俗话说“得阅读者得英语”，因此可以看出考研英语阅读的重要性，以下是本站小编搜索整理的一份考研英语阅读理解专练【附答案】，供参考练习，希望对大家有所帮助!想了解更多相关信息请持续关注我们应届毕业生考试网!
Proponents of different jazz styles have always argued that their predecessor’s musical style did not include essential characteristics that define jazz as jazz. Thus, 1940''s swing was belittled by beboppers of the 1950''s who were themselves attacked by free jazzes of the 1960''s. The neoboppers of the 1980''s and 1990''s attacked almost everybody else. The titanic figure of Black saxophonist John Coltrane has complicated the arguments made by proponents of styles from bebop through neobop because in his own musical journey he drew from all those styles. His influence on all types of jazz was immeasurable. At the height of his popularity, Coltrane largely abandoned playing bebop, the style that had brought him fame, to explore the outer reaches of jazz.
Coltrane himself probably believed that the only essential characteristic of jazz was improvisation, the one constant in his journey from bebop to open-ended improvisations on modal, Indian, and African melodies. On the other hand, this dogged student and prodigious technician? D who insisted on spending hours each day practicing scales from theory books? D was never able to jettison completely the influence of bebop, with its fast and elaborate chains of notes and ornaments on melody.
Two stylistic characteristics shaped the way Coltrane played the tenor saxophone: he favored playing fast runs of notes built on a melody and depended on heavy, regularly accented beats. The first led Coltrane to sheets of sound” where he raced faster and faster, pile-driving notes into each other to suggest stacked harmonies. The second meant that his sense of rhythm was almost as close to rock as to bebop.
Three recordings illustrate Coltrane’s energizing explorations. Recording Kind of Blue with Miles Davis, Coltrane found himself outside bop, exploring modal melodies. Here he played surging, lengthy solos built largely around repeated motifs; an organizing principle unlike that of free jazz saxophone player Ornette Coleman, who modulated or altered melodies in his solos. On Giant Steps, Coltrane debuted as leader, introducing his own compositions. Here the sheets of sound, downbeat accents, repetitions, and great speed are part of each solo, and the variety of the shapes of his phrases is unique. Coltrane’s searching explorations produced solid achievement. My Favorite Things was another kind of watershed. Here Coltrane played the soprano saxophone, an instrument seldom used by jazz musicians. Musically, the results were astounding. With the soprano’s piping sound, ideas that had sounded dark and brooding acquired a feeling of giddy fantasy.
When Coltrane began recording for the Impulse! Label, he was still searching. His music became raucous, physical. His influence on rockers was enormous, including Jimi Hendrix, the rock guitarist, who, following Coltrane, raised the extended guitar solo using repeated motifs to a kind of rock art form.
The primary purpose of the text is to
[A] Discuss the place of Coltrane in the world of jazz and describe his musical explorations.
[B] Examine the nature of bebop and contrast it with improvisational jazz.
[C] Analyze the musical sources of Coltrane’s style and their influence on his work.
[D] Acknowledge the influence of Coltrane’s music on rock music and rock musicians.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the fourth paragraph?
[A] A thesis referred to earlier in the text is mentioned and illustrated with three specific examples.
[B] A thesis is stated and three examples are given each suggesting that a correction needs to be made to a thesis referred to earlier in the text.
[C] A thesis referred to earlier in the text is mentioned, and three examples are presented and ranked in order of their support of the thesis.
[D] A thesis is stated, three seemingly opposing examples are presented, and their underlying correspondence is explained.
According to the text, John Coltrane did all of the following during his career EXCEPT
[A] Improvise on melodies from a number of different cultures.
[B] Perform as leader as well as soloist.
[C] Spend time improving his technical skills.
[D] Eliminate the influence of bebop on his own music.
According to the text a major difference between Coltrane and other jazz musicians was the
[A] Degree to which Coltrane’s music encompassed all of jazz.
[B] Repetition of motifs that Coltrane used in his solos.
[C] Number of his own compositions that Coltrane recorded.
[D] Indifference Coltrane maintained to musical technique.
