2007年职称英语考试综合类模拟试题(4)

5.阅读理解

第三篇

Taxi Riding
In a moment of personal crisis, how much help can you expect from a New York taxi driver? I began studying this question after watching the "Taxicab Confessions," a series of documentaries in which hidden cameras record the secrets of unsuspecting taxi riders. I found the results varied.
One morning I got into three different taxis and announced: "Well, it's my first day back in New York in seven years. I've been in prison." Not a single driver replied, so I tried again. "Yeah, I shot a man in Reno," I explained, hoping the driver would ask me why, so I could say casually, "Just to watch him die." But nobody asked. The only response came from a Ghanaian driver: "Reno? That is in Nevada?"
Taxi drivers were uniformly sympathetic when I said I'd just been fired. "This is America," a Haitian driver said. "One door is closed. Another is open." He argued against my plan to burn down my bosss house: "If you do something silly and they put you away, you cannot look for another job." A Pakistani driver even turned down a chance to profit from my loss of hope: he refused to take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge, a $20 trip. "Why you want to go there? Go home and relax. Don't worry. Take a new job."
One very hot weekday in July, while wearing a red ski mask and holding a stuffed pillowcase with the work "BANK" on it, I tried hailing a taxi five times outside different banks. The driver picked me up every time. My ride with Guy-Caaude Thevenain, a Haitian driver, was typical of the superb assistance I received.
"Is anyone following us?"
"No," said the driver, looking in his rearview mirror at traffic and me.
"Lets go across the park," I said. "I just robbed the bank there. I got $25,000."
"$25,000?" he asked.
"Yeah, you think it was wrong to take it?"
"No, man, I work 8 hours and I don't make almost $70. If I can do that, I do it too."
As we approached 86th and Lexington, I pointed to the Chemical Bank.
"Hey, there's another bank," I said, "could you wait here a minute while I go inside?"
"No, I can't wait. Pay me now." His reluctance may have had something to do with money — taxi drivers think the rate for waiting time is too low — but I think he wanted me to learn that even a bank robber can't expect unconditional support.
41. From the Ghanaian drivers response, we can infer that ______ .
A） he was indifferent to the killing
B） he was afraid of the author
C） he looked down upon the author
D） he thought the author was crazy
42. Why did the Pakistani driver refuse to take the author to the middle of the George Washington Bridge?
A） Because he didn't want to help the author get over his career crisis.
B） Because he wanted to go home and relax.
C） Because it was far away from his home.
D） Because he suspected that the author was going to commit suicide.
43. What is author's interpretation of the drivers reluctance "to wait outside the Chemical bank"?
A） The driver thought that the rate for waiting time was too low.
B） The driver thought it wrong to support a taxi rider unconditionally.
C） The driver was frightened and wanted to leave him as soon as possible.
D） The driver wanted to go home and relax.
44. Which of the following statements is true about New York taxi drivers?
A） They are ready to help you do whatever you want to.
B） They refuse to pick up those who would kill themselves.
C） They are sympathetic with those who are out of work.
D） They work only for money.
45. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A） How to make taxi riders comfortable.
B） How to deal with taxi riders.
C） The attitudes of taxi drivers towards the taxi riders having personal crises.
D） The attitudes of taxi drivers towards violent criminals

6.第5部分：补全短文

Robotic Highway Cones
A University of Nebraska professor has developed robotic cones and barrels（锥形路标和路障）. ____1____ They can even be programmed to move on their own at any particular part of the day, said Shane Farritor, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Nebraska.
For example, if workers arrived at 6 a.m., the cones could move from the side of the highway to block off the lane at that time. ____2____ “It just seems like a very good application for robots,”Farritor said. “The robotic cones would also help remove people from hazardous jobs on the highway putting barrels and cones into place,”Farritor said in a report on his creation.
____3____ This fund allowed Farritor to work on the project with graduate students at Nebraska and his assistant Steve Goddard.
The robots are placed at the bottom of the cones and barrels and are small enough not to greatly change the appearance of the construction aides（辅助用具）. “It would look exactly the same，”Farritor said. “Normally there's a kind of rubbery, black base to them. ____4____”
Farritor has talked with Officials from the Nebraska Department of Roads about how the robots would be most useful to what they might need.
The robots could come in handy following a slow-moving maintenance operation，like painting a stripe on a road or moving asphalt，where now the barrels have to be picked up and moved as the operation proceeds. “That way you don't have to block off a 10-mile strip for the operation,”Farritor said.
While prototypes have been made, they are not in use anywhere. Farritor said he has applied for a patent and is considering what to do next. ____5____He is also thinking about marketing the robots to roads departments and others across the country who may benefit from them.
A. And they can return to the original place at the end of the day.
B. He is thinking about starting a small business.
C. Farritor was“Inventor of the Year”in 2003.
D. Work on the idea began in 2002 using a National Academy of Sciences grant.
E. We replace that with a robot.
F. These robotic cones and barrels can move out of the way, or into place, from computer commands made miles away.