PART III READING COMPREHENSIONS
In this section there are four reading passages followed by fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
TEXT A The House of Lords has a charm few people seem able to resist. The more cut-off it becomes from everyday life, the greater its attraction for weary businessmen and politicians. On the road outside the word "Peers" is painted across the car-park in large white letters. Inside a tall ex-Guardsman directs you through the vaulted entrance hall, past a long row of elaborate gothic coat-hooks, each one labeled, beginning with the royal dukes —— one of the many features of the building reminiscent of a school. Upstairs you come to a series of high, dark rooms, with gothic woodwork and carved ceilings. A life-size white marble statue of the young Queen Victoria watches elderly peers sitting at tables writing letters on gothic writing paper. Doors lead off to long dining-rooms, one for guests, another for peers only and to a large bar looking over the river, which serves drinks all day and sells special "House of Lords" cigarettes. Other closed doors are simply marked "Peers" —— an embarrassing ambiguity for lady peers, for "peers" can mean the Lords equivalent of "gentle-men". There is an atmosphere of contented old age. The rooms are full of half-remembered faces of famous men or politicians one had —— how shall one put it —— forgotten were still around. There is banter between left-wing peers and right-wing peers and a great deal of talk about operations and ailments and nursing homes. Leading off the man ante-room is the chamber itself —— the fine flower of the Victorian romantic style. It is small, only eighty feet long. Stained glass windows shed a dark red light, and rows of statues look down from the walls. On either side are long red-leather sofas with dark wooden choir stalls at the back. Between the two sides is "the Woolsack", the traditional seat of the Lord Chancellor, stuffed with bits of wool from all over the Commonwealth. At the far end is an immense gold canopy, with twenty-foot high candlesticks in the middle, the throne from which the monarch opens Parliament. Leaning back, on the sofa, whispering, putting their feet up, listening, fumbling with papers, making notes or simply sleeping, are the peers. On a full day, which is rear, you can see them in their groups: bishops, judges, industrial peers. But usually there is only a handful of peers sitting in the room, though since peers have been paid three guineas for attending, there are often an average of 110 peers in an afternoon. In the imposing surroundings it is sometimes difficult to remember how unimportant the Lords are. The most that the Lords can do now is delay a bill a year, and any "money bill" they can delay for only a month. Their main impact comes from the few inches of space in next mornings papers. The Prime Minister can create as many peers as he likes and, though to carry out the threat would be embarrassing, the nightmare is real enough to bring the peers to heel.
36. The author feels that House of Lords is ____
A) delightful, but out of touch with the modern world.
B) remote from daily life and rather tired.
C) a place that businessmen and politicians like resting in.
D) an excellent resting place for politicians and businessmen.
37. Many members of the House of Lord are ____
A) well-known politicians and famous TV personalities.
B) distinguished and celebrated politicians.
C) notorious and remarkable men.
D) men who have dropped out of the world in which they became well-know.
38. The only real influence the peers have now is ____
A) to delay money bills for one year if they don't agree with them.
B) if their speeches affect pubic opinion through the newspapers.
C) that they can make the Prime Minister nervous if they threaten not to agree to his bills.
D) they can refuse to accept any government act for one year.
