大学生英语竞赛A类阅读理解专项强化真题试卷3

Read the following passage. Choose from the sentences A—G the one which best fits each gap of 61— 65. There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use. [*] As people spend more time on social media, advertisers are following them. Earlier this year Bavarian Motor Works(BMW)advertised on WeChat, a popular messaging app in China with around 550 million monthly users. But its ads were shown only to those whose profiles suggested they were potential buyers of expensive cars. Others were shown ads for more affordable stuff, such as smartphones. The campaign bruised a few egos. Some of those not shown the BMW ad complained, referring to themselves as losers. 【R1】______But it was also an example of how marketing chiefs are struggling to find the right way to reach consumers on new digital platforms, where they are spending ever more of their time. 【R2】______Today it has become a pillar of the advertising industry. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedln have cultivated vast audiences: 2 billion people worldwide use them, says eMarketer, a research firm. Online advertising of all sorts continues to grow, and within that category, spending on social-media ads has gone from virtually nothing a few years ago to perhaps $20 billion this year. 【R3】______This means ads can be aimed at them with an accuracy that is unthinkable with analogue media. For example, Chevrolet, an American car brand, has sent ads to the Facebook pages and Twitter feeds of people who had expressed an interest in, or signed up to test-drive, a competitor’s vehicle. 【R4】______Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms are selling ads containing “ buy now“ buttons, which let users complete a sale on the spot. It is too early to tell how many consumers want such a convenience, but the social platforms foresee a future in which they get paid by advertisers to provide instant-shopping services that make the platforms more useful to their members, and get them to spend more time on them. 【R5】______Instead of creating a single, broad-brush message that will run across television, radio, print and outdoor, they are producing many variations on a theme, matching each to the subset of consumers they judge most likely to respond to it. Last month Lowe’s, an American home-improvement retailer, ran a campaign on Facebook in which users were sent one of several dozen versions of its ad, depending on which part of their homes they had mentioned on social media. Questions 61 to 65 A. Marketing chiefs also need to think through efforts to give their brands “online personalities“. B. Advertisers like social-media platforms because they gather all sorts of data on each user’s age, consumption patterns, interests and so on. C. Such fine-tuned targeting means that the distinction between advertising and ecommerce is becoming blurred. D. But in attempting to ride social-media trends, companies can easily fall flat on their faces. E. To wring the most out of the ability to target consumers precisely on social media, ad agencies are making big changes to their campaigns. F. The carmaker’s experience shows the complexities of advertising today, when it is so easy for dissatisfied customers to make their voices heard. G. Not long ago social-media marketing was something that brand managers might ask their summer interns to deal with.

Water...this five-letter word is one that Californians see almost daily in headlines. How to dam it, how to sell it, how to use it, how to share it, how to keep it pure...These are just a few of the major problems that face California’s people and political leaders. [*] Thousands of dollars are spent annually on studies, and on lawsuits, in California’s “ Water Wars“ , and the seemingly endless conflict between the overwhelming needs of Central and Southern California, and their drain on Northern California rivers. [*] California has what has been called “the biggest waterworks in history“. Dams in the Sierra Nevada mountains hold back water provided by great rivers fed by rain and snowmelt: they tame raging rivers, help prevent damaging floods, generate cheap, pollution-free hydro-electricity, and release a steady supply of water for California’s citizens. California’s great cities get their water via an immense network of dams, aqueducts, pipelines and wells that is one of the engineering wonders of the world. Part of the water supply for the Los Angeles area comes from a 445-mile long canal running south from the “Delta“ area of Northern California. During its long journey, the water is pumped up a 3, 000 ft. elevation, then enters a tunnel through the mountains, before reaching the Los Angeles area. More water for this thirsty area is brought in along the Colorado River Aqueduct, over a distance of 185 miles: and the City of Los Angeles also takes water from a place called Owens Valley ,338 miles away! Even the city of San Francisco, in cooler Northern California, has long-distance water, its supply being carried almost 150 miles from an artificial lake in Yosemite National Park. Yet mammoth as this interlocking system is, in years ahead it is going to be inadequate to handle the state’s rapidly growing population. The prospect of major water problems