2017年10月湖南自考專升本學士學位英語考試模擬試題（2）

Part II Reading Comprehension (40 points)

Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each of the passages is followed by 5 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 

choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET -with a single line through the center.

Passage One

In 1789 the U. S. government passed a law, which said that the land of the American Indians could never be taken from them without their.agreem en t. :O. n e hundred. years later, however, the Indians only had a very small part of the land that originally belonged to them. How did this great injustice occur?

After 1812 white settlers began to move west across North America At first, the set-tiers and the Indians lived in peace. However; the number of settlers increased greatly eve- very year. and slowly the Indians began to see the white settlers as a danger to their sump-al. To feed themselves, the settlers killed more and more wild animals. The Indians, who depended on these animals for food, had to struggle against starvatiorx The settlers also brought with them many diseases which were common in white society, but which were new for’ the Indians. Great numbers of Indians became sick and died. Between 1843 and 1854 the Indian population in one area of the country went down from 100, 000 t0 30,000.

More land was needed for the increasing number of white settlers. In Washington, the old respect for the rights of the Indians disappeared. The old promises to the Indians were broken; the federal governm ant began to move groups of Indians from their original home-lands' to other poorer parts of the country. Some Indians reacted angrily and violently to this treatment. They began to attack white settlers, and the Indian Wars began. For thirty years, until the late 1880s, different groups of Indians fought against the injustices of the white man* They had a few famous successes~ but the result of the struggle was never in doubt. There were too many white soldiers, and they' were too powerful. Many Indians were killed; the survivors were moved from their homelands to different areas of the county. It was a terrible chapter in the history of a country that promised freedom and equality to everyone.

16. It is implied in the passage that _ D

A. the Indians had many great successes in the Indian Wars

B. the Indians had no doubt that they would win the Wars

C. the result of the struggle was that the Indians stayed where they were before

D. it was quite obvious that the Indians were too weak to win the struggle

17. What does the writer mean by "the old respect for the rights of the Indians disappeared"?(B)

A. The government had a new respect for the rights of the Indians.

B. The government began to ignore the rights of the Indians.

C. The government never had any respect for the rights of the Indians.

D. The government thought the Indians were not worth respecting.

18. What is the writer's opinion about the treatment that the Indians received from the U. S. government?（C）

A. He believes that the government always respected the rights of the Indians.

B. He believes that the government cannot be criticized for its treatment-of the In- divans.

C. He believes that the government treated the Indians unjustly.

D. He believes that the government's unfair treatment against the Indians was not on purpose.

19. Why did American Indians begin to see the white settlers as a danger to them?

（A）

A. The settlers killed the animals, which the Indians needed for food.

B. The settlers did not obey the laws passed by the U. S. government.

C. The settlers spread some diseases on purpose, which killed many Indians.

D. The settlers took much land from the Indians to build their houses.

20. What was the Indians' reaction to the government's action to move them 'off their original land?(B)

A. They had to struggle against starvation

B. They began to fight the white settlers.

C. They felt very angry and became sick

D. They listened to the government and moved to new areas.

Passage Two

Scientists recently revealed an instinct in which women are not affected by the ad- vances of' technology. They made a series of experiments and observations to determine on which side women hold their babies and why.

First they determined that modern mothers tend to hold their baby on the left. Of 155 right-handed mothers, 83% held the baby on the left. And out of 32 left-handed mothers, 78% held the baby on the left. As a control, women were watched emerging from super- markets carrying baby-sized packages; the bundles were held with no side preference (偏愛).

A large number of mothers who brought their premature babies to a follow-up clinic were seen to hold their babies against their right side. So, 155 mothers who had been sepa- rated from their babies for 24 hours right after birth were observed for holding response. The experimenters presented the baby directly to the mid-line of the mother's body, and noted that 53% placed the baby on the left and 47% on the right. The author suggests "the time immediately after birth is a critical period when the stimulus of holding the baby releases a certain maternal response. " That is to say, she senses that the baby is better off on her left. Left-handed holding enables the baby to hear the heartbeat, a sound associated with the security of the womb. In order to discover whether hearing the heartbeat has a beneficial effect on the baby, the sound of a human heartbeat was played t0 102 babies in a nursery for 4 days. A control group of babies was not exposed to heartbeats. The babies in the experiment group gained more weight and cried far less than the babies in the control group.

21. Who did not show side preference for holding babies?(B)

A. The mothers who had divorced from their husbands.

B. The mothers who had been separated from their babies for 24 hours after birth.

C. The mothers whose babies had been placed in control groups.

D. The mothers who had lived a luxurious life.