Passage 2

    For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, inter-office communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words. In ___1___ a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend quickly can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are ___2___ readers. Most of us develop poor reading habits at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency ___3___ in the actual stuff of language itself --- words. Taken individually, words have little meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. ___4___ , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing to reread words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over ___5___ you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which slows down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as one reads.

    To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an ___6___ , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined speed. The bar is set at a slightly faster rate ___7___ the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast, making word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization, practically impossible. At first ___8___ is sacrificed for speed. But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but your comprehension will improve. Many people have found ___9___ reading skill drastically improved after some training. Take Charlie Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute before the training, now it is an excellent 1,378 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can ___10___ a lot more reading material in a short period of time.

    1. A. applying B. doing C. offering D. getting

    2. A. good B. curious C. poor D. urgent

    3. A. lies B. combines C .touches Dinvolves

    4. A. Fortunately B. In fact C. Logically D. Unfortunately

    5. A. what B. which C. that D. if

    6. A. accelerator B. actor C. amplifier D. observer

    7. A. then B. as C. beyondD. than

    8. A. meaning B. comprehension C. gistD. regression

    9. A. our B. you C. their D. such a

    10. A. master B. go over C. present D. get through

    1.【答案】D

    【解析】本句意思是“誰如果想謀得一份差事”。applying需加for,意思是“申請”；B. doing做；C. offering提供此三項均不符題意，　只有D. getting(獲得)適合。

    2.【答案】C

    【解析】英語中，閱讀速度快的人稱為good reader，反之，就是poor reader。根據(jù)上下文的內(nèi)容，多數(shù)人都屬于poor reader，因此選poor(差的)。其它選項不妥。

    3.【答案】A

    【解析】此處說的是“主要的困難在于語言的自身要素，即單詞”。combines聯(lián)合；touches接觸；involves包括，這三項的詞義與原文不符。而lies與in構成搭配，意為“在于”。

    4.【答案】D

    【解析】此句意為“作者對未受過閱讀訓練的人的不良習慣感到遺憾”。Fortunately幸運地；In fact事實上；Logically合乎邏輯地,均不妥。Unfortunately(不幸地)合乎句義。

    5.【答案】A

    【解析】此處所填的詞既是look back over的賓語，又是you have just read的賓語，只有what能充當這種雙重成分。

    6.【答案】A

    【解析】此句意為“訓練快速閱讀所使用的工具必然與提高閱讀速度有關”，因此選accelerator (快讀器)。actor演員；amplifier放大器；observer觀察者。

    7.【答案】D

    【解析】前面的faster決定了應當選than，構成比較級。

    8.【答案】B

    【解析】這里的意思是“速讀最初會影響理解”，所以選comprehension(理解力)。meaning意義，意思，指詞或詞組表示的意義；gist大意，要旨regression回顧

    9.【答案】C

    【解析】本句中的主語是第三人稱復數(shù)，物主代詞必然是their。

    10.【答案】D

    【解析】此處意為：在較短時間內(nèi)，讀完眾多的材料。master掌握；go over復習；present呈現(xiàn)，展現(xiàn)；此三項均不妥；只有get through (讀完)最恰當。