Part ⅡReading Comprehension (15 minutes)

Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.

For questions 1-4,mark

Y(for YES)if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;

N(for NO)if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;

NG(for NOT GIVEN)if the information is not given in the passage.

For questions 5-10,complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

Reading for Life

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How can reading fill it to overflowing with adventure, richness, and fullness?

Your Pleasure-giving Skill

Skills are skills. Pleasures are pleasures. But some skills are lasting pleasures. Such is reading. Listen to Hazilitt---"The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading." Or Macauly--- "I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading." To them and countless others all over the world, reading is a source of the deepest and fullest enjoyment. That's true from early school days to days of leisure and retirement.

Your Fountain of Youth

Reading is more than that. It can be your fountain of youth. Virginia Woolf said, "The true reader is essentially young." One of your major problems is how to stay alive as long as you live. Some die at 30 but are not buried until they're 70. With some, youth slips away before being properly savored. Reading provides a spring of living water, refreshing and life-giving. Stay young for life with reading.

Your Dream-fulfillment Aid

Part of youth lies in dreaming---dreaming impossible dreams that you can sometimes make possible. Robert F. Kennedy said this, “Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?' I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?'" Certain books push the boundaries of the human mind out beyond belief. After all, a little bit of greatness hides in everyone. Let books bring it into full bloom.

Your Know-thyself Aid

What's your most important quest? Finding yourself. Finding your own identity. The Greeks epitomized that problem in two words: Know yourself. Well, articles and books help in that all-important search. They supply assurance of the power and worth of your own life, a measure of your possibilities.

To see yourself in proper perspective, you need detailed picture of real people in real situations. We need to see three-dimensional characters, with all the typical human fears and limitations. Then, and only then, can you begin to see and know yourself as you should.

Your Vocational Counselor and Consultant

What about practical questions, such as those about your vocation? Will reading help you decide more intelligently what to do, how to prepare yourself and how to succeed on the job?

To answer the first question, you have to know your own talents, abilities, and interests well. You must also, however, know the opportunities in the world around you. Some Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, predicted a surplus of approximately two million school teachers. Still another source indicated that right now "the health fields are the only fields in which we have shortages." Balance such information with self-knowledge and you have some of the ingredients needed to make intelligent, perceptive choices.

Second, you've decided on a career. How and where do you get the required preparation? Again, turn to reading. You'll probably find a listing of school programs to choose from. You may even find them rated. If so, you'll know exactly where to go for the best possible preparation.

Third, don't stop yet. You've selected a career and trained yourself. Learn on reading now to help you succeed on the job. A variety of magazines and books will provide guidance and help.

But that's not all. The day of only one lifetime career may be almost over. All too often, change throws hundreds out of work. Change hits the aircraft industry, for example. Result? Hundreds of well-qualified engineers suddenly out on the street.

If you manage things well, keeping a close eye on changing conditions. You can avoid the pain of waking up to find yourself out of a job. Through reading develop some new skills and interests. Then if conditions change, you can slip with comparative ease from one field into another, hardly breaking stride.

Most of the things taught in school-typing, shorthand, key punching, language, farming, business management-are readily available in interesting self-help articles and books. Let them smooth your path in any new direction you decide to take.

Your Experience Extender

What's the best teacher? Experience, of course! It's priceless. It comes from what you yourself have seen, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt --- what you yourself have lived through.

Take a closer look. Look at our limitations. No wonder experience is so precious. We can't begin to get enough of it. We can't even experience again what we just lived through. We're not born with instant replay. We can't actually relive any moment. And, obviously, we're limited to one lifetime.

Space and time! How they limit us. Who has a time machine to carry him back into history? No one. It's the same with space. We can't literally be in two places at the same time. Right now you can't be sitting where you are and at the same time be strolling down the famed Champs Elysees in Paris.

Here's where reading fits. It can bring us almost unlimited additional experience. To be sure, it's secondhand experience. But it's often so vivid that it seems firsthand, just as if we're living through it ourselves, being moved to tears, laughter, or suspense. That rich range of experience provides the ideal supplement to our own limited experience. In this way, reading becomes one of our most profound mind-shaping activities.

Furthermore, all this experience is available when we want it. Books never impose on us. When we want them, we reach out and pull them off the shelf or table. At our convenience we invite them to share their unbelievable wealth with us.

Carlyle sums this all up nicely, "All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." Help yourself! Make reading your experience-extender for the rest of your life.

1. According to the passage, reading is the lasting pleasure.

2. Reading provides all the people in the world with a source of deepest and fullest enjoyment.

3. Reading is a fountain of youth in that one can always learn something new from books and never cease to be young in spirit.

4. The passage explains how books help fulfill your long-cherished dreams.

5. To find your own identity simply means__________________.

6. To make an intelligent decision on what to do, you should have an adequate knowledge of your own _________________________.

7. According to the author, reading is even ________________ after you have selected a career and trained yourself.

8. You should develop some new skills and interests with the help of books in order to prepare for _____________________.

9. Though our experience is limited by __________________, reading can bring us unlimited additional secondhand experience.

10. Carlyle calls on people to make reading their _________ for the rest of their life.

Part ⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)

1. Y本题的判断依据为文章个小标题下的第三、四句"But some skills are lasting pleasures. Such is reading.(阅读能给人以持久的快乐。)"由此我们可判定本句与原文所述之意相符。

2. N本题的判断依据为文章个小标题下倒数第二句"To them and countless others all over the world, reading is a source of deepest and fullest enjoyment.(对于他们和世界上无数其他的人来说,阅读是带给他们限度享受和快乐的源泉。)"据此我们可知并非指世界上所有的人。

3. Y本题判断依据为文章第二个小标题下面的一段。该段讲述了阅读犹如一泉活水,使我们精神振奋,给予我们生命,阅读能使我们终身保持年轻,由此我们可判定本 题的表述与原文所述之意相符。

4. NG本题解题依据为第三个小标题下面一段。该段讲述了我们要敢于梦想不可能实现的梦想,因为我们阅读的某些书籍能引领我们去实现,但本段并未提及阅读的书 籍如何帮助我们去实现心存已久的梦想。

5. to know yourself 本题有关认识自我的问题，定位于小标题Your Know-thyself Aid段。答案是古希腊人给的两个字：Know thyself，意即know yourself。

6. talents, abilities and interests 本题有关职业问题，定位于小标题Your Vocational Counselor and Consultant中。解题依据为该部分的段以及第二段句。

7. indispensable 本题有关找到工作和经过训练之后的读书问题，解题的主要依据是小标题Your Vocational Counselor and Consultant的第四段，该段之后的段落谈的都是读书对变换工作的重要性。另外本题的答案也可以是important, useful等。

8. unexpected change 本题有关工作变化问题，定位于小标题Your Vocational Counselor and Consultant下的第五、六、七段，通读这几段，即可确定答案。

9. time and space 本题有关读书有助于扩充阅历的问题，定位于小标题Your Experience Extender的第三段，该段的、二句就是答案的依据"Space and time! How they limit us."

10. experience-extender本题提到的Carlyle出现在文章最后一段，根据该段的最后一句"Make reading your experience-extender for the rest of your life."即可得出答案。