2017“外研社杯”全国英语阅读大赛初赛（90min）Part I Read and Know

In Part I, you will read short texts of various kinds. Read the instructions carefully and answer the questions. (Time suggested: 20 minutes)

Questions 1-3 (Suggested completion time: 3 minutes)Directions: Read the following quotes. Match the quotes with the people. Please note there are three extra options you do not need.

Questions 4 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the text, and answer the question according to the text.

A few intuitive, sensitive visionaries may understand and comprehend XXXX (the book title), XXXX (the author)’s new and mammoth volume, without going through a course of training or instruction, but the average intelligent reader will glean little or nothing from it—even from careful perusal, one might properly say study, of it—save bewilderment and a sense of disgust. It should be companioned with a key and a glossary like the Berlitz books...

4. Which of the following works does the book review address? A. UlyssesB. The OdysseyC. In Search of Lost TimeD. One Hundred Years of Solitude

Question 5 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the text and answer the question according to the text.

I like the fact that the study focuses on a French classroom, which receives less attention in Second Language Acquisition research than other foreign language classrooms.

However, for reasons that I elaborate on below, I do not recommend this manuscript for publication. I recommend that the author consults the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. That journal might be a better fit for this paper.

5. The text could best be described as __________.A. a conclusionB. a summaryC. a reviewD. a pledge

1

_____1. Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.

_____2. I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

_____3. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

A. William ShakespeareB. Nelson MandelaC. Thomas A. EdisonD. Steve JobsE. Mark ZuckerbergF. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Question 6 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the text, and answer the question according to the text.

My Lord,I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my

Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honor which, being very little accustomed to favors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

6. This text is taken from a letter which showed the writer’s __________ the Lord.A. gratitude towardsB. indifference toC. contempt forD. respect for

Question 7 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the text and answer the question according to the text.

Because of social media, words are moving around the world within weeks and months, whereas in the past, it could take a few years, says Julie Coleman, author of The Life of Slang. “It’s not necessarily that language is changing more quickly, but technologies have developed and they allow the transmission of slang terms to pass from one group to another much more quickly.”

7. The main purpose of the text is to ________.A. explain the quick migration of slangB. imply the unnecessary change of languageC. exemplify the advancement of technologyD. introduce the book The Life of Slang

Questions 8 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the text, and answer the question according to the text.

When hunting raccoons for fur was a popular sport, hunting

dogs were used to sniff them out of trees. As they are XXXX

animals, the hunting party had to work at night, and the dogs

would sometimes end up choosing the wrong tree, or as the

idiom goes, “bark up the wrong tree.” The term was first printed

in a book by Davy Crockett in 1833.

2

8. Which word is the best substitution for the missing word XXXX? A. solitaryB. aggressive C. nocturnalD. herbivorous

Question 9 (Suggested completion time: 2 minutes)Directions: Read the details about a euphemism, and answer the question according to the details.

9. The euphemism described above most probably refers to __________.A. people with special needsB. downright overwroughtC. tired and emotionalD. mentally challenged

Question 10 (Suggested completion time: 5 minutes)Directions: The bar chart shows the share of UN procurement from Global Compact members from 2010 to 2014. Answer the question according to the information in the chart.

Source: 2014 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement, the United Nations Office for Project Services, 2015

3

It was first used by British journalists in 1967 to describe a state of alcohol intoxication exhibited by Labour Cabinet Minister George Brown.

It is now used as a stock phrase. The Guardian describes it as having joined those “that are part of every journalist’s vocabulary.”

In fact, one source cautions professional British journalists against its use “even if the journalist meant it literally.”

10. Choose the INCORRECT description of the chart. A. The share of UN procurement volume from Global Compact members grew steadily over the

five years in terms of absolute volume.B. In 2013, the total procurement volume dropped noticeably, and so did the procurement from

Global Compact members.C. In 2014, the total procurement volume increased greatly, causing a drop in the share of

procurement from Global Compact members.D. The proportion of procurement from Global Compact members was not in line with the

general trend of procurement from Global Compact members.

Part II Read and ReasonIn Part II, you will read short texts on different subjects. Read the instructions carefully and answer the questions based on logical inference and reasoning. (Time suggested: 40 minutes)

Question 11 (Suggested completion time: 3 minutes)Directions: Read the following definition of a logical fallacy. Answer the question according to the definition.

