SAT阅读

Each sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five words or sets of words labeled A through E. Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Example:
Hoping to  the       dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be         to both labor and management.
(A)enforce . . useful
(B)end . . divisive
(C)overcome . . unattractive
(D) extend . . satisfactory
(E) resolve . . acceptable 

 Part 1
     I know what your e-mail in-box looks like, and it isn’t pretty: a babble of come-ons and lies from hucksters and con artists. To find your real e-mail, you must wade

Line through the torrent of fraud and obscenity known politely

5 as “unsolicited bulk e-mail” and colloquially as “spam.”
    In a perverse tribute to the power of the online revolution, we are all suddenly getting the same mail: easy weight loss, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. The crush of these messages is now numbered in billions per day. “It’s becoming

10 a major systems and engineering and network problem,” says one e-mail expert. “Spammers are gaining control of the Internet.”

Part 2
      Many people who hate spam assume that it is protected as free speech. Not necessarily so. The United States
15 Supreme Court has previously ruled that individuals may preserve a threshold of privacy.  “Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit,” wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger in a 1970 decision. “We therefore categori-

20 cally reject the argument that a vendor has a right to send unwanted material into the home of another.” With regard to a seemingly similar problem, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 made it illegal in the United States to send unsolicited faxes; why not extend the act to include

25 unsolicited bulk e-mail?

The following passage is adapted from a novel set in the early twentieth century. Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, is speaking with Cecil Vyse about a mutual acquaintance, Lucy Honeychurch. Miss Honeychurch has recently returned from a journey with her older cousin and chaperone, Miss Bartlett.
   “Lucy Honeychurch has no faults,” said Cecil, with grave sincerity.
   “I quite agree. At present she has none.”

line“At present?”
5   “I’m not cynical. I’m only thinking of my pet theory about Miss Honeychurch. Does it seem reasonable that she should play piano so wonderfully, and live so quietly?
    I suspect that someday she shall be wonderful in both.
    The water-tight compartments in her will break down,

10 and music and life will mingle. Then we shall have her heroically good, heroically bad-tooheroic,perhaps, to be good or bad.”
    Cecil found his companion interesting.
   “And at present you think her not wonderful as far

15 as life goes?”
   “Well, I must say I’ve only seen her at Tunbridge Wells, where she was not wonderful, and at Florence.
    She wasn’t wonderful in Florence either, but I kept on expecting that she would be.”
20  “In what way?”
   Conversation had become agreeable to them, and they were pacing up and down the terrace.
   “I could as easily tell you what tune she’ll play next. There was simply the sense that she found wings and

25 meant to use them. I can show you a beautiful picture in my diary. Miss Honeychurch as a kite, Miss Bartlett holding the string. Picture number two: the string breaks.” The sketch was in his diary, but it had been made afterwards, when he viewed things artistically. At the time he

30  had given surreptitious tugs to the string himself.
   “But the string never broke?”
   “No. I mightn’t have seen Miss Honeychurch rise, but I should certainly have heard Miss Bartlett fall.”
   “It has broken now,” said the young man in low,

35  vibrating tones.
   Immediately he realized that of all the conceited, ludicrous, contemptible ways of announcing an engagement this was the worst. He cursed his love of metaphor; had he suggested that he was a star and that Lucy was 40 soaring up to reach him?
   “Broken? What do you mean?”
   “I meant,” Cecil said stiffly, “that she is going to marry me.”
    The clergyman was conscious of some bitter

45 disappointment which he could not keep out of his
   “I am sorry; I must apologize. I had no idea you were intimate with her, or I should never have talked in this flippant, superficial way. You ought to have

50 stopped me.” And down in the garden he saw Lucy herself; yes, he was disappointed.
   Cecil, who naturally preferred congratulations to apologies, drew down the corner of his mouth. Was this the reaction his action would get from the whole

55 world? Of course, he despised the world as a whole;every thoughtful man should; it is almost a test of refinement.
  “I’m sorry I have given you a shock,” he said dryly. “I fear that Lucy’s choice does not meet with

60 your approval.”

The following passage is adapted from a book published in 1999.
      Calling it a cover-up would be far too dramatic. But for more than half a century—even in the midst of some of the greatest scientific achievements in history—physicists

line  have been quietly aware of a dark cloud looming on a

5    distant horizon. The problem is this: There are two foundational pillars upon which modern physics rests.
      One is general relativity, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the largest of scales: stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and beyond

10  to the immense expanse of the universe itself. The other is quantum mechanics, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the smallest of scales: molecules, atoms, and all the way down to subatomic particles like electrons and quarks. Through

15   years of research, physicists have experimentally confirmed to almost unimaginable accuracy virtually all predictions made by each of these theories. But these same theoretical tools inexorably lead to another disturbing conclusion:
       As they are currently formulated, general relativity and

