2008年12月英语六级星火预测试卷（一）快速阅读

Part Ⅱ     Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)  (15 minutes)

Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.

For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

Guide Dogs

For most dog owners, the expression "work like a dog" doesn't make much sense. But some dogs happily perform very demanding jobs for much of their life, putting in a full day's work just like the rest of us. Guide dogs, one of the most familiar sorts of working dog, provide an invaluable service to humans. Every day, they help their masters get from place to place more safely.

What Guide Dogs Do

Guide dogs help blind or visually impaired people get around in the world. In most countries, they are allowed to anyplace where the public is allowed, so they can help their handlers be in any place they might want to go to. To do this, a guide dog must know how to:

• Keep on a direct route, ignoring distractions such as smells, other animals and people
• Maintain a steady pace, to the left and just ahead of the handler
• Stop at all curbs until told to proceed
• Turn left and right, move forward and stop on command
• Recognize and avoid obstacles that the handler won't be able to fit through (narrow passages and low overheads)
• Stop at the bottom and top of stairs until told to proceed
• Bring the handler to elevator buttons
• Lie quietly when the handler is sitting down
• Help the handler to board and move around buses, subways and other forms of public Vehicles
• Obey a number of verbal commands

Additionally, a guide dog must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger. This ability, called selective disobedience, is perhaps the most amazing thing about guide dogs that they can balance obedience with their own assessment of the situation.

This capacity is extremely important at crosswalks, where the handler and dog must work very closely together to navigate the situation safely. Dogs cannot distinguish the color of traffic lights, so the handler must make the decision of when it is safe to proceed across the road. The handler listens to the flow of traffic to figure out when the light has changed and then gives the command "forward". If there is no danger, the dog proceeds across the road in a straight line. If there are cars approaching, the dog waits until the danger is gone and then follows the forward command.

On the Job and After Hours

Guide dogs enjoy their work immensely, and they get a lot of satisfaction from a job well done, but there is no room for typical dog fun during the work day. Games, treats and praise cannot distract the dog from helping its handler navigate the course. Even when the handler doesn't need assistance, a guide dog on the job is trained to ignore distractions and keep still. This is because a guide dog must be able to come to the handler's workplace or be in public places without creating a disturbance.

When you see a guide dog on the job, it is extremely important that you recognize that it is at work. Petting or talking to the dog breaks its concentration, which impairs the handler's ability to get around in his or her surroundings. People are very impressed with guide dogs and so we have a natural inclination to praise them, but the best thing you can do to help a guide dog is to leave it alone so that it can pay attention to its surroundings and maintain its focus on its handler. Guiding is very complicated, and it requires a dog's undivided attention.

When a guide dog gets home at the end of the day, however, it will play and soak up praise just like an ordinary pet. Guide dogs make the distinction between work and play based on their lead harness: When the harness is on, they must stay completely focused; when it comes off, it's play time. Guide dogs work very hard every day, but they lead extremely happy lives, full of lots of attention and stimulation. Dogs only end up working as guide dogs if they absolutely love the work. In fact, many handlers report that their dogs leap enthusiastically into the harness every morning!

Training

People often raise Golden Retrievers(猎犬),German shepherds or Labradors(拉布拉多猎狗) as candidates of guide dogs. Once a dog is grown up, socialized and well trained, it goes to the guide dog school for evaluation.

In some schools, if a dog is suited for training but not quite ready, it may go back to the puppy(幼犬) raiser for a month or so to mature. If a dog is simply not suited for training, the school will work to place the dog in another line of work, such as tracking, or find it a permanent home, usually offering it to the puppy raiser first. At Guiding Eyes for the Blind, only the top 50 percent of the puppies will stay with the school. So the school places a little over 400 puppies with raisers each year, needing only 200 dogs for the training program. Of that 200,a small percentage will become breeding stock, for Guiding Eyes or another school, and the rest will be considered for the training program.

