2014年考研英语试题及答案阅读理解九

　　A mysteriousblack cloudapproaches the earth-our planet's weather is severely affected.

　　Throughout the rest of June and July temperatures rose steadily all over the Earth. In the British isles the temperature climbed through the eighties, into the nineties, and moved towards the hundred mark. People complained, but there was no serious disaster.

　　The death number in the U. S. Remained quite small, thanks largely to the air-conditioning units that had been fitted during previous years and months. Temperatures rose to the limit of human endurance throughout the whole country and people were obliged to remain indoors for weeks on end. Occasionally air-conditioning units failed and it was then that fatalities occurred.

　　Conditions were utterly desperate throughout the tropics(热带地区)as may be judged from the fact that 7943 species of plants and animals became totally extinct. The survival of　Man himself was only possible because of the caves and cellars(地窖)he was able to dig. Nothing could be done to reduce the hot air temperature. More than seven hundred million persons are known to have lost their lives.

　　Eventually the temperature of the surface waters of the sea rose, not so fast as the air temperature it is true, but fast enough to produce a dangerous increase of humidity(湿度). It was indeed this increase that produced the disastrous conditions just remarked. Millions of people between the latitudes of Cairo and the Cape of Good Hope were subjected to a choking atmosphere that grew damper and hotter from day to day. All human movement ceased. There was nothing to be done but to lie breathing quickly as a dog does in hot weather.

　　By the fourth week of July conditions in the tropics lay balanced between life and total death. Then quite suddenly rain clouds appeared over the whole globe. The temperature declined a little, due no doubt to the clouds reflecting more of the Sun's radiation back into space, But conditions could not be said to have improved. Warm rain fell everywhere, even as far north as Iceland. The insect population increased enormously, since the burning hot atmosphere was as favorable to them as it was unfavorable to Man many other animals.

　　81. In the British Isles the temperature　　　　　.

　　A)stayed at eighty

　　B)ranged from eighty to ninety

　　C)approached one hundred

　　D)exceeded the hundred mark

　　82. Few people in the United States lost their lives because　　　　　.

　　A)the temperature was tolerable

　　B)people remained indoors for weeks

　　C)the government had taken effective measures to reduce the hot temperature

　　D)people were provided with the most comfortable air-conditioners

　　83. Millions of people in Cairo(开罗)and the Cape of Good Hope(好望角)were subjected to a choking atmosphere because　　　　　.

　　A)the temperature grew extremely hot

　　B)the temperature became damper and hotter as the humidity of the surface waters of the sea increased

　　C)their conditions were too dangerous

　　D)nothing could be done with the hot temperature

　　84. By the fourth week of July conditions in the tropics were such that　　　　　.

　　A)human survival would be impossible

　　B)more and more people would lose their lives

　　C)fewer people could be saved

　　D)survival or death was still undecided

　　85. The insect population increased due to　　　　　.

　　A)the hot air

　　B) the tropical climate

　　C)the rain clouds

　　D)the damp atmosphere

　　Passage 18

　　In a family where the roles of men and women are not sharply separated and where many household tasks are shared to a greater or lesser extent, notions of male superiority are hard to maintain. The pattern of sharing in tasks and in decisions makes for equality, and this in turn leads to further sharing. In such a home, the growing boy and girl learn to accept that equality more easily than did their parents and to prepare more fully for participation in a world characterized by cooperation rather than by the battle of the sexes.

　　If the process goes too far and man's role is regarded as less important - and that has happened in some cases-we are as badly of as before, only in reverse.

　　It is time to reassess the role of the man in the American family. We are getting a little tired ofmonism(母亲崇拜), - but we don't want to exchange it for aneo-popism(新父亲崇拜).What we need, rather, is the recognition that bringing up children involves a partnership of equals.

　　There are signs that psychatrists, psychologists, social workers, and specialists on the family are becoming more aware of the part men play and that they have decided that women should not receive all the credit(信任)-not all the blame. We have almost given up saying that a woman's place is the home. We are beginning, however, o analyze men's place in the home and to insist that he does have a place in it. Nor is that place irrelevant to the healthy development of the child.

　　The family is a cooperative enterprise for which it is difficult to lay down rules, because each family needs to work out its own ways for solving its own problems.

　　Excessive authoritarianism has unhappy consequences, whether it wears skirts or trousers, and the ideal of equal rights and equal responsibilities is connected not only with a healthy democracy, but also with a healthy family.

　　86. From the passage we know that the author is very concerned with the role that　　　　　.

　　A)parents play in bringing up their children

　　B)men play in a family

　　C)women play in a family

　　D)equality plays in a family

　　87. The author means to tell us that　　　　　.

　　A)a man's place is in the home

　　B)a woman's place is in the home

　　C)a woman should be equal to a man

　　D)a man should have an equal share in family matters

　　88. According to the author, a healthy family should be based on　　　　　.

　　A) cooperation

　　B) momism

　　C)authoritarianism

　　D) neo-popism

　　89. Who will benefit most from a family pattern of sharing in tasks and decisions?

　　A)The children.

　　B) The man.

　　C)The woman

　　D) The psychologist.

　　90. We may safely conclude from the passage that　　　　　.

　　A)male superiority maintains a healthy family

　　B)authority and democracy are very essential to a healthy family

　　C)authoritarianism does no good to a healthy family

　　D)women should be equal to men