difficult if not impossible to achieve, for even a detail such as the choice of the colour of a shirt is subtly persuasive----advertising would be so boring that no one would pay any attention”（如果广告内容仅限于提供信息——这件事如果不是不可能，也很难实现，因为即使是对于衬衫颜色的挑选也具有一些劝诱性——那么广告将会变得非常索然无味，甚至没有人会注意到它），这是对那位电视名人的反驳，因而说明作者认为广告试图说服人们购买产品并不是一个问题，因此正确答案为C选项。B选项与原文意思相反，而A和D选项的表述在原文中没有提及。
[题目译文]
在作者看来， 。
[A]广告几乎不能通过提供信息给人们带来物质上的好处
[B]广告诉人们的是新想法，而不是要赢得他们
[C]通过广告来说服人们购买产品并没有什么过错
[D]买东西的人对于从广告中得到信息并不感兴趣
1995年Passage 5
That experiences influence subsequent behaviour is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Learning could not occur without the function popularly named memory. Constant practice has such as effect on memory as to lead to skillful performance on the piano, to recitation of a poem, and even to reading and understanding these words. So-called intelligent behaviour demands memory, remembering being a primary requirement for reasoning. The ability to solve any problem or even to recognize that a problem exists depends on memory. Typically, the decision to cross a street is based on remembering many earlier experiences.
Practice (or review) tends to build and maintain memory for a task or for any learned material. Over a period of no practice what has been learned tends to be forgotten; and the adaptive consequences may not seem obvious. Yet, dramatic instances of sudden forgetting can seem to be adaptive. In this sense, the ability to forget can be interpreted to have survived through a process of natural selection in animals. Indeed, when one’s memory of an emotionally painful experience lead to serious anxiety, forgetting may produce relief. Nevertheless, an evolutionary interpretation might make it difficult to understand how the commonly gradual process of forgetting survived natural selection.
In thinking about the evolution of memory together with all its possible aspects, it is helpful to consider what would happen if memories failed to fade. Forgetting clearly aids orientation in time, since old memories weaken and the new tend to stand out, providing clues for inferring duration. Without forgetting, adaptive ability would suffer, for example, learned behaviour that might have been correct a decade ago may no longer be. Cases are recorded of people who (by ordinary standards) forgot so little that their everyday activities were full of confusion. This forgetting seems to serve that survival of the individual and the species.
Another line of thought assumes a memory storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting. In this view, continual adjustments are made between learning or memory storage (input) and forgetting (output). Indeed, there is evidence that the rate at which individuals forget is directly related to how much they have learned. Such data offers gross support of contemporary models of memory that assume an input-output balance.
70. In this article, the author tries to interpret the function of__.
[A]remembering
[B]forgetting
[C]adapting
[D]experiencing
[答案] B
[解题思路]
本文从第二段开始直到文章最后都在讨论forgetting 这个问题，只有第一段讨论了remembering的问题来引出主要话题，因此可以轻松判断正确答案为B选项。
[题目译文]
在这篇文章中，作者试图揭示 的功能。
[A]记忆
[B]遗忘
[C]适应
[D]经历
1996年Passage 3
In the last half of the nineteenth century “capital” and “labour” were enlarging and perfecting their rival organizations on modern lines. Many an old firm was replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. At the same time the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers .
The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large, impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. All through the nineteenth century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British shareholders were thus enriched by the world’s movement towards industrialisation. Towns like Bournemouth and Eastboume sprang up to house large. “comfortable” classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders’ meeting to dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand \"shareholding\" meant leisure and freedom which was used by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilisation.
The “shareholders” as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of the workmen employed by the company in which he held shares, and his influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good. The paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the men and their demands, but even he had seldom that familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employer had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old family business now passing away. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the companies who employed them. The cruel discipline of the strike and lockout taught the two parties to respect each other’ s strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.
62. The author is most critical of___.
[A]family film owners
[B]landowners
[C]managers
[D]shareholders
[答案] D
[解题思路]
本文中四个选项的四中人都有所提及，但阅读细节可以发现作者对A、B、C选项中的三类人没有表明态度，而对D选项中的shareholders却颇有微词，如第二段提到他们的“irresponsible wealth”，第三段第一句话“The “shareholders” as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of the workmen employed by the company in which he held shares, and his influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good”（这种股东尽管持有股份，却丝毫不了解他们所持股公司里工人们的生活、思想和需求。他们对劳资关系也不会产生任何积极的影响）则更明显地表明了作者的态度。
[题目译文]
作者对 最持批评态度。
[A]家族企业老板
[B]土地所有者
[C]经理
[D]股东
2009年考研英语长篇连载：阅读真题命题思路透析(10)
1997年Passage 1
It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia’s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group’s on line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: “We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn’t just something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”
The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally III law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right to life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia — where an aging population, life extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part — other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right to die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death — probably by a deadly injection or pill — to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. After a “cooling off” period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54 year old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally III law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. “I’m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I’d go, because I’ve watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks,” he says.
