Part A: Reading Comprehension
Directions: Read the following text. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)
Text 3
The pioneers of wireless saw it as a gift to all the people. Sir John Reith said that it would end “isolation of the spirit” and rejoiced: “It does not matter how many thousands may be listening, there is always enough for others … the genius and the fool, the wealthy and the poor listen simultaneously.”
Between two great wars this technological innovation built a new kind of national consciousness. Opening this week, a book and exhibition curated by Beatty Rubens at the Bodleian in Oxford records how radio changed everyday life from 1922 to 1939. She draws on letters, diaries and fiction, and a 1939 field notebook of verbatim audience research by Winifred Gill.
There’s fun in testimonies of people enjoying the sheer newness. A cartoon mocks a group failing to converse because they’re all in headphones. People report that broadcast music made workmen whistle new tunes. A woman says there have been fewer street fights since the arrival of the wireless but also less stopping and “talking on the brush handle”.
By and large the wireless was welcome. I loved the man from the Thirties research who found that wireless suddenly offered “a lot of variety …things I thought I’d never be interested in …ice hockey perhaps”. True: for more than 80 pre-digital years, linear speech broadcasting brought the gift of serendipity, random enlivening of a car journey or dull manual task. In my own book about radio I recorded how, on one drive: “I caught up with the news, learnt some 17thcentury history, and was startlingly educated by an unpretentious programme on the history of the stethoscope.”
But radio’s enriching serendipity is ebbing. With multiple networks and countless podcasts, a smartphone user selects what to hear and when. And while it is wonderful to take a walk with anything in your headphones, infinite choice encourages us to shrink into niche interests and sympathetic beliefs.
A hundred years on from Marconi and Reith, is the art of mere listening endangered? Some will say the audiobook boom revives it, though I suppose you can then worry about the decline of reading. But inventions shape all of us and it is worth noticing when techno-social habits do change, and asking whether to control them a bit or shield the youngest. Whatever we do, innovation will happen. Today we fret about the isolating culture of smartphone-staring and selfie-vanity, but already in 1939 there was that lady regretting how, when all her street got wirelesses, it lost the neighbourly habit of “talking on the brush handle”. It’s enough to make a person put down the smartphone and go out front with a yard broom.
31. What can be learnt about wireless from Sir John Reith?
32. What is the theme of the exhibition at the Bodleian in Oxford?
33. It is indicated in Paragraph 4 that
34. The expression “talking on the brush handle” in Paragraphs 3 and 6 refers to the act of
35. In the last paragraph, the author intends to express the opinion that
答案与解析 (Answers)
31. [A] It was accessible to everyone.
解析：第一段中 Sir John Reith 表示，不论有多少千万人在听，总有足够的资源给其他人，“天才和傻瓜、富人和穷人同时收听（the genius and the fool, the wealthy and the poor listen simultaneously）”。这说明无线电对所有人都是开放的、平等的（accessible to everyone），选A。
32. [A] The impact of radio on its early audience.
解析：第二段提到，这本在牛津博德利图书馆策划的展览记录了“无线电如何改变1922年到1939年的日常生活（how radio changed everyday life from 1922 to 1939）”。选项 A“无线电对其早期听众的影响”是对这句的准确同义替换。
33. [C] radio listeners could make unexpected gains.
解析：第四段的核心词是“serendipity（机缘巧合/意外发现的惊喜）”。作者提到听众能听到以前认为不会感兴趣的东西（如冰球），而且作者自己在开车时偶然学到了17世纪的历史和关于听诊器的知识。这都说明广播听众能够获得“意想不到的收获（unexpected gains）”，选C。
34. [B] having a casual chat.
解析：第三段提到无线电出现后，“停下来并‘talking on the brush handle（靠在扫帚柄上说话）’”的情况变少了。最后一段再次提到这种行为是“睦邻的习惯（neighbourly habit）”。想象一下，邻居们打扫卫生时停下来靠着扫帚柄，这显然是在“随意聊天（having a casual chat）”，而不是大声喧哗或争吵，选B。
35. [D] people should adopt a sensible attitude to innovations.
