四、IV. Reading Comprehension ( 60 points )
Therehas been,in history, a man who was swallowed by a whale and lived to tell thetale. The man´s name is James Bartley. The records to prove his unusualexperience are in the British Admiralty.
Bartley was making his first trip on thewhaling ship Star of the East. Suddenly the lookout sighted a huge sperm whale.The whalers knew it was a huge whale by the size of the spray it blew into theair. They lowered their small boats. James Bartley was in the first longboat.The men rowed until they were close to the whale. A harpoon was thrown and itfound its mark. It sank into the whale´s flesh. The maddened beast crashed intothe boat, snapping its tail at the men and the wreck-age of their boats. Whenthe survivors were picked up ,James Bartley was missing.
Shortly before sunset,the whale was finally captured. The sailors tiedthe whale´s dead body to the side of the ship. Because of the hot weather itwas important that they cut up the whale right away. Otherwise, the meat wouldbegin to rot and the oil would begin to spoil. When they got to the stomach,theyfelt something moving about wildly. They thought it would be a big fish stillalive in-side. But when they opened the stomach they found James Bartley. Afterthis trip, Bartley settled in England, and never returned to sea.
第36题单选 This passage is mainly about __
A.how to hunt whales for their oil andmeat
B.the hard and dangerous lives thatwhalers had to live
C.the duties of each man on a whalingship
D.a man who was swallowed by a whale andlived
第37题单选 The sailors knew that something was inthe whale´s stomach because __
A.they could feel it moving about wildly
B.the whale seemed very heavy
C.the whale was swelling at one spot
D.the captain heard Bartley yelling forhelp
第38题单选 James Bartley probably never went tosea again because __
A.he wanted different kinds of adventures
B.of fright and shock
C.he was crippled by the whale
D.he often got seasick
第39题单选 The author, in telling James Bartley´sstory, informs us by ____
A.narrating the plain facts
B.referring to whaling in general
C.comparing whaling to other fishing
D.dramatically telling what happened
Thiswas no ordinary class. The students who came together were all science orengineering professors at Cornell University. They had interrupted theirresearch to accept an invitation to take part in an unusual experiment :"an interesting week of poetry. "This class was part of a study toanswer the questions:Why is science difficult for many nonscience students?What can teachers learn about teaching if they take a class that is not intheir field?
The students in the poetry class listened to lectures and tooknotes. They had reading tasks and had to write three short papers. Allstudents noticed one thing--the importance of spoken words. In science andengineering classes, the instructors put tables and drawings on the blackboard.But in this poetry class, the instructors just talked. They didn´t writeanything on the board.
The scientists and engineers noticed one similarity betweenscience and poetry. In both subjects,students need to find layers(层次 of meaning. Some layers are simple, clear, and on the surface;otherlayers are deeper and more difficult. This search for different levels ofmeaning doesn´t happen much in undergraduate(本科)science classes, but it is important later, in graduate school.And it is alwaysimportant in humanities(人文科学).
Both the poetry instructors and theirstudents learned something about teaching from this experience. One poetryinstructor, for example, now sees the importance of using careful, cleardefinitions (定义) when he explains a poem. He also plans tobe more informative as he teaches. Most of the scientists agreed on severalpoints. First ,humanities classes might help science students to see patterns anddecide which information is important. Second, the poetry class was fun. Oneengineer decided, "We need to change the way we teach engineering to makeit an enjoyable experience for students. "
But perhaps the most important result of the experience was this:All of the professors began to think about how they teach and how they canteach better.
第40题单选 What do we know about thisunusual class?
A.The teachers did lots of writing on theboard.
B.The teachers were invited to attendseveral lectures.
C.The students were professors from auniversity.
D.The students were studying science andhumanities.
第41题单选 The experiment was designed to findout __
A.how to teach the students in thescience class
B.whether poetry is difficult for sciencestudents
C.what to be taught in the humanitiesclass
D.why many humanities students findscience hard
第42题单选 Finding levels of meaning is ___
A.important for graduate students inhumanities
B.difficult for graduate students inhumanities
C.common for undergraduate students inscience
D.easy for undergraduate students inscience
第43题单选 What did the science professors learnafter the experiment?
A.They should change the way they teach.
B.A poem could be explained in cleardefinitions.
C.A poetry class could be moreinformative.
D.Their teaching was an enjoyableexperience.
2017成考报名：2017年成人高考报名时间/入口
2017通关计划：2017年成人高考81天备考复习通关计划
