2012年5月北美SAT阅读真题之文章阅读题（二）

Questions 6-9 are based on the following passages.

Passage 1

The world has always been a large place, but in some
senses it has become much smaller than it was. As recently
as the late nineteenth century, the great science fiction
writer Jules Verne wrote the then-unbelievable novel
Around the World in Eighty Days. Today we can physically (line 5)
circumnavigate the world in one day and electronically
orbit the planet in just eight seconds. A truly global
outlook is feasible now because of recent developments
in transportation and communications. People all over the
world have enthusiastically adopted these innovations to (line 10)
reach out and touch others, both physically and
electronically, around the globe. 【更多SAT考试真题下载】

Passage 2

Our world, seemingly global, is in reality a planet
of thousands of the most varied and never intersecting
provinces. A trip around the world is a journey from    (line 15)
backwater to backwater, each of which considers itself, in
its isolation, a shining star. For most people, the real world
ends on the threshold of their house, at the edge of their
village, or, at the very most, on the border of their valley.
That which is beyond is unreal, unimportant, and even  (line 20)
useless, whereas that which we have at our fingertips,
in our field of vision, expands until it seems an entire
universe, overshadowing all else.

6.The author of Passage 2 would most likely argue that the "outlook" mentioned in line 8, Passage 1, is

(A)rare except among avid readers

(B)common among residents of small towns

(C)insincere in its apparent optimism

(D)self-deluding and dangerous

(E)shared by relatively few people

7.The author of Passage 1 would most likely the attitude characterized in lines 17-23, Passage 2 ("For ... else"), as

(A)parochial

(B)comforting

(C)inspiring

(D)auspicious

(E)reckless

8. The last sentence of each passage makes use of

(A)a reference to communication

(B)an image of fellowship

(C)an example of innovation

(D)a metaphor for proximity

(E)an allusion to history

9. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the two passages? 【2015年SAT考试时间及考位代报名】

(A)They criticize similar developments.

(B)They illustrate antithetical attitudes.

(C)They have compatible agendas.

(D)They draw the same conclusion using different research methods.

(E)They both examine change in the perception of . an issue over time.

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关键词：2012年5月 阅读 真题 文章阅读题

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Questions 10-15 are based on the following passage.

The follmving passage is adaptedfrom a 1987 book on astronomers at an observatory in Cal(fornia. The author recounts a conversation with the late astronOlner and geologist Eugene Shoemaker.

Gene said, "We are going to go after something new this
month-Trojan asteroids." He picked up a sheet of
computer paper and unfolded it. It was titled "Known
Trojans," and it contained a list of heroes from the Trojan
War--Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, Nestor, Priam. Each (line 5)
name was that of a minor planet in orbit around the Sun. A
minor planet is the same thing as an asteroid.

There were two clouds of Trojans: one on either side of
Jupiter and sharing Jupiter's orbit. Trojans were faint, slow-
moving asteroids and darker than anthracite coal, which is (line 10)
the reason only 40 Trojan planets had been found. In the
solar system's main asteroid belt, thousands of other minor
planets had been found. The Trojan clouds had never been
completely explored. Scattered pinpoints of light, barely
resolvable on the photographic emulsion of a small (line 15)
telescope, Trojan planets were almost impossible to find.
They fanned out for half a billion miles on either side of
Jupiter. Nobody knew for sure how they had gotten-there.
Nobody knew for sure what they were made of-except
that it was some dark substance. (line 20)

Many astronomers, weaned on powerful telescopes, are
quintessentially what are known as extragalactic types. To
many of them the solar system offers little scientific
challenge-nine balls of nonluminous matter whirling
around a (pathetically) normal star, in addition to some (line 25)
gritty stuff, such as asteroids, moons, and comets. Such
astronomers view planets as the scrap heaps of the universe
and claim that the only thing the Earth is good for is to
serve as a platform for a telescope.

