单选题 Low levels of literacy and numeracy have a damaging impact on almost every aspect of adults, according to a survey published yesterday, which offers (1) of a developing underclass. Tests and (2) with hundreds of people born in a week in 1958 graphically illustrated the (3) of educational underachievement. The effects can be seen in unemployment, family (4) , low incomes, depression and social inactivity.
Those who left school at 16 with poor basic skills had been employed for up to four years less than good readers (5) they reached 37. Professor John Bynner, of City University, who carried the research, said that today’s (6) teenagers would even encounter greater problems because the supply of (7) jobs had shrunk.
Almost one fifth of the 1,700 people interviewed for yesterday’s report had poor literacy and almost half (8) with innumeracy, a proportion (9) other surveys for the Basic Skills Agency. Some could not read a child’s book, and most found difficult (10) written instruction.
Poor readers were twice as likely to be a low wage and four times likely to live in a household where partners worked. Women in this (11) were five times as likely to be (12) depressed, (13) both tended to feel they had no control over their lives, and to trust others (14) .
Those who had low literacy and numeracy were seldom (15) in any community organization and less likely than others to (16) in a general election. There had been no (17) in the literary level of (18) reporting problems.
Alan Wells, the agency’s director, said: “ The results emphasize the dangers of developing an underclass people, who were out of work, (19) depressed and often labeled themselves as (20) . There is a circle of marginalization, with the dice against these people and their families.”

单选题 [A] proof [B] witness [C] testimony [D] evidence
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。四个选项意思相近，均有“证明，证据”之意，到底选用哪个，就需要从其不同的用法来辨别。[A]proof与[D]evidence尤为相近，但前者着重强调“事件或迹象的真实性”，而后者则既可强调“事件或迹象存在”又可强调其“真实性”，本句的意思是调查证明下层阶级存在，因此evidence比较恰当。[B]witness多指“某事件的目击者，证人”，[C]testimony则指“证词、见证”，均与此处语义不能衔接。
单选题 [A] investigations [B] interviews [C] conferences [D] communications
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。首先注意所填词与with搭配，排除[A]investigations“调查，研究”，虽与test语义并列，但多与of而不是with搭配；[B]interviews“采访，会见，面试”，interview with sb.“对某人进行采访”，符合语境；[C]conferences“协商，会议”、[D]communications“交流，沟通”这两个词虽然可与with搭配，但与进行调查 (survey)与测试(test)时采取的方式不符。所以本题答案为[B]。
单选题 [A] defect [B] backwardness [C] handicap [D] scarcity
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。这四个词均有“缺陷、不足”的含义，但要注意各自的侧重点不同：[A]defect“(尤指生理上的)缺陷，不足”；[B]backwardness“落后”；[C]handicap“残疾，障碍，不利条件”；[D]scarcity“缺乏，不足 (尤指数量上的)”。此处侧重指中下层阶级在教育方面的不利条件，因此[C]更能与文意衔接。
单选题 [A] breakdown [B] breakout [C] breakaway [D] breakin
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。[A]breakdown“解体，崩溃，故障”；[B]breakout“突然发生”；[C]breakaway“摆脱，逃脱”；[D]breakin“破门而入，打断”。家庭的破裂应该用breakdown，因此[A]正确。
单选题 [A] the time [B] the instant [C] the moment [D] the point
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 结构衔接题。四个短语都可以引导时间状语从句，the instant，the moment和the point均引导瞬间的时间，而文中是指“到三十七岁的时候”是一种延续性动作，所以应该用the time来引导，相当于when。
单选题 [A] illiterate [B] suffering [C] poor [D] unqualified
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。文章主题是读写能力与算术能力偏低造成的不利影响，因此此处所指的teenagers应该是low levels of literacy and numeracy，综合而言，即是“受教育程度低的”，所以选[D]unqualified。[A]illiterate“不识字的，未受过教育的”，没有包括算术能力低的，片面，所以排除；[B]suffering“受苦的，生病的”与[C] poor“贫穷的”，均与语境不符。
