二级试题及答案

[A卷]
College English Achievement Test
—Band Two —
试题册
(120 分钟)2004.6
Part II Readi ng Comprehe nsion
Passage One
What makes America ns spe nd n early half their food dollars on meals away from home? The an swers lie in the way America ns live today. During the first few decades of the twen tieth cen tury, canned and convenience foods freed the family cook from full-time duty at the kitchen range. Then, in the 1940s, work in the wartime defense plants took more women out of the home than ever before, setting the pattern of the work ing wife and mother.
Today about half of the country ' s married women are employed outside the home.
But, uni ess family members pitch in with food preparati on, wome n are not fully liberated from that chore. In stead many have become, in a sen se, pris oners of the completely cooked convenience meal. It is easier to pick up a bucket of fried chicke n on the way home from work or to take the family out for pizzas, or burgers than to start ope ning cans or heat ing up froze n dinners after a long, hard day.
Also, the rising divorce rate means that there are more single working parents with children to feed. And many young adults and elderly people, as well as unm
arried and divorced mature people, live alone rather tha n as part of a family unit and don ' t want to bother cooking for one.
Fast food is appealing because its fast, it doesn ' t require any dressingdiip, offers a “fun ”break.
21. America n wome n left home to work in large nu mbers because of ________ .
A) the improved livi ng sta ndard B) the in crease in food prices
C) the n eed of war-time in dustry D) the moder ni zati on of the kitche n
22. The phrase “pitch in ” in Line 2, Paragraph 2, is closest in meaning to
A) “ offer help or support B) “ eat with good appetite
C) “offer compliment ”D) “disagree with ”
23. What is a working mother 'bsest choice if she does not have time to prepare dinner
for the family according to the passage?
A) Making a meal out of canned food.
B) Buying some chicken on the way home and frying it.
C) Taking the family to dinner at a pizza place.
D) Heating up frozen dinners.
24. Which of the following groups of Americans are most likely to cook their own meal
at home?
A) Single working mothers. B) Unmarried mature people.
C) Elderly people living alone. D) Unemployed women with family.
25. What is this passage mainly about?
A) Women' s liberation in America.
B) Changes in the American family during World War II.
C) Reasons for the popularity of fast food in America.
D) Rising divorce rate in America today.
Passage Two
In order to learn a foreign language well, it is necessary to overcome the fear of making mistakes. If the primary goal of language use is communication; then mistakes are secondary considerations that may be dealt with gradually as awareness
of those mistakes increase. On the other hand, students should not ignore their mistakes. The language learner may observe how native speakers express themselves, and how native expressions differ from the way the learner might say them. For example, a Spanish speaker who has been saying "I do it" to express willingness to do something in the immediate future, could, by interacting (交际) with native speakers of English, observe that native speakers actually say "I'11 do it". The resulting discrepancy (差异) can serve as a basis for the student to modify his way of using the present tense in English. But a student who is unwilling to interact in the first place would lose this opportunity to learn by trial and error.
26 . According to the passage, the present tense in English is .
A) not used to express a desire to do something in the immediate future
B) used with some verbs but not with others to express future intention
C) basically the same in English as it is in Spanish .
D) not the most difficult problem for foreign students
27. According to the passage,language learners can reduce the number of their
mistakes by _______ .
A) asking native speakers for explanations。