2010年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习(34)

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　　Passage 2

　　No one knows exactly how many disabled people there are in the world, but 11 suggest the figure is over 450 million. The number of disabled people in

　　India 12 is probably more than double the total population of Canada.

　　In the United Kingdom, about one in ten people have some disability. Disability is not just something that happens to other people: as we get older, many of us will become less 13 , hard of hearing or have failing eyesight.

　　Disablement can take many forms and occur at any time of life. Some people are born with disabilities. Many others become disabled as they get older. There are many 14 disabling diseases. The longer time goes on, the worse they become. Some people are disabled in accidents. Many others may have a period of disability in the form of a mental illness. All are affected by people's attitude towards them.

　　Disabled people face many 15 barriers. Next time you go shopping or to work or to visit friends, imagine how you would 16 if you could not get up steps, or on to buses and trains. How would you cope if you could not see where you were going or could not hear the traffic? But there are other barriers; 17 can be even harder to break down and ignorance 18 represents by far the greatest barrier of all. It is almost impossible for the able-bodied to fully appreciate what the severely disabled go through, so it is important to 19 attention to these barriers and show that it is the individual person and their ability, not their disability, which 20

　　A. inevitably B. evaluations C. estimates D. manage

　　E. alone F. counts G. prejudice H. physical

　　I. mobile J. indifferently K. withdraw L. progressive

　　M. regular N. accounts O. draw

　　Passage 3

　　The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties ? and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, opportunity and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened by household appliances and convenience foods.

　　This important change in women's life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity, and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.

　　21. According to the passage, it is now quite usual for women to_______.

　　A. stay at home after leaving school B. marry men younger than themselves

　　C. start working again later in life D. marry while still at school

　　22. We are told that in an average family about 1900_______.

　　A. many children died before they lived to more than five

　　B. seven or eight children lived to be more than five

　　C. the youngest child would be fifteen

　　D. four or five children died when they were five

　　23. Many girls, the passage claims, are now likely to_______.

　　A. give up their jobs for good after they are married

　　B. leave school as soon as they can

　　C. marry so that they can get a job

　　D. continue working until they are going to have a baby

　　24. One reason why a woman today may take a job is that she_______.