Gene Shoemaker offered an oblique reply to defamation (line 30)
of planets. "The solar system" is an insignificant bunch of
dust," he admitted. "It also happens to be where we live."
Somewhere in his mind's eye, or maybe in his heart, Gene
carried a peculiar vision of the solar system. It was not any
solar system that I had ever heard of before. In schoolbooks (line 35)
the solar system is pictured as a series of flat, concentric
circles centered on the Sun, each circle representing the
orbit of a planet. In Gene's mind the solar system was a
spheroid.In Gene's mind the solar system was not at all the
eternal, unvarying mechanism envisioned by seventeenth. (line 40)
century scientists like Isaac Newton, but a carnival-a
dynamic, evolving cloud of debris, filigreed with bands and
shells of shrapnel, full of bits and pieces of material' liable
to be pumped into ellipses and loops and long, chaotic
wobbling orbits which carried drifting projectiles all over (line 45)
the place-minor planets that every once in a while would
take a hook into a major planet, causing a major explosion.

He said, "There's just a zoo of beasts out there, roaming the
solar system. While it's tremendous fun discovering these
little planets, the real fun is trying to find out what they are (line 50)
and how theyJit into the origin of the solar system."

10. The second paragraph (lines 8-20) serves primarily to

(A) provide information about objects referred to in the first paragraph

(B) draw conclusions based on claims made in the first paragraph

(C) introduce an argument developed in the rest of the passage

(D) present the terms of an ongoing debate

(E) define key words in a discipline

11. The "astronomers" mentioned in line 27 hold the view that the solar system

(A) appears to lack order

(B) is made up of uninteresting objects

(C) merits additional human exploration

(D) is older than originally thought

(E) used to include more planets like Earth

12. Shoemaker's comment "It also happens to be where we live" (line 32) implies that

(A) the solar system is of interest for reasons other than its astrophysical characteristics

(B) scientists who dismiss the solar system should not be taken seriously

(C) humans one day may live on planets outside the solar system

(D) astronomers should focus on galaxies beyond the solar system

(E) the place where humans live is ultimately not important

13. In lines 34-35 ("It ... before"), the author offers a personal comment in order to

(A) add a conversational tone to an otherwise dry symmary

(B) convey his dismay at the strangeness of Shoemaker's theory

(C) disparage his own previous ignorance of extragalactic astronomy

(D) emphasize the distinctiveness of Shoemaker's view of the solar system

(E) reveal his frustration at having to juggle conflicting scientific explanations

14. In context, lines 39-41 ("In Gene's" " "carnival") emphasize which contrast?

(A)Stability versus variety and change

(B)Order versus rigidity

(C)Beauty versus danger

(D)Permanence"versus decay and destruction

(E)Harmony versus incessant conflict

15. Shoemaker's phrase "zoo of beasts" (line 48) suggests that the solar system

(A)needs constant attention

(B)is safely contained

(C)contains diverse entities

(D)can be explored with ease

(E)exists for our enjoyment

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Questions 16-25 are based on the folJowing passage.

This passage is adaptedjimll the autobiography of an American peliormer and choreographer afmodem dance. Here she discllsses a period during the 1960s when she was attending college and in art history.

Although I was working very hard at dance, I had no
idea if I was good enough to make it professionally. And
even if I did, what was a dancer to this culture'? What did

Line saying you were going to be a dancer mean to the guy on
the street, to the American middle class earning its living  (line 5)
in the real world? How could I explain that there are things
that are important in all our lives that can be expressed
only in dance, that there are not only physical truths but
behavioral values and emotional reservoirs that can be
investigated and demonstrated only by bodies in motion?  (line 10)
That there are times and situations where words cannot be
trusted to do the job? That there is a genuine and specific
need for dance, not just in me, but in us all? I could perhaps
have used the word "artist," said that was what I was going
to be. People would have assumed I said that because I was  (line 15)
studying painting. It too is a visual art. but unlike dancing,
painting makes its truths into a product you can hold. And
that can be sold. P is respected in an entrepreneurial society. However, I never
intended to be a painter, not seriously, and certainly had  (line 20)
no intention of teaching or curating. Nonetheless, I had
continued my art history major. But what, as a dancer,
would I do with the history of art, other than get a
sheepskin* to send home to Mother? At the time I could
not see any use to the major, but in fact I had begun to use  (line 25)
the discipline of art history to reinforce my own sense of
what is classic in art. I was locating that strain that survives
generation after generation-graphic, bold, fundamental,
whether in the abstract geometric sculptures of Cycladic
women from the Bronze Age or the simple functional (line 30)
designs of nineteenth-century Shaker furniture. I was
getting my proportions right, finding the line which has .
on one side a refinement that bleeds life, and on its other
a condition where things are so rough, expressionistic,
or vague that all you can see is self-indulgence. As  (line 35)
I came to believe in my 'own artistic cravings, I became
ever more self-righteous, thinking I was coming to know
the difference between good art and bad art, and I had
even less patience for forms of experimentation that I saw
as confusion. I liked work that looked as though the artist  (line 40)
clearly knew what he was doing and believed in it.

