07年考研英语阅读理解精读100篇unit78

Unit 78

There was a time when big-league university presidents really mattered. The New York Times covered their every move. Presidents, the real ones, sought their counsel. For Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower, being head of Princeton and Columbia, respectively, was a stepping-stone to the White House. Today, though, the job of college president is less and less removed from that of the Avon lady (except the house calls are made to the doorsteps of wealthy alums).

Ruth Simmons, the newly installed president of Brown University and the first African American to lead an Ivy League school, is a throwback to the crusading campus leaders of old. She doesn't merely marshal funds; she invests them in the great educational causes of our day. With the more than $300 million she raised as president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001, Simmons established an engineering program (the first at any women's school) and added seminars focused on public speaking to purge the ubiquitous "likes" and "ums" from the campus idiom. At a meeting to discuss the future of Smith's math department, one professor timidly requested two more discussion sections for his course. Her response: "Dream bigger."

Her own dream was born in a sharecropper's shack in East Texas where there was no money for books or toys--she and her 11 siblings each got an apple, an orange and 10 nuts for Christmas. Though she was called n_____ on her walk to school, entering the classroom, she says, "was like waking up." When Simmons won a scholarship to Dillard University, her high school teachers took up a collection so she'd have a coat. She went on to Harvard to earn a Ph.D. in Romance languages.

Simmons has made diversity her No. 1 campus crusade. She nearly doubled the enrollment of black freshmen at Smith, largely by traveling to high schools in the nation's poorest ZIP codes to recruit. Concerned with the lives of minority students once they arrive at school, she has fought to ease the racial standoffs that plague so many campuses. At Smith she turned down a request by students to have race-specific dorms. In 1993, while vice provost at Princeton, she wrote a now famous report recommending that the university establish an office of conflict resolution to defuse racial misunderstandings before they boiled over.

Her first task at Brown will be to heal one such rupture last spring after the student paper published an incendiary ad by conservative polemicist David Horowitz arguing that blacks economically benefited from slavery. "There's no safe ground for anybody in race relations, but campuses, unlike any other institution in our society, provide the opportunity to cross racial lines," says Simmons. "And even if you're hurt, you can't walk away. You have to walk over that line."

注（1）：本文选自Time; 9/17/2001, Vol. 158 Issue 12, p70, 1p, 1c

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象2004年真题text 2.

1. What does the author intend to illustrate with the example of Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower?

[A]The president of the first-class university was really very important.

[B]The presidents gave them some good advice.

[C]The presidents of the university could easily go to the white house.

[D]The presidents had more power and authority than Avon ladies.

2.What can we infer from the second paragraph?

[A]Simmons was an old crusading campus leader.

[B]Simmons wanted to expand her university.

[C]Simmons knew well about how to invest the money.

[D]Simmons was a competent and ambitious president.

3.The 4^th paragraph mainly talks about _________.

[A]Simmons greatly sympathized the black people.

[B]Simmons wanted to diversify her university.

[C]Simmons made a great effort to solve the racial problems.

[D]Simmons never neglect the racial problems.

4.What does the author mean by “the job of college president is less and less removed from that of the Avon lady”(Line 4, Paragraph 1)?

[A]College president can get their position with the help of Avon lady.

[B]The jobs of college president and Avon lady are quite similar.

[C]College presidents got inspiration from the job of the Avon lady.

[D]The jobs of college presidents and the Avon lady should be separated.

5.Which of the following is true according to the text?

[A]Simmons had successfully solved the racial problems.

[B]Simmons owed her success to her high school teachers.

[C]Simmons didn't like “likes” and “ums” in campus idioms.

[D]Simmons asked her professor to be more ambitious and aggressive.

答案：ADCBD

篇章剖析

本文可以说是一篇记叙文，主要记述大学校长鲁思·西蒙斯作为校园改革派的一些逸事。文章第一段就以前的大学校长和当今的大学校长的不同之处进行了对比；第二段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯作为布朗大学的新任校长和第一个一流学校的黑人校长的一些做法；第三段描述了她的贫困家境以及求学的艰辛；第四段记述了她在以往任职的学校里的一些举措；第五段记述了她在布朗大学所要解决的首要问题。

词汇注释

crusader [krU:`seIdE(r)] n.十字军战士, 改革者

compass [5kQmpEs] n.罗盘, 指南针, [pl.] 圆规

big-league adj.一流的, 最高的

removed (adj.) from 有区别；遥远；不同；遥远；关系远

alumni n. (口)校友(可指男女)

Ivy-League [5aivi-li:^] n. (美国东北部哈佛、哥伦比亚等八个名牌大学的)常春藤联合会; 属于该组织的名牌大学或其师生; 名牌大学派头

throwback [5WrEubAk] n.【生】返祖现象; [喻]大倒退；逆转；(电影中的)前景重现; (小说的)倒叙

of old 古时的, 从前的, 很久以前的

marshal [5mB:F(E)l] v. 汇集

purge [p\:dV] v. (使)净化, 清除

ubiquitous [ju:5bIkwItEs] adj.到处存在的, (同时)普遍存在的

sharecropper [5FeEkrRpE(r)] n.(尤指美国西南部的)小佃农

shack [FAk] n.小室

sibling [5sIblIN] n.兄弟, 姐妹, 同胞, 同属

ZIP code邮区代码，邮政编码(一种划分美国邮政区域的五位数号码)

recruit [rI5kru:t] v.招生，使入学使加入或设法使加入

standoff [`stAndCf, -R:f] n.避开, 冷淡

provost [5prRvEst; (?@) prEJ-] n.宪兵司令, 监狱看守, 教务长

boil over  v. 因沸溢出, 发怒

heal [hi:l] v. 治愈, 医治, 结束

rupture [5rQptFE(r)] n.破裂, 决裂, 敌对, 割裂

incendiary [In5sendIErI; (?@) In5sendIerI] adj. 纵火的, 煽动的

polemicist [ pC`lemIsIst, pE-] n. 善辩论者

难句突破

1. Her first task at Brown will be to heal one such rupture last spring after the student paper published an incendiary ad by conservative polemicist David Horowitz arguing that blacks economically benefited from slavery.

