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Unit 4 Pygmalion

阅读理解组块专练——练速度

(限时：35分钟)

Ⅰ.阅读理解

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Pygmalion is a drama in which Shaw has made sentiments one of the principle themes of discussion. The Greek sculptor Pygmalion carved a statue and fell in love with it. Aphrodite (the goddess of love) turned the statue into a living woman named Galatea, who then became Pygmalion’s wife.

The Shavian Pygmalion is Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who picks up a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, teaches her to speak as educated people do, and then successfully passes_her_off_as a duchess. But she is a human being and cannot be treated as a machine. In the course of all his experiments and exhibitions, the professor only thinks of his own skill success and

failure, but never stops to consider how the girl feels. When the experiment is over, he has a profound sense of relief that he has achieved triumph and has won his bet. Even now，the sentiment of the girl is of no account. The girl naturally protests against this dehumanized relationship between her and her teacher. She hurls the professor’s slippers at him when he wants them and then leaves his place. But evidently, she has begun to feel for the professor and wants also to be felt for.

Now the question is what is the nature of Eliza’s feelings for the professor with whom she has lived in close association for so long? In the last act, the girl says she would not marry him even if he had proposed (求婚) to her. The professor, curiously ineffectual (无效的) to sexual emotions, does not love any girl because he finds them to be rivals (对手) to his own mother. He wonders, if Eliza does not want to marry him, then what does she want from him? Old Mrs. Higgins, who knows much about a woman says that it would have been better if he had thanked her and petted her and told her how wonderful she had been. Then perhaps she would not have fought with him. Every girl loves to be loved. Eliza herself says that she loves Freddy and he also loves her. Professor Higgins, however, remains as ever, an old bachelor.

语篇解读：萧伯纳的著名戏剧《卖花女》具有经久不衰的艺术魅力，描述的是语言学教授希金斯如何把一名卖花姑娘训练成英语发音被上流社会接受并认可的故事，从而抨击了当时英

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国腐朽保守的等级意识。 1．What does the underlined phrase “passes her off as” in Paragraph 2 mean? A．Let her pretend to be. C．Make her become.

B．Dress her up as. D．Turn into.

解析：选A 词义猜测题。根据前文的“teaches her to speak as educated people do”以及下文的“In the course of all his experiments and exhibitions”可知该短语的意思是“把某人冒充或假装为”。

2．What kind of person do you think Higgins is according to the second paragraph? A．He is a kind man. C．He is a selfish man.

B．He is a considerate man. D．He is a rude man.

解析：选C 推理判断题。根据第二段第三句可知希金斯只考虑自己的成败得失，从不考虑伊莉莎的感受，显然他是一个自私的人。

3．Why does not Eliza marry Higgins? Because ________. A．she does not love him

B．his mother does not like any girl to be her rival C．he likes to be a bachelor

D．he doesn’t love any girl for fear of them being his mother’s rivals 解析：选D 细节理解题。根据最后一段第三句可知伊莉莎不会嫁给希金斯，因为希金斯担心未来的妻子会成为他母亲的对手，所以他不敢爱上任何一个女孩。

4．Which of the following statement is TRUE? A．Shaw was in fact a Greek sculptor. B．Higgins was experimenting with Eliza.

C．Eliza wanted to become an educated lady very much. D．Higgins fell in love with Eliza at first sight.

解析：选B 细节理解题。根据第二段可知希金斯只是把伊莉莎当成一个试验品。故B正确。

B

I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday. I was a college freshman and had stayed up most of the night before laughing and talking with friends. Now just before my first class of the day my eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier and my head was drifting down to my desk to make my textbook a pillow. A few minutes’ nap time before class couldn’t hurt, I thought.

Boom! I lifted my head immediately and my eyes opened wider than saucers. I looked around with my heart beating quickly trying to find the cause of the noise. My young

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professor was looking back at me with a mischievous,_boyish smile on his face. He had intentionally dropped the pile of textbooks he was carrying onto his desk. “Good morning！” he said, still smiling. “I’m glad to see everyone is awake. Now let’s get started.”

For the next hour I wasn’t sleepy at all. It wasn’t from the shock of my professor’s textbook alarm clock either. Instead, it was from the attractive discussion he led. With knowledge and good humor, he made the material come alive. His insights were full of both wisdom and loving kindness. And the enthusiasm and joy which he taught with were contagious (有感染力的). I left the classroom not only wide awake, but a little smarter and a little better as well.

I learned something far more important than not sleeping in class that day too. I learned that if you are going to do something in this life, do it well, do it with joy, and make it an expression of your love. What a glorious place this world would be if all of us did our work joyously and well! What a beautiful world we could create if every doctor, teacher, musician, cook, waitress, poet, miner, farmer, and laborer made their work an expression of their love! Don’t sleepwalk through your life then. Wake up! Let your love fill your work and your soul. Life is too short not to live it well.

