mpa阅读20篇.docx

1、mpa阅读20篇MPA阅读20篇Reading can solve most problems in English learningPassage oneIn the United States the way people spend their leisure time is an important part of their identity. Perhaps everybody does nearly the same thing all day in the office or the factory, but leisure time is what makes people

2、distinct and reveals who they are. Some people like rock music, for example, and others may like jazz or classical music. Some people are runners or swimmers, and others are couch (睡椅) potatoes who surf the television channels with a remote control. Some go to museums while others spend long hours a

3、t a shopping center. These kinds of choices are ways that people define themselves. It hasnt always been this way. Leisure time was almost unknown in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When most people worked on farms, the workday was from sunrise to sunset every day excep

4、t Sunday, which was devoted to church. Later, with the rise of factories and city populations, people worked equally long hours and had only Sunday for rests. Some people did many of the things then that they do now-attend concerts, have parties, go to restaurants, read novels, or play sports-but to

5、 a much lesser extent. Slowly, throughout the twentieth century, leisure time grew. Technology made farm work less burdensome, and changes in laws shortened the factory workday and week. New inventions such as phonograph (留声机) and the radio gave people access to music and mass entertainment on a sca

6、le unknown before. People gradually became consumers of entertainment, and businesses competed fiercely for their dollars. For many people leisure time means going somewhere-to a museum, to a concert, to a restaurant, or to a baseball game, for example. Or it means doing something such as playing vo

7、lleyball, backpacking, swimming, biking, or playing in a park with their children. For other people free time means staying home with wonderful sources of entertainment, such as a VCR, stereo (立体声系统), or cable TV with dozens of channels. Others pursue creative activities such as cooking, gardening,

8、and home improvement. The latest stay-at-home activity is surfing the net -that is, looking for information and entertainment on the Internet. People in the United States are basically not much different from others in what they do in their leisure time. The real difference may lie in the energy, ti

9、me, money, and sheer enthusiasm that they devote to it.Passage Two Whether you are logging on to your personal computer, using a credit card, or disarming a door security system, passwords or PINs (personal identification numbers) guard access to numerous regular operations. It is estimated that wit

10、hin then years, consumers could be faced with handling more than 100 passwords! Given the popularity of passwords, how can you choose ones that are sufficiently complicated to be secure yet are simple enough to remember? There are basic guidelines to bear in mind. Dont use as a password your name or

11、 that of a member of your family, even in modified form. Also avoid using your telephone number, your Social Security number, or your address. Such information can easily be obtained by a determined hacker (黑客). In addition, if possible, dont use passwords made up entirely of letters or digits. A re

12、latively simple computer program can crack such a code quickly. Finally, do not use a word that can be found in any dictionary, even a foreign-language one. Huge lists are available that contain words, place names, and proper names from all languages. Programs can test for variations of these words,

13、 such as if they are spelled backward, capitalized, or combined. So, what kinds of passwords should be used? Usually ones that have a minimum of six to eight characters and that have a mixture of upper-and lower-case letters, digit and punctuation (标点) symbols. How difficult is it to crack such a co

14、mbination of characters? One source says, “A machine that could try one million passwords per second would require, on the average, over one hundred years. How can you choose a combination that is easy to remember? Some suggest that you take the title of a favorite book or film or a line from a song

15、 or poem and use the first letter from each word as your password, adding capital letters, punctuation, or other characters. For example, “to be or not be could become 2B/not2B. Other suggestions include taking two short words and link them with a punctuation character, such as High? Bug or Song; Tr

16、ee. Taking into account the suggestions outlined above can help you to protect important infor- mation from unwanted hackers. Remember, too, the importance of changing your passwords regularly. Just a final comment: Whatever passwords you decide to use, dont pick any of the examples given above.Pass

17、age 3 According to a concerned 1997 article in the Boston Globe, the United States spent less than one percent of its transportation budget on facilities for pedestrians (行人). Actually, Im surprised it was that much. Go to almost any suburb developed in the last 30 years, and you will not find a sid

18、ewalk anywhere. Often you wont find a single pedestrian crossing. I was made fully aware of this one summer when we were driving across Maine and stopped for coffee in one of those endless zones of shopping malls (购物中心), motels, gas stations and fast-food places. I noticed there was a bookstore acro

19、ss the street; so I decided to forget coffee and go there to have a look. Although the bookshop was no more than 70 or 80 feet away, I discovered that there was no way to cross over six lanes of swiftly moving traffic on foot without putting myself in danger. In the end, I had to get in our car and

20、drive cross. At the time, it seemed ridiculous and annoying, but afterward I realized that I was possibly the only person ever to have thought of crossing the street on foot. The fact is, we not only dont walk anywhere anymore in this country, we wont walk anywhere, and dislike anyone who tries to m

21、ake us, as the city of Laconia, N.H. discovered. In the early 1970s, Laconia spent millions on a comprehensive urban renewal project, which included building a pedestrian mall to make shopping more pleasant. Esthetically (美学上) it was a triumph- urban planners came from all over to praise and take ph

22、otos - but commercially it was a disaster. Forced to walk one whole block from a parking garage, shoppers abandoned downtown Laconia for suburban malls. In 1994 Laconia dug up its pretty paving blocks, took away the flowers and decorative trees, and brought back the cars. Now people can park right i

23、n front of the stores again, and downtown Laconia thrives again. And if that isnt said, I dont know what is.Passage 4 Dear Sirs, Your shipment of twelve thousand Smart watches was received by our company this morning. However, we wish to make a number of complaints concerning the serious delay in de

24、livery and your failure to carry out our specific instructions with regard to this order. It was stressed from the beginning that the delivery date had to be less than six weeks from the initial order, in order to meet our own customers requirements. While we understand that delays in production are

25、 occasionally inevitable, we must point out that the major reason why the order was placed with your company was because we were assured by you of its speed of delivery, and that your existing stocks were sufficiently high to ensure immediate shipment. Late delivery of the goods has caused us to dis

26、appoint several of our most valued customers, and is bound to have a negative effect on potential future orders. The second complaint concerns the difference in colour between the watches we ordered and those delivered. It was stated clearly in the original order that watches in combinations of gree

27、n/ purple and orange/purple only were required. However, only half the watches in the delivery received are of the colours specified. Our Hong Kong agent assures us that she stressed to you the importance of following our instructions precisely, since we consider there to be only a limited market in

28、 this country for watches of other colours at the present time. Any watches that are not of the specified colours will, of course, be returned to you. We are also somewhat concerned about the rather poor quality of the goods received, since it is apparent that the watches that finally arrived have b

29、een produced from inferior materials and have been manufactured to a lower standard than those in the sample. We have also found that a number of the watches do not appear to be functioning. Whether the latter problem is due to poor manufactures, damage during transportation or bad batteries is not

30、yet clear, but we should like to point out that we feel this matter to be entirely your responsibility. As a result of the above problems, therefore, we feel that the most suitable course of action is to return to you unpaid any of the goods considered unsatisfactory, and to subtract any resultant c

31、osts from our final settlement. We shall also, of course, be forced to reconsider whether any further orders should be placed with your company. We look forward to your prompt reply. Yours sincerely, John SmithPassage 5 In London, two weeks ago a class of students made legal history by winning a law

32、suit against their college for poor teaching. In this landmark case the group all passed their course in historic vehicle restoration, but sued (起诉) the Oxfordshire college they had attended, claiming their qualifications were worth-less because none had gained jobs in the field. The fact that the course was substant