2016年大一英語期末考試試題

　　Part II Reading Comprehension (30%) (25 minutes)

Directions: There are three passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:

Speech, the act of uttering sounds to convey meaning, is a kind of human action. Like any other constantly repeated action, speaking has to be learned, but once it is learned, it becomes a generally unconscious and apparently automatic process.

As far as we can determine, human beings do not need to be forced to speak; most babies seem to possess a sort of instinctive drive to produce speech like noises. How to speak and what to say are another matter altogether. These actions are learned from the particular society into which the baby is born; so that, like all conduct that is learned from a society, from the people around us, speech is a patterned activity.

The meandering babble and chatter of a young child are eventually channeled by imitation into a few orderly grooves that represent the pattern accepted as meaningful by the people around him. Similarly, a child’s indiscriminate practice of putting things into his mouth becomes limited to putting food into his mouth in a certain way.

The sounds that a child can make are more varied and numerous than the sounds that any particular language utilizes. However, a child born into a society with a pattern of language is encouraged to make a small selection of sounds and to make these few sounds over and over until it is natural for him to make these sounds and no others.

21. What is the subject of the passage?

A) How to make sounds.

B) The origin of language.

C) A child’s learning process of speaking.

D) A baby’s sounds.

22. A child’s chatter becomes speech when it ____.

A) begins to follow meaningful patterns

B) contains enough sounds

C) becomes natural to him

D) begins to be repeated

23. The most important factor in a child’s learning to speak is probably____.

A) instinct B) selection C) variety D) imitation

24. Which of the following is NOT true about children?

A) Most babies have an instinctive drive to make speech like noises.

B) A child can make more numerous sounds than those in any language.

C) The society around a child determines what sounds will be considered meaningful.

D) For a child, the process of speaking usually involves unconscious actions.

25. We may say that a child has learned to speak if he_______.

A) makes varied sounds

B) carefully considers each sounds he makes

C) makes only certain sounds naturally

D) imitates people around him

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:

The world is not only hungry; it is also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. But about 97 percent of this huge amount is sea water, or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3 percent---the fresh water that comes from rivers, lakes, underground and other sources. But unfortunately, some of it has been polluted and is unfit for drinking.

However, as things stand today, this small amount of fresh water is still enough for us. But our need for water is increasing rapidly—almost day by day. Only if we take steps to deal with this problem now can we avoid a severe worldwide water shortage later on. So we all have to learn how to stop wasting our precious water.

One of the first steps we should take is to develop ways of re-using water. Today in most large cities water is used only once and then discharged. But it is possible to pipe water that has been used to a purifying plant, and then it can be used again.

But even if every large city purified and re-used its water, we still would not have enough. Where could we turn next? Did you hear someone say“to the oceans”? I think that’s a possible solution. All we’d have to do is to remove the salt. This process is already in use in many parts of the world.

26. What is the main subject of the passage?

A) The reason why the world is both hungry and thirsty.

B) How to avoid a severe worldwide water shortage.

C) The first steps we should take.

D) Where to find fresh water.

27. All the fresh water____.

A) is good enough to be used

B) is polluted and can’t be used