考博英语阅读资料

考博英语阅读资料
Unit One
Passage 1
The physical distribution of products has two primary aspects: transportation and storage. Both aspects are highly developed and specialized phases of marketing. The costs of both trans-porting and storing are built into the prices of products. Transportation can be by truck, rail-
way, ship, or barge. For some items, such as exotic plants and flowers, or when rapid delivery is essential, air freight may be used.
Storage, or warehousing, is a necessary function because production and consumption of goods rarely match: items generally are not sold as quickly as they are made. Inventories build up, both in warehouses and at retail establishments, before the foods are sold. The transporta-tion function is involved in bringing goods to a warehouse and taking them from it to retail stores.
Storage performs the service of stabilizing market price. If, for example, no agricultural product could be stored, all food would have to be put on the market immediately. This would, of course, create a glut and lower prices drastically. There would be an immediate benefit to consumers, but in the long run they would suffer. Farmers, because of low prices, would be forced off the land, and the amount of food produced would decrease. This, in turn, would raise consumer prices.
Warehouses for storage are of several types. Private warehouses are owned by manufactur-ers. Public warehouses, in spite of their name, are privately owned facilities, but they are in-dependent of manufacturer ownership. General-merchandise warehouses store a great variety of products. Cold-storage warehouses store perishable goods, especially food products. Grain ele-vators are a kind of warehouse used to keep wheat and other grains from spoiling. A bonded warehouse is one that stores foods, frequently imported, on which taxes must be paid before they are sold. Cigarettes and alcoholic beverages are common examples.
The distribution center is a more recently developed kind of warehouse. Many large com- panics have several manufacturing plants, sometimes located outside the country. Each plant does not make every company product but specializes in one or more of them. The distribution center allows a manufacturer to bring together all product lines in one place. Its purpose is to minimize storage and to ease the flow of goods from manufacturers to retailers rather than build up extensive inventories. It reduces costs by speeding up product turnover. Very large corporations will have several distribution centers regionally or internationally based
1. The main subject of this passage is______.
A) transportation and storage B) storage of products
C) distribution center D) two main aspects of product distribution
2. Warehousing is important in that _
A) inventories build up before the goods are sold
B) the prices will go down
C) more goods are produced than can be consumed
D) the food has to be put on the market immediately
3. How many types of warehouses for storage are discussed in the passage?
A) 3. B) 4. C) 6. D) 7.
4. Where might one find meat and milk?
A) Grain elevator. B) Cold-storage warehouse.
C) Private warehouse. D) Bonded warehouse.
5. What is NOT true of a distribution center?
A) It is a relatively new type of warehouse.
B) Product is replaced more quickly and costs are down.
C) Some distribution centers are not built in the sane country as the factory
D) It builds up extensive inventories to minimize storage.