TEXT B With its common interest in lawbreaking but its immense range of subject-matter and widely-varying method of treatment, the crime novel could make a legitimate claim to be regarded as a separate branch of the traditional novel. The detective story is probably the most respectful (at any in the narrow sense of word) of the crime species. Its creation is often the relaxation of University dons, literary economists, scientists or even poets. Fatalities may occur more frequently and mysteriously than might be expected in polite society, is familiar to us, if not from our own experience, at least in the newspaper or the lives of friends. The characters, though normally realized superficially, are as recognizable human and consistent as our less intimate associates. As story set in a more remote environment, African jungle or Australian bush, ancient China or gas-lit London, appeals to our interest in geography or history, and most detective story writers are conscientious in providing a reasonably authentic background. The elaborate, carefully-assemble plot, despised by the modern intellectual critics and creators of significant novels, has found refuge in the murder mystery, with its sprinkling of clues, its spicing with apparent impossibilities, all with appropriate solutions and explanations at the end. With the guilt of escapism from Real Life nagging gently, we secretly revel in the unmasking of evil by a vaguely super-human sleuth, who sees through and dispels the cloud of suspicion which has hovered so unjustly over the innocent. Though its villain also receives his rightful deserts, the thriller presents a less comfortable and credible world. The sequence of fist fights, revolver duels, car crashes and escaped from gas-filled cellars exhausts the reader far more than than the hero, who, suffering from at least two broken ribs, one black eye, uncountable bruises and a hangover, can still chase and overpower an armed villain with the physique of a wrestler. He moves dangerously through a world of ruthless gangs, brutality, a vicious lust for power and money and, in contrast to the detective tale, with a near-omniscient arch-criminal whose defeat seems almost accidental. Perhaps we miss in the thriller the security of being safely led by our imperturbable investigator past a score of red herrings and blind avenues to a final gathering of suspects when an unchallengeable elucidation of all that has bewildered us is given justice and goodness prevail. All that we vainly hope for from life is granted vicariously.
39. The crime novel may be regarded as ____
A) a not quite respectable form of the conventional novel.
B) not a true novel at all.
C) related in some ways to the historical novel.
D) an independent development of the novel.
40. The passage suggests that intellectuals write detective stories because ____
A) the stories are often in fact very instructive
B) they enjoy writing these stories.
C) the creation of these stories demands considerable intelligence.
D) detective stories are an accepted branch of literature.
41. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as one of the similarities between the detective story and the thriller?
A) both have involved plots.
B) both are condemned by modern critics.
C) both are forms of escapist fiction.
D) both demonstrate the triumph of right over wrong.
42. In what way are the detective story and the thriller unlike?
A) in introducing violence
B) in providing excitement and suspense
C) in appealing to the intellectual curiosity of the readers
D) in ensuring that everything comes tight in the end.
In this section there are four reading passages followed by fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
TEXT A The House of Lords has a charm few people seem able to resist. The more cut-off it becomes from everyday life, the greater its attraction for weary businessmen and politicians. On the road outside the word "Peers" is painted across the car-park in large white letters. Inside a tall ex-Guardsman directs you through the vaulted entrance hall, past a long row of elaborate gothic coat-hooks, each one labeled, beginning with the royal dukes —— one of the many features of the building reminiscent of a school. Upstairs you come to a series of high, dark rooms, with gothic woodwork and carved ceilings. A life-size white marble statue of the young Queen Victoria watches elderly peers sitting at tables writing letters on gothic writing paper. Doors lead off to long dining-rooms, one for guests, another for peers only and to a large bar looking over the river, which serves drinks all day and sells special "House of Lords" cigarettes. Other closed doors are simply marked "Peers" —— an embarrassing ambiguity for lady peers, for "peers" can mean the Lords equivalent of "gentle-men". There is an atmosphere of contented old age. The rooms are full of half-remembered faces of famous men or politicians one had —— how shall one put it —— forgotten were still around. There is banter between left-wing peers and right-wing peers and a great deal of talk about operations and ailments and nursing homes. Leading off the man ante-room is the chamber itself —— the fine flower of the Victorian romantic style. It is small, only eighty feet long. Stained glass windows shed a dark red light, and rows of statues look down from the walls. On either side are long red-leather sofas with dark wooden choir stalls at the back. Between the two sides is "the Woolsack", the traditional seat of the Lord Chancellor, stuffed with bits of wool from all over the Commonwealth. At the far end is an immense gold canopy, with twenty-foot high candlesticks in the middle, the throne from which the monarch opens Parliament. Leaning back, on the sofa, whispering, putting their feet up, listening, fumbling with papers, making notes or simply sleeping, are the peers. On a full day, which is rear, you can see them in their groups: bishops, judges, industrial peers. But usually there is only a handful of peers sitting in the room, though since peers have been paid three guineas for attending, there are often an average of 110 peers in an afternoon. In the imposing surroundings it is sometimes difficult to remember how unimportant the Lords are. The most that the Lords can do now is delay a bill a year, and any "money bill" they can delay for only a month. Their main impact comes from the few inches of space in next mornings papers. The Prime Minister can create as many peers as he likes and, though to carry out the threat would be embarrassing, the nightmare is real enough to bring the peers to heel.
