2019届上海市各高中名校高三英语题型分类专题汇编--阅读理解A篇--学生版(已校对珍藏版)

III. Reading Comprehension

Section B

Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.

A

I’ve become increasingly concerned about the linguistic sloppiness of the average worker, and not those who have learned English as a second language but native English speakers, regardless of income level, schooling or other determining factors.

The number of people who read seems to be decreasing. The digital world has become the preferred baby sitter for children and the most effective way for adults to comfort themselves after a day’s work. Teachers, overworked and underpaid, seem to be fighting a losing battle – or are some prolonging it?

These days I see glaring grammatical errors on résumés and cover letters, websites, signs, emails regardless of management skills or income level. Job hunters write asking me for “advise”. People who are in the job market, hoping to be invited in for an interview, write some of these, and the paperwork is full of punctuation and grammatical mistakes. Were they careless? Or do they not know? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the hiring authority doesn’t kno w the difference either.

The other day I saw the back of a company shirt that said: “providing quality service since 10 years.” A company shirt? How many were printed and are worn by employees who walk around advertising that their company has someone in an upper-level management position who didn’t catch the error or, worse yet, didn’t know the difference?

Last week a senior level manager emailed me. He confused “its” and “it’s” in three different places. Here’s another example: I do product testing for a research panel. The product came with a slip of paper that said: “This commitment covers not discussing this product or it’s usage with others outside your home.”

Here’s what really bugs me: a rule that seems to have come into effect – if in doubt, add an apostrophe. So what has happened is that people all over America have lost the understanding of the difference between plural and possessive.

Your résumés and your cover letter are not just a summary of your background. They are not just an introduction of you when you hope to be considered for an interview. First and foremost, it is a brochure, and it is selling a product, and the product is you. If you wouldn’t go to an interview in blue jeans, don’t send your cover letter and résumés with mistakes to a p rospective employer.

Don’t rely on Microsoft Word’s ABC/grammar checker. It isn’t able to detect if a word is spelled correctly but used out of context. The grammar checker won’t help you unless you have a fundamental understanding of grammar to begin with. In fact, if you defer to the grammar checker’s advice, you’ll probably increase your number of mistakes.

An excellent reference book to keep on hand is The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer. In “Words Often Confused”, it clarifies the differences between pairs of words such as “well/good” and “less/fewer”.

Don’t tell yourself it doesn’t matter. Above all, don’t tell yourself that everyone speaks poorly these days, and the hiring authority won’t know or care. The ability to communicate, written and spoken, is of utmost importance – certainly in business. And it only becomes more valuable as fewer people are able to demonstrate it.

56. The examples cited in paragraphs 4 and 5 are intended to illustrate ______.

A. the employees are proud of their company

B. to err is human

C. holding senior positions doesn’t guarantee correct usage of language

D. managers are so busy as to be careless with their language

57. According to the author, when American people are not sure whether to use “it’s” or “its”, they are likely to ______.

A. use the former

B. use the latter

C. ask the author for advice

D. turn to Microsoft Word

58. The underlined word “defer” can be best replaced by ______.

A. consult

B. follow

C. object

D. yield

59. Which of the following statements will the author probably agree with?

A. Going to a job interview in smart jeans is better than sending résumés with mistakes to a prospective employer.

B. Microsoft Word’s spelling checker cannot always spot a mistake because it has a li mited