复合题

Directions: For passages 1 to 4, each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A., B., C. and D. Decide on the best choice and write the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.

Passage 1

The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City. For a long time it has been the newspaper of record in the United States and one of the world’s great newspaper. Its strength is in its editorial excellence; it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation.

The Times was established in 1851 as a penny paper whose editors wanted to report the news in a restrained and objective fashion. It enjoyed early success as its editors set a pattern for the future by appealing to a cultured, intellectual readership instead of a mass audience. However, in the late nineteenth century, it came into competition with more popular, colorful, if not lurid, newspapers, the Times was losing $1,000 a week when Adolph Simon Ochs bought it in 1896.

Ochs built the Times into an internationally respected daily. He hired Carr Van Anda as editor. Van Anda placed greater stress than ever on full reporting of the news of the day, and his reporters maintained and emphasized existing good coverage of international news. The management of the paper decided to eliminate fiction from the paper, added a Sunday magazine section, and reduced the paper’s price back to a penny. In April 1912, the paper took many risks to report every aspect of the sinking of the Titanic. This greatly enhanced its prestige, and in its coverage of two world wars, the Times continued to enhance its reputation for excellence in world news.

In 1971, the Times was given a copy of the so-called “Pentagon Papers”, a secret government study of U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War. When it published the report, it became involved in several lawsuits. The U. S. Supreme Court found that the publication was protected by the freedom-of-the-press clause in the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. Later in the 1970s, the paper under Adolph Ochs’s grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, introduced sweeping changes in the organization of the newspaper and its staff and brought out a national edition transmitted by satellite to regional printing plants. 

单选题 What is the main idea of the passage?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】全文主旨题。 文章第一段第二句话就提出了本文的主旨， “For a long time it has been the newspaper of record in the United States and one of the world’s great newspaper”。 很长一段时间里， 它都是美国报纸的记录， 是世界上最伟大的报纸之一。 由此可知， 本文主要是谈论The New York Times的历史及怎样成为受到世界人们喜爱的报纸。 因此选B。
单选题 From the passage, it can be inferred that the circulation of the Times _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】事实细节题。 根据文章第一段最后一句“...it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation”， 可知就发行量而言， The New York Times不是最大的报纸。 选项A符合题意。
单选题 To improve its circulation, the management of the Times did all of the following EXCEPT _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】事实细节题。 根据文章第三段第二句“...his reporters maintained and emphasized existing good coverage of international news. The management of the paper decided to eliminate fiction from the paper, added a Sunday magazine section”， 可知为了提高发行量， The New York Times继续保持优秀的国际新闻报道， 把小说从报纸内容中删除， 并且增加了周日杂志部分。 由此可知A、 B、 D选项与原文意思相同。 故答案为C。
单选题 The passage implies that the newspaper’s reputation _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。 根据文章第四段倒数第二句话“In April 1912, the paper took many risks to report every aspect of the sinking of the Titanic, this greatly enhanced its prestige”， 可知1912年4月报纸报道了沉没的泰坦尼克号的细节， 因而极大地增加了它的声望。 选项B符合题意。
单选题 According to the passage, the Times had a national edition that was _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】事实细节题。 根据文章最后一段最后一句“...brought out a national edition transmitted by satellite to regional printing plants”， 可知The Times的国内版是通过卫星向各地区印刷工厂传送。 选项D符合题意。