11. Which of the following provides a typical example of Confusion of “Necessary” with “Sufficient” Condition? A. You said that I would have to run the mile in less than six minutes to be on the track team,

and I did. So why did I get cut from the team?B. Dina has to be rich or at least to be an heiress. She after all belongs to the Alpha Phi Lambda

sorority which is the richest sorority on campus.C. It’s supposed to be in the low twenties tonight, so surely we’re not going to the football

game, are we?D. To see viruses, one must have a microscope. This follows if William Carroll said he saw

viruses, he must have used a microscope.

Question 12 (Suggested completion time: 3 minutes)

4

Confusion of “Necessary” with “Sufficient” Condition

A causal fallacy. You commit this fallacy when you assume that a necessary condition of an event is sufficient for the event to occur. A necessary condition is a condition that must be present for an event to occur. A sufficient condition is a condition or set of conditions that will produce the event. A necessary condition must be there, but it alone does not provide sufficient cause for the occurrence of the event. Only the sufficient grounds can do this. In other words, all of the necessary elements must be there.

Directions: Read the definition of one type of logical fallacy. Answer the question according to the definition.

12. Which of the following provides a typical example of Texas Sharpshooter fallacy?A. I won’t pay the parking ticket because the traffic sign here says “Fine for Parking”!B. Cola is healthy because it sells best among the top five healthiest countries in the world.C. We can’t exploit the outer space because many people on Earth hardly make ends meet. D. Nobody at school can speak French because neither teachers nor the principal can speak it.

Questions 13-14 Reasoning. (Suggested completion time: 8 minutes)

In a swimming competition, Matt, Alen and Johnson won a medal respectively: the gold medal, the silver medal and the bronze medal. The coach made a guess: “Matt won the gold medal, Alen didn’t win the gold medal and Johnson didn’t win the bronze medal.” Unfortunately, only one of them is right.

13. Who won the gold medal, who won the silver, and who won the bronze medal? A. Matt: gold medal; Johnson: silver medal; Alen: bronze medal.B. Alen: gold medal; Johnson: silver medal; Matt: bronze medal.C. Johnson: gold medal; Alen: silver medal; Matt: bronze medal.D. Matt: gold medal; Alen: silver medal; Johnson: bronze medal.

14. Richard: The national budget should provide significant increases in all levels of education in the upcoming year.

　Natalie: That’s not fair. A reduction in defense spending in peacetime may bring us excessive risks. We can’t afford it.

Which of the following is the best interpretation of Natalie’s argument?A. Funds saved from defense have been diverted to all levels of education.B. Highlighting spending on education dangerously impacts on spending on the military.C. The size of the military budget reflects a state’s ability to fund educational activities.D. Compared with military spending, investing in education will create a financial crisis.

Questions 15-16 (Suggested completion time: 5 minutes)Directions: Read the text and decide whether the statements are True or False according to the text.

Questions

Questions define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. They drive thinking forward. Answers, on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates further questions does thought continue

5

Texas Sharpshooter FallacyTexas Sharpshooter fallacy is an informal fallacy which occurs when someone jumps to the conclusion that a cluster in some data must be the result of a cause, usually one that it is clustered around.

as inquiry. A mind with no questions is a mind that is not intellectually alive. No questions (asked) equals no understanding (achieved). Superficial questions equal superficial understanding, unclear questions equal unclear understanding. If your mind is not actively generating questions, you are not engaged in substantial learning.

15. The main purpose of the text is to define “questions”.True ( ) False ( )

16. It can be inferred that a mind filled with questions will surely be engaged in substantial learning.

True ( ) False ( )

Questions 17-18 (Suggested completion time: 7 minutes)Directions: Read the text about the sugar industry, and answer the questions according to the information in the text.

How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that the sugar industry may have manipulated the research into the role of sugar in heart disease.

The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s terms to publish a 1967 review of research into sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and the article, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.

Even though the influence-meddling revealed in the documents dates back nearly 50 years, more recent reports show that the food industry has continued to influence nutrition science.

Last year, an article in The New York Times revealed that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, had provided millions of dollars in funding to researchers who sought to play down the link between sugary drinks and obesity. In June, The Associated Press reported that candy makers were funding studies that claimed that children who eat candy tend to weigh less than those who do not.

The revelations are important because the debate about the relative harms of sugar and saturated fat continues today, Dr. Glantz said. For many decades, health officials encouraged Americans to reduce their fat intake, which led many people to consume low-fat, high-sugar foods that some experts now blame for fueling the obesity crisis.

