Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
France might be described as an "all-round" country, one that has achieved results of equalimportance in many diverse branches of artistic and intellectual activity. Most of great nations of Europe excel (胜过) in some special branch of art or of thought, Italy in the plastic arts, Germany in philosophy and music, England in poetry and the sciences. France, on the contrary, has produced philosophers, musicians, painters, scientists, without any noticeable specialization of her effort. The French ideal has always been the man who has a good all-round knowledge better still, an all-round understanding; it is the ideal of general culture as opposed to specialization. This is the ideal reflected in the education France provides for her children. By studying this education we in England may learn a few things useful to ourselves even though, perhaps indeed because, the French system is very different from our own in its aims, its organization and its results. The French child, too, the raw material of this education, is unlike the English child and differences in the raw material may well account for differences in the processes employed.
The French child, boy or girl, gives one the impression of being intellectually more precocious(早熟的) than the product of the chillier English climate. This precocity is encouraged by his upbringing among adults, not in a nursery. English parents readily adapt their conversation to the child's point of view and interest themselves more in his games and childish preoccupations. The English are, as regards national character, younger than the French, or, to put it another way, there is in England no deep division between the life of the child and that of the grown man. The art of talking to children in the kind of language they understand is so much an English art that most of the French children's favorite books are translations from the English. French parents, on the other hand, do their best to develop the child's intelligence as rapidly as possible. They have little patience with childish ideas even if they do not go so far as to look upon childhood as an unfortunate but necessary prelude (序言) to adult life. Not that they need to force the child, for he usually leads himself willingly to the process, and enjoys the effect of his unexpectedly clever remarks and of his keen judgment of men and things. It is not without significance that the French mother instead of appealing to the child's heart by asking him to be good appeals to his reason by asking him to be wise. Reasonableness is looked for early in France, and the age of reason is fixed at seven years.
The author considers that France ______.
A. specialized in the ideal of general culture
B. favors the ideal of general culture
C. is a specialist country as compared with other countries.
D. cannot help being a specialist country
听力原文:W: Shall I pay you or the cashier in front?
M: Whoever you like to.
What does the man mean?
(17)
A. The woman can pay either person.
B. The woman should buy the one she prefers.
C. He likes the same one that the woman does.
D. He will talk to the cashier in front.
听力原文:W: Were you able to use the book that Dr. Hopkins put on reserve for our homework?
M: No, I wasn't, it's a mystery to me why the library closed early.
What does the man mean?
(14)
A. The library no longer had the book on reserve.
B. The homework assignment wasn't clear.
C. The professor had chosen a mystery book for him instead.
D. The library closed earlier than he'd expected.
W: Well, your professor should have the authority to get something done about it.
What does the woman advise the man to do?
(15)
A. To ask the professor to be a bit considerate next time.
B. To authorize the professor to deal with the problem.
C. To ask the professor to deliver a speech.
D. To report the problem to the professor.