北京成人本科学士学位英语统一考试（A）2007.11.17

Part I Reading Comprehension (30%)

Directions: There are three 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 center.

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage:

Scientists find that hard-working people live longer than average men and women. Career women are healthier than housewives. Evidence shows that the jobless are in poorer health than jobholders. An investigation shows that whenever the unemployment rate increases by 1 %, the death rate increases by 2%. All this comes down to one point, work is helpful to health.

Why is work good for health? It' is because work keeps people busy away from loneliness. Researches show that people feel unhappy, worried and lonely when they have nothing to do. Instead, the happiest are those who are busy. (76) Many high achievers who love their careers feel that they are happiest when they are working hard. Work serves as a bridge between man and reality.By work people come into contact with each other. By collective activity they find friendship and warmth. This is helpful to health. The loss of work means the loss of everything. It affects man spiritually and makes him ill.

Besides, work gives one a sense of fulfillment and a sense of achievement. Work makes one feel his value and status in society. When a writer finishes his writing or a doctor successfully operates on a patient or a teacher sees his students grow, they are happy beyond words.

(77) From the above we can come to the conclusion that the more you work the happier and healthier you will be. Let us work hard and study hard and live a happy and healthy life.

1. The underlined word “average”in Paragraph 1 means __________.

A. healthy B. lazy

C. ordinary D. poor

2. The reason why housewives are not as healthy as career women is that__________.

A. housewives are poorer than career women

B. housewives have more children than career women

C. housewives have less chance to communicate with others

D. housewives eat less food than career women

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to Paragraph 2?

A. Busy people have nothing to do at home.

B. High achievers don't care about their families.

C. There is no friendship and warmth at home.

D. A satisfying job helps to keep one healthy.

4. We can infer from the passage that those who do not work__________.

A. are likely to live a shorter life

B. will lose everything at home

C. can live as long as those who work

D. have more time to make new friends

5. The best title for this passage may be__________.

A. People Should Find, a Job

B. Working Hard Is Good for Healthy

C. People Should Make More Friends by Work

D. The Loss of Work Means the Loss of Everything

Passage 2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage:

A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors can be provided by art. (78) In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective( 主观的 ): it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political”artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May , 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its abuse ( 滥用 ) of power over people.

in the same way, art can reflect a culture's religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art had been almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that described people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn't read, they could still understand the Bible stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues (