大学英语跟踪阅读 2
上海戏剧学院表演系-成长的作文600字
Extensive Reading Series
2
Unit
Passage 0181
Words: 246
1
Monday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
A Suitable Christmas
Present
As she walked round the huge department
store, Edith reflected how difficult it was to
choose a suitable Christmas present for her
father. She wished
that he was as easy to
please as her mother, who was always
delighted
with perfume （香水）.
Besides, shopping at this
time of the year was a most
disagreeable
experience: people trod on your toes, poked （戳）
you with their elbows and almost knocked you
over in their haste
to get to a bargain ahead
of you.
Partly to have a rest, Edith paused in
front of a counter
where some attractive ties
were on display.
“
They are real
silk,
”
the assistant assured her,
trying to tempt her.
“
Worth double the
price.
”
But Edith knew from past
experience that her choice of
ties hardly ever
pleased her father.
She moved on reluctantly
and then quite by chance, stopped
where a
small crowd of men had gathered round a counter.
She found some good quality pipes on
sale —
and the prices were very reasonable. Edith did not
hesitate for long: although her father only
smoked a pipe occasionally, she knew that this
was a present which was bound to please him.
When she got home, with her small well-chosen
present concealed in her handbag, her
parents
were already at the supper table. Her mother was
in an especially cheerful mood,
“
Your
father has at last decided to stop
smoking.
”
She informed her
daughter.
○
Reading Comprehension
1.
Edith
’
s father .
A. did not like
presents
Extensive Reading Series
2
B. never got presents
C. preferred
ties
D. was difficult to choose a present
for
2. The assistant spoke to Edith because she
seemed .
A. attractive
B. interested
in ties
C. tired
D. in need of comfort
3.
Edith stopped at the next counter .
A.
purposely
B. suddenly
C. unwillingly
D.
accidentally
4. Edith
’
s father smoked a
pipe .
A. when he was obliged
B. on
social occasions
C. from time to time
D.
when he was delighted
5. Shopping was very
disagreeable at that time of the year because
customers .
A. trod on each
other
’
s toes
B. poked each other with
their elbows
C. knocked each other
D. were
doing their shopping in a great hurry
Passage
0182
Words: 240
Monday
Time Spent:
Date: (DMY)
Score: 5
Hand
Puppets
Hand puppets have been a favorite with
children all over the world for centuries. They
are
thought to have originated in Quanzhou,
Fujian Province.
According to an old Chinese
legend, a man named Liang Pinglin introduced the
art of
puppet-playing. Liang, who had
repeatedly failed the Imperial Examinations, went
to the temple
of Hsien Kung, the God of
Righteousness, to pray for guidance. He spent the
night there and
dreamt that Hsien Kung spoke
to him. The god promised that Liang would become
famous and
rich.
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Unit
1
Liang was convinced that dream was a good
sign of success. Therefore, he sat for the
examination again. Unfortunately, he failed
again. Feeling hopeless and confused, he wandered
about the countryside. After a while, he sat
down to
rest and saw some children playing
with home-made
hand puppets.
Suddenly,
Liang understood what his dream
meant. He went
home and started to make puppets
of the folk
heroes and historical characters which
he knew
so well. His elaborate （精巧的） puppets
and
magnificent performances drew large crowds.
Soon he earned both the honor and wealth he
had so
eagerly sought.
There are two types
of hand puppets used to
entertain the young:
the literary and military. The
literary puppet
frequently
“
sings
”
delicate,
refined songs to a musical accompaniment while
the military puppets excite the young with
realistic duels featuring enemies who fight to the
accompaniment of loud gongs and
drums.
○
Reading Comprehension
1. Where
did the art of puppet-playing originate?
A. In
USA. B. In France.
C. In Greece. D. In
China.
2. Liang Pinglin wandered about the
countryside because .
A. he did not know
where to go after the examination
B. he had
lost his memory and did not know where he was
going
C. he was in despair after he failed the
Imperial Examination again
D. his parents
disowned him for failing the examination
again
3. Liang Pinglin drew inspiration for
hand puppet performance after .
A. he saw
some children playing with them
B. he dreamt of
them
C. he thought long and hard at its
profitability
D. a tip-off from a friend
4.
The plots of the hand puppet performances were
based on .
