Ⅱ.Reading comprehension(2×15=30) (1) Numberless public housing blocks grace the Singapore sky-line. These public housing units provide homes for more than 70 per cent of Singapore’s population. The old Singapore with its two-storey Chinese shophouses and idyllic Malay thatched roof or kampung houses is very quickly disappearing. Every day, more and more people are resettling in blocks of simply designed flats. These are concentrated in a dozen new towns scattered all over the island. The new towns are, in fact, large housing estates, well-spaced from one another. They are self-contained in terms of recreational and leisure facilities. Schools, markets, shops, clinics, car-parks and other amenities are all within walking distance. The public housing programme in Singapore was launched more than 50 years ago with the setting up of the Singapore Improvement Trust. The shortage of funds, however, prevented it from making progress. About 30 years later, the Housing Development Board was formed. This marked the beginning of a successful public housing scheme. Today, the Housing Development Board constructs and buids a large variety of flats. They range from simple one-roomed flats to luxurious air-conditioned ones. This is to cater for the different income groups. The latest statistics show that the majority of these flats are owner-occupied. This is a result of the home-ownership scheme, which grants large loans with repayment spread over 20 years, at low interest rates. Through this scheme, many tenants have been able to buy the flats and become owners. Carrying out the building projects has not been an easy task for the Housing Development Board. Besides labour and material shortages, there are also problems of a different nature. Some squatters and slum-dwellers are reluctant to quit their old homes for new flats, complaining of high rentals. Tradition-minded shopkeepers in the city also show reluctance towards resettlement. They believe that luck and prosperity is attached to their residence no matter how dilapidated its state is. However, in spite of these problems, the Housing Development Board has achieved its primary objective of solving the housing problem. 21. A large number of Singaporeans live____________. A. along the coast B. in public housing units C. in rubber estates D. in kampung houses 22. The new towns are located____________. A. all over the island B. along the coast C. in the city center D. in the small village 23. If the residents of a new town want to do some shopping, they____________. A. must go to a larger town B. can do it within their own town C. cannot go to other towns D. must ask the government for help 24. The public housing program was successful because of____________. A. the Singapore Improvement Trust B. the new town’s housing policy C. the Housing Development Board D. the tradition-minded shopkeepers 25. All of the following account for the difficulty in carrying out the building projects except____________. A. the Housing Development Board lacks money and labor B. some residents complain that the rentals are too high C. residents are aided by the home-ownership scheme D. shopkeepers do not want to leave their old houses (2) A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics, and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors—or of people very different from our own—can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books. In history books, objective in formation about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martinez—depicted these Mexican artists’ deep anger and sadness about social problems. In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic(伊斯兰教的)belief that statues are unholy. 26. More can be learned about a culture from a study of art history than general history because art history____________. A. shows us the religious and emotions of a people in addition to political values B. provides us with information about the daily activities of people in the past C. gives us an insight into the essential qualities of a time and a place D. all of the above 27. Art is subjective in that____________. A. a personal and emotional view of history is presented through it B. it can easily rouse our anger or sadness about social problems C. it will find a ready echo in our hearts D. both B and C 28. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?____________ A. Unlike Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso and several Mexican artists expressed their political opinions in their paintings. B. History books often reveal the compilers’ political views. C. Religious art remained in Europe for centuries the only type of art because most people regarded the Bible as the Holy Book. D. In the Middle East even today you can hardly find any human and animal figures on palaces or other buildings. 29. The passage is mainly discussing____________. A. the difference between general history and art history B. the making of art history C. what we can learn from art D. the influence of artists on art history 30. It may be concluded from this passage that____________. A. Islamic artists have had to create architectural decoration with images of flowers or geometric forms B. history teachers are more objective than artists C. it is more difficult to study art history than general history D. people and stories from the Bible were painted on churches and other buildings in order to popularize the Bible (3) Macau’s Handover pavilion—constructed specially for the one-hour ceremony on the evening of December 19—is to remain in place for “at least three to five years”, according to the Director of the Handover Ceremony Coordination Office, Engineer Joao Costa Antunes. “We will leave the building as it is until around mid-April,” Mr. Antunes told Macau Travel Talk. “That way people will have the opportunity to see for themselves the surroundings in which the ceremony took place. Those who saw the event on television will be able to go and take in the flavor of what it was like, to see the facilities and to take their own photographs.” For the next two months visitors can also view a major exhibition of the 33 gifts presented to Macau during the Handover as a good-will gesture by provincial authorities, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland. Work will begin at the end of April to make the pavilion interior suitable for multi-propose exhibitions and conventions capable of accommodating more than 2,500 people. Mr. Antunes said Macau could make good use of the facility which covers over 6,000 square meters, with a roof height equivalent to that of a 10-storey building. The pavilion, built as a temporary facility at a cost of about HK$66 million, is within the garden area of Macau’s Cultural Center. The current exhibition of gifts from China includes a replica of a golden lotus flower in full bloom, the original of which now stands in the new commemorative garden in front of the Tourism Activities Center. The 6.5-ton statue of gilded bronze, on a base of 23 pieces of red granite, was presented by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong gave Macau a tapestry hand-made from over 300 million pieces of woolen yarn of more than 100 different colors. One of the biggest gifts, from the people of Jilin Province, is a 400-kilogram carving made from the root of a 100-year-old tree. An outline of the Summer Palace on a delicately carved lacquer plate, from the Municipality of Beijing, is linked to Macau’s A-Ma Temple by the new Macau-Taipa Bridge, reflecting the strong ties between the two places. |