6

Today, the saturated fat warnings still remain a cornerstone of the government’s dietary guidelines, though in recent years the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization and other health authorities have also begun to warn that too much added sugar may increase risks of cardiovascular disease.

17. The word handpicked in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to __________.A. carefully chosen in a highly scientific wayB. carried out with the best research findingsC. tailored to the needs of the sugar industryD. done by scientists from Harvard University

18. Which of the following can be inferred from the text?A. Manufacturers of sugar related food are funding studies aimed at finding the relationship

between sugar and health.B. Scientific research may not produce accurate results when funding for the research is

provided by agents who are not impartial.C. It is now accepted in the US that sugar and saturated fat are both responsible for an

increasing risk of heart disease.D. The industry-funded research plays an important and informative role in that it shapes the

overall scientific debate.

Questions 19-20 (Suggested completion time: 7 minutes)Directions: Read the passage about MasterCard. Answer the questions according to the passage.

MasterCard

MasterCard is making it easier for charities to get help quickly to the people who really need it, and ensure that donations are actually being used for good. The MasterCard Aid Network, launched last September, distributes a version of the company’s plastic cards that come loaded with points that can be redeemed at certain merchants for groceries, medicine, shelter and even building materials or business supplies. The chip-enabled system can be deployed in a day or two compared to the weeks required to create and import paper vouchers.

The system doesn’t require an Internet connection—a boon in off-the-grid areas where many refugees and disaster victims are concentrated. Still, the transactions enable organizations to collect data on what card recipients redeem, allowing charities to protect against fraudulent use and gather insight into beneficiaries’ needs.

7

So far, organizations including Save the Children, World Vision and Mercy Corps have distributed cards to more than 75,000 people, from earthquake victims in Nepal to those in war-torn Yemen. MasterCard, which charges the charities fees for the service, says the program is profitable. The United Nations also recently named MasterCard the leader of an initiative to improve the distribution of humanitarian aid in emergencies, with a focus on the data management and privacy aspect.

19. What is the passage mainly about?A. How MasterCard as for-profit company joins hands with world charity organizations.B. How MasterCard can keep an edge by its technological innovation in the world market.C. How MasterCard made its transformation from a for-profit company to a non-profit one.D. How MasterCard shortened the path between troubled populations and the aid they need.

20. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?A. Without the efforts of the MasterCard Company, charities could not have protected against

fraudulent use of donations.B. MasterCard will perform a more important role in the international rescue and aid programs

with technology developments. C. The plastic cards the MasterCard Aid Network distributes to needed people are similar to

credit cards but paid by donators.D. MasterCard earns money from charging fees for service and then gives the money to

refugees and natural disaster victims.

Questions 21-23 (Suggested completion time: 7 minutes)Directions: Read the text about virtual reality and augmented reality, and answer the questions according to the information in the text.

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality

One of the biggest confusions in the world of augmented reality is the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality. Both are earning a lot of media attention and are promising tremendous growth.

Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial, computer-generated simulation or recreation of a real-life environment or situation. It immerses the user by making them feel they are experiencing the simulated reality firsthand, primarily by stimulating their vision and hearing.

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it. AR is

8

developed into apps and used on mobile devices to blend digital components into the real world in such a way that they enhance one another, but can also be told apart easily.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are similar in that both are inverse reflections of one in another with what each technology seeks to accomplish and deliver for the user. Virtual reality offers a digital recreation of a real-life setting, while augmented reality delivers virtual elements as an overlay to the real world. Both leverage some of the same types of technology, and they each exist to serve the user with an enhanced or enriched experience.

However, the two also differ from each other in various ways. Augmented reality enhances experiences by adding virtual components such as digital images, graphics, or sensations as a new layer of interaction with the real world. It is being used more and more in mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets to change how the real world and digital images, graphics intersect and interact. Contrastingly, virtual reality creates its own reality that is completely computer generated and driven. It is usually delivered to the user through a head-mounted or hand-held controller. This equipment connects people to the virtual reality, and allows them to control and navigate their actions in an environment meant to simulate the real world.