Passage 2
How much pain do animals feel? This is a question which has caused endless controversy. Opponents of big game shooting, for example, arouse our pity by describing tile agonies of a badly-wounded beast that has crawled into a comer to die. In countries where the fox, the hare and the deer are hunted, animal-lovers paint harrowing pictures of the pursued animal suffering not only the physical distress of the chase but the mental anguish of anticipated death.
The usual answer to these criticisms is that animals do not suffer in the same way, or to the same extent, as we de. Man was created with a delicate nervous system and has never lost his acute sensitiveness to pain; animals, on the other hand, had less sensitive systems to begin with and in the course of millions of years, have developed a capacity of ignoring injuries and disorders which human beings would find intolerable. For example, a dog will continue to play with a ball even after a serious injury to his foot; he may be unable to run without limping, but he will go on trying long after a human child would have had to stop because of the pain. We are told, moreover, that even when animals appear to us to be suffering acutely, this is not so; what seems to us to be agonized contortions caused by pain are in fact no more than muscular contractions over which they have no control.
These arguments are unsatisfactory because something about which we know a great deal is being compared with something we can only conjecture. We know what we feel; we have no means of knowing what animals feet. Some creatures with a less delicate nervous system than ours may be incapable of feeling pain to the same extent as we do: that as far as we are entitled to do, the most humane attitude, surely, is to assume that no animals are entirely exempt from physical pain and that we ought, therefore, wherever possible, to avoid causing suffering even to the least of them.
6. Animal-lovers assume that animals, being hunted, would suffer from ____.
A) a great deal of agony both in body and in spirit
B) mental distress once they are wounded
C) only body pains without feeling sad
D) crawling into the comer to die
7. Supporters of game shooting may argue that animals ______.
A) cannot control their muscular contractions
B) have developed a capacity of feeling no pain
C) are not as acutely sensitive as human beings to injuries
D) can endure all kinds of disorders
8. The author feels sure that _____.
A) animals don't show suffering to us
B) dogs are more endurable than human children
C) we cannot know what animals feel
D) comparing animals with human beings is not appropriate
9. What is the author's opinion about animal hunting?
A) We should feel the same as the hunted animals do.
B) We should protect and save all the animals.
C) We shouldn't cause suffering to them.
D) We should take care of them if we can.
10. This passage seems to ____.
A) argue for something B) explain something
C) tell a story D) describe an object

Passage 3
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related. A the-ory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced. A good example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to predict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experi-merits to test the theory. If observations confirm the scientists' predictions, the theory is sup-ported. If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said: "Science is built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house."
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are
formulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist's thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes ob-servations to test hypotheses. For without hypotheses, further investigation lacks purpose and direction. When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated into theories.
11. The word "this" in the 3rd sentence in paragraph 1 refers to ______.
A) a good example B) an imaginary model
C) the kinetic molecular theory D) an observed event
12. Bricks are mentioned in the 3rd paragraph to indicate how ____.
A) mathematicians approach science
B) building a house is like performing experiments
C) science is more than a collection of facts
D) scientific experiments have led to improved technology
13. In the last paragraph, the author refers to a hypothesis as "a leap into the unknown" in or- der to show that hypotheses ______.
A) are sometimes ill-conceived B) can lead to dangerous results
C) go beyond available facts D) require effort to formulate
14. What is a major function of hypotheses as implied in the last paragraph7
A) Sifting through known facts.
B) Communicating a scientist's thoughts to others.
C) Providing direction for scientific research.
D) Linking together different theories.
15. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?
A) Theories are simply imaginary models of past events.
B) It is better to revise a hypothesis than to reject it.
C) A scientist's most difficult task is testing hypotheses.
D) A good scientist needs to be creative.
B) Education systems need to be radically reformed.
C) Going to school is only part of how people become educated.
D) Education involves many years of professional training.
20. The passage is organized by ___
A) listing and discussing several educational problems
B) contrasting the meanings of two related concepts
C) narrating a story about excellent teachers
D) giving examples of different kinds of schools

