GRE之OG2閱讀真題整理

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Passage 11

Nineteenth-century architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc contended that Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral, built primarily in the late twelfth century, was supported from the very beginning by a system of flying buttresses — a series of exterior arches (flyers) and their supports (buttresses) — which permitted the construction of taller vaulted buildings with slimmer walls and interior supports than had been possible previously. Other commentators insist, however, that Notre-Dame did not have flying buttresses until the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when they were added to update the building aesthetically and correct its structural flaws. Although post-twelfth-century modifications and renovations complicate efforts to resolve this controversy — all pre-fifteenth-century flyers have been replaced, and the buttresses have been rebuilt and/or resurfaced — it is nevertheless possible to tell that both the nave and the choir, the church’s two major parts, have always had flying buttresses. It is clear, now that nineteenth-century paint and plaster have been removed, that the nave’s lower buttresses date from the twelfth century. Moreover, the choir’s lower flyers have chevron (zigzag) decoration. Chevron decoration, which was characteristic of the second half of the twelfth century and was out of favor by the fourteenth century, is entirely absent from modifications to the building that can be dated with confidence to the thirteenth century.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with

A. tracing the development of a controversy

B. discussing obstacles to resolving a controversy

C. arguing in support of one side in a controversy

D. analyzing the assumptions underlying the claims made in a controversy

E. explaining why evidence relevant to a controversy has been overlooked

2. The claim of the “other commentators” (line 6) suggests that they believe which of the following about Notre-Dame?

A. It was the inspiration for many vaulted cathedrals built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

B. Its design flaws were not apparent until flying buttresses were added in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

C. Its flying buttresses are embellished with decoration characteristic of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

D. It had been modified in some respects before flying buttresses were added in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

E. It was originally constructed in an architectural style that was considered outmoded by the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

3. The author’s argument concerning Notre-Dame’s flying buttresses depends on which of the following assumptions about the choir’s lower flyers?

A. They accurately reproduce the decoration on the choir’s original lower flyers.

B. They have a type of decoration used exclusively for exterior surfaces.

C. They were the models for the choir’s original upper flyers.

D. They were the models for the nave’s original lower flyers.

E. They were constructed after the nave’s flyers were constructed.

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Passage 15

According to the conventional view, serfdom in nineteenth-century Russia inhibited economic growth. In this view Russian peasants’ status as serfs kept them poor through burdensome taxes in cash, in labor, and in kind; through restrictions on mobility; and through various forms of coercion. Melton, however, argues that serfdom was perfectly compatible with economic growth, because many Russian serfs were able to get around landlords’ rules and regulations. If serfs could pay for passports, they were usually granted permission to leave the estate. If they could pay the fine, they could establish a separate household; and if they had the resources, they could hire laborers to cultivate the communal lands, while they themselves engaged in trade or worked as migrant laborers in cities.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that the “rules and regulations” (lines 9-10) affecting serfdom in Russia involved

A. responsibility for the work needed to accomplish certain defined tasks

B. restrictions on freedom of movement

C. limitations on the ability to set up an independent household

2. The sentence “If serfs … estate” (lines 10-11) has which of the following functions in the passage?

A. It provides support for an argument presented in the preceding sentence.

B. It provides evidence that helps undermine a view introduced in the first sentence.

C. It raises a question that the succeeding sentence will resolve.

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Passage 12

The average temperature of the lobster-rich waters off the coast of Foerkland has been increasing for some years. In warmer water, lobsters grow faster. In particular, lobster larvae take less time to reach the size at which they are no longer vulnerable to predation by young cod, the chief threat to their survival. Consequently, the survival rate of lobster larvae must be going up, and the lobster population in Foerkland’s coastal waters is bound to increase.

1. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. There are indications that in recent years the fishing fleet operating off the coast of Foerkland has been taking cod at an unsustainably high rate.

B. The increase in water temperatures off Foerkland has not been as pronounced as the increase in average soil temperatures in Foerkland.

C. Because of their speeded-up growth, lobsters now get large enough to be legal catch before they reach reproductive maturity.

D. Even though lobsters grow faster in warmer waters, warmer waters have no effect on the maximum size to which a lobster can eventually grow.

E. Cod are a cold-water species, and the increasing water temperatures have caused a northward shift in Foerkland’s cod population.

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Passage 13

Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition, an approach that had been in hibernation in the United States during the 1960s, composer Philip Glass (born 1937) embraced the ethos of popular music without imitating it. Glass based two symphonies on music by rock musicians David Bowie and Brian Eno, but the symphonies’ sound is distinctively his. Popular elements do not appear out of place in Glass’s classical music, which from its early days has shared certain harmonies and rhythms with rock music. Yet this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music. His music is not a version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners; it is high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics.

1. The passage addresses which of the following issues related to Glass’s use of popular elements in his classical compositions?

A. How it is regarded by listeners who prefer rock to the classics

B. How it has affected the commercial success of Glass’s music

C. Whether it has contributed to a revival of interest among other composers in using popular elements in their compositions

D. Whether it has had a detrimental effect on Glass’s reputation as a composer of classical music

E. Whether it has caused certain of Glass’s works to be derivative in quality

2. The passage suggests that Glass’s work displays which of the following qualities?

A. A return to the use of popular music in classical compositions

B. An attempt to elevate rock music to an artistic status more closely approximating that of classical music

C. A long-standing tendency to incorporate elements from two apparently disparate musical styles

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Passage 14

In Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry does not reject integration or the economic and moral promise of the American dream; rather, she remains loyal to this dream while looking, realistically, at its incomplete realization. Once we recognize this dual vision, we can accept the play’s ironic nuances as deliberate social commentaries by Hansberry rather than as the “unintentional” irony that Bigsby attributes to the work. Indeed, a curiously persistent refusal to credit Hansberry with a capacity for intentional irony has led some critics to interpret the play’s thematic conflicts as mere confusion, contradiction, or eclecticism. Isaacs, for example, cannot easily reconcile Hansberry’s intense concern for her race with her ideal of human reconciliation. But the play’s complex view of Black self-esteem and human solidarity as compatible is no more “contradictory” than Du Bois’ famous, well-considered ideal of ethnic self-awareness coexisting with human unity, or Fanon’s emphasis on an ideal internationalism that also accommodates national identities and roles.

1. The author of the passage would probably consider which of the following judgments to be most similar to the reasoning of the critics mentioned in line 11?

A. The world is certainly flat; therefore, the person proposing to sail around it is unquestionably foolhardy.

B. Radioactivity cannot be directly perceived; therefore, a scientist could not possibly control it in a laboratory.

C. The painter of this picture could not intend it to be funny; therefore, its humor must result from a lack of skill.

D. Traditional social mores are beneficial to culture; therefore, anyone who deviates from them acts destructively.

E. Filmmakers who produce documentaries deal exclusively with facts; therefore, a filmmaker who reinterprets particular events is misleading us.

2. In which sentence of the passage does the author provide examples that reinforce an argument against a critical response cited earlier in the passage?

A. The first sentence (“In Raisin…realization”)

B. The second sentence ( Once we…work”)

C. The third sentence (“Indeed…eclecticism”)

D. The fourth sentence (“Isaacs…reconciliation”)

E. The fifth sentence (“But the…roles”)

3. In the context in which it appears, “realization” (line 5) most nearly means

A. understanding

B. accomplishment

C. depiction

D. recognition

E. discovery