单选题

(A)

About 16 million people in the United States have lost some of their hearing. About two million others are extremely or completely deaf. They cannot hear speech or most other sounds in their everyday life, even with a hearing aid to make sounds louder.
There are several kinds of hearing loss. The first kind results from disease or injury to the outer or middle part of the ear. The damage prevents sound waves from reaching the inner ear. Usually, this form of hearing loss is not extreme. And a hearing aid or medical treatment can often restore hearing. A second kind of hearing loss involves the nerves (神经). It is caused by damage to the inner ear. A loud noise or disease may destroy some of the tiny nerve cells that carry sound. People suffering this kind of damage may lose the ability to hear some sounds, high or low. The third kind of deafness is called a central hearing loss. It is caused by damage to the hearing nerves leading to the brain or in the brain itself.
Deafness is the most common bodily disability (残疾) in America. Often nothing can be done to stop it. But many cases can be prevented. One simple thing is responsible for most hearing loss. That one thing is noise. Telephone bells, loud music, machines. In industrial countries, especially, these things make the world very noisy. Studies have shown that old men in quiet African villages have much better hearing than young people in America. Other sources of deafness. include accidents, drugs and illnesses.

单选题 What kind of hearing loss mentioned in the passage is the most serious?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] (见第2段)
丧失了听力，对于一个人来说，就是有了残疾(disability)。无论哪种形式的失聪，都是严重的(serious)。题目要求在A)、B)、C)三个选项中择出最严重的一种(the most serious)。选择时需要将三种进行比较。
the first kind(见5—8行)并非完全丧失听力，而且适当的助听器或药物治疗有可能帮助恢复听力。
the second kind(见8—2行)仅仅使患者丧失了对某些声音的听觉能力。
但the third kind(见12—14行)是中枢听觉能力的丧失。是因大脑听觉神经遭到破坏而引起的。这种失聪应该是最严重的，故C)项应为答案。
D)none可能有人认为这三种情况都不够严重而选择D)项为答案。注意：题目里有一个定语“mentioned in the passage”限定了讨论问题的范围是本文提到过的。

单选题 Hearing loss caused by damage to ______ can often be restored.

单选题 Which of the following is NOT a source of deafness?

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 推断题(见3段3—4行)
原文提到大多数失聪是噪音危害所致。特别是在工业国度里，像电话、高频音乐和机器等，使环境变得十分嘈杂。有研究证明：住在非洲宁静村庄里的老人的听力比美国年轻人的听力好得多。由此可以推断，在发达国家里，噪声更多。

单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] (见第6—7行)
1)文章将助听器能恢复听力的作用局限在第一种失聪的范围里，并非对任何聋人都有效。
2)选项中的always意为“总是，一直”，其频度几乎达到100%。而原文中所用的often意为“常常”，其频度只需大于50%就可以了。两者不符，故D)项为答案。