A. characters Liang Pinglin
thought up of
B. legends and fairy tales
C.
folk heroes and historical characters
D.
contemporary political
characters
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Extensive Reading
Series 2
5. Liang Pinglin earned both honour
and wealth by .
A. introducing hand
puppets to children
B. selling pretty hand
puppets
C. becoming a good scholar
D.
performing magnificent puppet shows
Passage 0183
Words: 257
Tuesday
Time Spent:
Date: (DMY)
Score: 5
What Low
Pay Results in
Most of us who work in early
childhood education feel strongly that the work we
do is
valuable, even essential, to the well-
being of children and society. Yet it is hard to
hold on to
this belief when it is not reflected
in the salaries that we receive or in the respect
and prestige
accorded to us in our society.
Because most programs for young children are
paid for directly by parents and not by
public
funds, salaries for teachers in programs for
children under five and in many private
schools tend to be much lower than those paid
teachers in public schools who do comparable
work. Low salaries are also a reflection of
general
lack of awareness of the importance of
the early
years and of the value of having
well-trained and
competent people working with
young children.
Because it is so difficult to
make an adequate
living as a teacher of young
children and because
caring for children has
traditionally been viewed
as women
’
s
work, very few men choose to enter
the field,
even though there are some who would find it
rewarding. Low pay also results in high
staff
turnover, and this is especially unfortunate
because it undermines the stability of
adult-
child relationships.
Early childhood
education affects an extremely large group of
people, including children,
parents, and
educators. The percentage of working mothers of
children under six is growing faster
than that
of any other group of working mothers. This may
justify the development of more state-
funded
preschool programs.
004
Unit
1
○
Reading Comprehension
1. This
passage mainly talks about the .
A. well-
being of children and society
B. early children
education
C. education in public schools
D.
stability of adult-child relationships
2. Early
childhood education deals with the .
A.
education of young children
B. well-being of
children and their teachers
C. relationship
between children and their parents
D. education
in both private and public schools
3. The
author complains about the .
A. low
salaries for teachers of young children
B.
small amount of public funds provided
C. poor
qualities of children education
D. none of the
above
4. According to the passage, very few men
are willing to .
A. marry women working
with young children
B. work as teachers of
young children
C. enter the field of adult
education
D. care for children because of high
staff turnover
5. In the author
’
s
opinion, .
A. low pay is due to high
staff turnover
B. caring for children should be
viewed as women
’
s work
C. the
percentage of children under six is growing faster
than any other group of children
D. the
preschool education programs should be financially
supported by the government
Passage 0184
Words: 244
Tuesday
Time Spent:
Date: (DMY)
Score:
5
Stress
Cancer is among the top killer
diseases in our society today and scientists have
found out
that stress helps to bring it on. It
is worthwhile to consider, therefore, what are the
causes of stress
in our life, and whether we
can do anything about them.
Are we under-
employed, or overburdened with too many
responsibilities? Do we have a
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Extensive Reading Series
2
right balance of work and leisure in our
lives? Are our relationships with family, friends
or fellow
workers all they should be?
All
these things can be a cause of stress, and it is
best to face them honestly, and to bring
our
frustrations （失意） into the open. People who have a
good row and then forget it are doing
their
health more good than those who bottle up their
feelings.
If our self-examination has brought
any causes of stress to light, let us consider
what we can
do about them. It is possible to
change jobs. We can make more leisure and fill it
more happily,
if we will accept a different
living standard. We can improve our personal
relationships by a
different attitude. It is
we who allow other people to make ourselves
unhappy. Often the little
things that disturb
us are not worth an hour
’
s anger. The
teaching in the Bible
“
Let not the sun
go down upon your wrath （愤怒）
”
is good
advice from the health point of view as well as
the
religious.
○
Reading
Comprehension
1. Which of the following
statements is TRUE?
A. Freedom from
responsibilities help relieve stress.
B. Stress
is the direct cause of cancer.
C. The causes of
stress are worthy of serious study.
D. Cancer
is the number one killer in our society
today.
2. According to the passage, which of
the following types of people is more likely to
suffer
from stress? People .
A. who
have cancer
B. who like to quarrel with
others
C. whose living standard is low
D.
who have more responsibilities than they can
handle
3. Judging from the context, the word
“
row
”
in Para. 3 most probably
means a
.
