2015年6月大学英语六级预测试题

　　Part ⅡReading Comprehension (35 minutes)

　　Directions:There are four passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage 1

　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:

　　One day in 1935 the management of Britian’s Southern Railway (as it was then called) announced its intention to close the branch line from Lynton to Barnstable　in North Devon. The proposal was received by the local inhabitants with angry protest. For them, the tall-chimneyed locomotives and the little flower-bordered stations of Devon had become as much of an institution as the village church or tavern. Moreover, the line ran through the heart of a popular tourist district. What would the holidaymaker do without it? Closing down the railway line had been　unthinkable, yet now some busybody official in remote London was threatening to　destroy it with a stroke of the pen.

　　Mounting local opposition resulted in a meeting at Barnstaple, where the crowed　was joined by very vocal protestors from the other end of the line at Lynton.The　meeting seemed to be going well for the railway supporters until the chairman p　olitely inquired how many people from Lynton had traveled to Barnstaple by train. Out of the embarrassed silence that followed emerged the painful truth that, to a man, those who had come from Lynton to fight for the railway had come by highway. The fate of the Lynton and Barnstaple branch line was sealed.

　　This sad little story is typical of the attitude of many Englishmen toward their　railways. Dissatisfied with the age of sheet metal, plastics, and reinforced concrete in which we find ourselves, we long more and more for the substantial, self-confident, and inspired products of the Victorian era. Of that age, Britain’s railways are the most eloquent and enduring reminders.

　　21.One of the arguments against closing the railway line was that____. 

　　A) fewer tourists would come into the area

　　B) people from outlying districts would be unable to attend religious services

　　C) the economy of the people would suffer greatly

　　D) it would be difficult to get from Lynton to Barnstaple

　　22.Who objected to the closing of the railway branch line?

　　A) Barnstaple people only.

　　B) Workers of the Southern Railway.

　　C) People of both Barnstaple and Lynton. 

　　D) The management of the Southern Railway.

　　23.What is the author’s reaction to the people who called the town meeting?

　　A) He is amused by their political efforts. 

　　B) He is sympathetic to their cause.

　　C) He is encouraged by their success. 

　　D) He is critical of their attitudes.

　　24.The author seems to think that railways are reminders of the____.

　　A) personal concern and solid beauty of a past age

　　B) ugliness and oppression that modern society has overcome

　　C) benefits that the machine age has brought to man 

　　D) growing dislike in England of the Victorian age

　　25.The passage suggests that the Southern Railway of Britain is now

　　A) controlled by the local people 

　　B) in financial difficult

　　C) under a different name 

　　D) financially sound