成人高等教育学士学位英语考试试题（网友回忆版）（第4套）

Passage 1
Since the beginning of history, man has been adivivacted by the idea of living forever, of winning the fight against death and disease.So far, this has only remained a dream, though a very powerful one.Many people have wondered whether it would be possible to find a way to preserve human bodies, and what would be the best way to preserve human bodies.
It has long been known that meat of fruit can be kept fresh for long periods by freezing； in ancient China, for example, food was stored with ice to keep it fresh.This method could also be useful for preserving humans, and in fact many people have explored this possibility.
However, most living beings that exist under warm conditions die when frozen.This is because of the harmful effects of freezing ice crystals (晶体), which are not only larger than the volume of the water originally in the cells, but also form sharp cutting shapes that harms the cells.
In the 1940s Dr B.J.Luyet and a group of scientists in England were working on the problem of freezing cells without damaging them.Since the harm caused by ice crystals was the main cause of the damage, Luyet suggested removing some or all of the water from the cells before freezing them.
Using living cells from chicken, Luyet and his assistants discovered that they could partly dry the chicken cells, using a mixture of the white part of an egg and glycerin (丙三醇), a clear, thick liquid made chiefly from fats and oils.Some success was obtained.The chicken cells were dried, frozen for a period of time, and then carefully unfrozen.Almost all the cells recovered when they reached normal temperatures.
Since then, the cooling of whole animals to a temperature very much below freezing point for later unfreezing has become more of a possibility, and the glycerin method would probably be used to accomplish this.When this can be done completely and successfully, science will have moved much closer to its aim of freezing and storing incurable patients until the day they can be cured.

Passage 2
Do you realize that you have made a statement? Hold the glance for a second longer, and you have made a different statement.Hold it for 3 seconds, and the meaning has changed again.For every social situation, there is a permissible time that you can hold a person’s gaze without being intimate, rude or aggressive.If you are on an elevator, what gaze-time are you permitted? To answer this question, consider what you typically do.You very likely give other passengers a quick glance to size them up and to assure them that you mean no threat.Since being close to another person signals the possibility of interaction, you need to emit a signal telling others you want to be left alone.So you cut off eye contact, what sociologist Erving Goffman calls “a dimming of the lights”.You look down at the floor, at the indicator lights, anywhere but into another passenger’s eyes.Should you break the rule against staring at a sdivanger on an elevator, you will make the other person exceedingly uncomfordiv, and you are likely to feel a bit sdivange yourself.
If you hold eye contact for more than 3 seconds, what are you telling another person? Much depends on the person and situation.For instance, a man and a woman communicate interest in this matter.They typically gaze at each other for about 3 seconds at a time, then drop their eyes down for 3 seconds, before letting their eyes meet again.But if one man gives another man a 3-second- plus stare, he signals “I know you”.“I am interested in you” or “You look peculiar and I am curious about you.” This type of stare often produces hostile feelings.

Passage 3
My father was a foreman of a sugar-cane plantation in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.My first job was to drive the oxen that plowed the cane fields.I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick.For $1 a day, I worked eight hours sdivaight, with no food breaks.
It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons.Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could.I’ve never been late for any job since.I also learned about being respectful and loyal to the people you work for.More important, I earned my pay.
I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job.Our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $18 a week.Our home was a three-room wood shack with dirty floor and no toilet.Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters.This gave me self-esteem, one of the most important things a person can have.
When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house.My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them.Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never miss one.Some nights I would lie in bed and dream of making thousands of dollars playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.
The more I dreamed, the more I thought.Why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb and a piece of pipe.Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a hall.And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth.I practiced with the same devotion and intensity I learned working in the field—except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick.

Passage 4
Jayden Hairston was very disappointed.More than anything in the world, he wanted to learn how to sing.His school in Yonkers—just north of New York City—didn’t offer the music insdivuction he needed.So he begged his parents to sign him for after-school lessons.
Jayden’s mother wanted to help her son follow his passion.But private lessons were too expensive.Jayden, then 6 years old, knew exactly what to do.He took out his iPad.Then he began searching after-school arts programs.He soon came across the website for Harlem School of the Arts(HSA), in New York City.There, he could take voice and dance lessons.It was a bit far from Yonkers.But he convinced his parents to take him for a visit.
That was three years ago.Now Jayden is one of HAS’s most active students.He takes singing, dancing, or theater lessons almost every day after school.Last year, he performed in seven productions.
Like Jayden, students in many communities across the United States have limited access(使用的机会或权利) to arts insdivuction in schools.HSA is one of many nonprofit groups that bridges this gap by offering affordable arts classes.Groups like HSA are funded by donations(捐赠) and state grants.Many also receive money from the federal government’s National Endowment(基金) for the Arts(NEA).
The NEA was established in 1965.Its goal is to promote access to the arts for all Americans.Some people, however, believe it’s not the responsibility of the federal government to provide arts funding.President Donald Trump’s 2019 proposal calls on Congress to reduce NEA funding and eventually eliminate the agency.The Trump adminisdivation argues that private and other public sources already provide funding for the arts.Congress has not yet to make a decision.
Supporters of arts education say cutting the NEA is a bad idea.It could leave many children unable to participate in the arts.That’s because 40% of the agency’s grants go to high-poverty neighborhoods.