GMAT考前必备阅读练习

　　GMAT考前必备阅读练习

　　一

　　Did the historical period known as the Renaissance (the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries in Europe) open up the same kinds of social, political, and intellectual possibilities for women as it did for men? Joan Kelly argued in 1977 that it did not, and at the time her insight seemed powerful, for she was the first historian to emphasize certain continuing harsh realities of women's lives during that period: control by fathers and husbands within the family, lack of power within the church, exclusion from educational institutions, and restrictions on women's right to control money or property. None of these facts suggests that women's lives had greatly changed since the Middle Ages. Yet some scholars contend that there are certain aspects of women's experience that Kelly may not have taken into account. One such scholar argues that during the Renaissance many women found in religious life levels of dignity and self-expression that were otherwise unavailable to them. Even if in general the social condition of women improved very little during this period, many women's sense of themselves changed as a result of their spiritual experience; this change is reflected in the religious writings of certain Renaissance women.

　　1. The passage is primarily concerned with * [多选题]

　　A. pointing out the similarities between two points of view on a particular historical issue

　　B. endorsing a traditional approach to a particular historical period

　　C. describing one scholar's response to another scholar's interpretation of a particular historical period

　　D. resolving a scholarly debate concerning a particular historical period

　　E. questioning the assumption on which scholarly interpretations of a particular historical period have been based

　　2. According to the scholar mentioned in the highlighted text, during the Renaissance, women found in religious life greater opportunity *

　　A. economic well-being

　　B. political influence

　　C. self-expression

　　D. social power

　　E. formal education

　　3. The passage suggests that Kelly's thesis “seemed powerful” (see highlighted text) because Kelly was one of the first historians to *

　　A. suggest that the Renaissance had a greater impact on family structure than had previously been thought

　　B. focus on women's role in the church during the Renaissance

　　C. substantiate tentative historical claims about women's social circumstances during the Middle Ages

　　D. focus on the lives of individual women during the Renaissance rather than study the circumstances of women in general

　　E. stress the continuity of the social circumstances of women's lives from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

　　二

　　Historian Ivy Pinchbeck argued that economic changes in Britain during the industrial revolution (late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) reduced women's economic power by increasing their dependence on male wage earners. There were exceptions; for example, Pinchbeck acknowledged that textile factories offered some women new wage labor opportunities. However, she noted that such opportunities were confined to a few regions, and that many more women who had produced textiles at home for sale and trade—the traditional “cottage industry”—could not compete with mechanized production. She lamented the displacement of paid work from the home into centralized workplaces and claimed that the division of the workforce into male wage laborers and unpaid female workers at home relegated most women to the margins of economic activity. Yet she also believed that domestic life improved when “home” became a private sphere rather than a site for producing commercial goods.

　　Orthodox historians have largely neglected Pinchbeck's views, asserting simply that the industrial revolution created new job opportunities for women, especially in manufacturing. However, Pinchbeck's provocative though incomplete analysis demonstrates that the effect of the industrial revolution on women was actually quite complex and requires further research. For example, small-scale studies of women's paid and unpaid labor in individual industries and locales would shed light on regional differences in women's circumstances during industrialization.

　　1. Which of the following best expresses the main point of the passage? * [多选题]

　　A. Pinchbeck's theories remain little-known because orthodox historians have dismissed and in some cases refuted them.

　　B. Pinchbeck concluded that certain aspects of women's lives improved with Britain's transition from a preindustrial to an industrial economy.

　　C. Pinchbeck's research has been repudiated by historians because it did not produce clear conclusions about women's participation in the workforce.

　　D. Pinchbeck's work, unlike that of other historians, suggested that the effects of industrialization on women were complex.

　　E. Pinchbeck's work has been instrumental in focusing recent scholarship on women in the age of industrialization.

　　2. Pinchbeck's work, as described in the passage, suggests which of the following about women during the industrial revolution in Britain? *

　　A. Women's wage labor opportunities varied somewhat from region to region.

　　B. Women became more economically independent during the industrial revolution than they had been prior to the late eighteenth century.

　　C. Women were forced to manufacture an increasingly varied range of products in the home in order to compete with mechanized production.

　　D. Industrialization had a greater impact on women's economic condition in Britain than it had on women's economic condition in other parts of Europe.

　　E. Industrialization had a greater impact on women's economic condition in rural areas than it did in urban areas.

　　3. According to the passage, Pinchbeck asserts which of the following about domestic life during the industrial revolution? *

　　A. It became more difficult when industrialization consigned women to the margins of economic activity

　　B. It became strained as more women entered the industrial workforce.

　　C. It was not significantly altered by the economic effects of the industrial revolution.

　　D. It improved because men's and women's work activities became more clearly differentiated.

　　E. It improved as commercial goods were no longer produced in the home.

　　三

　　Most climatologists believe that ice ages have occurred in cycles in part because Earth sways while orbiting the Sun, causing fluctuations in the intensity of sunlight reaching the Northern Hemisphere. This theory, proposed by the astronomer Milutin Milankovitch, gained acceptance in the 1980's after the oceanographer John Imbrie discovered supporting evidence in oxygen isotopes contained in shells deposited many thousands of years ago in ocean sediments.

