第4部分：阅读理解(第31—45题，每题3分，共45分)
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定l个最佳选项。
31、根据材料，回答31-36问题。
Goal of American Education
Differences in American schools compared with those found in the majority of other countries lie in the fact that education here has long been intended for everyone -- not just for aprivileged elite. Schools are expected to meet the needs of every child, regardless of ability, andalso the needs of society itself. This means that public schools offer more than academic subjects. It surprises many people when they come here to find high schools offering such courses as typing, sewing, radio repair, computer programming or driver training, along with traditional academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and languages. Students choose their curricula depending on their interests, future goals, and level of ability. The underlying goal of American education is to develop every child to the utmost of his or her own possibilities, and to give each one a sense of civic and community consciousness.
Schools have traditionally played an important role in creating national unity and"Americanizing" the millions of immigrants who have poured into this country from many different backgrounds and origins. Schools still play a large role in the community, especially in the small towns.
The approach to teaching may seem unfamiliar to many, not only because it is informal,but also because there is not much emphasis on learning facts. Instead, Americans try to teach their children to think for themselves and to develop their own intellectual and creative abilities.
Students spend much time, learning how to use resource material, statistics and computers.
Americans believe that if children are taught to reason well and to research well, they will be able to find whatever facts they need throughout the rest of their lives. Knowing how to solve problems is considered more important than the accumulation of facts.
This is America's answer to the searching question that thoughtful parents all over the world are asking themselves in the fast-moving time: "How can one prepare today's child for a tomorrow that one can neither predict nor understano.
Which of the following best states the goal of American education?__________.
A.To teach every learner some practical skills.
B.To provide every learner with rich knowledge.
C.To give every student the opportunity to fully develop his / her ability.
D.To train every student to be a responsible citizen.
32、It is implied in the passage that__________.
A.all high-school students take the same courses.
B.every high-school student must take some practical ability training courses.
C.every public school offers the same academic subjects.
D.the subjects every student takes may vary.
33、American schools place great emphasis on the learner's__________.
A.enrichment of knowledge.
B.accumulation of facts.
C.acquisition of the ability to be creative.
D.acquisition of the ability to work with his hands.
34、According to the passage, American education meets the needs of all the following EXCEPT__________.
A.the brightest students.
B.the slow students.
C.the students from foreign countries.
D.the immigrants.
35、Which of the following best states the feature of American education that makes it different from education in other countries?__________.
A.The large number of its schools.
B.The variety of the courses offered in its schools.
C.Its special consideration given to immigrants.
D.Its underlying goal to develop every child's abilities to the fullest extent.
36、根据材料，回答36-41问题。
The Family
The structure of a family takes different forms around the world and even in the same society. The family's form changes as it adapts to changing social and economic influences. The most common form in North America was the nuclear family, consisting of a married couple with their minor children. The nuclear family is an independent unit. It must be prepared to fend tor itself. Individual family members strongly depend on one another. There is little help from outside the family in emergencies. Elderly relatives of a nuclear family are cared for only if it is they live in retirement communities and nursing homes. They live in retirement communities and nursing homes.
There are many parallels between the nuclear family in industrial societies, such as North America, and of families in societies such as that of the Inuits, who live in harsh environments.
The nuclear family structure is well adapted to a life of mobility. The harsh conditions, mobility allows the family to hunt for food. For North Americans, the hunt for jobs and improved social status also requires mobility.
The nuclear family was not always the North American standard. In a more agrarian time,the small nuclear family was usually part of a larger extended family. This might have included grandparents, mother and father, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins. In North
America today, there is a dramatic rise in the number of single-parent households. Twice as many, households in the United States are headed by divorced, separated, or never-married individuals as are comprised of nuclear families. The structure of the family, not just in North
America, but throughout the world, continues to change as it adapts to changing conditions.
Another good title for this passage would be__________.
A.What Makes a Family?
B.Life of Inuits.
C.Living with Hardship.
D.The Failure of the Nuclear Family.
37、A nuclear family is defined as__________.
A.a married couple with their minor children.
B.a single father with minor children.
C.parents, grandparents, and children.
D.parents, children, and aunts and uncles.
38、The information in this passage would most likely be found in__________.
A.an anthropology textbook.
B.a biology textbook.
C.a mathematics textbook.
D.geography textbook.
39、The information in the first paragraph is presented mainly through__________.
A.listing statistics.
B.telling a story.
C.pointing out similarities.
D.pointing out differences.
40、The word mobility means__________.
A.money.
B.readiness to move.
C.organization.
D.skill.
41、根据材料，回答41-46问题。
Some Things We Know about Language
Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some things we do know.
First, we know that all human beings have a language of some sort. There is no race of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one another. Furthermore, in historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language.
Second, there is no such thing as a primitive language. There are many people whose cultures are undeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized, but the languages they speak are not primitive. In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens or thousands of years in developing.
This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated. Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate. Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises. Study has proved this to be nonsense. There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old. They are" certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive than English and Greek.
A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate. That is,each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language.
Finally, we know that language changes. It is natural and normal for language to change;the only languages which do not change are the dead ones. This is easy to understand if we look backward in time. Change goes on in all aspects of language. Grammatical features change as do speech sounds, and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly. Vocabulary is the least stable part of any languages.
In the second paragraph the author thinks that__________.
A.some backward race doesn't have a language of its own
B.some race in history didn't possess a language of its own
C.any human race, whether backward or not, has a language
D.some races on earth can communicate without language
42、According to the author, people of undeveloped cultures can have languages.__________.
A.complicated
B.uncivilized
C.primitive
D.well-known
43、The author has used American Indian languages as an example to show that they are__________.
A.just as old as some well-known languages
B.just as sophisticated as some well-known languages
C.more developed than some well-known languages
D.more complex than some well-known languages
44、Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A.A language is a means of expressing a particular culture.
B.All languages can well express their respective cultures.
C.American Indian languages are as sophisticated as English.
D.Some languages are better than other languages.
45、According to the author, language changes are most likely to occur in__________.
A.grammar.
B.pronunciation.
C.vocabulary.
D.intonation.
