GRE之OG2阅读真题精选

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GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 31

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Passage 31

Recently an unusually high number of dolphins have been found dead of infectious diseases, and most of these had abnormally high tissue concentrations of certain compounds that, even in low concentrations, reduce dolphins’ resistance to infection. The only source of these compounds in the dolphins’ environment is boat paint. Therefore, since dolphins rid their bodies of the compounds rapidly once exposure ceases, their mortality rate should decline rapidly if such boat paints are banned.

1. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

A. The levels of the compounds typically used in boat paints today are lower than they were in boat paints manufactured a decade ago.

B. In high concentrations, the compounds are toxic to many types of marine animals.

C. The compounds break down into harmless substances after a few months of exposure to water or air.

D. High tissue levels of the compounds have recently been found in some marine animals, but there is no record of any of those animals dying in unusually large numbers recently.

E. The compounds do not leach out of the boat paint if the paint is applied exactly in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions.

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 32

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Passage 32

The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640–1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writing prose narratives. According to literary critic Rachel Carnell, most scholars view this change as primarily motivated by financial considerations: earning a living by writing for the theatre became more difficult in the 1680s, so Behn tried various other types of prose genres in the hope of finding another lucrative medium. In fact, a long epistolary scandal novel that she wrote in the mid-1680s sold quite well. Yet, as Carnell notes, Behn did not repeat this approach in her other prose works; instead, she turned to writing shorter, more serious novels, even though only about half of these were published during her lifetime. Carnell argues that Behn, whose stage productions are primarily comedies, may have turned to an emerging literary form, the novel, in a conscious attempt to criticize, and subvert for her own ends, the conventions and ideology of a well-established form of her day, the dramatic tragedy.

Carnell acknowledges that Behn admired the skill of such contemporary writers of dramatic tragedy as John Dryden, and that Behn’s own comic stage productions displayed the same partisanship for the reigning Stuart monarchy that characterized most of the politically oriented dramatic tragedies of her day. However, Carnell argues that Behn took issue with the way in which these writers and plays defined the nature of tragedy. As prescribed by Dryden, tragedy was supposed to concern a heroic man who is a public figure and who undergoes a fall that evokes pity from the audience. Carnell points out that Behn’s tragic novels focus instead on the plight of little-known women and the private world of the household; even in her few novels featuring male protagonists, Behn insists on the importance of the crimes these otherwise heroic figures commit in the domestic sphere. Moreover, according to Carnell, Behn questioned the view promulgated by monarchist dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s: that the envisioned “public” political ideal—passive obedience to the nation’s king—ought to be mirrored in the private sphere, with family members wholly obedient to a male head of household. Carnell sees Behn’s novels not only as rejecting the model of patriarchal and hierarchical family order, but also as warning that insisting on such a parallel can result in real tragedy befalling the members of the domestic sphere. According to Carnell, Behn’s choice of literary form underscores the differences between her own approach to crafting a tragic story and that taken in the dramatic tragedies, with their artificial distinction between the public and private spheres. Behn’s novels engage in the political dialogue of her era by demonstrating that the good of the nation ultimately encompasses more than the good of the public figures who rule it.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with

A. tracing how Behn’s view of the nature of tragedy changed over time

B. explaining one author’s view of Behn’s contribution to the development of an emerging literary form

C. differentiating between the early and the late literary works of Behn

D. contrasting the approaches to tragedy taken by Behn and by Dryden

E. presenting one scholar’s explanation for a major development in Behn’s literary career

2. The passage suggests that Carnell sees Behn’s novels featuring male protagonists as differing from dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s featuring male protagonists in that the former

A. depict these characters as less than heroic in their public actions

B. emphasize the consequences of these characters’ actions in the private sphere

C. insist on a parallel between the public and the private spheres

D. are aimed at a predominantly female audience

E. depict family members who disobey these protagonists

3. The passage suggests that Carnell believes Behn held which of the following attitudes about the relationship between the private and public spheres?

A. The private sphere is more appropriate than is the public sphere as the setting for plays about political events.

B. The structure of the private sphere should not replicate the hierarchical order of the public sphere.

C. Actions in the private sphere are more fundamental to ensuring the good of the nation than are actions in the public sphere.

D. Crimes committed in the private sphere are likely to cause tragedy in the public sphere rather than vice versa.

E. The private sphere is the mirror in which issues affecting the public sphere can most clearly be seen.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that the “artificial distinction” (line 53-54) refers to the

A. practice utilized in dramatic tragedies of providing different structural models for the public and the private spheres

B. ideology of many dramatic tragedies that advocate passive obedience only in the private sphere and not in the public sphere

C. convention that drama ought to concern events in the public sphere and that novels ought to concern events in the private sphere

D. assumption made by the authors of conventional dramatic tragedies that legitimate tragic action occurs only in the public sphere

E. approach taken by the dramatic tragedies in depicting male and female characters differently, depending on whether their roles were public or private

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 33

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Passage 33

Computers cannot accurately predict climate change unless the mathematical equations fed into them adequately capture the natural meteorological processes they are intended to simulate. Moreover, there are processes that influence climate, such as modifications in land use, that scientists do not know how to simulate. The failure to incorporate such a process into a computer climate model can lead the model astray because a small initial effect can initiate a feedback cycle: a perturbation in one variable modifies a second variable, which in turn amplifies the original disturbance. An increase in temperature, for example, can boost the moisture content of the atmosphere, which then causes further warming because water vapor is a greenhouse gas.