A. noisy quarrel
B. very
loud noise
C. neat line of things side by
side
D. journey in a boat
4. Which of the
following is NOT mentioned as a way to reduce our
stress?
A. Changing our jobs.
B. Changing
our attitude about little things that make us
unhappy.
C. Speaking out about our
frustrations.
D. Reading the
Bible.
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Unit 1
5.
“
Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath
”
probably means .
A. “Don’t let your anger
last long”
B. “Don’t get angry while the sun is
going down”
C. “Don’t get angry easily about
little things”
D. “Don’t watch the sun set
while you are angry”
Passage 0185
Words:
266
Wednesday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
Problems of
Population
The advantages and disadvantages of
a large population have long
been a subject of
discussion among economists. It has been argued
that
the supply of good land is limited. To
feed a large population, inferior
land must be
cultivated and the good land worked intensively.
Thus,
each person produces less and this means
a lower average income than
could be obtained
with a smaller population. Other economists have
argued that a large population gives more
scope for specialization and
the development
of facilities such as ports, roads, and railways,
which
are not likely to be built unless there
is a big demand to justify them.
One of the
difficulties in carrying out a world-wide birth
control program lies in the fact that
official
attitudes to population growth vary from country
to country depending on the level of
industrial development and the availability of
food and raw materials. In the developing country
where
a vastly expanded population is pressing
hard upon the limits of food, space and natural
resources, it
will be the first concern of
government to place a limit on the birthrate,
whatever the consequences
may be. In a highly
industrialized society the problem may be more
complex. A decreasing birthrate
may lead to
unemployment because it results in a declining
market for manufactured goods. When the
pressure of population on housing declines,
prices also decline and the building industry is
weakened.
Faced with considerations such as
these, the government of a developed country may
well prefer to
see a slowly increasing
population, rather than one which is stable or in
decline.
○
Reading Comprehension
1. A
small population may mean .
A. higher
productivity, but a lower average income
B.
lower productivity, but a higher average
income
C. lower productivity and a lower
average income
D. higher productivity and a
higher average income
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Extensive
Reading Series 2
2. According to the passage,
a large population will provide a chance for
developing
.
A. agriculture B.
transport system
C. industry D. national
economy
3. In a developed country, people will
perhaps go out of work if the birthrate
.
A. goes up
C. remains stable
B. goes
down
D. is out of control
4. According to
the passage, slowly rising birthrate perhaps is
good for .
A. a developing nation
B. a
developed nation
C. every nation with a big
population
D. every nation with a small
population
5. It is no easy job to carry out a
general plan for birth control throughout the
world because
.
A. there are too many
underdeveloped countries in the world
B.
underdeveloped countries have low level of
industrial development
C. different governments
have different views on the question
D. even
developed countries may have complex
problems
Passage 0186
Words: 260
Wednesday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
Communicating in the New
Age
E-mail is a new way of communication for
professionals in every area all over the world.
It is a means of
“
meeting
”
people with similar research interests or
problems. E-mailers
“
write
”
letters at leisure on their computers, then
send them through their telephone line to an
online
terminal far away. E-mail addresses —
either names or
numbers — automatically send
mails to the right locations.
E-mailing is not
live conversation but, unlike the US
“
snail
mail
”
, as American
e-mailers call their postal service, reply
can
be back at once or within hours, depending on how
often
the receiver checks in his computer.
E-mail can also create friendship and draw
families
closer. E-mailers sit in comfortable
chairs and
“
chat
”
with
unseen
friends or relatives in other parts of the country
or of
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Unit 1
the world in
front of the screen, feeling like meeting pals
over a cup of coffee. Linda, a first-year
student at Oxford University in Britain, drops
a few lines to her mother in New York whenever
she is near a terminal.
“
It
’
s
funny,
”
says her mother.
“
We talk
more now than when Linda lived
upstairs.
”
Sending e-mails is far
cheaper than making long-distance calls and it may
revive the almost
lost art of letter writing.
At the time when telephone service is becoming
convenient and highly
effective, people make
calls instead of writing letters. Now e-mail has
brought people back to
their grammar,
vocabulary, coherence and even spelling when their
fingers are dancing over the
keyboard.
E-mailing brings people together and makes the
world even smaller.
○
Reading
Comprehension
1. What is e-mail?
A. A live
conversation with an expert.
B. A means of
communication.