单选题 [A] skilled [B] mental [C] manual [D] mechanical
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。由上题已知，这些年轻人教育程度低，他们所从事的工作也就不可能是[A]skilled“需要技巧的”、[B]mental“脑力的”或[D]mechanical“技工的，与机械有关的”，因为这些工作需要一定的专业知识，所以只能选[C]manual“体力的”。
单选题 [A] struggled [B] faced [C] encountered [D] confronted
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 惯用衔接题。所填词与with搭配，因此限定只能选[A]struggled，struggle with sth.“与…抗争，奋斗”，说明有一半的人存在算术能力差的问题。[B]是强干扰项，但要注意face的用法，与with搭配时，短语为 be faced with，否则直接跟宾语；[C]encountered“遇到”、[D]confronted“面临”，均是及物动词，无需与with搭配。
单选题 [A] in light of [B] in line with [C] in case of [D] in time of
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 语义、逻辑衔接题。[A]in light of“依据，按照”；[B]in line with“符合，与…相应”；[C]in case of“万一，如果”；[D]in time of“在…的时候”。本句是指两个不同调查(surveys)结果体现的比例相一致，所以[B]正确。
单选题 [A] translating [B] complying [C] following [D] obeying
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。由上下文语义知，此处是指“看不懂说明书”，还涉及不到translate“翻译”，所以选 [C]following，与written instructions搭配。[B]complying“顺从，遵守”，后面需要搭配介词with；[D]obeying“服从”，服从说明书显然不符合语境。
单选题 [A] post [B] condition [C] status [D] position
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。[A]post“岗位，职位”，指具体的某一岗位；[B]condition“条件”；[C]status“地位”； [D]position“位置，立场，形势”。结合上文，此处的women是指与上句中提到的poor readers读写能力水平相当的女性，也就是同样属于poor readers的女性，因此[D]position确切。
单选题 [A] classified [B] thought [C] believed [D] labeled
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 惯用衔接题。四个选项中，[A]classified与[D]labeled均可与介词as搭配，但as可以省略。此处指这些女性均易被认为情绪低落，意思与搭配上只有[A]符合，classify as“分类，归类”。label as“标示，标明”，如：The bottle is labeled poisonous“瓶上标明有毒”；[B]thought与[C]believed与不定式搭配，意为“被认为是”。
单选题 [A] and [B] while [C] for [D] but
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 逻辑衔接题。注意句中的both指代上文中提到的一般性的poor readers与读写能力相当于poor readers的women两者，上文中比较了他们不同的倾向性，此处则指出他们共有的倾向性，因此上下句之间为让步关系，while符合题意。
单选题 [A] more [B] much [C] less [D] little
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。从选项知，此处无非是对他人的信任程度的问题，从本句的否定语境以及下一段中对这些人消极表现的描述均可以排除[A]、[B]，同时此处又是将他们与正常人进行比较，因此用比较级[C]less更能与文章衔接。
单选题 [A] revolved [B] dissolved [C] resolved [D] involved
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 语义，惯用衔接题。本题比较简单，掌握四个形近词的意思与搭配即可作答。[A]revolved“围绕，旋转”，多与round搭配使用；[B]dissolved“溶解，解散，解除”，及物动词，dissolve sth. in sth.“将某物溶解于其他物之中”；[C]resolved作“决心，决定”讲时与on搭配，作“解决”讲时为及物动词；[D]involved常与in搭配，表示“牵涉，涉及，包括”，符合句意，为正确答案。
单选题 [A] claim [B] join [C] vote [D] win
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。前半句指出他们很少参加社区活动，此处又涉及到大选，大选当然与投票相关联，所以只能选[C]vote，而不是[B]join“参加”，更不可能是[A]claim“认领，要求”、[D]win“赢得”。
单选题 [A] improvement [B] advancement [C] development [D] increase
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。此处指文化水平的提高，[A]improvement为最佳答案。[B]advancement“前进，进步”；[C]development“发展”；[D]increase“(尤指数量上的)提高”。
单选题 [A] employees [B] interviewees [C] participant [D] researchers
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。本文首段即指出一项调查对读写能力与算术能力偏低的人进行了测试与采访，因此报道的问题也就是这些被采访者的问题。所以选[B]interviewees“被采访人”。[A]employees“雇员”；[C]participants“参与人员”；[D]researchers“研究人员”。
单选题 [A] hardly [B] seriously [C] increasingly [D] potentially
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。本句前半句指出调查结果强调了形成下层阶级的危险，下层阶级往往被失业困扰，那他们很可能是变得越来越抑郁，常常把自己看作失败者，所以选[C]increasingly修饰depressed。
单选题 [A] failures [B] winners [C] successors [D] patients
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 语义衔接题。根据上题分析，此处须选一贬义词，[A]failures为本题答案。