And that was another thing. Why was "he" to denote
the artist, a pronoun I unconsciously use even now?
Where were the women? Where in the history of art
music, architecture, painting, sculpture, most centuries (line 45)
of literature-were women seen as major contributors?

Sometimes I stole time from memorizing the required art
history and looked through the meager dance collection
in the public library, where I found my answer: images
of Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman, Doris Humphrey,  (line 50)
Ruth St. Denis, and Martha Graham. These women were
the pioneers of a new art form. In creating modern dance,
they had struck out on their own, and running my fingers
over their pictures, I literally tried to absorb their power
and authority. In their art form, they were genuinely potent  (line 55)
-not relegated to being dilettantes, dabblers, Sunday
painters. I was not interested in entering a profession where
I was handicapped by second-class status. Now I knew
what I was doing both in art history and in dance, and when
graduation day came I skipped the ceremonies. Working  (line 60)
toward becoming an artist in a 'way that I could understand,
I chose to go to a rehearsal instead.

16. The passage is best described as a

(A)confession of having made unwise choices

(B)narrative of academic accomplishment

(C)celebration of past achievements

(D)description of gaining new understanding

(E)commemoration of a life-changing event

17. In lines 2-13 ("And even ... all"), the author shifts from

(A)admitting that dance is not respected to explaining why that is so

(B)implying that dance is generally not vailled to suggesting why it should be

(C)suggesting that dance is not difficult to understand to arguing that it should have more popular appeal

(D)suggesting that dance is misunderstood to mocking those who fail to appreciate it

(E)complaining that dance is considered irrelevant to sympathizing with that attitude

18. In line 18, "solid" most nearly means

(A)substantial

(B)uninterrupted

(C)compact

(D)three-dimensional

(E)prudent

19. Which statement best summarizes the author's answer to the question in lines 22-24 ("But what .. Mother") ?

(A)Create dance interpretations of certain classic works of art

(B)Learn fundamental standards of artistic excellence

(C)Become familiar with ancient legends and myths

(D)Collect historical information about famous dancers

(E)Benefit from t"tal,t"r"t" training in scholarly methodology

20. In line 25, "but" a contrast between

(A)fonner illusion and present speculation

(B)past perception and retrospective insight

(C)youthful enthusiasm and mature reflection

(D)impulsive conduct and circumspect behavior

(E)initial intention and eventual disappointment

21. In line 26, "discipline" most nearly means

(A)regimentation

(B)conformity

(C)punishment

(D)custom

(E)field

22. For the author, "classic" (line 27) means

(A)strictly conventional

(B)austere and unadorned

(C)essential and enduring

(D)prized by famous painters

(E)created in ancient times

23. As a young woman, the author viewed the "forms of experimentation" referred to in line 39 with

(A)disdain

(B)suspIcion

(C)nonchalance

(D)fascination

(E)admiration

24. Which additional term would be most consistent with the list in lines 56-57 ?

(A)Amateurs

(B)Experimenters

(C)Adventurers

(D)Pioneers

(E)Blunderers

25. The author uses questions to do all of the following EXCEPT

(A)present personal insights

(B)guide the course of an argument

(C)illustrate her lifelong self-doubt

(D)raise issues for consideration

(E)convey her youthful confusion

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