21-23. Which THREE of the following statements can be inferred from the text?A. Augmented reality shows virtual elements on top of the real world, while virtual reality

recreates real-life situations in a digital way.B. A virtual reality dressing room may allow shoppers to virtually try on their purchases quickly

and easily without really having to put them on.C. Virtual reality is able to transpose us by taking us to some other place, while augmented

reality, in contrast, never moves us elsewhere.D. With augmented reality, you can swim with sharks, and with virtual reality, you can watch a

shark pop out of your business card.E. Both augmented and virtual realities utilize some of the same types of technology and offer

people enriched experiences.F. Augmented reality will enable an immobile patient to go out of the room and enjoy his/her

favorite sights, sounds and smells in the country.

9

Part III Read and QuestionIn Part III, you will read passages on the same subject. You will be required to identify the writer’s position and evaluate the effectiveness of the writer’s arguments. (Time allowed: 30 minutes) Questions 24-31 (Suggested completion time: 30 minutes)

Passage A

Nonverbal communication is often spontaneous and unintentional, and its meaning may be ambiguous. For one thing, different nonverbal codes can indicate the same meaning while one nonverbal code can have different meanings in diverse contexts. Think about your expression of love toward your parents. Have your affective words or behavior remained the same over the past 18 years? Do you feel the same when a friend gives you a hug at the news that you have failed an exam and at the time when you have won an award? In addition, people may use masking, a facial management technique, to replace an expression of true feeling with one appropriate for a given interaction. For instance, your friend Mary is suffering from a fever but still smiles at you to confirm that she’s OK.

Culture, technology, and situation all serve as powerful influences on our nonverbal behavior. What may be an innocent gesture in one group, context, region, or country can convey a different and possibly offensive message elsewhere. For example, American people are accustomed to making direct eye contact when speaking to someone, whether a friend or a professor. However, in some East Asian cultures, such as China, Japan, and South Korea, direct eye contact in interactive communication is not required. In fact, such long-time direct eye contact, when facing superiors or elders, might be considered a sign of disrespect and challenge. Similarly, some cultures are contact cultures so that touch is an important form of communication, whereas other cultures are non-contact cultures so touching is generally avoided. For example, a socially polite touch involves a handshake between American men but may include a kiss between Arab or European men. Some religions prohibit opposite-sex touching between unmarried or unrelated individuals.

Nonverbal communication can be found in our electronic written communication such as email, text messaging, and Internet chat rooms. 25 We use all capital letters to indicate shouting, random punctuation (#@*&!) to substitute for obscenities, and type treatments such as boldfacing and italicizing for emphasis. We use color, font styles and sizes, animations, figures, diagrams, and pictures in attempts to express emotion or help users visualize the sender or the message in context. We expect others to use emoticons to express emotion in mediated texts (

). Since we can’t hear voice inflection or see facial expressions in many mediated situations,

your preferences for screen text size, whether you leave a few explanatory lines, and whether you attach or compress files all say something about you to others. As the Internet allows users to have visual, audio, and text contact, with refinements, speakers have the potential to be even more persuasive than in face-to-face conversations across distances.

10

Passage B

No one likes taking out the garbage. But in Japan the chore is compounded by an added element: The neighbors are watching. No, I’m not being paranoid. They’re watching.

Every time I take my trash down to the curb, in its regulation translucent white bag, I can feel their eyes peering through the plastic at my milk cartons, my egg containers, and my disposable chopsticks. They can see everything.

I first realized my garbage and I were not alone on a Monday a few months ago, when I was bringing down a bag of old cereal boxes, soggy refrigerator leftovers, and coffee grounds. My landlady, who lives on the first floor, was outside watering her garden. Her eyes took in the contents of my trash.

“No, today is Monday. It’s plastics day,” she said.

“Oh,” I replied, “I guess they changed the pick-up schedule.” Her eyes fluttered to the ground, studiously avoiding mine. “No, Monday has always been plastics day,” she said.

Over the next few minutes, in the muddled mix of Japanese and English we use to communicate, my landlady explained that she often would take my garbage away if I had put it out on the wrong day, store it in her house, and then bring it out again on the proper day.

As I walked back upstairs, lugging my unwanted trash, it hit me: For the year and a half since I’d been living in the apartment, she’d been watching me, peeping from behind her rose bushes: scurrying to the curb after I’d been there, checking to see whether I’d followed the correct garbage protocol. That’s when I learned the hard truth: When it comes to garbage in Japan, there’s no such thing as privacy. Garbage is public property, something to which your neighbors can claim snooping privileges. As a foreigner in this homogenous land, my activities garner more attention, and more criticism, than most. I’ve started wondering what else my neighbors notice. What else am I doing wrong?

