2003年英语专八阅读真题

2016-11-09 15:08:50来源：网络

2003年英语专八阅读真题

　　SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (30 min)

　　In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your COLORED ANSWER SHEET.

　　TEXT A

　　Hostility to Gypsies has existed almost from the time they first appeared in Europe in the 14th century. The origins of the Gypsies, with little written history, were shrouded in mystery. What is known now from clues in the various dialects of their language, Romany, is that they came from northern India to the Middle East a thousand years ago, working as minstrels and mercenaries, metal smiths and servants. Europeans misnamed them Egyptians, soon shortened to Gypsies. A clan system, based mostly on their traditional crafts and geography, has made them a deeply fragmented and fractious people, only really unifying in the face of enmity from non-Gypsies, whom they call gadje. Today many Gypsy activists prefer to be called Roma, which comes from the Romany word for "man". But on my travels among them most still referred to themselves as Gypsies.

　　In Europe their persecution by the gadje began quickly, with the church seeing heresy in their fortune-telling and the state seeing anti-social behaviour in their nomadism. At various times they have been forbidden to wear their distinctive bright clothes, to speak their own language, to travel, to marry one another, or to ply their traditional crafts. In some countries they were reduced to slavery-it wasn't until the mid-1800s that Gypsy slaves were freed in Romania. In more recent times the Gypsies were caught up in Nazi ethnic hysteria, and perhaps half a million perished in the Holocaust. Their horses have been shot and the wheels removed from their wagons, their names have been changed, their women have been sterilized, and their children have been forcibly given for adoption to non-Gypsy families.

　　But the Gypsies have confounded predictions of their disappearance as a distinct ethnic group, and their numbers have burgeoned. Today there are an estimated 8 to 12 million Gypsies scattered across Europe, making them the continent's largest minority. The exact number is hard to pin down. Gypsies have regularly been undercounted, both by regimes anxious to downplay their profile and by Gypsies themselves, seeking to avoid bureaucracies. Attempting to remedy past inequities, activist groups may overcount. Hundreds of thousands more have emigrated to the Americans and elsewhere. With very few exceptions Gypsies have expressed no great desire for a country to call their own-unlike the Jews, to whom the Gypsy experience is often compared. "Romanestan," said Ronald Lee, the Canadian Gypsy writer, "is where my two feet stand. "

　　16. Gypsies are united only when they ____.

　　A. are engaged in traditional crafts

　　B. call themselves Roma

　　C. live under a clan system

　　D. face external threats

　　17. In history hostility to Gypsies in Europe resulted in their persecution by all the following EXCEPT ____.

　　A. the Egyptians B. the state

　　C. the church D. the Nazis

　　18. According to the passage, the main difference between the Gypsies and the Jews lies in their concepts of ____.

　　A. language B. culture C. identity D. custom

　　Text B

　　I was just a boy when my father brought me to Harlem for the first time, almost 50 years ago. We stayed at the Hotel Theresa, a grand brick structure at 125th Street and Seventh Avenus. Once, in the hotel restaurant, my father pointed out Joe Louis. He even got Mr. Brown, the hotel manager, to introduce me to him, a bit paunchy but still the champ as far as I was concerned.

　　Much has changed since then. Business and real estate are booming. Some say a new renaissance is under way. Others decry what they see as outside forces running roughshod over the old Harlem.

　　New York meant Harlem to me, and as a young man I visited it whenever I could. But many of my old haunts are gone. The Theresa shut down in 1966. National chains that once ignored Harlem now anticipate yuppie money and want pieces of this prime Manhattan real estate. So here I am on a hot August afternoon, sitting in a Starbucks that two years ago opened a block away from the Theresa, snatching at memories between sips of high-priced coffee. I am about to open up a piece of the old Harlem-the New York Amsterdam News-when a tourist asking directions to Sylvia's, a prominent Harlem restaurant, penetrates my daydreaming. He's carrying a book: Touring Historic Harlem.

　　History. I miss Mr. Michaux's bookstore, his House of Common Sense, which was across from the Theresa. He had a big billboard out front with brown and black faces painted on it that said in large letters:"World History Book Outlet on 2,000,000,000 Africans and Nonwhite Peoples. "An ugly state office building has swallowed that space.

　　I miss speaker like Carlos Cooks, who was always on the southwest corner of 125th and Seventh, urging listeners to support Africa. Harlem's powerful political electricity seems unplugged-although the streets are still energized, especially by West African immigrants.

　　Hardworking southern newcomers formed the bulk of the community back in the 1920s and '30s, when Harlem renaissance artists, writers, and intellectuals gave it a glitter and renown that made it the capital of black America. From Harlem, W. E. B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Zora Hurston, and others helped power America's cultural influence around the world.

　　By the 1970s and '80s drugs and crime had ravaged parts of the community. And the life expectancy for men in Harlem was less than that of men in Bangladesh. Harlem had become a symbol of the dangers of inner-city life.

　　Now, you want to shout "Lookin' good!"at this place that has been neglected for so long. Crowds push into Harlem USA, a new shopping centre on 125th, where a Disney store shares space with HMV Records, the New York Sports Club, and a nine-screen Magic Johnson theatre complex. Nearb, a Rite Aid drugstore also opened. Maybe part of the reason Harlem seems to be undergoing a rebirth is that it is finally getting what most people take for granted.

　　Harlem is also part of an "empowerment zone"-a federal designation aimed at fostering economic growth that will bring over half a billion in federal, state, and local dollars. Just the shells of once elegant old brownstones now can cost several hundred thousand dollars. Rents are skyrocketing. An improved economy, tougher law enforcement, and community efforts against drugs have contributed to a 60 percent drop in crime since 1993.

　　19. At the beginning the author seems to indicate that Harlem ____. 

　　A. has remained unchanged all these years

　　B. has undergone drastic changes

　　C. has become the capital of Black America

　　D. has remained a symbol of dangers of inner-city life

　　20. When the author recalls Harlem in the old days, he has a feeling of ____.

　　A. indifference B. discomfort C. delight D. nostalgia

　　21. Harlem was called the capital of Black America in the 1920s and '30s mainly because of its ____.

　　A. art and culture B. immigrant population

　　C. political enthusiasm D. distinctive architecture

　　22. From the passage we can infer that, generally speaking, the author ____.

　　A. has strong reservations about the changes