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2021年2月21日发(作者：扭秧歌音乐)

PART II

READING COMPREHENSION (30 MIN)

In this section there are four reading passages followed by a total of

20

multiple-choice

questions.

Read

the

passages

and

then

mark

your

answers

on your coloured answer sheet.

TEXT A

Still, the image of any city has a half-life of many years. (So does

its name, officially changed in 2001 from Calcutta to Kolkata, which is

closer to what the word sounds like in Bengali. Conversing in English,

I

never

heard

anyone

call

the

city

anything

but

Calcutta.)

To

Westerners,

the conveyance most identified with Kolkata is not its modern subway

—

a

facility

whose

spacious

stations

have

art

on

the

walls

and

cricket

matches

on television monitors

—

but the hand-pulled rickshaw. Stories and films

celebrate a primitive-looking cart with high wooden wheels, pulled by

someone

who

looks

close

to

needing

the

succor

of

Mother

Teresa.

For

years

the government has been talking about eliminating hand-pulled rickshaws

on what it calls humanitarian grounds

—

principally on the ground that,

as the mayor

of Kolkata has often said, it is offensive to see “one man

sweating

and

straining

to

pull

another

man.”

But

these

days

politicians

also

lament

the

impact

of

6,000

hand-

pulled

rickshaws

on

a

modern

city’s

traffic and, particularly, on its image. “Westerner

s try to associate

beggars

and

these

rickshaws

with

the

Calcutta

landscape,

but

this

is

not

what

Calcutta

stands

for,”

the

chief

minister

of

West

Bengal,

Buddhadeb

Bhattacharjee,

said

in

a

press

conference

in

2006.

“Our

city

stands

for

prosperity and devel

opment.” The chief minister—

the equivalent of a

state

governor

—

went

on

to

announce

that

hand-pulled

rickshaws

soon

would

be banned from the streets of Kolkata.

Rickshaws are not there to haul around tourists. (Actually, I saw

almost

no

tourists

in

Kolkata,

apart

from

the

young

backpackers

on

Sudder

Street,

in

what

used to

be

a

red-light

district

and

is

now

said

to

be

the

single place in the

city where

the

services a rickshaw

puller offers may

include providing female company to a gentleman for the evening.)

It’s

the people in the lanes who most regularly use rickshaws

—

not the poor

but people who are just a notch above the poor. They are people who tend

to

travel

short

distances,

through

lanes

that

are

sometimes

inaccessible

to

even

the

most

daring

taxi

driver.

An

older

woman

with

marketing

to

do,

for

instance,

can

arrive

in

a

rickshaw,

have

the

rickshaw

puller

wait

until

she

comes

back

from

various

stalls

to

load

her

purchases,

and

then

be

taken

home. People in the lanes use rickshaws as a 24-hour ambulance service.

Proprietors of cafés or corner stores send rickshaws to collect their

supplies. (One morning I saw a rickshaw puller take on a load of live

chickens

—

tied

in

pairs

by

the

feet

so

they

could

be

draped

over

the

shafts

and

the

folded

back

canopy

and

even

the

axle.

By

the

time

he

trotted

off,

he was carrying about a hundred upside-down chickens.) The rickshaw

pullers

told

me

their

steadiest

customers

are

schoolchildren.

Middle-class families contract with a puller to take a child to school

and pick him up; the puller essentially becomes a family retainer.

From June to September Kolkata can get torrential rains, and its

drainage

system

doesn’t

need

torrential

rain

to

begin

backing

up.

Residents

who

favor

a

touch

of

hyperbole

say

that

in

Kolkata

“if

a

stray

cat pees, there’s a flood.” During my stay it once rained for about 48

hours. Entire neighborhoods couldn’t be reached by motorized vehicles,

and

the

newspapers

showed

pictures

of

rickshaws

being

pulled

through

water

that was up to the pullers’ waists. When it’s raining, the normal

customer

base

for

rickshaw

pullers

expands

greatly,

as

does

the

price

of

a

journey.

A

writer

in

Kolkata

told

me,

“When

it

rains,

even

the

governor

takes rickshaws.”

While I was in Kolkata, a magazine called India Today published its

annual

ranking

of

Indian

states,

according

to

such

measurements

as

prosperity and infrastructure. Among India’s 20 largest states, Bihar

finished dead last, as it has for four of the past five years. Bihar, a

couple hundred miles north of Kolkata, is where the vast majority of

rickshaw pullers come

from.

Once in

Kolkata, they sleep on the

street or

in

their

rickshaws

or

in

a

dera

—

a

combination

garage

and

repair

shop

and

dormitory

managed

by

someone

called

a

sardar.

