{{B}}Reading Section Directions{{/B}}
In this section you will read five passages and answer reading comprehension questions about each passage. Most questions are worth one point, but the last question in each set is worth more than one point. The directions indicate how many points you may receive.
You will have 60 minutes to read all of the passages and answer the questions. Some passages include a word or phrase that is underlined in blue. Click on the word or phrase to see a definition or an explanation.
When you want to move on to the next question, click on Next. You can skip questions and go back to them later as long as there is time remaining. If you want to return to previous questions, click on Back. You can click on Review at any time and the review screen will show you which question you have answered and which you have not. From this review screen, you may go directly to any question you have already seen in the reading section.
When you are ready to continue, click on the Continue icon.
{{B}}Set 1{{/B}}
{{B}}Overcoming the Language Barrier{{/B}}
The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether the activity is tourism, research, government, policing, business, or data dissemination, the lack of a common language can severely impede progress or can halt it altogether. "Common language" here usually means a foreign language, but the same point applies in principle to any encounter with unfamiliar dialects or styles within a single language. "They don't talk the same language" has a major metaphorrical meaning alongside its literal one.
Although communication problems of this kind must happen thousands of times each day, very few become public knowledge. Publicity comes only when a failure to communicate has major consequences, such as strike, lost orders, legal problems, or fatal accidents- even, at times, war. One reported instance of communication failure took place in 1970, when several Americans ate a species of poisonous mushroom. No remedy was known, and two of the people died within days. A radio report of the case was heard by a chemist who knew of a treatment that had been successfully used in 1959 and published in 1963. Why had the American doctors not heard of it seven years later? Presumably because the report of the treatment had been published only in journals written in European languages other than English.
But isolated examples do not give an impression of the size of the problem ——something that can come only from studies of the use or avoidance of foreign-language materials and contacts in different communicative situations. In the English-scientific world, for example, surveys of books and documents consulted in libraries and other information agencies have shown that very little foreign-language material is ever consulted. Library requests in the field of science and technology showed that only 13 per cent were for foreign language periodicals.
单选题 The word impede in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】
单选题 In stating "They don't talk the same language" in paragraph 1, the author pints out the problems in
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】
单选题 Why does the author describe the case of poisonous mushroom?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】
单选题 Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about American doctors?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】
单选题 The word it in pargraph 2 refers to the
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】
单选题 According to the passage, the linguistic insularity of British businesses
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】
单选题 Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Several comparable cases have been reported. Where would the sentence best fit?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】
单选题 The passage discusses all of the following as examples of linguistic insularity in the 1960s EXCEPT the fact that
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】
单选题 The word exempt in paragraph 4 is closets in meaning to
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】
单选题 According to paragraph 4, English- speaking people need to be aware that
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】
单选题 Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence? Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】