36. The author feels that House of Lords is ____
A) delightful, but out of touch with the modern world.
B) remote from daily life and rather tired.
C) a place that businessmen and politicians like resting in.
D) an excellent resting place for politicians and businessmen.
37. Many members of the House of Lord are ____
A) well-known politicians and famous TV personalities.
B) distinguished and celebrated politicians.
C) notorious and remarkable men.
D) men who have dropped out of the world in which they became well-know.
38. The only real influence the peers have now is ____
A) to delay money bills for one year if they don't agree with them.
B) if their speeches affect pubic opinion through the newspapers.
C) that they can make the Prime Minister nervous if they threaten not to agree to his bills.
D) they can refuse to accept any government act for one year.
TEXT B With its common interest in lawbreaking but its immense range of subject-matter and widely-varying method of treatment, the crime novel could make a legitimate claim to be regarded as a separate branch of the traditional novel. The detective story is probably the most respectful (at any in the narrow sense of word) of the crime species. Its creation is often the relaxation of University dons, literary economists, scientists or even poets. Fatalities may occur more frequently and mysteriously than might be expected in polite society, is familiar to us, if not from our own experience, at least in the newspaper or the lives of friends. The characters, though normally realized superficially, are as recognizable human and consistent as our less intimate associates. As story set in a more remote environment, African jungle or Australian bush, ancient China or gas-lit London, appeals to our interest in geography or history, and most detective story writers are conscientious in providing a reasonably authentic background. The elaborate, carefully-assemble plot, despised by the modern intellectual critics and creators of significant novels, has found refuge in the murder mystery, with its sprinkling of clues, its spicing with apparent impossibilities, all with appropriate solutions and explanations at the end. With the guilt of escapism from Real Life nagging gently, we secretly revel in the unmasking of evil by a vaguely super-human sleuth, who sees through and dispels the cloud of suspicion which has hovered so unjustly over the innocent. Though its villain also receives his rightful deserts, the thriller presents a less comfortable and credible world. The sequence of fist fights, revolver duels, car crashes and escaped from gas-filled cellars exhausts the reader far more than than the hero, who, suffering from at least two broken ribs, one black eye, uncountable bruises and a hangover, can still chase and overpower an armed villain with the physique of a wrestler. He moves dangerously through a world of ruthless gangs, brutality, a vicious lust for power and money and, in contrast to the detective tale, with a near-omniscient arch-criminal whose defeat seems almost accidental. Perhaps we miss in the thriller the security of being safely led by our imperturbable investigator past a score of red herrings and blind avenues to a final gathering of suspects when an unchallengeable elucidation of all that has bewildered us is given justice and goodness prevail. All that we vainly hope for from life is granted vicariously.
39. The crime novel may be regarded as ____
A) a not quite respectable form of the conventional novel.
B) not a true novel at all.
C) related in some ways to the historical novel.
D) an independent development of the novel.
40. The passage suggests that intellectuals write detective stories because ____
A) the stories are often in fact very instructive
B) they enjoy writing these stories.
C) the creation of these stories demands considerable intelligence.
D) detective stories are an accepted branch of literature.
41. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as one of the similarities between the detective story and the thriller?
A) both have involved plots.
B) both are condemned by modern critics.
C) both are forms of escapist fiction.
D) both demonstrate the triumph of right over wrong.
42. In what way are the detective story and the thriller unlike?
A) in introducing violence
B) in providing excitement and suspense
C) in appealing to the intellectual curiosity of the readers
D) in ensuring that everything comes tight in the end.