For

sleeping

privileges

in

a

dera,

pullers

pay

100

rupees

(about

$$

a

month,

which

sounds

like

a

pretty

good deal until you’ve visited a dera. They gross between 100 and 150

rupees a day, out of which they have to pay 20 rupees for the use of the

rickshaw and an occasional 75 or more for a payoff if a policeman stops

them for, say, crossing a street where rickshaws are prohibited. A 2003

study

found

that

rickshaw

pullers

are

near

the

bottom

of

Kolkata

occupations in income, doing better than only the ragpickers and the

beggars. For someone without land or education, that still beats trying

to make a living in Bihar.

There are people in Kolkata, particularly educated and politically

aware people, who will

not ride in

a rickshaw, because

they are offended

by

the

idea

of

being

pulled

by

another

human

being

or

because

they

consider

it

not

the

sort

of

thing

people

of

their

station

do

or

because

they

regard

the hand-pulled rickshaw as a relic of colonialism. Ironically, some of

those

people

are

not

enthusiastic

about

banning

rickshaws.

The

editor

of

th

e editorial pages of Kolkata’s Telegraph—

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, a

former academic who still writes history books

—

told me, for instance,

that he sees humanitarian considerations as coming down on the side of

keeping hand-

pulled rickshaws on the road. “I refu

se to be carried by

another human being myself,” he said, “but I question whether we have

the

right

to

take

away

their

livelihood.”

Rickshaw

supporters

point

out

that

when

it

comes

to

demeaning

occupations,

rickshaw

pullers

are

hardly

unique in Kolkata.

When

I

asked

one

rickshaw

puller

if

he

thought

the

government’s

plan

to

rid

the

city

of

rickshaws

was

based

on

a

genuine

interest

in

his

welfare,

he

smiled,

with

a

quick

shake

of

his

head

—

a

gesture

I

interpreted

to

mean,

“If you are so naive as to ask such a

question, I will answer it, but

it is not worth wasting words on.” Some rickshaw pullers I met were

resigned to the imminent end of their livelihood and pin their hopes on

being

offered

something

in

its

place.

As

migrant

workers,

they

don’t

have

the polit

ical clout enjoyed by, say, Kolkata’s sidewalk hawkers, who,

after

supposedly

being

scaled

back

at

the

beginning

of

the

modernization

drive, still clog the sidewalks, selling absolutely everything

—

or, as

I

found

during

the

48

hours

of

rain,

absolutely

everything

but

umbrellas.

“The

government

was

the

government

of

the

poor

people,”

one

sardar

told

me.

“Now

they

shake

hands

with

the

capitalists

and

try

to

get

rid

of

poor

people.”

But

others

in

Kolkata

believe

that

rickshaws

will

simply

be

confined

more strictly to certain neighborhoods, out of the view of World Bank

traffic

consultants

and

California

investment

delegations

—

or

that

they

will

be

allowed

to

die

out

naturally

as

they’re

supplanted

by

more

modern

conveyances. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, after all, is not the first high

West Bengal official to say that rickshaws would be off the streets of

Kolkata in a matter of months. Similar statements have been made as far

back

as

1976.

The

ban

decreed

by

Bhattacharjee

has

been

delayed

by

a

court

case and by a widely held belief

that some

retraining or social

security

settlement

ought

to

be

offered

to

rickshaw

drivers.

It

may

also

have

been

delayed by a quiet reluctance to give up something that has been part of

the fabric of the city for more than a century. Kolkata, a resident told

me, “has difficulty letting go.” One day a city official handed me a

report

from

the

municipal

government

laying

out

options

for

how

rickshaw

pullers might be rehabilitated.

“Which

option

has

been

chosen”

I

asked, noting

that

the

report

was

dated almost exactly a year before my visit.

“That hasn’t been decided,” he said.

“When will it be decided”

“That hasn’t been decided,” he said.

11. According to the passage, rickshaws are used in Kolkata mainly for

the following EXCEPT

A. taking foreign tourists around the city.

B. providing transport to school children.

C. carrying store supplies and purchases

D. carrying people over short distances.

12. Which

of

the

following

statements

best

describes

the

rickshaw

pullers

from Bihar

A. They come from a relatively poor area.

B. They are provided with decent accommodation.

C. Their living standards are very low in Kolkata.

D. They are often caught by policemen in the streets.

13. That

“

For

someone

without

land

or

education,

that

still

beats

trying

to make a living in Bihar

”

(4 paragraph) means that even so,

A. the poor prefer to work and live in Bihar.

B. the poor from Bihar fare better than back home.

C. the poor never try to make a living in Bihar.

D. the poor never seem to resent their life in Kolkata.

14. We

can

infer

from

the

passage

that

some

educated

and

politically

aware

people

A. hold mixed feelings towards rickshaws.

B. strongly support the ban on rickshaws.

C. call for humanitarian actions fro rickshaw pullers.

D. keep quiet on the issue of banning rickshaws.

15. Which

of

the

following

statements

conveys

the

author

’

s

sense

of

humor

A.

