南京航空航天大学2018年620基础英语初试考研真题

　　plain English on the answer sheet. (10 points)

　　1. Endocentric construction

　　2. Syntax

　　3. Assimilation

　　4. Functional sentence perspective

　　5. Cohesion

　　6. Stream of Consciousness

　　7. Gothic fiction

　　8. Critical Realism

　　9. Protagonist

　　10. Harlem Renaissance

　　VI. Reading Comprehension (40 points)

　　Directions: Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers

　　marked[A], [B], [C]or [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions.

　　Be sure to write down your choice on the answer sheet.

　　Passage A

　　In the first age, we created gods. We carved them out of wood; there was still such a thing as wood,

　　then. We forged them from shining metals and painted them on temple walls. They were gods of many

　　kinds, and goddesses as well. Sometimes they were cruel and drank our blood, but also they gave us rain

　　and sunshine, favourable winds, good harvests, fertile animals, many children. A million birds flew over us

　　then, a million fish swam in our seas.

　　Our gods had horns on their heads, or moons, or sealy fins, or the beaks of eagles. We called them

　　All-Knowing, we called them Shining One. We knew we were not orphans. We smelled the earth and rolled

　　in it; its juices ran down our chins.

　　In the second age we created money. This money was also made of shining metals. It had two faces:

　　on one side was a severed head, that of a king or some other noteworthy person, on the other face was

　　something else, something that would give us comfort: a bird, a fish, a fur-bearing animal. This was all that

　　remained of our former gods. The money was small in size, and each of us would carry some of it with him

　　every day, as close to the skin as possible. We could not eat this money, wear it or burn it for warmth; but as

　　if by magic it could be changed into such things. The money was mysterious, and we were in awe of it. If

　　you had enough of it, it was said, you would be able to fly.

　　In the third age, money became a god. It was all-powerful, and out of control. It began to talk. It began

　　to create on its own. It created feasts and famines, songs of joy, lamentations. It created greed and hunger,

　　which were its two faces. Towers of glass rose at its name, were destroyed and rose again. It began to eat

　　things. It ate whole forests, croplands and the lives of children. It ate armies, ships and cities. No one could

　　stop it. To have it was a sign of grace.

　　In the fourth age we created deserts. Our deserts were of several kinds, but they had one thing in

　　common: nothing grew there. Some were made of cement, some were made of various poisons, some of

　　baked earth. We made these deserts from the desire for more money and from despair at the lack of it. Wars,

　　plagues and famines visited us, but we did not stop in our industrious creation of deserts. At last all wells

　　were poisoned, all rivers ran with filth, all seas were dead; there was no land left to grow food.

　　Some of our wise men turned to the contemplation of deserts. A stone in the sand in the setting sun

　　could be very beautiful, they said.

　　You who have come here from some distant world, to this dry lakeshore and this cairn, and to this

　　cylinder of brass, in which on the last day of all our recorded days I place our final words: Pray for us, who

　　once, too, thought we could fly.

　　1. According to the passage, money is “mysterious” because it ___.

　　A. can speak to human beings.

　　B. seems to be omnipotent.

　　C. is a symbol of wealth.

　　D. is a sign of grace.

　　2. In the passage, “age” refers to ____.

　　A. Different phases of civilization.

　　B. The recorded year in human history.

　　C. Different social systems in human history.

　　D. The scale of intelligence of human beings in history.

　　3. Which of the following statement about gods described in the passage is true?

　　A. Gods always bless human beings.

　　B. Gods are more often than not ferocious in the age of metals.

　　C. Gods are created, carved out of wood or metals.

　　D. Gods are symbols of human’s greed.

　　4. Which of the following statements about “deserts” is NOT true?

　　A. No life survives in the deserts.

　　B. Deserts are nothing but a process of desertification.

　　C. It is human being’s greed for money that leads to the prevalence of deserts.

　　D. Deserts result in wars, plagues and famines, which causes more deserts.

　　5. From this passage, we know that ____.

　　A. Human beings will go extinct by themselves one day.

　　B. Human beings are living in the fourth age.

　　C. The earth will become more and more inhabitable since there will never be enough money.

　　D. The author is pessimistic of the future of human beings.

　　Passage B

　　Safety is a concern of everyone who flies or contemplates it. I can provide you with volumes of

　　information about the attention to safety given by the airline industry. No other form of transportation is as

　　scrutinized, investigated and monitored as commercial aviation.

　　Yet if you decide to hold onto the belief that flying is dangerous, then these reassuring safety facts are lost

　　to you. Statistics and figures that prove airline transportation to be the safest way to travel relate to our logical,

　　reasoning, rational mind. Most passengers who have knowledge of the commercial airline industry believe that

　　flying is safe. But when something occurs that we don’t understand, any of us can become quickly frightened.

　　That’s why I encourage you to study as much as you need to reassure yourself about the industry and to take

　　some of the mystery out of commercial flight.

　　However, some small thing may occur on one of your flights that you haven’t studied. If you become

　　startled or frightened at that time, the statistics that I am about to present may come in handy. An airline

　　accident is so rare, when some unfamiliar noise or bump occurs, your response need not be, “Oh, no! What’s

　　wrong?!” Instead, it can be something like, “I’m not sure what that sound was, but there’s nothing to worry

　　about.” Feel free to press your overhead call button to page a flight attendant whenever you want to ask about

　　unfamiliar sights or sounds. But you needn’t jump to fearful conclusions.

　　Dr. Arnold Barnett, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has done extensive research in the field

　　of commercial flight safety. He found that over the fifteen years between 1975 and 1994, the death risk per

　　flight was one in seven million. This statistic is the probability that someone who randomly selected one of the

　　airline’s flights over the 19-year study period would be killed in route. That means that any time you board a

　　flight on a major carrier in this country, your chance of being in a fatal accident is one in seven million. It

　　doesn’t matter whether you fly once every three years or every day of the year.

　　In fact, based on this incredible safety record, if you did fly every day of your life, probability indicates

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