Part I Reading Comprehension (30%)
Directions: There are three passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage 1
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
What exactly is a lie? Is it anything we say which we know is untrue? Or is it something more than that? For example, suppose a friend wants to borrow some money from you. You say “I wish I could help you but I’m short of money myself.” In fact, you are not short of money but your friend is in the habit of not paying his debt and you don’t want to hurt his feelings by reminding him of this. Is this rally a lie?
Professor Jerald Jellison of the University of Southern California has made a scientific study of lying. (76)According to him, women are better liars than men, particularly when telling a “white lie”, such as when a woman at a party tells another woman that she likes her dress when she really thinks it looks awful. However, this is only one side of the story. Other researchers say that men are more likely to tell more serious lies, such as making a promise which they have no intension of fulfilling. This is the kind of lie politicians and businessmen are supposed to be particularly skilled at: the lie from which the liar hopes to profit or gain in some way.
Research has also been done into the way people’s behavior changes in a number of small, apparently unimportant ways when they lie. It has been found that if they are sitting down at the time, they tend to move about in their chairs more than usual. To the trained observer they are saying “I wish I were somewhere else now.” They also tend to touch certain parts of the face more often, in particular the nose. One explanation of this may be that lying causes a slight increase in blood pressure. The tip of the nose is very sensitive to such changes and the increased pressures make it itch.
Another gesture which gives liars away is what the writer Desmond Morris in his book Manwatching calls “the mouth cover”.(77)He says there are several typical forms of this, such as covering part of the mouth with the fingers, touching the upper-lip or putting a finger of the hand at one side of the mouth. Such a gesture can be understood as an unconscious attempt on the part of the liar to stop himself or herself from lying.
Of course, such gestures as rubbing the nose or covering the mouth, or moving about in a chair cannot be taken as proof that the speaker is lying. They simply tend to occur more frequently in this situation. It is not one gesture alone that gives the liar away but a whole number of things, and in particular the context in which the lie is told.
1. According to the passage, a “white lie” seems to be a lie
A. that other people believe
B. that other people don’t believe
C. told in order to avoid offending someone
D. told in order to take advantage of someone
2. Research suggests that women
A. are better at telling less serious lies than men are
B. generally lie far more than men do
C. lie at parties more often than men do
D. often make promises they intend to break
3. Researchers find that when a person tells lies
A. his blood pressure increases measurably
B. he looks very serious
C. he tends to make some small changes in his behavior
D. he uses his unconscious mind
4. One reason people sometimes rub their noses when they lie is that
A. they wish they were somewhere else
B. the nose is sensitive to physical changes caused by lying
C. they want to cover their mouths
D. they are trying to stop themselves from telling lies
5. The tone of this passage tells us that the writer
A. hates to lie
B. enjoys lying
C. often tells a lie
D. tries to analyze lying
Passage 2
Question 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.
(78) Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time: if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learning to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught—to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle—compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes and correct them for himself. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what his word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
6. According to the passage, which of the following is the best way for children to learn things?
A. Listening to skilled people’s advice.
B. Asking older people many questions.
C. Making mistakes and having them corrected.
D. Doing what other people do.
7. The writer think teachers should NOT .
A. give children correct answers B. allow children to make mistakes
C. point out children’s mistakes to them D. let children mark their own work
8. According to the writer, teachers in school should .
A. allow children to learn from each other
B. point out children’s mistakes whenever found
C. correct children’s mistakes as soon as possible
D. give children more book knowledge
9. According to the passage, learning to speak and learning to ride a bicycle are .
A. different from learning other skills B. the same as learning other skills
C. more important than other skills D. not really important skills
10. The title of this passage could probably be .
A. Let Us Teachers Stop Work
B. Let Us Make Children Learn
C. Let Children Correct Their Exercises
D. Let Children Learn By Themselves