in the near future has become particularly alarming. Many California farmers have already had to abandon crops on account of water shortages during recent dry summers: and in many towns and cities, the sprinklers that traditionally keep the lawns green round suburban homes have been turned off. As if dry summers and growing needs were not enough problems already, Californians also have problems getting water from outside their state. For instance, the Colorado River provides water to several states, and also to Indian reservations, and there has been a lot of argument about water rights. In 2003, the state of California agreed to take a smaller quota of water from the Colorado River—partly to allow the state of Nevada to have more, on account of the dramatic increase in need of the city of Las Vegas. One of the most serious environmental problems was that of Mono Lake. In 1989, California’s State Legislature voted $65 million to find alternatives to save Mono Lake from evaporating in the desert sun of Eastern California. Since then, the depletion of this unique environmentally—sensitive lake has been reversed, and though the water level today is still some 35 ft. below the natural level recorded back in 1941, it is now 10 feet higher than it was at its lowest point, in 1982. Since the year 2000, California has had a series of drought years with below normal rainfall. Emergency water conservation ordinances have made lawns turn brown, cars and sidewalks get dirt-y. Violators of the ordinances have had their water supply cut to a trickle. In Fresno, a city which does not even meter how much water its residents use, the wells have already run dry. Water conservation measures are part of the answer: but political analysts predict that it will require many years and some serious and unattractive lifestyle changes to resolve. California’s Water Wars. The tense competition for a scarce resource, among groups with conflicting interests, will demand give and take forever. Questions 66 to 70 Answer the following questions with the information given in the passage.

[*] There was a time in the 1960’s and 1970’s when some people believed that coffee would replace tea as Britain’s favorite beverage. In the event, that did not occur, and today, tea remains firmly anchored as Britain’s favorite drink, accounting for over two fifths of all the drink consumed in Britain except for water. To say that the British are fond of tea is something of an understatement. From the Royal Family down to the humblest of the homeless and the out-of-work, tea is more than just a pleasure, it is an essential part of life! It is one of those things that distinguish life in Britain from life anywhere else. The average Briton over the age of 10 drinks three and a half cups of tea per day, or 1, 355 cups per year—mostly tea with milk in it—which puts Britain miles ahead of any other country in the international league of tea-drinking nations! Second and third in the league are the New Zealanders(889 cups)and the Australians(642 cups): in Europe, the nearest rival to Britain is Russia , where people only consume on average 325 cups of tea per year. The popularity of tea in the United Kingdom has a long history, reflecting the nation’s development since the seventeenth century. It was in 1657 that Thomas Garway, the owner of a coffee house, sold the first tea in London. The drink soon became popular as an alternative to coffee, and by the year 1700, there were over 500 coffee houses in the British capital selling the new drink. In those days, however, it was not something for anyone: the cost of a pound of tea in the year 1700(up to 36 shillings a pound)was almost the same as it was in 1985(average: ￡1. 80 a pound)...but in 1700, a working man earned one shilling a week, compared to ￡140 in 1985 ! For a century and a half, tea remained an expensive drink: many employers served a cup of it to their workers in the middle of the morning, thus inventing a lasting British institution, the “ tea break“ : but as a social drink outside the workplace, tea was reserved for the nobility and for the growing middle classes. Among those who had the means, it became very popular as a drink to be enjoyed in cafes and “tea gardens“. It was the 7th Duchess of Bedford who, in around 1800, started the popular fashion of “afternoon tea“ , a ceremony taking place at about four o’clock. Until then, people did not usually eat or drink anything between lunch and dinner. At approximately the same time, the Earl of Sandwich popularized a new way of eating bread—in thin slices, with something(e. g. jam or cucumbers)between them, and before long, a small meal at the end of the afternoon, involving tea and sandwiches had become part of a way of life. As tea became much cheaper during the nineteenth century, its popularity spread right through British society, and before long, it had become Britain’s favorite drink—promoted by the Victorians as an economical, warming, stimulating non-alcoholic drink. In working-class households, it was served with the main meal of the day, eaten when workers returned home after a day’s labour. This meal has become known as “high tea“. Today, tea can be drunk at any time of day. The large majority of people in Britain drink