09年6月英语六级阅读考前冲刺
2009-06-08 16:34:54   来源：   作者：  评论：0 点击：

 Since its foundation in 1954, the United Nations has written into its major covenants(契约) the need to establish minimum ages for marriage. But the custom of marriage is a highly sensitive cultural issue, mainly because it is so unpleasantly involved with women’s rights and societal traditions and practices, and rules on marriage vary widely between countries. Some countries, particularly in West Africa, still do not have a legal minimum age for marriage.

　　In the West, a 13-year-old is still considered a child. Even getting married in one’s late teens is not usually encouraged because married life is likely to interfere with a young woman’s education and consequently restrict opportunities in later life. And there are also physical dangers in giving birth so young. The World Health Organization has over the past ten years identified early childbirth as a major cause of female mortality in many countries.

　　Under Islamic religious law, the age of consent for sex and marriage is puberty, which Muslims say is in harmony with the biological transition from childhood into adulthood. In Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, the age of puberty at around 13 or 14 is the legal age for marriage, but in Turkey it is 15, and in Egypt and Tunisia, 18 the same minimum age as in many Western countries. It is argued that by allowing earlier marriages, Islamic law is promoting stable relationships, while Western laws are encouraging promiscuity among young people.
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The moden world only recently reached the Yanomano, a native people of the Amazon basin. Sheltered by thick rainforest,the Yanomano lived a self-contained existence until gold was discovered in their jungle homeland. Miners flocked into the forests, cutting down trees and bringing disease and shot those Yanomano who would not get out of the way. In just seven years from the early 1980s, the population fell 20 per cent.

　　Hands Around the World, a native American cultural association, says the Yanomano are believed to be the most culturally intact people in the world. They wear loin cloths, use fire sticks and decorate their bodies with dye from a red berry(桨果). They don’t use the wheel and the only metal they use is what has been traded to them by outsiders. When a Yanomano dies, the body is burned and the remaining bones crushed into a powder and turned into a drink that is later consumed by mourners in memory of the dead.

　　A Hands Around the World report says that in South America not only are the cultures and traditions in danger of disappearing, but some tribes are in danger of extinction. “The Yanomano is a well-known tribe that is rapidly losing its members through the destruction of Western disease,” the report says. Before illegal gold miners entered their rainforest, the Yanomano were isolated from modern sociaty.

　　They occupy dense jungle north of the Amazon River between Venezuela and Brazil and are catalogued by anthropologists(人类学家) as neo-indians with cultural characteristics that date back more than 8,000 years. Each community lives in a circular communal house, some of which sleep up to 400, built around a central square.

　　Though many Yanomano men are monogamous, it is not unusual for them to have two or more wives. Anthropologists from the University of Wisconsin say polygamy is a way to increase one’s wealth because having a large family increases help with hunting and cultivating the land. These marriages result in a shortage of women for other men to marry, which has led to inter-tribal wars.

　　Each Yanomano man is responsible for clearing his land for gardening, using slash-and-hum farming methods. They grow plantains, a type of banana eaten cooked, and hunt game animals, fish and anaconda(南美热带蟒蛇) using bows and arrows. (396 words)

　　1. Miners flocked into the forest and shot those Yanomano who _______.

　　A. sheltered in thick rainforest

　　B. would not leave their jungle homeland

　　C. lived a self-contained existence

　　D. would stand in their way

　　2. The organization called Hands Around the World believes that culturally, the Yanomano is the world’s__________.

　　A. most primitive people B. most backward people

　　C. most advanced people D. oldest people

　　3. Which of the following is NOT true according to an American cultural association report?

　　A. In South America, the cultures are on the verge of extinction.

　　B. In South America, the traditions are on the verge of extinction.

　　C. In South America, the Yanomano can survive extinction.

　　D. In South America, some tribes are on the verge of extinction.

4. _________caused the Yanomano to have inter-tribal wars.

　　A. The shortage of women resulting from polygamy

　　B. The difference in wealth resulting from polygamy

　　C. The shortage of women resulting from monogamy

　　D. The difference in wealth resulting from monogamy

　　5. We can infer from the passage that it is imperative for us to protect the Yanomano because__________.

　　A. it is a clturally most intact people

　　B. it is a primitive people deep in jungle

　　C. it is a native people of the Amazon basin

　　D. it is primitive people in danger of disappearing

　　1. D 细节理解题。第一希第三句中的“who would not get out of the way”即“who would stand in the way”。

　　2. A 细节理解题。根据第二段第一句中的“…be the most culturally intact people in the world”得出。

　　3. C 细节理解题。根据第三段第二句陈述可得出此结论。

　　4. C细节理解题。根据第五段最后一句陈述可得出此结论。

　　5. D 推论题。纵观全文可推出此结论。

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　　In many countries, the trends of urbanization and education for girls have seen a drop in the number of child brides. However, early marriages continue to occur in poor rural areas, where society works very much on personal arrangement between families, villages and communities. And it doesn’t only happen in countries which don’t have a legal minimum age. In India, for example, the legal age of marriage for a girl is 18 and to a boy, 21. Yet, according to government statistics, 18 percent of ten to fourteen-year old girls in the poor, rural state of Rajasthan in the northwest of the country are married. There are obvious social and economical advantages for doing this: by marrying off their daughters early, families no longer have to provide for them ; and the younger the bride the smaller the dowry(嫁妆), or wedding price, demanded by the groom’s family.