语篇解读：本文通过作者大学第一节课的经历告诉我们：无论从事什么职业，我们都应该带着热情和快乐去做好它。 5．What did the author want to do just before his first class of the day? A．Talk with his friends. B．Take a short sleep. C．Get his eyes examined. D．Stay away from the class.

解析：选B 细节理解题。根据文章第一段最后两句“... my eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier ... A few minutes’ nap time before class couldn’t hurt, I thought.”可知，作者很困，想在上课前小睡一会儿。故选B项。

6．The underlined word “mischievous” in Paragraph 2 probably means “________”．

A．naughty C．sensitive

B．tricky D．dishonest

解析：选A 词义猜测题。画线词与boyish共同修饰smile，感情色彩应一致。根据boyish的含义“男孩子气的”可推测，mischievous应表示“调皮的；淘气的”，与naughty

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意思相近。故选A项。

7．What else did the author learn that day?

A．Students should not sleep in class but respect their teachers. B．Everyone should love his job and sleepwalk through his life. C．Life is too limited to make your work an expression of your love. D．People from all walks of life should do their jobs with joy and love. 解析：选D 细节理解题。根据文章最后一段中的“I learned that if you are going to do something in this life, do it well, do it with joy, and make it an expression of your love.”和“What a beautiful world we could create if every doctor ... made their work an expression of their love！”可知，作者还学到无论你从事什么职业，都应该用充满快乐与爱的心去把工作做好，从而创造一个更美好的世界。故选D项。

8．What can be inferred from this passage?

A．The professor often kept his students sharp by using a textbook alarm. B．The author was attracted by the professor’s great joy and enthusiasm. C．The author left the two-hour period not only wide awake, but a little smarter. D．Though the author was frightened awake, he was not clear-headed in the class. 解析：选B 推理判断题。根据文章第三段中的“With knowledge and good humor, he made the material come alive. His insights were full of both wisdom and loving kindness. And the enthusiasm and joy which he taught with were contagious(有感染力的)．”可知，作者被教授的快乐和热情所吸引，故选B项。

C

Facing increasing pressure to raise students’ scores on standardized tests, schools are urging kids to work harder by offering them obvious encouragements. Happy Meals are at the low end of the scale. With the help of businesses, schools are also giving away cars, iPods, seats to basketball games, and — in a growing number of cases — cold, hard cash. The appeal of such programs is obvious, but the consequences of tying grades to goods are still uncertain. It’s been a common tradition in middle-class families to reward top grades with cash as a way to teach that success in school leads to success in life. But for many disadvantaged minority children, the long-term benefits of getting an education are not so clear, according to experts.

No one knows for sure how well cash and other big-ticket rewards work in education in the long run. But there are plenty of concerns that this kind of practice could have negative effects on kids. Virginia Shiller, a clinical psychologist, says that

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it’s worth experimenting with cash encouragements but that tying them to success on a test is not a worthwhile goal. “I’d rather see rewards based on effort and responsibility — things that will lead to success in life，” she says.

Even if rewards don’t lead to individual achievement on a test, they could have a meaningful effect in the school. Charles McVean, a businessman and philanthropist (慈善家), started a tutoring program which pays higher-achieving students D|S10 an hour to tutor struggling classmates and divides them into teams. During the course of the year, students bond and compete. The team posting the highest math scores wins the top cash prize of D|S100. McVean calls the combination of peer (同龄人) tutoring, competition, and cash encouragements a recipe for “nothing less than magic”．

For its part, the Seminole County Public Schools system in Florida plans to continue its report card encouragement program through the rest of the school year. The local McDonald’ s restaurants help the poor district by paying the D|S1,600 cost of printing the report card. Regina Klaers, the district spokeswoman, says most parents don’t seem bothered by the Happy Meals rewards. “There are many ways we try to urge students to do well, and sometimes it’s through the stomach, and sometimes it’s the probability of students winning a car，” she says. “One size doesn’t fit all.”

语篇解读：本文是一篇议论文，主要论述了物质奖励对学生的成绩是否有促进作用。 9．According to the text, it is a common practice for schools to________. A．offer free meals to students with high scores B．tie students’ grades to material rewards C．educate students to form a business sense D．cooperate with business to improve teaching

解析：选B 推理判断题。根据第一段第三句及其下一句中的“tying grades to goods”可推断出，将学生的成绩与物质奖励联系起来已成了学校的一个惯例。故选B。

10．According to the text, the long-term results of giving students cash as rewards in education are ________.

A．negative C．uncertain

B．optimistic D．disappointing

解析：选C 细节理解题。根据第二段第一句可知，给学生现金作为奖励在教育中产生的长远结果还不确定。故选C。

11．The tutoring program run by Charles McVean ________.

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