对于大部分想要借由GRE考试成绩，搭乘名校留学直通车的考生而言，如何更为行之有效的利用好手中的资源就是考生获得高分的一个必要保证，那么今天小编为考生分享GRE考试2015年11月7日阅读预测机经，通过对机经的了解，小编希望考生可以取得更加满意的分数。
20151017
长阅读
The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640–1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writing prose narratives. According to literary critic Rachel Carnell, most scholars view this change as primarily motivated by financial considerations: earning a living by writing for the theatre became more difficult in the 1680s, so Behn tried various other types of prose genres in the hope of finding another lucrative medium. In fact, a long epistolary scandal novel that she wrote in the mid-1680s sold quite well. Yet, as Carnell notes, Behn did not repeat this approach in her other prose works; instead, she turned to writing shorter, more serious novels, even though only about half of these were published during her lifetime. Carnell argues that Behn, whose stage productions are primarily comedies, may have turned to an emerging literary form, the novel, in a conscious attempt to criticize, and subvert for her own ends, the conventions and ideology of a well-established form of her day, the dramatic tragedy.
Carnell acknowledges that Behn admired the skill of such contemporary writers of dramatic tragedy as John Dryden, and that Behn’s own comic stage productions displayed the same partisanship for the reigning Stuart monarchy that characterized most of the politically oriented dramatic tragedies of her day. However, Carnell argues that Behn took issue with the way in which these writers and plays defined the nature of tragedy. As prescribed by Dryden, tragedy was supposed to concern a heroic man who is a public figure and who undergoes a fall that evokes pity from the audience.Carnell points out that Behn’s tragic novels focus instead on the plight of little-known women and the private world of the household; even in her few novels featuring male protagonists, Behn insists on the importance of the crimes these otherwise heroic figures commit in the domestic sphere.
Moreover, according to Carnell, Behn questioned the view promulgated by monarchist dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s: that the envisioned “public” political ideal—passive obedience to the nation’s king—ought to be mirrored in the private sphere, with family members wholly obedient to a male head of household. Carnell sees Behn’s novels not only as rejecting the model of patriarchal and hierarchical family order, but also as warning that insisting on such a parallel can result in real tragedy befalling the members of the domestic sphere. According to Carnell, Behn’s choice of literary form underscores the differences between her own approach to crafting a tragic story and that taken in the dramatic tragedies, with their artificial distinction between the public and private spheres. Behn’s novels engage in the political dialogue of her era by demonstrating that the good of the nation ultimately encompasses more than the good of the public figures who rule it.
1. The passage is primarily concerned with
A. tracing how Behn’s view of the nature of tragedy changed over time
B. explaining one author’s view of Behn’s contribution to the development of an emerging literary form
C. differentiating between the early and the late literary works of Behn
D. contrasting the approaches to tragedy taken by Behn and by Dryden
E. presenting one scholar’s explanation for a major development in Behn’s literary career
答案：D
2. The passage suggests that Carnell sees Behn’s novels featuring male protagonists as differing
from dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s featuring male protagonistsin that the former
A. depict these characters as less than heroic in their public actions
B. emphasize the consequences of these characters’ actions in the private sphere
C. insist on a parallel between the public and the private spheres
D. are aimed at a predominantly female audience
E. depict family members who disobey these protagonists
答案：B
3. The passage suggests that Carnell believes Behn held which of the following attitudes about the relationship between the private and public spheres?
A. The private sphere is more appropriate than is the public sphere as the setting for plays about political events.
B. The structure of the private sphere should not replicate the hierarchical order of the public sphere.
C. Actions in the private sphere are more fundamental to ensuring the good of the nation than are actions in the public sphere.
D. Crimes committed in the private sphere are likely to cause tragedy in the public sphere rather than vice versa.
E. The private sphere is the mirror in which issues affecting the public sphere can most clearly be seen.
答案：B
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the “artificial distinction” refers to the
A. practice utilized in dramatic tragedies of providing different structural models for the public and the private spheres
B. ideology of many dramatic tragedies that advocate passive obedience only in the private sphere and not in the public sphere
C. convention that drama ought to concern events in the public sphere and that novels ought to concern events in the private sphere
D. assumption made by the authors of conventional dramatic tragedies that legitimate tragic action occurs only in the public sphere
E. approach taken by the dramatic tragedies in depicting male and female characters differently, depending on whether their roles were public or private
答案：C
短阅读
A novel that is a bestseller is often, because of its popularity, not taken seriously as literature. Critics seem to presuppose that great literature must be somehow burdensome to the reader; it must be difficult for the uninitiated to understand. It is precisely this inverted snobbery that has hindered Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits from gaining the critical attention it deserves.
