ENG2000

2000 年度英語読解力考査
This is NOT the actual test.

PART I

Text 1

Teachers like to view themselves as professionals. Society, however, does not always
make it easy for them to do so. In considering why and just what teachers might doabout this, it is instructive to look at the history of thinking on what a profession is andwhat it means to be a professional.
5This concept, as we know it, gradually took shape only in the second half of the 19th
century as occupational organizations made efforts to establish their own boundaries
and secure their own benefits. Before that, dating from the Middle Ages, there werereally only three recognized "professions"-law, divinity, and medicine-but they little
resembled the professions we know today. Indeed, the word "professional" was first used

10 as a noun (in the modern sense) only in 1850; and the word "professionalism" appeared
even later. Professions attached themselves to, or grew out of, universities toward theend of the 19th century, when modern universities themselves first came into existence.
As this historical view implies, no kind of work is intrinsically a profession. People
settled arguments before there were certified lawyers, healed before there were licensed
15 physicians, and built bridges before there were professional engineers. Moreover, nologic prevents shoe repair or rock & roll performance from being a profession. They
could, in principle, be studied in a degree-granting process at the end of which the"graduate" would be issued a license to repair shoes or to perform rock music. The
important point in this interpretation is to note that professions are socially made20 categories and culturally created activities. A group that is doing a particular kind ofwork organizes itself into a professional association. This group then identifies, shares,

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and develops a body of knowledge as its own; establishes definite requirements ofadmission, including but not limited to academic study; and gets recognition as the only
group allowed to perform that kind of work. Public school teachers have reached this25 stage relatively recently.
The process doesn't end there, however. Every profession must continue to defend
its rights and its borders. This is true even for doctors, lawyers, and priests as well as
for other so-called established professions where the possibility of challenge and evenelimination always exists. For the "weaker" professions, like that of teachers in primary
30 and secondary schools, the threat is greater. Proposals are regularly made to bring nonprofessionals into the schools as teachers, or to expand the rights of parents to educate
their own children without state regulation through "home-schooling," or through theestablishment of private schools funded by corporations. Indeed, most high school
teachers experience daily conflict in their profession in ways hardly imaginable to35 economists or physicians. Teachers are continually criticized by parents, politicians, andbusiness leaders. Nevertheless, rather than simply complain about how poorly they aretreated or about how misunderstood their profession is, it would be better for teachers
to recognize that their struggle is similar to that of other professions and to learn fromothers how to better explain and maintain their position in the professional world.

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46. What is the writer's main purpose for discussing the nature of professions in suchdetail?
a. To analyze the historical events leading to the rise of professionalism.
b. To claim that professionalism is essential to modern society.
c. To argue that professions are not fixed but socially created.
d. To help explain a dilemma faced by teachers today.
47. According to the writer, when did the concept of professionalism take on themeaning it has today?
a. By the end of the Middle Ages.
b. Not until the word was first used in 1850.
c. In the latter part of the 19th century.
d. By the early 20th century.
48. What is the logical connection between the 2nd paragraph and the 3rd paragraph?
a. Paragraph 3 develops an important implication of paragraph 2.
b. Paragraph 3 further discusses the historical perspective of paragraph 2.
c. Paragraph 3 presents an alternative to the perspective of paragraph 2.
d. Paragraph 3 argues against the interpretation given in paragraph 2.
49. According to the writer, which of the following would NOT be included among theearliest professionals?
a. An accountant.
b. An attorney.
c. A physician.
d. A priest.
50. The word "intrinsically" in the first line of the third paragraph is closest in meaning
to which of the following?
a. intuitively
b. intimately
c. introspectively
d. inherently

