公共英语四级辅导：PETS4阅读精讲（48）

　　Reading Comprehension
　　Read the following two texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A. B. C or D.
　　Custom
　　Now custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great importance. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy o f investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplaces. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief and the very great varieties it may manifest.
　　No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probing he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. When one seriously studies social orders that have had the opportunity to develop independently, the figure becomes no more than an exact and mater-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture and by the time he is grown an able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.
　　1.The author thinks the reason why custom has been ignored in the academic world is that____.
　　A.custom reveals only the superficial nature of human behavior.
　　B.study of social orders can replace the study of custom.
　　C.people are still not aware of the important role that custom plays in forming our world outlook.
　　D.custom has little to do with our ways of thinking.
　　2.Which of the following is true according to John Dewey?
　　A.An individual can exercise very little influence on the cultural tradition into which he is born.
　　B.Custom is the direct result of the philosophical probing of a group of people.
　　C.An individual is strongly influenced by the cultural tradition even before he is born.
　　D.Custom represents the collective wisdom which benefits the individual.
　　3.The word “custom” in this passage most probably means_____.
　　A.the concept of the true and the false of a society
　　B.the independently developed social orders
　　C.the adjustment of the individual to the social environment
　　D.the pattern and standards of behavior of a community
　　4.According to the passage, a person’s life, from his birth to death,____.
　　A.is constantly shaping the cultural traditions of his people
　　B.is predominated by traditional custom
　　C.is continually influenced by the habits of other communities
　　D.is chiefly influenced by the people around him
　　5.The author’s purpose in writing this passage is____.
　　A.to urge individuals to follow traditional custom
　　B.to stress the strong influence of custom on a individual
　　C.to examine the interaction of man and social customs
　　D.to show man’s adjustment to traditional customs

　　解析：
　　1. C
　　阅读第一段，我们可以知道：传统风俗的重要性已经被人们越来越多的忽略了。作者认为传统风俗的重要性之处在于，它在一个人的经历和信念的形成中扮演的重要角色以及它的诸多表现形式。人们之所以忽略了风俗的重要性，是因为人们没有意识到它的重要作用。
　　2.A
　　在第二段中，John Dewey 说了这样一句话the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom is proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. 这句话告诉我们：风俗塑造个人行为时扮演的角色和个人对传统风俗的影响，与母亲带给家庭的全部词汇和一个喃喃学语的婴儿带给家庭的词语，是成比例的。也就是说，这两者带是可以比较的。作者在文章末尾提到：从一个人出生的那一天起，风俗就在影响着它的经历和行为，而不是在出生前开始影响的。
　　3.D
　　文章末尾有这样一句话：the life history of the individual is first and foremost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. 这句话告诉我们：一个人的生活其实是对上一代传下来的传统方式和标准的一种调节适应过程。所以我们可以判断，本文的风俗指的是社会的行为方式和标准。
　　4.B
　　文章末尾有这样一句话From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior.。一个人从出生到死亡一直被传统支配着。
　　5.B
　　作者在开头就表明了自己的观点，现代社会中人们已经淡忘了传统风俗在形成一个人的世界观的过程中所扮演的角色。由此，作者写这篇文章的意图是强带你传统风俗对于个人的影响，以唤起人们对它的重视。