Published in 1982, the novel draws deeply on the author's own family history. Allende is the first cousin once removed of former Chilean president Salvador Allende, who was murdered during a right-wing military coup in 1973. Yet rather than the to-be-expected socialist harangue, Allende subtly works her political message within the fabric of the compelling narrative she weaves. While Allende borrows a bit too freely from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work, she nevertheless has a powerful and original voice within the construct of magical realism.
1. The author of the passage would probably consider which of the following situations to be most analogous to the critics’ viewpoint as it is described in the highlighted sentence?
A. Avant-garde movies with complicated storylines are deemed cinematically superior works to Hollywood blockbusters with straightforward narratives.
B. Scientific journals are thought of as providing coverage of natural events that is inferior to that provided by nature documentaries.
C. Poetry is considered superior literature to prose because it is shorter, and therefore the message it conveys is more easily understood.
D. Political diatribes are viewed as falling outside the accepted literary canon because they are too controversial.
E. A movie version of a popular novel is considered artistically superior to the original.
答案：A
2. It can be inferred from the passage that
A. Allende’ novel is a retelling of her family's political struggles
B. Allende's novel would have received more favorable reviews if critics had believed it to be great literature
C. Allende learned about magical realism from Gabriel Garcia Marquez
D. Allende's novel could have been more compelling if she had included a stronger political message
E. readers might have expected Allende's work to be more political than it actually was
答案：A
20150920
短阅读
Although passenger pigeons, now extinct, were abundant in eighteenth-and
nineteenth-century America, archaeological studies at twelfth-century Cahokian sites in the
present-day United States examined household food trash and found that traces of passenger
pigeon were quite rare. Given that the sites were close to a huge passenger pigeon roost
documented by John James Audubon in the nineteenth century and that Cahokians consumed
almost every other animal protein source available, the archaeologist conducting the studies
concluded the passenger pigeon population had once been very limited before increasing
dramatically in post-Columbian America. Other archaeologists have criticized those
conclusions on the grounds that passenger pigeon bones would not be likely to be preserved.
But all the archaeological projects found plenty of bird bones--and even some tiny bones from
fish.
1. The author of the passage mentions "tiny bones from fish" primarily in order to
A. Explain why traces of passenger pigeon are rare at Cahokian sites
B. Support a claim about the wide variety of animal proteins in the Cahokian diet
C. Provide evidence that confirms a theory about the extinction of the passenger pigeon
D. Cast doubt on the conclusion reached by the archaeologists who conducted the studies
discussed in the passage
E. Counter an objection to an interpretation of the data obtained from Cahokian sites
答案：C
长阅读
In 1995 the Galileo spacecraft captured data about Jupiter's atmosphere--namely, the
absence of most of the predicted atmospheric water--that challenged prevailing theories about
Jupiter's structure. The unexpectedness of this finding fits a larger pattern in which theories
about planetary composition and dynamics have failed to predict the realities discovered
through space exploration. Instead of "normal planets" whose composition could be predicted
by theory, the planets populating our solar system are unique individuals whose chemical and
tectonic identities were created through numerous contingent events. One implication of this
is that although the universe undoubtedly holds other planetary systems, the duplication of the
sequence that produced our solar system and the development of life on Earth is highly
unlikely.
Recently planetary scientists have suggested that the external preconditions for the
development of Earth's biosphere probably included four paramount contingencies. First, a
climate conducive to life on Earth depends upon the extraordinarily narrow orbital parameters
that define a continuously habitable zone where water can exist in a liquid state. If Earth's
orbit were only 5 percent smaller than it is, temperatures during the early stages of Earth's
history would have been high enough to vaporize the oceans. If the Earth-Sun distance were
as little as 1 percent larger, runaway glaciation on Earth about 2 billion years ago would have
caused the oceans to freeze and remain frozen to this day.
Second, Jupiter's enormous mass prevents most Sun-bound comets from penetrating the
inner solar system. It has been estimated that without this shield, Earth would have
experienced bombardment by comet-sized impactors a thousand times more frequently than
has actually been recorded during geological time. Even if Earth's surface were not actually
sterilized by this bombardment, it is unlikely that any but the most primitive life-forms could
have survived. This suggests that only planetary systems containing both terrestrial planets
like Earth and gas giants like Jupiter might be capable of sustaining complex life-forms.
