恩波：2008年12月英语六级预测试卷答案解析(二)

　　Section B

　　26. A 27. D 28. B 29. A 30. A 31. B 32. D 33. A 34. B 35. D

　　Passage One

　　Now Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the United States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for the attention given to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it is far from Stowe’s best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south. But much of her best work has nothing to do with the south at all. In fact, Stowe’s best writing is about village life in the New England states in the 19th century. In recording the customs of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect the image as realistically as possible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters when they spoke. And she did this for thirty years before Mark Twain popularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher. The teaching job helped lead her to her first published work, a geography book for children. Later, when she was married, her writing helped to support her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches and children’s books as well as novels for adults.

　　Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　27. What do we know about the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

　　28. Why does the passage mention Mark Twain?

　　29. What was Stowe’s first published work?

　　Passage Two

　　Where did the term Piggy Bank come from? Today the simple piggy bank is seen everywhere as the symbol of saving and frugality, for putting away funds for a rainy day, or building a nest egg for life’s sudden money needs, such as paying college expenses, buying a home, or financing retirement. But why a pig? Dogs bury bones for a rainy day. Why not a dog shaped bank for coins? Squirrels are well known hoarders too and we talk about squirreling away valuables. Why not a bank in the shape of a squirrel? Well, nevertheless, for 300 years, children’s banks have been imitations of pigs with slots in the back. Charles Bernardy, the author of Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, tells how the symbol came about by coincidence. According to Bernardy, during the middle ages, mined metal was scarce and expensive, therefore was rarely used in the manufacture of household utensils. The type of orange clay, known as pygg, spelt p-y-g-g, was more abundant and economical throughout Western Europe. It was used in making dishes, cups, pots and jars. And so these earthenware items were referred to as pygg. Frugal people saved cash in kitchen pots and jars. Although a pygg jar was not originally shaped like a pig, the name persisted. However by the 18th century, pygg, p-y-g-g jar became pig, p-i-g jar or pig bank. Potters had simply begun to cast the bank in the shape of its common name. In the United States, the popular piggy bank has always been a symbol of saving money.

　　Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　30. What does the passage mainly talk about?

　　31. What was first made with the clay the passage mentioned?

　　32. Why did craftspeople of the Middle Ages use the clay?

　　Passage Three

　　It was an Italian inventor who created the first wireless device for sending out radio signals in 1895. But not until the American inventor Lee De Forest built the first amplifying vacuum tube in 1906 did we get the first radio as we know it today. And the first actual radio broadcast was made on Christmas Eve of 1906. That’s when someone working from an experimental station in Brand Rock, Massachusetts, arranged the program of two short musical selections of poetry and brief holiday greeting. The broadcast was heard by wireless operators on ships with a radio over several hundred miles. The following year, De Forest began regular radio broadcasts in New York. These programs were similar to much of what we hear on the radio today in that De Forest played only music. But because there was still no home radio receivers, De Forest’s audience consisted of only wireless operators on ships in New York harbor. There is no doubt that radio broadcasting was quite a novelty in those days. But it took a while to catch on commercially. Why? For the simple fact that only a few people, in fact, only those who treated wireless telegraphs as a hobby owned receivers. It wasn’t until the 1920s that someone envisioned mass appeal for radio. This was radio pioneer, David Sarnoff who predicted that one day there would be a radio receiver in every home.

　　Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　33. Why were early radio broadcasts heard by such a small audience?

　　34. According to the passage, who owned receivers in the early days of radio?

　　35. According to the passage, what did David Sarnoff predict about radios?