2017年4月高等教育自学考试全国统一命题考试

英语阅读一

试卷及解析

(课程代码 00595)

一、CAREFUL READING(Read the following passages carefully.Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 40 points,2 points each)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                Passage 1

　　Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

　　Recently a new postage stamp has been issued to honor Flannery O’Connor and her great contributions to American literature.The stamp costs 93 cents and has a pretty picture of the writer herself on it.She wears a simple top with a jewel neckline,and pearls.Her pink porcelain face，framed in a 1940s hairstyle，glows with the barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile.

　　This stamp does not，to my eyes，show Flannery O’Connor,the 20th-century master of the short story,the “hermit (隐士) novelist” who fused her art and life as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are shocking，hilarious (令人发笑的) and often bloody,the one who lived with her mother in Georgia and raised pheasants (雉鸡)，who got sick and died young in 1964，who gazed at the sin-stricken world through cat-eye glasses that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway’s beard or Frida’s eyebrow.

　　This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman，barely 20 years old.It’s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia State College for Women. Her works then amounted to cartoons and stories for the college magazine.

　　The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art director，who hired a freelance artist.I spoke with both of them，and learned that neither knew much about O’Connor,but they did their best with the images they had.The artist told me he had read one of her novels in college.He knew O’Connor had raised pheasants，so he framed her with feathers.The art director remembered that her work was “unsettling”，and that she was a Catholic.

　　I can’t blame either of them for deciding on this striking portrait as the best fit for their tiny canvas，but I wish they and the Postal Service had produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up Flannery,and contained some taste of her strange and noble artistic vision.

　　I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation,like mustache+steamboat=Mark Twain.But a better choice would be a painting made by the author herself,a self-portrait from 1953.She is wearing a yellow straw hat，holding a devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you，harmful and brilliant，as if she could smell your stupidity.It is gorgeous and rough and honest and perfect. 第1题 It can be learned from Paragraph 2 that Flannery O’Connor ________.

A.combined her life in the South with her story writing

B.was a master of raising pheasants

C.had a healthy and happy life

D.died a natural death

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】推理判断题。由第二段前半部分可知，作为一个南方人和罗马天主教徒，奥康纳用故事把她的作品和生活融合在了一起，也就是说，奥康纳在自己创作的故事中融入了自己的生活。故选A。

第2题 The stamp shows that Flannery O’Connor ________.

A.started writing when she was a student

B.enjoyed being a freelance writer

C.liked to raise cats at home

D.was an art director

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】推理判断题。由第三段可知，这张邮票表明奥康纳是一位非常年轻的女性，仅仅20岁；这张邮票基于一张她上大学时的照片，当时她就读于佐治亚州女子学院，她的作品实际上就是为学院校刊创作的漫画和故事。由此可知，奥康纳在她还是个学生的时候就开始写作了。故选A。

第3题 The stamp could have been more satisfactory if the designers had ________.

A.talked to people close to Flannery

B.learned more about Flannery

C.had some professional help

D.visited Catholic schools

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】推理判断题。由第四段第二句话可知，两个设计者都不是特别了解奥康纳；由第五段but后面的内容可知，作者希望这两个设计者和邮局能够设计出一个更符合成年后的奥康纳的邮票，并且包含一些她古怪而又高贵的艺术视角的品位。由此可以推断，如果设计者对奥康纳有更多了解的话，这张邮票会更令人满意。故选B。

第4题 What does the phrase “an automatic illustrative equation” refer to

A.A natural illustration.

B.A clear demonstration.

C.A typical public image.

D.A mathematic equation.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】词义推测题。“胡须+蒸汽船=马克·吐温”是大家对马克·吐温共同的认识，代表的是他的公共形象，“胡须”指的是他的外表，“蒸汽船”则是指他的笔名的来历以及他的作品都与他在蒸汽船上的工作有关。而这个例子正是对画线短语的解释。故选C。

第5题 The writer of this passage expects the stamp to show Flannery O’Connor’s ________.

A.hairstyle in her young days

B.strange but grand vision

C.successful moments

D.good manners

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】事实细节题。由第五段but后面的内容可知，作者希望这两个设计者和邮局能够设计出一个更符合成年后的奥康纳的邮票，并且包含一些她古怪而又高贵的艺术视角的品位。故选B。