54. The author’s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of _____.
[A] opposition
[B] suspicion
[C] approval
[D] indifference
[答案] C
[解题思路]
从全文总体看来，作者虽然一直没有直接表示自己的态度，但三段中他引用的例子，如第一段中“John Hofsess”的话和最后一段中“Lloyd Nickson”的例子都是赞成安乐死的。第二段中虽然指出存在反对的声音，但该段中间作者“But the tide is unlikely to turn back”（但是安乐死这一潮流已无法逆转）一句话笔锋一转，指出这种潮流已经不可逆转，因此可见作者自己也是持支持态度的，正确答案为C。
[题目译文]
54. The author’s attitude towards euthanasia seems to be that of _____.
[A] opposition
[B] suspicion
[C] approval
[D] indifference 作者对于安乐死的态度看起来是 。
[A]反对
[B]怀疑
[C]赞成
[D]漠不关心
1997年Passage 5
Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as “steering the economy to a soft landing” or “a touch on the brakes”, makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of monetary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rear view mirror and a faulty steering wheel.
Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about of late. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3% last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to 2.5% this July. This is a long way below the double digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s.
It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America’s inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan; over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America.
Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America’s, have little productive slack. America’s capacity utilization, for example, his historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate (5.6% in August) has fallen bellow most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment — the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past.
Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have up ended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.
70. The passage shows that the author is _____ the present situation.
[A]critical of
[B]puzzled by
[C]disappointed at
[D]amazed at
[答案] D
[解题思路]
从总体上看来，本文主要讨论的是经济现象中新的现象、变化和趋势。文中第一段第二、三句中指出“Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain”（而事实并非如此。利率和通货膨胀之间的关系并不是确定的），第三段第一句话指出“It is also less than most forecasters had predicted”（这样的通胀率也低于许多预测家预测的数字），第四段第一句话指出“Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States”（尤其让经济学家感到惊讶的是，英美两国的通胀率带来了良性的结果），而最后一段总结到“powerful structural changes in the world have up ended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation”（世界经济结构强有力的变化已经打破了那个以经济增长和通货膨胀的原有关联为基础的旧有经济模式）。从这些语句中都可以判断作者也是以非常惊奇的语气来进行描述的，因此正确答案为D。
[题目译文]
70. The passage shows that the author is _____ the present situation.
[A]critical of
[B]puzzled by
[C]disappointed at
[D]amazed at 文章显示了作者对目前形势的态度是 。
[A]批评
[B]困惑
[C]失望
[D]惊奇
1998年Passage 3
Science has long had an uneasy relationship with other aspects of culture. Think of Gallileo’s 17th century trial for his rebelling belief before the Catholic Church or poet William Blake’s harsh remarks against the mechanistic worldview of Isaac Newton. The schism between science and the humanities has, if anything, deepened in this century.
Until recently, the scientific community was so powerful that it could afford to ignore its critics - but no longer. As funding for science has declined, scientists have attacked “antiscience” in several books, notably Higher Superstition, by Paul R.Gross, a biologist at the University of Verginia, and Norman Levitt, a mathematician at Rutgers University; and The Demon Haunted World, by Car Sagan of Cornell University.
Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as “The Flight from Science and Reason,” held in New York City in 1995, and “Science in the Age of (Mis)information,” which assembled last June near Buffalo.
Antiscience clearly means different things to different people. Gross and Levitt find fault primarily with sociologists, philosophers and other academics who have questioned science’s objectivity. Sagan is more concerned with those who believe in ghosts, creationism and other phenomena that contradict the scientific worldview.
A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.
Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, those manifesto, published in 1995, scorns science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia. But surely that does not mean environmentalists concerned about uncontrolled industrial growth are antiscience, as an essay in US News & World Report last May seemed to suggest.
The environmentalists, inevitably, respond to such critics. The true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.
Indeed, some observers fear that the antiscience epithet is in danger of becoming meaningless. “The term ‘antiscience’ can lump together too many, quite different things,” notes Harvard University philosopher Gerald Holton in his 1993 work Science and Anti Science. “They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened”
62. The author’s attitude toward the issue of “science vs. antiscience” is _____ .
[A] impartial
[B] subjective
[C] biased
[D] puzzling
[答案] A
[解题思路]
本文讨论的主要论题就是关于科学与文化在各个方面上的关系问题，其中举了很多互相矛盾的例子，之后又提出了antiscience这个问题，为读者提供了大量的信息。但是显然文章中并没有表示作者感情态度的词语出现，作者最后也没有做出明确的结论，说明他的态度是客观的，没有偏见的。
[题目译文]
62. The author’s attitude toward the issue of “science vs. antiscience” is _____ .
[A] impartial
[B] subjective
[C] biased
[D] puzzling 作者对于“科学与反科学对立”这个问题的态度是 。
[A]公正的
[B]主观的
[C]有偏见的
[D]令人困惑的 |
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