I would keep putting my dream to the test-even though it meant
living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone
with a dream must learn to live there.
56. The passage is meant to ________.
A) warn young people of the hardships that a successful writer has to experience
B) advise young people to give up their idea of becoming a professional writer
C) show young people it’s unrealistic for a writer to pursue wealth and fame
D) encourage young people to pursue a writing career
57. What can be concluded from the passage?
A) Genuine writers often find their work interesting and rewarding.
B) A writer’s success depends on luck rather than on effort.
C) Famous writers usually live in poverty and isolation.
D) The chances for a writer to become successful are small.
58. Why did the author begin to doubt himself after the first year of his writing career?
A) He wasn’t able to produce a single book.
B) He hadn’t seen a change for the better.
C) He wasn’t able to have a rest for a whole years.
D) He found his dream would never come true.
59. “... People who die wondering, What if?” (Line 3, Para. 3) refers to “those
________”.
A) who think too much of the dark side of life
B) who regret giving up their career halfway
C) who think a lot without making a decision
D) who are full of imagination even upon death
60. “Shadowland” in the last sentence refers to ________.
A) the wonderland one often dreams about
B) the bright future that one is looking forward to
C) the state of uncertainty before one’s final goal is reached
D) a world that exists only in one’s imagination
Passage Three
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
It is everyone agrees, a huge task that the child performs when he learns to speak,
and the fact that he does so in so short a period of time challenges explanation.
Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the
amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long
listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak,
though the word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted
cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also
ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first
spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making
noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as
particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot
be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as
early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with
sounds for enjoyments, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their
repertoire (能发出的全部声音). This self-imitation leads on to deliberate (有意识的)
imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then
arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as
speech.
61. By “... challenges explanation” (Line 2, Para. 1) the author means that ________.
A) no explanation is necessary for such an obvious phenomenon
B) no explanation has been made up to now
C) it’s no easy job to provide an adequate explanation
D) it’s high time that an explanation was provided
62. The third paragraph is mainly about ________.
A) the development of babies’ early forms of language
B) the difficulties of babies in learning to speak
C) babies’ strong desire to communicate
D) babies’ intention to communicate
63. The author’s purpose in writing the second paragraph is to show that children
________.
A) usually obey without asking questions
B) are passive in the process of learning to speak
C) are born cooperative
D) learn to speak by listening
64. From the passage we learn that ________.
A) early starters can learn to speak within only six months
B) children show a strong desire to communicate by making noises
C) imitation plays an important role in learning to speak
D) children have various difficulties in learning to speak
65. The best title for this passage would be ________.
A) How Babies Learn to Speak
B) Early Forms of Language
C) A Huge Task for Children
D) Noise Making and Language Learning
Passage Four
Questions 66 to 70 are based on the following passage.
Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to
cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between
actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and
school. Cognitive (认知学派的) researchers, who study various aspects of mental life,
maintain that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval
and gifts from others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the
careful use of small monetary (金钱的) rewards sparks creativity in grade-school children,
suggesting that properly presented inducements (刺激) indeed aid inventiveness,
according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
“If kids know they’re working for a reward and can focus on a relatively
challenging task, they show the most creativity,” says Robert Eisenberger of the
University of Delaware in Newark. “But it’s easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for
poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards.”
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades
for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Eisenberger holds. As an
example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten
grading standards and restore failing grades.
In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economies, in which students handle
challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards,
shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.
66. Psychologists are divided with regard to their attitudes toward ________.
A) the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards
B) the amount of monetary rewards for student’ creativity
C) the study of relationship between actions and their consequences
D) the effects of external rewards on students’ performance
67. What is the response of many educators to external rewards for their students?