20   quantum mechanics cannot both be right. The two theories underlying the tremendous progress of physics during the last hundred years—progress that has explained the expansion of the heavens and the fundamental structure of matter—are mutually incompatible.
25   If you have not heard previously about this ferocious antagonism, you may be wondering why. The answer is not hard to come by. In all but the most extreme situations, physicists study things that are either small and light (like atoms and their constituents) or things that are huge and

30   heavy (like stars and galaxies), but not both. This means that they need use only quantum mechanics or only general relativity and can, with a furtive glance, shrug off the barking admonition of the other. For 50 years this approach has not been quite as blissful as ignorance, but it has been

35  pretty close.
      But the universe can be extreme. In the central depths of a black hole, an enormous mass is crushed to a minuscule size. According to the big bang theory, the whole of the universe erupted from a microscopic nugget whose size

40  makes a grain of sand look colossal. These are realms that are tiny and yet incredibly massive, therefore requiring that both quantum mechanics and general relativity simultaneously be brought to bear. The equations of general relativity and quantum mechanics, when combined, begin

45  to shake, rattle, and gush with steam like a decrepit automobile. Put less figuratively, well-posed physical questions elicit nonsensical answers from the unhappy amalgam of
these two theories. Even if you are willing to keep the deep interior of a black hole and the beginning of the 

50  universe shrouded in mystery, you can’t help feeling that the hostility between quantum mechanics and general relativity cries out for a deeper level of understanding.
     Can it really be that the universe at its most fundamental level is divided, requiring one set of laws when things are

55  large and a different, incompatible set when things are small?
      Superstring theory, a young upstart compared with the venerable edifices of quantum mechanics and general relativity, answers with a resounding no. Intense research

60  over the past decade by physicists and mathematicians around the world has revealed that this new approach to describing matter at its most fundamental level resolves the tension between general relativity and quantum mechanics. In fact, superstring theory shows more:

65   within this new framework, general relativity and quantum mechanics require one another for the theory to make sense.
    According to superstring theory, the marriage of the laws of the large and the small is not only happy but inevitable. Superstring theory has the

70  potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe—from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars—are reflections of one grand physical principle, one master equation.

    Each sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five words or sets of words labeled A through E. Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

    Newspaper editor and political commentator Henry Louis Mencken was a force of nature, brushing aside all objects animal and mineral in his headlong rush Line to the publicity that surely awaited him. He seized 5 each day, shook it to within an inch of its life, and then gaily went on to the next. No matter where his writing appeared, it was quoted widely, his pungently outspoken opinions debated hotly. Nobody else could make so many people so angry, or make so many others 10 laugh so hard.

     The ability to see the situation as your opponents see it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills that you can possess as a negotiator. You must know more Line than simply that they see things differently. It is not 5 enough to study them like beetles under a microscope; you need to know what it feels like to be a beetle. To accomplish this you should be prepared to withhold judgment as you try on their views. Your opponents may well believe that their views are right as strongly 10 as you believe yours are.

Part  1
       The ability of the "I Have a Dream" speech to high-light King's early career at the expense of his later career accounts for the tone of impatience and betrayal that often

line  appears when modern-day supporters of King's agenda talk

5     about the speech. Former Georgia state legislator Julian Bond said in 1986 that commemorations of King seemed to "Focus almost entirely on Martin Luther King the dreamer, not on Martin King the antiwar activist, not on Martin King the challenger of the economic order, not on Martin King

10   the opponent of apartheid, not on the complete Martin Luther King."One King scholar has proposed a ten-year moratorium on reading or listening to the "I Have a Dream"speech, in the hopes that America will then discover the rest of King's legacy.
15    This proposal effectively concedes that King's mag-nificent address cannot be recovered from the misuse and overquotation it has suffered since his death. But it is not clear that this is so. Even now, upon hearing the speech, one is struck by the many forms of King's genius.

20    Many people can still remember the first time they heard "I Have a Dream,"and they tend to speak of that memory with the reverence reserved for a religious experience. At the very least, reflecting on the "I Have a Dream"speech should be an opportunity to be grateful for the astonishing

25     transformation of America that the freedom movement wrought. In just under a decade, the civil rights move-ment brought down a system of segregation that stood essentially unaltered since Reconstruction. King's dreams of an America free from racial discrimination are still some

30      distance away, but it is astounding how far the nation has come since that hot August day in 1963. Segregation in the South has been dismantled; there are no longer "hites Only"signs; segregationist governors do not try to prevent Black children from entering public schools. Toward the end of his life, King preached a sermon entitled "ngratitude,"in which he called ingratitude" one of the greatest of all sins,"because the sinner "fail[s] to realize his dependence on others." The annual Martin Luther King holiday is properly a day of national thanksgiving, a time

40     for the nation to recognize the immense debt it owes to King and the thousands of heroes of the civil rights movement for saving the soul of America.

