Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
It has been thought and said that Africans are born with musical talent. Because music is so important in the lives of many Africans and because so much music is performed in Africa, we are inclined to think that Africans are musicians. The impression is strengthened when we look at ourselves and find that we have become largely a society of musical spectators (旁觀). Music is important to us, but most of us can be considered consumers rather than producers of music. We have records, television, concerts, and radio to fulfill many of our musical needs. In most situations where music is performed in our culture it is not difficult to distinguish the audience from the performers, but such is often not the case in Africa. Alban Ayipaga, a Kasena semiprofessional musician from northern Ghana, says that when his flute (長笛) and drum ensemble (歌舞團(tuán)) is performing. "Anybody can take part". This is true , but Kasena musicians recognize that not all people are equally capable of taking part in the music. Some can sing along with the drummers, but relatively few can drum and even fewer can play the flute along with the ensemble. It is fairly common in Africa for there to be an ensemble of expert musicians surrounded by others who join in by clapping, singing, or somehow adding to the totality of musical sound. Performances often take place in an open area (that is, not on a stage) and so the lines between the performing nucleus and the additional performers, active spectators, and passive spectators may be difficult to draw from our point of view.
26. The difference between us and Africans, as far as music is concerned, is that _____.
(A) most of us are consumers while most of them are producers of music
(B) we are musical performers and they are semiprofessional musicians
(C) most of us are passive spectators while they are active spectators.
(D) we are the audience and they are the additional performers.
27. The word "such" (Line 6) refers to the fact that ______.
(A) music is performed with the participation of the audience
(B) music is performed without the participation of the audience
(C) people tend to distinguish the audience from the performers
(D) people have records, television sets and radio to fulfill their musical needs
28. The author of the passage implies that _____.
(A) all Africans are musical and therefore much music is performed in Africa
(B) not all Africans are born with musical talent although music is important in their lives
(C) most Africans are capable of joining in the music by playing musical instruments
(D) most Africans perform as well as professional musicians
29. The word "nucleus" (Line 13) probably refers to _____.
(A) musicians famous in Africa
(B) musicians at the center of attention
(C) musicians acting as the core in a performance
(D) active participants in a musical performance
30. The best title for this passage would be ______.
(A) The Importance of Music to African People
(B) Differences Between African Music and Music of Other Countries
(C) The Relationship Between Musicians and Their Audience
(D) A Characteristic Feature of African Musical Performances
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no corresponding
increase in wisdom. But Agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define "wisdom" and consider means of promoting it.There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose,for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind. You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say) as modern medicine has succeeded, in enormously lowering the infant death -rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowing the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody’s mind at the present time; you study the makeup of the atom from a disinterested (無利害關(guān)系的) desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.
Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase augments (增強(qiáng)) our capacity for realizing our purposes, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our purpose are unwise.
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
It has been thought and said that Africans are born with musical talent. Because music is so important in the lives of many Africans and because so much music is performed in Africa, we are inclined to think that Africans are musicians. The impression is strengthened when we look at ourselves and find that we have become largely a society of musical spectators (旁觀). Music is important to us, but most of us can be considered consumers rather than producers of music. We have records, television, concerts, and radio to fulfill many of our musical needs. In most situations where music is performed in our culture it is not difficult to distinguish the audience from the performers, but such is often not the case in Africa. Alban Ayipaga, a Kasena semiprofessional musician from northern Ghana, says that when his flute (長笛) and drum ensemble (歌舞團(tuán)) is performing. "Anybody can take part". This is true , but Kasena musicians recognize that not all people are equally capable of taking part in the music. Some can sing along with the drummers, but relatively few can drum and even fewer can play the flute along with the ensemble. It is fairly common in Africa for there to be an ensemble of expert musicians surrounded by others who join in by clapping, singing, or somehow adding to the totality of musical sound. Performances often take place in an open area (that is, not on a stage) and so the lines between the performing nucleus and the additional performers, active spectators, and passive spectators may be difficult to draw from our point of view.
26. The difference between us and Africans, as far as music is concerned, is that _____.
(A) most of us are consumers while most of them are producers of music
(B) we are musical performers and they are semiprofessional musicians
(C) most of us are passive spectators while they are active spectators.
(D) we are the audience and they are the additional performers.
27. The word "such" (Line 6) refers to the fact that ______.
(A) music is performed with the participation of the audience
(B) music is performed without the participation of the audience
(C) people tend to distinguish the audience from the performers
(D) people have records, television sets and radio to fulfill their musical needs
28. The author of the passage implies that _____.
(A) all Africans are musical and therefore much music is performed in Africa
(B) not all Africans are born with musical talent although music is important in their lives
(C) most Africans are capable of joining in the music by playing musical instruments
(D) most Africans perform as well as professional musicians
29. The word "nucleus" (Line 13) probably refers to _____.
(A) musicians famous in Africa
(B) musicians at the center of attention
(C) musicians acting as the core in a performance
(D) active participants in a musical performance
30. The best title for this passage would be ______.
(A) The Importance of Music to African People
(B) Differences Between African Music and Music of Other Countries
(C) The Relationship Between Musicians and Their Audience
(D) A Characteristic Feature of African Musical Performances
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no corresponding
increase in wisdom. But Agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define "wisdom" and consider means of promoting it.There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose,for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind. You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed (let us say) as modern medicine has succeeded, in enormously lowering the infant death -rate, not only in Europe and America, but also in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowing the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody’s mind at the present time; you study the makeup of the atom from a disinterested (無利害關(guān)系的) desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.
Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase augments (增強(qiáng)) our capacity for realizing our purposes, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our purpose are unwise.