Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes) Passage 2 Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:
When I was growing up, the whole world was Jewish. The heroes were Jewish and the villains were Jewish. The landlord, the doctor, the grocer, your best friend, the village idiot, and the neighborhood bully: all Jewish. We were working class and immigrants as well, but that just come with the territory. Essentially we were Jews on the streets of New York. We learned to be kind, cruel, and smart and feeling in a mixture of language and gesture that was part street slang, part grade-school English, part kitchen Yiddish.
One Sunday evening when I was eight years old my parents and I were riding in the back seat of my rich uncle’s car. We had been out for a ride and now we were back in the Bronx, headed for home. Suddenly, another car sideswiped us. My mother and aunt shrieked. My uncle swore softly. My father, in whose lap I was sitting, said out the window at the speeding car, “That’s all right. Nothing but a few Jews in here.” In an instant I knew everything. I knew there was a world beyond our streets, and in that world my father was a humiliated man, without power or standing.
When I was sixteen a girl in the next nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote “Anold Brown” instead of “Anold Braunowiitz.” The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn’t standstill.Thing felt lively and active. Self-confidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That’s what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there.
But whom exactly do I mean when I say we? I mean Arinie, not Selma. I mean my brother, not me. I mean the boys, not the girls. My mother stood behind me, pushing me forward. “The girls goes to college, too,” she said. And I did. But my going to college would not mean the same thing as my brother’s going to college, and we all knew it. For my brother, college meant going from the Bronx to Manhattan. But for me? From the time I was fourteen I yearned to get out of the Bronx, but get out into what? I did not actually imagine myself a working person alone in Manhattan and nobody else did either. What I did imagine was that I would marry, and that the man I married would get me downtown. He would break the perils of class and race, and some how I’d be there alongside him.
16.In the passage, we can find the author was____. A) quite satisfied with her life B) a poor Jewish girl C) born in a middle-class family D) a resident in a rich area in New York
17.Why did the author’s father say “Nothing but a few Jews in here”? A) He was asking for help. B) He was complaining. C) He was reassuring. D) He wanted to know why their car was sideswiped.
18.Selma Shapiro had her nose straightened because she wanted ____. A) to look her best B) to find a new job in the neighborhood C) to live a new life in other places D) to marry very soon
19.Anold Brown changed his name because ____. A) there was racial discrimination in employment B) Brown was just the same as Braunowiitz C) it was easy to write D) Brown sounds better
20.From the passage we can infer that ____. A) the Jews were satisfied with their life in the Bronx B) the Jewish immigrants could not be rich C) all the immigrants were very poor D) the young Jews didn’t accept the stern reality
Passage two 短文大意：女孩一直在纽约犹太人聚居区生活。直到有一天，她终于发现犹太人在社会上的地位竟然如此低下，无权无地位，遭人看不起。犹太小伙子找工作时，特意改掉带有犹太人传统的姓氏。非但如此，犹太人男女机会不均，男孩们求学上进，以期能离开贫民聚居的布鲁克斯区，到曼哈顿求发展；女孩们则只能期待嫁个好丈夫，能抛开阶级和人种的阻碍，带自己进入富人区。 16．【参考译文】从文中可知作者____。【试题分析】细节题。【详细解答】根据文中作者的描述，不难看出她是个犹太人，而且家境并不好，是个女孩，所以B项描述正确。作者并不满意自己的生活状态，因此A项不符；C项描述不符合事实，她家无钱无地位；文中已指出作者生活在贫民众多的布鲁克斯区，所以D项描述也不正确。 17．【参考译文】为什么作者的父亲说“Nothing but a few Jews in here”?【试题分析】意图理解题。【详细解答】从作者在后面加的注解…in that world my father was a humiliated man,without power or standing.“在那个世界中，我父亲是个谦卑的人，无权无地位”，可以判定，她的父亲说这话不是为了得到救助，也不可能是在埋怨别人超车，更不会是想要知道别人超车的理由是什么，而是向对方道歉。因为犹太人不被人看重，说这话意味着“不必担心，是我们的错！”。C项符合作者意图。 18．【参考译文】Selma Shapiro 做鼻子矫形手术是为了____。【试题分析】推理判断题。【详细解答】Selma Shapiro做鼻子矫形手术是为了在别的地方开始新的生活，作者说Selma Shapiro包着绷带（wrapped in bandages），从绷带下会emerge a person fit for life beyond the block，即离开这个街区，开始新的生活。因此B项符合。其余选项均不是Selma Shapiro的想法。 19．【参考译文】Anold Brown 改姓的原因是____。【试题分析】判断题。【详细解答】从作者写这一段文字的字里行间可以得知，犹太男孩女孩为了避免种族歧视，采取了各种方法，如做整形手木，填求职表时改掉带有犹太人传统的姓氏等，因此这个犹太男孩改姓的根本原因是因为招工中存在着种族歧视，不得已只好将带有犹太人印记的姓氏改为普通的美国姓氏。因此A项判断正确。 20．【参考译文】从文中可推断____。【试题分析】判断题。【详细解答】犹太男孩女孩都想跳离生活的圈子，谋求更好的发展机会，所以A项表述不正确；作者提到过她的rich uncle’s car说明还是有犹太人是富裕的，因此B项也不对；B项即不正确则说明C项也不符文章内容；D项指“年轻的犹太人不愿接受严酷的现实”，这一点可在文中最后一段作者提到的弟弟以及她本人的奋斗时已表露无遗，因此是正确的。
nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote “Anold Brown” instead of “Anold Braunowiitz.” The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn’t standstill.Thing felt lively and active. Self-confidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That’s what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there.
