2012年职称英语考试新增阅读(考试重点)

2012年职称英语综合类教材新增内容：阅读理解篇第一篇Telling Tales about PeopleOne of the most common types of nonfiction, and one that many people enjoy readin g, is stories about people's lives. These stories fall into three general categories: autobiogr aphy, memoir, and biography.An autobiography is the story of a person's life written by himself or herself. Often it begins with the person's earliest recollections and ends in the present. Autobiography wri ters may not be entirely objective in the way they present themselves. However, they offer the reader a good look at the way they are and what makes them that way. People as diverse as Benjarmin Franklin and Helen Keller have written autobiographies. 1Other write rs, such as James Joyce，have written thinly fictionalized accounts of their lives. These are not autobiographies，but they are very close to it.Memoirs, strictly speaking, are autobiographical accounts that focus as much on the e vents of the times as on the life of the author. 2Memoir writers typically use these events as backdrops for their lives. They describe them in detail and discuss their importance. R ecently，though，the term memoir seems to be becoming interchangeab1e with autobiograp hy. A memoir nowadays may or may not deal with the outside world.Biographies are factual accounts of someone else's life. In many senses，these may be the hardest of the three types to write. Autobiography writers know the events they write about because they lived them. But biography writers have to gather information from as many different sources as possible. Then they have to decide which facts to include. Their goal is to present a balanced picture of a person，not one that is overly positive or too critical. A fair well-presented biography may take years to research and write.词汇：backdrop /'bæk,drɔp/ n. 背景interchangeable /intə'tʃendʒəbl/ adj. 可转换的注释：1. People as diverse as Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller have written autobiograp hies. 就像本杰明•富兰克林和海伦•凯勒一样，各种各样的人们已经写了自传。

2. Memoirs，strictly speaking，are autobiographical accounts that focus as much on the events of the times as on the life of the author. 严格意义上来讲，回忆录是既注重作者本身的生活经历，也注重其所处的时代所发生的事件的自传性的描述。

练习：1. This passage is mostly about _______.A. the characteristics of autobiographies，memoirs，and biographiesB. famous autobiographiesC. why biography can be difficult to writeD. differences between autobiographies and memoirs2. Helen Keller wrote________.A. a memoirB. an autobiographyC. a work of fictionD. a biography3. Autobiography writers are not always objective because they________.A. feel they have to make up details to make their books sellB. constantly compete with biography writersC. want to present themselves in a good lightD. have trouble remembering the good times4. The writer introduces each category in the passage by________.A. defining itB. giving an exampleC. explaining why it is hard to writeD. telling when people first began writing it5. Diverse means________.A. able to swim in deep waterB. similar or alikeC. varied or differentD. enjoying poetry答案与题解：1. A 本题问的是：这篇文章主要是关于?文章第一句说到最普遍的非小说类文学作品类型之一就是一些来描述人们生活的故事，这些故事大致分为三类：自传回忆录和传记。

然后通篇对这三种类型进行了介绍，因此A是正确答案。

2. B 本题问的是：海伦·凯勒谢了什么?第二段第5句话写到：就像本明杰·富兰克林和海伦·凯勒一样，各种各样的人们已经写了自传。

因此B是正确答案。

3. C本题问的是：自传作者通常不太客观，因为他们?第二段提到：他们给读者提供了一个途径来了解自己比较好的行事风格……，因此答案是C，他们想展示自己好的一面。

4. A本题问的是：本文的作者通过何种方式介绍每种类型的非小说文学作品?答案是A，通过给每个类型进行定义。

5. C本题问的是：diverse 的意思是?其汉语意思为―多种多样的‖，因此C正确。

The Changing Middle ClassThe United States perceives itself to be a middle-class nation. However，middle class is not a real designation，nor does it carry privileges.1 It is more of a perception，which probably was as true as it ever could be right after World War II. The economy was gro wing，more and more people owned their own homes，workers had solid contracts with t he companies that employed them，and nearly everyone who wanted a higher education co uld have one. Successful people enjoyed upward social mobility. They may have started o ut poor，but they could become rich. Successful people also found that they had greater geographic mobility. In other words，they found themselves moving to and living in a vari ety of places.The middle class collectively holds several values and principles. One strong value is the need to earn enough money to feel that one can determine one's own economic fate. In addition，middle class morality embraces principles of individual responsibility，import ance of family, obligations to others，and believing in something outside oneself. 2 But in the 1990s those in the middle class found that there was a price for success.A U. S.News & World Report survey in 1994 indicated that 75 percent of Americans beli eved that middle class families could no longer make ends meet 3. Both spouses now wo rked，as did some of thechildren; long commutes became routine; the need for child care put strains on4 the family; and public schools were not as good as they once were. Mem bers of the middle cIass were no longer financing their lifestyles through earnings but wer e using credit to stay afloat. The understanding ofjust what middle class meant was chang ing.词汇：designation /dezig'neiʃən/ n. 称号commute /kə'mju:t/ n. 上下班路程mobility /məu'biləti/ n. 流动性注释：1. However，middle c1ass is not a real designation，nor does it carry privileges. 然而，中产阶级既不是一个真实的称号，也不会带来特别待遇。