Training is a rigorous process for both the instructors and the dogs, but it's also a lot of fun. To make sure the dogs are up to the challenge, most schools test them extensively before beginning the training. The tests are designed to assess the dogs' self-confidence level, since only extremely confident dogs will be able to deal with the pressure of guiding instruction. If a dog passes the tests, it begins the training program right away.

Different schools have different programs, but typically, training will last four to five months. To make sure the dogs master all the complex guide skills, the instructors have to introduce them to each idea gradually. Once they have introduced what is expected of the dog, training is essentially a matter of rewarding correct performance and punishing incorrect performance. This works with dogs because they are pack animals and have a natural need to please an authority figure. The instructor, or later the handler, is simply stepping into the place of the alpha dog, the leader of the pack.

Unlike ordinary obedience training, guide dog training does not use food as a reward for good performance. This is because a guide dog must be able to work around food without being distracted by it. Instead, instructors use praise or other reward systems to encourage correct performance. The standard means of correction is pulling on the dogs leash, so that it pulls a training collar, giving the dog a slight pinch(捏，掐).Using this basic reward/punishment system, instructors work through the necessary skills for guiding.

Forming a Team

The final stage of a guide dog's training is learning to work with its new master. Guide dog training schools work very hard to match handlers with guide dogs according to the compatibility of their personalities. A very energetic dog typically does well with a young handler, while an older handler may need an especially careful partner. Schools often have a special gathering to commemorate the time when a new class of guide dogs finally meets their masters. Often, the dogs' puppy raiser attends and meets with the new master as well. This is perhaps the most emotional time in the entire training process.

After this introduction, guide dog instructors typically spend a month helping the new team learn to work together. Many schools have dormitories for the handlers to stay in during this final stage of training.

If the handler has never used a guide dog before, a lot of the instructors work at this point are actually people training, not dog training. The handler has to learn to read the dogs movements, so he or she knows when the dog is turning or when the dog is stopping for a crosswalk or stairs. Additionally, the handler has to learn all the commands the dog knows, and must get some practice walking with the dog. The dog has to make the transition from obeying the instructor to recognizing the handler as its new master. The handler and the dog spend a lot of this time just getting to know each other, so that they are comfortable enough to work as a team. By the time they graduate from the guide dog school, they can read each others every movement.

1. When a handler and a guide dog walk on the street________,­          .

A) the handler must walk straight                 B) the dog must try to walk straight

C) both the handler and the dog should walk straight  D) neither of them has to walk straight

2. Like other dogs, guide dogs          any command from the handler.

A) are supposed to ignore                       B) are not supposed to ignore

C) are supposed to obey                        D) are not supposed to obey

3. Which of the following statements is not true?

A) The handler and the dog must work very closely together.

B) Dogs cannot distinguish the color of traffic lights.

C) If there is any danger at crosswalks, a guide dog should notify the handler.

D) If there is no danger, the dog proceeds across the road in a straight line.

4. In the work, guide dogs will enjoy        .

A) the fun common dogs have                   B) their work a lot

C) the fun and praise common dogs have           D) the satisfaction

5. When you see a guide dog work very well, the best thing you can do for it is to      .

A) praise it       B) reward it     C) leave it alone     D) feed it

6. A guide dog tells the time of play apart from that of work by      .

A) the handler's command                     B) its lead harness

C) the handler's whistle                       D) its instinct

7. When a puppy dog grows up, it is evaluated at the guide dog school to see        .

A) if it is suited for guiding                    B) if it is ready for guiding

C) if it is suited for breeding                   D) if it is suited for training

8. Different from ordinary obedience training, guide dog training introduces praise or other reward systems instead of         .