Part  2
       Martin Luther King was at his best when he was willing to reshape the wisdom of many of his intellec-

45   tual predecessors. He ingeniously harnessed their ideas to his views to advocate sweeping social change. He believed that his early views on race failed to challenge America fundamentally. He later confessed that he had underestimated how deeply entrenched racism was in

50   America. If Black Americans could not depend on good-will to create social change, they had to provoke social change through bigger efforts at nonviolent direct action. This meant that Blacks and their allies had to obtain political power. They also had to try to restructure

55  American society, solving the riddles of poverty and economic inequality.
     This is not the image of King that is celebrated on Martin Luther King Day. Many of King's admirers are uncomfortable with a focus on his mature beliefs. They

60  seek to deflect unfair attacks on King's legacy by shroud-ing him in the cloth of superhuman heroism. In truth, this shroud is little more than romantic tissue. King's image has often suffered a sad fate. His strengths have been needlessly exaggerated, his weaknesses wildly over-

65   played. King's true legacy has been lost to cultural amnesia. As a nation, we have emphasized King's aspiration to save America through inspiring words and sacrificial deeds. Time and again we replay the powerful image of King standing on a national stage

70   in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial mouthing per-haps the most famous four words ever uttered by a Black American: "I have a dream."For most Americans, those words capture King's unique genius. They express his immortal longing for freedom, a longing that is familiar

75   to every person who dares imagine a future beyond unjust laws and unfair customs. The edifying universality of those four words who hasn't dreamed, and who cannot identify with people whose dreams of a better world are punished with violence?- helps to explain their durability. But those

80   words survive, too, because they comfort folk who would rather entertain the dreams of unfree people than confront their rage and despair.

 

Directions: For each question in this section, select the best answer from among the choices given and fill in the corresponding circle on the answer sheet

Each sentence below has one or two blanks, each blank indicating that something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five words or sets of words labeled A through E. Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best, fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

Example:
Hoping to      the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be       to both labor and management.
A enforce . . useful
B end . . divisive
C overcome . . unattractive
D  extend . . satisfactory
E resolve . . acceptable

In the introduction to one of her dramas, a well-known playwright and actor discusses some of her ideas about acting.
      Words have always held a particular power for me.I remember leafing through a book of Native American poems one morning while I was waiting for my Shakespeare

line  class to begin and being struck by a phrase from the preface,
5    ”The word, the word above all, is truly magical, not only by its meaning, but by its artful manipulation.?
    This quote, which I added to my journal, reminded me of something my grandfather had told me when I was a girl: "If you say a word often enough it becomes your
10  own.”I added that phrase to my journal next to the quote about the magic of words. When I traveled home to Baltimore for my grandfather's funeral a year after my journal entry, I mentioned my grandfather's words to my father. He corrected me. He told me that my grandfather
15 had actually said, "If you say a word often enough, it becomes you."I was still a student at the time, but I knew even then, even before I had made a conscious decision to teach as well as act, that my grandfather's words would be important.
20   Actors are very impressionable people, or some would say, suggestible people. We are trained to develop aspects of our memories that are more emotional and sensory than intellectual. The general public often wonders
25   how actors remember their lines. What's more remarkable to me is how actors remember, recall, and reiterate feelings and sensations. The body has a memory just as the mind does. The heart has a memory, just as the mind does. The act of speech is a physical act. It is powerful enough that it can create, with the rest of the body, a kind of cooperative
30   dance. That dance is a sketch of something that is inside a person, and not fully revealed by the words alone. I came to realize that if I were able to record part of the dance?that is, the spoken part-and reenact it, the rest of the body would follow. I could then create the illusion of being
35   another person by reenacting something she had said as she had said it. My grandfather's idea led me to consider that the reenactment, or the reiteration, of a person's words would also teach me about that person.
      I had been trained in the tradition of acting called
40  Psychological realism.?A basic tenet of psychological realism is that characters live inside of you  and that you create a lifelike portrayal of the character through a process of realizing your own similarity to the character. When I
later became a teacher of acting, I began to become more

45   and more troubled by the self-oriented method. I began to look for ways to engage my students in putting themselves in other people's shoes. This went against the grain of the psychological realism tradition, which was to get the char-acter to walk in the actor's shoes. It became less and less
50   interesting intellectually to bring the dramatic literature of the world into a classroom of people in their late teens and twenties, and to explore it within the framework of their real lives. Aesthetically it seemed limited, because most of the time the characters all sounded the same. Most char-
55   acters spoke somewhere inside the rhythmic range of the students. More troubling was that this method left an important bridge out of acting. The spirit of acting is the travel from the self to the other. This "self-based"method seemed to come to a spiritual halt. It saw the self as the
60  ultimate home of the character. To me, the search for char-acter is constantly in motion. It is a quest that moves back and forth between the self and the other.
    Ineeded evidence that you could find a character's psy-chological reality by "inhabiting" that character's words. I
65 needed evidence of the limitations of basing a character on a series of metaphors from an actor's real life. I wanted to develop an alternative to the self-based technique, a tech-nique that would begin with the other and come to the self, a technique that would empower the other to find the actor
70 rather than the other way around.