Third, the gravitational shield of the giant outer planets, while highly efficient, must
occasionally fail to protect Earth. Paradoxically, while the temperatures required for liquid
water exist only in the inner solar system, the key building blocks of life, including water
itself, occur primarily beyond the asteroid belt. Thus the evolution of life has depended on a
frequency of cometary impacts sufficient to convey water, as well as carbon and nitrogen,
from these distant regions of the solar system to Earth while stopping short of an impact
magnitude that would destroy the atmosphere and oceans.
Finally, Earth's unique and massive satellite, the Moon, plays a crucial role in stabilizing
the obliquity of Earth's rotational axis. This obliquity creates the terrestrial seasonality so
important to the evolution and diversity of life. Mars, in contrast, has wildly oscillating tilt
and chaotic seasonality, while Venus, rotating slowly backward, has virtually no seasonality at
all.
1. The passage is primarily concerned with
A. Enumerating conditions that may have been necessary for a particular development
B. Outlining the conditions under which scientists may be able to predict certain events
C. Explaining how a particular finding affected scientists 'understanding of a phenomenon
D. Suggesting reasons why a particular outcome was more likely to occur than other
possible outcomes
E. Assessing the relative significance of factors that contributed to a particular occurrence
答案：C
2. It can be inferred from the passage that the "planetary scientists" would be most likely to
agree with which of the following statements concerning the development of complex life
forms on Earth?
A. It might have occurred earlier in Earth's history if cometary impacts had been less
frequent than they were.
B. It could have occurred if Earth's orbit were 1 percent larger than it is but not if Earth's
orbit were 5 percent smaller.
C. It probably follows a pattern common on other terrestrial planets that occupy planetary
systems containing gas giants.
D. Its dependence on the effect that Jupiter's gravitational shield has on Earth was difficult
to recognize prior to 1995.
E. It has been contingent on conditions elsewhere in Earth's solar system as well as on
conditions on Earth itself.
答案：E
3. The author of the passage most likely mentions Mars' "oscillating tilt" primarily in order to
A. Provide evidence for a proposition about the potential effects of cometary impacts
B. Emphasize the absence from our solar system of "normal planets"
C. Contrast the rotational axis of Mars with that of Venus
D. Characterize the role of other planets in the solar system in earth's development
E. Emphasize the importance of the Moon to the development of life on Earth
答案：C
20150906
短 阅 读
The most plausible justification for higher taxes on automobile fuel is that fuel
consumption harms the environment and thus adds to the costs of traffic congestion.
But the fact that burning fuel creates these “negative externalities” does not imply that
no tax on fuel could ever be too high. Economics is precise about the tax that should,
in principle, be levied to deal with negative externalities: the tax on a liter of fuel
should be equal to the harm caused by using a liter of fuel. If the tax is more than that,
its costs (including the inconvenience to those who would rather have used their cars)
will exceed its benefits (including any reduction in congestion and pollution).
1. In the context in which it appears, “exceed” most nearly means
A. outstrip
B. magnify
C. delimit
D. offset
E. supplant
答案：A
2. Which of the following best characterizes the function of the indicated portion of the passage?
A. It restates a point made earlier in the passage.
B. It provides the evidence on which a theory is based.
C. It presents a specific application of a general principle.
D. It summarizes a justification with which the author disagrees.
E. It suggests that the benefits of a particular strategy have been overestimated.
答案：D
Chopin the pianist has been greatly overshadowed by Chopin the composer. When Chopin
the pianist is mentioned, it is his dreamy gaze and supple wrists (as well as countless female
admirers gathered around the piano returning that same dreamy stare). But Chopin was a
formidable pianist in his own right: after all, he was able to play, from start to finish, all
twenty-four of his etudes, a set of pieces so demanding that even today’s great pianists
feel taxed after performing them. Two things perhaps account for this oversight: for one,
any pianist for whom no extant recordings exist is likely not to weather time well. Secondly,
Chopin's coeval and friend, Franz Liszt, was of such legendary prowess that Chopin himself
wished he could play his own etudes the way Liszt did. Nevertheless, Chopin deserves to be
remembered not just as a composer of challenging pieces but as a pianist capable of
executing, with panache, these very pieces.
1. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt on the author’s contention regarding Chopin the pianist?
(A) Chopin rarely, if ever, played the piano works of other composers.