In terms of its tone and form, the text can best be characterized as
[A] Dogmatic explanation.
[B] Indignant denial.
[C] Enthusiastic praise.
[D] Speculative study.
[答案与考点解析]
「答案」A
「考点解析」本题是一道中心主旨题。第一段的倒数第一、二句是全文的中心主旨句，全文就是根据这两句话展开论述的。抓住这两句话就可以找出本题的正确选项A.考生在解题时，尤其是破解中心主旨题时，一定要先找出全文的中心主旨句。
「答案」C
「考点解析」这是一道例(举)证与细节理解题。第四段第一句明确指出“三张唱片为科尔特兰尼富有活力的探索提供了证明”。这说明第四段将讲述三个例子用来说明在前一段即第三段所提出的论点。另外这三个例子是按着先后顺序给出的，因此本题的正确选项是C.考生在解题时要注意段落之间的相互关系，更要注意句子之间的相互关系。
「答案」D
「考点解析」这是一道细节理解题型。本题属于比较难的题型，因为本题的涉及面比较广。本题A、B、C选项的内容分别在第二段第一句、第四段第三四句和第二段第二句提到过。故本题的正确选项应该是D.其实这道题表面上非常难，但是对于善于捕捉全文中心主旨句的同学来讲确比较容易，因为从第一段第四句的原因状语从句中就可以推导出本题的正确答案D.考生在解题时应时时牢记全文的中心主旨句。
「答案」A
「考点解析」本题是一道审题定位题型。根据本题题干中的“other jazz musicians”可将本题的答案信息来源定位在第一段的第一至四句，因为在这四句话中提到了其它的爵士音乐家。第一段第四句的状语从句明确指出了“Coltrane”与其它音乐家的不同在于他吸收了各种风格的爵士音乐。故本题的正确答案应该是A.考生在解题时应重视审题定位。
「答案」C
「考点解析」本题是一道归纳推导题型。细心的同学可从本文作者在论述时使用的词语中推导出本题的正确答案C.例如作者在第一段第四句的主语上使用了“titanic figure”;在第五句使用了“his influence…was immeasurable”;在最后一段的第三句使用了“his influence… was enormous”，这都反映了作者的“enthusiastic praise”。考生在解题时要重视原文作者在表达观点时的遣词造句。
[参考译文]
不同的爵士乐风格的支持者一贯认为他们前辈的音乐风格没有包括那些使爵士乐之所以成为爵士乐的本质特征。这样，二十世纪五十年代的比波普派轻视二十世纪四十年代的摇摆音乐派，而他们自己又受到二十世纪六十年代的自由爵士派的抨击。二十世纪八十至九十年代的新比波普派几乎对任何其他人都进行抨击。而黑人萨克斯管巨匠约翰?科尔特兰尼使这些从比波普派到新比波普派的支持者所提出的主张更加复杂化，因为在他自己的音乐例程中，他经历了所有这些风格。他对所有爵士音乐的风格的影响是不可估量的。在他最受欢迎的时期，科尔特兰尼基本上放弃了比波普风格的演奏以便探索爵士乐更深的处延，然而正是比波普风格的演奏使得他成名。
科尔特兰尼自己可能认为爵士乐的唯一本质特征就是即兴创作，这是他从比波普风格到对形式音乐、印度音乐、非洲音乐的自由即兴演奏的历程中一直没有改变的。另一方面，这个顽强的学生和异常的技巧家每天花几个小时用以练习理论书籍上的曲谱，从未能完全抛弃比波普的影响，在他的旋律中可以找到带有比波普特点的快速和精细的音符以及修饰效果。
有两种风格特征影响了科尔特兰尼演奏男高音萨克斯管的方式：他喜欢对建立于一种旋律上的音符进行快速的演奏，同时也依赖于强有力的、有规律的重音节奏。前者引导科尔特兰尼走向“片状声响”的境界，在那里科尔特兰尼的演奏越来越快，将音符成堆互相累放起来以表达一种堆叠起来的和谐感。而后者意味着，他的节奏感之接近于摇滚乐几乎就像其接近于比波普风格一样。
三张唱片为科尔特兰尼富有活力的探索提供了证明。和马尔斯?戴维斯合作录制《有几分忧伤》时，科尔特兰尼发现他已离开了波普风格，对形式音乐进行探索。在这中间，他演奏那些跌宕起伏的冗长的独奏，而这些独奏基本上是围绕着一个重复主题展开的。该种主题是用以组织其音乐的原则，它和自由派爵士乐萨克斯管演奏家奥尼迪?科尔曼采用的组织方式不同。后面这位音乐家在他的独奏中会对其旋律进行调节改变。在《大踏步》中，科尔特兰尼初次以领导者角色出现，对他自己的作品进行了介绍。在这中间，“片状声响”、强拍重音、重复回旋和极快的速度组成了每一段独奏的各个部分，各乐章的形式的多样性是独一无二的。科尔特兰尼深刻的探索获得了稳固的成就。《我的钟爱之物》是另一种意义上的分水岭。在这里，科尔特兰尼演奏了爵士乐演奏家很少使用的女高音萨克斯管，所产生的音乐上的效果是惊人的。伴随着女高音萨克斯管的尖音，那些显得昏暗及带有沉思意味的主题获得了一种令人眼花缭乱的梦幻感觉。
当科尔特兰尼开始为冲动唱片公司进行音乐录制时，他仍然在探索。他的音乐变得沙哑而感性。摇滚乐手受到他的巨大影响，其中包括吉米?亨德瑞克斯这位吉它手。后者仿效科尔特兰尼，使基于重复主题的大段吉他独奏上升成为一种摇滚艺术形式。
Text 2Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers ?D using nonscientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been nonverbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings. Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them.
The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should be valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions such as wall thickness and pin diameter may depend on scientific calculations, but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.
Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail hard thinking， nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.
If courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.
the text, the author is primarily concerned with
[A] Identifying the kinds of thinking that is used by technologists.
[B] Stressing the importance of nonverbal thinking in engineering design.
[C] Proposing a new role for nonscientific thinking in the development of technology.
[D] Contrasting the goals of engineers with those of technologists.
2. It can be inferred that the author thinks engineering curricula are
[A] Strengthened when they include courses in design.
[B] Weakened by the substitution of physical science courses for courses designed to develop mathematical skills.
[C] Strong because nonverbal thinking is still emphasized by most of the courses.
[D] Strong despite the errors those graduates of such curricula have made in the development of automatic control systems.
h of the following statements best illustrates the main point of the first two paragraphs of the text?
[A] When a machine like a rotary engine malfunctions, it is the technologist who is best equipped to repair it.
[B] Each component of an automobile? D for example, the engine or the fuel tank? D has a shape that has been scientifically determined to be best suited to that component’s function.
[C] A telephone is a complex instrument designed by technologists using only nonverbal thought.
[D] The distinctive features of a suspension bridge reflect its designer''s conceptualization as well as the physical requirements of its site.
h of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the text?
[A] The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many nonscientific decisions made by technologists.
[B] Analytical thought is no longer a vital component in the success of technological development.
[C] As knowledge of technology has increased, the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form, arrangement, and texture.
[D] A movement in engineering colleges toward a technician’s degree reflects a demand for graduates who have the nonverbal reasoning ability that was once common among engineers.
5. The author calls the predicament faced by the Historic American Engineering Record paradoxical (line 6, paragraph 3) most probably because
[A] The publication needed drawings that its own staff could not make.
[B] Architectural schools offered but did not require engineering design courses for their students.
[C] College students were qualified to make the drawings while practicing engineers were not.
[D] Engineering students were not trained to make the type of drawings needed to record the development of their own discipline.