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51. The writer's discussion of shoe repair and rock & roll implies which of the following?
a. Neither occupation is specialized enough to become a true profession.
b. Shoe repair and rock & roll performance could be improved through university study.
c. In theory, any occupation can become a professional field.
d. These occupations are already well-organized and independent.
52. According to the writer, what would be the first step for people doing the same kindof work to become recognized as "professionals"?
a. To form their own organization.
b. To develop university courses in their subject.
c. To request government regulation of their work.
d. To seek higher wages and more employment benefits.
53. Home-schooling is mentioned as an example of which of the following?
a. A threat to licensed teachers.
b. An alternative way into the profession of teaching.
c. An economical way of licensing teachers.
d. Corporate-funded education.
54. What is the writer's opinion of the teaching "profession"?
a. It deserves the same status as the professions of law and medicine.
b. It dates back as far as other well-established professions.
c. It suffers more serious threats than the "stronger" professions.
d. It is one of the more poorly understood professions.
55. What is the writer's advice for teachers who want to consider themselvesprofessionals?
a. They need to make their complaints more widely known.
b. They need to recognize that their struggle is not unique.
c. They need to stop second-guessing politicians.
d. They need to train themselves to a higher degree.

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Text 2

Influenced by the French, affected by the Arctic tongues of the Inuit, inspired by theweather and pressured by the way hundreds of millions of Americans speak and spell,
Canada has developed its own flavor of English. Noting this long-standing trend, North
American linguists are now in the middle of an extensive effort to document what
5 English-speaking Canadians say, and what they mean by what they say. This recent
interest in the Canadian variety of English is no better illustrated than by thepublication of two Canadian dictionaries of English in the past several years. Yetanother is in the planning stages.
While Canadian English grammar deviates little from that of standard American
10 English, there are noticeable differences in pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary.
These differences sometimes push Canada back toward Britain, sometimes draw it
closer to the United States, and in other cases make it unique in the English-speaking
world. To be sure, the country's large neighbor to the south has had the greatest effecton its English. To compile a new dictionary, for instance, one dictionary publisher
15 started with an American dictionary because the United States is a closer linguistic
cousin than Great Britain. The challenge, as the compilers saw it, was to filter out theAmericanisms that Canadians do not use, and to include the British words andspellings that they do. They also wanted to fix the pronunciations of French words since
Canadians are more likely to accent them properly. For example, the American word
20 "lagniappe," derived from Louisiana Creole, was excluded from the dictionary, as weremany other purely regional American terms. By contrast, alternative British spellings
were added for words like honor (honour) and meter (metre) because Canadians use

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both.
Additionally, the dictionary makers have found that Canadian English reflects the25 country itself-the regional foods, encounters with the weather, hockey, a bit of Inuit and,of course, Americanisms that have been imported like just another product. So they
have added Canada's own lexicon and history to the stew. Perhaps the most important
findinginresearching

CanadianEnglishconcerns

thecomplexityandinterconnectedness of languages. This is true even at the level of the single word.
30 "Poutine," for example, bounced between French and English in Europe before being
accepted into Canadian English. The French picked it up from the English word
"pudding." It later took on a wider meaning to describe anything messy. Then the namewas given to a local dish in Quebec-French fries smothered in gravy and cheese-a treat
that has spread to Ontario and the English-speaking world. This single word, like many
35 others, has undergone impressive changes in meaning in recent linguistic history.
Changes like this are common in all languages.

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56. What does this passage mainly discuss?
a The fluid and ever-changing character of language.
b. The influence of immigrants on Canadian English.
c. The distinct character of English in Canada.
d. The role of American English in shaping Canadian English.
57. Which of the following is NOT cited in the first paragraph as an influence onCanadian English?
a. British English
b. Inuit languagec. The weather
d. French
58. What evidence does the writer offer to support the claim that interest in CanadianEnglish is growing?
a. The return to higher standards of English in Canada.
b. The emergence of the field of comparative language studies.
c. The publication of new Canadian English dictionaries.
d. The growth of the English-only movement throughout Canada.
59. According to the passage, in which aspect of language are there the fewest
differences between Canadian English and American English?
a. grammar
b. pronunciationc. spellingd. vocabulary
60. According to the writer, which single language has had the greatest influence onCanadian English?
a. Frenchb. American Englishc. Inuitd. British English

