大学英语六级寒假阅读练习

　　"There are lots of men out there today," said Karen McDonald, a spokes-woman for mall operator Taubman Centers, after returning from the Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, Michigan. "There is panic out there but people seem to be in good spirits," she said, adding that most shopping traffic peaked around midday. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, December 24 was the sixth busiest holiday shopping day in 1997, while 44 percent of holiday sales were recorded in the December 15 to December 24 period. Ed Nally, manager of the Swatch Store known mostly for its brightly colored plastic watches, described the atmosphere as festive rather than crazed. He did say, however, that Dec. 21 was the turning point date, after which shoppers started. "The closer to Christmas, the crazier they get," Nally said. "They become more agitated, less patient." He said red-hot items this year were phones, beepers and the new digital swatch watch that costs $ 70 and came onto the market a week before Christmas.

　　52. The best title for this passage is ______.

　　A) Last-Minute Christmas Shoppers Fill U.S. Stores

　　B) Digital Watches Are the Red hot Items This Year

　　C) The Excuse of the Last-Minute Shoppers

　　D) Christmas, the Best Shopping Season

　　53. From the passage we can infer that people would not admit to be a last-minute shopper because ______.

　　A) they wanted to use a gift certificate

　　B) Christmas would be celebrated on Jan. 7th

　　C) they did not want gifts recipients to know that they bought them gifts on the last day

　　D) they bought gifts during the shopping season lasting from December 15th to December 24th

　　54. Which of the following statement is true?

　　A) Most customers came to the mall early in the morning.

　　B) Shop assistants were most busy at noon.

　　C) There were more shoppers in the mall from 7:00 to 9:00 p. m.

　　D) Less people went shopping around midday.

　　55. Which of the following statement is NOT true?

　　A) More people went shopping on Dee. 20th than on Dec. 22nd according to Ed Nally.

　　B) On Dec. 24th, people were crowded outside Boston's Copley Mall, but they were happy.

　　C) Dec. 24th was the sixth busiest holiday shopping day in 1997.

　　D) One can buy brightly colored plastic watches in Swatch Store.

　　56. The word "festive" in paragraph 2 can not be understood as ______.

　　A) cheery B) fetish C) joyous D) merry

　　52--56 ACBAB

　　Section B

　　52.主旨题。第一段开始便提到，尽管是圣诞节前最后一天，人们却拒绝承认是last-minute shoppers。第一段首句即本文的中心句，后面描述的现象以及采访顾客的对答都是对本文论点的论证。其中，第一段第二句“but no one waiting for the store to open would admit to being a last-minute shopper”更是点睛之笔.因此，正确答案为A项。

　　53.因果推断题。人们拒绝承认是last-minute shoppers是因为担心收到礼物的人认为该礼物是最后一刻才购买的，难免会让人失望。选项C文中并没有提及，但是按人之常情以及排除法可以断定正确答案为C项，其中，选项A是被采访的人不愿意承认的托词，选项B只是对来自俄罗斯的Polykoff说是如此。

　　54.细节判断题。由第二段第二句“most shopping traffic peaked around midday”可以判断选项A、选项C、选项D选项错误。因此，正确答案为B项。

　　55.细节判断题。第一段开篇提及“the last shopping day before Christmas”，第二段第二句提及“people seem to be in good spirits”，因此选项B是对的.第二段第三句“December 24 was the sixth busiest holiday shopping day in 1997”，由此可以判断选项C也是正确的。文中最后谈及“brightly colored plastic watches in Swatch Store”，由此断定选项D正确。因此，正确答案为A项。

　　56.词义推断题。圣诞节前的商店气氛“the atmosphere as festive”，而不是crazed(疯狂的)，可以推断出festive大约是“快乐的，节日的”的意思。文前还提到“people seem to be in good spirits”，由此可以判断festive的意义相当于cheery，joyous，happy，merry。因此，正确答案为B项。

　　The process of perceiving others is rarely translated (to ourselves or others) into cold, objective terms. "She was 5 feet 8 inches tall, had fair hair, and wore a colored skirt. " More often, we try to get inside the other person to pinpoint (强调 ) his or her attitudes, emotions, motivations, abilities, ideas, and characters. Furthermore, we sometimes behave as if we can accomplish this difficult job very quickly—perhaps with a two-second glance.

　　ways. Berger suggests several methods for reducing uncertainties about others; who are known to you so you can compare the observed person's behavior with the known others' behavior, observing a person in a situation where social behavior is relatively unrestrained or where a wide variety of behavioral responses are called for, deliberately structuring the physical or social environment so as to observe the person's responses to specific stimuli (刺激因素) , asking people who have had or have frequent contact with the person about him or her, and using various strategies in face-to-face interaction to uncover information about another person—question, self-disclosures, and so on.

　　Getting to know someone is a never-ending task, largely because people are constantly changing and the methods we use to obtain information are often imprecise. You may have known someone for ten years and still know very little about him. If we accept the idea that we won't ever fully know another person, it enables us to deal more easily with those things that get in the way of accurate knowledge such as secrets and deceptions. It will also keep us from being too surprised or shocked by seemingly inconsistent behavior. Ironically, those things that keep us from knowing another person too well(e. g. secrets and deceptions) may be just as important to the development of a satisfying relationship as those things that enable us to obtain accurate knowledge about a person (e. g. disclosures and truthful statement).

　　1. According to the passage, if we perceive a person, we are likely to be interested in

　　A. what he wears B. how tall he is

　　C. how happy he is D. what color he dyes his hair

　　2. Some people are often surprised by what other people do. According to Berger, that is mainly because_______.

　　A. some people are more emotional than others

　　B. some people are not aware of the fact that we will never completely know another person

　　C. some people are sensitive enough to sense the change of other people's attitudes

　　D. some people choose to keep to themselves

　　3. We may have known someone for ten years and still know very little about him because_______.

　　A. we don't accept the idea that we might never fully know another person

　　B. we often get information in a casual and inexact way

　　C. we pay more attention to other people's motivations and emotions

　　D. we often have face-to-face conversation with him

　　4. There are things that we find preventing us from knowing others. These things are

　　A. disclosures B. deceptions

　　C. stimuli D. interactions

　　5. This passage mainly concerns_______.

　　A. the relationship between people B. the perception of other people

　　C. secrets and deceptions of people D. people's attitudes and characters

　　1. C 2. B 3. B 4. B 5. B