解析：最后一段作者总结，发明塑造了我们所有人，值得注意的是“技术-社会习惯”确实会发生改变，我们要思考是控制它们还是保护年轻人。作者指出“不管我们做什么，创新都会发生”，今天我们为智能手机和自拍发愁，但早在1939年就有人为收音机带来的孤立发愁。这告诉我们，技术创新总是伴随习惯的改变，人们应该采取“理智的态度（sensible attitude）”来看待创新，而不必过度恐慌，选D。
核心长难句精解 (Highlighted Sentences)
1. 宾语从句的嵌套与对比：
"Sir John Reith said that it would end “isolation of the spirit” and rejoiced: “It does not matter how many thousands may be listening, there is always enough for others … the genius and the fool, the wealthy and the poor listen simultaneously.”"
【解析】that 引导 said 的宾语从句。在 rejoiced 后的引语中，It does not matter（...不要紧），how 引导主语从句作形式主语 it 的真正主语。
【翻译】约翰·里斯爵士表示，它将结束“精神的孤立”，并欣喜地说：“不管可能有多少千万人在收听，总是有足够的资源留给其他人……天才与傻瓜、富人与穷人都在同时收听。”
"Sir John Reith said that it would end “isolation of the spirit” and rejoiced: “It does not matter how many thousands may be listening, there is always enough for others … the genius and the fool, the wealthy and the poor listen simultaneously.”"
【解析】that 引导 said 的宾语从句。在 rejoiced 后的引语中，It does not matter（...不要紧），how 引导主语从句作形式主语 it 的真正主语。
【翻译】约翰·里斯爵士表示，它将结束“精神的孤立”，并欣喜地说：“不管可能有多少千万人在收听，总是有足够的资源留给其他人……天才与傻瓜、富人与穷人都在同时收听。”
2. 复杂的同位语结构：
"True: for more than 80 pre-digital years, linear speech broadcasting brought the gift of serendipity, random enlivening of a car journey or dull manual task."
【解析】逗号后面的 random enlivening... 是对前面 serendipity（意外发现的惊喜）的同位语解释。说明这种惊喜就是在汽车旅途或枯燥体力活中的“随机的活跃/点缀”。
【翻译】确实如此：在数字化时代之前的80多年里，线性语音广播带来了机缘巧合的礼物——对汽车旅途或枯燥体力劳作的随机点缀。
"True: for more than 80 pre-digital years, linear speech broadcasting brought the gift of serendipity, random enlivening of a car journey or dull manual task."
【解析】逗号后面的 random enlivening... 是对前面 serendipity（意外发现的惊喜）的同位语解释。说明这种惊喜就是在汽车旅途或枯燥体力活中的“随机的活跃/点缀”。
【翻译】确实如此：在数字化时代之前的80多年里，线性语音广播带来了机缘巧合的礼物——对汽车旅途或枯燥体力劳作的随机点缀。
3. 并列宾语从句与时间状语从句：
"But inventions shape all of us and it is worth noticing when techno-social habits do change, and asking whether to control them a bit or shield the youngest."
【解析】it is worth doing sth（值得做某事）。句中有两个并列的动名词短语作 worth 的宾语：noticing 和 asking。在 noticing 后，when 引导宾语从句（这里也可理解为时间状语，即在...时候注意）。在 asking 后，whether 引导宾语从句。
【翻译】但是发明塑造了我们所有人，当“技术-社会习惯”确实发生改变时，这是值得我们注意的，同时值得我们去思考：是应该稍微控制一下这些习惯，还是应该去保护最年轻的一代。
"But inventions shape all of us and it is worth noticing when techno-social habits do change, and asking whether to control them a bit or shield the youngest."
【解析】it is worth doing sth（值得做某事）。句中有两个并列的动名词短语作 worth 的宾语：noticing 和 asking。在 noticing 后，when 引导宾语从句（这里也可理解为时间状语，即在...时候注意）。在 asking 后，whether 引导宾语从句。
【翻译】但是发明塑造了我们所有人，当“技术-社会习惯”确实发生改变时，这是值得我们注意的，同时值得我们去思考：是应该稍微控制一下这些习惯，还是应该去保护最年轻的一代。