高考英语二轮专题复习 提分训练“阅读理解”文学艺术类(真题,含

2014高考英语二轮专题复习提分训练“阅读理解”文学艺术类（2012

年真题，含解析）

Passage 1 （2011?山东卷? A）

Arthur Miller (1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller’s father had moved to the USA from Austria-Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream.” However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early l930s.

Miller’s most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cr uel wo rld of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can’t do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what t o do with his lack of success. He refuses to fac e the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.

When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Aw ard for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.

Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.

56. Why did Arthur Miller’s father move to the USA?

A. He suffered from severe hunger in his home country.

B. He was attracted by the “Great American Dream”.

C. He hoped to make his son a dramatist.

D. His family business failed.

57. The play Death of a Salesman ________.

A. exposes the cruelty of the American business world

B. discusses the ways to get promoted in a company

C. talks about the business career of Arthur Miller

D. focuses on the skills in doing business

58. What can we learn about Willy Loman?

A. He treats his employer badly.

B. He runs the Wagner Company.

C. He is a victim of the American system.

D. He is regarded as a hero by his colleagues.

59. After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman ________.

A. achieved huge success

B. won the first Tony Award

C. was warmly welcomed by salesmen

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D. was severely attacked by dramatists

60. What is the text mainly about?

A. Arthur Miller and his family.

B. The awards Arthur Miller won.

C. The hardship Arthur Miller experienced.

D. Arthur Miller and his best-known play.

【文章大意】本文为记叙文，介绍了美国著名的剧作家阿瑟·米勒的生平及由他创作的《推销员之死》在美国戏剧界所取得的巨大成功。

56.【解析】选B。细节理解题。从文章第一段中的Miller’s father had moved to the USA from Austria-Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream.”可知，和许多人一样，是美国梦吸引米勒的父亲到美国。

57.【解析】选A。细节理解题。从第二段的…is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth.可知，米勒所写的这部戏剧抨击了美国社会制度，那种掠夺式的商业模式，那种对金钱的贪欲，以及那种以人的社会地位作为成功标志的价值观，这部戏剧在教育人们审视美国国民的价值观，重新审视所谓“美国梦”的价值。

58.【解析】选C。推理判断题。从第二段对《推销员之死》这部戏剧的简要描述中可知，主人公威利·洛曼耗尽了一生，对公司没有用了，他只能走人，最后不能接受失败的事实而自杀的后果，而这一切都是美国社会制度造成的恶果，故他是这个制度的牺牲品。

59.【解析】选A。推理判断题。从文章第三段可知，《推销员之死》在首度公演之后，受到了人们热情的好评，也同时获得美国三个著名的文学奖项，由此它获得了巨大的成功。

60.【解析】选D。主旨大意题。本文的第一段和最后一段介绍米勒的生平，而二、三段介绍了他的戏剧《推销员之死》以及这部戏剧所取得的巨大成功，故D项正确。

Passage 2 （2011?湖北卷? D）

Feeling blue about the world? “Cheer up,” says sci ence writer Matt Ridley. “The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and for nature.”

Ridley calls himself a rational optimist—rational，because he’s carefully weighed the evidence；optimistic，because that evidence shows human progress to be both unavoidable and good .And this is what he’s set out to prove from a unique point of view in his most recent book. The Rational Optimist. He views mankind as a grand enterprise that，on the whole, has done little but progress for 100,000 years. He backs his findings with hard facts gathered through years of research.

Here’s how he explains his views.

1)Shopping fuels invention

It is reported that there are more than ten billion different products for sale in London alone. Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty, our own generation has access to more nutritious food, more convenient transport, bigger houses, better cars, and, of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us .This will continue as long as we use these things to make other things. The more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be.

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2) Brilliant advances

One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer-lived and freer than ever before is that the four most basic human needs—food, clothing, fuel and shelter—have grown a lot cheaper. Take one example. In 1800 a candle providing one hour’s light cost s ix hou rs’ work. In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for. In 1950 it was eight seconds. Today it’s half second.

3) Let’s not kill ourselves for climate change

Mitigating(减轻) climate change could prove just as damaging to human welfar …… 此处隐藏：5138字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……