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SAT阅读练习题:Reading Comprehension Test 13
8 question 12 minutes
Could Washington, Madison, and the other framers of the
Federal Constitution revisit the earth in this year 1922,
it is likely that nothing would bewilder them more than
the recent Prohibition Amendment. Railways, steamships,
5 the telephone, automobiles, flying machines, submarines
– all these developments, unknown in their day, would
fill them with amazement and admiration. They would
marvel at the story of the rise and downfall of the
German Empire; at the growth and present greatness of
10 the Republic they themselves had founded. None of these
things, however, would seem to them to involve any
essential change in the beliefs and purposes of men as
they had known them. The Prohibition Amendment, on the
contrary, would evidence to their minds the breaking
15 down of a principle of government which they had deemed
axiomatic, the abandonment of a purpose which they had
supposed immutable.
1. It can be inferred that the paragraph is intended as
A. an introduction to a discussion of a constitutional amendment
B. a summary of social and political change since the writing of the Federal Constitution
C. an introduction to a history of the Constitution
D. a clarification of the author’s view of a controversy
E. a summation of a discussion on political history
2. The author apparently believes that the “principle of government” mentioned in the last sentence is
A. not implicit in the original Constitution
B. to be taken as true for all time
C. apparently violated by the Prohibition Amendment
D. an essential change in the beliefs of the American people
E. something that would bewilder Washington and Madison
I have previously defined a sanctuary as a place where man
is passive and the rest of Nature active. But this general
definition is too absolute for any special case. The mere
fact that man has to protect a sanctuary does away with his
5 purely passive attitude. Then, he can be beneficially active
by destroying pests and parasites, like bot-flies or
mosquitoes, and by finding antidotes for diseases like the
epidemic which periodically kills off the rabbits and thus
starves many of the carnivora to death. But, except in cases
10 where experiment has proved his intervention to be
beneficial, the less he upsets the balance of Nature the
better, even when he tries to be an earthly Providence.
3. The author implies that his first definition of a sanctuary is
A. totally wrong
B. somewhat idealistic
C. unhelpful
D. indefensible
E. immutable
4. The author’s argument that destroying bot-flies and mosquitoes would be a beneficial action is most weakened by all of the following except
A. parasites have an important role to play in the regulation of populations
B. the elimination of any species can have unpredictable effects on the balance of nature
C. the pests themselves are part of the food chain
D. these insects have been introduced to the area by human activities
E. elimination of these insects would require the use of insecticides that kill a wide range of insects