[考点解析]
1.「答案」B
「考点解析」这是一道中心主旨题。本题的正确答案信息点在原文第一段的倒数第二句，该句强调“nonverbal thinking”的重要性。可见本题的正确选项应该是B.考生在破解中心主旨题时一定要首先找出原文的中心主旨句。
2.「答案」A
「考点解析」这是一道反推题。根据题干中的“engineering curricula”可将本题的正确答案信息来源确定在原文的第三段第一句。该句中“should”一词的理解十分重要。“should”是“应该做”而实际上确“没有做”。根据“should”一词并且结合第三段第一句进行反推即逆向思维，可得出本题的正确选项是A.考生在解题时应该重视关键的语言信号词，更要加强反推的能力。
3.「答案」D
「考点解析」本题是一道细节归纳推导题。其实只要考生抓住第一段中的中心主旨句(倒数第二句)和第二段中的中心主旨句(倒数第一句)，就不难寻找出本题的正确答案D.要想知道某一段的主要含义就要首先找出该段的中心主旨句。另外考生在破解此类题型时还要善于根据中心主旨句进行合理的逻辑推导。
4.「答案」A
「考点解析」这是一道中心主旨题。如果考生抓住了全文的中心主旨句(第一段的倒数第二句)以及每段的中心主旨句(例如第二段的倒数第一句)，就不难寻找出本题的正确选项A，因为该选项所强调的内容与这些中心主旨句所表达的内容是相互一致的。考生在破解中心主旨题型时一定要具备寻找和理解中心主旨句的能力。
5.「答案」D
「考点解析」本题是一道细节推导题。题干已经将本题的答案信息确定在第三段的尾句，该句强调的是“engineering students”在教育方面的缺陷，因此本题的正确选项应该是D.如果考生在理解此句时有困难，可借助于本段的主题句(第三段第一句)来破解本题。第三段第一句强调的是“engineering curricula”缺乏“design courses”。这句话同样是表明“engineering students”在教育方面的缺失。考生在破解此类题型时一定要善于总结和归纳原文的信息。
[参考译文]
许多日常使用的事物明显受到了科学的影响，但它们的形状和功能，它们的大小和外观，是由工艺人员、工匠、设计师、发明家和工程师运用非科学思维模式来设计的。工艺人员所考虑物体的很多性质和特点不能归结到毫不模糊的字面描述;在思维中，它们以一种视觉上的、非言语的方式被加以处理。在西方科技的发展过程中，大体上是由非言语思维刻画了我们物质环境的轮廓并充实了其中的细节。金字塔、大教堂、火箭之所以存在，不是因为几何学或热力学的原因，而是因为在它们的制造者的头脑中事先存在了这样一幅画面。
在几乎每一件现存的人造制品身上都能看出工艺人员思维创造性的制作过程。比如说，在柴油发动机的设计中，通过不断使用关于合适感和适当感的直观体会，一个工艺人员得以用他个人的非语言思维来影响到机器本身。燃烧室的形状应怎样?阀门应该放在哪里?它应该有个长的活塞还是应该有个短的?这样的问题有着由经验、物理需要、可用空间的局限以及并非微不足道的形状感等因素提供的一系列答案。某一些决定，比如壁厚和销钉直径，可能需要由科学的计算来定夺，但设计中的非科学成分仍然是主要的。
因此设计课程应该成为工程课程中的基本成份。非语言思维，这一工程设计的核心机制，包括了感受这一属于艺术家的而非科学家的惯用手段。因为人们认为感受的过程不需要“硬思维”，非语言思维被视为认知过程发展的一个原始阶段而且比语言和数学思维差。但令人感到自相矛盾的是，当《美国工程历史名录》的工作人员希望得到为其美国工程历史记录而绘制的机器图和等比例图时，唯一具有所需技能的大学生不是工程学大学生，而是就读于建筑学院的大学生。
如果不能开设设计课程(它能在一个高度分析性工程学课程体系中提供解决实际问题的背景知识)，我们就会在先进的工程系统中遇到愚蠢而同时会导致极大损失的错误。比如，装载了精密控制设备的早期高速铁路车辆模型不能在暴风雪中正常运行，原因是一个风扇将雪吸入到电子系统中。干扰着自动控制系统的荒唐的随机故障不是轻微的失常;它们是一种混乱的反映，人们认为这种混乱主要在设计数学方面的问题时就会产生。
书香门第