What I found most disturbing about the exchange was that my landlady had been reluctant for so long to confront me directly. We see each other constantly, sometimes we have pleasant little chats, or she comes upstairs when something is broken. Yet she could never bear to tell me that I had mixed up the trash schedule. Pointing out one’s mistakes is considered rude in Japan.

As a foreigner with rudimentary Japanese, I expected the language barrier to be the biggest obstacle to living here. I was wrong. Learning to navigate Japan, perhaps any foreign country, is all about reading the subtle cultural cues, not the alphabet. Most things in Japan remain unspoken, especially the improper and the unpleasant.

11

Passage C

The most powerful voice you have, no one else can hear. It is a voice shaping your destiny, ability to cope with triumph or disaster, and how you engage with and inspire others in any quest you face. This voice ultimately determines your success as a communicator and the success of your communications. It is the voice within your head.

The starting point for being an outstanding public relations communicator is recognizing that you deliver communications not just through your words, signs or gestures. Nor do you deliver just through your body language. You communicate through the way you think.

You probably know of people who can easily comment on other people’s problems but are blind to their own shortcomings. The ability to understand yourself, your own emotions, and know how your mind works is known as your intrapersonal skill. Having self-awareness and understanding of yourself makes it possible subsequently to develop fully your interpersonal skills. Your intrapersonal skill is essentially how you can manage your own thinking—the ability to understand how your thinking works and ultimately master the voice in your head.

Everyone has an inner voice that creates an internal dialogue, a self-talk, which shapes and progresses their thinking and communication. (Your self-talk is not a sign of delusional behavior!) This self-talk lies at the heart of your subsequent communications. If you are unclear in your mind about how you feel and understand about an issue, the probability is that your subsequent communications will reflect this uncertainty, or fail to convince.

The image of Sir Bob Geldof when he launched Band Aid in 1984 is a good example of someone with a clear sense of passion and belief, who initially had limited resources—at the outset his campaign was just him and his intense reaction to watching BBC news coverage of famine scenes in Ethiopia. Yet he succeeded in creating a major brand and raising valuable funds for famine relief. His clear sense of purpose fueled his passion to overcome the odds. A committed community activist can likewise often outwit and outperform a well-oiled and well-funded formal public relations programme; witness the success of groups like Greenpeace against major oil companies.

The potential of the focused few was recognized by sociologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” The starting point for your journey in understanding and becoming an outstanding public relations communicator is to examine what shapes your thinking and how it is manifested in your communications.

24. Which statement is true about the ambiguity of nonverbal communication?A. It leads to vagueness in nonverbal codes in a given context. B. Intended meanings of nonverbal codes cannot be conveyed fully. C. It stems from the spontaneity and randomness of nonverbal codes.D. True feelings can be hidden by the ambiguity of nonverbal codes.

12

25. Which of the following best fits the numbered space in Passage A?A. It supersedes all other forms because of its effectiveness.B. There is a whole series of substitutions for nonverbal codes.C. People are born with a natural ability to communicate nonverbally.D. Interpretation of nonverbal codes relies on sensation and experiences.

26. The word navigate in the last paragraph of Passage B means__________.A. roaming about freelyB. keep close contact withC. familiarize oneself withD. sail smoothly along

27. What can be deciphered from Japan’s trash codes?A. Japanese tend to present their remarks in an explicit way.B. Trash is public property from which neighbors may intrude upon one’s privacy.C. The language barrier is an obstacle to dealing with the trash business.D. People not following the correct trash protocol will be considered rude.

28. According to Passage C, the voice in one’s head__________.A. matters more than any vocal messagesB. should precede one’s subsequent communicationsC. can help avoid potential misunderstanding in some wayD. determines the development of one’s interpersonal skills

29. How do people’s personal communication skills affect their public relations?A. Self awareness of how you think will affect your ability to communicate effectively.B. Effective public relation communications are delivered through nonverbal codes.C. Successful public relations are determined by the voice qualities of communicators.D. Communicators with passion and beliefs have stronger chances of outwitting their rivals.

30-31. Decide whether the statements are True or False according to the three passages.

30. Nonverbal codes in electronic written communications may well be more effective than face-to-face conversations.

True ( ) False ( )

31. It’s vital to take age, culture, region, gender, and emotional state into account when comprehending body language gestures.

True ( ) False ( )

13