C. A long-distance call
service.
D. A mail delivery system.
2. Which
group of people, according to the speaker, are
MOST likely to use e-mail?
A. Experts on
computer all over the world.
B. University
professors and students.
C. Those who have
similar interests or problems.
D. Those
families whose members live far apart from one
another.
3. Which is NOT true about
e-mail?
A. It is sent through the telephone
line.
B. It is received by means of an on-line
terminal.
C. Names or numbers are used to send
it to the right place.
D. It is sent through
radio signals.
4. What do American e-mailers
say about the mail service of the country?
It
’
s .
A. good and fast B. quite
reliable
C. very slow D. slow but
reliable
5. What is mainly discussed in the
passage?
A. The development of e-mail in the
world.
B. The advantages of e-mail.
C. The
popularity of e-mail in people
’
s
life.
D. A comparison between e-mail and long-
distance calls.
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Extensive Reading
Series 2
Passage 0187
Words: 270
Thursday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
An Intelligent Dog
Most
dog owners feel that their dogs are their best
friends. Almost everyone likes dogs
because
they try hard to please their owners. One of my
favorite stories is about a dog who
wanted his
owner to please him.
One of my friends has a
large German shepherd
named Jack. These dogs
are often very intelligent. Every
Sunday
afternoon, my friend takes Jack for a walk in the
park. Jack likes these long walks very much.
One Sunday afternoon, a young man came to
visit
my friend. He stayed a long time, and he
talked and
talked. Soon it was time for my
friend to take Jack for
his walk, but the
visitor didn
’
t leave. Jack became very
worried about his walk in the park. He walked
around
the room several times and then sat
down directly in
front of the visitor and
looked at him. But the visitor
paid no
attention. He continued talking. Finally, Jack
couldn
’
t stand it any longer. He went
out of the room and came back a few minutes later.
He sat
down again in front of the visitor, but
this time he held the man
’
s hat in his
mouth.
German shepherds aren
’
t the
only intelligent dogs. Another intelligent dog is
a Seeing Eye
dog. This is a special dog which
helps blind people walk along the streets and do
many other
things. We call these dogs Seeing
Eye dogs because they are the
“
eyes
”
of the blind people and
they help them to
“
see
”
.
Seeing Eye dogs generally go to special schools
for several years to learn
to help blind
people.
○
Reading Comprehension
1. The
writer tells the story about the dog Jack to show
that .
A. it, like many other dogs,
always tried to please its own master
B. it,
unlike many other dogs, always wanted its master
to please it
C. it was more intelligent than
many other dogs
D. it was the most faithful dog
of his friend
’
s
2. Jack came to sit in
front of the visitor in order to .
A.
please him B. be pleased
C. ask him to leave
immediately D. invite him for a
walk
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Unit 1
3.
“
Finally, Jack couldn
’
t stand it
any longer.
”
This means that Jack
.
A. could no longer put up with the
visitor
B. could no longer stand but he might
sit down
C. was very tired and wanted a
rest
D. was very angry with the visitor
4.
Seeing Eye dogs .
A. are more intelligent
than German shepherds
B. have only one
eye
C. help blind people go to special
schools
D. help and see for blind people
5.
Which of the following titles would be the MOST
suitable for this passage?
A. Dogs — A Great
Help to People
B. Dogs — Our Faithful
Companions
C. An Introduction to Dogs
D.
Famous Dogs in Germany
Passage 0188
Words:
272
Thursday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
Language
Throughout
history, people have been interested in knowing
how language first began, but
no one knows
exactly where or how this happened. However, we do
know a lot about languages,
the languages of
today and also the languages of earlier times.
There are probably about three
thousand
languages in the world today. Chinese is the
language with the most speakers. English,
Hindi-Urdu,
Russian and Spanish are also
spoken by many millions
of people. On the
other hand, some languages in the
world have
less than one hundred speakers.
There are
several important families of languages
in the
world. For example, most of the languages of
Europe are in one large family called Indo-
European.
The original language of this family
was spoken about
4,500 years ago. Many of the
present day languages of
Europe and India are
modern forms of the language of
4,500 years
ago.
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Extensive Reading Series
2
Languages are always changing. The English of
today is very different from the English of
500 years ago. In time, some even die out
completely. About 1,000 years ago English was a
little-
known relative of German spoken on one
of the borders of Europe.