9. At the end of training, the guide dog school will make sure that the dogs work well with     .

10. Before graduation, the handler and the guide dog should spend time learning to read      .

参考答案及解析：

Part Ⅱ     Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)

本文首先介绍了导盲犬如何帮助失明或视力很弱的人外出活动，接着讲了导盲犬在工作中和工作后的不同表现，然后着重叙述了选拔导盲犬及其训练过程，最后交代了导盲犬学校要根据人与导盲犬各自的个性将他们进行搭配，直到导盲犬和盲人完全了解对方的动作时，导盲犬才可以从学校毕业。

1.  B)

【定位】由题干关键词a guide dog可将答案定位至第一个标题下第一段第三句：To do this, a guide dog must know how to keep on a direct route, ignoring distractions such as smells, other animals and people.

【解析】原文指出，一条导盲犬在导盲时必须知道如何做到保持一条直达的路线，不被别的气味、动物或者人吸引。文中的keep on a direct route与选项B)中的walk straight 属于同义转述，且都指的是导盲犬的行为，故答案为B)。

2.  D)

【定位】由题干关键词any command可将答案定位至第一个标题下第二段第一句：Additionally, a guide dog must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger.

【解析】本句指出，对于那些会给主人带来危险的命令，导盲犬必须学会不服从。题干中的any command指任何命令，显然过于绝对化了，与本句相矛盾，故D)为正确答案。

3.  C)

【定位】由各选项中的关键词可将答案定位至第一个标题下第三段。

【解析】该段并没有提及notify the handler的相关信息。所以答案是C)。

4.  B)

【定位】由题干关键词guide dogs will enjoy可将答案定位至第二个标题下第一段第一句：Guide dogs enjoy their work immensely, and they get a lot of satisfaction from a job well done, but there is no room for typical dog fun during the work day.

【解析】原文表明，导盲犬非常热爱它们的工作，会从做好工作中得到很强的满足感，因此它们真正enjoy的是工作本身，即答案B),而选项D)的satisfaction是由做好本职工作而产生的感觉，并不是它们enjoy的直接对象。

5.  C)

【定位】由题干关键词guide dog work, the best thing可将答案定位至第二个标题下第二段第三句：People are very impressed with guide dogs and so we have a natural inclination to praise them, but the best thing you can do to help a guide dog is to leave it alone...

【解析】本句表明对待导盲犬最好的方式就是不要在它工作的时候打扰它，这样它便可以把全部的注意力放在观察周围环境和主人身上，故正确答案为C)。

6.  B)

【定位】由题干关键词play和work可将答案定位至第二个标题下最后一段第二句：Guide dogs make the distinction between work and play based on their lead harness.

【解析】原文表明导盲犬是靠它们的挽具来区分工作还是休息的。本题题干中的tells与原文中的make the distinction是同义转述，表示区分,题干中的by对应原文中的based on,故根据原文，得出答案为B)。

7.  D)

【定位】由题干关键词evaluated at the guide dog school可将答案定位至第三个标题下第二段第一句：In some schools, if a dog is suited for training but not quite ready, it may go back...

【解析】原文表明，在一些学校，如果一条狗很适合接受导盲训练但没有准备好，它可能会被送回到幼犬饲养人那里再长几个月或者直到成年，由此得出，学校要看小狗各方面适不适合接受训练以来决定是否留下它并将其训练成导盲犬，故D)为正确答案。

8.  food

【定位】由题干关键词Different from ordinary obedience training,可将答案定位至第三个标题下末段首句：Unlike ordinary obedience training, guide dog training does not use food as a reward for good performance.

【解析】此处需要填入名词来做介词instead of的宾语，表示不用...来作为奖励。原文中指出，训练导盲犬不能以食物来作为其良好表现的奖励，后面又指明了原因，因为导盲犬必须能够在周围都是食物的地方工作而不会因为食物分心，因此填入答案为food。

9.  the new masters

【定位】由题干关键词At the end of training可将答案定位至第四个标题下首段首句：The final stage of a guide dogs training is learning to work with its new master.

【解析】此处应填入名词性成分，作介词with的宾语，原文指出，作为导盲犬训练的最后阶段就是学习与主人一起配合好，一起合作。由于题干中从句的主语为复数the dogs,因此此处应填入the new masters。

10.  each other's every movement