2005英语专业八级考试全真试题附答案
TEXT C
In his classic novel, "The Pioneers", James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, take his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. "Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He's astonished she can't see them. "Where! Everywhere," he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.
Cooper was illustrating a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, "Life for the American is always becoming, never being."... ...
20. The third paragraph examines America's future-mindedness from the _________ perspective.
A. future
B. realistic
C. historical
D. present
21. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT brought about by future-mindedness?
A. Economic stagnation
B. Environmental destruction
C. High divorce rates
D. Neglect of history
22. The word "pooh-pooh" in the sixth paragraph means
A. appreciate
B. praise
C. shun
D. ridicule
23. According to the passage, people at present can forecast ________ of a new round of future-mindedness.
A. the nature
B. the location
C. the variety
D. the features
24. The author predicts in the last paragraph that the study of future-mindedness will focus on
A. how it comes into being
B. how it functions
C. what it brings about
D. what it is related to.