2012年12月六级考试阅读理解真题精选练习9

    Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.  

    Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:  

    

    In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War Ⅰ and instituted austerity(紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1930s.

    

    In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers.

    

    President Hoover's successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D.Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use. A deliberate scarcity of farm products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result ofresting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation's soil was in the national interest and was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid(杂交) grain, and fertilizers.

    

    21.   What brought about the decline in the demand for American farm products?  

    

    A) The impact of the Great Depression.

    

    B) The shrinking of overseas markets.

    

    C) The destruction caused by the First World War.

    

    D) The increased exports of European countries.

    

    22. The chief concern of the American government in the area of agriculturein the 1920s was         .  

    

    A) to increase farm production

    

    B) to establish agricultural laws

    

    C) to prevent farmers from going bankrupt

    

    D) to promote the mechanization of agriculture

    

    23.   The Agricultural Adjustment Act encouraged American farmers to        .  

    

    A) reduce their scale of production

    

    B) make full use of their land

    

    C) adjust the prices of their farm products

    

    D) be self-sufficient in agricultural production

    

    24. The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act        .  

    

    A) might cause greater scarcity of farm products

    

    B) didn't give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power

    

    C) would benefit neither the government nor the farmers

    

    D) benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others

    

    25. It was claimed that the new laws passed during the Roosevelt Administration were aimed

    

    at        .  

    

    A) reducing the cost of farming

    

    B) conserving soil in the long-term interest of the nation

    

    C) lowering the burden of farmers

    

    D) helping farmers without shifting the burden onto other taxpayers

    

    21.B    22.C    23.A    24.D    25.B

 

2012年12月六级考试阅读理解真题精选练习的延伸阅读——英语六级阅读考前必备技巧

 

英语阅读中的三大障碍

 

　　1．语言的障碍。Readingis a comprehensive skill because it concerns the recognition of configuration， pronunciation， grammatical inflexion and the comprehension of words， sentences and paragraphs.（魏立明，孙长顺：2001 ）由于有的单词往往有几种甚至几十种意思，而一个词的确切含义只有在具体的文章之中根据上下文才能确定。因此，词义的转换和搭配仍是阅读中的障碍。所以要避免进入见词就查字典的误区。

　　2．文化背景知识的障碍。因为文化背景知识是阅读的无形障碍。由于不了解英语国家的文化背景，因此有时很难做出判断。People believe that both visual and non-visual information is involved in reading comprehension. As a matter of fact， it seems that the more non-visual information the reader possess， the less visual information is needed.（魏立明，孙长顺：2001 ）。 所以多做泛读的训练将有所帮助。

关于这两个障碍的排除在本文的以下部分中也有较详尽的论述。

3．阅读技巧的障碍。而这一障碍又是多方面的。如找中心思想，推断文章中有没有直接说明的意思，确定作者的语气等。本文将就这一方面进行重点论述。