　　A new study, however, suggests that ancient climates warmed and cooled independently of the Milankovitch orbital cycles. In a study of mineral calcite taken from the walls of Devil's Hole, a deep, freshwater-filled fissure in the Nevada desert, the geochemist Isaac Winograd analyzed the rate of decay of uranium into thorium and determined that the Devil's Hole data differ significantly from the ocean sediment data, suggesting that warm periods between ice ages lasted twice as long as previously thought. Based on his data, Winograd concluded that ice ages waxed and waned due to complex interactions among oceans, ice sheets, and atmosphere.

　　Some scientists believe that Winograd's data must be wrong. Imbrie, however, while asserting the correctness of the Milankovitch theory, suggests that the studies' different data concerning climate change may be due to geographical variations in climate and differences between marine and freshwater studies.

　　1. The passage suggests that the evidence discovered by Imbrie supports which of the following conclusions?

　　* [多选题]

　　A. Fluctuations in Earth's position as it orbits the Sun have resulted in the occurrence of ice ages.

　　B. The atmosphere and the oceans both play a role in determining when an ice age will end.

　　C. The reliability of data on oxygen isotopes found in shells from ocean sediments is questionable.

　　D. Milankovitch did not consider sufficiently the differences between marine and freshwater environments when developing his theory of ice age cycles.

　　E. Climates on Earth many thousands of years ago became warmer and cooler independently of Earth's orbital cycles.

　　2. According to the passage, Milankovitch's theory was not widely subscribed to by scientists prior to a study of which of the following? *

　　A. Oxygen isotopes in shell deposits

　　B. Mineral calcite in a freshwater fissure

　　C. Geographical variations in climate

　　D. The rate at which uranium decays into thorium

　　E. The interaction among the atmosphere, oceans, and ice sheets

　　3. The primary purpose of the passage is to *

　　A. criticize the methodology of a scientist's research

　　B. report evidence that challenges a geochemist's theory

　　C. explain why a widely accepted theory about ancient climates was abandoned

　　D. describe some recent research on ice age cycles

　　E. propose an innovative explanation for variations in oceanographic data

　　四

　　The usual descriptions of how the brain processes information rely on the same model that engineers have used to design electrical circuits. Just as electrons flow along the wires in a circuit, the neurons in the brain relay information along structured pathways, passing messages across specific points called synapses. According to this model, information does not leave the neuronal circuitry.

　　But there is increasing evidence that neurons can also communicate by means of “volume transmission,” which does not involve the relaying of information across synapses. Volume transmission is not an alternative to the traditional view, commonly called wiring or synaptic transmission, but a complement to that established theory. Neurons do relay information quickly and efficiently across synapses, but experiments show that neurons can also release chemical signals into the fluid-filled space between the cells of the brain; these signals are not necessarily detected by neighboring cells but by cells in a different part of the brain, in the same way that hormones released by a gland into the bloodstream can have effects on cells far away. These processes occur on much longer time scales than does synaptic transmission, and they probably play a distinct role, perhaps regulating or modulating the brain's response to synaptic signals.

　　1. The primary purpose of the passage is to * [多选题]

　　A. note similarities between two ways in which the brain processes information

　　B. propose a new model as an analogy for the structure of the brain

　　C. suggest that the brain uses more than one method to process information

　　D. explain why one theory about brain processes has been more influential than another theory

　　E. examine data challenging a new theory about the way in which the brain processes information

　　2. The passage suggests which of the following about the “usual descriptions” (see highlighted text) of the brain's processing of information *

　　A. They provide a misleading analogy for the way in which synaptic transmission occurs.

　　B. They incorrectly assume that information is conveyed exclusively through the neuronal circuitry.

　　C. They underestimate the speed at which the transfer of information across synapses occurs.

　　D. They are based on an analogy to the way in which hormones function to control the body.

　　E. They acknowledge the existence of volume transmission but underestimate its importance in regulating brain responses.

　　3. The passage mentions which of the following as a possible function of volume transmission in the brain *

　　A. Facilitating the release of hormones in different parts of the body

　　B. Transmitting different types of sensory information than does synaptic transmission

　　C. Serving to regulate the brain's response to synaptic signals

　　D. Enhancing the brain's response to external stimuli

　　E. Regulating different bodily functions than does synaptic transmission