“…

not

the

poor

but

people

who

are

just

a

notch

above

the

poor.

”

(2 paragraph)

B.

“…

,.which sounds like a pretty good deal until you

’

ve visited

a dera.

”

(4 paragraph)

C. Kolkata, a resident told me,

“

has difficulty letting go.

”

(7

paragraph).

D.

“…

or,

as

I

found

during

the

48

hours

of

rain,

absolutely

everything but umbrellas.

”

(6 paragraph)

16. The dialogue between the author and the city official at the end of

the passage seems to suggest

A. the uncertainty of the court

’

s decision.

B. the inefficiency of the municipal government.

C. the difficulty of finding a good solution.

D. the slowness in processing options.

TEXT B

Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, over a

lifetime,

wait

in

lines

for

two

years

(says

National

Public

Radio)

or

five

years (according to customer-loyalty experts).

The crucial word is average, as wealthy Americans routinely avoid

lines altogether. Once the most democratic of institutions, lines are

rapidly

becoming

the

exclusive

province

of

suckers(people

who

still

believe in and practice waiting in lines). Poor suckers, mostly.

Airports

resemble

France

before

the

Revolution:

first-class

passengers

enjoy

security

lines

an

d

priority

boarding,

and

disembark

before

the

unwashed

in

coach,

held

at

bay

by

a

flight

attendant,

are allowed to foul the Jetway.

At amusement parks, too, you can now buy your way out of line. This

summer

I

haplessly

watched

kids

use

a

$$52

Gold

Flash

Pass

to

jump

the

lines

at Six Flags New England, and similar systems are in use in most major

American

theme

parks,

from

Universal

Orlando

to

Walt

Disney

World,

where

the haves get to watch the have-mores breeze past on their way to their

seats.

Flash

Pass

teaches

children

a

valuable

lesson

in

real-world

economics:

that the rich are more important than you, especially when it comes to

waiting.

An

NBA

player

once

said

to

me,

with

a

bemused

chuckle

of

disbelief,

that

when

playing

in

Canada--get

this--

have

to

wait

in

the

same

customs

line as everybody else.

Almost

every

line

can

be

breached

for

a

price.

In

several

U.S.

cities

this summer, early arrivers among the early adopters waiting to buy

iPhones

offered

to

sell

their

spots

in

the

lines.

On

Craigslist,

prospective

iPhone

purchasers

offered

to

pay

or

to wait in line for them outside Apple stores.

Inevitably, some semi-populist politicians have seen the value of

sort-of

waiting

in

lines

with

the

ordinary

people.

This

summer

Philadelphia mayor John Street waited outside an AT&T store from 3:30 .

to 11:30 . before a stand-in from his office literally stood in for the

mayor

while

he

conducted

official

business.

And

billionaire

New

York

mayor

Michael Bloomberg often waits for the subway with his fellow citizens,

though he's first driven

by motorcade past

the stop nearest

his house to

a

station

22

blocks

away,

where

the

wait,

or

at

least

the

ride,

is

shorter.

As early as elementary school, we're told that jumping the line is

an unethical act, which is why so many U.S. lawmakers have framed the

immigration

debate

as

a

kind

of

fundamental

sin

of

the

school

lunch

line.

Alabama

Senator

Richard

Shelby,

to

cite

just

one

legislator,

said

amnesty

would allow illegal immigrants

people.

Nothing annoys a national lawmaker more than a person who will not

wait

in

line,

unless

that

line

is

in

front

of

an

elevator

at

the

.

Capitol,

where

Senators

and

Representatives

use

private

elevators,

lest

they

have

to queue with their constituents.

But

compromising

the

integrity

of

the

line

is

not

just

antidemocratic,

it's

out-of-date.

There

was

something

about

the

orderly

boarding

of

Noah's

Ark,

two

by

two,

that

seemed

to

restore

not

just

civilization

but

civility

during the Great Flood.

How civil was your last flight Southwest Airlines has first-come,

first-served festival seating. But for $$5 per flight, an unaffiliated

company called will secure you a coveted

airline opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. Thus, the

savvy traveler doesn't even wait in line when he or she is online.

Some

cultures

are

not

renowned

for

lining

up.

Then

again,

some

cultures

are

too

adept

at

lining

up:

a

citizen

of

the

former

Soviet

Union

would join a queue

just

so he

could

get

to the

head of that queue and see

what everyone was queuing for.

And then there is the U.S., where society seems to be cleaving into

two groups: Very Important Persons, who don't wait, and Very Impatient

Persons, who do--unhappily.

For those of us in the latter group-- consigned to coach, bereft of

Flash Pass, too poor or proper to pay a placeholder --what do we do We

do what Vladimir and Estragon did in Waiting for Godot:

bored.