tea for breakfast: the mid-morning “tea break“ is an institution in British offices and factories(though some people prefer coffee at that time of day): and for anyone working outdoors, a thermos of tea is almost an essential part of the day’s equipment. Later in the day, “afternoon tea“ is still a way of life in the south of England and among the middle classes, whereas “ high tea“ has remained a tradition in the north of Britain. Questions 71 to 75 Complete the summary below with information from the passage, using no more than three words for each blank. Tea is the most popular drink in Britain,【E1】______more than two fifths of the liquid consumed by people in Britain: furthermore, the British are the world’s biggest tea drinkers—having been so ever since Thomas Garway became the first person to【E2】______in London, in the year of 1657. Hundreds of years ago, however, tea was a very【E3】______drink. Nevertheless, the great British tradition of the “tea break“ began very early on, as employees got into the habit of serving tea to their workers in the middle of the morning. As a social drink, tea was initially reserved for the growing middle classes and【E4】______, who could afford it. The ceremony of “afternoon tea“ , between lunch and dinner, was invented by the 7th Duchess of Bedford in the early eighteenth century: then the drink became very popular with the Victorians, who preferred it as an economical, warming, stimulating non-alcoholic drink. Today, tea is still extremely popular, since it can be drunk【E5】______of day.

[*] Indian food is well-known for being spicy. It always uses spices, sometimes just one spice to cook a potato dish and sometimes up to fifteen spices to compose an elaborate dish. But it is not always hot. Chili peppers were introduced into Asia by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Until that time the typical pungent Indian spices were mustard seeds and black peppercorns. Sometimes the spices are used whole, at other times they are ground and mixed with water or vinegar to make a paste. Each of these techniques draws out a completely different flavour from the spice. But India also gains variety from the huge number of regional cuisines which have been adapted to local culinary traditions. Religious groups within each region of India have modified these regional cuisines to suit their own restrictions. There was also the influence of the Moghuls who came to India by way of Persia and introduced the delicate pilau and meats cooked with yoghurt and fried onions. When Vienna became a great capital city in the seventeenth century, Austrian cooking developed into an art. This was when the famous Viennese pastry began to be made. Food and ideas for cooking were imported from all over the continent: sour cream from the Slavs, paprika from Hungary, noodle dishes from Italy. Although some of the famous cakes and pastries are so extravagant they can only be used for special occasions, other dishes are highly economical. The meat dishes, for example, evolved because the Austrians were loath to kill bulls. They felt it wasteful to keep them and feed them while they grew up but did no useful work. Therefore, they kept only the cows which were killed when they were old and tough, and so the Austrians have a number of dishes which make use of scraggy meat. The many veal dishes, at which the Viennese are good, grew from the fact that so many baby bulls were killed. Swedish cooking was in the past restricted by its climate which limited the supply of fresh food to a few months of the year. Meals tended to be monotonous and salted fish or meat and potatoes were served most of the time. But things are very different today with Swedish smorgasbord popular all over the world. The word actually means sandwich table, but in reality, there is a great variety of cold dishes to choose from. Swedish cooking developed in the eighteenth century under French influence. However, old traditions persist. On Christmas Day, ham is always served. At that time, on Christmas Eve a plate of porridge may be put in the attic or cellar for the little gnomes who are believed to live in the house. The porridge is to thank the gnomes for their help during the past year and ensure their help in the next. Poles have always taken an intelligent and lively interest in good food and the large farming population has had a Slavonic gusto in producing original and tasty dishes from the simplest and cheapest ingredients. Soups play an important part in the diet of a Polish family. They have adopted the Russian borscht and transformed it into their own national soup. The basis of borscht is beetroot but no one should be misguided enough to think that it is a weak concoction. It is not only wholesome and nourishing, but has fragrance and colour to make it attractive. All Polish cakes and pastries are delightful but among the best are the cheese pastries. For a summer dish of salad, or for picnics, the Polish way of making a cream cheese spread—mixing cream with cottage cheese together with chopped radishes and cucumber and chives—is slightly unusual, and very pleasant. ’ Questions 56 to 60 Fill in the blanks below with information from the passage, using no more than three words for each blank. [*]