(B) Apart from a cello concerto and a few other works, Chopin composed mainly for the piano.
(C) Chopin seldom performed his etudes in concerts, preferring to play in front of a small group.
(D) Not all of Chopin's compositions are as difficult to execute as his etudes.
(E) Chopin, himself, acknowledged that he was primarily a composer, and would have
composed even more difficult pieces had he the ability to play them.
答案：E
2. In the context in which it appears, “weather” most nearly means
(A) perish
(B) subsist (C) withstand
(D) transform
(E) sustain
答案：B
长 阅 读
Originally, scientists predicted small asteroids to be hard and rocky, as any loose surface material (called regolith) generated by impacts was expected to escape their weak gravity. Aggregate small bodies were not thought to exist, because the slightest sustained relative motion would cause them to separate. But observations and computer modeling are proving otherwise. Most asteroids larger than a kilometer are now believed to be composites of smaller pieces. Those imaged at high-resolution show evidence for copious regolith despite the weak gravity. Most of them have one or more extraordinarily large craters, some of which are wider than the mean radius of the whole body. Such colossal impacts would not just gouge out a crater—they would break any monolithic body into pieces. In short, asteroids larger than a kilometer across may look like nuggets of hard rock but are more likely to be aggregate ssemblages—or even plies of loose rubble so pervasively fragmented that no solid bedrock is left.
The rubble hypothesis, proposed decades ago by scientists, lacked evidence, until the planetologist Shoemaker realized that the huge craters on the asteroid Mathilde and its very low density could only make sense together: a porous body such as a rubble pile can withstand a battering much better than an integral object. It will absorb and dissipate a large fraction of the energy of an impact; the far side might hardly feel a thing. At first, the rubble hypothesis may appear conceptually troublesome. The material strength of an asteroid is nearly zero, and the gravity is so low one is tempted to neglect that too. The truth is neither strength nor gravity can be ignored. Paltr though it may be, gravity binds a rubble pile together. And anybody who builds sandcastles knows that even loose debris can cohere. Oft-ignored details of motion begin to matter: sliding friction, chemical bonding, damping of kinetic energy, etc. We are just beginning to fathom the subtle interplay of these minuscule forces.
The size of an asteroid should determine which force dominates. One indication is the observed pattern of asteroidal rotation rates. Some collisions cause an asteroid to spin faster; others slow it down. If asteroids are monolithic rocks undergoing random collisions, a graph of their rotation rates should show a bell-shaped distribution with a statistical "tail" of very fast rotators. If nearly all asteroids are rubble piles, however, this tail would be missing, because any rubble pile spinning faster than once every two or three hours would fly apart. Recently, several astronomers discovered that all but five observed asteroids obey a strict rotation limit. The exceptions are all smaller than about 150 meters in diameter, with an abrupt cutoff for asteroids larger than 200 meters.
The evident conclusion—that asteroids larger than 200 meters across are rubble piles—agrees with recent computer modeling of collisions. A collision can blast a large asteroid to bits, but those bits will usually be moving slower than their mutual escape velocity (the lowest velocity that a body must have in order to escape the orbit of a planet). Over several hours, gravity will reassemble all but the fastest pieces into a rubble pile.
1. According to the rubble-pile hypothesis, an advantage conferred on an asteroid held together by weak forces is that it is
(A) unlikely to fall apart over a long period of time
(B) more amenable to computer modeling
(C) less susceptible to powerful impacts
(D) not likely to collide with another object
(E) more readily observed by astronomers
答案：D
2. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) refute an unconventional theory regarding asteroid collisions
(B) express doubt regarding the validity of evidence offered up by several notable
astronomers
(C) explain how earlier evidence used to describe an aspect of asteroids was misleading
(D) explore common features of an asteroid in order to provide support for a theory
(E) discuss how one explanation of an astronomical phenomenon is most likely correct
答案：D
3. The reason that graphs of asteroid rotation rates lack the expected statistical tail
associated with high rotational rates is that
(A) the greater the speed in which an asteroid spins the more likely it is to cohere
(B) the weak forces in asteroids displaying such a high rotational rate would not be able to
prevent the asteroid from falling apart
(C) asteroids are not being subjected to a uniform distribution of random collisions
(D) most monolithic asteroids, upon colliding with other asteroids, are able to sustain such a
high rate of rotation
(E) for the most part, the asteroids surveyed were less than 150 meters in diameter and
thus far less likely to be rubble-piles, which are better able to sustain the impact from
collisions
答案：B
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