Section C: Reading Comprehension

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 and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping—where you hand over notes and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go.

At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don't go and stand at any kind of cash register, when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa. Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. But earning money isn't quick or easy for most of us. Isn't it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink of an eye? Doesn't a wallet—that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something that matters?

What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smart phone or an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as a pebble. Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.

46. What is happening to the wallet?

A) It is disappearing.

B) It is being fattened.

C) It is becoming costly.

D) It is changing in style.

47. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?

A) Individually.

B) Electronically.

C) In the abstract.

D) Via a cash register.

48. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?

A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.

B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading.

C) Earning money is getting more difficult.

D) Spending money is so fast and easy.

49. Why does the author choose to write about what's happening to the wallet?

A) It represents a change in the modern world.

B) It has something to do with everybody's life.

C) It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition.

D) It is the concern of contemporary economists.

50. What can we infer from the passage about the author?

A) He is resistant to social changes.

B) He is against technological progress.

C) He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.

D) He feels insecure in the ever-changing modern world.

Passage Two

It's late in the evening: time to close the book and turn off the computer. You're done for the day. What you may not realize, however, is that the learning process actually continues—in your dreams.

Researchers are increasingly focusing on the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the day and the fragmented, often bizarre imaginings they generate at night. Scientists have found that dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved performance in that activity. What's more, researchers are coming to recognize that dreaming is an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.

While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls a neural virtual reality. A vivid example: researchers taught a series of dance moves to patients with sleepwalking. They then videotaped the subjects. Lying in bed, eyes closed, one female patient performs the dance moves she learned earlier.

This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what's important from the information we've recently encountered, then integrating that data into the vast store of what we already know. In a 2010 study, researchers at Harvard reported that students who dreamed about a computer maze task showed a 10-fold improvement in their ability to find their way compared with participants who did not dream about the task.

Robert Stickgold suggests that studying right before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session might increase the odds of dreaming about the material. Think about that as your head hits the pillow tonight.

51. What is scientists' finding about dreaming?

A) It involves disconnected, weird images.

B) It resembles fragments of science fiction.

C) Dreaming about a learned task betters its performance.

D) Dreaming about things being learned disturbs one's sleep.

52. What happens when one enters a dream state?

A) The body continues to act as if the sleeper were awake.

B) The neural activity of the brain will become intensified.

C) The brain behaves as if it were playing a virtual reality video game.

D) The brain once again experiences the learning activities of the day.

53. What does the brain do while we are sleeping?

A) It systematizes all the data collected during the day.

B) It substitutes old information with new data.

C) It processes and absorbs newly acquired data.

D) It classifies information and places it in different files.

54. What does Robert Stickgold suggest about enhancing learning?

A) Having a little sleep after studying in the day.

B) Staying up late before going to bed.

C) Having a dream about anything.

D) Thinking about the odds of dreaming about the material.

55. What can be inferred about dreaming from the passage?

A) We may enhance our learning through dreaming.

B) Dreaming improves your language ability.

C) All sleepwalkers perform dance moves when they are sleeping.

D) Taking a nap after learning can help you find the way through the maze.

Answers & Explanations

Passage One: The Vanishing Wallet

46. A。题干问钱包现在的处境。首段第一句 The wallet is heading for extinction（钱包正走向灭绝）直接对应选项 A (It is disappearing 正在消失)。

47. B。题干问大型现代商店如何交易。第二段指出员工配备 iPads 收款（take your payment），这属于 Electronically（电子化）交易，故选 B。

48. D。题干问作者为何感到不适。第三段中作者抱怨赚钱不易，但 spending it should happen in half a blink of an eye（花钱却在半眨眼间发生），觉得这有点怪异，对应选项 D (花钱太快太容易)。

49. A。题干问作者写钱包消失的原因。第四段首句 What bothers me... is the change it represents in our physical environment（让我困扰的是它代表了我们物理环境的改变），对应选项 A (代表了现代世界的改变)。

50. C。题干问关于作者的推断。作者在文中表达了对钱包消失的不安（makes me uneasy），并怀念周五晚上钱包鼓鼓的感觉（time-honoured feeling），说明他很不舍得放弃传统钱包，对应选项 C (reluctant to part with the traditional wallet)。

Passage Two: Learning in Your Dreams

51. C。题干问科学家的发现。第二段指出 dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved performance（梦见学过的任务与表现提升相关），直接对应选项 C (betters its performance)。

52. D。题干问进入梦境时会发生什么。第三段指出 the brain replays the patterns of activity experienced during waking hours（大脑会重放醒着时的活动模式），对应选项 D (再次经历白天的学习活动)。

53. C。题干问睡觉时大脑在做什么。第四段指出 brains are drawing what's important... then integrating that data（提取重要信息并整合数据），对应选项 C (处理和吸收新获取的数据)。

54. A。题干问 Robert Stickgold 关于提升学习的建议。最后一段他指出 taking a nap following a study session might increase the odds（学习后小睡可能增加几率），对应选项 A (白天学习后小睡一会儿)。

55. A。题干问从文章中能推断出什么。全文核心主旨都在强调梦境（dreaming）能继续学习过程（learning process continues）并提升表现，因此推断出我们能通过做梦来增强学习，对应选项 A (enhance our learning through dreaming)。