　　It is clear, then, that child marriages are connected with poverty, lack of education and rural customs such as dowries; there don’t tend to be any child marriages in urban or rich areas. So, unless these real causes are addressed, it will be extremely hard to enforce change, even when change is dictated by a country’s governing body. (451 words)

　　1. What is the topic of this passage?

　　A. Child brides.

　　B. Early marriages.

　　C. Minimum age for marriage.

　　D. Different attitudes towards early marriages.

　　2. The word “promiscuity”(Line 9, Para. 3) means__________.

　　A. unstable partnership B. firm partnership

　　C. diverse relationship D. single relationship

　　3. __________is likely to marry late.

　　A. Women from less educated background

　　B. Women from rural areas

　　C. Women from Islamic countries

　　D. Women from cities

4. Child marriages are NOT related to __________according to the passage.

　　A. social position B. rural customs

　　C. personal arrangements D. religion

　　5. According to the passage, getting married early does all of the following EXCEPT__________.

　　A. reducing a young woman’s education

　　B. limiting a young woman’s chances

　　C. causing infant death

　　D. doing harm to a young woman’s health

　　1.B 主旨题。本文列举了许多国家法定的最小结婚年龄及造成早婚的原因，所以，这篇文章的主题应是关于早婚。

　　2.C 词义猜测题。根据是第三段最后一句。

　　3.D 细节推断题。文中第四段的第一句里有此线索，即“In many countries, the trends …of child brides.”，由这句话判定D项是正确的。

　　4.A 判断题。A项在本文中没有提到，故A项为答案。

　　5.C 细节题。C项意为“早育使婴儿死亡”，而C项在本文没有提到。故C项为正确选项。

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In the past century Irish painting has changes from a British-influenced lyrical tradition to an art that evokes the ruggedness and roots of an Irish Celtic past. At the turn of the twentieth century Irish painters, including notables Walter Frederick Osborne and Sir William Orpen, looked elsewhere for influence. Osborne’s exposure to “plein air” painting deeply impacted his stylistic development; and Orpen allied himself with a group of English artists, while at the same time participated in the French avant-garde experiment, both as painter and teacher.

　　However, nationalist energies were beginning to coalesce (接合)，reviving interest in Irish culture-including Irish visual arts. Beatrice Elvery’s (1907), a landmark achievement, merged the devotional simplicity of fifteenth-century Italian painting with the iconography (肖像画法) of Ireland’s Celtic past, linking the history of Irish Catholicism with the still-nasce t (初生的) Irish republic. And, although also captivated by the French plein air school, Sir John Lavery invoked the mythology of his native land for a 1928 commission to paint the central figure for the bank note of the new Irish Free State. Lavery chose as this figure, with her arm on a Celtic harp (竖琴)，the national symbol of independent Ireland.

　　In Irish painting from about 1910, memories of Edwardian romanticism coexisted with a new sense of realism,exemplified by the paintings of Paul Henry and Se Keating, a student of Orpen’s. realism also crept into the work of Edwardians Lavery and Orpen, both of whom made paintings depicting World WarⅠ,Lavery with a distanced Victorian nobility, Orpen closer to the front, revealing a more sinister and realistic vision. Meanwhile, counterpoint to the Edwardians and realists came Jack B. Yeats, whose travels throughout the rugged and more authentically Irish West led him to depict subjects ranging from street scenes in Dublin to boxing matches and funerals. Fusing close observations of Irish life and icons with an Irish identity in a new way, Yeats changed the face of Irish painting and became the most important Irishartist of his century. (353 words)

　　1. Which of the following art most probably exerted the greatest influence on Irish painting in the 19th century?

　　A. British lyrical tradition

　　B. French avant-garde experiment

　　C. notionalist energies

　　D. Italian painting

　　2. It is implied_________was least influenced by the contemporary art of Frence.

　　A. Sir John Lavery B. Sir William Orpen

　　C. Beatrice Elvery D. Se Keating

　　3. Which of the following best explains the author’s use of the word “counterpoint” in referring to Yeats?

　　A. Yeats’ paintings differed significantly in subject matter from those of his contemporaries in Ireland.

　　B. Yeats reacted to the realism of his contemporary artists by invoking nineteenth-century naturalism in his own painting style.

　　C. Yeats avoided religious and mythological themes in favor of mundane portrayals of Irish life.

　　D. Yeats built upon the realism painting tradition, elevating it to unprecedented artistic heights.

4. The author points out the coexistence of romanticism and realism most probably in order to show that_________.

　　A. Irish painters of the early twentieth century tended to romanticize the harsh reality of war

　　B. for a time painters from each school influenced painters from the other school

　　C. Yeats was influenced by both the romantic and realist schools of Irish painting

　　D. the transition in Irish painting from one predominant style to the other was not an abrupt one

　　5. The most likely topic of the paragraph followed is _________.

　　A. The Role of Celtic Mythology in Irish Painting

　　B. Who Deserves Credit for the Preeminence of Yeats among Irish Painters?

　　C. Realism vs. Romanticism: Ireland’s Struggle for National Identity

　　D. Irish Paintings: Reflections of an Emerging Independent State

　　1.A 细节题。根据是第一段第一句。

　　2.A 细节题。根据是第二段第三句“…although also captivated by the French…，Sir John Lavery…the new Irish Free State.”

　　3.A细节题。根据是第三段第三句“…whose travels throughout the rugged and more authentically Irish West…”

　　4.D 推理题。根据是第三段第一句。

　　5.D 推理题。根据第三段最后一句可以推断作者在下文将要谈及的内容。