2024年4月5日发(作者：)

Unit Four Book Three

I. Reading comprehension

Passage 1

Parents have to do much less for their children today than they used to do, and home has

become much less of a workshop. Clothes can be bought ready made, washing can go to the

laundry, food can be bought cooked, canned or preserved, bread is baked and delivered by the

bake, milk arrives on the doorstep, meals can be had at the restaurant, the workers, canteen, and

the school dining-room.

It is unusual now for father to pursue his trade or other employment at home, and his

children rarely, if ever, see him at his place of work. Boys are therefore seldom trained to follow

their father’s occupation, and in many towns they have a fairly wide choice of employment and

so do girls. The young wage-earner often earns good money, and soon acquires a feeling of

economic independence. In textile areas it has long been customary for mothers to go out to work,

but this practice has become so widespread that the working mother is now not an unusual factor

in a child’s home life, the number of married women in employment having more than doubled

in the last twenty-five years. With mother earning and his older children drawing substantial

wages, father is seldom the dominant figure that he still was at the beginning of the century.

When mother works, economic advantages increase, but children lose something of great value if

mother’s employment prevents her from being home to greet them when they return from school.

1. The writer compares home to a workshop because __________.

A. fathers often pursue employment at home

B. parents have to make food and necessity themselves for their daily life

C. many families produce goods at home for sale

D. both fathers and mothers in most families are workers

2. The writer says that home has become much less of a workshop. He means

____________.

A. in the past, home was more like a workshop

B. home is much more of a workshop now

C. home-workshops are becoming fewer and fewer

D. home was less like a workshop in the past

3. The chief reason that boys are seldom trained to follow their father’s occupation is

_________.

A. that children nowadays rarely see their fathers at their place of work

B. that fathers do not like to pursue employment at home any more

C. that there is a wide choice of employment for children

D. that children also like to have jobs outside

4. What makes father no longer be the only dominant person in a family?

A. With their earning, mother and children do not need to depend on father for their life.

B. There are many choices of employment for mothers and children.

C. Father does much less for his children today than he used to.

D. The number of married women in employment has increased greatly now.

5. It is implied in this passage that __________.

A. mothers have the practice to go to work

B. working mothers have no time to stay with their children at home

C. young wage-earners are economically independent

D. mother’s position in a family has been raised

Passage 2

One of the greatest mysteries of the world, for which scientists have so far been unable to

find any satisfactory explanation, is the Bermuda Triangle, something called “The Graveyard of

the Atlantic.” This is an area of the western Atlantic—between Bermuda and Florida, roughly

triangular in shape, where since 1945 at least a hundred ships and planes and over a thousand

people have disappeared. No wreckage has been found, no bodies, life belts or any other evidence

of disaster. It is as if these planes, ships and people had never existed. In some cases a routine

radio message has been received from aircraft reporting everything in order a few minutes before

all contact was lost. In others a weak S.O.S. message has been picked up and, in perfect weather,

inexplicable references to fog and loss of hearings. In the extraordinary case of five U.S. navy

planes disappearing on a routine mission from Florida, the rescue plane sent to locate them

vanished also. There have been references to the curious white light or haze which is a feature of

the sea in part of this area, and it is interesting to note that not only was this light, or streaks of

light, observed by the astronauts on their way to space, but was also noted by Columbus, five

centuries ago. Whether this light has any connection with the mysterious disappearance is

unknown—it is just another curious circumstance as yet unexplained.

Many theories, some bordering on the fantastic, have been advanced to account for the

disturbing incidents that occur in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. It has been asked whether

these disappearances are caused by extraterrestrial activity, by some undiscovered source of

energy, or some dimension of time or space unguessed at by man. This is no answer and

speculation continues as anxiety increases.

6. What is the most puzzling feature of the incidents that have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle

area?

A. The unexplained wreckage found in the area.

B. The lack of evidence of disaster.

C. The appearance of the wreckage.

D. The disastrous losses in the area.

7. Before contact with missing aircraft ________ .

A. unidentified signals have sometimes been received

B. inexplicable signals have sometimes been received

C. the pilot has invariably reported bad weather conditions

D. the pilot has never made any request for assistance

8. The five United States navy planes disappeared were ______ .

A. trying to locate missing plane

B. trying to rescue a plane in trouble

C. on a special mission

D. on a normal flight

9. The curious white lights observed on the surface of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle area

______ .

A. were only seen by astronauts B. were unearthed by Columbus