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61. Why was the word "lagniappe" omitted from one recent Canadian English
dictionary?
a. Canadians spell the word differently than do Americans.
b. Canadians do not use the word.
c. The word comes from a Native American language.
d. The word is used only in some regions of Canada.
62. To which of the following does the word "they" underlined in paragraph 2 refer?
a. compilers
b. Canadiansc. British words
d. Americanisms
63. What does the use of the word "stew" underlined in the 3rd paragraph suggest?
a. That Canadian English may be losing its identity.
b. That dictionary makers are like good cooks.
c. That dictionaries ought to have input from various sources.
d. That there are many "ingredients" in Canadian English.
64. According to the writer, what important insight have dictionary makers gained
from their examination of Canadian English?
a. Languages tend to change more within regional borders.
b. Languages are not easy to catalog in dictionaries.
c. Languages are valued more when they have their own dictionaries.
d. Languages are interrelated in many complicated ways.
65. What does the writer seem to believe about the relationship between Canadians
and Canadian English?
a. Canadians are overly influenced by foreign cultures.
b. Canadians resent that their language is not more widely recognized.
c. Canadian English is too Americanized for most Canadians.
d. Canadian English exhibits the variety of the Canadian experience.

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Our mental models of everyday mechanisms like refrigerators or ovens are often
constructed from (_66_) evidence and with poor knowledge of what is actually
happening to make the machine work. Consider the thermostat. (_67_) you are in a coldroom, in a hurry to get warm, (_68_) the room heat more quickly if you turn the
5 thermostat all the way up? Or if you want the oven to reach its working temperature
faster, (_69_) you turn the temperature dial all the way to maximum, then turn it down
once the desired temperature is reached?
If you think (_70_) the room or oven will heat faster if the thermostat is turned all
the way to the maximum setting, you are wrong. You hold a folk about thermostats.
10 There are two (_71_) held folk theories about thermostats: the timer theory and thevalve theory. The timer theory proposes that the thermostat simply (_72-) the relative
proportion of time that the device stays on. Set the thermostat (_73_), and the device ison about half the time; set it all the way up and the device is on all the time. Hence, toheat or cool something most (_74_), set the thermostat so the device is on all the time. In
15 contrast, the valve theory proposes that the thermostat controls (_75_) heat (or cold)
comes out of the device. Turn the thermostat all the way up, and you get maximum heator cooling.
In fact, (_76_) understanding is that the thermostat is just an on-off switch. Ittreats the heater or oven (_77_) all-or-nothing devices that can either be fully on or fully
20 off, (_78_) no in between states. The thermostat turns the heater or oven completely onat full power-until the temperature setting is reached. Then it turns the unit completelyoff. (_79_) the thermostat at one extreme cannot affect (_80_) to reach the desiredENG
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temperature.
The real point of this (_81_) is not that some people have erroneous theories of how
things work; it is that everyone forms theories (_82_) what they have observed. In thecase of the (_83_), the design gives absolutely no hint as to the correct answer. In the5 (_84_) of external information, people are free to let their imaginations run free(_85_)
the mental models they develop account for the facts as they perceive them.

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66. a. part

67. a. Even

68. a. what canb. partial

b. Ifb. what if

c. partlyc. Sincec. whend. part ofd. Untild. will

69. a. because

70. a. about

71. a. commonlyb. haveb. thatb. completely

c. shouldc. thenc. differently

d. thend. whyd. really

72. a. charges

73. a. at first

74. a. fastb. controls

b. for beginningb. quicklyc. savesc. midway

c. soond. usesd. promptly

d. timely

75. a. how full

76. a. a different

77. a. asb. how muchb. anotherb. ofc. the degreec. the correctc. tod. the speedd. the next

d. with

78. a. just

79. a. By setting

80. a. how it takes longb. onlyb. In setting

b. how long it takesc. stillc. Setc. it takes how longd. withd. Setting

d. takes it how long

81. a. device

82. a. in accord

83. a. degree

b. difference

b. instead ofb. modelc. example

c. to explainc. temperatured. temperatured. to reactd. thermostat

84. a. absence

85. a. as long asb. awareb. instead ofc. contraryc. as a means ofd. spited. without

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