A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.
B) Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.
C) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.
D) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.
25. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.
A) smokers should not expect to become airline pilots
B) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness
C) no airline pilots smoke during flights
D) smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers
work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal-combustion engine
(内燃机) has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞)
being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do
what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the
computer’s impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For
computer literacy is not a form of literacy (读写能力); it is a trade skill that should not be
taught as a liberal art.
Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct
activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free
themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all
ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming
as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some
people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repaid and violin-making.
Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as
programs become more “user-friendly”. Let us assume that in the future everyone is going
to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase
“learning to use a computer” mean? It sounds like “learning to drive a car”, that is, it
sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a
computer.
In fact, “learning to use a computer” is much more like “learning to play a game”,
but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules
may not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a computer.
One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily
accomplished.
26. To be the competent citizens of tomorrow, people should ________.
A) try to lay a solid foundation in computer science
B) be aware of how the things that they use do what they do
C) learn to use a computer by acquiring a certain set of skills
D) understand that programming a computer is more essential than repairing a car
27. In the second paragraph “violin-making” is mentioned to show that ________.
A) programming a computer is as interesting as making a violin
B) our society needs experts in different fields
C) violin-making requires as much skill as computer programming
D) people who can use a computer don’t necessarily have to know computer
programming
28. Learning to use a computer is getting easier all the time because ________.
A) programs are becoming less complicated
B) programs are designed to be convenient to users
C) programming is becoming easier and easier
D) programs are becoming readily available to computer users
29. According to the author, the phrase “learning to use a computer” (Lines 3-4, Para. 3)
means learning ________.
A) a set of rules
B) the fundamentals of computer science
C) specific programs
D) general principles of programming
30. The author’s purpose in writing this passage is ________.
A) to stress the impact of the computer on society
B) to explain the concept of the computer literacy
C) to illustrate the requirements for being competent citizens of tomorrow
D) to emphasize that computer programming is an interesting and challenging job
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness
actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness, if fun and pleasure are
equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is
true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true
happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising
children, professional achievement, religious commitment (承担的义务),
self-improvement.
Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be
less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a
commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun,
adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most
distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three-day
vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising
children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a
child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one
of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to
activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new
car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems
pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always
having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
31. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________.
A) he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities
B) he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single
C) he finds more fun in dating than in marriage
D) he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement
32. Raising children, in the author’s opinion, is ________.
A) a moral duty
B) a thankless job
C) a rewarding task
D) a source of inevitable pain
33. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________.
A) hatred
B) misunderstanding
C) prejudice
D) ignorance
34. To understand what true happiness is one must ________.
A) have as much run as possible during one’s lifetime
B) make every effort to liberate oneself from pain
C) put up with pain under all circumstances
D) be able to distinguish happiness from fun
35. What is the author trying to tell us?