大学体验英语旧版试题2.1

Part II Reading Comprehension 2—1

Passage 1

A 1987 survey was given to 5,000 high school seniors. It showed that they did not know geography. Students in Boston were questioned. One-third of them could not name six New England states. Students in Baltimore were questioned. Half could not shade in the United States on a map. Here is what another survey showed. Students did not know history. Most did not know the dates of the American Civil War. Many did not know World War II leaders.

Someone else asked this question. What did students think of social studies? Their answer: Social studies was not important. They said it was the least important of their studies.

What is social studies? It is the study of individuals. It is the study of groups. It is the study of societies. Social studies covers many fields. You have read about history and geography. These are part of social studies. It covers many other areas as well. Let's say you study the way people live together in groups. This is an area of social studies. So is learning about very early people. So is studying government.

Is social studies important? Early Americans thought so. Students then learned history and civics. This was to make them good citizens. A report from 1916 set a new goal. It said, "The social studies should cultivate a sense of membership in the world community." The world community is very large. But today it is easy to share ideas in it. We have radio and TV. We have phones. We have computers.

Social studies helps us understand the world's people. It helps us know groups and societies. The 1916 goal was important then. It is even more important now. We all need to be good world citizens.

21. Social studies ________.

A) uses radios, TVs, and computers B) is the study of people, groups, and societies

C) can be understood by questioning students D) was first taught in 1916

22. Which fact supports the statement that students did not know geography?

A) A survey questioned 5,000 students.

B) Most students did not know when the Civil War was.

C) Many students did not know World War II leaders.

D) Half of the students from Baltimore couldn't locate the United States on a map.

23. This passage makes it clear that ________.

A) we are not members of a world community B) social studies helps make good world citizens

C) researchers should question more students D) social studies is not important

24. The quotation marks around the sentence "The social studies should cultivate a sense of membership in the world community." show that it ________.

A) is important B) is the writer's opinion

C) is the exact words from the 1916 report D) was spoken by a high school students

25. The word survey in this passage means a ________.

A) general look B) plan showing boundaries C) formal study or poll D) discussion

Passage 2

When you put money in a bank account, your money earns interest. This interest is a payment from the bank for the use of your money. The bank may pay you any interest rate it desires; these days the usual rate is around 5 percent. The basic formula for figuring out how much interest you will earn on an investment is fairly simple. To figure out the interest, multiply three things: the principal (or the amount you invest), the interest rate put into decimal form (5 percent would be written .05), and the time in years. The formula can be written as i = prt.

The formula i = prt is for simple interest. It does not help you find interest that is compounded. Compounding occurs when you have your money alone. Then every so often the interest is computed again using a new principal. The formula for compound interest lets you find the value of an investment after some number of years. However, it is a fairly complex formula. If you want to work with it, you'll need a scientific calculator with an exponent（幂数）key.

Most people find the compound interest formula perplexing. They ask a bank or other investment service to do the math for them. But there is a simple way to figure out when your money will double in value. This is called the "Rule of 72." If you divide the annual interest rate into 72, the answer is the number of years it will take to double your savings. So money invested at 5 percent will take more than 14 years to double (72 divided by 5).

Now here is a question to ponder. What happens if p equals zero? If you put that value for p into the formula, the answer will be