For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and choose all that apply.

1. The passage mentions which of the following as adversely affecting the accuracy of computer predictions of climate change?

A. Failure to allow for some of the processes that influence climate

B. Mathematical equations that do not accurately reflect natural phenomena

C. An overestimate of the role of feedback cycles

2. In the context in which it appears, “amplifies” (line 11) most nearly means

A. exacerbates

B. explicates

C. expatiates

D. adds detail to

E. makes louder

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 34

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Passage 34

Extensive housing construction is underway in Pataska Forest, the habitat of a large population of deer. Because deer feed at the edges of forests, these deer will be attracted to the spaces alongside the new roads being cut through Pataska Forest to serve the new residential areas. Consequently, once the housing is occupied, the annual number of the forest’s deer hit by cars will be much higher than before construction started.

1. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. The number of deer hit by commercial vehicles will not increase significantly when the housing is occupied.

B. Deer will be as attracted to the forest edge around new houses as to the forest edge alongside roads.

C. In years past, the annual number of deer that have been hit by cars on existing roads through Pataska Forest has been very low.

D. The development will leave sufficient forest to sustain a significant population of deer.

E. No deer hunting will be allowed in Pataska Forest when the housing is occupied.

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 35

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Passage 35

While chocolate was highly esteemed in Mesoamerica, where it originated, its adoption in Europe was initially slow. There is a common belief that Europeans needed to “transform” chocolate to make it appetizing. However, while Spaniards did put sugar, which was unknown to indigenous Americans, into chocolate beverages, this additive was not completely innovative. Mesoamericans were already sweetening chocolate with honey, and the step from honey to sugar—increasingly more available than honey because of expanding sugar plantations in the Americas—is a small one. Likewise, although Spaniards adjusted Mesoamerican recipes by using European spices, the spices chosen suggest an attempt to replicate harder-to-find native flowers. There is no indication the Spaniards deliberately tried to change the original flavor of chocolate.

1. The author of the passage refers to the use of honey primarily to

A. identify the origins of an additive previously untried by Europeans

B. present an example of a product that was unknown to Europeans

C. correct the misapprehension that Mesoamericans used a sweetener that was not available in Europe

D. provide an example of an ingredient that was in the process of being displaced by a substitute

E. explain why the Spanish use of sugar in chocolate was not a sign of a need to transform chocolate

2. Which sentence presents a misconception that the passage challenges?

A. The second (“There is … appetizing”)

B. The third (“However … innovative”)

C. The fourth (“Mesoamericans … one”)

D. The fifth (“Likewise … flowers”)

E. The sixth (“There is … chocolate”)

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 36

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Passage 36

Biologists generally agree that birds and dinosaurs are somehow related to one another. The agreement ends there. Hypotheses regarding dinosaurian and avian evolution are unusually diverse—and often at odds with one another. Confusion consequently reigns over a broad spectrum of unanswered questions dealing with avian origins and the biology of dinosaurs and early birds. This confusion has been exacerbated by a paucity of serious attempts to synthesize and evaluate available data on the details of avian and dinosaurian evolution. Too often, the job of summarizing current knowledge of these subjects has fallen to well-meaning but naïve lay authors or reporters. Consequently, both the public and the scientific community have often been misled by widespread dissemination of sensational but weakly founded hypotheses.

For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and choose all that apply.

1. The passage suggests that which of the following could help remedy the problem described in the final sentence (lines 14-17)

A. An article written by a biologist for the general public summarizing current theories about avian and dinosaurian evolution

B. A close examination of available data on avian and dinosaurian evolution

C. A new hypothesis regarding the connection between avian and dinosaurian evolution

2. In the context in which it appears, “sensational” (line 16) most nearly means

A. dramatic

B. false

C. excellent

D. eminent

E. horrifying

GRE阅读真题之OG2 Passage 37

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Passage 37

A portrait type that appeared with relentless frequency in eighteenth-century England is the familiar image of a gentleman poised with one hand inside his partially unbuttoned waistcoat. Standard interpretations of this portrait posture offer observations of correspondence—demonstrating either that it mirrors actual social behavior or that it borrows from classical statuary. Such explanations, however, illuminate neither the source of this curious convention nor the reason for its popularity. It is true that in real life the “hand-in” was a common stance for elite men. Still, there were other ways of comporting the body that did not become winning portrait formulas. And even if the “hand-in” portrait does resemble certain classical statues, what accounts for the adoption of this particular pose?

1. In the context of the passage as a whole, the primary function of the sentence in lines 10-12 (“It is … men”) is to

A. emphasize the influence of a particular social class on the conventions of eighteenth-century English portraiture

B. account for the origin of a particular type of behavior frequently represented in eighteenth-century English portraiture

C. acknowledge a historical basis for two competing hypotheses about a particular portrait type

D. question the relevance of certain evidence frequently cited in support of an explanation for a particular portrait type

E. concede that one explanation for the prevalence of a particular portrait type has a basis in fact

For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and choose all that apply.

2. Which of the following might provide an explanation for the popularity of hand-in portraits that would satisfy the author of the passage?

A. An eighteenth-century English etiquette manual discussing the social implications of the “hand-in” stance

B. A comprehensive catalogue of eighteenth-century English portraits that showed what proportion of portraits depicted gentlemen in the “hand-in” stance

C. A passage from an eighteenth-century English novel in which a gentleman considers what stance to adopt when his portrait is painted