主体句式：Her first task …will be to heal…

结构分析：本句是一个主从复合句。主句是Her first task at Brown will be to heal one such rupture last spring；主句后面跟的是由after引导的时间状语从句； “by” 意为“由…做（写）”；arguing是现在分词做状语，对polemicist David Horowitz进行补充说明；后又跟that引导的宾语从句做argue的宾语。

句子译文：去年春天，学生报上刊登了一篇由保守派辩论家戴维•霍罗威茨撰写的煽动性文章。他在文章中诡称，从经济角度讲，黑人受益于奴隶制。文章一发表，就导致了种族关系的破裂。她在布朗大学的首要任务就是要修复这一裂痕。

题目分析

1．答案为A，属事实细节题。文章第一段就以前的大学校长和当今的大学校长的不同之处进行了对比， “There was a time when big-league university presidents really mattered”是第一段前半部分的主题句，随后作者以伍德罗·威尔逊和艾森豪威尔为例，进一步说明这一观点。

2．答案为D，属推理判断题。第二段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯作为布朗大学的新任校长和第一个一流学校的黑人校长的一些成功的做法，其中包括如何进行资金运做，这些说明她是非常有能力的；在讨论史密斯大学数学系发展前景的会议上，她对教授说：“Dream bigger”表明，她还是非常有雄心的。

3．答案为C ，属主旨大意题。第四段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯在她以往任职的学校里为解决种族问题进行的一些努力和尝试。

4．答案为B，属猜词题。文章第一段前半部分提到曾有一段时间一流大学的校长是非常重要的人物。紧接着though引导的句子进行了转折，指出现在校长的工作同雅芳小姐的工作差别越来越小了。这里主要考察“be removed from”的用法，其中removed是形容词，词组含义是“有区别；遥远；不同；遥远；关系远”。

5．答案为D，属事实细节题。文中对应信息是“one professor timidly requested two more discussion sections for his course. Her response: "Dream bigger." ”。

参考译文

曾有一段时间，一流大学的校长着实起着举足轻重的作用。《纽约时代》杂志一直关注着他们的一举一动。就连总统也向他们征求意见。伍德罗·威尔逊和艾森豪威尔曾是普林斯顿和哥伦比亚大学的校长，他们的大学校长身份是他们入主白宫的敲门砖。然而，今天大学校长的差事与雅芳小姐的工作差别越来越小了(除登门拜访有钱的校友外)。

鲁思·西蒙斯是布朗大学的新任校长，也是第一位领导一个名牌大学的黑人校长，她就是过去校园改革派领导人的翻版。她不单单只筹集资金，她还把这些资金投到当今伟大的教育事业之中。西蒙斯用她在1995－2001担任史密斯学院院长期间筹集到的3亿美元的资金开设了工程学专业(在所有女子学校里这个专业是第一次开设)，并增设演讲研讨会，以把那些无所不在的“如像”和“嗯”等废话从校园用语中清除出去。在一次讨论史密斯大学数学系发展前景的会议上，一个教授战战兢兢地提出能否给他的课再增加两次讨论。她是这样回答的：“再大胆些。”

她自己的梦想是在德克萨斯州东部的一个佃农小屋里诞生的。家里没钱买书或玩具——过圣诞节时，她和十一个兄弟姐妹每人只得到一只苹果、一个橘子和十只坚果。尽管在去上学的路上有人叫她黑鬼，但她进教室时她却说：“这倒唤醒了我。”当她获得在迪拉德大学奖学金时，她的高中老师慷慨解囊，凑钱让她买一件外套。毕业后她接着上哈佛大学，攻读拉丁系语言博士学位。

西蒙斯把多样性作为校园改革的头等大事。她几乎使史密斯大学的黑人新生入学人数翻了一番。能做到这一步主要是靠她亲自到美国最贫困地区的高中去招生的结果。少数民族学生来校后，她一直关心学生的情况，一直为缓解令很多校园十分苦恼的种族冷漠情绪而奋斗。在史密斯大学，她拒绝了学生提出的按种族分住公寓的要求。她在1993年任普林斯顿大学副教务长期间，写了一篇至今仍很著名的报告。在报告中，她建议大学成立一个专门解决种族冲突的办公室，以在种族误解激化之前化解之。

去年春天，学生报上刊登了一篇由保守派辩论家戴维•霍罗威茨撰写的煽动性文章。他在文章中诡称，从经济角度讲，黑人受益于奴隶制。文章一发表，就导致了种族关系的破裂。她在布朗大学的首要任务就是要修复这一裂痕。“在种族关系中，任何人都没有什么安全的地方。但是校园不同于我们社会上的其它机构，它给我们提供了跨越种族界限的机会，”西蒙斯说，“即便你受到了伤害，你也不能一走了之，你得跨越这条线。”