手机APP下载

您现在的位置: 首页 > SAT > SAT阅读 > SAT阅读训练 > 正文

SAT阅读理解模拟练习题第5篇

来源:可可英语 编辑:melody   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet

  SAT阅读练习题:Reading Comprehension Test 5

  10 minutes - 8 questions

  The passage is taken from 'The Rule of the Road', an essay written by a twentieth century essayist.

  A stout old lady was walking with her basket down the middle of a

  street in Petrograd to the great confusion of the traffic and with no

  small peril to herself. It was pointed out to her that the

  pavement was the place for pedestrians, but she replied: 'I'm going

  5 to walk where I like. We've got liberty now.' It did not occur

  to the dear old lady that if liberty entitled the pedestrian to

  walk down the middle of the road, then the end of such liberty

  would be universal chaos. Everybody would be getting in

  everybody else's way and nobody would get anywhere.

  10 Individual liberty would have become social anarchy.

  There is a danger of the world getting liberty-drunk in

  these days like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well

  to remind ourselves of what the rule of the road means. It means

  that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the

  15 liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman,

  say, at Piccadilly Circus steps into the middle of the road and

  puts out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny, but of liberty.

  You may not think so. You may, being in a hurry, and seeing

  your car pulled up by this insolence of office, feel that your

  20 liberty has been outraged. How dare this fellow interfere with

  your free use of the public highway? Then, if you are a

  reasonable person, you will reflect that if he did not interfere with

  you, he would interfere with no one, and the result would be that

  Piccadilly Circus would be a maelstrom that you would never

  25 cross at all. You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty

  in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your

  liberty a reality.

  Liberty is not a personal affair only, but a social

  contract. It is an accommodation of interests. In matters which do

  30 not touch anybody else's liberty, of course, I may be as free as I

  like. If I choose to go down the road in a dressing-gown who

  shall say me nay? You have liberty to laugh at me, but I have

  liberty to be indifferent to you. And if I have a fancy for dyeing

  my hair, or waxing my moustache (which heaven forbid), or

  35 wearing an overcoat and sandals, or going to bed late or getting

  up early, I shall follow my fancy and ask no man's permission. I

  shall not inquire of you whether I may eat mustard with my

  mutton. And you will not ask me whether you may follow this

  religion or that, whether you may prefer Ella Wheeler Wilcox to

  40 Wordsworth, or champagne to shandy.

  In all these and a thousand other details you and I please

  ourselves and ask no one's leave. We have a whole kingdom in

  which we rule alone, can do what we choose, be wise or

  ridiculous, harsh or easy, conventional or odd. But directly we

  45 step out of that kingdom, our personal liberty of action becomes

  qualified by other people's liberty. I might like to practice on the

  trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If I went on to

  the top of Everest to do it, I could please myself, but if I do it in

  my bedroom my family will object, and if I do it out in the streets

  50 the neighbors will remind me that my liberty to blow the

  trombone must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet.

  There are a lot of people in the world, and I have to

  accommodate my liberty to their liberties.

  We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much

  55 more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than

  of our own. A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings

  of others is the foundation of social conduct.

  It is in the small matters of conduct, in the observance of

  the rule of the road, that we pass judgment upon ourselves, and

  60 declare that we are civilized or uncivilized. The great moments of

  heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little habits of

  commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life and

  sweeten or make bitter the journey.

重点单词   查看全部解释    
tone [təun]

想一想再看

n. 音调,语气,品质,调子,色调
vt. 使

 
hyperbole [hai'pə:bəli]

想一想再看

n. 夸张法

联想记忆
confusion [kən'fju:ʒən]

想一想再看

n. 混乱,混淆,不确定状态

联想记忆
chaos ['keiɔs]

想一想再看

n. 混乱,无秩序,混沌

联想记忆
resent [ri'zent]

想一想再看

vt. 恨,生气

联想记忆
check [tʃek]

想一想再看

n. 检查,支票,账单,制止,阻止物,检验标准,方格图案

联想记忆
contradictory [.kɔntrə'diktəri]

想一想再看

adj. 矛盾的 n. 矛盾

联想记忆
symbol ['simbəl]

想一想再看

n. 符号,标志,象征

联想记忆
tolerance ['tɔlərəns]

想一想再看

n. 忍耐力,宽容,容忍,公差

 
weakness ['wi:knis]

想一想再看

n. 软弱

 


关键字: 模拟 阅读理解 SAT

发布评论我来说2句

    最新文章

    可可英语官方微信(微信号:ikekenet)

    每天向大家推送短小精悍的英语学习资料.

    添加方式1.扫描上方可可官方微信二维码。
    添加方式2.搜索微信号ikekenet添加即可。