17. What does the following sentence mean

“

Once the most democratic of

institutions, lines are rapidly becoming the exclusive province of

suckers

…

Poor suckers, mostly.

”

(2 paragraph)

A. Lines are symbolic of America

’

s democracy

B. Lines still give Americans equal opportunities.

C. Lines are now for ordinary Americans only.

D. Lines are for people with democratic spirit only.

18. Which of the following is NOT cited as an example of breaching the

line

A. Going through the customs at a Canadian airport.

B. Using Gold Flash Passes in amusement parks.

C. First-class passenger status at airports.

D. Purchase of a place in a line from a placeholder.

19. We

can

infer

from

the

passage

that

politicians

(including

mayors

and

Congressmen)

A. prefer to stand in lines with ordinary people.

B. advocate the value of waiting in lines.

C. believe in and practice waiting in lines.

D. exploit waiting in lines for their own good.

20. What is the tone of the passage

A. Instructive.

B. Humorous.

C. Serious.

D. Teasing.

TEXT C

A bus took him to the West End, where, among the crazy coloured

fountains

of

illumination,

shattering

the

blue

dusk

with

green

and

crimson

fire, he found the

café

of his choice, a tea- shop that had gone mad and

turned. Bbylonian, a while palace with ten thousand lights. It towered

above

the

other

building

like

a

citadel,

which

indeed

it

was,

the

outpost

of a new age, perhaps a new civilization, perhaps a new barbarism; and

behind the thin marble

front were concrete

and steel, just

as behind the

careless

profusion

of

luxury

were

millions

of

pence,

balanced

to

the

last

halfpenny. Somewhere in the background, hidden away, behind the ten

thousand

llights

and

acres

of

white

napery

and

bewildering

glittering

rows

of

teapots,

behind

the

thousand

waitresses

and

cash-box

girls

and

black- coated floor managers and temperamental long- haired violinists,

behind

the

mounds

of

cauldrons

of

stewed

steak,

the

vanloads

of

ices,

were

a

few

men

who

went

to

work

juggling

with

fractions

of

a

farming,

who

knew

how

many

units

of

electricity

it

took

to

finish

a

steak-and-kidney

pudding

and

how

many

minutes

and

seconds

a

waitress(

five

feet

four

in

height

and

in average health) would need to carry a tray of given weight from the

kitchen life to the table in the far corner. In short, there was a warm,

sensuous,

vulgar

life

flowering

in

the

upper

storeys,

and

a

cold

science

working

in

the

basement.

Such

as

the

gigantic

tea- shop

into

which

Turgis

marched, in search not

of mere refreshment

but of all

the enchantment of

unfamiliar luxury. Perhaps he knew in his heart that men have conquered

half the known world, looted whole kingdoms, and never arrived in such

luxury. The place was built for him.

It was built for a great many other people too, and, as usual, they

were al there. It seemed with humanity. The marble entrance hall, piled

dizzily with bonbons and

cakes,

was as

crowded and bustling

as a railway

station. The gloom and grime of the streets, the raw air, all November,

were at once left behind, forgotten: the atmosphere inside was golden,

tropical,

belonging

to

some

high

mid-summer

of

confectionery.

Disdaining

the lifts, Turgis, once more excited by the sight, sound, and smell of

it

all,

climbed

the

wide

staircase

until

he

reached

his

favourite

floor,

whre

an

orchestra,

led

by

a

young

Jewish

violinist

with

wandering

lustrous

eyes and a passion for tremolo effects, acted as a magnet to a thousand

girls,

scented

air,

the

sensuous

clamour

of

the

strings;

and,

as

he

stood

hesitating a moment, half dazed, there came, bowing, s sleek grave man,

older than he was and far more distinguished than he could ever hope to

be,

who

murmured

deferentially:

“

For

one,

sir

This

way,

please,

”

Shyly,

yet proudly, Turgis followed him.

21. That

“

behind

the

thin

marble

front

were

concrete

and

steel

”

suggests

that

A.

modern

realistic

commercialism

existed

behind

the

luxurious

appearance.

B. there was a fundamental falseness in the style and the appeal of

the

café

..

C. the architect had made a sensible blend of old and new building

materials.

D. the

café

was based on physical foundations and real economic

strength.

22. The

following

words

or

phrases

are

somewhat

critical

of

the

tea-shop

EXCEPT

A.

“…

turned Babylonian

”

.

B.

“

perhaps a new barbarism

’

.

C.

“

acres of white napery

”

.

D.

“

balanced to the last halfpenny

”

.

23. In its context the statement that

“

the place was built for him

”

means that the

café

was intended to

A. please simple people in a simple way.

B. exploit gullible people like him.

C. satisfy a demand that already existed.

D. provide relaxation for tired young men.

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