40. Some children are backward in speaking most probably because _______. A. they are incapable of learning language rapidly B. they are exposed to too much language at once
C. their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak D. their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them
41. What is exceptionally remarkable about a child? A. He is born with the capacity to speak.
B. He has a brain more complex than an animal’s. C. He can produce his own sentences.
D. He owes his speech ability to good nursing.
42. Which of the following can NOT be inferred from the passage? A. The faculty of speech is inborn in man.
B. Encouragement is anything but essential to a child in language learning. C. The child’s brain is highly selective.
D. Most children learn their language in definite stages.
43. If a child starts to speak later than others, he will ______ in future. A. have a high IQ B. be less intelligent
C. be insensitive to verbal signals D. not necessarily be backward
Passage Nine (Questions 44-48):
As everyone knows, words constantly take on new meanings. Since they do not necessarily, nor even usually, take the place of the old ones, we should picture this process as the analogy of a tree throwing out new branches which themselves throw out subordinate branches. The new branches sometimes overshadow and kill the old one but by no means always. We shall again and again find the earliest senses of a word flourishing for centuries despite a vast overgrowth of later senses which might be expected to kill them.
When a word has several meanings historical circumstances often make one of them dominant during a particular period. Thus “station” is now more likely to mean a railway-station than anything else; “speculation” more likely to bear its financial sense than any other. until this century “plane” had as its dominant meaning “a flat surface” or “a carpenter’s tool to make a
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surface smooth”, but the meaning “an aeroplane” is dominant now. The dominant sense of a word lies uppermost in our minds. Whenever we meet the word, our natural impulse is to give it that sense. We are often deceived. In an old author the word may mean something different.
One of may aims is to make the reading of old books easy as far as certain words are concerned. If we read an old poem with insufficient regard for the change of the dictionary meanings of words we won’t be able to understand the poem the old author intended. And to avoid this, knowledge is necessary.
We see good words or good senses of words losing their edge or more rarely getting a new edge that serves some different purposes. “Verbicide”, the murder of a word, happens in many ways. Inflation is the commonest: those who taught us to say “awfully” for “very”, “tremendous” for “great”, and “unthinkable” for “undesirable” were verbicides.
I should be glad if I sent any reader away with a sense of responsibility to the language. It is unnecessary to think we can do nothing about it. Our conversation will have little effect, but if we get into print --- perhaps especially if we are leader-writers or reporters --- we can help to strengthen or weaken some disastrous words, can encourage a good and resist a bad Americanism. For many things the press prints today will be taken up by a great mass of people in a few years.
44. The main idea of the first paragraph is _____.
A. only old words take on new meaning
B. a tree throws out new branches as the words pick up new meanings C. words obtain new meanings from time to time
D. it is possible for the old words to lose their old senses
45. By mentioning the tree throwing out new branches, the author hopes to _____. A. stress the natural phenomena
B. picture the process of growth of new branches C. explain what the analogy is
D. illustrate his view in a clearer way
46. We are often cheated by some words in that ______.
A. their dominant meanings have not been determined
B. sometimes they mean something different from their dominant meanings C. our natural impulse makes a mistake
D. the dominant sense of a word is not accurate in our minds
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47. In the author’s view, if someone taught us to say “awfully” for “very”, ______. A. we were advised not to accept it
B. we were getting a new edge for a different purpose C. we saw an example of a good word being misused D. we saw a word serving for a different purpose
48. The main idea of the last paragraph is that ______.
A. we can do nothing about it unless we get into print
B. we should take responsibility to the language if necessary
C. our conversation has little effect on the situation because we haven’t got into print
D. a great mass of people will accept what the press prints so that we can encourage the good and resist the bad.
Passage Ten (Questions 49-53)
The standardized educational or psychological tests, which are widely used to aid in selecting, assigning or promoting students, employees and military personnel, have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress. The target is wrong, for, in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely tools, with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified condition. Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless, or even misleading depends partly on the tool itself but largely upon the user.
All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance. How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount, reliability and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error.
Standardized tests should be considered in this context: they provide a quick, objective method of getting some kind of information about what a person has learned, the skills he has developed, or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has, qualitatively, the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information. Whether to use tests, other kinds of information, or both in a particular situation depends, therefore, upon the empirical evidence concerning comparative validity, and upon such factors as cost and availability.
In general, the tests work most effectively when the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined (for example, ability to do well in a particular course of training program) and least effectively when what is to be measured or predicted cannot be well defined, for example, personality or creativity. Properly used, they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people. Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized.
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49. The passage is concerned with______.
A. the necessity of standardized tests B. the validity of standardized tests
C. the methods used in interpreting the results of standardized tests D. the theoretical grounds of standardized tests
50. The author’s attitude toward standardized tests is ______. A. critical B. vague C. optimistic D. positive
51. The main idea of this passage is that ______.
A. standardized tests should no longer be used
B. results of standardized tests accurately reflect the abilities of the testee C. the value of standardized tests lies in their proper interpretation D. special methods must be applied to the results of standardized tests
52. The word “empirical” in the third paragraph most probably means _____. A. theoretical B. critical
C. relying on observation and experiment D. indisputable
53. According to the passage, standardized tests work most effectively when ____. A. the objectives are most clearly defined
B. the user knows how to interpret the results in advance C. the persons who take them are intelligent or skillful D. they measure the traits or qualities of the testee
Passage Eleven (Questions 54-58):
For years there have been endless articles stating that scientists are on the verge of achieving artificial intelligence, that it is just around the corner. The truth is that it may be just around the corner, but they haven’t yet found the right clock.
Artificial intelligence aims to build machines that can think. One immediate problem is to define thought, which is harder than you might think. The specialists in the field of artificial intelligence complain, with some justification, that anything that their machines do is dismissed as not being thought. For example, computers can now play very, very good chess. They can’t beat
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