If a language has a
large number of speakers, or if it is very old,
there may be differences in
the way it is
spoken in different areas. That is, the language
may have several dialects. Chinese is
a good
example of dialect differences. Chinese has been
spoken for thousands of years by many
millions
of speakers. The differences between the dialects
of Chinese are so great that speakers of
Chinese from some parts of China cannot
understand speakers from other parts.
○
Reading Comprehension
1. The subject of this
passage is .
A. language
B.
dialects
C. the difference between language and
dialect
D. speakers of different
languages
2. The main idea of the first
paragraph is that .
A. most people in the
world speak Chinese
B. there are thousands of
languages in today
’
s world
C. man has
much knowledge about languages
D. some people
know several languages
3. In today
’
s
world, there are about languages.
A.
3,000
B. 3,500
C. 4,500
D. 5,000
4.
The example which the writer gives to show the
changes of a language is .
A. Spanish
B. English
C. German
D. Chinese
5.
The word
“
dialect
”
in Para. 4
means .
A. the language spoken by some
Chinese
B. a place where a special kind of
language is spoken
C. people who speak a
special language
D. the form of a language used
in one part of a country
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Unit
1
Passage 0189
Words: 235
Friday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
Word Coining
About three
hundred words in the English language come from
the names of people. Many
of these words are
technical words. When there is a new invention or
discovery, a new word may
be coined （创造） after
the inventor or scientist.
It is interesting
to observe how many common words have found their
way into the language
from the names of
people. Lord （贵族） Sandwich who lived from
1718-1792 used to sit at the
gambling （赌博）
table eating slices of bread with meat in between.
As the Lord was the only
one among his friends
who ate bread in that way, his friends began to
call the bread
“
sandwich
”
for
fun. Later on the word became part of the English
language.
The word
“
boycott
”
means to refuse to have anything
with somebody
or something. It comes from a man called
Captain Boycott. He was a land agent in 1880
and he
collected rents and taxes for an
English landowner in
Ireland. But the Captain
was a very hard man. He treated
his poor
tenants （佃户） very badly. His tenants decided
not to speak to him at all. Eventually word
got back to the
landowner and the Captain was
removed. The word
“
boycott
”
became popular and was used by everyone to
mean the kind
of treatment that was received
by Captain Boycott.
○
Short Answer
Questions
1. How many English words come from
the names of people?
2. What is Sandwich?
3. What
’
s the
meaning of the word
“
boycott
”
?
4.
What kind of person is Captain Boycott?
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Extensive Reading Series 2
5.
Did the tenants like the cruel land agent?
Passage 0190
Words: 252
Friday
Time Spent:
Date:
(DMY)
Score: 5
The American Way:
Freedom
Ask the average American,
“
What
is the freedom?
”
You will probably hear,
“
It
’
s
being able to do what I
want to do.
”
When Americans think of
freedom, they often think of
individualism.
They see themselves more as individuals than as
members of a family or social
group.
In
American culture, freedom means equality.
The
Declaration of Independence
states
that
“
all men are created equal
”
. That
does not mean equal in abilities or status. For
Americans,
equality refers to equal worth and
equal opportunity.
Every individual should
have an equal chance to
improve his life.
True, America has not always lived
up to that
ideal. For many years, native Americans,
African Americans and immigrants have
protested the
unequal treatment they have
received. But American
culture still teaches
that people can work hard and
fulfill their
dreams. Whether this idea is true or not,
people hear rags-to-riches stories often
enough to
confirm it in the minds of many
people.
Freedom arouses strong feelings for
Americans. The idea of liberty binds people
together
in this
“
land of the
free
”
. However, problems still exist. One
individual
’
s freedom can conflict
with
the rights of others. Someone once said,
“
You have the freedom to swing your fist
around if
you want. But your freedom ends
where my nose begins.
”
People can also
become too concerned
about their own rights.
They might demand special treatment. However, the
path to freedom is
not completely smooth. Even
so, for Americans, no other road is really worth
traveling.
○
Short Answer Questions
1.
How does an average American interpret
“
freedom
”
?
014
Unit 1
2. What does
“
equality
”
mean in American
culture?
3.
What binds American people together?
4.
Is the path to freedom smooth? Why or why not?
5.
What is the main idea of the passage?
015