Passage 5
The phrase "civil disobedience" is usually attributed to the nineteenth-century American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Although the concept is unquestionably much older (its roots
lie in ancient Greek philosophy), the designation is nonetheless telling: people tend to credit Thoreau, an American, with the idea because civil disobedience, is a hallmark of American eth- ics and politics. The clash between the dictates of individual conscience on one hand, and the imperatives of civil law on the other, forms much of this country's history. Examples range from the incidents leading up to the Revolution through the many social protests of the 1960'S.
What constitutes an act of civil disobedience? First, an act of civil disobedience requires a formal legal structure that is enforced by the government. Second, it requires as its target a specific law or policy, rather than the entire legal system. This is true even if the protester's ul- timate goal is to alter radically the legal system; an act of civil disobedience must be directed against one concrete example of that system's inequities. The American civil rights movement, for example, first targeted discrimination on public transportation, then used its victories as a springboard to address other injustices. Third, the act must be done publicly, because the ef- fectiveness of such a protest depends on its ability to mobilize public sentiment against the protest's target. Finally, those protesting must understand the penalties their acts entail--us-ually jailing--and be willing to accept those penalties. This last requirement strengthens the act's effect on public opinion, since it serves to underscore the injustice of the protest's target.
21. The word "telling" in the 2nd sentence in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _____.
A) inappropriate B) revealing C) insignificant D) challenging
22. In the passage, the author mentions that the civil rights movement _______.
A) focused its early efforts on public transportation
B) did not always practice civil disobedience
C) started in nineteenth century
D) used the Revolution of 1776 as its model
23. According to the passage, for which of the following reasons should civil protests be done
publicly?
A) To alter the legal system in radical way.
B) To uphold the imperatives of civil law.
C) To stimulate public support for a cause.
D) To announce the success of a previous act of civil disobedience.
24. The author suggests that when protesters go to jail _______.
A) it helps convince the public to support their cause
B) they usually do so unwillingly
C) it is because their protest has not gone according to plan
D) they are always released almost immediately
25. In the 2nd paragraph, the author ________.
A) argues that civil disobedience is unnecessary
B) provides an extensive history of civil disobedience
C) presents several differing viewpoints on civil disobedience
D) defines the concept of civil disobedience

Passage 6
In taking up a new life across the Atlantic, the early European settlers of the United States did not abandon the diversions with which their ancestors had traditionally relieved the tedium of life. Neither the harshness of existence on the new continent nor the scattered population nor the disapproval of the clergy discouraged the majority from the pursuit of pleasure.
City and country dwellers, of course, conducted this pursuit in different ways. Farm dwellers in their isolation not only found it harder to locate companions in play but also, thanks to the unending demands and pressures of their work, felt it necessary to combine fun with purpose. No other set of colonists took so seriously an expression of the period, "Leisure is time for doing something useful." In the countryside farmers therefore relieved the burden of the daily routine with such double-purpose relaxations as hunting, fishing, and trapping. When a neighbor needed help, families rallied from miles around to assist in building a house or barn, husking corn, shearing sheep, or chopping wood. Food, drink, and celebration after the group work
provided relaxation and soothed weary muscles.
The most eagerly anticipated social events were the rural parties. Hundreds of men, women, and children attended from far and near. The men bought or traded farm animals and acquired needed merchandise while the women displayed food prepared in their kitchens, and everyone, including the youngsters, watched or participated in a variety of competitive sports, with prizes awarded to the winners. These events typically included horse races, wrestling matches, and foot races, as well as some nonathletic events such as whistling competitions. No other occasions did so much to relieve the isolation of farm existence.
With the open countryside everywhere at hand, city dwellers naturally shared in some of
the rural diversions. Favored recreations included fishing, hunting, skating, and swimming. But city dwellers also developed other pleasures, which only compact communities made possible.
26. What is the passage mainly about?
A) Methods of fanning used by early settlers of the United States.
B) Hardships faced by the early settlers of the United States.
C) Methods of buying, selling, and trading used by early settlers of the United States.
D) Ways in which early settlers of the United States relaxed.
27. What can be inferred about the diversions of the early settlers of the United States?
A) They followed a pattern Begun in Europe.
B) They were enjoyed more frequently than in Europe.
C) The clergy organized them.
D) Only the wealthy participated in them.
28. Which of the following can be said about the country dwellers' altitude toward "the pursuit
of pleasure" ?
A) They felt that it should help keep their minds on their work.
B) They felt that it was not necessary.
C) They felt that it should be productive.
D) They felt that it should not involve eating and drinking.
29. What is meant by the phrase "double-purpose" in the 4th sentence in paragraph 2?
A) Very frequent. B) Useful and enjoyable.
C) Extremely necessary. D) Positive and negative.
30. What will the author probably discuss in the paragraph following this passage?
A) The rural diversions enjoyed by both urban and rural people.
B) Leisure activities of city dwellers.
C) Building methods of the early settlers in rural areas.
D) Changes in lifestyles of settlers as they moved to the cities.

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