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高考阅读理解

Directions:
　Each of the passages below is followed by some questions.For each question there are four answer to each of the questions.Then mark youranswer on ANSWER SHEET I by blackening the corresponding letter in the bracketswith a pencil.(40 points)

passage 1

　“ I would almost rather see you dead,”Robert S. Cassatt,a leadingbanker(银行家)of Philadelphia,shouted when his twenty-year-old eldest daughterannounced that she wanted to become an artist.In the 19th century, playing atdrawing or painting on dishes was all right for a young lady, but serious workin art was net.And when the young lady‘s family ranked among(挤身于)the best ofPhiladelphoa’s social(社交界的)families,such an idea could not even be considered.
　That was how Mary Cassatt,born 1844,began her struggle as anaritist. She did not tremble before her father‘s anger.Instead, she opposed(抗拒)himwith courage and at last made him change his mind.Mary Cassatt gave up hersocial position (社会地位)and all thought of a husband and a family,which in thosetimes was unthinkable for a young dady.In the end,after long years of hard workand perseverance(坚持),she became Americ’s most important woman artist and theinternationally recognized leading woman painter of the time.

passage 2

　 O.Henry was a pen name used by an Americna writer of short stories.His real name was William Sydney Porter.He was born in North Carolia in 1862.Asa young boy he lived an exciting life. Hw did not go to school for very ling,but he mnaged to teach hmeself everything he needed to know.When he was about20 years old , O.Henry went to Texas,where he tried different jobs.He firstworked on a newspaper,and then had a job in a bank. When some money wentmissing from the bank, O.Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he ws sent to prison. During the three years in prison,he lerned to writeshort stories.After he got out of prison,he went to New York and continuedwriting.Hw wrote mostly aout New York and the life of the poor there.Peopleliked his stories,because simple as the tales were, they would finidh with asudden change at the end,to the readers‘ surprise.

passage 3

　Historiansmay well look back on the 1980s in the United States as a time of risingaffluence sidebyside with rising poverty. The growth in affluence isattributable to an increase in professional and technical jobs, along with moretwocareer couples whose combined incomes provide a “comfortable living”.Yetsimultaneously, the nation‘s poverty rate rose between 1973 and 1983 from 11.1percent of the population to 15.2,or by well over a third. Although the povertyrate declined somewhat after 1983, it was still held at 13.5 percent in 1987,comprising a population of 32.5 million Americans.　
The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, a group of Englishmagistrates decided that a minimum income should be “the cost of a gallon loafof bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent”.Today theCensus Bureau defines the threshold of poverty in the United States as theminimum amount of money that families need to purchase a nutritionally adequatediet, assuming they use onethird of their income for food. Using this definition,roughly half the American population was poor in the aftermath of the GreatDepression of the 1930s. By 1950, the proportion of the poor had fallen to 30percent and by 1964, to 20 percent. With the adoption of the Johnsonadministration’s antipoverty programs, the poverty rate dropped to 12 percentin 1969.But since then, it has stopped falling. Liberals contend that thepoverty line is too low because it fails to take into account changes in thestandard of living. Conservatives say that it is too high because the poorreceive other forms of public assistance, including food stamps, public housingsubsidies, and health care.

passage 4

　Themore women and minorities make their way into the ranks of management, the morethey seem to want to talk about things formerly judged to be best leftunsaid.The newcomers also tend to see office matters with a fresh eye, in theprocess sometimes coming up with critical analyses of the forces that shapeeveryone‘s expenience in the organization.
　Consider the novel views of Harvey Coleman of Atlanta on thesubjest of getting ahead. Coleman is black. He spent 11 years with IBM, half ofthem working in management development, and now serves as a consultant to thelikes of AT & T, Coca Cola, Prudential, and Merch. Coleman says that basedon what he’s seen at big companies, he weighs the different elements that makefor longterm career success as follows: performance counts a mere 10%;image,30%; and exposure, a full 60%. Coleman concludes that excellent jobperformance is so common these days that while doing your work well may win youpay increases,it won‘t secure you the big promotion.
　He finds that advancement more often depends on how manypeople know you and your work, and how high up they are.
　Ridiculous beliefs? Not to many people, especially many womenand members of minority races who, like Coleman, feel that the scales havedropped from their eyes. “Women and blacks in organizations work under falsebeliefs,”says Kaleel Jamison, a New Yorkbased management consultant who helpscorporations deal with these issues. “They think that if you work hard, you’llget ahead that soneone in authority will reach down and give you a promotion.”She added, “Most women and blacks are so fightened that people will thinkthey‘ve gotten ahead because of their sex or color that they play down theirvisibility.” Her advice to those folks: learn the ways that white males havetraditionally used to find their way into the spotlight.

passage 5

　I came to livehere where I am now between Wounded Knee Creek and Grass Creek. Others cametoo, and we made there little gray houses of logs that you see, and they aresquare. It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square.
　You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in acircle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, andeverything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happypeople, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and solong as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished.The flowering tree was theliving center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it.The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, andthe north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. Thisknowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.
　Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and soare all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make theirnests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forthand goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round.Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come backagain to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood tochildhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were roundlike the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation’shoop, a nest of many nests,where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch ourchildren.
　But the Wasichus have put us in these square boxes. Our poweris gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us any more. You can look atour boys and see how it is with us. When we were living by the power of thecircle in the way we should, boys were men at twelve or thirteen years of age.But now it takes them very much longer to mature.

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